It’s the same way dramatic irony works. The readers know something’s up while the characters remain ignorant, which adds tension as we brace for an impact we know is coming. Shifts the tone a little, gives us a heads up so twists and changes don’t feel like they’re cheaply coming out of no where, and makes us wonder what exactly is going to happen that makes it all go downhill.
I'd argue it does the opposite of all of those things. It's just flat out "here is how it is", so you know all of those things in advance - there's no twist or change in the first place since the direction has already been announced.
At most it adds this fake tension you speak about, but that's rarely better than tension of the unknown. It's not like readers (as demonstrated in this thread) are so blind that they don't see that something is going on here without having it spelled out ...
last edited at Aug 12, 2022 8:43AM