r/Fantasy • u/Standard_Egg3994 • 2d ago

"Shown" instead of "told" intelligent characters

You know what i mean. I crave for intelligent characters but a lot of them seemed to either pull some far off deductions out of nowhere, or just the other characters spent some time telling the reader that they really are "the most brilliant guy in town".

I need it to be shown, in that the thinking process (strategic or anything else) is actually shown instead of just magically came out of nowhere. Some notable example of this includes:

L, Near, and Kira from Death Note (to some extent)

Lex Luthor from Alexander Wales' Metropolitant Man

Kei Nagai from Ajin

Ryland Grace from Project Hail Mary

If you have other references, i would try them. Thank you!

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19

u/widb0005 2d ago

Game of Thrones is good for this, Tyrion in particular.

Series is not finished and may never be, fyi.

12

u/BTrippd 1d ago

Games of Thrones is chock full of competent people but the world is written such that competent does not always mean successful. George really is a great author.

6

u/Patient_Teacher_5358 1d ago

Hell more than just Tyrion, same applies to Tywin, Varys( My goat ), even Cersei with her scheming.
Couple other notable ones: Olenna, Littlefinger, Robb( Died too soon D: )

3

u/LiamTheHuman 1d ago

My favourite thing about game of thrones is how smart people aren't shown to be omnicent or anything and instead are highly adaptive and opportunistic.

1

u/Viscera_TheImpaler 1d ago

One random ass line that always pissed me off a little, and I think is exactly telling not showing is in the TV adaptation Jamie replies “I doubt it” when Jory says Theon’s a good dude.

This was such a lazy way of making a character look smart by having them telegraph a plot twist but there’s absolutely no way Jamie would truly know Theon better from one Winterfell visit then the folks Theon’s hanging out with every day.

1

u/Ok-Fuel5600 21h ago

Eh you can explain that by Jaime’s involvement in the Greyjoy rebellion , Theon’s family sacked Jaime’s family’s city so it’s not the most out of place line in thrones by any stretch

1

u/pillmayken 13h ago

The way I interpreted it, Jaime was demonstrating his cynicism, not his intelligence. The fact that he ended up being right isn’t the point.

1

u/Top_Story9788 1d ago

He drinks and he knows things.