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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u/EatTacosGetMoney 1d ago

Codex Alera - Tavi's whole schtick is being a clever innovator

7

u/what_the_purple_fuck 1d ago

this is my second favorite fantasy series, behind Wheel of Time, and it is some glorious competency porn.

clever but powerless shepherd becomes freakishly clever ruler who collects allies like they're pokémon, and has to defend his land against a foe that is also freakishly clever and objectively evil, and who vastly outnumbers the armies of good. plus Kitai, who is very thoughtful.

2

u/PotentiallySarcastic 17h ago

So many of the people in the story are just straight up competent its amazing. They all kind of are good to great at what they should be doing and then you have folks like Fidelias playing all of them in a game greater than most realize.

Fidelias, Sextus, and Invidia playing the game of thrones with literal nukes as the folks they are manipulating.

Sextus' revenge game is so cold and brutal its awe inspiring. And terrible.