History CaptainObvious / Literature

* In ''[[TheHollows A Fistful of Charms]]'', after Rachel meets Rex:

* In ''[[{{Duumvirate}} Billy & Howard]]'', the twins have vastly different ideas of what is and isn't obvious, occasionally leading to this trope being named.

* Tom Ward, the protagonist of ''[[Literature/TheLastApprentice The Wardstone Chronicles]]'' is also prone to this, but in the 8th book we see that even {{Satan}} himself does this:

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Hallis Mollen is {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into this. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Catelyn's narrative, after a description of a large crowd gathered in revelry and ritualised combat: ''"A tourney", said Hal, unnecessarily.''
** The Hound isn't exactly overly redundant, thanks to having to point the obvious out to the wilfully blind to save them from their own folly. Nevertheless, he has distinct shades of this when he has to note just how horrible the world is. [[BrutalHonesty He's not all that wrong]]; and, it ''really should'' be [[CrapsackWorld pretty darned obvious]] when he does point it out. Once the overly idealistic filters are removed, that is.

* In the Creator/HansChristianAndersen story "Literature/TheEmperorsNewClothes", the kid who points out that the emperor is nekkid plays this role. In fact, he's the smartest person in the crowd ''because'' of his ability to state the obvious.
** It is more that the innocent child has no reason to pretend that the emperor is wearing clothes.
** Apparently, Andersen took inspiration from his own childhood, where as part of a poor family he saw the procession of the King of Denmark and loudly, indignantly exclaimed "Why, he's nothing more than a human being!".
** his stories, "Literature/TheNightingale", Hans Christian Andersen opens the story by explaining that "In China, you know, the emperor is a Chinese, and all those about him are Chinamen also."

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books have a few (most are lampshaded in-universe however), one being Harry saying "Ghosts are transparent." (What makes this obvious is that he says it in the sixth book, long after ghosts had been introduced; why he said it made sense in context but still got him told "Ah, I see six years of magical education have not been wasted on you.")

*** Probably an attempt to prevent what happened following the initial english release which was some people wrote to J.K Rowling to tell her she got Ron's name wrong. *Facepalm*

* In the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' series, demons have lived in a different dimension from ours for thousands of years, only learning of human customs and culture through one trashy romance novel, which they take as a sort of Bible. N[[superscript:o]]1, a young demon/warlock we first meet in ''The Last Colony'', was particularly interested in the human world, so when he finally gets transported there, he takes great pleasure in pointing out the meaning of human expressions, despite the fact that every other character around him (and the readers) know very well what they mean.
** This is somewhat justified at one point as it's pointed out that N[[superscript:o]]1 does this as a way of coping with stress.

* Mulenz, a supporting character in the CiaphasCain short story ''The Beguiling'', was like this, to Cain's mild annoyance. "No wonder they made him an observer, I thought, nothing gets past this guy."

* ''{{Neverwhere}}'' : Richard Mayhew. "Oh, you're awake", he tells to Door who is awake.

** "You can't break Unbreakable Vows."

* In ''[[{{Duumvirate}} Billy & Howard]]'', the twins have vastly different ideas of what is and isn't obvious, occasionally leading to this trope being named.

* In Creator/CSLewis' ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', the entire race of Dufflepuds are prone to this, with such astute observations as water is powerfully wet.

* In the second ''Midnighters'' book, Madeleine accuses Dess of being one.
-->'''Dess:''' You're a mindcaster.
-->'''Madeleine:''' And you have a fine grasp of the obvious.
-->''and''
-->'''Dess:''' You've been mindcasting this to me while I was asleep.
-->'''Madeleine:''' I expect that you must earn top marks at school, young lady. There are always rewards for those who state the obvious frequently and with conviction.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''.
--> Aro started to laugh. "Ha, ha, ha," he chuckled.
* Mulenz, a supporting character in the CiaphasCain short story ''The Beguiling'', was like this, to Cain's mild annoyance. "No wonder they made him an observer, I thought, nothing gets past this guy."

* ''ShadowsOfTheEmpire''; during a BigDamnHeroes moment.
--> '''Enemy Commander''': "There seems to be a slight problem, my prince."
--> '''[[BigBad Prince Xizor]]''': "So I noticed. Why are your ships blowing up, Commander?"
* John Flanagan's ''Ranger's Apprentice: the Ruins of Gorlan'', first in a series. There's a BigBad monster out there, which is nigh-unstoppable (partly because its eyes could hypnotise). However, it's been established that not only was its mate killed, but that the same natural oil that worked as armour on the beast also made it [[ChekhovsGun highly flammable]]. When the main character, who is being [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment trained in archery by the world's best archer until he can arch with the best]], sees his master and other main characters facing the creature, he finally comes up with the [[CaptainObvious ingenious]] idea to fire a flaming arrow at it. He's hailed as a genius hero, instead of people wondering why nobody had done that right from the beginning.

* Some of Count Olaf's comments in ''ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. One notable example in ''The Penultimate Peril'' is when Klaus mentions the 'unfathomable question' in Page 581, and Count Olaf points out that that is the five-hundred and eighty-first page.
* THE Detective, ''SherlockHolmes'', would consider himself an example of this trope (no shit, indeed), while being the ultimate literary inversion in character and method. In the books he constantly make incredibly obvious observations, admitting that they were "elementary" and "simplicity itself", though of course they were only obvious to Holmes due to his broadness and depth of study - it was still necessary to explain it all to his allies.
* A book called ''100 Things You Aren't Supposed To Know'' is, well, a list of information that is apparently suppressed from the public knowledge. #37 was "Work kills more people than war," which, if you consider basic mathematics, is like saying "time kills more people than sharks" since there is always, always, always work going on somewhere in the world and war isn't usually happening and nowadays, won't claim explosive numbers of casualties.
* ''{{Neverwhere}}'' : Richard Mayhew. "Oh, you're awake", he tells to Door who is awake.
* The great Creator/WilliamShakespeare brings us this line uttered by Macduff's son in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'': "He has killed me, mother!" Partially explained by the nature of stagecraft in those days, when it was often necessary to make such statements to let the audience know what was going on or what they were supposed to be aware of or understand.
* In the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' series, demons have lived in a different dimension from ours for thousands of years, only learning of human customs and culture through one trashy romance novel, which they take as a sort of Bible. N[[superscript:o]]1, a young demon/warlock we first meet in ''The Last Colony'', was particularly interested in the human world, so when he finally gets transported there, he takes great pleasure in pointing out the meaning of human expressions, despite the fact that every other character around him (and the readers) know very well what they mean.
** This is somewhat justified at one point as it's pointed out that N[[superscript:o]]1 does this as a way of coping with stress.
** Subverted in book six: "I think we all know what [[PardonMyKlingon D'Arvit]] means."
** Artemis also has his moments: "My butler could kill you a hundred ways without the use of his weapons. Although I'm sure one would be quite sufficient."
* Tom Ward, the protagonist of Literature/TheLastApprentice series is also prone to this, but in the 8th book we see that even {{Satan}} himself does this:
-->"''She is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on'' [[CaptainObvious forever!]]"
* Partially subverted in ''Literature/TheButterflyKid'', where Chester points to Creator/MichaelKurland as an example of Whitehead's statement that "It requires an unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." So he keeps pointing to the obvious everyone has overlooked.
* The Ambassador in ''Literature/TheGreatExplosion'' also has this unusual turn of mind. When an officer turns in an estimate of planetary population based on the number of strongholds they see from space, he replies that this says nothing at all about what they CAN'T see. How do you know there aren't some underground? "We haven't seen any." "He says we haven't seen any!"
* In ''Literature/IfItHadHappenedOtherwise'', J.C. Squires, "If It Had Been Discovered in 1930 That Bacon Really Did Write Shakespeare": Mr. Creator/GKChesterton... as usual, seeing the obvious long before anyone else..."

* John Feinstein's book, ''A Good Walk Spoiled'', about the PGA Tour. Scene: Davis Love III, in a tense match late in the Ryder Cup, is approached by his captain Tom Watson:
-->"We really need this match," [Watson] said ... Love didn't answer right away because the first thought that came into his head wouldn't have sounded very good: "No shit, Tom."
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Hallis Mollen is {{flanderiz|ation}}ed into this. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Catelyn's narrative, after a description of a large crowd gathered in revelry and ritualised combat: ''"A tourney", said Hal, unnecessarily.''

* Creator/RobertJSawyer’s ''Calculating God'', during FirstContact:
-->“You’re an alien,” I said. ''Ten years of university to become Master of the Bleeding Obvious...''

* Robert J. Sawyer’s ''Calculating God'', during FirstContact:

** In fairness, when you're a young kid, and you've got a monstrous wall of fur about to tear apart two heavily-armed warriors (who, themselves, have less excuse for not figuring this out), you're probably not thinking of an unorthodox plan like that. [[ArrowsOnFire (And yes, it is unorthodox.)]]

* In Creator/CSLewis' ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', the entire race of Dufflepuds are prone to this, with such astute observations as water is powerfully wet.

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books have a few (most are lampshaded in-universe however), one being Harry saying "Ghosts are transparent."

* In ''TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', this is humanity's [[PlanetOfHats hat]].
--> One of the things that Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about human beings was their habit of continually stating and restating the very, very obvious. As in: "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "[[PrepareToDie So this is it. We're going to die.]]"
** From [[H2G2/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse The Restaurant at the End of the Universe]]:
-->'''Zaphod:[speaking into a phone]''' Will you please tell us where you are?
-->'''Marvin:''' I'm in the car park.
-->'''Zaphod:''' The car park? What are you doing there?
-->'''Marvin:''' Parking cars, what else does one do in a car park?
-->'''Zaphod:''' Okay, hang in there, we'll be right down. [Puts down the phone and turns to everyone else] Come on, guys. Marvin's in the car park. Let's get on down.
-->'''Arthur:''' What's he doing in a car park?
-->'''Zaphod:''' Parking cars, what else? Dumdum...

* John Feinstein's book, ''A Good Walk Spoiled'', about the PGA Tour. Scene: Davis Love III, in a tense match late in the Ryder Cup, is approaced by his captain Tom Watson:

* The Ambassador in ''TheGreatExplosion'' also has this unusual turn of mind. When an officer turns in an estimate of planetary population based on the number of strongholds they see from space, he replies that this says nothing at all about what they CAN'T see. How do you know there aren't some underground? "We haven't seen any." "He says we haven't seen any!"
* In ''IfItHadHappenedOtherwise'', J.C. Squires, "If It Had Been Discovered in 1930 That Bacon Really Did Write Shakespeare": Mr. Creator/GKChesterton... as usual, seeing the obvious long before anyone else..."