History DidntSeeThatComing / Literature

* ''Literature/ChillinInAnotherWorldWithLevelTwoCheatPowers'':

** The crowner comes in the final novel, ''Yanez's Revenge'', when Sandokan comes to help Yanez, who by that time had become the ''maharajah'' of Assam with twelve elephants, two hundred Dayak head hunters armed with repeating carbines, twelve [[CoolGuns Maxim]] [[MoreDakka machine guns]], and ''[[PlagueMaster a biologist specialized in biological warfare complete of cholera vibrios and shots to immunize Sandokan and Yanez's men]]''.

* In the Literature/HumanxCommonwealth novel ''Sentenced to Prism'', "professional troubleshooter" Evan Orgell runs into this repeatedly in his mission to the world of Prism. He's equipped with a super-sophisticated [[MiniMecha Mobile Hostile Worlds suit]] that can handle any known threat. Unfortunately, Prism is a world that offers many previously ''un''known threats, from using ultrasound as a weapon to generating a laser beam powerful enough to wreck the MHW suit.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''
** Sauron knows the Ring can be destroyed, but [[EvilCannotComprehendGood he would never think that anyone would try to destroy the Ring instead of taking it for themselves]]. The twist is that Sauron was right not to worry because no one actually ''can'' summon enough willpower to destroy the Ring, not even Frodo. What ultimately causes his destruction is an unknown known for the heroes as well as Sauron: Gollum. Neither the good guys nor Sauron could have predicted that Gollum would finally get the Ring back in the one place where celebrating a bit too much would mean its destruction.
** The Witch-King knew no man could kill him. He didn't expect the army of men he was fighting to have [[spoiler: a woman and a hobbit with a long-lost dagger designed specifically to mortally wound the Witch King]].[[note]]Tolkien twists it on two levels. "Man" is generally used archaically for ''hu''man -- i.e. the Race of Men -- so that Merry the hobbit fit the bill, but he also uses it for Eowyn the ''wo''man because he was disappointed at that ''not'' being the twist in Macbeth.[[/note]]

** In ''The King of the Sea'' Yanez and some of Sandokan's former pirates are in trouble, with their ship about to be overran by Dayak [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast head hunters]]... Then the Dayaks are sunk by an improbable newcomer: ''an American-built ironclad that had been ordered and paid in advance by the Sultan of Shemmerindan but had been refused by his successor and was passing by because the builder wanted her solf off''. Also, the crew of the ship didn't expect that the white man they had just saved would ''buy the ship at twice of the best price they expected to sell her for'';

* The BigBad of ''Tantalize'' (a ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' knockoff), had a pretty good plan and executed it well, but got well and truly screwed by something he never anticipated: [[spoiler: ''three'' of his followers were secretly werepeople who betrayed him, killing his fourth and last ally in the process]]. To be fair, [[AssPull the readers didn't see it coming, either.]]
** Also, he didn't expect that [[spoiler: Quincie would abandon him for Kieran after all]], though that might more accurately be {{Hubris}}.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** In ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain Cain's Last Stand]]'', [[spoiler: Varan didn't know that Cain's aide, Jurgen, was a [[AntiMagic blank]], so when he met up with Cain to discuss [[ISurrenderSuckers the terms of surrender]], the psychic ability that allowed him to instantly convert people to his cause wouldn't work. Cain ends up kicking his ass off a cliff. Literally]].
--->''"Well, that was unexpected..."''
---->-- '''Chaos Warmaster Varan the Undefeatable''', last words
*** In the actual scene his last words are "That was unexpected, wasn't it?" and were meant as a taunt. The slight rewording is something Cain wrote in-universe to mock him.

* The BigBad of ''Tantalize'' (a ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' knockoff), had a pretty good plan and executed it well, but got well and truly screwed by something he never anticipated: [[spoiler: ''three'' of his followers were secretly werepeople who betrayed him, killing his fourth and last ally in the process]]. To be fair, [[AssPull the readers didn't see it coming, either.]]

** Now that Harry is buddies with the GeniusLoci of Demonreach, he gets to regularly pull these off on the island when he's fighting people only running on mortal senses. Even immortal sense aren't as good as ''intellectus''.

-->''"He saw not that."''

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Lord Vetinari subverts the trope by accounting for '''Didn't See That Coming'''. Instead of planning, he waits until the unexpected (or the expected--he has a very firm grasp of human nature) happens, then drives the situation to his advantage from there. Even when it seems like he's miscalculated, people prove every bit as stupid or clever, dogged or unmotivated, loyal or treacherous as he expects. He is a master at XanatosSpeedChess. This doesn't mean he has never been caught off-guard, however. For example, seeing his double in ''Literature/TheTruth'' caught him off-guard just long enough for his attackers to overcome and subdue him. Or, more humorously, him getting blindsided by [[Literature/TheLastHero Rincewind's explanation why he doesn't wish to volunteer]], or [[Literature/{{Thud}} what A.E. Pessimal did during the riot]].

** The BigGood Dumbledore gets his own moment. He's a supremely intelligent wizard, completely in control of himself, plans years and years in advance and all his guesses, intuitions and plans come exactly as he wishes. The one mistake he makes? [[spoiler:When hunting for Voldemort's horcruxes, he's unprepared for the fact that the chosen object was in fact a lost artifact in its own right, the Resurrection Stone - TheRemnant of a quest Dumbledore abandoned nearly 80 years ago, which cost him the life of his sister and his relationship to his brother. Confronted with a single opportunity to meet his sister and beg for her forgiveness, Dumbledore [[GenreBlindness let his guard slip]] and fiddled with the object despite it being cursed (which he knew fully well). This resulted in him getting a curse that makes him SecretlyDying for the better part of a year.]] What makes Dumbledore so awesome is that he's able to capitalize on his own mistake and have it adjust into a pitch perfect end-game.
--->''"I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being--forgive me--rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger."''

** The Witch-King knew no man could kill him. He didn't expect the army of men he was fighting to have [[spoiler: a woman and a hobbit with a long-lost dagger designed specifically to mortally wound the Witch King]].[[note]]Tolkien twists it on two levels. "Man" is generally used archaically for ''hu''man--i.e. the Race of Men--so that Merry the hobbit fit the bill, but he also uses it for Eowyn the ''wo''man because he was disappointed at that ''not'' being the twist in Macbeth.[[/note]]

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' - ''Magyk'': This is [=DomDaniels=] reaction when Marcia reveals that the Apprentice the Heaps have just saved is actually him.

** [[StrawVulcan Archmagos Khobotov]] in ''Literature/SoulDrinkers'' discovers a few problems with his plan for stealing the Soulspear and back-engineering it - one Unknown Unknown and two Unknown Knowns.

* In the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' series, nobody except the Dead Man expected Glory Mooncalled to turn against his Karentine employers, and even ''he'' didn't expect the mercenary leader to declare the Cantard an independent republic. On top of that, even ''Mooncalled'' never anticipated that Karenta would turn the tables and wipe out both the republic's forces and the Venageti, by hiring a bunch of squabbling [=MorCartha=] as auxiliary flying scouts ''just'' so they'd leave [=TunFaire=] and quit robbing and pestering its citizens.

** ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'': Gaia, an [[GeniusLoci entire planet]] of "Mules". When the Second Foundation realizes the evidence, they nickname this unforeseen organization the "Anti-Mules". Stor Gendibal quickly makes plans to find and eliminate them because any unknown factor poses a risk to [[ThePlan the Seldon Plan]].

---->-- '''Chaos Warmaster Varan the Undefeatable''', [[FamousLastWords last words]]

* In ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', the Lord Ruler has barely used his abilities (besides immortality) for centuries, to the point Kelsier's plan assumes that once the political system he's built is overturned he can simply be imprisoned. Only once the revolution is in full swing do they discover he's so ludicrously powerful the reason he hasn't quashed it singlehandedly yet is he thinks it's healthy for a bunch of nobles to get slaughtered occasionally to remind them they need him. [[spoiler: Fortunately they discover his AchillesHeel before he unleashes his true power upon them.]]

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Lord Vetinari subverts the trope by accounting for '''Didn't See That Coming'''. Instead of planning, he waits until the unexpected (or the expected--he has a very firm grasp of human nature) happens, then drives the situation to his advantage from there. Even when it seems like he's miscalculated, people prove every bit as stupid or clever, dogged or unmotivated, loyal or treacherous as he expects. He is a master at XanatosSpeedChess. This doesn't mean he has never been caught off-guard, however. For example, seeing his double in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' caught him off-guard just long enough for his attackers to overcome and subdue him. Or, more humorously, him getting blindsided by [[Discworld/TheLastHero Rincewind's explanation why he doesn't wish to volunteer]], or [[Discworld/{{Thud}} what A.E. Pessimal did during the riot]].

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series:

* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' Daylen is an Unknown Known, as [[spoiler: after his true identity is revealed, no one expected him to save Highdawn from the Dawnist plot. Lyrah in particularly is utterly ''floored'' by the fact that ''Dayless the Conqueror'' of all people just saved millions of people.]] With good reason mind you, since he was a tyrant literally on par with ''Adolf Hitler'' when he was in power.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series, Hari Seldon is able to predict politics using math. However, the emergence of "The Mule", a {{mutant|s}} ([[spoiler:sort of]]), is so powerful that he alters the path of history. When Seldon's message about a Civil War (predicted for the time of The Mule's emergence) goes over like a lead balloon, the people realize that The Mule has altered the plan. Seldon has died by this time, so he doesn't get a moment to reflect, but the [[OhCrap reactions of the people who have up until then been relying on Seldon's fully accurate predictions are fairly priceless]].
** Of course, while Seldon didn't see the Mule himself coming, he ''did'' see the possibility of an unexpected variable coming and screwing with his plan, so he [[CrazyPrepared created a secret group tasked with correcting things if the unexpected occurred]].
** Ironically, this makes Seldon ''himself'' fit into that category. There's no way his own "psychohistory" could have predicted that he would come along and set up a path for a new and better empire!

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Lord Vetinari subverts the trope by accounting for '''Didn't See That Coming'''. Instead of planning, he waits until the unexpected (or the expected--he has a very firm grasp of human nature) happens, then drives the situation to his advantage from there. Even when it seems like he's miscalculated, people prove every bit as stupid or clever, dogged or unmotivated, loyal or treacherous as he expects. He is a master at XanatosSpeedChess. This doesn't mean he has never been caught off-guard, however. For example, seeing his double in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' caught him off-guard just long enough for his attackers to overcome and subdue him. Or, more humorously, him getting blindsided by [[Discworld/TheLastHero Rincewind's explanation why he doesn't wish to volunteer]], or [[Discworld/TheLastHero what A.E. Pessimal did during the riot]].

*** The discovery of the Lynx Terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction (which no one could have predicted) disrupted [[spoiler:the Alignment's]] plans, forcing them to bring about the Manticoran-Solarian conflict ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, this is at least part of what led Queen Elizabeth to make peace with Haven. If it hadn't been for the Solarian threat, she probably would have simply forced Haven into submission. They also didn't anticipate [[spoiler:Herlander Simões' defection, which led to the Manticorans and Havenites learning about the Alignment and forming a military alliance. On the one hand, this will help bring about the downfall of the Solarian League even sooner. On the other hand, the fact that the Grand Alliance doesn't know about the Renaissance Factor or where the Alignment's base is is the ''only'' thing keeping them alive.]]