History Main / SecondhandStorytelling

* One Literature/SherlockHolmes story ends up with its quote marks nested four deep: Holmes describing a past case to Watson, in which a character describes to Holmes an incident he was told of by another character, in which yet another character describes an event...

Occasionally this is used for a TakeOurWordForIt, or to set up TheRashomon. Battle-related Second-Hand Storytelling is sometimes preceeded by a ChargeIntoCombatCut. Related to FramingDevice, but "framing device" applies more to cases where the second-hand story is a very large piece of the story and presented with all the vividness of the main narrative. Particularly bad examples have a tendency to turn this into a OffscreenMomentOfAwesome. Please keep in mind, however, why this is [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools not always bad]] - making it impossible for anything important to happen if the protagonist is not present is, after all, a prime trait of the BlackHoleSue. Compare with the NoodleIncident, wherein the Secondhand Storytelling incident is presented as something tantalizing that is only referred to obliquely.

* Episode 4 of ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}''. Towards the end, Togame and Shichika are discussing his [[InterestingSituationDuel Epic battle across land and sky]] with Hakuhei sabi over dinner. The [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome epic battle]] was shown off screen, with the rest of the episode focusing on his [[AloofOlderBrother sister]], Nanami.

** Of course, some find this BetterThanCanon, in that it re-writes a scene where Tyrion - a dwarf with no real combat training - kills several soldiers, one of them a fully-armored knight.

* ''Film/{{Zodiac}}'': The two first known murders committed by the Zodiac killer aren't shown in the film due to there being no surviving witnesses. The 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates is also talked about but not shown, again due to the lack of survivors and also due to it happening three years prior to the start of the film.

* Inadvertent example: The DVD of the first ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' movie reveals several instances of Second-Hand Storytelling. Sequences that were actually scripted and filmed were only described in the final cut, because they didn't have the budget to finish the effects.

* In the ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' and ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' crossover, ''Fanfic/NecessaryToWin'', [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10130193/7/Necessary-To-Win found here,]] the "Interlude" chapters, which involve certain characters telling their backstories to others, alternate between them talking to others in the present, and flashbacks to scenes in the past. WordOfGod has it that what the characters in question ''say'' happened is not necessarily true, and may involve them omitting details, not remembering correctly, or jumping to their own conclusions.

* ''Film/{{Zodiac}}'': The two first known murders committed by the Zodiac killer aren't shown in the film due to there being no surviving witnesses. The 1966 murder of Cheri Jo Bates also talked about but not shown again due to lack of survivors and due to it happening three years prior to the start of the film.

* In ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Uncle Andrew complains about how Queen Jadis went all MageInManhattan and forced him to sell his watch at a pawn shop, robbed a jewelry store, and so on. But for those few hours, the narration treats us to the story of how Digory was sitting at home waiting for Jadis and Andrew to return; and both the narrator and the character obviously find this quite boring. Wouldn't it have been more interesting to read if it had narrated the events that were going on with Uncle Andrew. And the book does contain a couple of other scenes that narrate Uncle Andrew's misadventures that take place when Digory's not around; it's not like it has a strict policy of only using Digory's point of view.
* Because the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is written almost exclusively from Harry's point of view, any event that he does not personally witness or cannot be included in will become this. Examples include what other Champions did during ''Goblet of Fire's'' Triwizard Tournament what happened to everyone except Harry and Hagrid in the chase scene early in ''Deathly Hallows.''

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss'' frequently does this. For example, they show Danny Pintauro wearing a cast and telling Judith Light about how he got it from a nasty gymnastics fall rather than showing the fall itself ("Johnathan The Gymnast").

* ''Marion and Geoff'' is all about a chaffeur talking about these people.

* On ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' Ray gets a call that his brother Robert, a cop is in injured on the job. When Ray, his wife Debra and his parents Marie and Frank visit him in the hospital, they find out he was gored in the butt by a bull. Robert tells a story of how he and his partner were breaking up an illegal rodeo in Brooklyn and a bull started chasing him. At the end of the episode a tape of the bull chasing him is shown on the news
* On ''Series/GameOfThrones'' episode "Baelor", the battle between Roose Bolton's northmen and the Lannister's is not seen, instead Tyrion is knocked unconscious at the beginning of the battle and the events are recounted to him briefly by Bronn when he regains consciousness. This was almost certainly done for budget reasons.

* On ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', Morgana is captured by the Sarrum of Amata, who uses her MoralityPet to lure her into a trap, chain her at the bottom of a well-like cell, and keep her there for two years before she eventually escapes. We don't get to see any of it - in fact, when the Sarrum relates the story, he skimps on the details, giving us no understanding of how exactly Morgana was captured, or how she escaped.

* The Broadway version of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' features the entire backstory between Ursula and King Triton being told through dialog and/or song. Subsequent versions of the show featured an even more in intricate in depth backstory and details that explain why Ursula was unloved by their father, Poseidon, why he gave her the magic shell, how she killed all her other siblings but forgot to kill Triton, and how she is in fact responsible for the death of Ariel's mother which in turn lead to Triton hating humans. We aren't shown any of this.

* ''Radio/TheFoundationTrilogy'': While most of the examples are played as straight as they are in the original work, "Part Two: The Mayors" manages to shift King Lepold's recounting of [[TheGrandHunt the Nyak hunt]] to occuring during the hunt itself, rather than speaking of it in the past tense.

** One excellent example comes from ''Demon's Souls''. The Valley of Defilement is a slum society sunken so deep into a canyon that it never sees daylight. Poisonous, leechy swamps, droves of plague rats and massive mosquitoes make the place nearly unlivable, but the Church sought to change this some time before the game began. You're never told about this initiative, of course. But you do find the missionary-knights' remains.

*** These two knights dead, only The Sixth Saint Maiden Astraea and the implacable Garl Vinland make it any further. The Maiden, who you face as a demon, has evidently given up on converting the swamp, and instead grants the locals immunity to disease and poison by taking their souls and transforming them. She kindly asks you to leave, when encountered as a boss, so she can continue her business. Garl, the ''de facto'' area boss, only attacks if you attempt to approach her.

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