History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / Literature

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Bella passes out before we get to see the fight between Edward and James.

* ''Franchise/DoctorWho'': Played for laughs in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresSkyPirates Sky Pirates!]]'' -- the heroes set out on an expedition to retrieve a PlotCoupon from the heart of an ancient temple full of devious and deadly traps, only for the viewpoint character to promptly be knocked unconscious and not wake up until after the rest of the expedition gets back, plot coupon in hand.

* Robert Heinlein lampshades this in ''Literature/TheRollingStones'': Hazel Stone wanted out of her contract to write the absurd action serial "The Scourge of the Spaceways", so she wrote the last episode of the season to put the hero in a completely inescapable deathtrap. When the serial was renewed, she couldn't think of a way to rescue him, so she opens the next episode in a new location, with the hero explaining his escape to a girl. The next action scene interrupts his explanation, and the audience never actually gets to hear it.

** In ''The Red Pyramid'', it's revealed that before the book's events, Bast, Egyptian cat goddess and [[AffectionateNickname Aunt Kitty]] to our [[KidHero Kid Heroes]], was battling [[spoiler: Apophis, the literal embodiment of all of chaos, for ''millennia'', with the intent to ''destroy him, and destroy herself in the process'', before Ruby and Julius Kane intervened]].

** In ''The Red Pyramid'', it's revealed that before the book's events, Bast, Egyptian cat goddess and [[EmbrassingNickname Aunt Kitty]] to our [[KidHero Kid Heroes]], was battling [[spoiler: Apophis, the literal embodiment of all of chaos, for ''millennia'', with the intent to ''destroy him, and destroy herself in the process'', before Ruby and Julius Kane intervened]].
** This was one of the reasons why ''The Last Colony'' eventually received a POVSequel, ''Zoe's Tale''.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has had several major cases of this. In ''Dead Beat'', Harry is told by Morgan, Luccio and Ramirez about the recent series of battles they fought in against the Red Court in which [[spoiler: ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN Wardens and thousands of vampires died.]]. To give you some sense of how big that was, there are only about 200 Wardens in all. The next book ''Proven Guilty'' nearly matches that with [[spoiler: a massive battle at a Venatori Umborum base in Oregon in which Morgan nearly kills the Red King and Michael singlehandedly saves 40 Warden trainees at Luccio's boot camp.]]

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' by Suzanne Collins is told in first-person, so much of the action in the arena happens "offscreen", including what is implied to be an epic two-day battle between the two strongest competitors in the arena. [[BattleInTheRain In the rain]].
** Peeta has a real badass moment that we never get to see, when [[spoiler:he kills Brutus during the Quarter Quell]] in ''Catching Fire''.

** Ron's finest hour as Gryffindor Keeper, when he helps them win the Cup in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', is never seen as during the match Harry and Hermione are in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid meeting his giant half-brother Grawp.

* In "Literature/TheMostDangerousGame", the climactic, much-anticipated sword fight is completely skipped over. It's only mildly implied afterwards that [[spoiler: the protagonist won]].

*** This was a deliberate decision on J. K. Rowling's part--in real life, battles are messy, unpredictable affairs, and the "good bits" don't wait until plot-relevant characters are there to watch them.

** In between books 5 and 6 Death Eaters tried to take out Amelia Bones and Voldemort himself had to come out of hiding to take her down.

* In the final chapter of the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Literature/GauntsGhosts'' novel ''Sabbat Martyr'', the narrator speaks of a week-long battle supposedly more intense than any other recorded in the narrative, but we do not get to read it. Admittedly, it came on the heels of the final confrontation between Saint Sabbat and the Magister, but still...
** It's also at the end of the book, just after the climax. Also...perhaps it's best not to dwell on a heroic battle that occurs after someone tells the people getting slaughtered that they might want to try fighting back.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** The series only has certain characters points of view, notably never including any kings, which results in many things happening off screen, only for a point of view character to hear about it later.
** Blacksmith Donal Noye leads a defense against a group of giants while Castle Black is under siege. The readers only get to see the aftermath: [[spoiler: all the combatants and Donal and the giant king Mag killed each other]].
** Virtually all of Robb Stark's campaign in the Riverlands and Westerlands during the War of the Five Kings. The closest we get to "seeing" a battle is Catelyn listening to the battle of the Whispering Wood from a distance. The only times we see Robb "onpage" in the second and third books is when he's showing his [[HonorBeforeReason father's aptitude]] for politics.
** In ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'', the conquest of Meereen, accomplished by breaking down the ships and using them as rams to batter down the gates, is described in retrospect when Danaerys recalls it a week later, having taken the city's throne.
** In ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'' [[spoiler: Loras Tyrell retakes Dragonstone but is badly injured in the process of the battle, which sounded awesome. We only hear about it second-hand from Cersei's POV.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Bella passes out before we get to see the fight between Edward and James.
** In Eclipse, most of the Newborn Battle is ignored in favor of relationship drama between the main trio, as Bella demands that Edward stay with her out of harm’s way, and Jake stays to protect and warm her.
** We hear that Leah told off Bella for being mean to Jacob, perhaps the only time in the series when anyone calls her out on anything, but never see it.
* This trope is used masterfully in Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/TheScar'': the book's largely about a narrator 'lost at sea' in a city that's often outside the bounds of her knowledge and understanding. The story builds up a rivalry - and an intriguing past acquaintanceship - between two overpowered badasses, and they finally get their showdown a couple of chapters from the end...but then the fight scene gets skipped entirely, and instead we get to see the aftermath at the start of the next chapter.
* The ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' series often has large, plot-central battles being stated to occur, but the only "on-screen" action being the commanders discussing the battles before, after, or away from the field. The most JustForFun/{{egregious}} example would be the fight between Mat and Couladin. Not only does one major character kill another offscreen, it actually narrates Mat preparing for the encounter, then cuts to the victory celebration. To be fair when battles are described, they are both epic and empty of HollywoodTactics. However, if the movie adaptation that people are talking about does happen and does get to book 5, they had better include that fight onscreen.
* ''Literature/{{Shogun}}'' ends just before the decisive, climactic battle that the whole book was building up to. A battle between hundreds of thousands of samurais that historically decided the fate of Japan.

** Also, in the Appendices it is stated that the largest battle of the war was ''not'' the Battle of Pelennor Fields (which gets a half-dozen chapters focused on it) but actually the Battle of Dale, which took place around the same time and involved far more combatants, but is only alluded to in the text. This is kind of justified though by the main theme of the book- that the war cannot be won by force of arms, and that only by destroying the Ring can Sauron be defeated.
* At the climax of ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1634: The Galileo Affair]]'', Father Mazzare is about to give a speech defending Galileo to a crowd that includes the Pope and many senior cardinals. We hear him begin the speech... and then we cut to him stepping down, where he can't remember what he has just said. However, the speech was apparently powerful enough to get Galileo off, and [[spoiler:[[SecretTestOfCharacter to convince the Pope that Mazzare was truly a priest of the Catholic church before promoting him to a cardinal]], as the Pope had already decided that Galileo was not strictly a heretic]].
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'':
** The novels suffer from Frank's annoying tendency to skip some amazing moments of awesome which... are actually rather crucial to the story. The Fremen/Sardaukar battle at the end of [[Literature/{{Dune}} the original novel]], for example, was alluded to in less than a page (fortunately the duel between Paul and Feyd-Rautha in the last chapter was dealt with in full); the massive jihad between the events of ''Dune'' and ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' is never covered... even [[spoiler: the destruction of Arrakis]] at the end of ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'', for example, was skipped over between chapters. Though what crowning moments of awesome are included more than make up for it.
** It's not merely the [[spoiler:the destruction of Arrakis]] that the fans miss out on; it's the epicness of the battle [[spoiler:Bashar Miles Teg]] must have fought in order to provoke it. This is especially galling given that Herbert put a lot of effort into driving home to the reader just how much of a cranked-up-to-eleven badass [[spoiler:Teg]] is. We finally get to see that at the end of the next book, but even then the gritty details of the combat are glossed over and only the broad scope is covered. One is led to suspect that writing scenes like these was not Herbert's strong point and he was doing his best to move past them as quickly as possible.
* Happens a bit in Patricia Wrede's ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'', though as a Trope Breaking semi-parody of fantasy and fairy tales in general, it was to be expected. Dealing with the evil fire witch and the averted epic battle between the dragons and wizards are two such moments.
* Less understandably so, however, is the two-part series by Mark Acres, ''Dragonspawn'' and ''Dragonwar'', presumably he is terrible at writing large battles as that's the only real explanation. The only large military engagement one sees is when Bagsby the thief rides in and blasts Ruprecht's army with his two dragons, shortening the fight considerably.
* Happens so many times in ''Literature/TheIliad''. There are prophecies delivered multiple times that if Achilles kills Hector, both Troy will fall and Achilles will die soon after, but both Troy and Achilles are still standing at the end of the book.
* Two of the main villains from ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' are Xar (a MagicKnight badass who is quite possibly the most powerful wizard who ever lived) and Kleitus (an undead, omnicidal necromancer who is magically weaker but makes up for it by being almost impossible to destroy). They meet, fight, and Xar manages to force Kleitus into being his (grudging) servant. Unfortunately, this all takes place ''off page''- the reader is even told that the fight was spectacular, albeit brief, but never gets to see it. Now, seeing it wasn't plot-centric or anything, knowing what happened, but still- that would have been ''awesome''. Not to mention how Alfred turns into a giant dragon and opens a can of whoopass on the creatures of the Labyrinth, including at least one evil dragon of the kind that had only ever been defeated once by aforementioned Xar. The fight never gets described.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has had several major cases of this. In ''Dead Beat'', Harry is told by Morgan, Luccio and Ramirez about the recent series of battles they fought in against the Red Court in which [[spoiler: ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN Wardens and thousands of vampires died.]]. To give you some sense of how big that was, there are only about 200 Wardens in all. The next book ''Proven Guilty'' nearly matches that with [[spoiler: a massive battle at a Venatori Umborum base in Oregon in which Morgan nearly kills the Red King and Michael singlehandedly saves 40 Warden trainees at Luccio's boot camp.]]
* Done deliberately in ''Literature/TheCharterhouseOfParma'' by Creator/{{Stendhal}}: The main character joins up Napoleon's army dreaming of heroic deeds and epic action, but when the battle of Waterloo takes place, all he sees is smoke and confusion. The whole thing is a huge anticlimax for him, and, symbolically, it marks the passing of the Revolutionary era.
* The Pardal plot in the last ''Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes'' book ends abruptly during the climactic final battle, with only a brief transmission in the last scene to indicate that they succeeded and did not, in fact, die horribly. [[spoiler:Sean finding the right access code to bring down the defenses]]? [[spoiler:Bringing the full might of Imperial technology on those sorry zealot asses in a well-deserved CurbStompBattle]]? [[spoiler:Taking total control of a global theocratic empire]]? Nope.
* ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. So much. A huge battle between Aslan's forces and the White Witch's army is set up...cut to Lucy and Susan saving Aslan and riding him to the battle, where we see it mostly ended and Peter tells them "Hey, we just had a really cool battle, you missed most of it though".
** The 2005 Walden-Media film rectified this, even giving the girls minor but pivotal roles at the battle's very end.
* In ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'' chapter 13 is entitled “The Fight at Anvard”. Shasta, who has been our POV character for most of the book so far, is involved in the battle. But the narrative voice says, “But it is no use trying to describe the battle from Shasta’s point of view: he understood so little of the fight in general and even of his own part in it. The best way I can tell you what really happened is to take you several miles away to where the Hermit of the Southern March sat gazing into the smooth pool beneath the spreading tree, with Bree and Hwin and Aravis beside him.” The Hermit then describes the battle, as he sees it in his magic pool, to the others.

* Gordon Korman's ''Losing Joe's Place'' averts and plays it straight in the same chapter. The three main characters see fellow roommate Rootbeer decimate six pro wrestlers one by one in an exhibition, only to have all six gang up on them in the parking lot later, As this fight is about to begin, the narrator is knocked out, only to come to and see all six wrestlers beaten and spread out across the pavement. One friend says, "It was like the end of the world, and you missed it!" while Rootbeer just says, "Those guys - they had ''bad luck''."
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' by Suzanne Collins is told in first-person, so much of the action in the arena happens "offscreen", including what is implied to be an epic two-day battle between the two strongest competitors in the arena. [[BattleInTheRain In the rain]].
** Peeta has a real badass moment that we never get to see, when [[spoiler:he kills Brutus during the Quarter Quell]] in ''Catching Fire''.
* In ''[[Literature/TheWarGods Oath of Swords]]'', while the narrator is watching Bahzell busy fighting [[spoiler:Harnak]] as [[spoiler:champion of Tomanak to Harnak's champion of Sharna]], Brandark is caught in a melee against four hradani simultaneously -- and kills three of the four before going down.
* In ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau'', Moreau grudgingly offers a fragmentary account of how a limbless, writhing ''thing'' he'd created had killed one of his human servants and several of his other creations before being hunted down. Although this event sounds like it might make a decent adventure/horror tale all by itself, no details about the creature or its actions and demise are offered, and it's never mentioned again.

* ''[[Literature/HisDarkMaterials The Amber Spyglass]]'' has [[spoiler: a large proportion of the sentient beings from the entire multiverse lining up for war against all the other sentient beings led by God, or the Metatron in the name of God following a coup several millennia ago. Do we get to see the epic clash of arms that would put even Norse myth to shame? Nope, two kids run across the battleground, dodge some cavalry, see an old friend and promptly leave for a different universe. There were enough POV characters involved in the battle, couldn't we have stuck with one of them for a bit?]]
* In ''Literature/TheWishsongOfShannara'', Jair Ohmsford and his companion, Slanter, leave the area before we can see more than the beginning of the duel between Garret Jax, the Weapons Master, and the Jachyra, a maniacal Fae being, one of whom had previously slain [[spoiler:Allanon]]. When they come back, [[spoiler:Jax is dead and the Jachyra gone]], but no one knows how [[spoiler:the fight actually turned out.]]
* The escape of Jonathan Harker from Dracula's castle in [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Bram Stoker's novel]] easily qualifies.

* Literature/HonorHarrington:
** Sometime between ''The Honor of the Queen'' and ''The Short Victorious War'', Admiral Hamish Alexander, Earl of White Haven, spectacularly won the Third Battle of Yeltsin, a decisive Manticoran victory that critically shaped the opening phases of the war. We don't see it.
** While [[PluckyMiddie Abigail Hearns]] (plus a bunch of [[SpaceMarine Marines]]) was busy killing pirates on the surface of the planet Refuge in "The Service of the Sword", Captain Michael Oversteegen won a three-on-one engagement with a trio of Solarian heavy cruisers, out of whom he blasted the complete crap despite having only a single similarly-sized ship himself. We don't see it, or in fact ''him'' until he re-enters the story by blowing the fourth heavy cruiser out of space with a single salvo. Unsurprisingly, "Tiberian" thereafter becomes Oversteegen's RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun moment.
* Played as a kind of running gag in the ''Literature/{{Blackcollar}}'' series. Team member Mordecai is described possibly the best hand to hand fighter to come out of the Blackcollar program... which considering that the Blackcollars were already insanely dangerous SuperSoldiers, he may be the greatest to have ever lived. But team newbie Caine has the running bad luck that he keeps missing Mordecai in action, like glancing down a hall for a few seconds, only to turn back and see that Mordecai has taken down four men without making a sound.
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy alludes to a duel between Yoda and a rogue Jedi on Dagobah. And to anyone who's seen Yoda get dangerous, it couldn't be anything but awesome.
** Unlike the film, the novelization of ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' shows only the beginning of Anakin's masterful crash-landing of Grievous's flagship, at the end of Part One; Part Two picks up with his already having succeeded.
** ''[[Literature/StarWarsHonorAmongThieves Honor Among Thieves]]'': In what must be one of the actions that creates Rogue Squadron's legendary reputation, Leia sends Luke and his understrength group of X-wings against an Imperial Star Destroyer and its wing of TIE fighters. They shoot it down. Somehow. Luke doesn't check back in with Leia until afterward.
* In the AfterTheEnd book ''Literature/TheDogStars'', Higs returns from his trip to find that his farm had been ambushed by a large squad of raiders, and his partner Bangly had made a LastStand to defend it. [[spoiler:Higs eventually discovers that Bangley is actually still barely clinging to life, having killed the entire raider band]].
* ''Literature/TheBible'', John 20:30. 'Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.'

* In ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", Rikki's battles against Karait and Nag are described in great detail, but for his final fight, he pursues Nagaina into her burrow. Several hours later, he emerges, exhausted but victorious.
* In ''The Last Colony'', the third book in John Scalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar'' series, an item that just so happens to be exactly what [[spoiler: the Roanoke colonists need to secure their victory over the attacking Conclave forces]] is attained offscreen. While the events that led to its attainment were quite exciting, they are only discussed after-the-fact, and not in much detail. Due to the lack of context, many readers were left with the impression that Scalzi had taken the lazy route and pulled a DeusExMachina.
** This was one of the reasons why ''The Last Colony'' eventually received a POVSequel, ''Zoe's Tale''.
* In ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' we see the HMS Thunder Child fight and defeat two of the three Martian machines threatening the paddle-steamer the Narrator's brother is on. The ship rounds on the third one, badly damaged by two heat ray shots, but still prepared to fight to the death. Then the Martian heat ray hits the water, causing a wall of steam to hide the epic battle. All we know is that afterward, neither the third Tripod nor the Thunder Child can be seen. But then, RammingAlwaysWorks.
* In ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', Virgil often references when Christ broke into Hell, shaked it to its foundations, and broke out the Jewish dead to take them to Paradise. It was so intense that even into the Eight Circle there's loads of structural damage, but Dante never describes it outside of proxies like Virgil and the rest of the damned.
* The Creator/StephenKing short story "[[Literature/EverythingsEventual In the Deathroom]]": Fletcher is a New York Times reporter who starts out in a South American BananaRepublic StateSec's interrogation room. He overpowers the agents in the room with him, then realizes he's still deep in enemy territory with a minuscule chance of escaping to the United States. The last scene of the story reveals that, somehow, he makes it home.
* ''Franchise/DoctorWho'': Played for laughs in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresSkyPirates Sky Pirates!]]'' -- the heroes set out on an expedition to retrieve a PlotCoupon from the heart of an ancient temple full of devious and deadly traps, only for the viewpoint character to promptly be knocked unconscious and not wake up until after the rest of the expedition gets back, plot coupon in hand.

** In the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire fourth book]], soon after Voldemort returns, [[spoiler: Snape goes out to meet Voldemort. He persuades Voldemort that he is willing to serve as a loyal Death Eater, when his real motivation is to serve as a ReverseMole for Dumbledore.]] Bear in mind that Voldemort can nearly always tell if someone is lying. Bear in mind that [[spoiler: Snape had hindered Quirrell and Voldemort's attempts to steal the Philosopher's Stone]] three books earlier. He continues to deceive Voldemort in meetings like this one over the next few books. No wonder Harry called him "probably the bravest man I ever knew".

** Later, there's Heartbreaker, who throughout the entire story has been built up as a scary background villain, a mind-controller who can permanently force his victims to fall in love with him and uses this power to build up an entire family of utterly loyal parahumans. At some point during the TimeSkip, [[spoiler:Imp -- Grue's kid sister -- murdered him. [[TropesAreTools This is not as jarring as it might have been]] because Imp's power [[PerceptionFilter prevents anyone from noticing her and her actions]] and is therefore [[TacticalRockPaperScissors a perfect counter to Heartbreaker]]. He can't mind-control someone he doesn't realize is there, and none of his minions would be able to notice her either, so the whole scene would have been fairly anticlimactic. Imp would have been able to simply walk up to him completely unopposed and slit his throat with one of her trademark knives]].

** In ''Literature/A FeastForCrows'' [[spoiler: Loras Tyrell retakes Dragonstone but is badly injured in the process of the battle, which sounded awesome. We only hear about it second-hand from Cersei's POV.]]

** In ''A Feast for Crows'' [[spoiler: Loras Tyrell retakes Dragonstone but is badly injured in the process of the battle, which sounded awesome. We only hear about it second-hand from Cersei's POV.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' novels suffer from Frank's annoying tendency to skip some amazing moments of awesome which... are actually rather crucial to the story. The Fremen/Sardaukar battle at the end of [[Literature/{{Dune}} the original novel]], for example, was alluded to in less than a page (fortunately the duel between Paul and Feyd-Rautha in the last chapter was dealt with in full); the massive jihad between the events of ''Dune'' and ''Literature/DuneMessiah'' is never covered... even [[spoiler: the destruction of Arrakis]] at the end of ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'', for example, was skipped over between chapters. Though what crowning moments of awesome are included more than make up for it.

* Happens a bit in Patricia Wrede's Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles, though as a Trope Breaking semi-parody of fantasy and fairy tales in general, it was to be expected. Dealing with the evil fire witch and the averted epic battle between the dragons and wizards are two such moments.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresSkyPirates Sky Pirates!]]'' -- the heroes set out on an expedition to retrieve a PlotCoupon from the heart of an ancient temple full of devious and deadly traps, only for the viewpoint character to promptly be knocked unconscious and not wake up until after the rest of the expedition gets back, plot coupon in hand.

* After spending the entirety of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' running around pissing everyone off and fleeing the bad karma before they can get what's coming to them, Bilbo and friends are finally cornered, with everyone turned against them and each other. The book climaxes as huge armies of men, elves and dwarves are about to begin fighting a humongous battle when Gandalf comes out of nowhere and tells them to stop, because huge armies of goblins and wargs with bats are coming at them! They quickly strike a truce to fight the common foe, and an enormous battle rages! At the brink of defeat, sentient eagles suddenly show up out of nowhere to help! The HolyShitQuotient is [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale off the scale]]! Oh, wait, Bilbo just got bonked on the bean by a rock. At least he gets to hear about it later.

* The Creator/StevenKing short story "[[Literature/EverythingsEventual In the Deathroom]]": Fletcher is a New York Times reporter who starts out in a South American BananaRepublic StateSec's interrogation room. He overpowers the agents in the room with him, then realizes he's still deep in enemy territory with a minuscule chance of escaping to the United States. The last scene of the story reveals that, somehow, he makes it home.

** In the fifth book, Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna somehow manage to knock out Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and a couple of other Slytherins on the Hogwarts Express. Only the aftermath is described.

* Two of the main villains from ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' are Xar (a MagicKnight BadassGrandpa who is quite possibly the most powerful wizard who ever lived) and Kleitus (an undead, omnicidal necromancer who is magically weaker but makes up for it by being almost impossible to destroy). They meet, fight, and Xar manages to force Kleitus into being his (grudging) servant. Unfortunately, this all takes place ''off page''- the reader is even told that the fight was spectacular, albeit brief, but never gets to see it. Now, seeing it wasn't plot-centric or anything, knowing what happened, but still- that would have been ''awesome''. Not to mention how Alfred turns into a giant dragon and opens a can of whoopass on the creatures of the Labyrinth, including at least one evil dragon of the kind that had only ever been defeated once by aforementioned Xar. The fight never gets described.

* In ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' we see the HMS Thunder Child fight and defeat two of the three Martian machines threatening the paddle-steamer the Narrator's brother is on. The ship rounds on the third one, badly damaged by two heat ray shots, but still prepared to fight to the death. Then the Martian heat ray hits the water, causing a wall of steam to hide the epic battle. All we know is that afterward, neither the third Tripod nor the Thunder Child can be seen.

* The ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]]'' series often has large, plot-central battles being stated to occur, but the only "on-screen" action being the commanders discussing the battles before, after, or away from the field. The most {{egregious}} example would be the fight between Mat and Couladin. Not only does one major character kill another offscreen, it actually narrates Mat preparing for the encounter, then cuts to the victory celebration. To be fair when battles are described, they are both epic and empty of HollywoodTactics. However, if the movie adaptation that people are talking about does happen and does get to book 5, they had better include that fight onscreen.