Line #98 InformedAbility/Literature


1	* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'': Mor is stated to be extremely powerful and to have the "gift of truth", but thus far the series has been vague about what exactly this entails, and she's otherwise not depicted as having abilities or power levels much different from other Fae (namely winnowing and healing).
2	* ''Literature/TheRadix'': Wurm is supposed to be a cryptography genius, having cracked the code of the Voynich manuscript. However, he can't decrypt a trivial [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scytale Scytale]] cipher.
3	* Creator/OrsonScottCard:
4	** Exploited in his short story "Unaccompanied Sonata" (collected in ''Literature/MapsInAMirror''), which is about a musical prodigy. Card's turned down adaptations of it because it would be near impossible to write music as good as the story claims the prodigy's is. [[spoiler:So it was an enormous honor when he changed his mind and approved Yaron Zilberman to adapt it because of his brilliant work in ''The Late Quartet''.]]
5	--->'''Card:''' Here's a reason for making the character a musician -- I don't have to create his oh-so-brilliant work. Even Creator/AynRand, making Howard Roark an architect, had to describe his buildings, and alas, they are now very dated... With music, though, readers know that it can't really be recreated in fiction, merely referred to. But in a movie, the music has to exist. When I tell you in the story that people come from thousands of miles to hear Christian Haroldsen's nature-based synth music, or from dozens of miles to hear him improvise jazz on a honky-tonk piano, or learn his folksongs and are moved by them, you can believe it. In the movie, though, somebody has to compose that music, those songs; somebody has to perform it. And then you have to believe that people would respond that strongly to music that you have actually heard. If the music composed for the film is not utterly brilliant, will you believe the rest of the story? Will you care? Will the movie even work?
6	** Averted in ''Literature/EndersGame'' and ''Literature/EndersShadow''. Both Bean and Ender are shown to be legitimately smart through their actions during their education at the Battle School. Even then, some of their ideas are slightly-less-than-brilliant but are thus shown to be possible by any person; it's just that Ender figured them out ''faster'' than the other students. However, informing does occur during their fleet simulations at Eros, likely because it's [[EndingFatigue near the end of the novel]], and because tactics in space are too long and complicated to describe over and over.
7	* In ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', the enigmatic Kurtz is worshipped, feared, and adored by everyone who meets him. The characters have no lack of superlatives for his incredible genius and vision. Even Marlow, who feels contempt for his African cult, considers Kurtz a genius. However, Kurtz himself barely appears in the story. By the time Marlow finds him he is weak and pathetic. About the only impressive thing Marlow does actually see is an amazing painting Kurtz made at one point.
8	* Thufir Hawat from ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', alleged Master of Assassins, repeatedly fails to thwart assassination attempts. 1: ([[spoiler:Duke Leto Atreides' father]]) 2: ([[spoiler:the assassination of Duke Leto's first born son because of a Harkonnen spy he allowed to sneak inside Caladan]]), 3: ([[spoiler:not being able to stop Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from killing Duke Leto in the first Dune book]]), 4: ([[spoiler:Rabban's hunter-seeker and its controller infiltrating Paul's room after having more than adequate opportunity to sweep the palace.]]). He also fails to goad Feyd into assassinating and supplanting good ol' Uncle Vladimir. However, it is insinuated that Thufer is past his prime. He himself recognizes his failings and offers to resign at one point, only for Paul to point out that his training, at least, has been very successful.
9	** Also, regarding Feyd-Rautha, Thufir had actually warned Vladimir about the assassin. He was playing them against each other.
10	** Thufir also managed to overlook the fact that the Baron had poisoned ''him'' with a residual poison and was feeding him an antidote in his meals to ensure he couldn't survive more than a few days if he attempted escape. [[spoiler:This ends up killing him.]]
11	** Thufir was surprised by Jessica's "Voice" ability, and seemed to be unaware that something like that was possible. Despite the fact that she had been training Paul to use it. Also, Gurney was aware of it and had been trained to resist it. Thufir seems to be completely oblivious.
12	** Baron Harkonnen's original Mentat, Piter De Vries, also has shades of this. He's supposedly a twisted genius and deadly assassin, but his evil plotting consists of "send an overwhelming number of troops at our enemies", the only person he kills is a defenseless prisoner, and he dies by walking into a fairly obvious trap. He is stated to have devised an entirely new type of residual poison, though, so there's that at least.
13	* Also in ''Dune'', the reader is assured that recipients of Suk School training/brainwashing are unfailingly loyal to their patrons. Wellington Yueh, the very first person from this school to appear in the novels, is induced to betray his patron by [[spoiler:[[IHaveYourWife getting his wife held hostage]]]], presented as if it was a novel tactic that had never occurred to anyone before.
14	* Creator/DanBrown:
15	** Robert Langdon of ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'' and ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'' is supposedly a Harvard professor of "symbology" and expert in history and religion. However, in ''Angels'', he mistranslates "Novus Ordo Seclorum" as "New Secular Order", when any high school Latin student would know that it means "New Order of the Ages". Also, he's allegedly an expert on Leonardo da Vinci, but fails to identify when some text is written backwards while da Vinci famously used it in his personal notes.
16	---> "HE is an expert in the works of Leonardo! SHE is a world-class cryptanalyst! IN A WORLD where the ''reader'' is presented with a facsimile of the document they're examining, it takes them several pages to deduce that they're looking at ''a page of mirror writing''!"
17	** His students are not better. All the students he recalls in flashbacks seem to have questions and answers so naïve that you wonder how on Earth they could have possibly gotten into Harvard - or even out of high school in the first place.
18	* ''Literature/{{Magnus}}'':
19	** One of Magnus's powers includes "supernatural cunning", which he never demonstrates. He demonstrates knowledge, yes, but he is two thousand years old. In fact, he walks into an ambush obliviously.
20	** A scanner reveals that Iscarius Alchemy has [[UsefulNotes/IQTesting an I.Q. of 666]], and yet he never demonstrates it.
21	* ''Literature/{{Red Dragon}}'' has Will Graham, who has been described by Crawford as having a special ability to relate to criminals like no one else, but all that's seen in the movie and novel is him doing basic police work. Finally averted in the series ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', in which this process and its effects on Will are a major part of the story.
22	* ''Literature/LeftBehind'' has a few:
23	** Cameron "Buck" Williams is supposed to be the "greatest investigative reporter of all time", with such amazing prose as this: [[{{Narm}} "To say the Israelis were taken by surprise is like saying the Great Wall of China is long."]] Yeah, that's deserving of a Pulitzer, all right. He's not seen doing much journalism or writing in the series. He also ''instantly'' sells out to the conspirators as soon as he learns anything, on multiple occasions. Over the course of the first three books, he buries more stories than he publishes.
24	** Similarly, Nicholae Carpathia's amazing oration is illustrated by a speech in which he rattles off a very long list of trivial details about the people in attendance and the agencies of the UN, and at one point reciting the names of all the member countries in alphabetical order. Actually listening to this speech would grow tedious very quickly, and also be a thorough waste of time.
25	** This trope is part of Slacktivist's [[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/ funny critique]] of the novel. It also notes the unusual twist on this trope that makes Left Behind worse than most: It has no omniscient narrator, and most of the unsupported praise is done by the protagonists themselves, or in the form of the protagonists imagining what respect or envy other people feel for them.
26	* ''Literature/LessonsInChemistry'': Elizabeth is supposed to be a brilliant chemist. However, even a mediocre chemist would know that acetic acid and vinegar are not the same thing. She would also know that a canned soup is not bad simply because it is "full of chemicals," something everything edible is.
27	* The ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'':
28	** Paolini seems to run into issues with the idea of complex politics. It's said the such complex politics exists on a few different occasions, but such politics are almost totally absent [[ShowDontTell in what we see his characters deal with.]]
29	** Readers are told that the Varden group has intense internal intrigue and politics. However, there are only two instances of anything that could be called political disagreements within the group, both of which boil down to "I don't think you should be in charge". They are resolved within a chapter or two of being introduced, and then the Varden go back to acting in a totally unified manner.
30	** Arya warns Eragon that the elves are a complex people who are quite alien to a human perspective, whose centuries-long lifespan means that they take a long view of political maneuverings, with their every action possibly being a single step in a strategy spanning decades, and that they will use this to manipulate Eragon. Most of the elves we actually see are basically just humans with different ears (with the exception of their veganism and atheism, and even those are a stretch). They never seem to have any kind of long-term plan going, and make no effort to manipulate Eragon and are entirely cordial and respectful. The only exception is a single elf who is a total JerkAss the moment he meets Eragon, but even he comes around fairly quickly.
31	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
32	** The reader is told repeatedly that Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody is the most badass Auror to ever live, but in the two on-screen battles he fights, [[spoiler:he's knocked out almost immediately in the first and outright killed in the second. The real Moody even admits in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' that he really didn't do anything in the previous book.]] There is some justification because he appears in the books well after he retired, walking with a cane and a heavy limp; old age, [[ShellShockedVeteran paranoia]] and [[CareerEndingInjury losing a leg]] have obviously taken their toll.
33	** To a lesser degree, Ginny Weasley (master of the unseen Bat Bogey Hex, which doesn't even sound all that formidable) also suffered this. Books 5 and 6 had Ron and Slughorn [[CharacterShilling praising her for her powerful magic,]] but the reader never actually sees it in practice (although she does survive several battles against far more experienced opponents). It comes across as her own version of a NoodleIncident. The [[https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Bat-Bogey_Hex Harry Potter wiki]] states that the Bat Bogey Hex is a spell that turns the target's boogers (or bogeys, in UK slang) into bats that would fly out of their nose. Given that it's ''not'' a combat spell (it was described by the spell's creator to have been used to get attention so her sisters would listen to her) and is more of a childish hex, one has to wonder why Ginny was praised for its usage.
34	** PlayedForLaughs with Dawlish. The first time you meet him, Dumbledore comments that he is an excellent Auror (got all O's on his exams!), but manages to knock him and his accomplices out. Later, he's the member of the team that fails to capture Hagrid. In the next book, Dumbledore tells Harry that he caught Dawlish spying on him, and knocked him out again. In the final book, Harry and his friends overhear a Muggleborn fugitive offhandedly mention that he escaped the Death Eater-controlled Ministry by stunning Dawlish and stealing his broomstick. Finally, he's sent after a [[NeverMessWithGranny little old lady]] and gets beat up ''again''. WordOfGod implies that he ''is,'' in fact, a perfectly competent Auror, but simply has the misfortune of [[TheWorfEffect constantly being]] OvershadowedByAwesome.
35	** There was also what might have been Voldemort's signature move: ''Avada Kedavra'', the Killing Curse. Supposedly, it's a lethal spell that has no countercurse or method of blocking it. Harry survived [[spoiler: two direct hits from it,]] and Voldemort himself did the same once. The books do go a long way toward justifying these instances, however: [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing your own life]] to save someone from the curse is effective against it (which left Harry with no ill-effects other than his scar), and Voldemort survived due to his [[SoulJar Horcruxes.]] (He wasn't as lucky as Harry. Though he survived, he became a barely-alive, ghost-like entity who required unicorn blood to survive.) The spell is also only a minor inconvenience to [[ThePhoenix a phoenix:]] if it is used on one, it will just be reborn as if it had died any other way. It is confirmed at one point that any sufficiently large solid object can block the spell (like most other spells) [[note]]This contradicts when Moody states in ''Goblet of Fire'' that the Killing Curse cannot be blocked, though he might just have meant it can't be blocked magically.[[/note]]. It might still damage or destroy the barrier, like causing a desk to burst into flame, but the person on the other side would still be fine. All things considered the curse is somewhat less menacing than it initially seemed, as it is basically as dangerous as conventional gunfire.
36	** A common criticism of Rowling's characterization of Slytherin House is that its core values are outright stated to be "Cunning" and "Ambition", but practically none of the Slytherin students seen in-series actually demonstrate either trait. In practice, most Slytherins are DumbMuscle, and they seem to care more about purity of ancestry than about anyone's values and personality (hence, why so many future Death Eaters are Slytherins), to the point that there don't seem to be any Muggle-born students in the House at all. [[note]] As we later learn, Salazar Slytherin even ''specifically'' advocated teaching students of the purest ancestry, and founded his House upon that very idea.[[/note]] As many a fan has pointed out, some of the most ambitious students in the school would probably be the Muggle-born students eager to prove themselves. Possibly excused by the fact that "valuing" a trait isn't the same as "having" it, and by Voldemort's influence leading the House astray from its original values. Horace Slughorn, the most prominent pre-Voldemort Slytherin, actually ''does'' demonstrate cunning and ambition, and aside from a few moments of [[YouAreACreditToYourRace not caring about a person's ancestry as long as they're useful]].
37	** Hermione's intelligence in general is this. She is regularly considered the TeenGenius of her era and many adults tell her she's the brightest witch of her age they've come across. The problem is, the reader can compare Hermione to geniuses from previous eras: the Marauders and Snape, Riddle and Dumbledore, and others, and she rarely stacks up well. Riddle and Dumbledore are obviously on another level, but compared to the Marauders, Hermione never truly creates anything as impressive as the Marauder's Map, leave alone a feat of magic comparable to the Animagi transformations, or Snape's potions improvements and invented spells. Additionally, Fred and George Weasley, who do rather poorly academic wise, are shown inventing products for their joke shop that require complex and never before seen magic that she is surprised by. Unlike Dumbledore, whose papers were published in major journals while still at Hogwarts and who seemed to win more awards than there were available, we don't see Hermione's extracurricular triumphs. Likewise, within canon, she was one short of a perfect score with her OWL exams (ten Outstandings, one Exceeds Expectations), which is less than other top-scoring students like Percy and Barty Crouch Jr. who got twelve Outstandings. Hermione is obviously smart compared to the people around her, but it never seems to reach the same level as those that came before her, and struggles to cast a Patronus until she's sixteen, when Harry was able to do it at thirteen. She herself even refutes this in ''The Philosopher's Stone'', where she tells Harry he's far better than her, and that all she has is "books and cleverness". ''Deathly Hallows'' at least does show her to be very good at thinking on her feet during a tough situation.
38	* In ''Literature/MaximumRide'', Fang is supposed to be silent and expressionless. He's described as a "brick wall" multiple times. However, he is no less talkative than the other characters, and expresses emotion normally most of the time. In the few cases he doesn't, the narrator doesn't fail to point it out.
39	* In ''Literature/{{Vampirates}}'', Grace is constantly described as the smart twin, yet her brother figures out that she's on the ship with the eponymous creatures before she does even though he's never seen them.
40	* Alistair [=MacLean's=] (actually John Denis) ''Air Force One Is Down'' goes to great detail describing master thief (now secret agent) Sabrina and how good she is, then portrays her as a classic DamselInDistress throughout the rest of the book. Most notably in a scene where Sabrina can't lie to the BigBad because she can't keep her thoughts off her face (and she's supposed to be a master thief whose ability to deceive others is specifically discussed at the start of the novel).
41	* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''
42	** Bella is said to be more mature than people her own age several times by several different people. Her mother even says that she was born middle-aged. This is the same girl who cries at least once a chapter (and admits to crying when in ''any'' negative emotion), is so hormonal that she ''literally'' jumps her boyfriend repeatedly (and after he's already told her that he wants to wait), wanders off alone in a place she doesn't know well when it's getting dark, is so attached to her boyfriend of ''six months'' that she completely shuts down and becomes suicidally irresponsible when he leaves her, spends about 90 percent of her internal monologue fixated on people's looks, breaks the law multiple times in regards to her activities with Jacob, routinely lies to her parents for any number of reasons (both valid and pointless), spends an ungodly amount of time complaining about ''everything'', plans a long car trip with a boy she barely knows who has treated her like crap since the day she met him (and lies to her father about it so if Edward tried anything he wouldn't know), strings along two boys because she "just can't choose," to the point of kissing and otherwise manipulating the ultimate loser, ''stomps her foot like a two-year-old'' when arguing with Jacob, etc.
43	** Bella is supposedly very well read but a lot of what she’s read is standard fare in high school literature classes. She brings up ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet '' a lot even though it’s read in ninth grade in the US. She (or perhaps Meyer) also completely misunderstands it as it’s a story about a romance but it’s not supposed to be romantic. The third book is “based” on ''Literature/WutheringHeights '' with Bella as the Cathy and Edward as Heathcliff with a similar misunderstanding. Heathcliff is a controlling asshole and their relationship is supposed to be very toxic. ''Wuthering Heights '' is typically read in high school British Literature. She also brings up liking Creator/JaneAusten who’s similarly high school literature class fodder.
44	** To an extent, the Volturi. The characters go on about how ruthless they are and that they have no tolerance for lawbreakers. However, every time the Cullens do something that breaks the law, the Volturi always go very easy on them.
45	** ''Breaking Dawn'' also describes the Volturi as selfish tyrants who use their powers and flimsy excuses to justify killing vampires and having ones they find useful press-ganged into their service. When the Volturi actually show up to verify that [[spoiler:Renesmee]] is not a threat, they're generally quite reasonable and listen to the Cullens' side of the story, [[spoiler:ultimately leaving in peace when it turns out Renesmee can grow up without revealing the existence of vampires to the world. Aro could quite easily lie about the evidence the Cullens present, as most of it comes from them allowing him to read their minds via his touch telepathy, which no one else can hear/see--so he doesn't ''have'' to admit their memories exonerate them, but he does anyway. (There are some ulterior motives in this, in that [[spoiler:Aro only decides to leave after Alice shows him a vision of the results of a Cullen vs. Volturi battle, which involves Bella and Edward ripping his head off and setting him on fire. However, this only happens in the film; in the book, no such vision happens, although per Stephenie Meyer that vision is more or less what Aro's thinking of when he decides to leave in the books, Bella just doesn't know that. Plus Bella's new powers neutralize most of the Volturi's heavy hitters, like Jane and Alec, so there's that.). Additionally, the laws the Volturi hold all vampires to are hardly unreasonable and mostly consist of "don't let humans find out about us" and "don't create murderous vampire children", laws which actually protect both vampires (safety from human-made advanced weaponry) and humans (safety from vampire empires where humans are cattle or slaves, as well as safety from being turned into eternal five-year-olds who are always in pain and cannot mature).
46	** Perhaps more of an informed trait, but Bella repeatedly informs us that Edward speaks like a turn-of-the-century novel. Assuming she means the turn from the 1800s to the 1900s, which would seem reasonable given that he is born in 1901, he still speaks quite normally for the time he's in – the mi-to-late 00's, when the books are taking place.
47	* Marguerite in ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel''. Readers are told at length how "brilliant" she is, and she is repeatedly referred to as "the cleverest woman in Europe" by her peers. In practice, however, while she doesn't seem excessively dumb, her intelligence rarely seems more than average. She is consistently taken in by the Pimpernel's ploys, and the audience is almost certain to guess his identity before she does [[spoiler:even though she lives with him.]] This is probably partly a product of the portrayal of women at the time (even though the author was also female) and more importantly a [[IdiotBall product of the suspense narrative]] -- since a lot of the drama would be lost if the narrator guessed things instantly. Regardless of the reasons, though, the descriptive passages tell that Marguerite has intellectual skills that she doesn't really demonstrate in the narrative.
48	** At least partially justified in that cleverness in an upper-class woman at the time was measured by her ability to make witty remarks and discuss things like literature, theatre, and poetry, rather than more active intelligence.
49	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
50	** Thrawn is a good example of ''why'' this happens. He's supposed to be a brilliant tactician, but most of those writing him aren't tactical experts, so they must either leave his abilities vague, show him outwitting the protagonist [[YouAreTooLate in nontactical ways,]] or give his opponents an IdiotBall. Later appearances rectify this. Even in his [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy original appearance]] it was a major plot point that his abilities were massively overblown in-universe: He ''was'' good, but looked much better simply because his predecessors had been complete jokes.
51	*** This comes up again with Thrawn's first live action appearance in the new canon in ''Series/Ahsoka''. The main conflict of the series revolves around different groups trying to either bring Thrawn back to their galaxy or prevent him from returning, and it is repeatedly stated that Thrawn returning would be catastrophic to the New Republic since his tactical expertise would allow him to unite this disorganized Imperial Remnant factions and make them pose a real threat. However, when he actually turns up, Thrawn doesn't actually ''do'' anything to justify this fearsome reputation or display any kind of uncommon tactical intelligence. He hampers Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra's attempts to stop the launch of the ''Chimaera'' with strategies so basic that they appear on this very wiki (see DelayingAction, WeHaveReserves and BeamSpam), and yet are still treated as genius maneuvers and marveled at by less tactically-inclined characters like Morgan Elsbeth. At the end of the day, Thrawn only really succeeds because he had a major head start over the heroes at the very simple task of transferring cargo to the ''Chimaera'' and docking with the ''Eye of Sion''. And even then, he fails to account for Ezra Bridger stowing away with him, and his use of WeHaveReserves is baffling since he and his crew have been in exile for a decade with no access to resources, meaning that he decidedly ''does not have reserves''.
52	** Also in ''Legends'', the [[GeneralFailure ruefully incapable]] [[Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy Admiral Daala]] applies. Immediately after being spoon-fed her [[FreudianExcuse elaborate background story]] as Grand Moff Tarkin's ingenious secret protegé kept down by [[StayInTheKitchen sexism,]] she arbitrarily loses ''three quarters'' of her fleet in a series of glorious defeats before even really starting her campaign. Sucks to be a villain in a universe where ''everybody'' has ContractualImmortality, it seems. Karen Traviss does a decent job of making her more effective in the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' series - although she gets herself ''unanimously elected as the leader of the free galaxy'' - but add her previous incompetence to her doing ''nothing'' for about thirty years and the net effect makes it even worse. Ultimately, the novel ''Literature/DeathStar'' had [[{{Retcon}} her suffer some minor brain damage in a Rebel attack]] as a means to explain what happened to her vaunted military capability. Her profile in ''The Essential Guide to Warfare'' would clarify her vaunted tactical abilities as too invested in EasyLogistics and a WeHaveReserves mentality that might have flown in the heyday of the Empire, but in a post-Endor galaxy were wildly out of place.
53	** Mon Mothma is described in the new canon expanded universe as an immensely charismatic and brilliant communicator able to create and maintain a complex and nuanced web of compromises that keep countless parties in the New Republic satisfied, so much so that without her the whole thing starts to fall apart. Naturally this is never actually demonstrated directly, only talked about in past tense.
54	* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars Thuvia, Maid of Mars]]'', you hear Cathoris declaiming on his inventions, which are marvellous. He never shows any mechanical aptitude on stage, or even any interest in machinery.
55	* In ''Hereticus'', part of the ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'' series, Glaw's daemonhost is supposed to be more powerful than Cherubael because of being less bound[[spoiler:, but Cherubael kicks its ass anyway, later making some comment about being quite nasty.]] Possibly justified in that power does not equal intelligence - and Cherubael is very ''very'' clever. [[spoiler:He might well have outsmarted Glaw's daemonhost]]. His track record [[spoiler:in ThePlan department]] is pretty impressive[[spoiler:, what with engineering the events of the first two books as a way to free himself from Quixos]].
56	* Nearly every major character in Dostoevsky's ''Literature/{{Demons}}'' is obsessed, to one degree or another, with Nikolai Stavrogin. Each one has had some sort of profoundly moving experience with him--all of which took place, not only before the events of the novel, but even outside the country--and he exerts a lasting, though in most cases unintended and unpredictable, influence over each of them. Yet almost nothing he's seen to do justifies why they hold him in such regard. This is Justified since Dostoevsky is trying to show how people draw attention and influence by projecting their notions on some "leader" or "ideologue".
57	* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': In the book, Richard A. Knaak wastes no opportunity to remind everyone that Vereesa Windrunner is an expert marksman and a powerful hero in her own right... but her grand contributions to the plot of any book she appears in is to lose her bow in chapter 1, get kidnapped, fall in love with Knaak's pet hero, and getting married to Rhonin. Just like her husband, she goes from being an adventurer to suddenly leading the largest faction of high elves (mages in her husband's case) without any explanation at all.
58	* ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'': Author Stieg Larsson repeatedly says that the hero AuthorAvatar Mikael Blomkvist is a wildly talented journalist and exceptional writer; the not-so-easily-impressed Lisbeth Salander is certainly taken with his prose, even before meeting him. This is generally a harmless case through most of the book, as Blomkvist shows real skill with public records and investigative techniques. However, the little bit of his prose seen is... not ''bad,'' exactly, but it's hardly very good.
59	* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'':
60	** Professor Moriarty is a huge example of this. Sherlock tells Watson (i.e., Doyle tells his readers) that Moriarty is the greatest criminal mastermind of all time, but you never get to see any masterminding. Furthermore, Holmes tells us about his cat and mouse game with the good Professor, but never shows or even explains either side of it, leaving everyone having to take his word for the brilliance on both sides. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of Holmes' mysteries were of a nature that no outside source could possibly care, be aware of, or benefit from, it makes Holmes' claims that Moriarty was behind nearly all the crimes he'd ever investigated look odd. [[GenericDoomsdayVillain He is a pretty paper thin archnemesis.]]
61	** The (non-Doyle-written) ''Literature/TheSevenPercentSolution'' takes this idea and runs with it, explaining that Moriarty is a perfectly harmless fellow (and Holmes' former math teacher), who Holmes merely perceives as a villain as a side effect of his cocaine addiction. In Michael Kurland's ''Murder by Gaslight'', Moriarty is technically a criminal but generally benevolent, and inconvenienced by Holmes's paranoid fantasies.
62	** In many ''adaptations'' Professor Moriarty has a stronger role -- he is a classic BreakoutVillain. Plus they can actually show him in person. Quite a few make him the GreaterScopeVillain behind other cases Holmes solved such as the [[Series/SherlockHolmes Granda series]] adaption of ''The Red Headed League'' where he masterminds Clay's scheme to rob the Bank of England.
63	** Moriarty [[ShortLivedBigImpact only appeared in a story and a short novel]] in all Holmesean canon, yet he managed to become the BreakoutVillain. [[SmallRoleBigImpact He only appears for a brief moment trying to stop the train that Holmes and Watson used to escape him,]] and for the rest of the story and the short novel he is TheGhost. Conan Doyle manages to justify why he cannot show any proof about Moriarty crimes: the real proof of Moriarty “masterminding” would be that not even the GreatDetective can pin him with any of his (alleged) crimes, and if Watson ever published something bad about him without real proof, he could demand compensation, and win, by a charge of MaliciousSlander, confirming him as a true DiabolicalMastermind and VillainWithGoodPublicity. In short; if his criminal genius wasn't an InformedAbility and was clearly demonstrable, he would cease to be a criminal genius. As Holmes puts it
64	-->"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the centre of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organized. Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed—the word is passed to the Professor, the matter is organized and carried out. The agent may be caught. In that case money is found for his bail or his defence. But the central power which uses the agent is never caught—never so much as suspected."
65	* In ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'', the reader is informed in every book that Claudia is a fantastic artist. This is something of a JustifiedTrope, however, since it's very difficult to show that in a literary format. Interestingly enough, spinoff series ''California Diaries'' actually had Amelia's drawings in the titular diaries, by Stieg Retlin. They're at about the quality of, well, a moderately popular artist on tumblr today.
66	* In the ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'' series, Elizabeth is said to be a brilliant writer and wants to become a journalist. Examples of her writing are almost never shown, and the few which do somehow make their way into the story are quite average.
67	* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/QueenOfTheBlackCoast", Belit and Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian are said to form a BrainsAndBrawn -- but all the brain seen from Belit is deciding to go somewhere, and Conan does most of the thinking that is done. Actually this is typical of most Conan stories by Howard and was most probably an intentional subversion of common pulp tropes: while strength, tenacity, and ferocity are what Conan (and, more generally, the Cimmerians) are famed for and what he builds his reputation on, most of his actual success stems from cunning, trickery, and quickly taking advantage of strokes of good luck. There is a running, sly implication in many of the novels that the whole "barbarian" thing presented to the reader is an intentional front to lead his enemies to expect savage assaults in daylight when what's coming is more like a knife in the dark.
68	* ''The Voice of Freedom'', prequel novel to the video game ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'', presents a particularly blatant example of this trope. Ben, the novel's protagonist, is described throughout the novel as a smart reporter whose talents were wasted on celebrities and pop culture before the US was invaded by an implausibly reunified Korea, and then as an inspiring public speaker after the invasion, using his rousing patriotic speeches to raise morale among Americans and infuriate the Koreans. The problem is that he is a terrible writer (coincidentally, so are the novel's two co-authors) and his "rousing speeches" on the radio are vacuous crap. Seriously, one of them ends with him shouting "Hell yeah!" repeatedly. Um... yeah...
69	* This Creator/DorothyParker quote comes from her review of a largely forgotten novel called ''Debonair'' by G. B. Stern. The title "debonair" supposedly refers to the "charming" lead character, whose debonair charm seems to consist solely of speaking in a cutesy accent
70	-->''“I have yet to have an author inform me that a character is charming, and then, by that character’s deeds and conversation, convince me of that fact.”''\
71	'''Dorothy Parker''', "These Much Too Charming People"
72	** As Parker continues:
73	-->'' "Debonair" may be her lover's word for her, but "God-awful" will ever be her nickname with me.''
74	** A later review by Parker calls out Creator/JackKerouac's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subterraneans The Subterraneans]]'' for the same offence:
75	-->''The Subterraneans are "hip without being slick, they are intelligent without being corny, they are intellectual as hell and know about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound Pound]] without being pretentious or talking too much about it, they are very quiet, they are very Christlike." So those are the Subterraneans. The only point in the summary with which I can agree is that they are hip; or, as Grandma used to say, hep.''
76	* Ivy, protagonist of ''TheMagiciansAndMrsQuent'', is repeatedly said to be "quite intelligent", but she asks a lot of stupid questions, is slow on the uptake, and never does anything especially smart.
77	* While the eponymous character of ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' is supposed to have amazing "Magykal" abilities, they do not quite show up anywhere.
78	* Played as an important plot point in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' series book ''Blood Rites'', [[spoiler:where Lord Raith, the patriarch of the White Court sex vampire clan, is supposed to be impossibly powerful due to the irresistible desire he arouses in his victims, whom he feeds on. This ability is never shown in the book, however, and through a series of clues Harry cottons onto the fact that Raith had his vampiric powers sealed decades ago by a curse.]]
79	* The Career tributes were trained since birth to compete in ''Literature/TheHungerGames''. Despite this, none of them know how to treat wasp stings. They also form risky alliances with people they don't have anything to gain from, use weapons they're not competent with, and decide that flushing Katniss out of a tree with fire is not as good an idea as [[TooDumbToLive just sitting under it and waiting for her to do something]]. However, this is also a case of CripplingOverspecialization--they're trained to ''fight other contestants'' to the point of ignoring everything else, and can't survive without a steady stream of supplies.
80	* An unusual example in ''Literature/{{Shogun}}''. Toranaga is repeatedly stated to be a military genius and an amazing battle commander who has never lost a battle in his life, yet the reader never actually sees him leading in a battle, and the moments when he's seen planning a campaign are very brief and not particularly detailed (possibly because the author was not an expert on samurai warfare strategies). However, because there are many, ''many'' examples of his [[MagnificentBastard absolute brilliance]] in political [[TheChessmaster chessmastery]] and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]], there's really no reason to doubt the people who say he's a great general, so he gets away with it better than most examples on this page.
81	* ''Literature/{{GONE}}'' series:
82	** Astrid Ellison is supposedly the smartest character in the entire series (earning her the title "Astrid the genius"), and while she isn't dumb and can quote various classical authors when the occasion demands it, some of her actions are ''painfully'' inept, illogical and can make you wonder whether she thinks at all. It seems to be that in the series, knowledge is not wisdom, and while Astrid is a genius in the former, she totally lacks the latter.
83	** Lance is apparently absolutely perfect (according to Zil); well loved, talented, smart, handsome, strong, funny, kind hearted, modest...Book 4 protests when no one cares or even reacts to his death, even his current best friend, and his actions are proven to lack smarts nor kindness.
84	* From ''LARP: The Battle for Verona'': the entire US military. It's painfully obvious the author has only a rudimentary grasp of tactics and strategy, and what should have been a curbstomp battle never takes place for no good reason at all so that the main characters can go in and save the day instead.
85	* In ''Literature/FirebirdLackey'', you only ever hear of Ilya's martial prowess; he never has to demonstrate it. Fortunately, he manages to win with skills he had ample time to demonstrate, avoiding abuse and acting more injured than he is.
86	* Elistan in ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}''. It's told that he's great at motivating people and encouraging them, even able to convert Crysania from her skepticism to a fervent priestess of Paladine in one meeting. In practice, you're never actually shown any of this in any of his encounters with other people.
87	* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'':
88	** Anastasia Steele is supposed to be a brilliant college student studying English Literature, but she doesn't have her own laptop or even an email address and ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'' seems to be her only literary reference.
89	** Christian Grey is considered a wildly successful businessman who has made his billions through the invention of groundbreaking gadgetry. Besides the fact that he continuously ducks out of work to stalk or have sex with Ana, the things he's credited with inventing would have been invented by the time the books take place. There's also the continuous instances that he's charming and the best lover ever, which are contradicted by his less-than-classy behavior (for example, giving Ana a handjob at a family function or having sex with her in an elevator anyone could walk into), unsafe BDSM practices (among other things, he often doesn't give Ana a chance to use a safeword or gets upset with her if she does), and rather terrible "seductive" lines ("I don’t make love. I fuck… hard.") His narration for ''Grey'' does little to remedy this ("My body’s reaction is irritating. Maybe this will stop if I fetter, fuck, and flog her…and not necessarily in that order. Yeah. That’s what I need.", anyone?).
90	* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', the villain Be'lal in the third book is supposed to be a brilliant [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], skilled [[FourStarBadass general]], and MasterSwordsman. He only gets a chance to show off the latter before being killed off. Overlaps with WeHardlyKnewYe, as Be'lal gets built up impressively but only actually ''appears'' for a couple of pages. [[spoiler: Of course, later in the series Demandred- who has pretty much the exact same quirks but is several times more badass - is a very major villain, so the author may have just decided to do away with the redundant character early on]].
91	* Strangely retroactively enforced in ''Literature/HaloGlasslands''. The scientist Dr. Halsey is shown in most ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' fiction to be very smart, with many examples of her scientific knowledge (though admittedly with helpings of AndSomeOtherStuff, because it ''is'' future science, after all). However, ''Glasslands'' declares her to be not as smart as she's said to be, with Halsey herself reflecting that she had believed she was the smartest person alive simply because everyone else told her so. This seems to be mostly because [[DependingOnTheWriter the author really]] [[WriterOnBoard doesn't like Halsey]], as subsequent ''Halo'' media has mostly disregarded ''Glasslands''[='s=] interpretation of Halsey's intelligence.
92	* Tsuruhara Iori spends almost all of ''Literature/WarAndSnowflakes'' carrying a duffel bag full of her [[UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}} kendo]] practice gear, but she does not utilize any swordfighting skills during the course of the [[{{Novella}} novella]].
93	* ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' character Lilly is apparently a genius, which the insecure narrator constantly points out. However, her complete ''idiocy'' towards any even marginally social matter makes this difficult to believe. It's not even a case of GeniusDitz or AcademicAlphaBitch: she frequently resorts to childish bullying to achieve her goals, tells Mia nothing about a plan Lilly expects her to play a vital part in, and often attacks people for extremely petty reasons (condemning celebrities because they're physically attractive, cheats on her boyfriend in front of him, and [[spoiler:believing it was somehow Mia's fault when Lilly's boyfriend used her for sex]]).
94	* The Gladers from ''[[Literature/TheMazeRunner The Maze Runner Trilogy]]'' are picked for their intelligence from their childhood, though few of them actually show any real genius other than setting up a system of order in the Glade. The best real example is sort of roundabout, but Minho and Thomas coordinate battle tactics and formations on the fly during firefights despite never having used guns before. Otherwise, they're of average outlook and just above-average intelligence.
95	* In L. Neil Smith's ''The Probability Broach'' and sequels, Griswolds security service (brrr!) is consistently said to be scary, with no evident grounds.
96	* In Lee Correy's ''Manna'', a very leading-edge company recruits the narrator, purportedly for his all-around competence. The thing he's most competent at is misunderstanding what's going on and thereby providing occasions for exposition.
97	* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' has this with its main characters. Hazel and Gus are both said to be very mature, intellectual and deep yet they behave immaturely more often than not and their "deep" words and thoughts tend to be morbid and existentialist, but not particularly varied or profound. Could be intentional, though, if the author was going for teenagers thinking they are more mature and deep than they really are.
98	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''
99	** In-universe example: The eminent [[TheChessmaster politician]] Varys makes this long speech about how [[spoiler:Aegon]] has been trained in many arts, and how he'll be this wise, compassionate ruler. By this point we have already ''met'' [[spoiler:Aegon]] on-page, and he rapidly proves himself to be a hotheaded, naïvely sexist brat who mocks dead babies and throws tantrums at the age of ''15.'' Furthermore, while this is an in-universe example regarding [[spoiler:Aegon]], it's a normal example regarding ''Varys'', who's constantly described as a very astute man who knows everything about everyone. Either he doesn't know people as well as everyone keeps saying he does, or he has a massive blind spot when it comes to [[spoiler:Aegon]].
100	** Although Martin is very skilled at developing and analyzing his characters, he had a NeverLiveItDown moment with Gerald Dayne, i.e. "Darkstar", a character apparently intended to replicate Oberyn Martell's mystery, charm, and danger, but comes across as a whiny teenager who despite being shilled as "The most dangerous man in Dorne", has his largest accomplishment being attacking a pre-teen girl ''and botching it''.
101	** Martin described Littlefinger as being ''the'' most changed character from book to [[Series/GameOfThrones show]], comparing the show's sinister creep to "the harmless guy who's everyone's friend" in the books. While many might mistake him for being harmless due to his lack of obvious military power or breeding, there are few that think of him in friendly terms, and most [[PointOfView POVs]] show him to be perceived as "slightly creepy but useful". Indeed, a lot of characters ''immediately'' distrust him upon meeting, only to later inexplicably do a complete 180 on these views; in the first book Jaime openly says how Littlefinger is untrustworthy and would be a terrible choice for Hand of the King, but in the fourth book (after interacting with him exactly once over the course of several years) he suddenly thinks that Petyr would make a ''fantastic'' Hand.
102	** Roose Bolton prides himself on not being feared and instead blending into the background- apparently unaware of how much people find him unnerving and creepy. Even the incredibly trusting ''Ned'' thinks he's up to something. Much like Petyr it doesn't stop his superiors granting him massive amounts of power which he obviously uses to betray them.
103	* In ''[[Literature/ATaleOf The Beast Within]]'', the enchantress, Circe, is said to be compassionate and kind, making her the opposite of her three sisters. She's introduced dating the Prince, who is clearly a misogynist, and only curses him after he dumps her. She also only includes the servants in the curse because the Prince insults her and she wants to make him a little more miserable. She then proceeds to ignore the Prince (despite knowing how selfish he is) and makes no effort to follow his progress in breaking the curse. Because of this, she doesn't realize he was horrifically abusing his fiance [[spoiler:and drove the girl to attempted suicide]] until it's almost too late to help her and her family. At one point, she shows a degree of fondness for [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]] (the sea witch who was basically a mob boss who tricked merpeople with Faustian contracts and who, by Circe's own admittance, was at fault for her own misfortunes?). At the end of the story, when she sees Belle crying over the Beast's stabbed and bleeding body, she cries tears of sorrow and is angry with her sisters... for making ''Belle'' sad. She has absolutely no reaction at all to the fact that the man she used to love and wanted to reform is dead.
104	* In ''Literature/TheCuckoosCalling'', Ciara Porter is described by everyone as being stupid and bitchy. When Cormoran Strike actually meets her, she is perfectly friendly and open to him, seems to have genuinely seen Lula as a friend, and is shown to be rather literary (she quotes Oscar Wilde and mentions planning to go to college for a literature degree). Since a big part of the book is how the different witnesses and suspects describe one another depending on their relationships and personal views, this was likely intentional.
105	* In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' the title character is repeatedly referred to as being "noble" and "selfless". However, his actions in the book are consistently irresponsible and selfish. First, he tries to create a living creature. Then, when it doesn't turn out as expected he runs away and pretends it never happened, leaving the creature free to wreak havoc. When the creature comes looking for him and tries to make a deal, he reneges, which leads to even more deaths. When the creature kills a child just to throw the blame on an innocent girl (and torture Frankenstein), the doctor doesn't even attempt to testify in the proceedings or try to save her life, and she is ultimately found guilty and executed. Through it all, he denies any responsibility for the situation he created. Of course, the latter half of the book is basically one continuous mental breakdown for him, and he's also something of an UnreliableNarrator to begin with.
106	* ''Literature/TheThirdPoliceman'' plays this for comedy with the character of de Selby, regarded by the narrator and many others as one of the most important scientists and philosophers in history. His beliefs when we hear of them, though, are largely WordSaladPhilosophy at best and complete nonsense at worst: for some idea, he believes that all of existence is a collective hallucination[[note]]This is solipsism in a nutshell[[/note]], that night is caused by polluted black air and sleep an asphyxiation from breathing it in, and that the Earth is shaped like a sausage. Even the people who revere him acknowledge his "regrettable lapses", but still try to analyze his ideas and passionately argue their interpretations of his works. Naturally, the whole thing is meant as satire; the whole joke is that the culture of modernist philosophy is so up its ass that it'll uphold a guy like de Selby as a genius if he can word his gibberish in an interesting way.
107	* In the novel ''Literature/TheNameOfTheWind'', Denna constantly gets credited for being [[WomenAreWiser street smart, incredibly witty and is the only person who can always see through Kvothe's lies.]] In practise, though, her 'witty' quips can come off as pretentious and/or corny and her actions throughout the book are mostly snarking at Kvothe but failing to provide better alternatives to what he's currently doing. She also accidentally poisoned herself because she stuck a random substance she found in an abandoned house in her mouth, which turned out to be toxic, forcing Kvothe to drop everything he's doing to spend an entire night making Denna eat charcoal to soak up the poison. Granted, Kvothe is in love with her and the one telling the story, so he's bound to be rather biased, but while Bast points out she isn't as beautiful as Kvothe says, nobody mentions Denna is also nowhere near as ''smart'' as Kvothe says either.
108	* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Kepabar is described as a good friend of Bazil and a squad prankster known for his jokes and funny monologues, but he shares exactly one scene with the eponymous hero [[spoiler:prior to his death]] and what he has to say it not really humorous (unless someone finds him complaining about food hilarious).
109	* ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland'': Assassins are said to be very skilled killers, but also very easy [[AssassinOutclassin for heroes to kill]], probably because of PlotArmor.
110	* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': The mice are [[InsistentTerminology consistently described as hyper-intelligent]], yet they failed to prevent the destruction of the computer they commissioned the Earth despite the demolition orders having been on display at the planning department in Alpha Centauri, did not notice the Golgafrinchans ruining the program and are easily tricked by phony philosophers and a forged Ultimate Question.

Context InformedAbility / Literature