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alt title(s): Cabbaging; The Rick "All great science is done by teams. Bell, Crick, Holmes. They would be nothing without their Watsons."
"You are beautifully and perfectly balanced. In you sanity is personified. Do you realize what that means to me? When the criminal sets out to do a crime, his first effort is to deceive. Whom does he seek to deceive? The image in his mind is that of the normal man. There is probably no such thing actually - it is a mathematical abstraction. But you come as near to realizing it as is possible...how does this profit me? Simply in this way. As in a mirror I see reflected in your mind exactly what the criminal wishes me to believe. That is terrifically helpful and suggestive."
The Watson is the character whose job it is to ask the same questions the audience must be asking and let other characters explain what's going on. Distinct from Mr Exposition in that The Watson is The Storyteller archetype, and often allows another character to become Mr Exposition within the story's context.
Generally, female variants of The Watson will have a bit more character development and a larger role within the story (but not too much larger). She will be inevitably attractive, serving a dual role — giving the children someone to like and the adults someone to tune in for. She commonly has something of a Damsel Scrappy about her, although you don't usually end up wishing for her death. She will have a far higher probability of being captured or kidnapped by the opposition than the male variants do.
Children have it easier. The Elephants Child is a popular device, and may even force Mr Exposition into that role.
Playing The Watson is also referred to as cabbaging, since this role could be played by a head of cabbage.
Science fiction fans may know this character as The Sarah Jane, after (arguably) the most popular of the many companions who had things explained to them on Doctor Who. In fact, actress Louise Jameson, who played one of the Doctor's companions, explained her decision to leave after a relatively short tenure as being motivated by the fact that, "There are only so many ways you can say 'What is it, Doctor?'"
On occasions, you get The Watson being cleverer than Mr Exposition, which results in some problems, but occasionally works.
Often in fantasy settings, The Watson is the character with more "real world" sensibilities (Sometimes because he's been transplanted from the real world: John Crichton ( Farscape) often got to act as The Watson in early episodes, for example), prompting Mr Exposition to explain the "rules" of the fantasy world.
In parody, it is becoming increasingly common for The Watson to be a character who isn't genre blind to the sillier tropes, often making Mr Exposition look like something of a buffoon (as in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, where Scott Evil asks why his father doesn't just shoot Austin, instead preferring to put him in an easily escapable Death Trap). See Genre Savvy.
See also The Daria, who makes similar observations but is less inclined to assist afterwards. Not to be confused with The Ishmael - if you were looking for a trope where the viewpoint character is intentionally distanced from the protagonist, click there.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- We rarely ever get a first-person perspective on Akagi's thoughts - as the point of view is mainly given to Yasuoka (Oddly enough a detective), who observes and attempts to decrypt Akagi's genius from the sidelines.
- In Death Note, Ryuk, a shinigami, often acts as The Watson to Light's plans. That is, when he's not just standing behind Light silently chuckling. Or standing on his head.
- Touta Matsuda in the same series is used as The Watson for the police side of events, mainly due to his being a male version of The Ditz.
- Manta Oyamada in Shaman King acts as The Watson to Yoh Asakura, being the narrator but not The Hero.
- Hiyono in Spiral tends to get dropped into this role, and if she isn't, Kousuke is. Hiyo-Hiyo is reasonably clever, and Kou-chan even more so, but that doesn't say much when the entire main cast is made up of child prodigies.
- Rick Wheeler/Ryu Suzaku in F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu. (You know this show as the source of "FALCON PUUUUUUUNCH!!!")
- Normally inteligent Chachamaru in Mahou Sensei Negima was always and entirely uninformed of any fighting style during the Mahora Tournament. Giving us Explainer Goutokuji for this portion of the series. Normally Asuna, Nodoka, Konoka, and Chisame serve this purpose. Yue bounces between this and Mr Exposition depending on where in the series you are. When it comes to fighting Negi takes this role, giving the big Exposition talk to Kaede (Ninja), Ku Fei (Kung Fu Master), Kotaro (Dog Demon Brawler Ninja), or Evangaline (Really Old Vampire).
- Despite being from the same magical world as everyone else, Gourry from Slayers was enough of an idiot to have to ask questions about what the other characters would consider basic, everyday facts, giving them a reason to explain the rules and mythology of their world.
- Though it should be noted that the other characters consist of a professional and incredibly well-studied sorceress, a princess who is herself a sorceress (albeit of white magic), an ancient demon, and a sorcerer who also happens to have originally been on extremely good terms (thanks to the whole blood relation thing) with someone considered one of the wisest men in the whole world. What's "basic, everyday facts" to them may not be the same to someone who hasn't spent years studying occultic lore and pouring over magic grimoires.
- The titular character of Naruto frequently had to play this role early on, being a shining example of Book Dumb. It's almost mystifying that ten episodes in you'll probably know more about the geography, Functional Magic, and infrastructure of the story's world than he did when he graduated.
- Akari from ARIA has some of this. Alicia could have picked a local girl for an apprentice, but instead she chose someone who needs a lot of explanations about the planet she moved to—which then of course raises the question why Akari didn't read a travel guide beforehand.
Comic Books
- That's the reason why first Alfred and then Robin were invented. :rolls eyes:
- Rick Jones of various Marvel Comics sidekick roles. Though sometimes his leading Hero would be the Sherlock, sometimes various experts would be the Sherlock, but most commonly after getting captured, Mr Exposition would be the one who was supposed to be interrogating him.
- Crispus Allen plays the Watson in the early issues of Gotham Central, and occasionally later on. As a transferred officer from Metropolis, Allen did not have extensive experience with the "freaks" (supervillains) of Gotham City, so other characters would explain their means and methods to him, simultaneously infoming the audience as well. This particular facet of his character was dropped after a few issues, when he already had his own personal experiences with the rogues of the city, but he would later serve as the Watson on more complex issues when characters needed to highlight personal and societal points about Gotham City itself, such as the reason why Batman is important to Gotham for more than just the crimes he stops.
Film
Literature
- The trope namer is Dr. John Watson, the narrator from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, who would often ask the title character to explain his baffling logical leaps. Holmes would then lecture him on how "elementary" the logic used in solving the case was, thus allowing Holmes to explain the finer points of the story without disrupting the narrative flow.
- In the stories, and the better adaptations, the deductions in question had the manner of a magic trick and Watson would make logical steps towards the solution, then agree that it was rather obvious when he knew the answer. In the poorer adaptations, he is depicted as a clueless dogsbody and the device is much more tedious.
- A hilarious subversion was when Watson proved he'd learned enough to make deductions about Sherlock Holmes himself! Double-subverted, in that he was wrong on every single count!
- However he does improve considerably throughout the Canon and can make observations about their clients and cases, leading Holmes to compliment him on his reasoning even when Watson draws the wrong conclusions.
- Not to mention the fact that Watson saves Holmes's life plenty of times.
- Watson's medical knowledge has also come in handy in saving other peoples' lives, such as the titular character from The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, or in confirming some of Holmes's suspicions, such as in The Adventure of Silver Blaze. In some of the pastiches written by Barrie Roberts, Watson also provides post-mortem examinations, which provide Holmes with additional clues.
- There are also occasions, both in the Canon and in pastiches, where Watson will occasionally say something that points Holmes in the right direction and gives him the final crucial insights he needs. Holmes himself has stated that while Watson himself isn't especially luminous, he conducts that luminosity extremely well.
- In Stephen King's Holmes homage "The Doctor's Case", Watson gets a sudden insight that allows him to crack the case by himself; he still needs a little help from Holmes in putting his deductive leap into terms that Inspector Lestrade can understand.
- Played straight, subverted, inverted, and lampshaded in Nicholas Meyer's non-canon Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven Percent Solution; where it is Watson's medical deductions that diagnose the mental disturbances caused by Holmes's cocaine addiction. Watson's awareness of his own role as Holmes's sidekick also provides him the ability to create the false trail, with the help of Sherlock's brother Mycroft, that leads him to Dr. Freud in Vienna; effectively manipulating Holmes without giving away the ruse through inadvertent slips or incongruities. Sherlock himself plays The Watson to Dr. Sigmund Freud, during Dr. Freud's treatment of his cocaine addiction.
- Captain Hastings in several of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories, on the other hand, was most definitely The Watson - in fact, he resembled the flanderized Watson more than the original Watson did.
- Dr. Sheppard fulfils this role in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when Poirot is on a Busmans Holiday. However, turns out he's the killer
- Most stories about a Utopia, particularly those written before the mid-twentieth century, tend to feature a lead character who is a Watson combined with a Naive Newcomer. The plot generally consisted of the Watson being led around the utopia asking questions about how it works. The Exposition Fairy who lived in the utopia would then explain how the utopia worked in exhaustive detail. Really poorly thought out utopian novels did not combine this trope with the Naive Newcomer and hence had the Exposition Fairy tell The Watson things they already knew for no apparent reason. Generally declined in usage after modern exposition techniques, (ie "Show, Don't Tell") were developed. Examples include Julian West from Looking Backwardby Edward Bellamy, Guest from News from Nowhere by William Morrison, and the Botanist from A Modern Utopia by H. G. Wells. An example of a Watson who isn't combined with the Naive Newcomer is Alice from Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback.
- Slightly subverted in The Twenty-One Balloons, where the Naive Newcomer only needed the weirdest elements of the utopia explained to him.
- In the Aubrey-Maturin series, Stephen Maturin acts as a Watson in all matters nautical, conveniently (for the reader) refusing to learn to tell one sail from another however long he lives on a ship.
- The narrator of Das Boot acts as both Watson and Mr Exposition. He's on board as a journalist, thus it's his job to be inquisitive about everything, and pass on his knowledge. He has naval experience on surface ships but this is his first voyage on a submarine. The crew and officers sometimes pause to explain what they're doing to him but he often has to figure it out by observation.
- In Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, Adso (the narrator) is the assistant of a Medieval detective named William of Baskerville, and inquires into the latter's deduction methods as the reader would. Unsurprisingly, both characters were inspired by Watson and Sherlock Holmes.
- In The Thrawn Trilogy Captain Pellaeon serves as the villainous (somewhat) Watson to Grand Admiral Thrawn. He's also the best possible versions of Commander Contrarian and The Ishmael and, arguably, a protege.
- Definitely a protege. In the later duology, he may not reach Thrawn-levels of skill, but his tactical sense and intuition have clearly been honed.
- Interestingly enough, official artwork shows that he actually ''looks''
 ◊ kind of like Watson— or at least the Watson played by Edward Hardwicke. Which rather fits as easy to imagine Jeremy Brett with blue skin and glowing red eyes as Thrawn.
- Eragon is always asking questions, to the point where a description of him one character gives to another includes "always asking questions".
- Ron in Harry Potter was constantly making suggestions, forcing Hermione to sigh and explain that, if only he'd read Hogwarts: A History, he'd understand why it's impossible to... Rowling said she would never have Harry or Ron read Hogwarts: A History because it was too useful an expository device.
- Harry is just as much of a Watson as Ron, albeit one who serves a different purpose. Having grown up with Muggles, there's a lot he doesn't know that people who grew up in the wizarding world would take for granted (Quidditch? What's that, some kind of illness?). Ironically, it's often Ron who gets to be Mr. Exposition in those situations, since unlike Hermione, he grew up in the wizarding world, and is therefore the only one of the main trio to have that sort of knowledge.
- Tom Swift generally has one of these on hand. In the "Tom Swift, Jr." series of books published in the 1950s, it was Bud Barclay. The Recycled INSPACE! series which followed in the early 1980s had Benjamin Franklin Walking Eagle. One Continuity Reboot later, The Watson was Rick "test to destruction!" Cantwell.
Live Action TV
- In Magnum PI, Magnum had an annoying friend named Rick. His function in the series was to serve as a sort of surrogate for the audience on the more outrageous story points. He was always protesting, "C'mon, Magnum..." as in, "C'mon, Magnum, there's no way those crooks would trust us with $7 million in gold coins. It's ludicrous." (And this is exactly what the audience was thinking at that point.) Magnum would then calmly explain to Rick just exactly why the crooks would, indeed, hand over $7 million in gold. Rick would be convinced, and in theory, the audience protests would have been addressed as well.
- This trope was, it should be noted, once named The Rick.
- The classic (1963-1989) series of Doctor Who featured countless characters that filled this role. The female companions evolved as the series went on, tending more towards the Action Girl; the last before the series was cancelled was Ace, a punk-rock teen who loved explosives and was willing to rush at a Dalek with a baseball bat if she saw one.
- In one ep (just after he's 'lost' another one), the Doctor starts babbling to thin air, and then stops cause he realizes no ones listening.
- Gwen gets to fill this role on Torchwood.
- Funnily enough, Sarah Jane herself gets her own Watsons The Sarah Jane Adventures; in the form of Maria, Luke and Clyde. Though in this show it's the boys, and not Maria, who tend to get captured more often... though they are still savvy enough to get themselves out of it too.
- In the newer episodes of Doctor Who, the Doctor himself is often The Watson, asking the natives of whatever time and place he's landed in what's going on and why they're doing what they're doing.
- On House MD the role of House's Watson is played by every single character. One memorable example had House saying his staff's diagnosis was wrong, because they weren't wearing the right shoes — if the diagnosis was right, they'd all already be at a bowling alley.
- Of course, since Gregory House is heavily based on Sherlock Holmes, James Wilson is the main analogue to John Watson.
- Wilson is an accomplished doctor in his own right and Watson, while not a genius like Sherlock, is still good at his job. As noted above, the fact that House (and Sherlock) are both incredibly good at what they do makes Wilson (and Watson) look like morons, even when they're not.
- Every single character in every single episode of every single CSI can be the Watson. They find some rash or bacteria or wound or something on the corpse and then go on explaining what that means to the nearest character. Since that character is supposed to know that stuff as well, the whole dialogue turns into a circus of finishing sentences for the other character.
- In Grissom's last episode, Nick compares himself to Watson to Grissom's Holmes. Grissom reminds him that Watson was a genius in his own right.
- That was Hodges, not Nick.
- The ditzy lab assistant in the Monty Python "Science Fiction Sketch" is very much a parody of the type; she exists simply to look pretty and have Graham Chapman's character explain the plot to her. He eventually becomes so frustrated with her stupidity that he knocks her out and explains the plot to himself instead.
- Gus from Psych, one of the few characters in on the Masquerade, whose fair intelligence and relative lack of observancy make him just short of an Expy of Watson himself.
- In Red Dwarf, the Cat, Lister and Rimmer tend to share Watson duties, with Holly and Krtyen acting as Mr Exposition.
- In Lost, it's Hurley. Officially; it was lampshaded by the executive producers in a podcast.
- Clark Kent from Smallville fits this in that he's usually the one giving Chloe an opportunity to rattle off a short explanation of whatever clever trick she came up with. (That is, in the good old times when Chloe was allowed to come up with clever stuff.) Bonus points if Clark wears his Big Dumb Alien(TM) expression to complete the clichee of Watson being a bit slow.
- Applies to Maddy, Carla and now Joey in Jonathan Creek.
- Whenever somebody explains something about how the Stargates function in Stargate Universe, they're explaining it to Eli. He's arguably more intelligent than most of the people explaining stuff to him, but by far the least experienced of the bunch.
- Illya Kuryakin played The Watson at the climax of the third season The Man From UNCLE episode "The Five Daughters Affair, Part II":
[THRUSH operative Randolph, having gotten Dr. Simon True's seawater-to-gold extraction formula away from U.N.C.L.E., is gloating before Solo and Kuryakin]
Randolph: Imagine, tons of gold, tons! Pouring into our storage vats. [Kuryakin raises his hand] Yes?
Illya Kuryakin: Won't this Midas-land master plan defeat its own object? With gold as plentiful as dust, won't it lose its value?
Randolph: We will control its rate of release, don't you worry.
Napoleon Solo: We won't.
Theatre
- Little Sally from the musical Urinetown is a parody of this.
Video Games
- The various Snakes of the Metal Gear Solid franchise seem to serve this role well, although the exact reason why is pretty obvious. The original idea behind the protagonist switch was that Snake would have someone to be The Watson for him instead of being The Watson himself, letting him come across as more astute and mature. (Hideo Kojima even cited inspiration from Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who for the idea.)
- In Final Fantasy X, the Player Character Tidus fakes amnesia so that he can play the Watson to the rest of the cast (he actually has a real reason for not knowing the the things he asks about, but it doesn't fly too well with the xenophobic people he hangs around with). Unfortunately in order to make sure that every player is keeping up with the plot, Tidus finds himself constantly bugging people for exposition, to the point where his friends aren't sure if he's actually amnesiac or just an idiot.
- To be fair, he does get a lot better once he figures out that the Final Summoning will kill Yuna, which is roughly midpoint.
- It gets to the point where Lulu starts explaining things before he even asks, leading him to comment that she's gotten so used to him asking questions that he barely needs to ask anymore.
- Word Of God has this as Dom's role in Gears Of War, to give the audience a voice without bringing players out of the experience as Marcus.
- Leonard, the main character of White Knight Chronicles (as opposed to your avatar who represents you, but has little story relevance). The other characters start Lampshading it early on, with a random chatter once the game proper kicks off involving two characters remarking on how bizarre it is that Leonard knows nothing about Bigelows — who form the backbone of communication in The Verse, with their flight and ability to transmit images and voice between a pair allowing them to act as the setting equivalent to e-mail.
Web Comics
- In the webcomic Erfworld, the character Parson acts as both The Watson inside the narrative and Mr Exposition through a diary.
- Order Of The Stick has a procession of short-lived hobgoblin cleric assistants that can cast Transmute Redcloak to Mr Exposition at will.
- Qarr the imp has become The Watson to the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission.
- MSF High: This is Donovan's role. Fortunately, he is also The Hero in training.
- As pointed out in Hark, a Vagrant!, Dr Watson does seem to get unfairly flanderized in most portrayals outside of the original Sherlock Holmes novels.
Western Animation
- The entire premise of Futurama is Fry ending up in situations that need to be explained to him because of the thousand years that went by without him. Holy crap, there's a theme park on the moon!? Hilariously, on multiple occasions a new character will be thawed out (Fry's ex-girlfriend and That Guy from The Eighties) and become Fry's Watson, which not only demonstrates his considerable ability to acclimatise (read: there's still TV and beer, so he's just dandy), but also gives him a chance to show how little he retains of what he's learned.
- Any human in Transformers ever.
Real Life
- Mike Rowe of the documentary series Dirty Jobs is a professional Watson, learning the ropes of his latest dirty job from his bemused temporary co-workers.
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