Basic Trope: A character asks the questions the audience would ask.
- Straight: Alice is unfamiliar with Bob's nemesis. She asks Bob about it: he gives her Exposition on his nemesis.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice doesn't know anything at all about the world she is in and makes Bob explain every single little thing to her.
- Bob is such a tremendous Jerkass that he would go to jail under suspicion of having done the horrible murders he investigates if he didn't had Alice to remind him to show the police the evidence and it's connection to the suspect instead of going "you idiots can't see it!?"
- Downplayed: Most of the thing Alice asks about are things she already understands and simply needs clarification.
- Justified:
- Alice was brainwashed and is entirely unfamiliar with most things.
- The show just started, and Alice Jumped at the Call. She'd naturally want to know about what she and the audience are in for.
- Bob is notorious for telling people "You Didn't Ask". Alice knows this; so she uses simple, specific, and direct questions to get the relevant answers from him.
- Bob is essentially constantly Enraged by Idiocy and constantly seeing the world as composed of nothing but idiots. Alice has to keep telling him that, yes, everybody but him are idiots, so if he could please do that little thing called "explaining" to the marching idiots, maybe they could do their jobs with a little more enlightenment...?
- Inverted:
- Alice knows everything the audience doesn't know and never asks questions.
- Alice only asks questions the audience would already know the answer to.
- Subverted:
- Alice asks her question the audience is dying to know the answer of, but tells Bob "oh nevermind, I already figured out the answer", after which she asks no more questions.
- Alice would really like to know what the heck is going on, but Bob militantly keeps her Locked Out of the Loop.
- Double Subverted:
- After saying "Oh nevermind", Alice realizes she does not know or had the wrong answer, and goes back to her usual questioning.
- After dealing with Moriarty a few too many times, Bob reaches his Rage Breaking Point and rants about what the hell is going on and how he wishes to strangle Moriarty without knowing Alice is listening in.
- Parodied: Alice is a Motor Mouth asking question after question after question, not even bothering to listen to the answers.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is shunned and avoided by her peers for her constant, ceaseless questioning.
- Alice's need to ask these questions is because she suffers from Alzheimer's, and keeps forgetting info the others can all remember.
- Being treated as an ignorant idiot by her detective friend (and it's not just "well, you don't know what led me to figure this out, so I'll explain", it's literal "I consider you an idiot, I don't care about what opinions you may have because I consider you an idiot, and I keep you around because I need a reason to think aloud and I can't bother to remember when to eat") is not fun for Alice.
- Reconstructed: Alice takes care only to ask questions to which the answer is not immediately obvious.
- Averted: No character in the entire thing ever asks a question which would lead to Exposition.
- Enforced: The writers are told their story is too confusing, so they add in Alice to clear things up.
- Invoked: Bob specifically requests that Alice ask obvious questions as it helps him question his basic assumptions which in turn helps his performance.
- Lampshaded: "You always need me to explain what's happening, don't you Alice?"
- Defied:
- Alice absolutely refuses to ask questions for exposition. She will either figure it out on her own or remain forever in the dark.
- Alice makes clear that her partnership with Bob will not revolve around asking him for exposition. He can deliver exposition if he wants, and ask her for information he does not knows, but if he wants a chronicler for his adventures, hire Dan Brown.
- Played For Drama: Alice has tendencies towards violence, and threatens to kill people if the situation is not explained to her in a satisfactory manner.
Alice: So, what is this particular page for again?
