History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / Literature

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has had several major cases of this. In ''Literature/DeadBeat'', 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 ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'' 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.]]

** 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.

** The FinalBattle is probably the most jarring example, as there was a lot of action going on with many characters involved. [[spoiler: Even the part where Ron and Hermione break into the Chamber of Secrets and destroy a Horcrux with a Basilisk fang happens offscreen.]] In the other books, the characters involved in the action were usually the trio if at all, or an extended group which Harry was a part of.

** 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 [[TheMole a mole]] 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".

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

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

** 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]].

** 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/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.

* ''Literature/TreasureISland'': In a flashback, Captain Flint goes ashore with six crew members (all of them hardened pirates) to bury his treasure; later he comes back on board alone, having singlehandedly killed them all.

* 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.