"Sherlock, House, Luther — what did they all have in common? They only have a single friend in the world in which to confide, an intellectually inferior man Friday who serves as a dumb, kindly foil to their cutting ingenuity."
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.
Kid sidekicks have it easier. Constantly Curious is a popular device, and may even force Mr. Exposition into that role. An Idiot Hero (or at least a Book Dumb character) is also a common target.
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 another 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. However, another popular interpretation (especially common in Flanderizations of the Trope Namer) is to play up the Watson's constant need to question everyone else into comedic stupidity or thickness, making the Watson also a Comic Relief. This version is usually male.
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; other times they're an everyman among a group of specialised professionals), 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).
Aside from serving as an Audience Surrogate, the Watson can also play an important but often overlooked role in the story itself. As many of the examples show, the Watson's comments and actions often help the detective in figuring out the mystery. While the Watson may not be able to solve the cases himself, he often gives the detective the final crucial insights that point him in the right direction. They are also often a doctor, to give them a valuable skill that won't show up in the hero.
See also The Snark Knight, who makes similar observations but is much less inclined to assist afterwards. Also see Naïve Newcomer and Little Jimmy.
Sometimes The Watson will overlap with First-Person Peripheral Narrator, which is when the story is narrated by someone other than the main character of the story.
In video games, The Watson may give the game an excuse to provide a tutorial, whether the Player Character is an Experienced Protagonist showing them the ropes, or is The Watson.
This may lead to As You Know if the Watson character is supposed to know about the info already (so it only serves as an exposition to the audience).
Has nothing to do with the Jeopardy!-winning IBM supercomputer of the same name, awesome as it is. Except that they both usually speak in the form of a question.
Examples:
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Anime & 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.
- Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue: Kurashina, who has dreamt for years of flying, enrolled at a school where everyone has flying shoes, yet has never heard of them before. She's even wearing a pair. This is graduate-level cluelessness, so everything gets explained to the audience through her.
- 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.
- During the Ishigaki arc in Asteroid in Love, Tomori's complete ignorance in astronomy during an astronomy summer camp serves a storytelling purpose: as Mira, Ao and Shiho are expected to know some of the astronomical concepts that appear in Shining Star Challenge, Tomoro's existence gives an in-universe justification for expositions for the viewers' benefit.
- In Bakuman。, Takagi served this role in the first volume, asking Mashiro about how the manga industry worked (Mashiro happened to have a mangaka uncle). Later on, Miyoshi filled this role as the characters became more familiar with the industry.
- Case Closed:
- Depending on the case, and which characters are present at the time, any number of characters will play Watson to Conan's Holmes... Ai, the Detective Boys, Ran, the cops, Eri, Jodie, etc. Conan pretends to be The Watson to Kogoro (the only professional detective in the series), even though he is invariably the one solving his cases for him.
- On the evil side, Vodka plays Watson to Gin. Since Gin is both smarter and higher-ranked than his partner, he often has to explain his plans and the Organization's to Vodka and thereby the audience.
- 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.
- Amnesia!Light and Watari are also this to L, being just different ages in Watson.
- In Dr. STONE, the stone world villagers Science Hero Senkuu meet all play this role to varying degrees when he starts talking about the things he wants to accomplish by bringing technology back to the world. Of these characters, Chrome has the most knowledge ahead of time because of his own experiments but still needs the more advanced principles and applications of science explained to him.
- Rick Wheeler in F-Zero: GP Legend. (You know this show as the one that Ascended "FALCON PUUUUUUUNCH!!!")
- Jigen serves this role to Lupin during Lupin III: Dead or Alive. It's as if Jigen was waiting until the two are actually trying to steal the national treasury before he learned what was going on. Considering his laid-back personality, that may be exactly what happened.
- Subverted in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love. As far as Father knows, Imuri is a normal human who has no real grasp of what the demons of Gehenna are like beyond the stories of them. So he explains the powers and personalities of the Demon Lords in great depth to give her an idea of how much danger she is in. But as a demon of Hell commanded by Satan himself, Imuri is well-acquainted with all of this information but feigns ignorance to keep her cover.
- Despite the actual John H. Watson being in Moriarty the Patriot, Louis serves this role for Professor Moriarty, as Watson's Evil Counterpart...of sorts.
- Roji tends to play this role in Muhyo and Roji, often about the workings of magical law or Muhyo's past. Other times, the clients ask the questions.
- 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. note
- Normally intelligent Chachamaru in Negima! Magister Negi Magi 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).
- Stephanie Dora from No Game No Life assists the audience in understanding Sora and Shiro's complicated game strategies. She actually has an at least average intellect but appears rather dumb in comparison to 『 』.
- Mahiro Yasaka from Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! gets to play an odd combination of Watson and Mr. Exposition thanks to his unique position in the story. As an Ordinary High-School Student, he needs explanations about the aliens he and Nyarko encounter; however, as a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos, he can exposit a little about what said alien is within the context of Lovecraft's works once Nyarko has given him a name to work with.
- Nonoha in Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God serves this role as the rest of the main cast are puzzle-solving geniuses, so she gets to stand in for the audience and ask any questions needed about the various puzzles they are confronted with.
- The Promised Neverland has three protagonists, Norman, Ray and Emma. The latter is usually the one who has to be explained the plans the first two come up with to prepare their escape from their People Farm. She's supposed to be one of the smartest kids in the orphanage, but is still a bit behind the other two when it comes to analysis power.
- Manta Oyamada in Shaman King acts as The Watson to Yoh Asakura, being the narrator but not The Hero.
- Slayers:
- Despite being from the same magical world as everyone else, Gourry 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.
- In the original Light Novels the anime is based off of, protagonist Lina herself is the narrator and Gourry, while still uninformed, is no where near as idiotic.
- 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.
- Elsee in The World God Only Knows is often asking why Keima is doing what he is doing. The explanations, however, are not always comprehensible (and are often funny because of that).
- Kotori Mizuki of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL is this in regards to the card game.
- Kuwabara from YuYu Hakusho is the guy who asks the questions so that Hiei and Kurama can avoid having to use As You Know when being Mr. Exposition. When he got Put on a Bus in the final season to pursue a higher education, the anime attempted to spread this role out amongst the other characters; it didn't work out too well.
Comic Books
- In early issues of All-Star Western, Dr. Arkham serves this role for Jonah Hex, being the naive outsider to whom Hex explains the realities of the Old West. Also subverted in that Hex hates both Arkham and having to work with him.
- In Baker Street, medical student Susan Pendergast moves into Sharon Ford's Baker Street digs: receiving free room and board in exchange for light housekeeping and paperwork duties. However, she soon finds herself drawn into Sharon's investigations, becoming the Watson to Sharon's Great Detective.
- Batman: Robin and to a lesser extent Alfrend tend to play this role to Batman. This is even part of the reason Robin was created. According to Robin's creator Bill Finger:
Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be.
- In Doctor Strange: The Oath, Night Nurse is along for the adventure at her own insistence (Strange has been wounded and she is a physician). Strange's assistant Wong is also present as a sort of minor Holmes/experienced Watson, answering some questions and asking others.
- 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.
- 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.
- Spider-Man: Once she learned his secret identity, Peter Parker's wife, Mary Jane Watson occasionally served this role for him, asking him things about the superhero business. One of the best examples of her being used in this fashion was in the story Hobgoblin Lives! where Peter had to fill her in on the background for the story (since the stories it happened in were written years ago) and she asked the simple question that led to a plot breakthrough. And yes, we are aware the Incredibly Lame Stealth Pun at work here.
- Ultimate X-Men: In Mark Millar's run, Iceman, being a not-very-bright teenager, serves the role by asking questions like "who is this Wolverine guy, and why are we supposed to be scared of him?" and "Who are the Welsh?"
- Usagi Yojimbo: Inspector Nii sometimes serves as this to Ishida, who needs to explain the situation. Other times he explains if to Usagi or a superior.
- In Marvel's comedic spoof, What... Huh?, one issue parodying X-Men has the Cyclops-expy explain this as being Rimshot (Longshot expy)'s role in the team.
As the newest team-member, Rimshot has the right to ask stupid questions. At the very least, it gives him something to do.
Fan Works
- In Love Bites, Twilight Sparkle goes outside so little that she doesn't know about the annual Ponyville Days, allowing Rarity to explain it to both her and the readers.
- In Luminosity, Bella sets up some scientific experiments to prove that the Cullens are really vampires...and once she's convinced she's just fascinated with the fact that they exist and generally tries to learn more. About everything.
- The Mountain and the Wolf: Multiple characters function as this for the Wolf, mostly Tyrion and Akkarulf (formerly known as Theon Greyjoy) who explain various aspects of Westerosi history to him (to insult or look down on), and in turn allows the Wolf to explain what's going on to Akkarulf once they return to the Warhammer 'verse. Akkarulf in particular doesn't speak the Norsca language, so he can be used to get the Wolf to make it clear to the reader.
- In The Tainted Grimoire Luso, and to a lesser extent Hurdy, get things they don't know about explained to them by other characters.
- In the Tamers Forever Series, DC fills this role around Gabrielle during Silent Sorrow.
- Turnabout Storm: Phoenix plays this role everytime Equestria and its workings get involved or are discussed. As a character from a mostly realistic setting, he casts doubt on and asks the same things viewers unfamiliar with the Friendship is Magic series would.
- Vow of Nudity: Haara assumes this role when she teams up with Serris, a private detective and Guest-Star Party Member for a single story.
Films — Animation
- Word of God says that Wybie was added to the Coraline film adaptation because, unlike the book, a movie can only exposit through spoken words; they just didn't want Coraline to be wandering around talking to herself. It works both ways, since Wybie provides her with exposition about the house and the disappeared children.
- In Encanto, the trio of children who follow Mirabel around are young enough that they don't yet know who all the Madrigals are and what their "gifts" are (in this movie's universe, a "gift" is a magical ability granted to each Madrigal family member after they pass a ceremony), so Mirabel sings the "La Familia Madrigal" song to explain things to them, and thus to we the audience. The trio of children are also how we the audience discover that Mirabel's the only Madrigal family member without a gift, as Mirabel conspicuously leaves herself out of the song, causing the children to become curious and keeping asking her about her gift until finally Dolores has to explain to them that Mirabel didn't get one.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks, Both Aria and Sonata fit into this role, forcing Adagio to describe her plans in great details for the audience's sake, Sonata by being clueless and Aria by being skeptical.
Films — Live-Action
- In Amadeus, the priest to whom Salieri tells his story.
- Vittoria Vetra in the film adaptation of Angels & Demons. Thanks to editing for time constraints, it's pretty much all she's there for.
- Apollo 13: Jim Lovell's youngest son, Jeffrey, asks his father about his upcoming mission, i.e. how long it'll take to get to the moon and the function of the lunar module. Jim also explains what went wrong in the Apollo 1 disaster, briefly depicted in the beginning of the movie.
- Marty McFly fills this role from time to time in Back to the Future trilogy, so Doc can explain some of the time-travel mechanics.
- Massively subverted by Donnie in The Big Lebowski, who is utterly Locked Out of the Loop.
Forget it, Donnie, you're out of your element!
- Dr. Karen Jenson in the first Blade film. She's left out of the remaining series because there's no need for her anymore.
- In the Charlie Chan films, the detective's sons fill that role. For all their occasional goofiness as sidekicks, they are otherwise intelligent and brave young men, who are actually portrayed by Asian actors.
- The narrator of Das Boot is a Naïve Newcomer who has naval experience on surface ships but this is his first voyage on a submarine. He's on board as a journalist, thus it's his job to be inquisitive about everything, and pass on his knowledge. He has the crew and officers sometimes pause to explain what they're doing to him but he often has to figure it out by observation.
- Dredd. Judge Cassandra Anderson plays this role, but the movie inverts the usual mechanic; rather than Anderson asking Judge Dredd questions, Dredd gives Anderson pop quizzes throughout the film as part of her assessment as a trainee Judge.
- Caleb from Ex Machina. He often asks the same kind of questions the audience is thinking of so that Nathan can provide the exposition.
- The Ex-Mrs. Bradford: Paula is the female variant that plays a bigger role than the usual Watson, but she asks most of the questions.
- Jacob Kowalski in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them serves this role, being a Muggle (or No-Maj, as they're called in America) and therefore needing to have various aspects of the magical world explained to him by the wizards he accompanies, especially those not previously explored in the Harry Potter films.
- In the movie Fantastic Voyage, and in the Isaac Asimov novelization, The Watson is secret agent and former combat swimmer Charles Grant. Asimov's version makes him a bit less of a dunce; on occasion, Grant can actually figure something out from his general knowledge of human anatomy, instead of needing the knowledge spoonfed to him.
- In the DVD commentary for Ghostbusters (1984), Ivan Reitman says the character of Winston Zeddmore was intended to serve this purpose.
- John Myers in the first Hellboy movie, especially since no such character exists in the comics.
- Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October plays The Watson for all the submarine action, letting the boat captains play Mr. Exposition. Similarly, Seaman Beaumont plays The Watson for sonar terms, letting Sonar Technician Jones explain everything.
- Ariadne in Inception. She asks the questions about inception and extraction that the viewer would be asking. Saito is also this to some extent, at least in the beginning of the film.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Thor's Darcy asks genius astrophysicists Jane and Erik to translate their Technobabble.
- A role enthusiastically taken up by Captain America, who has no scientific background and hasn't seen technology since the forties, in The Avengers for Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, who use their scientific expertise to hunt down the Big Bad.
- Scott Lang more explicitly takes on this role in Avengers: Endgame, due to him having been trapped in the quantum realm for five years/five hours, and hence needing to be brought up-to-date by the rest of the team on what happened since he was trapped.
- Men in Black:
- James Edwards/Jay in Men in Black, who's new to the MiB organization.
- In the second film, Kay fulfilled this role, having had his memory wiped and thereby needing reminding about the various duties and technologies of MIB.
- Deputy Miller in No Name on the Bullet, who doesn't know who John Gant is and how he operates, causing the Sheriff and Sid to explain it to him (and the audience).
- Sherlock Holmes:
- Averted by Watson from Sherlock Holmes (2009). He is less Watson-y than Watsons from almost any other adaptation and shows intuitive and deductive skills which he picked up from his time working with Holmes. This is truer to the original Watson: a skilled and intelligent medical practitioner, decorated war veteran, and good man in a brawl.
- In Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, he and Simza save the day with deduction and quick thinking while Sherlock and Moriarty are having their little scuffles outside.
- Nigel Bruce pretty much created the "Bumbling Watson" stereotype when he was teamed with Basil Rathbone's sharp and decisive Holmes in 1940s film and radio. Even so, in the radio series Bruce's Watson was given a few occasions to explicitly show that, while he was a lousy detective, he was an extremely competent doctor, able to diagnose medical problems as quickly and easily as Holmes could deduce anything else.
- Twister. Bill's fiancé Melissa has no specialized knowledge about tornadoes, so she is a natural source of questions about them that Jo's tornado chaser team can answer to educate her as well as the audience.
Literature
- The first book of Annals of the Western Shore, Gifts, has Emmon the lowlander asking Orrec and Gry about the titular "gifts" of the Upland domains, which allows them to tell the audience about them and how they shape society.
- 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.
- In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Beyond the Black River," Balthus. Conan repeatedly explains his acts, both how and why, to him.
- Isaac Asimov's "Breeds There a Man...?": Because most of the characters are scientists specializing in one field or another, they trade the role of "audience asking for explanations" around so that no one character is asking all of the questions.
- The naive but pure-hearted Ten Ox plays this role to the cunning and knowledgeable sage Li Kao in Bridge of Birds. There's actually an early draft of the book that reveals the author had originally intended for Li Kao to be the narrator and Ten Ox to be only a peripheral character. Comparing this draft with the final product shows just how much the promotion of Ten Ox to this character role (and the addition of many plot elements) improved the book; for one thing, Li Kao's narration of his life story isn't quite as effective when he tells it in a drunken ramble to a skull in a pool as when he tells it to Ten Ox to assure him that he's not going to give up in his quest to heal the ill children of Ten Ox's village.
- A variety of characters fill this role for Horne Fisher, the central character of G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Knew Too Much.
- Waldo Butters was created to serve this role in The Dresden Files: Dead Beat. In general, Murphy or Molly usually serve as this.
- Often, the limitations or rules of Deryni magic are explained in answers to questions posed by characters who are ordinary humans or otherwise inexperienced:
- As the coronation duel unfolds in Deryni Rising, Nigel fires a series of anxious questions at Morgan and Duncan. Nigel is particularly disturbed at the tactical "mistake" of giving Charissa the first blow, but Duncan explains that allowing a woman the first blow, even if she issues the challenge, is one of the rules.
- The younger Kelson, especially in the first year or so of his reign, was tempted to use his powers directly against the archbishops (Loris and Corrigan) who were undermining his government by persecuting Deryni generally and Morgan in particular. Morgan and Duncan must remind him (and the audience) why such a direct to route towards conflict resolution is no solution.
- Derry asks key questions about the distance and using the spell when Morgan teaches him to join in long-distance rapport for his first reconnaissance trip in Deryni Checkmate.
- Early in The Bishop's Heir, Dhugal is present when Kelson uses his powers to question a sleeping Caulay McArdry, and more questions follow when Kelson breaks off to answer Morgan's distant Call and needs Dhugal's help to establish so distant a mental contact.
- Kelson reverts to being the questioner when working with Prince Azim Hur Hallaj to prepare for his role as a Moving Ward for Liam's killijálay in King Kelson's Bride.
- In The Divine Comedy, the author writes himself into the story as an observer unfamiliar with the reality of the afterlives, putting him in the position to ask theological and moral questions that Virgil or Beatrice can answer. He also fits the trope by being the narrator of the story who is largely secondary to the plot, since the author can only get through Hell due to the holy protection of Beatrice.
- Dr. Thorndyke's usual assistant and narrator is Dr. Christopher Jervis[[note]]Both Thorndyke and Jervis are trained in medicine and law. Thorndyke also teaches the former.[[note]], who started out as a straightforward Watson expy, and soon turned into much more of a Deadpan Snarker than Watson, including in his narration. Thorndyke's constant remarks that Jervis could figure things out if he'd just look at the evidence collected often seem like Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
- On occasion, the protagonist of a story or novel is another acquaintance of Thorndyke's (usually another doctor or lawyer), which means Jervis may show up to help...and make snarky remarks.
- Sometimes, the current Watson is actually the story's main protagonist, and the good doctor becomes more of a Supporting Protagonist or co-protagonist.
- Erast Fandorin is basically a Russian Sherlock Holmes with a large dose of James Bond added in, but in only one book of the 15-novel series does Fandorin have a Watson. In Special Assignments he takes on as a protege Anisii Tulipov, a rookie cop who is brave and good-hearted but by no means an expert in deduction. Tulipov has to have pretty much everything explained to him by Fandorin all the time.
- Harry Potter:
- Ron is 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... J. K. Rowling said she would never have Harry or Ron read Hogwarts: A History because it was too useful an expository device. This even gets a Lampshade; Hermione asks if they're ever going to read the book, and Ron says "Why? We can just ask you."
- 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, such as needing to be told what Quidditch is and expressing ignorance about the reasons why Hagrid being half-giant will be a problem. 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.
- EVERYBODY is this trope for Albus Dumbledore. There's a "Dumbledore Explains It All" scene at the end of every book, except the sixth when it's not at the end. There's even one of those scenes in the last book, even though Dumbledore's dead at the time.
- A minor example is Colin in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets—his opening scene is spent following Harry around asking him questions, allowing him to briefly explain Quidditch rules to anyone who didn't read the first book.
- Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot:
- Captain Hastings in several stories is most definitely The Watson — in fact, he resembles the flanderized Watson more than the original Watson did, always guessing wrong and serving as only a foil for Poirot's brilliant deductions. Unlike the original Watson, who was content to be Holmes's admirer and chronicler, Hastings often expresses irritation at how Poirot outguesses him and makes him look dumb. Hastings is acutely aware of his role, calling himself "the humble Watson" in jest.
- Dr. Sheppard fulfills this role in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when Poirot is on a Busman's Holiday, providing the same first-person narration as Hastings while also explaining the lives of the townsfolk to both us and the newcomer Poirot. Several times Poirot affectionately compares Dr. Sheppard to Hastings. It's all an evil trick so the reader will be shocked when they find out Dr. Sheppard is the murderer at the end, having told his story in just the right manner to express the truth while hiding the truth of his real actions.
- In the Honor Harrington series, Haven's Committee for Public Safety stations a Political Officer on each ship to watch over (a.k.a. second guess) naval officers. They play a darker version of this trope because captains often have to explain and justify their decisions to people with no military training while avoiding any appearance of disloyalty to a regime that executes captains to fail to carry out their orders and their whole families.
- Inheritance Cycle: Eragon is always asking questions, to the point where a description of him one character gives to another includes "always asking questions".
- Bertie Wooster sometimes has to grill Jeeves at great length to figure out what, exactly, is going on. P. G. Wodehouse was a big Sherlock Holmes fan and occasionally threw in a reference to the characters.
- A Mage's Power: Eric starts off as this trope, asking questions to inform the reader because he's new to the world of Tariatla. Then he spends nine days in a library and doesn't have to after that. At that point, he will recall stuff he'd learned at times where he would otherwise ask.
- Maul: Lockdown: Vesto Slipher, an employee of Darth Plagueis secretly monitoring Maul's mission, also serves as someone for Warden Blirr (who thinks he's merely checking on her ability to repay a loan) to explain the prison's workings to.
- Both played straight and parodied/heavily lampshaded in A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, where the Amateur Sleuth Anthony outright asks his friend Bill to play Watson to his Holmes, specifically defining Bill's role as asking stupid questions and needing even the most obvious things explained to him. And indeed, this is what Bill does — but half the time he's asking the questions because Anthony tells him to rather than because he's actually incapable of figuring out the answers, and sometimes he gets fed up with his friend's Sherlockian pretensions.
- 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.
- Archie Goodwin, Watson to Nero Wolfe's Holmes. Archie is a capable detective in his own right, and would frequently figure out the murderer just as Wolfe does. Since he writes his "reports" for an audience, however, he usually doesn't let the reader in on it until Wolfe explains the mystery. Like Watson, Archie frequently gets flanderized into a dull-witted womanizer in adaptations, with only his outstanding memory being kept.
- Detective Sergeant Mary Mary in the Nursery Crime novels is a pastiche of the trope in British detective drama. Coming from outside the area she's somewhat Genre Blind to the mixture of detective and nursery rhyme tropes that dominate Reading, so DI Spratt has to clue her in on this as well as explaining the case to her.
- Peter plays this role in Peter and the Starcatchers. There's a whole chapter where Molly has to give him a long Character Filibuster to explain the history of the Starcatchers.
- The Raffles stories (written by Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law) are centered around Evil Counterparts to Holmes and Watson, with Bunny, the narrator of the story, serving as a criminal Watson.
- The trope namer is Dr. John Watson, the narrator from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, who often asks the title character to explain his baffling logical leaps. Holmes then explains the logic used in solving the case, allowing the author to describe the finer points of the story without disrupting the narrative flow. Unlike the character found in some lesser adaptations, Watson is not a chubby dullard, but a very intelligent and bold man who occasionally contributes his own observations to cases, though he is not always completely correct. Holmes often makes use of Watson's medical knowledge and fresh perspective to keep his deductions sharp. Being a doctor, his medical knowledge is often indispensable to Holmes' work, and he knows more of anatomy than Holmes. In A Study in Scarlet, a puzzled Watson rattles off all the unanswered questions about the case, and Holmes commends him for pointing out the main difficulties. It's implied that Holmes is glad to have someone who he can fruitfully discuss the case with, which is more than can be said for Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson. Holmes even acknowledges Watson's importance in providing him with critical insights, saying, "...you are not yourself luminous, but as a conductor of light, you are unparalleled!"
- In a few comments and the stories written from Holmes' own perspective, it's revealed that Watson intentionally leaves elements he noticed himself out of the stories just to make the reveal at the end more surprising to the reader, a practice that greatly annoyed Holmes.
- In fact, Watson often doesn't act very much as The Watson (i.e., asking Holmes to explain what's going on throughout the plot) because Holmes usually dislikes explaining his reasoning as he goes — the stories' mystery often hinges on the fact that we (and Watson) have no idea what's going on in Holmes's head. Watson usually either a) picks up on it himself and explains it to the readers via narration or b) wryly notes that Holmes is loathe to explain his conclusions until he's sure he's right, and just follows along patiently waiting for him to solve the puzzle. The "Watson" trope is most likely derived from film adaptations, where Watson's narration in the books understandably needed to be replaced with dialogue, or from the books' various famous prelude scenes in which Holmes drops some near-telepathically-accurate deduction about Watson's personal affairs out of the blue, and an astonished Watson asks him to explain how the hell he knew that. And even that is becoming something of a Discredited Trope in modern adaptations. Elementary, for example, eventually makes Watson Holmes' apprentice, and she becomes an investigator at or near his level, to the point where Moriarty considers Watson her second Worthy Opponent. Because Watson beat her.
- In the Simon Ark short stories, Simon's publisher (who is also the narrator of the stories) fills this role.
- Sister Fidelma, Irish nun and law official in the books by Peter Tremayne, has the Saxon monk Brother Eadulf, later her husband (which was allowed in the Celtic Church). In some of the stories where Eadulf doesn't appear, Abbot Laisran serves the role, creating an interesting dynamic since he's her superior in the church, but not in the courts.
- Star Wars Legends:
- 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 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 it's easy to imagine Jeremy Brett with blue skin and glowing red eyes as Thrawn.
- 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 IN SPACE!! series which followed in the early 1980s had Benjamin Franklin Walking Eagle. One Continuity Reboot later, The Watson was Rick "test to destruction!" Cantwell.
- In Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note, this is Aya's role when the KZ investigates. Her verbal abilities isn't the most useful in investigations, so her main role is to make detailed records in the eponymous case notebook.
- In the Magic: The Gathering novel Test of Metal, Doctor Jest often serves this purpose, giving Tezzeret someone to converse with and explain things to when the story demands it.
- Journalist Hutchinson Hatch serves this role in The Thinking Machine stories; giving Van Dusen someone to explain his brilliance to. In the radio adaptations, his role is expanded and he becomes the narrator of the stories, much like the original Watson.
- In the Max Carrados stories by Ernest Bramah, this role is played by Amateur Sleuth Max's private detective friend Carlyle. At the beginning of "The Ghost at Massingham Mansions", the author makes a point that contrary to popular imagination, Carlyle is a competent detective perfectly capable of solving plenty of his own cases — naturally, the only ones that become Max Carrados stories are the ones Max had a significant role in solving.
Live-Action TV
- Angel: Gunn and Fred juggle between this role in terms of needing information about the deeper implications of some of the supernatural elements the others are more familiar with (Gunn having just fought vampires on a street level while Fred has spent five years in another dimension after studying physics back on Earth), with Gunn showing irritation whenever he meets another vampire he's not allowed to kill.
- On The A-Team, Face was usually this to Hannibal when he explained that episode's plan, bringing up potential snags and problems that they could run into, but Murdock, B. A., and/or (in the early seasons) Amy or Tawnia could fill this role instead or simultaneously.
- Jane Doe, the protagonist of Blindspot, has Identity Amnesia and works with a team of FBI Agents to find out why. Given her incredible skills, she probably once had a working knowledge of whatever the team might be discussing in any given episode, but since she can't consciously remember any of it, she is the one asking such questions as, "The dark web? That sounds bad, what is that?" so that the audience can learn.
- Booth to Brennan in Bones, though it could argued that they really ping-pong the role between them depending whether they're dealing with the forensic or detective aspect of the investigation. But when you consider Booth's past as a soldier in the Middle East and the fact that Brennan is a doctor consulting to law enforcement you can clearly see their fictional lineage. The Squints are unquestionably the Baker Street Irregulars.
- In Chernobyl, Boris Shcherbina takes this role so that Valery Legasov has an excuse to explain in simplified terms how a nuclear reactor works, what needs to be done, and why it needs to be done. For example, when they finally get a high-range dosimeter and take a reading of 15,000 roentgen from the burning reactor, Shcherbina directly asks what that number means. Legasov tells him (and the audience) that it's the equivalent of two atom bombs an hour, which has been going on for forty-eight hours, and that it will keep going until all of Europe is lethally irradiated unless they find a way to smother it.
- Jesse takes this role in Breaking Bad whenever Walt has to explain the chemistry behind what he's doing.
- An interesting variation happens on Columbo where the Watson is played by the murderer of the week who tries to use this relationship with the eponymous detective to try and veer him off their scent. It never works. They always slip up somewhere, and Columbo picks up on the critical clue.
- The police with whom the BAU team up in Criminal Minds often serve this purpose. Each episode has a scene where the team deliver a profile explaining the killer's psychology to the police, and thus also to the audience. Occasionally subverted when the cops grab the wrong end of the stick and completely misunderstand the profile, or think about it and realize it applies to half the local population.
- 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, Hodges says he's Watson to Grissom's Holmes. Grissom reminds him that Watson was a genius in his own right.
- 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.
- 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. They still fulfill the Watson role, though, since the Doctor is usually the smartest one in the room with loads more experience than everyone else.
- Interestingly, however, 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.
- In one episode (just after he's "lost" another one), the Doctor starts babbling to thin air, and then stops because he realizes no-one's listening.
- Lampshaded in the classic Who TV serial "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" when the Doctor's current companion Leela sardonically notes that the Doctor has only asked her a question (about some 51st Century technology that she obviously wouldn't know about) to give him an excuse to answer it. However as the AV Club noted, the side-characters Jago and Litefoot fulfill the story's role of Watson—Jago behaves as the traditional film depiction of Watson being a pompous, boisterous, easily puzzled sleaze while Litefoot behaves as literature's Watson being a quiet, calm, observant gentleman.
- The serial "The Deadly Assassin" is the only one in the classic series to feature no companion, and was done to show Tom Baker that one was needed, since there was no Watson to act as audience surrogate to explain the plot to.
- Funnily enough, Sarah Jane herself gets her own Watsons in The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the form of Maria, Luke and Clyde (and later Rani). 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.
- Parodied in the Mitch Benn song "Be My Doctor Who Girl":
Be my Doctor Who girl, follow me a lot
Ask me heaps of questions
So I can explain the plot
- Joan Watson of Elementary, naturally. Like her namesake, she is exceptionally bright in her own right; her main purpose for the audience is to ask the necessary questions to get inside Sherlock's head, since otherwise no-one would have the slightest idea what's going on upstairs with him. Ironically, this Watson begins to avert the trope a little as she increasingly becomes a competent detective under her own steam and needs fewer and fewer explanations from the main man. As of the start of Season 3, she's taken Sherlock's role as a private detective and police consultant, due to his absence. From then on, Detective Bell increasingly gets to play the straight man, and Watson is more likely to finish Holmes' sentences, so to speak.
- Carter fulfills this role in the first season of ER. He's the the new medical student so the other doctors (mostly Benton) explain how things run at the hospital and many medical stuff too.
- In Eureka, Jack Carter is the Watson to most of the other characters in rapid succession so they can all have a go at explaining the current threat and science behind the solution.
- Daphne played this sort of role in Frasier, asking the Cranes to explain what the hell they were talking about whenever they got involved in something pertaining to their younger years or family affairs (which was many, many episodes). This was so the Cranes would have a legitimate reason to tell a hasty expository story that they all already were clear on about their past so the audience knew what the problem they had this time was. Roz occasionally fulfilled this role too.
- Game of Thrones: Ros's function, particularly during the first season (besides being Ms. Fanservice), is to receive exposition. She was apparently created for the show to avoid "As You Know..." conversations.
- Ghostwriter: Tina serves this role in what was originally the pilot episode where the team explains to her what they know about Ghostwriter, what he is, and what his powers are. Footage from this scene was adapted into the series intro so that anyone tuning in for the first time would know it through Tina.
- On House the role of House's Watson is played by every single character, and it's established that House needs a diagnostic team because he needs someone to fill this role for him in order to be effective as a doctor. This is best explored in the Season 4 premiere "Alone", which takes place shortly after House's entire team has either quit or been fired. House tries to prove that he doesn't need a team, but ends up having to draft various hospital employees (including a janitor) to act as The Watson for him.
- 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.
- Played with in "No Reason" and used as part of The Reveal for the episode. House gradually figures out that his teammates aren't being The Watson as they usually are; they're just agreeing with everything he says, because they're figments of his imagination and most of the episode has been his personal Adventures in Comaland.
- Robin spent the first two or three seasons of How I Met Your Mother asking questions about situations or conversations that relied on backstory from Ted, Marshall, and Lily's long, closely-shared history together so that the characters (or Future Ted) had an excuse to explain it to the viewer. It's implied Barney has had most of these things explained to him before 2005. By season 3-4, Robin (and the audience) had already gotten a huge amount of pre-series backstory and isn't much of a Watson anymore, and so the writers started to rely more on in-show established continuity to form the basis of these kinds of stories, usually heralded by Future Ted remarking "Kids, remember how I told you about that time..."
- The Inspector Lynley Mysteries has both the main characters do this! Frequently it's Deuteragonist DS Barbara Havers to her partner (the titular DI Thomas "Tommy" Lynley), but it's not uncommon for him to be her Watson as well.
- Applies to Maddy, Carla Joey and Polly in Jonathan Creek, as Jonathan explains how he worked out the truth of the situation.
- Leverage has an interesting variation on this concept. Insteead of a single character serving the role of a Watson character, the whole team does, because they each have different areas of expertise.
- Inspector Lewis had Sergeant Hathaway.
- The core cast of Lexx had a pretty clear division between Holmeses and Watsons. Kai was 2000 years old with thousands of strangers' lifetimes in his memory, 790 was a robot with knowledge of every sector in the universe (and wireless internet directly to his brain), and Stan and Xev were illiterate fugitives from a world where humans lived in boxes and were taught nothing more than needed to do their jobs. They not only needed explanations for Polarity Reversal and star lifting, but also for concepts like books.
Kai: Books contain useful information... sometimes. And interesting stories... less often.
- In Lost, it's Hurley. Officially; it was lampshaded by the executive producers in a podcast.
- Illya Kuryakin played The Watson at the climax of the third season The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 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. - Lost Girl basically sees Bo and Kenzi take on this role; while Bo is fae, she grew up ignorant of her heritage before her powers activated, and even as the series unfolds she still stumbles across things that she needs explained.
- In Magnum, P.I., 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 page was, it should be noted, once named The Rick.
- Midsomer Murders: DCI Tom Barnaby had Sergeant Troy, replaced first by Sergeant Scott and then by Sergeant Jones, who continues to serve as the Watson to Barnaby's Suspiciously Similar Substitute cousin, DCI John Barnaby.
- Miss Sherlock has Wato Tachibana, a doctor returning from doing volunteer work in Syria, as the assistant to the titular "Sherlock". Appropriately, she is nicknamed "Wato-san".
- In Monk, Sharona Fleming (season 1-season 3) and Natalie Teeger (season 3-8) are this to Adrian Monk.
- The ditzy lab assistant in the "Science Fiction Sketch" on Monty Python's Flying Circus 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.
- Ms. Marvel (2022): Two such characters exist in the series: the first is Bruno Carelli, a white boy who's one of Kamala's best friends but an outsider to Muslim culture, giving Kamala a reason to explain the ins and outs of the Muslim community to him (and thus the audience). Second is Kamala's sister-in-law Tyesha Hillman, a Black Muslim who recently married Kamala's brother Aamir but knows little of Pakistani-Americans, giving the family a reason to explain Pakistani history such as The Partition (when Pakistan was separated from India by Britain), which again is largely for the audience's benefit.
- In Murdoch Mysteries, Crabtree, Brackenreid, Dr. Ogden and Dr. Grace all play this role at different times in different episodes. Later episodes have Constable Higgins do this, especially when Higgins is trying to understand why Murdoch wants something done. Murdoch and Brackenreid often rely on Crabtree to do much of the legwork in interviewing witnesses, looking into interesting leads, and so forth.
- The ITCH episode of Neveneffecten is a play on all the tropes in police detective series and uses the Watson to explain the concept of the Watson with the following dialogue.
- "Winne, I don't understand."
"Of course you don't, that's your function."
"What do you mean?"
"This allows me to explicitly explain things."
- In Prison Break, Sucre was The Watson to Michael during the first season. Lampshaded by the actor, who commented on how his main role in the plot was to ask Michael "what are you doing?" or "what do we do next?" In later seasons, this role would fall to whoever happened to be with Michael at the time, such as Lincoln and Sara. Mahone also had his own Watson during season 2, but since Mahone was a baddie at the time, it didn't quite play out the same way.
- 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. The gap between his character and Expy status closes even further when you consider how often his pharmaceutical knowledge (an update of Watson's medical training) plays into solving cases.
- In Red Dwarf, the Cat, Lister and Rimmer tend to share Watson duties, with Holly and Kryten acting as Mr. Exposition. This becomes extreme in the scene explaining the stasis leak, where Cat has to ask "What is it?" four times to get simpler and simpler explanations.
- The TV adaptation of The Sandman adds Morpheus' Familiar Matthew to several sequences where Morpheus was acting alone in the original comics, such as his visit to Hell in "A Hope in Hell", so that there's somebody to ask for and receive explanations on the audience's behalf. Matthew suits the role because he's only recently been recruited from the mundane world, and is not yet up to speed on the details of the supernatural realms (when he first appears in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" he admits he's not even clear yet on who Morpheus is), so he tends to see things from the same angle as the audience.
- On the BBC modernisation of the Trope Namer, Sherlock, this role is filled by Doctor John Watson, of course. He didn't replace a head of cabbage though, he replaced a skull.
John: How—Oh, never mind.
- This mean-spirited bit of dialogue from "His Last Vow" sums it up:
John Watson: I don't understand.
Villain of the Week: You should put that on a t-shirt. [continues to explain] - On the other hand he also shares the original's virtues; brave, loyal, skilled medical man.
- This mean-spirited bit of dialogue from "His Last Vow" sums it up:
- 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. He usually wears his Big Dumb Alien ™ expression to complete the cliche of Watson being a bit slow.
- Stargate-verse:
- Whenever somebody in Stargate Universe explains something about how the Stargates function, they're explaining it to Eli. He's by far the least experienced of the bunch, though arguably more intelligent than most of the people explaining stuff to him.
- Jack O'Neill of Stargate SG-1 was the same. While a Colonel Badass and good leader, he'll still have to ask the two geniuses or the alien about whatever bit of Applied Phlebotinum is about. Whether or not he was portrayed as generally unintelligent, or merely needing to leave blowing up suns to Samantha Carter, wavered. Seldom if ever did Jack O'Neill fail to grasp what was going on. He was just a huge fan of Obfuscating Stupidity and had little patience for Techno Babble.
- John Sheppard basically took on this role in Stargate Atlantis as the newest member of the expedition while still being the highest-ranking military member.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In time-travel episodes, Doctor Bashir's lack of interest in history means he's usually lost, allowing the other cast members to explain what's going on where they are to him. Bonus points for being a doctor and British.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Deanna Troi, despite being a trained bridge officer, often fulfills the role of person who asks what the thing / alien / threat of the week is. By far the most egregious example was in "Disaster," when for no readily apparent reason she has to ask what the consequence of a warp core breach would be. (Answer: the ship explodes!)
- DCI Jim Taggart had DS Michael Jardine and DS Jackie Reid, then DCI Jardine had DS Reid and DC Stuart Fraser. Currently DCI Matthew Burke, DI Reid and DI Robbie Ross have DS Mita Rahim.
- Gwen gets to fill this role on Torchwood as the newest member of the team.
- DI Jack Frost of A Touch of Frost has a rotating cast of sidekicks. The most prominent ones are DS Hazel Wallace and DS Clive Barnard.
- Twin Peaks: Diane, a character who is never seen or heard. When recording his observations and thoughts on tape, Special Agent Cooper addresses her by name. She is most likely his secretary at FBI headquarters, although her identity is never actually stated.
- Wallace Fennel is the Watson to Veronica Mars, especially at the start of season 1, since he is new to Neptune.
- Tori Vega in Victorious, as a New Transfer Student who is a talented musician but untrained, is this with her asking questions that the rest of the cast can then explain what certain theatrical or musical plot relevant terms mean in case the audience don't know.
- The West Wing:
- Donna would usually play this role, at least in the early years. Her job was to badger Josh with all the questions the audience was asking, "But Josh, why is policy x important?" "Josh, why should we loan Mexico millions?" In the later seasons she received Character Development and moved beyond this role, occasionally needing her own Watson.
- In scenes involving the military and the Situation Room, President Bartlet would often serve this role. While hardly the everyman, it was frequently discussed how he had had no military experience prior to taking office, and so would frequently need his military advisors to explain things to him (and consequently the audience).
- On The X-Files, Scully plays Watson to Mulder's Sherlock, especially in the early seasons. The only time this switches is when Scully is performing an autopsy, though even then she's forced to try and decode Mulder's unusual thought process and the strange leaps of logic he's taking with the information she's in the process of giving him.
Podcasts
- Brimstone Valley Mall: Xaphan has spent six thousand years in the bellows of Hell, doing the same job and speaking to no one, so she's been thoroughly Locked Out of the Loop that entire time. When she's sent up to Earth, this means she conveniently has the same questions the audience probably has about how the Celestial Bureaucracy works and what the deal with the Y2K Party is.
- Mission to Zyxx has Pleck, whose rural upbringing and general lack of exposure to the galaxy make him an excellent venue for questions that come across as ignorant in-universe, but provide key exposition for the audience.
Radio
- Cabin Pressure: Arthur, as a ditzy Manchild, does this, allowing Martin and Douglas to try to explain either whatever it is MJN Air is doing that week, or what specific thing has gone wrong. Arthur being so ditzy he sincerely believes that no-one knows how airplanes fly, requiring Martin, Douglas and his mom to try explaining it to him. Douglas nearly manages it, but fumbles on "how do they fly upside down?"
Theatre
- Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto: Angelo grew up far from the centers of power, and therefore knows as little about the politics of late-15th-century Italy as the average 21st-century viewer. His classmate Roberto gets to be his Mr. Exposition.
- Cyrano de Bergerac:
- Le Bret. Half of his dialogue is asking Cyrano the same questions the audience must be asking (why in hell did you do something so jerkass/ stupid/ self-destructive) and letting Cyrano explain what's going on. The other half of his dialogue is scolding Cyrano for being a jerkass.
Le Bret: But these strange ways,
Where will they lead you, at the end? Explain
Your system—come! - Subverted by the Duenna. She asks Raguenau why he intented to kill himself. After his response, she changes the conversation.
- Le Bret. Half of his dialogue is asking Cyrano the same questions the audience must be asking (why in hell did you do something so jerkass/ stupid/ self-destructive) and letting Cyrano explain what's going on. The other half of his dialogue is scolding Cyrano for being a jerkass.
- Jasper from Jasper in Deadland is the one person in Deadland who isn't totally used to monsters, talking rivers and Ghost Amnesia, so he frequently has to ask what on Earth is going on.
- Mary Lennox in the musical version of The Secret Garden takes on this role temporarily when Mrs. Medlock introduces her to her new home, conveniently telling Mary all the backstory of the home and the family for the audience to hear.
- Little Sally from the musical Urinetown is a parody of this.
- What happens when two of the dullest Watsons ever are left to themselves and try to ask one another the questions? Waiting for Godot. (Pozzo tries to be one too, but they're too incoherent to explain anything.)
Video Games
- George tends to be this to Nico in Broken Sword. George is a clever adventurer and problem-solver, but he knows virtually nothing about his environment (Paris). Nico's main contribution to the plot is reminding George being a foreigner allows Nico to be Mr. Exposition for the player without seeming like she's repeating pedantic information.
- You, as the unnamed protagonist, fill this role to Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin in the Dark Tales PC games. Dupin is, in-universe, the master detective and hero of the games, but as the player character, you're the one who actually does all the work; Dupin mostly functions as Mr. Exposition.
- Various NPCs and companions in the Dragon Age franchise fill this role as needed to either the Warden or Hawke. The dialogue wheels for both player characters allow the player to ask questions, or not, about the background of Thedas and the history of the Grey Wardens and whatever else they don't already know, depending on how many times they've played the game.
- Approaches As You Know territory in the mage origin in Dragon Age: Origins where the player character has lived their entire life in the mage tower and can ask some very basic stuff about how things work there.
- In the first Ensemble Stars!, the Audience Surrogate Anzu plays this role as a new transfer student in to Yumenosaki Academy. In the sequel, Anzu is already established in the world, so the position is transferred over to new character Hiiro, a newcomer from the country who came to Ensemble Square to take his brother back home rather than because he had any interest in idols. That allows for idol geek Aira to fill him in on Ensemble Square (and therefore all the new details introduced in the sequel) and the idol world in general (for new players who hadn't played the original game). Apparently, Akira and the writers considered a number of ways to enable this kind of exposition, including having Anzu be struck down with amnesia, before settling on this one.
- Final Fantasy:
- Barret in Final Fantasy VII is always the person asking the obvious question and saying what the audience is supposed to be thinking, which has the effect of allowing Cloud to come off as knowledgeable and experienced. When Cloud tells the story about what happened in Nibelheim, Barret's frequent questions highlight details that the audience ought to be paying attention to, like when Sephiroth mentions his mother having the same name as the unspeakable monster the party had previously encountered. There may be some connection to his epiphany in late game where he decides he's a lot better at being The Lancer than being a leader, and appoints Cid leader just so he can have someone to ask questions to.
- 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. Fortunately for everyone, he gets better as the plot goes on.
- 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.
- A quote from Lulu after one too many explanations : " Are you sure it's not your brain that's the problem?"
- 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.
- 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 Mass Effect, Liara takes this role. Due to Shepard having an entire library of Prothean data downloaded into their mind via one of their Beacons, this leaves Liara, as a Prothean expert, to try to delve inside the sheer masses of information present in Shepard's mind and attempt to understand what their visions actually mean.
- Shepard him/herself, particularly in the first game, to the point of making, "What can you tell me about [thing]?" a minor meme. Most of this dialogue is optional, but Shepard still serves the purpose of letting other characters speak at length about various things, even when there's really no clear reason why Shepard wouldn't already know what they tell him/her.
- James Vega, the only new (non-DLC) squadmate in Mass Effect 3, is essentially this, serving as an outside observer of the merry gang and connections network that Shepard gathered in the previous games and easing in the introductions for new players.
- Similar to Shepard, Ryder in Mass Effect: Andromeda. The perils of being the player character.
- Very late into Persona 5 a very complex Gambit Roulette is pulled off with the end result being the Protagonist barely avoiding getting killed by Akechi, with him none the wiser. Most players won't completely understand what happened, so it ends up being explained in-universe to Sojiro, who's confused as to why the media is reporting that the Protagonist committed suicide and how they figured out that Akechi was planning to assassinate him.
- Fina from Skies of Arcadia knows almost nothing about any of the civilisations of Arcadia, having grown up in isolation in the Silver Civilisation. Ergo, it is her job to ask the questions that the audience cannot. And get a laugh or two out of them as well.
- Simultaneously suffering from amnesia and having lived most of his life in his family's manor with little to no exposure to the outside world, Luke from Tales of the Abyss makes for a perfect Watson.
- The Avatar in Ultima IX is a prime example of this trope done poorly. Having not only been to Britannia multiple times, but helped shape much of its history, suddenly he's given the option to ask about even the most basic things even though he should be familiar with them already.
Avatar: What's a paladin?
- 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.
Visual Novels
- Lion Ushiromiya plays this role to the detective Willard H. Wright in the seventh arc of Umineko: When They Cry. After a while they even start to refer to each other as "Watson" and "Holmes".
- Eric in Zero Time Dilemma is a rather dark example of this trope. When he doesn't understand what's going on, he tends to demand answers from the other heroes at gunpoint.
Web Animation
- When Alastor, the Radio Demon appears in Hazbin Hotel, Angel Dust has never heard of him, and Vaggie has to explain. What's unusual is that Angel has been around for decades while Vaggie is relatively new; by all accounts, Angel should've heard about Alastor a long time ago, while Vaggie is more likely to have never heard of him.
- RWBY: Sun grew up in Vacuo and is being educated in Mistral. He has never been associated with the White Fang or visited the Faunus island of Menagerie. As a result, he isn't privy to the inner workings of the terrorist organisation or the realities of life on Menagerie. As Blake is from both, she is able to teach him what they're like; through this the audience learns how the White Fang turned from a peaceful civil rights group to a terrorist organisation and why life on the island is difficult.
Webcomics
- Seonga is this to Frost's Sherlock Homage in Dr. Frost. Justified, in that she's a psychology major who lacks experience, but has proved incredibly helpful and insightful. She's also growing as a budding psychologist.
- In the second semester of Dumbing of Age Booster serves as this, as they're Walky's new roommate and Walky becomes the Mr. Exposition to introduce them to the rest of the main cast.
- In the webcomic Erfworld, the character Parson acts as both The Watson inside the narrative and Mr. Exposition through a diary.
- The Evolutions of Homosexuality and Suicide: The blond scientist asks questions so that the bearded scientist can explain his theories.
- 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.
- The Order of the Stick tends to give these to its villains:
- Redcloak has a procession of short-lived hobgoblin cleric assistants that can cast Transmute Redcloak to Mr. Exposition at will. Word of God says that this was always the same guy, Jirix; he just kept getting resurrected off-screen.
- Qarr the imp has become the Watson to the Inter-Fiend Cooperation Commission.
- Chancellor Kilkil serves as this for Tarquin.
- The Sanity Circus: Attley's lack of understanding about magic conveniently means that the audience can get filled in on this universe's system of magic too. She also doesn't appear to know anything about Scarecrows, even though Fletch does — prompting explanations from Mr. Sparc.
- In Templar Arizona, Ben is the Watson most of the time, because the work is partly about this weird town, but there are aspects of the alternate-historical universe familiar to Ben but not us; for this, there is a new Watson (Mesmer) with an even more sheltered upbringing.
Web Original
- Pohatu rapidly became this in the BIONICLE serial The Powers That Be, as he was trying to solve a murder mystery with the increasingly Holmsian Kopaka. Given his Running Gag of asking for clarification every time he hears a new name, this makes sense.
Web Videos
- Noob:
- This is a big part of Sparadrap's role in Noob, in addition to Forgetful Jones tendencies that allow him to ask the same question at different points in the story or re-ask basic questions that should have realistically been dealt with before the story even started.
- Noob: Le Conseil des Trois Factions has Tenshirock and Judge Dead's family therapist play this role to avoid Continuity Lockout on their situation. Gaea also spends a big chunk of the movie with nobody to talk with besides Meuhmeuh, making the latter ask her questions so she can explain her plan.
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 '80s) and become Fry's Watson, which not only demonstrates his considerable ability to acclimatize (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. Originally, the creators envisioned the show being about Fry's difficulties adapting to the future, however they eventually realized there's only so many Fish out of Water moments you can make, so they instead started to focus on Fry being stupid instead. Watching an episode from the first season then one from any after, there is a clear difference in both the plots and Fry's attitudes.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", Pinkie Pie tries to investigate who sabotaged a cake she was guarding, and forces Twilight Sparkle (normally The Smart Guy) into the role of "my lowly assistant who asks silly questions with obvious answers." When Pinkie's methods (which largely consist of making wild, baseless accusations) prove ineffective, Twilight manages to get Pinkie to switch roles. Once Pinkie starts to understand the importance of getting all the facts, they switch again so she can solve the mystery of who ate all the other desserts on the train.
- Pinky from Pinky and the Brain is this to his partner and best friend, The Brain. Despite his idiocy, however, Pinky proves himself to be quite a useful Watson on numerous occasions, often complementing Brain's rigidity with his easy-going adaptability; or commenting on flaws in Brain's plans to Take Over the World, which Brain will accommodate for if he hadn't anticipated it already and deems it a consequential enough threat.
- Gus Griswald from Recess, as the 'new kid' who needs to be filled in on details of the history and social dynamics of the school.
