Shocking Swerve/Playing With

Basic Trope: A plot twist occurs with no foreshadowing or anything. "Alice: "So are you really my brother?!" Alex: "Naaah, Just shittin with ya. Ha ha."
 * Straight: Alice discovers that Alex is her long lost brother despite any foreshadowing or that being informed that she even had a brother to begin with.
 * Exaggerated: Alice discovers that Alex is her long lost brother AND and a descended from royalty, AND an alien, AND a clone, AND the Big Bad AND that she was Dead All Along.
 * Justified: No one bothered to tell Alice because they thought that it would not be of use.
 * Alternatively, Alice never heard about a twin because she doesn't have one; Alex is mistaken.
 * Inverted: Incredible amounts of foreshadowing are displayed throughout the course of the story only to not be revealed at all.
 * Aborted Arc, Missing Secret, and some types of Red Herring
 * Subverted:


 * Double Subverted: Alex: "But I am your father, no kidding."
 * Parodied: Every time a twist is revealed with no foreshadowing, a "BUM BUM BUM" is played with Alice's reaction.
 * Deconstructed: Without any evidence prior to the revelation to back his story, Alice rejects the idea out of hand and dismisses any new evidence as fabricated after the fact.
 * Reconstructed: Only for a long-lost letter from their parents to arrive and confirm the story, shocking her all over again.
 * Zig Zagged: Alice: "You're my father?"
 * Alex: "Nah, that's a lie. But actually, I'm your uncle!"
 * Averted: Alice was told by many people that she had a brother.
 * Enforced: "Hey, I have a good idea! Let's have Alex be Alice's brother!" "Aren't we a little far into the story?" "Who cares? They won't notice."
 * Lampshaded: Alice: Wow, I'm surprised nobody ever told me about you!"
 * Invoked: Bob withholds knowledge of Alice having a brother by any means to push her in a Heroic BSOD.
 * Exploited: Bob ensures Alice learns she has an unknown brother then sends Chuck to throw her further off-balance by claiming to be said brother.
 * Defied: Bob tells everyone that Alice has a brother and gives them hints to give Alice to push her in a Heroic BSOD
 * Discussed: "This is... impossible. Why didn't anybody mention anything? It's like some bad story where they just toss this crap in to keep the reader on their feet!"
 * Conversed: "The story was pretty good, but then in the last half hour they just pulled this major twist out of nowhere. Really ruined the story for me."

Back to Shocking Swerve