Robotic Reveal/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character thought to be a human is revealed to a robot.

  • Straight: While trying to attack Baroness Evilara, Bob accidentally knocks the arm off Alice, revealing her to a robot.
  • Exaggerated: While trying to attack Baroness Evilara, Bob accidentally kicks Alice's entire engine out of her.
  • Justified: Alice was a robot built by Evilara to replace the real deal.
  • Inverted: Both Bob and Evilara are robots; in fact most beings in this world are. Alice gets injured and....starts leaking biological fluid! She's NOT A ROBOT!
  • Subverted: Alice tells Bob that she's a robot as soon as the episode began.
    • Alternatively: After it's revealed that Alice is a robot, the real Alice shows up. The robot was a fake.
  • Double Subverted: Alice tells Bob that she's a robot as soon as the episode began, but Alice is lying to lure Baroness Evilara out for a easy capture.
    • Alternatively: Yes, there was a fake robotic Alice. But the only reason it was so convincing is because the real Alice is also a robot, and the fake was built from the same plans as Alice herself.
  • Parodied: When Alice loses an arm, she begins sparking and leaking oil, but none of the characters deduce that she's a robot.
  • Deconstructed: Damage to Alice's hand reveals circuitry, causing Bob to think she's a robot. Later an injury shows she was human with Artificial Limbs.
    • The shock of the revelation, combined with the fact that she lied to him, would be enough to turn Bob away from Alice even if she was human. With her inhumanity added to the equation, it's even worse. Bob regards her as an inhuman monster, rather than a girl who used to be his friend.
  • Reconstructed: And then the rest of her was replaced with robotic parts.
    • Upon finding out that Alice is a robot, Bob stands there, staring, silent, and Alice fears the worst... Until she notices that Bob is smiling. "You're a robot? Sweet!" "Uh, Bob? You can let go of me now..."
  • Zig Zagged: But she replaced the robotics with a biological body later.
  • Averted: They are no robots in the series.
    • Alternatively, Alice is a FemBot.
  • Enforced: "The fans are being way too critical of Alice's powers. We got something do before we get a Broken Base! How about revealing that Alice is a robot?"
  • Lampshaded: "Bob, Alice stands for Anything Lifeform Information Collection Entity. Or in human terms, a robot."
    • "Oh, this again. Big, tough meat-man goes into shock at the sight of sparks. Snap out of it and help me get to a mechanic!"
  • Invoked: "I am robot programmed to act human-ish."
    • Alice is tired of keeping it a secret from Bob, so she "accidentally" shows him some circuitry.
  • Defied: "I am not a robot, Bob, I just have the same powers as Superman!"
    • Alice goes to great enough lengths to conceal her true nature that nobody finds out.
    • Alice is open about being a robot from the start.
  • Discussed: "I can't believe that Alice turned out a robot, it sounds like something out of animated cartoon series."
  • Conversed: "In this episode of this old 1980s's cartoon, Alice turns to a robot programmed by Baroness Evilara to steal information from the good guys."
  • Played For Laughs: Alice is a blatantly mechanical Tin Woman on the far side of the Uncanny Valley whose efforts at imitating humans comprise a large chunk of the comedy. And nobody (least of all Bob) notices.
    • Nobody even notices Alice... Until she injures herself, revealing circuitry under her skin... At which point everyone' crowds around excitedly, trying to get a look.
  • Played For Drama: Bob's horror at the revelation and his subsequent repudation of their friendship would be bad enough if Alice was not already in shock over finding out herself.

Robotic Reveal wants to reveal itself to you.