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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Q''': ''Do you particularly enjoy being deliberately vague?''
'''A''': ''[[Mathematician's Answer|Maybe?]]''
Sometimes you get the feeling that a series creator is having a little ''too'' much fun messing with their audience's collective heads.
This is a creator who loves to mess around with their audience, keeping them hanging for as long as humanly possible. They'll hint, [[Flip
There's a fine line to walk here. This tactic can create genuine suspense, since the creator is so unpredictable. Or it can annoy the fans, and make them feel like they're being [[Viewers
The creator's pedigree can make this trope more or less effective - if you've [[Ship Sinking|sunk the ship]] or [[Killed Off for Real|eliminated main characters]] before now, there's every chance you'll do it again... but then, if you make a habit of it, people will stop finding it suspenseful and simply give up on caring for your characters, knowing you're likely to [[Kill
Tends to be most popular in webcomics, since they're one of the few remaining mediums that can genuinely be kept under wraps, spoiler-free.
[[Ship Tease]] is a specific variety of this trope, as is [[The Walrus Was Paul]]. Differs from [[Shrug of God]] since there is definitely a deliberate tactic being employed, and it isn't always in response to fans' questions - in fact, you get the feeling the the fans are being ''provoked'' into asking questions. Compare [[Lying Creator]] for when the author is deliberately misleading fans, and [[Trolling Creator]], when this gets outright malicious.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* An unofficial motto of the ''[[Bee Train]]'' fandom actually is "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160523225309/http://www.beetrainfan.org/wiki/index.php?title=MiaHT
* [[Ken Akamatsu]] loves doing this, especially in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. It's still impossible to tell it's a [[Harem Series]], a subversion thereof, a [[Double Subversion]], a parody, or whatever. Then there's the massive amount of [[Ship Tease]] in the story, much of which seems to exist solely to mess with the heads of the readers. Especially Negi/Asuna. Naturally {{spoiler|Asuna seems to be Negi's aunt.}}
** The best/worst example: In one interview during the Magic World arc, he stated that {{spoiler|Zazie's true form}} would be revealed in the final arc. Soon after, {{spoiler|Zazie shows up in Mundus Magicus}}, creating an ''enormous'' stir among the fans, who believed that the end of the manga was imminent. Then shortly after ''that'' it turns out that {{spoiler|it's actually her ''sister''}}. There's no way he didn't plan that. (And anyway, that statement doesn't mean [[The Reveal]] can't ''also'' happen ''before'' the final arc...)
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* The writers of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' are memetic for their [[Ship Tease]] with Nanoha and Fate. Despite their relationship sliding to the bleeding edge between subtext and text, there still hasn't been an official [[Word of God]] or onscreen kiss to seal the deal, and the fan question on their relationship is inevitably answered with the [[Shrug of God]].
** Technically there have been a few [[Word of Gay]]'s. but none by the ''writers''.
* Hi, [[Hideaki Anno]], we're looking at you! Not only in [[Neon Genesis Evangelion
** This man is widely known for his Mastery of the [[Shrug of God]], much to the fans' dismay.
*** [[Memetic Mutation|"I have no bloody clue. Fanwank something."]]
* Oh, [[Hidekaz Himaruya]]. The whole ''[[
** And he did it again, for April Fools' Day 2011. And he regularly takes requests on his website for things people want him to sketch, even if such things are completely nonsensical and could never be considered canon.
** And it reached epic levels for ''[[
* [[Eiichiro Oda]] of ''[[One Piece]]'' fame certainly has some interesting answers when fans ask him questions, just to screw around with them. Given Oda's sense of humor and the generally odd nature of the ''[[One Piece]]'' world, it's sometimes hard to tell when his answers are serious and when they're just jokes.
* Kunihiko Ikuhara and ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' - see especially the car girl incident and Miki's
* When asked if a particular plot point had some deeper meaning, the writer of ''[[Star Driver]]'' was quoted as saying "Everything is double--no, ''triple'' marinated with meaning!"
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The editors of [[DC Comics]] (notably their boss, Dan Didio) purposely misled fans that the 2005 [[Crisis Crossover]] series, ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', would get rid of the [[Darker and Edgier]] approach the company had taken with its characters in recent years. Writer Mark Waid himself said that was the point (though he got censored later). The story itself directly hints at this since the main characters were in fact trying to [[Cosmic Retcon|change reality back]] to its previous, nicer state (altered during ''[[Crisis
== [[Fan
* The author behind ''[[Renegade (
== [[Film]] ==
* This trope could apply to genre expectations as well as to fans of a series. If you look at the message board for any mystery, no matter how wild a twist it employs, there are always jaded fans who say "I saw the ending coming a mile away". ''[[A Perfect Getaway]]'' is written with great [[Genre Savvy|situational awareness]] regarding this tendency, and gives no indication as to which of three possible directions the film is going to go. Then it has multiple screenwriter characters, who lampshade the whole thing by discussing [[Red Herring|red herrings]], while awash in them.
* [[Rob Zombie]] was fond of putting phony trailers in his movies, which appeared to advertise a movie that he never intended to make. For example, ''[[Grindhouse]]'' was an [[Anthology]] movie which had ''five'' phony trailers, one before each actual story. The most notable was likely ''Werewolf Women of the SS'', which seemed to involve female Nazi [[Super Soldier]]s in [[Dominatrix]] gear. He even got [[Nicholas Cage]] himself to make a cameo in that one, as [[Fu Manchu]]. (Yes, [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context]], but this is Rob Zombie we're talking about.) Fans of Zombie shouldn't get their hopes up, however, as he has confirmed it will not be a real movie.
** ''[[Machete]]'', on the other hand, was another phony trailer, which did indeed become a real movie later.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Jim Butcher, author of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', is this. It's like crack for wizar... ur, authors. After the ending of "Changes" where {{spoiler|Harry apparently died at the end}} he very promptly stated on his website that the next book will be called {{spoiler|Ghost Story. Yeah, while his many fans are consumed with debate over whether Harry is dead or not. Not to mention whether or not he'll be back in some form or another.}}
** Of course, he also said that {{spoiler|Harry is D-E-D Dead, so it isn't that much of a tease.}}
* [[
* Vicky Holmes of the ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' series.
* [[Bryan Davis]] absolutely loves to interact with his fans, and is almost the patron saint of [[Exact Words]]. This results in a LOT of teaasing of the fans. The thing is, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|most of the fans love it.]]
* Similarly, [[
* [[Eoin Colfer|Eoin]] [[Trolling Creator|"Trollfer"]] [[Eoin Colfer|Colfer]]. Don't take anything he says in his interviews about a future book as final word. His hints are worth more than straight [[Lying Creator|answers]].
* Considering [[The Mortal Instruments|Cassandra Clare's]] posts on Tumblr, she is most certainly this. She deliberately gives out little snippets from her unreleased books that she ''knows'' will mess with her fans' heads.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* [[Joss Whedon]] is notorious for this.
* [[Lost
* [[Russell T. Davies]] traditionally drops random words from upcoming ''[[
** Most notably, "The Next Doctor". The title was revealed around the time David Tennant was confirmed to be leaving the show, and fandom began guessing who the next Doctor would be, with the production team treating it as if the episode would be introducing the new actor. As it turned out, {{spoiler|the eponymous character wasn't the Doctor's next incarnation at all, the ruse being explained away halfway through the episode}}.
** The cliffhangers at the end of "Last of the Time Lords" {{spoiler|the Titanic crashes through the wall of the TARDIS}} and "The Stolen Earth" {{spoiler|the Doctor begins regenerating}} were both easily and effortlessly resolved within the first minute of the following episode, seemingly designed specifically to whip the audience into a frenzy in the meantime.
** Absolutely everything about the episode "The Doctor's Daughter", beginning with the title and ending with the... ending.
* [[Steven Moffat]], in charge of ''[[
** From his [http://twitter.com/#!/steven_moffat/status/122210599601057792 Twitter]: "Apparently I "confirmed" a romantic relationship between Sherlock and Irene Adler. Despite my 140 character limit can I be very clear that I"
** On the subject of the Sherlock series 2 cliffhanger: "We're going to be complete bastards about it."
* Shane Brennan, the current showrunner over at ''[[NCIS]]'' only seems to talk to the media if he wants to stir up shipping drama in the fandom.
* [[Dan Schneider]] became this when he joined the internet fandom a season into the airing of ''[[
** He did it so often and blatantly that the Carly/Freddie fans turned on him when they recognized it being done to them. A blog hyping the 5 episode Sam/Freddie arc included a list of various potential 'what if' scenarios. A day later entries were added to tease the Carly/Freddie pairing trying to tease Carly/Freddie who had systematically torn apart the viability and premise of the Sam/Freddie. It went down like a lead balloon, causing more of a backlash with those fans angered by the apparent destruction of the realistic and previously canon Carly/Freddie relationship and being pandered and teased by a creator who didn't even bother to give the pairing [[Ship Sinking|closure]] before launching into the over-hyped Seddie arc.
** With the launch of new show ''[[Victorious]]'' he remained pretty low key on the teasing. Then the [[Les Yay|Jade/Tori]] fandom exploded. Now he can't stop teasing them.
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== Music ==
* [[Orbital]]'s second album, ''Orbital 2'', opens with a quote sampled from ''[[Star Trek]]''
* [[Sound Horizon]]'s Revo has [http://sh-whitecrow.com/magazine/anisongmate01/ gone on record] saying that he sometimes puts something in a song simply because he knows that the fans will drive themselves crazy trying to figure out what it means.
{{quote|
== Toys ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Oh Bungie, you've teased us with a reveal just made a few days ago. You teased us SINCE 2000! Actually, a whole bunch of them. And never trust a thing they say. They are not working on Halo 3. They are not working on another Halo game after Halo 3. Halo: Reach is definitely the last Halo game ever. Right.
** They've at least stopped teasing for the time being by announcing at E3 2011 that they planned on making a total of 10 Halo games, with the tenth being a reboot of Halo: CE.
* [[Hideo Kojima]] not only teases the audience, [[You Bastard|he openly mocks their pain.]] See the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' entry in [[Fan Disservice]] for details.
* ZUN, creator of ''[[Touhou]]'', is known by the fanbase as its biggest troll.
** He doesn't even bother to be subtle about it, either. When viewing a few people attempt to play ''Double Spoiler'' ([[Nintendo Hard]] even by ''Touhou'' standards) he [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCEh0yQIKzA openly mocks their pain]. Addictive laugh, though.
* [[Valve]] are infamous for trolling their fans, particularly when there's a ''[[
** Going to ask Valve on whether or not episode 3 for ''[[
* Ryukishi07, author of the ''[[When They Cry]]'' mystery series, reportedly monitors online forums for popular fan theories so he can brutally smash them or set them up as gigantic red herrings in the next installment.
* [[Square Enix]] and the much anticipated ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' remake. SE loves to tease the idea of the remake only to debunk again and again.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'' is their latest game they love to do this for. Imposing questions about the game will elicit a response completely unrelated to ''Versus XIII''.
{{quote|
'''Motomu Toriyama''': ''“First, please enjoy XIII-2 while you wait for additional information.”'' }}
* Ed Boon, co-creator and current executive producer of the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' series, seems to be this [http://twitter.com/#!/noobde if one checks his Twitter updates.] For example, several fans wonder why the latest game (''[[Mortal Kombat 9
* ''[[
* Suda51's old game ''[[The Silver Case]]'' has been in development for a remake for the DS for several years. Early 2010 he showed off the DS port on an internet livestream, proving that it works... but there's no release date.
* The devs of ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' have said that at this point, they don't even know when they're teasing and when they're not. (For instance, their remark that the never-seen principal is a masked wrestler is both a joke, and canon, and it will continue to be canon until and unless he appears in the finished game and turns out not to be a masked wrestler.)
** He doesn't turn up in the finished game, and so can be assumed to be a masked wrestler.
* [[
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** While F.H. was resolved in its [[Bittersweet Ending]], sequel ''Other People's Business'' looks set to remove the "{{spoiler|sweet}}" part of "bittersweet" entirely, as Fuhr strongly implies that {{spoiler|Collin}} ended up married to {{spoiler|the comic's ''resident hitman''}}. Is there any concrete statement confirming this? Watching the fans working themselves into a frenzy as everyone tries to suss it out, the answer remains "Hell, no."
** {{spoiler|Confirmed. Leon/Collin shippers rejoiced, Fox/Collin advocates wept and followed the author's advice to declare "[[Alternate Universe]]"}}.
* Tom Siddell, of ''[[
* Fred Gallagher of ''[[Megatokyo]]'' does this from time to time. Miho in particular was a figure of mystery for a long time.
* Randy K. Milholland of ''[[Something
* Brian Clevinger, creator of ''[[
{{quote|
** Once, he attempted what was perhaps his biggest joke on the readers at the time, when he appeared to end the ''entire comic'' on a [[All Just a Dream|horrible anticlimax]], expecting to get a ton of hate mail and rile up his fans. This backfired when he got a ton of mail sincerely ''thanking'' him for the years of great comics, and assuring him that the anticlamix was horrible, and thus, the perfect ending for the particular comic. He appreciated the irony; his favorite joke, a joke on the reader, [[Insult Backfire|whipped right back around]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|and became a joke on HIM.]]
* Aeire, author of ''[[
* When told of an [[Epileptic Tree]], the author of ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'' will state that it is true, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, even if it contradicts established fact.
** He probably delegates fitting these [[Epileptic Tree
* [[MS Paint Adventures|Andrew Hussie]] has something of a widespread reputation with this, especially the farther things get in ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Misfile]]'' has been having this bad, lately. There are numerous places where we get a big build up to the resolution of a major subplot or the potential for some character development, when either someone barges in and interrupts the moment (Book ten was full of this), Emily drops the conversation (Can't remember any other character doing this), or the conversation suddenly changes. When [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=1550 this scene] ended, a lot of fans were not happy.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' writers Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick ''love'' to mess with the fans. They have claimed that third season [[The Scrappy|Scrappies]], The Murderous Moppets, will be getting [[
** Doc Hammer actually made it his personal mission to spoil the end of season 3 in '''every''' episode commentary for said season. In the first episode, he did it accidentally, then he decided that if you listen to the commentaries before finishing the season you deserve what you get.
* It's hard to decide if the people working on ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Then, just for extra [[Trolling Creator|Trolliness]], when the fandom exploded over that picture, they posted another picture. What can you see in the background of the second picture? The post of the first picture. Yeah.
** A [http://youtu.be/jMi1JRvW9E4 recent commercial] showing previews of the fall lineup includes literally 2 seconds worth of footage from the show, including a bit with Princess Celestia that has fans wildly speculating as to the circumstances of the particular scene.
* The producers of
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
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