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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"What a twist!"''
|'''[[M. Night Shyamalan]]''', ''[[Robot Chicken]]''}}
The pivot in many plotlines is '''The Reveal'''. A character is revealed as [[Luke, I Am Your Father|another character's mother]], [[I Am Who?|a god]], or secret suitor or arch nemesis in disguise. More broadly, the audience is given new information which had been withheld to create suspense. '''The Reveal''' changes the nature of the plot, often pushing it from suspense towards action. A good reveal will also create a new set of questions and further suspense. On some occasions, [[The Reveal Prompts Romance]].
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[[Super-Trope]] to [[Anagnorisis]], a specific variety of [[The Reveal]] first defined by [[Aristotle]] in his ''[[Poetics]]''.
▲'''Warning: Expect every example to be a spoiler for something.'''
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* ''[[Magical Project S]]
* ''[[20th Century Boys]]'': Friend iiiiiiiiissssssss * drum roll* Fukubei! Then comes along second Friend who is implied to be Katsumata.
* Episodes 14 and 21 of ''[[Code Geass]] R2'' are pretty much [[Info Dump|Infodumps]] on the nature of Geass and everything involved.
* ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' combines this with [[
* ''[[Naruto]]'' has been rather reveal-happy in recent years: we've gotten the true identity of both Akatsuki's leader and its [[Man Behind the Man]], Kisame and Itachi's true motivations (including the real reason the Uchiha Massacre happened), the identities of Naruto's parents, the fact that {{spoiler|Naruto is not the first host of the Nine-Tailed Fox}},{{spoiler|Madara was REALLY dead and a guy took his eyes and impersonated him}}, etc..
** {{spoiler|Now if we could only find out who Tobi is...}}
* ''[[Ergo Proxy]]:'' Vincent is the near invincible monster that was constantly tailing him and slaughtering everything in its way, the titular Ergo Proxy.
** In the beginning Vincent was a Proxy, the near invincible monster tailing him was his clone-fathers girlfriend.
**
* Usagi/[[Sailor Moon]] is Princess Serenity. Although it could be made obvious over
* Hagino's obsession with Mari in ''[[Blue Drop]]'' gets explained by revealing that Hagino saved Mari from drowning during the catastrophe caused by her space ship.
* ''[[Hellsing]]'': Dok was actually using the remains of ''Mina Harker'' as a template for all of Millenium's vampire soldiers. Turns out that since Alucard wasn't destroyed when he lost to Abraham Van Helsing, Mina wasn't completely purified of Alucard's curse. Thus all of Millenium's soldiers are poor copies of Alucard's power.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' ''lives'' for this
** First we find out that Syaoran is a clone created by the [[Big Bad]], and meet the real one.
** Then we find out [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Fai/Fay]] has a depressing backstory, he's faking his personality, is working for the villain, and he killed his brother.
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** Then we find out that the whole goal up till that point, collecting the princess' feathers, was a [[Xanatos Gambit]] by the [[Big Bad]] to have her develop "physical memories".
** Then we find out that ''the princess'' is a clone.
** Then we find out that the original Syaoran is actually the son of the protagonist and love interest of [[Cardcaptor Sakura]], and is using his father's name as a
*** Then we learn that the protagonist of ''[[
*** And that the creation of said duplicate f**** d up the ''entire space-time continuum''.
** Then that "the country of Clow" is really Acid Tokyo in the far future.
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** Then, finally, we learn that the feathers were actually soul fragments of the clones!
** Not to mention that both the Syaoran and Sakura's real names are Tsubasa!
* ''[[Baccano!]]''
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is loaded with these. The Eva's are alive and cloned from Angels. Rei is a clone of Shinji's mother and there's a whole aquarium full of clones. The Eva's have human souls (specifically, Shinji, Asuka and Ritsuko's mothers). [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Ritsuko is not a natural blonde.]] Kaworu is an angel. And so on and so forth.
** Eva 00's soul is probably Rei 1, not Ritsuko's mother.
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* ''[[Bleach]]'': {{spoiler|Aizen}} isn't dead yet.[[Big Bad|Not by a long shot.]]
** The [[Fan Girls]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|were right about]] {{spoiler|Gin}}. [[Kick the Dog|Maybe]] [[Moral Event Horizon|somewhat]].
* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''
** Don't forget the reason everyone goes crazy.
** Also for the viewer/reader (and Keiichi during Atonement chapter) the big reveal of unreliable narration during the question arcs. Go watch Onikakushi-hen knowing
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' does this with ''Pokemon's [[Ambiguous Gender|genders]]''. For example, Pikachu, after ten years of debating, is proven to be male..Or, [[Invisible to Gaydar|is it]]?
** In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', [[Bifauxnen|Yellow]] is revealed to be a girl at the end of the Yellow Chapter (though Red doesn't find out until the Gold/Silver Chapter).
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*** This is subverted when the girls discover that the Magic World is Mars and get excited, only to realize that it's just a useless bit of trivia. Then it becomes a double subversion when it turns out to be important after all.
* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'' the killer of BJ was Justin Law. While not affecting the ''entire'' plot, it's still a major deal for certain characters, with potentially serious implications (if that one, who else has been overlooked?) in the series.
** In chapter 72; Kid is said to be a fragment of Shinigami, who turns out to be one of a group of entities called the Great Old Ones. Making the Super OCD boy a Humanoid Abomination (currently) minus the evil and his 'illness' impliedly the result of the fact he/his father is an anthropomorphic
* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', the Jovians are exiled humans victimized by Earth's government and who use the [[Super Robot]] series loved by the protagonists to justify destroying Earth. Also, the little girl the protagonist is shown with at the beginning is Inez Fressange, who is older than the protagonist due to a time paradox.
* In ''[[Game X Rush]]'', Yuuki's Mom/Yuki-san is Memori's presumed-dead birth-mother, who murdered Memori's father and supposedly died in the fire that Memori accidentally started (hence explaining both Memori's adopted status), but Miyuki did NOT die, instead wandering off with semi-amnesia to save a young Yuuki who was then raised as Memori (explaining how he knows so much about the REAL Memori). Bizarrely enough, due to the compressed storytelling and the changes forced by the same, it's possible for this to be not much of a Reveal after all.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga: when the identity of Pride was revealed to be {{spoiler|Selim Bradley}}.
**
** At the beginning of the manga and animes, Edward's automail arm isn't revealed until he foils an attack that would have destroyed a flesh-and-blood arm.
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]
* In ''[[Kirby: Right Back at Ya!]]'', we get a relatively minor one, compared to what's going on all around, but a reveal nonetheless. For 99% of the series, the Holy Nightmare Salesmen always appeared on the big screens in King Dedede's palace from the waist up. When Dedede and Escargo(o)n meet the Salesman face to face in Nightmare's fortress, we see the awful truth- All that's at the bottom are just kirby-like feet, no legs, nothing else.
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', the secret behind Geass, as well as numerous other examples of this trope that pop up from time to time.
* The [[Distant Finale]] of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' reveals that the narrator speaking at the beginning of every episode is actually Simon in his forties.
** In the second movie, during the fight between the TTGL and the Granzeboma, the Anti-Spiral drops the obvious (to the fans who've watched the anime) bombshell that if the Anti-Spiral is defeated,
* In the last episodes of ''[[Tenshi ni Narumon]]'' it was revealed that the
** Similarly, it was revealed that
*** In the last episode, it was revealed that
* [[Umineko no Naku Koro ni
* Tons of information revealed in ''[[Eureka Seven]]''. Eureka's identity as a
* The true identity of the Red Man
* ''[[Digimon]]'' has several. Hikari being thw 8th Child and Tailmon being her partner, the fact that BelailVamdemon was behind everything in 02, Juri, after returning to the Real World, being an ADR, Duskmon being Kouichi, Kouji's long-lost twin brother, Kurata being a jackass and a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and that old guy being the head of DATS.
* [[Master of Martial Hearts]]'s ending brings this trope to utter madness:
** The almost unseen
**
** Aya's
** Every single character thought to be dead or defeated {{spoiler|according to the ''Platonic Hearts'' rulebook, unknown and unmentioned until the very end, the defeated contestant get [[Mind Raped]] into drooling idiots, may get their vocal cords surgically excised to avoid useless noises and are sold into slavery. Even the sympathetic ones. And you're shown the whole supporting cast in that pitiful state. Until they die. Every single one}}.
** Aya, poor Aya
* Although spoiled for U.S. audiences thanks to the fact that
== Comics ==▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Although [[It Was His Sled|old news now]], the identity of the Green Goblin in the original ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' comics was a well-kept secret for years before it was finally revealed to both Spidey and the readers.
** Stormin' Norman did double time on this trope when he was revealed to be the true mastermind of the Clone Saga all along.
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* [[Frank Miller]] usually writes straight forward stories but when he wants to, he can pack a helluva reveal. Such was the case with [[Ronin (comics)|Ronin]] The ancient Japanese characters don't exist, including the hero himself. It was all a part of the TV show an autistic, telekinetic youngman watched in the distant future. A supercomputer was using his powers and a little biotech to make him turn his fantasy into a reality, essentially turning himself into a hero. That way, she could easily manipulate him into doing her bidding. This would eventually lead to the destruction of mankind and the emergence of biotechnology as the dominant lifeform.
* The final issue of ''[[Steelgrip Starkey And The All-Purpose Power Tool]]'' reveals the tool (and the technalchemy that drives it) were developed by Steelgrip's partner Flynn, on a mission from a group of [[Cosmic Entity|Cosmic Entities]].
* The culmination of the [[The Incredible Hulk|who is the Red Hulk?]] saga. It is far too
== [[Fan
* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's aunt Rika Fuurude tells him about the events of [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]], hoping he'll reveal his story after that. Understanding that [[Secret Keeper|she'll believe him and keep his secret]], Kyon tells his aunt
* In ''[[Hunting the Unicorn|Hunting the Unicorn's]]'' eleventh chapter, the readers are subject to a reveal that does ''triple'' time as a [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] and a [[Wham! Line]]:
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Blaine:'''}} I'm not a virgin.}}
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** The first comes when Jeft reveals to Shag and Varx that he, not the Dalns gods, was the force behind the Vasyn quest. He set the whole thing up just to see the four in action and ultimately to have them go up against his favorite gaming character, Jim Hunter.
** The second comes when everyone learns there is no curse on Ketafa—even Jeft believed it—and the gods could see the continent all along, but told everyone there was a curse on it so they didn't have to spend money “godding” it. The actual effect of the Vasyn is to end the reign of the Dalns gods and turn the planet over to the Pyar gods. Whether this is a Good Thing will be explored in the sequel.
* ''[[How Can It This Be]]'' has the [[Spice Girls]] finding out they actually {{Spoiler| died during their reunion tour when their tour bus fell off a bridge into the river below, while Victoria was killed in a road accident}}.
* ''[http://fav.me/ddb26fk Seeing is Believing]'', after [[Spice Girls| Melanie]] showed what she had subjected to, with her head being the only original body part she had left prior towards "[[Unwilling Roboticisation|operation]]". As Melanie was discussing each detail, Victoria speaks with her husband, David. David understood Victoria needed to explain her actions after many in the room, including the narrator, noticed she was nervous. With David's support, Victoria had to explain what happened as {{spoiler| she also had the same run-in.}} As the narrator pointed out during the events of ''[http://fav.me/dd7ow55 Case of The Missing Technolgy]'', Melanie's eyes were replaced with [[Electronic Eyes]]. {{spoiler| Both Melanie and Victoria kept their original eyes, as a reminder of what Monty did.}}
== [[Film]] ==
* The all-time most famous is, of course, ''[[Citizen Kane]]''. [[It Was His Sled]].
* The
** "[[Luke, I Am Your Father]]" was only a big reveal to anyone who didn't buy the [[All There in the Manual|novelization]] of the [[The Film of the Book|movie]]... which was released [[Did Not Do the Research|two months prior]] to the movie itself. Oops.
* The big reveal that Captain Barbossa has returned to life at the end of ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: Dead Man's Chest''.
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* [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]] has a disturbing one as the [[The Stoic|callous]] [[Hanging Judge|Judge]] [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom]] whose glasses often lighted up to cover his stare {{spoiler|is revealed to the Toon who killed Eddie's brother, complete with an insanely high pitched voice and cartoonish eyes that could be best described as coming straight from a mentally disturbed animator or Hell itself}} Eddie was likely not the only one who was terrified of this scene.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* In ''The Hand of Oberon'', 4th book of [[Book of Amber|The Chronicles of Amber]] by [[Roger Zelazny]], {{spoiler|Ganelon}} is revealed to be the long-vanished {{spoiler|Oberon}}.
* The penultimate chapter of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s original ''[[Foundation]]'' Trilogy had three characters giving three different solutions to the mysterious location of the Second Foundation. In the last chapter, yet another character reveals the [[Planet of the Apes Ending|true location]], and the narration tells us his [[Secret Identity]] in the very last sentence.
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{{quote|"[[Dynamic Entry|Gentlemen of the jury, order the prisoner to be released!]] [[Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!|Mr President, have me arrested]]. [[Innocent Bystander|He is not the man whom you are in search of]]; [[Old Shame|it is I]]: [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|I am Jean Valjean.]]"}}
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', [[Gambit Pileup]] that it is, has a bunch of these, ranging from {{spoiler|Arstan Whitebeard actually being Ser Barristan Selmy}}, to Jon Arryn's murderer being {{spoiler|his wife, Lysa, at the behest of Littlefinger}}, and probably culminating with {{spoiler|Doran Martell's twenty-year-long revenge gambit to return the Targaryens to power}}. There's also the as-yet-unrevealed promise Ned made to Lyanna, which has been set up as a particularly [[Wham! Episode|whammy]] reveal since the first book.
* The second and third novels of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' series [[Terok Nor]] take advantage of the medium to set up a reveal they couldn't pull off onscreen. Specifically, two apparently different characters turn out to be the same man. The security chief on Terok Nor station, Thrax, is revealed mid-way through the third book to be the same character as {{spoiler|Sa'kat, the loyal second to outlaw priestess Astraea}}.
* In ''[[Daddy
* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]:
**
** The last part of the book show us exactly what Captain Nemo [[Kick the Dog|was using the Nautilus when he asked his passengers to be in their cells]].
* Despite being incomplete, [[The Pale King]] has plenty:
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* In ''Magyk'', the first book of ''[[Septimus Heap]]'', it's revealed that Boy 412 is Septimus Heap.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
** Angel is a vampire.
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* In season 4 of ''[[NCIS]]'', Tony's relationship with Dr. Jeanne Benoit was allowed to progress for many weeks, and to get quite serious for both of them, before it was revealed that {{spoiler|he'd engineered the relationship to investigate her arms-dealer father, and hadn't even told her his real name.}}
* ''[[Noah's Arc]]'' has plenty, but a major one that stands out is {{spoiler|Junito's HIV status}}.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
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* Or the true horrific reveal about Pro-Wrestling itself? It's ''scripted''. ''Dun Dun Dun.''
** GASP!
* In [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], the man who drove a car and ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin at 1999 Survivor Series was revealed to be {{spoiler|Rikishi}}, as well as the mastermind {{spoiler|HHH}}.
* Can't wait to find out who the mystery RAW GM is in the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]].
** [[The Un-Reveal|Unfortunately]], the Mystery GM was [[Put on a Bus]] and never mentioned again when [[Triple H]] took over as COO.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** In his moments of control, Kahn has appeared to aid Fei over the course of the game in the guise of the mysterious figure [[Luke, I Am Your Father|Wiseman]].
** *deep breath* And finally, Krelian's [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|true intentions]] in reviving Deus were to return humanity to the higher plane of existence from which all things originate, where they would be one with the Wave Existence and all [[Assimilation Plot|individuality would dissipate.]]
== [[Visual Novels]] ==
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* ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors|Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors]]'' has its first major reveal during the Safe Ending, where you find out that Ace is Gentarou Hongou, the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals and the perpetrator of the first Nonary Game. {{spoiler|Except he isn't Zero. Zero, as revealed by the True Ending, is June, and that you've actually been playing as her, not Junpei, the whole time. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].}}
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* There are several big ones related to the backstory in [[Avalon (webcomic)|Avalon]].
** At the beginning of the second year, Ceilidh finds out from Ryan that {{spoiler|Joe, Alan and Phoebe were all friends until Helène arrived and took Alan away from Joe, then Phoebe started dating an abusive douche named Todd, who eventually dumped her and started spreading rumours that she was a lesbian, [[Despair Event Horizon|pushing her to the breaking point]] and causing her to beat him up. In the end, Joe never spoke to Phoebe again and while Alan came back to him after having had enough of Helène, their friendship was already damaged.}}
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** Antimony and Renard's first real argument quickly devolved into them throwing extremely painful revelations at each other. Specifically {{spoiler|Surma never loved him, and Antimony was the cause of Surma's illness.}}
* [[8-Bit Theater|Sarda]] was Onion Kid!!!
* Parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20160322015320/http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-12-01 this] strip from ''[[Dominic Deegan]]''.
* At the climax of an earlier plotline of ''[[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]]'', it's revealed that literally every detail of the plotline was all part of an elaborate publicity stunt orchestrated by ''FOX News''.
* ''[[YU+ME: dream]]'' - when the reader finds out that everything in Part 1 has been a [[All Just a Dream|dream]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140218141836/http://mortifer.smackjeeves.com/ Mortifer,] being more or less a [[Wham! Episode|Wham Series]] [[Growing the Beard|in later chapters]], has plenty of these. The most notable, however, is chapter 18. William Aussek, Sam's [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] new CO, is actually Joey Von Krause in disguise. And Joey is actually a demon, with [[Playing with Fire|flame powers]]. And his eyepatch hides a gaping wound with a small light deep inside instead of an eye. And then he kills Sam, who's a viewpoint character. There are several other examples, such as the reveal that Vlademyre Hynner, Joey's old boss who was [[Brick Joke|introduced in the first chapter, then forgotten]], is the new leader of the southern black market, or the reveal that [[Badass Preacher]] Zebidiah is actually a demon under Vlad's control, or the reveal that Joey's [[
* ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'': The spirits are the bad guys.
* [[Homestuck]]: The most important character in Homestuck is... {{spoiler|Gamzee Makara. Though, Lil' Cal may be more likely at this point.}}
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** Even better though - '' {{spoiler|Microsoft probably wasn't responsible for the experiments}}''. The only reason {{spoiler|Ted thinks they are is because he saw the Windows logo on a nearby computer screen - and HOW many people use Windows OS}}?
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209182714/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2283 Satan is doing his charming sell when the door to Hell opens with pleas for help and he slams down on it.]
== [[Web Original]] ==
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* In ''[[Wormtooth Nation]]'', it's revealed that wormtooth gas, an invisible, odorless gas that causes permanent [[Easy Amnesia]] and has caused numerous problems for the protagonists, actually causes people to live forever in small doses. The entire population of the City moved down to the subterranean world in order to gain immortality, but after an unknown but presumably very long period of time everyone had been "nixed" so often that no one remembers this fact, nor the way back to the surface.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* ''[[American Dad]]'' loves spoofing this. One example, from "The Phantom of the Telethon":
{{quote|'''Stan:''' Give it up, Roger!
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'''Roger:''' [[Logic Bomb|Well, yeah, I...what?]] }}
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* The [[Coming Out Story]] is not just a literary trope, it's actual [[Truth in Television]]. It certainly plays as a Big Reveal for the ones involved, or at least for the protagonist.
** It can be [[The Untwist]] in the case of a [[Transparent Closet]].
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]
[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Script Speak]]
▲[[Category:Plot Twist]]
▲[[Category:The Reveal]]
[[Category:Scenes]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reveal, The}}
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