The Un-Reveal: Difference between revisions

'''Random student:''' [[Random Events Plot|Holy crap a meteor hit the school building!]]

'''[[The Chew Toy|Hokuto's Lackey]]:''' [[Curse Cut Short|Son of aaaaaaa ---]]

 

It appears that a [[The Reveal|reveal]] is being set up... [[Subverted Trope|but there's no reveal in the end.]]

Can be either frustrating or hilarious, depending on how badly the viewer wants the reveal, and how far the viewer was strung along expecting it.

 

 

A [[Sound Effect Bleep]] can be used to create an Un-Reveal. Another weapon in '''The Un-Reveal''' arsenal is the end-of-episode cutoff.

{{examples}}

== The Basic Un-Reveal ==

* ''[[Naruto]]'' had its infamous Episode 101, the "Unmask Kakashi" episode. At the end, he takes off his mask to reveal... another lighter-colored mask.

** However, the one-off manga special this episode was based off didn't even reveal that to the main characters (and audience). Apparently, the ramen store-owner and waitress ''did'' see Kakashi's real face, and the reaction (all starry-eyed with the [[Luminescent Blush]]) seems to suggest that Kakashi is at least a borderline [[Bishonen]].

* In ''[[Ranma ½]]'', Principal Kunō threatens to reveal everyone's English test scores for all to find out. Ranma initially doesn't care, but when the principal implies his score is so bad he couldn't reveal it, Ranma gives chase and the principal later changes his mind about revealing his score. Even Ranma's English teacher forgot what she actually gave him. When he finally caught him, it turns out that what the principal had was actually a cheesy prank of a poster with his face with the words "Kiss me!" and he accidentally left everyone's test scores in a hot-air balloon ([[Brick Joke|which is initially how he was going to let everyone know]]). The scores reach the international news somehow; Akane's score turns out to be very good, and while Ranma's isn't revealed, it's implied he actually did not too bad.

* In ''[[Super GALS!|Gals!]]'', Towa reveals Ran's secret to Kasumi. But whatever it was, it isn't actually interesting.

* ''[[Bokurano]]'', with its premise of {{spoiler|killing all of the "chosen" pilots as part of a gigantic, winner-takes-all tournament that would determine the last universe remaining}}, seemed to have been heading towards an ending finally explaining how and why all the events in the manga happened with its last chapter, titled {{spoiler|Dung Beetle}}. Instead, said character offers one theory for why everything has happened, before {{spoiler|proceeding with its [[No Ending]].}}

* A ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode features a mad bomber who is continuously thwarted in his attempts to get the word out on why he is setting off teddy bear bombs to blow up public buildings.

** Edward always covers the text balloon whenever someone mentions his exact height.

* In one of the last chapters of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Negi whispers to Asuna the name of the girl he likes. The reader doesn't get to know who it is.

 

=== [[Comic Books]] ===

** According to [[Word of God]], {{spoiler|1=[[All There in the Manual|the monster was a baby that had been dormant at the bottom of the ocean near an oil rig. The thing that you see falling in the last scene is apparently a satellite that wakes Clover up.]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCgvbg1T2Wc Cue scared baby monster tantrum.]}}

* ''Quarantine'' is very much in the same style as ''Cloverfield''. Near the end of the film, after we have been fed tantalizing hints about the origin of the virus, our protagonists stumble upon a hidden room, full of newspaper clippings, pseudo-scientific reports, and an old recorder. They fire it up, only for it to play so slowly as to be unintelligible. Now, it's probable that it actually says something (again, like the message at the end of ''Cloverfield'') but it's pretty frustrating for the audience.

* ''[[REC]]'' '''does''' reveal the origin of the virus, but the fate of {{spoiler|Angela}} is still up in the air, with strong implications that she's either {{spoiler|dead}} or {{spoiler|infected}}. In the sequel, ''REC 2'', you will get the answer: {{spoiler|infected, but of another kind... she is now possessed by the devil entity}}

* In the film version of ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story]]'', Bastian chooses his mother's name to give to the ailing Childlike Empress. What is it? Nobody knows; when he dramatically calls it out, it can't be heard over the storm. (In the book, he names her "Moon Child".)

* In ''[[A Christmas Carol]] (1938)'', Scrooge extinguishes the Ghost of Christmas Past before she can show him [[Start of Darkness|"the darker years of his life"]]..

* The made-for-TV Spielberg thriller ''[[Duel (film)|Duel]]'' never shows the crazed trucker's face.

 

=== Literature ===

* ''[[Seinfeld]]'': "The Seven". We never do find out why Jerry's girlfriend always seems to be wearing the same dress. In "The Pie", we never find out why the girl wouldn't taste the pie.

** Or why Kramer was discharged from the Army.

* Bob from ''[[Becker]]'' told a story about why he never turns on the light when he gets dressed. The rest is never revealed but the characters are shocked and disgusted by the story.

* In the final episode of ''[[Blackadder|Blackadder Goes Forth]]'', just as the men are about to go over the top, Baldrick tells Blackadder that [[Running Gag|he has a cunning plan.]] After asking how cunning it is, Blackadder wistfully observes that it will have to wait, although it was surely better than his own plan of pretending to be mad. Then the whistle blows and [[Tear Jerker|they all go over the top.]]

* On ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', the finale arc had a few characters wondering what the Breen really look like under those armored suits they always wear. At one point, a Breen is shown taking off its helmet... only to reveal that it's actually Kira disguised as a Breen.

* Several times on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' Beverley Crusher really has to tell Jean-Luc something... but we never find out what. (We assume it was "I love you"...)

* In one episode of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'', the staff chips in (a grand total of £6.25) to buy a birthday gift for Mrs. Slocombe. She takes the top off the box and exclaims, "It's just what I've always wanted!" It's passed around to the rest of the cast, who all comment on the gift ("I've had one for years myself", "I wish I'd had one in the desert", "I've never actually seen one before"). Mr. Humphries then [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|turns to the audience]] and says, "We're not going to tell you what it is, it's a secret."

* A rare real-life version of this happened with the National Geographic Channel's highly-publicised television special in 2003. Supervised by leading Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawaas, the show was a first-time stunt in the history of TV - The television crew and Hawass' expedition used a robot to peer into a narrow shaft that opens into the queen's chamber of the Great Pyramid - Within the shaft Hawass found another stone block, possibly a door, and Hawass was made a laughingstock in front of live TV audiences from 140 countries. Poor guy.

* [[Played for Laughs]] on the [[April Fools' Day]] 2011 episode of ''[[The Price Is Right]]''. Throughout the whole show, host Drew Carey hypes up a "10,000th something", which at the end is {{spoiler|nothing}}.

'''Stephan Pastis''': (looking at the comic) Stupid liquid paper. }}

* ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'': Sarge and the Captain once conspire to see Beetle's eyes by scaring him so that his hat will jump off. When they do, it turns out he's wearing shades underneath.

 

=== Puppet Shows ===

* The Serpent's identity in ''[[Zap]]''. It was so obvious that a guest comic spoiled it months before it was officially revealed. One may argue that this was just a setup, and the real reveal was {{spoiler|Zap's identity instead}}.

* The cast of [[Cuanta Vida]] does some investigation into [[Team Fortress 2|the nature of the nonsensical war]] they're fighting, but ultimately come up completely empty. [[Word of God]] is that the comic takes place twenty years after [[Team Fortress 2]], so the {{spoiler|automated nature of the war's recruitment and supplies really ''has'' just been left on after the end, and there isn't anything to find.}}

 

=== Web Original ===

* Halfway through the serial ''Superman vs. Atom Man'', Atom Man—whose true identity has been a secret throughout the story so far—begins to take off his mask, only for the scene to suddenly fade somewhere else. (His secret identity was actually pretty obvious, but it was still the perfect time in the story for the big reveal; why they played it like this is a bit mystifying.)

* Dr. Claw from ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'', another [[The Faceless|Faceless Villain]], has an Unreveal at the end of the title sequence when Gadget places handcuffs on his gauntleted hand, only to [[Chair Reveal|turn the chair]] and find nothing but a bomb waiting.

* Phil Ken Sebben loses his eyepatch in a card game in an episode of ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law]]''. In the scenes that follow, the show plays [[Scenery Censor]] with the right side of his face as weirdness ensues and [[Take Our Word for It|other characters react]] with varying degrees of revulsion. (There is a very brief moment where his entire face is visible in a wide shot. Doesn't seem too bad.)

** Then there's the matter of ''how'' he got the eyepatch. His biography in the "Sebben & Sebben Employee Orientation Video" episode shows pictures of baby Phil holding pointed sticks next to his face, leaning in close to industrial equipment as sparks fly into his eye, having a bomb go off in his face and ''not'' losing his eye, ''pulling a truck by a rope looped around his eyeball''... Then the video switches to a dramatic re-enactment of his "life-changing accident" in which a broken folder clip sent plastic shrapnel into his face, which leaves the actor playing him lying on the floor with blood leaking from his face. "Afterward, Phil grew a mustache to cover the scar."

* ''[[Futurama]]'': Everyone misses Calculon's major reveal on "All My Circuits" twice because of interference from Bender.

* In ''[[Veggie Tales]]'', Larry's bearded Aunt Ruth was mentioned a few times. When he finally shows a picture of her, in "The Song of the Cebu," half of the film was over-exposed and Ruth's face is almost completely obscured.

* Just like the original series that is spawned from, Salem's human form in ''[[Sabrina the Animated Series]]'' is almost never shown. In one of his flashbacks, all but his head can be seen. However, in ANOTHER separate series, ''Sabrina's Secret Life'', Sabrina uses a potion to turn Salem into a human for her prom dance. Whether this is his true face or not is never revealed. Another character from ''Sabrina: The Animated Series'' is Pi, whose eyes are always obscured by his porkpie hat.

* An in-universe example; in an episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' called "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" a villain named Wormwood uses various deathtraps to force Batman to relinquish his cape and cowl. Finally, Batman does so...only to reveal that he was wearing a smaller cowl under his main cowl. Wormwood didn't care; his client hired him to retrieve Batman's cape and cowl, not to reveal his secret identity. {{spoiler|The client turned out to be Batman himself, who "hired" Wormwood in order to goad him into a confession for a previous crime.}}

* In the show ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' it's never shown or explained what Blackarachnia actually turned into before she became an organic spider (Wasp before becoming organic was a palette-swapped [[Kid Appeal Character|Bumblebee.)]]

** Also, all of the Decepticons' besides [[Big Bad|Megatron's]] (a Cybertronian VTOL jet, which briefly appeared for only a few seconds in the first episode) Cybertron modes, judging by their kibble. All of the Autobots' Cybertron modes, however, are completely revealed over the course of the show.

{{quote|''Kuzco:''' No! It can't be! How did you get back here before us?

'''Yzma:''' Uh...

 

== Examples of "Sound Effect Bleep" ==

* ''[[Code Geass]]'': Lelouch learns C.C.'s real name by accidentally seeing some of her memories, but an obtrusive sound effect (water dripping) keeps the audience from hearing it (and then he goes back to calling her C.C. later on). This also ends up becoming a more standard form of The Unreveal, since her real name is ''never'' revealed within the series despite ample opportunities.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|The End of Evangelion]]'' was originally going to play this type of Unreveal straight, as {{spoiler|Gendo's final words to Ritsuko before killing her}} were supposed to be drowned out by an explosion. The sound effect ended up not being used, but Anno still wanted the line to not be heard, so Gendo moves his mouth but has no dialogue. Anno apparently did tell {{spoiler|Yuriko Yamaguchi, Ritsuko's seiyuu}}, what Gendo said, but no one else knows.

* Events in the real world conspired to produce a sort of unintentional Unreveal in the premiere episode of ''[[CSI New York]]'', as [[The Summation]] was unexpectedly cut off by the announcement of Yassir Arafat's death. Of course, this has been known to happen in fictional TV shows: an episode of the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'' opens with the gang watching a mystery series when their friend April O'Neil breaks in over [[The Summation]] to bring in a special report.

* The so-called "Heidi Game" of American football, where the game was cut-off with 65 seconds to go and the score 32-29 , Jets-Raiders, in favor of NBC showing ''Heidi'' the movie. What happened in those final 65 seconds, you ask? The Raiders score 14 points and win the game.

 

== Examples of "you know the rest" ==