Tomato Surprise: Difference between revisions

The resolution of a plot (usually but not always for a [[Speculative Fiction]] story) by the sudden revelation of some important detail which has been deliberately hidden from the viewer. Had this detail been made known at the beginning of the story, much or all of the dramatic tension would have been missing from the plot. However, the detail hasn't been hidden from the "viewpoint" of the ''character(s)'', and is often something that they would consider an obvious and mundane detail.

 

 

In skilled hands, a Tomato Surprise can make for a stunning ending with a powerful impact. Unfortunately, in the hands of a hack or novice writer, it will almost always come off as a cheat or an [[Ass Pull]].

While this trope is often used for dramatic effect, it can also be used—especially in [[Science Fiction]]—to illustrate a moral or ethical situation in such a way as to invoke a different set of prejudices. Once the viewer has fully understood the dilemma as it applies in their assumed environment, the author reveals that the assumption is false and that the circumstances are different, leaving the viewer to reconcile new conclusions with old prejudices. For example, a story might describe the difficulties faced by society before finally revealing that the character is a visible minority, thus hopefully forcing a bigot who sympathized with the character to reconsider their position.

 

 

See [[Earth All Along]], [[The All-Concealing "I"]], [[I Am Who?]], [[The Ending Changes Everything]]. Related to [[Karmic Twist Ending]] and [[Cruel Twist Ending]]. The opposite of this trope is [[Dramatic Irony]], when the ''audience'' knows something that the ''characters'' don't know.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[The Big O]]'' uses actual tomatoes, though in a metaphorical manner; one of the final episodes ends on the main antagonist having come to a realization about his forgotten origins, declaring to himself "[[Tomato in the Mirror|I'm one of the tomatoes]]".

** "We are all TOMATOES"

* Pulled not once, but ''three times'' in ''[[Durarara!!]]'', each time proving our [[Ordinary High School Student]] protagonists to be [[Beware the Nice Ones|not quite so ordinary]]: {{spoiler|first, shy, naive Mikado turns out to be the founder and leader of the Dollars, then [[Shrinking Violet]] Anri is not only in possession of the original Saika, but she's been keeping it under control for the past ''five years'', and ''then'' easy-going, bad-joke-cracking Masaomi is the ex-general of the Yellow Scarves.}} Whew!

* Ingeniously played with in the short novel from the anime ''[[Death Note|Death Note: The BB Murder case]]'' in which detective Misora Naomi is sent to do the field work to solve an intrincate case of a serial murderer, helped from behind by the famous detective L who she has never seen in person; and also by a strange character with "panda eyes" that pops out every now and then. Now if you've seen the anime before reading the novel, you'd be inclined to suspect that {{spoiler|the odd character is actually L himself}}. But near the end, the reader finds out that he was, in reality {{spoiler|Beyond Birthday, the killer}}, who helped her {{spoiler|because he wanted to prove he was better than L by coming up with a crime so well-planned not even the biggest detective in the world could solve}} and then {{spoiler|helping Naomi solve it, making it appear as if he had defeated L}}. And the reason why people may be confused at first is that {{spoiler|Beyond was so obsessed over L that he copied his appearance, becoming almost his identical twin}}. Of course, Death Note fans [[It Was His Sled|already knew that]].

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''Enigma'', a story about a superhuman who patterns his life after a comic book superhero in an attempt to give his life meaning, the hilarious yet bitterly sardonic narrator is revealed in the end to be {{spoiler|a lizard whom Enigma grants sentience to, trying to explain the whole story to a bunch of ordinary lizards. Enigma was making a point about how he felt, living as a superhuman in a world of ordinary humans}}.

 

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' fan comic "[http://danbooru.donmai.us/pool/show/778 The End of the Maiden's Illusion]" concerns Reimu's death (of old age) and then segues into a reflective, long and sad conversation between her and Komachi. But scroll down the last strip and BAM! {{spoiler|Turns out the entire thing was an [[Oscar Bait]] screenplay by Nitori.}}

* The [[Danny Phantom]] fanfiction [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4332642/1/Smokescreen "Smokescreen] begins with Danny waking up after a fight. He's pretty disoriented afterwards, and as time passes, he has more and more trouble with memory gaps and his powers going berserk. Eventually it is revealed that {{spoiler|he isn't Danny at all; he's D-17 -- one of Vlad's many experimental Danny-clones! [[Paranoia Fuel]] indeed; as the fanfic recommendation page says, "Who's to say that you aren't you, but somebody else? "}}

* An excellent example of a Tomato Surprise handled extremely well can be found in the late Brian "Durandal" Randall's ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' fanfic, ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6995020/1/At-a-Glance At a Glance]''. Just like the canon, it starts with Kyon's first day of high school, told from his point of view—but it rapidly diverges for no immediately obvious reason after he meets Haruhi. It isn't until most of the way through the story that we learn what's been obvious to almost everyone else, but which Haruhi hasn't noticed ''at all'' because of her self-centeredness -- {{spoiler|that this Kyon is ''blind'', having lost his sight in an accident several years before. It's masterfully handled -- Kyon's narration is subtle enough that you don't notice he never gives you a ''visual'' description of anything and what often at first glance appears to be his trademark snark turns out to be him simply describing the truth about his life and his various accomodations to his disability}}. Early on a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade is even hung]] on the fact that there's something the reader hasn't been told yet:

:Unlike many Tomato Surprises, though, [[The Reveal]] isn't the end of the story, but the spur to its climax and resolution, which is part of what makes it superior to the usual implementation.

 

* In ''Ben X'', {{spoiler|Ben's online girlfriend Scarlite actually left the train station without recognizing him; the version of her that kept him from killing himself and helped him develop his plan was a hallucination.}}

* ''[[Identity (film)|Identity]]'', starring John Cusack. {{spoiler|The main characters are all the selves of a man with multiple personalities, one of whom is a [[Serial Killer]] and most of the movie takes place within his mind/a hallucination.}}

* In ''[[Cypher]]'', the protagonist Morgan Sullivan {{spoiler|is in fact the legendary spy Sebastian Rooks}}

 

* The [[Agatha Christie]] novel ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]'' is a [[Murder Mysteries|murder mystery]] with a Tomato Surprise ending. Some readers might find this clever, others might feel cheated—there was a long and difficult debate about it in the pages of the London ''Times Literary Supplement'' the year it was published, difficult thanks to the debaters' desire to avoid spoilers.

** ''Endless Night'' is another Christie example, and a particularly striking one.

* In Michael Slade's ''Ghoul'', the RCMP and British police pursue a Lovecraft-obsessed psychotic, a paranoid bomber, and a psychopathic hit man, who seem to be competing for press attention with their increasingly-grotesque crimes. Turns out that {{spoiler|they're all the same man, a victim of childhood abuse with Dissociative Identity Disorder, whose later life traumas had driven each of his several personalities insane in different ways. Also a [[Tomato in the Mirror]] for the killer, as all but one of his personas had been ignorant of the others' existence.}}

* Ursula LeGuin's "The Rule Of Names", a short story prelude to her [[Earthsea]] series, features a duel between two shapechanging wizards over the contents of a royal treasury, which had been looted by a dragon. It's only when the more formidable-seeming of the two invokes the true name of his opponent, hoping to force him back into his true form, that it's revealed that {{spoiler|his opponent ''is'' the dragon.}}

* In ''[[Ravenloft|Vampire of the Mists]]'', Katya and Trina turn out to be the same person. The heroes don't figure this out until too late, however, because it never occurs to Sasha to introduce his fiancee to Jander, who would have recognized her instantly. This works especially well, because there are clues all along that make it obvious in retrospect.

* In "Tunnel Under the World" by [[Fred Pohl]], the protagonist discovers that a strange group of people are using mindwiping on everyone in town to make them repeat the same day over and over. He then discovers that the town is a facsimile, and the group (who walk among the townsfolk, but are never remembered the next day) are using the town as a testing ground for ad campaigns. He frees some allies and they try to flee, but are finally stopped... by a gigantic hand. It turns out that the entire town was wiped out in a factory explosion, and everyone's consciousness was stored in artificial brains put in artificial bodies... but the execs didn't see any reason to waste money by making everything proper size. The town and entire mountain it rests on fits neatly on a desk.

* ''[[Zones of Thought|A Fire Upon the Deep]]'': In the beginning, nothing seems to be strange about Peregrine and the others. However, it soon turns out that {{spoiler|they're all [[Hive Mind|packs]] of [[Psychic Powers|telepathic]] dogs.}}

* A short story this troper once read (can't place the name) has a girl driving to a party with her boyfriend at a farm some distance away. During the drive, she reflects on how boring and uninteresting her boyfriend, and everyone else around he her, is. He decides to freak her out by telling her about a weird dream he had, where he was abducted by a group of three-eyed aliens. This fails to impress her. After the party (which she also finds boring), they're driving back. Finally, she's had enough and decides to show him something weird. She lifts the hair covering her forehead and removes a band-aid... to reveal an eye.

 

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'':

** The second-season episode "The Invaders" uses a Tomato Surprise to put a trademark [[Twist Ending]] on the story. In a script containing practically no dialogue, Agnes Moorehead plays an old crone in an isolated cabin beset by spacemen less than a foot tall. Alas, it wasn't [[Earth All Along]].

* One plot thread of ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' comes to an unexpected conclusion when it is revealed that {{spoiler|Iris and Mrs. Levison are really mother and daughter.}} The stage show ups the ante by revealing that {{spoiler|they're really father and son.}}

 

* [[311]]'s song "Hey You" is a tribute to someone who the singer describes as a "constant companion," thanking him for the good times that they've spent together. In the final repetition of the chorus, it's revealed that the companion that the singer is describing is ''music.''

* Used to powerful effect in the video for [[The Prodigy]]'s "Smack My Bitch Up". The video is shot from first-person viewpoint, showing a clubgoer going about their routine... which starts with a line of cocaine in the clubgoer's home and later involves binge-drinking, vomiting into a toilet, accosting a woman in a bar, meeting another woman in an alleyway and then returning home with her to have sex. At the end, however, {{spoiler|the camera finally turns to a mirror, and the clubgoer is revealed... as a woman. Most viewers will likely find their assessment of the preceding events jarred significantly by the discovery.}}

* The music video for [[Nickelback]]'s "Someday" seems to show a man running after his girlfriend. {{spoiler|He's actually been dead, which is the thing in the newspaper the girl was sad about. She then dies too, in a car crash, and they're together again.}}

* The 1954 hit [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGpR6R3a1D4 The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane] sounds like a song about a scandalous young woman, {{spoiler|until it's revealed she's only nine-days-old.}}

* "Sally Cinnamon" by [[The Stone Roses]] seems like a typical love song, then in the last verse it's revealed that {{spoiler|the preceding lyrics are actually the contents of a letter that was left on a train and found by the narrator}}.

* The Vicki Lawrence song, The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia (later covered by Reba) has the singer tell the story about how her brother got railroaded and eventually hung by small-town justice for a murder he didn't commit. How does she know this? {{spoiler|The last verse reveals that she is in fact the killer.}}

* The 1964 hit song "Memphis" by Chuck Berry (covered by Johnny Rivers) has a man calling "long-distance information" to "get in touch with my Marie". He and Marie were "torn apart because her mom did not agree". In the last line of the song, the singer reveals {{spoiler|"Marie is only six years old" ... she's his daughter.}}

* A very mild example in Gaelic Storm's "Go Home Girl", in that it doesn't really change the narrative any, but it does lend a slightly humorous new layer to it. Having spent the song trying to gently turn down a girl who's become infatuated with him, the gypsy narrator reveals in the last line that {{spoiler|the girl is eight years old.}}

* In [[Eminem]]'s "25 to Life", he raps things such as, I don't think she understands/the sacrifices that I made, I've done my best to give you/nothing less then perfectness, Go marry someone else/and make em famous/and take away their freedom/like you did to me/treat em like you don't need em/and they ain't worthy of you/feed em the same s*** that you made me eat, and my friends keep asking me/why I can't just walk away from/I'm addicted/to the pain, the stress,the drama. The whole song reads as something to a girl who doesn't appreciate him. Then one of the last lines, f*** you hip hop, changes the whole meaning of the song.

** "Stan" as well. Although the listener knows it already, Eminem ([[As Himself|the character in the song]]) experiences a Tomato Surprise when he figures out that Stan was the lunatic he saw on the news a few days ago.

* [[Led Zeppelin]]'s "A Fool in the Rain" is about a guy being stood up by a girl. For a while, he tries to convince himself that she's just late, even waiting out in the rain for her, until he finally gives up hope. He immediately realizes that {{spoiler|he has been waiting on the wrong block this whole time.}}

* [[The Kinks]]'s "Lola" is about a woman the narrator met in a bar and fell in love with, but in the final line it's revealed that Lola is actually {{spoiler|a transvestite.}}

** Though if you listen to the lyrics, it's pretty obvious right from the beginning of the song.

* [[Devo]]'s "Beautiful World", the verses of which are filled with positive lyrics about the world. It's only hinted at during the chorus "It's a beautiful world - for you" that not all is as it seems. Towards the end of the song the chorus becomes "It's a beautiful world - for you - but not for me", changing the entire meaning of the song to one of sarcasm.

* "Bus Rider" by The Guess Who appears to be an ode to the working man, who must get up early in the morning to catch the bus to work each day just to make a dime. Towards the end of the song, the singer states that he is glad to not be a bus rider, meaning the entire song was actually describing how being one totally sucks.

* Van Morrison's "Cyprus Avenue" is told from the point of view of a man who is desperately in love with someone. {{spoiler|It's a 14-year old girl.}}

 

* This trope is almost perfect for audio dramas: you can hide obvious physical features of primary, present characters by simply ''not mentioning them''. A minor example is at the beginning of ''Paradise Lost in Space'' where an exchange between two characters speculating about life on other planets ends abruptly when one of the characters off-handedly mentions their ''antennae'' - the entire scene occurs on another planet.

** It's something of an [[It Was His Sled]] now, but the casual (but sudden) reference in ''[[Hitchhikers Guide]]'' to Zaphod having two heads was originally intended to work this way. Trillian was the same idea in reverse; she initially seems to be another alien with her "space name", until it turns out it's a nickname for Tricia McMillian

* The [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audio play ''The Natural History of Fear''. To say any more would ruin it.

* The ''[[Torchwood: The Lost Files]]'' radio play "The House of the Dead" begins with Ianto in a haunted pub, waiting for Jack and Gwen to arrive, so they can interrupt a seance which will bring an evil creature through the Rift. Thus, the audience assumes that {{spoiler|this takes place before the [[Torchwood|TV serial]] ''Children of Earth'' - but it doesn't. Ianto is a ghost himself, Gwen's voice in his headset is actually the creature, and Jack came to the pub alone both to stop the creature and to see Ianto one last time.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'', {{spoiler|it is revealed in the last few scenes of the game that the main character is not only a direct descendant of the legendary Lord Median, not ''only'' is the mysterious black sword that once held Gig's soul an enchanted demon blade once held by Median which can only be used by his direct family line, but the main character is also '''a World Eater'''. Without any sort of build-up in advance.}}

** To say nothing of the fact that {{spoiler|one of your allies who joined the plot early on is actually possessed by one of the three main World Eaters, waiting for the best moment to usurp Gig. Oh, and that sweet sister of his that another ally of yours have been crushing on? She's now a soulless, empty shell, just so she can be a puppet for his plans.}}

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'', it is said the beastmen are the spawn of the dark god Promathia. Once you prevent [[The End of the World as We Know It]] in ''Chains of Promathia'', {{spoiler|it's revealed that ''all'' mortal life on Vana'diel are actually all parts of Promathia's body, the god himself slain by the Emptiness, with Vana'diel being formed by Altana using the Mothercrystal to try and restore him/it, with mortals as the end result. Her tears are also our souls, apparently, or something like that.}}

** Also, the Wings of the Goddess expansion is touted as a trip to Vana'diel's past in order to ensure the war is still won, and early missions imply it... {{spoiler|until you learn that the 'past' is actually a parallel dimension to your own. Or rather, that your dimension is a parallel to the other, where the war was actually won. And yours was never supposed to exist. Your mission is to prevent your dimension from being erased by [[Eldritch Abomination|Atomos]], a being that cleans up dimensions that aren't supposed to exist.}}

* In ''[[The World Ends With You]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|Neku has been (unknowingly) acting as a proxy for Joshua - The Composer of Shibuya, who'd been in in a Game with Megumi Kitaniji, with the outcome determining whether Shibuya gets destroyed or not. Essentially, Neku doomed Shibuya. Oh - and Joshua was Neku's killer all along}}.

** Also, {{spoiler|Shiki's appearance isn't what she really looks like. It's really her best friend, Eri.}}

* ''[[Utawarerumono]]'' - The setting of the plot is revealed to be {{spoiler|Earth in the far future, with the world's race as a result of genetic experiments; everything resembles the feudal era because of an apocalyptic period long ago}}.

** And don't forget the whole {{spoiler|Hakuoro being a god thing,}} either. {{spoiler|Well, [[Literal Split Personality|half of one]].}}

* ''[[Cave Story]]:'' A third into the story, the protagonist is stated to be a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]]. His antennae-ears are visible from the beginning of the game, but they're easy enough to overlook (or mistake for something else) on his [[Retraux|8-bit sprite]]. It's also suggested for most of it that you're in an underground civilization, but it slowly becomes apparent that you're actually on the inside of a floating island.

* The second ''Vigilante 8'' game had two of these. {{spoiler|Garbage Man is Y the Alien from the first game, and Bob O. is a monkey}}.

* In Bioware's ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', {{spoiler|when Malak tells you that you are the Dark Lord Revan.}}

* In ''[[Splinter Cell]] Conviction'', one level has you play a [[Faceless Goons]] who has to save his squad leader. {{spoiler|You are playing Vic Coste and the man you save is Sam.}}

** Doubtful, considering that it didn't turn out that Pyramid Head was a pawn of the true villains: [[The Happening|the trees!]]

* In ''[[Second Sight]]'', the main character gets frequent playable flashbacks to events in the past. However, in said flashbacks, you can actually change events in the past which then have consequences in the future which move the plot along. {{spoiler|[[Mental Time Travel]]? No. Turns out the "flashbacks" are actually the ''present'' time and the "present" portions are actually visions of the future, which ends up being completely erased by the end of the game.}}

 

* The parody creepypasta "[http://www.creepypasta.com/day-of-all-the-blood/ DAY OF ALL THE BLOOD]" wherein it is revealed that the man that all the blood was coming from {{spoiler|WAS YOU!!! (OR HE WAS A LADY IF YOU ARE A LADY) AND YOU FORGOT THAT THIS HAPPENED}}

* The third [[The Lazer Collection|Lazer Collection]] uses this along with [[Dramatic Irony]]:

** {{spoiler|When Randall finds out the ''villain's'' surname, the viewer finds out ''Randall's'' surname. Randall and the viewer both put two and two together, and realize that [[Luke, I Am Your Father|Doctor Octogonapus is Randall's father]].}}

 

 

* ''Codename: [[Kids Next Door]]'':

** "Op HOSPITAL": It's Tomato mixed with [[Continuity Nod]] in one, as the KND go to a hospital to guard a hospitalized operative. A few minutes from the end, it's revealed that said operative is... Bradley the Skunk from "Operation CAMP", who had been made an honorary operative in that episode. Cree is surprised to find the skunk on a hospital bed when she (and we) expected a regular kid, and Numbuh 4, who had been a bit jealous at Numbuh 3 for claiming to be in love with the injured operative (her exact words were "I love him"), is all "Hey!" when he sees Bradley, who she considered her adopted son.

*** Another episode had a new crimefighter known as The Judge, who was meting out deadly vigilante justice on Gotham's arch-criminals including Penguin, Killer Croc and Two-Face. At the end it turned out it was really Harvey Dent, who had become so distraught about becoming the villain Two-Face that his mind fragmented again and spawned the new identity of The Judge, a personality so distinct that it even went so far as to try to kill himself as Two-Face (Batman figured it out when he realized the two were never in the same place at the same time).

* Referenced on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' when Homer submits this poem to a literary journal:

* After many episodes of suspense, cliffhangers, confusion, and even a [[Non Sequitur Episode]], the second season of [[The Secret Saturdays]] finally ends with the ultimate evil (the being that can be used to take over the world) being Zak Saturday...the main character.

* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown]]'' features an episode where a mermaid and a rather savage looking barbarian [[Human Popsicle|thaw from an ancient iceberg.]] The monks immediately befriend the mermaid and try to protect her from the barbarian {{spoiler|who is the only one who knows that she's an evil fish monster who only takes her beautiful human form when she's in the water.}}

 

* There's a riddle that goes: the wet, naked body lies in a puddle of water surrounded by shards of glass near an overturned table. There are no marks on the body. How did the victim die? {{spoiler|The goldfish died from asphyxication after its bowl fell down and broke.}}

** There are literally hundreds of these kinds of riddles. In some ways, they cheat the person being told the riddle to, because in many cases, the solution is outlandishly farfetched and nothing in the riddle mentions it. Of particular note is the riddle about the man who takes the elevator in his building on rainy days and the stairs on sunny days. Turns out, he's a midget, and the only way he can reach the elevator buttons is with his umbrella, which he only has with him on rainy days. SURPRISE!

** 'A man lies dead in a forest. How did he die?' {{spoiler|He was lifted by a helicopter getting water from a lake to put out a forest fire}} and 'A man lies dead next to a rock. How did he die?' {{spoiler|he's Superman, the rock is Kryptonite}} are two common examples.

** A boy and his father are in a car. It gets into a terrible accident. The father is killed outright. The boy is critically injured and rushed to the hospital. In the operating room, the doctor looks down and says "My God! This is my son!" How is this possible? {{spoiler|The doctor is the boy's mother, you sexist pig.}}

 

{{reflist}}