History Main / AwfulTruth

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The finale to Season 4 is a definite example of this: Dean learns that [[spoiler: the "Upper Management" of Heaven has no intention of stopping Lucifer's return. In fact, they ''want'' the Apocalypse to happen so that they can finally destroy Lucifer once and for all (which will also lead to the deaths of billions of innocent people who get caught in the crossfire, but it's not like they really give a damn about that part). Made worse in Season 5 when the Winchesters realize their whole family was engineered for them to be the perfect vessels and all tragedies that happened were because of an angelic-driven destiny.]]

* ''Series/Fallout2024'' has particularly big secrets that shake the central characters to their core, in addition to having [[WhamEpisode sweeping ramifications for]] [[Franchise/{{Fallout}} the entire series]]: [[spoiler:Vaults 31, 32, and 33 were supposed to be a connected community, but it turns out Vault 31's purpose, as part of Vault-Tec's experiments, was as a storage facility for hand-picked Overseers from Vault-Tec's pre-war upper brass, all kept in cryogenic preservation until needed. When the residents of Vault 32 found this out, they descended headlong into anarchy and bedlam, killing their Overseer before turning on each other and themselves, resulting in the entire Vault being depopulated. Lucy's father, Hank [=MacLean=], was one such Overseer. Vault-Tec also had proprietary information on the secrets of cold fusion, a limitless source of energy, which they kept secret in the hopes of remaining ahead of their competitors. Worse still, to incentivize business partners to invest in Vaults, they conspired to '''''[[GreaterScopeVillain start the Great War, themselves]]'''''. The wife of the Ghoul, Cooper Howard, was the one who proposed this to begin with.]]

** Hank discovers that [[spoiler:Dermott's sister, who Hank just had sex with, was really Dermott's ''mother'', and that Rusty was his dad. Yes, he had sex with his half-brother's mom.]] Fortunately, Sphinx is right next door with the mindwipe machine! [[spoiler: Hank cheats on it a bit by leaving himself a message saying he had sex, but leave out the Dermott's mom part. And makes a Total Recall joke at his own expense.]]

** Hank and Dean themselves stumble into a lab full of [[spoiler: clone-slugs of themselves suspended in vats]] and drop in a catatonic blackout. Their dad manages to convince them they saw their Christmas presents of an army of robot slaves. In the prequel to Season 5,[[spoiler: Dean learns the truth and has a crisis over it.]]
** Triana has a portal to an extradimensional realm in her bedroom closet, and gets repeatedly mindwiped by her father every time she forgets.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is essentially a Thirty Awful Truth Pileup, both for the eponymous character and those close to him. In Season 1 he discovers that the reason he is being singled out by the Ice Truck Killer is that [[LukeIAmYourFather the two are brothers]]. Which wouldn't be terrible in and of itself, but it comes with the realization that Harry Morgan didn't quite tell [[ObliviousAdoption the whole truth and nothing but the truth]]: Dexter watched his mother [[DarkAndTroubledPast die]]. Also, Harry's a liar. [[spoiler: The [[BigBad Big Bads]] of Seasons 2 and 3 get awful truth reveals, usually coinciding with their crossing of the MoralEventHorizon. In Season 4, Debra finally finds out the truth about Harry]].

* Alex Mercer spends the majority of the game ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' trying to figure out who unleashed a deadly virus that got the city quarantined and destroyed his memory. [[spoiler:The culprit is [[MadScientist Doctor Alex Mercer]], who did it [[TakingYouWithMe as a final screw you to humanity]]. The worse truth is that the character who thinks they're Alex Mercer is really ''the virus'', who consumed Mercer's body and absorbed his memories and identity]].

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the Jedi Council prevent the other party members -- and the player character him/herself from realizing that s/he is [[spoiler:an amnesiac Darth Revan with a reprogrammed personality]].

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' ends the first arc with a big double whammy. [[spoiler: The Luke fon Fabre that has been considered TheChosenOne this entire time is actually [[TomatoInTheMirror a replica of the original]] and was always nothing more than a disposable tool by the BigBad who ''deliberately'' acted as his ParentalSubstitute. [[HeroicBSOD He doesn't take it well]]. On top of that, turns out their world has been ''floating above a sea of miasma and death'' this entire time, only protected by the passage rings and Sephiroth Trees that lift them above the death zone. Oh and thanks to in part the BigBad, the whole system is ''going to fail'' and [[ApocalypseHow destroy the world]].]] All of the spoiler stuff is bad but it saves the worst stuff for later [[spoiler: namely that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo the whole thing was basically predicted]] from the very beginning and the BigBad is just speeding things up for his goal of [[ScrewDestiny Screwing Destiny]].]] There's a ''reason'' that, until recently, Abyss was the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest]] of the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''.

** ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect1 Mass Effect]]:'' [[spoiler:The {{Precursors}} found the mass relays just like the current civilizations did, because they were left behind by a race of [[AbusivePrecursors sentient machines]] who return to the galaxy every fifty thousand years and destroy all intelligent life. Because interstellar society functions based on the technology they left behind AND CONTROL, they have little trouble in the act and the galaxy is powerless to resist. This is actually a ''cycle'' of extinction, and based on evidence dating back millions of years, the cycle has repeated ''over seven hundred times.'']]
*** [[spoiler:The oldest sign of resistance is a corpse of one of these sentient space ships. From 37 million years ago. There is, however, NO SIGN ANYWHERE of the civilization that did it other than the crater left by firing the weapon. To put it in perspective, the {{Precursors}} referred to above were only about 50,000 years ago... And just to set the tin lid on it, [[NotQuiteDead it turns out the Reaper isn't completely dead]].]]

* ''VideoGame/DinoCrisis'' has an ending path where the team's true objective of their mission is thrown into the open. [[spoiler: Apprehending Dr. Kirk was never the team's objective at all. Gail reveals that their true mission is to recover Kirk's research data on the Third Energy so that the government can use it as a weapon before anyone else can. As Gail puts it, securing Kirk was "just a bonus". Regina is understanbly upset and asks why Gail never told them anything. Gail replies that the top officials behind the mission thought Regina and Rick were too soft to accept such a mission, thus Gail was given the true mission to carry out himself. He kept the truth from Regina and Rick because he feared they wouldn't be able to handle the nature of their mission and would have likely refused to go along with it.]]

** This also plays a rather large role in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban the third book]]. First with Cornelius Fudge's insistence that no one tell Harry that Sirius Black is out to get them because it might scare him. Proving that not all adults are complete idiots, Mr. Weasley planned on telling Harry anyway, telling Harry to be careful and warns him not to go looking for Black. But he also falls into this trope by refusing to answer when Harry asks why would he be stupid enough to looking for someone who wants to kill him. Harry finds out anyway, but proves Mr. Weasley's fears correct because the Awful Truth in fact makes him want to kill Black. [[spoiler: However, in this case, the Awful Truth isn't even the Truth at all because [[MindScrew Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black is responsible for his parents deaths and Sirius escaped Azkaban to kill Peter Pettigrew, not Harry]].]]

** In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'' Harry receives a very harsh truth when he goes to Queen Mab, Fae Queen of the Winter Court, a dangerous evil being who would give tutorials to all the villains of literature. He needs her aid and support on his quest to save [[spoiler:his kidnapped daughter who he just learned existed not a few days ago]]. Her price is for Harry to kill a man who [[spoiler:betrayed her and in turn, tormented him to the point of driving the murderous rapist to insanity, and to take his place as Winter Knight]] and now lays defenseless on a stretcher. When Harry hesitates at this request, Mab shows him a live image of the one he needs to save in horrific conditions. She swears on her name and power this image is the truth and actual current condition of the person, and, as she CannotTellALie, Harry believes her. He then wonders if this isn't some false manipulation, as it is the complete truth, then it could be enlightenment.

* ''ComicBook/{{Eternals}}'': In the 2021 ''ComicBook/Eternals2021'' series, the core cast discover that the ResurrectiveImmortality the 1,000,000 year old Eternals treat so casually is [[spoiler:fuelled by HumanResources, with someone dying to power each Eternal revival]]. And they've been caught in an AmnesiaLoop when they previously uncovered this.

* In the TV series, Connor had already regained the memories of his real life, but in ''Series/{{Angel}}: After the Fall,'' his personal side effect of being in Hell is remembering everything. EVERYTHING, in crystal clarity. As in, vividly remembering [[IncestSubtext having sex with a woman at the same time you remember her changing your diapers.]] Plus betrayal of a loving father.

* In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' mini-series ''Imposter Syndrome'', Surge and Kit learn the origins of their creation: [[spoiler:they're actually two people kidnapped off the streets by Dr. Starline and turned into cyborgs for the express purpose of destroying Sonic and Eggman, their identities stripped away by Starline's brainwashing and no identification as to who they really were before being transformed]].

* ''FanFic/WithThisRing': TheReveal that the Martians were altered by the Guardians during their early prehistory (they were originally an extremely savage, violent species that the Guardians feared would wreak havoc if they progressed enough to invent space travel). Not only was this a massive violation of their autonomy, it also means that the entire basis of their society and culture, especially the division into White, Green and Red Martians is based on lies - their very ''minds and souls'' have been modified to keep them from ever regressing to their original forms. Their primal fear of fire, the Martian Kryptonite Factor, is a direct result of this tampering.

* In ''FanFic/WithThisRing'', this is how most Martians with the knowledge of their origins regard the matter of being altered by the Guardians.

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' reveals several awful truths, most being about elven history:

*** Given that one of the game's major themes is faith, most, if not all core members of the Inquisition faced this trope. Not all of them take the revelations lightly without breaking down.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', the season 2 finale "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E36TrueColors True Colors]]" reveals that [[spoiler: [[Characters/AmphibiaMarcyWu Marcy Wu]], one of the three girls TrappedInAnotherWorld, was not trapped at all. She knew what the music box would do and got both herself and her two best friends trapped in Amphibia on purpose]].

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': During the second episode, When Stolas tries to explain to his daughter why he's having affairs and his marriage is falling apart, he can't find the words since there's no gentle way to say that her parents [[MarriageOfConvenience never really loved each other to begin with]], that he [[AwfulWeddedLife hasn't been happy in his marriage in a long time]], and implies that his wife was always distant and temperamental.