History Main / CaptainObviousReveal

** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', during the third case of the second game, prosecutor Barok van Zieks introduces a mysterious masked apprentice, whom Ryunosuke finds somehow familiar, and it turns out that the person in question is the supposedly dead Kazuma Asougi, Ryunosuke's best friend. In addition to Ryunosuke's odd feeling about the person in question, the apprentice is also skilled with a sword, much like Kazuma, and when Ryunosuke meets with Susato in Case 3, she mentions that Kazuma's body went missing after his "death." It's easy to put the pieces together and figure out that Kazuma is the apprentice before Susato recognizes him.

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' is a frequent offender of this trope, especially since it banks on YouShouldntKnowThisAlready:

** In ''Justice For All'', midway through the final trial, it is revealed that someone hired an assassin known as Shelly de Killer to kill Juan Corrida, and the trial focuses on finding de Killer's client. At this point, it becomes rather easy to guess that Matt Engarde, Phoenix's own client, is responsible, since he has a motive for wanting Corrida dead and puts up a rather convincing act of ObfuscatingStupidity. The fact that de Killer kidnapped Maya to force Phoenix to get an acquittal as soon as possible only makes sense if he's trying to protect his client from being convicted with murder.

*** The fourth case, a flashback, introduces one of Mia's mentors, Diego Armando. He's fond of drinking coffee, has "That's one of my rules" as a CatchPhrase, and looks like a dead ringer for Godot (whose name is pronounced the same as the last syllables of each of Diego Armando's names). It's fairly obvious that they're the same person.

*** In the final case, the reveal that the person being put on trial later on is Maya Fey channeling Dahlia Hawthorne is pretty subtle at first; you likely wouldn't notice the TwinSwitch unless you pay attention to the fact that Iris's mannerisms have changed. However, once it's revealed that the switch happened, it becomes the only way the case makes any kind of sense. ''Somebody'' has to be channeling Dahlia, and all the other candidates are dead (Misty), elsewhere (Morgan, Bikini), incapable of using the technique (Iris), or have the wrong appearance (Pearl has brown hair and Dahlia's channeler has black hair). Despite this, Phoenix spends a good amount of time whinging and Dahlia spends a good amount of time gloating about Maya being dead long after the player has likely figured it out.

* Discussed in ''WebAnimation/OverlySarcasticProductions''. Red states that if the plot twist is too predictable compared to the weight the author has put into the twist, it can make the audience feel uncomfortable or roll their eyes. She also states that this often happens when the author thinks the twist is more clever than it actually is.

** The reveal that one of the characters in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' is secretly a werewolf might have been less obvious if said character hadn't had blatant WerewolfThemeNaming. As it is, "Remus Lupin" might as well have been named "Wolfson McWolfy-Wolf."

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':

** In ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', the reveal that the amnesiac singer Lamiroir and the long-missing Thalassa Gramarye are the same person should not be shocking to anyone once Thalassa's picture is first shown. Lamiroir might cover her face nowadays, but she didn't change a damn thing about her hair.

** Arya is the noblewoman whom Eragon is destined to have an "epic romance" with. Especially considering he never pays attention to ''[[SingleTargetSexuality any]]'' other woman in the series (save maybe Trianna, though that's [[ShipSinking sunk]] very quickly).

* ''Literature/ThroneOfGlass'': It's mentioned several times that Terrasen's royal family were all massacred ten years prior to Book 1 but no one is sure what happened to the eight year old princess. Celaena is eighteen at the beginning of the series and was taken in by [[spoiler:Arobynn]] after being found half-dead near the border of Terrasen a decade ago. Celaena also mentions she used to have magic and Terrasen's royal family is known for being descended from Fae. Cain mocks Celaena about her parents being dead. Oh, ''and'' she has a connection to Elena's spirit, she being a former queen of Terrasen and the princess's ancestor, who all but states outright they're related at the end of Book 1 ("Blood ties can't be broken"). Gee, I wonder if Celaena turns out to be the long-lost princess? The series does at least try to put a more unique spin on it; rather than Celaena having lost her memory or being otherwise ignorant of her heritage, she's fully aware she's the princess but insists ThatWomanIsDead out of trauma.

** In ''Breaking Dawn'' Nessie wanting blood is treated as some amazing revelation. She's half-vampire and explicitly sucking Bella dry; what else ''could'' she want?

A SisterTrope to TheUnTwist, which is very similar, but not quite identical to this trope. The Un-Twist can be intentional and ''always'' comes from too much {{Foreshadowing}} to the point that the audience themselves get misdirected, because they get suspicious of all the hints (which turn out to be '''not''' {{Red Herring}}s, but legit). Here, the obviousness is never intentional, and it doesn't necessarily need to have foreshadowing in the first place. In this case, the creator genuinely thinks that they have an actual twist, instead of a double subverted one.

A SisterTrope to TheUntwist, which is very similar, but not quite identical to this trope. The Untwist can be intentional and ''always'' comes from too much {{Foreshadowing}} to the point the audience itself gets misdirected because they get suspicious of all the hints (which turn out to be '''not''' {{Red Herring}}s, but legit). Here, the obviousness is never intentional, and it doesn't necessarily need to have foreshadowing in the first place. The author genuinely thinks they have an actual twist in this case instead of a double subverted one.

Compare TheUntwist; this trope is very similar, but not quite identical to that one. The Untwist can be intentional and ''always'' comes from too much {{Foreshadowing}} to the point the audience itself gets misdirected because they get suspicious of all the hints (which turn out to be '''not''' {{Red Herring}}s, but legit). Here, the obviousness is never intentional, and it doesn't necessarily need to have foreshadowing in the first place. The author genuinely thinks they have an actual twist in this case instead of a double subverted one.

Also compare ItWasHisSled, where the twist was a surprise but has since become so well known to even those who never engaged with the work that it is no longer a twist. Contrast TomatoSurprise, DeusExMachina, and ForegoneConclusion. The in-story version of this is EverybodyKnewAlready. A variation is the ObviousJudas when the most ObviouslyEvil character is revealed to be the villain. Related to CaptainObviousAesop, when a moral that most people in real life believe already ("Murder is bad!") is treated in-story as a profound revelation.

** In ''Justice For All'', midway through the final trial, it is revealed that someone hired an assassin known as Shelly de Killer to kill Juan Corrida, and the trial focuses on finding de Killer's client. At this point, it becomes rather easy to guess that Matt Engarde, Phoenix's own client, is responsible, since he has a motive for wanting Corrida dead and puts up a rather convincing act of ObfuscatingStupidity. The fact that de Killer kidnapped Maya to force Phoenix to get an acquittal as soon as possible only makes sense if he's trying to protect his client from being charged with murder.

*** In the fourth case, a flashback, introduces one of Mia's mentors, Diego Armando. He's fond of drinking coffee, has "That's one of my rules" as a CatchPhrase, and looks like a dead ringer for Godot (whose name is pronounced the same as the last syllables of each of Diego Armando's names). It's fairly obvious that they're the same person.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', when "Roy Rogers [=McFreely=]" reveals himself to be Roger in disguise. He apparently thought that Stan would be surprised by this.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'':
** The ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} turning out to be the Masters of Evil. Not only was it a nearly 20-year-old spoiler at that point, but it actually suffered from AdaptationInducedPlotHole as the team gets accepted by the people despite the Avengers not being missing (the result of the battle with ComicBook/{{Onslaught}} sending them and the ComicBook/FantasticFour into [[ComicBook/HeroesReborn a pocket universe]]), the Masters of Evil only recently being introduced, the Avengers having fought them in the episode prior to the Thunderbolts' debut, and the Masters of Evil line-up not changing as the comics' line-up had done many times well before that point.
** The mastermind of the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' arc in Season 3 being ComicBook/{{Ultron}}, as both the season was subtitled "Ultron Revolutions" and Season 2 had its own adaptation of ''[[ComicBook/CivilWar Civil War]]'' that ended with Ultron being the main villain.
** ''Black Panther's Quest'' has a way obvious twist with Princess Zanda pretending to be Black Widow and framing Black Panther.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the "Shadow of the Bat" two-parter that introduces Batgirl, the mastermind behind the plot to frame Commissioner Gordon for corruption remains hidden in the shadows until near the end of Part 1, when he's revealed to be Two-Face. Except that between his hideout possessing the half-pristine, half-rundown nature you'd expect from a Two-Face lair and the show not bothering to hide Creator/RichardMoll's distinctive {{Guttural Growl|er}}, it's pretty obvious it's him from the get-go.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** This is PlayedForLaughs in the episode "The Sting". When Fry is killed, anyone who's not completely {{Genre Blind|ness}} knew [[ContractualImmortality they were going to]] [[BackFromTheDead bring him back to life]]. The writers knew this from the beginning, so they kept on having Fry come back to life, but it was one of Leela's delusions. In the end, it was played straight.
** A couple of fans predicted that Leela was a mutant, and many deduced that Nibbler pushed Fry into the cryogenic tube. However, in both cases the producers left obvious clues in early episodes as {{Easter Egg}}s; in the pilot episode one may spot Nibbler's eye and shadow around the table Fry was sitting on, while Leela's one-eyed parents may be spotted among the sewer mutants in a background shot.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': a new gargoyle character, Angela, is eventually added into the cast, explicitly born from an egg belonging to Goliath's clan in medieval Scotland which survived the massacre at the beginning of the series. Elisa points out that she resembles Demona, but also clearly has some of Goliath's features, namely his skin tone and his hair. Unsurprisingly, she turns out to be Goliath and Demona's biological daughter.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Grunkle Stan has a twin brother. Given that the show deliberately includes all sorts of details and clues for fans to analyze, it didn't take them long to piece it together. Creator/AlexHirsch even commented that he modified the way TheReveal was handled because the theory was so popular (specifically, the fact that Stan has a twin isn't the reveal, it's the fact that said twin is the guy who wrote the journals that Dipper has been following for the whole series). A few episodes later, a massive LampshadeHanging occurs, with the characters watching an episode of [[ShowWithinAShow Ducktective]] and being less than impressed with the reveal that Ducktective has a twin brother because they found it so obvious.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': The episode "Tick-Tick-Tick" clearly depicts the heroes' first run-in with Dr. Drakken. He is initially seen by flickering firelight, obscuring his [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation blue skin color]] for a later reveal to anyone who didn't already see it in the previously broadcast episode "Crush".
* The 1944 ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' WartimeCartoon ''Plane Daffy'' has Daffy trying to guard a military secret from Nazi spy [[UsefulNotes/MataHari Hata Mari]]. In the end, she reveals the secret to her superiors: "Hitler is a stinker!"
-->'''Hitler:''' That's no military secret!\\
'''Goering and Goebbels:''' Ja, everyone knows ''that''.\\
(''Hitler gives them a DeathGlare, causing them to [[DrivenToSuicide shoot themselves]]'')\\
'''Daffy:''' I lose more darn Nutzies that way.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The BigBad Hawk Moth turned out to be Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir's father Gabriel. Both Gabriel and Hawk Moth have similar facial structures and builds, they have the same voice actor in most languages (and Creator/KeithSilverstein doesn't even bother to make his voice sound different outside of [[EvilSoundsDeep making Hawk Moth deeper]]), Hawk Moth's [[TransformationTrinket Miraculous]] has a picture of Gabriel's wife in it, and Gabriel was shown to have a book about the Miraculouses as well as the Peacock Miraculous inside of a secret safe. Prior to TheReveal, the fandom was basically split between "it's obviously Gabriel" and "it's ''too'' obviously Gabriel so it must be a RedHerring."
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode ''Rarity Investigates'' has the "twist" that Wind Rider is the bad guy...and it's about as obvious as an F5 tornado. Show staff [[https://trixiebooru.org/983103 admitted as such]], but pointed out that the episode was less about actually fooling the audience and more about [[RuleOfCool doing a cool Film Noir]].
* The reveal in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' that Hunter was actually an ArtificialHuman created by Belos [[ReplacementGoldfish in the image of his dead brother]] was pretty widely assumed ''long'' before it officially came out. He looks near-identical to a statue that was widely assumed to be said brother, he's given a weird amount of autonomy by a fairly no-nonsense EvilOverlord, he has no magical abilities (which adds up if he's human rather than a part of a WitchSpecies), and Belos is repeatedly shown alongside notes and experiments that suggest he's working or has worked to create a human. That said, this is a case where the actual reveal ends up being in the details. Many assumed that Belos's brother died through some tragic circumstance and Hunter is the first attempt to recreate him--as it turns out, [[CainAndAbel Belos killed his brother]], [[ExpendableClone Hunter is just the most recent attempt of many]], and Belos has killed the others as well for rebelling against him.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons": Played for laughs in the Treehouse of Horror segment "Hell Toupee". Lisa [[InternalReveal realizes what's happening]] during the climax and starts to InfoDump, only for Marge to interrupt and chide her that [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "Everyone's already figured that out."]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' episode, "The Hard Way", it's revealed that [[BigBad Toffee]] (thought to be dead following the season one finale) lives on inside a fragment of Star's wand. Many had predicted that he became a part of the wand as early as the ending to season one, owing to his smirk at the wand's destruction even when he was about to be blown up, as well as his demonstrated HealingFactor. Season 2 only made it more obvious, with Star's wand established to be corrupted, his missing finger being inside the wand, his skeletal arm clutching the wand fragment (which wasn't seen at the end of season one) forming Ludo's wand, ''which talks to him'', and the build-up of Toffee as a character with importance to Star's family and the universe at large.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In the Season 5 finale, Ahsoka is [[FrameUp framed]] for bombing the Jedi Temple, and committing several murders during her escape, by someone who's suspected to be a Jedi themselves. Most of the viewers correctly guessed that this traitor would turn out to be Barriss Offee, Ahsoka's friend, who had barely appeared for three seasons prior to this arc, where she suddenly got considerable screentime, and most of her scenes were very clearly pointing at her guiltiness.
* In the first episode of spinoff ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'' new character Omega is so clearly telegraphed to be an OppositeSexClone from the same template as the Clone Troopers that they don't bother to stretch the "mystery" past halfway through the first episode. Even then the character that confirms it explicitly says that he only waited so long because he thought it was so blindingly obvious that he didn't realize the others hadn't figured it out.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** Garnet is a fusion. Ever since the concept debuted with Opal, it became pretty obvious that it was going to happen with Garnet- she has two gems with distinct cuts, she has several physical traits common to fusions (she's large and has an extra body part in her third eye), she's absolutely overjoyed by Steven's accidental fusion with Connie, and in "Fusion Cuisine", you can actually get a [[FreezeFrameBonus quick glimpse]] of her component gems in silhouette when Alexandrite de-fuses. The only people who were actually surprised by the reveal in "Jail Break" were the people who thought that it was just too obvious. That said, what ''was'' surprising was the reasoning for it: many had speculated it might be ShapeshifterModeLock or the result of some kind of injury forcing her components to stay together. Turns out they're just in love.
** The big reveal that Rose Quartz is actually Pink Diamond was an incredibly popular fan theory long before Pink Diamond was confirmed to even be a character. The insane amount of {{foreshadowing}} pointing in that direction actually convinced most fans that it was a RedHerring when the official story (that Rose killed Pink Diamond) was presented, which turned out to be the ''actual'' RedHerring.
** PlayedForLaughs at times. When Pearl first figures out that [[TeamPet Lion]] is somehow connected to Rose, Amethyst is only mildly surprised while Garnet comments "[[LampshadeHanging It's a little obvious]]." She says the same thing in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' when Steven reveals that Bluebird is a fusion of Eyeball and [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon Aquamarine]]; later in the same episode, Bluebird unfuses and the pair clearly expect people to be shocked by their identities, only for Steven to snap that ''[[EverybodyKnewAlready literally everyone]]'' figured it out as soon as they saw her.
* In the season one finale of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', it's finally revealed that Oroku Karai is really Hamato Miwa, Splinter/Hamato Yoshi's biological daughter who he thought died in the fire that killed his wife and Karai's mother Tang Shen. However, the large amounts of foreshadowing (for example, the use of the alias Harmony, as "Miwa" literally means "beautiful harmony"), along with the fact that several adaptations of the TMNT that use Karai explicitly state her to be the Shredder's ''adoptive'' daughter, made this blatantly obvious from the get-go.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AmericanGods2017'': In theory, Mr. Wednesday's identity is supposed to be a shocking reveal. However, anyone with the slightest knowledge of Norse mythology will immediately realize that the one-eyed old man named after Odin's day is, in fact, the one-eyed Old God Odin. Unlike [[Literature/AmericanGods the book]], the show doesn't really make any attempt to actually hide his identity. His old friends call him Wodan (one of Odin's names), he is followed by two ravens who occasionally talk to him, and the New Gods even offer him to give him a bunch of sacrifices using Odin-class missiles. When he makes his reveal speech in the season finale of season 1, it's clear that the only one who is supposed to be surprised is Shadow.
* ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'': Halfway through Season 4, a stranger shows up on Dylan's doorstep, claiming to be his late father's ex-girlfriend, and the mother of Dylan's half-sister, who he never knew existed. Dylan agonises over whether this woman is legit, or she is performing some sort of scam to get his money, and after half a season with her, and Dylan finally deciding that she is legit, we find out that she was scamming him all along and everything she said to him was just a ruse to get access to his money.
* ''Series/BlackMirror'': The "It was just a simulation!" trope gets used a bit too much. By the time of the fourth season episode "Hang the DJ", the characters musing about how The System may be a simulation is likely to prompt eye rolls from long-time viewers. The romantic (as opposed to horrific) nature of the episode is almost unique to the series, but the other example is by far the most renowned in the series and has won several real-life awards. That episode also turns out to be taking place in a simulation.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS4E3Traitor Traitor]]", the measures used to conceal the identity of Commissioner Sleer only make it obvious to the audience that it must be an ArchNemesis BackFromTheDead. Unless [[TheDragon Travis]] had somehow survived his CruelAndUnusualDeath in "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E13StarOne Star One]]", who else could it be but [[BigBad Servalan]]?
* ''Series/{{Cursed}}'':
** Near the end of the fifth episode, Nimue states her mother must've asked her to bring the sword to Merlin because "she knew him". It's treated like a big revelation, but it's blatantly obvious already and Nimue seems a bit daft for not thinking of this much sooner.
** It's pretty easy to figure out that the Weeping Monk is actually Fey-kind long before TheReveal, given his uncanny ability to track Fey. The other reveal that he's ''Lancelot'' is far less predictable, though.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': During Season 6, many viewers guessed that Professor Gellar was DeadAllAlong almost immediately. The writers were simply too obvious with nobody but Travis ever seen talking to him but still treated it like a shocking turn of events when the "reveal" came.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Creator/TerryNation's serials had a tendency to end the first episode with the shocking revelation that the MonsterOfTheWeek was...a Dalek! This only worked when each episode had an individual title; once the show switched to a single title for the whole serial, said title would inevitably be "''(Something)'' of the Daleks", [[SpoilerTitle giving the game away]].
* In ''Series/Dracula2020'', the way John Harker looks and acts during his time at the convent makes it clear as day he's undead himself long before the narrative makes it official. It's more a question of how, not if, he ended up in this state.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** Reverse-Flash turns out to be Harrison Wells, who has been AmbiguouslyEvil to the audience since the start of the series. However, the ''real'' twist is that [[DeadPersonImpersonation he isn't Harrison Wells at all]].
** And in season 3, the Flash gains a new major enemy, an evil wizard who is creating new metas to fight him, and a dickish new[[BackstoryInvader (-ish)]] coworker who is played by Creator/TomFelton, best known for playing [[Film/HarryPotter an evil wizard]]. (There's even a Philosopher's Stone involved!) Though again, the ''real'' twist is that [[BrainwashedAndCrazy he is not aware of it]].
** Season 3 BigBad Savitar being an evil version of Barry from the future. The foreshadowing was not very subtle ("I am the future, Flash" actually being "I am the Future Flash", the numerous other vague statements that pointed to this conclusion, Killer Frost instantly trusting him after learning his identity, etc.). It was so blatant that fans immediately dismissed it as ''too'' obvious and started theorizing about other possibilities (such as Eddie Thawne or Ronnie Raymond). Hence, they weren't happy to finally learn of his rather obvious identity ''twenty episodes'' into the season, [[ArcFatigue as many felt it wasn't worth the wait]].
* In ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'', "Prince" Igam is played by a woman who makes no attempt to disguise the fact that she is one, apparently a SheIsTheKing situation. About 3/4 of the way through the series, it's dramatically revealed that she is in fact a woman when her headgear comes off and her long hair is seen. The episode is called "Prince Igam, You're A Woman!" It's at this point that you realize it was in fact supposed to be a secret. On the other hand, the medium of Tokusatsu is inspired by traditional Japanese theater, in which some roles were played by the opposite gender (particularly in the art of Kabuki), so it's somewhat excusable.
* ''Series/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer2021'': The FirstEpisodeTwist that twins Allison and Lennon unintentionally switched places was pretty easy to see coming, considering that they even were twins to begin with and that early in the episode, Lennon makes Allison's make-up and hair so that they look the same.
* ''Series/IronFist2017'' makes a big show of finally revealing Madam Gao's face, even though it being her was completely obvious to anyone who'd watched ''Series/Daredevil2015'', while being meaningless to anyone who hadn't. Not many people were wondering ''which'' elderly female crime boss with a cane it could possibly be -- and the subtitles didn't even bother hiding her name.
* ''Series/TheJulekalender'': The mysterious man (Benny) is revealed to be a Nåsåer[[note]]basically an evil creature who wants to steal the Nisses' GreatBigBookOfEverything and use it for black magic[[/note]] in Episode 15, but by then the show has dropped so many obvious hints that you've almost certainly figured it out already: For starters, the narrator keeps saying stuff like, "The Big Book is incredibly dangerous in the hands of a Nåsåer", which suggests that there's a Nåsåer in the cast -- otherwise it'd be pointless -- and Benny is the only candidate.[[note]]There are only six major characters in the cast, and the other five are easy to rule out: The three Nisses can't secretly be Nåsåere because Nåsåere can't take the form of Nisses, and the two oblivious farmers clearly aren't Nåsåere.[[/note]] Starting at Episode 5, he takes advantage of the farmers' hospitality by telling them BlatantLies. His weird mannerisms are also a clear sign that something is off. In Episode 8, he asks the farmers some questions that are clearly about the Nisses even though he tries to hide it. In Episode 9, he's ''very'' interested in the Nisses' lost map. In Episode 10, he lies to the farmers and goes to steal The Big Book. Finally, in episode 12, he uses The Big Book to practice black magic, which the Nåsåere are known to do. Note that the reveal was probably obvious on purpose, as ''The Julekalender'' is partly satirical.
* Several tropes were so frequently repeated in ''Franchise/KamenRider'' that fans were able to guess the moment Series/KamenRiderWizard premiered that the White Wizard was going to be the EvilMentor, be connected with the BigBad in some way and that Koyomi would be the LivingMacGuffin. Needless to say, by its endgame, the show confirmed all three.
* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' has the first episode featuring the disappearance of a character, a monster who appeared around the area where he dropped the TransformationTrinket, and an ominous fruit that TheHero was tempted to eat. If you guessed that the fruit had something to do with the disappeared person and that chances are he became said monster, then congratulations, you've guessed along with everyone else. [[SubvertedTrope However]], the reveal isn't the fact that the monster was this character all along, but instead [[DramaticIrony the inevitable moment when this truth is revealed to the characters]].
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has many of these including Regina's mother Cora being the Queen of Hearts (we saw Cora disappearing through a looking glass, the Queen of Hearts knowing Regina's father and [[MeaningfulName her name means heart in Latin]]) and Emma's childhood friend Lily being Maleficent's long-lost child (Lily has a strange BirthmarkOfDestiny and mentioned having been found when she was a baby).
* Subverted in ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''. The mysterious and powerful Gold Ranger starts appearing and helping the Rangers. Meanwhile, former ranger and current ranger tech guy Billy starts being mysteriously absent. Lo and behold, the Gold Ranger is some guy we've never seen before.
* ''Series/PrincessSilver'': Rong Qi's behaviour towards Rong Le is very [[BrotherSisterIncest unbrotherly]]. Later it's revealed that they were lovers before Rong Le lost her memories. Though this comes with a less-obvious reveal: [[NotBloodSiblings they aren't actually siblings]].
* In ''Series/SquidGame'', the overseer of the games is a masked man known only as "the Front Man." Many fans guessed that he was the missing brother of Jun-ho, a detective who infiltrated the games to find his brother, because if he was anyone else, it wouldn't have any meaning for Jun-ho or the audience.
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion (Part 2)]]" makes a big deal out of TheReveal that the Borg were the aggressors in the war with Species 8472, who were [[CurbStompBattle well on their way to exterminating the entire Collective]] before Janeway stuck her nose in. Considering it's the Borg we're talking about, the bigger mystery is ''why wasn't that the default assumption?''
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** A big mystery is built up in season 3 over the demon who holds the contract for Dean's soul, despite there only being one important demon character still living.
** Taken UpToEleven in season 8 with the reveal that closing the gates of Hell requires taking your own life. This one was so obvious that even ''Sam and Dean'' predicted it in-universe half a season beforehand, yet both of them still acted as though it was a surprise they had never considered before.
* ''Series/WandaVision'': TheReveal that "Agnes" was really Agatha Harkness was guessed by savvy fans with a knowledge of Marvel comics history even ''before'' the series premiered. The lack of shock from the reveal is offset by the [[EvilIsHammy delightfully over-the-top]] way that it was [[VillainSong handled]], though.
* In ''Series/TheWheelOfTime2021'', Rand being the [[TheChosenOne Dragon Reborn]]. The show's first season keeps the new Dragon's identity a mystery until the penultimate episode, suggesting it could be any of the five characters from Two Rivers before eventually revealing it's Rand. The trouble is, anyone who has read [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime the books]], or even looked up the series before watching the show, will know it's Rand right out the gate seeing as [[ItWasHisSled it's a major plot thread]] (plus Rand is positioned as the main protagonist of the first book). Even viewers who hadn't read the books predicted it was Rand early on due to the series comparatively [[OutOfFocus never much focusing]] on Rand and whether he had any special abilities/traits until TheReveal; viewers guessed this was an attempt at [[RedHerring misdirection]] or else the character comes off as pointless. Mat was also taken out of the running by Episode 6 due to being PutOnABus. Some have speculated the writers were going for TheUntwist by toying with the idea that Rand [[NotHisSled wouldn't be the Dragon in this version]], but lots of viewers felt this approach wore out its welcome after a few episodes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': in the ''Tales of the Sword Coast'' expansion there is a quest involving a distant island with some strange inhabitants. They often point at your smell, one of them will refer to the village as a pack and they have uncommon ways of speaking (which at first could be seen as a dialect since they have a strange accent) and reasoning (like the way they give importance to the concept of someone "belonging" to a community). The village leader will task the player to slay some beasts that were harassing the village. She underlines a lot that they are different from villagers and that they look like them but they are not them: "wolf-like but not wolves and man-like but not men, I don't know how to call them, they are like us but not like us", they are "they are animals and live as wolves and carrion feeders" while the villagers "lived as humans as we could". A child says that "sometimes the beasties look like us but they change and get mean". Further investigation in the village will give another hint in the fact that apparently the hostilities between the two sides started with their ancestors shipwrecking on the island, implying that they had some ties in the past. Later you discover that the beasts are obviously lycanthropes (precisely wolfweres, wolves capable of turning humans) but their leader will reveal a plot twist: the villagers are too (although true werewolves). While the hints hidden in the village could lead the player to a final hypothesis that the whole island is inhabited by those creatures, it's evident from the first very dialogue with a child saying "you smell different" that the villagers are lycanthropes too.
* In the intro to ''VideoGame/BlightDream'', we learn that Michiru is an AmnesiacHero who has a disease that gives her [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anterograde_amnesia Anterograde amnesia]], making her lose memory of every new day in her life, so she has to keep a diary to remember everything. Just a few minutes later, we learn that a SerialKiller murdered two people at the Mashiba hospital, and their identity is unknown. Anyone familiar enough with mystery fiction is likely to figure out [[TheKillerInMe the connection]]. Not helping is that the game tries so hard to make it look like her brother Yuu is the killer that [[NeverTheObviousSuspect it becomes obvious]] he is a RedHerring, and since Michiru and Yuu are the only main characters, there are no other suspects, making it even more obvious that Michiru is the culprit.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': The main villain [[EnemyWithout Urizen]] and the new mysterious ally [[DarkIsNotEvil V]] are actually the two halves of Dante's brother, Vergil. It's supposed to be a big endgame reveal, but the narrative lays it on so thick that you likely have it figured out 5 missions prior to the big explanation or appearance of the latter. By the opening to Mission #10, we've learned that Urizen and V were split from a half-demon swordsman who has Vergil's voice and signature weapon, which pretty much seals the deal for anyone who's played a ''Devil May Cry'' game before.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': The identity of the Arkham Knight is this, thanks to its overuse of Foreshadowing. Anyone with some knowledge of Batman lore can have a decent ballpark idea of who it is fairly early into the game; heck, tons of people correctly predicted who the Knight was the very first day he was unveiled, but discarded the idea because it was ''too obvious''. Even if you didn't know anything about Batman, a certain character is seen several times through Batman's flashbacks who had not even been so much as mentioned in any previous game in the series. The last of these flashbacks has said character being {{Mind Rape}}d by the Joker into having a grudge against Batman, then Joker supposedly shoots him dead. [[ComicBook/RedHood Guess who the Knight is]]?
* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'': In the first game, Majestic leader Silhouette, who obscures their identity through a large trench-coat, and voice-filtered gas mask, [[SamusIsAGirl turns out to be a woman]]. While Crypto is shocked upon discovery, it doesn't come off as a major shock to anyone who [[{{Foreshadowing}} reads the thoughts of a Majestic agent early on, who blatantly states it and then fails to cover it up]]. In addition, even with the voice filter, Silhouette still sounds rather feminine.
* Caster of Midrash from ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' is revealed to be the Queen of Sheba which is treated as a big surprise for the protagonists and would be for the players if not for the fact that prior to this reveal, they put on a play about King Solomon where the Queen of Sheba was in silhouette but still had ''the exact same headwear'' that Caster of Midrash has in her artwork.
** PlayedForLaughs in the spinoff ''Webcomic/LearningWithMangaFGO'', where Lancer starts showing off abilities (like [[ShamuFu using an icthyosaur in combat]]) that make her [[IKnowYourTrueName True Name]] incredibly obvious. When Mash points this out, Lancer responds that in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', the reveal of a Servant's True Name has never actually mattered all that much.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'': At the start of the game, Maria is separated from her brother Leon as the party flees from [[DoomedHometown Fynn]], and she spends most of the game looking for him. A bit later, it's revealed that a mysterious man known as the [[BlackKnight Dark Knight]] has taken a position of power as the Emperor's right hand. Most players won't take long to figure out they're one and the same, specially in the Game Boy Advance remake, where the Dark Knight's character portrait is just Leon's portrait [[FaceFramedInShadow with a darker coloration]].
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'':
*** All Summoners, including Yuna, will die at the end of their journey. The game is not very subtle in hiding its hints. High Summoners, the title given to Summoners who have defeated Sin, are all dead; Yuna's meaningful glances at all places, before leaving them; the tearful farewell from her village or the [[ChirpingCrickets noticeably awkward silence]], after Tidus insensitively saying that they'll do this and that, after Yuna has defeated Sin. The reveal scene itself, about halfway through the game, seems to be more for [[FishOutOfWater Tidus]] than for the player.
*** Auron is an Unsent. Aside from it being ItWasHisSled territory, the hints are so unsubtle (Seymour asking why Auron's "still here" and saying that he can smell "the scent of the Farplane" on him) that ''Tidus'' knew what Auron wanted to say when he revealed his status as an Unsent to him. [[LockedOutOfTheLoop The others]] get this reveal in the final scene, where Yuna performs a Sending and Auron willingly lets himself be sent, after having fought a previous Sending that affected him.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Basch tells the party that he has a twin brother, Noah, that sided with the Archadians. This happens shortly after the party sees Basch being interrogated by Judge Gabranth, who looks similar to Basch. ''And'' it's mentioned in conversation that Gabranth is from Landis, Basch's homeland, and he has a brother that has joined the Dalmascans, the kingdom Basch was fighting for. So when Gabranth shows up near the end of the game and reveals he is Noah, the player is probably thinking "no kidding."
** ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'': Bhunivelze, the apparent BigGood, is actually the BigBad. Anyone remotely following the lore of the trilogy in the first two games could peg this one coming a mile away, since they spell out that Bhunivelze's sons, Lindzei and Pulse, are TheManBehindTheMan to the fal'Cie, the villains of the first game. Even if you aren't familiar with the lore, Serah and Hope, the two beings who claim to speak to Bhunvelze directly, are acting oddly and not telling Lightning the whole truth, and Lightning hasn't been feeling quite normal since being appointed Bhunivelze's servant, all of which she herself takes note of.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has several, usually in regards to characters disguising themselves, which is usually followed up by an ''actual'' surprising reveal.
*** The WellIntentionedExtremist leader of the Ala Mhigan Corpse Brigade was Ilberd. His identity was so blatantly obvious that only Alphinaud was surprised to learn it was him. The ''true'' reveal was what he was actually planning: To get all of his followers killed so their sacrifice would fuel the summoning of a primal.
*** The Zenos seen post-Stormblood was Elidibus. Which served to mask the fact that the ''real'' Zenos had ''also'' returned to life, in another body.
*** The Crystal Exarch is G'raha Tia. He's first seen in a trailer watching events from inside the Crystal Tower, a place only people of royal Allagan blood can open and where G'raha was last seen. If the player had completed the Crystal Tower raid quest line, they're given the option of asking him about G'raha the second they meet him in person, which he awkwardly tries to dodge using ExactWords. The ''real'' reveal is how he got to the First shard to begin with.
*** The "Ardbert" running around the present day Norvrandt post-5.0 is Elidibus puppeting his corpse. Since Ardbert's soul merged with the Warrior of Light's and Elidibus is the only Ascian left, it was quite easy to put two and two together. He puts so little effort into actually acting like Ardbert that the player's given the option to be offended that he thought anyone would fall for it. In this instance, Elidibus wasn't trying to fool ''you'', he was tricking Norvrandt into fueling his Primal form by convincing the public at large to become The First's new Warriors of Light.
* ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven'''s main villain is hidden for the first several chapters, with his [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed servants]] just calling him 'The Noble One'. This new villain has a personal beef with the Joestar family (they're the first ones he sends people to attack), villains from ''Stardust Crusaders'' like Enya and Vanilla Ice serve him without being brainwashed, and the way his minions refer to him makes it clear that he has a [[AGodAmI god complex]] the size of Massachusetts. Yeah, it's Dio. Though to be fair to the protagonists for not figuring this out for a while, the Noble One ''isn't'' the Dio they're familiar with (who dies in the prologue), he's a counterpart from a universe where [[TheBadGuyWins the bad guy won]] ''Manga/StardustCrusaders''.
* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory3'': When Micah reveals his secret to Daria, she reveals her own secret -- she's an elf. Micah treats this as a stunning revelation, and the player is supposed to as well. [[http://therunefactory.wikia.com/wiki/Daria This is Daria.]] Though it could be argued that the shock was that Daria was specifically an elf, not just non-human. Falls flat especially in the case of the legitimate surprise of Raven's reveal.
* ''VideoGame/RuneFactoryTidesOfDestiny'' does this to the three biggest revelations in the game's plotline.
** Aiden and Sonja are from Fenith Island, but end up transported to what they take to be an alternate universe version of Fenith Island. They recall many dragons flying through the sky, but that's not the case here, though Odette mentions that this was the case 200 years ago. Many players already realized that the protagonists had been sent to a future version of their home. The actual revelation doesn't occur until close to the plot's climax.
** The three sisters Odette, Lily, and Violet are the Dragon Priestesses of Fire, Earth, and Water, respectively. There is no Dragon Priestess of Wind, as her lineage died out 200 years ago. This lack of the fourth priestess isn't treated as important to mention until she's needed and, yes, ''Sonja'' turns out to be the Dragon Priestess of Wind -- and her lineage died out 200 years ago [[StableTimeLoop because she and Aiden were transported forward in time]].
** When Aiden and Sonja get transported in the beginning, Sonja's body is missing and her consciousness has [[SharingABody attached itself to Aiden]]. Finding out what happened to Sonja's body is part of the plot, and they are confronted by a Masked Man. No prizes are won for guessing just whose face is hidden under that mask: Sonja's. And this doesn't get revealed until the very definite Final Boss battle.
* ''VideoGame/Persona4'':
** [[SamusIsAGirl Naoto is a girl.]] Thanks to the English voice acting this doesn't come as much of a surprise to most (although her voice is slightly deeper before TheReveal), though the Japanese voice acting does a ''slightly'' better job of hiding it. Even then, [[{{Bifauxnen}} many players were able to tell her gender just by looking at her]], and the twist has well and truly reached ItWasHisSled levels now.
** Adachi being the killer for some people. He was the only major character who didn't have a Social Link (until the ''Golden'' UpdatedRerelease--and even then it was an Arcana that ''doesn't exist in reality''), much like Ikutsuki in ''VideoGame/Persona3''. Another hint was his tendency to "accidentally" give the Investigation Team hints, mostly to cover his own ass. Another give-away that it's a common cliche in murder mysteries that the killer is perceived as a NiceGuy before the reveal while a {{Jerkass}} is a RedHerring.
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'':
** Goro Akechi being Black Mask, as well as [[SixthRangerTraitor the one who sold out the protagonist during the Niijima's Palace heist]]. Many fans suspected this plot twist from the beginning, as Akechi isn't present in a lot of promotional material and didn't receive official artwork of his Phantom Thief outfit or his Persona Robin Hood until a few years after the game was released. The game isn't subtle in this regard either, as several of Akechi's DLC outfits gives him costumes that hint at his true moral standing such as [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf Ideo Hazama's uniform]] and [[VideoGame/{{Catherine}} Boss (Dumuzid)'s suit]], a book for his Persona doesn't get unlocked when he joins the party unlike with the other party members [[note]]this is downplayed as it's a case of the book being DummiedOut via programmer incompetence instead of being intended to hint at Akechi's true colors; this mistake is fixed in ''Royal''[[/note]], and one of the first scenes where the protagonist personally encounters Akechi has him talking about "delicious pancakes", despite that Morgana was the only one who mentioned pancakes and it's established early on that only those who have visited the Metaverse can understand [[TalkingAnimal Morgana]]. All of it actually serves to disguise the ''real'' twist about Akechi: his treachery was so obvious that the protagonists knew about it the whole time, having caught the "pancakes" slip-up.
** "Igor" is actually an impostor. His voice is completely different (while Igor's Japanese VA ''had'' died prior to the game's creation, TheOtherDarrin doesn't even ''bother'' trying to sound like the original), he has different speech patterns and uses different terminology ("welcome to ''my'' Velvet Room" instead of "welcome to ''the'' Velvet Room", using different UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns, calling Social Links "Confidants"[[note]]Although Confidants are slightly different from Social Links in that they begin with a [[ArcWords deal]] between Joker and the character in question[[/note]]), he sits in a different way, and his previous [[Series/TalesFromTheCrypt Cryptkeeper]]-esque demeanor is entirely gone. More subtly, he doesn't give you the key to the Velvet Room at the start of the game, a detail that only comes up at the very end, when Lavenza gives you it as a FriendshipTrinket for completing the Strength Confidant. While the protagonists are fooled because they don't have the real Igor to compare him to, any player familiar with the previous games would sense something rotten from his first appearance.
* In ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'', the villain behind all of this games' Robot Masters is supposed to be a mysterious "Mr. X." Given how formulaic the series is, anyone who has played any of the previous five games knows Mr. X is very obviously going to be eventually revealed as Dr. Wily in disguise. Particularly since the series already tried a similarly unconvincing final boss fake-out with Dr. Cossack in ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'', then again with Protoman in ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'', not to mention the fact that Mr. X looks exactly like Dr. Wily. By ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' or so, the series was pretty clearly just playing it for laughs, with Wily blaming a bunch of recent robot attacks on Light with relatively little evidence--shock of shocks, turns out he was behind them, and the entire ending cutscene of the game is dedicated to how clear it was that Wily was behind them.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' has no small HijackedByGanon tendency with Sigma, which naturally leads to this. Pretty much every game since ''X3'' features some kind of new villain who is making mysterious plans, has turned evil for no explicable reason, or is clearly answering to someone else. It naturally turns out to be Sigma every single time. ''X7'' in particular has cutscenes involving an unidentified figure in shadow...who has glowing blue eyes, big shoulderpads, a bald head, and a cape. That look narrows things down a little.
* Even ignoring how widely known the twist is now thanks to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', the identity of the Masked Man in ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' is pretty obvious. [[Tearjerker/{{MOTHER}} It certainly doesn't make what happens after the mask is taken off any less impactful, though.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'':
*** "What? Are you telling me that the serious, pale-skinned man who uses a red scouter-like machine on his right eye, wears a robe with eyeballs in it and is constantly talking on behalf of Team Plasma is actually a villain and Team Plasma's real leader? And the guy who looks like a younger version of him is actually his son!? HOW WOULD I KNOW?" Though what IS a surprise is just how evil said villain is and [[AbusiveParents how he has treated his son]].
*** ''Black'' and ''White'' also try to pretend that N being the "official" leader of Team Plasma is a surprise until Nimbasa City. Even for players who skipped past the animation depicting his coronation that plays before the title screen every time the game is booted up, it wasn't hard to piece together that the weird kid who claims to be able to speak fluent Pokémon and asks your Mons if you treat them well is linked to that weird organization that claims to fight against Pokémon abuse.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'':
*** The goal of Team Flare is to destroy the world and make a more beautiful one in its place. So naturally the leader of said operation couldn't possibly be that weird friend of the region's professor you met a few hours earlier, who is a FieryRedhead (like every member of Team Flare), [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver wears a black suit with red highlights]], and ends every conversation by saying things like "I would end the world in an instant so that beauty never fades." Nope, that's just silly. What, he's talking about the ancient WeaponOfMassDestruction in a positive light? Saying that his ancestor had the right idea in cleansing the world of filth? ''And'' the grunts of the villain team are causally hanging out in his café? When the reveal happens, most players are instead shocked that it's meant to be a reveal at all.
*** In the same game, they make a similarly half-hearted attempt to hide the fact that Diantha is the Kalos League Champion. To the point that the anime doesn't even bother and introduces her as such in her first appearance there.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'':
*** The very instant the Aether Foundation was revealed in trailers for the game, everyone suspected that they would be the story's BigBad. The game proper averts this, opening with Lillie already on the run from a bunch of malicious-looking Aether employees, thus making the revelation more of an InternalReveal already known by some of the characters.
*** The fact that Lusamine is evil is blatantly obvious after the first Ultra Beast leaves during your first meeting with her because she sports a SlasherSmile and starts muttering like a madwoman. Though much like in ''Black And White'', the surprise is just HOW bad she is.
*** TheReveal that Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine are all related is hardly surprising given that they all look so similar, especially Lillie and Lusamine.
*** Many people predicted Cosmog would evolve into Lunala simply by noticing how similar its design is. Same goes with Cosmoem and Solgaleo. This meant the only real surprise was that Cosmog has a middle-stage (Cosmoem) prior to the divergent evolution.
*** The minute the Ultra Beasts were revealed for ''Pokémon Sun and Moon'', people predicted they'd be Pokémon you'd be able to catch later in the game, even though the developers were trying to make them out as being distinct from Pokémon, and deliberately not showing any images of them in battle. By the time the datamining and official company statements revealed they were Pokémon (from an alternate dimension) you could catch, the percentage of fans who believed they were only [=NPCs=] was practically nil.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'': Chairman Rose is a similar boat as Lysandre, but for the polar opposite reason. He's not so obviously evil that you'd have to be an idiot to not realize he's up to something. He's so obscenely nice that you'd have to be an idiot to not realize he's up to something. Literally his first act in the story is to sponsor the Pokemon League Challenges of the player and [[TheRival Hop]] out of the kindness of his heart. He also appears to think of absolutely nothing other than the welfare of the Galar Region and its inhabitants. To be fair, it turns out he ''is'' that nice. His only real act of villainy in the story was the result of an unhealthy mix of hubris and stubborness. He thought he can control an EldritchAbomination and turn it into an infinite energy source when it took the combined powers of two Legendary Pokemon just to seal it away the last time it almost destroyed Galar. And he's too stubborn to admit that he's monumentally wrong and that he doesn't need to do it to solve Galar's energy crisis, which by his own admission won't manifest itself for another 1,000 years. Though to be fair even the writers don't seem to understand how incomprehensible that span of time is in the scope of human civilization.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' when it's revealed that Henry is Travis's twin brother. Apparently, he ''thought'' such a reveal would be one of these. How does everyone react to this news...?
-->'''Travis:''' That's the craziest shit I've ever heard! Why would you bring up something like that [[NoFourthWall at the very end of the game?!]]\\
'''Henry:''' I would have thought that you and the player would have at least expected a twist of fate of some kind.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2'' gives us Judas who is so obviously Leon (from the first game in the duology) that it ''hurts''.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has the revelation that Odin, Selena and Laslow are actually Owain, Severa and Inigo from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. Even if you missed or forget the fact that previous game established TheMultiverse as a thing, all three have the exact same appearances, voice actors, personalities and birthdays as their ''Awakening'' counterparts, and their Supports [[ContinuityNod frequently reference]] ''Awakening'', so one has to wonder how much of a surprise it's actually supposed to be.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' (and ''[[VideoGameRemake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia]]''):
** In the remake, we have a red-haired masked figure who follows [[TheChosenOne Celica]] and her party around, warning them of various dangers and seeming very concerned for Celica's welfare and seems to know she's actually the heir to Zofia, and Celica mentions more than once that she had a brother who died. It's decidedly a hugely unsurprising reveal when it turns out to be Conrad, Celica's big brother.
** Alm being Rigelian royalty becomes one in the remake. He has a BirthmarkOfDestiny just like Celica, multiple characters from Rigel appear to recognize him, he gets a unique weapon that's only usable by those of royal blood, Desaix practically spells it out in his death quote, and once the army reaches Rigel Alm feels a sense of familiarity with the place. Considering that ''Echoes'' is a remake of a game nearly two decades old, the developers probably assumed the twist was well and truly ItWasHisSled by now.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'':
** Seteth and Flayn are actually Saint Cichol and Saint Cethleann. It isn't as obvious in Seteth's case, but Flayn is quite bad at keeping the secret, particularly when she takes exception to the way people talk about Cethleann. Both Seteth and Flayn have Major Crests of Cichol and Cethleann, whereas Ferdinand and Linhardt only have Minor Crests. In addition to the fact that the holidays celibrating the Saints outright take place on the same day as the pairs' birthdays, something the game will remind you of whenever said birthdays roll around.
** A related but separate reveal is that Seteth is actually Flayn's father, not her brother as he'd previously insisted. Despite Seteth claiming to look young for his age, he still looks like he could be at least a couple decades older than her (ignoring the fact that they're both Really700YearsOld, which isn't learned until later) which fits a father-daughter pair better than a brother-sister pair. Rhea, who's close to both of them, suspiciously pauses when she says, "I think of your...sister as family" as if she were trying to consciously avoid saying "daughter." This can be lampshaded at the end of Seteth and Flayn's Paralogue, in which after Seteth reveals the truth to [[PlayerCharacter Byleth]], s/he can tell Seteth that s/he had suspected this all along, resulting in him saying with embarrassment that he thought he'd done a better job of hiding it.
* Sirius being a NotQuiteDead [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Camus]] in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem'' is practically the same as the above Conrad situation in ''Shadows of Valentia''. Strangely though, TheReveal never actually happens. Though it's all but stated in his conversation with Nyna in the final chapter, there's no {{Dramatic Unmask}}ing, as he knows full well revealing his identity would cause more harm than good for everyone.
* From ''VideoGame/TalesOfGraces'', we have Richard being possessed. If his sudden headache and subsequent bloody rampage against soldiers at Wallbridge isn't enough to clue the player in, there's also his desire to take revenge on his [[EvilUncle uncle]], whom he also kills in front of the party. Richard's continued aggressive behavior, including starting ''a war'' is not enough to make the party actually figure this out themselves. While the player has figured it out ages ago, one must still sit through a good ''20 hours of gameplay'' before the idea of Richard being possessed by the BigBad is even considered an option.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'':
** The game has an odd situation in that an actual reveal leads directly into an example. After Ozette is destroyed, the party meets a child claiming to be the sole survivor, whose name is Mithos. Over several skits, it becomes apparent that Mithos is more than he seems, and he shares many traits with the ancient hero Mithos. Then a genuine reveal occurs, as a storyteller informs you that the hero Mithos's last name was Yggdrasill, the name of the BigBad. However, several more scenes occur before the final reveal, which should be obvious from the previous two by the transitive property: the Mithos in their group is also Yggdrasill. The game tries to throw you off the trail by having the characters say that [[OneSteveLimit Mithos is a common boy's name in Tethe'alla]].
** There's also the matter of Genis and Raine being half-elves. Fairly early in the game, a half-elven character compares himself to the two of them, but quickly and awkwardly retracts this comparison when Genis nervously declares them to be elves, and he realizes they've been traveling incognito. Combined with moments like Raine telling Genis "we're not like them" about a group of half-elven villains, the player may well have forgotten that their race was supposed to be a secret by the time the shocking-to-the-characters reveal arrives several plot twists later.
** Kratos is [[LukeIAmYourFather Lloyd's father]]. The age doesn't seem to make things work out, Kratos is stated to be 28 and Lloyd is 17 years old, so he would have had to become a father at a very young age, but the twist is still obvious. Early on, the party visits Lloyd's home and Kratos is seen standing at the grave nearby, which Lloyd reveals to be his mother's. They share similar facial expressions ([[SharedFamilyQuirks as well as]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a distaste for tomatoes]]) and Kratos is a little ''too'' [[NotSoStoic uncharacteristically emotional]] when the party meets Kvar, who gloatingly reveals how he was at fault for Lloyd's mother's death. And when the party splits up into one fighting Kvar, Kratos refuses any combination that does not involve him on that team. The reveal itself? Takes place close to the last third of the game. The age thing is also made clearer when it's revealed that Kratos is actually [[Really700YearsOld about four millennia old]]. And leaving most of these plot-related reasons aside, there is fairly interesting clue to be found in actual gameplay: one of the possible settings for your A.I. allies in battle is to let them fight, move and use their skills at their own discretion. To be specific, each party member actually has their own tendencies pre-programmed into their individual [=A.I.s=]. In Kratos' case, analyzing his actions in battle reveals that [[PapaWolf he will almost always prioritize healing and protecting Lloyd over everyone else]], even [[TheChosenOne the all-important Collete]] whom he's [[{{Protectorate}} supposed to be guarding with his life!]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'':
** Elle is Ludger's daughter from the future. Within the first hour of the two meeting in the beginning of the game, multiple hints are dropped over and over and not leaving much of a potential surprise for the player. The revelation being given to Ludger and Elle themselves? The last third of the game.
** Elle actually being from a fractured dimension. Nothing in the world of ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia Xillia]]'' states that time travel is actually possible, but even ignoring that, the fact that Elle's father's clock merges with Ludger's is a big hint. Especially because the game states early on that the same thing [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet cannot exist twice in the prime dimension]], making it obvious that the clock (and Elle) come from a fractured dimension.
* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'':
** For the second half of the game, the player is gradually given hints that Airy either isn't telling all the information, is evil, or both. Once you hit the 3/4 mark, the title screen changes the subtitle to read "Airy Lies", outright spelling out her deception. And yet, for another 20 hours or so of gameplay, the characters still can't piece it together. Even after when Ringabel remembers that she's evil and ''outright murdered the others in another world''. When her true intentions are finally revealed, the cast is ''shocked'', while the player is banging their head against the wall.
** [[BlackKnight Alternis]] and [[AmnesiacHero Ringabel]] being the same person, provided one reads the Book of D. While the narrator's identity is never textually given in the entries, Alternis is very clearly shown in an illustration, make it easy to identify him as the narrator. From there, the various details, most glaring being Ringabel's lack of presence in the Book of D, make putting two and two together easy. There is a wrinkle, however, in that the player is initially led to believe that Ringabel is merely [[FakingAmnesia faking his amnesia]] and [[TheMole covertly posing as an ally of the heroes]], especially after Alternis suffers an injury at the hands of [[BlackMage Vict]][[CuteAndPsycho oria]] and the scene cuts to a recently absent Ringabel limping back to the party with the exact same wound. The reality is that Ringabel is actually Alternis's AlternateSelf ([[MeaningfulName now look at his name again]]) who was transported from his version of Luxendarc to the current world via the Holy Pillar.
* In ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', fans figured out that Phantom was really Konoe A. Mercury (aka Nine of the Six Heroes) almost four years before it was actually confirmed in [[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma the third game]]. Phantom's attire being incredibly similar to what Nine wore while she was alive, as well as none too subtle hints to her true identity throughout ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Continuum Shift]]'' while in the presence of the other members of the Six Heroes, made it easy for people to connect the dots.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' attempts a VictoryFakeout at the end of World 7...which might have been a little more convincing had there not been eight worlds in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', all 5 ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' games and several others. It seems that the GrandfatherClause is obliging the Mario series to use YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle in every game by now.
* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'', virtually nobody was surprised by Bowser being the BigBad. In fact, [[ExaggeratedTrope most people figured it out the moment the game was shown off]]. Not only is there Bowser tape in Port Prisma but during Ruddy Road, the first ''actual'' level, a Shy Guy is shown placing Bowser tape down ''right in front of your eyes''. [[IdiotPlot And yet no one suspects a thing]]. The reveal of the Koopalings being the main bosses only rubbed salt into that wound. Like the above example, it feels like the GrandfatherClause is obliging the series to use Bowser as the BigBad in every game now.
** However, it ends up subverted when it's all but outright stated that the black paint Bowser covered himself in was actually ''possessing him'' and that all the trouble started just because Bowser accidentally mixed all the Prisma Fountain paint colors together because he wanted a rainbow patterned shell. However, even this isn't totally without foreshadowing as when you get to the final level, you see that he drained Peach's color when she tried to escape. And when, in the literally dozens of times that Bowser kidnapped her before, [[OutOfCharacterAlert has he ever actually harmed her?]]
* ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'' has the reveal that Blue Knight is actually President Rag, having survived his attempted assassination. The attempted assassination that Blue Knight is shown ''flashing back to'' in an early conversation with Astro.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', many could easily guess the real identity of Arcanus because [[PaperThinDisguise his mask covers less than half of his face]]. In case it's still not obvious, it's recurring villain Alex.
* TheManBehindTheMan in ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush Adventure]]'' is Dr. Eggman, who is completely absent from the story until TheReveal. However, given that apparent-BigBad Captain Whisker is a robot who sports a mustache and overall looks identical to that of Eggman, roughly no one was shocked when the twist was revealed.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'':
*** Tetra is revealed to be Zelda. She's the only blonde female protagonist in the main story who isn't Link's sister. Also entering Tetra's room earlier on, you can see portraits of the Triforce, the legendary hero and Tetra's mother who looks like a queen. [[AvertedTrope The game's other twist though...]]
*** The world the player is sailing around is Hyrule, after it had been flooded by the gods, which Ganon proudly proclaims at the climax of the game. That would be a very shocking reveal, had ''the opening narration'' not already mentioned it.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' has Link working with the mysterious Hilda, who claims to be his ally in Lorule, Hyrule's alternate dimension counterpart. It's an established fact that everyone in Lorule is the polar opposite of their Hyrulean counterpart. Zelda is kind, wise, and a genuine friend to Link, so it's not quite hard to guess that Hilda turns out to be a villain (though she's admittedly a complex character who falls more toward WellIntentionedExtremist territory than any truly evil acts). Even worse, the apparent BigBad of the game, Yuga, is first seen transforming Seres, a young nun, into a painting for part of some kind of evil ritual. After completing the spell, Yuga ''outright states'' "Her Grace will be most pleased..." It's possible that the developers hoped players would overlook that line, but if you read it for even a moment, it becomes obvious that the two are conspirators.
* ''VideoGame/Diablo3'' has Act 2 that involves the player character hunting for Belial, the primal evil Lord of Lies. Everything points to the creepy child emperor of the desert nation he/she is in being the obvious culprit. Everything. This kid covers every evil child cliche known to man, short of speaking parseltongue (and that too, since his personal guards are snake people in disguise). Yet the players spend the entire linear story arc going off on increasingly silly red herrings only to be told by the creepy child himself that, surprise, he was Belial the whole time. No way! For that matter, it's so obvious that even the ''player character'' had figured it out a while ago.
* ''VideoGame/DragonballXenoverse2'' opens with the conclusion of ''Anime/DragonBallZBardockTheFatherOfGoku'', as the titular Bardock is enveloped in Freeza's death sphere, and [[SarcasmMode definitely is in]] ''[[SarcasmMode no way]]'' [[SarcasmMode related to the]] mysterious masked stranger with a similar damaged armor and voice that shows up with Towa, Mira, Turles, and Lord Slug immediately afterward. The game pretends his identity to be a complete mystery and ''somehow'' expects the player to be shocked and all-surprised when the Masked Saiyan's identity is revealed.
* ''Xenoblade Chronicles'':
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'': Metal Face is actually Mumkhar. Considering that they share the same voice and have similar weapons, it's fairly easy to connect the dots the moment the former first appears. Similarly, Dickson being EvilAllAlong is another obvious reveal, considering most of his cutscenes showed him acting rather suspiciously to the point of him being an ObviousJudas.
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': Phog and Frye being brothers. The game tries to present this as a twist, but the fact that one Affinity Quest requires both of them, they're MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers until said quest is done, and that they ''constantly mention each other in their battle quotes'' means it's hardly a twist at all.
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'':
*** Amalthus was EvilAllAlong, if that could even be considered a twist. It's made fairly obvious early on when Rex momentarily sees an apparition of his former Blade, [[PersonOfMassDestruction Malos]], when talking to Amalthus, already giving the player a reason to distrust him by implying that Malos is influencing Amalthus. The real twist, however, is that it's the other way around; Malos' personality was influenced by Amalthus' [[StrawNihilist despair and hatred]] at the state of the world.
*** Morytha being EarthAllAlong isn't surprising at all, considering that it looks like a city from modern day, albeit AfterTheEnd. Again though, that isn't the real twist. The real twist is that said Earth in question is the homeworld of Professor Klaus/[[BigBad Zanza]] from the first game, revealing that the two universes are connected and it wasn't destroyed, as implied by Alvis in the original ''Xenoblade''.
* ''VideoGame/ThimbleweedPark'' turns out to be all in a video game itself. This would be quite surprising...if the two agents didn't blatantly break the fourth wall saying the dead body is "pixellating" and could ask the pigeon brothers "Should I save my game?" (and be told "This game is hard-coded not to be unwinnable") within the first fifteen minutes.
* ''VideoGame/HuntDownTheFreeman'' renders its very name meaningless by the end of the game, as it's revealed that the person Mitchell is looking for, the culprit who killed Mitchel's squad and "fucked up (Mitchell's) face" is actually someone who was disguised as Gordon Freeman, rather than the man himself. The problem? "Gordon" is shown wearing an HEV helmet while attacking Mitchell, which is [[HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic very uncharacteristic of the real Gordon]], so any sharp-eyed ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' fan who notices this detail will naturally suspect that something's fishy. Notably, this was such a "give the game away" moment that [[NeverTrustATrailer the trailers and advertisement stills showed an unhelmeted Gordon.]]
* At the end of Disc 3 of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' reveals that Rose is the Black Monster Dart has been searching for. But it was already very obvious that the Black Monster was a Dragoon with a darkness theme and near the end of Disc 2, it was established that Rose has been around since the Dragon Campaign over 11,000 years ago (which itself was frequently hinted with the fact she knows far more about the time period than even acknowledged experts).
* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' first revealed itself with the idea that [[CrapsaccharineWorld Wellington Wells]] had turned itself into a drug-fueled HappinessIsMandatory dystopia due to "The Very Bad Thing", which was somehow tied to the city's children being taken away after England was conquered by the Nazis during UsefulNotes/WorldWar2. Fans immediately began speculating what "The Very Bad Thing" was, mostly revolving around some kind of horrific counter-strike against the Nazis. Then the game came out and revealed "The Very Bad Thing" was actually the fact Wellington Wells let their children be taken in the first place. With the addendum that Wellington Wells found out after their children were taken that letting their kids be taken to preserve their own skins was a SenselessSacrifice; the German army was so depleted that the tank units that blockaded them were entirely ''paper-mache models''.
* ''VideoGame/MarySkelterNightmares'' tries to set up a betrayal involving the Dawn's leaders and the leaders of the Order of the Sun. Three chapters into a nine-chapter game, it's possible to investigate the laboratory of Professor Tohjima (the de facto leader of the Dawn) and stumble across a secret monitor room. While the Professor turns PlausibleDeniability into an art form, the other suspects' allegiances and motivations are made obvious, which makes the latter half of the game feel like a giant farce. The kicker? Even when it's finally obvious to the heroes that Tohjima is a traitor, the Professor ''still'' somehow manages to dance logical circles around them, and the reveal only comes when another senior member of the Dawn who was a former accomplice and both secretly and not-so-secretly guides the main character in the right direction tells him to knock it off.
** ''Mary Skelter 2'' doesn't fare much better. The game includes an enhanced remake of the first game, but the fact that the developers heavily suggest playing the sequel first, going so far as to force the player to download free DLC to play out of order, makes it obvious that ''Mary Skelter 2'' leads into the remake narrative-wise.
* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' is a rare example of doing this ''intentionally''. A large man with a butt chin, pink mustache, and donning a bright green leotard with a Q on the front is selling cheap devices to fund his evil scheme under the name Steve [=McQwark=]. He then laughs maniacally after the last customer leaves as he says "Steve [=McQwark=]...''indeed!''" and ripping off the pink mustache, revealing him to be Captain Qwark, a large man with a butt chin known for wearing a bright green leotard with a Q on the front. [[RuleOfFunny What tops it off is that the camera crash-zooms on his face as if the director genuinely believes the audience will be shocked by this]].
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'': This happens with a lot of teasers for new heroes. Since the game is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover of every Blizzard franchise, players can usually narrow every teaser down to a few options on the first hint, and figure out who it is exactly long before the reveal.
* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', Arianna turns out to be a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue A.I.]] This shocks the heroes (one of whom is an A.I. herself and really should have seen the signs), but to the player, it's likely been obvious since the first ten minutes of the game when Arianna shows up in a crude robotic body and has no idea how to interact with humans.
* In ''VideoGame/RaidenV'', the fact that Valbarossa is a woman is played up as [[SamusIsAGirl a surprise to the heroes]], however her feminine voice, which is not masked in any way, makes her gender clear well before she officially reveals the fact. This is mostly an issue in the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Director's Cut]]'' version if voices are enabled (which is the default) since the original version did not have any voice acting until an update introduced it.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManXMavericks'': You'll probably have figured out Dr. Wily is behind everything long before the official confirmation, especially in the final fortress where the game gives up trying to really hide it and starts slavering his logo across the background.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'': As soon as footage was shown for the fifth game, ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndTheSevenSirens'', was shown off, almost every fan called that the supposed half-genie zombie, Fillin the Blank, was Rottytops. It doesn't help that [=WayForward=] didn't bother to try hiding it. Very few zombie girls even appear in the series prior to that point (let alone with green hair), Fillin isn't on the main art cover with the other half-genies, her stitches and ears are conspicuously hidden, and Shantae herself already deduced it when Harmony informed her of Fillin using a different alias (Ima Goodgirl).
* ''VideoGame/GodEater3'' introduces the wealthy owner of Port Dusty Miller, Ein. Anyone with eyes who played even a few minutes of the first two games would recognize him as an OlderAndWiser Soma Schicksal. His [[Creator/YuriLowenthal voice]] [[Creator/KazuyaNakai actors]] being the same does nothing to hide his identity, either. When the Hounds receive an anonymous message containing proof of Ein's identity, it's meant to be a big reveal to them, but the same can't be said for the players.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}:'' The fact that Zagreus's mother is not Nyx, but Persephone. Just the mere premise of "you play as Hades's son" would make anyone even slightly familiar with Greek mythology go "oh, so Persephone is his mom, right?" Someone more familiar with said mythology would recognize that Zagreus is [[MinorlyMentionedMythsAndMonsters an existing, albeit obscure god]], and while the specifics of his father and nature vary (he's often an aspect of Dionysus), he's almost always a son of Persephone. Not to mention Persephone being conspicuously absent from the underworld would make anyone curious as to what happened to her, and Zagreus having one of his eyes be bright green pretty much seals the deal. Somewhat PlayedForLaughs too, as Zagreus usually first hears the information from the [[InteractiveNarrator narrator]] accidentally saying too much somewhat early in the story.
* Mandalore in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' is Canderous Ordo from the first game. Who'd have thought, in that they're both Mandalorians from the Clan Ordo, who are both getting on in years, both cyborgs, both travelled with Revan, and that they both share a voice actor. It wasn't supposed to be a big reveal. The game infamously got ChristmasRushed and there was intended to be a scene almost right after we meet Mandalore in which Kreia blackmails him into following the Exile, and refers to him by his given name. The final release of The Sith Lords however never actually refers to him as Canderous until close to the end of the game.
* The identity of the villain of ''VideoGame/Stinkoman20X6'' turns out to be Z Sabre, the 20X6 version of Coach Z. This would be surprising, had the twist not been spoiled many years before the final level by the Games Menu, which has an Easter egg which switches your ship with his. Not to mention his very Coach Z-esque head silhouette.
* PlayedForLaughs by ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''. When Mallow introduces himself as a frog, the narration is clearly confused and points out that he doesn't look like a frog at all; he's a cloud with arms and feet, prince of the Nimbus Kingdom. When Frogfucius reveals that Mallow is not, in fact, a frog, everyone in Tadpole Pond is shocked...but Mario doesn't react at all.
* ''VideoGame/{{Rosenkreuzstilette}}'': In the original game, Iris Zeppelin being the real villain is a genuinely surprising twist. But in the sequel ''Freudenstachel'', given that the games are heavily influenced by ''Franchise/MegaMan'', it's rather easy to predict that Iris is [[HijackedByGanon once again the true villain]] while the Pope is just a DiscOneFinalBoss, as this is a common twist used in the Mega Man series. And even without that knowledge, there are other blatant hints: one of the bosses is a homunculus version of Liebea, which was also a boss in the original game alongside homunculi of the other RKS members created by Iris, and the GameOver message says “Let there be light for a new Goddess”, the ''exact same message'' used in the original game's Iris Stages and ''Grollschwert'' mode which blatantly refer to Iris Zeppelin, making the character's involvement even more obvious.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': That Roxas is Sora's Nobody. It's made clear from the prologue that Roxas has an extremely strong connection with Sora and that he's something called a "Nobody". When you take control of Sora for the first time in the game and meet with [[BigGood Yen Sid]], he will explain what a Nobody is. At this point, anyone who paid even the smallest amount of attention to the plot of the first game will put two-and-two together and figure out the reveal less than ''four hours'' into the game. That said, since the audience by default gets more clues than Sora due to following Roxas's prologue before playing as Sora, it's easy to treat the matter less as an overly obvious reveal and more as straightforward DramaticIrony, so Riku telling Sora that Roxas is his Nobody during the endgame still works as an InternalReveal for a protagonist who spent most of the story LockedOutOfTheLoop.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'': That Ethan has been infected with The Mold since [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7 the previous game]]. The man has recovered from utterly ridiculous amounts of horrific, mutilating injuries that don't fall under GameplayAndStorySegregation; he was able to communicate with Jack Baker in Eveline's mold-connected hivemind; and his daughter Rosemary is obviously not fully human, given she's still alive after being cut into four pieces. Him being a Mold creature is the only thing that actually makes the story ''work'' by this point. Though, while it's still treated as a dramatic revelation, [[DeadPersonConversation Eveline]] does at least ask what Ethan attributed his miraculous recoveries to. The only surprising part is the reveal that Ethan actually ''[[DeadAllAlong died]]'' in the last game's prologue, and has been carrying on as a mold-infested revenant ever since.
* ''VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect2'': Marie Amabuki's original surname was Mizuguchi - meaning that she's the same person as a major character from [[VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect the previous game]]. She has the same brown hair and eyes, [[Creator/MaiFuchigami the same voice actress]], and she didn't even bother changing her first name. Anybody who knew of Marie Mizuguchi from the first game would be able to flush her out long before the characters catch on.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''
** Female Titan's identity being Annie Leonhart was predicted by the majority of the audience due to MorphicResonance.
** To a lower degree, the first twist in the series was also predicted by some, as it was accurately theorized that unlike other titans, Colossal Titan and Armored Titan were people who could shift into Titans. Hence, Eren's false set up as the DecoyProtagonist after his "death" and Rogue Titan's appearance right after were thought to be linked events and it was predicted that Eren was Rogue Titan.
* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': The identity of Tem's killer is considered this, because in the lead up to the reveal, the investigation has clearly eliminated almost every other possible suspect. The killer is a carnivore male in the drama club, and in the fight with him, Legosi realizes he's extremely strong. That alone excludes most characters since Legosi is noted to be a very strong fighter, and the manga actually blatantly spells this out by having the killer show that he's much stronger than the other bigger members of the club. Even worse in the anime which doesn't throw in any extra red herrings at all. A Manga reader could at least be thrown off by thinking that Legosi simply hadn't gotten around to interviewing all the suspects yet.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** The mysterious masked man Tobi being Obito Uchiha. Despite his statements that he was Madara, many people suspect that this was a lie, especially once it is shown that he is in fact ''not'' the man himself during the Fourth Shinobi World WarArc and that "Tobi" is mostly an anagram of "Obito" in both English and Japanese but just with a missing letter/character.
** Then, of course, there's the fact that Naruto is the 4th Hokage's son...something most of the audience had already figured out since they look similar and the guy's face is carved into the side of a freaking mountain. Just one look at his picture and most of the audience had already figured who Naruto's father was. If you took out the whisker marks on Naruto's cheeks and grew his hair out a little, they could be ''twins''. It really makes you wonder how ignorant the people of Konoha were to not see such an obvious resemblance. Interestingly enough, TheReveal is casually dropped during a conversation between Jiriaya and Tsunade.
** There's also the reveal that the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Six Paths of Pain]] are just dead bodies being controlled by Nagato. This wasn't revealed until quite a while after Pain (and later Nagato's) introduction into the story, but it was predicted by MANY people in the fandom.
** The reveal that [[GenerationXerox Boruto's]] teammate is Orochimaru's son hardly came as a surprise given that he both resembles Orochimaru and gave many readers the same creepy vibes.
** TheReveal that Sasuke and Naruto were the reincarnations of the Sage of the Six Paths' elder and younger sons respectively. While many were still shocked, just as many were left unsurprised, and those that were shocked admitted it was obvious in hindsight, especially after it was revealed that their respective previous incarnations were Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage.
* There's a minor reveal in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' that the Jovian Chulips are a kind of warp gate that allow Jovian robots to teleport in directly from Jupiter. Of course, since the audience has already seen the Chulips clearly opening some kind of portal, the biggest surprise is finding out that you weren't supposed to know that already.
* ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'', in ''Side:Despair'' Episode 10, it's revealed that Juzo is in love with Munakata, not with Chisa. Most fans already knew that, but it felt good for it to be confirmed.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The siblings of Hoteye/Richard Buchanan and Yukino Agria (Wally and Angel/Sorano, respectively) weren't surprising to the majority of the fanbase who put two and two together. The former pair of brothers have similar appearances with polygonal bodies, while the latter pair of sisters have white hair and are Celestial Spirit Mages. Oddly enough, Lucy, who's fairly intelligent, heard Yukino's story about her sister and knows both Yukino and Sorano, doesn't seem to make the connection.
* The identity of the serial killer in ''Manga/{{Erased}}'' was guessed by majority and is considered one of the weakest aspects of the story.
* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
** In ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5GoGo'', Kurumi Mimino aka '''Milky''' Rose being '''Milk''' is so obvious, yet only one character figured this out ''for a while'' before the reveal. The other characters actually realized some similarities, but they still didn't figure it out for four episodes.
** ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'': Even if you haven't seen [[SpoiledByTheMerchandise the leaks caused by the Pre-Heart toy]], it was pretty obvious that Ruru would eventually defect from the Dark Tomorrow Company the moment she decided to spy on Hana's family. If that wasn't blatant enough, then the focus on her and Emiru's growing friendship in episode 15 certainly solidify this fact.
%%* ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'', Wow! '''Close''' was '''Kuroso'''??? Who would have known?
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Sabo being alive and a member of the Revolutionary Army. It is strongly implied with how he may have appeared to be shot, but his dead body was never shown, and later on, Dragon finds someone injured who he wants to be taken to the med bay on the Revolutionaries' ship. In the latter part of the flashback, Sabo grows to hate the nobles and by extension the government, so it makes sense that he would become a Revolutionary. Furthermore, the flashback was mostly about Luffy and Ace growing up together -- if Sabo had just been killed off to never play any role in the story again, his character's existence would almost have been {{Filler}}. In addition, one of the chapter covers showed an adult Sabo alongside Luffy and Ace, indicating that his role in the story wasn't finished yet. Despite Oda's initially stating that Sabo is dead, the Dressrosa arc reveals that this is a case of LyingCreator as Sabo is shown to be alive as a Revolutionary.
* ''Manga/SailorMoon'': Tuxedo Mask's secret identity and the reveal of Usagi's past life were not very surprising, as their alter egos were shown countless times in the series...and, in Usagi's case, the opening of the first series and the ending of the second.
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** Trunks is Bulma's son. While it was somewhat easier to be surprised by this in the anime (in the manga, [[AdaptationDyeJob Bulma had purple hair]] instead of blue), his haircut resembles his grandfather's and he wore the Capsule Corp logo on his jacket. Not to mention the fact that [[OnlyOnePlausibleSuspect Bulma and Chi-Chi were basically the only female characters still making semi-regular appearances by Trunks's introduction]], and Chi-Chi has an already-existing husband and black hair.
** In ''Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug'', it's treated as a pretty major twist that the titular antagonist turns out to be a Namekian--so much so that the shock of it literally knocks Goku out of his new [[EarlyDraftTieIn (not)]] Super Saiyan transformation. But he's a powerful green-skinned alien with fangs, he identifies himself as the leader of a demon clan, just like the only other evil Namekian we've met, his wish for eternal youth [[RecycledScript immediately calls that same evil Namekian to mind]], his name of Slug is the same as the AnimalThemeNaming that all Namekians share, and he's familiar with and acts nostalgic towards the Dragon Balls, which are a Namekian creation. Not to mention, the film's release date happened right near the end of the Namek Saga's manga version in Japan, so the race would have been pretty firmly embedded in the minds of any viewers. At that point, it would probably be more surprising if he wasn't a Namekian.
* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': Lucy killed Kouta's father and sister. Kouta's shocked expression when he saw her for the first time in the series and the mention of his dead family put two and two together for the audience.
* The reveal in ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'' that "Yabuki Joe" is actually Kenji is so completely, ridiculously, ludicrously obvious that is most definitely an invoked example. It's so obvious in fact, that the English volumes accidentally spoil it in the translation notes four volumes before it's confirmed.
* ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'': Yellow is the girl who Red met and caught a Rattata for before his fight with Giovanni. Given how they share a Pokémon, compounded by how similar their designs are, you'd have to have completely forgotten the former's existence to be surprised.
* ''Music/EvilliousChronicles'': The reveal in ''LightNovel/GiftFromThePrincessWhoBroughtSleep'' that Hanne Lorre and her sister Hedimarie are actually Elluka and Gumillia under false identities was so obvious that most of the fans took it as a given when the site went up when the reveal itself in the novel doesn't occur until past the halfway point.
* ''LightNovel/LibraryWar'': You'll already know that Kasahara's "Prince" is Dojou long before it's ''finally'' confirmed since the voice and hairstyle are a perfect match to the silhouetted figure in her flashback. Not to mention, all the times she wonders why [[ShipTease "her heart flutters"]] the few times he compliments her. Plus, he's ''right there'' on the box cover art and is the male lead.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'': It's so blatantly obvious that Vidar is Gaelio Baudin in disguise that it could be argued it's not even ''supposed'' to be a secret (at least out-of-universe). They're both played by Creator/MasayaMatsukaze, Vidar knows things that only Gaelio could possibly know (like the circumstances of Carta Issue's death), and he has a deep-seated hatred of [=McGillis=] Fareed, the man who betrayed Gaelio's trust and "[[NeverFoundTheBody killed]]" him. Needless to say, when the mask came off, absolutely nobody was surprised[[note]]Some fans thought they might pull a fake-out and have Vidar be Ein Dalton, but they were still right in a way -- Gaelio uses Ein's brain as part of an advanced [[BrainComputerInterface Ālaya-Vijñāna System]][[/note]].
* ''Manga/MonsterMusume'': Eventually it's revealed that [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Mero]] is actually a princess. This came to the surprise of absolutely nobody since the foreshadowing is so blatant that it's almost impossible to miss. Most notably, almost immediately after being introduced, Centorea goes off on a tangent about Mero's "royal aura". Even in-universe, the amount of surprise is minimal.
* ''Anime/TaktOpDestiny'': Anna being the next Destiny. Not helping much that in the game, she is voiced by Creator/KaedeHondo, who was the voice of Anna in the anime. And lo and behold, turns out she is the same character in the game.
* ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'':
** Yuri Petrov is Lunatic. He looked ObviouslyEvil and no attempt was made to disguise his voice.
** Fake-Tiger is a robot. There was an episode right before his introduction featuring the scientist who was making combat robots to fight superheroes that were capable of matching Tiger and Barnaby in hand-to-hand fighting.
* ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'': Sarah is actually an AI. Viewers figured out this reveal as early as the first episode yet it takes over 20 episodes to realize something is very off and just thought she had her reasons.
* In the ''Manga/{{Magi}}'' {{Prequel}} ''Adventure of Sinbad,'' it's not entirely clear if it's supposed to be a twist that the [[ChildrenForcedToKill child assassin]] is [[TheGoodChancellor Ja'far]]. On the one hand, his name goes unmentioned and [[BandagedFace part of his face is hidden]] until the end of his redemption arc. On the other hand, [[YouthfulFreckles freckly]] albinos are not exactly common.
* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', fans had long since guessed Dabi's identity as Endeavor's thought-dead son Toya by the time it was revealed in story. It wasn't too obvious at first, with the only connections being they share a fire quirk and the same eye color. But when it was revealed Endeavor's first son was lost in an accident, and had a fire quirk stronger than his, there was literally nobody else it could be except Dabi.
* In ''Manga/TomicaKizunaGattaiEarthGranner'', it's completely obvious that the mysterious hero Granner G is actually Mach Go, the idol of Raiga and Kuga, right down to his CatchPhrase of "Mach" in his sentences and acts very much like Go even as Granner G.
* ''Manga/RentAGirlfriend'': Ruka being a rental girlfriend is a somewhat well-known aspect of her character, so it's easy to forget that in her introductory arc, in which Kuri takes her on a double date with Kazuya and Chizuru, it was supposed to be a plot twist. The key words being "supposed to," since some easily guessed this based on how it seemed overly convenient that Kuri got a girlfriend and how Ruka easily guessed that Chizuru was a rental girlfriend.
* Racer X's secret identity being Speed's LongLostSibling from ''Manga/SpeedRacer'' is an infamous example. Speed's brother was first mentioned in the same chapter Racer X was introduced, and he kept dropping hints that he was related to Speed's family. A frequent source of parody.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'': As the page quote indicates, the live-action version spends most of its runtime with characters waffling over whether Alice is ''the'' Alice who came to Underland as a child and whether she is ''the'' Alice from a prophecy. She insists she's not in both cases, and Absalom the caterpillar, the one character who seems to know definitively, agrees that she's not. Then at the end, it turns out she just forgot and Absalom's statement was MetaphoricallyTrue (she ''used to be'' the child Alice, and she ''was going to be'' the prophecied Alice, but ''at this very moment,'' she was neither).
* ''Film/AlienCovenant'': At the end of the film, we get a CruelTwistEnding when the main character realises that the spaceship's android, Walter, has been replaced by the psychopathic David, who forces her back into cryo-sleep and plans to experiment on the other passengers in stasis. The film expects this to be a big twist, but the fact that David's first introduced with shoulder-length hair, which he then cuts off so he's visually nearly indistinguishable from Walter, practically telegraphs that he's going to at least attempt a KillAndReplace; why else have the haircut?
* ''Film/AngelHasFallen'' makes it pretty obvious that Vice President Martin Kirby is the mastermind of the scheme, having hired [[WesternTerrorists Salient Global]] to assassinate President Trumbull and make Mike Banning take the blame.
* In ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017,'' Belle wants to find out what happened to her MissingMom, but Maurice doesn't want to tell her. She eventually uses magic to find out, and get this -- she ''died.'' Of a ''disease!'' So...pretty much just what every fan of [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the original movie]] naturally assumed. To give them some credit, Belle ''does'' know her mother is dead, just not why her father refuses to talk about it and why they had to leave so abruptly. She comes to realize that Maurice was forced to take Belle and leave his wife to die alone (with her blessing) so they wouldn't become infected or be trapped in the city, which has haunted him ever since (though in the end it does boil down to the rather obvious 'the bloke feels bad his wife died and wanted to spare his daughter grim details').
* In ''Film/Bloodshot2020'', Ray kills the guy who killed his wife in the first act. Creator/GuyPearce, who's a pretty big name and often plays villains, plays the scientist who resurrected Ray and seems to have no active role in the story afterwards. It's pretty obvious that he'll turn out to be the ultimate villain.
* ''Film/TheCraftLegacy'':
** The moment Lily is revealed to have been adopted, many viewers correctly guessed her birth mother was one of the witches from the original film, with Nancy being a top contender.
** Adam being revealed as the villain wasn't all that shocking for a lot of viewers; he'd been antagonistic towards the girls for most of the story, the film emphasizes there's something sinister about him and by the third act there's [[OnlyOnePlausibleSuspect not really any other options]] for a BigBad seeing as the witches are portrayed as responsible and well-adjusted.
* While ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' was in production, Creator/ChristopherNolan insisted that Creator/MarionCotillard (a member of his ProductionPosse) was just a random business lady named "Miranda Tate". No one bought it and figured she was actually [[CanonCharacterAllAlong Talia al Ghul]]. Especially because ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' is more or less standalone while the [[Film/BatmanBegins first film in the series]] had plenty of threads left hanging. One of said threads is that her father was the villain of it and Batman [[MurderByInaction purposefully left him to die]]. Further adding to this was the fact that Nolan willingly pushed production back several months because Cotillard was pregnant during the time they had originally planned to shoot and he wanted her in the film that much. Why would he do that for a random character, wouldn't that make more sense if she was a villain? She reveals in the climax that she is indeed Talia when she stabs Batman in revenge for leaving her dad to die. Even when the film first came out in 2012, it was a shock to no one despite the film treating it as some huge revelation.
* ''Film/TheFugitive'': The character of Dr. Charles Nichols is introduced as a colleague and friend of protagonist Dr. Richard Kimball. He has no other plot-relevant purpose for being in the film other than to be revealed as the BigBad. He's also played by an actor known for playing villains.
* In ''Film/HideAndSeek'', we're supposed to be shocked that Emily's NotSoImaginaryFriend Charlie is actually an evil SplitPersonality of her father David. However, the constant and ominous flashbacks shown in David's head every time just before he finds out that Charlie has been causing trouble again make it abundantly clear that at the very least, he's hiding something really big.
* ''Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug'' reveals that the mysterious Necromancer is none other than Sauron, the BigBad from the original trilogy. Everybody, even those unfamiliar with Tolkien's work, guessed it. Though to be fair the revelation of the Necromancer's identity was made clear in ''The Fellowship Of The Ring'' book, so hiding this fact in the adaption of the prequel would be almost impossible.
* ''Film/{{Honeymoon}}'': Bea's strange behavior would be kept mysterious through most of the film if not for the fact that the bright, descending lights pouring through her window on the first night make it pretty obvious that aliens are to blame.
* In a meta example, in 2008, Creator/JoaquinPhoenix claimed he was retiring from acting to become a hip hop performer, grew a wild beard, and began making bizarre public appearances while Creator/CaseyAffleck filmed him. Most commentators instantly assumed that the whole thing was an act for a {{mockumentary}} film similar to ''Film/{{Borat}}'', which had recently made waves. In 2010, Affleck and Phoenix released a film about Phoenix's behavior called ''[[Film/ImStillHere I'm Still Here]]'' and shortly thereafter revealed, to the surprise of almost no one, that the whole thing was fake.
* ''Film/{{IO}}'': It gets revealed halfway through the movie that Sam's father is actually dead. Ah yes, the character we haven't seen for the entire movie has been dead all along, [[SarcasmMode we definitely never saw that coming.]] We 'totally' believed Sam when she told Micah that [[BlatantLies her father was just taking a multiple-day hike out in the middle of the toxic mountains somewhere.]]
* In ''Film/IRobot'', the fact that VIKI is the BigBad should be blindingly obvious within a minute of their introduction, particularly when they say they can't retrieve the security footage from the room that Dr. Lanning jumped from.
* ''Film/ItChapterTwo'': The reveal that Stanley died by cutting himself could be an example of this. We see someone lying in a bathtub at the start of the film, and while the audience probably wouldn’t recognise him because he was grown up, we then see all the other characters are alive and well. Then there’s the scene where the fortune cookie messages spell “Looks like Stanley couldn’t cut it.” After that the reveal over the phone isn’t that surprising.
* Film/JamesBond:
** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'': Bond and [=MI6=] wonder why Doctor Kananga, the leader of the fictitious Caribbean island of San Monique, is involved with the Harlem drug lord Mr. Big, before it's revealed that they're the same person. The problem is the reveal falls flat because Creator/YaphetKotto obviously plays both, wearing [[PaperThinDisguise paper-thin makeup as Mr. Big]], and he has the same henchmen serving him in both personas.
** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'':
*** Really, the twist of a James Bond movie called ''Spectre'' is that the leader of the titular organization who has his face initially hidden in the shadows is actually Ernst Stavro Blofeld? Yet they are upfront about the new and more surprising angle that he's Bond's estranged adoptive brother. They sure they shouldn't have done the reverse?
*** Max Denbigh. He acts with a villainous attitude from his very first appearance, so everybody figured out that he would be working for Blofeld. The fact that Creator/AndrewScott's most famous role was the one of a villain pretending to be a good guy didn't help either.
* ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'': Arthur wasn't really dating Sophie, he just imagined her there during times we see them together to cope with his loneliness. Problem is, nobody ''else'' sees Sophie with Arthur either, not even Sophie's young daughter, and also, why would Sophie be so cavalier about dating a lonely, mentally ill weirdo who lives with his mother and ''stalked her'' to work? Granted Arthur didn't mean any harm at that point, but still, there was no reason why Sophie would have been interested in a man like him in the first place, so the twist she barely knows who he is really isn't a shock.
* ''Film/JurassicWorld'' treats the revelation that ''Indominus rex'' is part velociraptor as a big surprise, but given that she is a known hybrid and demonstrates the trademark intelligence of a raptor, a lot of viewers were more startled that it was ''supposed'' to be a surprise. This isn't helped that the other twist about the Indominus Rex, her being a LivingWeapon, was also quite obvious due to the movie's BigBad complaining a lot about how dinosaurs should be use for more militaristic purpose .
* ''Film/TheLayover'': One of the biggest complaints about the movie is that the twist that the wedding Ryan was so desperate to attend was his own was transparently obvious since the second the wedding is first mentioned.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'': The Winter Soldier is Steve's {{Heterosexual Life Partner|s}} ComicBook/BuckyBarnes. Even if you weren't familiar with the comic books (or any prior adaptations; there had been two or three), the fact that Bucky's actor played the Winter Soldier was a giveaway. Even Marvel had given up any pretense of it being secret by the time the movie premiered. Fortunately, the ''actual'' twist of the film -- that SHIELD had been infiltrated by HYDRA at its inception -- was kept remarkably well hidden before the big reveal.
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'': Bucky killed Howard and Maria Stark as the Winter Soldier. A montage shown in ''The Winter Soldier'' heavily implied that the Starks were assassinated by HYDRA, and the Winter Soldier was the most likely to carry it out as he's an infamous HYDRA assassin. Tony calling out Steve, who had the same information as the audience, could be considered a LampshadeHanging:
--->'''Tony:''' Did you know?\\
'''Steve:''' I didn't know it was him.\\
'''Tony:''' Don't ''bullshit'' me, Rogers, ''did you know''?\\
'''Steve:''' ...Yes.
* ''Film/MenInBlackInternational'': Even a casual viewer could tell who TheMole was early on. From the vagueness of the Eiffel tower prologue to Agent C being an obvious RedHerring, to High T's overt generosity and "It's never who you expect", the ease of High T rescuing them from the Diad aliens in Naples triggering SpoiledByTheFormat alerts all in addition to NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize. It ended up a twist that everyone knew was coming.
* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'': The terrorist "John Lark" is actually August Walker, the menacing CIA Agent who's been [[SixthRangerTraitor assigned to work with Ethan Hunt]]. He's [[ObviousJudas openly antagonistic to Ethan and company]], he has a reputation for unnecessary brutality, and he gets several [[TraitorShot ominous low-angle closeups]] during otherwise innocuous scenes. Even the movie's trailers included footage of him [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil blatantly shooting at Hunt]]. Halfway through the movie, he even tries to frame Ethan with obviously false evidence, and when TheReveal eventually comes, the movie treats it more like a formality than anything else, because honestly, there's [[OnlyOnePlausibleSuspect not really any other options for who Lark could be]].
* ''Film/{{Morgan}}'': It's pretty easy to tell early on in the film that something's off about Lee. Given the prowess with fighting and guns she shows in the climax, the reveal that she's an ArtificialHuman like Morgan isn't so much a twist as a "Called it!"
* ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'': It's pretty easy to tell that Aech's voice is a female voice modulated to sound a little deeper. It's easier to pull this twist off in a book, where you can't hear the characters.
* ''Film/SecretsAndLies'': Monica's infertility is signposted fairly clearly by scenes in the film prior to [[TheReveal the eventual reveal]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** The "reveal" that Count Dooku is a Sith Lord in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. According to Creator/GeorgeLucas, it was supposed to be a major twist that completely redefined the character. But the first we hear of him is Padmé accusing him of trying to assassinate her, he's openly the leader of the villainous Separatist faction, he's outright said to be a disillusioned former Jedi, he hangs around with [[BigBad Sidious]]' henchmen from ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', he's played by [[Creator/ChristopherLee an actor]] [[TypeCasting well-known for villainous roles]], the only thing he does to try and avert suspicion is a half-hearted appeal to Obi-Wan that isn't taken seriously even in-universe, and he's an old guy in a black cloak who is named "[[AristocratsAreEvil Count Dooku.]]" Plus, it's ''Star Wars'', so there's got to be a lightsaber duel at the end, and, well...[[OnlyOnePlausibleSuspect who else could it have been against]]?
** For some people, TheReveal in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' that Kylo Ren is Han and Leia's son. In his first scene, Lor San Tekka states he didn’t originate from the Dark Side and cannot deny "the truth that is your family". He’s obviously a powerful Force-user and strength in the Force has been shown to be hereditary in some cases (most prominently with the Skywalker family), Han and Leia had become an OfficialCouple at the end of ''Return of the Jedi'' and any kids they had would likely be grown up by the events of ''The Force Awakens'', it wouldn’t be the first time Han and Leia’s son turned evil [[note]] in the Legends continuity, their son Jacen becomes Darth Caedus [[/note]] and, let’s face it, ''Star Wars'' just loves a good family drama. The Reveal is actually unveiled less than halfway through the film. Additionally, just to hammer it in, when Snoke mentions that Han's father is onboard the ''Millennium Falcon,'' there's a dramatic pause, and then he adds, "Han Solo." Given that no one else onboard the ''Falcon'' at the time [[note]]Rey, Finn, BB-8 and Chewie[[/note]] could possibly be Ren's father, the last two words are just {{narm}}. At least one fan theorized that it was going to be revealed later, given that a later scene clearly treats it as TheReveal, but it seems to have been changed in editing because it was just that obvious.
** Rey being a Palpatine -- while [[AssPull lacking foreshadowing]] in previous installments -- is heavily telegraphed in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. Palpatine telling Kylo that Rey is "not who [he] thinks she is" in the opening scene is just the first of many heavy-handed 'clues'. By the time Kylo reveals Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter near the third act, many viewers had already guessed the twist would be something along these lines (although some were still caught off guard by the specifics of the reveal, as Palpatine had never been hinted to have [[RememberTheNewGuy children]]).
[[/folder]]

'''Warning: Approach with caution. As this is a plot twist trope, spoilers will be unmarked...'''but considering what we’re talking about, they’re really obvious ones.

!!Examples:

* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'':
*** The fact that the first murderer was Leon Kuwata was made extremely obvious; the DyingClue number Sayaka had left, 11037, was blatantly "LEON" upside-down on the wall. Justified in that the game was written in Japanese (and set in Japan), where Leon would be written completely differently, and since the characters are on a LastNameBasis in the original Japanese, not many would know what his given name was[[note]]Early on in the trial, when Aoi refers to Sakura by her given name, Leon gets confused and asks who she's talking about[[/note]]. That said, any player who has Japanese as their first language and a basic knowledge of the Latin alphabet could still easily figure it out.
*** With a bit of thinking it's easy to point out that Chihiro is actually a boy, as Chihiro is reluctant to spend time with the girls in their respective pool locker room after Monokuma indicates that there are gender-based restrictions on locker room access. Hina also points out that Chihiro had a hard time interacting with his female classmates, but had no problem doing so with the males. It's more obvious if you are playing with the character voices set to Japanese, as his voice is done by a man (Granted Creator/KoukiMiyata can do a pretty decent work as a very girlish-sounding young boy and thus fool those who aren't familiar with his voice acting), as opposed to the English dub in which he is voiced by Creator/DorothyEliasFahn.
*** In Chapter 3, it's quite obvious that Hifumi is faking his death the first time you find him, mainly because the game is oddly insistent that you not examine the body. Given that in every other case, you're ''encouraged'' to investigate the victim, the fact that you can't is a dead giveaway that something weird is going on.
*** The Chapter 3 culprit being Celeste isn't very surprising either, since Celeste does a ''terrible'' job diverting suspicion away from herself, despite being purportedly a good liar. It's especially obvious once it is deduced that Hifumi is the accomplice when Celeste is the character Hifumi interacts the most with; granted, she hates him, but his crush on her makes it easy for her to manipulate him. How intentional this actually is is up for debate.
*** The reveal that Kyoko's talent is Ultimate Detective. She spends every single case ruthlessly investigating, everyone is amazed by how professional she is when inspecting bodies, she's constantly talking about proper investigative procedure, and the first thing she does after the Chapter 1 investigation begins is to search the crime scene, Makoto's bedroom, for stray strands of hair. Even Makoto himself, in the anime, [[LampshadeHanging says it was obvious in hindsight]].
*** The twist of Kyoko being the headmaster's daughter was not very surprising to some, considering how she immediately lost her composure when Alter Ego revealed it was the headmaster's idea to lock them in the school.
*** The fact that Sakura was DrivenToSuicide. The poison powder on her shoes, the locked room murder aspect, and the fact that someone of her body mass had her corpse positioned to be sitting normally, were dead giveaways.
** The reveal in ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' that the main character Hajime Hinata [[TomatoInTheMirror is]] super-student and [[TheDragon major antagonist]] Izuru Kamukura is a possible example, depending on whether one has read ''LightNovel/DanganronpaZero''. It is a fairly big revelation earlier on that Hinata was part of the talentless Reserve Course, while Kamukura is stated in the book multiple times to be a former Reserve Course student. Combining this with the statement that the Reserve Course committed mass suicide and one can easily connect the dots. If you haven't read the book (like many people who played the localization) then the fact Kamukura exists at all isn't indicated until an exposition dump just before the final trial and several details about him aren't given (likely an effort to avoid this trope) making this a jarring AssPull instead.
** TheReveal in ''LightNovel/DanganronpaKirigiri'' that Mikado Shinsen is the fourth 000 detective and the BigBad ''would'' be a big twist...only Shinsen himself disappears partway through the case he's featured in. Anyone remotely familiar with detective fiction would know to be suss on any NeverFoundTheBody scenario, all of Shinsen's scenes establish him as a mysterious figure, he's the guest given the least development and both the identities of the Committee chairman and missing 000 are referenced throughout the book and speculated to be the same person, making it obvious both will be addressed.
** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'':
*** Maki Harukawa not actually being the Ultimate Child Caregiver but the Ultimate Assassin. She displays no traits that remotely match her being a caregiver (even being a self-admitted ChildHater) apart from growing up at an orphanage alongside younger kids, although other characters also dislike their talents. Her repeated refusal to let anyone inside her Research Lab makes it very apparent that she's hiding something. Not to mention Kaito even states in Chapter 1 that Maki looks like she's killed before, an odd statement to make about somebody with a supposedly non-violent talent.
*** Korekiyo Shinguji being the third culprit is one to a lot of fans. The katana used to kill Angie came from his lab (which, admittedly, anyone could have accessed). He was also the one to set-up the resurrection ritual (aka the death trap that ended up having Tenko killed). What makes this trope unique is how the WordOfGod stated that [[TheUntwist the culprit was meant to be obvious]].
*** Case 5 is built on the premise of no one being able to ascertain if the victim is Kaito or Kokichi. Problem is, the game pushes repeatedly the idea that Kaito was the victim so hard, that anyone would instantly be able to guess that the game is pulling a fast one and that Kokichi was the real victim, especially since while Kaito's coat is conspicuously sticking out of the mechanic press, while Kokichi's uniform has been flushed down the toilet. Now, why would that be, unless they were trying to hide something?

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]

** PlayedForLaughs at times. When Pearl first figures out that [[TeamPet Lion]] is somehow connected to Rose, Amethyst is only mildly surprised while Garnet comments "[[LampshadeHanging It's a little obvious]]." She says the same thing in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' when Steven reveals that Bluebird is a fusion of [[KnifeNut Eyeball]] and [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon Aquamarine]]; later in the same episode, Bluebird unfuses and the pair clearly expect people to be shocked by their identities, only for Steven to snap that ''[[EverybodyKnewAlready literally everyone]]'' figured it out as soon as they saw her.

** The mysterious masked man Tobi being Obito Uchiha. It seemed incredibly obvious right from the get-go until Tobi pulled a 180 degree on personality, authority, and power level that completely contradicted what Obito would have been capable (eg: the class dunce should not be capable of giving [[TheAce the Fourth Hokage]] a hard time). This actually led to a number of other characters being considered and causing quite a divide among the fandom. It isn't until 300 chapters later and a confirmation that he wasn't Madara Uchiha that it became somewhat possible, but the vast power level difference allowed this to be subverted up until the chapters leading into TheReveal made it so blatantly obvious it was him that it ''literally'' could not have been anyone else.

** Double subverted with the mysterious masked man Tobi being Obito Uchiha. It seemed incredibly obvious right from the get-go until Tobi pulled a 180 degree on personality, authority, and power level that completely contradicted what Obito would have been capable (eg: the class dunce should not be capable of giving [[TheAce the Fourth Hokage]] a hard time). This actually led to a number of other characters being considered and causing quite a divide among the fandom. It isn't until 300 chapters later and a confirmation that he wasn't Madara Uchiha that it became somewhat possible, but the vast power level difference allowed this to be subverted up until the chapters leading into TheReveal made it so blatantly obvious it was him that it ''literally'' could not have been anyone else.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'':
** The siblings of Hoteye/Richard Buchanan and Yukino Agria (Wally and Angel/Sorano, respectively) weren't surprising to the majority of the fanbase who put two and two together. The former pair of brothers have similar appearances with polygonal bodies, while the latter pair of sisters have white hair and are Celestial Spirit Mages. Oddly enough, Lucy, who's fairly intelligent, heard Yukino's story about her sister and knows both Yukino and Sorano, doesn't seem to make the connection.
** It's gloriously subverted with Silver of Tartaros' connection to Gray; readers speculated from the start that he is actually Gray's father before TheReveal that while his ''body'' belongs to Gray's father, it's actually possessed by Deliora, the demon that killed Gray's parents and forced Ur to use Iced Shell...only to later be double subverted when Silver reveals he really ''is'' Gray's dad brought BackFromTheDead and lied about being Deliora just to rile Gray up enough to put an end to his agonizing existence.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Sabo being alive and a member of the Revolutionary Army. It is strongly implied with how he may have appeared to be shot, but his dead body was never shown, and later on, Dragon finds someone injured who he wants to be taken to the med bay on the Revolutionaries' ship. In the latter part of the flashback, Sabo grows to hate the nobles and by extension the government, so it makes sense that he would become a Revolutionary. Furthermore, the flashback was mostly about Luffy and Ace growing up together -- if Sabo had just been killed off to never play any role in the story again, his character's existence would almost have been {{Filler}}. In addition, one of the chapter covers showed an adult Sabo alongside Luffy and Ace, indicating that his role in the story wasn't finished yet. Subverted in that WordOfGod said Sabo was dead, and that cover was just a tease. [[LyingCreator That means the author outright lied to everyone]]. And then [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] when it turned out he was alive after all.

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Anime/CrayonShinChan'' mini-series ''Crayon Shin-chan Gaiden: Aliens vs. Shinnosuke''. Takosuke is very obviously an alien, due to his strange behavior and resemblance to TheGreys. Characters accuse him of being an alien multiple times and he continually denies it, making it look like they're just setting him up as a RedHerring, but in the end, it turns out he is an alien.

* Downplayed with Kanon being Gemini Saga's twin brother from ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' - while it's surprising that Kanon was manipulating Poseidon and the Marina generals, it doesn't take long to realize that the saint protected by the constellation of twins would have a twin brother.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': That Roxas is Sora's Nobody. It's made clear from the prologue that Roxas has an extremely strong connection with Sora and that he's something called a "Nobody". When you take control of Sora for the first time in the game and meet with [[BigGood Yen Sid]], he will explain what a Nobody is. At this point, anyone who paid even the smallest amount of attention to the plot of the first game will put two-and-two together and figure out the reveal less than ''four hours'' into the game. That said, since the audience by default gets more clues than Sora due to following Roxas's prologue before playing as Sora, it's easy to treat the matter less as an overly obvious reveal and more as straightforward DramaticIrony, so Riku telling Sora that Roxas is his Nobody during the endgame still works as an InternalReveal for him.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': That Roxas is Sora's nobody. It's made clear from the prologue that Roxas has an extremely strong connection with Sora and that he's something called a "nobody". When you take control of Sora for the first time in the game and meet with [[BigGood Yen Sid]], he will explain what a nobody is. At this point, anyone who paid even the smallest amount of attention to the plot of the first game will put two-and-two together and figure out the reveal less than ''four hours'' into the game.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' has Link working with the mysterious Hilda, who claims to be his ally in the Lorule, Hyrule's alternate dimension counterpart. It's an established fact that everyone in Lorule is the polar opposite of their Hyrulean counterpart. Zelda is kind, wise, and a genuine friend to Link, so it's not quite hard to guess that Hilda turns out to be a villain (though she's admittedly a complex character who falls more toward WellIntentionedExtremist territory than any truly evil acts). Even worse, the apparent BigBad of the game, Yuga, is first seen transforming Seres, a young nun, into a painting for part of some kind of evil ritual. After completing the spell, Yuga ''outright states'' "Her Grace will be most pleased..." It's possible that the developers hoped players would overlook that line, but if you read it for even a moment, it becomes obvious that the two are conspirators.