History Main / NarratorAllAlong

* ''VideoGame/OriandtheWilloftheWisps'': At the end of the game [[spoiler:Ori is revealed to be the Narrator, having become the new spirit tree.]]

* Creator/PeterMilligan's ''ComicBook/{{Enigma}}'' ends with the snarky narrator being revealed as a talking lizard (an offhand creation by the title character) trying to tell the story to a group of ordinary lizards.
* Milligan also kind of did this in one of the issues of ''Comicbook/ShadeTheChangingMan''. The text is written in the second person, but in the end, one of the characters says that he'll write down what happened, but write it as a comic, put it in the second person, and put it under some weird pen name, like say, PeterMilligan.
* One issue during {{Creator/Marvel|Comics}}'s Comicbook/CivilWar event revealed that the narrator all along had been Sue Storm, following Comicbook/IronMan around invisibly, partly as a spy, partly waiting for a chance to try and talk some sense into him. She also points out that she could have killed him easily at pretty much any point.

* The last battle of Asgard at the [[Comicbook/SecretWars2015 end of everything]] (Ragnarök!) in issue #16 of ''Comicbook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'' turns out to be narrated by ... well enjoy the meta:
-->'''Narration:''' "...until the sky-fire stole Midgard and her twin, burned both and ended ''all''." *[[BeatPanel next page]]* "All save this telling. All save the ''teller''-- he who is ''Moon-King'', trickster, wanderer, ''free'' and ''unfettered''... '''Loki''' his name. Would you know more?" *and at this point Loki stopped narrating and [[MonumentalTheft pocketed the story]]*
* ''ComicBook/VenomTheEnd'' ends by revealing the story was being narrated by [[spoiler: the leader of the [[ComicBook/IronMan Stark]]-based artificial intelligences]], explaining the {{Technobabble}} and [[DeadpanSnarker sarcarm]]-heavy narration.
* A story from EC Comics' ''The Crypt of Terror'' has two shady travel agents booking trips for rich people in order to burgle those people's homes when they leave for vacation. They get a call from one T. Charles Kingman, wanting to take a month-long African safari. The two show up at Kingman's house when he leaves, finding a decrepit old mansion, and proceed to break in, only to be attacked and besieged by monsters--vampires, zombies, werewolves, mummies--once inside the mazelike catacombs underneath the mansion. Miraculously, they survive, but it takes them a month to find their way out. The second-to-last panel shows them crawling out the front door, traumatized and near-catatonic from their experience, past the bare feet of the returning Kingman. The last panel reveals that "T. Charles Kingman" is actually [[FunWithAcronyms The Crypt Keeper]], who learned a great deal on his trip about the headshrinking techniques of an African cannibal tribe. Heh-heh.
* ''Comicbook/EmeraldTwilight'': Who is narrating the fights between Hal Jordan and the other Green Lanterns? The narrator reveals himself at the end of the issue, just before stepping into battle himself. He is [[spoiler:Sinestro]]
* ''Comicbook/KingInBlack'': Issue#3's narrator seems concerned, but only manages to join the battle at the end of the issue. He is [[spoiler:the Silver Surfer]] ([[DownplayedTrope semi-]][[UnexpectedCharacter expected Character]] since he didn't take part on big fights on Earth for long, but he recently fought Knull).
* ''ComicBook/MediEvilFatesArrow'': The framing story features a man in bandages and sunglasses talking to Professor Darrow, an archaeologist in present day Cambridge who has devoted her life to studying Sir Daniel Fortesque, and detailing his ultimate fate after the events of ''VideoGame/MediEvil2''. [[spoiler:At the end of the story, Darrow finds the man's tales incredible and asks him how he could possibly know what he knows; he replies, "Because I was there", and reveals himself to be none other than Dan.]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* ''{{Fanfic/Appledashery}}'': This story ([[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/149893/appledashery link here]]) is mostly told in the third person but is shown in brief first-person interludes to be chronicled by an in-universe character familiar with the protagonist. It's not clear who until, in one of the main (up to this point) third-person chapters, the Cutie Mark Crusaders enter the scene and the narration suddenly switches to "I" after [[spoiler:Scootaloo]] is addressed, although this is admittedly not a particularly shocking or critical reveal (and occurs relatively early in the {{Doorstopper}}).

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'' begins with a narrator explaining the history of this world and lead-up to the current conflict. There's no indication that this is an actual character until season two, when the same voice is given to [[AmbiguouslyEvil Aaravos]], a [[StarPower Startouch Elf]] who is actually present in one of the opening flashbacks. On a related note, his seems to be the pair of hands unfurling the map in the show's theme song.

* The twist in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Woodland Critter Christmas" is that the entire plot is actually a Christmas story being told in class by [[spoiler:Eric Cartman]] (who never appears in the story himself, but has clearly set up the plot as a way of [[spoiler:making fun of Kyle yet again]]) for a school assignment. Despite [[spoiler:Kyle]]'s objections, the story continues after the revelation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'': The narrator heavily implies he's [[spoiler: Issun in the role of celestial envoy]]; presumably many years down the road, given the change in voice tone.
** ''VideoGame/{{Okamiden}}'' does the same thing but this time around, it is [[spoiler: an older Kuni]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'': "Sure enough, he finds another. He finds me."
** The reveal that the narrator is a character in the story comes fairly early. But the ''circumstances'' of the narration are revealed just before the end and are a bit more of a twist: [[spoiler:he is recounting the story to Zia while they wait for the main character to return from the final level.]]

* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'''s Barbarossa campaign, a man in a tavern is telling the story of Frederick Barbarossa, and at the end, mentions that with Barbarossa gone, no one was stopping Henry the Lion from returning to the empire. And then he says: "But [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor I am an old man now]]. [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder What harm could I possibly do?]]", revealing himself to be Henry the Lion.

* If a preformance of ''Franchise/PeterPan'' has the epilogue, the narrator who occasionally comes onstage to tell the story, is usually adult!Wendy.

* The first LightNovel of ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' starts with an immortal bespectacled ''[[TheMafia conta e oro]]'' telling a Japanese tourist about his past. [[spoiler:Despite the physical and occupational descriptors, it's actually ''Firo'', not Maiza, telling the story. He has taken to PurelyAestheticGlasses after being promoted some thirty years ago.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Hyouka}}'', a version of this, [[spoiler: turning on the cameraman rather than a narrator, is Oreki's deduction of how the student-made murder mystery film was supposed to end. As a way to resolve the film as shot on time and under budget, it was brilliant; too bad that wasn't what he was trying to do.]]

* [[spoiler:Mithra]] is revealed to be the narrator of ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''.
--> [[spoiler:'''Mithra:''' "And that...was how my father lived."]]

* In the WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier episode about ''VideoGame/Daikatana'', the storyteller (played by famous voice actor PADG) tells us the story of John Romero and the game’s chaotic development. By the end, he concludes with the moral "If you want to do something great, give up before you fail miserably"… and starts to cry his eyes out and [[DrowningMySorrows drink alcohol]], implying that he’s John Romero himself.

* Tom T. Hall's song ''Harper Valley P.T.A.'', most famously recorded by Jeannie C. Riley, tells the story of a woman whose daughter brings home a note from school objecting to the mother's clothes and behavior. The woman goes to the Parent-Teacher Association meeting and gives them a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling them out on their flaws and hypocrisy. The identity of the narrator is revealed in the very last line:

* In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall,'' the narrator is eventually revealed to be [[spoiler:the frog/Jason Funderburker]].

* ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' ends with the revelation that the narrator, who we think is Willy Wonka's father (played by Creator/ChristopherLee), is [[spoiler:one of the Ooompa-Loompas]].

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' animation director Rob Coleman says that Creator/GeorgeLucas told him that the OpeningScroll to each movie is actually [=R2-D2=] explaining the story to the keeper of The Journal of The Whills 100 years after ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.

* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNovelizations'' version of ''Day of the Doctor'' manages to ''keep'' doing this. Having established early on that when the Doctor is narrating, he refers to himself in the third person, and that the narrator is constantly changing, the reader is never sure if the narrator is the Doctor until he slips, or the chapter gets so in-depth about how much he sucks that it's clear [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice only one person hates him that much]]. And even if you go into a chapter ''assuming'' that it's narrated by the Doctor, you don't know which one. And then there's the mysterious figure narrating between the chapters [[spoiler: who turns out to be the Curator, which he supposes means he's also the Doctor...]]

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' uses first-person dialogue on the top screen, and third-person narration on the bottom screen for most of the game. But near the end of the True Ending, the bottom-screen narration will suddenly start using first person. [[spoiler:Turns out that what you see on the bottom screen is actually Akane nine years ago, experiencing everything through Junpei's eyes using the morphogenic field.]] In later ports of the game (which don't have a second screen), this is mimicked by having a button switch between the "screens".

* In Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/Millennium1983'' (the book, but not [[Film/{{Millennium}} the film of the book]]), the narrator is assumed to be the Big Computer, but reveals himself to be [[spoiler:God]].

* In Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/{{Millennium}}'' (the book, but not [[Film/{{Millennium}} the film of the book]]), the narrator is assumed to be the Big Computer, but reveals himself to be [[spoiler:God]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJndaDpohSY This video]] by [=MKarma=] documents the history of ''VideoGame/TheHobbit2003'' {{speedrun}}ning. The first hour or so of the video is mostly about [=iRule=], who dominated the leaderboards in the speedrun's early years, then eventually got sick of running the game and stopped, eventually getting dethroned by another runner as the community continued to work at lowering the record and hunting glitches over the next few years. Then, one day, a complete nobody called [=IceBagels=] showed up out of nowhere, posted a bunch individual level world records, and immediately took second place in the leaderboards for a full game speedrun, baffling the community as they had never heard of him before. [[spoiler:Turns out [=IceBagels=] was far from a complete nobody, and was actually [=iRule=] operating from a throwaway account, as he wasn't sure if he wanted to make a permanent return to the game. When he was sure, he revealed himself, except he actually ''had'' changed his username for real since he last ran the game... to [=MKarma=]]].

* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJndaDpohSY this Youtube video documenting the history of]] ''VideoGame/TheHobbit2003'' speedruns, a few early world record holders are mentioned in the opening stages, who eventually step away from the game for a while. Later on, a new runner going by [=IcedBagels=] shows up, and he's a major world record contender despite never being heard of before. [[spoiler: It turns out that [=IcedBagels=] is [=iRule=], one of the early world record holders, using a dummy account as he wasn't sure his return would be permeant. And while he did choose to reveal himself, he would later change his username for real: to [=MKarma=], the user who uploaded the video.]]