History Main / TheUntwist

In most cases, TheUntwist is the unintentional result of a writer being heavy-handed with {{foreshadowing}}, such that the reader assumes simple hints are red herrings. It ''can'' be done deliberately, but doing it deliberately and ''well'' requires a great deal of skill. A common way of doing it deliberately is by playing a DiscreditedTrope completely straight, (since being discredited means the audience will doubt it's being played straight). Other times, the writer didn't intend the plot point to be a surprise at all - the fans produced an Untwist by expecting a twist where there was none.

A GenreSavvy viewer would quickly conclude that Carol is the murderer and Bob is innocent. Why? Naturally, the evidence that Bob did it was planted by the author to mislead the audience into drawing a false conclusion. On the other hand, Carol's niceness is seen to be an act to conceal her own guilt.

In many cases, the above description is exactly how it happens (see: most episodes of ''{{CSI}}''). However, sometimes the author pulls a fast one - it turns out [[{{DevilInPlainSight}} Bob is guilty after all]]! All that evidence against him, which the reader dismissed on the grounds of being too obvious, is actually correct and valid. Furthermore, Carol cooperated with the detective because she's that sort of person, and she was genuinely sad that Alice died.

And thus is illustrated the essence of TheUntwist. The author drops a large number of hints at the start of the story which a GenreSavvy reader assumes to be obvious {{red herring}}s, and thus is surprised when, later on, it turns out that the simplest, most obvious explanation was the correct one. Somehow, the author has managed to [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow subvert the reader's expectations by not subverting their expectations]], [[LogicBomb or something]]. (That is, instead of a DoubleSubversion, it's a Null Subversion.)

This technique obviously carries with it the risk that if it is not very well done, or the audience isn't very GenreSavvy, they will not anticipate that there will be a twist. If this happens, they will simply go along with what the writer is very obviously leading them to believe, and when the story unfolds that way, they will consider it very predictable and be unimpressed. For instance, in the example used above, they would assume that it was Bob who committed the murder due to the evidence presented against him, and it will turn out to be Bob who did it, which, without the expectation of a twist would be a very boring story. Furthermore, TheUntwist can also fail if the audience is ''too'' GenreSavvy, and will expect you to pull an [[TheUntwist untwist]] in advance, although this is considerably more rare.

In most cases, TheUntwist is the unintentional result of a writer being heavy-handed with {{foreshadowing}}, such that the reader assumes simple hints are red herrings. It ''can'' be done deliberately, but doing it deliberately and ''well'' requires a great deal of skill. A common way of doing it deliberately is by playing a DiscreditedTrope completely straight. Other times, the writer didn't intend the plot point to be a surprise at all - the fans produced an Untwist by expecting a twist where there was none.

This technique obviously carries with it the risk that if it is not very well done, or the audience isn't very GenreSavvy, they will not anticipate that there will be a twist. If this happens, they will simply go along with what the writer is very obviously leading them to believe, and when the story unfolds that way, they will consider it very predictable and be unimpressed. For instance, in the example used above, they would assume that it was Bob who committed the murder due to the evidence presented against him, and it will turn out to be Bob who did it, which, without the expectation of a twist would be a very boring story.

->''"If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right."''
-->-- '''Verbal Kint''', ''Film/TheUsualSuspects''

Sometimes, though, the heavy foreshadowing leading to a TwistEnding was ''intentional'', but due to circumstances (usually ExecutiveMeddling), the Twist is turned into an Untwist (see the 2007 version of ''IAmLegend'' for a good example).

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<<|MetaConcepts|>>
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<<|TwistEnding|>>

-->-- '''Verbal Kint''', ''The Usual Suspects''

Contrast the ShockingSwerve, which pulls a twist literally out of ''[[AssPull nowhere]]''. Compare MetaTwist, where an author who relied on a specific twist surprises the audience by [[AvertedTrope averting]] it.

TruthInTelevision, as in RealLife, most homicide victims are killed by someone they know, and, following OccamsRazor, the most obvious suspect is usually right.

In most cases, TheUntwist is the unintentional result of a writer being [[BadWriting heavy-handed]] with {{foreshadowing}}, such that the reader assumes simple hints are red herrings. It ''can'' be done deliberately, but doing it deliberately and ''well'' requires a great deal of skill. A common way of doing it deliberately is by playing a DiscreditedTrope completely straight. Other times, the writer didn't intend the plot point to be a surprise at all - the fans produced an Untwist by expecting a twist where there was none.

[[quoteright:250:[[{{Borderlands}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BiggerDrNed_4811.jpg]]]]

<<|TwistEnding|>>

And thus is illustrated the essence of TheUntwist. The author drops a large number of hints at the start of the story which a GenreSavvy reader assumes to be obvious {{red herring}}s, and thus is surprised when, later on, it turns out that the simplest, most obvious explanation was the correct one. Somehow, the author has managed to [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow subvert the reader's expectations by not subverting their expectations]], [[LogicBomb or something]]. (That is, instead of a DoubleSubversion, it's a NullSubversion.)

TruthInTelevision, as in RealLife, most homicide victims are killed by someone they know, and, following Occam's Razor, the most obvious suspect is usually right.

In most cases, TheUntwist is the unintentional result of a writer being [[{{Anvilicious}} heavy-handed]] with {{foreshadowing}}, such that the reader assumes simple hints are red herrings. It ''can'' be done deliberately, but doing it deliberately and ''well'' requires a great deal of skill. A common way of doing it deliberately is by playing a DiscreditedTrope completely straight. Other times, the writer didn't intend the plot point to be a surprise at all - the fans produced an Untwist by expecting a twist where there was none.

[[AC:No examples, please. Any plot development [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox can become]] TheUntwist to a [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife sufficiently paranoid reader]].

[[AC:No examples, please. Any plot development [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox can become]] TheUntwist to a [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife sufficiently paranoid reader]]. Take your personal examples to [[TroperTales/TheUntwist Troper Tales]].]]

->''If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right.''
-->--'''Verbal Kint''', '''''The Usual Suspects'''''

Occasionally played with, e.g. in one fairly famous mystery book, the obvious person is guilty - but the obvious ''evidence'' and ''way he committed the crime'' is false: It was all part of a XanatosGambit based around "double jeopardy" laws which prevent people from being tried for the same crime twice. Basically, he planned to trick the police into using the false evidence at trial, which he would then easily dismiss.

->''Of course, the last person to see him never commits the crime. That would make it too easy.''
-->'''LordPeterWimsey''', in ''The Five Red Herrings''

-->'''Verbal Kint''',in ''The Usual Suspects''

[[quoteright:232:[[{{Borderlands}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ResizedDrNed_5339.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:232:Dude made [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]], ok?]]

[[{{Borderlands}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tropes_borderlands_ned_4737.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350:Dude made [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]], ok?]]

->''Of course, the last person to see him never commits the crime. That would make it too easy. One of these days I shall write a book in which two men are seen to walk down a cul-de-sac, and there is a shot and one man is found murdered and the other runs away with a gun in his hand, and after twenty chapters stinking with red herrings, it turns out that the man with the gun did it after all.''

->"Keaton was a cop. To a cop the explanation is never that complicated. It's always simple. There's no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right."
-->Verbal Kint, in The Usual Suspects

->"Keaton was a cop. To a cop the explanation is never that complicated. It's always simple. There's no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right."
-->"Verbal Kint", in "The Usual Suspects"

Contrast the ShockingSwerve, which pulls a twist literally out of ''[[AssPull nowhere]]'', often [[OffTheRails derailing the plot]] in the process. Compare MetaTwist, where an author who relied on a specific twist surprises the audience by [[AvertedTrope averting]] it.

[[AC:No examples, please. Any plot development can become TheUntwist to a [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife sufficiently paranoid reader]]. Take your personal examples to [[TroperTales/TheUntwist Troper Tales]].]]

And thus is illustrated the essence of TheUntwist. The author drops a large number of hints at the start of the story which a GenreSavvy reader assumes to be obvious {{red herring}}s, and thus is surprised when, later on, it turns out that the simplest, most obvious explanation was the correct one. Somehow, the author has managed to [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow subvert the reader's expectations by not subverting their expectations]], [[LogicBomb or something]]. (That is, instead of a DoubleSubversion, it's a null subversion.)

And thus is illustrated the essence of TheUntwist. The author drops a large number of hints at the start of the story which a GenreSavvy reader assumes to be obvious {{red herring}}s, and thus is surprised when, later on, it turns out that the simplest, most obvious explanation was the correct one. Somehow, the author has managed to [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow subvert the reader's expectations by not subverting their expectations]], [[LogicBomb or something]]. (That is, instead of a DoubleSubversion, it's a zero subversion.)