| 1 | ->''"What I'm about to tell you, you might not want to know. Even so, you absolutely must hear it. [...] Given who you are and how you've lived, what I have to say may tear at your hearts..."'' |
| 2 | -->-- ''VideoGame/Mother3'' |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Being honest and forthright is not always a good thing. Some truths are so frustrating and traumatizing that it is treated as something to keep from becoming general knowledge, as they are deemed a serious threat to the mental stability of certain characters or would result in [[TorchesAndPitchforks rioting in the streets]]. That, or this is a mocking cry by the jaded AntiHero to illustrate his belief that the main hero is [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids too naive]] to be trusted with the truth. In short, when something seems TooGoodToBeTrue, this is what the actual truth will probably turn out to be. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | This is a supertrope to a number of other concepts: |
| 7 | * FigureItOutYourself: Learning about it is better than being told directly. |
| 8 | * ForbiddenFruit: The desire for it is greater because it is withheld. |
| 9 | * HeelRealization: Discovering you have been the villain of the story. |
| 10 | * HonestyAesop: Revealing the truth is a valuable lesson. |
| 11 | * LyingToProtectYourFeelings: Letting someone believe a lie so they don't feel bad. |
| 12 | * SchmuckBait: The desire for knowledge is used as a prank. |
| 13 | * TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Mortal beings cannot process this information. |
| 14 | * TomatoInTheMirror: Personal revelations change your entire personal identity and worldview. |
| 15 | * YouAreNotReady: Declaring emotional or physical maturity is needed before acquiring this knowledge. |
| 16 | * YouDidntAsk: The information was not a secret but clarity was not offered. |
| 17 | * YouDoNOTWantToKnow: It's preferable to not be given this knowledge for private/personal/disgusting reasons. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | If it's not so much hidden as an unyielding fact of life, see tropes such as HumansAreBastards, CrapsackWorld or its real life counterparts HobbesWasRight and {{Realpolitik}}, video games with branching plots whose best and/or canon ending is {{bittersweet|Ending}} or some types of YouAreTooLate or DownerEnding. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Despite the similar names, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant this has nothing to do with]] the movie ''Film/TheAwfulTruth''. |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | !!Examples: |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 28 | * In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', the Awful Truth of the setting is revealed in the [[MissingEpisode 83rd chapter that was never reprinted]] because the author thought it gave away too much of the plot: [[spoiler: the worst part isn't that GodIsEvil, nor is it that YouCantFightFate. The Awful Truth is that humanity wouldn't have it any other way. They ''need'' an evil "god" to dictate their lives because the alternative is worse: that their suffering is meaningless and they have no one to blame for it but themselves. They needed it so badly that they [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve subconsciously willed it into existence]]]]. |
| 29 | ** [[LonelyRichKid Theresia]], the daughter of the Count, was told that seven years ago that her mother was taken hostage by heretics and killed by them as a human sacrifice when her father refused their demands. This was when her father began to change, and started persecuting his people with no regard for guilt or innocence. The first awful truth comes when she sees her father's [[OneWingedAngel true form]] as an Apostle which he had hidden from her for all those years, which in itself might have been enough to break her. The worst is yet to come, however, as Theresia finds out the truth of what happened to her mother: [[spoiler: she betrayed her husband the Count by participating in pagan orgies, and in order to [[NeverBeHurtAgain escape from his despair]] he [[DealWithTheDevil sacrificed her to the Godhand]] in exchange for becoming a monster who would never feel pain or grief.]] |
| 30 | * ''Manga/BlackClover'': |
| 31 | ** Rhya knew that Lumiere didn't betray the elves, but didn't tell the others because of his desire for revenge against the humans and to see Licht again. When he gets a hole in his gut courtesy of Zagred, [[spoiler:the true perpetrator]], he wonders if it's the price for lying. |
| 32 | ** Ichika learns that was given the demon soul pill, the Yami clan's secret drug that spiked up her bloodlust and latent yoryoku, leading her to massacre the clan. Ichika repressed the memory, with Ryuya keeping the truth from her. The result is her older brother Sukehiro, made the scapegoat and spent years hating him for nothing. |
| 33 | * In ''Anime/BlueReflectionRay'', Niina reveals that Hiori succumbing to despair [[spoiler: and ultimately dying in the original timeline]] is what broke her sister's resolve and led her on the path to becoming a villainous Red Reflector. Hiori doesn't take this well, blaming herself for everything that happened to her sister. |
| 34 | * In ''{{Manga/Bokurano}}'', the main characters were originally told [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame what was going on was a game]] to ensure they would fight in and against [[HumongousMecha giant mecha]]. The prospect of defeating the enemy was a lot easier when they didn't know doing so would [[spoiler:[[ArtifactOfDeath kill them regardless of success]]]]. And when they thought the enemies were [[spoiler:aliens instead of [[AlternateUniverse alternate dimensional humans]], and that they killed 10 billion people with each win]]. They were, however, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt told what failure meant]], though the general public was mostly out of the loop. |
| 35 | * In ''Manga/CaseClosed'', Ai keeps insisting to Conan [[spoiler:that if Ran were to know the truth about the Black Organization and Shinichi being Conan, then she will not smile. She will be burdened by the truth.]] |
| 36 | * In the manga version of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', part of what inspires Aion's EvilPlan is the Awful Truth he found out about his origins [[spoiler:(that is, that the demons are aliens, and the current HiveQueen was a human woman pregnant with twins (Chrono and Aion) before she was turned into a demon)]]. He also goes to great lengths to hide the truth from Chrono, saying he "doesn't need to know"--but Chrono finds out in the end and takes it rather well. |
| 37 | * In ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'', Tanaka Sr. offers to reinstate David into Arasaka Academy not because of his previously strong academic performance, [[spoiler:but rather because he has high tolerance for cybernetics. As the director of the cyberskeleton project, Tanaka planned to use David to serve as his test subject]]. This discovery horrifies Lucy, to the point of her killing Tanaka and deliberately deleting all of the information related [[spoiler:to David and the cyberskeleton. Then, after the TimeSkip, she actively hunts down any Arasaka netrunner looking to retrieve the deleted data to protect David.]] |
| 38 | * In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': |
| 39 | ** Dr. Marcoh refuses to tell Ed how the philosophers stones are made from using [[spoiler: [[PoweredByAForsakenChild live humans]]]]. |
| 40 | ** Along with the fact that [[spoiler:the Elrics didn't even bring back their mom]], the government's true intentions are so dark that even the [[spoiler:[[SerialEscalation president's son, the borders of the nation, and the layout of the capital have a malicious purpose.]]]] |
| 41 | * Late in ''Manga/FutureDiary'', Yukiteru decides to finally stoop to the level of the other Diary users as a WellIntentionedExtremist due to being tricked that [[spoiler:he could revive his parents once he became God]]. Needless to say, it's a false hope that [[spoiler:Yuno]] realized far too late [[spoiler:in her original timeline -- AllDeathsAreFinal]]. His denial of this fact when his friends tell him have horrible consequences. |
| 42 | * ''Anime/FutureRobotDaltanious'': [[spoiler:Kloppen is Prince Harlin's clone. When he was a child, Dr. Namil brought him to Dolmen so that he could groom the boy into being his successor. Because he wanted the Emperor to accept him into his services, Namil helped Dolmen groom him and reinforced the lie that he was the actual Prince by telling him the Imperial Cross on his arm was proof of his heritage. He raised the boy into following Dolmen's footsteps and being a warrior for the Zaal Empire. After he had grown into an adult, Namil had a change of heart and exposed the truth to everyone. In his pre-recorded video, he admitted there was a way to differentiate clones from their prototypes -- clones, when exposed to UV radiation, will experience deterioration in their skin. Kloppen is hit with a UV ray and his skin deteriorates -- and then he realizes that his entire life has been a lie.]] |
| 43 | * In ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'', during the prequel manga, ''Little Army'', Miho learns that her sister Maho, whom she looked up to, [[spoiler:won the tournament by firing on the enemy flag tank when it was going to rescue one of her team's tanks]]. This causes a temporary rift between Miho and Maho when Maho begins acting coldly around Miho around the time of their mother's return, when she's confronted about this, but while their relationship is mended, it causes Miho to realize just what the Nishizumi style expects of those who pursue it, and thus causes her to seek out her own way of tankery. |
| 44 | * In ''Literature/HeavyObject'', Louisiana Honeysuckle reveals to Qwenthur the truth she discovered on reaching the apex of Object design: [[spoiler:The incredible forces unleashed during Object battles have begun disrupting the Earth's axis, which may soon render the planet uninhabitable]]. |
| 45 | * ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose'': [[spoiler: Hélène Dunant was blinded as a result of a plane accident. Her mother Christine, who never approved of the man she married, deliberately kept her from him. To hide the fact that her daughter Alicia was missing, Christine involves Michel Toulonchamp in a scheme to pretend that his daughter, Mathilda, is Alicia, helped by Mathilda's ability to imitate voices. Michel and Mathilda crave the wealth of the Dunant family, so they have been slipping poison in Hélène's tea hoping she'll die and they can claim her inheritance.]] |
| 46 | * ''Manga/InuYasha'': Just as [[AloofBigBrother Sesshoumaru's]] finally getting used to the idea that [[InfinityPlusOneSword Tessaiga]] was meant for [[TheHero Inuyasha]] and [[HealingShiv Tenseiga]] was meant for him, he learns the truth. The revelation shocks even Inuyasha and his companions, who think Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha's father has been [[AbusiveParent far too cruel]]. Sesshoumaru takes the news badly, concluding it's proof he was the [[TheUnfavorite outcast son]] and that his father was [[ParentalFavoritism training Inuyasha to kill him]]. [[spoiler: Tenseiga is merely a cast-off piece of Tessaiga, separated from Tessaiga so that Sesshoumaru could master the Meidou Zangetsuha technique and then transfer it back to Tessaiga, meaning that the attack form he earned due to his compassion for [[BrokenBird Kagura]]'s death isn't his to keep - it's destined for Inuyasha's use. Sesshoumaru does eventually calm down enough to realise his father's [[GoodParents true]] [[CruelToBeKind intention]] was for him to [[BigBrotherMentor guide]] Inuyasha not be killed by him. He therefore [[SinkOrSwimMentor decides]] to [[DieOrFly sacrifice his claim to both swords forever]] as part of a HiddenPurposeTest to see if Inuyasha is [[OnlyTheWorthyMayPass strong enough to handle the technique]]. Once he sacrifices his dependence on the two swords, Sesshoumaru is finally able to achieve the level of wisdom and compassion required to unlock the true power [[TheOnlyWayTheyWillLearn his father knew he possessed]] and finally obtain a sword [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong that is truly his own]].]] |
| 47 | * In ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'', the fact that [[spoiler: a very young Margaret had to kill her BrainwashedAndCrazy father Richard when he tried to kill her after a plane crash]] is a truth so awful... that [[spoiler: she created two alternate personalities (Madlax herself and Laetitia) to escape it. And she doesn't admit it to herself until the penultimate episode of the anime.]] |
| 48 | * ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth'' starts out as a fairly standard story about three teens who get TrappedInAnotherWorld and tasked with [[SaveThePrincess rescuing a princess]]. Just as they're getting close to their goal, they find out that their ''real'' mission is to [[spoiler: [[ICannotSelfTerminate kill the princess because she wants to die]]]]. |
| 49 | * PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/MyDadsTheQueenOfAllVTubers''. Takashi has been fawning over the VirtualCelebrity Kizuke Yai, until one day he walks into his dad's room and finds out that his dad ''is'' Kizuke Yai. [[BrainBleach He wishes he can forget this ever happened]], as every time he sees Kizuke Yai now, he can only see his dad's face. |
| 50 | * In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': |
| 51 | ** The reason [[FirstEpisodeTwist why most of the villagers hate Naruto]] is that he's [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan the can]] of [[EldritchAbomination the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox]] which killed many of them and destroyed a good part of the Leaf Village. |
| 52 | ** Sasuke was far happier thinking [[spoiler:his brother killed their family because he was bored than when he found out that he had really been acting under orders from Konoha... and that the Uchiha clan had been planning a coup against the Leaf Village, with Sasuke just about the only survivor because of his brother's intercession]]. He was a lot saner then, too. |
| 53 | * The heroine of ''Manga/PhantomThiefJeanne'' is a MagicalGirl on a mission from God. About halfway through the series (or towards the end, in the anime), she finds out that [[spoiler: she's been working for Satan all along, her MentorMascot is a fallen angel who was in on the whole thing, and the two have been conspiring to [[BreakTheCutie break her]] — in Satan's case, he's been doing it since she was an infant.]] |
| 54 | * ''Manga/{{Pretear}}'': |
| 55 | ** [[MagicalGirl Himeno Awayuki]] was told that she "doesn't need to know" the {{backstory}}, but forced the Leafe Knights to reveal it anyway -- specifically, that their enemy is the previous Pretear, who turned evil because of her unrequited love for Hayate, and that Himeno herself may end up turning evil as well. Cue HeroicBSOD. In the anime version, the consequences were [[BroughtDownToNormal even worse]]. |
| 56 | ** In the manga, her stepmother Natsue unleashes another one on Himeno: Himeno's late mother died because her frail body couldn't handle the strain of pregnancy and childbirth. [[DeathByChildbirth In other words, Himeno unknowingly killed her mother.]] |
| 57 | * Anyone who wants to become a MagicalGirl in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' must know one thing: [[spoiler:upon making the contract to become a magical girl, your soul gets sucked into the [[SoulJar Soul Gem]] that you use to transform into your magical girl form, and if it's not within 100 meters of you, your body becomes an EmptyShell. This essentially turns you into a {{Lich}}]]. |
| 58 | ** ''Two'' things, as of Episode 8. [[spoiler:The warning that [[FrozenFace Kyubey]] gave the girls about needing to keep their [[SoulJar Soul Gems]] clean by charging them with Grief Seeds? If they don't regularly purify the corrupted gem and it darkens completely, it becomes a Grief Seed and then ''explodes'', [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie transforming them into a Witch]]]]. Just in case that wasn't horrifying enough, [[spoiler:this is apparently inevitable. Ultimately the gem ''will'' darken completely no matter what the girls do, and every magical girl is doomed to become one of the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that she and others like her fight. And the only way to avoid this horrible fate? Die before it can happen]]. This one was so awful that [[spoiler:in one timeline of Homura's GroundhogDayLoop, it drove Mami, who survived in this timeline, to try to kill the other {{Magical Girl}}s to save them from becoming witches before turning her gun on herself, killing Kyouko and almost killing Homura before she was stopped by Madoka. And in the ''[[VideoGame/MagiaRecordPuellaMagiMadokaMagicaSideStory Magica Record]]'' timeline, this knowledge causes Mami to pull a FaceHeelTurn by joining the Wings of Magius in the hopes of freeing all Magical Girls from their contract]]. |
| 59 | *** And just to make things even ''worse''? [[spoiler:Apart from witches created from former familiars that grew their own Grief Seeds after their parent witch was killed, every single witch that the magical girls have fought was once a magical girl herself. Every magical girl became a magical girl through making a contract with Kyubey]]. This means that [[spoiler:Kyubey creates witches, meaning that all the bad things that witches do to people and all the horrible things that magical girls have to go through to stop them are ultimately Kyubey's fault. There's a REASON that a lot of people despise the little fucker]]. |
| 60 | *** To top it all off, the ''reason'' [[spoiler:Kyubey]] is doing all of this? ''[[spoiler:The entire universe is dying.]]'' |
| 61 | *** Madoka eventually provides an out of sorts for this by [[spoiler:using her wish to destroy TheCorruption and ensure that no MagicalGirl has to become a Witch, [[CosmicRetcon past, present, or future]]. Unfortunately they just disappear instead - being a magical girl still sucks. Madoka herself AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence (''[[AbstractApotheosis becoming a concept]]'') because her wish turned her into a witch...which she then erased because of her wish. The paradox caused her to be RetGone from reality - only two people know she ever existed, and WordOfGod says that the one of them (Madoka's younger brother, Tatsuya) will lose those memories as he gets older]]. |
| 62 | ** Homura has one in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' when she realizes that somehow, despite Madoka's wish, [[spoiler: a witch still exists.]] It's worse when she realizes [[spoiler: ''[[TomatoInTheMirror she]]'' is the witch.]] |
| 63 | * ''Manga/{{Saki}}'': |
| 64 | ** In ''Manga/SakiAchigaHen'', Kirame overhears a conversation between her school's mahjong club president and her best friend that she wasn't chosen to be on the team for her skill, but because she never falls below 0 points, enabling her to stay in the game no matter how strong the vanguard player is, while her teammates recover the points in the following rounds. She doesn't get upset, but is instead happy that someone has a use for her talent. |
| 65 | ** In the main series, Saki's primary goal is to reconnect with her sister; due to an only vaguely glimpsed at event that was most likely related to their parents separating, Teru is refusing to speak with Saki. Saki is quite disturbed to hear, third-hand, that Teru [[IHaveNoSon is denying that she has a sister]]. While Saki expected Teru to say something like that, she wonders if they can ever possibly reconcile. |
| 66 | * In ''Manga/TheSecretAgreement'', Kyuusai reveals to Yuuichi that he is from a powerful clan that steals other people's life force, and that neither he nor his boyfriend actually love each other, it's just an implanted delusion between predator and prey that makes it easier for Yuuichi to steal Iori's life. Yuuichi is horrified. |
| 67 | * The second episode (and the latter part of the first) of ''Literature/ShakuganNoShana'', Shana explains that [[spoiler: people get eaten from existence, between the space of seconds, and it is such a regular occurrence that replacement humans are needed to keep the universe from destabilizing.]] |
| 68 | * In ''Literature/SoImASpiderSoWhat'' reaching Level 10 Taboo reveals the forbidden knowledge of the world: [[spoiler:It explains how humanity nearly destroyed the world in the past and are now reliant on the eternally suffering Goddess to survive. The skill system recycles souls and their energy to provide skills and XP, distorting the souls in the process. Due to centuries of incompetent management and MA generators continuing to damage the world, newly-born souls are on the verge of collapsing]]. |
| 69 | * ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': Continued use of Spiral Power will eventually lead to an event called the Spiral Nemesis, which will give birth to a super-galaxy that will rip the universe apart. When this is desperately called a lie, the Anti-Spiral retorts that anyone with sufficient Spiral Power, like Simon, instinctively ''knows'' that this is the inescapable truth. |
| 70 | * ''Manga/{{Tripeace}}'': In the chapter with this title we learn that [[spoiler: not only did peace-loving IdiotHero Nana flee from Ares (or possibly Hades) -- a group that deliberately incites conflicts because "conflicts will always exist" vs the anti-war [=TriPeace=] organization's goal of ending all conflicts forever -- ''he's their founder''.]] |
| 71 | * ''Manga/VampireKnight'': Zero doesn't take the revelation of [[spoiler: Yuuki being a pureblood vampire all along]] rather well. |
| 72 | * In ''Literature/WorldEndWhatDoYouDoAtTheEndOfTheWorldAreYouBusyWillYouSaveUs'', it’s eventually revealed that the [[EldritchAbomination 17 Beasts]] [[spoiler: were originally human.]] Or so we were led to believe. [[spoiler: It turns out that the Beasts were the original inhabitants of the world who were unwillingly transformed into humans and other races by the extraterrestrial Visitors. The “curse” keeping humans from reverting to their original form simply failed over time, resulting in the Beasts re emerging 500 years prior to the main story. Their anger at what the Visitors had done to their home twisted them into violent monsters with an insatiable urge to destroy all non Beast life, which they viewed as a blight on their once beautiful world.]] |
| 73 | * Several for the Hero System in ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'': [[spoiler:Every time a Hero uses her [[LimitBreak Mankai]], [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique she gains a physical disability]] as a sacrifice to the Shinju. Heroes are also caught in a ForeverWar against the Vertexes -- [[AfterTheEnd that have destroyed everything on Earth except Shikoku]] -- once recruited.]] |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 77 | * ''Series/{{Angel}}'': In the TV series, Connor had already regained the memories of his real life, but in ''Angel: After the Fall,'' his personal side effect of being in Hell is remembering everything. EVERYTHING, in crystal clarity. As in, vividly remembering [[IncestSubtext having sex with a woman at the same time you remember her changing your diapers.]] Plus betrayal of a loving father. |
| 78 | * ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': In ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaWinterSoldier'', there's the classic, horrible reveal that the infamous Winter Soldier is [[spoiler:Bucky Barnes]]. |
| 79 | * ''ComicBook/{{Democracy}}'': Leander finds out that the reason why Harmodius and Aristogeiton killed Hipparchus was not because they were sick of the tyranny (as he originally thought), but because they were lovers and he tried to separate them. Needless to say, he didn't take it well. |
| 80 | * ''ComicBook/{{Enigma}}'': The Truth has the power to look someone in the eye and strip away every single comforting lie they tell themselves. Most of them either commit suicide immediately after or else go on a killing spree. |
| 81 | * ''ComicBook/{{Eternals}}'': In [[ComicBook/Eternals2021 the 2021 series]], the core cast discover that the ResurrectiveImmortality the 1,000,000 year old Eternals treat so casually is [[spoiler:fuelled by HumanResources, with someone dying to power each Eternal revival]]. And they’ve been caught in an AmnesiaLoop when they previously uncovered this. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'': [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]] is told her sister [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] murdered her father. Upon interrogating a rebel, though, she learns Kara didn't kill anybody and their father actually helped her escape from their hellhole of a city. Barbara sets out to ascertain the truth and discovers her mentor murdered James Gordon and framed her sister. And her father had taken very drastic measures in order to protect his new daughter: |
| 83 | -->'''Barbara:''' I wish that was true, Kara, I really do, but this goes so much deeper than either of us. They framed you because the truth is insane. If people in The Garden knew...\ |
| 84 | '''Kara:''' If they knew '''what'''?\ |
| 85 | '''Barbara:''' I... rghh... Dad was working on... a project for Governor Luthor. Something... deep in the Lexes. Top secret. An alien. Luthor wanted it... controlled. He wanted to... harness its power... Gahhhh... I don't know why. But dad... He couldn't let it happen. He hacked his ridealongs. Kept the alien off the grid. Changed her memories. Changed my memories. That was ten years ago. That's the day we became sisters. |
| 86 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': For the longest time, Bruce Banner was in denial about what really happened to his parents; his mother Rebecca was killed by her abusive husband Brian, and Brian was killed by Bruce himself (by accident) 15 years later when the two got into a physical fight on Rebecca's grave. The Hulk is really just a manifestation of Bruce's guilt and trauma. |
| 87 | * ''ComicBook/KickAss'': [[spoiler:Big Daddy is not an ex-cop whose wife got killed. In fact, he was an accountant whose wife hated him so much that he decided to run off with his baby daughter and start a new life as a superhero]]. |
| 88 | * ''ComicBook/TheSentry'': In ''ComicBook/AgeOfTheSentry'', this is referenced by [[ArchEnemy Cranio]] when he begins narrating to Sentry about the true nature of their universe: "As he divulged his secrets, I began the journey that would undo us all. Listen closely, Robert Reynolds, for this is how the man with the tri-level mind became [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow the man who learned too much]]." |
| 89 | * ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'': In the mini-series ''Imposter Syndrome'', Surge and Kit learn the origins of their creation: [[spoiler:they're actually two people kidnapped off the streets by Dr. Starline and turned into cyborgs for the express purpose of destroying Sonic and Eggman, their identities stripped away by Starline's brainwashing and no identification as to who they really were before being transformed]]. |
| 90 | * ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': |
| 91 | ** ''ComicBook/DemonSpawn'' Nightflame steals the titular heroine's soul and carries it to a hellish place inhabited by legions of horrible demons called the Innerverse. Then Nightflame reveals that world and its demons are a manifestation of Kara's own evil. As Kara faces a cyclopean, wrinkled demon, she doesn't want to believe it. |
| 92 | --->'''Nightflame:''' Peer into your soul, Supergirl, and see what you have never faced... your own evil!\ |
| 93 | '''Supergirl:''' Wha-? This... This thing exists within my own body! No, it can't be! Nothing as evil as all this could be part of me!\ |
| 94 | '''Nightflame:''' Yes, it is part of you... and of all mortals. |
| 95 | ** In a ''[[ComicBook/{{Supergirl 1982}} classic Supergirl story]]'', the titular heroine tells an amnesiac doppelganger of hers that she is a clone. |
| 96 | * ''ComicBook/SwampThing'': In Creator/AlanMoore's run, Abby goes into a HeroicBSOD after realizing that [[spoiler: her husband has been possessed by her uncle Anton Arcane.]] This is ''exactly'' as [[{{Squick}} squicky]] as it sounds. |
| 97 | ** And well before that, at the ''start'' of Alan Moore's run, Swamp Thing found out that [[RetCon he'd never been Alec Holland]], just [[TomatoInTheMirror a mass of intelligent vegetation]] with Holland's memories. He [[HeroicBSOD didn't take it well]]. |
| 98 | * ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': The big thing Skids blocked out in his memory. [[spoiler:When he was imprisoned in [[HellholePrison Grindcore]], Skids accepted a deal with the warden to repair the teleport systems in exchange for the lives of 50 prisoners, himself included. Except there were no teleporters, Skids had actually been tricked into repairing a giant incinerator, and was ForcedToWatch all of the imprisoned bots burn to death. To really twist the knife, one of those bots was his cellmate Quark, whom he gave up his spot for.]] |
| 99 | * ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': During the conclusion, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Ozymandias schemed a gigantic plot to have a fake 'alien' kill millions in New York in order to unite humanity against a perceived common enemy and stop nuclear escalation. And after all that, the ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'' confirms that it only worked ''temporarily.'']] |
| 100 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': |
| 101 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': While Diana could use the lasso of truth to lay the truth bare in ways that could horrify most villains, she generally avoids doing this. When Genocide gets her hands on the lasso, Diana knows that she intends to use it to brutally reveal truths to people that will make them kill themselves. |
| 102 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': Diana gets hit with two of these. |
| 103 | *** First is the reveal that she is the product of Hippolyta's affair with Zeus and her origin of being a clay statue made flesh is a lie created to cover up this fact. |
| 104 | *** The second is the reveal that the Amazons regularly go on sex raids on travelling boats where they mate with men and then kill them afterwards. The Amazons who get pregnant from this give up their sons to be raised as slaves in Hephaestus's workshop. |
| 105 | [[/folder]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 108 | * ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'': |
| 109 | ** Played with and subverted: Peter has just broken Jason's incredibly difficult-to-build lunar module model, due to [[TooDumbToLive practicing baseball in Jason's room]]. Jason is rightly pissed, and tells Peter that in a day, he will visit an awful punishment on Peter, refusing to tell him what it is. [[ParanoiaGambit For the next four strips, Peter runs and hides in the backyard, is forced to eat sticks and leaves, spends the day lying in dog crap, and is grounded, all while trying to avoid Jason]]. When the time is up, he goes to Jason and laughs about how ''Jason'' never got him, then goes [[OhCrap bug-eyed]] when he realizes what happened. |
| 110 | ** And another: Jason gets a Darth Vader mask stuck on his head. After all other attempts at removing it fail, [[BumblingDad Roger of all people]] saves the day by showing him where to press on it. |
| 111 | --->'''Jason:''' How'd you know where to press?\ |
| 112 | '''Roger:''' I used to wear one when the movies came out.\ |
| 113 | '''Jason:''' You mean, you were a fan before I was?\ |
| 114 | '''Roger:''' Search your feelings, you know it to be true.\ |
| 115 | '''Jason:''' [[BigNo NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!]] |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 119 | * ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' fanfic has it with ''Fanfic/AlexMovieVillain'': she's the reason Marceline and Princess Bubblegum hate each other as she started their falling out. |
| 120 | * ''Fanfic/BlackbirdArrow'': |
| 121 | ** Quentin Lance has been spitting abuse about his daughter Laurel for the past five years, first to her face and then to her sister over the phone after it seems like she abandoned him. Then her ex-boyfriend Oliver is rescued and voices his doubts about Laurel's "departure" to him. Quentin initially dismisses his concerns, but the thought doesn't leave his mind, so he does some investigating himself with his old partner. A few hours later, it becomes clear to him that the daughter he's been verbally abusing didn't abandon him, but was actually ''kidnapped'' and has been missing for ''the past three years''. |
| 122 | ** What ''really'' happened to Laurel (namely, that she was traded to the League of Assassins by her own mother for Sara's freedom) is this to Oliver, [[spoiler:and later to Thea, Tommy, and Moira]]. It's so bad that no one, not even Laurel herself, has any plans to tell the full truth to Quentin after she's freed, because they know that the guilt will kill him. |
| 123 | * ''FanFic/BlackenedSkies'': After Chapter 1 closes with Chiaki showing her a video indicating that [[spoiler:she didn't actually kill Rantarou]], Kaede fears that they're being set up for one of these. Monokuma ''did'' announce that one of the videos was fake, after all, and if they let themselves believe otherwise, they can then be blindsided by a painful reality. On the other hand, if the video ''is'' real, then it means that [[spoiler:she was successfully framed by the mastermind, and their game could have ended ''much'' sooner if they hadn't fallen for it]]. Which is a painful possibility in its own right. |
| 124 | * ''Fanfic/BlazBlueAlternativeRemnant'': |
| 125 | ** Chapter 39 ends with Penny about to tell Noel the truth about who they are, but not before warning her that she will not like the answer. At the start of Chapter 40, she reveals that they [[spoiler:are Murakumo Units: {{Artificial Human}}s and {{Living Weapon}}s created for the sole purpose of destroying the world]]. The revelation leaves Noel shocked and horrified. |
| 126 | *** Then in Chapter 46, she gets another awful revelation: [[spoiler:she's a clone of Ragna and Jin's younger sister, Saya, who was tortured and had both her DNA harvested and her soul broken apart to create her and the other Murakumo Units]]. |
| 127 | ** In Chapter 46, Yang is forced to face the truth that her mother, Raven Branwen, is a bandit queen who killed many innocent people and abandoned others to die to the Grimm. |
| 128 | * In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' WhatIf fanfic ''FanFic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'', the price Edward paid for Al's soul was his arm and his ignorance. Ed has to live with the fact that alchemy is powered by death, alchemy's darkest abuses and the [[HumanResources resources needed]] to make a Philosopher's Stone. Ed is absolutely horrified by this and is ''burdened'' by the truth. He would have kept it a secret if it wasn't for Al pushing the subject. |
| 129 | ** Al is horrified when Ed tells him to the point of wanting to give up alchemy and forget about restoring his body. |
| 130 | * In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': |
| 131 | ** As per usual, there's the fact that Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier, to Steve, and to the Soldier himself, the reverse. In Steve's case, his best friend is a lethal LivingLegend assassin, currently being controlled by HYDRA. In the Soldier's, he finds out that he's basically been living a lie. Unusually, in the both cases, after a brief HeroicBSOD, it just galvanises them to keep fighting/undermine HYDRA from within. And for a while, it works. |
| 132 | ** In the sequel, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Maddie]] is not actually an ArtificialHuman[=/=]Clone of [[spoiler:Jean Grey]] raised as a superpowered TykeBomb and created by Sinister. Fury explicitly notes that the Avengers theories about [[spoiler:Maddie]] being a cloned TykeBomb are wrong and that the truth is 'much worse': [[spoiler:Maddie is in fact Rachel Grey, Jean's twin sister, stolen and replaced the night she was born by Sinister, who was only narrowly thwarted by Strange from taking Jean as well]]. When she does find out in chapter 14, she's unable to stand, the shock leaving her in a HeroicBSOD which recurs periodically, to one extent or another, throughout the rest of the story. |
| 133 | * ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfAnElderGod'': In chapter 22, Asuka demands to know the truth behind her parents' deaths, and Gendo tells her: [[spoiler:her mother Kyoko volunteered to get a genetically modified fetus implanted in her womb. Unfortunately the fetus hurt her, and in the resulting chaos, the lab went up in flames, and Asuka’s parents died.]] |
| 134 | * ''Fanfic/CodePrime'': Like in [[Anime/CodeGeass the source]], the truth about [[spoiler: Marianne vi Britannia, Lelouch and Nunnally's biological mother also being an architect of Ragnarok]] is something Cera carries through much of the story. It's only uncovered and admitted to right before their planned FinalBattle against the decepticons. What makes it so awful is that thanks to Optimus using [[spoiler: a geass of absolute hope on her, Marianne]] actually was starting to grow and become a good person. But in revealing the truth, all her old friends, family, children and even [[spoiler: her former most loyal bodyguard]] turn on her and give her the cold shoulder for the remainder of R2's story. |
| 135 | * ''Fanfic/CommonPeople'': In Chapter Twelve, Jason learns that Catherine Todd isn't his biological mother. His actual mother, Sheila Haywood, abandoned him at the hotel Catherine was working at with a note for Bruce. Catherine took Jason with her and raised him herself instead of giving him to Bruce like she was supposed to, and only introduced him to his father when she realized that her inability to take care of him was forcing him into a life of crime -- a life he didn't have to live. |
| 136 | * ''FanFic/DestinyIsAHazyThing'': Kushina learns (from Naruto) that Minato put in a brainwashing function in Naruto's seal that would've turned him into the optimistic (IdiotHero) messiah we see in canon had the seal not been messed with. Doubly tragic because Kushina thought Naruto was lied to and sided with Minato. |
| 137 | * The SelfInsertFic ''Fanfic/{{Dial}}'' has several: |
| 138 | ** [[EtTuBrute Leo Fitz doesn't take the reveal that Grant Ward was always HYDRA well]], and one of the first things he asks Mahmoud when he meets him is if the Hercules app made a mistake. |
| 139 | ** Letha delivers this fact to the Maximoff twins about the truth of their employer HYDRA and their grudge against Tony Stark. |
| 140 | --->'''Letha:''' We need to tell you something, about Strucker. About HYDRA, and their role in Sokovia. Because after all this time being pissed at the blacksmith for making a sword, you've worked with the knight who wielded it. |
| 141 | * ''Fanfic/DoctorGhemorIPresume'': Julian Bashir refuses to solve his identity crisis as either he would be forced into exile from Deep Space Nine, or he would be stuck with AbusiveParents who refuse to value him. Then he's definitely established as human, and promptly breaks down over the realization the man he happily called his father for two years isn't related to him at all. |
| 142 | * The awful truth Papa Smurf was trying to keep from Empath until his 150th birthday in ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf''? [[spoiler:Empath is Papa Smurf's only biological son, and Papa Smurf had purposely sent Empath away to Psychelia because he feared how his son would be treated by his fellow Smurfs because of his telepathic and telekinetic powers.]] |
| 143 | * ''Fanfic/EnneaSeries'': [[PeggySue The Voices]] work hard to keep Endeavor's abusive actions from [[FanOfUnderdog Hawks]] because they realize learning the truth about his idol could break him. This backfires as he catches on that something is wrong and begins investigating Endeavor himself. He figures out the truth on his own and [[HeroicBSOD handles it badly]] until he resolves to help the Todorokis escape Endeavor. |
| 144 | * Harry Potter eventually figures out in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11669575/1/For-Love-of-Magic For Love of Magic]]'' that, statistically speaking, there's no such thing as Muggleborns. The odds of two parents with no magic having a magic using child are calculated as being roughly ten million to one. In reality, aurors never bother investigating muggle women who've been raped by magicals; instead, they simply [[LaserGuidedAmnesia obliviate them of the event]] and drop them off somewhere in the muggle world. So functionally every muggleborn ever was actually a case of ChildByRape. |
| 145 | ** A case of WritersCannotDoMath as ~130 million children are born each year so one in ten million would result in ~13 "true" muggleborns every single year. |
| 146 | * ''Fanfic/IHopeYouHaveUnlimitedTextMessaging'': |
| 147 | ** Steve grew up believing that his father died in World War I. When he first got out of the ice, S.H.I.E.L.D. gave him a dossier on all his associates -- which is how Steve learned he had a seventy-eight year old younger half-sister living in Nevada. His father, meanwhile, did not die in World War I; he actually died in the 50s, shanked by his fellow inmates in prison after they learned he liked to hit his second wife and daughter. [[PercussiveTherapy This is what led to Steve killing his first punching bag]]. |
| 148 | ** Tony learns a similarly heartbreaking truth thanks to Steve's suspicion: [[spoiler:his aunt Ana Jarvis did not die via a lightbulb replacement attempt gone wrong. Instead, she got stuck in the crossfire of an assassination attempt on Howard Stark, who himself only survived due to an experimental bulletproof vest]]. |
| 149 | ** [[spoiler:Stemming from that, Tony also learns that this was the third of the ten assassination attempts made on Howard throughout his life, with the last (successful) attempt being the Winter Soldier. Considering this was happening when he was a kid and Tony is currently in his forties right now, he's understandably pissed to realize how long it took for him to learn about this, especially since it confirms that his dad was going to die by HYDRA's hands no matter what happened]]. |
| 150 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' zigzags this. Since this takes place during Book 3 of ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'', at this point everyone knows the purpose of the Train...except Grace, Simon and the Apex, who weren't there when One-One started making introduction videos or if they did, they just don't care. It turns out there's ''another'' thing that wasn't mentioned: What happens if you ''die'' on the train? Answer: [[spoiler:Your body is dropped off where the train picked you up, and your soul is reincarnated into a denizen for as long as it's needed for your number to go down. What's worse? One of the Apex kids died by drowning in the lake of the Fog Car...]] |
| 151 | * From ''Fanfic/KiryuuinChronicles'': What Satsuki finds out from her mother's diary wasn't nice and it causes her Freak Out. Yeah, finding out your mother [[spoiler:was forced to marry an abusive asshole because she was pregnant with you]] can do a number. |
| 152 | * In ''Legacy of the Rasengan'', Sakura [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech learns what Naruto really thinks about her]] after she steals something personal from him and he confronts her about it. |
| 153 | -->'''Naruto:''' THAT'S THE PROBLEM! YOU DIDN'T THINK! Too busy caught up in your FANTASIES chasing after a teme who doesn't barely give you the time of day, to stop to consider how OTHER PEOPLE will feel when you decide to find some way of IMPRESSING that teme! I'm glad you never went on a date with me! Now I realize that you never were the type of girl I'd have wanted to have a relationship with! |
| 154 | * In ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'', one contestant suffers [[ResurrectionSickness brain damage]] after she [[OnlyMostlyDead "dies"]] and has to be resuscitated, and the other contestants reach an unspoken agreement to keep the victim ignorant of her condition because her symptoms are [[DownplayedTrope mild enough]] to allow this. |
| 155 | * A few examples crop up in ''Fanfic/TheLionKingAdventures'': |
| 156 | ** [[spoiler:Hago is Nala's father, as revealed in ''The Return of Hago''.]] |
| 157 | ** [[spoiler:Mufasa and Sarabi have been dead for months after their souls were consumed by [[PuppeteerParasite alien parasites]] the Vimelea.]] |
| 158 | ** [[spoiler:Everyone is a character in a story created by the Writer.]] |
| 159 | * Dewey basically believes he'd have to face this in the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13716489/1/LOST LOST]]'' when he's forced to return to Duckburg after leaving the city three years ago because he was in love with Webby and convinced she didn't feel the same way. He's certain that his old friends and family would all be angry at him for leaving and prefers to avoid them so that he can just ''imagine'' they'd be happy he was back rather than face what he believes to be reality (unaware that Webby realised his feelings and that she was in love with him herself after his last goodbye). |
| 160 | * In the ''Manga/DeathNote'' [[AlternateUniverseFic AU]] ''[[FanFic/MonsterADeathNoteAU Monster]]'' L learns, to his horror, that before he [[EasyAmnesia lost his memories]] he was [[spoiler:[[AmnesiacDissonance Kira's accomplice]] and [[SlashFic lover]]. Though it's slowly revealed that it's slightly more complicated than that...]] |
| 161 | * ''Naruto:Asunder''; Minato and Kushina are still alive and expect Naruto to be happy about it. They find out he wants nothing to do with them and that their excuses to justify turning him into a [[SealedInAPersonShapedCan jinchuuriki]] aren't gonna cut it. |
| 162 | * The ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''[=/=]''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' crossover fic ''Netherworld Nightmare'' has the BigBad constantly messing with Danny's head by dropping hints about the Awful Truth Caleb has been hiding for aeons. [[spoiler:Caleb is the technical reincarnation of Mithos Yggdrasill, the BigBad of VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia.]] |
| 163 | * The Awful Truth [[ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse Elly Patterson]] kept from her family because she feared ostracism in ''FanFic/TheNewRetcons'' is [[spoiler:she has an illegitimate daughter she gave up for adoption]]. Elizabeth and April took it rather well. Michael and John did ''not''. |
| 164 | ** Michael had an additional Awful Truth he didn't take well. [[spoiler:John isn't his biological father.]] |
| 165 | ** And then Anthony has one. [[spoiler:His father killed his mother.]] He managed to rationalize it though by realizing [[spoiler:that it was probably AccidentalMurder, since his MO would be to wait until she cheated and stiff her on alimony and child support]]. |
| 166 | * In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13511328/2/On-the-breeding-of-Direwolves-Dragons-Stags-and-Lions-rewrite On the breeding of Direwolves, Dragons Stags and Lions (rewrite)]]'', the truth about [[Series/GameOfThrones Jon Snow's]] true parentage is this for Catelyn Stark. The realization that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she treated the boy like dirt for no real reason at all]] (plus other issues associated with Ned claiming Jon as his bastard son) is enough to break her and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness make her ask for a divorce]]. |
| 167 | * In ''Fanfic/APrizeForThreeEmpires'', [[Characters/MarvelComicsCarolDanvers Carol Danvers]] is told that a Guardsman whom she killed during the [[ComicBook/XMen Shi'ar Civil War]] was her friend Raza's brother. She takes that reveal as well as you'd expect. |
| 168 | * ''FanFic/TheRavensPlan'' |
| 169 | ** Everyone who wakes up [[PeggySue remembering the previous timeline]] but either didn't live long enough to see the Second Long Night or wasn't in on the ritual initially writes it off as just being AllJustADream or that they've made it to the afterlife before reality sets in for them. |
| 170 | ** Anyone who didn't make it up to the point of seeing the threat they pose finds the revelation of the White Walkers and the coming of the Second Long Night an especially terrifying one. |
| 171 | ** Jon Snow's true heritage as Rhaegar and Lyanna's trueborn son is this for Aliser Thorne and Catelyn Stark. For the former, it means he (a diehard Targaryen loyalist) murdered his rightful king. For the latter, it means she treated him like crap his whole life for absolutely no reason, and that he now has the power and status to make her life a living hell in turn. |
| 172 | ** Anytime anyone hears about Arya Stark being one of the Faceless Men. Her mother Catelyn especially finds it infuriating that no one will tell her just why various people keep talking to Arya about pies, and when she finds out, she faints from the horror and mental strain. |
| 173 | ** Chapter 44 reveals that due to [[spoiler:Gilly and her sisters killing Craster immediately after they woke up remembering their previous lives, Little Sam will never be conceived]]. Jon is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone heartbroken]] and [[AscendedFridgeHorror horrified]] as he realizes the implications of this and wonders how many more people have suffered [[RetGone this same fate]]. |
| 174 | * ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2086636/1/Rescue-Run Rescue Run]]" sees Zion get an unexpected ally in the form of Captain Dena Reese, a pilot for the human space fleet that had colonised most of the solar system before life on Earth apparently went extinct. When Reese proposes a means of contacting her people and evacuating the population of Zion, in a meeting with Reese and Zion's ruling council, Commander Jason Lock reveals that, while he won't admit to it in public, in this meeting he will concede that the war with the machines is at best in a deadlock that will continue indefinitely, and Reese's plan is Zion's only true hope. |
| 175 | * ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness Act VI'': For several chapters, Mizore and the others try to keep Dark from finding out that Arial, his longtime guardian angel, is a stubborn, temperamental {{Yandere}} who is infatuated with him, very nearly [[MurderTheHypotenuse killed Mizore]] in a jealous rage, and stole Mizore's wedding ring right off her finger. They ultimately have no choice but to tell Dark after a DesignatedGirlFight between Mizore and Arial ends with Mizore beating Arial within an inch of her life right in front of Dark, and when he finds out, Dark has a major HeroicBSOD. The chapter in which they tell him is fittingly titled "Painful Truth." |
| 176 | * ''Literature/TheScumVillainsSelfSavingSystemRenZhaFanpaiZijiuXitong'' fanfics in which Shen Yuan confesses he's a transmigrator tends to treat the ''Proud Immortal Demon Way'' timeline as this. Luo Binghe generally will be the most horrified to learn the details, since he was intended to be a merciless tyrant bent on slaughtering and raping his way to the top, after gruesomely torturing the man he considers the love of his life. |
| 177 | * In ''FanFic/{{Shatterheart}}'', Syaoran tells Kurogane that his wish enabled Fei Wong Reed's plans, one of which caused the destruction of Suwa and the death of Kurogane's parents in a failed attempt to recruit him. Kurogane gets so angry that he abandons Syaoran so he wouldn't be tempted to harm the boy. |
| 178 | * After Finn leaves Prismo's time room in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13753015/14/Something-More Something More]]'' after learning about reincarnation from him, the Cosmic Owl states that Prismo should have told Finn an important secret, but Prismo cuts him off by saying Finn's not ready. It's implied that the secret is that [[spoiler:Finn and the Lich are [[CainAndAbel brothers]]]]. |
| 179 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfic ''FanFic/StoriesAndTalesFromDimension63'', Luke and Lars [[note]]Luna and Lucy's rule 63 counterparts in this dimension[[/note]] learn that not only has their sister swapped bodies with Lincoln from the canon dimension, but Luke also knows that unlike Lincoln, she doesn't show signs of wanting to go back home anytime soon. |
| 180 | * Chapter 9 of ''Fanfic/TheSunWillComeUpAndTheSeasonsWillChange'' reveals that [[spoiler:Dana plans to get Mary sterilized without her consent, which was what was on the blog entry that convinced Mary to run away, even though at the time, Mary thought the word sterilize was another word for murder.]] When Mary learns what it really means in chapter 12, she is understandably horrified that her mother would think of putting her through that. |
| 181 | * In ''FanFic/Team8'', Kurenai tells Naruto that no matter what he does and even if he becomes Hokage, there will still be people in the village who will hate him because of the Kyuubi. |
| 182 | * In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', [[spoiler:[[OurDemonsAreDifferent The Keeper of Secrets]]]] showed Misato that [[spoiler:she was attracted to her surrogate son Shinji]] to torture her. |
| 183 | * ''Fanfic/TyrantlyEverAfter'': Celestia hides one from low-ranking angels like Artina: [[spoiler:Angels cannot find eternal rest in Heaven. Nor can they reincarnate as humans, who ''can'' potentially go to Heaven if they live well. Any angel who dies either reincarnates as an angel, or, if deemed to have not served God's will well enough, [[FallenAngel as a demon]], who are similarly unable stuck in their own cycle]]. This serves as a particularly devestating blow to the Angel of Avarice, who's already struggling with a CrisisOfFaith. |
| 184 | * In ''Fanfic/TheVarangianGuard'', a young Magnus Chase is raised at Camp Half-Blood and quickly grows to love the place and the friends he finds there. So when several hints about him probably belonging to a rival pantheon start to emerge, he's rightfully devastated. |
| 185 | * In ''FanFic/WeightOfTheWorld'' [[spoiler:Silver Eyes make Silver-Eyed Warriors [[SuperpoweredEvilSide go berserk]] and attack anyone near them. Attack as in ''disintegrate them'' from the limbs inward with their Eyes]]. Ozpin insists that Yang not tell Ruby the truth but she overhears the conversation. |
| 186 | * ''FanFic/WithThisRing'': TheReveal that the Martians were altered by the Guardians during their early prehistory (they were originally an extremely savage, violent species that the Guardians feared would wreak havoc if they progressed enough to invent space travel). Not only was this a massive violation of their autonomy, it also means that the entire basis of their society and culture, especially the division into White, Green and Red Martians is based on lies - their very ''minds and souls'' have been modified to keep them from ever regressing to their original forms. Their primal fear of fire, the Martian Kryptonite Factor, is a direct result of this tampering. |
| 187 | * In the ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' LetsWatchOurShowPlot fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13538042/1/Misfortune-No-One-Sees-Until-Now Misfortune No One Sees Until Now]]'', the audience, especially Mikoto Misaka, that doesn't already know about it can only react in horror to the knowledge of the [[FantasticRacism Parameter List]]. As for the Railgun herself, she nearly enters a existential crisis. |
| 188 | [[/folder]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 191 | * ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'': After an hour of being essentially an action-comedy, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the Witch is actually a young girl named Agatha Prenderghast, who was wrongfully executed by the townsfolk 300 years ago]], after which the movie takes on a significantly more somber and melancholic tone. |
| 192 | * In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', Moses sees his biological brother and sister in the Hebrew village, but he barely recognizes them. Miriam tells him the truth about his heritage, but Moses refuses to believe it. Miriam then sings the lullaby her mother sang to Moses when he was a baby. Moses recognizes it and begins to wonder about his identity. He finds out about the truth about his foster father via a dream he had and the hieroglyphic painting that proves it. His father committed genocide on all the newborn Hebrew boys by having his guards dump them in the crocodile-infested Nile river. Pharaoh Seti comes to Moses and tells him he did it because he feared the Hebrews would rebel against him and were growing too numerous in population. |
| 193 | [[/folder]] |
| 194 | |
| 195 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 196 | * In ''Film/{{Babe}}'', the piglet AllLovingHero finds out the horrible truth that pigs are kept by humans to be eaten, and his mother and all his siblings probably had this fate, and it causes him to suffer a nearly fatal HeroicBSOD. |
| 197 | * Creator/ChristopherNolan movies are fond of this trope: |
| 198 | ** The big secret of ''{{Film/Memento}}'' is that [[spoiler:Leonard has essentially become a SerialKiller because his original vengeance against his wife's murderer didn't bring him the needed closure, and thus he is rewriting his own history just to give himself a meaning in life]]. |
| 199 | ** Done twice at the end of ''Film/TheDarkKnight''; Batman and Gordon decide not to let the public know about [[spoiler:Harvey Dent becoming Two-Face so that the people of Gotham do not lose hope]], while Alfred [[spoiler: burns Rachel Dawes's letter that stated she chose Dent over Bruce prior to her death]]. Unfortunately, both decisions backfire with heavy consequences in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. |
| 200 | --->'''Alfred''': Maybe it's time we all stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day. |
| 201 | ** In ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Professor Brand's Plan A -- mass evacuation of the human race and establishing space colonies -- is a sham, and that his true plan is Plan B -- use the frozen human ova aboard the Endurance to populate a new world beyond the wormhole and leave Earth's population to die. Brand could not solve the gravity problem that made Plan A unfeasible, and just gave up. Murph would eventually solve it, resulting in humanity's salvation.]] |
| 202 | * The first act of ''Film/TheMatrix'' has Neo trying to uncover what the mysterious "matrix" actually is; the famous "red pill blue pill" scene has Morpheus warning him that learning the truth will change ''everything'' he knows. It is indeed horrifying; the real world is a CrapsackWorld controlled by robots, with humanity grown in pods to serve as batteries. The "matrix" is the fake world Neo lives in, a computer simulation created simply to keep the mind occupied. And thanks to the technology available, they can actually unlearn the awful truth; certain humans defect to the machines just so they can go back to living in ignorance. |
| 203 | * Most famously invoked by Creator/JackNicholson in ''Film/AFewGoodMen'': |
| 204 | -->'''Col. Jessep:''' You want answers?\ |
| 205 | '''Kaffee:''' I want the '''truth!'''\ |
| 206 | '''Col. Jessep:''' ''You can't '''handle''' the truth!'' |
| 207 | * NSA agent Patellis' excuse for their secrecy in ''Film/TheForgotten''. |
| 208 | -->'''Ash Correll:''' Tell us the truth.\ |
| 209 | '''Agent Patellis:''' The truth? The goddamn truth won't fit in your brain. |
| 210 | * ''Film/MenInBlack'': There's this gem from K: |
| 211 | -->'''K:''' There's ''always'' an alien battle cruiser, or a Corellian death ray, or an intergalactic plague [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed intended to wipe out life on this miserable little planet.]] The only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they '''do. Not. ''Know'' about it!''' |
| 212 | * ''Film/MenInBlackII'': Agent J asks Agent K why he didn't tell him that his new girlfriend was the key to stopping an interstellar war and had to leave. K's response: "Would you have let her go?" On a larger scale, this was part of the point of the {{Masquerade}} in the first place. Something about constant threat of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt being a ''bit'' much for most people to handle. |
| 213 | * In the Korean movie ''Film/Oldboy2003'', Dae-su is kidnapped, imprisoned for 15 years, and then released with no explanation. After finding and confronting the man responsible, Dae-su finds out the Awful Truth isn't "Why he was imprisoned" but "Why he was released." He [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes mad from the revelation]] and [[spoiler: cuts his own tongue off with scissors]]. |
| 214 | * ''Film/SoylentGreen'': [[spoiler: Soylent Green is made of people. The oceans are dead, so there's actually no other food left to feed the people]]. |
| 215 | * ''Franchise/StarWars Episode V: Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': Luke finally learns the truth about what happened to his father — namely that [[LukeIAmYourFather he is Darth Vader]], [[TheDragon right hand of the Emperor]], [[FallenHero having fallen from grace as a Jedi Knight and embraced the Dark Side of the Force]]. This one especially stings because Luke originally became TheHero to ''emulate'' his father. |
| 216 | * In ''[[Film/{{SelfLess}} Self/Less]]'', the process of shedding [[spoiler:doesn't use artificially-grown bodies. The bodies customers are transferred to actually were pre-existing people, with lives and families. Damien learns that he's now living in the body of a man who died for his family. Madeline learns that her husband let himself die so their daughter can live, and the man she thought was her husband is a total stranger]]. This truth is kept from people undergoing the process [[spoiler:so they aren't aware of the ethical issues, nor of the fact that not taking the medication and letting their minds fade away will let the original inhabitants of the body return.]] |
| 217 | * In ''Film/TheBigShort,'' even after investing heavily in the collapse of the American economy, Mark Baum doesn't realize until witnessing firsthand just how corrupt, stupid and ''deeply'' screwed the entire financial system is. |
| 218 | * In ''Film/{{Crooklyn}}'', after spending the summer with Aunt Song and her family, Troy finds out that her mother, Carolyn, is sick with cancer, asking, "Why didn't anyone tell me?" |
| 219 | * ''Film/{{Eternals}}'': Played with. Arishem reveals to Sersi that [[spoiler:when the intelligent population of a planet reaches a threshold, they are sacrificed to birth a Celestial, which destroys the planet. The Eternals are on Earth to guide humanity until that point. To Sersi and most of her team, who've developed a love for humanity, this is a horrible thing, while to [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Arishem]], it's simply how things work, and he doesn't even realize the Eternals intend to betray him.]] |
| 220 | * ''Film/GuyanaCrimeOfTheCentury'': During the morning of the day when the murder-suicide happens, the two reporters who have acompanied O'Brien during his visit to Johnsontown try to enter a building that is being guarded by an armed man (who, under Johnson's orders, threatens to kill anyone who tries to enter). A third party persuades the armed man to let the reporters in; once inside, they see several people in bunk beds coughing and suffering in pain. This makes them realize that the reception party Johnson had plotted to make them and O'Brien think everything was fine in the commune was a facade, and the rumors about abuse and tortures were true all along. |
| 221 | * ''Film/MinorityReport'': Anderton and by proxy the audience learn some dark secrets about the Precrime program he works for and has defended. |
| 222 | ** Anderton goes to see Dr. Iris Hineman, one of the people who helped develop the Precrime program and she reveals to him that [[spoiler:the precogs are the sole survivors of experiments to test children of neuroin addicts for precognitive abilities.]] |
| 223 | ** Hineman also reveals that [[spoiler:the precogs sometimes see different visions from each other, called a "minority report". These discrepancies are reviewed and purged from the official record, as group precognition agreement is the foundation of the Precrime bylaws. In other words, there is a good chance that some of the people Precrime has put away are potentially innocent. This knowledge greatly distresses Anderton who up until he was accused of murder was a staunch supporter of Precrime.]] |
| 224 | ** The most damning revelation is the lengths which [[spoiler:Precrime founder Lamar Burgess went to in order to validate and maintain the Precrime system. When Anne Lively, the mother of one of the precogs, decided that she wanted her daughter back, Burgess used a weakness in the precogs' visions and murdered her, while making it look like she had in fact been saved from an earlier murder attempt. When Anderton began looking into Anne's disappearance, Burgess used the Precrime system to frame him for murder, even going as far as making Anderton think his supposed predestined victim had killed Anderton's son. With his crimes exposed and Precrime revealed to be less than perfect, Burgess kills himself to avoid being incarcerated and living to see all he worked for destroyed, and the Precrime system is shut down.]] |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 228 | * In ''Literature/AllOurYesterdays'', Marina is devastated to learn that James, who she loves, becomes a monster. The James in the present is similarly horrified, especially when he learns [[spoiler:his future self justifies killing his own brother]]. |
| 229 | * ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' |
| 230 | ** A major motif in this series is the fact that there are some things that you just can't unlearn. The kids can't, although they desperately want to, forget about the Yeerks and go on living their lives, because they now know they'd be dooming the entire planet to enslavement; to quote a Megamorphs back cover, "You can't close your eyes to the truth you know is out there". |
| 231 | ** Subverted in one instance, when Jake strikes a deal with Crayak to return them to the moment where they chose not to walk through the construction site (where they met Elfangor and learned of the invasion). The kids walked home the safe way and consequently they had no knowledge of the Yeerks or the invasion. But, true to the theme of the series, the kids eventually have to confront the reality they didn't even know was there (made even cooler because now they don't have any powers). |
| 232 | * In the [[{{Denouement}} dénouement]] of ''[[Literature/AuntDimity Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday]]'', Derek's cousin Simon and his father finally tell him that his mother died of cancer, and that she wanted it kept from him (Derek was seven at the time) because the disease and its treatment had a drastic effect on her appearance. The Earl says: "She lost her hair, her fingernails, her teeth. Her skin turned gray, her body shriveled. You were her darling child, the only one she would ever have.. She didn't want you to remember her that way. She wouldn't let me tell you...." Derek grew up believing his father had alienated his mother ("My mother spent the last year of her life in London because my father was a heartless swine. I vowed then and there that I would never be like him."). He took the dismissal of his beloved nanny [[spoiler: who showed signs of insanity and was having an affair with the Earl's valet]] as further evidence of his father's cruel nature, and he changed his name and avoided his father for twenty years. |
| 233 | * In Creator/HBeamPiper's novel ''The Cosmic Computer'', the rumored MasterComputer that had directed strategy in a recent war is found. Its existence had been covered up because it had predicted that 1)TheFederation was irreversibly decaying and 2)widespread knowledge of the previous prediction would [[SelfFulfillingProphecy make the collapse much faster and more severe]]. |
| 234 | * ''Literature/TheDarkTower'': |
| 235 | ** In ''Literature/TheGunslinger'', when Walter makes the town drunk return from the dead, Walter says "If you tell him the number 19, he will tell you what lies beyond death." When one woman does this, despite Roland's urging, she GoesMadFromTheRevelation and begs Roland to kill her. |
| 236 | ** In ''Literature/TheDarkTower2004'', Roland learns one about himself: [[spoiler:He's already tried and failed in his quest countless times, and is doomed to start it all over again. There's some hope that the next time, he might actually succeed]]. |
| 237 | * [[UsefulNotes/DichterUndDenker German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler's non-fiction book ''Literature/TheDeclineOfTheWest'' is full of them and culminates in "optimism is cowardice". |
| 238 | * ''Literature/TheDivineCities'': After conquering the cities and genocidally slaughtering anyone he could find with divine heritage, the Kaj confronted Jukov after the war's end, was told many secrets about the nature and reality of their conflict, and left the meeting sobbing in grief before turning to alcoholism and dying within a year. Jukov told him that [[spoiler: [[YouAreWhatYouHate he was Divine himself]] and that the first person he'd tortured and killed was his own mother]]. |
| 239 | * In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', this is played in several different ways. |
| 240 | ** First, anytime Harry has to let people in on the {{masquerade}}, he tells them straight up that they're probably never going to sleep well again. |
| 241 | ** When Harry confronts his mentor, Ebenezar, and Ebenezar tells Harry [[spoiler:that he's the Blackstaff.]] He sees it as a hypocrisy that the man who took him in and taught him about what it means to truly respect and live by the Laws of Magic [[spoiler:is the personal assassin of the White Council and has free range to break the Laws when he sees fit]]. |
| 242 | ** Used with [[ActionGirl Murphy]], as that's what led to his realization that some times people need to be told the truth. For the first three books, she's wary of him because he's so ambiguous all the time and nearly gets herself killed on a number of occasions — and she's always almost-arresting Harry. He finally explains everything to her in ''Literature/SummerKnight'', which leads to a much closer [[WillTheyOrWontThey friendship]] and a couple [[TookALevelInBadass levels of badass on Murphy's part]]. |
| 243 | ** In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'' Harry receives a very harsh truth when he goes to [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Mab]], Fae Queen of the Winter Court. He needs her aid and support on his quest to save [[spoiler:his kidnapped daughter who he just learned existed not a few days ago]]. Her price is for Harry to kill a man who [[spoiler:betrayed her and in turn, tormented him to the point of driving the murderous rapist to insanity, and to take his place as Winter Knight]] and now lays defenseless on a stretcher. When Harry hesitates at this request, Mab shows him a live image of the one he needs to save in horrific conditions. She swears on her name and power this image is the truth and actual current condition of the person, and, as she CannotTellALie, Harry believes her. He then wonders if this isn't some false manipulation, as it is the complete truth, then it could be enlightenment. |
| 244 | * At the end of ''Literature/EndersGame'', the revelation that Ender was [[spoiler:not playing a game but committing genocide]]. |
| 245 | * Deconstructed in ''Literature/TheFableOfTheDragonTyrant''. The kingdom started by teaching children that nobody wanted the dragon, but it was a harsh truth of life. Over time, the kingdom started teaching that the dragon wasn't awful. Immerse yourself in an awful truth too much, and you may lose sight of chances to eliminate it. |
| 246 | * ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'': Sort of inverted in ''Silverfall'': mentor desperately wishes her [in]subordinate could understand. |
| 247 | -->'''Qilue:''' If you doubt me, curl yourself around the Ladystone to sleep tonight, pray to Eilistraee for judgment upon me, and learn your answer. [...] Yes, do that. [...] Learn the truth.\ |
| 248 | '''Thalaera:''' Will I be maimed?\ |
| 249 | '''Qilue:''' Hurt, perhaps; maimed, no.\ |
| 250 | '''Thalaera:''' Hurt?\ |
| 251 | '''Qilue:''' Truths have sharp edges. Learning the truth often hurts. |
| 252 | * In ''Literature/ForLoveOfEvil'', the demon Lilith does a magnificent job corrupting Parry through lust and uses these to destroy his ego, such as "You will do what we need, solely because of your animal lust. And you will rue this one decision the rest of your days." |
| 253 | * ''Literature/GreyKnights'': |
| 254 | ** Renegade inquisitor Valinov seems to refer to Chaos as the Awful Truth: |
| 255 | --->'There is not enough room in your head to understand what I could tell you. I have seen the forces that really hold this universe together, and it isn't your Emperor. All you Imperial vermin devote your lives to crushing the spirits of mankind until not one man or woman could survive knowing the truth.' |
| 256 | ** The Grey Knights themselves are an example. Any average Imperial citizen who learns of their existence is killed out of hand. Even [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]] who learn about the Knights without authorization are [[MindRape mind-scrubbed]] to remove the truth. |
| 257 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'': |
| 258 | ** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', when Harry asks Dumbledore why Voldemort wanted to kill him in the first place, Dumbledore's response is more or less that Harry is not yet ready to hear the Awful Truth, but at least makes clear that he has the intentions to tell him some day. Intentions being the key word here, as Dumbledore puts this off until [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the fifth book]] and only tells Harry then because [[spoiler:Dumbledore's keeping the truth from Harry backfired rather badly, leading to Sirius's death. Dumbledore, to his credit, does at least acknowledge that this was pretty dumb]]. This isn't the only instance, but probably the most significant as much of the plot revolves around adults trying to protect Harry from the awful truth. |
| 259 | ** This also plays a rather large role in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban the third book]]. First with Cornelius Fudge's insistence that no one tell Harry that Sirius Black is out to get them because it might scare him. Proving that not all adults are complete idiots, Mr. Weasley planned on telling Harry anyway, telling Harry to be careful and warns him not to go looking for Black. But he also falls into this trope by refusing to answer when Harry asks why would he be stupid enough to looking for someone who wants to kill him. Harry finds out anyway, but proves Mr. Weasley's fears correct because the Awful Truth in fact makes him want to kill Black. [[spoiler: However, in this case, the Awful Truth isn't even the Truth at all because Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black is responsible for his parents deaths and Sirius escaped Azkaban to kill Peter Pettigrew, not Harry.]] |
| 260 | ** The Awful Truth is in fact so awful that Dumbledore only reveals it in fragments; first, at the end of ''Order Of The Phoenix'', [[spoiler:he tells 15-year old Harry ''[[AllUpToYou he'll have to kill Voldemort personally.]]'']] Then, in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', he tells Harry that [[spoiler: Voldemort is ''immortal'' unless [[GottaCatchEmAll five random objects, each anywhere in the world,]] are destroyed.]] Finally, in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry learns that he[[spoiler:, ''himself,'' is actually the sixth object (yep, there is one bonus) that need to be destroyed. In other words, ''[[SomeoneHasToDie he has to let Voldemort kill him]]'', or Voldemort will remain invincible. He gets better]], but as he ''didn't know that'', it was still pretty Awful. This was all necessary for Dumbledore's plan to work. In the first place, he wasn't even sure that [[spoiler:Harry would survive, though he had guessed Harry might due to events in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire,'' and as he himself has said, his guesses are usually right]]. But even if he had hard evidence that [[spoiler:Harry would be able to survive]], he couldn't have told him, because if Harry didn't think [[spoiler:he was going to die, how could he sacrifice himself]] for everyone in the castle? So in this case, it was more revealing the Awful Truth while hiding the Wonderful Truth that accompanied it. |
| 261 | * ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': In ''Literature/DragonBones'', local FriendlyGhost and GeniusLoci Oreg tells Ward pretty early on that one of Ward's ancestors had him whipped as punishment for writing a curse/prophecy on the wall, after said ancestors betrayed the dragons. Ward always knew that he had unsavoury ancestors, so he can cope with that. However, later on, he accidentally, while Oreg suffers from a flashback, learns that [[spoiler:the ancestor Ward hero-worshipped and wanted to be like was the very same one who betrayed the dragons and tortured Oreg.]] It is likely that Oreg intentionally sheltered Ward from that awful truth. |
| 262 | * Creator/CatherineAsaro's ''The Misted Cliffs'': In the {{backstory}}, Dancer left her husband with her son to return to her abusive father, who battered both her and her son, Cobalt. When he was grown, Cobalt rescued his father and found him to be a loving and affectionate man, but his mother refuses to explain. At the end of the book, Dancer explains to her son's wife, Mel, [[spoiler: that there is reason to think that her son is not her husband's but his half-brother's child, and under the law, they would have executed her and her lover and her son. And they can not tell Cobalt because it would break him]]. |
| 263 | ** In ''The Dawn Star'', Cobalt's dying grandfather tells him the secret. Throughout the book, Mel is terrified that the grandfather guessed and told him. At the end, Cobalt reveals that he had said that [[spoiler:Dancer was not, in fact, his daughter]]. |
| 264 | * There are two awful truths in ''Literature/TheNightGardener'': |
| 265 | ** The tree and its malevolent guardian are causing the Windsors (and Molly) to waste away, and the only way to deal with it is to stop hoping things will get better and get away from it (or destroy it). |
| 266 | ** Molly and Kip's parents put them in the last lifeboat after the crew of the ship they had booked passage on left them to die in the middle of a storm. Most likely they drowned when the ship went down. Molly personally considers this an awful truth — she knows the likelihood of it from the beginning, but her brother was feverish when it happened and didn't see it, and she couldn't bear to tell him. Then the tree begins giving her letters from them... |
| 267 | * Even aside from the substantial amount of philosophical musings on this trope (where it is nearly referenced by name), Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' has more than its fair share of examples. Early on, for instance, the protagonist Anton runs into a seemingly random cursed woman on the metro who he tries to help out. Soon, the events at the beginning of the plot which seemed to be important are discarded to focus on her. [[spoiler: In the end, however, it turns out that everything that happened was part of a plot to recruit the woman, who turns out to be a future Great Sorceress, that is a magician of immense power, into the Night Watch. Including the (twice!) attempted murder of a child, and the possible deaths of every member of the Night Watch in Moscow.]] |
| 268 | * Ursala K. Le Guin's short story "Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas" picks apart this trope in the context of the utopia/dystopia dichotomy. The story presents a perfect utopian society in the eponymous city where everyone lives in unconditional peace and prosperity. However, the narrator catches onto the reader's expectations, realizing that nobody would accept the idea of a wholly perfect utopia, and decides to {{retcon}} the nature of Omelas to introduce a catch and whet their appetite. Thus, the new version of Omelas is PoweredByAForsakenChild, who must be constantly tortured to maintain the city's current state; those who can't live with the truth leave Omelas forever, hence the title. |
| 269 | %%* ''The Prayer Of Miriam Cohen'' by Creator/RudyardKipling unfolds this trope. Not in very flattering way, though. |
| 270 | * In the ''Poseidon's Children'' trilogy by Creator/AlastairReynolds, mankind finds the Mandala, a vast BigDumbObject on the surface of a distant world built by some unknown {{Precursors}}. In the final book of the trilogy, it is revealed to be [[PortalNetwork part of a transport system]], centered on a much larger big dumb object that blasts anything approaching that lacks sapience. On the surface of the object, one can find out ''why'' the precursors aren't there with a soul-crushing warning: [[spoiler: They killed themselves because ''nothing matters''. The universe exists in a false vacuum state, and when the meta-stability event inevitably occurs, nothing will survive the energy state transition; every great work, deed and atrocity will be wiped from existence as the new laws of physics spreads at the speed of light]]. It takes all of the characters' willpower to simply continue existing with that fact. |
| 271 | * The plot of ''Literature/ScaryStoriesForYoungFoxes'': ''The City'' is set into motion when O-730 discovers [[FurAndLoathing the real reason]] he and his fellow foxes are being treated so well on The Farm. |
| 272 | * ''Literature/SecretsNotMeantToBeKept'': In this novel, the protagonist, seventeen-year-old Adri, has a three-year-old sister, Becky, who attends Treehouse, a preschool with a sterling reputation, which Adri herself attended as a toddler. Over the course of the novel, as Becky's behavior changes and Adri experiences disturbing flashbacks, Adri comes to realize that Treehouse is [[spoiler:a toddler sex ring, where preschoolers -- including Adri and now Becky -- have been molested and exploited for child pornography for nearly twenty years.]] |
| 273 | * In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheHegemon'', Bean learns from a posthumous letter the Awful Truth about his own birth: That his increased intellect has a side effect in that [[spoiler:he will never ''ever'' stop growing, and will ultimately die young of the SquareCubeLaw because either his heart will not be able to maintain a body his size or his huge body will crush his spine.]] |
| 274 | * ''Literature/SmallPersonsWithWings'': The Parvi Pennati have stored the Magica Vera, an old form of magic that lets them see through illusions, [[PowerCrystal inside a moonstone]]. If someone drops the moonstone into a glass of water and then drinks the water, they learn what everyone really thinks of them and realize every unpleasant fact about themselves that they're in denial about. When Mellie's parents drink it, they realize that their art isn't any good and Mellie doesn't respect them. Mellie reassures them that she does respect them and thinks their art is great, but thanks to the elixir they know she's lying. They spend the rest of the day as {{sleepy depressive}}s. [[spoiler:Later they almost kill themselves because of Fidius "encouraging" them by telling them that Mellie is off endangering herself while they lie in bed, which the elixir allows them to immediately recognize as true.]] |
| 275 | * In the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' spinoff ''Son of Spellsinger'', the Grand Veritable is a magical, sentient lie detector that can not stop declaring the truth. Fun ensues as it wrecks relationships across the Bellwoods. |
| 276 | * ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': |
| 277 | ** Overlapped with YouDoNOTWantToKnow in the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. When Donos found out, his first impulse, which he acted on, was to try to ''kill'' Lara. And anyone else in the way. |
| 278 | ** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' has the revelation about Hoole, who for the first several books has some secret which his niece and nephew only get to see the edges of. When Tash and Zak find out what he was hiding, they [[RageAgainstTheMentor rage at]] and abandon him, [[ChangedMyMindKid though they come back later]]. |
| 279 | * ''Literature/TsuyokuteNewSaga'': Many of Kail's friends from his previous timeline turn out to have had problems in their pasts that he was never aware of that painfully clash with his memories of them. [[spoiler:Zentos was responsible for assassinating the princess, Maizar is plotting to use him for his own purposes, Minagi can't handle her money and went off on her own with little experience as an assassin (which to be fair in the original timeline worked out but only due to her natural talent and a TON of luck which is lampshaded in story as irresponsible), Luctera was deathly ill for a long time with a complicated love life involving a dark elf that resulted in a child to boot, and Kail's master and Seren's mother Lelia worships the universe's Goddess of Darkness. Outside of his circle of friends King Remonas, who Kail though was an good ruler, is revealed to have caused most of the problems the human race faced diplomatically, leading up to the demon invasion.]] |
| 280 | * ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': |
| 281 | ** In ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'', Elena searches for her long lost mother. She finally learns her mother's identity [[spoiler:when said mother takes bloody revenge on Elena's father for repeatedly raping her when she was a prisoner of war]]. |
| 282 | ** The main plot of ''Literature/TheVorGame'' is triggered by Gregor learning that his late father was a rapist and murderer. |
| 283 | * In the ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', members of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Aiel]] who either wish to become Clan Chiefs or have the potential to be [[BenevolentMageRuler Wise Ones]] (sometimes against their wishes) must go to the somewhat cursed city of Rhuidean to learn the history of their people. A distressing number of entrants are unable to handle the knowledge that their feared, mighty, proud, and disciplined culture [[spoiler:are not the "real" Aiel, and are in fact, descendants of a splinter group who were exiled by the "real" Aiel for violating their ActualPacifist way of life,]] and either commit suicide outright or lethally mutilate themselves. [[spoiler:Rand]] is not very affected by these visions because he never really identified as an Aiel, and is more intrigued and saddened by his new knowledge of who he originally thought was a race of almost enviably unassailable and unflappable warriors. |
| 284 | [[/folder]] |
| 285 | |
| 286 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 287 | * Every episode of ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'' starts with either [[AudienceSurrogate a recurring character, or a one-shot character]] going about their business, and reciting known "truths." Suddenly Adam Connover uses his RealityWarper powers to pop into the scene and essentially explaining to this victim [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie why "everything you think you know about tonight's subject is completely wrong"]]. |
| 288 | * In the ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' episode [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E3MakingFriendsAndInfluencingPeople "Making Friends and Influencing People"]], Fitz discovers the Awful Truth Coulson and the others have been keeping from him - Grant Ward, a HYDRA [[TheMole mole]] who pretended to befriend him while undercover, only to betray and attempt to murder him (an attempt that has left Fitz emotionally and mentally unstable due to brain damage), is being held in their secret base. Fitz's reaction is to attempt to murder Ward in cold blood, but he ultimately doesn't go through with it. |
| 289 | %%* ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'': The big reveal(s) at the end of the program could qualify as The Awful Truth to the character(s) it applies to. |
| 290 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'' has more than a few: |
| 291 | ** Captain Sheridan believes his wife [[DeathByOriginStory Anna]] died on an expedition to Z'Ha'Dum. [[spoiler:She didn't, [[FateWorseThanDeath but it probably would have been better if she had]].]] |
| 292 | ** Londo Mollari believes that his lover was poisoned by [[TheRival Lord Refa]]. [[spoiler:Mr. Morden arranged Adira's murder to drive Londo back into the Shadows' employ.]] |
| 293 | ** G'Kar believes that the Security Council was practicing HeadInTheSandManagement when they refused to believe his claims that the Shadows had returned. [[spoiler:He was actually the last to know, and they all had their own reasons to feign ignorance. His homeworld was conquered because nobody would help fight off the Shadow-backed Centauri invasion.]] |
| 294 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' plays this straight when Kara attempts to figure out [[spoiler:how she came back from the dead]] and when, in the Season 3 finale, Colonel Tigh keeps trying to figure out what the TerribleTicking that he, Sam Anders, Chief Tyrol and Tory Foster keep hearing is all about. Turns out, [[TomatoInTheMirror they did not want to know]]. They got better. Averted when Kara finally discovers [[ProphecyTwist the meaning of the prophecy]] that she will "lead them all to their end", [[spoiler:as she is the one to take the Fleet to Earth]]. |
| 295 | * ''Series/BreakingBad'': To say that Hank does not take it well after learning that [[spoiler:the meth kingpin he has devoted everything to chase is his own brother-in-law, Walter White]] is a ''massive'' {{Understatement}}. |
| 296 | * ''Series/DarkMatter2015'': In the series premiere, the protagonists awaken from stasis aboard their spaceship with no memories and name themselves [[YouAreNumberSix One through Six]] in the order they woke up. Traveling to their programmed destination, they find a mining colony where the settlers are in conflict with the corrupt MegaCorp Ferrous Corporation who want to take their land, and fear that Ferrous have hired [[TheDreaded Dreaded]] mercenaries rumored to be half-alien called "the Raza" to kill them, but are expecting reinforcements sent by a man named Hrothgar to defend the colony. Since the protagonists' cargo hold is full of weapons and their resident NiceGuy One discovered a sun pendant in his quarters that matches what Hrothgar's people are supposed to have, he assumes he and his crewmates are the promised saviors. Meanwhile, the ship's android has been attempting to recover the wiped databanks onboard: [[spoiler:discovering that except for MysteriousWaif Five, the crew are all wanted murderers and [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] guilty of everything from kidnapping and piracy to terrorism, there are no aliens, and the ''Raza'' is the name of their ship. They have the pendant and the weapons shipment because they intercepted and killed Hrothgar and his people before they could reach the colony. [[AmnesiacDissonance Naturally, the crew are taken aback]], and One in particular has a hard time with the idea that he used to be a murderous lowlife criminal. See the Quotes for this trope]]. |
| 297 | * ''Series/TheDevilJudge'': Elijah accidentally started the fire that killed her parents. Yo-han hides the truth from her for years and doesn't react well when Sun-ah reveals it to everyone. |
| 298 | * ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' is essentially a Thirty Awful Truth Pileup, both for the [[Characters/DexterDexterMorgan eponymous character]] and those close to him. In Season 1 he discovers that the reason he is being singled out by the Ice Truck Killer is that [[LukeIAmYourFather the two are brothers]]. Which wouldn't be terrible in and of itself, but it comes with the realization that Harry Morgan didn't quite tell [[ObliviousAdoption the whole truth and nothing but the truth]]: Dexter watched his mother [[DarkAndTroubledPast die]]. Also, Harry's a liar. [[spoiler: The [[BigBad Big Bads]] of Seasons 2 and 3 get awful truth reveals, usually coinciding with their crossing of the MoralEventHorizon. In Season 4, Debra finally finds out the truth about Harry]]. |
| 299 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 300 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow "The Beast Below"]]: All subjects of Starship UK are required to "vote" when they turn 16 and every five years thereafter. They are taken to a room where they're shown a video, then allowed to either protest, or forget that [[spoiler:their civilization is {{Powered by a Forsaken|Child}} SpaceWhale]]. Everyone seems to choose the mind wipe, and the few that do protest are fed to the star whale. Queen Elizabeth X has her own version of the vote: [[spoiler:continue to control the star whale (and forgetting that she did so) or "abdicate", freeing the star whale and presumably dooming her people.]] What she didn't realize, but Amy does, is that [[spoiler:the star whale ''volunteered'' to help them; when Amy gets Liz Ten to abdicate, the star whale starts going ''faster''.]] |
| 301 | ** Series 12 premiere [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]] ends on TheReveal that [[spoiler:the Master discovered a long-buried truth about the history and origin of the Time Lords that horrified ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards him]]'' so badly that he [[GenocideFromTheInside wiped the other Time Lords out]] and razed Gallifrey.]] This sets up the season's StoryArc, as the Doctor has to find out what exactly it is [[spoiler:the Master]] knows, since he's certainly not explaining. Eventually, the truth comes to light: [[spoiler:The regeneration ability that Time Lords possess, long said to be a natural development, is actually artificial; the power was harvested from an entity called the Timeless Child via horrific experiments and spliced into Gallifreyian DNA. Furthermore, the Timeless Child's memory was eventually erased and left as an ordinary Time Lord child. And the current identity of this amnesiac entity? ''[[TomatoInTheMirror The Doctor]]''.]] |
| 302 | * The eponymous event in ''Series/TheEvent'' is apparently a truth so awful that the CIA director didn't want to tell ''the president'', much less the viewers. |
| 303 | -->'''Director Sterling:''' Information about this has always been on a "need to know" basis.\ |
| 304 | '''President Martinez:''' I'm the president. I need to know! |
| 305 | * ''Series/Fallout2024'' has particularly big secrets that shake the central characters to their core, in addition to having [[WhamEpisode sweeping ramifications for]] [[Franchise/{{Fallout}} the entire series]]: [[spoiler:Vaults 31, 32, and 33 were supposed to be a connected community, but it turns out Vault 31's purpose, as part of Vault-Tec's experiments, was as a storage facility for hand-picked Overseers from Vault-Tec's pre-war upper brass, all kept in cryogenic preservation until needed. When the residents of Vault 32 found this out, they descended headlong into anarchy and bedlam, killing their Overseer before turning on each other and themselves, resulting in the entire Vault being depopulated. Lucy's father, Hank [=MacLean=], was one such Overseer. Vault-Tec also had proprietary information on the secrets of cold fusion, a limitless source of energy, which they kept secret in the hopes of remaining ahead of their competitors. Worse still, to incentivize business partners to invest in Vaults, they conspired to '''''[[GreaterScopeVillain start the Great War, themselves]]'''''. The wife of the Ghoul was the one who proposed this to begin with.]] |
| 306 | * ''Series/AFrenchVillage'': Max, a French Communist liberated from a concentration camp by the Red Army, spent time in the Soviet Union before being sent home. All his comrades are very eager to hear about what they believe is a worker's paradise, but he pleads weariness and declines. Later he confesses to Edmond what it's really like-constantly being watched by the secret police, and thousands having been shot in the purges under Stalin. It's clear that he's shaken to the core, given that Western Communists had lionized the Soviet Union and denied such atrocities earlier. |
| 307 | * In the episode of ''Series/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'' that covered Apollo 12, "[[Recap/FromTheEarthToTheMoonE7 That's All There Is]]", after a lightning strike caused havoc during the launch, the flight controllers went over all the systems. Every system was tested, and came out fine--except one of the most important ones: the parachutes. They realized that they had no way of knowing whether or not the pyrotechnics that would deploy the parachutes for splashdown at the end of the mission were disabled by the lightning strike. They ultimately decided to proceed with the mission--and, also, not tell the crew. The given reason was because if the parachutes didn't work, then the crew would be dead whether or not they proceeded with the mission. For the episode, however, the drama of the moment was slightly muted, as splashdown was one of the first scenes of the episode, [[DramaticIrony so the audience already knew they would survive at that point]]. |
| 308 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 309 | ** When Bran Stark realizes his accidental warging of adolescent Hodor in the past in a StableTimeLoop is the reason why Hodor has been intellectually disabled the whole time Bran has known him, he is horrified and can't bring himself to look away for the rest of the episode. |
| 310 | ** Daenerys Targaryen learning from Ser Barristan and later Tyrion that her father was really the bad guy during the "War of the Usurper". She takes a while to come to terms with it: |
| 311 | --->'''Daenerys:''' I know what my father was, what he did. I know that the Mad King earned his name. |
| 312 | ** Jon Snow learns perhaps the biggest one in Season 8. Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark were his parents. That means that a) Ned Stark, the father he looked up to all his life was actually his uncle, b) he dealt with his BastardAngst for all his life but he wasn't a bastard actually, c) his mother was DeadAllAlong and buried under his feet, d) Daenerys, the woman he loves, is actually his ''aunt''. [[SurpriseIncest D'oh]]. |
| 313 | * ''Series/GinnyAndGeorgia'': In Season 2, Ginny wrestles with learning that her mom Georgia had killed her last husband. |
| 314 | * ''Series/HigherGround'': |
| 315 | ** [[spoiler:Shelby]]'s mother at first denies her stepfather had molested her and Jess, but later admits it's true, but she simply didn't want to know that it was happening. |
| 316 | ** Scott's dad later says much the same thing when stating he now believes him that his stepmother raped Scott. |
| 317 | * ''Series/HimitsuNoHanazono2007'': [[spoiler: The father of the Kataoka brothers, Ryo Kataoka? He's plagiarist and stole all his works from someone else. He was good friends with the painter Minoru Noguchi when he was alive, who also happened to be the true father of Yoh. However, after Noguchi's death, Ryo seizes his paintings and published them as his own. He was so consumed with guilt that he confessed it on his deathbed]]. |
| 318 | * ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'': |
| 319 | ** Poor, poor Phillip. First he found out that his family is really the mafia providing people the {{Transformation Trinket}}s needed to transform into the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]], then he found out that he's DeadAllAlong. |
| 320 | ** Terui Ryu finds out that the person who gave him the gear needed for him to be Kamen Rider Accel also gave the Weather Memory to Isaka, the man who killed his family. Then he finds out ''why'' she did that. |
| 321 | * The Japanese drama ''Series/MendolIkemen'' has an outright weird one. The manager who has presumably until episode 11 been a lesbian is actually a guy. |
| 322 | * ''Series/Merlin2008'': |
| 323 | ** King Uther's refusal to tell Arthur the truth about his magical birth and the death of his mother. Arthur seemed to find out in the episode "Sins of the Father", and promptly tried to kill Uther -- partly for being indirectly responsible for his mother's death, but mostly for starting the Purge and painting magic as evil not out of genuine conviction but hypocritical revenge. The only reason he didn't kill Uther is because he came to believe Merlin's statement that Morgause lied to him completely instead of only partially. |
| 324 | ** Morgana revealing herself as the traitor in season 3 is such an AwfulTruth that Uther never fully recovers. |
| 325 | * ''Series/ThePower2023'': Roxy slowly learns her mom was not really murdered by random burglars -- her dad, whom she loves and wants to impress, ordered it done. |
| 326 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 327 | ** The finale to Season 4 is a definite example of this: Dean learns that [[spoiler: the "Upper Management" of Heaven has no intention of stopping Lucifer's return. In fact, they ''want'' the Apocalypse to happen so that they can finally destroy Lucifer once and for all (which will also lead to the deaths of billions of innocent people who get caught in the crossfire, but it's not like they really give a damn about that part). Made worse in Season 5 when the Winchesters realize their whole family was engineered for them to be the perfect vessels and all tragedies that happened were because of an angelic-driven destiny.]] |
| 328 | ** The finale of Season 14: Sam and Dean learn that [[spoiler:God, one of the Winchesters' biggest allies, has been orchestrating ''everything'' the brothers suffered throughout the show (including the apocalypse example above) just for entertainment, and has been holding back all this time to preserve drama.]] |
| 329 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E21 Need to Know]]", a man returns to his small town bearing the Truth of Existence, a short phrase which [[GoMadFromTheRevelation drives anyone who hears it instantly insane]]. |
| 330 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'': |
| 331 | ** This is a major plot point. The {{tagline}} for the show is "the truth is out there", and Mulder spends nearly a decade trying to uncover it. When he does, he finds out ''why'' it's been kept hidden from society for sixty years. He was reluctant to even tell Scully, as the Truth is [[spoiler: aliens are invading the world in 2012 to colonize it, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.]] |
| 332 | ** Subverted earlier with the truth about his sister, Samantha. The quest to find his sister was the reason Mulder got started on the X-Files, and a when not trying to find out The Truth, he is trying to find out what happened to her. After an extremely confusing plotline, we find out [[spoiler: Samantha died in her early teens after years of medical experimentation]]. It is classified as an awful truth, but Mulder is simply satisfied to finally know what happened to her. The episode is aptly named "Closure", and when Scully asks him at the end of the episode how he is dealing with it, he replies "I'm free." |
| 333 | * ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds2019'': [[spoiler:Sacha]]'s paternity is one for him. He's actually [[spoiler:the result of his mother being raped by her ''brother'']]. |
| 334 | * ''Series/Zero2021'': Anna discovers that her dad is paying criminals to wreck the Barrio, so its properties will be worth less and he can buy them up cheaply then evict all the residents. |
| 335 | [[/folder]] |
| 336 | |
| 337 | [[folder:Music Videos]] |
| 338 | * The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8 music video]] for the song [[Music/TheBends "Just"]] by Music/{{Radiohead}}. A man lies down in the middle of the street, refusing to get up or tell anyone why, because if they knew, they would do the same. [[spoiler:He does and they do; the exact nature of his secret, however, is never disclosed to the viewer.]] |
| 339 | [[/folder]] |
| 340 | |
| 341 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 342 | * The fact that the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness is, well, a [[CrapsackWorld World of Darkness]] is a secret desperately kept from ordinary humans in the eponymous setting. It's an odd example, though, because the books state that a large part of why all the separate {{Masquerade}}s are in place is for self-preservation: if all of humanity knew the truth, humanity would fight and the supernaturals would lose. The [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Hunters]] cause enough problems as it is. |
| 343 | ** There is also the equally terrifying possibility that humanity would fight the supernaturals and ''[[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt no-one would win]]''. What would inherit the Earth in that circumstance [[EldritchAbomination doesn't really bear thinking about]]. |
| 344 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': As the Inner Sphere is getting mauled by the technologically superior [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Clans]] some believe that the descendants of General Kerensky's Star League Defense Forces (who fled into unknown space centuries ago to avoid getting caught in a civil war and being forced to fight those they swore to protect) will [[KingInTheMountain come back to assist them in their darkest hour]]. A certain mercenary leader... refutes this theory. |
| 345 | --> [[spoiler: Jaime Wolf: "Don't you see? Kerensky's people ''have'' returned. They ''are'' the [[BloodKnight Clans]].]] |
| 346 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Hoo boy... let's just say that the Imperium has a good reason for its proverb "Ignorance is a virtue." |
| 347 | ** Chaos is the prime example of the Awful Truth. The Inquisition is quite willing to sterilize and relocate anyone who ''might'' have learned about it to forced labor camps for the rest of their lives. If this isn't practical, the Inquisition will just kill everyone. This policy can be applied to entire worlds with billions of people on them, and is still considered the ''humane'' solution compared to what might happen otherwise. |
| 348 | ** Speaking of Chaos: A very large part of the Imperial Creed (everything about the [[GodEmperor Emperor being a God]]) was actually written by Lorgar, the Primarch who wanted to worship the Emperor (who'd made atheism the state religion and was very unhappy to learn of Lorgar's teachings) and was the first to fall to Chaos (when it was pointed out there were other gods all too happy to bestow blessings on their worshippers). |
| 349 | ** Roboute Guilliman was one of the few surviving (sort of: he was trapped in stasis) Primarchs, later revived by the Eldar. Not only did he take some getting used to the craptastic state of the Imperium, he went to Terra to meet the Emperor where he realized the Master of Mankind saw him and his brother Primarchs as nothing more than a tool (as opposed to a son). Despite this, Guilliman does what he can to fight for the Emperor's ideals. |
| 350 | ** The Tau's methods of FTLTravel are much slower than Imperials, leaving them blissfuly unaware of just how small their empire is, while the Imperium has trillions of people on several thousands of planets. They also have no knowledge of the Warp and so believe humans tales of daemons are just madness (to be fair, most Chaos followers are AxeCrazy) or that daemons are yet another hostile alien to be removed in the name of the Greater Good. Commander Farsight discovered the Ethereals are hiding the Tau's relative weakness from the general population, but instead of rebelling, went into self-imposed exile along with his followers. |
| 351 | ** One formerly Imperial planet was colonized millenia ago but has been forgotten about since, but the inhabitants believe the Emperor will one day return to them and lead them to a new golden age. Chaos troops take sadistic glee in kidnapping them and forcibly showing them just how insignificant and uncared about they are. |
| 352 | [[/folder]] |
| 353 | |
| 354 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 355 | * In ''Theatre/OedipusRex'', the title character is warned by the soothsayer Tiresias that he really doesn't want to know the truth (namely, that he murdered his father on the road and then married his mother) but tragic pride gives Oedipus the persistence to find out. When he finally does learn the truth, it's enough to make him [[EyeScream blind himself]]. Said mother figures it out before he does and [[DrivenToSuicide promptly hangs herself.]] |
| 356 | [[/folder]] |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 359 | * ''VideoGame/AlfredHitchcockVertigo'': |
| 360 | ** The first part of the story has Ed learns that his childhood didn't happen as he remembered it: His father, John wasn't a playful dad who hid candies and treats in the house so his son could seek for them, but a compulsive [[TheAlcoholic drinker]] who made him seek for his alcohol behind his mother's back, the latter, tired of John, started dating Nick Reyes and got a child with him, Ed wasn't playing spies with his father when he took a photo of his mother and left it on John's office, the picture he took was actually of her kissing Nick. And when his father learned that, the car crash that killed the mother and little sister wasn't an accident, but a deliberate murder on the part of John, which Ed '''unwillingly and indirectly caused'''. While Ed is at first in denial, he learns to accept it as the childhood he had and decides to become the person these events made him to be. |
| 361 | ** [[spoiler:For Robert Carrigan, if learning that his adoptive daughter died drunk and falling off a building wasn't awful enough, he has to learn she actually killed her "best friend" and impersonated her, being alive the whole time and on a criminal spree only to die for real eight years later by falling off a bridge]]. |
| 362 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'', Zulf was an ambassador of the Ura in Caelondia before [[CataclysmBackstory the Calamity]], and was working in an apparently successful effort to promote peace between the two peoples. He was also HappilyMarried, but then the Calamity happened, which killed his wife and all but destroyed Caelondia. He was almost DrivenToSuicide after TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, but then you come along, and you and Rucks give him some hope that you might be able to fix things. [[spoiler: But then he finds Zia's father's journal, which fleshes out the Calamity's true purpose. The Caelondians ''built it'' as a weapon of mass destruction with which to wipe out his people, meaning all of his past work promoting peace was effectively useless. He also finds out that Rucks was one of the people spearheading the project. He promptly flips his shit and does a FaceHeelTurn.]] |
| 363 | * ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' centers the development and {{deconstruction}} of Noel Vermillion around this trope during ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueContinuumShift Continuum Shift]]''. During her encounter with [[BigBad Terumi]] in ''Desperation'', Noel goes berserk after realizing he used and tormented Tsubaki, voluntarily lifting the seal on Bolverk with the intention of obliterating him. [[spoiler:After feeding off her hatred and pushing her to her limit, Terumi feeds her the history of the Prime Field Devices in graphic detail -- up to and including that [[TomatoInTheMirror she is one of them]]. The relentless input is too much for her to bear, and she promptly breaks down, left prone for tempering into Mu-12.]] In a surprising use of this trope in a {{reconstruction}}, ''Slight Hope'' ends with a double serving of it. [[spoiler:In addition to learning that Noel is a Prime Field Device amidst a graveyard of her 'predecessors', Makoto learns from Rachel in the very next sentence that beastkin like her were also made by human hands. Unlike Noel, however, Makoto does not break, and in fact uses the experience to strengthen her resolve to save her friends.]] |
| 364 | * ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'': Hell's Highway: You remember [[ChekhovsGun that scene in the first game,]] where a distraught Leggett essentially killed himself by firing at an enemy tank with a pistol until he got blown up? Turns out that Baker accidentally caused that by ordering Leggett to keep the true nature of [[ThoseTwoGuys Allen's and Garnett's]] deaths a secret, for fear of reprisals from the rest of the squad. Said secret is that Leggett ''indirectly caused'' their deaths by starting a loud argument and brawl with them, the noise of which attracted a German squad. However, as a result, Leggett was alienated by the rest of the squad, as his refusal to speak of the incident made them believe he was a coward who had hidden and allowed Allen and Garnett to die,[[labelnote:*]]In reality, he had not hidden, but he was so caught off-guard by the attack that by the time he regained his senses, [[SoleSurvivor he was the only one left standing.]][[/labelnote]] which was only compounded by [[ILetGwenStacyDie Leggett's own guilt]] over the incident. The burden of keeping the secret, coupled with the inability to talk to anyone about his side of the story, was too much for the poor guy, [[DrivenToSuicide which is why he charged the tank in the first place.]] |
| 365 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bugsnax}}'': For most of its run, the game is a cheery [[MonsSeries bug-catching adventure]] where you hunt [[AnthropomorphicFood the titular Bugsnax]] and then feed them to the townsfolk of Snaktooth Island, slowly [[MutagenicFood transforming their bodies into whatever they've eaten]]. And then you find out [[spoiler: that the reason Bugsnax look like food and are [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood irresistibly delicious]] is because they [[TheAssimilator reproduce by assimilation]]. The more you eat, the more you are [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything drawn to keep eating them]] until you irreversibly turn into snax and are absorbed into [[ThatsNoMoon the island itself]], which turns out to be entirely made of Bugsnax.]] |
| 366 | * ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'': [[spoiler:Naomi]] is already in bad shape from [[spoiler:Seiko's suicide]]... Then [[spoiler:she finds out that Seiko didn't commit suicide, ''Naomi herself'' killed her]]. We later find out that it was only [[spoiler:[[HauntedTechnology Seiko's text]] that kept Naomi from crossing the DespairEventHorizon]]. |
| 367 | * In ''VisualNovel/CrossChannel'', this is how [[spoiler:Taichi finally breaks Youko down]]. The awful part wasn't the fact that [[spoiler:they killed 14 people at the Shinkawa mansion, it was the fact that ''Youko didn't kill a single one of them'']]. |
| 368 | * ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': [[spoiler: V was dead the moment Dex shot them. Despite the Relic chip bringing them back to life and repairing the damage to their brain, the Relic's own engram implantation protocols changed their brain on the biological level, to the point that it would eventually reject V's engram, and that V would be LivingOnBorrowedTime even if they opted to return to their body.]] |
| 369 | ** [[spoiler:And an unknown third-party [[note]]Johnny suspects they're AI[[/note]] has perfected subtle brainwashing for government leaders.]] It's up to you to decide if the upcoming Mayor Peralez deserves to know his entire life is a lie, but he doesn't take it well. |
| 370 | * ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II'': |
| 371 | ** This is more or less the reason for Avitus' betrayal ([[SchrodingersGun if he's the traitor]]) in the ''Chaos Rising'' expansion, the realization that the chapter he serves - and has shed so much blood for - and its ideals were subverted centuries ago with no one able to stop him. |
| 372 | ** While the player and most of the cast learn in ''Chaos Rising'' that Chapter Master Azariah Kyras is actually a Chaos worshipper, Captain Apollo Diomedes refuses to consider it. Only in the ''Retribution'' expansion, set a decade later, is he finally given irrefutable proof (witnessing a conversation between a traitor guardsman and Kyras) and undergoes something of a HeroicBSOD from the realization that all the purges and murders he carried out on Kyras' orders might not have been for the good of the Chapter after all. |
| 373 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry1'': Dante doesn't take the revelation of [[spoiler:Trish having been created by and working for Mundus all along]] rather well. |
| 374 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': Nero is bent on taking revenge against the mysterious demon who ripped off his Devil Bringer arm from the previous game. He's briefly out of words when that "demon" is actually [[spoiler:his half-demon father Vergil. After revealing this, Dante specifically points out that he wanted to keep it a secret so that Nero won't have to kill his old man. It turns out even Trish and Lady knew it as well, and Lady also tries to convince Nero that killing your father isn't something you can recover from (and she would know, having done this to Arkham back in ''3''). Fortunately, Nero thinks of an [[TakeAThirdOption alternative option]] -- stop the fight between Dante and Vergil so that neither of them have to die]]. |
| 375 | * In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', Templars of the Templar Order are convicted criminals who are tortured to "cleanse" them of their sins and then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind-wiped]] so that they can be turned into weapons against the darkness with purpose and clarity. When Kormac, your follower who hails from this order, comes across the journals of Jondar, a turncoat Templar who you help him kill when you recruit him, and reads the "key words" that act to restore his memory, the Awful Truth is revealed. [[spoiler:It turns out the Order doesn't really give a damn about the guilt or innocence of its initiates, and will gladly pile false sins upon an innocent, as they did to both Kormac and Jondar, if they deem him to be a worthy asset to the Order]]. |
| 376 | ** And then it all got worse. [[spoiler:It turns out that the real reason Adria wants the souls of all seven of the Great Evils put into the Black Soulstone ''isn't'' so that she can destroy them all forever in vengeance for what happened to Tristram -- it's because Adria pledged herself to Diablo's service long ago and seeks to bring about the rebirth of her master as the Prime Evil, the embodiment of all seven of the Great Evils in one being, in accordance with Diablo's grand plan. And the vessel that she uses to bring about this rebirth? Her own daughter Leah, whose true father turns out to be none other than Diablo himself by way of the Dark Wanderer, a.k.a. the Warrior from the very first game who got himself possessed by Diablo after sticking the fragment of the demon lord's soulstone into his head]]. |
| 377 | * ''VideoGame/DinoCrisis'' has an ending path where the team's true objective is thrown into the open. [[spoiler: Apprehending Dr. Kirk was never the team's objective at all. Gail reveals that their true mission is to recover Kirk's research data on the Third Energy so that the government can use it as a weapon before anyone else can. As Gail puts it, securing Kirk was "just a bonus". Regina is understanbly upset and asks why Gail never told them anything. Gail replies that the top officials behind the mission thought Regina and Rick were too soft to accept such a mission, thus Gail was given the true mission to carry out himself. He kept the truth from Regina and Rick because he feared they wouldn't be able to handle the nature of their mission and would have likely refused to go along with it.]] |
| 378 | * ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The player character and their companions are chosen by the Gods to [[GodhoodSeeker become the next Divine]], so they don't take well to the reveal that the Gods are AbusivePrecursors who created the mortal races to [[SoulEating devour the souls of the dead]]. Moreover, the Gods betrayed their own kin and banished them from the world, twisting them into the Voidwoken that now threaten all life. |
| 379 | * In ''Franchise/DragonAge'', the Grey Wardens [[spoiler:are all doomed to become Ghouls. Their variation of the Taint just takes a lot longer to change them than the normal version.]] The reason Grey Wardens are the only ones who can slay the Archdemons and end Blights? [[spoiler:An Archdemon can resurrect itself by transferring its soul to the nearest Tainted being, which is normally a soulless Darkspawn. If that being happens to be a Warden instead, the soul of the Warden and the Archdemon will [[MutualKill destroy each other]].]] The Wardens don't tell anyone these secrets until after they join the order, since no one in their right mind would join them if they knew. |
| 380 | ** Something similar happens with the origin of golems. [[spoiler:It's not just that they are the souls of dwarves encased in molten lyrium while still alive, although that's bad enough; it's that the control rods only came about when Caridin's King was having innocents conscripted and forged into golems. At least the golem you can get as a DLC party member was a volunteer.]] |
| 381 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' reveals several awful truths: |
| 382 | *** A recurring story is how the original elven homeland was destroyed by the Tevinter Imperium. [[spoiler:It was not. A survivor of that time reveals that the elves destroyed themselves in a civil war. Tevinter just enslaved the survivors out of opportunism. The vallaslin? The markings Dalish elves wear as a mark of adulthood? Arlathan nobles put them on their slaves as tribute to the nobles' patron gods. Last, the elves say that their gods, including [[TopGod Mythal]], were imprisoned by Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf. The truth is that Mythal and Fen'Harel were and remain good friends. Mythal was betrayed and murdered by someone else and her remains possessed Flemeth, who Mythal saw as a kindred spirit. ''Trespasser'' reveals that their "gods" were just a bunch of ''very'' powerful mages who let that power go to their heads and that ''they'' were the ones who killed Mythal because she tried to get them to stop abusing their power. Fen'Harel only sealed them away to stop the madness, and in the process stripped the entire elven race of their magic.]] |
| 383 | *** A major cause of the Mage-Templar War was Templars abusing mages, and their usage of the Rite of Tranquility ([[FateWorseThanDeath which turns mages into emotionless husks unable to use magic]]) fueling the conflict. [[PlayerCharacter The Inquisitor]] and Cassandra later learn [[spoiler: that the original Inquisition created the Rite and their successors, the Seekers of Truth, knew how to cure it for centuries but kept it secret all this time.]] |
| 384 | *** Given that one of the game's major themes is faith, most, if not all core members of the Inquisition faced this trope. Not all of them take the revelations lightly without breaking down as reality forces them to reassess their views. |
| 385 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 386 | ** Experienced ShellShockedVeteran Auron from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' intentionally keeps the truth regarding the summoners' journey for the Final Aeon, that it is [[spoiler:an ultimately futile effort causing much unneeded sacrifice]], from the the rest of the characters. When they finally figure it out on their own and demand an explanation from Auron about this, he simply responds, "Would that have stopped you?'' |
| 387 | *** The less-obvious reasoning behind this masquerade is that Auron simply saying [[spoiler: "Hey, killing Sin the traditional way just perpetuates the circle of violence"]] wouldn't be enough to change anything, and would more likely result in the party ''accepting'' the situation. By only revealing certain key bits of information as the journey continued, Auron was able to direct them on the path he tried to take before: [[spoiler: the rejection of tradition and an attempt at a new world]]. Almost MagnificentBastard levels, when you think about it. |
| 388 | *** Besides, indiscreet revelations of the Awful Truth behind Spira can backfire ''spectacularly.'' [[OmnicidalManiac Look at what happened to Seymour]]. |
| 389 | *** He actually outright states that [[spoiler:Jecht turned into Sin]] very early on but it doesn't take because he doesn't explain the story behind it. |
| 390 | *** Before this, the entire rest the party takes quite a long time to reveal to Tidus that Yuna's journey as a summoner is intended to end with [[spoiler:her death summoning the Final Aeon.]] Understandably, Tidus doesn't take it well. |
| 391 | --->'''Wakka''': We weren't hiding it! |
| 392 | --->'''Lulu''': It was just... too hard to say. |
| 393 | *** Tidus in turn doesn't reveal the Awful Truth he learned at the Fayth Cluster to the rest of the party until right before the final battle: [[spoiler:that defeating their opponent Yu Yevon will make Tidus disappear, since Tidus is part of Yu Yevon's Summoning of Dream Zanarkand, and killing Yu Yevon will end the Summoning.]] |
| 394 | ** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the nation of Ishgard has been part of the Dragonsong War for over a thousand years, fighting against the wrathful Nidhogg and the Dravanian Horde with all of their being to protect their home and avenge their fallen founder King Thordan. In seeking help from the benign dragon Hraesvelgr, the Ishgardians learn the true origins of the Dragonsong War, uprooting their entire society. [[spoiler:That man and dragon had lived together in peace for two hundred years, and that it was ''King Thordan'' and his knights who destroyed that peace by killing Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg's sister Ratatoskr in cold blood to steal her magic power for themselves.]] |
| 395 | * ''VideoGame/FishingVacation'': In some ending routes, you begin to piece together what actually happened to the uncle and his family. The first big clue is when you fish up [[spoiler:a child-sized shoe with a rotting foot inside (and a cellar key attached)]], horrifying your friend as they realize [[spoiler:it's likely the remains of their cousin]]. If you get into the cellar, you find notes confirming [[spoiler:the uncle murdered his family]]. |
| 396 | * ''VideoGame/GreedFall'': [[spoiler:The Congregation of Merchants and the Nauts secretly discovered Teer Fradee 200 years prior to the game's events, and the aristocracy of the Congregation became tyrants who ruled with an iron fist until they were all decimated and driven off by the resident eldritch god of the island. The surviving Congregation citizens paid the Nauts [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain to pretend they never discovered Teer Fradee]]. Except, the Nauts never stopped exploiting the island for slaves to sell to the mainland Congregation - which is where De Sardet came from. To twist the knife further, the Malichor has nothing to do with Teer Fradee; it is actually a result of the uncontrolled pollution caused by reckless industrialization on the mainland, and has little if anything to do with Teer Fradee itself, except that maybe the Eldritch god of the island may have helped it along a little in revenge for the Congregation's pillaging]]. |
| 397 | * In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' Wynne learned in her Dream that her race was [[spoiler:created to serve the Elder Dragon Mordremoth]]. The Pale Tree told her to keep the truth a secret for fear of what would happen to the Sylvari. She chose death rather than letting the psychotic Faolain learn the truth [[spoiler:but years later Mordremoth's roar would turn many of the Sylvari against their unprepared allies]]. |
| 398 | * In the climax of ''VideoGame/Halo2'', the Arbiter is told the truth (known to players) about the Halo rings. They aren't divine instruments that will allow the worthy to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, but weapons of mass destruction that will kill ''all'' life in the galaxy. The Forerunners used them to stop the Flood, and died doing so. The look of absolute despair on the Arbiter's face (made even more clear in the Anniversary edition) when he's told this is heartbreaking. |
| 399 | * Played for laughs in ''[[VideoGame/GuiltyGearXrd Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-]]'' when Ky finally realizes that Sol [[spoiler:is the father Dizzy. Since Ky is now married to Dizzy, that makes Sol his ''father-in-law'']]. |
| 400 | -->'''Ky & Sol:''' [[GoMadFromTheRevelation WAAAAAH!/AAAARGH!]] |
| 401 | * In ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite'', UNSC AI The Weapon was created specifically with the task of locking down [[spoiler:Cortana]] for retrieval and deletion, and she was to be deleted herself upon completing said mission. However, she admits to not knowing ''why'' she was given this mission, going so far as to ask "What did [[spoiler:(Cortana)]] do that was so wrong?" Towards the end of the game's plot, she gets her answer, and it's so much more than she bargained for. [[spoiler:Cortana, having gone rogue, led an AI (or "Created") uprising against the rest of the galaxy, subjugating and destroying entire worlds and murdering billions, if not trillions, of lives along her path of conquest. What's worse is that The Weapon finds out she is an ''exact copy'' of Cortana, only without her memories, which was necessary for her to complete her mission. Master Chief drives it home by stating that she ''is'' Cortana, if she and Chief had never met.]] The Weapon's reaction to all this news is.... [[{{HeroicBSOD}} Not positive.]] |
| 402 | -->'''The Weapon:''' [[spoiler:I'm ''her?!'']] |
| 403 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': The society of [[{{Precursors}} the Old Ones]] was super advanced in terms of technology, far more than the primitive tribes that exist in the current world. However, a swarm of "peacekeeping" robots created by Faro Industries glitched out. These robots could hack enemy defenses, eat biomass to refuel, and self-replicate, all while being un-hackable themselves. Humanity's only hope was in Project Zero Dawn, a mysterious superweapon that would shut down the swarm and save the Earth. Millions, if not billions of people signed up for Operation Enduring Victory, fighting the ever-growing swarm with minimal training in a desperate attempt to delay extinction long enough for Zero Dawn. The awful truth is that [[spoiler:saving the planet was impossible; there was no way to shut down the swarm before they ate all biomass on Earth, leaving the world nothing but a lifeless rock, filled with several million hibernating robots, "waiting for something to eat." Zero Dawn's true purpose was to calculate the shutdown codes after the swarm had gone into hibernation, then re-terraform the Earth and eventually repopulate it. Every human living in Aloy's time is descended from a human born in a lab]]. This was bad enough that recruits for Project Zero Dawn had the option of euthanasia (after a forty-eight hour waiting period and therapy) if they couldn't deal with it. |
| 404 | -->'''General Herres:''' This is the horrible truth behind the lies of Operation: Enduring Victory--''my'' lies--lies designed to inspire millions of innocents to sacrifice themselves in battle. |
| 405 | * In ''VideoGame/{{inFAMOUS}}'', Cole gradually grows to hate the BigBad, Kessler, as Kessler is both responsible for the event that gave Cole superpowers at the cost of thousands of innocent lives, and eventually [[spoiler: kills Cole's girlfriend,]] all the while spouting rhetoric about how Cole needs to learn what an awful place the world really is instead of pretending it's any better, never offering even a cursory explanation for why he's doing any of it. In the end, just before Kessler dies from wounds Cole inflicts, Kessler reveals via telepathy that [[spoiler: he's ''Cole himself'' from a BadFuture that exists because he [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to do anything about it when he had the chance]], come back in time to ''traumatize himself'' so that he'll be prepared to make better choices when those hard decisions come.]] |
| 406 | ** Turning the evil ending into a case of GoneHorriblyRight. |
| 407 | * In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' Xemnas and Xigbar reveal to Sora that [[spoiler:the Nobodies of the Organization were regaining their hearts all along, and they were lied to and told they had none. On top of that, they thought they were trying to complete Kingdom Hearts to gain their hearts back, but in reality, once they completed it, Xemnas planned to use it to strip them of their new hearts and turn them into Xehanort clones.]] |
| 408 | * In ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKainSoulReaver'', Raziel comes across the Tomb of the Sarafan, and is [[TomatoSurprise horrified]] to discover that the tomb was designated for him and his brothers, and that Kain revived the Sarafan to serve him as his vampire sons in an ironic, blasphemous joke. |
| 409 | ** In the second game, he then learns that [[spoiler: his human self was a horribly arrogant, racist murderer that used the shield of religion to hunt down the last of the true vampires, Janos Audrin, and kill him because ''he could''.]] |
| 410 | * ''VideoGame/MadFather'': Subverted at first; it's no secret that Aya's father is a psychopathic murderer having an affair with his assistant (Aya's narration after the opening cutscene actually starts with "I know father's secret"). But there's another awful truth that she's not aware of, [[spoiler:which her mother reveals at the very end as a last resort. It basically sums up as "Well Aya - there's good news and bad news for you. Bad news first: your father's 'research' was all practice so he could eventually turn you into a doll and keep you for himself forever, and he murdered me when I threatened to run away with you. Good news: you're getting a pretty new dress too!]] |
| 411 | ** Even worse is that [[spoiler:Aya is as homicidally insane as her father]]! At least she's MUCH nicer about it. This is so disturbing that you can only learn about it during the second playthrough - [[spoiler:Aya's father was actually disturbed that his daughter was continuing his insanity, and her mother ENCOURAGED it]]. |
| 412 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'' pulls some good ones. First, the set-up; all spacefaring races get into space by use of Element Zero, which, when hit with electricity, alters the mass of matter temporarily (the eponymous Mass Effect). Interstellar travel is based on the [[PortalNetwork mass relays,]] giant mass-effect devices left behind by {{Precursors}} who vanished fifty-thousand years ago. |
| 413 | ** ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect1 Mass Effect]]:'' [[spoiler:The [[{{Precursors}} Protheans]] found the mass relays just like the current civilizations did, because they were left behind by a race of [[AbusivePrecursors sentient machines]] who return to the galaxy every fifty thousand years and destroy all intelligent life. Because interstellar society functions based on the technology they left behind AND CONTROL, they have little trouble in the act and the galaxy is powerless to resist. This is actually a ''cycle'' of extinction, and based on evidence dating back millions of years, the cycle has repeated ''over seven hundred times.'']] |
| 414 | *** [[spoiler:The oldest sign of resistance is a corpse of one of these sentient space ships. From 37 million years ago. There is, however, NO SIGN ANYWHERE of the civilization that did it other than the crater left by firing the weapon. To put it in perspective, the Protheans were only about 50,000 years ago... And just to set the tin lid on it, [[NotQuiteDead it turns out the Reaper isn't completely dead]].]] |
| 415 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2:'' [[spoiler:The cycle of extinction is the AbusivePrecursors' ''reproductive'' cycle. They ''build their babies'' by ''turning a species they exterminate into genetic paste'' and using it for building material.]] |
| 416 | *** [[spoiler:Also the species that are not suitable to be turned in Reapers, are turned into mindless slaves. We find this out with the Collectors which are actually Protheans.]] |
| 417 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3:'' [[spoiler:The Reapers exist to ensure that some organic life (the non-space-faring life they skip during each cycle) will always exist somewhere. They were created with the belief that if any society is allowed to continue existing beyond a certain point after discovering interstellar travel, they will eventually create synthetic life, who in turn will eventually turn on their creators and wipe out organic life. The death they bring and the atrocities they commit is something they believe necessary for organic life to exist at all.]] |
| 418 | *** The series' original writer had laid foreshadowing for an entirely different awful truth to be revealed in the third: that the mass-effect is effectively poisonous to the galaxy and causes the stars of populated systems to die long before their time. The [[spoiler: Reaper Cycle]] in this version is a stop-gap measure, slowing the effect to a semi-controlled crawl until a solution could be found. |
| 419 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' takes place in another galaxy altogether, but has its own shocking twists. [[spoiler:The kett reproduce by turning other races into themselves, while the Angara were artificially made by an unknown intelligence, the prototype ''corpses'' laying around.]] |
| 420 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': |
| 421 | ** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Naked Snake's mission is to kill The Boss, his EvilMentor who [[TurnCoat defected to Soviet Russia]] and instigated a nuclear incident in Russia (a good part of it, no less). [[spoiler:Then it's revealed by EVA that [[FakeDefector The Boss only defected to gain Volgin's trust]], steal [[MacGuffin the Philosopher's legacy]], and bring the whole can of bank worms back to America. The nukes were a bargaining chip to gain Volgin's trust, but [[DidntSeeThatComing "nobody could have predicted"]] that Volgin would [[AxCrazy fire a Davy Crockett on his own base]]. Because she was the main suspect of Volgin's insanity, to prevent WorldWarIII, [[TheScapegoat The Boss had to die]] -- [[KlingonPromotion by the hand of her best student]]. [[SilentScapegoat She knew it]], [[HeroicSacrifice and willingly went along with it]].]] Then, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Operation Snake Eater was just one of ''many'' ploys to get [[TheParagon The Boss]] out of the equation, since [[UngratefulBastard they (the CIA)]] feared [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels her charisma]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the powerful connections/fame she made across all nations]]. Said ploys include denying her support while spying on Russian space-faring development, sending her into space with faulty equipment (and losing the space race in the process), denying her support during the Pig Bay mission, [[LetsYouAndHimFight forcing her and The Sorrow (her husband) to fight each other to the death]]... Did we mention this is all narrated by a psychotic jailbait who threatens to nuke the east coast of the United States just so Big Boss will always be the slave of the Patriots?]] No wonder [[FutureBadass Big Boss]] goes off the deep end. |
| 422 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' pulls a complicated Awful Truth on the protagonist. Solid Snake has started to show indications of accelerated aging; by the time the game starts, he's going on his early 40s, and looks older than his parents (who should be over 80 by then). Otacon explains that it seems like a classic case of Werner's Syndrome, except the tests for the condition say that Snake doesn't have it. They speculate that it's because Snake isn't "normal," meaning that there must have been some fluke in the cloning process that created him, possibly exacerbated by the nanomachine-based artificial virus he was injected with to assassinate certain people by coming into contact with them. In fact, his brother Liquid even suggested as much, saying that the problem arises from the genetic sample that created them being taken when Big Boss was old himself, in his 50s. When Snake finally finds someone who can figure out what's going on, the truth is ''much worse'' than any of the speculation: [[spoiler:the premature aging is ''natural,'' it's an intentional alteration made during the cloning process to ''give him an expiration date,'' which means there is ''no way to fix it'' and he will die of old age within six months, probably before turning 42. Worse, the nano-virus in his blood is ''being damaged'' by Snake's aging, and unless he kills himself long before he dies "naturally," the virus will lose its ability to differentiate between the people it was coded to kill and the people it was not, meaning Snake will cause an ''epidemic'']]. The second problem is solved [[spoiler:so Snake doesn't have to kill himself to stop the epidemic]], but the first problem is most assuredly not, and the only reason we don't watch [[spoiler:Snake die on-screen]] is because the ending fades to black instead of fast-forwarding six months. |
| 423 | * In the final chapter of ''VideoGame/Mother3'', [[spoiler:Leder's final role is to tell Lucas the truth about his beloved, idyllic hometown of Tazmily. It was always just a fabrication. A final outpost for humanity, perched on the edge of nothing, populated with the last remnants of humankind, who had been willingly mind-wiped and built a false {{Arcadia}} in order to prevent a ''second'' Armageddon]]. |
| 424 | * ''VideoGame/MutantYearZeroRoadToEden'': [[spoiler:Mutants are just the descendants of genetic experiments into a super-soldier project from before the apocalypse that wiped out humanity. The Elder gets so mad about the heroes' efforts to locate Eden because he knows the truth and wants to spare them the pain of finding it out.]] |
| 425 | * ''VideoGame/{{NieR}}'' has several ones revealed throughout multiple playthroughs, but the main one involves the main mooks, which are called Shades. The game is designed in such a way that you'll probably have killed several hundred Shades (it can feel like a lot more than that) by the endgame, and you don't really give it much thought. The main character eventually develops a psychotic fixation in killing them as a response to the tragedies that plague his life. Towards the very end of the game it is revealed that [[spoiler: the shades are actually Gestalts, the remnants of the real humans who underwent a process to clone their bodies which were being dissolved due to a mysterious disease, and the people you thought were humans this whole time were just clones of them called Replicants; the main antagonist of the game, the Shadowlord, is actually the original Nier you played in the prologue, who wants the exact same thing you do. It's implied in your first run through the game, and confirmed in [[NewGamePlus subsequent playthroughs]], that most Shades are entirely sentient... which basically makes you a mass murderer. Supplementary materials and WordOfGod also reveal that by the end of the game your actions have doomed the human race.]] |
| 426 | * ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' continues the tradition: |
| 427 | ** The setting's Awful Truth won't be much of a surprise to anyone who played the previous game. [[spoiler:The ForeverWar between the Androids and Machines is entirely pointless; the Machines killed their alien creators long ago, while the humans the Androids are fighting for have been extinct since the time of ''[=NieR=]''. The Machines are perpetuating the conflict by intentionally handicapping themselves so they'll never quite win and thus have no purpose to their existence, and the Androids have been keeping up the charade that there's a human colony on the moon by faking broadcasts from a "Council of Humanity" to cheer on the war effort and maintain morale. And to keep themselves from winning the fight, the Androids' current generation of [=YoRHa=] units are intended to lose the latest Machine-Android War, and their security systems have been designed with back doors for the Machines to exploit. Both sides' masterminds are using the world itself as a massive experiment to achieve a new level of sapience for themselves. Oh, and the [=YoRHa=] Androids were created from components taken from the Machines, making them not that different from their mortal enemies. Learning this causes A2 to defect before the start of the game, and combined with 2B's death, causes 9S to go ''way'' off the deep end.]] |
| 428 | ** On a more personal level, [[spoiler:one of the protagonist androids' names isn't 2B, it's 2'''E''', an executioner model designed to kill other [=YoRHa=] units... especially Scanner models like fellow protagonist 9S, who tend to be curious and learn things they aren't meant to, like the truth behind the Council of Humanity and [=YoRHa=] Command. In fact, 2B has killed 9S ''several'' times before the game starts, and been re-assigned as his handler after his memory gets scrubbed. This has been going on for long enough that 9S is aware of the truth on some level.]] |
| 429 | * ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'' has the reason for Sunny's friend group falling apart and why the various Somethings haunt him: [[spoiler:Sunny accidentally killed Mari by pushing her down the stairs. Basil, the only other witness to this, came up with the idea to make Mari's death look like a suicide. The guilt and trama resulting from the incident would create the Somethings that haunt Basil and Sunny. Sunny's guilt was so extreme that he shut himself away from his friends for years and created Omori, an emotionless SplitPersonality dedicated to repressing Sunny's memories of the incident.]] |
| 430 | * ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'': |
| 431 | ** The main story has some big revelations as you explore the [[{{Precursors}} Nomai]] ruins in your solar systems, none of them pleasant. [[spoiler:The reason your sun goes nova at the end of each [[GroundhogDayLoop time loop?]] That's not the Nomai's fault (despite their best efforts), your sun's at the end of its natural life cycle, and there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening. The reason why all the ''other'' stars you can see are ''also'' going nova? It's {{Just Before The|End}} NaturalEndOfTime, and the universe as a whole is at the end of ''its'' natural life cycle.]] |
| 432 | ** The ''Echoes of the Eye'' DLC adds a secondhand one. [[spoiler:The Stranger's inhabitants traveled to your star system, following the signal of the Eye of the Universe, well before the Nomai arrived. They were so dedicated to this voyage that they reduced their homeworld to a PollutedWasteland in the process of building the [[RingWorldPlanet ringworld]] they used to cross star systems. But once they reached their destination, they saw a vision that seemed to show the Eye wiping out the entire universe. The aliens used a satellite to block the Eye's signal so that no one else would reach it and cause that to happen, but were in such despair that their great journey was AllForNothing that they razed their temples to the Eye and retreated into a LotusEaterMachine's facsimile of their homeworld until their bodies withered away and died.]] |
| 433 | * A recurring theme in ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'': |
| 434 | ** An early quest has an expectant mother hiring you to go to a midwife to obtain a potion that will prevent her child from being [[SoullessShell hollowborn]] and her consequently being banished from Gilded Vale. When you get to the midwife, she points out that the potion does absolutely nothing. Nothing can prevent a child from being hollowborn, but she argues that as long as it makes the mother feel better then it's worth it. You have to choose whether the mother gets the potion or learns from you that it's all up to luck. |
| 435 | ** Another quest has you searching for a missing boy, only you find out that he was murdered by pirates after he intervened during their attempted rape of a prostitute, and his body was dumped into the canal. You can inform her of Derrin's fate (she'll be crushed, but the word of his last act of heroism will soften the blow a bit), or you can lie and say the boy left on a ship for a new life elsewhere. In either case, you can then track down the killer and avenge his death. |
| 436 | ** The villain of the whole game has dedicated his entire life [[spoiler:and all his previous reincarnations, to (violently) silencing the truth about the gods; they are artificial intelligences powered by mortal souls, and before they existed, their creators discovered that the original gods were dead, gone, or just plain never existed. He believes that revealing the truth will plunge the world into endless war.]] You can be the judge from the games MultipleEndings whether he is right or not. |
| 437 | * Alex Mercer spends the majority of ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' trying to figure out who unleashed a deadly virus that got the city quarantined and destroyed his memory. [[spoiler:The culprit is [[MadScientist Doctor Alex Mercer]], who did it [[TakingYouWithMe as a final screw you to humanity]]. The worse truth is that the character who thinks they're Alex Mercer is really ''[[TomatoInTheMirror the virus]]'', who consumed Mercer's body and absorbed his memories and identity]]. |
| 438 | --> '''Alex Mercer''': I looked for the truth. Found it. Didn't like it. Wish to hell I could forget it. |
| 439 | * ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'': Once Raz finally repairs Ford's fractured mind, Ford tells him the reason why it split apart in the first place: [[spoiler:Ford didn't really kill Maligula, but rather brainwashed her into forgetting her days as both a Psychonaut and a mass-murderer, and brainwashed both her and her orphaned nephew into thinking they were mother and son. By the way, Maligula and the boy? Raz's grandmother Nona and his father Augustus repsectively. So he's related to a mass-murderer who not only killed hundreds of her own countrymen, but also killed Raz's real grandparents. After doing that, Ford split his own mind apart because he couldn't handle the guilt that came with BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood.]] |
| 440 | * In ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', after barely making it to the hotel where he and his deceased wife spent so much loving time together, James finally realizes that [[spoiler:he killed her, and that the guilt of whether it was to spare her suffering or to move on with his life has driven him insane, and all the horrors he saw were a combination of his own psyche and the malign forces behind Silent Hill destroying him]]. |
| 441 | ** Worse yet, [[spoiler: given his father's statement in Silent Hill 4 (James didn't return from Silent Hill), it seems that the ending where James kills himself may be the true ending, though given that the law may be less than forgiving for the murder he committed, he may simply have gone into hiding, possibly with his new foster daughter]]. |
| 442 | * In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', the Jedi Council prevent the other party members -- and the player character themself from realizing that they are [[spoiler:an amnesiac Darth Revan with a reprogrammed personality]]. |
| 443 | ** The sequel has its own awful truth: [[spoiler: the player character is a literal wound in the Force- they are literally leeching the life force off others, which explains why their companions are so willing to follow them and how they grow stronger from killing their enemies.]] |
| 444 | * In ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', we discover that [[spoiler: Expheres are people]]! It then gets worse when the truth of the Journey of Salvation is revealed [[spoiler: everything Colette went through? It was for ''nothing more'' than a mad man's desire to bring his sister BackFromTheDead and the whole prosperity see-saw between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla in regards to mana was just self-righteous fascist angels playing god.]] The main party takes that surprisingly well; i.e., it fuels them to ''wage war against Heaven''. |
| 445 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' ends the first arc with a big double whammy. [[spoiler: The Luke fon Fabre that has been considered TheChosenOne this entire time is actually [[TomatoInTheMirror a replica of the original]] and was always nothing more than a disposable tool by the BigBad who ''deliberately'' acted as his ParentalSubstitute. [[HeroicBSOD He doesn't take it well]]. On top of that, turns out their world has been ''floating above a sea of miasma and death'' this entire time, only protected by the passage rings and Sephiroth Trees that lift them above the death zone. Oh and thanks in part to the Big Bad, the whole system is ''going to fail'' and [[ApocalypseHow destroy the world]].]] All of the spoiler stuff is bad but it saves the worst stuff for later, [[spoiler: namely that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo the whole thing was basically predicted]] from the very beginning and the Big Bad is just speeding things up for his goal of [[ScrewDestiny Screwing Destiny]].]] There's a ''reason'' that, until recently, Abyss was the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest]] of the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries''. |
| 446 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'' manages to actually top ''Abyss'' in regards to horrifying revelations. [[spoiler: Not only is Innominat already awakened, ''Laphicet was a'' '''willing''' ''HumanSacrifice'' and Velvet is to be the reborn-as-Innominat [[CameBackWrong Laphicet]]'s meal so that he can be complete and turn everyone in the world into [[EmptyShell Empty Shells]]. And everything about Innominat is an EternalRecurrence because there is no other way to keep the malevolence in the world from ''destroying'' it.]] |
| 447 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', the monsters along the way tell you a heartbreaking story. [[spoiler:Once upon a time, a child climbed Mount Ebott and fell through the barrier between the human world and the underworld. They were rescued by the king's son, Asriel, and happily adopted by his family. One day the child fell sick and, after begging to see the flowers of their village one last time, died, and Asriel in his grief absorbed the child's soul. He broke through the barrier and brought the child's body to the village, but the villagers attacked him out of fear. Asriel refused to fight back and, mortally wounded, returned to the underworld where he too collapsed and died. From then on the king vowed that all humans who fell through the barrier were to be killed, and promised to destroy the barrier once and for all with seven human souls.]] |
| 448 | ** The truth, which the player/Frisk discovers in the True Laboratory, is even worse: [[spoiler:the entire thing was a massive [[ThanatosGambit Thanatos Gambit]] by the Fallen Child. They deliberately killed themselves by eating buttercup flowers and persuaded Asriel to absorb their soul, so that he could go to the surface with the Fallen Child's body and provoke a war with the humans. It's not clear whether the Fallen Child only wanted six souls to break the barrier or wanted humanity wiped out entirely, but Asriel himself says the Fallen Child was "not the nicest person".]] |
| 449 | * In ''VideoGame/WorldOfFinalFantasy'', the awful truth that Lann and Reynn discover is that [[spoiler:everything wrong with Grymoire is ''their fault''. Their arrogance and carelessness ended up bringing the BigBad and his forces to the world, which also led to their parents being possessed. They were also careless when it came to their Mirage Keeper powers and let their dangerous Mirages run amok. Lann and Reynn are in fact the "Demon Dyad" that is feared and hated by Grymoire.]] |
| 450 | * A major component of ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}''. |
| 451 | ** Kevin [[spoiler: programmed the original KOS-MOS to kill him so he could become the Red Testament.]] He died in Shion's arms and she was haunted by the memory for years. |
| 452 | ** The fit of agony and rage Shion felt upon her parents' deaths is what [[spoiler: summoned the Gnosis into the universe in the first place.]] Febronia knew this but spent the better part of 3 games slowly guiding her to where she could retrieve this repressed trauma. |
| 453 | * ''VideoGame/YsSeven'' has returning ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' hero Adol arrive to Altago and by a series of events, becomes a Dragon Warrior. Simply enough, he goes around the land to visit the shrines and collect the blessings of the Dragons, especially in the growing phenomena that's been happening (giant monsters appearing more commonly, Iskan fever outbreaks, ect.) Two curve-balls come your way though; [[spoiler: first is that TheAce Dragon Knight Scias and InnocentFlowerGirl Tia are the [[BigBad Big Bads]] of the story, who framed you for killing the king in the first place.]] A little later, the Moon Dragon warns you that what he'll reveal if accepting to fight and win, you're not going to like. [[spoiler: The fate of Altago is that it always faced a ResetButton whenever the balance of the land was broken. The necessary action to fix all the phenomena is to start anew, which the Iskan Elders are always tasked with. The Dragons select a Dragon Warrior to stop this as a proxy for the life on Altago... but only out of courtesy. It's almost expected/guaranteed that the Dragon Warrior will lose, even with the Dragons' blessings, as it has happened an untold number of times before since Altago was first made.]] |
| 454 | [[/folder]] |
| 455 | |
| 456 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 457 | * ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': |
| 458 | ** Subverted in [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney the first game]] near the end of case four: [[spoiler:Edgeworth reveals to Phoenix the reason he's become so bitter over the years is that he accidentally killed his own father as a child. Phoenix, however, can't believe that, and soon proves the killer was someone else (in fact, it was Edgeworth's adoptive father, making what should have been an Awful Truth for Wright into one for Edgeworth instead.)]] |
| 459 | ** ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll Justice For All]]'': |
| 460 | *** In case 2, the Awful Truth is that [[spoiler:Morgan Fey, Mia and Maya's aunt, is scheming to get Maya framed for murder so that her own daughter, Pearl, can become Master of Kurain village (although Morgan herself is not the murderer). This is hard enough on Mia and Maya, who loved their aunt, but it's even worse for Pearl herself; Mia arranges to have Pearl channel her during the second day of Maya's trial so that she won't have to see Morgan being exposed as an accomplice]]. |
| 461 | *** In the third case, Moe the clown takes Regina to see the trial so that she CAN see the awful truth - [[spoiler:that people don't become a star in the sky when they die, and that Acro has held a deep-seated hatred of her for months]]. |
| 462 | *** In the fourth and final case, the truth is very simple, but devastating: [[spoiler:the man you've been forced to defend in court is guilty as sin, and you can't weasel out of defending him of a crime you know he committed.]] |
| 463 | ** In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'', Edgeworth is callous/brave enough to say that the facts of the case point to an Awful Truth for [[spoiler:Athena Cykes – that she killed her mother and/or dismembered her dead body by innocently trying to 'fix' her.]] Everyone reacts in horror when they realize what Edgeworth is about to say, and what makes it worse is that he's partially correct. (Fortunately, the reality isn't quite so bad, but still pretty brutal.) |
| 464 | ** Apollo gets a biggun in ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'' upon realizing during the final trial (accompanied by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7jv1ticnf0 appropriately foreboding music]] that [[spoiler:Dhurke has been [[DeadAllAlong dead since before Case 5 even started]]]]. |
| 465 | ** In ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'': |
| 466 | *** In Case 2-3, just before the trial begins, Sholmes cautions Ryunosuke that a key point to this trial is proving that his client's beloved thesis (a working teleporter) is completely impossible after he and Iris looked over it several times and concludes it cannot be proven practically. |
| 467 | *** The same case also has Doctor Sithe warns Ryunosuke of being on the verge of opening "Pandora's Box". She is actually not referring to this particular case but [[spoiler: regarding the Professor case, one that she was involved in, and the true identity of the Professor.]] |
| 468 | *** In Case 2-5, Lord van Zieks has to confront the truth that [[spoiler: his beloved brother was in fact the real Professor]]. |
| 469 | * ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'': |
| 470 | ** In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', The Mastermind reveals [[spoiler:the outside world has been in a state of devastation for an entire year, the students willingly agreed to seal themselves in Hopes' Peak to survive The Tragedy until their memories were erased.]] |
| 471 | ** ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'': [[spoiler:The whole game was actually Monaca's plan to turn Makoto's sister Komaru into the new Ultimate Despair.]] |
| 472 | ** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': Hajime learns [[spoiler:everyone on the island are the members of Ultimate Despair, the group Junko created that devastated the world. Along with the revelation, he is Izuru Kamukura, the product of an experiment to gain every talent known, that [[DeathOfPersonality erased Hajime]] as well.]] |
| 473 | ** In the Future Arc of ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'', Munakata had to face the discovery that [[spoiler:Chisa Yukizome was a member of Ultimate Despair]]. |
| 474 | ** A major theme in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' as often times, the "truth" is not what you want it to believe. This is apparent in Chapter 4 where [[spoiler:Gonta crossed the DespairEventHorizon by learning the truth of the outside world and the students didn't want to believe that Gonta was the culprit of that case]]. Chapter 6 pushes Shuichi to the DespairEventHorizon when he finds out that [[spoiler:everything they've gone through was just a reality show that's well into its 53rd season]]. |
| 475 | * ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'': |
| 476 | ** The protagonist doesn’t tell Amanda the whole truth about who her mother was. This backfires, as Cecilia offers answers about Lainie to Amanda, and uses her information to drive a wedge between MC and Amanda. |
| 477 | ** The protagonist doesn’t tell Amanda that their diner is failing, even when he’s contemplating selling the business to a liquidator. She finds out anyway when she catches Kathy looking for another job. |
| 478 | ** After the protagonist and Amanda have sex for the first time, Kathy asks what happened. The best option is to lie, and say that the two of them just talked. |
| 479 | * Two related ones in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'': |
| 480 | ** Not only did the protagonist and Tamara kill 12 people by [[spoiler:causing an avalanche, but they had been warned just before the fact that it could happen]]. Neither of them tells Johanna in order to protect her, but she eventually finds out from Dennis. |
| 481 | ** When Dennis finds out the protagonist’s and Tamara’s big secret, the protagonist doesn’t immediately tell Tamara, hoping to protect her as well. |
| 482 | * ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'': In Komari's route, [[spoiler:that she had an older brother whom loved her but who died when she was little.]] In Refrain, [[spoiler:that the world the characters are in doesn't exist - it was created after a terrible bus crash left nearly all of them with fatal injuries and was designed specifically to make Riki and Rin strong enough to be able to handle the truth and live on their own afterwards.]] |
| 483 | * In ''VisualNovel/MysticMessenger,'' this is V's rationale for [[spoiler: telling everyone in the RFA that Rika killed herself by throwing herself off the cliff near their house, instead of telling them the truth that the real reason why she vanished without a trace is because she ran off to [[VisionaryVillain start her cult.]] His obsession with Rika's "innocence" led him to believe that the RFA should remember her as a generous, bright person, instead of the DarkMessiah she had turned into. Of course, he can't keep everything secret forever, and you, along with the rest of the RFA, start to suspect him in Another Route as things start to really hit the fan, and his lies are uncovered as you play.]] |
| 484 | * ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Hey, Ange-chan? You know how you're pretty sure that your AxCrazy aunt killed your beloved parents and brother? Well, it turns out [[spoiler:that your aunt [[SilentScapegoat just sorta went along with it]] because she didn't want you to find out that ''your parents'' were the AxCrazy murderers who killed everyone, and your aunt only killed your parents in what was more or less self-defense. Oh, and they never cared about you.]] [[StoicWoobie Hope that cheers you up a little]]! |
| 485 | ** Battler, meanwhile, learns that [[spoiler:Asumu wasn't his biological mother - his stepmother Kyrie was, and his father switched Battler with Asumu's stillborn baby to avoid any issues from his first son being born to a mistress. This means that Battler cutting ties with them for years in protest of Rudolf marrying Kyrie so soon after Asumu's death, which was also a [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom major contributor to the murders]], was AllForNothing.]] |
| 486 | ** [[spoiler:Sayo Yasuda]] gets it even worse. Good news: she isn't really some nobody orphan, but [[spoiler:the heir to the Ushiromiya gold!]] ...because [[spoiler:her father, Kinzo, raped her mother, who was ''his'' [[ParentalIncest daughter]].]] This also means that [[spoiler:she's related to ''all three'' of her love interests]]. And she can't even [[spoiler:have children like she always dreamed about, because the injuries she suffered as a baby made her incapable of doing so]]. Hardly surprising that her reaction is to [[spoiler:plan a mass murder-suicide of the entire family]]. |
| 487 | [[/folder]] |
| 488 | |
| 489 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 490 | * ''WebAnimation/DontWalkHomeAloneAfterDark'': In ''WebAnimation/TheWorm'', the doctor eventually gets some answers to what happened to Sparrow that caused her mental break, including what "the Worm" is, but he wishes he hadn't. [[spoiler:Sparrow and her friends were told about the Worm, a malevolent entity that feeds off fear, by an old man. The Worm began to torment them and they slowly realised that the Worm is spread to new hosts via their current host telling another person about it. Because the doctor pushed Sparrow into telling him about the Worm, he’s been infected too. [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou And now he's told us as well]]]]. |
| 491 | * ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': During the second episode, when Stolas tries to explain to his daughter why he's having an affair and his marriage is falling apart, he can't find the words since there's no gentle way to tell Octavia that her parents [[MarriageOfConvenience never really loved each other to begin with]] or that he [[AwfulWeddedLife hasn't been happy in his marriage in a long time]], what with his wife always being [[RichBitch distant]] and [[HairTriggerTemper temperamental]]. |
| 492 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Remnant is a DeathWorld where humanity clings to survival through well-protected kingdoms and highly trained Huntsmen protecting them from the [[AnimalisticAbomination Creatures of Grimm]]. The [[ExtranormalInstitute Huntsmen Academies]] are led by the enigmatic [[BigGood Professor Ozpin]], who also runs a [[BenevolentConspiracy secret cabal]] dedicated to opposing the [[SecretWar true enemy]]: the [[AncientEvil secret queen]] of the [[KillAllHumans Grimm]], [[BigBad Salem]]. However, even they don't know the full truth until [[TheHero Ruby Rose]] discovers that learning it is [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor more than the heroes can bear]]. [[spoiler:[[CompleteImmortality Salem]] was [[BarredFromTheAfterlife punished]] to [[CompleteImmortality never die]] for pursuing [[LoveMakesYouEvil her lover's resurrection]] and turning humanity [[RageAgainstTheHeavens against the gods]] when they refused; they finally [[ResurrectiveImmortality resurrect him]] to guide humanity to redemption; an impossible task while Salem seeks the world's destruction. Ozpin hides the fact he's [[ForeverWar fighting a war]] he cannot win against an enemy [[InvincibleVillain he cannot kill]] to protect people [[DespairEventHorizon from despair]], but he is still [[HeroicBSOD left shattered]] by the way the heroes [[BrokenPedestal turn on him]]. They only reconcile once Ozpin's recovered enough to [[TheAtoner apologise]] and the heroes have [[TaughtByExperience experienced his burden]] long enough to [[AnAesop understand his plight]].]] |
| 493 | [[/folder]] |
| 494 | |
| 495 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 496 | %%* In ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'': ''[[http://www.explosm.net/comics/1354/ it's not the tooth fairy!]]'' |
| 497 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', when Agatha [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060113 discovers]] her mother Lucrezia was [[spoiler:"[[BigBad The Other]]" who ruined or [[ZombieApocalypse zombified]] about half of Europe]]. Bonus points for off-handed delivery. Later Agatha herself supplies a few missed memos to an impostor pretending to be her. Right after [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090429 the only scene]] when Zola acted [[PleaseSpareHimMyLiege nice]], at that. |
| 498 | * [[WhamEpisode Chapter 31]] of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' might as well be called "A Delightful Load of Awful Truths for Annie and Renard", because guess what, Renard? [[spoiler:Surma never loved you at all! [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=794 It was all an act to get you trapped in the Court!]]]] And guess what Annie? [[spoiler:You're [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=806 the real reason Surma died]], and it's also your fault that no Guide would come to claim her! ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop And everyone knew!]]'']] And when Annie runs to the forest, she learns that [[spoiler:she isn't 100% human, and Surma's fate will fall on her the day she has a child]]. |
| 499 | * ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'': |
| 500 | ** A side story shows a guy in apparently his dream life: a great apartment, nothing to do but play games, and endless, tailor-made sexual partners. Odd things keep happening and he is driven to find out that [[spoiler:he's actually in Hell and that, once he knows this, he can never return to the carefree life he had been living and instead will exist for eternity as a obscene, crippled husk.]] Worse still, [[spoiler:he finds out by running into one of the ''hundreds'' of other damned souls whose fate he now shares. According to Satan, every single soul eventually starts digging for the truth, even after being outright told they can't turn back once they know it.]] |
| 501 | ** In the short story "How To Make A Monster", we see how Drip ended up as the Sin of Lust. The final act that dooms him to this role? [[spoiler: He's taken back in time and told to kill two people. These people turn out to be Drip's own parents. That's right, the event that doomed Drip to be raised by his grandmother, who sexually abused him for years and would be the catalyst that would send him towards the path of a serial murderer and rapist... was something that he did himself after he'd been condemned to hell. The most terrible part? He didn't realize who he was killing until after he did it.]] |
| 502 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20040320.html hangs common sense on it]]: |
| 503 | -->'''Breya:''' I... I really want to know, but I think I'm afraid to ask.\ |
| 504 | '''Tagon:''' That means you don't really want to know. |
| 505 | * ''Webcomic/ErrantStory'' has its full share of these, and then some. |
| 506 | ** Ian [[http://www.errantstory.com/?p=598 learns]] that his sister, whom he adored, is dead at the hands of his mother, whom he hated, triggering his descent into TheMadnessPlace. |
| 507 | ** Miyo [[http://www.errantstory.com/?p=714 learns (offstage)]] that Meji's father, for whom she has carried a torch for ''eighteen years'', wants nothing more to do with her, and as for his daughter ... well ... see under OffingTheOffspring. |
| 508 | ** Sarine [[http://www.errantstory.com/?p=419 figures out]] that the Paedagogusi, emissaries of the ancient gods (whom Sarine still worships despite her estrangement from elven society), are completely crazy ... and worse, that [[http://www.errantstory.com/?p=510 the elves have known it all along]]. |
| 509 | ** But all of these put together, plus every other example in the strip, can't hold a candle to the entire ''universe'' of awful truths inflicted on Meji when she gets [[http://www.errantstory.com/?p=4871 Senilisized]]. |
| 510 | * In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', it had been a RunningGag since the strip's beginning that aliens considered Earth a nature preserve and humans wildlife. The darker implications of this aren't made clear until Jean complains to Voluptua about it. Voluptua reveals Earth has been part of the Nemesite Empire since before humanity evolved, and if they ever actually try to ''enforce'' that rule, every Earth nation's sovereignty would become meaningless, probably leading to a horrible war. And simply letting us out of the empire isn't an option because we're practically at the ''center'' of it. The "insulting" designation as wildlife is ''[[AlienNonInterferenceClause for our own protection]]'', and thanks to our space program, it won't work much longer. |
| 511 | -->'''Bob:''' Wait... You're saying ''you're'' going to ''conquer the Earth??''\ |
| 512 | '''Princess Voluptua:''' ''No!!'' You've already ''been'' conquered! ''Eons'' ago! I'd like to ''un-conquer'' you, but... |
| 513 | * In ''Webcomic/TheBikiniBottomHorror'', we learn that the Krabby Patty Secret Formula [[spoiler: includes starfish meat. Mr. Krabs stole a detached limb from Patrick, and after it regenerated into a new starfish, he kept it prisoner and harvested its regenerating flesh.]] This causes Patrick's murderous rampage [[spoiler: when he eats an undercooked patty, acquiring his clone's memories in the process.]] |
| 514 | ** After everything that happens in the comic[[spoiler:, it turns out there is another dark truth: '''''Spongebob''' is the true mastermind behind everything.'' He deliberately undercooked one of the Krabby Patties in order to intentionally provoke Patrick, killing off a substantial chunk of Bikini Bottom's population in order to [[VillainWithGoodPublicity save the day and pretend to be the conquering hero.]] All so he could take over Bikini Bottom unchallenged as a restauranteer. The sheer evil behind her old friend's actions and her inability to stop him lest he start sending his self-clones after innocent civilians is the LastStraw for Sandy, who ends up leaving Bikini Bottom forever, leaving Squidward unaware of Spongebob's true nature and saddened by her farewell.]] |
| 515 | [[/folder]] |
| 516 | |
| 517 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 518 | * Everything that's [REDACTED] or [DATA EXPUNGED] on the Website/SCPFoundation is to prevent the general public from learning what they keep locked up. Most of the time, it's for the best (see Procedure 110-Montauk). |
| 519 | ** One notable example. It is implied by some hidden messages that the reason why the Foundation suddenly decided that humanity needed to be destroyed in the timeline SCP-5000 came from is that they discovered that the minds of all of humanity are infected with something terrible. [[spoiler:And that terrible thing is the reason humanity has ''emotions'' in the first place. Humanity in its natural state are cold, stoic, remorseless husks.]] |
| 520 | ** Another SCP is the truth about what happens when you die. [[spoiler:There is no heaven or hell. When you die, your soul remains trapped in your corpse forever, feeling nothing but agonizing pain as you rot away.]] |
| 521 | ** Yet another SCP, a miracle pill that can cure any disease, has a note that the pills have to be kept away from corpses at all costs, implying that they have some sort of horrific effect on the dead. [[spoiler: They actually simply revive them, healthy and with no side effects. The problem is that the revived know what happens when you die - namely, nothing. No heaven, no Hell, and unlike the above SCP, no eternal awareness being trapped in your own corpse, you simply cease to exist. The confirmation that there's no afterlife has driven so many staff members insane from how meaningless life is that the SCP Foundation had to keep the truth secret.]] |
| 522 | * Hirou, the, well, [[MeaningfulName hero]] of ''Literature/TheSwordOfGood'', does one of these to himself; namely, he comes to the realization that [[spoiler: his allies are [[VillainWithGoodPublicity actually enforcing an oppressive regime]] trapped in MedievalStasis, and that the person he thought was the BigBad is actually a WellIntentionedExtremist [[HeroWithBadPublicity fighting for political liberty, equal rights, and free inquiry]]]]. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone He does not]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope take it well]]. |
| 523 | [[/folder]] |
| 524 | |
| 525 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 526 | * From ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'', Linkara's trademark Magic Gun is PoweredByAForsakenChild. |
| 527 | * Discussed in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's "Why Lie About Santa" editorial, as he talks about how it hurts so much when you've found out you've been lied to. |
| 528 | [[/folder]] |
| 529 | |
| 530 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 531 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'', the season 2 finale "[[Recap/AmphibiaS2E36TrueColors True Colors]]" reveals that [[spoiler:Marcy Wu, one of the three girls TrappedInAnotherWorld, was not trapped at all. She knew what the music box would do and got both herself and her two best friends trapped in Amphibia on purpose]]. |
| 532 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', there are multiple cases of this: |
| 533 | ** Hank discovers that [[spoiler:Dermott's sister, who Hank just had sex with, was really Dermott's ''mother'', and that Rusty was his dad. Yes, he had sex with his half-brother's mom.]] Fortunately, SPHINX is right next door with the mindwipe machine! [[spoiler: Hank cheats on it a bit by leaving himself a message saying he had sex, but leave out the Dermott's mom part. And makes a Film/TotalRecall joke at his own expense.]] |
| 534 | ** The identity of Hank and Dean's mom is strongly implied to be this. |
| 535 | ** Hank and Dean themselves stumble into a lab full of [[spoiler: clone-slugs of themselves suspended in vats]] and drop into a catatonic blackout. Their dad manages to convince them they saw their Christmas presents of an army of robot slaves. In the prequel to Season 5,[[spoiler: Dean learns the truth and has a crisis over it.]] |
| 536 | ** Triana has a portal to an extradimensional realm in her bedroom closet, and gets repeatedly mindwiped by her father every time she discovers it. |
| 537 | ** Two-Ton 21 [[spoiler:is not really seeing 24's ghost, but is just hallucinating him out of grief and guilt.]] |
| 538 | * Played for laughs and subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper Brother's Little Helper]]". When SpecialGuest Mark [=McGwire=] admits that Bart was right and Major League Baseball ''is'' behind a conspiracy that is watching everyone, and they ask him why, he replies, "Do you want to know the terrifying truth, or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?" They choose the latter option. |
| 539 | * Used in-universe in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' to show Huey's [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior incredibly cynical]] [[WiseBeyondTheirYears view of life]]. Huey tells Jasmine that the money under her pillow probably came from her parents, not the tooth fairy. When she wonders why her parents would lie to her about that, he explains that [[TheCynic the world is full of awful truths]], no one gets anything for free, and parents lie to their kids all the time. Of course, Jasmine runs away in tears. |
| 540 | -->"...and you know what else? Someday, you and everyone you know are gonna die." |
| 541 | ** Parodied in the very first episode with Huey's fantasy about telling white people "The Truth", that Jesus was black, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was the devil, and the goverment lies about 9/11. In his fantasy, this makes all the white people break down and riot. When he tries it in real life, they couldnt care less about the message, they're just bemused and mildly impressed that a kid could be so eloquent. |
| 542 | * In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Gem history seems to be about 60% things [[Characters/StevenUniversePearl Pearl]] doesn't think [[Characters/StevenUniverseStevenQuartzUniverse Steven Quartz Universe]] is ready to hear; naturally, as the viewpoint character, he ends up learning about them anyway. Most notably: [[spoiler:the monsters they're fighting are corrupted Gems, the other Gems they're likely to encounter are generally going to be villains, and the reason the Crystal Gems are on Earth is because they led a rebellion against the Homeworld Gems in order to prevent them from destroying the Earth to make more of their kind.]] |
| 543 | ** [[Characters/StevenUniverseCrystalGems The Crystal Gems]] get their own Awful Truth in Season 3: [[spoiler:their fellow Gem Bismuth had been bubbled by [[Characters/StevenUniverseRoseQuartz Rose Quartz]] for advocating shattering Gems to the point that she built a weapon for it]]. Which eventually leads to the Awful Truth that breaks Steven: [[spoiler:Rose Quartz ''had'' shattered a Gem- Pink Diamond.]] |
| 544 | ** Season 5 reveals yet another Awful Truth that only Pearl knew: [[spoiler:Rose did not shatter Pink Diamond. She ''was'' Pink Diamond all along. Pink Diamond and Pearl faked her shattering so she could live a new life as Rose Quartz.]] |
| 545 | ** The [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie movie]] and [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture epilogue series]] go on to explain that [[Characters/StevenUniversePinkDiamond Pink Diamond]] was ''not'' immune to PrivilegeMakesYouEvil, and had her own occasional psychotic breaks, which she inflicted on the villain of the movie and [[spoiler:her original Pearl]]. |
| 546 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' episode "Frankie and Ellie Goes Missing" revolves around Jay and Margo's parents go missing at sea when their plane crashed (their pilot was a penguin and penguins can't fly). Though they're declared dead, Margo spends the episode searching for some sign of them, but make little progress, until Vlada, the owner of Jay's favorite restaurant, inexplicably shows up with the black box from the plane. When Margo asks how the hell Vlada got ahold of it, he tells her a bizarre story about the box turning up in a bowl of bouillabaisse made from fish from the South Pacific he served to Jay's friend Jeremy Hawke. When Jeremy complains about it, Vlada serves him a bowl of water his mother was soaking her feet and stockings in. When a grossed-out Margo asked why he told her that last part, Vlada said that "the true story would be too horrible for her to contemplate! Enjoy!" |
| 547 | * ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has this as the main reason for the existence of "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E7SocietyOfTheBlindEye Society of the Blind Eye]]", a secret group ([[spoiler:founded by Old Man [=McGucket=] before he went insane]]) that erases the memories of the town residents so they can remain oblivious to supernatural events surrounding them, meaning they're the ones maintaining TheMasquerade surrounding the town. Problem is, repeated use of the Memory Eraser Gun leads to long-term mental issues, explaining the odd behavior of the citizens. |
| 548 | * PlayedForDrama in Season 5 of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' with "[[Recap/BojackHorsemanS5E11TheShowstopper The Showstopper]]". [[spoiler: [[Characters/BojackHorsemanBojackHorseman BoJack]] has absolutely no memory of having strangled Gina, and everyone involved tries their best to keep the truth from him so he won't crack under the stress]]. |
| 549 | ** PlayedForLaughs earlier in season 5 when Mr. Peanutbutter had believed the old "sent to a nice farm" lie about ''his parents'', because his older brother Captain Peanutbutter couldn't bring himself to tell [[ThePollyanna Mr Peanutbutter]] that they had died. He had to face this truth twice in the same day because grasping the truth about his mother made him realize that his father had also "gone to the farm". |
| 550 | --> '''Mr Peanutbutter''': ''OH MY GOD, MY MOM/DAD IS DEAD!!'' |
| 551 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E16HollowMind Hollow Mind]]" twice over, the horrible truth about [[Characters/TheOwlHouseEmperorBelos Emperor Belos]] plans and crimes are revealed. |
| 552 | ** [[Characters/TheOwlHouseTheGoldenGuard Hunter]] finds out [[spoiler:that not only is he the latest in a long line of of disposable clones, the ideals he dedicated his life to were a complete lie. This reveal completely breaks him, and he suffers a panic attack almost immediately after Eda pulls him and Luz out of Belos' mind.]] |
| 553 | ** [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLuzNoceda Luz]] learns that [[spoiler:Belos is actually Philip Wittebane and that her trip to the past gave him the tools necessary to both take over the Boiling Isles and put in motion his plans to enact genocide on the population of the Demon Realm. She appears to handle it slightly better, though she's obviously on the edge of tears as the episode ends.]] |
| 554 | [[/folder]] |
| 555 | |
| 556 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 557 | * Inside looks at how various meat products are made often leave viewers a bit queasy. That's nothing compared to how people react to learning what the lives of animals are like in factory farms, which are so bad that even describing them would probably break the rules of this wiki. |
| 558 | * On the Straight Dope forum, several members shared stories of how, when they were children, they'd been told that their mysteriously disappeared pets had been [[DogGotSentToAFarm "sent to live on a farm."]] Cue the inevitable post that went along these lines: "That's a coincidence, because when I was little, I had a dog that was sent to live on a farm.... oh ^#@$% I need to call my parents NOW." |
| 559 | * Quite possibly apocryphal: the school of Pythagoras was so shocked to discover that the square root of 2 is an irrational number (i.e. cannot be expressed as fractions) that they kept the knowledge a closely guarded secret, and people who leaked it were punished by death. |
| 560 | ** [[FromBadToWorse It got worse for them.]] The school in question had a philosophy based on rational numbers, and that everything in the world could be described via some sort of fraction. The golden ratio (1:[=1.6180339887=]....) was paramount to this philosophy, as being a mathematical symbol of beauty. Upon their discovery of the irrational numbers, and the fact that the existence of those numbers as a whole [[LogicBomb directly violated the school's philosophy]], the school of Pythagoras learned that [[EtTuBrute the golden ratio they loved so much]] [[OhCrap was an irrational number as well.]] It's hard to imagine a mathematical construct becoming a BrokenPedestal, but it certainly became one to them. The school of Pythagoras didn't take that information well, and at least one [[http://nrich.maths.org/2671 legend]] got started of a man who decided to tell and was KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade |
| 561 | [[/folder]] |
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