Line #31 Main/EveryoneIsATomato


1	->'''Seth Green:''' How about letting us come aboard and help you with your whip-smart plots?\
2	'''Ron Moore:''' Help? Why would I need help writing plots? I just throw a dart at the cast list, and...boom! They're a Cylon! Rinse, repeat, cash the f*cking check. Watch! Sh'boom! Sh'bong! Sh'bing! Cylon. ''(mockingly)'' Please help me! This is so hard!
3	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''
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5	Creating a fictional subcategory that can be applied to any character, treating it as some sort of rarity or shocking twist, and then applying it to most or all of the cast. Possible as a method to create a MetaOrigin; its effectiveness/appeal may vary.
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7	The trope name references TomatoSurprise and comes from a set of writer's guidelines distributed circa 1980 by Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, written by its then-editor, George Scithers. The guidelines named the trope and gave as one of the examples hiding the fact that the hero is, in fact, a tomato.
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9	Compare FlockOfWolves, which has the similar "minority is actually majority" premise, but is about loyalty to a group rather than innate characteristics. Also EveryoneIsRelated, where the category is a family, and UniquenessDecay. Contrast TheyLookLikeUsNow.
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11	This is a SpoileredRotten trope, which means that ''EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE'' on this list is a spoiler by default and most of them will be unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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13	----
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15	!!Examples:
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17	[[AC: Anime & Manga]]
18	* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Although most of the cast was considered normal at the start of the series (excluding Sayo the ghost and Chachamaru the robot), since then it has been revealed that Yuuna, Misora, Konoka, Hakase, Takamichi, Chao, and the Headmaster were all involved in magic from the beginning, and Evangeline, Mana, Zazie, and Setsuna are demonic. Asuna is practically her own category.
19	* Early in ''{{Manga/Ooku}}'' (an AlternateHistory where a plague leaves Japan's adult male population at about a quarter of the women), many families start sending their adult daughters to court in the guise of men as though nothing were wrong. One of them notes that she's far from the only crossdressing woman, and soon after there's no more pretense, with the RoyalHarem now consisting of the female shogun's male bodyguards.
20	* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': You know those alien monsters humanity has been fighting throughout the series? Humanity is one of them.
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22	[[AC: Comic Books]]
23	* The superhero team ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'', renamed themselves The Great Lakes ComicBook/XMen after finding out that every single one of them was actually an X-Men-style mutant.
24	** This was also a parody of the then-popular various "X-Titles".
25	** It's a justified trope in the Marvelverse, mind; most superhero origins are one-in-a-billion freak occurrences, or inventions by 99.999999th-percentile geniuses [[ReedRichardsIsUseless who for some reason keep their potentially world-changing inventions to themselves]]. Meanwhile, mutants actually are a notable demographic.
26	* By the finale of ''ComicBook/StrangersInParadise'', nearly every female character in the series except Francine turns out to be a current or former Parker Girl.
27	* In the ''ComicBook/DoctorWhoTitan'' story "The Twist", all of the human inhabitants of the Twist are not descended from the original colonists, who all died in an accident, but humans genetically reconstructed by the sentient descendants of the foxes also carried on the starship.
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29	[[AC: Fan Works]]
30	* When ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' revealed the existence of shapeshifting changelings, fanfics with the premise "X was secretly a changeling all along" started popping up--[[FandomSpecificPlot enough to become a cliche]]. Three different authors independently parodied the trend by writing stories where ''everyone'' was a changeling all along: ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/48341/changelings-changelings-everywhere Changelings, Changelings Everywhere]]'', ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/122849/changeling Changeling]]'', and ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/78386/everyones-a-changeling Everyone's a Changeling]]''.
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32	[[AC: Films -- Live-Action]]
33	* About two-thirds into ''Film/{{Identity}}'', it's revealed that every single character at the motel is a personality of Malcolm Rivers, and the whole movie was a plot to kill off his alternate identities, curing his Multiple Personality Disorder.
34	* In Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheWard'', the ghost, and the women she's trying to kill, turn out to be a result of one character's multiple personality disorder.
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36	[[AC: Literature]]
37	* ''Literature/{{Chrestomanci}}'': In ''Literature/WitchWeek'', the protagonist is secretly a person with innate magical talent in a world where such "witches" are feared and hunted. He learns that one of the other students at the school he attends is also secretly a witch. Then another. And another. Also, some of the teachers. (The deputy principal isn't really a miser, he just has no money because he's a witch and the principal is blackmailing him with the threat of exposure. The principal, unbeknownst to him, is also a witch.) In the end it turns out that, as a result of a supernatural event in the 17th century, ''everybody in the world'' is a witch, but they're all hiding it from each other for fear of persecution.
38	* The main characters of ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'' are an everyman-type and his best friend who start a club to search for evidence of the supernatural. They recruit three classmates, who reveal to the everyman that they are in fact a psychic, an alien-controlled robot and a time-traveler, and the best friend is a RealityWarper but doesn't know it.
39	* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/MonstrousRegiment'' is about a SweetPollyOliver going off to war. Gradually over the course of the story, she discovers that more and more of her comrades are also women, some in more convincing disguises than others. All of them, in fact, including the troll. Even the bluff old SergeantRock, who also happens to be aware that a good third of the high command are women in disguise, along with Nuggan-knows how many of the troops. The country has been at war for so long that all the men have simply been killed off.
40	* In ''Literature/GirlsWithSharpSticks'', the main character discovers that she's actually an ArtificialHuman being groomed into the perfect RoboticSpouse. Then it turns out that ''so is everyone else'' at her school.
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42	[[AC: Live-Action TV]]
43	* The second ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}'' made nearly half the cast Cylon infiltators. Although there was plenty of evidence to suggest that Tyrol was one, and even that Tigh OR Ellen was one -- which necessitates the other. Not to mention precedent of sleeper agents. This was not planned out in advance, however, but rather a hasty improvisation by the writers.
44	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': At the start of the show, only Buffy was anything other than a normal human, but by the end, several supernatural beings had joined their group, and almost everyone had learned how to practice magic.
45	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E3FullCircle Full Circle]]", the inhabitants of the Starliner are not descendants of the original crew and passengers, but descendants of indigenous life-forms who massacred them and then took on their forms.
46	* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': Lubov is a doll! Mellie is a doll! Saunders is a doll! Season 2 brings even more.
47	* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' is about an amoral person who thinks she's been mistakenly sent to Heaven after death and tries to blend in. Then it turns out she's actually in Hell, and everyone around her is either in the same situation or a demon stringing them along.
48	%%* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' often had characters revealed to have powers.
49	* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Shadowplay", Odo and Dax beam down to a village and investigate the disappearance of a number of villagers. It turns out the village and its inhabitants are holograms - news which they take surprisingly well - and the device that powers them is wearing down. Dax is able to fix the device, but not before discovering that the village elder is a flesh-and-blood life form and the creator of everyone and everything around him. He doesn't want his fellow villagers to know he's different from them and responsible for their existence; Dax and Odo agree not to tell them.
50	* ''Series/TrueBlood'': The folks with supernatural powers will soon outnumber the normal people in Bon Temps.
51	* ''Series/{{V 2009}}'': Seems like every third character is secretly a V sleeper. ''Two'' of Erica's FBI partners were Visitors--not to mention her obstetrician.
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53	[[AC: Radio]]
54	* ''Radio/JohnFinnemoresSouvenirProgramme'': Spoofed into oblivion in a parody of a murder mystery, where everyone turns out to be someone (or some''thing'') else in disguise. The thief everyone's looking for is actually the narrator himself.
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56	[[AC: Tabletop Games]]
57	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and similar HighFantasy campaigns can fall into this if the GM puts a BanOnMagic in their setting, or just tries to make magic more rare. Due to the high percentage of magic-using character classes, your party will almost inevitably be majority wielders of "rare" and "hidden" sorceries.
58	* Part of the point of ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' is that player characters are dystopian special forces charged with exterminating mutants and secret society conspirators. The players, but not their characters, are fully aware that ''everyone'' in this dystopia is a conspirator and mutant.
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60	[[AC: Video Games]]
61	* All the playable protagonists of ''VideoGame/ThirteenSentinelsAegisRim'', and two other supporting characters, are clones being raised in PeopleJars InsideAComputerSystem after humanity was wiped out. Every ''other'' character in the present is an AI--including several [[BrainUploading digitized copies of previous clones]].
62	* Right near the end of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed2'', you find out that every helpful adult save your mother and Leonardo [=DiVinci=] is an Assassin that's been helping you become one of them.
63	* Played for laughs in the second ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'': The ending reveals that Jim, Princess What's-Her-Name, and Psy-Crow were all cows in disguise.
64	* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': Virgil is an Institute scientist who turned himself from a human into a [[SpaceOrcs Super Mutant]]. Several characters express strong surprise and confusion on how that's possible. Later, you learn that the entire species of Super Mutants are ex-humans whom the Institute altered that way.
65	* From ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' onwards, almost every single mysterious character manages to be a form of Sora, no matter how illogical or unlikely it seems. The only ones who aren't are the ones who actually turn out to be a form of Xehanort.
66	* ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' reveals various characters and game elements as pawns of the mysterious Atlas. Then you learn that the universe is a computer simulation (inside the story, not just as a video game) and Atlas is the computer that literally controls everything.
67	* Subtle one in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'': all male character models in game who aren't Eddie are James. Pyramid Head, the corpses all over the place, the prisoners, the Lying Figures, all of them. Similarly, most female models are Mary.
68	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' quickly follows up a surprise RoboticReveal on the protagonist by revealing that ''all'' the "humans" in New LA are RidiculouslyHumanRobots, and that the protagonist, by virtue of [[AmnesiacHero having no memory,]] was literally [[LockedOutOfTheLoop the only one who didn't know this from the start.]]
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70	[[AC: Webcomics]]
71	* In ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'', several cast members are revealed to be former abductees.
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73	[[AC: Western Animation]]
74	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', with an episode of Calculon's [[ShowWithinAShow soap opera]] where characters keep announcing they have LaserGuidedAmnesia to the point that [[OverlyLongGag it starts to get annoying]]. "Is there anybody here who ''doesn't'' have amnesia?!"
75	* ''WesternAnimation/NeoYokio'': Near the end of Charles' story in [[Recap/NeoYokioPinkChristmas "Pink Christmas"]], Kaz reads Aunt Angelique's memoir and discovers that his demon-hunting Magistocrat family actually has demonic ancestry. Later, the Great Demon confirms this and takes it a step further: not only is the Kaan family descended from demons but every single Magistocratic family is also descended from a group of demons who used their powers to hunt other demons in exchange for money and social standing, making every demon hunter a demon in disguise.
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Context Main / EveryoneIsATomato