Line #734 Main/TheReveal


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17	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Batman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batman_638.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:350:It was the comic buyer all along!]]
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19	The pivot in many plotlines is the Reveal. A character is revealed as [[LukeIAmYourFather another character's father]], [[IAmWho a god]], or secret suitor or arch nemesis in disguise. More broadly, the audience is given new information which had been withheld to create [[{{Tension}} suspense]]. The Reveal changes the nature of the plot, often pushing it from suspense towards action. A good reveal will also create a new set of questions and further suspense. On some occasions, TheRevealPromptsRomance.
20
21	A key moment in most GambitPileup plots, when the heroes or the audience discover how the villains have been manipulating everyone. Can also be used to make a {{cliffhanger}} more dramatic. MythArc and MindScrew series ''love'' springing these; {{Jigsaw Puzzle Plot}}s pretty much require them. Eventually necessary for a MysteriousEmployer.
22
23	The Reveal is in fact a rather [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality easily explained trope]]. A lot of mystery stories wouldn't work without either the criminal or the detective explaining how the crime was committed, and a lot of other plots would leave people with more questions than answers if they never bothered to [[MrExposition explain the plot to other characters]]... and by extension, [[AudienceSurrogate the viewers]]. It's easy to explain it off-screen, but doing so would confuse the viewer and make them think they missed something.
24
25	If you're set up for this but it's then subverted by not revealing it, it's TheUnReveal. When made too obvious [[{{Foreshadowing}} ahead of time]], it's TheUntwist, a CaptainObviousReveal, or an ObviousJudas (depending on how it happens). If it comes out of nowhere, it's an AssPull and/or a case of TheDogWasTheMastermind. If the thing revealed is named in the title, then it's TheNamesake. If a DrivingQuestion is involved, this is where it's finally put to rest. If it happens in the first episode of a series, it's probably a FirstEpisodeTwist. Can overlap with RememberedTooLate, WhamEpisode and WhamLine.
26
27	Compare InternalReveal when the audience was in the loop all along and only characters in-universe are taken by surprise.
28
29	Creator/{{Aristotle}} referred to it as ''anagnorisis'' (generally translated as "discovery" or "recognition") in his ''Literature/{{Poetics}}'', making this one OlderThanFeudalism.
30	----
31	[[foldercontrol]]
32
33	!!A SuperTrope to:
34	[[folder:Sub-Tropes and Sub-Indexes]]
35	[floatboxright:
36	Sub-indexes:
37	+ FamilyTwistsIndex
38	+ RevealShot
39	]
40	[[index]]
41	* BookedFullOfMooks
42	* ChairReveal
43	* DecoyBackstory
44	* DramaticUnmask
45	* EmergingFromTheShadows
46	* EverybodyKnewAlready
47	* EvilAllAlong
48	* FakeOutTwist
49	* FirstGirlAfterAll
50	* FlashbackMontageRealization
51	* FutureSelfReveal
52	* GenderReveal
53	* GiantFootprintReveal
54	* GivenNameReveal
55	* GoodAllAlong
56	* HiddenDisdainReveal
57	* HiddenVillain
58	* HybridAllAlong
59	* IdentityConcealmentDisposal
60	* LiarRevealed
61	* MacGuffinPersonReveal
62	* TheManBehindTheCurtain
63	* MonsterSuit
64	* MortalWoundReveal
65	* NarratorAllAlong
66	* NecroCam: A FlashbackMontageRealization about how a character died.
67	* NestedStoryReveal
68	* PreviouslyOverlookedParamour
69	* ProsceniumReveal
70	* ReallyRoyaltyReveal
71	* RealVehicleReveal
72	* RelationshipReveal
73	* ResemblanceReveal
74	* RoboticReveal
75	* TheSummation
76	* ThemeSongReveal
77	* TomatoSurprise
78	* UndercoverCopReveal
79	* TheUnmasking
80	* UnsettlingGenderReveal
81	[[index]]
82	[[/folder]]
83	----
84	!!Warning: Expect every example listed below to be a spoiler for something. Since the title alone can be a spoiler, ''proceed at your own risk.''
85
86	!!Example subpages:
87	[[index]]
88	* TheReveal/AnimeAndManga
89	** ''TheReveal/OnePiece''
90	* TheReveal/ComicBooks
91	* TheReveal/FanWorks
92	* [[TheReveal/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
93	* TheReveal/{{Literature}}
94	** ''TheReveal/HarryPotter''
95	* TheReveal/LiveActionTV
96	* TheReveal/VideoGames
97	** ''TheReveal/FinalFantasy''
98	* TheReveal/VisualNovels
99	* TheReveal/{{Webcomics}}
100	* TheReveal/WebOriginal
101	* TheReveal/WesternAnimation
102	[[/index]]
103
104	!!Other examples:
105
106	[[folder:Advertising]]
107	* [[https://youtu.be/TP2LMrUN8Dk In this ad,]] it first looks like a mother and her child running away from suspicious and dangerous people, only for the end to reveal that the woman is a kidnapper and the people who were chasing her got an Amber Alert about the woman kidnapping the young child.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
111	* ''WesternAnimation/ArloTheAlligatorBoy'': Ansel Beauregard, the biological father of half-alligator boy Arlo Beauregard, [[spoiler: is a HalfHumanHybrid just like him -- a bird-man, and had forsaken him at birth because he was bullied by his appearance as a child and disguised himself as a normal person to blend into society, and feared his alligator son would expose him.]]
112	* ''[[WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys2022 The Bad Guys]]'': Two reveals come at the end of the film's second act and lead into the third: [[spoiler: Professor Marmalade was EvilAllAlong and was setting up the Bad Guys to take the fall for his own master scheme]], while [[spoiler: Diane Foxington was once the legendary thief Crimson Paw, but had retired to become a ReformedCriminal]].
113	* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'': Robert Callaghan [[spoiler: is Yokai]] and Abigail [[spoiler: was his daughter]].
114	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}:'' Ernesto de la Cruz [[spoiler: is not Miguel's great-great grandfather and only became a musician after poisoning Héctor and stealing his music. Héctor is the true great-great-grandfather.]]
115	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Frozen\|2013}}'':
116	** Hans [[spoiler: never really did love Anna and only wanted to marry her so he can marry into Arendelle, [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a "little accident"]] for Elsa, make himself look like a hero for bringing back summer and seize the throne.]]
117	** It never had to be a TrueLovesKiss that would rescue Anna. It was an act of true love, such as [[spoiler: sacrificing yourself for your sister]].
118	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'': The entire movie has taken place in [[spoiler: the mind of an imaginative boy named Finn, who snuck down into his basement to play with his father's LEGO collection.]] Lord Business is actually based on [[spoiler: Finn's image of his overly strict father (aka "The Man Upstairs"), who insists on building a perfectly ordered LEGO world with no room for playing or experimentation.]]
119	* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'': Mr. Waternoose is [[spoiler: working in league with Randall in the plan to kidnap children and extract their screams to stop the energy crisis.]]
120	* ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'': [[spoiler: During their encounter in the Cave of Lost Souls, the mysterious Wolf hunting Puss down reveals himself as none other than [[TheGrimReaper Death]] taking on a physical appearance to claim Puss's last life as punishment for his [[TooDumbToLive reckless wasting]] [[YetAnotherStupidDeath of his past lives]] whilst boasting about being an immortal legend who [[DoNotTauntCthulhu "laughs in the face of death"]].]]
121	* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': [[spoiler: We see the researcher that created Fisk's Super Collider at several points early on; a thin, bespectacled, shaggy-haired woman who habitually wears a lab coat. It is only when Peter B. realizes that she is far more [[ItsPersonal personally invested]] in [[ForScience observing his horrible demise from being in the wrong dimension]] than would be expected from the usual [[MadScientist pathologically ethics-deficient researchers]] that he asks her name... at roughly which point [[ComicBook/DoctorOctopus Dr. Olivia Octavious's]] lab coat comes off, her glasses are swapped out for goggles, and her tentacles come out.]]
122	* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse'': [[spoiler: It turns out that the spider that bit Miles and gave him his powers didn’t come from his universe; it was brought to his dimension by the Collider by the experiments Jonathan Ohnn (or currently [[BigBad the Spot]]) conducted for Kingpin. Without the spider bite and the powers it bestowed, the Earth-42 that the spider originated from has no native Spider-Man, and Miguel states that as a result, Miles is a walking temporal anomaly within the Multiverse — the original anomaly. This is supported by Miles getting confronted by the [[EvilDoppelganger Earth-42 version of himself at the end]], revealing that thanks to the displaced spider, Miles wound up becoming the Prowler instead, showing that Miles was originally destined to become a villain rather than a hero.]]
123	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', [[spoiler: the date of the 4*Town concert that Mei and her friends spend much of the movie working toward attending is on the same night as the ritual Mei has committed to undergoing.]]
124	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'':
125	** Vanellope is [[spoiler: ''not'' a DummiedOut character or a GlitchEntity. Her image is on the side of her game box, meaning that she's a legitimate character who was meant to be part of Sugar Rush from the beginning, but was made into a glitch after the fact.]]
126	** Sugar Rush's ruler King Candy [[spoiler: is actually Turbo, a character from an older game who's an arcade cautionary tale about why ''not'' to game-jump, as his doing so led to his game being unplugged. He escaped to Sugar Rush, and he shoved himself in place of Vanellope, the game's true ruler, who he made a glitch.]]
127	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': [[spoiler: [[EvilAllAlong Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether]] is the ''true'' mastermind behind a massive conspiracy involving poisoning innocent predators with [[PsychoSerum Night Howler pellets]], turning them savage with the goal of inflaming historic predator/prey tension and using the resulting civil unrest to rise in political power.]]
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Pinball]]
131	* In ''Pinball/CirqusVoltaire'', completing "Unmask Voltaire" reveals that Ringmaster Voltaire [[spoiler: is actually [[SamusIsAGirl Madame Voltaire]], who was also the Announcer throughout the game.]]
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
135	* The reason masked wrestlers used to be popular in 1930s USA wrestling and why mask vs mask remained a staple of Mexican lucha libre is that a good deal of the masked wrestlers never reveal their public identity until they are unmasked. Wrestling/ElSanto never revealed his face until a week before his death. When a [[MaskedLuchador luchador]] is forced to unmask per stipulation, he/she also tends reveal much about their personal and professional history to the audience (as Wrestling/{{Konnan}}, turning him into a giant sympathetic baby {{face}} in Wrestling/{{CMLL}}).
136	* The shocking revelation of the identity of the Outsiders' Third Man in Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s 1996 ''Bash at the Beach'': ''Wrestling/HulkHogan''.
137	* The very long-awaited reveal of the identity of The Undertaker's "higher power". It was revealed to be [[spoiler: Wrestling/VinceMcMahon himself]] all along.
138	-->'''[[spoiler: Vince]]:''' '''[[MemeticMutation IT'S ME, AUSTIN]]!'''
139	-->'''Wrestling/JimRoss:''' Aw, [[PrecisionFStrike sonuvabitch]]!
140	* Or the true horrific reveal about Pro Wrestling itself? It's ''scripted''. ''Dun Dun Dun.'' GASP!
141	* In Wrestling/{{WWE}}, the man who drove a car and ran over Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin at 1999 Survivor Series was revealed to be [[spoiler: Wrestling/{{Rikishi}}]], as well as the mastermind [[spoiler: HHH]].
142	* Can't wait to find out who the mystery RAW GM is in the Wrestling/{{WWE}}. [[TheUnreveal Unfortunately]], the Mystery GM was PutOnABus and never mentioned again when Triple H took over as COO. Turns out it was [[spoiler: Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}}]].
143	* Leading up to the 1990 Survivor Series, a giant egg was displayed at WWF shows and it was implied that the egg would hatch around the time of the card. During the show, Mean Gene Okerlund listened to the egg, said it was about to hatch and out came ... Wrestling/TheGobbledyGooker, credited as one of Vince [=McMahon=]'s stupidest ideas. He and Mean Gene danced for a little bit while fans booed. That same night, Ted [=DiBiase=]'s team had a mystery member. After the rest of his team was introduced, [=DiBiase=] brought out his fourth man, a new WWF wrestler managed by Brother Love named ... Wrestling/TheUndertaker.
144	* Back in the 1980s, Paul Orndorff was slated to face Wrestling/DonMuraco and Wrestling/MrFuji in a tag team match at Madison Square Garden with a mystery partner. For a few weeks, Orndorff would do promos with a large cardboard box jostling around, saying his partner was inside. The week before the match, Orndorff used a power saw to cut the box open and reveal the Wrestling/JunkyardDog.
145	* At the end of the Black Scorpion storyline in WCW, Wrestling/{{Sting}} defeated him at Starrcade 1990 and removed his mask to reveal [[spoiler: Wrestling/RicFlair]].
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Theatre]]
149	* A trope-worthy twist on the source novel turns up at the very end of the 2013 stage adaptation of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': [[spoiler: Remember the tramp at the junkyard, who met and conversed with Charlie at the start of the show and later encouraged the boy to buy that Wonka Bar that turned out to have the last Golden Ticket? ''He was Willy Wonka in disguise.'']]
150	* ''Theatre/DearEvanHansen'' has this near the end. Socially awkward Evan repeatedly tells everyone else of an accident that involved him climbing a tree and falling, leading to one of his arms being broken. Come the middle of the second act, it's revealed that [[spoiler: the fall wasn't an accident, but a [[BungledSuicide botched suicide attempt]] due to his social anxiety. Evan had been denying that to himself for the whole play and subconsciously used that experience to console a bereaved family with a SnowballLie]].
151	* The ''Threatre/MrsHawking'' play series: In part IV: ''[[http://www.mrshawking.com/sample-page/scripts/gilded-cages-stage-play/ Gilded Cages]]'', the crime boss known as the Kingmaker is revealed to be [[spoiler: Elizabeth Frost, née Danvers, Mrs. Hawking's childhood governess and friend.]]
152	* In Sophocles's ''Theatre/OedipusTheKing'', Oedipus searches for the man who assassinated King Laius, only to find that [[spoiler: he himself killed the king. As the seer Tiresias tells him, "You are the murderer you seek."]] This is one of Creator/{{Aristotle}}'s examples of anagnorisis in the ''Literature/{{Poetics}}''.
153	* National Theatre's 2014 production of ''Theatre/{{Treasure Island\|2014}}'' uses a small one near the beginning: During the scene where Squire Trelawney is hiring crew for the voyage, a man seated nearby engages him in conversation, offers advice on who to hire, and ends up signing on himself as the ship's cook. At the end of the scene, the departing Trelawney asks his new friend's name, and the man twitches aside the cloak that was covering his legs, revealing a deficiency in that area, pulls a crutch from under his seat, and introduces himself: Long John Silver.
154	* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' has a few:
155	** The Wizard and those working for him are the ones responsible for the Animals of Oz losing their power to speak. Elphaba and Glinda learning this changes the course of the entire story, as Elphaba goes from idolizing the Wizard and wanting to work for him (and in fact, came to see him partially ''because'' of this very issue) to instead beginning a rebellion against him.
156	** The lion cub that Elphaba and Fiyero saved grew up to become the Cowardly Lion.
157	** Arguably the biggest one of the whole play: [[spoiler: Elphaba's real father, her mother's mysterious lover we only saw in shadow at the beginning, is the Wizard of Oz himself. Elphaba being the product of two different worlds--Oz (via her mother) and our world (via her father)--is the reason her powers are so potent]].
158	** At the very end of the play, we learn that [[spoiler: Elphaba ''did'' manage to save Fiyero's life earlier (she believed she had failed) by turning him into the Scarecrow. We also see that Elphaba faked her "death" at Dorothy's hands. She and Fiyero end up leaving Oz together, letting everyone else think they both died]].
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Real Life]]
162	* The ComingOutStory is not just a literary trope, it's actual TruthInTelevision. It certainly plays as a Big Reveal for the ones involved, or at least for the protagonist. Though it can be TheUntwist in the case of a TransparentCloset.
163	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TheReveal