I Knew It!

This trope is under discussion in the Trope Repair Shop.

"Congratulations to those who figured this out. In my mind I am picturing a dart board with every available space riddled with darts."

— Tom Siddell, author of Gunnerkrigg Court

It's well known that wild fans' theories are prone to being Jossed.

Sometimes, however, the opposite happens: after much speculation, a fan's theory is finally confirmed in canon, proving that the trees were, in fact, epileptic all along. Cue the perpetrators of their theory exclaiming: "I knew it! Told you so!"

This is known in some fandom circles as being "Kripked", named after Supernatural creator Eric Kripke as a counterpart to "Jossed".

May overlap with Captain Obvious Reveal (if fans are unimpressed rather than vindicated by the revelation) or The Un-Twist, if the revelation is well-foreshadowed but most fans rejected the theory exactly because it seems so obvious. And, of course, may overlap with Epileptic Trees.

When, in-universe, the characters say I told you so, see I Warned You or I Knew There Was Something About You.

Compare with Ascended Fanon, where the author canonizes the crazy fan theory in response to the fans. Also compare Belated Happy Ending. See Knew It All Along for a related in-universe trope.

Lots of spoilers below.

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Examples:

• Anime & Manga
  • Love Live!
• Live-Action TV
  • The Masked Singer
• Video Games
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Western Animation

Art

• The Angelus by Jean-François Millet shows a couple of farm workers with their heads bowed in prayer. Since childhood, Salvador Dalí believed this was actually a couple that were burying their child that had been painted over. When he grew up, he persuaded the Louvre to x-ray the painting and a child-size coffin was revealed behind the potato basket.

Card Games

• Just prior to the pre-release of Magic: The Gathering's Zendikar set, a game shop owner reported opening a valuable old card from a previous set in a Zendikar booster pack. His claims were largely dismissed by most players, but by the time the pre-release rolled around, other people began reporting similar findings. The idea that Wizards of the Coast would put an out-of-print card in every several hundred booster packs seemed outlandish at the time, but Wizards has been known for pulling outlandish stunts in the past as well; this one was just their most well-kept secret to date.
  • In another Magic-related story, back when Phil Foglio was writing monthly comic strips for Magic's official magazine he was asked to do a strip based on a soon to be released set. Unfortunately, he could not be told what the theme of the set actually was as it was too big a secret. He proceeded to write a comic about what the lazy, obvious plot of the set would be based on its name and the ongoing story that had wound through the last two sets. It was meant to be a parody. He was 90% correct.
  • In Shadows over Innistrad, a big deal was made of the mystery behind what was causing the strange happenings on the plane of Innistrad. Come the second set in the block, Eldritch Moon, a large number of fans turned out to be completely correct in guessing that it was Emrakul.
    • It doesn't help that Wizards was extremely unsubtle with foreshadowing, most notably the fact that Emrakul had left Zendikar for another plane was a significant plot point in the block immediately prior to Shadows. The webcomic Cardboard Crack wonderfully summarized this in a strip released shortly after Eldritch Moon's reveal.

Comic Books

• As part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch, it was confirmed that a new character would be taking over as The Incredible Hulk. Marvel treated the new Hulk's identity as a huge mystery and released a series of teasers hinting that it could be anyone from Thor to Iron Fist. However, most fans guessed that it would be Amadeus Cho, as Cho's creator, Greg Pak, was writing the new Hulk series, and Marvel had strongly hinted that the new Hulk would be a racial minority. When it was finally confirmed that Cho would be the new Hulk, nobody was surprised. Even the news outlets covering the story made sure to note that almost everyone online had already guessed that it would be Amadeus.
• All-New X-Men reveals in Issue 40 that Iceman was gay. A lot of fans weren't exactly surprised.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • Prior to the reboot, previous writer Ken Penders announced a Word of Gay for the comic. Two persistent theories on who he was referring to popped up: Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, or Rotor the Walrus and Tommy Turtle, two periphery but popular couples at the time. Eventually, Ken confirmed Rotor was one of the characters referred to in the Word, though he dismissed Tommy as being the other.
  • Post-reboot, an early issue introduced a new henchman for Robotnik named Tundra, who was a walrus with a burly physique and a bushy moustache. A while later, a flashback showing Rotor's backstory briefly showed Rotor's dad, who looked oddly similar to Tundra in physical build and facial structure. At the time many presumed it was just a case of Only Six Faces, but a number of fans speculated that the two characters were actually one and the same. Their speculation was proven right by issue 276, which revealed that Tundra saw Robotnik as a strong leader and is royally pissed that his son is running around with the Freedom Fighters.
• In the DC Comics mega-crossover Armageddon 2001, enough fans guessed early on that the mysterious Big Bad Monarch (No, not that one) was actually an evil Captain Atom that DC rewrote the plot to have him be... Hawk, of Hawk and Dove.
• Along the same lines, when it was decided that Sam Wilson would be the new Captain America, Marvel treated that like a big mystery too. They even tried to throw off suspicion by making it seem like Sam had been Killed Off for Real a short time before the new Captain America book launched. Needless to say, when they officially unveiled Sam as the new Cap on an episode of The Colbert Report, very few comic readers were surprised. The book itself even lampshaded this by having Sam remark that there was no suspense or sense of surprise, since his fellow Avengers had likely already guessed that he would be the new Captain America.
• There was speculation and guessing that Convergence was going to jump start the upcoming Earth-2:Society book, and they were right.
• Venom (Donny Cates): The Faceless has Eddie Brock captive at the start of issue #7. Many fans correctly guessed that it was The Maker, because he spoke in sentence case, used by the Ultimate Marvel imprint, while Brock still spoke with all caps.
• Brian Michael Bendis killed off Hawkeye. A few months later he created a new character called Ronin. Everybody online said it would be Clint Barton. Yoink, it's actually a barely known character called Echo. Then later again, it turns out to be Clint Barton anyway, complete with a lampshade hung that he "loved going online and watch everybody guess his identity".
  • There are other takes on the story: In one, Bendis was in an interview, where the interviewer apparently unofficially asked if Ronin was Daredevil. Bendis confirmed this, since previous clues had said that Ronin had been the star of a feature film. Well, the interviewer revealed this information, so Bendis, in Armageddon 2001 fashion, changed the character to Echo.
  • In another, it originally was Daredevil, but the reason why this was changed is a mystery; Bendis was writing Daredevil at the time and as Avengers was starting, his Daredevil run was ending. Bendis was going to bring in the character for Avengers, however, Ed Brubaker was coming in after him and he requested that Matt be in jail to kick off his storyline, thus needing the change.
• One subplot of the Post-Zero Hour reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes was the search for the mystic artifact, the "Emerald Eye of Ekron". It was actually drawn in the background of the "collection" of one of Post-Crisis Superboy's old villains, who had taken The Slow Path to the 30th century; some fans actually noticed it, but most wrote it off as an artist's in-joke. When Shrinking Violet was revealed to have had the Eye, it turns out that she'd first found it during that storyline.
• In April 2014, it was announced on the Internet that towards the end of Life With Archie: The Married Life, Archie Andrews would die saving someone, but not who would be saved, or how or why. Some of the Archie fans wildly speculated that Archie would die saving Senator Kevin Keller from assassination by mysterious busboy Wendell. Three months later, Issue #36, the penultimate issue, would prove them right.
• At the end of issue #3 of the Original Sin crossover, Bucky Barnes beheads Nick Fury and takes the Watcher's eye... And in issue #4, it's revealed that Bucky killed what he knew was an LMD, and that his team is working for an older Nick Fury. This was the most common theory on why Bucky killed Fury and on who the group was working for.
• In the Star Wars Legends comics, the theories that Darth Krayt is A'Sharad Hett (Legacy) and that Revan and Malak are the Revanchist and Alek (Knights of the Old Republic).
• At the beginning of her tenure as Wonder Girl, Cassandra Sandsmark was sweet, responsible, and competent. Sometime during her membership in the Teen Titans, she started taking on mild Jerkass tendencies and basically becoming a watered-down version of the Alpha Bitch with superpowers. Some readers suspected a correlation between her change and accepting greater powers and a "lasso of torture" from Ares. Confirmed in issue 64.
• The X-Men "Operation: Zero Tolerance" story arc featured a mysterious anti-mutant leader called Bastion. Fan speculation ran the gamut, but one persistent theory was that he was Nimrod, the constantly-adapting Killer Robot from the future. Turns out his origin was a good bit more complicated, but he was indeed Nimrod.
  • Onslaught's identity and origin were figured out by many after his first on-page appearance (he looked like Magneto and knew things that only Professor X would know).
• In Young Avengers, the twist that Hulkling and Wiccan were a gay couple was so obvious to all the fans that Heinberg simply decided to treat it as such, rather than doing the reveal in issue #12 like he planned.
• On the morning of August 19, 2019, Marvel teased a major new superhero team called "Doc Justice and the J-Team", at first revealing their logo. Later in the day, a video preview was released revealing the roster to be an adult hero leading a team of Kid Heroes. Speculation soon arose that the J-Team themselves are in fact the Runaways, with evidence that 1) the artwork for Doc Justice and the J-Team was done by Kris Anka, the cover artist for Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), 2) the host of the announcement video, Nick Lowe, happens to be the editor for the Runaways book, and 3) solicitations for upcoming issues of the book were saying that the Runaways were going to meet a mysterious hero who wants to form a new team with them. comparisons were even drawn between the Runaways themselves and the J-Team. The next day, Marvel officially confirmed that the Runaways will in fact become the J-Team in issue #27.
• Many figured out that the first arc of The Flash (Infinite Frontier) would undo the elephant in the room that was Wally West's role in Heroes in Crisis due to a combination of Wally returning as the main Flash of the DCU and the fact many people, both in and out of DC Comics, hated the idea of Wally being a(n albeit accidental) killer. Sure enough, the climax of the arc revealed Savitar not only survived his seeming death in The Flash: Rebirth, but was the true cause of the explosion at Sanctuary, clearing Wally.

Fan Works

• FieryShipping of FanFiction.net has, according to Chisaku, "...sniped every last detail [of the TDF series] to the dot." He (Chisaku) even goes as far as deleting their reviews featuring their theories due to their (apparently) extremely frightening accuracy.
• Many Dangerverse fans refused to believe that Draco was dead. They were right.
• The Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic The Father-Son Talk correctly predicted that Greed would separate from Ling.
• A Growing Affection made a habit of this:
  • Naruto's mom had a similar personality? Check.
  • Attacking with a multitude of miniature Rasengans? Check.
  • Yugito Nii resurrected as a Path of Pain? Check.
  • Kyuubi openly and readily working with Naruto to keep out from under Madara's thumb? Check.
  • A minor one; Might Gai having Fire and Lightning Nature Transformations.
• A very strange example with Ace Attorney fan-case The Haunted Turnabout. Since the first half of the case was released as a teaser before the full thing was completed, those who played it already had theories of how it would end. Just about everyone correctly guessed who the killer was (Cedric Mapelthorpe, and to be fair they did look Obviously Evil), but no-one came even close to guessing the exact circumstances of the murder of motive. (Turns out the whole thing was an Accidental Murder and Cedric was a Not So Stoic Anti-Villain, something that surprised everyone.)
• The infamous Fan Web Comic How I Became Yours had Katara bloodbend Mai to death in broad daylight. This, along with numerous other departures from canon facts and characterization, caused quite an uproar because bloodbending is supposed to be impossible outside a full moon^note The moon empowers waterbenders while it is out, increasing depending on its fullness, and bloodbending is difficult enough that it can only be performed by a powerful Waterbender with the boost from the full moon. Come The Legend of Korra, and it turns out there is an entire family who can bloodbend without a full moon.
• Some readers of the Thor fanfic Kismet reacted this way when Thor and Jane's baby was revealed to be a girl.
• Written in the beginning of 2012, The Last Ride of Howard Stark is about Howard Stark's death getting set up by Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier. Two years later, come Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and we learn that Howard's death really was set up by HYDRA, for whom the Winter Soldier is working in the film.
  • And then, Captain America: Civil War proves the rest of this story right - specifically, that Bucky was the one who killed Howard.
• My Immortal. Author Tara Gilesbie successfully predicted a major plot twist, namely Harry being a Horcrux and having to commit suicide to kill Voldemort because of it. This led to many a Wild Mass Guessing about her being J. K. Rowling - which, if it had turned out to be true, would have been the greatest trolling of fandom ever.
• Though a The Parselmouth of Gryffindor plotline involving Nagini had to be scrapped at the last minute due to Crimes of Grindlewald threatening to make it Outdated by Canon, it has had at least one internal example — many reviewers guessed ahead of time that Harry's strange behavior leading up to Chapter 61 was the Scar Horcrux acting up.
• Dumbledore was Ambiguously Gay on Potter Puppet Pals for years before the 7th book.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Progress ended up getting a surprising number of things right about Princess Luna's canon self. In the fic, she's a Fish out of Temporal Water and a cute nerdy pony, both of which are traits of her canon character. She speaks with a Voice of the Legion when blowing up at one point, which the real Luna ended up doing in her "princess voice". And then there's this line, which actually wouldn't be that far out of place being said by the real Luna:
  Luna: "EUREKA! I AM THE GODDESS OF MATH ONCE AGAIN! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" *Dramatic Thunder*
  • Similarly, one of the most common criticisms of Romance Reports was that Luna was vastly different from the most common portrayals at the time, being mysterious, playful, slightly intimidating, and quite terrifying when she wanted to be. This turned out to be a lot closer to her official characterisation than the more common portrayals.
  • The many, many stories that had Twilight Sparkle ascending into an alicorn and being named a princess.
  • The fanfiction Writer's Block predicted Lesson Zero. There was a fanfiction that predicted Spike growing due to his instinctual greed and acting out a Kaiju parody. There was an episode that predicted Putting Your Hoof Down. Just check the Ascended Fanon page. This happens all the time in the fandom.
    • Possibly because there are well over 100,000 MLP fanfics published as of 2015. The dart board isn't just riddled with holes in this case, it's basically dust.
  • Sweetie's Shadow mentions in its description that Sweetie Belle reminds King Sombra of a filly he used to know. This is confirmed to be true nearly one year later in My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic #1.
  • My Little Dashie (written during season 2 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and also initially taking place during that time) predicted that the show would still be around ten years after the beginning of the fic. While the main show would end its run in 2019, it was succeeded by a spin-off that lasted until 2021 (i.e., ten years after the fic started).
    • However, it also predicted that the Hub Network would still be around during all that time. While a logical assumption, the channel ended up being dissolved and retooled into Discovery Family in 2014.
• Melindaleo's Harry Potter fanfic The Seventh Horcrux correctly guessed that Bill and Fleur's wedding would end in an attack, the tiara in the Room of Requirement was Rowena Ravenclaw's and a horcrux, Remus and Tonks would die, one Weasley brother would die, Harry was a Horcrux and several other things.
• The whole plot of the Zelda story Til the Sun Grows Cold and the Stars Grow Old (which was written before The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword had even been announced) revolves around the notion that Link and Zelda are the same souls repeatedly reincarnated over several lifetimes. Guess what Word of God confirmed shortly after Skyward Sword's release?^note Mostly - there are a couple of weird instances that seem to suggest it doesn't always happen that way, but more often than not does. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, for example, has two Links appear simultaneously, a case of this trope in itself. See Video Games for more detail.
• Total Drama Chris had Chris treating the contestants especially cruelly, far more extreme than he was on the actual show... for the time, at least. A few years later, by the time Total Drama Revenge of the Island started airing, though, Chris's sinking to such depravity has become completely canon.
• iCarly had a Spencer/Sam fanfic The Way They Are predict side character/Ensemble Dark Horse Gibby being promoted to the main cast, and that Sam has a crush on Spencer. The fic was written a year before either of those events happened, with both being very unlikely until they happened.
• One not for the story itself, but for its readers - several readers of Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium correctly guessed the identity of Hawke's Grey Warden contact - Carver. Some, though not all, of the same readers looked at the story's Content Warnings and figured out that both of Bethany's brothers would sacrifice themselves in the Fade to save her.
• Despite being based solely on the show's pilot episode, the Infinity Train fanfic appropriately titled Infinity Train FANFIC got a surprising amount of plot points right about the show's first season, even if the exact details differ on a few. It accurately predicted that Atticus would insist on joining Tulip on her journey because he deems the Steward too much of threat to be ignored, that one of Tulip's trials would be her performing an emotional song, that Tulip is the only child of a divorced couple, that Tulip would be forced to experience some of her past memories, that Tulip would only be able to leave the train after resolving her personal problems but would reject her first available exit off the train on the basis that she still has unfinished business on it, and even The Reveal that One-One is the train's true conductor. For the record, this fic began a few months after the pilot premiered (making it the first Infinity Train fanfic) and ended just a few months before the series debuted, ahead of any trailers revealing actual show footage.
• At the time For Earth And Her Colonies was written, most KanColle fan depictions of American aircraft carriers had them using compound bows or Native American bows, as all the canon carriers at the time used bows. For Earth and Her Colonies was one of the first to depict American carriers using firearms, though wound up being wrong as to precisely which firearms they would use.
• [1] predicted that Nemesis is He Who Walks Beside six years before Battle Grounds was released.

Films — Animation

• Frozen:
  • Common fanon in the fandom is that if you're going to put Evil All Along Hans back in the story somehow after the events of the film, his first job must be a stable boy and involve shoveling horse poop, as that's a fairly good punishment for him without delving to Dark Fic territory. Frozen Fever confirmed that back at home, he's doing just that.
  • Fans decided that among Hans's many brothers there must be at least one set of twins. The Tie-In Novel A Frozen Heart isn't canon-compliant; but as a Disney-licensed story, its utilization of the idea (albeit using fraternal twins rather than the more popularly used identical twins) added weight to its fanon popularity.
  • Christmas Special Olaf's Frozen Adventure gives Schrödinger's Canon weight to the interpretation that the family in Oaken's sauna is his family, not just his customers.
  • Fans translated the gravestones of Anna and Elsa's parents as bearing the names "Agdar" and "Idunn". It was initially unconfirmed if those were their names or just placeholder names, but eventually licensed books used them. The Broadway show and later the sequel use the variations "Agnarr" and "Iduna".
• At the end of part one of the Justice League × RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen duology, it was hinted Kilg%re was working with a villain native to Remnant, with the two most popular guesses being either Dr. Watts from RWBY proper or Dr. Merlot from the video game RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. While Merlot is namedropped in part 2, it's ultimately revealed it was indeed (a resurrected thanks to Brain Uploading) Watts.^note Part 1 on RWBY's side took place during Volume 7; thanks to Time Dilation being in play, the RWBY characters come from after Vol. 9 — and in Watts's case, after Cinder killed him at the end of Vol. 8 It didn't help that the report of the voice cast for part 2 also mentioned Watt's voice actor, Christopher Sabat, being part of it.
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer is the Big Bad Alpha Bitch and a Spoiled Brat that was A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil for Princess Celestia. After Sunset pulls a Heel–Face Turn at the end of the film, a common bit of fan speculation and Fanfic Fuel is Sunset going back to Equestria to apologize to Celestia for what she did. This ultimately happens in canon during My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship with Sunset apologizing and being forgiven.
  • Also after Equestria Girls, most fans assumed that if Sunset Shimmer's story was ever followed up on, she would not be so Easily Forgiven by the rest of the school, and indeed many Equestria Girls fanfics went with that direction, and it was confirmed to be the case in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks.
• A Twitter user predicted that The Super Mario Bros. Movie would not feature Charles Martinet as Mario and cast "someone like Chris Pratt" in his place. The 2021 Nintendo Direct introducing the casting confirmed that it would indeed not be Charles Martinet, but Chris Pratt. The prediction happened in 2020.
• One fan read the back of Galvatron's (toy) box way back in 1985 and correctly predicted (before Transformers: The Movie came out) that Galvatron was going to kill Starscream.
• Wreck-It Ralph fans guessed long before the movie came out that King Candy was the Big Bad and that Nice Guy Fix-It Felix Jr. and Action Girl Sergeant Calhoun were going to fall in love. Also, shortly after the first trailer came out in June 2012 (the movie itself came out in November), one fan on the movie's WMG page guessed that Vanellope was the Princess of Sugar Rush. That fan totally called it.

Films — Live-Action

• As much as the creators of The Dark Knight Rises tried to deny that new characters Miranda Tate and John Blake were anything more than they appeared, it was correctly guessed that they would be Talia al'Ghul and Robin, respectively long before the film hit theaters.
  • It is true that many fans predicted that John Blake would replace Batman at some point in the movie. He is bequeathed the Batcave and all its tech, though it isn't shown what he does with it.
• DC Extended Universe:
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
    • For DC comics fans and casual audiences alike, Doomsday is synonymous with one thing and one thing only, so for comic book fans, Superman's death was essentially a Foregone Conclusion the moment he first appeared in the trailers.
  • Suicide Squad (2016):
    • Fans were guessing from the trailers that Slipknot probably wasn't going to hang around, judging from him having nearly no dialogue in every trailer and a few seconds of footage of him was repeated in every one. Sure enough, he dies from trying to escape early on after Rick Flag blows his head off.
• Galaxy Quest: Uber-fan Brandon's reaction to Nesmith telling him that everything in the show is actually real.
  • This zig-zags the trope. The show wasn't "real" back when it was being produced, but became real thanks to an entire alien civilization becoming hardcore fans who themselves thought the show was real because they don't have fiction.
• There was an outcry regarding Scarlett Johansson's casting the Japanese Major Motoko Kusanagi for the live-action film of Ghost in the Shell (2017). However, many fans mentioned that Scarlett Johansson is only playing the artificial body of the Major since it's established throughout the franchise that the Major can jump into several cybernetic bodies regardless of race and some guessed that the Major's true self might be Japanese. Turns out that theory is correct in the movie: the Major is indeed Japanese who got forced into a white cybernetic body with her memories rewritten.
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): King Ghidorah in this iteration being revealed as extraterrestrial in origin like previous incarnations of the character was predicted by multiple parties before the movie's release, even though the movie itself uses it as a plot twist at the halfway point and promotional materials avoided doing anything to seriously hint at it.
• James Bond:
  • When the cast of Skyfall was announced, many people guessed that Naomie Harris' character, Eve, would turn out to be Miss Moneypenny. They were right.
  • And when Spectre was announced, almost everyone correctly guessed that Oberhauser would turn out to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld, since the film marked the return of his organization SPECTRE.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Iron Man 2:
    • During the climax, a young boy in a toy Iron Man mask heroically attempts to stop a rampant droid, with the real Iron Man saving the kid right on time. Given that this all takes place in Queens, and the boy's age, many fans speculated this was a young Peter Parker. Years later, Word of God confirmed that this was correct.
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier:
    • While the Winter Soldier was played up as the antagonist in the trailers and ads, the theory that Alexander Pierce was the true villain turned out to be correct.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
    • Tony Stark being the creator of Ultron, as opposed to Hank Pym. (There have been a few hints that Stark and Bruce Banner weren't the only ones to have worked on the AI.)
    • Many fans guessed correctly that Andy Serkis was playing Ulysses Klaw... er, Klaue.
    • A lot of people figured out that J.A.R.V.I.S. would be transformed into the Vision upon learning that Paul Bettany, who played J.A.R.V.I.S. previously, would be playing The Vision.
    • Speaking of the Vision, many figured out that his third eye is an Infinity Stone.
    • Adding to that, there was strong speculation that Loki's scepter was the Mind Stone even going back to the first movie.
    • When it was confirmed that the movie would feature a "big" death, some fans pointed to the lack of merchandise for Quicksilver as possible evidence of his demise. They were correct.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
    • Throughout the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan Lee has had a plethora of cameos. A long-standing (and somewhat tongue-in-cheek) fan theory was that Lee was actually portraying the same character in every cameo, that of Marvel Comics character Uatu the Watcher. With the release of the film (and confirmed by Word of God), this theory was proved almost correct: Lee is playing a Watcher informant, but not Uatu himself.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming:
    • A large number of fans called the "My friends call me MJ" twist regarding Zendaya's character fairly early on. In fact, there were many people who were surprised the movie even bothered to treat it as a Wham Line.
  • Avengers: Infinity War: A lot of people guessed correctly that Avengers: Infinity War would have a huge body count and many predictions about who would die were likewise correct; in particular, just about everybody guessed that Vision would die, since he pretty much had to for Thanos to get the Infinity Stone in his head.
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home:
    • Shortly after the trailer was released, several fans correctly guessed that Mysterio wasn't actually a superhero in the MCU, and that his new backstory as a superhero from an alternate universe was actually a hoax. It helps that Mysterio is well-known as a master illusionist, and his first appearance in the comics also had him trying to pose as a superhero.
    • At least one fan (including this Reddit user) also successfully guessed that the movie would end with Mysterio using his illusions to turn the public against Spider-Man.
  • When in an Reddit AMA Kevin Feige mentioned that the Mandarin and the Ten Rings organization would appear in a future film, people speculated that they could appear in the Asian-led adaptation of Shang-Chi. Indeed, the film was confirmed to be called Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings with Tony Leung Chiu-wai cast as the Mandarin.
  • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: It’s revealed at the beginning that Mantis is Ego’s daughter (and thus Quill’s half-sister), which many fans guessed ever since vol. 2, where the diorama◊ of Ego meeting women and fathering children across the universe featured a woman that appeared to be of Mantis' species.
• While there were several hints in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie that Tia Dalma was Calypso, Davy Jones' lover, it wasn't obvious until the beginning of the third.
• Fans of the Saw series guessed the final twist in the series, that Dr. Gordon survived the events of the first film to become Jigsaw's greatest apprentice around the time of the second movie. This is an odd case, since while the twist appears to be heavily foreshadowed, it's entirely possible this was just a fan theory that was so popular it was adopted by the filmmakers, making it Ascended Fanon rather than I Knew It.
• Star Trek Into Darkness:
  • Many fans had long guessed that Harrison was Khan using an alias.
  • Somewhat fewer guessed that Harrison was working for/with Section 31.
• Star Wars:
  • One of the older, and least credible, fan theories in Star Wars was that Boba Fett's armor was of a type worn by the Imperial Stormtroopers' predecessors during the Clone Wars. In Attack of the Clones it's revealed that the Clone Troopers' original armor was a mass produced version of Jango Fett's armor (which Boba inherited). (This shouldn't be so surprising, after all, the fan theory was based on a comment in the novelization (which back then were G-Level canon) that Boba Fett's armor dated back to the Clone Wars.)
  • Many fans had predicted that Han Solo would be the film's Sacrificial Lion in The Force Awakens, being an idea dating back to the production of Return of the Jedi.
  • Many fans had predicted that Kylo Ren was a Skywalker family member. He is revealed to be the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia and nephew to Luke Skywalker, formerly named Ben Solo.
  • Many fans had also predicted that Luke Skywalker would die in The Last Jedi, since after Carrie Fisher's death in 2016, it was said that Episode IX was supposed to focus on Leia the same way The Force Awakens focused on Han and The Last Jedi focused on Luke.
  • While it certainly wasn't as popular as the theory that Rey was Luke's long-lost daughter, some fans did predict The Reveal that her parents were a pair of anonymous nobodies. Amid all of the speculation about Rey's parentage, some fans felt that it would be "too obvious" to make her a member of the Skywalker bloodline, and felt that the many seemingly obvious hints at this twist were so blatant that they were probably misdirection for a different twist.
  • In 2012, a fan managed to guess the title of Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, and that the Emperor would return, although they were speculating about the recently-announced Episode VII at the time. Read here.
• Many predicted that Eric Sacks in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) was just a Red Herring for the real Shredder.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • On the "Fridge" tab for X-Men: First Class on This Very Wiki, one Troper actually proposed the theory that Magneto was responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy about three years before that became a major plot point in X-Men: Days of Future Past—although in the actual movie, Magneto is imprisoned for assassinating Kennedy, but insists that he actually tried to save him (it's left to the audience to decide whether he's telling the truth).
  • Many people called that the hand in a teaser poster for Logan was X-23, and Wolverine, Caliban, and Professor Xavier would die over the course of the film.

Literature

• The Dresden Files:
  • Harry will give Fidelacchius to Karrin Murphy, as confirmed in Small Favor. Then the substance of the theory was promptly Jossed when she turned down the offer after drawing the sword once, although that could change at any time.
  • Wizard Peabody is the Turn Coat.
  • One from the Wild Mass Guessing page was the person who guessed "Morgan will be framed as a Traitor."
  • This very website has a WMG that Santa Claus was really Odin long before the reveal.
  • One particular fanfic, Higher Stakes (a crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer), predicted not only that Maggie would be adopted by the Carpenters, but also had accurate and fairly detailed descriptions of the organization Murphy assembles after Harry's death.
  • Jared Kincaid was the assassin at the end of Changes. This was The Un-Twist — he killed Harry using the exact method he'd explained he would use for exactly that task — but there was a real twist not in who shot Harry, but why.
  • A Redditor predicted that the "parasite" alluded to in Cold Days was Lash and Harry's daughter, who the latter would have to give birth to. Skin Game confirmed this.
• In Harry Potter: R.A.B was Regulus Black, Harry was a Horcrux, Snape loved Lily... But really, with the sheer number of theories circulating, at least some of them had to become true.
  • Everyone knew Regulus Black... the impressive people knew immediately after reading the initials (based on the locket found in his home early in the fifth book, which obsessive readers were able to recall easily). Everyone else knew because the Internet let them compare notes with other languages' editions — the initials were R.A.S. where the Black family's name was translated to Svaart, R.A.M. where it was Musta, etc. The fans also managed to anticipate his middle name, Arcturus. This is more impressive when you realize there are a lot of stars whose names begin with A that could have been used (Algol, Altair, Antares and Aldebaran for starters).
  • The revelation that Harry was actually one of Voldemort's Horcruxes was long in the minds of readers before it was officially revealed in the final book.
  • The bartender in the Hog's Head being Dumbledore's brother.
  • John Noe of Potter Cast predicted the Knights of Hogwarts bit of Deathly Hallows. It was awesome.
  • It was predicted early in the series that Harry would marry Ginny and Ron would marry Hermione. People probably figured this out about halfway through Philosopher's Stone — First Girl Wins, both for Ron and Harry.
  • The entirety of Accio Deathly Hallows.
  • After the title of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was announced, the fandom quickly settled on the theory that the titular Order would be a Heroes "R" Us organization formed by Dumbledore to fight Voldemort. This turned out to be completely accurate. It helps that the end of the previous book had foreshadowed that Dumbledore would form such an organization, so everyone was expecting it to happen in the next book anyway.
  • Arabella Figg represents a partial example. When Dumbledore listed her as one of his allies at the end of the fourth book, it didn't take fans long to correctly realize that she was the same person as the "Mrs. Figg" who had been mentioned as Harry's babysitter in the first book. During the "Three-Year Summer" between the fourth and fifth books, there was a great deal of speculation about Arabella Figg, nearly all of which assumed that she would be revealed as a witch. Instead, it turned out she was a Muggle Born of Mages, a theory that few fans had considered.
• Many, many Honor Harrington fans correctly guessed that Manticore and Haven would eventually form a military alliance against the Solarian League and Mesa. It took a couple of revolutions, some massive apologies on both sides, the most devastating attack in Manticore's history, and one very gutsy President to make it happen, but indeed, they did.
• Every Inheritance Cycle reader probably saw this coming, but Eragon's father isn't who Paolini made you think he was. He's Brom.
• Jeeves and Wooster: The third chapter of Please, Jeeves. Guess who that collection of Rosie M. Banks' romance novels actually belongs to?
• The Land of Stories:
  • Froggy being a prince is very easy to figure out, even before learning about the missing Charming prince.
  • Several guessed the twins’ father would be from the Land of Stories and that the journal they were following was written by him.
  • Several people guessed the reveal that the Masked Man was actually the twins’ uncle, not their deceased father. This is later revealed to be true, although, surprisingly, they’re not identical twins like most people thought and instead just two brothers who look very much alike.
• From Newsflesh: The fact that Shaun and George never dated other people because they were in love with each other was called by a minority of fans who were generally yicked at by the rest of the fandom.
• Some fans of the Origami Yoda series correctly predicted that Harvey likes Sara, which wasn't revealed until the last book.
• Fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and its sequel series The Heroes of Olympus had long speculated several things that happened in The Trials of Apollo:^note apart from the Green Thumb powers, which children of Demeter were first mentioned to have in The Last Olympian
  • That Annabeth was the seven and final hero mentioned in the prophesy in Heroes of Olympus. It was later confirmed in "'Mark of Athena''.
  • Apollo being bisexual. Apollo later states that he is also attracted to men.
  • Will and Nico hooking up.
• The ending of A Series of Unfortunate Events, specifically the reveal of the true identity of Beatrice.
• George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, was once asked about an event in the Back Story in which the crown prince's wife and her two children were slain. Martin confirmed that two of the characters had died... and immediately fans jumped on this as proof that the third was in hiding, their Death Faked For Them. Fast forward to Book 5, and guess who is indeed alive? (The character in question: Aegon Targaryen, Rhaegar's son, still a babe at the breast when Varys sneaked him away and furnished Elia of Dorne with an impostor. Hilariously enough, a popular fan theory says that this isn't Aegon, but an impostor, maybe even a Blackfyre. So, when Aegon was dead, everyone was sure that he might be alive. When he comes back, no one is convinced it's really him.)
• The conception of Renesmee in Breaking Dawn, for certain Twilight fans, the kind that didn't put apologies for "going against" the Word of God in their Fanfics in which they had Bella getting pregnant. Because really, the only reason such cryptic statements had to be made in the first place was that too many people were guessing the plot twist, and so Stephenie Meyer made some statements that sounded superficially like a Jossing, but when examined closely, weren't. She said that "vampires cannot get pregnant", and they can't—but a [[spoiler:half-human half-vampire with a human mother is just fine.
• The Ciaphas Cain novel Cain's Last Stand confirmed two long-standing fetishes of the Warhammer 40,000 fandom, namely the existence of female Commissars and Sisters of Battle not having to be celibate.
• Warrior Cats has several examples.
  • Sunrise: Leafpool and Crowfeather being the Three's real parents.
  • Also from Sunrise: Anyone who predicted that Hollyleaf was Ashfur's murderer, deserves a prize.
  • Speaking of Ashfur, anyone who managed to pick up that he betrayed Firestar got a big I Knew It moment in Long Shadows.
  • The Forgotten Warrior had a massive one: Hollyleaf isn't dead. She was just hiding in the tunnels.
  • Long Shadows: The Ancients are the Tribe of Rushing Water.
  • Sol being the eponymous stranger from the SkyClan and the Stranger manga was predicted by some and scoffed at by others. In the end, the first group was right.
  • Sol returning in The Forgotten Warrior.
  • The Last Hope: Firestar is the Fourth.
  • Night Whispers: Flametail dies.
  • Many managed to guess the identify of Violetpaw and Twigpaw's parents well before they were actually given a proper introduction. Needless to say, these fans got a big I Knew It moment after Hawkwing's Journey was released, and an even bigger one once Shattered Sky rolled around.
• In The Wheel of Time series, Mat says to Tuon (in exasperation) "you are my wife" three times. In the section 2.5.7 of the FAQ for the Wheel Of Time series, a fan was quoted as saying: "What if Seanchan marriage customs are such that all you have to do to be married is say it three times? If this is the case, they're already married! The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. I think this is my new pet loony theory." In Crossroads of Twilight, this turned out to be more or less accurate: under Seanchan marriage customs, she merely has to respond "you are my husband" three times to seal the deal, and in Knife of Dreams, she does so.
  • This one wasn't so out-there. The look on Tuon's face was just too telling. It's also in-character for Mat for something like the above to happen. Reference The Finn, his discovery of the ladies in the Stone of Tear, and his discovery of Birgitte's identity.

Podcasts

• The Adventure Zone: After the introduction of "Lup" in Lunar Interlude III, somebody came up with a crack theory that because the word Lup can be considered a shortened form of "Chalupa", she was actually Taako's twin sister whose soul was trapped within the Umbra Staff sometime before the main storyline. It became a fandom meme of sorts, and about twenty episodes later it was proven to be completely canon.
• This was the reaction of several Survival of the Fittest members when it transpired that Andrea Vanlandingham had not died (despite her death being announced by Danya) and was running around with no collar.

Pro Wrestling

• When Braun Strowman began receiving a monster push after the 2016 brand split, a lot of people began to be very impressed with the gigantic strongman that nobody had liked much before then. Unfortunately, a lot of people began to suspect that the reason Braun was being built up as such an unstoppable destroyer of a man was so he could be fed to resident Creator's Pet Roman Reigns to "make him look strong", particularly when they started feuding. Come their first singles match on PPV at Fastlane 2017, they were proven correct when Roman got the first ever pinfall victory over the Monster Among Men. However, after WrestleMania it was thoroughly subverted, as Fastlane ended up being the exactly one win Reigns got on Braun. Braun has beaten Reigns pillar to post no less than three times since, and hasn't been pinned by Roman since Fastlane. Many are now citing their feud as the best of 2017 so far.
• As soon as "Sami Zayn" showed up on WWE Nx T, fans expressed their desire to see him win a title belt so Kevin Steen could come out and congratulate him before delivering a package pile driver. While things didn't happen in this exact manner, their wishes were almost granted when Steen did get called by NXT and go after Zayne.
• When Roman Reigns began his rise as a main eventer in early 2015, a lot of people thought that he would win the Royal Rumble match, beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion, only for Seth Rollins cash in his Money in the Bank contract afterwards. While Reigns won the Rumble match, he did not win the match at WrestleMania. Instead, Rollins cashed in during the main event to turn the championship match into a Triple Threat and won the title.
• Speaking of Roman Reigns (yet again), for literal years he'd been portrayed as the top babyface in the WWE, the chosen one above all others, despite the fans simply not having it, with Roman becoming the single most-hated babyface of all time. Countless figures, from fans to industry critics to major stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, had insisted that the only way to save Roman's career was to turn him heel, the same way the WWF had made The Rock into one of the biggest stars of all time after the fans had turned on his bland babyface "Rocky Maivia" character. When, after years of stubbornness, WWE finally turned Roman heel in 2020, his new "Tribal Chief" character was an instant mega-success, finally making Roman into the top star WWE had always insisted he was, and prompting many, many calls of "I told you so!"

Sports

• When they're not invoking the commentator's curse, Baseball play-by-play announcers have an uncanny tendency to predict home runs before they happen.
• Alabama was something of a Cinderella national champion in the 1992 Collegiate American Football season, largely ignored even though they finished the regular season undefeated and won the first ever Southeastern Conference championship game. Then they shocked the #1-ranked Miami Hurricanes, a team that many considered invincible, in the Sugar Bowl. But one of the voters in the Associated Press poll, Tucson Citizen sportswriter Corky Simpson, had voted them #1 every single week of the season, and was literally the only voter to give them the top spot the first 15 weeks of the season.

Toys

• It was a heavily discussed and controversial theory among BIONICLE fans that Physical God Mata Nui might actually be an enormous mechanoid, and that the Matoran Universe is housed within his body. This is, of course, the real deal. Although the theory did have its share of supporters, in the form of fans who happened to stumble upon an illegally leaked teaser video earlier that year, which revealed just about the biggest surprise of the entire story.
  • In fact theorizing is one of the absolute favorite pastimes of the fandom, so arguably every twist or reveal will have someone going ''Well, fancy that, folks — it would appear my views on the issue have been apt all along."

Visual Novels

• A downplayed example in Double Homework. It wasn’t confirmed until late in the story, but it was theorized that the protagonist, Johanna, and Tamara lost their parents to the first avalanche. Not that it’s overly important.
• Some Higurashi: When They Cry fans got I Knew It moments concerning the insane cast during the first season, such as Onikakushi-hen being filled with Keiichi's Hinamizawa-Sydrome-induced hallucinations. This could also apply to the big Twin Switch in Watanagashi-/Meakashi-hen, Takano being the villain all along, and Rika being more than she appeared to be.
• Umineko: When They Cry:
  • Kinzo was already dead. Intended to be revealed in Episode 5, but instead revealed in Episode 4 as the theory became hugely popular.
  • Also two other important theories, namely: Pony theory and Shkanon. The first tells about the motive for the murders (though when it comes down to it, it's about more than just a pony) and the second reveals that Kanon and Shannon are the same person. Not only that, but they're also both Beatrice.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE!: In the Omniman vs Homelander fight, Everyone (the fandom of both shows, the people only view death battle, even the official twitter account for both show....) knew the winner would be Omniman.Both because Homelander is a Hate Sink compared to his rival and because they knew how weak Homelander is compared to Nolan
• Helluva Boss
  • Many in the fanbase had predicted that Stolas and Stella were in an Arranged Marriage before “The Circus” confirmed it.
  • Many in the fanbase had also predicted the exact circumstances of Loona's adoption - that Blitzo had adopted her because he saw how alone she was.
  • One of the most persistent theories was that Blitzo accidentally destroyed his family circus, by fire, resulting in the white mark over his right eye, the loss of Fizz's limbs, and the death of Blitzo and Barbie’s mother. "OOPS" confirms this is indeed the case.
  • Immediately after "The Circus" aired, theorists began suspecting that Stolas was going to give Asmodean crystals to Blitzo as an alternate means to travel to Earth so that he didn't have to continue his transactional relationship with Stolas, as a gesture of affection on Stolas' part in an attempt to win Blitzo over. "Oops" confirms this in a conversation between Asmodeus and Stolas, with Stolas seeking Oz's help in finding a way for Blitzo to travel to Earth without using the Grimoire.
• Homestar Runner
  • In 2007, a debate among fans arose regarding the characters' increased usage of the phrase, "DNA Evidence". Some regarded it as just another silly catchphrase, while some thought the scenes featuring the words would build up to something. After one week passed without any Homestar characters saying, "DNA Evidence", it seemed like the former group of fans was right... until a new toon paid off the utterances of the phrase by revealing a heretofore unseen connection.
  • After the Strong Bad Email 'Two Years' some fans speculated that the sender of the email was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints and was about to go on a two-year long mission. (The evidence being the two-year time span, and that he signed it as E Fullmer, with E speculated to stand for the word 'Elder') Two years later, the sender of the email joined the wiki and confirmed that they were completely correct.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • Fans predicted the reveal of Tex to be a girl several episodes before it happened. Years later, similar Epileptic Trees were validated at the end of Reconstruction where Church was revealed to be the Alpha AI instead of a ghost.
  • The character known to fans as the Mysterious Blue Guy from seasons 9 and 10 was speculated by many to be Captain Butch Flowers, and a few others guessed that he was also Agent Florida. The final episode of season 10 revealed both these points to be true.
• RWBY:
  • Pretty much everyone predicted Episode 15's reveal of Blake as a Faunus, and to a lesser extent Episode 16's clarification of her former membership in White Fang.
  • After the release of the promotional material for Volume 2, namely, the group silhouette for Velvet's team, it was pretty much a given that her team would somehow be named "Coffee."
  • Penny Polendina being a robot.
  • Many people speculated that Ruby and Yang are half-sisters, sharing a father, but fewer speculated that it was Yang's biological mother that she has been searching for in the Yellow trailer, and that Summer Rose, Qrow, the sisters' father, and Yang's mother were on the same team.
  • The name of Yang's mother was ludicrously spot on: Raven Branwen.
  • After the Volume 3 trailer, many fans suspected that the Elegant Gothic Lolita shown there was Neo in disguise, which was confirmed in the first episode of Volume 3.
  • The majority of the fanbase predicted that Penny vs Pyrrha would happen during the tournament arc of Volume 3, and that it would end with Penny in pieces.
  • Many people were able to figure out that Velvet can copy weapons and styles with her camera from the first snapshot of Sun.
  • Considering his The Wonderful Wizard of Oz character inspiration, nobody was surprised that Ironwood is truly a tin man. He's got a cybernetic arm, and a large part of his body is made of metal.
  • People were calling Pyrrha dying since her introduction back in Volume 1.
  • Remember the narrator from the first episode? Well, people were able to guess that A. She's a character, and B. She's a villain. Say hello to Salem.
  • Quite a few fans predicted that Jaune would take up Pyrrha's equipment in some capacity following her death. He gets an updated set of equipment reforged from her gear at the end of Volume 4's first episode.
  • Yang getting a prosthetic limb from Ironwood was quickly predicted after Volume 3.
  • More than a few fans predicted Oscar having a connection to Ozpin, and so decided that his name must be the given name of the Wizard of Oz.
  • After the World of Remnant episode "The Four Maidens" streamed in early 2016, several fans immediately predicted that Ozpin was the Wizard from the tale. This was confirmed in the fifth volume.
  • Cinder surviving the Battle of Haven was predicted by nearly everyone even before she was spotted in the Volume 6 poster, and chapter 2 opens with her as if to say "We all know she survived, let's get it over with."
  • Fans called Maria having silver eyes as early as the moment that the opening of Volume 6 was released to the general public. It was finally confirmed by Volume 6's "Alone in the Woods".
  • Virtually everyone predicted that Penny would return during the Atlas volumes due to her robotic nature making her a prime candidate for cheating death. Sure enough, Volume 7's first episode shows her alive and well.
  • RWBY's habit of pulling Red Herring plot points, especially regarding who gets Maiden powers, meant few people seriously figured Winter would become the Winter Maiden after how blatantly she was set up to be the next candidate, with Nora and Penny being the most popular alternatives. Sure enough, Penny winds up becoming the next Winter Maiden in the Volume 7 finale "The Enemy of Trust". Then she dies and passes the power on to Winter in the next volume, showing that the setup wasn't for nothing.
  • Multiple people theorized about the identity of the Rusted Knight in the Volume 9 trailers, with most answers settling on Jaune Arc. Episode 5 confirms that to be correct, though fewer fans predicted he'd also be aged up.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater hands us a truly spectacular one in #1133: Sarda is the Onion Kid.
• Occurred in Amazoness with the revelation that Eutropia is a boy. At least one reader had guessed this several comics before, and by the time the actual reveal occurred a good number had already figured out where it was going.
• In Ctrl+Alt+Del, several fans speculated that Lucas's blind date Kate was wearing a fat suit as a Secret Test of Character to see if he was a nice guy, and upon the revelation she was thin they would become a couple.
  • The funniest part of this is that on 4Chan, the reasoning for this speculation was that it was the stupidest and most offensive ending Buckley could think of. Sure enough...
• Dragon Ball Multiverse: Back when the 18 vs. Yamcha fight started, a few fans predicted that Yamcha was actually a cyborg. A few pages later, this was confirmed.
• This has happened several times over the 10 year run of Drowtales, but the best example so far was when a fan correctly guessed that the second parent of the character Kalki was Mel'arnach Val'Sarghress. Most other fans dismissed this theory, in part because it would mean that both of her parents were women only for chapter 25 to show this to be exactly right.
• Done in-universe in Girl Genius's Cinderella parody by Mama Gkika/The Ugly Stepmother, when it's revealed she has correctly predicted how the story will end: Agatha/Cinderella wins by deploying a houseplant and a dead mouse.
  • After years of speculation by fans, it's finally revealed that Higgs is a Jäger General.
• In El Goonish Shive, the author Dan Shive has mentioned in commentaries instances where fans have have messaged him accurate predictions regarding certain plot points. Also in commentaries, he likes to tell readers to "give yourself a cookie," if you correctly predicted a plot point. A commonly-predicted reveal might get a line like, "And so it was that cookies rained from the heavens."
• Guilded Age: The masked warrior WAV being revealed as a resurrected Payet Best.
• Parodied in Gunnerkrigg Court, with the author proclaiming "I called it" on a reveal he himself wrote.
• Homestuck is a weird example of this. Mostly it's Ascended Fanon rather than this trope, because Andrew Hussie reads nearly all the fan theories and likes to incorporate them into the story. He stated at one point that "90% of 'calling it' is really influencing it in disguise". On the other hand, Hussie says that he never reads Homestuck fanfiction, so when a fanfic manages to predict some canon plot twist, we can be reasonably sure it's this trope. For example:
  • Red Dead Virgo ends with the alternate-universe trolls scratching their unwinnable SGRUB session, at which point Feferi (on the advice of the Horrorterrors) kills her friends^note well, she couldn't get to Kanaya or Eridan in time, and Vriska had already been killed by Jack Noir and herself, so they can persist as ghosts rather than getting erased in the Scratch—and then the Scratch creates canon Alternia. Months later, Homestuck canon revealed that the troll ancestors scratched their SGRUB session, and Meenah (Feferi's ancestor) killed her friends and herself so they would persist as ghosts, and then the Scratch created Alternia as we know it.
  • Quite a few Homestuck fans, especially on Tumblr, correctly guessed that Gamzee raised Calliope and Caliborn from birth and was responsible for Caliborn's becoming Lord English.
• This guest comic of The Last Days of FOXHOUND predicted an upcoming plot twist. Likewise, the author correctly deduced that a mental block was the reason why people call the Ancient Conspiracy "La-li-lu-le-lo" instead of their real name, The Patriots.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: In the lead-up to the Tournament Arc, a mysterious one-eyed angel began following the heroes, seemingly seeking out White Chain. From the very second this character was introduced, most of the fandom correctly guessed that he was 10 Vigilant Gaze, the friendly gatekeeper who expressed support for White Chain way back in Book Two. Appropriately, when The Reveal comes, the comic doesn't even try to pretend its a surprise:
  Pretty sure you know who this is by now.
• When William Aussek showed up in Mortifer, several people noticed that he was always smiling, wore gloves all the time, was a Neat Freak, Hates Being Touched, and that the readers never see his right eye (Both of his eyes are hidden behind massive sunglasses, but we can occasionally see his left eye through the lens). All of these traits also apply to the comic's resident Magnificent Bastard Joey Von Krause (Though he wears an Eyepatch instead of sunglasses). Naturally a few readers theorized that the two characters were one and the same. They were right.
• In Penny and Aggie, when Aggie came across Duane prostrate on the school floor, he claimed he was looking for a contact lens. A few fans speculated on the forum that he was engaging in Islamic prayer. A roughly equal number of fans said that was the most ridiculous and baseless speculation on the comic they'd ever heard. A few weeks later, the side-story arc "Conversion" revealed that Duane had indeed begun secretly exploring Islam.
• Tycho of Penny Arcade successfully predicted Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2006.
• Sticky Dilly Buns fairly heavily foreshadowed the reveal that Angel was gender-fluid, and a number of readers on the comic's discussion boards noted that their presentation was ambiguous, they used a women's toilet despite having presented as probably-male up until then, and the characters who knew Angel best never seemed to use gendered pronouns for them. And yet, other fans insisted loudly that Angel was obviously male.
• Tower of God - Slave.In.Utero's plot twists are generally unknowable and unpredictable, since the twists are planned but well concealed and there are Red Herrings a plenty, to the point where statement's about how S.I.U. would do it receive humored rejection from the get go, but fans actually managed to guess that Hwaryun not only played a major role in the series' background, but was actually working for Yu Hansung.

Web Original

• The Classic Doctor Who Twitter Blog basically runs on this, despite the proprietor being armed with major Late Arrival Spoilers.
• In The Saga of Tuck, the fact that Tuck (Valerie) is intersex.
• On the Sonic Stadium Message Board (due to external circumstances, it has received a total wipe), a few members had the assumption that, in Sonic Unleashed, newcomer Chip was really Light Gaia. (Of course, they had the aid of a translation of his Japanese bio...)
• Jobe is a side character in the Whateley Universe. He's a sociopathic Knight Templar who thinks he knows better than everyone else in the world. And he's only fourteen! He has a really unhealthy interest in biologically building a Drow body to be his perfect girlfriend. Several people predicted he'd accidentally get infected with his own serum. It just happened.
• You Suck at Photoshop; Donnie Hoyle is Dane Cook.
• El Chigüire Bipolar posted a publication about VTV getting their own streaming service in September 2019, and yes, it became true in April 2022.

Web Videos

• One Atop the Fourth Wall fan suggested that Mechakara was Linkara's robot Pollo, which was quickly seized on by many other posters. It turned out to be partially right; Linkara notes in a commentary on the final Mechakara episode that no one had guessed it was a Pollo from an Alternate Universe.
  • A lot of people guessed that the Entity was MissingNo... they're right.
  • In a much more fangirly use of the trope, The Nostalgia Critic's tie and Linkara's hat apparently do always stay on during sex, confirmed by "Spooning with Spoony".
  • And in a bit more sad/disturbingly funny case, it was kinda clear before they even said so that Critic and the The Nostalgia Chick had shitty childhoods.
  • Suburban Knights:
    • In the commentary, Lindsay says that the Chick and Critic have a "history". TGWTG shippers punched the air in joy.
    • A lot of people guessed that Ma-Ti would be the key to defeating the Big Bad. They were right, but no-one called that it would be a Heroic Sacrifice for Ma-Ti
  • A fair few fanfics suggested that the Chick would get over Spoony raping her by raping him right back, or at least showing him who's boss in the bedroom. She's so kind to us.
• When JonTron is talking about Kid Nation, in Part 1 he gets to the part where the young contestant Jimmy runs away to cry, and he points out how awkward it is and questioned if the camera man just found this kid and took advantage of poor Jimmy's breakdown since it'd make for a good clip for the show. In Part 2 when Jon is reviewing the now 21 year old Jimmy, he asks him about this — Jimmy confirms that he really did run away to cry and a camera man really did corner him and say "Can we film you? This will be pretty good!"
  Jon: He did! That's what I said! I made fun of it! That's really what happened!
• Many fans of Marble Hornets were convinced that the mysterious masked man (Masky) was actually Tim. Come Entry #35, they were proven right.
• During Super Best Friends Play Beyond Two Souls Matt, Pat and Woolie would start predicting the game's plot twists, reveals, identity of villains, and similar well in advance of discovering them. At several points Pat openly worried that the viewers would start calling bullshit because they were predicting the story with such accuracy they might as well have already played it.
• NicoB is surprisingly good at figuring out Danganronpa twists before they happen, which has led to his fans jokingly calling him the real Ultimate Clairvoyant.

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