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alt title(s): You Should Know This Already Congratulations! After plenty of Hype Aversion and general laziness, you finally decided to check out that series everyone's talking about. You go to the DVD store, buy the first season, set up your DVD player, turn on the TV, crack open the DVD case and...
... wait a minute. Isn't that a commercial for the latest season? Why is the first season's ruthless and merciless Big Bad being all chummy-chummy with the main protagonists? You mean he's going to turn good?!
Feeling annoyed that a major event has just been spoiled for you? Irritated? Enraged? Well, bad luck pal. Because you came in too late, you've just borne witness to a Late Arrival Spoiler.
Basically, this is when a particular revelation in a current work is spoiled by official sources and merchandise. This could be due to a number of factors, like the toy division making an action figure of one of the heroes post- Face Heel Turn, or showing them off on the front cover ( Fan Dumb and unoffical sources do not qualify). In any case, it all boils down to being spoiled because you started too late. Hence, it's a Late Arrival Spoiler.
Sometimes hard to avoid in shows that feature major changes in setting and cast line-up that hinge on major plot twists in previous seasons. The Season 1 Big Bad is a major player on the good guys' side in Season 4 — how exactly are you going to hide that in promos just for the sake of not spoiling the people who haven't watched Season 3 yet?
If the spoiler in question is common knowledge to people in general, then It Was His Sled. Compare Trailers Always Spoil and Spoiler Opening, when the plot is spoiled before the fans even get their hands on the product. Arguably a subset of All There Is To Know About The Crying Game.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- School Days: Nowadays, people only start watching it knowing that Sekai ends up killing the male lead and Kotonoha ends up killing Sekai and carrying the male lead's dead, rotting head onto a yacht in a Downer Ending.
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Different spoilers for different series, most of these are spoiled if you bother to read the series that come after them.
- Part 1: Jonathan Joestar dies and takes Dio's head with him, and Will Zeppelli dies to save Jonathan early on.
- Part 2: Joseph survives his fight with Cars, but Caeser dies fighting Wham.
- Part 3: Dio survived the events of Part 1 by taking Jonathan's body (which retroactively spoils the end of Part 1) and gains a stand that can stop time. Anybody familiar with the Memetic Mutation surrounding Dio knows about his stand stopping time, but in the series proper, none of the heroes knew until they actually fought him, with Kakyoin sacrificing himself to give the rest of them a clue.
- In Afro Samurai, Kuma being Afro's childhood friend, Jinno is treated as this, not only in the second movie, Resurrection, but even on the season one website. Then again, It's not a particularly big spoiler, since even when broadcast in episode rather than movie format, it's revealed the same episode Kuma is.
- Not many people may remember that Chibi-Usa being the daughter of Sailor Moon was once a late second-season revelation. Once she became Sailor Chibi-Moon, it was everywhere.
- Same with Usagi being the Moon Princess in the first season. The manga and live action version play Sailor Venus up as the real princess until the reveal by having her pretend to be her to keep Usagi safe until she regains her memories of her past life. The anime goes through several candidates (Princess Dia, Rei and Minako) before the reveal. Immediately after said reveal, the spoiler went public on covers and merchandise.
- Considering her current role as The Lancer, not to mention the insane amount of official and fanmade art depicting both her and The Hero attached by the hip, it will be very surprising indeed if anyone who has even heard of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha doesn't know that Fate pulls a Heel Face Turn. Hayate and the Wolkenritter get this, too, to a lesser extent — see the Megami cover at the top of the page.
- Given their prominent placement in art for StrikerS Sound Stage X and ViVid, Cinque, Nove, Dieci and Wendi's Heel Face Turn, as well as Vivio's true nature, are headed toward this.
- Though Fuuma's Face Heel Turn in X1999 is treated as a surprise when it happens, official art and the opening of the anime series explicitly show him locked in combat with the main character, so whether any viewers of the anime were actually shocked by this revelation is debatable. The suspicious absence of Kotori in other art also foreshadows the Wham Episode pretty heavily to the point that it's fairly easy to guess what's going to happen to her (the Waif Prophet even all but says it at several points).
- Saori being the avatar of Athena in Saint Seiya is revealed about mid way through the first season, and after that it's treated this way in official art and other media.
- In the Spanish opening, they reveal the existence of the other Gold Cloths and the redesigned Sagittarius gold cloth, all of which is supposed to be a secret (even from most of the characters) till episode 30.
- Any attempt to summarize the plot of Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie will spoil the ending of the first anime series; Ed gets transported to our world while saving Al, and Al is trying to reunite with him.
- Depending on how far you've gotten in the series, which incarnation it is, and how suspicious/trusting you have been, you may or may not be surprised that the Führer is BAD and Mustang and his entourage are basically good people, but these get to be a given pretty much ever after they are revealed.
- In an interview about the Naruto Shippuden dub, Tara Platt (who plays Temari) nonchalantly mentioned the death of one of her character's brothers which happens in Part 2/Shippuden, when talking about things fans have told her about. To make matters worse, the writer of the article felt the need to remove any doubt :which brother she was talking about adding the character's name in brackets.
- Sasori's true form has recently been shown fairly prominently in advertisements for Naruto video games, including the evidence that he is actually a human puppet.
- Try to find a piece of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch merchandise with evil, black-haired, end-the-world-and-kill-my-ex Sara on it. Even though she spends most of the series this way, you won't succeed. Anything with her on it proudly displays the orange-haired, reformed Sara of the end of the first season. I suppose a good princess is more marketable than a villain, but seriously, she's on the team for an episode and a half before she dies anyway, so what's the point?
- The cover for the Mai-HiME Vol. 6 DVD shows Shizuru and Natsuki standing back-to-back, facing away from each other with sad expressions on their faces. A few episodes into the disc, Shizuru reveals herself as the last HiME and turns evil, and Natsuki is eventually forced to fight her.
- In Germany this cover was used for Vol. 5 already, where there were practically no episodes focusing on these two.
- Death Note. You can't even talk about Near and Mello without accidentally spoiling the fact that Ryuzaki dies. (It's not completely impossible, but it requires rhetorical acrobatics that also require you to conveniently neglect to mention that they were raised to be L's successors.)
- Granted, anyone Genre Savvy could've guessed that Ryuzaki dies. Especially if you're reading the manga, since he's on every volume cover up to the one where he dies, where he's depicted upside-down.
- Then again, the manga volumes and DV Ds containing the part where he dies are conveinently able to allude to the event without explicitly describing it, even when Near and Mello make their debut before the end. Then again, most will notice that subsequent volumes tend to assume that the reader knows about L's death and his successors.
- Not to mention that the second episode where L has Lind L. Tailor pretend to be him was spoiled for this troper due to the fact that she had already read comics about the series before deciding to watch it and already knew what L looked like.
- People in general, and This Wiki in particular, are so fond of using Suzumiya Haruhi's big Reveal about the title character's nature for fandom jokes that it's practically no longer a reveal. Check out, for example, the image captions on Suspiciously Apropos Music and Genki Girl (spoilers if you've managed to avoid it). Many people don't even consider it a spoiler.
- An ad for the books in Shonen Jump mentions the twist while explaining the premise of the series.
- In fact, watching the episodes in in-story chronological order (the order in which the episodes were released in America, naturally) turns half the anime series into You Should Know This Already.
- As for things that anyone would consider a spoiler, any merchandise with Asakura Ryouko on it tends to advertise her as an alien computer as well as a Yandere Knife Nut, and sometimes even Yuki's first Evil Counterpart.
- It's worth mentioning that both of these are revealed in the first volume of the manga adaptation. Second chapter, to boot.
- And good luck getting anyone who isn't a fan of Slice Of Life works to read a book about 5 kids in a school in Japan. Haruhi's nature is the series' hook, and because of that much of the first novel is ruined, but most people wouldn't even start reading if they didn't already know. The trouble is trying to ignore spoilers for further books. I know there's 8 now, but even if you watch the Anime you only know most of 1-3 and the premise for 4, which people seem to LOVE to spoil.
- Recently, on this Wiki, and even on Fanfiction.net, the fact that Yuki Nagato was behind the plot of Disappearance is thrown left and right. It was totally her sled.
- Many of the Straw Hats' joining the crew in One Piece; the anime often assumes that the viewers have read the manga already and will not be surprised to see them as part of the crew in openings, endings or commercials. The first five Straw Hats are shown in the crew in the first opening and the first three are shown in the first manga volume (which ends when Luffy first meets Nami). Robin was shown in the crew in the third opening, despite it being twenty episodes before her Heel Face Turn. Brook was shown in ads for One Piece: Unlimited Cruise late in the Thriller Bark arc. The only true exceptions seem to be Franky and Chopper.
- Many of the villains' or the Straw Hats' other enemies being as such are surprises in the manga when they initially seem to be harmless characters, but are known by the time of the anime adaptation, especially Kuro, Tashigi, the Number Agents in Whiskey Peak (including Vivi, whose being revealed as The Mole puts her in a double You Should Know This Already), the four CP9 agents infiltrating the Galley-La company and Dr. Hogback, such as when they are shown in openings as villains.
- The Going Merry "dies" and is replaced by the Thousand Sunny.
- The 6th opening had nearly all of the Enies Lobby arc spoiled, and for an unknown reason, it was replaced after 16 episodes. Most of the events it spoiled hadn't even happened when it was replaced.
- Vegeta and Trunks are shown as Super Saiyans in the third opening to Dragon Ball Z, which debuted one episode before Trunks had even appeared in the series. Likewise, Chichi and Goku as newlyweds appear in the fourth Dragon Ball ending, which debuted the same episode as the all-grown-up versions of the characters, but a good number of episodes before Chichi had been reintroduced.
- In Bleach, Aizen is the Big Bad, and kidnaps Orihime in the Arrancar arc.
- Setsuna's Wing Pull in Mahou Sensei Negima was a surprising twist the first time it was revealed. Nowadays however, you'd likely be more surprised to learn that it was meant to be a surprise. As Asuna herself said, the wings are cool, thus, several pictures featuring Setsuna, like, say... the covers for some of the Video Game adaptations, depict her in all her spoilery winged glory.
- Heck, when Setsuna was first introduced, everybody suspected her of being a spy for the Kansai mages, until The Reveal that she was one of the good guys. Of course, that was in volume 4 of over 20 existing ones, so everybody knows now.
- Negima has a lot of this: Evangeline is an uberpowerful vampire, Takamichi is a famous mage, Chao is Negi's descendant, Asuna has Anti Magic and is a princess, etc. Just about anyone who sees these on this wiki (except maybe the 2nd half of the last one) then reads the manga will be surprised that these were supposed to be plot twists.
- Also, Kotarō does a Heel Face Turn.
- The biggest one is probably that Fate Averruncus is the Big Bad. Reading around this site one would think that this is common knowledge, despite the fact that he doesn't appear to be a major character until the 20th volume, his last previous appearance being in volume 6 as a henchman for that arc's antagonist.
- In a similar vein, it is not physically possible to mention Negima on this site without someone bringing up that it's a shōnen manga disguised as a harem comedy. One wonders what new readers to Negima who happen to be avid tropers will think about how long it takes to actually get to the shōnen.
- For clarification: it's mostly Love Hina-ish in the first two volumes. Volume 3 sees the first real fights starting up, with the first real shōnen arc going from volumes 4-6. It gets more action oriented from thereon finally cementing itself as a shōnen series with a Tournament Arc several volumes later, although it still retains plenty of evidence of it's Unwanted Harem roots, comedy, and Fanservice.
- We have, however, at least tried to restrict the identity of the School Festival arc's Big Bad to Spoiler territory.
- Not to mention the fact that Negi learns Black Magic. Even the volume covers of the manga spoil that one.
- Axis Powers Hetalia is based on rather basic history, so it obviously will invoke this trope. The Axis Powers lose. But on the more personal levels for the characters, it's assumed that every fan has at least read the strip "America Cleans Out the Storage", which is a Tear Jerker in a comedy series.
- Lots of fans still treat the fact that there are two (actually, three) Syaorans in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as a spoiler (or, alternatively, the fact that Watanuki from xxxHolic is a clone of Syaoran), even though both of them appeared on the cover together for a recent manga volume.
- The fact that Fai had his left eye torn out and eaten by one of the aforementioned Syaorans, and to a lesser extent the fact he's a vampire dependent on Kurogane's blood as a result, is also still treated as a spoiler by some fans...despite the fact he's sporting an eyepatch in almost every subsequent cover and official art. At least until he got it back in a later chapter...
- The DVD case of Desert Punk shows what the main character looks like without his mask and the dub credits (though oddly not the credits for the Japanese cast) also spoil what his real name is by billing him as such, when we don't find out either until episode 3.
- The manga is a better example. They show Hanyuu and Shion in omake before they appear, leading people who have never played the sound novels or watched the anime to wonder why Mion's hair is down (you could just think it's a fanservice omake thing, though) and who that girl with the horns is.
- Hey, at least all of the above waited until the spoiler had actually happened in the show. Not Fresh Pretty Cure. Setsuna Higashi/Eas defects from the evil Labyrinth organization, undergoes a Heel Face Turn and gains a new identity as the fourth Fresh Cure, Cure Passion. This development might have been a bit more more surprising if the merchandising department hadn't insisted on spoiling this twist left and right at least a month beforehand.
- Planetes: Due to the Evolving Credits, anyone who sees a late season version of the intro will be horrifically spoiled on 2 major characters who Face Heel Turn.
- Back in 1996, Van's wings in Vision Of Escaflowne were major spoilers. Nowadays, nearly half
 ◊ of◊ the◊ official◊ art◊ show them, including the box set◊. That's right, you get spoiled just trying to buy the damn show.
- Any story summary for Monster has to reveal that Tenma decides to save the young boy in the first episode, who turns out to be a homicidal genius and the Big Bad of the series.
- A couple covers for later volumes of Twentieth Century Boys feature a thinly-mustached man who looks a great deal like Kenji Endo. Who was supposed to be dead after the first story arc concluded.
- Any attempt to cover that
GerardSiegrain or Ultear from Fairy Tail were villains who slipped into the council in order to manipulate it for their own personal gain are half-hearted at best. No one really attempts to hide that Siegrain is really a guy named Gerard who used illusions to trick everyone into thinking Siegrain was another person (his twin, if anyone saw both of them) either. The only thing people try to cover up is that Gerard was a villain because Ultear brainwashed him. Wait... no. They don't care if that one gets out either.
Comics
- A popular arc of Superman featured a warped and bizarre Metropolis in which the villainous Superman every night busted out and had to be brought back to jail by the resident superhero, Bizarro. The reason behind this sudden change and the entity responsible? The mystery was tightly kept during the original release, but the fact that the paperback collection was titled Emperor Joker ruined the big surprise.
- The second issue of Marvel's Thunderbolts comic had an retailer's incentive alternate cover that showed the team in their original Masters of Evil guises. This cover was also used as the cover of the first collected edition.
- Similar to the first example, the trade paperback for one Transformers story was called Transformers: Legacy of Unicron. This was a big deal when the comic was first published: the title was blanked in the table of contents.
- When Mary Jane first appeared in Spider-man, she was initially The Faceless, and the fact that she was a complete fox instead of just plain was a huge surprise to Peter Parker as well as his friends ("Face it, tiger; You just hit the jackpot"). Of course, now that the cat's out of the bag, it's virtually impossible to view this as a surprise thanks to her immense popularity as well as her countless depictions in the media.
- While that was the first time Peter Parker (and the readers) saw Mary Jane's face, other characters had seen her before, and remarked that she was quite gorgeous.
- The trade paperback for Marvel 1602 has a foreword by a critic... I really should have known better than to read it. Although it doesn't quite spoil the ending it does a large part of the middle; namely, the death of Queen Elizabeth, and that the heroes end up in America.
- There's something about Neil Gaiman and spoileriffic forewords. Frank McConnell's foreword to the Sandman trade paperback "The Kindly Ones" actually features the line, "Dream dies at the end." Not only that, but McConnell is utterly unapologetic about spoiling it for people who haven't read the comic yet: "Sorry to bust your bubble, but this is a tragedy, or at least, as classically tragedy has been written in a long time, so you should know at the outset how it's going to end." Thanks, Frank, but if Neil Gaiman felt that way, he probably would have started with that scene and flashed back, or had a Greek chorus tell us how the arc would end, or DO ANYTHING BUT TELL THE STORY IN A LINEAR CHRONOLOGICAL FASHION.
- There is a clue in one of the earlier comics: Destiny looks in his book and sees an image of "Dream, clothed all in white and with white hair.".
- The title of the first post-Civil War Captain America TPB? Captain America: The Death of Captain America. While yes, there was a huge media blitz about it when it happened, it kind of sucks for new readers, or people in other countries who didn't get that hype.
Films — Animation
- Trailers and merchandise for Shrek 2 and 3 both obviously and inevitably spoil what was a huge surprise in the first movie: Fiona turns into an ogre.
- The 2-disc DVD edition of Disney's Aladdin starts with several movie trailers before you reach the main DVD menu. Including the trailer for Aladdin: The Return of Jafar. Where he, you know, returns. As a genie.
- And Heaven forbid anyone watch the Aladdin TV show before seeing that Iago did a Heel Face Turn in The Return of Jafar. The Disney Channel aired several episodes in April 1994 before the company's video department released that sequel in May, and thus he was somewhat perturbed for weeks about Iago "being all chummy-chummy" with the crew, perching harmlessly on Jasmine's shoulder, etc.
Films — Live Action
- Let's not forget Star Wars: it's hard to find anyone that doesn't know that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, even if they've never watched any of the movies.
- The VHS release of Star Wars opened with a trailer for the full trilogy on video, including the line "Is Darth Vader my father?" from Jedi, ensuring that even the most ignorant first-time viewers weren't surprised.
- Most people saw the original trilogy before the prequels, so a few key plot points were already ruined for them. The biggest ones were Anakin Skywalker turning to evil, Palpatine's secret identity as a Sith Lord, and, of course, knowing which characters survive long enough to be in the sequels.
- Palpatine wasn't actually named on film in the original trilogy, being referred to only as "Emperor". So, theoretically, if you never saw any of the action figures, comics, books or other non-movie material, or paid attention to the credits and realized it was the same actor in the prequels as in Return of the Jedi, you might not know. Until the last film came out, there was some discussion among Star Wars fans (who obviously would know) that Lucas might pull one out of the hat and reveal Sidious wasn't really Palpatine. He was.
- Not so theoretical. I did NOT catch that ahead of time, and did catch that as a surprise. A quick count did show one too many bad guys left alive for the start of III, but that extra one goes quickly at the start of III.
- Trailers for Episode III naturally gave away the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader as the main selling point for seeing the movie in the first place, and attempted to subvert the trope by teasing the audience into exactly how this transformation comes about. People who had been reading supplemental materials, however, knew it would happen in a Battle Amongst The Flames between Anakin and Obi-Wan.
- Since Anakin becoming Vader had been known since Episode 5, how could that possibly be considered a spoiler?
- The soundtrack CD for The Phantom Menace was released before the film. Two tracks were called Qui-Gon's Noble End and The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral.
- Lampshaded mercilessly by Ansem Retort Darth Maul, who was shown as being oblivious that Qui-Gon died, complaining to Marluxia that "some people haven't seen this movie yet." This is made more absurd when one considers that his introduction into the comic included whining about his fate in the end of the movie.
- Planet of the Apes ends with a Planet Of The Apes Ending. For those who still don't know this, the fact that the DVD covers have a massive Statue of Liberty in the background, should give you a pretty big hint.
- The Movie of Speed Racer hangs a lampshade that Racer X is Rex Racer, with the twist that he isn't Speed's brother except he still is, just he has had plastic surgery.
- The final shot of Being There is often spoiled by reviewers, biographies and documentaries of Peter Sellers (as well as the 2004 biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), and even TV promos (and the trailers for that biopic). What's really sad is that it's an unusually powerful Twist Ending in that it forces the viewer to rethink what they know about Chance The Gardener — as said at the Misaimed Fandom entry, perhaps the viewer WASN'T as privy to his actual nature as they thought... or was she? Plus, it's a sudden injection of sheer fantasy into what was a fairly realistic satire up to that moment. That said though, given the reasons it tends to be spoiled — it's the Crowning Moment Of Awesome for both the character and perhaps the actor (it was conceived as a response to how well the movie and his performance were working), as well as a starting point for discussions about the film — it's perhaps more justifiable than other examples of this trope.
- Heck, the shot is often used on the cover.
- Because it's been in so many other Batman media anyway, it's impossible not to know that Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face. The only question in any of the series is how, and when. Still, there was an interview with Aaron Eckhart in the July/August 08 Men's Health. It lists his movie roles, including his turn in The Dark Knight as "Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Harvey Two-Face". Which kind of blew the surprise considering that nobody knew if he actually would become Two-Face during that film or not. Of course he did!
- Also something that might have thrown people by the Burton/Schumacher films: Harvey Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams in the first movie, and Tommy Lee Jones (as Two-Face) in the third. Lest you think that changing actors can be done subtly, Williams is Black and Jones is White.
- There are plenty of people who are going to be upset, but shouldn't be, about The Express's built-in Downer Ending: Ernie Davis died of leukemia two years after the film's signature Crowning Moment Of Awesome. Some of the current commercials Lampshade this (probably hoping to stave off such a reaction), but still...
- Thanks to pretty much every movie and television show at the time and since parodying it, it's pretty hard not to know that Thelma and Louise has a Bolivian Army Ending with the titular ladies driving their car off a cliff.
- Most of the marketing for the Watchmen movie falls under Trailers Always Spoil in that it's not very subtle about Veidt being the real villain. However, the bio for Rorschach on Facebook includes an audio clip of his journal, one of which has him flat out stating this fact. Commercials also reveal Rorschach's face, spoiling his identity for anyone who hadn't already read the graphic novel, or knew the character's actor.
- The soundtrack for the fifth Harry Potter film spoils the fact that Sirius dies with a song titled Sirius Dies.
- Scream: As Ghostface put it: "You should know that the killer was Mrs. Voorhees, Jason never appeared until the sequel!"
- The Academy Awards themselves actually manage to spoil the big surprise of The Crying Game by nominating a certain member of the cast for Best Supporting Actor.
- "It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people." Parodied to death and so unavoidable it's hardly worth bothering with the spoiler tags. Heck, if you type Soylent Green in Google's search bar it suggests the spoiler to you, before you even hit Enter.
- Trailers for the movie exist that spoil the entire plot, including the iconic line.
- The trailers to Hannibal obviously reveal that Hannibal escaped in Silence of the Lambs.
- Also, ask anyone about the characters in Silence of the Lambs and you're bound to get "A crazy guy who makes clothes out of women's skin.", a fact that isn't revealed in the movie until the 3rd Act, where it's a big reveal, and one of the changes from the book that is for the better (in the book Hannibal reveals that Bill is making a woman suit, and the revelation is relegated to "He knows how to sew".
- A Shot in the Dark was the second film in Peter Sellers' Pink Panther film series and it's the one where all the elements of the later films in the series are introduced. But because it doesn't have "Pink Panther" in the title, it's likely to be one of the last films of the series you're going to watch. There are two elements in this film that were played as plot twists that became unsurprising Running Gags in the later films:
- Early in the film, a sinister looking Asian man attacks Clouseau in his own bedroom! It's Clouseau's own manservant Cato, whom Clouseau has actually orderd to constantly attack him so Clousau will always be Crazy Prepared for an attack.
- Later in the film, a shadowy figure stalks Clouseau and makes several attempts on his life! Is it the killer? No, it's Clouseau's own boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, who's been driven Axe Crazy by Clouseau's shenanigans. This "twist" not only became a Running Gag, but became the main plot of The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
- The American DVD case and menu for Audition spoil the major Genre Shift twist in the second half of the movie.
- The iconic scene from Say Anything, where Lloyd is holding the boombox over his head, is now the cover art for the film.
- Star Trek III The Searchfor Spock. Search? Did something happen to Spock in the last movie?
- The 2009 Star Trek movie has its DVD description explaining that Nero is from the future. And some sneak peaks of the movie also include that Nero is looking for the elder Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy.
- The opening credits of The Final Destination play across CGI reenactments of spectacular deaths from the prior three films, potentially depleting their shock-value for anyone seeing this installment first. Partially averted, as the reenactments use skeletal figures in the role of victims, hence the identity of who'd gotten killed in each manner is left in doubt.
Literature
- Twilight: Edward is a vampire. You can glean that the back of the book. This despite the fact that Stephenie Meyer tries to keep the reader guessing what Edward's deal is for about the first half of the book. I say "tries" because she isn't at all successful.
- Certain editions of the Discworld book Guards! Guards! contains character summaries of the "Duke of Ankh, Commander" Vimes, and "Captain" Carrot. For those who don't know, this is the first book of the Watch series, and it ends with a still-drunken Captain Vimes, and a still-naive Lance-Corporal Carrot.
- By the way, the character summaries of these editions are found all the way back in the first book of Discworld, which doesn't even have the City Watch. In fact only four of the seventeen characters in the summaries are even in the book and only two of those played a major part.
- The Harper Torch printings of the older Discworld books tend to assume you've read them already, so they tend to have fairly spoileriffic images on the cover. To their credit, the spoiler usually doesn't make sense until you have read the book, but it's still not cool to put the gonne on the cover of Men at Arms.
- The story endings of many classics turn into this, especially so with Shakespeare's works. Everyone knows the ending to Romeo and Juliet (pictured), and to Hamlet, and to Julius Caesar, and to Macbeth. (Romeo and Juliet even mentions in the prologue that both the title characters die.) The lesser known works such as Othello are still at risk but way better than the Big Five. This happens with a few Dickens novels, especially A Christmas Carol, but Tale of Two Cities, despite always getting talked about in popular media, is an odd aversion of this. Everyone know it's starting line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" but very few people know more than that. Especially the quasi-Hero Quest of Sydney Carton as he tries to redeem himself.
- My copy (published 2009) manages to say that Carton dies on the back of the book.
- Shakespeare may or may not apply here, as the stories were often The Oldest Ones In The Book, just reborn for a modern audience. Not only should everyone already know these stories, but typically everyone already did.
- The Reveal at the ending of The Wheel of Time's first book? Rand is the Dragon Reborn. The cover of the third book? A triumphant Rand, with the words "The Dragon Reborn" written in big, bold letters. Although in all fairness, it was pretty obvious from about halfway into
the first book the third chapter.
- The front cover art of Alan Dean Foster's The Moment of the Magician spoils what is clearly written to be a surprise, that the new evil magician in town is a kid's party magician who stumbled in from our own world, and now his lame magic works.
- Haven't read the first three books in Chris D'Lacy's Dragons series? The blurb on the fourth book doesn't seem to care, since it reveals right on the inside that David, the protagonist of the first three books, dies at the end of the third book.
- Likewise, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as originally conceived, was a mystery. You weren't supposed to know Hyde was Jekyll all potioned up. Thanks to numerous film adaptations, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the phrase being constantly (mis)used in popular culture, it's not a mystery any more!
- Instead, it's Dramatic Irony.
- A fact which in itself may or may not be situational irony ...
- One of the reviews on the back of The City of Ember says "The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next installment."
- Little Women: Beth dies. Laurie marries Amy.
- Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None: The Judge did it, Murder On The Orient Express: everyone did it, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: the Unreliable Narrator did it.
- In the ending of The Matrix Revolutions, Neo dies in a Heroic Sacrifice against Smith. This plot twist is spoiled in an ad for The Matrix Online, which mentions the factions fighting over "the legacy of Neo's sacrifice."
- In some parts of the Warrior Cats fandom, something only counts as a spoiler if it happened in a book that came out less than a month ago. If the book is more than a month old, well... You Should Have Read It Already...
- The author seems to act like everyone should know what happens in the first series, too, considering how much of it she spoils in the spin-offs. Also no one, literally no one, calls Firestar "Fireheart", because everyone should know that Bluestar dies and he becomes leader in Book 6. Most Official Couples are also treated as common knowledge.
- And there's the blurb for Sunrise, which spoils the climax of the previous book. Yay!
- The award goes to the Tigerstar and Sasha manga, since the title itself is a spoiler for Moonrise.
- Subverted in some Harry Potter books: in particular, Book 2, 3 and 4 carefully avoid revealing some plot twists from the previous books. Examples:
- At the end of Book 1 it's revealed that Quirrel is evil. That's not mentioned in Book 2, 3 and 4 (Harry says it during a DADA class in Book 5).
- At the end of Book 3 it's revealed that Wormtail is actually Pettigrew, and Pettigrew is actually Scabbers the rat. In Book 4, Wormtail is never called Pettigrew and his special ability (turning himself into a rat) is never explicitly mentioned.
- Do note that fans had enough time to read the books during the Three Year Summer.
- First words on the back of the second Tawny Man book by Robin Hobb? Nighteyes is dead. Thanks a lot.
- If you're going to read the blurb of a sequel before reading the first book, then you probably deserve everything you get.
- In the Blue is for Nightmares series, Jacob dies at the end of Silver is for Secrets. This is helpfully revealed on the back of the sequel Red is for Remembrance. Of course, the back of Black is for Beginnings helpfully notes out that he actually was Not Dead Yet.
- Enoch Root, of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle is immortal. Treated as a surprise in Cryptonomicon, but since he's the very first character to appear in The Baroque Cycle (which takes place somewhere in the range of 300 years earlier), you'll know he's Really Seven Hundred Years Old even if all you know about him from Cryptonomicon is that he appeared in that book.
- French translation of the title of Lois McMaster Bujold's first book in the Vorkosigan series, Shards of Honor, was Cordelia Vokosigan, calling the heroine by her married name, said marriage occuring at the very end of the book and being quite hard-won by that time.
Live Action TV
- The big twist in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that Angel is a vampire, is pretty lame if you've seen any other season, or any preview for his own show.
- In the DVD Commentary, Joss Whedon mentions that he was surprised that so few people figured this out before The Reveal, and he'd assumed everybody would.
- Yes, because that scene in the second episode (or part 2 of the first episode, depending on how you look at it) where he's half shown in sunlight is really a dead giveaway to his vampirism. In his defense, I suppose, half of the named vampires in the show are shown being exposed to sunlight without burning at some time or another, but still, that's not exactly the best evidence, since we don't get to see that happen until much much later.
- Likewise, Angel's fate is spoiled from the beginning. You know any deaths or Face Heel Turns he undergoes in Buffy will have to be temporary.
- Same can be said for Spike's Heel Face Turns.
- How about any episode of either show where characters mention events on conversations that took place during their guest spot on the other show, usually making vague enough references that you can usually get the gist of what happened, but sometimes being so damn vague that the only way to fully understand everything is to have watched the other show in the first place.
- The ending to season 2 isn't as interesting knowing Angel gets his own spin-off series in a couple of seasons. It was still very dramatic and emotional, though. Actually, it ruined season 3 more, since much of the first half of season 3 had Angel's return and recovery as a subplot.
- Also in Buffy, UK channel Sky One ran previews for the season five finale which showed Buffy's gravestone, running it constantly so that everyone watching TV would know how the episode ended.
- DVD menus are a great place to spoil huge twists (even though they're usually twists that are already known by anyone with basic familiarity with the movie or show). For example, to watch the X-Files episode "End Game" you have to click on a still from the episode showing Samantha Mulder's face bleeding green blood, revealing not only that the Samantha featured in this and the previous episode was fake, but also that she dies.
- Every single episode (and nearly as many episode previews) of Babylon 5 after the first season spoils Delenn's transformation. Even sillier is the intro to Season 5: in less than a minute, it manages to spoil every major plot point of the previous four seasons.
- This was pretty much unavoidable for Prison Break. People still watching Season 1 when Season 2 began airing were treated not only to the fact that they break out and are on the run from the law, but also who survived/escaped and who didn't by showing the entire team of escapees. Then people watching Season 1 or 2 when Season 3 comes out were greeted with the fact the team are re-captured and put into a new prison.
- 24 Season 2 relies on your knowledge that Nina was the mole and killed Teri Bauer.
- David Palmer dying at the start of Season 5 is spoiled on the back of the DVD collection, as is Jack faking his death at the end of the previous season.
- Tony's return in season four was meant to be a surprise. Which would have worked better in Scandinavia, had the DVD box set not featured him on the actual disc covering episodes set before he actually shows up.
- Also, Tony being not quite dead in season seven must have been one of the worst kept secrets of all time.
- Numerous Doctor Who episodes feature surprise reappearances by The Daleks. Of course this is given away by the fact that almost every single one of those episodes, including the one in the Christopher Eccleston series, includes the word "Dalek" in the on-screen episode title. It also happened quite frequently with the Cybermen.
- Many of these Dalek episodes in fact contain a curious inversion of this trope; in several case, the actual appearance of the Daleks or Cybermen will be treated as a sudden shocking, dramatic moment, or even an "oh my God what a shocker!" episode cliffhanger, as if the producers actually thought that You Shouldn't Know This Already even though their eventual appearance would be known and expected by anyone who, oh, looked at the title.
- Apparently the writers managed to catch onto this with the Cybermen on at least one occasion, as their reintroductory episode in Peter Davison's tenure (after a six year absence) was purposefully not titled "X of the Cybermen".
- Often the writers (and occasionally even the directors) created it so the revelation of the returning foe or foes was given great weight, only to have the script editor or producer change the title to showcase said foe. For instance, the serial scripted as "The Deadly Experiments" used the revelation that the Sontarans were behind the experiments as the only cliffhanger. Writer Robert Holmes was very unhappy to learn at a late stage that it had been retitled "The Sontaran Experiment" but the cliffhanger left intact.
- One aversion of the trope occurred in the story titled, "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". The first episode was run with the title "Invasion" to prevent spoiling the appearance of dinosaurs at the end of the episode. Subsequent episodes ran the full title.
- The new series is particularly nasty example of this trope since it's so damn popular, so the marketing material tends to assume everybody and their robot dog has already seen the latest episode and happily puts massive spoilers on the DVD covers.
- And the BBC website just spoiled the upcoming Christmas special. In September. Apparently, the Master's back.
- In the UK, the latest season of Lost is being advertised all over the place with the Spoileriffic slogan "We know Locke's dead. Right?"
- The season 3 DV Ds contain a booklet that goes beyond giving brief descriptions of every episode into spoiling major twists (the description of the finale mentions casually what occurs in Jack's flashforward)...which is bad, since some people wait for the DV Ds to watch the show instead of watching it on air with constant breaks.
- The first half of Burn Notice Season 2 ended on September 18th, 2008 on a cliffhanger; the bad guys try to blow up Mike. His fate is unknown. The trailers for the second half of the season, airing January 22nd, 2009, clearly show the cliffhanger. Said trailers started airing in late October. Think about that for a second. Just... work it out.
- Said trailers were also airing during the catchup marathon before the episode.
- The sci-fi blog io9 cheerfully revealed, in a headline, that Leonard Nimoy would be on Fringe.
- Yes, and so did all the ads, but they didn't tell you who his character was, or when he'd show up, or where he was going to be, and I won't either. Watch the show, spoiler readers- hopefully there's a DVD by now.
- Or, if comments like the previous one annoy you and you want to know anyway, read this: Nimoy plays William Bell, Bishop's former partner and the chairman of Massive Dynamics. You're welcome.
- On the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "The Wire", Garak tells several (conflicting) stories about his past as a spy with his friend Elim. The end of the episode reveals that Elim is simply Garak's first name. But you'd be hard pressed to find a reference to Garak, including the DS 9 page on This Very Wiki, that doesn't list him as "Elim Garak", which pretty much takes the sting out of the episode.
- Beautifully parodied and lampshaded in Stargate SG-1 episode 200. Every ad on Sci-Fi showed Richard Dean Anderson in the episode. When the episode aired, Samantha Carter's line after General O'Neill's appearance on screen was stated that this would have been spoiled in all the advertisements.
- Dollhouse watchers who didn't catch the ninth episode when it aired were probably pretty upset if they happened to visit the Television Without Pity website the next day - where the major plot twist of the episode, Dominic's reveal as the mole and an undercover NSA agent, was given away in the blurb for the recaplet on the front page.
- Alias has the big twist of the first season finale (that Sidney's mother not only is alive, but she is evidently the Big Bad of the show up to that point) ruined by the covers of the DVD's for the second season. And the twist for the second season's finale is also detailed in the back covers for the third season DVD's. And the covers for the fourth season DVD's prominently feature Nadia, Sidney's half-sister and whose existence was also a secret in the third season. It's almost a miracle that the fifth season DVD covers do not reveal anything about the show at that point.
- M*A*S*H ends its third season with Henry Blake getting killed on the way home from Korea. Several subsequent episodes allude to this.
- All of the promos for Chuck season 3 show him using his super-kung fu skills, which was an out-of-nowhere twist for season two.
Video Games
- Every time someone uses the correct pronoun for Samus, they spoil the Tomato Surprise of the first Metroid. This was already spoiled in Super Metroid by the standard Game Over sequence. The trailer for Super Smash Bros Brawl blatantly displays Zero Suit Samus. A lot of younger players don't even realize it was ever supposed to be a secret that Samus Is A Girl.
- Numerous previews of Knights of the Old Republic 2 spoiled the big plot twist of the first game.
- As did many articles about the game beyond a few months after its release that refer to the main character as Revan.
- But really. While the plot twist in the first game is pretty damn surprising and well done, most people could have seen the "plot twist" in two coming a mile away. I mean, really. Creepy woman with glowing eyes and a hood following you around? Connect the dots already.
- The Untwist was the real twist because while Kreia's plans seemed sinister enough, nobody actually expected it was as straight forward as it appeared. Mind you, both Atton and Kreia mock you for not seeing it coming by pointing out Kreia's twisted teachings and the lack of big reveal/plot twist respectively.
- In other words — Kreia, known far and wide for her self-serving manipulations and twisted machinations, is being completely honest with you from the start. Who would have guessed?
- Throughout the development of Halo, the existence of the Flood was kept a secret. Afterwards, they were still considered spoiler material, and magazines avoided directly referring to them. Then the second Halo novel was called Halo: The Flood.
- It is revealed in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker that Tetra is actually the titular Princess Zelda. Phantom Hourglass being the direct sequel, this information is shown in the opening cinematic.
- Spirit Tracks, despite skipping two generations, does still manage to ruin this twist for anybody who hasn't played The Wind Waker yet, thanks to Tetra building a massive stained glass window, despicting herself (in Pirate-garb!!!) in the thoronation-chamber and to Zelda praying to Queen Tetra herself, clearly saying her civilian name, before the Final Boss Battle. At least's it's not as obvious as in the Phantom Hourglass case, as both of this instances are easy to miss if you're not familiar with the character Tetra yet.
- Nintendo doesn't seem to consider Sheik's identity in Ocarina of Time as much of a spoiler, what with Zelda's ability to turn into Sheik in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
- Nintendo may have some justification in this. After all, Ocarina of Time was one of the more popular games for the N64, and it was released in 1998, giving most Nintendo fans 3 years to figure it out...
- For fans of the Earthbound series, if they wish not to be spoiled by its sequel Mother 3, they would have to avoid Brawl as well. Brawl includes one of the last areas of the game as a stage and the next-to-last boss of the game as boss in the Subspace Emissary mode. At best the fans hope Brawl spurs Nintendo into doing a localization of the game, like Melee got Nintendo localizing Fire Emblem titles.
- Not to mention, Lucas's trophy text mentions a somewhat big spoiler, specifically about how he would eventually have to fight his brother Claus in the end.
- Don't forget the trophies you collect! Aside from localization oversights (Brawl claiming King K. Rool being his own brother in the form of Kaptain K. Rool) and retardedness (Melee describes Dr. Wright as if you play as a mayor's adivser and not the actual mayor, and in Brawl the trophy for Baby Mario — who is clearly wearing overalls — says he doesn't wear overalls), some of them have spoilers for other games in them (In Melee, the trophy description for Custom Robo 2's Annie ends by saying, "At the climax of the story, Nanase fell prey to temptation and stained her hands with the illegal robot Majei. This act ultimately set the stage for her undeniably tragic end.").
- The Castlevania game Dawn of Sorrow had no problems mentioning the Big Reveal at the end of its prequel, Aria Of Sorrow' — that protagonist Soma Cruz is the Reincarnation of Dracula. Heck, it says it outright on the back of the box.
- They probably figured that if you're playing Dawn of Sorrow, you have already played Aria of Sorrow... a gross miscalculation on their part.
- To be fair, that twist is the very reason for Soma's involvement in this game.
- Casual screenshots of Disgaea 2 will spoil an event that happens to someone in D1.... Namely, that Laharl isn't a complete asshole, and airheaded Love Freak ultra-pure Angel trainee Flonne has fallen from grace and become an airheaded love free ultra-pure Devil trainee. And don't even try playing it if you mind spoilers, because the intro movie reveals the same thing. Also, Prinny Kurtis is part of the storyline.
- The opening of 3 spoils this too. So does merely shopping at the Rosenqueen store in real life. In fact, it's hardly worth tagging the spoiler anymore.
- Bentley's surprise crippling at the Bittersweet Ending of Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves was used as a device to show that the gang's trials and travails affect them permanently, despite the Saturday-morning-cartoon art direction. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves showed him in a wheelchair (if a tricked-out one, since Bentley is the team's Gadgeteer Genius) on the front of the box.
- The back of the instruction manual for the Greatest Hits re-release of Sly 2: Band of Thieves has an ad for the then-upcoming Sly 3 featuring Bentley in his wheelchair and foreshadowing Murray's brief absence from the team.
- Virtually everyone in the Phoenix Wright fandom, having played the first game, knows that Manfred von Karma secretly killed Edgeworth's father and took the younger Edgeworth as an apprentice. Most Western fans also know the end of the bonus chapter: It was Gant. Everyone also knows that the fourth game has a different main character. The fact that it's a different name on the box kind of gives it away.
- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All has a character from the first game supposedly die. Capcom of America put him on the box. Yay...
- In their defense, the original Japanese box used the same image. Of course, the Japanese did have the chance to play the GBA version of the game years before...
- Not only that, but they have another character get into a truly life threatening situation in that game's final episode. Which is fine and dandy, except the boxart for Trials and Tribulations is an immediate giveaway that this character survives. Though, to be fair, Mia is also on the box, so it could be said that Capcom at least tried to subvert this.
- Metal Gear Solid — Solid Snake and Liquid Snake are clones of Big Boss.
- Metal Gear Solid 2 — Snake isn't the main character; that's actually Raiden, and towards the end he goes a bit crazy. And, whatever they tell you, Snake isn't dead. This goes into All There Is To Know About The Crying Game territory, as the reason most people will be advised to pick the game up is for the fact that it's insane and incomprehensible (and therefore art).
- Also note that, despite all the promotional material and the game box hiding that first twist, the manual (pretty much by necessity) has to tell you about it.
- Is Snake not being dead really a spoiler? Within five minutes into the Raiden scenario, you clearly see Snake going up an elevator, and within ten minutes after that, you meet a character who sounds and looks exactly like Solid Snake, who is trying to take down the terrorists.
- Also, he's calling himself "Iriquois Plisskin." Hint.
- Similarly, the main selling point of Metal Gear Solid 3, that it details Big Boss's Start Of Darkness, was originally meant to be a reveal, but now doesn't even need to be spoiler-marked.
- And as far as Metal Gear Solid 4 goes, nanomachines.
- When Super Smash Bros Brawl used a model of Metal Gear Solid 2 Snake but gave him Naked Snake's head, that's kind of a clue as to what Snake really was.
- Super Robot Wars Original Generation — Ingram being the traitor was so well-known that people knew before the game was even released. And some people still were clueless.
- Of course, it was a legitimate spoiler back before Super Robot Wars Alpha was widely known, since in the previous game he was in, Ingram was one of the selectable main characters. Banpresto continuity is confusing.
- The ending of Final Fantasy XII left you hanging right up until the moment before the credits on whether or not Balthier and Fran die in a heroic act. Unfortunately, shortly before the game was actually released in North America, there was already a trailer for Revenant Wings (the Nintendo DS sequel) circling the web which revealed them to be alive and well. Any English fan who saw the trailer before reaching the end of the first game were therein stolen any and all suspense on the reveal that Balthier and Fran lived after all.
- Their survival was hinted by Penelo, who pointed out that their airship couldn't have been stolen if the original owners were retaking it. They also recieved a letter presumably from Balthier and Fran, as it included Ashe's wedding ring that Balthier 'looted' from her (which he said he'd return if he found something of greater value)
- The big spoiler for the first Megaman Battle Network game (Megaman is a Replacement Goldfish of sorts made from Lan's dead brother) is mentioned a few times in latter games, however because it is not explicitly explained either, it (and the occasional use of the plural "Sons") can get confusing if you didn't play the first game or read it on the internet.
- A bit less of an issue in the Japanese — indeed, one of the easy ways to tell that one of the heroes is about to do something extra dangerous or heroic (to levels beyond what the Theme Music Power Up can handle) is when Netto busts out the "Saito-niisan". Also, newbies get another chance in the second game, where a random NPC scientist helpfully reminds you that Mega Man is your resurrected brother.
- Speaking of Mega Man, the fact that Dr. Wily is a villain for all of the games in the original series technically spoils about half of those games (specifically, games 3-6 and 9). But the ending of Mega Man 9 references all of these endings anyways.
- Of course, MM9 plays around with the trope - even in the introductory story, Mega Man suspects Dr. Wily (he just doesn't have proof yet), and the achievement given by the game for beating it is called "Wily Masher".
- From Mega Man X, you should know that someone's going to die in the first game, since the plot of the second game revolves around resurrecting him.
- The cover of Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Spirit Caller (a video game based on the events of the first and part of the second seasons of the show) spoils the fact that Syrus is promoted to Ra Yellow, even though he even starts off in Red in the actual game.
- The spirit meter mechanic of Mask of the Betrayer is explicity stated by the manual to be a spoiler; this doesn't stop every review from detailing it.
- It didn't stop Atari's PR Department from making it a selling point either.
- If you have so much as even heard of Guilty Gear, you know that Bridget is male.
- In fact, Bridget being male may be the reason you HAVE heard of Guilty Gear
- In fairness, Bridget's gender was never intended to be a "reveal" of any sort to the player; it's stated immediately at the beginning of his story mode. Some of the other characters, however...
- Sure, you could play any of the .hack games out of order if you wanted to, but be prepared to be spoiled since 1.) The intros serve as a recap and 2.) Each game picks up immediately after the previous one. And let's not forget that the games themselves spoil the anime series since they serve as prequels to the games. For example, .hack//Roots hadn't even been translated when .hack//GU came out so everyone who played the game knew that Shino gets Pked and sent into a coma. It's insanely hard to avoid spoilers in this All There In The Manual series.
- The opening cinematic for Final Fantasy IV DS just assumes that you already know the whole plot, and it spoils, among other things, that Cecil has to fight Kain at one point, that Cecil becomes a paladin and fight against his own inner darkness, that Kain is intensely jealous that Rosa is with Cecil, that the Tower of Babil is actually the storage place for a giant mech that can destroy the world and the Red Wings and Dwarves are going to fight it, that Rydia eventually returns and can even summon the Leviathan that seems to kill her, they reveal the final team including Kain, and finally as the coup de grace they reveal the Lunar Whale that takes you to the moon. Of course, this is a grand tradition with the game; the original American release revealed in the instruction manual that FuSoYa would be joining your party, and was from the moon.
- Of course, the game is almost old enough to vote in the United States, so...
- You'll play through the game a little differently after you learn which character is going to betray your party right before a critical boss fight, possibly taking some of your better equipment with them if you didn't prepare accordingly. (This writer doesn't recall which character it is currently, just that there is such a moment and roughly where in the game it occurs.)
- Also, when you meet
Namingway Jammingway and he shows you the music player; the character playing (and adding lines of narration to) the music is Edward, who at that point in the game, is presumed dead. If you haven't played the game before and don't know that he's alive; this is kind of a giveaway, because using a dead character for the music player would be... kinda...
- Persona 4 amazingly spoils nothing from Persona 3 despite taking place in the same world two years later. It does use the front of the box to spoil who joins your party though.
- ... Though the fact that Persona 4 takes place in the same world as Persona 3, but later, could itself be a spoiler for Shin Megami Tensei fans, who are used to world-ending endings.
- Hardly anyone bothers to hide the fact that Naoto is female any more. The fact that there are boatloads of images that clearly depict her as female, and that she and the protagonist are the game's Fan Preferred Couple don't help either.
- The upcoming sequel to F.E.A.R., Project Origin, pretty much assumes that the player knows Alma is both Paxton Fettel and the F.E.A.R. Point Man's mother, and is the cause of the rampant psychic madness rolling through the city.
- Back before Infinity came out, the idea that the protagonist in Marathon might be the 10th Mk. IV cyborg was seen as a wild and hotly contested piece of Fanon by most players. Now, of course, many descriptions of the game refer to him simply as "the Marathon cyborg", even though this still hasn't been made entirely explicit by the game itself.
- Yuna's mere presence in Final Fantasy X-2 spoils the fact that she doesn't die at the end of Final Fantasy X.
- Tidus's conspicuous absence and Yuna's search for him gives some indication of what happens to him at the end of the previous game.
- And of course the only people who would be spoiled by that first one are the people who played to the ~ 3/4 point where it is revealed that the summoner dies during the final summon, but did not proceed to the end of the game itself.
- Notice that a certain legendary guardian isn't around in X-2, either... because he died before X. Also dead in Kingdom Hearts 2, which is how he gets summoned by Hades.
- In Final Fantasy VII, one of the main supporting characters, Aeris, dies. This little tidbit of information is spoiled on such a scale that gaming magazines frequently talk about it or make features about "the most moving experiences in a video game." The reveal is also parodied frequently on popular web comics (including VG Cats, whose female character is named Aeris), has its own Urban Dictionary entry, and its own website (albeit it's a hentai upload site). Frankly, if you've never played Final Fantasy VII, this is the one thing that you AT LEAST know about the game.
- Advance Wars 2 promotional work featured prominently the Black Hole army, whose existence is the major plot twist in Advance Wars.
- The game's full title is Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising.
- The Sam and Max: Season Two Collector's DVD cover◊ spoils what T-H-E-I-R spaceship really looks like.
- The Mortal Kombat series is replete with these, starting with the fact that anyone who plays the original MK after either MKII or MK 3 will be confusticated by the notion of Shang Tsung as a) the boss and b) old. Later games reveal that Reptile is an actual reptile and no longer wears a mask, Liu Kang is a zombie in Armageddon because he died at Shang Tsung's hands at the start of Deadly Alliance, Kitana is a heroic princess, Mileena is Kitana's evil monster-clone, Sindel is Kitana's mother, Noob Saibot was Sub-Zero in the first game and is the current Sub-Zero's older brother....it goes on and on. Many of these are spoiled in character backstories at the start of the later game; some are obvious just from seeing the character portrait!
- In Tales of Symphonia, the fact that there are actually two worlds is supposed to be a big reveal several hours into the game. Of course, it's pretty much impossible to read anything about this game without that fact being spoiled.
- Or you could just read the back of the game case where it says, "The line between good and evil blurs in this epic adventure where the fate of two interlocked worlds hangs in the balance." Please tell me you don't need a dictionary to figure out what "interlock" means.
- However, the game being a prequel to Tales of Phantasia, despite not really affecting either game's plot, is supposed to be a closely guarded secret. Come on, Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World reuses the Phantasia map!
- Mithos being the Big Bad is frequently mentioned, although it's not always mentioned that he's Mithos the hero.
- The Playstation remake of Lunar: The Silver Star is horrible about this. You should have absolutely no doubts in your mind as to who the Goddess is and what the Magic Emperor does with her, since Dark Althena is right on the box. It kind of sucks the suspense out of the plot. It does not help that the game allows you to play Alex's Ocarina to hear the soundtrack...and one of the BG Ms blows the identity of the Magic Emperor by using the full name of the track, "Magic Emperor Ghaleon".
- Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core stars a protagonist who is a spoiler. His existence, appearance and role are almost entirely unknown until Cloud untangles his Tomato Surprise, very late in the game. Mails sent to this protagonist casually drop facts like SOLDIERs being implanted with Jenova cells (a major spoiler in the original, since it explains that Cloud's reason for wanting to hunt down Sephiroth isn't simply revenge), and - well, when Cloud shows up and he's a Shinra grunt rather than a SOLDIER First Class, that twist is ruined for you.
- Not to mention the biggest spoiler of all: Zack dies at the end, which is why he's not in the main game.
- And if you have played the original you know Zack dies, which puts both games in the uncomfortable situation that any of the two games spoils the other, so no matter in which order you play it, you're still screwed.
- If you watch Advent Children, you'll get some spoilers for the main game ( Rufus: Cloud, you'll help us, won't you? You used to be in SOLDIER. Cloud: In my head.), but god help you if you watch Advent Children Complete. Crisis Core and Before Crisis are both spoiled rather easily, and if you watch the Reminisence of FF 7 Compilation, well, you're screwed (though that's the point).
- Averted in Jeanne D Arc: you're playing a Magical Girl version of Joan of Arc. Naturally, the Maid of Orleans will be burned at the stake. What you can't know until it happens is that the victim is a Replacement Goldfish for the real Jeanne, who went missing earlier and returned too late to save her childhood friend.
- If you've seen some of the trailers for Resident Evil 5 then you probably can puzzle together that Wesker wasn't actually killed by the Tyrant in the original Resident Evil or, at least, he didn't stay dead and he wasn't as nice a guy as he first seemed.
- Someone hasn't played RE: Code Veronica.
- Or RE 4.
- Or Umbrella Chronicles
- Hell, nothing in Resident Evil 5 should have come as a surprise.
- Except maybe for the fact they finally get rid of Wesker.And that ending will probably be spoiled in the next one when he shows up.
- Speaking of Code: Veronica, the original Dreamcast version of the game kept Wesker's presence in the story a secret until halfway through the second disc. The PlayStation 2 version practically spoils this by putting Wesker's face on the title screen and having Wesker appear earlier during Claire's portion of the story (not to mention the game came with a bonus DVD titled "Wesker's Report").
- Fate Stay Night: Gilgamesh's presence (and less likely, his class) is usually not hidden at all by promotional materials or other sources, and Fate/Unlimited Codes has both him and Dark Sakura as playable characters from the get-go.
- Many works parodying or otherwise discussing Earthbound reveal the final boss's weakness. * Portal: Anyone who uses the Intarwebz with some regularity knows the cake is a lie.
- Also, you have to kill the Companion Cube.
- I'm still alive.
- Due to the soon to be released { Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, if you didn't know that Roxas and Namine are the respective Nobodies of Sora and Kairi, and that Roxas was a member of Organization XIII, then you're in for a bit of a shock.
- Actually, the fact that Namine is Kairi's nobody isn't really hinted at in the game at all, although almost every other plot twist in the series so far is spoiled in either the opening or ending scenes of Days.
- In the opening cinematic of God of War II, we learn that Kratos is the God of War, not Ares.
- The God of War Collection has helpful trophy descriptions such as "Daddy Issues: Defeat Zeus."
- The videogame conventions the player takes no notice of initially in Haze are supposed to be Painting The Fourth Wall, as it turns out they're actually being implemented on the Player Character. This Plot Twist would be more of a surprise if it hadn't been spoiled by every single preview of the game after a certain point. Those frathouse manchildren who are your comerades in arms? They're actually on drugs, and literally can't register the death and destruction they cause.
- Playing Final Fantasy VI? Don't become too attached to your planet.
- I think that the inclusion of a second map titled "World of Ruin" along with the game itself was kind of the big giveaway.
- Dissidia: Final Fantasy, while not requiring you to play the games to understand its own story, spoils major plot elements of the games it draws its characters from, such as casual mentions in the story mode that Golbez is really Cecil's brother, The Emperor takes over Hell, Terra is half-Esper and Kefka is a god, and Jecht is the Final Aeon. Particularly jarring is the mere presence of some characters, like the Cloud of Darkness who is never mentioned at all in Final Fantasy III until the tail end, and is in Dissidia presenting the game.
- The Legacy of Kain series spoils itself in the openings. Especially the opening cinema of Soul Reaver 2.
- Nintendo seems to feel that anybody interested in buying the Sky edition of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon should already know the parts of the plot from Time/Darkness. This goes to the point that they include an animated special that spoils pretty much the entire game up to that point as a pre-order bonus. Add to this the clear hints in the commercials and the info on Sky's website and it's all over. WAY TO GO NINTENDO!
- Pretty much everything in the first Jak And Daxter game falls under this, as does the fact that Ashelin is Praxis' daughter and Errol coming back as an Omnicidal Maniac. So far, the series' biggest and most shocking plot twist has avoided this, despite its major effect on the character dynamic... or at least, the effect it could/should have had.
- The prologue screen in the Sega Genesis beat em up Last Battle isn't so much of a prologue as it is a plot summary of the WHOLE GAME itself. This is partly because Last Battle was originally a Hokuto no Ken game that was rebranded and lazily localized for its overseas release.
Web Comics
- A lot of the advertising, merchandise, and fan artwork surrounding Sluggy Freelance involves Oasis. Enough so that someone who starts reading the series from the beginning will probably guess something's up when she "dies" at the end of her introductory story eight years ago.
- El Goonish Shive: Ellen exists, and she doesn't stay a villain; Grace can shapeshift, and Tedd doesn't need glasses.
- Blah, Blah Miscarriage, Blah.
- Though Angel Moxie was good about this during its run, the website is not coy about such things now that the series is over and has rerun several times. The girls are shown in the powered-up forms they don't get until almost the end of the series, which also blows the revelation that all three girls are Legendary Heroes and not just the Magical Girl. The site synopsis is also just one giant spoiler of every plot point in the series.
- Dan and Mabs Furry Adventures: You do know Dan is a cubi, right?
- One especially egregious example is Family Man by Dylan Meconis. Every single person who ever talks about it says, "Oh, it's a werewolf story"... despite the fact that the reveal hasn't even been drawn yet!
- Parodied in Ansem Retort. Someone yells at Marluxia for ruining the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn dies in The Phantom Menace. That someone? Darth Maul.
- Kevin and Kell: Lindesfarne and Danielle are both genetically human.
Web Original
- At the end of lonelygirl15 season one, Bree Avery dies. This is spoiled 21 episodes into KateModern. Similarly, the Twist Ending of "The Unthinkable Happened" was a huge shock when it was first shown, but is completely spoiled for anyone who knows that the following episode's title is "Bree's Dad is Dead"; the phrase "deader than Bree's dad" has since become a fan idiom. Also, anyone who so much as visits the site is likely to discover that Patient #11 survived the Hart Study, a major plot twist for the second series. Even the fact that the Hymn of One is evil was a huge revelation in the original series, but is now treated as the entire premise of the show. As one may surmise, lonelygirl15 is fairly lax about keeping spoilers secret.
- The KateModern website contains a video which spoils all the main twists of season 2, which plays automatically when you visit the site.
- Survival of the Fittest examples rarely spoiler the fact that Adam Dodd won v1 and indeed it is commonly talked about on the boards as Members assume that everybody already knows about this. Even Adam's return is made flagrantly obvious by the fact the character has two pages on the SOTF wiki (one for each v1 and v3). There's also that, y'know, he's actively played on the board, and nobody isn't going to notice that a v3 character as the same name and ID number as a v1 character.
- Basically, people tend to assume that anything that happened before the current version is now (or should be) general knowledge.
Western Animation
- The true identity of Longarm is one of the most shocking reveals of Transformers Animated... so naturally, it was all over the internet in a pretty big hurry. Then the toy came out. At this point, it's probably not likely to surprise many people any more.
- It was over the internet before anyone who talked about it saw the episode. It aired in Dubai and this was about all the blurry screencaps could tell us.
- Considering that he's a major player in the third season, if you're still not aware you're either blind or not up to date yet.
- Also, Omega Supreme.
- In Code Lyoko, Aelita is a human girl. And Franz Hopper is her dad, and the creator of Lyoko. If you don't want to be spoiled, it is absolutely imperative you watch season 2 first. (Season 1 is optional.)
- The title Phantasm in the Batman The Animated Series movie is Bruce's ex-fiancée Andrea Beaumont. A clever viewer could figure this out anyway, but the toy division screwed up by releasing the Phantasm action figure, with removable hood, unmasked.
- After announcing its pending cancellation, the third season of Danny Phantom was created in Nick studios in Florida — then sent to air in latin american countries six months before they were supposed to be aired in the US. Impatient fans wasted no time snatching up the episodes, translating them, and broadcasting them everywhere. And, if you didn't know via the internet that half of the ghosts had become more monster-like (Nocturne, Vortex, Undergrowth), Danny got ice powers, Danny was going to make an appearance in a ninja suit, and that Vlad became the mayor of Amity park, you were soon spoilered by said "surprises" through commercials and the episodes airing out of order.
- The true nature of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) version The Shredder became this, particularly after it became necessary to qualify him as such in order to distinguish him from the other versions of the character.
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