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A Walking Spoiler is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a character or thing who has most of the tropes underneath it as spoilers. Sometimes, even its name is a spoiler, as it's so secret to the plot.
Can overlap with It Was His Sled, if the work in question is old or culturally engrained enough that pretty much everybody already knows about the various plot twists.
Due to the nature of this trope, MASSIVE UNMARKED SPOILERS are in this article. If you don't know what that is, then you should look at the picture for reference. It'll all become clear.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- It's impossible to describe even in a single line the plot of Monster without revealing that Johan, the boy Tenma saves, is a serial killer. From this the audience can also infer it was Johan who killed his and Anna's adopted parents and the chairmen of the hospital. This isn't revealed until episode 4 but this anime is impossible to sell without giving this away!!
- This trope was inspired by The Idea of Evil from the Berserk series.
- The Mayor from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. His full name, description and every trope except Walking Spoiler is whited out.
- 20th Century Boys has two examples: Fukubei, a mostly unremarkable character whose only trope-worthy characteristics come after he's revealed as the Big Bad, and Katsumata, whose mere existence is a major plot reveal at the end of the story.
- Mazinger:
- Most of spoilers in Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger revolve around Kenzo Kabuto and Archduke Gorgon. The former one was thought being dead for a long while, but at the end of the series it was revealed he was alive. Oh, and he is The Hero's father. He also is a major character of the sequel, where he gets Killed Off for Real, so it is pretty much impossible talking about him with spoiling key plot points of both series. Gorgon's first appearance revealed the supposedly extinct Mykene civilization still existed. At the beggining he seemed another Obviously Evil Hell's ally, but in reality he was a Dragon with an Agenda was working for a Bigger Bad as he plotted destroying both Dr. Hell and Mazinger-Z. He was successful on all accounts, so describe him means spoiling the end of the series.
- Maria Grace Fleed from UFO Robo Grendizer is one of the cases where her mere name is already a spoiler. She is The Hero's sister. However, Duke was supposed to be the only Fleedian survivor and have no family left. Maria is one of the main characters, and you can not describe her without spoiling both facts. Geez, stating her last name is a complete giveaway. And then you have Rubina. Who is she? Big Bad King Vega's daughter and Duke Fleed's fiancée.
- Danzo from Naruto.
- Madara Uchiha was this initially, since he was thought to be dead for a long time. Then it turns out that he was dead, and the guy who's been pretending to be him all this time is Obito Uchiha (who was not only thought to be dead, but was also formerly Kakashi's teammate).
- To round off the Uchiha, there's Itachi - who was Good All Along and whose death reveals many subsequent twists as a result. His brother Sasuke would've been one too, before his Face Heel Turn became It Was His Sled (hard to hide considering it drives the plot of Shippuden and Part II in the manga), plus Sasuke is pretty much the Deuteragonist of the story.
- Even Tsunade is one, since her becoming Fifth Hokage reveals that the Third Hokage, who resumed office after the death of the Fourth Hokage, is dead.
- Tobirama and Hashirama after the revelation of their backstory.
- The Young Conductor from Baccano. He seems to die early on, but actually is Claire Stanfield, an amazing assassin, The Ace and (Axe-) Crazy Awesome Sociopathic Hero. Hence he actually lived and becomes integral to the plot as The Rail Tracer, an urban legend that he created.
- Hanyuu in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni is the real Oyashiro-sama, despises violence, and tries to change fate over and over, hence the reason for the repeating worlds. In the anime, they censored out Rika's screams to Hanyuu as Hanyuu stabbed herself in front of Rika and Shion, and made you believe that only those who heard Hanyuu were crazy (Rena, Keiichi, etc.), or else too high up on the Hinamizawa Syndrome scale.
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, several characters are walking spoilers: EVA-Beatrice, Magician Battler, Beatrice Castiglione and, perhaps most importantly, Yasu.
- In Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, the fact that the Syaoran who is the protagonist of the story is really a clone of the original who is sealed away in a glass cage by the villain is a well-done plot twist.
- King Bradley/Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist. His "son", Selim Bradley/Pride even more-so, though it's nicely handled on the character page by listing them as separate characters on separate pages, though Pride is pretty much an all-white entry as a result.
- Also, Father -looks like an old Hohenheim clone while Hohenheim's appearance is a spoiler, is the actual Big Bad behind a giant conspiracy.
- In the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime, Pride (who is King Bradley in this continuity) and Big Bad Dante are examples.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the catalyst that starts the true story is the death of Mami Tomoe by sudden and violent decapitation. Since the story does a complete 180 at this exact moment, it makes describing Madoka's actual story to someone very difficult without pointing out that an important character is mercilessly killed.
- In addition, Oktavia van Seckendorff could easily qualify, due to her being Sayaka's witch self. In fact, the same scene where Sayaka transforms into a witch is also the scene where we learn the true natures of witches. There's also a variant in the pigtailed glasses-wearing version of Homura ("Moemura"). The first time we see this version of Homura? Occurs in a major Wham Episode.
- There's the form that Madoka briefly takes after becoming a cosmic law ("Ultimate Madoka" or "Godoka"). And Kyouko only shows up after things go to hell, with everything about her character being related to the darker elements that were only hinted at prior. The show is difficult to talk about while avoiding spoilers.
- A bit of real life walking spoilers as well, the producers tried to keep the fact that Gen Urobuchi wrote the script a secret from viewers due to the fact that he automatically ups the tragedy quotient of anything he's involved with. When his involvement was leaked he actually lied and said he wanted to write a heartwarming story for a change. Of course, when you consider how the story does end, it turns out the creators still got the last laugh overall.
- Risa Kamizaki and Mika Makihara from Amagami both are responsible for that rejection. The former tricks the latter thus causing Junichi to think he was stood..
- Mello and Near from Death Note; the fact they're L's successors (coupled with L's utter refusal to give up on the Kira case) are an easy tip-off to the fact that L dies.
- Just listing the main characters in One Piece is a spoiler, as the series plays Five-Man Band straight, deconstructs and slowly averts it. A special mention goes to two antagonists who make Heel Face Turn and join Luffy's crew. And it's difficult to talk about the four Cipher Pol agents undercover in Water 7, especially not Kaku and Lucci, without revealing their being The Mole. Similarly, discussing Vivi typically reveals that she's undercover in Baroque Works as Ms. Wednesday.
- Another major factor of the story is Luffy and Ace's true lineage.
- Blackbeard shows up as a minor character, albeit one who shares an awful lot in common with Luffy and briefly shares the spotlight with him. While he does become important later on, this jolly man turns out to be Luffy's Evil Counterpart and a true Chessmaster, matching Luffy's crewmates one for one with darker counterparts and manipulating everyone around him, including many other important characters we saw before, in his attempt to gain power and find the One Piece.
- The Character page for G Gundam spoilers out every last entry (and the name) for Ulube Ishikawa, due to him being revealed as the Big Bad about, oh, four episodes from the end.
- Nia in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: is the Spiral King's daughter, appears after Kamina's death.
- The Anti-Spiral is the series true Big Bad.
- While now it's more of a Late Arrival Spoiler, Kamina inverts the trope as his death is what kicks off the second half of the plot.
- While Lordgenome served as the Big Bad of the first season, every one of his appearances in the second half is a spoiler, up until his eventual ressurection in the final episode.
- Zeref from Fairy Tail. Even the fact that he's alive at all is a spoiler; this combined with him being quite different then how he had been originally described makes it essentially impossible to mention him to someone who hasn't read up to the point where he appears without spoiling something.
- Future Lucy and Future Rogue for mainly being from the Bad Future.
- Habara in Daily Lives of High School Boys may look utter unremarkable (she's the Distaff Counterpart of the local Ridiculously Average Guy Tadakuni), but she has very significant backstory which cause most tropes under her—as well as her epithet during the time—to be spoilered.
- Mika Harima of Durarara. At first the viewer is lead to believe Celty's head has been attached to her shoulders, until its revealed she's actually a Stalker with a Crush who had her face surgically altered to look identical to Celty's to please Seiji, who is madly in love with Celty's head.
- For a time, Aizen Sosuke from Bleach. He was once presented as a mild-mannered, loving Captain that was unfortunately killed, while all seems to point out that Gin Ichimaru is the main villain all along. Once he reveals himself as both actually alive an utterly broken Chessmaster Big Bad, he practically becomes this trope... for a time until it reaches It Was His Sled levels and his status as a villain far outlived his status as a 'kind guy'.
- Royd Lloyd from the recent manga is this because his existence is kept a secret until it is revealed that he was posing as Juha Bach while fighting Yamamoto, and it's impossible to mention any of Royd's actions without spoiling that Juha Bach was not the one who fought against and lost to Yamamoto.
- Nanamine of Bakuman。 initially presents himself as a cheerful and energetic, if somewhat naive, young mangaka. Within a few chapters, you realize that he's actually a devious schemer who intends to subvert the editorial process and climb to the top of the manga world with online helpers, and it's difficult to talk about him without mentioning this. On a lesser scale, Iwase only makes a few appearances before returning to the story as a rival mangaka.
- Shizuru of Mai Hime initially seems like nothing more than the Student Council President and a friend of Natsuki's who occasionally helps her out. Then, in the last few episodes, she's revealed as a Hime and kills quite a few people for Natsuki's sake, while revealing that she is in love with Natsuki. Most discussion of her character tends to focus on her actions toward the end.
- Alicia of Lyrical Nanoha only gets mentioned with spoiler warnings since any discussion about her, from her role in the story, to her relationship with the characters, to her appearance, to her family name will reveal that Precia had another daughter before Fate... and that Fate was a failed attempt to revive her.
- Ditto Rein a.k.a Reinforce Zwei. You know something must've happened to the first Reinforce when a character with the same name has the German word for two on her name.
- Jack Vessalius from Pandora Hearts. While he appears relatively early in the story, his actual personality (and status as the Big Bad) are only revealed much later as part of a prolonged Wham Episode before which he is presented as The Messiah. Which makes discussing him with anyone who hasn't read up until that point nearly impossible without massive spoilers.
- In Letter Bee, talking about Gauche Suede at virtually any point after the first chapter is likely to involve spoilers; after delivering Lag to Cambel Litmus, he was promoted to the head office, then lost much of his heart, disappeared and ended up with Reverse. Much of the early story involves Lag finding out what happened to him.
- Rau Le Creuset from Gundam SEED. The revelation that this apparently minor villain is not only The Big Bad, but an Omnicidal Maniac, Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, and a clone of Al Da Flaga, Mu La Flaga's father, is a massive plot twist that totally upends preconceptions about where the plot is going.
- In a similar vein to Le Creuset, Glemmy Toto from Gundam ZZ. Appearing to be a Harmless Villain, he's eventually revealed to be a child-abusing wannabe dictator and a clone of Gihren Zabi, the Universal Century's Adolf Hitler analogue, complete with ambitions of overthrowing Haman Khan and taking her place. When he does launch his coup, it completely changes the direction of the plot.
- Gao Gai Gar: Pizza of the Four Machine Kings a.k.a. Soldato J-002, pilot of the Giant Mechanoid King J-Der.
- Okazaki Ushio from CLANNAD. Her existence as Nagisa and Tomoya's daughter doesn't spoil the fact that the two of them ultimately get together, as it's made more than clear from the beginning that Nagisa is the main girl, but the fact that she's an actual character in her own right does spoil the fact that the anime continues on after they graduate to follow their married life.
- Seimei Aoyagi from Loveless has over half the tropes on his entry on the character paged blacked out after The Reveal that he's alive after having been assumed dead since the start of the story. The revelation that he's alive also completely turns his prior characterization as a loving older brother on its head.
- Raizen in YuYu Hakusho. Describing him in more than general terms reveals one of the biggest twists in the series, since he's Yusuke's demon ancestor.
- In Bokurano, Youko Machi is one, since she's from another Earth, is Koyemshi's sister (which in turn reveals that he used to be human), and planned for the kids to get involved in the game from the very beginning. It's difficult to talk about her without mentioning any of this.
- Junji "Katari" Karita appears in one scene, falsely claims to be a Zearth pilot (thus derailing the plan to go public about Zearth) and is killed shortly thereafter. Essentially, his name and gender are all you can reveal without spoiling this.
Comic Books
Fan Works
- The Katawa Shoujo fic Reconciliation has an interesting variant in a character whose conspicuous absence serves as a Walking Spoiler. It's revealed early on that Hisao has died of a heart attack, setting the plot into motion. Only the most basic description of the setting can avoid mentioning his death, and doing so spoils Hanako's bad ending.
- The Tainted Grimoire: The following characters can get difficult to talk about without also mentioning significant plot events.
- Raven: A high-ranking member of Khamja. Killed Off for Real.
- Crow: He worked for Khamja. He then left them. And then he joined Clan Gully.
- Archbishop Finch: A corrupt man trying to seize power in St. Galleria.
- Barley: Nearly everthing he did affected the plot in major ways. And then finally, Killed Off for Real.
- The majority of the spoilers in Neon Genesis Evangelion Peggy Sue Fan Fic The Second Try revolve around a little girl named Aki... Aki Ikari.
- Claire Thompson in The New Retcons. Later, Fiona Brass and Kortney Patterson, nee Krelbutz.
- In Perfection Is Overrated, Meiko is thought to be a friend of Mai's, but it turns out that she's Bachiko's accomplice, having rewritten everyone's memories so that Bachiko could pretend to be an Old Friend of Mai's and she could pretend to be a newer friend, while the two scheme to manipulate various characters' relationships.
- As the Pony POV Series has gone on, more and more characters have been involved in events that have led to more and more tropes under their character entries being spoiler-tagged:
- It's pretty hard to talk about Trixie's involvement in the story without bringing up that she's a second Element of Magic, or that the first Big Bad, Loneliness, is her Enemy Within.
- It's also next to impossible to discuss Fluttershy beyond the first season without bringing up her becoming the second Big Bad Princess Gaia, or that "Gaia" is just a cover for Nightmare Whisper.
- Likewise, Fluttercruel's involvement in the above and her Heel Face Turn in response to fixing it, becoming a second Element of Kindness in the process.
- Pinkie Pie has two big examples: undergoing a Split Personality Merge fairly early on, and later, the fact that she's the last true survivor of the G3 universe.
- More a chapter than a character, but you can't talk about Luna's second side-story without eventually talking about her Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, becoming a Villain Protagonist, getting killed, and it turning out to be All Just a Dream.
- Speaking of Luna, her, Celestia, and Discord's backstories are completely whited-out on their character pages, due to their origins, families, falling out, the war between the Alicorns and Draconequi, and the time they spent as mortals, being integral to the plot.
- Nightmare Mirror's character listing is almost completely whited out, to hide the fact that she's an Alternate Universe Applejack.
- Diamond Tiara's involvement in the story starts out small, but then we find out Discord's using her as a puppet and corrupting her, and eventually gets her to free him, turning her into a Nightmare and his Dragon in the process.
- The Dark World is full of these, but the biggest examples are Fluttershy, Fluttercruel, Rancor (when her true motives are revealed), The Nameless Passenger/Nightmare Paradox, her Psycho Ranger Co-Dragons, and The Benevolent Interloper.
- The Powers Of Harmony: Pretty much anything to do with the Guards' true natures, Cetus, Eclipse, Horizon, or Harmony are spoilers.
- Moonstuck has Discord. His very presence spoils not only the ending and the nature of one of the two other villains, but also that the whole thing is set during his original reign of Equestria (and not, as many fans initially assumed, set during Luna's imprisonment in the moon).
- Eternal has The Sun, whose presence is a huge spoiler for not only what's been happening to Celestia for the past millennium - and thus what's currently happening between her and Twilight - but the entire reason for it happening in the first place.
- Imperfect Metamorphosis has Rin Satsuki, whose identity, powers (and how she got them) and history are spoilers for the motivations and goals of more than half the cast.
- The second half of Double Rainboom can not be talked about with anyone who hasn't seen it because it comes completely out of left field and wasn't hinted at in the promos. (Although the disclaimer on the bottom of the page on the official website pretty much gives it away.)
Film
- Harry Lime from The Third Man is also a possible example, because throughout most of the movie he's thought to be dead.
- Axelrod from Cars 2.
- Thanos from the first stinger for The Avengers.
- Miranda Tate a.k.a. Talia al Ghul from The Dark Knight Rises.
- King Candy from Wreck It Ralph has most of the tropes for his character entry blacked out because most of his character traits and motivations revolve around his past as the vengeful and power-hungry Turbo.
- The Witch from ParaNorman is featured prominently throughout the movie, but has most of her tropes spoilered because of significant plot reveals late in the movie.
- Lots-o-Huggin' Bear from Toy Story 3 used to have one shortly after the movie came out, but after its massive success, his Big Bad status just became an It Was His Sled.
- The live animals of Alice. Considering how every other character than Alice and her mother are stop-motion puppets, the sudden appearance of animals is bound to catch viewers off guard.
- Sentinel Prime from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, whose actions at the end of the first act of the film swerve the plot into a completely different direction.
- Theodora from Oz The Great And Powerful has most of her entries marked as spoilers, because she becomes The Wicked Witch of the West later on in the film.
- The Mandarin and Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3, the former actually being a drugged up alcoholic actor named Trevor Slattery and the latter being the actual Big Bad.
- John Harrison from Star Trek Into Darkness, by virtue of being a pseudonym for Khan Noonien Singh. Admiral Marcus, who takes over as the main antagonist for the middle part of the movie, as well.
Literature
- The Dresden Files is full of them, and it's really hard to talk about the series without spoiling something. One of the biggest examples is Molly Carpenter, Michael's oldest daughter, who has magical talent and becomes Harry's apprentice. And now, even that information is obsolete.
- You want to avoid spoiling the fact that Thomas is Harry's half-brother? This is going to significantly limit your ability to explain either of their motivations for most of their interactions after Blood Rites, starting with "Why does Harry immediately go to a vampire for help?"
- A Song of Ice and Fire is such an extreme example of this, it is nigh-impossible to give an overview of the series without giving one and a half spoilers. Especially in the later books. For example: The fact that Aegon even exists is a massive spoiler even without getting into his actions.
- The Steerswoman books are actually relatively hard science fiction novels about a Lost Colony, not fantasy.
- In The Gone Away World, the hero doesn't actually exist until about halfway through the book—before that, he's a figment of his best friend's imagination.
- The last book of Mistborn The Original Trilogy is a bit tricky to describe without giving away that a) the real Big Bad is the god of destruction, Ruin, and b) at the end of the first book, Marsh was turned into a Steel Inquisitor, which is now allowing Ruin to use him as a puppet.
- Rock and Hollyleaf from Warrior Cats. Rock because he's God and Hollyleaf because of how dynamic her character is.
- Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter. There is no way to give an accurate description, however brief, of either character without spoiling The Reveal at the end of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban. In subsequent books, both appear on a recurring basis with their true natures taken for granted.
- Orannis the Destroyer in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy. We don't even know anything other than his status as a Bigger Bad (including his name, we know him only as The Enemy) until the final chapter of the second book. That's when we learn that he's an Omnicidal Maniac and an Eldritch Abomination, who's been sealed in a split metal ball since before the creation of the Charter.
- In The 39 Clues, the fifth Cahill branch, the Madrigals, and the fact that their founder was Madeleine Cahill, make it practically impossible to discuss the first series or the ancestral Cahill family without spoiling some of the most surprising revelations in the series. Madeleine's existence isn't even revealed until near the first series' end.
- Septimus Heap: It's impossible to talk about about later books than the first one without revealing that Septimus did not die at birth.
- Heck, the series as a whole is even called Septimus Heap. It's pretty obvious once you get maybe halfway through the first book that this "Boy 412" character isn't who he thinks he is.
- Araris Valerian in Codex Alera. He's supposed to be dead. The slave working for Bernard and Isana is supposed to be brain-damaged. So when he pulls a Big Damn Heroes at the end of the first book and gets his real identity revealed to a few people in the process, it's a shock. He does keep the act up for a couple more books, but once he stops pretending the cat is officially out of the bag and it gets hard not to spoil everything.
Live Action TV
- River Song from Doctor Who. This even applies in the series - thanks to time travel shenanigans, her timeline runs in the opposite direction of the Doctor's, so her "earlier" is his (and the viewers') "later." Her catchphrase literally is "Spoilers!"
- If you have just started watching a particular Doctor's tenure, a mere glance at the DVD box art will make it abundantly clear when the Doctor is going to "die" and be replaced. Seeing a new actor on the next season's cover is a death sentence. Indeed the very fact that the Doctor is going to be replaced, which was quite a twist back in the day.
- The Daleks and the Master were initially this for the new series, as it had established that the Doctor was the only survivor of both Daleks and Time Lords after the Time War. That was quickly abandoned for the Daleks though, and the Master's resurrections (plural) eventually slipped into Late Arrival Spoiler/It Was His Sled territory.
- Clara Oswald.
- John Hurt's character in "The Name Of The Doctor"
- Illyria, from Angel. Just a picture of how she appears in the series immediately spoils the fact that Fred dies.
- Connor, whose very existence spoils the fact that: a) Angel gets a biological son; and b) Said son is given a Plot-Relevant Age-Up via a Year Inside, Hour Outside situation. Even if you spoiler-tag the fact that he's Angel's son, you'd have to also tag his name in order to hide what happens to that adorable baby mid-way through Season 3.
- Matt Daehler of Teen Wolf. Seemingly a minor character, he practically embodies From Nobody to Nightmare when he is revealed to be The Kid with the Remote Control that has been using the Kanima to kill people since the beginning of the second season. Since this pivotal aspect of his character is only revealed when the season is almost over, nearly all of his character tropes have to be spoilered.
- Roy Montgomery in Castle. Went from being just Beckett's captain to having an integral (and unintentional) role in her mother's murder.
- The revelation that the infamous serial killer Bloody Face in American Horror Story is the previously thought upstanding psychiatrist Dr. Thredson meant that every trope applying to the character is spoiler-tagged.
- Lauren Shiba, the second Red Ranger in Power Rangers Samurai and true holder of the title rather than her brother Jayden. Her Japanese counterpart, Kaoru Shiba from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, has an identical plotline (except she's not related to Takeru - at least until she adopts him so he can officially inherit the title of ShinkenRed).
- Scandal: Becky, Huck's girlfriend. In a couple of episodes, she went from being a minor character to being a deadly villain who had shot the President and set up Huck to be the fall guy.
- You can't talk about Ezri Dax (and her status as a permanent cast member) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine without spoiling. Because Dax's host is Jadzia, and the symbiont only joins with a new host when the previous one dies... oh.
- Baelfire from Once Upon a Time, especially after The Reveal that he's also Neal Cassidy, Emma's former boyfriend and Henry's dad.
- There are two or three characters in Arrow who are almost impossible to discuss without massive spoilers:
- Malcom Merlyn, AKA The Well Dressed Man. We already knew he was the leader of the show's Nebulous Evil Organization, but what we didn't know until the 7th Episode Twist was that he's Tommy's father, and he - not Tommy - is the adaptation of the comic villain Merlyn the Archer. Not to mention he's also the Dark Archer.
- Slade Wilson, who in the Arrow continuity is not Deathstroke. Simply knowing that he exists radically rewrites everything you think you knew or had figured out about Deathstroke and Ollie's time on the island.
- On Degrassi , Cam is this. His character only lasted a season before he killed himself on the school campus. Half of the tropes for him on the Characters page are spoilered out.
- Iwan Rheon was told to tell nothing of his character in the third season of Game Of Thrones, who is merely called "Boy" in the script, and he is the only new actor playing a big part that was not part of the promotional material before the season began. Everything about the character's identity, allegiance, aims and procedence is meant to be a mystery until The Reveal some time late in the season and the clues given by the show are intentionally contradictory. Of course, this being the case is a spoiler already because it means that viewers can't take for true any personality he goes by until then. Those who have read the source material know who he is, but since the character's introduction was massively changed in the adaptation they are still in the dark about how this will be revealed.
- Irene Adler in Elementary, a.k.a. Moriarty.
Video Games
- Purple Eyes from Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs. He comes in after the Not so Fast, Bucko! ending as the new leader, and directly leads into the next villain.
- In Dragon Age: Origins, every mention of major villain Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir as a possible Player Party member is always covered in spoiler tags because the very fact that he can become one is a major plot twist. When that is not possible, he is conventionally referred to as "Secret Companion". Additionally, virtually all discussion about him spoils his betrayal at Ostagar.
- The infamous Hidden Fun Stuff from Dwarf Fortress. It's an Unusual Euphemism for Hell and its resident horde of demons, which will invade your fortress if you dig too deep.
- The 16th playable character in The Reconstruction, Tezkhra, is first heard of as the god worshiped by certain groups of shra.
- Mass Effect:
- Sovereign as the true Big Bad of Mass Effect 1 is treated as extremely sensitive. The Reapers in general are not considered spoiler information, but he is.
- Legion from Mass Effect 2, not only as a geth protagonist (as they'd been the major enemy in the previous game), but also that they can join the player's squad.
- Morinth from the same game. You can recruit her in place of her mother, Samara, if you choose to betray the latter during the climax of her loyalty mission, though to get the option to do so you need a sufficient Paragon or Renegade score. Even the fact that the Ardat-Yakshi is Samara's daughter is a twist.
- The Human Reaper, final boss of ME2, whose existence has the entire Collector plot revolving around it, as well as being a huge reveal for the motivations of the Reapers.
- Javik in Mass Effect 3, since his very existence spoils the fact that not all the Protheans are dead, since the first game had the few survivors' life pods run out of power while on Ilos, and by the time Shepard and company reach it they've all been powered down. Also ties into The Reveal in Mass Effect 2 that the Collectors are actually indoctrinated Protheans.
- The Catalyst from the same game, since he literally only appears in the last scene of the game. This also spoils that he is an individual rather than an object.
- The creatures from the Leviathan DLC of the same game, since they're the last remnants of the first race to be turned into a Reaper and give an epically spoileriffic Info Dump.
- The Citadel DLC of the same game has its Arc Villain who turns out to be a clone of Commander Shepard. There's also Maya Brooks, who turns out to be Evil All Along and The Dragon to the Clone Shepard.
- Damn near every character in Xenoblade except for maybe Reyn and Riki, although Fiora is by far the most obvious one considering she was implied to have died a few hours in but got turned into a Robot Girl instead.
- But most especially Zanza, who seemed to be a semi-important character introduced and swiftly killed off at the end of the Prison Island storyline. Turns out that technically wasn't even him, and not only is he the Final Boss, but one of the two gods of the world and the Monado itself!
- Wheatley turning out to be an antagonist in Portal 2 is meant to be a big twist. Thus, spoilers. Everywhere.
- Cave Johnson being a character in the game, albeit posthumously, as he is only "present" in the ruins of the old Aperture labs that are the setting for the second Act. Which for extra points are only visited after aforementioned Wheatley becomes the antagonist.
- BlazBlue:
- Saya appears to be Ragna and Jin's dead little sister. Turns out that she's actually The Man Behind the Man (although it's not made clear if she's just serving as Terumi's puppet and it's implied that she's possessed or otherwise Not Herself)
- The mild-mannered pacifist Captain Hazama was one himself until the trailers for Continuum Shift outed his secret.
- Mu-12 was one as well, until the Continuum Shift II trailer casually showed Noel transforming into her.
- Izayoi for Chronophantasma continues the tradition of each game having one such character introduced.
- Yomiel, the mysterious Big Bad of Ghost Trick. When he shows up, the game pretty much heads into one Mind Screw and Plot Twist after another.
- Batman Arkham City:
- Clayface, who for those familiar with his powers merely mentioning his name gives a big clue to a major twist just before the end of the game.
- Simply mentioning Hush spoils the ending to the "Identity Theft" sidequest. Although, those familiar with the character can already guess who is responsible.
- Discussing anything about the Mad Hatter spoils a (admittedly very short) sidequest as well as the source for a lot of Hugo Strange's influence and resources.
- June and Ace from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, as both turn out to be the primary antagonists (and the true protagonist in June's case) in roundabout ways.
- Akane repeats the feat in Virtues Last Reward. Interestingly enough, this game also contains another walking spoiler in the form of Sigma, the protagonist. His external appearance is a major spoiler, as the player doesn't see it until the end of the game.
- Joshua, and, to a lesser extent, Hanekoma in The World Ends With You. Kitaniji too, as you don't really learn his real role in the plot until the very end.
- Eri, to an extent, as merely describing her appearance can spoil a significant plot twist regarding Shiki.
- A few Kirby villains can fall under this trope, such as Magolor from Return to Dream Land and Marx from Milky Way Wishes.
- Normally, Kor from Jak II: Renegade would just be your typical old man. Most of his tropes come from the fact that he's really the Metal Head Leader in disguise.
- The fact that Revan is the Player Character of Knights of the Old Republic is a major plot twist, causing the former Dark Lord of the Sith become the main source of spoilers of the game. This makes the first sentence of the plot synopsis for the game on Wookieepedia (unless it has been changed by the time you read this) a huge spoiler for The Reveal more than halfway down the plot.
- After you defeat Medusa in Kid Icarus Uprising and the fake credits roll, The true Villain, Hades, comes in and takes over the Underworld Army. And since we were build up to believe that Medusa was the Villain with no hints of Hades being in the game...
- To a lesser extent, pretty much everyone who is introduced after Chapter 9, which is built to look as much like the final dungeon as possible. The Chaos Kin is an especially strong example, since talking about it not only spoils that the game goes on after Chapter 9, but it is also likely to reveal much about the Chaos Kin's story arc, particularly Pit being trapped in a ring for three years and Palutena turning evil.
- In the Ace Attorney series has each of the games' main antagonists count, as well as many of the murderers in each individual case. Naturally, discussing much about them would reveal that they're responsible, as well as, in some cases, their true personalities.
- The Golden Spider/Chakravartin from Asura's Wrath.
- Forrest Kaysen from Deadly Premonition. Many spoilers are required to conceal that the fat, jolly tree salesman is not only the Big Bad of the game, but a Humanoid Abomination to boot.
- For that matter, George gets quite a few spoilers too, by virtue of being both the Sheriff "helping" York with the investigation (and thus receiving a lot of screen time throughout the game) and the New Raincoat Killer; as does Thomas, due to his relationship with George, his own status as a minor villain, etc.
- About 2/3 of the way through Final Fantasy V, the party meets Krile. She is a friendly young girl. This is the most detail you can describe her with if you don't want to reveal that she is Galuf's granddaughter, a princess (because he is really a king), or that she takes his place upon his death.
- Final Fantasy VI has Terra Branford. These days the fact that she is half-Esper has entered It Was His Sled territory, even being a central part of her combat methods in Dissidia: Final Fantasy, but at the time it was a pretty big surprise only revealed several hours into the game (although it was foreshadowed before then).
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years has the Creator. Not only is it impossible to describe without spoilers, its name and even its very existence are major spoilers.
- Lion and Will's first appearance in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni is in the seventh episode of the sound novel.
- Yasu, who is introduced in the same episode. A lot of the mysteries of the series surround him/her.
- The Binding of Isaac takes the cake with five different examples, primarily due to the abundance of bonus levels. The first two, Mom's Heart and It Lives, are mostly out of this territory since their section of the dungeon is almost immediately unlocked. Satan, secret boss of Sheol, is considerably more of a spoiler, but probably more well-known since the Halloween update has been out for a while. The biggest ones are Isaac himself as the standard final boss of The Cathedral, and Daddy Long Legs II/The Tri-Achnid as the ultimate super-secret final boss. (For now, anyway.)
- The Chest. It's the *deep breath* mega ultimate super-secret final level. It can only be reached by defeating, well, yourself in The Cathedral while holding The Polaroid (it's a Polaroid photograph depicting three people, most likely Isaac, his mother and his father). Getting through that will give you what the developers of the game themselves call the closest thing the game has to a canon ending.
- In Diablo III, the true identity of the Stranger that fell from the sky is not revealed until the very end of Act I, where it turns out to be a newly-human Tyrael who has sacrificed his angelic status to aid humanity directly against the last two Lords of Hell. He plays a major role in the rest of the game, serving as the de facto leader of your small party and even taking up his sword, El'druin, to battle alongside you at certain points in the final two acts.
- Tiki Tong in Donkey Kong Country Returns. If you lose a life in any level, you get a silhouette of the instrument tiki's face as the screen transitions to the lose a life screen. In the volcano, which is the last world, Tiki Tong's face is replaced with a question mark before you meet him.
- In Jade Empire, the three main antagonists - Death's Hand, Emperor Sun Hai and Master Sun Li - fall under this trope. Said characters play with the Big Bad and The Man Behind the Man tropes, causing a lot of spoiler tags on their entries in the character sheet.
- "Marth" in Fire Emblem: Awakening. That it's not actually the original Marth is one of the few things that can be left unspoilered...but only if you construct the sentence without gendered pronouns, because this Marth is in fact Lucina, the main character's daughter from the future.
- The Hierophant as well. This character is introduced as simply someone high up in the Plegian order, but then they take off their hood and it's revealed they have the same appearance as the player-created Avatar...because they're actually the Avatar from the Bad Future, possessed by Grima.
- Clive, from Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. AKA, Future Luke.
- Dimitri Allen AKA, Dr. Alain Stahngun and Future Layton also counts.
- Pat Sprigs in the first Mega Man Star Force is at first just a student in Geo's class. Then it's revealed that he was abandoned by his parents in a junkyard and has a Jekyll and Hyde going on with his Split Personality, Rey. He also has his own FM-ian in the form of Gemini, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
- The Masked Man in MOTHER 3 had many of his tropes spoilered because he was actually Lucas' brother Claus. This actually warranted a hard split between the Masked Man's tropes and Claus' tropes.
- When it first came out, Persona 4 had one in Naoto because it turned out Naoto's a girl. Nowadays it's gone into It Was His Sled territory.
- In a straighter sense, there's Namatame and Izanami. Both were introduced in the very beginning of the game, but their characterization was so minor that the player is likely to have forgotten them completely. The revelation of what Namatame did marks the beginning of the point where the game becomes a conga line of plot twists, and Izanami turns out to be the Man Behind the Man Behind The Man Behind The Man Behind The Man that was responsible for just about everything that had happened up until that point.
- Tohru Adachi is the murderer. The amount of tropes that comes with this revelation is just staggering.
- In EVO Search For Eden, the Final Boss and Big Bad, Bolbox, as well as the Bigger Bads and Well Intentioned Extremists, the Whispers/Martians, are extremely spoilerifc. Bolbox isn't even hinted at until the end and the Whispers only appear in secret areas before the ending.
- The Final Boss of killer7, Greg Nightmare, deals with this due to being killed before his debut and being involved with a massive comspiracy about the power of America.
- In Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, Rei fits this trope like a glove. Prior to release, she's only billed as one of the Seven Sages, aka the villains of the game. What Compile Heart doesn't reveal is that she's the one who sends Neptune into the past, pulls off an epic Slasher Smile, and surprising a lot of gamers, is the True Final Boss instead of Magiquone/Arfoire.
- Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4 appears for the last hour (give or take) of the game*
A game that, on a player's first playthrough, would take at least Nine hours to complete from start to finish . His whole presence is a spoiler in on itself, along with Major Zero, since Big Boss had been dead for almost twenty years (Well, he wasn't, but that's only revealed then and there) and Zero would be clocking in ninety years old at the very least. Both of them, their presence and their allegiances are also crucial to understanding about half the plot of the series', so anything they say can become a spoiler.
- Senator Steven Armstrong in Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. While seemingly a behind-the-scenes villain, one could not have guessed that the guy turns out to be a nanomachine-enhanced freak of nature capable of tossing Raiden around like a ragdoll. However, he's quickly becoming a Fountain of Memes for this very reason (as well as being an absolutely hilariously hammy villain).
- Demon King Demise from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Due to being Ghirahim's master, and the very reason for Ganondorf's existence, who himself is a Walking Spoiler depending on the game.
- Everything about Oersted from Live A Live, other than maybe the first half hour of his chapter, is a pretty big spoiler.
- The Trinity in Skullgirls. Though as of the non canon storylines they haven't made an actual appearence in the game, other than an Early-Bird Cameo in the Gainax Ending/Cliffhanger ending upon beating Double's Storyline, which suggests that none of the storylines are canon.
- Mentioning that Shadow the Hedgehog is in Sonic Heroes would clue you in to the fact that he didn't really die in the previous game. Then again, the fact that he had his own game after that, and has appeared in most Sonic games in some fashion since then, the fact that anyone ever thought he was actually dead is taken for granted.
- All the player characters other than Max, the main character, in Sanitarium are hard to talk about because they're actually forms/alternate personalities that Max shapeshifts into. By itself, that might not matter, but the shapeshifting doesn't occur until about 1/3 of the way into the game and is meant to be a VERY unexpected plot development; it's not something that the player is intended to know ahead of time.
- Lumine in Mega Man X8, who's kidnapped at the very beginning of the game and isn't seen again until the end, when he (allegedly) kills Sigma off for real and reveals himself as the true mastermind of the game's events.
- Killabilly from Lollipop Chainsaw, who appears only after Juliet has killed all five Dark Purveyors.
- Angel in Borderlands 2. It is very difficult to talk about her in any respect without revealing that she is working for Handsome Jack, is a Siren, and is also Handsome Jack's daughter. Technically referring to her as Angel rather than The Guardian Angel is itself a spoiler.
- Dimentio from Super Paper Mario is near impossible to talk about without revealing SOMETHING about his motives.
- Getting a good look at Dracula from Castlevania Lords Of Shadow 2 and Castlevania Lords Of Shadow Mirror Of Fate, or even hearing him speak, gives away the big twist from the end of the first Castlevania Lords Of Shadow.
- The Walking Dead. The Mysterious Stranger, when finally revealed, is one huge spoiler since his life is ruined by your group. He questions all of your hard choices. The fact that he's an Anti-Villain instead of a Big Bad, makes him a walking spoiler.
- Assassins Creed III Haytham Kenway was successfully kept a secret from audiences for years up until the game's release, yet the first three sequences are played as him and not the main character, his son Connor. The end of the third reveals him to actually be a templar, and he serves as the Big Bad alongside Charles Lee for the rest of the game. Since much of the game's major twists involve him and his relationship with his son, it's pretty hard having a spoiler-free discussion about him.
- Ib: Since nearly all of Mary's screen time lends itself to her being a Jerkass Woobie Creepy Child with a palette knife (after being introduced as a Cheerful Child foil Ib), it's very difficult to have a spoiler-free discussion regarding her character.
- Everything in the Sacred Grounds in Cave Story due to the area's existence being a huge spoiler, which includes both of its bosses, the Heavy Press and Ballos.
- Pretty much every character in Star Stealing Prince. Astra's not really a Distressed Damsel; Snowe's parents are not really dead, Snowe's parents aren't even the rightful rulers of the land, the rightful ruler was even worse than they were and they were pretty awful, and there's also the whole demon thing.
- Iji has an entire species of this trope, the Komato, whose existence spoils both the true motivations of the Tasen and the second half of the game. Fortunately just mentioning their name them won't spoil anything, as there is a very early Interface Spoiler.
- In World of Warcraft, Drakuru in Grizzly Peaks initially seems like just another questgiver, until you discover that he's collaborating with the Lich King against the Drakkari trolls. The latter part is why most people remember and talk about him.
- On the character sheet for Spec Ops The Line, well over half of the character-specific tropes for Cpt. Martin Walker are spoiler-tagged out. This is not an accident by any means.
- No less than four of the love interests in Hatoful Boyfriend have a ton of associated spoilers for the Kudzu Plot of the darker routes and backstories. Most of these come up in fandom discussion and/or sequels and manga expansions. In particular:
- Nageki Fujishiro is the ghost of a mourning dove who immolated himself five years prior to the game to prevent the virus he carries being used as a biological superweapon.
- Dr. Shuu (a false identity) works for the Hawk Party to destroy humanity out of affection for Ryouta Kawara's late father.
- Nanaki Kazuaki was "assisted in suicide" and his identity stolen by Nageki's childhood friend Hitori Uzune to seek revenge for Nageki's death.
- Yuuya Sakazaki is a Teen Superspy working for the Dove Party.
- In Bio Shock Infinite, reading anything online about Booker, Elizabeth, Father Commstock, or the Twins is a good way to spoil a huge chunk of The Reveal and the ending, as the spoilers are a core part of each characters' background.
- In Soul Calibur V, the names of Alpha Patroklos and Pyrrha Omega give away that those characters will be getting alternate versions somewhere in the story.
- Any discussion of Elysium in the same game will give away that the supposed ghost of Sophitia isn't what she appears.
- Kratos Aurion from Tales Of Symphonia. Even if we ignore the fact that he's the main character's father and that he was one of the legendary heroes, you still can't talk about his morality and motivation without spoiling something, be it that he was Evil All Along in the first part... or was actually Good All Along at the end.
- Penelope from Sly Cooper, although she doesn't become this until the fourth game. Then you see what happens.
Webcomics
- Diva'ratrika Val'Sharen, Liriel and "Diva" from Drowtales due to the fact that they are all technically the same person, with the last one being the final result of a Fusion Dance of the aura (soul) of Diva'ratrika with her servant Ragini, with Liriel being the incomplete fusion. All of which spoils the fact that Diva'ratrika has been dead since nearly the start of the story, with the coup that eventually killed her occurring in the story's prologue.
- And most things about Kalki Nidraa'chal from the same series also qualify. While she actually appears in the Prologue of the story, it takes 25 chapters for us to find out what her deal is. And while quite a few people had already guessed that she was really Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen's daughter, even with a Shrug of God that while she was Snadhya's daughter Snadhya had never given birth, chapter 25 was a Wham Episode in that the explanation of how this was possible also revealed other gigantic spoilers: Mainly, that the Val'Jaal'darya have not only figured out how to carry a child outside of the mother's womb, but also make a child have two mothers. And Kalki's second mom? None other than Mel'arnach Val'Sarghress, the protagonist Ariel's real mother, which basically makes Kalki related to half of the important cast members in some form or another. Whew.
- Rachel from Tower of God. She is initially just the girl Baam was chasing, but after she tried to kill him and he has been declared dead, the whole plot goes off into another direction. It's impossible to have any sort of meaningful conversation about Rachel without mentioning these spoilers.
- In Homestuck Doc Scratch is a near-omniscient being who's the First Guardian of the trolls' universe, while it was somewhat of a late revelation that the trolls live on another planet. Scratch is also the precursor to Lord English, a mobster who turns out to be the Big Bad. The joke here is that Scratch speaks in white text.
- The post-scratch kids in the sense that their very existence is a pretty massive spoiler. Same with the pre-scratch trolls.
- Calliope and Caliborn, particularly after the former's true appearance is revealed. So shocking author Andrew Hussie even asked people not to post the image for a few days and provided a fake image for people to use instead.
- "Cloney" of Sluggy Freelance is one that is largely a spoiler if you provide her real name. From late 2001 to 2002, Torg and Riff, after returning from the Punyverse, thought that Aylee had seemingly undergone a Face Heel Turn as her latest evolution. It turns out that it was actually an evil clone of Aylee made by Hereti-Corp, and referring to "Aylee" during this time "Cloney" spoils this twist.
Web Original
- Doug Walker in To Boldly Flee. Not The Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker.
- Also, The Nostalgia Critic himself becomes this in post-To Boldly Flee canon.
- The original, human Allison in Red vs. Blue.
- Despite being one of the main characters, Church qualifies, simply because two of the biggest twists in the series are focused on him.
- Agent Carolina in Season 10. Up until the final few seconds of Season 9, she was assumed to be dead, so her appearances in the present day are impossible to talk about without spoiling that she, in fact, is truly not dead at all.
- Mystery Blue Guy/Blue/The Blue Freelancer's true identity of Captain Butch Flowers (and Agent Florida!), as revealed at the end of season 10.
Western Animation
- Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings, from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Their very appearance is a spoiler, as promotional material for the season 2 finale made the episode seem to be about wedding hijinks.
- To a lesser extent, Matilda the donkey from "A Friend in Deed". She shows up near the beginning of the episode apparently just to show how well Pinkie Pie knows her friends and neighbors, then she turns out to be very important to resolving the plot of the episode. (The Genre Savvy, however, might realise how important a female donkey would probably be in an episode featuring a male donkey as a major character.)
- Hiroshi Sato in The Legend of Korra, whose part in the 7th Episode Twist turns his entire characterization on its ear.
- Tarrlok became one after his backstory was revealed.
- Breakdown in Transformers Prime, whose death and implied rebirth as Silas' new body have seemingly caused Hasbro to delay and deny the existence of his toy. (Though, that's also for budget reasons. The mold was created by Takara to use at their $65 USD pricepoint, rendering it in "financial no-man's land" compared to Hasbro's $22 USD price point for the same figure-class.)
- Unicron. It's a little hard to talk about him without revealing that in this continuity, Earth formed around him.
- Shockwave in Transformers Animated, right down to him being Shockwave, as he was undercover as the Autobot Longarm.
- In Beast Wars, Tigerhawk's mere existence lessens some of the tension in season 2, despite not appearing until the tail end of season 3 (also the last season). Similarly, the existence of the Dinobot clone spoils the Heroic Sacrifice of the original dinobot, as well as how the finale plays out.
- Michael Korvac in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, since the Avengers don't learn about the murders he committed until relatively late into episode #32.
- Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The fact that he appears at all is a massive spoiler.
- To a lesser extent, General Pong Krell and Barriss Offee.
- Arsenal in Young Justice: it's very hard to describe him in any detail or even reveal his real name without giving away something about Red Arrow's Tomato in the Mirror twist from season 1.
- Mayor Jones, Angel Dynamite, Mr E and the Chileses in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Even knowing that most of the tropes around these characters are spoilers probably counts as a spoiler! (Well, except Mr E, who's clearly hiding something from the beginning.)
- Pumyra is this in Thundercats 2011 due to being The Mole/Evil All Along.
- Ed Edd N Eddy has Eddy's brother. He is made out to be The Ace by Eddy, but when he actually appears in The Movie, it turns out that couldn't be farther from the truth.
- In Monsters, Inc., Waternoose is kind of like this - most tropes related to him are based on The Reveal that he's the Knight Templar Big Bad of the movie, and because this occurs during the climax it can still come as a shock. Unlike some, though, his characterisation up until this point makes this twist much less predictable.
- Green Lantern The Animated Series: Aya is this for almost the entire second half of the series. She sacrifices herself to save Razer, comes back, gets dumped, destroys the Anti-Monitor, does a Face Heel Turn and becomes the Big Bad, tries to go back in time to alter creation, and then, after all of that, she sacrifices herself again to save the universe. Good freaking god.
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