The Reveal / Fan Works

• In Ask Not the Sparrow, it turns out that Rainbow fell out of the sky as a filly instead of Fluttershy, and broke her wings as a result.
• Doing It Right This Time: When Asuka announced Rei was moving with them, Misato demanded knowing what was going on and why they were acting so out-of-character. The three Children figured out that she would find out sooner or later so that they told her they were time-travellers.
• In Dungeon Keeper Ami, the Avatar is mentioned from time to time as a character that died long ago. That is until Marda, the mysterious female troll leader, puts on the Avatar mantle and returns to his original form as the Avatar himself.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon's aunt Rika Fuurude tells him about the events of Higurashi: When They Cry, hoping he'll reveal his story after that. Understanding that she'll believe him and keep his secret, Kyon tells his aunt afterwards about the SOS Brigade and the supernatural events he had lived though.
• In the Back to the Future fanfic Homecoming, the reason Doc is acting so strangely is leftover guilt and angst from thinking Marty had been hit by a train because he gave the incorrect time to set. When he saw that Marty was all right, he "wanted to forget the whole thing."
• In Hunting the Unicorn
  • In the eleventh chapter, the readers are subject to a reveal that does triple time as a Wham Line:
  Blaine: I'm not a virgin.
  • And then in the thirteenth chapter, David tells a counselor that Blaine has a stalker.
  • In "The Cat", it turns out "Jerry" from the fourth chapter is Blaine's father-figure, Greg.
• Intelligence Factor:
  • The "E" character who occasionally comments on the articles turns out to be a Gothitelle named Eulogy.
  • Zygarde, Giratina, Palkia, and Dialga tell the crew that Pokérin is the base template for all humanoids' cultures, which Infinity Energy (which is the essence of Arceus) then copied throughout the universe.
• There are several huge ones in With Strings Attached:
  • The first comes when Jeft reveals to Shag and Varx that he, not the Dalns gods, was the force behind the Vasyn quest. He set the whole thing up just to see the four in action and ultimately to have them go up against his favorite gaming character, Jim Hunter.
  • The second comes when everyone learns there is no curse on Ketafa — even Jeft believed it — and the gods could see the continent all along, but told everyone there was a curse on it so they didn't have to spend money "godding" it. The actual effect of the Vasyn is to end the reign of the Dalns gods and turn the planet over to the Pyar gods. Whether this is a Good Thing will be explored in the sequel.
• There is one enormous reveal at the very end of The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World: The C'hou that had been completely reshaped by the Pyar gods and is in danger of being conquered by the Black Tower... is actually a giant telepathic MMORPG. The consequences of this discovery will be dealt with in The Keys Stand Alone: The Hard World.
• Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: Calvin's return after the previous season's cliffhanger that ended up killing Holographic Retro. Socrates Faints in Shock!
• Ace Combat: The Equestrian War: Chapter 16 (and, by extension, chapter 19) reveals that the entire conflict was orchestrated by Red Cyclone.
• In The Owl House and Cthulhu Mythos crossover The Gods Awaken, Emperor Belos is revealed to have been created from a piece of Nyarlathotep that escaped being imprisoned in glass and burrowed itself into the ground for thousands of years before developing a more tangible form.
• Near the end of No Charm Equal, the cupid Harry discovers the truth about his assignment to find Eggsy's match, and why Eggsy can see him when he shouldn't be able to. He was intended to be Eggsy's love interest the entire time.
• In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Jackie Jakobs is set up as a Rich Bitch sadistic self-absorbed young woman who has had everything handed to her on a plate. Then, it's revealed she grew up on the streets, earning keep in Mad Moxxi's bar by slinging drinks, only later finding out that she was really the heiress to a massive family fortune. To her, this is a huge improvement. Needless to say, such a backstory screwed her up, badly.
• Pink Personal Hell And Altering Fate It becomes rather obvious later on that Nickel Steel is Dominic.
• In A Princess, a Treehugger, and a Space Cadet Walk Into a Library, Tobias allows Rachel to touch his chest when they're alone, revealing that he's transgender.
• The Writing on the Wall features this when the eponymous writing is finally deciphered at the end of the story, revealing the true nature of the Ancient Tomb that Daring Do and the other archaeologists had been excavating. It isn't a tomb at all; it is a nuclear waste storage facility built by humans. Daring Do isn't suffering from a disease — she is suffering from radiation sickness. The reveal changes the story from one about an Adventurer Archaeologist to a Science Fiction Horror story.
  This is not a place of honor. No great deed is commemorated here. Nothing of value is here.
• Ruin Value is about Celestia scavenging through a ruined city for supplies After the End. The story implies that it is set in the future, well after the series ends, but it is actually a Stealth Prequel to the entire series, being set millenia before the start of the show, and the story is set in Humanity's Wake. The ruined city was Seattle, Washington.
• The Pony POV Series has a few major ones in the Dark World Series. For starters Fluttercruel was born Discorded and remained such until Sparkler's memories (when she Body Surfed into her) undid it, explaining why, unlike the rest of the mane six, she's essentially not matured in the last thousand years. Another is that Discord has spent the last several hundred million years trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop, always ending with his and Fluttercruel's demise. And finally, the Nameless Passenger's identity: Nightmare Eclipse/Paradox, Twilight's potential future self and the true Big Bad who trapped Discord in his Ironic Hell as punishment for what he did, and has sense become even worse than he ever was.
• In the Hunger Games fanfiction Some Semblance of Meaning, Lavinia Gilden is revealed to be from District Twelve. She stowed away to the Capitol after her older sister Violet died in the Hunger Games, and she eventually became an escort for her home district. This reveal actually comes even before the main characters are sent into the arena, but nonetheless, it may be the biggest Reveal of the story.
• The pro wrestling story Taking It Back features a masked ninja wrestler who becomes Divas Champion and pulls off her mask to reveal she's really Lita.
• Cinderella: The TRUE Sequel: To make Cinderella and Anastasia feel as helpless as she possibly can, Lady Tremaine reveals herself to be the Gold Digger that many fans have suspected her to be by revealing that she married and later poisoned her first husband, and later did the same to Cinderella's mother, before marrying Cinderella's father and doing the same to him several years later, and putting Cinderella and her two stepsisters through years of verbal and emotional abuse, and grooming the latter two to marry into royalty. She also makes Cinderella aware that she has, indeed, turned back the hands of time.
  • Lady Tremaine is also revealed to have known about Fairy Godmother's involvement from the moment Cinderella was caught singing "So This Is Love" near the end of the first film.
• The climax of Vinyl and Octavia Fight Ten Thousand Ninjas has the identities of the leaders of the ninja clan, who sent the ninjas to capture Vinyl and Octavia, revealed: Bass Drop and Octavius, their male counterparts from another dimension.
• Mega Man Reawakened has the reveal that Wily rigged the explosion that killed Robert's father, and it was intended to kill Dr. Light.
• Mega Man: Defender of the Human Race has quite a few.
  • Mr. Black's real name is Jonathan Barton.
  • Project G-2 is the Mad Grinder.
  • ProtoMan's weakness post episode 10 was partly due to Wily literally removing his positive traits.
  • Mr. Black's target is Dr. Wily.
  • Project G-2 is powered by Bassinium.
  • Episode 12 has the reveal of the Conduit's master plan, which involves a virus to destroy all robots' memory cores.
• "The Hardest Part About Being a King" is an Alternate Universe fic set up to be just a simple Alternate Character Interpretation of King Candy. The first few chapters give him a Sympathetic P.O.V. behind him persecuting Vanellope, painting his actions as Necessarily Evil that he regrets having to do. Chapters one and two set up The Reveal as if it's going to be about King Candy's motivations for being so empathetic. Instead, there's an unexpected revelation about Vanellope as she crosses the finish line...
  Because, standing where Vanellope used to be, is a grey-skinned, yellow-toothed maniac in a white and red racing uniform.
  Again, there goes the neighborhood.
• Anthropology: Lyra spends much of the story trying to prove humanity's existance in Equestria. At the end of chapter 9, she learns two things that change the tone of the story. humanity went extinct and she herself is human. According to the author however, everything up to this point was the prologue.
• In the Total Drama story, Legacy, Heather revealing her planned gesture of remembrance is the story's dramatic climax.
• In Chapter 14 of Origin Story (entitled "RAGNAROK!"), Alexandra Harris discovers that she is not, in fact, Xander Harris somehow transformed into a woman and given Power Girl's powers. She is, in fact, a magically created copy of Power Girl who was somehow acquired all of Xander's memories. The realization causes a short Heroic BSoD.
• The Next Frontier makes the reader wait until nearly half-way through the story before they find out what it's a crossover with, Firefly.
• The Havoc Side of the Force has Harry Potter learn from Anakin that he wasn't accidentally sent into the distant future, but the very distant past. "A long long time ago" indeed.
• In the Soulsborne (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II and Bloodborne) fanfic Hotspring Souls!, it turns out that there's a Humongous Mecha hidden under the inn and the ten vouchers the inn gave to the gang are actually the keys needed to pilot it! This marks the shift from Hot Springs Episode to GIANT ROBOT ANIME.
• In The Familiar of Zero fanfic, The Steep Path Ahead, Chapter 30 reveals that the day Luise was kidnapped, Cattleya was assassinated at the same time and the very Church she loved hid who she was the entire time to break Karin's will and make her lose hope. She learns this as we do and promptly starts to cry.
• In The Story to End All Stories, this occurs when the heroes discover who was behind the Nothing all along.
• The Second Try:
  • In chapter 5, Shinji and Asuka reveal that before going back to the past, they had a child. And since she didn't follow them, she's gone now.
  • In the second-to-last chapter, Kaworu reveals that he was the one sent Shinji and Asuka back to the past, and then he hints that their daughter has been sent back too, and they'll meet her again very soon.
• In Glass (Bellamy Taft), chapter 19 reveals why Pegasus imprisoned everyone. It's "revenge" for Cecelia's death and Duelist Kingdom; since they kept her dead, he's keeping them there as payment.
• This Bites!: Of the fact that Cross is from another world.
  • The first one, incorporating Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Vivi, and Carue happens in Chapter 14.
    • Offscreen, the other Straw Hats inform Cobra, Igaram, and Lassoo, and they subsequently inform Chaka, Pell, Kohza, and the Supersonic Duck Squadron.
  • The second one, incorporating Boss, the TDWS, Conis, and Su happens in Chapter 38.
  • The third, incorporating Robin, Franky, Iceburg, Zambai and Paulie happens in Chapter 43.
• In Neon Metathesis Evangelion, Rei eventually reveals to Shinji and Asuka that she is a clone and angelic in nature. She later also reveals the former to Misato.
• The Return-Remixed has one early on when the seven masked women who attacked all the Divas during a match remove their ski masks, revealing the returning members of DEAR.
  • Later, there's another when John Cena knocks on the door of the Divas dressing room and says he has someone there they're going to want to see. They unlock the door and Cena enters with Edge, who goes on to have an important role in the story.
• The Pieces Lie Where They Fell:
  • Chapter 28 officially reveals, both in-universe and to the reader, that Page Turner is and always has been a Changeling/unicorn hybrid named Lamella.
  • Chapter 31 further reveals to the reader that Page isn't just any Changeling — she's the Changeling Queen and the eight-times-great-granddaughter of the late Queen Chrysalis.
  • Chapter 39 reveals, via the new Bearers figuring it out and the originals confirming it, that Balance is actually an alternate identity of another spirit, Harmony, who assumed a new form suited for an as-yet-unidentified mission.
  • Chapter 42, when Xvital puts on her Element, has her visit with the Magi of Stars... and learn that she's alive, but not well, being held captive by their enemy.
  • Chapter 43 reveals Xvital's past as having been engaged to the prince-king of the Cuanmiztl Kingdom until his mother found out about her being a thief and manipulated her into running away before the wedding.
  • Chapter 44 reveals their enemy's host: King Well Banded, the ruler of Equestria. And he knows they're there.
  • Chapter 45 — the Big Bad's true identity is finally given: It's the Nightmare, a Power whose Role and Purpose is to scare those who stray back onto the right path.
  • Continued in the sequel, Picking Up the Pieces: Chapter 3 officially confirms what was heavily implied before — when Page confesses her full origins to Matron Hush Tone and Wind Breaker, she states that not only is she the current Changeling Queen (something only her friends, including Tizoc, and fellow Changelings knew before), she's descended from Queen Chrysalis and Shining Armor, something her friends did not know yet. She gives the same information to the rest of their friends in chapter 10.
  • In chapter 39 of the original story, Fluttershy whispered something to Page. In chapter 10 of this story, Page shares what she said with the rest of the group: That the original Bearers know her ancestry, and don't blame her in the slightest for what Chrysalis did.
  • A minor reveal comes in chapter 15, namely the contents of the note Memorizing gave to Violet Lulamoon in chapter 2 — he was informing Violet that Page is a fan of the book on amulets that she wrote and they'd probably enjoy talking about it together at some point.
• Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters has had a few major examples:
  • Chapter 11 reveals which of the Rebellion's leaders is Cyrus Ludmoore in disguise: It's Drake, Caleb's friend and a key leadership member.
  • Chapter 14 finally answers the long-running question of what actually happened at Carhaiz. The town was founded by the nobility to provide a peaceable middle ground for the commoners between Phobos and the Rebellion. The latter, not wanting the commoners to support anything but them, destroyed the town and massacred everyone in it, spreading rumors that they had valiantly destroyed a weapon Phobos created.
  • Chapter 19 has several shocking reveals back-to-back: the Dark Hand controls Section 13, the Bartholomew Chang arrested by Section 13 is a clone decoy of the original, Harold Hale has secretly been a leader of the Dark Hand the whole time, and is actually an immortal King Arthur.
• During the course of The Stronger Evil, the world becomes affected by erratic storms and earthquakes due to the awakening of a mysterious entity that has Creepy Blue Eyes and intimidates Shendu. He reveals in the 15th chapter that the entity is his mother Tiamat, the goddess of primordial creation.
• The 20th chapter (appropriately titled "Realisation") of Heart of Ashes, the second part of The Heart Trilogy, reveals the name and identity of the mysterious villain who has been around since the ending of Heart of Fire: Fankil, a demon and lieutenant of Morgoth. It's also revealed how Kathryn could be used to free Morgoth from the void. The 23rd chapter drops another bombshell on Fankil's reasons for wanting to release Morgoth: he's Morgoth's son.
• Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: Sunset discovers that Fluttershy is a were-manatee in chapter 17. The rest of her friends find out in chapter 30.
• Loved and Lost: King Jewelius reveals to the disgraced and imprisoned heroes in the eleventh chapter that he set Queen Chrysalis to invade Equestria on his cousin Princess Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding day in order to get rid of Cadance and their aunt Princess Celestia, both of whom he has hated for their superior popularity. However, once he decided he'll gain more by making Twilight Sparkle his pawn, he betrayed the Changelings by helping Twilight stop them before tricking everypony into blaming all the other heroes for the invasion. During the week the disgraced heroes were in exile, he wiped out all the injured royal guards who hadn't sworn loyalty to him and manipulated Twilight into losing all trust towards her exiled loved ones as well as accepting his marriage proposal, having every intention to get rid of her if he happens to find a more powerful unicorn mare as the mother of his legacy.
• The Ranma ½ fanfic Akane revolves around Akane waking up one day to discover that not only has she lost six months worth of her memories, she has been accused of killing Ranma. The penultimate chapter reveals that Akane IS Ranma — the real Akane was killed during a battle between Ranma and Ryoga, so Ranma took her body and threw it into Spring of Drowned Girl before jumping in after her, thus overwriting the original curse with one that caused him to take on HER form, then stole the Locking Ladle and got himself locked in that form — however, the incident was so traumatic that he developed amnesia and came to think of himself as Akane herself.
• The Eye of the Storm: Clancy isn't Sadie's father. Her "father" is actually Kay, a Ruby, meaning Sadie is half Gem.
• A Moon and World Apart: Chapter 26 reveals, through internal thoughts, that Moondancer is a Power — the Lady of Self-Centeredness. As readers of other works in this multiverse would know, this makes her one of the sub-Powers of Disharmony, and the Opposite of the Lord or Lady of Generosity.
• All Mixed Up!: Chapter 10a not only reveals Mariana Mag's anagrammed name to be "I Am Anagram", it also reveals that she was an Odd Squad agent named "Ocean" who got fired from the organization for rebellion and had Oksana as a partner.
• At the end of Where the Truth Lies (Animorphs), it turns out that teenagers are Tom and Melissa, who can morph and are working with David to find the Time Matrix and save the Animorphs.
• In the penultimate chapter of Whispers of the Abyss, Blot tells his teammates that he's from 800 years in the past.
• In chapter 19 of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fic ''Blood Obligation, Wamuu reveals to Jonathan Joestar that his mother Mary was the daughter of a human woman and a member of Wamuu's race. Jonathan's immense strength and height are the result of having nightman heritage.
• In Chapter 25 of Death Note Chaotic, The Masked Man reveals that he is Russell Thorne, the current president of the US, who used his Death Note to gain his position, and acted through proxies to hide his true identity until it was too late to stop him.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Chapter 84 reveals what happened to Sasuke after he killed Itachi and before he returned to Konoha: He was part of an assault on the Akatsuki and used the Amaterasu to burn Nagato and all six bodies of Pain. This resulted in Sasuke receiving near-fatal injuries. Seireiko tried to resurrect him. However, the Uchiha wasn't dead yet, resulting in the creation of Evil Sasuke. When Seireiko ordered Suigetsu to kill the real Sasuke, the latter was able to escape before suffering from amnesia.

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