History Main / DelayedNarratorIntroduction

* The first episode of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' opens with narration by an unknown woman. Volume 3 reveals her to be [[spoiler:Salem, the BigBad of the series.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', Hawke first meets Varric, the narrator of their story, one year after arriving at Kirkwall. Although this gets meta; Varric is the first character introduced in the game, and the main events of the game are framed by his "modern" scenes where he's telling the story.

* Jill Paton-Walsh's 1981 children's book ''The Green Book'' mostly seems to be written in the third person, but every now and again, the narration uses "we" or "us". It isn't until the final pages that the book is revealed to be a diary (and the green book of the title) written by Pattie, one of the colonists fleeing a dying Earth at the beginning of the book.

* Jill Paton-Walsh's 1981 children's book ''The Green Book'' mostly seems to be written in the third person, but every now and again, the narration uses "we" or "us". It isn't until the final pages that the book (the green book of the title) is revealed to be a diary written by Pattie, one of the colonists fleeing a dying Earth at the beginning of the book.

* The narrator for Mumble's life in ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'' is eventually revealed to be Lovelass, who actually informs Mumble he was going to be telling his story.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], [[spoiler:the Narrator]] (credited as such) appears briefly halfway through Part One, and is revealed at the end of the episode as [[spoiler:a Time Lord]]. He's identified as [[spoiler:Rassilon (and Lord President of the Time Lords)]] in Part Two.

!Examples:

[[folder: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[folder: ComicBooks]]

[[folder: {{Film}}]]

* Patou from ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'' narrates the entire movie, but [[BigDamnHeroes first shows up in person when]] [[BigBad the Grand Duke]] is about to eat Edmond.

* ''Film/ThePostman'': The narrator who speaks at the beginning is finally shown in the ending as The Postman's grown daughter Rose. It became more obvious over time since she calls him "My father" and then how he conceived a baby with Abby was shown.

[[folder: {{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/FromTheMixedUpFilesOfMrsBasilEFrankweiler'', where the FramingDevice is that this is a letter from the titular Mrs. Frankweiler to her lawyer to explain why she is changing her will. Mrs. Frankweiler herself doesn't actually show up until almost the end of the story.

* The narrator in ''Literature/ThePlayerOfGames''. Each of the main sections begins with some taunting about he's not going to just ''tell'' you who he is or how he knows this story. At the very end, he reveals his true identity, [[spoiler: the militant drone from the beginning, having been disguised as a different drone which accompanied the main character for the rest of the story]], wonders if the main character ever caught on to who he was, and admits that he couldn't possibly have known things like what the other characters were actually thinking or doing when he wasn't there (so he just made those bits up).

* While he's never exactly a character, there are a couple times in ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' where Creator/KurtVonnegut states that a solider mentioned in passing is himself.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], [[spoiler:the Narrator (credited as such) appears briefly halfway through Part One, and is revealed at the end of the episode as a Time Lord. He's identified as Rassilon (and Lord President of the Time Lords) in Part Two.]]
* In the miniseries ''Series/IClaudius'', it's around three episodes before the narrator is even born, although it's explicitly a story told by that character from the beginning.

--> You know that guy you see going into the convenience store when you stop off in that little town on the way to Grandma's house? Sort of shifty lookin' fella who buys a pack of smokes, a couple lotto scratchers and a tallboy [[note]](beer)[[/note]] at 10:00 in the mornin'? The kind of guy you wait to come out before you and your family go in?\\

[[folder: VideoGames]]

[[folder: WebAnimation]]

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

* The narrator for Mumble's life in ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet'' is eventually revealed to be Lovelass, who actually informs Mumble he was going to be telling his story.

!Examples;

[[AC: {{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

[[AC: ComicBooks]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebAnimation]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

--> You know that guy you see going into the convenience store when you stop off in that little town on the way to Grandma's house? Sort of shifty lookin' fella who buys a pack of smokes, a couple lotto scratchers and a tallboy [[note]](beer)[[/note]] at 10:00 in the mornin'? The kind of guy you wait to come out before you and your family go in?

--> Well, that guy's me. My name is Earl.

* The narrator of ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' is revealed in Volume 3 to be [[spoiler:Salem, the BigBad of the series.]]

* ''Film/{{Posse}}'', the onscreen narrator is played by the elderly Woody Strode. At the movie's climax, Jessie gives a little boy his book; cut to the narrator reading the book.

* Sir Creator/AnthonyHopkins's character in ''Film/{{Alexander}}'' (about UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat). Ptolemy was one of Alexander's generals. The FramingDevice of the movie is Grandpa Ptolemy telling the children about Alexander because it is the doom of men that they forget. Young Ptolemy did '''no''' narration during the action scenes. Grandpa Ptolemy's function was to tell about '''big''' battles which would be too expensive to show.

* Sir Creator/AnthonyHopkins's character in the film ''Alexander'' (about UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat). Ptolemy was one of Alexander's generals. The FramingDevice of the movie is Grandpa Ptolemy telling the children about Alexander because it is the doom of men that they forget. Young Ptolemy did '''no''' narration during the action scenes. Grandpa Ptolemy's function was to tell about '''big''' battles which would be too expensive to show.

* In ''[[Film/MadMax The Road Warrior]]'', the viewer learns only in the last seconds of the film that the aged narrator is [[spoiler: the feral kid]].

* While he's never exactly a character, there are a couple times in ''SlaughterhouseFive'' where Creator/KurtVonnegut states that a solider mentioned in passing is himself.

* Jonathan Barnes's ''Literature/TheSomnambulist'' initially seems to just have a sinister LemonyNarrator. The villain only reveals himself as the narrator when StageMagician hero has figured out his identity.

* In the book ''From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler'', where the FramingDevice is that this is a letter from the titular Mrs. Frankweiler to her lawyer to explain why she is changing her will. Mrs. Frankweiler herself doesn't actually show up until almost the end of the story.

* In Peter Milligan's ''The Enigma'' for VertigoComics, the identity of the narrator is not revealed until the very last page of the story: [[spoiler:it's a lizard who first appeared in the story only a page or so earlier.]] ItMakesSenseInContext and it's better than it sounds.