The audience: "Hold on, only now they've found out?!"
The Reveal occurs when the writers reveal a secret to the audience, or characters reveal something to another character in-universe. Maybe it is the fact that one of the story's main characters is in love with another character. Or perhaps we already know who the serial killer is, or that two characters are having an affair. An Internal Reveal is a form of Dramatic Irony that is almost exclusively used to create tension and concerns a major plot element, with the story making it clear to the audience that the ramifications will be huge when the relevant characters finally find out.
This can be limited to a single character or small group, or their secret can be revealed to the entire world. It can also happen retroactively with particularly famous plot twists: thanks to Pop-Cultural Osmosis, the audience already knows about what was once a regular reveal, but the characters still don't.
Super-Trope to Relationship Gone Public. May involve Locked Out of the Loop, a Secret Identity or The Masquerade. Rarely necessary if dealing with an Open Secret. See also Reverse Whodunnit, when applied to detective stories. See also Cassandra Truth, for when a secret is revealed but isn't believed. Contrast Tomato Surprise, when something is a revelation only to the audience, but not to the characters in-universe.
If this happens with someone who is Graceful Until She Speaks, the character is more likely to be sympathetic to the audience.
If everyone responds that they already knew of the secret before the reveal, that's Everybody Knew Already. This is often mistaken for a Captain Obvious Reveal, due to audiences not realising they have access to information the characters don't have.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
- In Aikatsu!, it's known from early on that Ichigo's mother was one half of the legendary idol duo Masquerade. Ichigo herself (and all other young idols) doesn't learn of this until episode 47.
- In the Asteroid in Love manga, Ao, as well as the readers, already learn in Chapter 23 that Ao is going to move away from the town due to her father's job transfer, but it is 4 chapters later, or about two months in in-universe time, when she tells the rest of the cast about this. In the anime, however, this internal reveal is converted to The Reveal by removing the scene in which Ao is told the news and a few parts in which she thinks about it
- In Basara, Sarasa and Shuri fall in love with each other. She is known by the public as Tatara, her deceased twinbrother, and vows to get revenge on the Red King for murdering her twin. Shuri is the Red King in question and vows to stop the rebellion led by Tatara. Since Sarasa is using her real identity as a woman as a Secret Identity, neither of them is aware that they are the person the other wants to kill. It takes a very long time for them to eventually find this out.
- Bleach:
- Ichigo's father is a bumbling idiot who pervs over his daughters and his deceased mother was someone he remembers as gentle and kind. Kon and the audience finds out that Isshin is a Shinigami when Aizen's proto-Arrancar almost kill Kon. However, it's hundreds of chapters later when Ichigo learns the truth about Isshin, and that's only because Isshin intervenes in Ichigo's fight with Aizen to prevent Aizen revealing the truth about Ichigo's mother, who was a Quincy. Ichigo doesn't have much time to stay shocked at Isshin's reveal given that he's in the middle of a fight with Aizen and Gin, so it takes almost another hundred chapters before Isshin's back story reveals he's the former 10th Division Captain who went AWOL twenty years before the story began. The Gotei 13, especially his successors, Hitsugaya and Rangiku, still haven't found out who Ichigo's father is.
- The Everything but the Rain arc, which reveals Isshin's back story (and which is, by association, a partial reveal of Ryuuken's back story), concludes with the reveal to the audience that Uryuu didn't go with Ichigo to Hueco Mundo because he has instead joined the Vandenreich. Several chapters later, the rest of the Vandenreich find out about their new recruit, which the audience knew about before they were told. They're not impressed as he's an unknown man who has immediately jumped over Haschwalth's head to become Yhwach's successor. It's many more chapters before Ichigo and his friends all learn that Uryuu has joined the Vandenreich, and they only find out when Uryuu chooses to intervene between Yhwach and Ichigo to both reveal his current allegiance and to attempt to protect Ichigo's life without appearing to be disloyal to Yhwach.
- During the final battle, no one is aware of Isshin and Ryuuken's arrival in the Royal Realm except for the audience. They eventually reveal themselves to Uryuu so that Ryuuken can give Uryuu a special arrow created from the soul silver that Yhwach used to kill Uryuu's mother. Ryuuken collected the silver to forge an arrow that can briefly stop Yhwach's power. Although initially surprised to see his father in the Royal Realm, Uryuu doesn't waste much time on either disbelief or needless questions — he's well aware that Ichigo's running out of time against Yhwach.
- Code Geass:
- Much of the drama (and even some of the comedy) throughout the series stems from Lelouch trying to conceal his identity as the terrorist leader Zero — and as the exiled eleventh prince of the empire — from both his friends and his enemies, while of course the audience knows from the very beginning. The situation is made more complex by his Geass power, which allows him to erase memories, but which only works once on any given person. The major, heartbreaking Internal Reveal occurs in the final minutes of the first season finale.
- Due to a Time Skip and some amnesia induced by The Emperor's Geass, the situation is mostly reset for the second season, with many of the characters who were previously aware of Lelouch's identity either once again oblivious or at least unsure of whether Lelouch is the "new" Zero.
- Death Note: The audience knows from the beginning that Villain Protagonist Light Yagami is the mysterious serial killer known as Kira. Most characters who find out are on his side and/or end up killed by him, so he isn't caught until the very end.
- Death Parade: The dark-haired woman finds out that she is a human who has died a couple episodes after it’s revealed to the audience.
- Digimon Tamers: Takato eventually shows Guilmon to his entire class. What follows is an episode of middle schoolers playing with a little red dinosaur. This case is unique in that there was no real reason for doing so until later when Takato wanted to sneak Guilmon on the school camping trip.
- Goku spent the entirety of the original Dragon Ball in the dark about what happened to his grandfather Son Gohan — namely, that he squashed the poor guy when in his giant ape Oozaru form on the full moon, which Bulma, Yamcha, and the crew figured out pretty quickly after Goku transformed for the first time in the manga. He finally twigs to it during the Saiyan saga of Dragon Ball Z when his enemy Vegeta, a member of the Saiyan race like he is, reveals his ability to transform into a giant ape as well, as well as displaying considerably more control over it than Goku was ever able to maintain.
- The Elusive Samurai: After keeping his identity hidden from everyone but his closest allies for two years, Tokiyuki finally announces it to his troops right before the Nakasendai Rebellion. He builds up the reveal by listing each of his Hojo ancestors and their accomplishments one by one before declaring that he himself is the first son of Hojo Takatoki, the main line survivor and heir of the Kamakura shogunate, resulting in a thunderous cheer and a huge morale boost.
- In Fairy Tail, toward the end of the Tartaros arc, Zeref reveals that E.N.D., the strongest demon he created, is actually Etherious Natsu Dragneel, and in a flashback an arc later, also reveals that Natsu is his younger brother. In the arc after that, Natsu learns about his identity as E.N.D. and relationship to Zeref during his fight with Zeref, and Gray, after defeating Invel, who'd intended to manipulate him into killing E.N.D., learns that E.N.D., whom he'd sworn to destroy, is actually Natsu.
- Food Wars!: For about the first half of the story, only a few people are aware of Soma's relationship to Joichiro, largely due to Soma using his maternal surname while the world knows Joichiro by his original surname Saiba. This is played up for Dramatic Irony given that Erina admires Joichiro but hates Soma, unaware of their relationship until Chapter 130, where she walks in on Soma right when he's telling her father Azami Nakiri that Joichiro is his dad.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- The death of Maes Hughes happens quite early in the series, but Ed, Alphonse and Winry don't learn about it until several chapters later after spending a whole arc away from the country's capital. Once they do return, the revelation hits the three of them like a truck, and the rest of the chapter/episode becomes a pure tearjerker as they all experience the grief of Hughes's death.
- The audience is well aware that Havoc's girlfriend is actually an evil quasi-immortal being who's only using him to feel out what the good guys know about the bad guys' plan. The fallout of the reveal itself is horrific, but with the twist that emotionally, Havoc wasn't all that upset, and not being an idiot, he hadn't told his girlfriend anything that was sensitive information. What really upset him was her stabbing him through the spine and paralysing him.
- Bradley's true nature as Wrath and Envy being Hughes' true killer is revealed to the audience long before any of the main characters finds out.
- In Goodbye, My Rose Garden, Hanako Kujou, a Japanese schoolteacher, travels to England in hopes of meeting her favorite author, Victor Franks. She gets a job as a maid for Alice Douglas, a young noblewoman who agrees to introduce Hanako to Victor if Hanako agrees to kill Alice. Midway through the story, it is revealed in passing that Victor's true identity is Alice herself, but the revelation is not made to Hanako until the end of the second volume out of three.
- Guilty Crown: Shu explains about Voids (and the fact he's a member of Funeral Parlor) to a few of his classmates halfway through the show.
- In The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All, it is established at the beginning that the record store clerk Aya likes is actually her female classmate Mitsuki. Aya, however, doesn't find out until Chapter 18, when she notices that Mitsuki left her phone on her desk and notices that the playlist is the same one she sent to the record store clerk.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Golden Wind: Bucciarati Living on Borrowed Time after he was revived by Giorno is made obvious due to the various conditions seen on his body. Giorno doesn't realize the truth until he touches Bucciarati's body and the latter admits it.
- The JoJoLands: Rohan Kishibe being a Stand User, as his original counterpart in Part 4 appeared. Jodio only finds out after distracting Rohan using November Rain, making him bring out Heaven's Door.
- In The Kindaichi Case Files, many a mystery case that isn't a Fair Play Whodunit is because the culprit(s) reveal their criminal intention to the viewers that they conceal from their in-universe cohorts early on in the case arc where they appear before committing their crime(s) of choice.
- Kizuna no Allele: In Episode 14 the boy shows Miracle that they have been Quan the entire time, something the viewers knew since Episode 8.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's:
- While the audience knew from the start that the master of the season's villains was the ill girl who was the friend of Nanoha's friend Suzuka, the heroes and Wolkenritter didn't know this, and a lot of the season's tension is built on the two sides being unaware of just how close they are. The Wolkenritter find out first in episode 8 when Suzuka sends a text with an attached photo asking if it be okay for her and friends to visit Hayate while she's in the hospital, leading the Wolkenritter having to to take pains to avoid being their at the same time, but when the girls decide to make a surprise visit on Christmas Eve an episode later...
- The eponymous 9-year-old heroine finally confesses to her parents that over the past half a year, she has been working part-time as a Child Soldier for Human Aliens on a job that could have very well left her either crippled for life or dead. They take it surprisingly well (but then again, given her dad's background, they must have been very proud of her).
- Mash's status as Un-Sorcerer is known in Mashle: Magic and Muscles from the start and he doesn't really hide it, however his friends don't learn he was born without magic until chapter 38.
- The end of Mob Psycho 100 has Reigen finally admitting to Mob that he's been a Phony Psychic from the moment they met.
- My Hero Academia: All Might is a superhero who is suffering from a crippling injury which in his normal form, makes him really weak. He can temporarily use a muscular form, and keeps his real form a secret so that people can put their faith in him as the symbol of peace. During his fight with his archnemesis All for One, the hero eventually fails to keep up this muscular body, exposing his weak self to the public.
- Nagasarete Airantou: After a number of silhouette outlines and hints for the reader's benefit, the only person who didn't know the identity of the Leader of the West before the Scavenger Hunt Arc was Ikuto.
- Naruto :
- It was long suspected and eventually revealed that Naruto's father was the Fourth Hokage. Naruto himself didn't discover it until a Journey to the Center of the Mind nearly 80 chapters after it was revealed to the audience in a conversation between Tsunade and Jiraiya.
- In The Last: Naruto the Movie, Naruto is surprised to find out that Hinata is in love with him, even though all of their friends and a good portion of the general public have known about it for years, especially after Hinata confessed to him during the Invasion of Pain arc two years ago — and that's In-Universe. If one were to go by real time, it'd be at least six years ago. Slightly justified when Sakura theorizes that Naruto did remember that Hinata said that; he just didn't realize that the type of love Hinata meant is not the same as his love for ramen.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
- The audience knows all along that the boy Ako falls in love with is really Negi magically aged up, but she doesn't find out until over 100 chapters later.
- Also, the audience knew that the Asuna that's with Ala Alba in later chapters is an impostor long before Rakan revealed it to Negi and Chisame during his Obi-Wan Moment.
- One Piece:
- When the Straw Hats were brought to the Sabaody Islands, they were in search of a man who could prep their ship for Fishman Island. Then the readers were told that this person was the Pirate King's Number Two, which made fans eagerly await his inevitable meeting with Luffy.
- After Luffy's bounty goes up from 30 to 100 million Berries, and Zoro gets his first bounty of 60 million Berries, no one catches on for almost the entire Jaya arc, not even the Straw Hats themselves. Seeing Luffy's new bounty prompts an Oh, Crap! reaction from one member of Bellamy's crew, and Luffy only learns about his new bounty when Blackbeard's pursuing him to the Knock-Up Stream.
- On Amazon Lilly, Luffy gets the first news that his brother has been sentenced to death. He had realized that Ace was in trouble after seeing the Vivre card burning, but didn't realize how bad it was until then, although the execution had been announced days earlier.
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: Episode 71 ends with Leader X intervening to save Berg Katse after the latter is nearly unmasked by the Science Ninja Team. Though the audience was well aware of X's existence since the first episode, the heroes had long believed Berg Katse to be the leader of Galactor.
- Superior is built on the Dramatic Irony of Sheila trying to keep her identity as the demon queen a secret from Exa, because she knows that all hell with break loose when he finds out. He finally learns the truth in the second to last volume of Superior Cross, and the results are not pretty.
- Sword Art Online: In the Fairy Dance arc, Kirito accompanies a Sylph named Leafa on his journey to the World Tree, with each of them unaware of the other's real life identity- Kirito is Kazuto Kirigaya, and Leafa is Kirito's cousin/adoptive sister Suguha. After Kirito's first failed attempt to invade the World Tree, he insists that he has to go there, because Asuna is waiting there, still trapped in a virtual world. Leafa realizes that the Asuna Kirito is trying to rescue is the same girl as the comatose Asuna whom Kazuto brouht her to visit, and realizes that Kirito is Kazuto, swiftly followed by Kazuto realizing that Leafa is Suguha. Since Leafa fell in love with Kirito as a Replacement Goldfish for Kazuto, she does not take this well.
- Tales of Wedding Rings: In chapter 36, Elder Peridot tells the party that she was one of the five princesses who married the original Ring King centuries ago. This revelation comes as a big surprise to the protagonists, but it was first disclosed to the reader twenty-six chapters earlier. The rest of what she has to say is new to both the reader and the characters, however.
- At the start of Yuri is My Job!, Hime, who just started high school, accidentally causes Mai, the manager of a salon, to injure her arm, and agrees to help out until Mai's arm heals. In Chapter 25, which takes place in the summer, a flashback to the end of April reveals that Mai had recovered enough to take off her cast, but continued wearing it to make Hime think she was still injured, something Sumika and Mitsuki had also known about but keep secret, since Mitsuki wants Hime to stick around to learn how to do her job well. In Chapter 31, they tell Hime the truth, which, combined with Mitsuki's Love Confession, results in Hime deciding to stop working at Liebe.
- In Aquaman: Deadly Waters, Orm remembers Aquaman is his brother, which is something he'd previously forgotten due to amnesia.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise: Towards the end, Aang's past life, Avatar Roku, tells him that Zuko, Aang's erstwhile friend and Firebending teacher, is his great-grandson. Zuko and the audience have known this since the middle of season three of the animated series.
- In Batwoman's run on Detective Comics, Katherine "Kate" Kane's cousin Bette Kane guest-starred in several issues, culminating in a three-part arc where she was kidnapped by a serial killer that Batwoman was tracking. At the end of the arc, after she has been rescued, Bette reveals to her cousin that she is Flamebird, and wishes to be Kate's sidekick. The fact that she was a costumed character had been featured several issues earlier, and her history with the Teen Titans would have revealed it even earlier to readers who were familiar with that series, but she only reveals her secret to Batwoman at the end of the arc.
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: In the final volume, Samantha tells a paralyzed Nigel that Lola knew he was the Woodbrook murderer all along and went on loving him anyway. She then asks, tauntingly, if he knows that she knew. He's not exactly in a position to answer, but he starts tearing up after she says this.
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring: The audience, of course, is well aware Sam murdered and dismembered Danny Brewer. However, Nigel used a piece of his body to frame Sam for his own murders in the first series. When his clothes are shown to Monica by Sheriff Patterson, it's a huge revelation that she finally has a lead on, even though the audience knows the truth from the first word.
- Kairos: It isn't until towards the ending of Book 2 that Nils learns his kidnapped girlfriend Anaëlle and the returned princess are one and the same.
- Spider-Man:
- During Civil War (2006), Spider-Man removes his mask at a press conference, showing the world he's really Peter Parker. The reading audience had known that for about 43 years. It didn't end up mattering in the long run, though, since not long after the revelation was erased from public memory.
- Thanks to several retcons over the years, Peter Parker has had to do this with many characters on more than one occasion. Most notably, twice with the Fantastic Four.
- Plain Jane and the Mermaid: Jane learns early on from "Mr. Whiskers" that mermaids are vain creatures who eat handsome men to stay beautiful. Peter, the handsome young man that's been taken down to marry Loreley, doesn't learn this until the day before their "wedding" when she tells him so.
- The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: had one juxtaposed with a shocking reveal. Tailgate finds out that Orion Pax, badass hero and cop became... Optimus Prime benevolent leader of the Autobots, a twist already known throughout many stories. He's amazed, just like the audience was when they find out that his friend and all-around Nice Guy Senator was really Shockwave.
- Star Wars: Darth Vader: Issue #6 takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back to fill in a previously-unseen reveal that established the massive twist in the latter: following the destruction of the Death Star, Boba Fett reports to Vader that he lost the Rebel pilot that took it down, but was able to get his name: Skywalker. Upon hearing this, Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker, immediately recalls how Padme said that she was pregnant before her untimely death, and quietly pieces together exactly who Luke Skywalker actually is.
- Superman:
- In Superman/Shazam: First Thunder, Superman calls out the fact that Captain Marvel had nearly killed a criminal he'd caught. The captain promptly turns into his schoolboy true self, Billy Batson, and explains that the criminal in question had got his best friend killed in an attempt to assassinate him. Superman's immediate expression is shock.
- In Superman Smashes the Klan, Pretty much everyone knows Superman's backstory by now. But after running from his heritage for most of his life, he decides to learn about it by diving to the bottom of the lake where he threw the Kryptonian sound box, only to discover an underwater Fortress of Solitude had grown there. Once he steps inside, his biological parents, now shown as they truly were, greet him and tell him everything.
- In The Unknown Supergirl, Lesla-Lar kidnaps and brainwashes Supergirl, but Kara does not find out about it until The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, published one year later. However, she only learns Lesla made dealings with Lex Luthor as pretending to be Supergirl in later storyline Strangers at the Heart's Core.
- In The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, Lena finally discovers she is Lex Luthor's little sister, a fact readers had known for twenty years.
- In the unpublished story The K-Metal from Krypton, Superman learns that he came from Krypton, a fact which readers had known since the first panel of the first issue of Action Comics, published one year and half earlier. Ultimately, Superman only found out in issue #61 of his self-titled comic by tracing a Kryptonite meteor's path across time. In the process, he also learned about his birth parents and the reason he was sent to Earth, which had been explained to comic readers for the first time (but not to Superman) eight issues prior.
- Action Comics #662: Silver Banshee attacks Clark and Lois's apartment in search of Superman, but cannot recognize Clark/Superman due to his glasses. At the end of the issue, Clark decides to tell his fiancée Lois Lane about his greatest secret: he is Superman!
- Cinderella III: A Twist in Time: While the audience, as well as Jaq and Gus, sees Lady Tremaine steal the Fairy Godmother's wand, reverse time, and casts a spell on the Prince so he forgets Cinderella and marries Anastasia instead, Cinderella is unaware of this until Jaq and Gus tell her everything that happened.
- Dog Man (2025): Dog Man is completely taken by surprise when he learns that Li'l Petey is Petey's clone/son. Lampshaded as something that really should have been obvious to everyone from the get go.
- Frozen:
- Elsa only discovers that her powers have triggered an Endless Winter two-thirds of the way through the film, when Anna arrives to tell her during "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)". This only makes things even worse.
- Elsa's powers are revealed to the world only during her coronation, while they have been central to the plot since the beginning.
- Because of the trolls altering her memory after the accident, Anna is unaware of Elsa's ice powers and why she keeps avoiding her, both of which she doesn't find out until Elsa accidentally reveals her powers to the ball and later on when she accidentally freezes Anna's heart.
- Incredibles 2:
- In the climax of the first movie, the audience is shown baby Jack-Jack using several superpowers when Syndrome attempts to kidnap him. However, because the two are high up in the air at the time, the rest of the Parr family can't see it. They can only see Syndrome struggling to maintain control of his flight. As a result, they are all left in the dark regarding this until the sequel, where the Parrs each find out at different points. First is Bob, then Dash and Violet around the middle of the movie, and finally Helen at the climax.
- Tony Rydinger's memory being erased is shown to the audience in the first scene and later we see that Bob had reported Tony's knowledge to Agent Dicker. This leaves Violet unaware that a memory wipe was likely and thinks that Tony is just pretending to not know her because he thinks she's a freak. When Bob hears Violet complaining he knows a memory wipe occurred and starts to ease the conversation into how many times Dicker did wipes for them. That's when Violet realizes what happened and Bob realizes that Dicker removed all of Tony's memories of Violet, not just the superhero reveal part.
- Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of GeGeGe: Gegero is revealed to be a Yokai Onmyōdō who can talk to invisible Kappa and saves Mizuki from forest's demons with magic tools. Anyone who has seen the TV series can tell at glance that's Medama Oyaji in his human form.
- In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, after spending the whole movie trying to pose as a New Transfer Student, Twilight Sparkle is all set to reveal to the Alternate Selves of the rest of the Mane Six why she desperately needs to get the crown for the Fall Formal. Then Pinkie Pie manages to sum up the plot of the movie based on "a hunch".
Pinkie Pie: You're from an alternate world and you're a pony princess there and the crown actually has a magical element embedded in it that helps power up other magical elements and without it they don't work anymore, and you need them all to help protect your magical world, and if you don't get the crown tonight, you'll be stuck in this world and you won't be able to get back for like a really, really long time!
- Winnie-the-Pooh:
- In Pooh's Grand Adventure, Christopher Robin is found in the Eye of the Skull of Skull Cave; that is when he reveals to the animals that he hadn't been captured by Skull — he had just gone to school, and they read his note wrong. Of course, the audience knew where he went because Owl was clearly spelling "school" off the note.
- Similarly, in Winnie the Pooh (2011), Pooh finds a note from Christopher Robin saying he's gone and would be back eventually, but cannot descern it due to having very little brain. Owl misinterprets it as Christopher Robin being captured by a creature called the Backson, and the animals plan to capture it. When Christopher returns in the end, he reveals to them Owl misread the last two words wrong, and that he would be "back soon".
- Tangled: Rapunzel sees Corona's sun emblem — which she'd only seen for the first time after leaving the tower — hidden subliminally throughout her own artwork, which along with a healthy dose of No Infantile Amnesia leads her to the conclusion that she's the lost princess. Of course, the audience has known since the introduction.
- At the start of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the viewers learn that Quasimodo is Romani and that his mother died saving him. Frollo, however, didn't tell him much about his past besides Quasimodo supposedly being abandoned for being deformed. It isn't until later in the film that Quasimodo learns the truth about his heritage and what happened to his mother.
- Scar kills Mufasa to usurp the throne fairly early in The Lion King, but only the hyenas know about this until the climactic confrontation, when Scar makes the mistake of telling Simba when he thinks he's won. This gives Simba a Heroic Second Wind, and he immediately pins Scar and forces him to tell the rest of the pride.
- In Turning Red, Ming discovers Mei's stash of panda merch, cash and posters advertising Tyler's birthday party which reveals to her what Mei has been doing and where she is at that time.
- In BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui:
- Makuta is shown to the audience since the start as the evil mastermind behind the film's plot. Then it's revealed that the corrupt and obviously evil Turaga Dume isn't merely working for him, he is Makuta in disguise. The main characters are the last ones to find this out when they discover the comatose body of the real Dume and confront the fake "Dume". There's a true twist hidden there too: Lhikan reveals Makuta was originally a good guy, which the characters would have supposedly known but was new info to the audience.
- A huge part of the movie is the six Toa finding out about their mask powers: translation, mind control, telekinesis, shape-shifting, night vision and invisibility. Fans would have already known all these, given that the movie is a prequel and the mask powers were public knowledge for nearly four years by that point. However, the abilities in the film are more broad and powerful than previously depicted, since only the masks' weakened forms had been shown before.
- In Andhadhun, Akash's knowledge of Sakhu's Shiva tattoo reveals to the organ harvesters that he could see, which saves him from having his kidneys stolen.
- Berlin Syndrome: Franka is alerted to what's going on once Clare slips a photo of herself bound and naked into Franka's notebook when Andi's grading it.
- The Departed: Costigan realizes that Frank's mole is Sullivan when he recognizes an envelope from Frank — immediately recognizable from the misspelling on it — in Sullivan's office.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The kids obviously have to explain things to their mother when Elliot falls ill from E.T.'s Psychic Link. And this is moments before the government stepped in and placed their entire house under quarantine.
- In Gilda, the audience learns that Mundson survived the plane explosion immediately. Our lovebirds need to wait until the climax.
- Halloweentown (1998): The audience is shown in the opening scene that Sophie has fully developed magical powers, but her siblings don't find out until she helps Marnie cast a spell about an hour into the film.
- The opening scene of Hatley High has Trevor and Daryl's documentary reveal that Tommy's Hometown Hero mother was the town's best chess prodigy, something Tommy and his father (the main P.O.V. characters) don't learn until much later.
- In Highlander, when Connor and the Kurgan have their last talk in the church and Connor observes the gnarly scar Ramirez left in the Kurgan's throat, the barbarian gloats "Ramirez was a effete snob who died on his knees, I took his head and raped his woman before his blood was even cold". From Connor's dawning look of horror and shame (giving way to an epic Kubrick Stare), the Kurgan realizes that young woman he violated was really Connor's wife, and continues to taunt him with it (saying that she took the secret to her grave because she liked it). The actual rape isn't shown to audiences, but it is alluded he did something unpleasant to her that night in 1542 - his confession just filled in the blanks.
- Jagged Mind: The audience knows Alex can somehow briefly reverse time and is manipulating Billie with her ability before she realizes what's up.
- While the audience knows that Rosie from Jojo Rabbit is a member of La Résistance against the Nazis pretty much all along (she's constantly away from home, subtly tells Jojo that she hates Hitler and tries to raise him to not be a Nazi, and she's seen burning fliers that say "Free Germany, fight the party"), Jojo himself only finds out when he finds her hanged from the gallows in the town square with other dissenters at the end of the second act. Elsa later tells Jojo that his father is one as well and is fighting with the Allies.
- Joker (2019): At his guest appearance at ''Live! with Murray Franklin'' Arthur Fleck, now fully reborn as Joker, casually admits to killing the three Wall Street men at the subway. In-universe, this is the Wham Line of a mystery left unsolved for three weeks, while the audience watching the movie knew this for a long time.
- In Just One of the Guys, Terry has to convince Rick that she's female. She flashes him. Oddly, he doesn't take it well.
- The ending of Kill Bill Volume 1 reveals that the Bride's daughter is still alive. She herself doesn't find out until the end of Volume 2, during her final confrontation with Bill.
- Kong: Skull Island: It was already revealed to the audience in the Washington D.C. scenes that Bill Randa and Dr. Brooks are part of the same organization that featured in Godzilla (2014) and that this is why they're interested in plotting Skull Island, but Packard only finds out about Monarch's existence and purpose in around the movie's second act, when he threatens Bill into spilling the beans after Kong's attack.
- The Last of Mrs. Cheney starts off as what seems like a romantic comedy with Fay Cheney the wealthy widow being pursued by two British nobles, stuffy old Lord Kelton and handsome young Lord Dilling. The end of the first act reveals that she is an impostor and that she and her "servants" are actually a gang of thieves, looking to worm their way into high society so they can steal a pearl necklace.
- The Legend of Frenchie King: Maria only learns that Louise is Frenchie King near the end of the movie, while the audience already knows this since nearly the start of it.
- In Matilda, Miss Honey responds to a particularly vile taunt from Miss Trunchbull with "I am not seven years old anymore, Aunt Trunchbull!", revealing to her students something Matilda and the viewers had learned about half the movie ago.
- Our Miss Brooks: Early in the movie, Mr. Boynton tells Mrs. Davis that he is finally willing to propose to Miss Brooks. Mrs. Davis soon reveals it to Miss Brooks while pretending to tell her fortune.
- The Parent Trap (1998): The audience knows Annie and Hallie are pretending to be one another, but their parents, Elizabeth James and Nick Parker, their Grandfather Charles, and Nick's housekeeper, Chessy, don't know this until the twins reveal their true selves to them halfway through the film.
- Phoenix (2014): The premise is that a woman, Nelly, is trying to reunite with her husband Johnny. Johnny thinks Nelly has died in a concentration camp and mistakes Nelly for a random woman that happens to look like his wife, and hires her to pass for his wife in order to collect her inheritance. Because Nelly is the protagonist and the story is told from her POV, the audience knows that Nelly is in fact Johnny's wife, while Johnny is left in the dark right until the very end, when Nelly reveals the truth and then leaves him.
- In Repo! The Genetic Opera: The audience fully knows that Nathan is the killer from the beginning, and yet it is treated as a major plot twist when Shilo finds out near the end.
- The Shop Around the Corner and its remake You've Got Mail are built around this trope, with two Internal Reveals. Half-way through Alfred/Joe finds out that rival Klara/Kathleen is actually his secret sweetheart, and the rest of the film sees the audience waiting for Klara/Kathleen to find out the truth.
- Sorceress: The audience knows Traigon is the twins' father right from the beginning. Mira doesn't though until much later. It's left unclear if Mara ever learns.
- In Stalag 17, Price is revealed as The Mole to the audience well before anyone else finds out.
- Star Wars:
- Return of the Jedi has the scene where Luke tells Leia that Darth Vader is his father (which he found out last movie) and she is his sister (which he figured out earlier in this one), as well as the scene later on when Leia tells Han.
- Revenge of the Sith: Audiences knew since the classic trilogy (when the Force-ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi explained it to Luke) that the good Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker became the evil Sith Lord Vader, and this movie shows how that happened. The younger Obi-Wan, however, doesn't find out until he sees the holo-recording of the attack on the Jedi Temple.
- The Rise of Skywalker: While the audience and the main characters have known for decades, this film sees the fact that Palpatine is a Sith Lord become public knowledge for everyone in the galaxy.
- Strings (2004): The movie begins by showing Hal’s father commiting suicide, which is witnessed and taken advantage of by Nezo, who claims he was assassinated by the Zeriths. Hal Tara only learns the truth around the last third of the story.
- Switchback: The audience discovers who's the killer before the other characters do, since we see him just as he's about to murder someone (with the actual act offscreen).
- Trading Places: While hiding in the Duke & Duke washroom, Billy Ray Valentine overhears the Dukes discussing both their bet manipulating Valentine and Louis Winthorpe's lives, as well as their plans to corner the frozen concentrate orange juice market. In-universe, this scene is the first time that anybody beyond the Dukes learns about these things: before the bet, Louis went through the payroll and saw a check for Clarence Beeks, which they explained as "research", while after the bet, Billy Ray found another check which Mortimer promptly quashed the inquiry about.
- Happens off-screen between the first and second Transformers films. In Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, it's revealed that Sam's parents are fully aware of the fact that their son's car is a giant alien robot in disguise.
- Halfway through Vertigo, the audience learns that Judy, who initially only seems to be a woman with an uncanny resemblance to Scottie's dead love Madeleine, actually is Madeleine. More accurately, the "Madeleine" Scottie met was only Judy impersonating as her. The audience's knowledge of Judy's secret makes her eventual giving in to Scottie's demands to make her into his lost love's image even more ironic. Hitchcock explained his motivation for this reveal in his interviews with François Truffaut; once the audience knows the truth, their sympathies are divided between the Main Characters.
- Year of the Gun: David only learns about Italo and Lia being members of the Red Brigades after the audience does.
- In the ninth Alex Rider-book, Scorpia Rising, the audience finds out about Scorpia's plan to manipulate the MI6 to send Alex to Cairo at the beginning of the book. The rest of the book revolves around showing the MI6 falling straight into the trap, and Alex finding out about Scorpia's true plan.
- More than once in All for the Game.
- When Neil tells Kevin that he is the Butcher's son.
- Kevin announces in an interview that his hand wasn't broken in a skiing accident in The King's Men.
- Ascendance of a Bookworm: The story is usually told from Myne's point of view, but prologues, epilogues and side stories are told from that of other characters. This often results in the reader being made aware of something a significant amount of time before Myne is.
- Lori and Dimity together do this in Aunt Dimity's Death. Lori has just discovered Dimity is writing to her from beyond the grave, and Bill finds her just after the first time this happens. Lori tells him about it and shows him the journal page, which looks blank to him — until Dimity writes something to Bill which only he can read. Later in the series, Lori demonstrates the journal link to Emma Harris, and Dimity addresses herself to her as well.
- The opening chapters of Jane Linskold's Breaking the Wall — Thirteen Orphans were meant to be this for the main character Brenda, being brought into the full knowledge of lore that her father and others have inherited over the generations. What was planned as a gradual reveal turned into a crash course fairly quickly though.
- Daughter of the Sun: The reader knows from the beginning that Aelia is a chaos goddess disguised as Elyne, a mortal woman, and was deceiving Orsina the whole time. She only confesses this to Orsina near the end of the book however.
- A somewhat comedic example is seen near the end of A Deadly Education. When new sets of students are inducted into the Scholomance many are carrying messages for upperclassmen from relatives hoping they are still alive, and this time around some lad announces he had a note from one Gwen Higgins sparking suprised speculation as to why the offspring of the widely well reputed and subbornly independent saintly healer has never made themselves known. Then the kid expands "For her daughter, Galadriel?" and everyone in earshot falls silent as multiple double-takes are directed toward the big South Asian-lookingnote ill-tempered loner whose supernatural Aura of Menace the bulk of the student body are only just starting to doubt is related to clumsy dabbling in The Dark Arts, a least one student openly starts looking for another by that name, and one of the pair of friends (out of three in existence) El confided important family details to that morningnote punched her in the arm over the ommission. Friend number three only had one thing to say:
Orion: Busted.
- While The Dinosaur Lords never makes a secret of Karyl's and Melodía's fates — they're both POV characters — Felipe, Jaume, and Falk are shocked to learn that one is still alive and the other now fights for Providence.
- Discworld: Any reader of Soul Music who has previously read Mort will know who Susan's grandfather is as soon as they learn who her parents are, even if they haven't read the cover blurb. Susan doesn't learn it for quite some time, since her parents were deliberately keeping it from her.
- The Dresden Files
- Harry slowly starts revealing details of the magical world to his Badass Normal friend Karrin, when he needs her help.
- Battle Ground: Harry tells the Erlking he is Margaret LeFay's son. The Erlking's response is a deadpan "Much is explained."
- The Empirium Trilogy:
- In Furyborn, the fact that the Undying Empire is run by angels comes as a huge shock to Eliana. The reader already knows this since we have access to Rielle's story line.
- In Kingsbane, Corien shows everyone attending Rielle and Audric's wedding reception the truth of how Audric's father died: that it was part of the aftermath of Rielle attempting to fend off Corien by using her powers. This event was fully shown towards the end Furyborn, so the audience is well aware of the truth.
- Fatherland is set in a world where the Nazis won World War II, and the protagonist is an SS officer investigating a Government Conspiracy. It quickly becomes obvious to the reader that the conspiracy is to cover up the remaining evidence of the Holocaust from the German public (the outside world suspects the truth, but it is denounced by the Reich as propaganda). However, even with foreknowledge of the "twist", the protagonist's horror at the discovery of what his country and professional position represent is still affecting.
- The novel From Russia with Love spends nearly half of the text detailing the history of the assassin Red Grant and the decision-making processes of the upper echelons of the Soviet spy machine, before revealing its plan to murder James Bond (using Grant) by luring him with the Fake Defector Tatiana Romanova. The other half is how Bond falls into (and gets out of) the trap.
- Played with in Gone Girl. Nick and Margo find out that Amy is a sociopath around the same time we do, but while they only get the general idea of what Amy has done, Amy herself tells us exactly how she did it, down to the sickest detail. Still, the police don't know yet.
- Harry Potter:
- The readers learn in the opening pages that magic is real and that Harry Potter survived something terrible and so will be incredibly famous in the wizarding world. Harry himself does not learn any of this until Hagrid provides him with an Infodump that his guardians had been trying to hide from him for 11 years.
- It is not until the end of Book 5 that the wizarding world in general learns and comes to accept what the audience witnessed happening at the end of Book 4, that Voldemort has returned to full power.
- Harry accidentally finds out in the fourth book that Neville’s parents are institutionalized in St. Mungo’s because they were tortured into madness by Death Eaters. Dumbledore swore him to secrecy but he tells his friends he’d known for a while when they run into Neville visiting his parents for Christmas.
- Harry gives his Triwizard tournament win money to Fred and George as a business loan at the end of the fourth book but doesn’t tell anyone but them because he doesn’t want to offend the rest of the family. He finally has to Ron and Hermione a year later because they thought Fred and George had done something illegal to get the money.
- In the sixth book, the wizarding world finally learns that Sirius Black was not Voldemort's right-hand man, and was innocent all along. Harry already learnt the truth in the third book, while Sirius himself died in the fifth.
- The Order only learns that Severus Snape is still an active Death Eater after he kills Dumbledore, whereas the readers already learn from the start of the sixth book that he made a deal with Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy to kill Dumbledore. Of course, the truth is that Snape was deceiving them and was loyal to Dumbledore all along...which everyone (including Harry) don't find out after his death.
- The Heir Chronicles: Jack and friends do have to explain their magical powers to their parents (and the local police chief) in the third book, Dragon Heir. The Roses had formed a truce and begun to launch a full-scale assault on their hometown, you see...
- I, Jedi: Corran and the rest of Luke's students were unaware he's the son of Darth Vader before he reveals this, showing it isn't widely known even years after Vader's death. They're stunned by the revelation.
- Journey to Chaos: It is made clear to both the readers and Tiza's teammates that her biological parents are Sathel and Retina, but she herself doesn't learn this until the second book in the series. They were hoping she would remember on her own.
- Legends of Ithyria: The reader knows immediately that Talon is a woman who's just passing as a man. Princess Shasta only learns about halfway into the book however. She's betrayed and very angry that Talon kept it a secret for so long.
- Pale Grey Dot contains a big one when Jenna discovers that her brother, Cherny, betrayed her. The reader already knew this, having seen it happen.
- Reign of the Seven Spellblades: In volume 13, Oliver privately reveals his Rape as Backstory and the Tragic Stillbirth of his Child by Rape with Shannon to Chela, without naming names, in order to explain to her why he can't see sex in the utilitarian way she does (after he lost his temper at her earlier for making him perform some Intimate Healing on Katie). Both of these were shown to the reader in a Troubled Backstory Flashback in volume 10.
- Secret Vampire:
- The reader knows early on (or just by reading the blurb) that James and his parents are vampires, which he must keep secret from his classmates and his best friend Poppy as per the Night World's laws. He reveals his true nature to Poppy when he learns she's dying to offer her to turn her. Poppy initially thinks he's playing a sick joke until he shows her his Game Face. James later reveals he's a vampire to Phil as well, in order to clear up their misunderstanding and persuade him to help save Poppy. Poppy always thought there was something "different" about James and that this explains a lot. Phil feels the same, though more in the sense that he always felt James was "off".
- Poppy thinks that James is Oblivious to Love because he only sees her as his childhood friend and is more interested in sophisticated girls that look like super models. James only dates the other girls to feed from them without arousing suspicion, though he also insists to himself that he only views Poppy as a friend. It's very obvious to the reader that he's been in love with her for years.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- The series' Greater-Scope Villain, the Others, are introduced in the prologue. Only a few characters have learned about their existence, and it's treated as a big reveal to all of them, since the Others have not been seen for millennia.
- Cersei and Jaime Lannister's relationship is revealed to the readers in Chapter 8 of the first book, but Ned Stark doesn't learn about it until late to the book, and most other characters aren't privy to it until A Clash of Kings. However, the fact that their relationship is deep enough to produce children — Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, all of whom are ostensibly Robert Baratheon's heirs — is a secret the readers learn alongside Ned.
- Jorah Mormont spying on Daenerys for Varys is something that has been disclosed to the readers early in the first book, but she doesn't find out about it until midway through the third book.
- Spellster: The reader knows early on that hounds like Tracker have Anti-Magic. Dylan doesn't learn it until late during In Pain and Blood though.
- Split Heirs: Everyone witnessing Arbol's royal bath before coronation is incredibly shocked to realize she's a girl (aside from her mother or the reader that is). Arbol herself is outraged, punching people who say this, not having known before.
- Starless: Lirios is the last to learn Khai was assigned female at birth, through seeing the shape of Khai's breasts when his shirt gets wet.
- To Be with You: Riley learns of Victoria and Leah's relationship long after the reader, in 2005.
- Villains by Necessity: The readers know from the start that Robin is a mole in the Main Characters' group, but they don't find this out until much later in the book.
- Warrior Cats
- In the Original Series Bluestar reveals to her grown-up kits that she is their real mother, something the reader (and Fireheart) found out about a while ago.
- Bluestar telling Firestar about SkyClan in Firestar's Quest, which the reader saw in the prologue. Although some of the information was new. Similarly, Sol mentions it to Hollyleaf and Dovewing in The Forgotten Warrior.
- In the third and fourth series, the prophecy du jour (known to the readers, Firestar, and Jayfeather) is revealed at least three times. Once to Jayfeather's siblings, once to Dovewing, and once to Brambleclaw, Leafpool, and Squirrelflight. Not to mention Jayfeather finally telling Firestar he knows about the prophecy
- Any cat training in, or being trained by a member of, the Dark Forest. The readers know it's bad news, and the characters eventually find out that they're being trained by evil cats who want to use them to destroy the Clans. Notable examples include Ivypool in series four, and Crookedstar in his/her Super Edition.
- A more minor one in Mistystar's Omen. The readers have known for ages that Mothwing doesn't believe in StarClan, but it's a huge reveal to Mistystar and provides the main drama of the book.
- Bramblestar learning about SkyClan in Bramblestar's Storm. By the time this book came out, readers had known about SkyClan for seven years.
- In Watership Down, the invaders from Efrafa are shocked to learn during their standoff with Bigwig that he is not his warren's Chief Rabbit—they had taken it for granted that he was due to his size and strength. Readers, of course, already know that the Chief Rabbit is Hazel, who is a good leader despite his small size because of his determination and faith in his fellow rabbits.
- In The Witchlands:
- Merik only learns that Safi — one of the POV characters — is a Living Lie Detector three-quarters through Truthwitch.
- The readers know from the start that Leopold is part of the scheme to get Safi out of Emperor Henrick's hands, but it takes Aeduan a whole book to figure this out.
- In Deep Wizardry, the second book in the Young Wizards series, Nita and Kit repeatedly break curfew while trying to make sure that a Sealed Evil in a Can stays sealed, forcing them to come clean about being wizards to her parents. At first, the adults think that it's a combination of trickery and hypnosis, so Nita and Kit up the ante by taking them on a trip to the Moon (Nita's younger sister Dairine is not happy about having been left out of the trip). Nita's parents (and eventually Kit's parents) seem to be unusually undisturbed about their children risking their lives to fight evil, but given that the only way to stop them would be to keep them permanently unconscious, that might just be the adults dealing with the hand they've been dealt.
- The final stanza of 'Stan' by Eminem follows Eminem replying to the character's letters, relating Stan to a case on the news of a man who drove his pregnant girlfriend off of a bridge. In the very last lines of the song, he comes to realise they're one and the same, which the listener already knows from the previous verses.
Come to think about it, his name was... it was you. Damn...
- At the end of Book I of The Achilleid, Achilles throws off his disguise and reveals to Lycomedes and his daughters that he's not Thetis' daughter, but, y'know, Achilles. In the same moment, he also lets Lycomedes know that he married his daughter, Deidamia, and had a child with her.
- The Magnus Archives: In "Nothing Beside Remains", Elias brings the rest of the team up to speed on what Jon and the audience have known since the season 2 finale: that the body found in Jon's office was actually Jurgen Leitner, Elias murdered both Jurgen Leitner and Gertrude Robinson, and Sasha died over a year ago and was replaced by one of the Not-Them.
- In Panopticon Quest, the readers know that the Dark Secret the Void Engineers are going to very great extents to keep about Threat Null is that (Spoilers for Mage: The Ascension canon!) they are actually the once-human remnants of the space-based members of the Technocracy trying to return to Earth to reassert control, but the party initially doesn't. A large part of the story involves the characters deciding what to do with that knowledge once they learn it without prior Void Engineer permission.
- In the third scene of The Adding Machine, the Zeroes get together with the Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives and Sixes for an evening of gossip and bigotry in which Zero doesn't participate much, though the others don't suspect him of anything other than thinking too much and being a Lazy Husband. When a policeman comes looking for Zero, he's ready to go, and calmly tells the others why: "I killed the boss this afternoon."
- King Lear:
- Edmund outs himself to the audience as a Manipulative Bastard out to banish his brother Edgar and usurp his father, Duke of Gloucester early on in Act I. The latter two only find out about it during Act III, when things come to a head and Edmund has Goneril and Regan gouge his father's eyes out.
- Similarly (and perhaps more importantly) Goneril and Regan discuss getting rid of their father — or at the very least, putting him in his place — as early as the first scene. Lear only realises his daughters have turned on him at the end of Act II, just in time for them to turn him out into a storm. This, coupled with the added realisation that he banished his only loving daughter, Cordelia (yet another piece of knowledge the audience was already privy to), drives him to madness.
- Ollantay: Tupac Yupanqui—Kusi Qoyllur's brother and the new Inca—goes to the Acllahuasi looking for Yma Sumac's captive mother. He doesn't know yet that Yma Sumac is his niece or the complete story behind Yma Sumac's identity. However, when Tupac Yupanqui catches sight of a ghostly, long-haired woman, he immediately recognizes his beloved sister and hears her story.
- Othello: The audience knows from the beginning that Iago is a Manipulative Bastard, but the majority of the other characters don't find out until the play's climax.
- In some games of the Barbixas' theater presentation, like "Escolinha Improvável", involve one of the actors finding out what character the other actors are acting like, and the public always knows it before the game starts. Some of these games were posted on YouTube, here one of them with English subtitles
.
- ANNO: Mutationem: Ann's personal secret of having a Superpowered Evil Side is shown through a Pensieve Flashback long before she reveals it to Ayane. Later on, Ann learns her connection to The Consortium as a created subject and about why they seek to lure her in until she directly questions G about everything.
- The Caligula Effect: Overdose makes use of this with its Forbidden Musician route. The player knows the protagonist has become Lucid, the newest and deadliest member of the Ostinato Musicians, but the Go Home Club only ever learns this if the player opts to go for the Downer Ending.
- Ciel Fledge: Juno's Prosthetic Limb Reveal happens by chance while Marco is the only character who explicitly notices, but it's enough to make the player aware of the situation. Ciel finds out about his artificial legs and his former military career at a later point in the game.
- D4DJ Groovy Mix: The "side: nova" story arc has Lumina Ichihoshi, seemingly a Virtual YouTuber with a human actor revealing herself as a full-blown artificial intelligence a few chapters after she joins UniChØrd, revealing herself only to the members of that unit. She later discloses her A.I. identity to the Abyssmare unit in order to explain her actions and help save one of their members from crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
- Deltarune: In Chapter 3, Ralsei explains to Susie that Darkners are real-world inanimate objects given life by the Dark Fountains. While Kris and the audience already knew this, Susie did not and the exposition is mostly for her benefit.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy X makes use of this for most of its biggest plot points:
- Rikku's identity as an Al Bhed is this for the majority of the rest of the party in at two different points; Auron and Lulu find out when she joins the main party, and Wakka and possibly Kimahri find out after fighting her brother's machina, during which Rikku speaks in Al Bhed and calls her opponent "brother."
- Yuna's Al Bhed heritage is also one (but for Wakka only). He finds out some time after Rikku's secret is outed, from Rikku's father (Yuna's uncle) no less, when he refers to Yuna as his niece. Tidus, however, has known since the party arrived in Luca, when Yuna revealed that she was searching for her uncle.
- The fact that Sin is Jecht is given to the player (and Tidus) very early on, but the rest of the party only find out on Mt. Gagazet. Well, the rest of the party save Auron, who is the one that reveals it to Tidus.
- Auron reveals himself to Tidus as an Unsent after fighting Yunalesca (but there were already many hints at this to the player) — the Internal Reveal comes at the end when he has Yuna Send him in front of everyone. But it's strongly implied that Kimahri already knew about this, as he had encountered the dying Auron. None of the others really seem all that surprised either, though, and it's very possible they had already figured it out too.
- Possibly the biggest of all: Tidus finds out he's a Dream of the Fayth, and will eventually disappear if Sin is permanently defeated, comes just after the first half of Mt. Gagazet (and an intense boss fight with a major villain). It's only several gameplay hours later that Yuna begins to suspect something is awry, and he only openly admits the truth just before the final battle.
- Final Fantasy XIV: After its defeat in Stormblood patch 4.4, Omega was speculated to have transferred its mind into the toy that's been following Alpha around. An out-of-game side story written during Shadowbringers confirmed this to be the case, but it's not until Endwalker patch 6.1 that this is revealed to characters in-universe.
- Final Fantasy X makes use of this for most of its biggest plot points:
- Fire Emblem:
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the opening chapter is a flash-forward that reveals The Avatar is destined to kill Chrom and bring about the Bad Future. The Avatar themself doesn't find out until late into the game when Lucina tries to kill them to change the future.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses: If the player chooses to teach the Blue Lions, Byleth will learn in Chapter 8 that Blue Lions house leader Dimitri's stepmother happens to be the mother of Black Eagles house leader Edelgard, making the two of them stepsiblings. Dimitri asks Byleth to keep this secret, and this remains secret for eleven chapters and more than five years in-universe(by which time Edelgard has been revealed as the Big Bad of the route), until a dying Lord Arundel curses Dimitri, wishing that he and Edelgard will kill each other. At that point, Dimitri reveals the truth to his classmates.
- In Fire Emblem Engage, it's revealed halfway into the game that Veyle suffers from an evil split personality and her sweet, innocent persona is horrified by her other self's actions. The protagonist isn't aware of this for a while longer, which leads to them assuming Veyle was faking niceness, leading to drama when they next meet.
- The Legend of Heroes - Trails:
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure: The player is directly shown the assassin Yin unmasking at the end of Zero's Chapter 2. The party don't find out their identity until much later into Azure.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel:
- Lots of them (and extra lots if you include things the audience didn't explicitly know but could guess with high accuracy based on past games), including Alisa revealing what the 'R' in her last name is short for to the entire group and Emma revealing to Rean just how she's able to do some of the stunts she's performed over the course of the game. Some of these are limited to Bond Events while others occur during the normal plot.
- Towards the beginning of Cold Steel IV, Juna Crawford learns that Giliath Osborne is Rean Schwarzer's father. The player already learned this along with Rean himself and the rest of the old Class VII towards the end of ''Cold Steel II'. Altina Orion already knows from having been Rean's partner for over a year, while Kurt Vander guessed as much from knowledge he had gleaned from other Vanders and his use of the "Unclouded Eye" technique which Rean taught him. Thus, the news is only a shock to Juna, who upon learning just what burden Rean is carrying, becomes even more fired up to go rescue him from the Empire's captivity.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak borrows a lot of its plot points from past games from the Liberl arc, the Crossbell arc, and the Erebonia arc that are treated as huge revelations for the cast but a player who has played the previous games would know right away. Some examples include: Renne's Dark and Troubled Past at the hands of the D∴G Cult (in fact, the Big Bad of Daybreak I is one of its chief members), the jaeger group Zephyr with one of its members joining in a different jaeger group, the brainwashing mask and how to counteract it, how Shizuna knows Rean's Signature Move, Spirit Unification and the other half of his snapped tachi, and the final party member, Bergard Zeman, used to be a former Dominion who was supposedly dead a few months before Cold Steel III begins.
- An interesting and common variation on this trope is to have the big secret hid from the player character, typically by means of showing a cutscene from elsewhere. For example, in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Link and Ezlo don't find out until near the end that Vaati has been impersonating the King since they had headed off toward the swamp.
- In the PS3 version of Ni no Kuni, cutscenes make it obvious from the start that the White Witch is the real Big Bad of the story and Shadar is just The Dragon, and the game is even subtitled "Wrath of the White Witch". To the characters though, Shadar is the only apparent threat, and they don't even become aware of the White Witch's existence until after he is defeated. This is a consequence of the Updated Re-release, as in the original DS version Shadar really was the sole Big Bad.
- Queen at Arms:
- It's known only to player character Marcus and her adoptive brother Nick that Marcus is really a girl. But it falls to Nick to inform her that she's not just a girl, she's the rightful Queen.
- Elsewhere in the game, during one of the romance paths, Marcus has the choice to reveal her true gender to her Love Interest prior to partaking of the Optional Sexual Encounter.
- Tales of Destiny 2: The Reveal to the party that Judas is Leon Magnus is treated very seriously by the narrative and has the other party members shocked and horrified. Of course, the player is meant to know who Judas is from the start, with the mystery being more about how he is alive than his identity.
- The Walking Dead (Telltale):
- Defied depending on the player's actions. In Episode 3 Lilly will point out that Lee is a convicted murderer after Kenny calls her a murderer for shooting Doug/Carley. If Lee did not tell anyone about his conviction, Lilly will be surprised that Kenny did not know, whereas if Lee did tell Kenny privately, she will be surprised he did know.
- The game features the "people do not need to be bitten to become a zombie, they just need to die with their brain intact" reveal in Episode 2. Comic readers will already know this, while the characters and players new to The Walking Dead won't.
- In The Spectrum Retreat, Cooper only figures out that Alex murdered Matthews only after the player was expected to put it together themselves.
- In Psychonauts 2, Raz (and the player) learns mid-way through the game that Helmut Fulbear, a founding Psychonauts member long assumed dead, has in fact been alive under everyone's noses the entire time. Much later, Raz needs the help of his widower Bob Zanotto in order to progress, but he's in such a deep state of alchoholic depression that he won't hear either his request for help nor his explanation that Helmut is alive, halting his progress on a high-stakes mission. Only after Raz goes into Bob's mind and is able to help him start the process of mentally recovering is the reveal finally able to hit home.
- AQUARIUM (2022): Theo has no clue that the girl Minato and the maid Aqua are the same person, despite them looking identical, until Aqua take him to the same beach at the end of chapter 2. Since he doesn't recognize her until then, it's implied the dream shown is much more detailed than what he actually remembers. The readers know the full story from the get go.
- At the end of Daughter for Dessert, the protagonist reveals his new girlfriend to the rest of his staff - that is, if he's with someone other than Amanda.
- In the good ending of GENBA no Kizuna, the protagonist can have Shinektsu, who has learned about Ryuunosuke's non-Hodgkin lymphoma by looking at his medical file, convince the person in question to disclose this secret to the others. Doing so allows Ryuunosuke to get lifesaving medical treatment, leading to the best ending.
- Leads to a bad ending in Melody if the title character and Amy find out that you’ve been dating both of them.
- Animator vs. Animation Season 2 ends with The Second Coming using an 11th-Hour Superpower to destroy the Dark Lord, but Awesomeness-Induced Amnesia kicks in and they forget that it happened. It isn't until Animator Vs Animation AVA Shorts Episode 6 The Box that they find out while the bad guys are using a Mental Picture Projector to read The Chosen One's memories; while The Second Coming is being escorted back to his cell the feed happens to reach the point where those powers manifested.
- RWBY:
- "A Much Needed Talk" has Qrow finally revealing to Ruby and JNR the truth about the Maidens, how it relates to Beacon's fall, and Pyrrha's death (the last of which Jaune is particularly upset over), all of which the audience saw play out in the last Volume.
- In "A Place of Particular Concern", Weiss reveals to Ruby, Blake, and Yang everything they missed during the battle with Cinder in the Void Between the Worlds after they fell into the Ever After, including Penny dying again (which has Ruby Faint in Shock). All of the events Weiss mentions were shown in the previous episode..
- In canon Dragon Ball Z, Freeza never learned just who the rose-haired pretty boy that hacked him up happened to be, and the same is mostly held true to the abridged series. Cell, however, does know, seeing as he is made partly from Freeza's DNA; in the third episode of HFIL, however, Cell leads Freeza towards the answer for the purpose of breaking him.
Freeza: And if you're going to tell me that I wasn't killed by Goku, I frankly don't care. Whoever it was couldn't possibly be more embarrassing than Goku's tween offspring.
Cell: Well, there's always Vegeta's teen offspring [Trunks].
Freeza: Well, yes, I do suppose that would be— (realization) ...no...!
Cell: Who do you think that time traveller was...? And I'm sure everyone would love to hear how you were split in two by Vegeta's overgrown sperm.- Later in HFIL Freeza finds out from his own father that Cell managed to do two things Freeza never could: kill Goku and Trunks.
King Cold: [Cooler] was felled by the same brute who humiliated my princess.
Freeza: [Annoyed] Father.
Cell: Which one?
Freeza: [Annoyed] F[Bleep]k you!
King Cold: Oh, I'm bad with names. Uh, the one who can turn his hair gold.
Cell: Not really narrowing it down.
Freeza: [Annoyed] Grr...
King Cold: Right, right... Um, the one you killed.
Freeza: [Shocked] What...?
Cell: Again, which one?
Freeza: [Shocked] WHAT!?
King Cold: [Ponders for a moment] Goku! That was his name! [Laughs and then gives a sigh of relief] Glad we got that settled.
[Cut to Freeza quivering in shock while Cell stares at him smugly]- Episode 11 of HFIL finally has Cell realize who Raditz is-Goku's brother, specifically-when Raditz comments on the resemblance between Turles and Goku. Raditz swears him to secrecy because his time in HFIL, already bad due to him being the Butt-Monkey, will be worse if they know he's Goku's brother.
- Daughter of the Lilies: Subverted and Defied by Brent regarding the reason why Thistle always hides her face. When Thistle abruptly stops reading a book out loud because it's started demonizing her fellow Cave Elves, Brent guesses the book is talking about whatever she is, grabs it out of her hands, and tosses it into the fire unread.
- The Glass Scientists: At the end of Chapter 14, Dr. Jekyll transforms into Hyde in front of Frankenstein and the Creature, making them the only two characters who know that Hyde is Jekyll's alter-ego/other personality. This is something the audience has most likely been privy to before they even knew the comic existed, or at least Chapter 2.
- El Goonish Shive:
- The reveal of Nanase's sexuality was spread out greatly between the audience and the various characters. The fans had diagrams. To quote a recap:
Nanase likes the ladies, and knows that Elliot and Susan know.
Elliot knows that Ellen knows, very likely knows that Susan knows and may know that Justin knows.
Ellen knows that Elliot, Susan, and Justin know.
Susan knows that Ellen and Justin know.
Justin knows that Susan and Ellen know.
Sarah knows that Grace and Susan know.
Grace knows that Sarah and Susan know.
Tedd is completely clueless. - The audience learned back in 2012
that Rhoda could use magic. It wasn't until 2024 that her closest friends learned about it.
- The reveal of Nanase's sexuality was spread out greatly between the audience and the various characters. The fans had diagrams. To quote a recap:
- My Impossible Soulmate: Being an isekai webcomic, the audience knows Chiaki is Trapped in Another World right from the start. Chiaki first reveals her situation to Redge and Nara, but isn't believed (with Nara recommending she feign amnesia rather than tell anyone else). She later tells Nagisa after she seemingly sees through it
.
- The Order of the Stick: The Dénouement of the Blood Runs In The Family arc has V reveal to Roy that they deliberately caused the genocide of the black dragons, something they did while separated from the rest of the Order.
- Plume's Dom and Corrick find out who the bounty hunters are really there for several pages after readers do.
- In Rain (2010), Rain's trans status is the very first thing the audience learns — and several chapters hinge upon her coming out to friends and family.
- Alison reveals that she is Mega Girl in Strong Female Protagonist on national television. Mild shock for the audience, in universe great shock though!
- Tower of God: It is known from the beginning that Bam is an Irregular, i.e. somebody who entered the Tower uninvited and thus is a terrifying existence to most. But when he boldly announces that during an assembly of most of his generation's regulars, jaws drop even though you already knew that.
- Noob had a few episodes during which the audience knew that Sparadrap's younger brother was playing the game, but Sparadrap himself wasn't aware of it. His brother ends up setting things straight after it turns out that blackmail is going on between members of their respective guilds (one of Sparadrap's teammates is a Manipulative Bastard).
- 3-2-1 Penguins!: Baron von Cavitus and Bert Bertman are one and the same. Ever since his introduction in I Scream, You Scream! and periodically throughout the show, the audience gets clues that lead to this conclusion though none of the protagonists ever find out until 12 Angry Hens.
- The Amazing World of Gumball: The season 4 episode "The Others" has Anais reveal to her brothers that she studies in their high school despite being younger than them. In-Universe, it confuses the two, but given she was there since the beginning, as well as her intelligence, it doesn't come off as a huge surprise to the audience. Lampshaded.
Darwin: Anais, can I ask something?
Anais: What?
Darwin: You know how you're like, a baby, but you're at school with us. How does that work?
Gumball: Yeah, it's totally unrealistic.
Anais: Are you- I... Wha... Ack... Wha... Eh... Ah, eh, ah, ack... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Darwin: I'm not sure what you're upset about.
Anais: The fact that neither of you know that your sister, who you live with, is in a year above you in your own school! - Roger Smith from American Dad! is an alien who wears an array of disguises to hide his true self from everyone other than the Smith family, including Hayley's boyfriend, and later husband, Jeff Fischer due to Jeff's inability to keep a secret. He finally finds out about Roger being an alien in the episode "Naked to the Limit, One More Time" (though there's a bit of Series Continuity Error at play here, as there were a few occasions prior to this where Jeff saw Roger without a disguise).
- In American Dragon: Jake Long, the audience finds out that Jake's crush Rose is actually the secret identity of his archenemy Huntsgirl in the very first episode, but Jake doesn't find out until half a season later. And it isn't until the end of the first season that Rose finds out that the American Dragon is none other than her crush.
- Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender finds out that he's the great-grandson of both Avatar Roku and Firelord Sozin in the aptly titled episode "The Avatar and the Firelord" but he doesn't tell Aang (the other half of this equation) until the tie-in comic, Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise.
- Big City Greens: The episode "Friend Con" has the Greens discover Chip is still evil since his promotion to CEO of Wholesome Foods. Of course, if the audience had seen the ending of "Reckoning Ball" to begin with, they knew all along.
- Central Park:
- In Season 1 "Dog Spray Afternoon", both Birdie and the audience know what Bitsy is up to, but Birdie explains he cannot tell Owen or Paige because there are rules to being a narrator. He, however, gets impatient and blurts out to Paige that Bitsy is the one money laundering for the mayor, breaking the rule of revealing too much to the main characters. He tries to cover it up by saying as a busker he overhears business talk in the park all the time.
- In Season 1 "Hot Oven", the Tillermans finally learns the truth about Bitsy thanks to Brendan, who reveals that she's his great aunt, and that she's plotting to buy Central Park.
- Danny Phantom: In the series finale, Phantom Planet, Vlad Masters finally reveals to the world that he is the real identity of the ghost villain Vlad Plasmius. For the audience (and for Danny), The Reveal has happened as early as Vlad's introduction in "Bitter Reunions". It's also in this episode that Danny Fenton shows the world that he is Danny Phantom, which has been known to the audience since the beginning.
- In Dog City, the cartoonist drawing Ace's story was fighting with another cartoonist on whether or not to reveal the villain's plan to the viewer. They re-painted over the scene a few times.
- DuckTales (2017):
- Near the end of Season 1, Huey and Louie are let in on Dewey and Webby's quest to find out what happened to Della Duck; the adults find out in the very next episode, with Scrooge reluctantly giving The Reveal when pressed.
- The episode after that ended with The Stinger that Della is still alive, which the main characters wouldn't discover until the middle of the second season... at which point Donald Duck goes missing, unbeknownst to everyone other than the audience.
- The ending of Season 2 revealed that Scrooge's board of directors were the head of F.O.W.L., but the protagonist would not find out until the middle of Season 3. The rest of the series deals with the fallout of this revelation.
- The third season of Final Space reveals that not only is Avocato not actually Little Cato's real father, but he outright murdered his biological parents while serving the Lord Commander and adopted the poor kid to repent. No one else finds out until Avocato confesses to Gary in the wake of the latter being used as a tool to kill Fox, and right near the end of the season when Ash walks in on a conversation between the two and relays this horrible revelation to Little Cato. Naturally, none of the parties involved take it well. Especially Ash.
- Gravity Falls: At the climax of "Scary-Oke", Stan confesses to Dipper that he knows about the town's weirdness after all (something the audience was made aware of at the end of the season one finale "Gideon Rises"), but was pretending to be oblivious in a misguided attempt to discourage Dipper from investigating and putting himself in danger.
- The first season of Jackie Chan Adventures had its human antagonists, the Dark Hand, working to collect the talismans for Shendu, a Demon Sorceror who was turned into a statue 800 years prior, so as to restore his physical form. The heroes aren't even aware of Shendu's existence or why Dark Hand are collecting the talismans until the last two episodes of the season (though they do come across Shendu when he temporarily leaves his body and possesses Jade's, they don't make the connection that the evil spirit and the talking statue are one and the same).
- It's plainly obvious to the viewer from the very first episode of King of the Hill that Nancy Gribble is cheating on her husband Dale with John Redcorn, and Joseph isn't Dale's son, but it's treated as a shocking revelation nonetheless when Peggy Hill figures it out for herself in season 3. Well, shocking for Peggy, anyhow.
Peggy: Oh, I am so sorry, Minh, but I had to talk to someone. It's about Nancy. She's having an affair.
Minh: Oh my god! She's cheating on John Redcorn?
Peggy: You know about them?
Minh: Oh, not at first. It took me about an hour, but I am a naive and trusting person. - Kamp Koral: In "The Taste of Defeat", while the viewers (and Plankton) witness the sight of Narlene's food being made, the campers are totally unaware. Plankton makes a big show of revealing it, resulting in the disgusted diners quickly abandoning Narlene's place and going back to Plankton.
Plankton: Well, then feast your stupid eyes on this! She's making your precious food WITH HER FEET!
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: The audience (and Mandu) learns that Kipo has shapeshifting abilities in episode five, but Kipo herself doesn't realize this until the following episode and Kipo's friend Wolf doesn't realize until two episodes later, leading to a dramatic falling out between the two.
- Miraculous Ladybug:
- In its second season, Alya and Nino are drafted to aid the heroes on two separate occasions as Rena Rouge and Carapace. In "Catalyst", Ladybug recruits them together, leading them to learn each other's secret identities (though it's implied Alya already knew Nino was Carapace. Definitely counts for Nino, though.)
- In the fourth season, the stress of being Ladybug and the new guardian of the Miraculous, and having to keep it secret from everyone she cares about, gets to Marinette so much that she gives up and fills Alya in on the truth.
- My Adventures with Superman
- "Let's Go to Ivo Tower, You Say": Lois connects the dots that Clark is Superman after finding an article in the pocket of his jacket.
- "You Will Believe a Man Can Lie"
- Clark discovers the existence of Task Force X and how they had been apprehending the tech-criminals that Superman had presumably been leaving in the care of the police.
- Though the episode's plotline stems from her first catching on in the previous episode, this episode does no fake-outs and definitively confirms to Lois that Clark is Superman.
- "Kiss Kiss Fall in Portal": Mxyzptlk casually mentions that Clark is from Krypton, which is something that he didn't know so far. Fans of any version of Superman would also be familiar with kryptonite, but this is the first time this Superman has experienced it. Lois ends up with a piece as well at the end.
- "Zero Day, Part 2": Jimmy discovers the sphere with the Kryptonite in Lois' purse which shows several versions of an evil Superman.
- "Hearts of the Fathers"
- While the previous episode confirmed to the audience that the General was Lois's father Sam, this episode has Clark, Lois, and Jimmy find out for themselves.
- Clark finally finds out about File X and the evil Supermen it depicts... which is immediately upstaged by him, Lois, and Jimmy realizing exactly what the shard of Kryptonite stored inside it can do to Clark.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- The opening of the first episode explains to the audience the story of Princess Celestia's sister, Luna, and how she became corrupted into Nightmare Moon. Only at the end of the premiere does the rest of the cast learn of Nightmare Moon's relationship to Celestia... despite the myth concerning the character clearly noting that the two are siblings.
- "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" starts with Pinkie finding out that Cadance and Shining Armor are having a baby. The rest of the episode centers around her crazy antics to avoid telling Twilight until Cadance and Shining Armor are ready to tell her themselves.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The identity of Mr. E is revealed to the audience in the final third of the first season, but the characters themselves aren't made aware of this until the early parts of the next season.
- The Owl House: The ending of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" reveals Emperor Belos and Philip Wittebane are the same person, but Luz doesn't find this out until "Hollow Mind", four episodes later.
- Skull Island (2023): Charlie doesn't learn what Kong's name is, much less than he's technically the good guy, until the season finale when a bunch of angry natives round him up for crossing their god.
- Sofia the First:
- In "The Enchanted Feast", the audience sees Miss Nettle disguising herself as Sascha the Sorceress before she infiltrates the castle, but while Sofia has her suspicions, she doesn't know it until Miss Nettle reveals herself after locking away the royal family in the dining hall.
- In "Day of the Sorcerers", Sofia and her family finally realize Cedric is trying to take over Enchancia as well as the times he tried to take her amulet, something the audience had known since she first came to the castle three whole seasons ago.
- Sofia told Amber about the magic of her amulet in "The Curse of Princess Ivy" in Season 2, but the special ends Amber getting Laser-Guided Amnesia. She wouldn't learn about it again until season 4's "The Mystic Isles," when she accidentally stumbled on the path to the Secret Library.
- Princess Elena ends up revealing the truth about the Amulet of Avalor to the Royal Family in "Elena and the Secret of Avalor", albeit only sticking to the fact it has powerful abilities and it came from her kingdom, and that she was trapped in it for 41 years until Sofia released her. In the series finale, Sofia finally tells her friends and then her family the truth about her amulet and her duties as a Protector.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Early on, the audience knows that Wilson Fisk is the main bad guy controlling most of the criminal activities, but Spider-Man himself doesn't know about him until Daredevil shows up and reveals his true identity.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Crisis Point", Boimler learns that Mariner is Freeman's daughter. It's enough of a shock for him to blow his interview, but Holo-Freeman saying that she would court-martial anyone who found out straight out of Starfleet might have been a factor.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Towards the end of season three, Star and Marco end up sharing a kiss while the former is in a relationship with Tom, who considers Marco to be one of his best friends. In the season finale, Marco admits to Tom what happened in an attempt to make him abandon him so he can pull off a Heroic Sacrifice, which fails when Tom comes back under the assumption that Marco was lying (only to be corrected). Tom still takes it surprisingly well, though. As an extension of that, early in the following season, Star is furious when she discovers that Tom learned about the kiss and choose to talk about his conflicted feelings concerning what happened with his mother rather than her. Tom proceeds to rightfully point that he should be the one angry in the situation, since Star should have told him about the kiss herself rather than him having to confront her about it.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "The Lost One", the Jedi discover that Count Dooku is Tyranus, the one who oversaw production of the Clone army, a fact which was known to viewers since the end of Attack of the Clones.
- Static Shock: A variant is offered in the penultimate episode when the titular hero's father immediately realizes that his son is Static after he's kidnapped in order to lure the locally famous superhero out.
Mr. Hawkins: Wasn't hard to figure out. Why else kidnap me to get to Static?
- Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters ends the second episode of season two with one of the Flex Fighters, Nathan "Wingspan" Park, revealing his double life to his girlfriend, Erika Violette, at least 14 episodesnote after the viewers learned all of the Flex Fighters' true identities.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): While the reveal that Karai is actually Splinter's long-lost-and-presumed-dead daughter Miwa came off as something of a Captain Obvious Reveal to many of the viewers, Splinter and the turtles themselves weren't privy to all of the Foreshadowing leading up to it, making this a culmination to a whole string of these in-universe revelations (e.g. Karai introducing herself to Leonardo and then the other turtles, then revealing she's with Shredder's Foot Clan, then revealing she considers Shredder her father, and then Shredder revealing to Splinter he adopted her and raised her as his own out of spite, then Splinter revealing this to the turtles, and their finally revealing this to her and convincing her Splinter is truly her biological father.)
- Transformers: Animated has plenty of things revealed to the viewers long before the characters ever find out.
- The end of the three episode pilot reveals that Issac Sumdac has been keeping Megatron's head and hand within his main laboratory after having discovered it 50 years ago, and he had reverse-engineered the Cybertronian technology to create the robots that would make him a successful businessman. This is not revealed to the Autobots until Megatron Rising Part II.
- The end of Blast From The Past shows Grimlock transforming to robot mode, revealing that the Dinobots were given Sparks and turned into Transformers by the AllSpark energy from Sari's key (something that was foreshadowed earlier in the episode when Megatron finds himself unable to control them). Six episodes later, in Survival of the Fittest, the Dinobots reveal their ability to transform to everyone present (Bulkhead, Prowl, Sari, Fanzone, and Meltdown). Optimus would learn of this in Megatron Rising Part I.
- In Autoboot Camp, a flashback shows Bumblebee learning of a Decepticon spy amongst the Autobots and suspects it to be Wasp, an Autobot who bullies him. This leads to Bumblebee teaming up with an Autobot named Longarm to expose him as the spy. However, it's revealed at the end of the episode that the true spy is Longarm, who is actually the Decepticon Shockwave in disguise. The main characters don't learn of this until Shockwave reveals himself in A Bridge Too Close Part II.
- The Venture Bros. The audience finds out the boys are clones in the Season 2 premiere, but it takes until Season 5 for them to find out (Dean early on, Hank in the season finale).
- Played with in Voltron: Legendary Defender. It's never explicitly stated to the audience that Pidge is a girl until she admits the façade in the sixth episode, though the show doesn't do much to hide this. In the same manner, the other characters had also either figured out by that point or at least suspected it (except Lance).

