History Main / MetaTwist

* In the ''{{Spider-Man}}'' mythos, the Green Goblin is always revealed to be Norman Osborn, father of Peter's best friend Harry. However, ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' hints that Harry himself is the Goblin, patterning itself after some later comic book storylines (where he succeeded his father as the Goblin, among others). It came as a shock to fans when Harry really ''was'' the Goblin. Subverted the next season, with another twist that Norman was the Goblin all along and Harry was just a RedHerring. (So two Meta Twists, the first within the context of the show and the second within the mythos as a whole.)

* ScoobyDoo is well known for its ScoobyDooHoax. So this is an example whenever the monster they are chasing is, in fact, a monster, and not a guy in a costume. Mostly occurs in the OVAs.

* ''SouthPark'' fans know that Cartman is always, ''always'' doing good deeds for his own twisted reasons, which may range from PokeThePoodle to all-out MoralEventHorizon in scope. No matter how good he ''seems,'' fans and [[GenreSavvy the characters]] can bet that he's really being manipulative. This makes his subplot in "Major Boobage" something of a surprise, when he really ''does'' take in all the town's cats (which had been recently outlawed) simply out of the kindness of his heart.

* In his debut movie ''HouseOfGames'', David Mamet played the aforementioned trope that the events in a con man movie are revealed to be part of a [[MassiveMultiplayerScam massive con]] straight. But when he directed his second con man movie, ''The Spanish Prisoner'', he must have realized that viewers were now expecting this kind of a PlotTwist. To counter that, the movie keeps constantly introducing new plot elements that may be innocent, or may (to a viewer expecting the twist) be part of a con. The result is that by the end of the movie, a sufficiently paranoid viewer will not know how large the actual con was, or who exactly was involved in it.

* TheBrothersBloom is about con-men, and it has become something of a cliche that any story about con-men is usually a con itself--the viewer waits for the twist to be revealed. The twist at the end of TheBrothersBloom is... there is no twist. The movie has played fair with the audience all along, and what you saw is what really happened. The feeling of the viewer's plot-twist-sense tingling was just paranoia.

* After making a whole lot of surrealist films, DavidLynch directed ''The Straight Story''. The twist: There are ''no'' monster fetuses, talking women in radiators or violent porn scenes. It's just an ordinary G-rated Disney film.
** ''BlueVelvet'' is a lesser example; its storyline is far more straightforward than most of Lynch's other films.

* HBO helped pull this off in GameOfThrones. Who's the marketing of? Who's the obvious main character? SeanBean, who's the biggest name and most recognizable actor. Fans of the book loved it because they fell for the DecoyProtagonist when reading it and from the sheer amount of reviews and youtube videos so did most of television fans.

* At Wrestlemania 27, Edge and Christian headed into Edge's title match vs Alberto Del Rio with a series of tense promo's that caused most to assume that Christian's ChronicBackstabbingDisorder would rear it's head again and cause him to screw over Edge during the match. The match itself, never even teased the possibility, leading to a clean win for Edge, with the two of them heading back the ramp together. In a way, it was quite fortunate, as due to a medical condition Edge retired legitimately, and instead of going out being screwed by the the other half of the Edge and Christian ThoseTwoGuys vibe, he retired as a champion with his best friend still in his corner.

* HBO helped pull this off in GameOfThrones. Whose the marketing of? Whose the obvious main character? SeanBean, whose the biggest name and most recognizable actor. Fans of the book loved it because they fell for the DecoyProtagonist when reading it and from the sheer amount of reviews and youtube videos so did most of television fans.

Maybe he realized that her using the trope was becoming predictable or worse, a crutch, and ditched it. Or perhaps he [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste plotted a perfectly good waste]] from before even writing the first book just to give fans a huge surprise. And of course, maybe he just wanted (horror of horrors) to surprise readers in order to entertain them. It doesn't matter which it is, the net effect is the same: The plot twist for that story becomes the absence of an established twist. So, a Meta Twist.

* MNightShyamalan is so famous for adding [[ShockingSwerve completely unexpected]] ([[TropesAreNotBad but in a good way!]]) twists to his works that when ''TheHappening'' lacked one, people were disappointed.

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Say you're into a particular writer who [[MandatoryTwistEnding likes giving each of her stories a special kind]] of TwistEnding. She likes using it so much it's practically a signature element for her works. [[YourMilageMayVary For some readers]], it's [[DeadHorseTrope predictable and groanworthy]], others might like it. Imagine the surprise when, after you've put down the book, [[AvertedTrope the twist isn't there]]. Much like an EmptyRoomPsych, the author willingly removes that twist from her latest work to throw avid fans (and the GenreSavvy who expected ItWasHisSled) for a loop.

Maybe she realized that her using the trope was becoming predictable or worse, a crutch, and ditched it. Or perhaps she [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste plotted a perfectly good waste]] from before even writing the first book just to give fans a huge surprise. And of course, maybe she just wanted (horror of horrors) to surprise readers in order to entertain them. It doesn't matter which it is, the net effect is the same: The plot twist for that story becomes the absence of an established twist. So, a Meta Twist.

* MNightShyamalan is so famous for adding [[ShockingSwerve completely unexpected]] ([[TropesAreNotBad but in a good way!]]) twists to his works that when ''TheHappening'' lacked one, people were disappointed. It didn't help that the apparent situation was so fricking ''[[GaiasVengeance dumb]]'' people were hoping for any other explanation.

* MNightShyamalan is so famous for adding [[ShockingSwerve completely unexpected]] ([[TropesAreNotBad but in a good way!]]) twists to his works that when ''TheHappening'' lacked one, people were disappointed.

** ''HalfBloodPrince'' also has another one: Up until then, the DA-teacher always had been a character newly introduced in the respective book. (Except in the first book of course, where ''everyone'' was "newly introduced".) Even the characters were surprised when this turned out ''not'' to be the case in ''HBP''.

** ''HalfBloodPrince'' also has another one: Up until then, the DA-teacher always had been a character newly introduced in the respective book. (Except in the first book of course, where ''everyone'' was "newly introduced".) Even the characters were surprised when this turned out to not be the case in ''HBP''.