History Main / MetaTwist

* Creator/MNightShyamalan is so famous for adding [[ShockingSwerve completely unexpected]] ([[SarcasmMode but in a good way!]]) twists to his works that when ''Film/TheHappening'' lacked one, people were disappointed.
** That's not why people were disappointed in that movie.

** No matter how much Fred insists, Red Herring is never the culprit in any APupNamedScoobyDoo episodes. Except for that one time he was, and even then he had good intentions.

* Due to it being the ''SpeedRacer'' Movie, you expect TheReveal from [[LongLostSibling Racer X]] that he's Speed's missing older brother Rex Racer. Speed is even GenreSavvy enough to expect this. The Meta Twist comes from TheReveal being [[TheUntwist an Untwist]], that it isn't Rex Racer. ...Then they [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] this [[TheUntwist untwist]] at the end of the film, revealing to the audience that he really is Rex Racer. Meta enough?

[[folder:Anime]]

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

* In Doctor Who, Stephen Moffat is regarding as something of a master of the shocking twist (though Your Mileage May Certainly Vary). So when River Song was announced to have killed 'a good man, the best [she'd] ever known' it was thought it was just too obvious for it to be the Doctor. After all, it was the first name which came to everyone's mind the second it was suggested. It just couldn't be true, right? In fact, entire sections of the fandom (across more than one discussion group) dissected the idea. They argued that River Song, knowing and often mentioning the Doctor's flaws, would never call him the best man she'd ever known. They argued that this Doctor had even said why he wasn't truly a good man because 'good men don't need rules'. Meanwhile, Rory (who doesn't need rules) was repeatedly stated to be a good man throughout the series. He showed a habit of dying several times (almost as though the universe were trying to make him...). Then when he turned out to be River's father it seemed guaranteed (and many fans were sitting back quite content with themselves and saying 'I told you so'). After all, who would a daughter be more likely to consider the best man she'd ever known than her father? In the end, she 'killed' the Doctor.

* The "twist" of one Creator/AgathaChristie novel, ''[[spoiler:The Hollow]]'', was that the person found standing over the corpse, holding the smoking gun that killed him, was the murderer -- despite all the evidence to the contrary.
** Creator/AgathaChristie's ''first'' novel, ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', could be considered a meta-twist of the trope "the prime suspect is never guilty", but the good lady meta-twisted that one too often for subsequent examples to count as a meta-twist of ''her own'' twists.

* ''TheLincolnLawyer'': [[spoiler:Haller does a good job and gets his client off, even though he knows he's guilty. However, he arranges matters so the client's earlier murder is found out without anyone being able to pin anything on him.]] That's not the twist. [[spoiler:The client makes bail after the cops arrest him, and Haller frantically tries to find and stop him from hurting his daughter and/or ex-wife. The twist is that [[TheManBehindTheMan the client's oblivious-seeming mother, the one paying for his defense who thinks her kid is a perfect angel]], is actually his accomplice in his earlier murders, and tries to kill Haller at this point. Oh, and the ex-wife and daughter were in protective custody the whole time.]]

* ''{{Inception}}'', somewhat. As [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Chester A. Bum]] put it, "The twist is that there may or may not be a twist."

Say you're into a particular writer who [[MandatoryTwistEnding likes giving each of his stories a special kind]] of TwistEnding. He likes using it so much it's practically a signature element for his works. 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 his latest work to throw avid fans (and the GenreSavvy who expected ItWasHisSled) for a loop.

For a moment, the Genre Savvy have become just as easy to surprise as the completely new reader. In fact, a newbie into the works/genre will be pleasantly surprised regardless. The avid reader will get the added bonus of ''not knowing what happens next''. This can be a good way to keep the reader reading her future stories.

Compare with TheUntwist.

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

* 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 can't be sure how large the actual con was, or who exactly was involved in it.

* {{Harry Turtledove}} is well known for his {{Loads And Loads Of Characters}}, to the point where most of his books start out with a filler scene for each one that only serves to remind you of the position each of the many viewpoint characters were in at the end of the last book. Except on the rare occasion that one of them ''dies'' in this section.

* By the third season finale of ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', fans have come to expect some huge cliffhanger twist. Jack enters his car, there's a long silence as the viewer waits expectantly... and then Jack breaks down crying. Woah.

* A suspect in ''TheCloser'' was a junkie arrested while he was high, showed violent tenancies when he chucked a chair through a window, had blood on his clothes, and possessed the keys to a stolen car with a murdered girl in the trunk. Rarely is the guilty party quite so obvious. The episode was largely dedicated to convincing [[DaChief Brenda]] that it was probably exactly what it looked like.

* In ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan,'' it is hinted, and eventually confirmed, that [[spoiler:Harry Osborn]] is the original Green Goblin, rather than NormanOsborn as in other continuities. And then, in the second season finale, we find out that [[spoiler:it ''was'' Norman all along, framing Harry for the crime]].

* In PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Justice for All's final case, [[spoiler: Phoenix's client really is guilty.]] Many consider it [[BestLevelEver one of the best cases in the series.]]

* 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 {{OVA}}s.

** His other catchphrase is "it's never Lupus." Except that one time when it is Lupus.

* The "twist" of one AgathaChristie novel, ''[[spoiler:The Hollow]]'', was that the person found standing over the corpse, holding the smoking gun that killed him, was the murderer -- despite all the evidence to the contrary.
** AgathaChristie's ''first'' novel, ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', could be considered a meta-twist of the trope "the prime suspect is never guilty", but the good lady meta-twisted that one too often for subsequent examples to count as a meta-twist of ''her own'' twists.

* Sigma has always been the BigBad and FinalBoss in every MegaManX game... except for one where there was someone else controlling Sigma all along [[spoiler: (Mega Man X8)]] and one where he doesn't even make an appearance [[spoiler: (Mega Man X: Command Mission.)]]

Say you're into a particular writer who [[MandatoryTwistEnding likes giving each of his stories a special kind]] of TwistEnding. He likes using it so much it's practically a signature element for his 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 his latest work to throw avid fans (and the GenreSavvy who expected ItWasHisSled) for a loop.

* Sigma has always been the BigBad and FinalBoss in every MegaManX game...except for one where there was someone else controlling Sigma all along [[spoiler: (Mega Man X8)]] and one where he doesn't even make an appearance [[spoiler: (Mega Man X: Command Mission.)]]

* ''TheLincolnLawyer'': [[spoiler:Haller does a good job and gets his client off, even though he knows he's guilty. However, he arranges matters so the client's earlier murder is found out without anyone being able to pin anything on him.]] That's not the twist. [[spoiler:The twist is that [[TheManBahindTheMan the client's oblivious-seeming mother, the one paying for his defense who thinks her kid is a perfect angel]], is actually his accomplice in his earlier murders, and tries to kill Haller when she realizes he set her son up.]]

* ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': When it was revealed that Urobuchi Gen was working on the series, many fans immediately suspected that the show would be a lot darker than it at first seemed. And they were right... [[spoiler:mostly. The ending, while still bittersweet, was ''much'' happier than he is normally known for. Also a possible subversion of LyingCreator - when he claimed he wanted to write a heartwarming anime, few believed him.]]

* Sigma has always been the BigBad in every MegaManX game...except for one where there was someone else controlling Sigma all along [[spoiler: (Mega Man X8)]] and one where he doesn't even make an appearance [[spoiler: (Mega Man X: Command Mission.)]]

* Sigma has always been the BigBad in every MegaManX game...except for one where there was someone else controlling Sigma all along [[spoiler: (Mega Man X 8)]] and one where he doesn't even make an appearance [[spoiler: (Mega Man X: Command Mission.)]]

* In PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Justice for All's final case, [[spoiler: Phoenix's client really is guilty.]] Many consider it [[BestLevelEver one of the best cases in the series.]]\

* In PhoenixWrightAceAttorney - Justice for All's final case, [[spoiler: Phoenix's client really is guilty.]] Many consider it [[BestLevelEver one of the best cases in the series.]]

* {{House}}'s catchphrase is "everybody lies", and indeed most episodes hinge on a patient or someone close to them having lied about some fact which turns out to be vital for a diagnosis. However, in the episode "DNR", no one lies, and the team eventually just figure out the right diagnosis.

* ''{{Film/Watchmen}}'' has a fairly interesting case as a byproduct of the adaptation process. Adrian Veidt in the graphic novel is a kind, open-hearted man, the best-adjusted of all the former superheroes. It then turns out that he's ''also'' the mysterious murderer whose slaying of another onetime superhero begins the story, the propelling force behind nearly all the main events of the plot, and to top it all off, he kills millions of people to try to frighten humanity into uniting rather than threatening nuclear war. By the time the film was made, the idea of "the least likely person in the cast turns out to be the antagonist" had become a time-honored trope in itself, so in the film he was rewritten as a cold, aloof, rather sneering man to make him the most obvious choice of villain (and therefore, to a twist-accustomed audience, the ''least'' likely, in a strange way). And then it turns out it was him all along, just as in the book- yet then messes with expectations one last time by having him plainly be way more unsettled by his own decision that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans than he ever was in the book (down to the point of surrendering himself to a harsh beating at the hands of one of the heroes).

** ''OrderOfThePhoenix'' is also an odd case. Harry doesn't ever have a prime suspect for who sent the Dementors, but the revelation that it was [[spoiler:Umbridge]] certainly comes as a surprise. However, the other mysteries, such as who murdered [[spoiler:Bode]], are ''never'' answered.
*** Well, the Trio figured out ''how'' he was murdered, so which specific Death Eater [[spoiler:dropped off the plant]] really isn't all that important.

** This habit was so well known that this troper, who did not watch the show, stumbled over the third season finale's final minutes and actually waited to see what the cliffhanger twist would be. Needless to say, I was confused.

** You are ''psychotic''!

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