History Main / RevealingInjury

* In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', [[spoiler:Manfred Von Karma never had the bullet removed from his shoulder to avoid becoming a suspect in Gregory Edgeworth's death. Phoenix exposes him by first realizing that two bullets were fired (the one that broke the glass and hit von Karma in the shoulder and the one that killed Gregory), and using a metal detector to find the other bullet]]. Invoked in the third case, when someone steals the Steel Samurai case and pretends to be limping from a sprained ankle to cast suspicion on Will Powers, who sprained his ankle.
** In the last case of ''Trials and Tribulations'', Phoenix discovers the killer was wounded after committing the murder and reveals the location where it was hidden; [[spoiler:beneath Godot's mask]].
** In ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', the fact that Alita Tiala's scarf hides [[spoiler:the marks from where Dr. Meratkis tried to strangle her]] turns out to be a crucial point of evidence.
** In the first case of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations2'', the president of a foreign country is shot at by someone wearing a red raincoat. Sure enough, a red raincoat happens to be found at the scene, and it has a small bloodstain on the inside. There happens to be a nearby ice cream man named "John Doe" with a bandaged arm that bleeds occasionally, [[BlatantLies who denies the raincoat is his.]] There's a twist though: [[spoiler: The raincoat ''is'' his... but he's not the shooter. There were actually ''two'' people wearing red raincoats at the time, and the second one was much better hidden.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Karkat has been hiding the color of his blood for his entire life, so the readers don't learn it until Jack stabs him. In-universe, it's a subversion, though- while Karkat starts freaking out, no one else there actually cares.
* In ''Webcomic/TheSenkari'' Freijas injury is not plausibly make up as she claims. Of course the fact she gets drunk doesn't help back up her claim in any way...

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Literature/SailorNothing'', Aki is only able to recognize Himei in her Sailor guise because she has a black eye that Aki had noticed earlier in the day.

* The adaptations of Creator/PaulFeval's ''Le Bossu'' -- 1959's ''Film/{{Le Bossu|1959}}'' and 1997's ''Film/OnGuard'' -- have Lagardère slash (1959) or {{impale|d with extreme prejudice}} (1997) the hand of a masked Gonzague, who betrays the duke of Nevers and kills him. Years later, in both cases, he recognizes Gonzague due to the scar on his hand.

* ''Series/LawAndOrder'': Detectives Green and Fontana begin amassing clues to the death of a 9/11/01 widow on the Battery Park ferry. Their prime suspect has a cast on her right arm, which she claims to be the result of a forward fall on subway steps. The attending physician at the ER "hypothetically" details a forward fall will result in a Collis fracture, whereas a backward fall will result in a Smith's fracture. The suspect was treated for a Smith's fracture, "anatomically impossible" in a forward fall. The detectives' EurekaMoment is viewable on YouTube here: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0VHiM3MADw&t=486]].

* Near the end of Tim's run as [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]] he stops going out as Tim Drake in order to ''prevent'' this from happening since Robin had rather publicly acquired a mess of burns on the back of his head and neck while saving people from an explosion.

* In the MiniSeries "[[https://youtu.be/0YNFL2Y_lHA The Murder Of Mary Phagan]], factory superintendent [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank Leo Frank]] is horrified to realize that the police think he's the killer and frantically points out how battered the girl was, saying that she clearly fought her life and stripping to his underwear without even being asked to show that he ''doesn't'' have this, as he would have undoubtedly been covered with scratches had he struggled with her.

* It has been frequently noticed on many crime shows that suspected killers have sported scratches, bruises, etc., inflicted NY their victims as they fought for their lives.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' this is how the characters find out the identity of the serial killer known as the Gravedigger. By studying the most recent victim's body, they realize that the victim must have broken some of the Gravedigger's ribs in self defense. Conveniently, only minutes after this discovery, they are approached by [[spoiler: Heather Taffet, the agent in charge of the case]] and notice that [[spoiler: she]] has broken ribs.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' the identity of the Gravedigger is revealed via a rib injury sustained from being hit by a car.

** During the "Strange Apparitions" story arc, Bruce checks into a private hospital to discreetly recover from radiation burns he suffered during a fight with [[ILoveNuclearPower Doctor Phosphorus]]. Unfortunately, the hospital is run by [[PsychoPsychologist Hugo Strange]], who subsequently realizes that Bruce is Batman.

** In the first ''Film/SpiderMan1'' movie, ComicBook/NormanOsborn realizes that Peter is Spider-Man after Aunt May notices that Peter has a gash on his arm, the same gash that Norman (as Green Goblin) had given Spider-Man.

* ''Series/PromisedLand'': Middle daughter Dinah is attacked while walking home from her hospital volunteer job. She gets away after biting her assailant's hand. The next day, her father jumps one of their neighbors after seeing that his hand is injured, but the man's wife confirms his story of being bitten by a ''dog''. Later in the episode, Dinah realizes she's [[AloneWithThePsycho alone with her would-be rapist]] when she sees the bite mark on ''his'' hand.

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

%%%

%%%

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Backdraft}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sound_flashback_in_backdraft_3.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Can't be two men in Chicago with ''that'' exact scar...]]

* ''Film/{{Backdraft}}''. The murderer/arsonist sets up a short-circuiting electrical socket to light a fire, but he's interrupted by the protagonists. During the subsequent struggle, he's forced against the socket and we hear him screaming in pain. TheReveal of the murderer comes when the protagonist later sees him with his shirt off.

* In ''Film/DarkShadows'' Barnabas catches fire when he is accidentally exposed to sunlight, thus making it obvious to everyone present (including the prospective love interest) that he is a vampire. Try explaining that one to your crush.

* The Creator/TheyMightBeGiants song "Aaa!" has a case of MoodWhiplash in the second verse when the singer goes from investigating various tongue-in-cheek scary mysteries to asking someone hesitating to answer his questions, "Why'd you turn away? Turn your head so I can see..."

** An example in which the injury reveals the character to the audience but not the hero appears in the horror anthology ''Tales for the Midnight Hour''. A pair of brothers go out hunting a mysterious creature that's been attacking around their town. When it attacks one of them, his brother just barely manages to reach him in time to cut off its paw and scare it away. After they come home, [[BolivianArmyEnding nobody notices the grandmother who lives in their house hiding a bloody stump under her shawl]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', the heroine is revealed to be a woman when she saves her commanding officer from death and is injured in the process. Their physician has to patch her up. He tries to be discreet about it, but informs her commanding officer, who is forced to expel her from the army. (Technically he's supposed to kill her, but [[IOweYouMyLife he still felt gratitude for her saving his life, so he let her live]].)

* In a Literature/NancyDrew Files book, Nancy is attacked while skiing. Ned comes to her rescue, but the assailant escapes while he's tending to her. But not before Nancy notices that he favors his right leg. Later, while out skiing with one of the resort's instructors, Nancy realizes that she's AloneWithThePsycho when she notices that he has the same quirk that her attacker did.

* In ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'', Starfleet figures out that Soleta is half-Romulan after she's badly injured after JumpingOnAGrenade for her commanding officer. (How, I don't know, given that her other half is Vulcan, and supposedly they're still close enough to each other to interbreed, so...)

* ''Series/JakeAndTheFatman'': In "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan", Jake shoots at a disguised figure who is faking a limp, and thinks that he panicked the man into forgetting which leg he was limping on. Later, he realises that the killer is too professional to make that mistake and he had actually hit him in the other leg,l forcing him to limp for real. He later finds one of the suspects tending a wound on that leg and has his suspicions confirmed.

* ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'': When Dione Bliss came back from the dead (for real this time), she managed to prove her identity to Jarrod by revealing that she still had visible scars from the seatbelt she was wearing during the car accident she seemingly died in sixteen years earlier. This later also helps her a year later when her EvilTwin Andrea pulls another TwinSwitch to escape from prison.