History Main / SpoiledByTheFormat

* The [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/impossible_mario_party_nuzlocke.png thumbnail]] for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POEtd94CHB0 The Impossible Mario Party Nuzlocke]]" by [[https://www.youtube.com/@Vernias Vernias]] saying 74/100 is meant to be a SchrodingersGun, but the video's runtime being shorter than average ultimately ends up clueing-in that Vernias [[ForegoneConclusion isn't going to win]], ensuring that the 74/100 estimate is NotHyperbole.

* WebVideo/PartyCrashers: The [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/impossible_mario_party_nuzlocke.png thumbnail]] for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POEtd94CHB0 The Impossible Mario Party Nuzlocke]]" saying 74/100 is meant to be a SchrodingersGun, but the video's runtime being shorter than average ultimately ends up clueing-in that Vernias [[ForegoneConclusion isn't going to win]], ensuring that the 74/100 estimate is NotHyperbole.

A short-term variant of this can occur when watching TV shows and movies with UsefulNotes/ClosedCaptioning or subtitles, since they usually display a sentence before it's finished being said. This means that if a character's words are cut off in the middle of a sentence, you know that they're going to be interrupted by something a few seconds before it happens. In some cases, when it's obvious enough what the character is going to say next, it's possible to avoid this in subtitles by showing the whole sentence anyway, then making it quickly disappear when the character is interrupted.[[note]]Some clever closed captioning systems solve this problem by revealing words gradually, without getting ahead of the character talking. One example is VideoGame/NierAutomata.[[/note]] Some captioning includes the name of the person doing the speaking, which is especially frustrating if that person's actual identity is an important future plot point and hasn't actually been revealed yet.

* This can happen with press events as well. For instance, Microsoft had their own [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]] 2019 event showing off future Creator/XboxGameStudios releases, but they also listed Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s E3 ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'' on their own E3 schedule, cluing people in that something Microsoft-related would be announced in the Direct. Sure enough, [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo and Kazooie]], creations of the Microsoft-owned Creator/{{Rare}}, were revealed as DLC characters for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate''.

* The [[UsefulNotes/ClosedCaptioning captions for the hearing impaired]] on ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' show the name of the character speaking when the character's face isn't visible, and thus name multiple members of the Light before their identities are meant to be revealed.

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' and ''VideoGame/NEOTheWorldEndsWithYou'' try to mislead you into thinking that the game will end after the first week, but in both cases, it's obviously far from over. At that point, you've only uncovered a fraction of the Pins and threads, there are multiple areas of Shibuya you have yet to explore and, in the case of the first game, your other two partners haven't joined yet.

** Subverted with the ECW December to Dismember PPV (2006). At the time PPVs would end after 2 hours and 45 minutes. When the winner of the last match won at the 2 hour and 15 minute mark, there was sufficient reason to believe that something would happen after. Except that it didn't, many fans demanded refunds, and there was never again an official ECW PPV.

* Website/TVTropes: It's considered [[IdiotBall an act of idiocy]] by some to read a tropes page for a work ''before'' seeing/reading/etc. the work, and expecting not to be spoiled. On another level, [[Administrivia/SelfFulfillingSpoiler even the spoiler tags can still spoil]], because for example:

This can be a good thing depending on the work and the viewer's preference. Some works may even take advantage of this trope, using the viewer's awareness to either [[ThisIsTheFinalBattle avoid explaining the obvious]] or even to play with their expectations.

** The most notable example is Zodiark being a DiscOneFinalBoss. The story tries to make a sense of finality to it in that the Warrior of light has chased Fandaniel and Zenos to the moon in a climactic battle that would ordinarily be the climax of the expansion. Unfortunately? It's at level ''83''. Players have entire ''abilities'' that they still can't even use yet, as well as multiple part(s) of the map they cannot go to yet. [[TropesAreTools Not that this is a bad thing]].

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' has you going to the Tower of Salvation to complete the regeneration of the world and resolve the plot after about 10 hours or so. When was the last time a popular JRPG had only a handful of dungeons, almost no sidequests, and no visible BigBad? Also, the Gamecube version had a 2nd disc and a character you hadn't even met yet(Zelos) on the cover.

* This is a frequent occurrence in ''Series/ForensicFiles'': if a person is frequently named and depicted but never interviewed, no points for guessing who the killer is. The same goes for the reverse situation, namely if someone is mentioned to be a prime suspect but that person is interviewed then they aren't the killer.[[note]]A variation does occur in a few episodes, in which the suspect is interviewed ''from'' prison. The show tries to make it a dramatic {{Reveal}}, but you can [[CaptainObviousReveal usually tell]] that's where they are from how they're dressed (in prison garb) and/or the background.[[/note]] And if the "killer" is convicted and sentenced with most of the show left to go, then you're dealing with an episode where that person was innocent of the crime, or there was no crime to begin with, and the rest of the episode is about their struggle to prove their innocence and ultimately be acquitted and freed.

* This is a frequent occurrence in ''Series/ForensicFiles'': if a person is frequently named and depicted but never interviewed, no points for guessing who the killer is. The same goes for the reverse situation, namely if someone is mentioned to be a prime suspect but that person is interviewed then they aren't the killer.[[note]]A variation does occur in a few episodes, in which the suspect is (unknowingly) interviewed ''from'' prison. The show tries to make it a dramatic {{Reveal}}, but you can [[CaptainObviousReveal usually tell]] that's where they are from how they're dressed (in prison garb) and/or the background.[[/note]] And if the "killer" is convicted and sentenced with most of the show left to go, then you're dealing with an episode where that person was innocent of the crime, or there was no crime to begin with, and the rest of the episode is about their struggle to prove their innocence and ultimately be acquitted and freed.

* This is a frequent occurrence in ''Series/ForensicFiles'': if a person is frequently named and depicted but never interviewed, no points for guessing who the killer is. The same goes for the reverse situation, namely if someone is mentioned to be a prime suspect but that person is interviewed then they aren't the killer. And if the "killer" is convicted and sentenced with most of the show left to go, then you're dealing with an episode where that person was innocent of the crime, or there was no crime to begin with, and the rest of the episode is about their struggle to prove their innocence and ultimately be acquitted and freed.

** The back of the published manga can cause this in two different ways since each of the volumes from before the TimeSkip( features the top 10 of the 104th trainee corps. If you've read the first volume or seen enough episodes, you can figure this out easily, and the fact that they're in order from 1-10 going left to right helps. On the back of volume two, Eren, the fifth from the left, is transparent, which one would assume is to show that he was killed in book 1; but if you look at the later books, he goes back to being solid white, which means that he gets better in book 2.

* In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Episode 8 of the anime(adapted from Chapter 27 of the manga), which takes place on New Year's Day, has Mira learn that Ao will have to move out as a result of her father getting a transfer, something that will happen during Spring Break in March. One would think that [[MovingAngst this sort of thing]] would happen at the end of the series, whether as a climatic problem or the cause of a BittersweetEnding, but there are four episodes to go in the anime. Mira and Ao manage to get Ao to stay with Mira's family near the start of the next episode.

* Subverted in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}''. Teen girl Terry has spent an entire issue angsting about whether she's a lesbian, and whether she should ask out the school's only "out" lesbian, Pam, or even continue to talk to Pam, afraid that she'll be ostracized if she does. At the very end of the issue, Terry's walking down a hallway, Pam says hi... and Terry keeps walking past, not even looking up at Pam. The next page is the first page of the "Letters" section, marking it as the end of the issue except that page is then followed by the ''actual'' last page of the issue, in which Terry runs back to Pam, flustered and sheepish, and just says "Hi". Even when it was collected in book form, the formatting was kept the same, thanks to a postscript essay on the issue which served the same purpose.

* Minor example in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': in the beginning of one sidequest, you have a conversation with a prisoner, but [[KilledMidSentence he's shot and killed mid-sentence]]. The subtitles for his dialogue leading up to the shot are formatted in such a way that they reach the edge of the screen, so the player expects them to be replaced by subtitles for the following line—but there ''is'' no following line.

** On sites with more robust tagging systems, like AO3, various plot elements can be tagged if the author so wishes. This can include parts of the narrative that don't come into play until much later, such as a character's new role in a PointOfDivergence fic.

** At one point in his UsefulNotes/NintendoDS review, he is conspicuously farther away from the camera, spoofing WebVideo/TheIrateGamer's misuse of the camera to spoil certain jokes in his ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' review.

This can also be caused by a SeriesFauxnale. The plot appears to have this sense of finality to it, like this is going to be the end. But the viewer knows there's still more simply because they're watching something a few years late - by now there's a new season, a new arc, maybe a PostScriptSeason, or maybe a new installment entirely.

* On the whole any game that tells you a percentage of completion on the save screen will spoil how much of the game you have left to play. Some games alleviate this by not showing you the percent meter until ''after'' you've beaten the game (making it more of an {{Anti Frustration Feature|s}} for players aiming for HundredPercentCompletion) or by having the game go above or below 100% like ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' (You can only go as high as 96 as it counts level exits rather than raw completion) or ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' that goes up to 105% (The extra 5 is the Lost World and the GoldenEnding).

* Fan Works as a whole tend to avert this trope, since there is really no limit to the media used (It can be as short or as long as the writer wants) and the authors are free to do just about anything they want with the characters. Indeed, many fan works update one chapter/episode/etc. at a time, so if a work hasn't been finished yet, it can be hard to say how long it will be even if you see a table of contents.
** The Archive Of Our Own potentially plays it straight, as it is possible for authors to set a total number of chapters to the story, however it can be altered, and authors are not required to set a count at all.

** Some fanfic websites require {{Crossover}}s to be tagged as such. In some fics the fact that the story ''is'' a crossover is a major PlotTwist, which is ruined by tags like this.