Well, what do you know: as it turns out, this page was a collection of tropes the whole time!
Compare More than Meets the Eye.
Tropes:
Related Index:
- This Index Will Be Important Later (Important All Along)
- Accidental Truth: That lie you made up? Turns out it was actually true all along.
- Actually a Doombot: That bad guy you've been fighting is actually just his robot double or clone.
- Actually Not a Vampire: That person who appeared to be a vampire was just an eccentric person with a cape and an aversion to garlic all along.
- All Just a Dream: The whole story you've been following? Just someone's dreams; let's move on now.
- Already the Case: A warning or request has already been followed by the time the speaker finishes.
- Beautiful All Along: A nerdy-looking character turns out to be quite attractive as soon as they receive a makeover and a change of clothes.
- Canon Character All Along: An adaptation features a character who initially appears to be newly created for the adaptation, but later turns out to actually be the adaptation's interpretation of an already established character.
- Connected All Along: Two characters who weren't seen interacting before are revealed to be related or familiar with each other.
- Cosmic Horror Reveal: Surprise, this story is a Cosmic Horror Story all along!
- Daydream Surprise: A short scene is revealed to have been imagined by a character.
- Dead All Along: The story reveals a character to have been dead since the beginning.
- Doom as Test Prize: Your prize for finishing/winning this test is something horrible all along.
- Dying Dream: It's revealed that the story's events were just a hallucination the protagonist is experiencing as they die.
- Earth All Along: A supposedly alien world turns out to be Earth.
- Edible Treasure: The treasure everyone talks about turns out to be food.
- Elective Mute: That mute guy can actually talk all along, he just chooses not to.
- Everybody Knew Already: A character reveals their secret, but it turns out everyone knew it already.
- Evil All Along: A character introduced as a good guy is later revealed to actually be a villain pretending to be good.
- Fake Defector: A character who seems to switch sides but was really loyal to their original side all along.
- Fake-Out Twist: It turns out a thing happened, except no, it immediately turns out that thing doesn't mean what it initially seemed to mean.
- Faked Rip Van Winkle: A character who thinks they've woken up in the future finds out that they're still in the present time and the whole thing was staged as part of a scheme to manipulate them.
- Fantasy All Along: The story's events are revealed to all be part of someone's delusion.
- Friends All Along: Two characters who antagonize each other are revealed to actually be friends.
- First Girl After All: The protagonist gets together with their first suggested love interest after it looks like it isn't going to be the case.
- Good All Along: A character initially assumed to be a villain turns out to be a good guy.
- He Was Right There All Along: The boss fight in a video game is in the boss room already, but doesn't show itself or attack the player until the player does something.
- Hijacked by Ganon: The original villain was behind the new one all along!
- Human Alien Discovery: The human was an alien all along.
- Human All Along: An individual appearing to be a monster, supernatural creature, or other non-human is revealed to actually be human.
- Hybrid All Along: A character learns that they're a hybrid.
- Hyperlink Story: These seemingly unrelated storylines were connected into one story all along!
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Character is revealed to be holding back all this time - and now they stop doing so.
- I Am Not Your Father: Someone reveals to their child that they're an adopted child all along.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: What looked like the same person appearing everywhere was actually several different people who looked alike the whole time.
- It Was There the Whole Time: Something was in this scene all along.
- It Was with You All Along: The hero searches for something they later learn already had the whole time.
- Knew It All Along: Character claims to have been aware of something before everyone else found out.
- Magic Feather (a.k.a. The Magic Was Inside You All Along): Character who thought they needed something to do what they do best learns that they didn't need the object after all and are perfectly talented all along.
- Map All Along: A seemingly unimportant item is later revealed to be a creative map that leads to an item or location key to the plot.
- Mask of Sanity: That seemingly well-adjusted guy is actually crazy all along.
- Narrator All Along: A character from within the story turns out to be the one narrating the story.
- Nested Story Reveal: The story you followed was a Nested Story all along!
- Non Human Lover Reveal: Someone's lover turns out to be something other than human all along.
- Not a Mask: What was assumed to be a mask is actually the person's real face.
- Not So Episodic: Those seemingly random earlier episodes were significant to the series' main plot all along.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Some versions may make it seem like the friend is just a figment of the character's imagination like the other characters believe before revealing that the friend actually is a real person.
- Not So Remote (a.k.a. Civilization All Along): Characters who think they're lost find out that they're actually closer to home than they thought.
- Obfuscating Disability: That seemingly disabled guy is actually faking it all along.
- Obfuscating Insanity: That seemingly insane guy is actually faking it all along.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: That seemingly stupid guy is actually faking it all along.
- On a Soundstage All Along: Music video ends with the artist shown to actually be performing the song while on stage.
- Otherworldly Communication Failure: That creepy monster or weird being chasing the protagonists seemingly to hurt them actually just wants to relay a benign message or warn them of the actual threat.
- Plot Device All Along: A mundane object used by the protagonist turns out to be the coveted MacGuffin.
- Proscenium Reveal: The story you've been following is an in-universe play all along.
- Real After All: A being thought to be fictional or fake turns out to actually exist.
- The Real Remington Steele: It turns out that alias this person used was the identity of a real person all along.
- Really Royalty Reveal: That otherwise unassuming guy is a royal member all along.
- Reverse Relationship Reveal: A (usually unequal) relationship between 2 characters turns out to be the opposite (i.e position wise) to what other people/the viewers thought.
- Robotic Reveal: That seemingly normal character is a robot all along.
- Santa's Existence Clause: Don't think Santa is real? He's been watching you all along.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The supernatural creature was really a criminal in a costume all this time.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: They knew your secret the whole time, they just didn't let you know that they were aware.
- Secretly Dying: A character is revealed to be, well, slowly dying.
- Stealth Sequel: A work that initially looked like a new continuity or an unrelated work was actually a sequel or prequel to the original work all along.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: The villain turns out to have been pretending to be reformed to bring everyone's guard down and to discredit the person who was rightly convinced they hadn't changed.
- Suddenly Speaking: The character who was initially silent reveals that they actually can talk.
- Surprise Incest: Oops, it turns out that person you fell in love with was your blood relative all along!
- Those Were Only Their Scouts: What they've been fighting just now is just a small part of a bigger whole all along.
- Tomato in the Mirror: A character discovers that they are the thing they were pursuing all along.
- Tomato Surprise: Something that's been common knowledge in-universe is revealed to the audience as a twist.
- Two Aliases, One Character: What you thought was two otherwise unrelated characters turn out to be one and the same.
- Ugly All Along: A beautiful character turns out to be using make-up, glamour or other means to hide their actually hideous appearances.
- Unreliable Expositor: The Mr. Exposition turns out to not know all of the exact details or getting them wrong, or they might've been lying all along.
- Unreliable Narrator: The narrator turns out to be the non-omniscient kind, or they might've been lying all along.
- Unrobotic Reveal: A robot character (or a whole bunch of robots) turn(s) out to be something more organic.
- Using You All Along: The person helping the hero turns out to actually be the villain manipulating the hero to complete their goals.
- Wax On, Wax Off: Those chores your mentor made you do were secretly a method of training you all along.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: The treasure everyone talks about turns out to be worthless.
- Wrong Side All Along: The heroes turn out to have unknowingly been helping the bad guys the whole time.
