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What is your favorite twist?
Two or more characters are actually the same person.
20 (18.7%)
One or more characters are actually imaginary or hallucinations.
9 (8.4%)
One or more characters were dead all along.
12 (11.2%)
Someone is secretly God.
5 (4.7%)
It's all taking place in virtual reality.
2 (1.9%)
It's all a dream.
1 (0.9%)
What you think is the future is actually the past or vice versa.
38 (35.5%)
The narrator misunderstands something.
48 (44.9%)
The narrator is lying about or deliberately omitting something.
42 (39.3%)
Someone is secretly related to someone else.
22 (20.6%)
A character is a woman.
21 (19.6%)
A character is queer.
19 (17.8%)
A character is trans.
14 (13.1%)
A character is [some other surprise marginalized identity].
12 (11.2%)
A character is a cis man. (Has anyone ever seen this one? I can't think of an example.)
3 (2.8%)
Someone the protagonist trusts has been secretly manipulating them all along.
27 (25.2%)
The entire story was all deliberately planned by a character.
40 (37.4%)
Someone is a mole.
22 (20.6%)
The narrator is in a mental hospital or otherwise delusional all along.
3 (2.8%)
The apparent victim is actually the perpetrator
22 (20.6%)
Everyone in the story is actually pigeons/aliens/dolls/etc.
14 (13.1%)
Something else I've forgotten to mention, so please explain in a comment..
6 (5.6%)
What twist do you HATE?
Two or more characters are actually the same person.
8 (7.5%)
One or more characters are actually imaginary or hallucinations.
25 (23.6%)
One or more characters were dead all along.
23 (21.7%)
Someone is secretly God.
26 (24.5%)
It's all taking place in virtual reality.
48 (45.3%)
It's all a dream.
73 (68.9%)
What you think is the future is actually the past or vice versa.
4 (3.8%)
The narrator misunderstands something.
4 (3.8%)
The narrator is lying about or deliberately omitting something.
17 (16.0%)
Someone is secretly related to someone else.
4 (3.8%)
A character is a woman.
6 (5.7%)
A character is queer.
9 (8.5%)
A character is trans.
13 (12.3%)
A character is [some other surprise marginalized identity].
10 (9.4%)
A character is a cis man. (Has anyone ever seen this one? I can't think of an example.)
0 (0.0%)
Someone the protagonist trusts has been secretly manipulating them all along.
20 (18.9%)
The entire story was all deliberately planned by a character.
10 (9.4%)
Someone is a mole.
4 (3.8%)
The narrator is in a mental hospital or otherwise delusional all along.
66 (62.3%)
The apparent victim is actually the perpetrator
11 (10.4%)
Everyone in the story is actually pigeons/aliens/dolls/etc.
14 (13.2%)
Something else I've forgotten to mention, so please explain in a comment..
2 (1.9%)
Please mark spoilers for recent canons in your comment headers, or encode with rot13.com.
From:
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A good twist needs to make me go back and reread/rewatch to see how it was done.
From:
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SO. MUCH.
It's both frustrating and trite.
From:
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Bonus hate if this is part of a story that's all about the EVILS OF THE INTERNET/COMPUTERS/CYBERSPACE.
From:
no subject
I love this twist so much that not only do I assume it at the drop of a hat and frequently end up disappointed that it's not the case, but I'm disappointed that this isn't a default technique! This should be the plot of every book, or at least every plot-focused book! There is nothing better than a ruthless, manipulative, and intelligent character who's capable of planning everything in the background and keeping it a secret while he watches his schemes play out.
ETA: Ahem, or "her". Though sadly it's almost always men when I come across this twist. I was actually thinking of my annoyance at KJ Parker while writing this comment, because the Engineer Trilogy is a masterpiece of "a character [several characters] planned the whole story," and so I spent the entire book convinced there was an upcoming twist in which this reticent female character was *also* secretly planning something, but no, she really is the one-dimensional female character she appears to be at first glance, because only men get to be clever. Argh.
From:
no subject