Let's Do The Twist!

[rachelmanija]

I know it all depends on execution, but in general...

Poll #26831 Do the Twist

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 114

View Respondents

What is your favorite twist?

View Answers

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?

View Answers

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.

Comments

[sholio]

A character is a cis man. (Has anyone ever seen this one? I can't think of an example.)

Oh yeah, this one definitely exists, but a) it's really rare now, and b) it usually comes across pretty transphobic. Most of the examples I can think of are from older action canons and involve a Big Reveal with the damsel in distress whipping off her wig and turning out to be the male villain in disguise.

I am having an astonishingly difficult time answering this poll for tropes in general, because I can think of both delightful and terrible examples of most of these, and it also depends on the genre. I really hate finding out someone I liked is a secret mole/traitor in a canon where I'm really invested in the characters, for example, but darker canons can do a really nice job with this.

One you left off that I have really loved in several instances is "you thought this was X genre, but it's actually Y genre." This is another one that can be done really badly - SUDDENLY VAMPIRES - but if it's adequately set up, it can be a delightful "oh, that's what all of that meant!" moment.

One of the best examples of this that I can think of off the top of my head is a TV canon that you, Rachel, will never watch, because it has a trope you hate, and just saying that there's a twist of this variety is a big spoiler, so I'll put both the canon name and the twist in Rot13. It's a TV canon from the Oughts.

The canon is Sevatr and the twist is that lbh guvax sbe gur ragver svefg frnfba gung lbh'er jngpuvat na K-Svyrf glcr Jrveq Fuvg Ntrapl fubj, ohg vg gheaf bhg gung vg'f npghnyyl n qvzrafvba-fyvc Fyvqref glcr fubj, naq lbh svaq bhg ng gur raq bs gur svefg frnfba gung bar bs gur punenpgref vf gurve nygreangr havirefr qbhoyr (ohg qbrfa'g xabj vg) naq zbfg bs gur Jrveq Fuvg, gubhtu abg nyy bs vg, vf vaphefvbaf sebz gurve ernyvgl vagb bhef. Gura gur qvzrafvba-fyvc/qbccrytnatre cybg pbzrf va uneq va frnfba gjb. Ohg V erzrzore ubj oybja njnl V jnf ol gur pyrirearff bs qvfthvfvat na NH qbccrytnatre gjvfg vafvqr nabgure traer, naq va n jnl gung npghnyyl rkcynvaf n ohapu bs gur fghss gung qvqa'g dhvgr znxr frafr va cerivbhf rcvfbqrf. Gur zvfqverpgvba vf nyzbfg ragveryl gung lbh qba'g ernyvmr guvf fubj vf n traer jurer gung xvaq bs guvat pbhyq unccra, ohg vg'f nyfb abg n traer jurer vg *pbhyqa'g* unccra, fvapr gur Jrveq Fuvg nfcrpg vf frg hc rneyl.

[rachelmanija]

I know, there's a bunch of twists I've hated or loved depending on execution.

Dammit! "This is a different genre than you thought" is one of my favorite twists!

[sovay]

"This is a different genre than you thought" is one of my favorite twists!

Znel Tragyr'f Nfu: N Frperg Uvfgbel (2000) punatrf traerf jvgu rnpu eriryngvba sebz uvfgbevpny svpgvba gb uvfgbevpny snagnfl gb nygreangr uvfgbel gb fpvrapr svpgvba naq V nqber vg.

[swan_tower]

I LOVE THAT ONE. The framing material around each successive part started to act like a railgun, flinging me faster and faster through the books.

[sovay]

The framing material around each successive part started to act like a railgun, flinging me faster and faster through the books.

That's a great description.

[davidgillon]

Ooh, yes. Such a great book

[frith_in_thorns]

I like that twist for everything EXCEPT fantasy that turns out to be surprise sci-fi. (Although I admit I can already think of a couple of exceptions to that.) Other genre-slips though, definitely! (I agree with sholio's example, that was done brilliantly.)

[shadaras]

+1 to "this genre story is actually a different genre than you thought" being one of my favorite tropes! <3

The future/past option in the poll almost gets there, but it's really more about things like sufficiently advanced technology and magitech and "oh shit suddenly a horror story" and the like... Anne McCaffrey's Pern books were the first time I saw this done, as a kid, and it Stuck With Me as a marvellous thing I always want more of. Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon books were similar. (...both of these are "dragons are alien species" books. this is telling of what I tended to read growing up.)

[sholio]

Oh yeah! I think that "you thought this was fantasy but it's actually SF" - a far-future version of our world, a lost colony world with something resembling magic, etc - is so common that it's practically its own subtrope, especially in SFF book canons from the 70s-90s. I can think of several books like that just off the top of my head. I also eat it up every time.

[swan_tower]

I sometimes dislike that trope, but not because of the trope; I dislike it when I feel like the author is sneering at fantasy and thinks their work is superior because It's Ackshually SF.

[adrian_turtle]

I dislike most stories where the author builds something only to sneer at it. Part of what's so wonderful about gur Fgrrefjbzna frevrf vf gung Xvefgrva gnxrf nyy gur traerf frevbhfyl ba gurve bja grezf.

[hamsterwoman]

That one is my favorite example of the "looks like fantasy, is actually sci-fi" twist, because it works so solidly as fantasy and brilliantly as SF!

[eruthros]

Agree, I love it to pieces!

[lemonsharks]

I hate that trope so much. It always come off as really sanctimonious and judgey of fantasy enjoyers.

[frith_in_thorns]

I also really dislike it. Especially the very specific "surprise, you were colony ship descendants all along!" which I seem to keep running into during the last few years.

[sheron]

I'm actually not always fond of the "this thing you thought is a fantasy is actually a future of Earth" (the books I'm currently reading are actually an example of this) but it can be done to great effect too!

[mecurtin]

I also would check "story is a different genre than you thought", it's a fave.

[lemonsharks]

Oh! The Thor In A Dress As Freya could count as this as well, although it's not so much a twist since it's rom the pov of the Norse gods

[hamsterwoman]

"you thought this was X genre, but it's actually Y genre."

Ooh, yes, a favorite for me as well!

(Including a couple of examples or "looks like fantasy but is actually sci-fi")

[sovay]

Most of the examples I can think of are from older action canons and involve a Big Reveal with the damsel in distress whipping off her wig and turning out to be the male villain in disguise.

I just remembered there's a sort of averted version of this in The Silent Partner (1978), where the cis male villain crossdresses as part of the finale (we met him first in disguise) and the main character and the audience recognize him instantly.