#plot twist

[botslayer]

Casual reminder that this is literally a plot twist in the game Brutal Legend.

The ending twist of the game is that this character named "Succoria" is actually the main character's mother and he didn't know that. But because the game is a giant send up and kind of the joke about metalheads and heavy metal culture and stuff, her name is literally on the shirt he wears the entire game.

It's just that no one realizes it until the big bad of the game, Doviculus points it out. "You're wearing her shirt, you're wielding her axe."

[brittanyearnestauthor]

Crafting the Perfect Mystery: How to Keep Your Readers Guessing

One of the greatest challenges when writing mystery is resisting the urge to reveal your twist too soon. Speaking from experience, when I wrote my book *Finding Hope*, I often found myself wanting to dive straight into the big reveal. The excitement of unraveling the story overwhelmed me, but I had to hold back to build suspense and let the mystery simmer.

This is a common struggle for writers. We become so immersed in our stories that we’re tempted to let the best secrets slip too early. But fear not—today, we’ll delve into three crucial elements of a successful mystery story: **pacing, clue selection, and the ultimate revelation.**

1. The Art of Pacing

To keep readers hooked, you need to introduce new clues gradually. The goal is to strike a balance—engage your audience while giving them space to puzzle over the mystery. Drop hints to spark their curiosity and let them form theories, only to surprise them later with an unexpected twist.

When your story maintains a steady, deliberate pace, it keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Not only will they eagerly turn the pages, but they’ll also feel compelled to finish the book. A well-paced mystery doesn’t just entertain—it builds a loyal audience and encourages sales.

2. Strategic Clue Selection

Choosing the right clues is vital. Thoughtfully placed hints keep readers engaged without giving too much away. Take inspiration from your favorite books, films, or TV shows—notice how writers layer small, subtle details that only make sense as the story unfolds.

Research is your best friend here. Use it to create realistic scenarios and keep your story believable. This authenticity strengthens the connection between your readers and your narrative, immersing them in your world.

3. Building Tension: An Example

Imagine you’re writing a murder mystery. Start with a clue, like fingerprints, but let it lead to a dead end. Then, introduce new evidence—a hair, a note, or a coffee cup—that gradually unravels the case. Clues don’t always need to solve the mystery directly; they can guide characters to places or people linked to the crime.

Consider adding multiple suspects to keep readers guessing. Perhaps two or more individuals seem equally likely to be the culprit. Or, as a twist, make the perpetrator someone completely unexpected—a trusted friend or even a rogue investigator.

The key is to build suspense and keep readers intrigued until the climactic moment of revelation.

4. The Rewarding Revelation

The reveal is the heart of any mystery. By the end, your readers need to feel that all the puzzle pieces have come together in a satisfying way. Whether the culprit is one of your suspects or a shocking wildcard, the ending should leave a lasting impact.

Make it feel rewarding. After following your character’s journey to uncover the truth, your readers deserve a resolution that feels earned and unforgettable.

By carefully pacing your story, layering clues, and delivering an impactful ending, you’ll craft a mystery that captivates and thrills your audience.

[psychemochanight]

When the League meets Baby Robin(Dick), they are genuinely surprised, as it seems impossible that Batman is raising this little ray of sunshine who appeared from between his cape and then proceeded to greet them with the brightest smile they've all ever seen, completely adoring Superman, saying how great Wonder Woman is, and actually laughing at Barry's jokes.

Bruce takes care of his work, but occasionally stops to, in fact, help Robin who is trying to do his English homework. The other members also help out, of course.

So, Hal arrives at the Watchtower, and Robin, seeing the man his dad mentor has been so grumpy about because of the last meeting they had (Hal doesn't understand that Batman is the best at his job and is the one giving directions for a reason, duh!), decides he will exact revenge.

He carries on a normal conversation with the man just as he did with everyone else, subtly leading the topic until Hal falls into the trap:

Hal: What about your mom? I can't imagine anyone putting up with the old bat.

He speaks with all mockery, but then his smile freezes when he sees the tremor in the little boy's shoulders.

Dick: *shuddering and holding back a little sob* my mummy died in front of me a few months ago.... I...

Hal is pale now, because the child actually sobs, and runs off to hide in the cape of Batman, who was now standing, ready to stitch up his child.

He's not the only one, Superman and the others are already there too, looking at him angrily because he made the little bean cry.

Hal is in a panic.

And if he sees how the boy smiles at him when no one is looking, sticking his tongue out at him while moving his lips to send him the message "Don't bother my dad", no one would ever believe him, not while the little boy is now clinging to Batman tightly as he slowly blinks away tears that not even the best actors could ever pull off.

Only Hal knows the devil behind that angel face.

Batman knows it too, but he adores his precious little demon.

[kuronekofe-ao3]

Red Hood: damn, my jacket has a hole in it

Nightwing, in a joking voice: you know What Else has a hole in it?

Red Hood: *rolls eyes* what?

Nightwing: my side *passes out*

Red Hood: !!!

[new-kit-on-the-block]

How I think I look when setting up twists

How I actually look

[luna-azzurra]

Twist Prompts

Reveal that a character thought to be dead is actually alive.

Have a seemingly minor character turn out to be the main villain.

Unveil a hidden talent or ability in your protagonist.

Introduce a plot twist where the enemy becomes an ally.

Have your protagonist discover they’ve been manipulated by someone they trust.

Reveal that a significant event was a dream or illusion.

Have a character switch sides unexpectedly.

Introduce a shocking family secret that changes everything.

Reveal that the protagonist’s memories have been altered or erased.

Have your protagonist realize they’ve been pursuing the wrong goal all along.

[cloudii-dumblr]

Hi YuriHaru, I saw your KND!Tord AU and I really liked it.

About him and Mari-Tord (The Tord with pink shorts), Mari-Tord is actually an alternate timeline of your KND!Tord who never betrayed the KND and instead, was acceptingly decommissioned and had lived a normal teenage life instead of joining the Teen Ninjas.

There's also Reverse!Mari-Tord who betrayed the KND and joined the Teen Ninjas just like KND!Tord, but was entrusted by Father with the Ladybug Miraculous in order to become The Red Destroyer, a villain who uses his power agains tthe KND for evil purposes. All while not knowing that Father was really manipulating him and that using this miraculous for evil would slowly eat away at his life force and destroy him.

Sorry for the infodump, I jsut really liked your AU and wanted to share this info with you because I'm a huge fan of it even though I discovered it a few days ago.

Fourth round of Sector EW character sheets, this time with Tord!

(Misc facts in "Keep reading")

He usually makes his presence known by blowing bubblegum bubbles, and he rarely goes anywhere without a pack of bubblegum cigars.

In the future, Tord will betray the KND and join the Teen Ninjas.

He utterly loathes Rainbow Monkeys, and he has a Rainbow Monkey plush taped to a punching bag which he hits whenever he's in a bad mood.

He is a big fan of Japanese media, mainly manga, anime and ESPECIALLY tokusatsu. He uses these as inspirations for his giant robot design.

His weapon of choice is a modified G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A., having more firepower and ammo storage.

If Sector EW and Sector V met...

Numbuh 1 would immediately be suspicious of Tord, thinking he will eventually turn traitor.

Numbuh 2 would swap 2x4 tech plans with Tord along with ways on how to improve them. Tord would always ignore the feedback.

Tord would be permanently banned from setting foot inside Numbuh 3's room after he tried setting fire to her entire Rainbow Monkey collection.

Tord would bond with Numbuh 4 over their shared hatred of Rainbow Monkeys, though Numbuh 4 would think that Tord's loathing is overkill.

Numbuh 5 would be appalled by Tord's plans to build a giant robot, questioning what purpose a giant robot would serve the KND.

[yuukirita]

Oh your Cliff looks so angy-

Can we get a doodle of him and Bee just being silly or something?

He's not that angry- he just frowns a lot (he has a lot of reasons to)

[catfindr]

[beardedmrbean]

I don't remember this happening in the movie

[undercoverbumblebeee]

Todd Anderson has shit hand writing. Simply because I think it’d be funny.

Todd: Neil I wrote you a poem!

Neil: really?! Let me see- oh!

Todd: …do you like it?

Neil: I love it!…what does it say?

Todd: what do you mean? Can’t you read it?

Neil: Todd…I’m not convinced this isn’t just a drawing made by a cat.

[ultraericthered]

Out of four consecutive Disney Villains that were defined by plot twists regarding them, I've often thought: what made Turbo and the Cybug he merged with in Wreck-It Ralph work out so well and deliver a villain so infinitely stronger than the villains that followed? I'd concluded that mostly it was because Turbo got to be around as an active and characterized antagonist as King Candy and the twisty nature of his villainy was more comparable to Judge Doom than following the Stinky Pete, Henry J. Waternoose, and Lyle T. Rourke route of only being revealed as a villain in the third act and getting to be actively antagonistic for a limited time while taking on drastically different characterization than before like the later Twist Villains (or in Bellwether's case, in only the final minutes of the third act!).

But there was something else too, and it recently struck me.

Hans, Callaghan, and Bellwether all adhere to basically the exact same formula, with only the specifics of their roles differing due to each movie being a different type of story - Frozen is a fantasy adventure-thriller, Big Hero 6 is a superhero story, and Zootopia is a buddy cop mystery. The formula is that not only is the villain introduced as a friendly character in the first act and ultimately shows their true villainous self in the third act, but during the story there's another villainous character thrown at the viewer to serve as the red herring. In Frozen, it's the Duke of Weselton. In Big Hero 6, it's Allister Krei. And in Zootopia, it's Mayor Lionheart. All of these characters seem more like the sort of villains you'd typically expect to pop up in stories of these films' natures, radiating such obvious evil energy that the viewer is naturallly meant to have their suspicions drawn to them rather than the unassuming nice person who turns out to be the real villain of the piece. I'd argue it worked best when first tried in Frozen because the Duke ended up having absolutely nothing to do with the main conflict or how it got resolved, his main contribution being to tell two men to be prepared to kill Elsa at one point and that's it: he was a red herring in the purest sense. With Krei and Lionheart afterwards, they both had increased prominence in the narrative, the former being responsible for what drove Callaghan into grief-stricken, vengeful supervillainy, and the latter at first being Bellwether's boss and actually serving as a secondary antagonist in the plot with his unethical captures and coverups in response to Bellwether's Night Howler conspiracy. And they both are such obvious suspects for being behind evildoing even in-story that it loops around to becoming obviously NOT the true culprits at all. (Not helping is how both the Duke of Weselton and Allister Krei are voiced by Alan Tudyk, at the time still most known for King Candy/Turbo!)

Whereas with Turbo, I think it was so effective because it was sort of flipped around. The story was leading us to look at King Candy as the red herring or ultimately just the diversion, continuing to remind us that the Cybug that Ralph accidentally brought with him into Sugar Rush was lurking below and breeding, which we knew could become a true threat to the game and to the whole arcade world given the way Calhoun talked the Cybugs up. Even when Felix goes into the backstory of "Going Turbo", we're not really linking that to what's currently going on with King Candy, who we at that point had not been given reason to think is anyone but who he appears to be, and King Candy's such a silly, whimsical doofus of an antagonist that we suspect he'll amount to nothing more than food for the Cybugs. How King Candy goes on to manipulate Ralph and the revelation about him as a usurper turns our perspective of him on its head as is, but then it's revealed he's not just any usurpeeeer - he's Turbo! This on its own makes him that much more villainous, but then still we get the kicker: Turbo gets eaten by the lead Cybug, just as we might've predicted would befall him....and his code overwrites the Cybug from within, making him even more dangerous and malicious than ever! So while the Cybugs do indeed become the endgame threat, they're also used as the actual diversion to get you not looking harder at King Candy and figuring out both his true identity and his true nature as the primary, most menacing villain in this story. It is ingenious.

Pulling off a Twist Villain is easy. It takes a lot more thought, skill, style and polish to pull off a Turbo-Tastic villain as Wreck-It Ralph did.

[manchicasanchez]

⚠️ Helluva Boss Spoilers ⚠️

Oh my... She's... 😶

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Types of Plot Twists

7 Types of Plot Twists

Anagnorisis

Means "discovery."

This type of plot twist is when the protagonist suddenly recognizes something about his or herself or another character.

Deus ex machina

Latin for "God out of the machine,"

Deus ex machina means the introduction of an unexpected event or person that solves the problem.

Because it's artificial, it's rarely used in modern fiction.

False protagonist

The main character is not the true main character.

He or she is killed off early or unexpectedly.

Peripeteia

Means a reversal of fortune, typically from good to bad.

The opposite of peripeteia is eucatastrophe, where things elevate from bad (very bad) to good.

Poetic justice

Occurs when a character is rewarded (or punished) for their actions.

Poetic justice is often used to deliver sweet payback to a villain.

Red herring

The red herring plot twist is all about misdirection.

The reader is following a false direction but doesn't realize it until it's revealed.

Unreliable narrator

The unreliable narrator is someone who seems believable and trustworthy at first, but after a startling revelation, is revealed to be untruthful.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[bg3aesthetics]

This man is a treasure. I got this cameo just two days after I ordered it and it is perfect!!