Every actor needs an audience
This random list of pointless things is actually something of a tribute - there used to be a page about this on TVTropes, entitled "It Was His Sled", but while the trope still exists, the examples have been deleted. So these examples below are all "plot twists" that aren't really twists at all nowadays.
Oh, and obviously, spoiler alert. Or not, as the case may be.
The trope name comes from Citizen Kane - "Rosebud", the word spoken by Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed at the start of the movie, turns out to be the name of his sled when he was a child, an allusion to the only time in his life when he was truly happy. This was spoiled (not too long after the movie first came out) in a Peanuts strip, and a few years later in an episode of Family Guy.
The Sixth Sense -"I see dead people" was supposed to be a twist originally, explaining to the audience what the hell was going on for the first half of the movie. Of course, now it's the line from the movie that everyone knows even if they've never actually seen the movie itself, and the trailers all use it.
Star Wars - Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. The fact that this is so widely known nowadays is ironic considering how much they tried to keep it a secret originally - even going so far as giving David Prowse (the actor playing the physical part of Darth Vader, over whom James Earl Jones would dub the voice later on) was given a false line ("No, Obi-Wan killed your father!") to avoid any danger of him leaking the secret. Before the movie came out, James Earl Jones was the only one who actually knew what the real line was.
The Crying Game - Dil is a pre-op male-to-female transsexual. This actually lent itself to another trope name, called All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game", when a supposed plot twist is the only thing people actually know about the movie, even if they've never actually seen the movie itself.
Dracula - In the original novel, the fact that Count Dracula is a vampire is not revealed until more than halfway through the novel, though there are subtle hints dropped from very early on (though subtle enough that readers who were genuinely unaware of the twist probably wouldn't pick up on them on the first read through). Of course, nowadays the name "Dracula" is synonymous with vampires.
On a similar note, the fact that Edward Cullen is a vampire isn't pointed out until a few chapters into Twilight, though in that case it's probably much easier for the readers to figure it out.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Snape kills Dumbledore. This became something of a meme after the phrase was used many times to troll Harry Potter fans who hadn't yet read the book after it came out. (And if you still didn't know that, really, what was taking you so long?)
Final Fantasy VII - Aerith dies. This, like the example above, also became a meme after GameFAQs forums infamously removed all posts discussing Aerith's death in order to avoid the spoiler, leading to users finding increasingly ridiculous ways to circumvent this (and often getting banned as a result). The fact that Cloud was never really in SOLDIER and only thought he was could probably be included here too, even though it's not revealed until the second disc of the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Sheik is Zelda in disguise. Nintendo pretty much gave up on keeping this a secret when they gave Zelda the ability to transform into Sheik in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Yami Yugi (dub name) is the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, and the card game Duel Monsters was based on ancient Egyptian "Shadow Games". These were only plot twists in the original, not revealed until Battle City (the second season of the anime) - the dub gave them away in the first season (the second thing was said in the second episode of the dub!), but the characters still act surprised when they learn them later on in the dub even so. Yami Yugi's real name, Atem, is used unspoilered in so many places on the internet nowadays as well. This is parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, in the scene where Yugi asks Yami his real name (just like in the dub). Yugi says "I thought your name was Ate-" and Yami cuts him off with "Shh, don't spoil it now!"
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. This fact was not revealed until the last page of the novel, though all adaptations nowadays have the fact right out in the open from the start.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The whole adventure was all just a dream. The same thing happened in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, though in that case we're left with the unanswered question "Was it Alice's dream, or the Red King's dream?"
Believe it or not, this also happened in a nursery rhyme of all things. The fact that Humpty Dumpty is an egg is never explicitly revealed in his nursery rhyme, with the rhyme originally being presented as a riddle (it helped that "Humpty Dumpty" was slang at the time for a clumsy person). Nowadays (thanks in part to the aforementioned Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, in which the character of Humpty Dumpty appears as a large anthropomorphic egg), this "twist" is well-known, and often not kept a secret anymore.
Oh, and obviously, spoiler alert. Or not, as the case may be.
The trope name comes from Citizen Kane - "Rosebud", the word spoken by Charles Foster Kane on his deathbed at the start of the movie, turns out to be the name of his sled when he was a child, an allusion to the only time in his life when he was truly happy. This was spoiled (not too long after the movie first came out) in a Peanuts strip, and a few years later in an episode of Family Guy.
The Sixth Sense -"I see dead people" was supposed to be a twist originally, explaining to the audience what the hell was going on for the first half of the movie. Of course, now it's the line from the movie that everyone knows even if they've never actually seen the movie itself, and the trailers all use it.
Star Wars - Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. The fact that this is so widely known nowadays is ironic considering how much they tried to keep it a secret originally - even going so far as giving David Prowse (the actor playing the physical part of Darth Vader, over whom James Earl Jones would dub the voice later on) was given a false line ("No, Obi-Wan killed your father!") to avoid any danger of him leaking the secret. Before the movie came out, James Earl Jones was the only one who actually knew what the real line was.
The Crying Game - Dil is a pre-op male-to-female transsexual. This actually lent itself to another trope name, called All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game", when a supposed plot twist is the only thing people actually know about the movie, even if they've never actually seen the movie itself.
Dracula - In the original novel, the fact that Count Dracula is a vampire is not revealed until more than halfway through the novel, though there are subtle hints dropped from very early on (though subtle enough that readers who were genuinely unaware of the twist probably wouldn't pick up on them on the first read through). Of course, nowadays the name "Dracula" is synonymous with vampires.
On a similar note, the fact that Edward Cullen is a vampire isn't pointed out until a few chapters into Twilight, though in that case it's probably much easier for the readers to figure it out.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Snape kills Dumbledore. This became something of a meme after the phrase was used many times to troll Harry Potter fans who hadn't yet read the book after it came out. (And if you still didn't know that, really, what was taking you so long?)
Final Fantasy VII - Aerith dies. This, like the example above, also became a meme after GameFAQs forums infamously removed all posts discussing Aerith's death in order to avoid the spoiler, leading to users finding increasingly ridiculous ways to circumvent this (and often getting banned as a result). The fact that Cloud was never really in SOLDIER and only thought he was could probably be included here too, even though it's not revealed until the second disc of the game.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Sheik is Zelda in disguise. Nintendo pretty much gave up on keeping this a secret when they gave Zelda the ability to transform into Sheik in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Yami Yugi (dub name) is the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, and the card game Duel Monsters was based on ancient Egyptian "Shadow Games". These were only plot twists in the original, not revealed until Battle City (the second season of the anime) - the dub gave them away in the first season (the second thing was said in the second episode of the dub!), but the characters still act surprised when they learn them later on in the dub even so. Yami Yugi's real name, Atem, is used unspoilered in so many places on the internet nowadays as well. This is parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, in the scene where Yugi asks Yami his real name (just like in the dub). Yugi says "I thought your name was Ate-" and Yami cuts him off with "Shh, don't spoil it now!"
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. This fact was not revealed until the last page of the novel, though all adaptations nowadays have the fact right out in the open from the start.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The whole adventure was all just a dream. The same thing happened in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, though in that case we're left with the unanswered question "Was it Alice's dream, or the Red King's dream?"
Believe it or not, this also happened in a nursery rhyme of all things. The fact that Humpty Dumpty is an egg is never explicitly revealed in his nursery rhyme, with the rhyme originally being presented as a riddle (it helped that "Humpty Dumpty" was slang at the time for a clumsy person). Nowadays (thanks in part to the aforementioned Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, in which the character of Humpty Dumpty appears as a large anthropomorphic egg), this "twist" is well-known, and often not kept a secret anymore.
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