Truth Comes Out

''It was me the whole time. ...Wait.''

When the real nature of a situation is revealed. The power of this UnTrash can range from a slight shock to a shock from a lightning bolt. If strong enough, the Truth Coming Out can flip the entire story on its head, make the audience rethink how they perceive it, or answer a bevy of questions at once. When the Truth Comes Out, it's most often to the audience and characters at the same time, but this isn't always the case. If the audience receives the news first, then a sense of dramatic irony is created as the audience knows something the characters do not. If it's the other way around, then it's up to the audience to put the pieces together and find out what's going on by themselves.

Truth Comes Out has as many effects on the story as there are ways to play it. When the Hero finds out the truth about the Villain, it can affect how they approach their enemy. The Villain's so-called Evil Scheme was actually an unorthodox and aggressive approach at achieving an end the Hero would consider admirable. It may be at this point where Enemies Join Forces and the Good and Bad Guys cooperate. Truth Comes Out in this situation changes the Hero's End Goal from "destroy the villain" to "do something much more interesting". The direction the story initially embarked on is now dramatically different from where it's headed now.

Some roles, such as the Deceiver and Two-Facer, rely on secrecy to get their job done. While the characters who fulfill these roles will vary in effectiveness, the general pattern is the Truth Comes Out about who they really are later in or by the end of the story. The audience and characters might have their suspicions about the Suspect, but nothing can be said for sure until it's told that the Suspect was in fact a Twist or Shock Villain. If the creators want to go a step further, they will have the Suspect really be innocent as a series of coincidental events set them up to be an antagonist or the Suspect was framed by the true Villain.

UnRec
Truth Comes Out is a fiercely powerful UnTrash. Tampering with what the audience and characters know can have a vast array of consequences. It can permanently change how we view a person, doubt the reality of the current situation, cause us to hate or love somebody, or question if we're truly aware of what's going on. Playing this UnTrash with the goal of achieving a collective-gasp-inducing moment can feel like you're wielding the most powerful weapon known to the world. But it isn't easy to reach this point. In order to make it, you must first give the audience fake information to chew on for a while. Open the story with something like "the Hero is an ordinary person", a lie they can't possibly be legitimately suspicious of. Later, reveal the truth with the effect of "the Hero was actually the distant descendant of a legendary warrior who passed their ability down to them" or "the Hero held an incredible latent power within themselves". Impatience can lead to a surprise coming out of nowhere and confusing or annoying the audience. The potency of this UnTrash is then wasted and leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. A "relief" without any buildup gives the impression the UnTrash was forced or done for the sake of Shock Factor. Congratulations, you now made everybody hate the canon.