The >!Loki reveal!< is just so crazy because I knew what kind of book it was going in, I figured we'd see >!Loki at some point given the appearance of Odin, and I knew that with Odin's name being subtle (for anyone who doesn't know where we get the names of the days of the week) that for sure if Loki was going to appear it'd be even more "low-key" than that and despite it being so on the nose it just went right over my head until they spelled it out at the end.!<
I don't think any reveal in a work of fiction has ever made me feel like as much of an idiot as that one. It's so unbelievably obvious and it just never occurred to me.
I didn't really know what I was getting into, so it also went totally over my head.
Actually, I recall it was a little anticlimactic, because I had totally forgotten about any kind of cell mate by the time he returned.
Yeah, as an example I think if you cut most of the Lakeside stuff the story would still work, but I still adore that section and think that the book would also be way less memorable if it wasn’t there
This is made even better, imo, when you read Silmarillion and realize that Olomir (Elf name for Gandalf’s old spirit but I probably butchered that spelling) is taught by the goddess of pity. It’s like Tolkien’s entire thesis statement for the world of Middle Earth goes all the way back to the start.
In the end, Frodo can't complete the task he set out to do. He gets to Mount Doom and cannot throw it. Without Gollum, the ring would never have been destroyed.
Not a book, but in the video game Knights of the Old Republic during a very early scene on the tutorial planet your companion just kind of off hand says something like >!”Be careful around those Jedi, I heard they can do crazy stuff like use their force powers to rewrite your entire identity”!<
Kotor laid it right out before us and we didn’t even see it. On Dantooine, for example:
>!Vrook asks Bastilla if she’s *sure* Revan is really gone, or if he might reappear again and all sorts of stuff. The foreshadowing is so clear but I never saw it coming. Then again I was like, 11 on my first playthrough.!<
Tide Child series has a lot of this. In-world folklore that you think is just for flavor turns out to matter a whole lot. Throwaway plot threads are actually important foreshadowing. It's beautiful when it all comes together.
*The Thief* by Megan Whalen Turner is another example where the stories the characters tell--to each other and to themselves--are very important to how the plot turns out. It's a fun one to reread.
There's almost too much going on in The Locked Tomb series to really appreciate, and also it's not finished yet so we don't have all the payoff, but I've been particularly satisfied watching the Sixth House machinations, and Gideon's sword as it moves through the story. And the eye motif is a big thing, though that doesn't get properly explained until book 2.
Locked Tomb requires either a guide or multiple rereads to pick up the whole story. The author seems very much OK with the reader missing plot points if they're not paying attention. I'm still not sure what was going on in Nona but I'm holding off until I hear a firm date on book four to listen to it again.
Every time I re-read I get more stuff. Worth doing a full go back to GtN if you're so inclined. There are also a couple of podcasts that break things down, though I don't always agree with their conclusions.
Hahaha the Locked Tomb was the first thing that popped to mind, remembering the time I was reading HtN and frantically opened GtN to see if what I remembered about a childhood fight was accurate lol
I fully bounced off Nona just because things were getting exponentially more complicated and my brain hurt. Might reread from the start soon just because *I didn't get enough Gideon in the second book*
Sanderson loves to do this. Much of the focus of the first Mistborn Trilogy is on the identity of the Hero of Ages, revealed at the climax of the third book. Unless you pay attention to the epigraphs, then it's right after the prologue of book 1.
Also in the mistborn trilogy there is a tiny throw away bit regarding a thing in book one that seems very insignificant but in book 3 become the key to everything that happened in all 3 books. Im on mobile and dont know how to do the spoiler thing. But holy crap that blew my mind when it all clicked together in book 3. I loooove Sanderson for that stuff.
Spoiler thing: >! Blah blah, then ! < but without the spaces. Please post it! I’m rereading the series right now and can’t quite tell what you’re talking about.
Gracias! >!vins earring that she keeps as a memento from her dead mom is brought up at the verry beginning of book 1, and since it's an earring, is a hemalurgic spike that lets ruin talk to her/help manipulate her and some key plot points occur when its either in or out then marsh rips it out in book 3 in a moment of lucidity freeing her to do her hero thing and join with the mists and absorb/destroy ruin. I first read it like "aww thats sweet an earring memento." But later like "holy shit it explains EVERYTHING"!<
I reread Mistborn recently and one thing that especially rocked my brain on the reread was that >!Vin's mom killed Vin's baby sister to give Vin hemalurgic bronze Seeker powers!<. I didn't catch on the first read that this was why Vin had >!the ability to pierce Copperclouds!<.
That ability just feels like a "I'm a protagonist so I'm special" type of thing until all the bits fall into place. There are some extremely well done reveals in Sanderson's books, and that is one of them.
Wheel of Time.
In book 4 Mat gets his >!weapon!<, it’s not really dwelt upon why he gets it but after an incident at the end of the book, there it is. It isn’t until book 13 that the significance of it really settles in for most readers.
I remember Robert Jordan mentioned in a blog post that he dropped a massive reveal/plot point of significance in books 4-6 that almost everyone missed. There was a frenzy of activity on the old Dragonmount forums and I seem to remember a thread you had to request permission to join that discussed the big reveal. I could be wrong about that though.
This is one my favorites! Definitely an inspiration for this post. I was also thinking about when Mat >!passes the Tower of Ghenjei in book 1 and is like oh cool, I bet they hide some good treasure in there!<
>!The Tower of Ghenjei being a throwaway line in book one, and Mat not even being sure he remembers it properly, only to be revealed 20 years later!< has to be one of the best reveals in history.
I completely missed this, but I wonder. Is this for sure the only one dropped there? That's definitely one of them, but we don't come back to it until book 13, and I actually didn't run across any speculation as to why he got it
I do recall the big reveal that only a minority caught or guessed was the identity of the person who killed Asmodean. And that one was only revealed much later in the books as well.
Supposedly he found it obvious (well sure, you wrote it,) but the consensus was that it really wasn't. All of the forsaken could travel, so it's not like you could try and piece together locations, and there were darkfriends as well. The only clue was Asmodean saying "you? Noooo!"
If RJ ever confirmed someone's guess, they weren't telling. Even looking back, and admittedly i haven't done that much rereading, i don't see where you would think it was obvious it was the person it ended up being (not putting the spoiler in:P)
I got lucky enough back in the late 90’s to be the sole person at an online chat with RJ. (Compuserve, if anyone else remembers that)
The host had a bunch of pre-prepared questions, but this meant I got to ask a lot, and he replied to them all.
Any time the answer could possibly touch on a spoiler I got a big fat RAFO (Read And Find Out) from him. Funny guy, very cool that I got that. Wish I’d saved the chat log though.
Yeah, word is he was a legend, very generous with his time to fans, let alone writers (George RR Martin has very nice things to say about Jim.)
Man, that would've been so cool.
Could it have been that >!Mat had actually died in book five and was no longer the Hero of the Horn?!< That was one of the biggest reveals for me in the end.
The famous "intuitively obvious" quote was, he said, a quote from a college prof of his who have that response when the answer was in no way obvious. So it was meant as a joke.
Not fantasy, but I just finished *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* by Agatha Christie, and that has one of the most notable examples of this trope I've ever come across. Figuring out the killer entirely rests on one throwaway detail and is utterly impossible to work out otherwise.
Not entirely a throwaway, but Mistborn Era 1: >!Vin's earring!<. Surprised me anyways. Also the word choice from the first page of book 1: >!*They say I will hold the entire future of the world on my arms.* Prophecies are a bit of a cheat, but the very deliberate *on my arms* instead of something like *on my shoulders* or *in my hands* is incredibly important and very easy to just brush past.!<
Honestly IDK if this applies, but basically all of Sazeds shit really blew my mind. All that stuff he mentioned in passing about this religions belief about stars, this ones beliefs about the weather, etc...ending up being unreal significant really blew me away.
Also Mistborn Era 1: >!"I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted." From the first chapter prologue of the second book!<
Why it's critical: >!Because anything written not in metal, or even knowledge stored magically, can be corrupted by the BBEG, and the BBEG is using the ability to corrupt writing to manipulate the characters.!<
I think one of my favorites of this from Sanderson isn't Cosmere, but in his Magic: The Gathering novel "Children of the Nameless." (Originally free per his request, but WotC broke their deal with him and took it down, but fuck'em since he wrote the damn thing for them for free so either hmu for the PDF or [have this well made audio play of it](https://youtu.be/l1tQ4KJFJxA))
Deuteragonist Davriel Cane has only one actual magical ability: to steal spells from the minds of others. Throughout the story he picks up some here and there and begins to burn through the lot of them as he's backed into a corner. The spell that ends up defeating the villain? >!A writing spell on par with D&D's Prestidigitation. All it does is write words on surfaces in normal pen ink. Turns out, human eyes count as a "surface" and if you stack words on top of each other it just becomes a solid mass of black and the villain is established to have a crippling fear of going blind.!<
Honestly, if you read all of Sanderson's works you'll see this in everything. Every book in Sanderson's Fantasy writing is connected in 1 way or another, and everything is apart of the Cosmere.
So that little guy in the corner in Mistborn? He might play a major role in Stormlight Archives. That random vendor in Warbreaker might be a major figure in Secret History. etc.
Hoid is my favorite drop in Mistborn. >!I think he has an appearance in every Sanderson book, no matter how big or small his role is !<
[Cosmere, ALL]>!He's in every published one so far except *Shadows For Silence In The Forests of Hell*, *Sixth of Dusk*, *The Hope of Elantris*, *The Eleventh Metal*, *Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania*, and *Dawnshard*. Notably all are short stories or novellas. *Maybe* add *The Sunlit Man* to that list too, as I can't remember if he appears or is only mentioned, the latter I think though.!<
There's also something in those prophecies that'll likely be relevant in the next era: >!"his name shall be discord, and they shall love him for it." You don't realise it might have been literal!<
The Locked Tomb has so much "unwritten storytelling" like this, it's crazy. If someone reminds me later I'll come back and do a comment compiling them.
I don't know how to do a reminder bot thing but may this notification act as a reminder, cos I love all things concerning our favorite space jock and lesbian necromancer
I've read the series upwards of 10 times (not exaggerating, nothing else to do while waiting for the last book) and I STILL find choice nuggets that I missed and all I can do is stare at the wall while white noise plays inside my brain.
Sooooo glad my friend told me to take notes while reading this, and to pay attention to weird out of place details, like when it gives you detailed descriptions of eye colors
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. The Author literally warns you to avoid assumptions, and nobody listens...
>!Pay attention to the wording of the prophecy.!<
It's been a while, so I Googled for the text of the prophesy:
>>!When frost doth grow on Claves' bell!<
>>!And shadows walk upon the road!<
>>!When water blackens in the well!<
>>!Three Swords must come again.!<
>
>>!When Bukken from the earth do creep!<
>>!And Hunën from the heights descend!<
>>!When Nightmare throttles peaceful sleep!<
>>!Three Swords must come again.!<
>
>>!To turn the stride of treading Fate!<
>>!To clear the fogging Mists of Time!<
>>!If Early shall resist too Late!<
>>!Three Swords must come again.!<
All of which sounds like fairly a generic "When bad stuff is happening, get the McGuffins" message. Only >!"Early shall resist Too Late" doesn't make sense if the swords are supposed to help the *humans*.!<
Sanderson's og mistborn trilogy has that too with the prophecy about the hero of ages. Very precise wording that when it clicks is like "holy shit it means EXACTLY, literally what it says." So cool and you'll still are probably garunteed to not put it together on your first read. A master of his craft.
Hell, he did that precise thing all over the place, even with the title of the series.
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is probably one of my favorite series, and it was the first big fantasy series that pulled me away from the TSR stuff.
His Otherland series and also the Bobby Dollar series did a lot of that also, Tad seems to be a big believer in Chekovs gun. If something is mentioned, it's important eventually.
**Mother of Learning** does this so goddamn perfectly it's amazing how much planning must've went into the first couple chapters of a series that took yeeeaaars to finish writing.
It's a time loop story and in the first loop we see there are alllll these brief mentions of characters/events/creatures etc and they're expanded on in the rest of story at different points. Even some minor characters you'd imagine were just there to fill out the world. It's the best time loop story out there, at least of the ones I've read.
The dog Bent who Mappo saves in the 2nd Malazan book in a small moment of compassion. >!Later plays a critical role alongside Stormy and Gesler in saving the world from the Forkrul Assail in the final book!<
Although the series itself is not "Perfect". I thought the Licanus Trilogy by James Islington had one of the most jaw-dropping, interesting and honestly question-satisfying ending to the series in the third and final book.
It was James islington's debut series so the character development and world building throughout the books has a little left to be desired. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story, magic system and plot-twists throughout, and the way the final book made me feel and gave me that exact trope, with such a satisfying end to so many questions, was so worth it
Tamsyn Muir does this in a lot of little fun ways in The Locked Tomb series, some of which end up being like easter eggs to important future events and some small details that get brushed over but end up being really important. The most obvious and important one is the detail about how >!on the day that Harrow broke into the Tomb, her and Gideon had gotten into one of their worst fights, one that ended with Harrow scratching Gideon's face up. It doesn't really get hammered home when things get revealed but of course that's why she was able to enter the Tomb, because she had Gideon's (and therefore John's) DNA on her hands, under her finger nails.!<
>!John is so *supremely* confident that she couldn't possibly have done it that it didn't even occur to me that he could be mistaken even after the other information is presented so thanks for the aha moment there.!<
Absolutely! That's a big part of what I think made that whole series of reveals so good for me, >!John just absolutely *knows* that she couldn't have entered the tomb because in his head, he'd have had to have been there. I really appreciate that Muir doesn't smack you over the head with it either, like there's never any scene where Harrow or Gideon thinks like "oh of course, it must be because we got into that fight." You learn about the fight part in a way that just makes it seem like another little detail of their relationship and their childhood and then by the time people realize that Gideon is John's daughter, nobody is thinking about Harrow claiming to have opened the tomb. !<
Regarding your spoiler:
I never connected that. Have reread the series 3 times and it seems so obvious in hindsight but I just thought the little Gloom Princess was really strong!
I'm pretty sure I also missed that on my first read-through, there was a *ton* I missed in HtN especially, that book is just so dense with little reveals and hints. I don't reread books a lot these days (I used to reread them a ton when I was younger,) but the Locked Tomb and Harrow the Ninth especially is a really rewarding reread.
Narrator of Fifth Head looking for his father's books in the library and finding a misshelved Vernor Vinge collection, what could his real name be? (Not exactly plot relevant, just the first Wolfism to pop into my head)
This might not count, because it hasn't resolved yet, but right at the start of *A Practical Guide to Sorcery*, the character sits a magic exam, and one of the questions is "What would you do if you suspected someone had placed an endless nightmare curse on you?"
The protagonist's constant nightmares and inability to sleep have been a constant throughout the series, and I'm just waiting for that throwaway line to come back around.
The fact that the opening of Red Sister has Lano Tacsis is bringing 200 men to kill ***Sister Thorn*** is very interesting considering the rest of the series.
The Wheel of Time is entirely made of this idea. Every gleeman(bard) story has some deeper meaning for the series later events or the ancient history of the world. My favorite example is Bayle Domon, just some smuggler, relating his experiences with random ruins and like half of them end up pivotal to some of the most important developments of the entire series.
AoT does this a lot. But I'm curious what reveal you're talking about - S3 has a lot of them. I assume you're talking about the person who has the initials D.F. and later their initials become D.J. and finally they're known as S.T.?
I dont want to spoil it for anyone who hasnt watched it yet, its actually season 2 tho, episode 31, where a major bomb is dropped so casually the watcher and characters almost dont notice at first.
I'm so happy someone mentioned this; was about to comment this myself! I've only just completed season 3 as of 20 minutes ago, but AOT is a masterclass of this exact thing. Some of its reveals are executed so nonchalantly, I was speechless and had to rewind to watch it again.
I love this concept as well, it's incredibly rewarding and the skill of writing required to pull it off astounds me whenever its done right. Tbh a piece of media hasn't scratched that itch for me in a LONG while like AOT has. Its expertly planned out and so well written, and I say that as someone who still has the final season to go. Can't wait!
One thing I liked about Cradle kind of fits this.
In book 1, >!he's shown his future, which ends with the death of everyone he's ever known. He asks how he can get the power to stop it and he's told that it's not that easy. He's shown examples of mythical beings that could stop the calamity to more or less demonstrate how impossible (well...improbable) it is to stop such a thing. Then he's told to go out and gain the power if he wants to save his home.!<
In later books, >!he starts meeting the people from that vision and interacts with them in very significant ways!<
It was very cool because what started out as this mythical story told to make a point ends up being intimately and concretely tied to the main character's story by the end.
For googling purposes, the phenomenon is called Chevkovs gun, where a book shouldn't have pointless details and if your going to put a gun in it, that gun should be fired later.
The Gun On The Mantlepiece.
Don't put a gun on the mantlepiece at the beginning of your story and then just leave it there unmentioned.
By the end of the story, it must come into play somehow.
The most annoying example of this I've come across recently is the Fish Plaque in the *Lincoln Lawyer* series. Seriously?? Nothing?!?
Chekhov's Gun is advice for plays, specifically. It's not a law; a gun in a western isn't necessarily going to be fired, for example. Everyone just had them.
A gun I’m a western that is noticed, though, will be. Like if everyone is armed but one of them mentions the number of bullets in the gun then for sure that will be important.
Sorry, you're incorrect.
Yes, it was originally a maxim voiced by Chekhov as advice to young playwrights, as a principle of narrative conservation.
However, it has [broadened considerably ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun?wprov=sfla1) in usage over the years since.
The locket specifically. It's just >!something they happen upon while cleaning in OotP, has like half a sentence, and then in DH you're just like oooohhhhh shiiiiiiiit!!<
Most of the Harry Potter novels are basically structured like mystery novels where lots of clues are sprinkled throughout and a number of suspicious characters are introduced and then at the end there’s a big reveal of what was going on. It wasn’t a surprise to me that Rowling eventually started writing murder mysteries after finishing HP.
but yet, in books 3 and 5 she introduces items so powerful you have to wonder why the whole thing is happening in the first place. And yet they are never mentioned again. Yes the time turner and Felix Felicis are situation dependent, but as Dumbledore seemed prescient enough to predict his own downfall you have to wonder why he didnt down a gallon of the potion before going back in time to take out "Death of Small Riverside Animals" (i like to think that Voldemort means Death of Voles, in a Latin to English translation. I know it doesnt) at any point.
This question could be answered by basically anything in Harry Potter. Marvolo's ring does it *twice*. It's happening constantly up until the very last moments of the final conflict, all of which boils down to multiple events that were mentioned in passing being crucial to the outcome.
My favorite was the vanishing cabinet that lets the death eaters into the castle in book 6 being mentioned in book 2 as where Harry hides in Borgin and Burkes. Good chance it was a retcon, but I still appreciate the attention to detail.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Character 1: "How do you know when [incredibly powerful monster that the characters have never seen before] will arrive?"
Character 2: >!"Statistics"!<
Hahahahahahaha I haven't seen it since 2011 so completely forgot she phrased it that way. That's a funny way to put in retrospect. xD
I keep planning to watch the fancutfags edit in preparation for the new movie
In Blade of Tyshalle, Caine is >!tied up and unable to move as he's being used as bait for his wife (who is at this time partly a river goddess). She gets killed so close to him that her blood is in his mouth. This seems like a small bit of gross flavour description until several hundred pages later when it comes out that she was making a cure for the virus in the book, and it is now working through him and everyone he's come into contact with. !<
I think Malazan deserves a mention here.
>!Whiskeyjack, one of the main and most beloved characters, takes a leg injury early in the series. He has it healed, but couldn't ever afford to take the downtime required to have it truly fixed.!<
>!Multiple 1000+ page books later. Whiskey jack is singlehandedly fighting a traitorous pseudo-god, and winning.. And his injured leg rebreaks, and he dies a needless death.!<
That's like the opposite of the example. It's gets brought up so much throughout the book it happens in that it might as well be a flashing red light of danger approaching
The phrase "Dead Gods" in the Wandering Inn (fantastic audiobook series btw, also free to read online!). It's used as an expletive or expression of shock/surprise by pretty much everyone. There are no gods whatsoever in the fantasy world as it is presented to the reader, and in fact the word god isn't even in any native's vocabulary outside of the context of this one phrase. However, you eventually come to find out that >!gods dying, and trying to come back from being dead, is in fact a concept *extremely* relevant to the plot.!<
In Malazan, the true identities of Shadowthrone and Cotillion, two important Ascended gods of the Malazan world are revealed in the opening epigraph of the first book Gardens of the Moon. But since you don’t have context yet you just read right past it, and the actual reveal is in the second book Deadhouse Gates.
Mmm I don't think so, because Tolkein hadn't planned the Ring's significance when it was written into The Hobbit.
I think a good example in LOTR would be the Barrow-Blade given to the Hobbits by Bombadil. It turns out that they were specifically wrought with ancient magic to be effective against the Angmar, and Merry uses his to stab the Witch-King, which makes him vulnerable to Eowin.
Harry Potter
In book like... 5 I think? Petunia makes an offhand comment about "that boy" that used to hang around with Lily. At the time, everyone (including the reader) just knows she's talking about James.
Spoiler just in case you haven't read these yet. >!But then later, after you finish the series, and you're doing a reread, and you get back to this point and you see "that boy" and you're like...... ooooooohhhhh my god she was talking about snape.!<
Anyway, even though jkr is a trash human being, she actually did this very well many many times throughout the series, not just here. This one was just by far the most subtle.
Essentially the entire concept of Harry Potter is miscellaneous tidbits of detail becoming plot-critical. Ron tells Harry that Scabbers is missing a toe in book 1.
My favorite is probably how Harry constantly hears that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald long ago and never thinks about it at all, until in the end it turns out to be the central key element of one of the most important reveals.
My favourite is from the end of book 4 after Harry tells Dumbledore that Voldemort used Harry's blood to restore his body: "For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes."
I also love that the locket is casually mentioned in book 5 when they're cleaning out 12 Grimmauld Place.
Or even how Harry disarming Draco at Malfoy Manor turns out to be the final puzzle piece that puts everything into place. Its an almost throwaway part of a minor battle...until its not.
I'm on my first re-read in like 8-9 years and there's so much in just book 1; things like >!Jorah being the spy and son of Jeor, and Mance Raydar being King-Beyond-the Wall are mentioned several times, but the importance of those things aren't revealed until much later. Then there's Ned reminiscing about his dead sister and all the hints about R+L=J, Aegon's skull being a mess beyond recognition, Varys and Illyrio's conversation that Arya overhears, the plain horn Sam finds that's probably the horn of winter, Tom of Sevenstreams being a mole for the BWB, Ghost being a second life "fit for a king" which foreshadows not only R+L=J but also Jon warging Ghost upon his death, Mirri's "when the sun sets in the east" speech straight up being a prophecy that is coming true, the Golden Company siding with "Aegon", etc. So many details or lines of dialogue that seem insignificant but end up being really important.!< Though like you say, we are still short 2 books so many of these amazingly subtle events may never be truly paid off :( ASOIAF is absolutely full of these things, I'd definitely recommend OP to try the books if they haven't read them
That's something I love about the series. It's absolutely packed with detail in a way no other series I've read has been. There are Chekhov guns, foreshadowing at different levels from the obvious to things you'd never consider until at least a second readthrough, along with a barrel of red herrings. There's so much fan speculation because of it.
And this is why Martin is my favorite author. Ive studied his structural writing and its pretty interesting. He always has a theme for each character and chapter. Its teased in the beginning and “revealed” concluded at the end of each chapter. He also teases and foreshadows by sprinkling things in. And when he’s trying to tip you off of a future event, ex Tyrion’s comment of Catelyn in Book 1 of her “having a heart of stone”, not inly foreshadowed Lady Stoneheart in another book, but also teased something else (which I cant remember off the top of my head). He also reveals “truths” or hints in every chapter but right when a character is hyper focused, the attention turns to something else very quickly to distract the reader.
Essentially, he structures his chapters (and books) like he would a tv show which makes his writing (and also Suzanne Collins HG) very addictive to read.
33??
Oh shit. I only read to the end of part 1, I think, which was like 3 or 4 books. Wasn't any else fan TLed at the time. I'm thinking of doing the anime as a refresher but I know it's surpassed where I read to so maybe not. Or both..
There's a really excellent example of this in A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. It's a really obvious moment where Vernon practically fires off a flare gun and then pays it off beautifully at the end
The Wheel of Time is flat out THE series for this. No other series has as many, or as well-executed. Just in the first book >!Rand channeling throughout the book and displaying every symptom Moiraine lists but portrayed so its not obvious!<. And that’s just the start. >!Agelmar being a Darkfriend who let the trollocs into the fortress!<, >!Verin outright telling a lie!<, >!Siuan talking about why a Stilled Amyrlin cannot be allowed to escape!<, >!Sheriam being Black Ajah!<, >!Mat dying and being unbound from the Horn!<, >!Rand tells Min he would *cut off his arm rather than hurt you*, which is yikes!<, even something as basic as CLOTHING because >!every Black Sister wears the darkest version of their public Ajah’s colors, so deep its almost black, because they wear their Ajah colors just as proudly as any other Aes Sedai!<.
Far be it from me to praise Rowling, but as a reader, two of the horcrux are mentioned in earlier books.
In "Order of the Phoenix", when they are clearing out the Black house, they come across an unopenable locket. (Slytherin's locket). They throw it in a random box and forget about it.
In "Half Blood Prince" when Ginny takes Harry to the Room of Requirement to ditch the potions book, a tiara is mentioned briefly in the description of the room, amongst many other lost items. (Ravenclaw's Diadem).
American Gods. There really are a lot of definitions for the word "trunk".
So good. Also "call no man happy until he is dead." shivers.
I listened to this on Audiobook, so I missed some of the more obvious play on words until they smacked me in the face.
The >!Loki reveal!< is just so crazy because I knew what kind of book it was going in, I figured we'd see >!Loki at some point given the appearance of Odin, and I knew that with Odin's name being subtle (for anyone who doesn't know where we get the names of the days of the week) that for sure if Loki was going to appear it'd be even more "low-key" than that and despite it being so on the nose it just went right over my head until they spelled it out at the end.!<
I don't think any reveal in a work of fiction has ever made me feel like as much of an idiot as that one. It's so unbelievably obvious and it just never occurred to me.
It's just like all the best cons.
I didn't really know what I was getting into, so it also went totally over my head. Actually, I recall it was a little anticlimactic, because I had totally forgotten about any kind of cell mate by the time he returned.
Can you remind me more specifically what that reveal was? I can't remember.
Shadow's >!cellmate Low-Key Lyesmith turns out to be *drum-roll* Loki Lie-Smith!<
Commenting to find out as well, I read this over 20 years ago
I feel like 80% of that book happens in passing. I mean this in the best possible way.
Yeah, as an example I think if you cut most of the Lakeside stuff the story would still work, but I still adore that section and think that the book would also be way less memorable if it wasn’t there
No one talking about how Gandalf tells Frodo and company to take pity on Gollum multiple times.
This is made even better, imo, when you read Silmarillion and realize that Olomir (Elf name for Gandalf’s old spirit but I probably butchered that spelling) is taught by the goddess of pity. It’s like Tolkien’s entire thesis statement for the world of Middle Earth goes all the way back to the start.
Olórin is the spelling it's not really relevant to your point lol, but I'm a nerd so
Olórin learning pity and compassion in the healing gardens of Nienna is top tier.
It's been a LONG time since I read LoTR, could you elaborate please? Or is this just to do with how the ring takes Frodo at the end?
In the end, Frodo can't complete the task he set out to do. He gets to Mount Doom and cannot throw it. Without Gollum, the ring would never have been destroyed.
Dude also ended up in a pit…
Not a book, but in the video game Knights of the Old Republic during a very early scene on the tutorial planet your companion just kind of off hand says something like >!”Be careful around those Jedi, I heard they can do crazy stuff like use their force powers to rewrite your entire identity”!<
Kotor laid it right out before us and we didn’t even see it. On Dantooine, for example: >!Vrook asks Bastilla if she’s *sure* Revan is really gone, or if he might reappear again and all sorts of stuff. The foreshadowing is so clear but I never saw it coming. Then again I was like, 11 on my first playthrough.!<
Tide Child series has a lot of this. In-world folklore that you think is just for flavor turns out to matter a whole lot. Throwaway plot threads are actually important foreshadowing. It's beautiful when it all comes together. *The Thief* by Megan Whalen Turner is another example where the stories the characters tell--to each other and to themselves--are very important to how the plot turns out. It's a fun one to reread. There's almost too much going on in The Locked Tomb series to really appreciate, and also it's not finished yet so we don't have all the payoff, but I've been particularly satisfied watching the Sixth House machinations, and Gideon's sword as it moves through the story. And the eye motif is a big thing, though that doesn't get properly explained until book 2.
Locked Tomb requires either a guide or multiple rereads to pick up the whole story. The author seems very much OK with the reader missing plot points if they're not paying attention. I'm still not sure what was going on in Nona but I'm holding off until I hear a firm date on book four to listen to it again.
Every time I re-read I get more stuff. Worth doing a full go back to GtN if you're so inclined. There are also a couple of podcasts that break things down, though I don't always agree with their conclusions.
While it was good I didn't love the third book the way I did the first two. I've re-listened to the first two a couple times.
Same, though I'm hoping AtN will give me a greater appreciation for NtN. Nona did have some great Cam Pal moments tho.
Clearly the best "thing mentioned in passing that turns out to be important later" in TLT is *Frontline Titties of the Fifth*
Wait, what?
FRONTLINE TITTIES OF THE FIFTH!
You heard 'em.
Impressive, when that isn't even a real publication
UGH, GRIDDLE
In Turner's *The Thief,* I love the throwaway comment Gen makes about sometimes hiding small objects in his hair under his braid...
>"I think the main pass would be better." Ambiades said hesitantly, giving the magus one last chance.
Hahaha the Locked Tomb was the first thing that popped to mind, remembering the time I was reading HtN and frantically opened GtN to see if what I remembered about a childhood fight was accurate lol
Thank you!
I fully bounced off Nona just because things were getting exponentially more complicated and my brain hurt. Might reread from the start soon just because *I didn't get enough Gideon in the second book*
Hodor
H-O-D-O-R! That spells "moon!"
Aw. Poor ol' Tom...
And the stories that Old Nan tells.
How so? Or do you mean that his name gets explained in the show? Is there more?
It does get explained in the show yeah
just remembering that gave me chills
I really enjoyed the twist at the end of The Bands of Mourning concerning where the Bands were.
Sanderson loves to do this. Much of the focus of the first Mistborn Trilogy is on the identity of the Hero of Ages, revealed at the climax of the third book. Unless you pay attention to the epigraphs, then it's right after the prologue of book 1.
Also in the mistborn trilogy there is a tiny throw away bit regarding a thing in book one that seems very insignificant but in book 3 become the key to everything that happened in all 3 books. Im on mobile and dont know how to do the spoiler thing. But holy crap that blew my mind when it all clicked together in book 3. I loooove Sanderson for that stuff.
Spoiler thing: >! Blah blah, then ! < but without the spaces. Please post it! I’m rereading the series right now and can’t quite tell what you’re talking about.
Gracias! >!vins earring that she keeps as a memento from her dead mom is brought up at the verry beginning of book 1, and since it's an earring, is a hemalurgic spike that lets ruin talk to her/help manipulate her and some key plot points occur when its either in or out then marsh rips it out in book 3 in a moment of lucidity freeing her to do her hero thing and join with the mists and absorb/destroy ruin. I first read it like "aww thats sweet an earring memento." But later like "holy shit it explains EVERYTHING"!<
I reread Mistborn recently and one thing that especially rocked my brain on the reread was that >!Vin's mom killed Vin's baby sister to give Vin hemalurgic bronze Seeker powers!<. I didn't catch on the first read that this was why Vin had >!the ability to pierce Copperclouds!<.
That ability just feels like a "I'm a protagonist so I'm special" type of thing until all the bits fall into place. There are some extremely well done reveals in Sanderson's books, and that is one of them.
For me it’s the epigraph that says something like >!trust nothing not written in metal!<
I'm so excited about era 3 being written all in one go. We're about to get some top tier foreshadowing and twists and turns.
[удалено]
No one was getting there without the intention of seeking out the bands themselves. >!and the name itself was meant to confuse people!<
Wheel of Time. In book 4 Mat gets his >!weapon!<, it’s not really dwelt upon why he gets it but after an incident at the end of the book, there it is. It isn’t until book 13 that the significance of it really settles in for most readers. I remember Robert Jordan mentioned in a blog post that he dropped a massive reveal/plot point of significance in books 4-6 that almost everyone missed. There was a frenzy of activity on the old Dragonmount forums and I seem to remember a thread you had to request permission to join that discussed the big reveal. I could be wrong about that though.
This is one my favorites! Definitely an inspiration for this post. I was also thinking about when Mat >!passes the Tower of Ghenjei in book 1 and is like oh cool, I bet they hide some good treasure in there!<
Oh yeah, definitely. I remember thinking that too.
Bayle Domon talks about some super cool stuff during that part of the book.
> Bayle Doman do be talking about some super cool stuff
>!The Tower of Ghenjei being a throwaway line in book one, and Mat not even being sure he remembers it properly, only to be revealed 20 years later!< has to be one of the best reveals in history.
I completely missed this, but I wonder. Is this for sure the only one dropped there? That's definitely one of them, but we don't come back to it until book 13, and I actually didn't run across any speculation as to why he got it I do recall the big reveal that only a minority caught or guessed was the identity of the person who killed Asmodean. And that one was only revealed much later in the books as well. Supposedly he found it obvious (well sure, you wrote it,) but the consensus was that it really wasn't. All of the forsaken could travel, so it's not like you could try and piece together locations, and there were darkfriends as well. The only clue was Asmodean saying "you? Noooo!" If RJ ever confirmed someone's guess, they weren't telling. Even looking back, and admittedly i haven't done that much rereading, i don't see where you would think it was obvious it was the person it ended up being (not putting the spoiler in:P)
I got lucky enough back in the late 90’s to be the sole person at an online chat with RJ. (Compuserve, if anyone else remembers that) The host had a bunch of pre-prepared questions, but this meant I got to ask a lot, and he replied to them all. Any time the answer could possibly touch on a spoiler I got a big fat RAFO (Read And Find Out) from him. Funny guy, very cool that I got that. Wish I’d saved the chat log though.
Yeah, word is he was a legend, very generous with his time to fans, let alone writers (George RR Martin has very nice things to say about Jim.) Man, that would've been so cool.
Could it have been that >!Mat had actually died in book five and was no longer the Hero of the Horn?!< That was one of the biggest reveals for me in the end.
Yes. That was the actual “thing everyone missed” not anything to do with mats weapon lol. The horn was a way bigger obvious plot point
Ah, i can see that. I think i recall something of the sort as well.
The famous "intuitively obvious" quote was, he said, a quote from a college prof of his who have that response when the answer was in no way obvious. So it was meant as a joke.
WOT wins this. So much foreshadowing
For…shadow…ing? Yes, Whitecloaks, this comment right here! How do you scrawl a dragon’s fang on IOS, I just keep scratching my screen.
Man, I was CONVINCED it was his Hat. It was given to him by a bad gal and he never went anywhere without it.
For me the best one in WoT (catched on a re-read) is the idea for the >!Dragons!<
Not fantasy, but I just finished *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* by Agatha Christie, and that has one of the most notable examples of this trope I've ever come across. Figuring out the killer entirely rests on one throwaway detail and is utterly impossible to work out otherwise.
Absolute classic and the perfect novel to go in completely blind for. It invented a genre of its own from that clue.
Not entirely a throwaway, but Mistborn Era 1: >!Vin's earring!<. Surprised me anyways. Also the word choice from the first page of book 1: >!*They say I will hold the entire future of the world on my arms.* Prophecies are a bit of a cheat, but the very deliberate *on my arms* instead of something like *on my shoulders* or *in my hands* is incredibly important and very easy to just brush past.!<
Honestly IDK if this applies, but basically all of Sazeds shit really blew my mind. All that stuff he mentioned in passing about this religions belief about stars, this ones beliefs about the weather, etc...ending up being unreal significant really blew me away.
[удалено]
Yes. That payoff was so beautiful.
Also Mistborn Era 1: >!"I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted." From the first chapter prologue of the second book!< Why it's critical: >!Because anything written not in metal, or even knowledge stored magically, can be corrupted by the BBEG, and the BBEG is using the ability to corrupt writing to manipulate the characters.!<
>!Luckily, as the Feruchemists store their memories in metal bracelets, that is safe from modification.!< >!Or so one would think.!<
>!When I read that one I was certain it would be important later, and then I somehow completely forgot about it!<
Weeeelp. I know what I’m re-reading in the next few months.
Sanderson is a master at planning. You can say a lot of things about his writing, but damn, he has got that Cosmere in hand.
"Huh, gender-neutral pronouns...how odd. Probably irrelevant." *It was not, in fact, irrelevant.*
IKR? The characters even brought it up and managed to make it dismissable.
I think one of my favorites of this from Sanderson isn't Cosmere, but in his Magic: The Gathering novel "Children of the Nameless." (Originally free per his request, but WotC broke their deal with him and took it down, but fuck'em since he wrote the damn thing for them for free so either hmu for the PDF or [have this well made audio play of it](https://youtu.be/l1tQ4KJFJxA)) Deuteragonist Davriel Cane has only one actual magical ability: to steal spells from the minds of others. Throughout the story he picks up some here and there and begins to burn through the lot of them as he's backed into a corner. The spell that ends up defeating the villain? >!A writing spell on par with D&D's Prestidigitation. All it does is write words on surfaces in normal pen ink. Turns out, human eyes count as a "surface" and if you stack words on top of each other it just becomes a solid mass of black and the villain is established to have a crippling fear of going blind.!<
Mistborn era 1 is full of this stuff. Reading book 3 left me mind-blown
Honestly, if you read all of Sanderson's works you'll see this in everything. Every book in Sanderson's Fantasy writing is connected in 1 way or another, and everything is apart of the Cosmere. So that little guy in the corner in Mistborn? He might play a major role in Stormlight Archives. That random vendor in Warbreaker might be a major figure in Secret History. etc. Hoid is my favorite drop in Mistborn. >!I think he has an appearance in every Sanderson book, no matter how big or small his role is !<
[Cosmere, ALL]>!He's in every published one so far except *Shadows For Silence In The Forests of Hell*, *Sixth of Dusk*, *The Hope of Elantris*, *The Eleventh Metal*, *Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania*, and *Dawnshard*. Notably all are short stories or novellas. *Maybe* add *The Sunlit Man* to that list too, as I can't remember if he appears or is only mentioned, the latter I think though.!<
[The Sunlit Man] >!He does indeed appear in TSM for a conversation with Nomad after arriving at the floating city!<
>!he doesn't appear physically but him and Nomad have a conversation through their connection to the dawnshard.!<
Nah he appears in the beginning as a projection to speak to Nomad
There's also something in those prophecies that'll likely be relevant in the next era: >!"his name shall be discord, and they shall love him for it." You don't realise it might have been literal!<
*gestures wildly at the Locked Tomb*
The Locked Tomb has so much "unwritten storytelling" like this, it's crazy. If someone reminds me later I'll come back and do a comment compiling them.
I don't know how to do a reminder bot thing but may this notification act as a reminder, cos I love all things concerning our favorite space jock and lesbian necromancer
I've read the series upwards of 10 times (not exaggerating, nothing else to do while waiting for the last book) and I STILL find choice nuggets that I missed and all I can do is stare at the wall while white noise plays inside my brain.
Sooooo glad my friend told me to take notes while reading this, and to pay attention to weird out of place details, like when it gives you detailed descriptions of eye colors
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. The Author literally warns you to avoid assumptions, and nobody listens... >!Pay attention to the wording of the prophecy.!<
I am going to come back in a week or so, when I've finished the trilogy
I just finished the first book. I'm bookmarking this lmao
I started my daughter on this trilogy, and told her to literally pay attention to the precise wording, and she still missed it!
It's been awhile since I've read it. What was it she missed?
It's been a while, so I Googled for the text of the prophesy: >>!When frost doth grow on Claves' bell!< >>!And shadows walk upon the road!< >>!When water blackens in the well!< >>!Three Swords must come again.!< > >>!When Bukken from the earth do creep!< >>!And Hunën from the heights descend!< >>!When Nightmare throttles peaceful sleep!< >>!Three Swords must come again.!< > >>!To turn the stride of treading Fate!< >>!To clear the fogging Mists of Time!< >>!If Early shall resist too Late!< >>!Three Swords must come again.!< All of which sounds like fairly a generic "When bad stuff is happening, get the McGuffins" message. Only >!"Early shall resist Too Late" doesn't make sense if the swords are supposed to help the *humans*.!<
Sanderson's og mistborn trilogy has that too with the prophecy about the hero of ages. Very precise wording that when it clicks is like "holy shit it means EXACTLY, literally what it says." So cool and you'll still are probably garunteed to not put it together on your first read. A master of his craft.
I’m leaving that covered and saving it for when I read the series and I can see what this is.
Well, to be fair, the author didn't warn the *characters*...
Now I have to reread this trilogy, it’s been 20 years and I don’t remember!
Hell, he did that precise thing all over the place, even with the title of the series. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is probably one of my favorite series, and it was the first big fantasy series that pulled me away from the TSR stuff. His Otherland series and also the Bobby Dollar series did a lot of that also, Tad seems to be a big believer in Chekovs gun. If something is mentioned, it's important eventually.
**Mother of Learning** does this so goddamn perfectly it's amazing how much planning must've went into the first couple chapters of a series that took yeeeaaars to finish writing. It's a time loop story and in the first loop we see there are alllll these brief mentions of characters/events/creatures etc and they're expanded on in the rest of story at different points. Even some minor characters you'd imagine were just there to fill out the world. It's the best time loop story out there, at least of the ones I've read.
Riyria Revelations by Michael Sullivan. So many small details .
And upon a reread the they’re so obviously right in your face. It’s one of my favourite series to read again
It's so well done. One of the best planned stories I've encountered.
The dog Bent who Mappo saves in the 2nd Malazan book in a small moment of compassion. >!Later plays a critical role alongside Stormy and Gesler in saving the world from the Forkrul Assail in the final book!<
Although the series itself is not "Perfect". I thought the Licanus Trilogy by James Islington had one of the most jaw-dropping, interesting and honestly question-satisfying ending to the series in the third and final book. It was James islington's debut series so the character development and world building throughout the books has a little left to be desired. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story, magic system and plot-twists throughout, and the way the final book made me feel and gave me that exact trope, with such a satisfying end to so many questions, was so worth it
In *The Judging Eye* by R. Scott Bakker, >!*"He can't see me!"*!<
Those things in Name of the Wind! Which…mean…I bet they mean something!
We’ll find out all the answers when book 3 comes out in 2076
Tamsyn Muir does this in a lot of little fun ways in The Locked Tomb series, some of which end up being like easter eggs to important future events and some small details that get brushed over but end up being really important. The most obvious and important one is the detail about how >!on the day that Harrow broke into the Tomb, her and Gideon had gotten into one of their worst fights, one that ended with Harrow scratching Gideon's face up. It doesn't really get hammered home when things get revealed but of course that's why she was able to enter the Tomb, because she had Gideon's (and therefore John's) DNA on her hands, under her finger nails.!<
>!John is so *supremely* confident that she couldn't possibly have done it that it didn't even occur to me that he could be mistaken even after the other information is presented so thanks for the aha moment there.!<
Absolutely! That's a big part of what I think made that whole series of reveals so good for me, >!John just absolutely *knows* that she couldn't have entered the tomb because in his head, he'd have had to have been there. I really appreciate that Muir doesn't smack you over the head with it either, like there's never any scene where Harrow or Gideon thinks like "oh of course, it must be because we got into that fight." You learn about the fight part in a way that just makes it seem like another little detail of their relationship and their childhood and then by the time people realize that Gideon is John's daughter, nobody is thinking about Harrow claiming to have opened the tomb. !<
The entire series is a Matroyska (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) Easter egg, I'm dyyyyying for Alecto and see how it all ties together
Me too!! I just recently re-read the series so far and I almost wish I had waited a little longer before it came out.
Regarding your spoiler: I never connected that. Have reread the series 3 times and it seems so obvious in hindsight but I just thought the little Gloom Princess was really strong!
I'm pretty sure I also missed that on my first read-through, there was a *ton* I missed in HtN especially, that book is just so dense with little reveals and hints. I don't reread books a lot these days (I used to reread them a ton when I was younger,) but the Locked Tomb and Harrow the Ninth especially is a really rewarding reread.
Oh shit I missed that
Yeah, that was one of those realizations that just makes you put down the book and go 'Oh, goddamn.'
Most Gene Wolfe books are like these. There could come a big reveal but the most important bit of info is the thing you didn’t pay attention to.
Or the thing that fucking Severian couldn’t be bothered paying attention to because he was too busy going on about his perfect fucking memory *again*.
Narrator of Fifth Head looking for his father's books in the library and finding a misshelved Vernor Vinge collection, what could his real name be? (Not exactly plot relevant, just the first Wolfism to pop into my head)
This might not count, because it hasn't resolved yet, but right at the start of *A Practical Guide to Sorcery*, the character sits a magic exam, and one of the questions is "What would you do if you suspected someone had placed an endless nightmare curse on you?" The protagonist's constant nightmares and inability to sleep have been a constant throughout the series, and I'm just waiting for that throwaway line to come back around.
Most conversations with my partner
☠️
The fact that the opening of Red Sister has Lano Tacsis is bringing 200 men to kill ***Sister Thorn*** is very interesting considering the rest of the series.
The Wheel of Time is entirely made of this idea. Every gleeman(bard) story has some deeper meaning for the series later events or the ancient history of the world. My favorite example is Bayle Domon, just some smuggler, relating his experiences with random ruins and like half of them end up pivotal to some of the most important developments of the entire series.
Attack on Titan makes this work for one of the biggest reveals in the series in S2, IYKYK.
AoT does this a lot. But I'm curious what reveal you're talking about - S3 has a lot of them. I assume you're talking about the person who has the initials D.F. and later their initials become D.J. and finally they're known as S.T.?
I dont want to spoil it for anyone who hasnt watched it yet, its actually season 2 tho, episode 31, where a major bomb is dropped so casually the watcher and characters almost dont notice at first.
I'm so happy someone mentioned this; was about to comment this myself! I've only just completed season 3 as of 20 minutes ago, but AOT is a masterclass of this exact thing. Some of its reveals are executed so nonchalantly, I was speechless and had to rewind to watch it again. I love this concept as well, it's incredibly rewarding and the skill of writing required to pull it off astounds me whenever its done right. Tbh a piece of media hasn't scratched that itch for me in a LONG while like AOT has. Its expertly planned out and so well written, and I say that as someone who still has the final season to go. Can't wait!
The Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson was FULL of them, they were right there in plain sight.
In Mistborn Era 1, the Terris prophecy using >!gender neutral!< wording was not a writing choice but referring to >!Sazed being a eunuch!<
The entire prophecy's meaning is so obvious once it's properly revealed and it works so well. One of the best foreshadowing in a book that I've read.
Also >!Vyn's earring!<, it seems so minute a detail in Book one when she loses it, but the reveal of it later was mind blowing
One thing I liked about Cradle kind of fits this. In book 1, >!he's shown his future, which ends with the death of everyone he's ever known. He asks how he can get the power to stop it and he's told that it's not that easy. He's shown examples of mythical beings that could stop the calamity to more or less demonstrate how impossible (well...improbable) it is to stop such a thing. Then he's told to go out and gain the power if he wants to save his home.!< In later books, >!he starts meeting the people from that vision and interacts with them in very significant ways!< It was very cool because what started out as this mythical story told to make a point ends up being intimately and concretely tied to the main character's story by the end.
I feel like that was more foreshadowing that chekovs gun. That said. >!Suriels marble gives him some very important connections later on.!<
Also crazy that, in the end, no one he was shown ended up helping in very significant ways. Sort of the opposite.
To be fair, the 7 Man Army helped (or whatever they're called)
Eight Man Empire.
Honestly the character on his badge from the first book is a more accurate example here.
I mean if we're talking cradle forshadowing, I feel like you're really... *swept* something under the rug, if you catch my meaning :D
For googling purposes, the phenomenon is called Chevkovs gun, where a book shouldn't have pointless details and if your going to put a gun in it, that gun should be fired later.
The Gun On The Mantlepiece. Don't put a gun on the mantlepiece at the beginning of your story and then just leave it there unmentioned. By the end of the story, it must come into play somehow. The most annoying example of this I've come across recently is the Fish Plaque in the *Lincoln Lawyer* series. Seriously?? Nothing?!?
Still waiting on that sword over Kvothe's mantle
Chekhov's Gun is advice for plays, specifically. It's not a law; a gun in a western isn't necessarily going to be fired, for example. Everyone just had them.
A gun I’m a western that is noticed, though, will be. Like if everyone is armed but one of them mentions the number of bullets in the gun then for sure that will be important.
That's how it started, but it's literally the name of a trope now, and that's debatably the more famous context
Sorry, you're incorrect. Yes, it was originally a maxim voiced by Chekhov as advice to young playwrights, as a principle of narrative conservation. However, it has [broadened considerably ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov%27s_gun?wprov=sfla1) in usage over the years since.
The locket and diadem in Harry Potter.
The locket specifically. It's just >!something they happen upon while cleaning in OotP, has like half a sentence, and then in DH you're just like oooohhhhh shiiiiiiiit!!<
The diadem is even more of a throwaway mention. Like they weren't even consciously aware of it. It was just described as a part of the background.
Most of the Harry Potter novels are basically structured like mystery novels where lots of clues are sprinkled throughout and a number of suspicious characters are introduced and then at the end there’s a big reveal of what was going on. It wasn’t a surprise to me that Rowling eventually started writing murder mysteries after finishing HP.
but yet, in books 3 and 5 she introduces items so powerful you have to wonder why the whole thing is happening in the first place. And yet they are never mentioned again. Yes the time turner and Felix Felicis are situation dependent, but as Dumbledore seemed prescient enough to predict his own downfall you have to wonder why he didnt down a gallon of the potion before going back in time to take out "Death of Small Riverside Animals" (i like to think that Voldemort means Death of Voles, in a Latin to English translation. I know it doesnt) at any point.
This question could be answered by basically anything in Harry Potter. Marvolo's ring does it *twice*. It's happening constantly up until the very last moments of the final conflict, all of which boils down to multiple events that were mentioned in passing being crucial to the outcome.
My favorite was the vanishing cabinet that lets the death eaters into the castle in book 6 being mentioned in book 2 as where Harry hides in Borgin and Burkes. Good chance it was a retcon, but I still appreciate the attention to detail.
Pretty much all of attack on Titan.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica Character 1: "How do you know when [incredibly powerful monster that the characters have never seen before] will arrive?" Character 2: >!"Statistics"!<
Hahahahahahaha I haven't seen it since 2011 so completely forgot she phrased it that way. That's a funny way to put in retrospect. xD I keep planning to watch the fancutfags edit in preparation for the new movie
Animal gentling in Lies of Locke Lamora
In Blade of Tyshalle, Caine is >!tied up and unable to move as he's being used as bait for his wife (who is at this time partly a river goddess). She gets killed so close to him that her blood is in his mouth. This seems like a small bit of gross flavour description until several hundred pages later when it comes out that she was making a cure for the virus in the book, and it is now working through him and everyone he's come into contact with. !<
Sanderson is the king of this. Mistborn era 1 may be the best example, but it's all over all of his stories.
I think Malazan deserves a mention here. >!Whiskeyjack, one of the main and most beloved characters, takes a leg injury early in the series. He has it healed, but couldn't ever afford to take the downtime required to have it truly fixed.!< >!Multiple 1000+ page books later. Whiskey jack is singlehandedly fighting a traitorous pseudo-god, and winning.. And his injured leg rebreaks, and he dies a needless death.!<
> Multiple 1000+ pages books later At this point it really is his own fault.
It wasn't entirely on him, as a certain someone gave him a nudge to keep avoiding it.
It would have been. But then the Queen of Dreams makes an almost off-handed comment in The Bonehunters...
>traitorous pseudo-god Rude. More like immortal relentless hero and all-around ray of sunshine.
That's like the opposite of the example. It's gets brought up so much throughout the book it happens in that it might as well be a flashing red light of danger approaching
I was also thinking Malazan, but rather a harmless goodbye touch on the shoulder from a certain Tanno Spiritwalker...
The phrase "Dead Gods" in the Wandering Inn (fantastic audiobook series btw, also free to read online!). It's used as an expletive or expression of shock/surprise by pretty much everyone. There are no gods whatsoever in the fantasy world as it is presented to the reader, and in fact the word god isn't even in any native's vocabulary outside of the context of this one phrase. However, you eventually come to find out that >!gods dying, and trying to come back from being dead, is in fact a concept *extremely* relevant to the plot.!<
Hobb tells us multiple times who the traitor in royal assassin is. But bc we don't know...we don't know.
In Malazan, the true identities of Shadowthrone and Cotillion, two important Ascended gods of the Malazan world are revealed in the opening epigraph of the first book Gardens of the Moon. But since you don’t have context yet you just read right past it, and the actual reveal is in the second book Deadhouse Gates.
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. If you've read it, you know.
It's American Gods.
Does the One Ring fit this description?
Mmm I don't think so, because Tolkein hadn't planned the Ring's significance when it was written into The Hobbit. I think a good example in LOTR would be the Barrow-Blade given to the Hobbits by Bombadil. It turns out that they were specifically wrought with ancient magic to be effective against the Angmar, and Merry uses his to stab the Witch-King, which makes him vulnerable to Eowin.
Ned Stark kept Leanna’s secret for 14 years.
*Look for me at first light on the fifth day*
Harry Potter In book like... 5 I think? Petunia makes an offhand comment about "that boy" that used to hang around with Lily. At the time, everyone (including the reader) just knows she's talking about James. Spoiler just in case you haven't read these yet. >!But then later, after you finish the series, and you're doing a reread, and you get back to this point and you see "that boy" and you're like...... ooooooohhhhh my god she was talking about snape.!< Anyway, even though jkr is a trash human being, she actually did this very well many many times throughout the series, not just here. This one was just by far the most subtle.
Essentially the entire concept of Harry Potter is miscellaneous tidbits of detail becoming plot-critical. Ron tells Harry that Scabbers is missing a toe in book 1. My favorite is probably how Harry constantly hears that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald long ago and never thinks about it at all, until in the end it turns out to be the central key element of one of the most important reveals.
My favourite is from the end of book 4 after Harry tells Dumbledore that Voldemort used Harry's blood to restore his body: "For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes." I also love that the locket is casually mentioned in book 5 when they're cleaning out 12 Grimmauld Place.
Or even how Harry disarming Draco at Malfoy Manor turns out to be the final puzzle piece that puts everything into place. Its an almost throwaway part of a minor battle...until its not.
I'd say A Song of Ice and Fire? If you can bear the thought of the last books not being out yet...
I'm on my first re-read in like 8-9 years and there's so much in just book 1; things like >!Jorah being the spy and son of Jeor, and Mance Raydar being King-Beyond-the Wall are mentioned several times, but the importance of those things aren't revealed until much later. Then there's Ned reminiscing about his dead sister and all the hints about R+L=J, Aegon's skull being a mess beyond recognition, Varys and Illyrio's conversation that Arya overhears, the plain horn Sam finds that's probably the horn of winter, Tom of Sevenstreams being a mole for the BWB, Ghost being a second life "fit for a king" which foreshadows not only R+L=J but also Jon warging Ghost upon his death, Mirri's "when the sun sets in the east" speech straight up being a prophecy that is coming true, the Golden Company siding with "Aegon", etc. So many details or lines of dialogue that seem insignificant but end up being really important.!< Though like you say, we are still short 2 books so many of these amazingly subtle events may never be truly paid off :( ASOIAF is absolutely full of these things, I'd definitely recommend OP to try the books if they haven't read them
That's something I love about the series. It's absolutely packed with detail in a way no other series I've read has been. There are Chekhov guns, foreshadowing at different levels from the obvious to things you'd never consider until at least a second readthrough, along with a barrel of red herrings. There's so much fan speculation because of it.
And this is why Martin is my favorite author. Ive studied his structural writing and its pretty interesting. He always has a theme for each character and chapter. Its teased in the beginning and “revealed” concluded at the end of each chapter. He also teases and foreshadows by sprinkling things in. And when he’s trying to tip you off of a future event, ex Tyrion’s comment of Catelyn in Book 1 of her “having a heart of stone”, not inly foreshadowed Lady Stoneheart in another book, but also teased something else (which I cant remember off the top of my head). He also reveals “truths” or hints in every chapter but right when a character is hyper focused, the attention turns to something else very quickly to distract the reader. Essentially, he structures his chapters (and books) like he would a tv show which makes his writing (and also Suzanne Collins HG) very addictive to read.
Ascencance of a Bookworm. 33 books and just about every line comes back up again.
33?? Oh shit. I only read to the end of part 1, I think, which was like 3 or 4 books. Wasn't any else fan TLed at the time. I'm thinking of doing the anime as a refresher but I know it's surpassed where I read to so maybe not. Or both..
There's a really excellent example of this in A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. It's a really obvious moment where Vernon practically fires off a flare gun and then pays it off beautifully at the end
The Wheel of Time is flat out THE series for this. No other series has as many, or as well-executed. Just in the first book >!Rand channeling throughout the book and displaying every symptom Moiraine lists but portrayed so its not obvious!<. And that’s just the start. >!Agelmar being a Darkfriend who let the trollocs into the fortress!<, >!Verin outright telling a lie!<, >!Siuan talking about why a Stilled Amyrlin cannot be allowed to escape!<, >!Sheriam being Black Ajah!<, >!Mat dying and being unbound from the Horn!<, >!Rand tells Min he would *cut off his arm rather than hurt you*, which is yikes!<, even something as basic as CLOTHING because >!every Black Sister wears the darkest version of their public Ajah’s colors, so deep its almost black, because they wear their Ajah colors just as proudly as any other Aes Sedai!<.
Stupid sexy Sanderson and his Mistborn era 1 foreshadowing.
Far be it from me to praise Rowling, but as a reader, two of the horcrux are mentioned in earlier books. In "Order of the Phoenix", when they are clearing out the Black house, they come across an unopenable locket. (Slytherin's locket). They throw it in a random box and forget about it. In "Half Blood Prince" when Ginny takes Harry to the Room of Requirement to ditch the potions book, a tiara is mentioned briefly in the description of the room, amongst many other lost items. (Ravenclaw's Diadem).