Has anyone EVER gotten this trope right or done it well?

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Me still laughing over how OG Tarzan learn to read and write English without first learning to speak English.

Disney-version Jane am probably thirstiest love interest in that movie canon. Megara come close second.

[AVXP]

The reveal of their origin story is usually secondary to their self-discovery anyway.

I find this to be a paradox. How can you discover yourself or CHANGE from what you are - if you don't know-WHAT YOU ARE? There is no heroes journey.
And I'll repeat that.

You basically get, at the end, THE SAME CHARACTER with superpowers/super abilities.
And the choice is between a terrible, evil fate and a 'good' one that ANYONE (normal) would choose.

It would be better if the character WANTED (along with us, the viewers/readers) that promised fate and then denied it based on the lessons from their heroes journey.

The loss of memory removes the agency and gives a scapegoat to not feel real guilt.
See, when you were evil, you were FORCED/Programmed/misled to do all those bad things so now that you have no memory or origin story, that wasn't REALLY you and you get to start over. Sure, feel a little bad for the things THAT OTHER YOU did, but hey, this new you is a good person- with powers - so go fix it all.

---

I'll put it like this- as a test.
Could the last big reveal moment happen in the first 30 seconds of the story and work without the journey?
I don't see a journey, I see a QUEST, supported by supporting characters being as vague as possible to keep the blind spots in place. And characters being vague and unclear or lying is needed.

It's honestly not about finding the truth of who you are, but how long the LIE of what you're doing can be kept up by the silly supporting characters.
Usually the mentor or wizard in the classic heroes journey...set up.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I find this to be a paradox. How can you discover yourself or CHANGE from what you are - if you don't know-WHAT YOU ARE? There is no heroes journey.

I mean...you always 'are' something. It's the nature of the human mind to have some sort of self-image; even if you don't know what you "should" be according your own standards of what makes a whole person, you always have some idea of what you are.
In these kinds of stories, that's usually a "freak" or a "nobody", an insignificant and/or fundamentally flawed person. The purpose of self-discovery is to grow from there.

It would be better if the character WANTED (along with us, the viewers/readers) that promised fate and then denied it based on the lessons from their heroes journey.

That...actually happens a lot of the time...

The loss of memory removes the agency and gives a scapegoat to not feel real guilt.See, when you were evil, you were FORCED/Programmed/misled to do all those bad things so now that you have no memory or origin story, that wasn't REALLY you and you get to start over. Sure, feel a little bad for the things THAT OTHER YOU did, but hey, this new you is a good person- with powers - so go fix it all.

Honestly, I'll buy that.

I don't see a journey, I see a QUEST, supported by supporting characters being as vague as possible to keep the blind spots in place. And characters being vague and unclear or lying is needed.

I'll buy that, too.

Could the last big reveal moment happen in the first 30 seconds of the story and work without the journey?

I...kinda thought the whole point of this topic is that the "big reveal" doesn't work. If it doesn't work with the journey, how could it possibly work without it?? No one is trying to prove that it's the most effective part of this story formula; far from it...

As for the STORY being able to work with an early reveal, yes, definitely. That's a whole other trope of its own, y'know, 'MC finds out that they're this special person who suddenly needs to be in a special place and do special things; now they have to get used to this whole new way of life and learn how to be a great princess/chosen hero/whatever else.'

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Sometimes we think we know ourselves. But mebbe we were mistaken, or mebbe we changed without realizing it. Sometimes our expectations are so strong that it take extraordinary circumstances to break us out of the trap, to allow us to act and react more honestly.

That am reason why many learning experiences first start by breaking down self-image. Boot camp, for example. They shave your head, put you in uniform, force you all to live and act the same. These external changes are meant to produce an internal change. Basic training am less about teaching you how to fire a gun and more about imparting the soldier's essential mindset.

Amnesia may be cliche, but as someone who has induced it through hypnosis me can say that it really can be important tool for self-discovery.

[Cavechan]

Tales of the Abyss does a good version of it as well

I'm currently playing through Tales of the Abyss (probably about 75% of the way through ugh) and it's so, so good.

The MC, Luke, doesn't have any memories from before, I think, seven years ago. He doesn't really go on the journey to find his lost memories, but it's definitely an important part. And the reason he lost his memory is pretty... interesting. A bit similar to the "usual", but not quite. And you don't have to wait until the end to find out. You find out relatively early on, like in the first half.

The storyline is insane. I recommend it. Just have to get past the whiny Luke for a bit. He's a super whiny/spoiled MC, but he gets better to say the least. heh

[Yoyo4991]

I think a great example of this trope done well, is the cartoon Over The Garden Wall (it's short, 10 or 11 episodes of around 11 minutes each). It's fantastic, and I think you don't know till the very end, or an episode before maybe (I've watched it a thousand times, so maybe I'm mixing stuff, but I remember the reveal was a complete surprise to me).
Everyone should check it out, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. And even if you find the trope to be blindly obvious (I did not, but maybe I'm just not that perceptive) it's overall a masterpiece. Great story, amazing music, and a candy for the eye

[DiegoPalacios]

"If you haven`t played Super Mario RPG this will blow your mind.......

Spoiler alert:

This guy is not a frog!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[Yoyo4991]

Oh! And I just remembered. There's this manga I read years ago (I STANNED) it's called Pandora Hearts, and I think the trope there is even less obvious. The manga is heavier at the beginning I should warn you, I watched an anime adaptation and wanted more, else maybe I wouldn't have read it till the end lol

[Kiweevil]

Frozen II has probably the most nonsensical execution of this trope I've ever seen. None of it, and I mean none of it makes sense. Game Theory's explanation of who Elsa was years before this film came out makes more sense than the canon one.

[Chroma]

This might not perfectly satisfy what you're looking for, but The Majestic (starring Jim Carrey!) is a great movie about someone with amnesia who has to discover who he is, without falling into the typical tropes because we spend the first half hour before he loses his memory. So we as an audience knows who he is, but the appeal of the movie is him figuring out who he wants to be. I definitely recommend!

[catfaceshirt]

The game Destiny has fun with the trope, and does it well. When somebody is reborn as a guardian, they have no memories of their past selves. The game makes use of the trope by not having the lost memory be an essential part of the story, but instead as a background mechanic of the world. Now that it is a mechanic, they can have fun with it. For example, Uldren Sov on the most surface view, was a villain. He killed Cayde, he wasn't nice ect. Some time after his death in the story, it was shown that he was reborn as a guardian. Players who didn't remember the mechanic were not happy with him being back around, but players who were familiar with the mechanic noticed that Uldren would have no memory of his past self, thus he would not actually be the same Uldren. So now, in the lore, we have recently made guardian who is hiding from all the other guardians because they hate him for some reason he does not know. I think that was an interesting twist on the lost memory formula.

[kelchan]

My manga is basically this, but in a slice of life sense. Not a fantasy/action sense.
Its basically a coming of age thing. They don't know who they are or what they want but are slowly developing it. Though there are plenty of stories where the hero becomes a hero after soul searching. This is basically alot of shounen manga

I'm not here right now. | Tapas

[unknown_user]

The game Planescape: Torment actually did this really well, and I don't want to spoil any of it because it did it so amazingly that I think you should play it for yourself and find out.

Oh yes. When I saw a main post, I immediately thought about this game.

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

sigh Me add Planescape to download list.

[jensrichard77]

I give you MEMENTO

Memento (2000) - IMDb

[darkone4587]

Well there's more to why he lacks memories and all.
And there's something to writing an intentionally unlikable protag, like there's a fine art to it and everything.

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

They just told me to be myself.

[AVXP]

You guys are killing the suggestions, so I will give an old school one of my own.
There's a novel called ARMOR about a man in a suit of armor battling an army of ants.
That one, too had a surprise twist at the end.
I don't think it made any difference, but it was related to this.

[Luminosophy]

b) This one is SPECIAL and different from the regular ones and the big reveal is who did it and why.

I think this one is the biggest pet peeve for the trope reveal, because everything becomes predictable as soon as you realize the mc is a special and yoonique snowflake. You just... know where this is heading, lol. That said, I'd still love for people to tackle it head on and see if they can work out new twists that make it interesting. The true opposite becomes just as disappointing too. Like; "Haha, I made you all watch this story for so long only to find out the mc was your average joe and all of this had absolutely no impact."

[33rdCenturyCaveman]

Ah, Starship Troopers as written by Vietnam veteran.