While playing Borderlands 2, you will encounter an optional mission from Clap Trap, in which you have to freeze a bunch of bandits in order to make them "chill out". In the process of doing so Clappy engages you (the player) in a delightfully amusing conversation about humor and how his joke is quite possibly the funniest thing ever. In the process of this conversation he mentions that humor is the subverting of expectations, which made me think of the term in the literary sense.
So what is it to subvert expectations?
Well simply it's to provide all the details and reasoning of an action to provide an expectation of what is to happen and then as you reach the conclusion you turn what the audience (reader, player, viewer) expects on it's ear. You change the conclusion. To do so you subvert what it was they expected to happen. This is not something that could be expressed in mathematical terms as 1+1 will always be 1. If it were possible, the equivalent would be; 1+1=pie in the face.
Subverting Expectations is about the setup of a scenario and then once they think they have it figured out, you toss in something highly possible, but considered improbable for the events that led up to it. As a writer this is important for various reasons.
As a writer we write from two sides of the brain.
One is memory, and the other is creative.
The memory side calls upon what we have seen and experienced. A cool move, a great show, an idea that someone had that was undeveloped but had potential
The creative side is inspired to create something new or a variation from the ether.
When the two sides work together, there is true magic, but often times when our creative side is running low, we often pool from the memory side. We set up events and then deliver an expected pay off
For example: If Batman's fights an enemy in a movie, we expect him to defeat that enemy and "save the day" That is the expectation, because as Batman is the hero, we are supposed to root for him. His success is why we believe in characters like him.
However in The Dark Knight... (caution; spoilers)
...The Joker lived, Harvey "Two-Face" Dent died and the Batman became wanted. Even though the hero still saves the day; (Joker defeated, Two-Face stopped) the ending wasn't quite what we would have expected. It went in a different direction than what most of us would have assumed was the inevitable conclusion. Our expectations were subverted.
This was a subtle but well developed act.
As wrtiers we cannot shift too far in either direction. If we subvert too much, then we risk the harm of having a conclusion that doesn't even close to what would have made the most sense. This is generally known as a stupid bullsh!t ending.
On the other hand if we stick to the formula too much, then you get what is the most expected ending, often leaving the audience with a feeling of too predictable. (i.e. yeah I knew that was going to happen)
When it comes to recent experience with Subverting Expectations, I was pleasantly pleased to say that the ending to the Twilight: Breaking Dawn pt. 2 did something that completely blew me away. While faithful to the book, it managed to subvert my expectations in a very sly and crafty way. I was impressed.
Sometimes you have to give the audience what they want, and other times the audience doesn't really know what they want, but that's up to the writer to determine what is best for the story.
Another fine example of subverting expectations is the movie Clue. Since it is a mystery (based on a board game of all things) there is always an expectation of the clues matching up to the crimes...until you get to the end. Not only do they subvert your expectations, they present you with three different takes on the ending. One of which makes perfect sense and one that completely blows your expectations away. Each ending is valid, but only one of them is true. They are present in such a way, that even though one is true, you'll most likely pick your favorite.
So in closing, as a writer, I know that sometimes I have to deliver something that audience expects, and that's the job of every responsible writer. You can't just give them what they want. Instead you have to take what it is that they think will happen and then deliver a blow they didn't expect. They will thank you for it.
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