History Main / KeepingSecretsSucks

** The first Great Prophecy. Secret keepers: Annabeth and Chiron)

** The Greek Camp from the Roman Half-bloods. (see above).

** My life is tied to a piece half burned wood. Secret keeper:[[spoiler: Frank]]

* Lady Audley in Lady Audley's Secret resorts to murder a couple of times in an effort to hide her bigamy. [[spoiler:She does crack eventually, though.]]

Of course, if the keeper is [[BerserkButton having their buttons mashed in]], they may blurt it out to hurt another character. [[ResuscitateTheDog Much to their regret later on.]] Villains on the other hand will use it to [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord blackmail]] the keeper... which of course, doesn't stop it from coming to light eventually. When a character genuinely doesn't ''want'' to spill the beans, it's because TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason. This is one of the reasons TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife.

** Eventually the stress drives Twilight mad and after struggling to keep herself quiet ends up blurting out [[spoiler: Spike's "secret" crush on Rarity]].

* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]],'' Ranma swears to keep Ryouga's curse secret, even when Ryouga uses his cursed form to sleep with Ranma's fiancee Akane. Ryouga's cursed form is as a cute little piglet that Akane adopts as a pet. Semi-subverted in that while Ranma wont come right out and say it he does drop a megaton load of hints, but Akane is just [[MasterOfDelusion that dense]] that she doesn't get it.
* The fact that everyone in ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' is hiding something is one of the main reasons for how badly things always turn out. Because everyone is keeping secrets, [[spoiler:they can't trust each other and work together, and the HatePlague will seize on that distrust and turn one or more of them into a delusional, homicidal serial killer]], which is the ''last'' thing they need with everything else that's going wrong. Interestingly, TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason is also an important part of at least two arcs.

* The fact that everyone in ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' is hiding something is one of the main reasons for how badly things always turn out. Because everyone is keeping secrets, [[spoiler:they can't trust each other and work together, and the HatePlague will seize on that distrust and turn one or more of them into a delusional, homicidal serial killer]], which is the ''last'' thing they need with everything else that's going wrong.

* The title character of ''Jem'' maintains a double-life as the titular pop star and as Jerrica Benton, which wreaks havoc on her love life since she ends up getting her boyfriend, Rio, attracted to ''both'' identities and never does get the nerve to tell him for fear of how he'd react to being led on. She also deals with the affections of Riot from The Stingers, who's attracted to her Jem persona only. It also causes other problems since her method of staying in persona requires that she wear a pair of holographic earrings (as opposed to make-up), such as not being able to get through metal detectors. Furthermore, since Jem is entirely made up as a person, Eric Raymond tries to exploit this in one episode by setting most of the city on a massive manhunt to learn her real identity, though she's able to get people to calm down and leave her be at the end of the episode.

* It's not always puppies and sunshine for the cast of ''HannahMontana'', mainly due to this trope.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* In the ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode Green Is Not Your Color, Rarity confides to Twilight Sparkle that she is incredibly jealous of Fluttershy for her job as a model, while Fluttershy tells Twilight that she hates her job. HilarityEnsues (mostly from Pinkie Pie's constant reminders on the importance of keeping secrets).
** Eventually the stress drives Twilight mad and after struggling to keep herself quiet ends up blurting out [[spoiler: Spike's "secret" crush on Rarity]].

----

->''Secret-keeping is a complicated endeavor. One has to be concerned not only about what one says, but about facial expressions, autonomic reflexes. When I try to deceive, I myself have more nervous tics than a Lyme disease research facility.''

* In the ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode Green Is Not Your Color, Rarity confides to Twilight Sparkle that she is incredibly jealous of Fluttershy for her job as a model, while Fluttershy tells Twilight that she hates her job. HilarityEnsues.

->-- '''Olive Snook''', ''PushingDaisies''

This is especially excruciating for characters who are TheFettered, are [[MagicallyBindingContract magically]] [[RestrainingBolt restrained]] from [[TongueTied spilling the beans]], or simply caught between the [[ConflictingLoyalty conflicting loyalties]].

--> -- '''Olive Snook''', ''PushingDaisies''

Of course, if the keeper is [[BerserkButton having their buttons mashed in]], they may blurt it out to hurt another character. [[ResuscitateTheDog Much to their regret later on.]] Villains on the other hand will use it to [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord blackmail]] the keeper... which of course, doesn't stop it from coming to light eventually. When a character genuinely doesn't ''want'' to spill the beans, it's because TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason.

->'''''[[MemeticMutation USO DA!]]'''''
--> -- '''Any main character''' in ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi''

[[AC:Literature]]

* Lady Audley in {{Lady Audley's Secret}} resorts to murder a couple of times in an effort to hide her bigamy. [[spoiler:She does crack eventually, though.]]

* For {{Comicbook/Spider-Man}}, things could have been so much easier... if everyone he cared about had known he was a super-hero. Subverted when one of his closest friends proves to be a deadly enemy.

* For {{Comicbook/Spider-Man}}, things could have been so much easy... if everyone he cared about had known he was a super-hero. Subverted when one of his closest friends proves to be a deadly enemy.

--> -- '''Rena''', ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi''

* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]],'' Ranma swears to keep Ryouga's curse secret, even when Ryouga uses his cursed form to sleep with Ranma's fiancee Akane. Ryouga's cursed form is as a cute little piglet that Akane adopts as a pet. Semi-subverted in that while Ranma wont come right out and say it he does drop a megaton load of hints, but Akane is just that dense that she doesn't get it.