History Main / LyingToProtectYourFeelings

* In Season 2 of ''[[Anime/YuGiOhGX Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'', after Chazz is freed from Sartorius' mind control, he can't remember what he did when he was brainwashed or even how it happened. When he sees his crush Alexis is still a member of Sartorius' cult, he concocts this YouAreWorthHell[=/=]StarCrossedLovers scenario where Sartorius used their "love" to manipulate the two of them. This is not even close to true (he was broken by his desire to become strong enough to defeat Jaden, and he himself brainwashed Alexis later when she tried to stop him from taking over their dorm), but Ojama Yellow convinces his two brothers to let Chazz fill in the blanks in whatever way makes him feel better.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

* ''Film/DominickAndEugene'' follows two brothers, Dominick "Nicky" and Eugene "Gino" Luciano. Nicky has a mental handicap caused by an accident in his childhood where he fell and hit his head, giving him amnesia and a learning disability. Later he realizes that it was actually caused by his father violently beating him, and that Eugene had known all along and hidden the truth from him with a made-up story.

* ''WesternAnimation/KidCosmic'': Papa G has a tendency to lie to others to make them feel better, such as [[EngineeredHeroics faking a win for Kid]] so he can feel good about himself. [[spoiler:In Season 3, he's the first one to figure out that the cast is in a LotusEaterMachine that fulfills Kid's dreams of being a superhero but doesn't tell anyone else because he wants Kid to be happy.]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* This plays an important role in ''ComicBook/ThroughTheMoon''. Lujanne tells Callum that "White lies are illusions you build with your words to protect the hearts of those you love". He uses this to as a justification to convince Rayla to lie to Lujanne about the moon nexus. Later Rayla uses this as a justification to lie to Callum by agreeing to leave together in the morning, only to sneak off alone in the middle of the night.

* In contrast to her canon self from ''Manga/FairyTail'', Kagura in the ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'' knows her brother Simon is dead but not that Laxus[[note]]who takes the place of Jellal[[/note]] killed him. Mira withheld the truth because just recently an amnesiac Laxus helped then against the Oracion Seis earlier, and that Kagura remembered Laxus[[note]]or rather, his Edolas counterpart[[/note]] helped her years ago in trying to find her brother before leaving her at Cait Shelter.

* In ''Film/SawI'', when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having a heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

* In ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'', Tess's one-week old baby Sorrow falls ill, and in an attempt to salvage his soul before he dies, she and her younger siblings give him an at-home baptism. After Sorrow dies, Tess goes to the new parish in town and asks if her baptism did as much for her baby as if the parish had done it. His first thought is to tell her no, but after seeing how much the question means to her, his "nobler impulses" are brought to the forefront, and he kindly tells her that what she did was just as good as an in-house ceremony.[[note]]In Catholicism, such a baptism is completely valid.[[/note]] She then asks him if he can give Sorrow a Christian burial, but when he reluctantly refuses, she asks if Sorrow's soul will be worse off without it -- he answers that a non-Christian burial won't hurt her baby's chances at heaven.

* On ''Series/BlueBloods'', Frank identifies a newly-promoted officer's father as a cop-killer Henry'd been [[ThatOneCase obsessed with catching]] for forty years, but lacks the evidence to convict. Reluctantly, he asks the man's son to wear a wire and get his father to confess the truth. The son gets the proof the prosecutor needs; arrested, the cop-killer asks Frank if he'd ordered his son to record him, and Frank falsely claims he ''had'' done so to ensure their relationship won't be damaged as badly.

* ''VideoGame/ClamMan'': Natalya, the landlord's young daughter, tries to calculate how much rent Clam Man has to pay now that her father has increased the rent. She guesses "thirteen rents," which is wrong.[[note]]Clam Man's rent has been doubled, and he has been ordered to pay three months' rent for the month, so that would technically be six "rents."[[/note]] The player is then given a choice between telling her she's wrong, or saying she got it right. Choose the latter, and she'll respond with "Yay!"
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', Fang and Vanille mutually take on the burden of [[spoiler:becoming Ragnarok, which will kill ''a lot'' of people]]. Then Fang gets amnesia and Vanille decides not to tell her about [[spoiler:their Focus (or what Fang did to achieve it)]], because then only Vanille will be [[TransformationHorror punished]] for not fulfilling it. Unfortunately, soon after, Fang's memories come back.

* For a good portion of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Princes Ezran and Callum don't know that their father/adoptive father King Harrow is dead, killed by the elven assassin leader Runaan. Rayla, who has been traveling with them, hasn't told them. Later, when Claudia and Soren show up, Soren lies to tell them, telling them that their father is really looking forward to seeing them. Claudia is embarrassed by her brother's behavior, but later uses the truth as a means to try to get Callum to come back with her. Callum is mad at Rayla for not telling him the truth. Later, however, he can't bring himself to tell Ezran and realizes how Rayla felt and why she didn't tell them. The two discuss the matter and Callum wonders if maybe Soren wasn't doing the same thing.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich sehr gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it very much"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after Eduard van der Nüll, an architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House, [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard [[TakeThat publicly mocking]] it (referring to it as the "[[ShockingDefeatLegacy Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after Eduard van der Nüll, an architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House, [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it (referring to it as the "[[CurbStompBattle Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after Eduard van der Nüll, am architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House, [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it (referring to it as the "[[CurbStompBattle Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after a Eduard van der Nüll, am architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House, [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it (referring to it as the "[[CurbStompBattle Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after a Eduard van der Nüll, am architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it (referring to it as the "[[CurbStompBattle Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after a Eduard van der Nüll, am architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it (referring to it as the "[[CurbStompBattle Königgrätz]] of architecture"). Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising a [[CatchPhrase (much-derided) standard phrase]] whenever asked to publicly voice an opinion on something: ''"Es war sehr schön, es hat mich gefreut"'' ("It was very nice, I liked it"). Urban legend has it that he started with that phrase after an architect working on the (at the time rather controversial) Vienna State Opera House [[DrivenToSuicide hurled himself off the roof]] after the Emperor himself was heard mocking it. Rather than risking another life by unwittingly unleashing that kind of stigma, Franz Joseph decided to lie on the side of caution.

* In his later years, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary]] began utilising

** Given a different twist in the original novel, ''A Slight Trick of the Mind.'' Again, Holmes has no memory of meeting Mr. Umezaki. [[spoiler: However, he ''also'' realizes that he must have done so and that he has burned the volume of Watson's diaries that contains the record of this encounter, probably because that volume included politically sensitive information.]]

* In ''Film/SawI'', when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having an heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

* In ''Film/SawI'', when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having an heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having an heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.
-->'''Lawrence:''' ''([[BreakTheHaughty nearly crying]])'' Why didn't you show me this before?\\

* In ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'', Tess's one-week old baby Sorrow falls ill, and in an attempt to salvage his soul before he dies, she and her younger siblings give him an at-home baptism. After Sorrow dies, Tess goes to the new parish in town and asks if her baptism did as much for her baby as if the parish had done it. His first thought is to tell her no, but after seeing how much the question means to her, his "nobler impulses" are brought to the forefront, and he kindly tells her that what she did was just as good as an in-house ceremony. She then asks him if he can give Sorrow a Christian burial, but when he reluctantly refuses, she asks if Sorrow's soul will be worse off without it -- he answers that a non-Christian burial won't hurt her baby's chances at heaven.

'''Fang:''' That is no reason to lie to me! You think that's what I ''want''?! ''[[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship You]]'', of ''all'' people-

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having an heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.
-->'''Lawrence, [[BreakTheHaughty nearly crying:]]''' Why didn't you show me this before?
-->'''Adam:''' ...I couldn't. I'm sorry.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Burnham takes it upon herself to lie to Saru while they are both trapped in the Mirror Universe. [[spoiler: Saru had asked if Burnham had seen any Kelpiens aboard the ISS Shenzhou, which Burnham denies. In reality, Saru's people are slaves, and Burnham is forced to ''eat'' parts of a Kelpien in a later episode.]] Once the truth comes out, Burnham directly cites this trope.

** [[spoiler: Lying about your father Alec's death will cause a WhatTheHellHero moment when they finally wake up.]]
** [[spoiler: Lying about Habitat 7 results in the twin calling you out later, but they have already come in terms with it when you meet.]]
** [[spoiler: However, [[BrutalHonesty telling the truth about both]] will [[HeroicBSOD instantly severe the connection and cause their vitals to take a slight drop.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/ClamMan'': Natalya, the landlord's young daughter, tries to calculate how much rent Clam Man has to pay now that her father has increased the rent. She guesses "thirteen rents," which is wrong.[[note]]Clam Man's rent has been doubled, and he has been ordered to pay three months' rent for the month, so that would technically be six "rents."[[/note]] The player is then given a choice between telling her she's wrong, or saying she got it right. Choose the latter, and she'll respond with "Yay!"

* In the ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' episode "Leela's Homeworld", it's revealed that Leela is a sewer mutant whose parents abandoned her on the surface so that she could pass as an alien and be spared the shame of being a mutant.
* For a good portion of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Princes Ezran and Callum don't know that their father/adoptive father King Harrow is dead, killed by the elven assassin leader Runaan. Rayla, who has been traveling with them, hasn't told them. Later, when Claudia and Soren show up, Soren lies to tell them, telling them that their father is really looking forward to seeing them. Claudia is embarrassed by her brother's behavior, but later uses the truth as a means to try to get Callum to come back with her. Callum is mad at Rayla for not telling him the truth. Later, however, he can't bring himself to tell Ezran and realizes how Rayla felt and why she didn't tell them. The two discuss the matter and Callum wonders if maybe Soren wasn't doing the same thing.

* In ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'', Tess's one-week old baby Sorrow falls ill, and in an attempt to salvage his soul before he dies, she and her younger siblings give him an at-home baptism. After Sorrow dies, Tess goes to the new parish in town and asks if her baptism did as much for her baby as if the parish had done it. His first thought is to tell her no, but after seeing how much the question means to her, his "nobler impulses" are brought to the forefront, and he kindly tells her that what she did was just as good as an in-house ceremony.