Looking for the name of something that I suspect is a sub-trope of this one. It's when the secret is something that the character's friends would totally understand and/or forgive them for, but if they just came out and said it, the story would be over in five minutes. Raven in Teen Titans choosing not to tell the others that Trigon is her father when everyone knows who Trigon is and several episodes of them going in circles over the strangeness going on could have been prevented. And how much shorter would the Harry Potter books have been if Harry had just gone to his friends and said "I know we're in the middle of some pre-teen drama at the moment, but I'm pretty sure Voldemort's back yet again?" So yes, it's a personal issue, but one that's leaving the audience going "Talk to your friends, dammit!"
Looking for the name of something that I suspect is a sub-trope of this one. It's when the secret is something that the character's friends would totally understand and/or forgive them for, but if they just came out and said it, the story would be over in five minutes. Raven in Teen Titans choosing not to tell the others that Trigon is her father when everyone knows who Trigon is and several episodes of them going in circles over the strangeness going on could have been prevented. And how much shorter would the Harry Potter books have been if Harry had just gone to his friends and said "I know we're in the middle of some pre-teen drama at the moment, but I'm pretty sure Voldemort's back yet again?" So yes, it's a personal issue, but one that's leaving the audience going "Talk to your friends, dammit!"