History Main / ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies

-->-- '''Peter Parker''', ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy''. And you better believe [[DoomMagnet he's not kidding]].

* The first ''Film/SpiderMan'' film: Peter gives Mary-Jane the JustFriends excuse when she finally tells him she loves him, after nearly losing her to a SadisticChoice. (And let's not forget he ''did'' lose a love interest in an almost identical scenario in the comic books.) All three movies nonetheless climax with villains luring Spider-Man by [[DistressedDamsel holding Mary-Jane hostage]], whether they're together or not.

* Joshua in ''Film/AnimalKingdom'' is compelled to dump his girlfriend after his criminal family inform him she knows too much about their dealings. [[spoiler: Even this doesn't stop Joshua's paranoid Uncle Pope drugging and strangling her.]]
* In the ''Film/IronMan'' movies, Tony Stark subverts this and in doing so shows why it's not necessarily a bad thing. He reveals his identity as Iron Man to the world, and makes no particular secret of his love for Pepper Potts either (though it's not clear if he himself 100% realizes how deep it is)...and what ensues in ''Film/IronMan2'' shows that secret identities are not necessarily bad ideas.

* In ''Rip and Teri'', after catching one of his old enemies attempting to seduce Teri, the woman he loves, in an effort to get to him, secret agent Rip Dustin mentally prepares himself to tell her that he hates her in order to drive her away and ensure her safety from his many enemies - but he's unable to bring himself do so, and can only tell her that "I'll always love you." before leaving her. Needless to say, this doesn't have the driving-away effect he was hoping for.

-->--'''Peter Parker''', ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy''. And you better believe [[DoomMagnet he's not kidding]].

* The first ''Film/{{Spider-Man|Trilogy}}'' film: Peter gives Mary-Jane the JustFriends excuse when she finally tells him she loves him, after nearly losing her to a SadisticChoice. (And let's not forget he ''did'' lose a love interest in an almost identical scenario in the comic books.) All three movies nonetheless climax with villains luring Spider-Man by [[DistressedDamsel holding Mary-Jane hostage]], whether they're together or not.

* Joshua in ''AnimalKingdom'' is compelled to dump his girlfriend after his criminal family inform him she knows too much about their dealings. [[spoiler: Even this doesn't stop Joshua's paranoid Uncle Pope drugging and strangling her.]]
* In the ''Film/IronMan'' movies, Tony Stark subverts this and in doing so shows why it's not necessarily a bad thing. He reveals his identity as Iron Man to the world, and makes no particular secret of his love for Pepper Potts either (though it's not clear if he himself 100% realizes how deep it is)...and what ensues in ''IronMan2'' shows that secret identities are not necessarily bad ideas.

* At the end of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles: Literature/Changes'' Harry sends [[spoiler: his daughter]] to [[spoiler: be placed in a foster home without him knowing where]] so that his enemies can't find her. In ''Ghost Story'', we find out the person he entrusts this to does one better and [[spoiler: puts her in a house guarded by archangels. Michael's house, specifically.]]

* Played with in DCNation with the {{Original Character}}s. Green Shield only kept her heroing life a secret until she could figure out how to come out to her folks...only for her kid sister to run off with one of the team's enemies. Travis Gray, and the Zukov siblings never bothered - the siblings only care for each other for the most part, and Travis was living on the streets. Fauna keeps hers because the [[CapeBusters activist movements]] she works with and her [[ActualPacifist strictly-pacifist Commune]] would certainly condemn her choice, and she doesn't want them "paying for" her private decision.

* Defied in ComicBook/NewAvengers. Both Comicbook/DoctorStrange and {{Daredevil}} attempt to refuse an offer of membership because they have enemies, people are out to get them, etc. Luke Cage has to remind them that they're all heroes and they ''all'' have enemies.

* An example for the above statement would be Benjamin Grimm, AKA [[ComicBook/FantasticFour The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing]], who left his fiancee at the altar because of this - he saw Spidey, Daredevil, Banner and Namor sitting together talking at the wedding, and realized that ''all four'' of them had lost the women they loved.

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* FruitsBasket: Rin Souma breaks up with pretty much the only person who has ever actually loved her, so that he won't get in trouble with Akito (who has already told Rin he [[{{SadisticChoice}} knows about the relationship]] and [[{{DestinationDefenestration}} pushed her out a window]]).The only problem? Rin '''doesn't tell Haru why she's doing this'''. The reason she gives is not "Akito knows and we'll get in trouble". It's "I'm tired of you". This leads a really bad case of [[{{LockedOutOfTheLoop}} Poor Communication Destroys the School]] involving [[{{SuperPoweredEvilSide}} Black Haru]] and a bucket of water.
* At one point during the second season of ''CodeGeass'' some of Lelouch's flunkies (rightfully) think he is doing this with Shirley. When a body double mix up at his school leads to problems maintaining his cover one points out that it could all be solved simply by getting Shirley involved. Lelouch is reluctant, however, as being near him is a surefire way to get killed [[spoiler: like his half-sister Euphemia]] and [[spoiler: he had already mucked up her life horribly, both [[LaserGuidedAmnesia by tampering extensively with her memories]] and accidentally killing her father]]. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: she dies anyway soon afterward]].
** Done again with Kallen later on. The last thing Lelouch does before kicking off his plan for world peace, that would [[spoiler: make him the most hated person on earth, and [[ThanatosGambit end in his death]]]], is [[ShooTheDog push Kallen away]] to make sure [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy she gets a happy ending]].

*** The entirety of Lelouch and [[spoiler:Kallen's]] character dynamic leans into this as the series moves on, as [[spoiler:Kallen slowly starts having feelings for Lelouch, both as himself and as Zero. Lelouch's responses basically amount to finding increasingly creative ways to try and make her disgusted with him, in spite of how he goes out of his way to protect her in other cases.]]
** This is also the main reason he makes up the masked persona of Zero to lead the rebellion: he doesn't want Nunally to be in any danger, and she ''would'' be if word got out that Lelouch was the leader of the rebellion.

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* The first ''[[Film/{{Spider-ManTrilogy}} Spider-Man]]'' film: Peter gives Mary-Jane the JustFriends excuse when she finally tells him she loves him, after nearly losing her to a SadisticChoice. (And let's not forget he ''did'' lose a love interest in an almost identical scenario in the comic books.) All three movies nonetheless climax with villains luring Spider-Man by [[DistressedDamsel holding Mary-Jane hostage]], whether they're together or not.

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* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] on ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': [[WrongGenreSavvy Valerie]], the [[DatingCatwoman "villainous" love interest]], decides not to pursue her relationship with Danny so she can hunt his SecretIdentity: "There's something important I have to do right now, and I don't want you to get hurt because of it." Hey, you can't please everyone. The irony here is that ''he's'' the enemy and already knew her secret identity, making the whole thing rather sad.

** This is also given as the reason why Mulder is not with Scully and William in season 9.

* At the end of ''[[TheDresdenFiles Changes]]'' [[spoiler: Harry sends his daughter to be placed in a foster home without him knowing where so that his enemies can't find her.]] In ''Ghost Story'', we find out [[spoiler:the person he entrusts this to does one better and puts her in a house guarded by archangels. Michael's house, specifically.]]
* A version of this is done in ''New Moon'' (the second book of Stephenie Meyer's ''{{Twilight}}'' saga), when Edward leaves Bella, telling her she'll never see him again, in order to keep her safe. Not played exactly straight because he's not protecting her from his enemies as much as [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires he's protecting her from]] [[HorrorHunger his own insatiable thirst for her blood.]] In actuality he left her unprotected from his enemies.

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* Played with in DCNation with the {{Original Character}}s. Green Shield only kept her heroing life a secret until she could figure out how to come out to her folks...only for her kid sister to run off with one of the team's enemies. Travis Gray, and the Zukov siblings never bothered - the siblings only care for each other for the most part, and Travis was living on the streets. Fauna keeps hers because the [[CapeBusters activist movements]] she works with and her [[ActualPacifist strictly-pacifist Commune]] would certainly condemn her choice, and she doesn't want them "paying for" her private decision.
* In ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', [[OCStandIn Michikyuu Kanae]] gave a speech about how she's just bringing trouble on the SOS Brigade [[spoiler: before attempting to slide to another world... at which point Nagato [[DefiedTrope engages the Dimensional Anchor, trapping her.]]]]
* In FanFic/InFlight, [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Shirou]] leaves [[{{Tsundere}} Rin]] and Saber behind in England when he runs away before the Mage's Organization does something horrible to him due to this trope, especially as they rely on and belong to said organization.
* This trope and ConflictingLoyalty are responsible for the issues getting between [[Manga/LuckyStar Kagami]] and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura]] in ''FanFic/StarsAbove''.

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* This trope and ConflictingLoyalty are responsible for the issues getting between [[LuckyStar Kagami]] and [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura]] in ''FanFic/StarsAbove''.

* ''[[SoulSeries Soul Calibur]]'': Kilik knows that his longtime traveling companion Xianghua has romantic feelings for him, but his quest to destroy Soul Edge prevents him from wanting to get too close to her (Kilik's first love, Xianghua's older sister was killed by him while he was under possession of the Evil Seed). In Xianghua's ''SCIV'' ending, [[spoiler:he explicitly tells this to her as he grabs hold of the cursed sword. [[TakingYouWithMe She's not listening, no matter what.]]]]

** The only person to survive prolonged exposure to him is his mate Chaz. Which makes the fate of Chaz's young sidekick namesake in TheMovie particularly unfortunate....

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] on ''DannyPhantom'': [[WrongGenreSavvy Valerie]], the [[DatingCatwoman "villainous" love interest]], decides not to pursue her relationship with Danny so she can hunt his SecretIdentity: "There's something important I have to do right now, and I don't want you to get hurt because of it." Hey, you can't please everyone. Of course, the irony here is that ''he's'' the enemy and already knew her secret identity, making the whole thing rather sad.
* Terry [=McGinnis=] of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' gives his longtime girlfriend Dana Tan an ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies speech in the FullyAbsorbedFinale episode "Epilogue" of ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited''. However, the scene appears to be a hypothetical one imagined by Terry rather than actually happening; at the end of the episode [[spoiler:he calls Dana to confirm a date they've scheduled, and is clearly planning to propose.]]

** And he's not wrong: considering the whole thing about Jason Todd, you can see that even ''in'' costume, it's hard to hang around Batman.

[[caption-width-right:350:Because of Superman's enemies, Lois Lane must live in the Popemobile go-cart. AndThatsTerrible.]]

* Invoked and subverted in ''{{Sorcery 101}}''.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superdickerygocart.jpg]]]]

* This is the reason {{Batman}} tries to avoid getting serious with anyone, why he has so few friends, and why he's a JerkAss to a majority of his sidekick squad. It's not that he wants to be, he just wants to protect them, because the things ''his'' RoguesGallery does are better not seen by anyone, really. Plus, he doesn't want anyone else growing up like him, bitter and angry at the world, and he's trying to avoid causing anyone pain from when he inevitably falls in combat or finally snaps. [[CrapsackWorld Batman's world is not happy.]]
* Heck, in a way, just about ANY given costumed super hero with a secret identity can be quite susceptible to this. (Even characters who don't have a secret identity are not entirely immune from this as well.)

** Bruce had originally viewed this as his issue with Vicki, until [[TheReveal he told her]]. Of course, this was broken up by The Joker coming in. Vicki ended up dumping ''him'' because she couldn't handle it. This ends up haunting him for the rest of the Burton-Shumacher quadrilogy.

** ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies only presumably worked with Chase Meridan. After the whole Riddler thing, it seems that she and Batman are going to still be together, but for some reason, the next movie had Batman dating someone else. We can assume that she either got bored with him (and given the character, this is more likely), or Bruce pulled this card.

* ''PhineasAndFerb'': Along with many other SuperheroTropes rolled into the episode called ''The Beak''. Phineas and Isabella [[ShipTease naturally.]

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* ''PhineasAndFerb'': Along with many other SuperheroTropes rolled into the episode called ''The Beak''. Phineas and Isabella [[ShipTease naturally.]]
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* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the [[FourthWallMailSlot Q&A]]'s of {{El Goonish Shive}}: [[HotScientist Amanda]] asks [[BadassTeacher Raven]] on a date, who replies with this. Amanda's response:

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' Agatha hasn't chosen between Gil and Tarvek, but she is quite certain she wants both of them safely ''out'' of castle. [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090209 She doesn't want another -- '''anyone'' dying on her behalf.]]

* FruitsBasket: Rin Souma breaks up with pretty much the only person who has ever actually loved her, so that he won't get in trouble with Akito (who has already told Rin he [[{{SadisticChoice}} knows about the realationship]] and [[{{DestinationDefenestration}} pushed her out a window]]).The only problem? Rin '''doesn't tell Haru why she's doing this'''. The reason she gives is not "Akito knows and we'll get in trouble". It's "I'm tired of you". This leads a really bad case of [[{{LockedOutOfTheLoop}} Poor Communication Destroys the School]] involving [[{{SuperPoweredEvilSide}} Black Haru]] and a bucket of water.