History Main / AwfulTruth

** One notable example. It is implied by some hidden messages that the reason why the Foundation suddenly decided that humanity needed to be destroyed in the timeline SCP-5000 came from is that they discovered that the minds of all of humanity are infected with something terrible.

* In the TV series, Connor had already regained the memories of his real life, but in ''Series/{{Angel}}: After the Fall,'' his personal side effect of being in Hell is remembering everything. EVERYTHING, in crystal clarity. As in, vividly remembering [[OedipusComplex having sex with a woman at the same time you remember her changing your diapers.]] Plus betrayal of a loving father.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13511328/2/On-the-breeding-of-Direwolves-Dragons-Stags-and-Lions-rewrite On the breeding of Direwolves, Dragons Stags and Lions (rewrite)]]'', the truth about [[Series/GameOfThrones Jon Snow's]] true parentage is this for Catelyn Stark. The realization that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she treated the boy like dirt for no real reason at all]] (plus other issues associated with Ned claiming Jon as his bastard son) is enough to break her and [[OocIsSeriousBusiness make her ask for a divorce]].

* In ''FanFic/TheRavensPlan'', Jon Snow's true heritage as Rhaegar and Lyanna's trueborn son is this for Aliser Thorne and Catelyn Stark. For the former, it means he (a diehard Targareyn loyalist) murdered his rightful king. For the latter, it means she treated him like crap his whole life for absolutely no reason, and that he now has the power and status to make her life a living hell in turn.
** Catelyn Stark finds it infuriating that no one will tell her just why various people keeping talking to Arya about pies. When she does find out, she is horrified.

* ''Series/ThePower2023'': Roxy slowly learns her mom was not really murdered by random burglars. Rather, that her dad whom she loves and wants to impress, ordered it done.

* King Uther's refusal to tell Arthur the truth about his magical birth and the death of his mother in ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. Arthur seemed to find out in the episode "Sins of the Father", and promptly tried to kill Uther - partly for being indirectly responsible for his mother's death, but mostly for starting the Purge and painting magic as evil not out of genuine conviction but hypocritical revenge. The only reason he didn't kill Uther is because he came to believe Merlin's statement that Morgause lied to him completely instead of only partially.

** Sasuke was far happier thinking [[spoiler:his brother killed their family because he was bored than when he found out that he had really been acting under orders from Konoha]]. He was a lot saner then, too.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': In the series premiere, the protagonists awaken from stasis aboard their spaceship with no memories and name themselves [[YouAreNumberSix One through Six]] in the order they woke up. Traveling to their programmed destination, they find a mining colony where the settlers are in conflict with the corrupt MegaCorp Ferrous Corporation who want to take their land, and fear that Ferrous have hired [[TheDreaded Dreaded]] mercenaries rumored to be half-alien called "the Raza" to kill them, but are expecting reinforcements sent by a man named Hrothgar to defend the colony. Since the protagonists' cargo hold is full of weapons and their resident NiceGuy One discovered a sun pendant in his quarters that matches what Hrothgar's people are supposed to have, he assumes he and his crewmates are the promised saviors. Meanwhile, the ship's android has been attempting to recover the wiped databanks onboard: [[spoiler:discovering that except for MysteriousWaif Five, the crew are all wanted murderers and [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] guilty of everything from kidnapping and piracy to terrorism, there are no aliens, and the ''Raza'' is the name of their ship. They have the pendant and the weapons shipment because they intercepted and killed Hrothgar and his people before they could reach the colony. [[AmnesiacDissonance Naturally, the crew are taken aback]], and One in particular has a hard time with the idea that he used to be a murderous lowlife criminal. See the Quotes for this trope]].

* Rhya in ''Manga/BlackClover'' knew that Lumiere didn't betray the elves, but didn't tell the others because of his desire for revenge against the humans and to see Licht again. When he gets a hole in his gut courtesy of Zagred, [[spoiler:the true perpetrator]], he wonders if it's the price for lying.
*Ichika learns that was given the demon soul pill, the Yami clan's secret drug that spiked up her bloodlust and latent yoryoku, leading her to massacre the clan. Ichika repressed the memory, with Ryuya keeping the truth from her. The result is her older brother Sukehiro, made the scapegoat and spent years hating him for nothing.

* In ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' Louisiana Honeysuckle reveals to Qwenthur the truth she discovered on reaching the apex of Object design: [[spoiler:The incredible forces unleashed during Object battles have begun disrupting the Earth's axis, which may soon render the planet uninhabitable]].

* In the ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', members of the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Aiel]] who either wish to become [[BadassInCharge Clan Chiefs]] or have the potential to be [[BenevolentMageRuler Wise Ones]] (sometimes against their wishes) must go to the somewhat cursed city of Rhuidean to learn the history of their people. A distressing number of entrants are unable to handle the knowledge that their feared, mighty, proud, and disciplined culture [[spoiler:are not the "real" Aiel, and are in fact, descendants of a splinter group who were exiled by the "real" Aiel for violating their ActualPacifist way of life,]] and either commit suicide outright or lethally mutilate themselves. [[spoiler:Rand]] is not very affected by these visions because he never really identified as an Aiel, and is more intrigued and saddened by his new knowledge of who he originally thought was a race of almost enviably unassailable and unflappable warriors.

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': Continued use of Spiral Power will eventually lead to an event called the Spiral Nemesis, which will give birth to a super-galaxy that will rip the universe apart.

* A large part of the premise of ''Film/TheMatrix''. And thanks to the technology available, they can actually unlearn the awful truth.

** Series 12 premiere [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]] ends on TheReveal that [[spoiler:the Master discovered a long-buried truth about the history and origin of the Time Lords that horrified ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards him]]'' so badly that he [[GenocideFromTheInside wiped the other Time Lords out]] and razed Gallifrey.]] This sets up the season's StoryArc, as the Doctor has to find out what exactly it is [[spoiler:the Master]] knows, since he's certainly not explaining.

* In the ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' LetsWatchOurShowPlot fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13538042/1/Misfortune-No-One-Sees-Until-Now Misfortune No One Sees Until Now]]'', the audience, especially Mikoto Misaka, that doesn't already know about it can only react in horror to the knowledge of the [[FantasticRacism Parameter List]]. As for the Railgun herself, she nearly enters a existential crisis.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' episode "Frankie and Ellie Goes Missing" revolves around Jay and Margo's parents go missing at sea when their plane crashed (their pilot was a penguin and penguins can't fly). Though they're declared dead, Margo spends the episode searching for some sign of them, but make little progress, until Vlada, the owner of Jay's favorite restaurant, inexplicably shows up with the black box from the plane. When Margo asks how the hell Vlada got ahold of it, he tells her a bizarre story about the box turning up in a bowl of bouillabaisse made from fish from the South Pacific he served to Jay's friend Jeremy Hawke. When Jeremy complains about it, Vlada serves him a bowl of water his mother was soaking her feet and stockings in. When a grossed-out Margo asked why he told her that last part, Vlada said that [[SurpriseCreepy "the true story would be too horrible for her to contemplate!]] Enjoy!"

*Ichika learns that was given the demon soul pill, the Yami clan's secret drug that spiked up her bloodlust and latent yoryoku, leading her to massacre the clan. Ichika repressed the memory and Yami took the blame for the massacre, with Ryuya keeping the truth from her. The result is her older brother Sukehiro, made the scapegoat and spent years hating him for nothing.

* ''VideoGame/MadFather'': Subverted at first; it's no secret that Aya's father is a psychopathic murderer having an affair with his assistant (Aya's narration after the opening cutscene actually starts with "I know father's secret"). But there's another awful truth that she's not aware of, [[spoiler:which her mother reveals at the very end as a last resort. It basically sums up as "Well Aya - there's good news and bad news for you. Bad news first: your father's 'research' was all practise so he could eventually turn you into a doll and keep your for himself forever, and he murdered me when I threatened to run away with you. Good news: you're getting a pretty new dress too!]]

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', Naked Snake's mission is to kill The Boss, his EvilMentor who [[TurnCoat defected to Soviet Russia]] and instigated a nuclear incident in Russia (a good part of it, no less). [[spoiler:Then it's revealed by EVA that [[FakeDefector The Boss only defected to gain Volgin's trust]], steal [[MacGuffin the Philosopher's legacy]], and bring the whole can of bank worms back to America. The nukes were a bargaining chip to gain Volgin's trust, but [[DidntSeeThatComing "nobody could have predicted"]] [[AxCrazy that Volgin would fire a Davy Crockett on his own base.]] Because she was the main suspect of Volgin's insanity, to prevent World War III, [[TheScapegoat The Boss had to die]] - [[KlingonPromotion by the hand of her best student]]. [[SilentScapegoat She knew it,]] [[HeroicSacrifice and willingly went along with it.]]]] Then, in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Operation Snake Eater was just one of ''many'' ploy sto get [[TheParagon The Boss]] [[UnusualEuphemism out of the equation]], since [[UngratefulBastard they (The CIA)]] feared [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels her charisma]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections the powerful connections/fame she made across all nations]]. Said ploys include denying her support while spying on Russian space-faring development, sending her into space with faulty equipment (and losing the space race in the process), denying her support during the Pig Bay mission, [[LetsYouAndHimFight forcing her and The Sorrow (her husband) to fight each other to the death...]] Did we mention this is all narrated by a psychotic jailbait who threatens to nuke the east coast of the United States just so Big Boss will always be the slave of the Patriots?]] No wonder [[FutureBadass Big Boss]] goes off the deep end.

** In ''Literature/TheGunslinger'', the first novel of ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', when the Walter makes the town drunk return from the dead, Walter says "If you tell him the number 19, he will tell you what lies beyond death." When one woman does this, despite Roland's urging, she GoesMadFromTheRevelation and begs Roland to kill her.

** A side story shows a guy in apparently his dream life: a great apartment, nothing to do but play games, and endless, tailor-made sexual partners. Odd things keep happening and he is driven to find out that [[spoiler:he's actually in Hell and that, once he knows this, he can never return to the carefree life he had been living and instead will exist for eternity as a obscene, crippled husk.]] Worse still, [[spoiler:he finds out by running into one of the ''hundreds'' of other damned souls whose fate he now shares.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' episode "Frankie and Ellie Goes Missing" revolves around Jay and Margo's parents go missing at sea when their plane crashed (their pilot was [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins a penguin]] and penguins cant fly). Though they're declared dead, Margo spends the episode searching for some sign of them, but make little progress, until Vlada, the owner of Jays favorite restuarant, inexplicably shows up with the black box from the plane. When Margo asks how the hell Vlada got ahold of it, he tells her a bizarre story about the box turning up in a bowl of boulliabaise made from fish from the South Pacific he served to Jay's friend Jeremy Hawke. When Jeremy complained about it, Vlada served him a bowl of water his mother was soaking her feet and stockings in. When a grossed out Margo asked why he told her that last part, Vlada said that [[SurpriseCreepy "the true story would be too horrible for her to contemplate!]] Enjoy!"

*** Given that one of the game's major themes is faith, most, if not all core members of the Inquisition faced this trope.

* In Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas", a child is brutally tortured to maintain the prosperity of the eponymous city. At some point in their lives ''every'' citizen of Omelas sees the child and learns of the connection between the child's suffering and the city's well being. The title refers to the people who can't live with the Awful Truth anymore and leave Omelas forever.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8 music video]] for the song "Just" by ''Music/{{Radiohead}}''. A man lies down in the middle of the street, refusing to get up or tell anyone why, because if they knew, they would do the same.[[spoiler: He does and they do.]]

* In ''Webcomic/TheBikiniBottomHorror'', we learn that the Krabby Patty Secret Formula [[spoiler: includes starfish meat. Mr. Krabs stole a detatched limb from Patrick, and after it regenerated into a new starfish, he kept it prisoner and harvested its regenerating flesh.]] This causes Patrick's murderous rampage [[spoiler: when he eats an undercooked patty, acquiring his clone's memories in the process.]]

** [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLuzNoceda Luz Noceda]] learns that [[spoiler:Belos is actually Philip Wittebane and that her trip to the past gave him the tools necessary to both take over the Boiling Isles and put in motion his plans to enact genocide on the population of the Demon Realm. She appears to handle it slightly better, though she's obviously on the edge of tears as the episode ends.]]