History Main / CannotSpitItOut

** His predecessor apparently had the same problem as seen in a flashback.

* The titular character on ''Series/Chuck'' averts this pretty hard since he seemingly can't stop telling Sarah about how he feels about her, even though their relationship is supposed to just be a cover. Sarah, on the other hand, plays it very straight for the first two and a half seasons.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' did it, but it did it right. Cloud is convinced he used to [[spoiler: be a member of [[SuperSoldier SOLDIER]]]], and all evidence points towards this -- he has the uniform, the sword, the skills and the glowing eyes. However, [[spoiler: after leaving town to join SOLDIER, he failed to get in, and instead enrolled as a basic grunt. After his idol, Sephiroth, burned down his hometown, maimed the closest thing he had to a childhood friend, nearly killed his best friend, and stabbed him through the chest, he was patched up by EvilutionaryBiologist Hojo as part of an experiment. However, the combination of the drugs and trauma completely destroyed his mind, and when they escaped and Zack died defending him he utterly snapped, adopting an elaborate system of FakeMemories and osmosed personality from Zack. The only person who knew all this was Tifa, who met Zack on the mission. But she was unable to tell him anything in fear of what effect it could have on his mental state. Her inability to do so earns Cloud a MindRape and a HeroicBSOD at the hands of Sephiroth, which Tifa has to fix in a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, after the damage has been done]].

* There's also Irvine's inability to mention [[spoiler: his past association with the other main characters and even the villain]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. He alludes to it for a while, but it takes a rather random event to make him open up with it.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', due to being just a [[TagalongKid Tagalong Kid]] in a series of horrible events and emotional trauma, Hope cannot bring himself to confront Snow about his mother's death for over half of the game's story.
** Vanille also does this for the first half or so of the game, especially towards Sazh.

* [[DannyPhantom Danny and Sam]] in ''[[FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries Hearts and Minds]]'' had difficulty [[spoiler:confessing their deeper feelings for each other at first]].

See also AbortedDeclarationOfLove, InterruptedDeclarationOfLove, YouDidntAsk, IdiotPlot, MistakenForIndex, HintDropping, DugInDeeper. A specific sub-trope of PoorCommunicationKills. Sister trope of TongueTwister. Has nothing to do with being unable to [[IAteWhat clear one's mouth of a disgusting flavor.]]

* In ''Series/{{Merlin}}'', most of the problems presented in each episode could be quite easily solved by briefing King Arthur as to what is going on. For example, when [[spoiler:Lancelot came back from the grave]] in the season 4 episode Lancelot Du Lac, nobody bothered to tell the king that [[spoiler:Lancelot was a magically-controlled zombie]] and as a result didn't know that [[spoiler: Guinevere had been enchanted]] and so was forced to [[spoiler: banish her from Camelot the day before their wedding.]]

* Kaidan, at least in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''. He can show interest early on, but has difficulty spelling it out.
** Shepard can teasingly call him on it, too:
-->'''Kaidan''': Of course. You always leave a way out. That's what I lo- appreciate about you.

Sometimes, the reason one character CannotSpitItOut is because the other side [[OneSideOfTheStory won't]] [[NotNowKiddo let them]]. Or else they seem to have a [[SelectiveObliviousness wall around their mind]] against the information.

Other times the character is just an ass. While the IneffectualLoner has many chances to clarify his role, most of the time he'll just tell the heroes to [[FigureItOutYourself figure it out themselves]].

RealLife CannotSpitItOut is known as Alexithymia, which is an inability to describe or process emotions.

* ''{{Spider-Man}}'' suffers from this trope '''in spades''', with Peter Parker unwilling to reveal his dual identity to his Aunt May, because he fears the shock will kill her, and later because he doesn't want her constantly worrying about him risking his life as Spider-Man. It became even worse when Peter wouldn't tell his first girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, the secret either. He never told Mary Jane while they were dating, either -- ''she'' had to tell ''him'' that she knew his secret.
** When May ''does'' find out and talks to Peter, it's [[Heartwarming/ComicBooks one of the most touching scenes in comics]], including the part where she specifically points out that she's a big girl and she won't just keel over, and that she ''will'' be worried, but he has her blessing. Unfortunately {{Retcon}}'d by ''OneMoreDay''.

* In the movie ''Film/{{Spider-Man}} 3'', Harry Osborne has a terrible grudge against {{Spider-Man}}, as he believes he was responsible for the death of his father, Norman. As one of the only people who knows Spider-Man's real identity, he spends the greater part of the movie making things difficult for Peter Parker, battles Spider-Man a few times as the Green Goblin, and eventually, in one of said battles, gets injured. Later in the movie, Peter asks Harry to help fight the team of Venom and the Sandman, but Harry declines the offer. At this point, the Osborne family's loyal butler Bernard arrives, and tells Harry that Spider-Man was really never responsible for Norman's death, and that he died of his own folly. Apparently, the butler knew this all along, but still allowed Harry to play out his vendetta against Spider-Man. [[AllThereInTheManual According to the DVD extras]], the butler was a hallucination for Harry to justify himself. Note how ''only'' Harry sees him during the entire movie.

* Peter in Film/{{The Amazing Spider Man}} is the absolute definition of this trope. Despite being a budding scientific genius, plus highly articulate and witty when it comes to taunting criminals he's captured and stupid cops, whenever he tries to speak to Gwen he deteriorates into gibberish.

* Used in [[StarWars The Empire Strikes Back]] to comedic effect. C-3PO notices that the hyperdrive motivator had been damaged by blaster fire and tries to tell Han Solo a few times. Each time Solo shuts him up, so when they try to escape from an Imperial Star Destroyer by escaping to hyperspace and the drives peter out, 3PO says the equivalent of "I told you so" and Solo gets a look of extreme embarrassment and moves off to fix the hyperdrive. If 3PO had just been able to talk to Solo, he might have plotted a course away from the Imperial blockade and found a place to hide out and repair the ship. He also would never have gone to Cloud City and would have made it to the rendezvous with the rest of the Rebels.

* [[TearJerker Tragically used]] in ''CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon''. Shu Lien and Li Mubai are deeply in love with each other and pretty much everyone knows, including themselves, but Shu Lien's first love and fiancé was actually Li Mubai's best friend, and he tragically perished in an event that Mubai still blames himself for. Therefore, to not shame the dead guy's memory, they can't act on their love. [[spoiler:And don't do so until Li Mubai is fatally poisoned and, in his last moments, he shares a LastKiss with Shu Lien.]]

* In ''{{Amelie}}'', the titular protagonist plays numerous games with her LoveInterest, ostensibly in order to whet his curiosity about her, but actually because she's painfully shy and terrified of the prospect of actually making a connection with him. The two times she attempts to set up a meeting with him with the genuine intent of introducing herself to him, her shyness causes her to freeze up and she finds herself incapable of approaching him.

* In the book ''Destiny'' (book 3 of the [[SymphonyOfAges Rhapsody]] series), dragon-blooded MartyStu Ashe cannot reveal the identity of his new wife to his soulmate, the equally [[MarySue sueish]] lead character, Rhapsody, for reasons that were never made very clear (possibly spelled out in greater detail in the previous book). It turns out that the wife was Rhapsody herself (who had the memory magically zapped from her mind for the same reason Ashe couldn't tell her himself).

** Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that Tifa was actually doubting her own memories. Cloud's story had details that she thought he couldn't have known -- remember, he was [[TheFaceless hidden under a Shin-Ra grunt's mask]], so she didn't know he was there -- so she wasn't sure she was remembering correctly, or whether her memories had been muddled by her injuries.

** Thing is, she ''would'' have told them, had secret-keeping not been SeriousBusiness to Pinkie Pie, who proceeds to [[RealityWarper break the laws of physics]] multiple times to make sure Twilight keeps her mouth shut.

* In ''Manga/{{Kotoura-san}}'', there is Haruka and Hiyori to Manabe. Interestingly, Manabe and Haruka's romance progresses fine regardless.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* In ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', Ginny is about to blurt out her Big Secret (also the solution to the deadly mystery at the center of the story) to Harry and Ron when Percy comes blundering in and scares her off.
** In the ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', a large part of the story is getting a memory (essentially, a magical retelling of events) from a man who fudged the version he originally gave. This memory is considered very vital by Dumbledore for understanding Voldemort. However, it takes a potion of [[AppliedPhlebotinum felix felicis]] to get the memory from him. Horace was unwilling to part with the proper version of events because he was horrified and ashamed of what he had done, believing he had done "great damage".
** And let's not forget ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', where the adults' unwillingness to tell Harry about his connection with Voldemort and all that it entails is largely responsible for Sirius's death.

* For the first year of ''{{Avalon}}'', the characters seem (progressively less) unable to say the word "lesbian", which complicates Ceilidh's attempts to ascertain whether her best friend Phoebe ''is'' one ([[MistakenForGay as rumor would have it]]). When she finally asks Ryan outright [[http://www.avalonhigh.com/d/20000920.html why he would ask out a lesbian]], she learns all about what started the rumor, among other things. Unfortunately, by this time Ceilidh's constant innuendo has half the school -- including Phoebe herself -- convinced that ''she's'' a lesbian.

* Inverted when Lisa Landry met Terrence in ''SisterSister''. Lisa ''did'' spit it out to Terrence when meeting him. Unfortunately for both her and Terrence, it was the wrong kind of "spit it out."

* In the series ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', arguably every problem befalling the characters stems from Clark's refusal to tell anybody about his powers.
** After being told the secret, Pete ended up leaving town, Chloe risked her life about thirty times and Lana [[TooDumbToLive promptly got killed]], so...
** Despite their obvious and incredible affection for each other, Chloe and Clark never exactly used the L-word in their right minds (Chloe tells him that she love him in ''Devoted'' when dosed with a love potion and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming told Jor-El she loves his son]] in ''Traveler''), but many of their statements would pretty much be seen as ringing declarations of love in any show but unfortunately ''Smallville'' had a [[LoisLane certain]] ForegoneConclusion...

* ClassOfTheTitans : Archie has this for fellow hero Atlanta, and pretty much [[EveryoneCanSeeIt everyone can see it]]. Theresa and Jay both have their moments as well until [[spoiler: the finale]].

* Creator/StephenKing's ''DarkTower'' series does this a hell of a lot: [[spoiler:Whoops, pregnant with a shapeshifting daemon baby and I'm one of the fathers]] and [[spoiler:there's two of us.]] Funny part is [[spoiler:I never had my way with you. My seed is being passed to you by an oracle who'll proceed to rape you for a good 30 pages.]] Gosh darn, can't not love Stephen King.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'', potential couple [[{{Ant-Man}} Hank Pym]] and [[TheWasp Janet Van Dyne]] suffer from this. [[spoiler:By the time Hank works up the courage to say anything, he goes unconscious right after saying the word "love". He doesn't manage to actually proclaim his feelings for Jan until after ''she'' goes unconscious.]]