History Main / DidNotDieThatWay

* ''Series/{{V 1983}}''. The Maxwell family seeks refuge with the Bernsteins, however Stanley refuses as their own son is a collaborator who could denounce them all to the aliens. The grandfather Abraham starts to talk about how Stanley was smuggled out of Nazi Germany in a suitcase as a baby.

* ''Series/V1983''. The Maxwell family seeks refuge with the Bernsteins, however Stanley refuses as their own son is a collaborator who could denounce them all to the aliens. The grandfather Abraham starts to talk about how Stanley was smuggled out of Nazi Germany in a suitcase as a baby.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' features Dhurke Sahdmadhi, leader of a resistance group whose death is repeatedly implied to be the result of a long-lasting illness. Turns out he was shot to death.

** ''Power Rangers in Space''- Astronema/Karone is told the Power Rangers destroyed her parents and her brother. By the time she learns that she was kidnapped by Darkonda and [[LukeIAmYourFather Andros, the Red Ranger, is her brother]], she's been evil for so long that it takes a two-part episode to broadcast her HeelFaceTurn.
** Even more so for Blake and Hunter in ''Power Rangers: Ninja Storm'' after having been told by Lothor that their rivals, the Wind Ninjas/Wind Rangers, murdered their adoptive parents. It was, in fact Lothor himself, who did the deed, but the brothers were so pissed off about the whole thing that they took several episodes to form the obligatory FiveManBand.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the official story of Pink Diamond's death was that Rose Quartz managed to reach her palanquin and shattered her with Rose's sword in order to break the Diamond resistance to the Crystal Gem rebellion. However, in "The Trial", the Defense Zircon concludes that this ''didn't'' happen, since there were [[SpotTheThread too many inconsistencies with the story]], and concludes that Pink Diamond was probably betrayed by another Diamond. "Your Mother and Mine" confuses the issue even more, since Garnet's flashback to the event also has errors (for example, Rose holds her sword in her right hand instead of her left and does not have her shield). [[spoiler:Pink Diamond did die, but not in the Gem War, and she wasn't shattered. She [[SecretIdentityIndentity became Rose Quartz]] and eventually "died" 14 years ago, [[DeathByChildbirth giving up her physical form to give birth to Steven]]. The "Rose Quartz" eyewitnesses saw was Pearl, helping her mistress fake her own death.]]

* ''Film/StarWars'': in ''Film/ANewHope'' Luke was told by Uncle Owen that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter and died during the Clone Wars, and Obi-Wan Kenobi told him that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered his father. In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' Luke [[LukeIAmYourFather learns that Darth Vader is his father, from Vader himself]]. Luke was lied to so he wouldn't go in search of Darth Vader and get into trouble. [[SarcasmMode Yeah, that worked out.]]

* The short-lived ''The Eddie Capra Mysteries'' had the pilot involving the murder of millionaire Arthur Pendragon, who was found in his underwear in his front yard with his chest brutally stabbed several times. But Capra reveals that Pendragon was actually ''shot''. The killer had tricked him into standing before a board meant to catch the bullet so it couldn't be found by forensics. Instead, the bullet went right through the board to land somewhere in the yard. There was no way to find it in the dark and by morning, the police would be all over the place. The killer thus realized the only way to make sure they never found the bullet is if they didn't know they were supposed to look for once. After stripping Pendragon (to remove any powder on the clothes), he took a sword from a lawn decoration and with a few strokes, eliminated any trace of the bullet wound.

* In ''{{Hamlet}}'', Hamlet's father appears to him as a ghost and tells Hamlet that Claudio poisoned him, the senior Hamlet, instead of his death being natural.

* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' Santa claims that his parents died in an accident leaving him and his younger sister. Two games later, in ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' it's revealed that they didn't. His father was given death sentence for a murder he didn't commit and his mother was DrivenToSuicide.

* Selene in ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' believed that a pack of Lycans was responsible for killing her family. Near the end of the first film, it's revealed that the true culprit was Viktor.

* In an episode of ''Series/EverythingSucks'', it was mentioned that Kate's mother died of cancer when she was just four years old, Kate reveals to Luke that her mom actually [[spoiler: committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.]]

* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden's]] mom died giving birth to him, it's later revealed that this happened due to a curse laid by one of her enemies. Also it's implied at one point that his father's death wasn't entirely natural either.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the official story of Pink Diamond's death was that Rose Quartz managed to reach her palanquin and shattered her with Rose's sword in order to break the Diamond resistance to the Crystal Gem rebellion. However, in "The Trial", the Defense Zircon concludes that this ''didn't'' happen, since there were [[SpotTheThread too many inconsistencies with the story]], and concludes that Pink Diamond was probably betrayed by another Diamond. "Your Mother and Mine" confuses the issue even more, since Garnet's flashback to the event also has errors (for example, Rose holds her sword in her right hand instead of her left and does not have her shield). [[spoiler:Pink Diamond did die, but not in the Gem War, and she wasn't shattered. She "died" 14 years ago, [[DeathByChildbirth giving up her physical form to give birth to Steven]]. The "Rose Quartz" eyewitnesses saw was Pearl, helping her mistress fake her own death.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the official story of Pink Diamond's death was that Rose Quartz managed to reach her palanquin and shattered her with Rose's Sword in order to break the Diamond resistance to the Crystal Gem rebellion. However, in ''The Trial'', the Defense Zircon concludes that this ''didn't'' happen, since there were [[SpotTheThread too many inconsistencies with the story]], and concludes that Pink Diamond was probably betrayed by another Diamond. ''Your Mother And Mine'' confuses the issue even more, since Garnet's flashback to the event also has errors (for example, Rose holds her sword in her right hand instead of her left and does not have her shield). [[spoiler: Pink Diamond did die, but not in the Gem War, and she wasn't shattered. She died 14 years ago, giving up her physical form to give birth to Steven. The "Rose Quartz" eyewitnesses saw was Pearl, helping her mistress fake her own death.]]

* In Series/{{Castle}} Beckett believed her mother was killed by random gang violence, until Castle opened his own investigation and discovered the kill was too precise and four others in related positions had died the same way.
* Maybe not exactly, but in Series/{{Bones}}, Brennan believed her parents were killed shortly after they disappeared, because it was the only reason she could accept that they hadn't come home. Then she found out her mother's skeleton had been in Limbo and her own team was able to prove that she hadn't died until years after leaving, and eventually it turned out that her father wasn't even dead. So there was no outside deception involved (at least, not involving their deaths), but neither of her parents died the way she thought they did.

* Literature/HarryPotter lived in the belief that his parents died in a car crash for 10 years, until it is revealed to him by Hagrid that they were in fact killed by the BigBad.

* Kohta from ''Manga/ElfenLied'' was told that his sister had died of an illness. In reality, she was torn in half right in front of him by a jealous Lucy, but the memory of it was so traumatic that he suppressed it and the illness explanation was easier to digest.

* In the Lois Lowry WorldWarII novel ''Literature/NumberTheStars'', we are told that Annemarie's older sister Lise was killed when she was hit by a car near the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Denmark. At the end of the book, Annemarie's parents tell her the truth: Lise was a member of LaResistance. She was hit by a car, but it was a car driven by Nazis who deliberately ran her down as she tried to flee from them.

* In ''ThePretender'', Jarod was told that his parents had been killed in a plane crash; his discovery that they weren't is one of the things that prompts him to break out and start WalkingTheEarth.

* In the SvenHassel novels when a main character dies his relatives or girlfriend is told he was shot in the head and felt no pain, instead of a slow death trapped in a burning tank or with their body ripped open in no-man's land.

* In ''TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'', Sookie and her brother Jason were raised by their grandmother after both parents died during a flood. After discovering that their Gran actually had an affair with a fairy that resulted in their father's birth, it is revealed that a clan of water fairies were responsible for the deaths because their fairy ancestors had been at war for quite some time.