History Main / WeWouldHaveToldYouBut

When this is done to the actors, it is EnforcedMethodActing. Compare LockedOutOfTheLoop.

* Done by [[MagnificentBastard The Illusive Man]] [[TheChessmaster quite often]] in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.

* Literature/LuckyStarr pulls this all the time, often dramatically accusing the wrong suspect on purpose and using people's reactions to gain proof against the real culprit. The worst instance is in ''Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn'', in which Lucky allows everyone to believe [[FakeDefector he is going to betray Earth]]--including his best friend, who thinks Lucky is turning traitor in exchange for the friend's life.

*** "Shades of Grey": Everyone is kept in the dark by Hammond, O'Neill and a couple of alien races.

* In the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' short story "Sorcerer, Conjurer, Wizard, Witch", the late Mycroft Holmes' BatmanGambit to take down Colonel Zenf relies on Zenf believing that one of the four guardians of London's magic is a traitor ("a Rat amongst the Ravens"). For this to be convincing, Mycroft's successors at the Diogenes must ''also'' believe one of the Ravens is a Rat, and evidence to this effect is provided to them, in part by the Ravens themselves.

* OlderThanTelevision: ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' does this almost constantly, to almost every single character. A fundamental part of his InsufferableGenius character.

*** In Bert Coules' radio adaptation, Watson fails to accept Holmes's NoHardFeelings at the end, instead [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out]] not only for the deception, but for asking Watson to hide in the room as a witness, and then ''forgetting about him''.

* I''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Bastila would have been ready to tell the player character that [[spoiler:[[TheReveal s/he is Revan]]]] but the Jedi Council forbid her, for they feared that evil would be let loose on the universe again. Depending on the player character's reaction, this may bring on the very nightmare their actions were intended to prevent.

-->-- '''SherlockHolmes''', "The Adventure of the Dying Detective"

When this is done to the actors, it is EnforcedMethodActing.

!!Examples

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* [[Anime/CodeGeass Lelouch]] does this [[spoiler: to ''himself'' - he erases his own memory of making a plan and telling Suzaku how to follow it, so that Mao won't be able figure it out by reading Lelouch's mind]] in an episode in the middle of season 1.

* The LockedRoomMystery in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' was all set up by the organization. Koizumi ''could'' have told at least Kyon what was going on, but... In the novels, it's not Haruhi who figures it out but Kyon, who then tells Koizumi that [[ObfuscatingStupidity he's not as stupid as he acts]].

* Edward Elric is on the receiving end of this trope (along with his brother and Major Armstrong) in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Mustang and his team do a lot of investigating offscreen and determine that they need to get [[spoiler: Maria Ross]] out of prison before she's murdered by [[spoiler: the people who framed her for Hughes' death.]] Consequently, Mustang [[spoiler: pretends to burn Ross alive, while actually helping her escape]] and then purposely allows Ed and everyone else to believe his actions were genuine, enraging them in the process. He even punches Ed in the face and casually dismisses Armstrong's grief to keep everyone suitably riled enough to be convincing. He then sends both Ed and Armstrong off on a mission that [[spoiler: culminates in them happily meeting a very much alive Ross.]]

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', when Polnareff discovers that [[spoiler:Avdol survived the battle with Hol Horse]] he rushes to tell the rest of the group...and they say that they already knew, but they didn't tell him because they knew he'd blab it and [[spoiler:they wanted Avdol to be able to rest and recover ''without'' one of DIO's assassins coming after him.]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* OlderThanTelevision: SherlockHolmes does this almost constantly, to almost every single character. A fundamental part of his InsufferableGenius character.

*** In Bert Coules's radio adaptation, Watson fails to accept Holmes's NoHardFeelings at the end, instead [[WhatTheHellHero calling him out]] not only for the deception, but for asking Watson to hide in the room as a witness, and then ''forgetting about him''.

* Literature/HerculePoirot pulled this one ''all the time'' (except that he rarely gives a reason). The pinnacle is ''The Big Four'', where he explains to Hastings after the event that his plan to take the Four down required [[spoiler: "your own knowledge and belief that there was such a person as Achille Poirot!"]]
* Occurs in ''The Light Bearer'' (a historical fiction novel about ancient Rome). The male protagonist allows his aunt Arria to think her children have died in a fire in order to save them from abduction by Nero. Since Nero was in the room when the announcement was made, the protagonist knew he would not have been fooled if Arria had not expressed real shock and grief.
* The entire plot of ''Mordant's Need'' (the first novel of which is ''Literature/TheMirrorOfHerDreams'') by Stephen R. Donaldson revolved around [[spoiler: a king pretending to be insane to drive away his allies. He needed to appear weak]].
* Literature/LuckyStarr pulls this all the time, often dramatically accusing the wrong suspect on purpose and using people's reactions to gain proof against the real culprit. The worst instance is in ''Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn'', in which Lucky allows everyone to believe [[FakeDefector he is going to betray Earth]]--including his best friend, who thinks Lucky is turning traitor in exchange for the friend's life.
* In the last few pages of ''Literature/TheHungerGames: Catching Fire'', it turns out that Katniss' friends kept her in the dark about some pretty huge things, [[spoiler: including the fact that District 13 really exists,]] because Katniss' poor deception skills and ChronicHeroSyndrome would have ruined their plans if she had known. Also, in case the Capitol captured Katniss or Peeta ([[spoiler: and they did capture the latter]]), they wouldn't know anything about the plans.
* In the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' short story "Sorcerer, Conjurer, Wizard, Witch", the late Mycroft Holmes's BatmanGambit to take down Colonel Zenf relies on Zenf believing that one of the four guardians of London's magic is a traitor ("a Rat amongst the Ravens"). For this to be convincing, Mycroft's successors at the Diogenes must ''also'' believe one of the Ravens is a Rat, and evidence to this effect is provided to them, in part by the Ravens themselves.
* Done in [[Literature/ColdfireTrilogy When True Night Falls]], where [[spoiler: Tarrant's plan to gain an opportunity to try to kill the Undying Prince required Vryce's ignorance. His apology for the ruse at the end is sincere.]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' uses this at least three times:
** "Crossroads": SG-1 is kept in the dark by the Tok'ra.
** "Shades of Grey": Everyone is kept in the dark by Hammond, O'Neill and a couple of alien races.
** "Dominion": Vala is kept in the dark ''about her own plan'' (thanks to a memory-altering device) to fool her mind-reading BigBad daughter Adria.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': O'Neill does it again in order to fool the Asuran Replicators, whom he knows have the ability to MindProbe people. He and the team give a bogus plan to Woolsey, knowing the Asurans will get it out of him, while they enact their real plan behind everyone's backs.

[[folder: Radio]]

* The radio drama of ''[[StarWars Return of the Jedi]]'' contains one of these, though it wasn't explained in the film. C-3PO was deliberately kept in the dark about Luke's complicated plan to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, so that when Jabba had Threepio's data files scanned and found no trace of the stratagem, he accepted the droid's story at face-value. (R2-D2, meanwhile, was in on the whole thing.) Leia later apologizes to Threepio for the deception.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', Bastila would have been ready to tell the player character that [[spoiler:[[TheReveal s/he is Revan]]]] but the Jedi Council forbid her, for they feared that evil would be let loose on the universe again. Depending on the player character's reaction, this may bring on the very nightmare their actions were intended to prevent.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

* In ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[CloudCuckooLander Elan]] is not told about a plot to catch Therkla in an EngineeredPublicConfession.
-->'''Elan''': Why didn't you tell me anything about it, though?
-->'''Lien''': Because we wanted it to work! Seriously, how many times do I have to go over the "[[GoodIsNotDumb good, not dumb]]" thing?

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', [[spoiler:Robin]] did this in the episode "Masks".

* In the '90s ''WesternAnimation/IronMan'' cartoon, Tony does this twice. The first time, a fake marriage to Julia, is played for laughs. (Apparently it was important that Wanda's jealousy be realistic.) The second time, in which Tony fakes his ''death'', does NOT amuse the team -- they [[ReTool kick him out and relocate]]. The second season also treats the fake-marriage stunt a bit more seriously.
* ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'': Zack and Ivy actually try to tell their [=AI=] Chief about something they're doing, but then Carmen brags about how she's hacked the Chief, and they realize they can't tell him [[spoiler: that Ivy is pretending to be "The Tigress", a rival thief to Carmen, as part of a plan to catch her once and for all...a plan that ''almost'' works.]]

* ''ComicBook/IronMan''. The reason Tony Stark didn't tell [[Comicbook/WarMachine Jim Rhodes]] about [[FakingTheDead faking his death]] so he could undergo experimental reconstructive surgery was exactly because Stark wanted Rhodey's reactions to his "death" to be genuine, so Stark's opponents wouldn't come looking for him. Once Stark came back, Rhodey [[{{Understatement}} was pissed]], and the incident left their friendship broken for a long time.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooInWheresMyMummy'', Velma and Omar do not tell the rest of the gang about their plan to scare off the treasure hunter Amelia von Butch with a Cleopatra ghost. As Velma put it, "it was too dangerous".

* Similar but different application in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Rainbow Dash discovers that her friends have a weekly "pet playdate" and asks why she's never found out about this. They thought about telling her, but she A) doesn't have a pet and B) tends to be napping around the time they have the playdate, so they figured she wouldn't really care one way or the other if they told her. She concedes the logic, then decides to get offended at the implication that she'll never have a pet with whom to participate.

[[folder: Radio ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* In the ''PunkyBrewster'' episode "Growing Pain," Glomer starts to grow uncontrollably after he sneezes from eating pepperoni pizza. The flowers from Margaux's parade float help Glomer to shrink a little, but as he tries to tell Punky this, she's not listening because she's competing against Margaux with her own float.
-->'''Glomer:''' But Punky...Margaux's flowers making me--\\
'''Punky:''' I don't want to hear another word about Margaux's dumb flowers!\\
(''Later, when he finally tells Punky this'')\\
'''Glomer:''' Flowers shrinking me back to normal. Pretty nifty, huh?\\
'''Punky:''' Glomer, why didn't you tell me?\\
'''Glomer:''' Well, I trying to. But you say "I don't want to hear another word about Margaux's dumb flowers"!

* Lelouch does this [[spoiler: to ''himself'' - he erases his own memory of making a plan and telling Suzaku how to follow it, so that Mao won't be able figure it out by reading Lelouch's mind]] in an episode in the middle of season 1.

* Lelouch pulls this at the end of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' [[spoiler:when playing the role of EvilOverlord]].