History Main / YouDidntAsk

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "The True Master", Robin figures out that the eponymous True Master is [[spoiler: the old woman he keeps bumping into during his walk up the mountain path.]] Why does he learn this at the end? "Because you did not ask!"

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' did this with {{Wolverine}}'s real name. From his first appearance all the way to the end of the (first) Dark Phoenix Saga, his teammates only knew him as "Wolverine". The audience first learned it second-hand from a leprechaun, and first-hand later on in a conversation with his then-love interest. But the X-Men themselves only learned during a reconciliation with AlphaFlight that his name was "Logan". When asked why he didn't share this information, well... you can guess his answer.

* In the last few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Zuko became more and more hostile in trying to get Aang to train. Aang, not understanding, asks what his problem is, and Zuko tells him about Ozai's plan to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground. They wanted to know why he didn't mention this earlier, and Zuko responded that they didn't ask -- and was under the assumption that the plan was to stop him before the comet arrived, which would make telling them moot and just another thing to stress Aang. This is just after Zuko yells at them for not taking the impending deadline to fight the Firelord seriously, and finally mention that they apparently have all discussed and agreed they're actually not doing it on the timetable he thought.

* A variation occurs in ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' where a rape victim refuses to give the detectives the identity of her rapist with the statute of limitation ticking because she's sure he's no longer a threat. When they find him, they discover he'd been involved in an accident and was paralyzed from the waist down, thus no longer a threat. If she'd told them that, they likely wouldn't have jailed her for obstruction.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' with Ron Stoppable. His parents have a habit of making life-changing decisions without telling him, leaving him to find out when it's already happened (e.g., he didn't know his parents adopted a baby girl til he came home and found a crib where his room used to be, didn't know they were moving til the moving van came to pick him up). When he asks why nobody told him, his parents, rather than saying he didn't ask, say, "This ''is'' our way of telling you."\\\
It could almost be labeled as AbusiveParents, but seeing as how at least his father is otherwise pretty good with his son, it's more like ParentalNeglect. Or ParentalObliviousness, since they really don't seem to understand that this is not a good way to break important news to their child.

* In the ''TeenTitans'' episode 'The True Master', Robin figures out that the titular True Master is [[spoiler: the old woman he keeps bumping into during his walk up the mountain path.]] Why does he learn this at the end? "Because you did not ask!"

* In ''Film/TheToy'', [[RichardPryor Jack]] and bratty kid Eric are trying to break into Eric's father's printing press, when Eric casually mentions that he has the key. Richard Pryor asks Eric why he never told him he had the key.

* In ''MassEffect'', while talking with Wrex about his past, he'll casually mention he's met and worked for Saren, the BigBad. When asked why he didn't tell anyone sooner, well, you can guess what his response is. Not as egregious as some others on this list, since he genuinely doesn't have anything new to say, and didn't even realize who Saren was until he met up with you, but still...

* In ''Series/LostGirl'', Lauren reveals to Kenzi (and the audience) that spent time as a doctor in Afghanistan. [[hottip:*:Whether it was with the military or Doctors Without Borders is not specified, but the latter is more likely.]] When Kenzi asks why she never mentioned that before, Lauren replies with this. Their (to that point) mutual animosity makes it a pretty good explanation.

* In DorothyLSayers' ''Thrones, Dominations'' (finished by Jill Paton Walsh) a secondary character does (indirectly) tell the police about his illicit alibi for a murder. However, he completely fails to mention that he visited the victim that afternoon (well, before she was last seen alive) and gave her a gift that then allowed the REAL murderer to establish an alibi.

* In LarryNiven's short story ''The Patchwork Girl'', the accused murderer refuses to reveal why she couldn't possibly have committed the murder due to a misunderstanding of the way the law works on the Moon vs how it works on Earth. [[spoiler: She was visiting her clone at a cloning clinic. On Earth, she would have been condemned to the organ banks for having a clone made after using one of her birthrights (having a child takes two birthrights, one from each parent) AND the clone would have been sterilized. On the Moon, she probably would have been sterilized and the clone would have been left alone.]]

* In the book Blood Bound in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, Mercy is trying to find out where Adam and Samuel went to look for [[spoiler: the demon-vampire's lair after they went missing and Warren was left for dead]]. When talking with Darryl if Warren said where they were looking, Kyle, a human, states that Samuel had received a phone call right before they left the night they disappeared. In this case it was a matter that the werewolf's FantasticRacism overlooked Kyle because he was human, Darryl didn't ask Kyle and never gave Kyle a chance to tell him when Kyle tried to bring it up.

* In the ''TeenTitans'' episode 'The True Master', Robin figures out that the titular True Master is [[spoiler: the old woman he keeps bumping into during his walk up the mountain path.]] Why does he learn this at the end? "Because you did not ask!"

* In ''{{Croak}}'', this is Pip's answer when Lex finds out about his climbing ability. She tells him that not everything has to be learned by asking.

* "RedVSBlue" Provided the quote for the page.

* ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' - [[GentleGiant Android Sixteen's]] response, complete with smirk, when Seventeen asks why he hadn't mentioned he could detect power levels.

* ''VideoGame/{{TalesOfGraces}}'': Pascal tells the party she's an Amarcian (a race where everyone is a GadgeteerGenius) when suggesting they go to the Amarcian Enclave. Hubert angrily asks why she didn't mention it earlier. Pascal says the trope verbatim. Hubert is the only one frustrated by this.