Exact Words / Fan Works

Exact Words in Fan Works.

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Crossovers

• All For Luz:
  • When Riley protests that Tyler Wittebane said he wouldn't go after her Aunt Camila only to invoke this after she fails to kill Luz.
    Riley: You said no harm would come to Camila!
    Tyler: No, no. I said no harm would come to Camila... should you succeed, Riley. But you failed. Therefore, the deal is off. Learn to pay attention to what I say before you agree to something, child.
  • When Luz is about to stab Millie in the spine and cripple the witch after interrogating her, Millie reminds the girl she'd spare her after she told her everything she wanted to know. Luz counters that she only told her where the Wittebanes weren't not where they were right now, and that she's just going to try to kill her again later under her boss's orders. Luz has to make sure that she can never pursue her again. Millie is only saved by the timely arrival of Hunter the Golden Guard.
• Shinji Ikari in Alpha and Omega spends some time believing himself to be the last Lilim. At the end of the first book, he realizes that it's more accurate to say he's Lilim, the last Angel.
• In The Angel's Voice, after the Valeyard attempts to escape his current existence as a higher being by deliberately arranging events so that he will be cast down into physical form, Susan is able to 'trick' the Valeyard by ensuring that he returns to corporeal form on a distant planet, trapped in a human body that cannot call for help.
• In Anything Goes Game Changer, Uzume is told that the outrageously expensive treatment her ashikabi is receiving is the cheapest in the city. What her blackmailer doesn't tell her is that his company handles over seventy percent of the imported materials needed to make said ashikabi's medications and he's the one jacking up the prices.
• In Black Sky, when Dumbledore asks to know where James and Lily's daughter is, a Veritaserum-dosed Sirius answers that James and his wife never conceived a child. If Dumbledore had asked the whereabouts of Lily's daughter only - whom Sirius fathered because James was sterile and wanted his best friend as a surrogate - things would have been very different.
• In Chapter 37 of BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, when Ren points out that Ozpin told them not to pull any vigilantism like at the docks, Makoto points out that Ozpin said to not let him catch them doing it again, so the solution is to simply not get caught.
• The Brightly Rising character Lavan, who is stuck in a dreamscape similar to the real world, intuitively understands that Kalira's bridle is a sort of key that will get him out of it. He's right, but it's not touching the bridle that makes it work (like he assumed): it's letting it go.
• In Child of the Storm, this is the infamous shtick of Doctor Strange, who is renowned for, amongst other things, being a Manipulative Bastard who never, ever lies, and whose personal Berserk Button is suggesting that he would. However, as many note, this doesn't mean that what he says will be anything like the truth...
• The Chronicles Of Tanya The Holy: Played for Laughs in "Chapter 6": When Tanya comes across a shirtless Arthas chopping wood, he cheekily asks if she "likes what she sees", to which Tanya gives a Blunt "Yes". While Arthas and his captains see it as his attempt to flirt backfiring on him, Tanya is so Oblivious to Love that she means she likes the political image his actions present. By doing menial labor, Arthas endears himself to the peasantry, something that Tanya understands is a very good political move.
• Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron: Lelouch gives one to Allura when he decides to return to Earth, saying it is because he wants to make sure his sister Nunnally is safe from his father. Unlike most examples, everything he says is completely true, but he leaves out that he has other reasons to head back to Earth - namely, that he wants to overthrow Britannia to prepare the planet for when the Galra arrive.
• A Devil Amongst Worms: When questioned by Dragon and Watchdog regarding whether she can Master others, Makima states that her powers only work on "lower-lifeforms", leading them to assume she can only control animals, completely leaving out the fact that being the "Control Devil" her power applies to anything she considers "lower lifeforms", which includes humans.
• A Discordant Note:
  • Played for Laughs in Chapter 14, when Luna says she and Queen Rhaella could have sex. Harry has to explain to the shocked queen that Luna means that in the same way that they could have fish for dinner; it's a possibility but not required.
  • When Harry tells some nobles that he has no interest in gold, a few of them note that this also means Harry has no interest in anything that gold can buy and that they have to offer him something money can't buy to earn his favor.
• In The Dragon King's Temple, Zuko and Toph repeatedly (and increasingly urgently) ask SGC to "Let them see sunlight". SGC, used to idiomatic and imperfect translations, assumes that they're just using a metaphor for feeling confined (like "wanting fresh air" in English). It isn't until Zuko gets hit by a seizure and Toph is forced to blast a hole in the mountain to get him outside that they work out that Zuko and Toph meant exactly and literally what they said: As a firebender, Zuko must spend time under Sun, or he will get sick and eventually die.
• In Emperor of Zero upon retrieving the specified love letter from Prince Wales, Agnes promptly throws it into a fire. When Prince Wales yells at her for disobeying Henrietta's order she promptly shuts him down.
  Agnes: What command? Her exact orders were 'Obtain the letter, and prevent the Reconquista from laying their hands on it even if you must give your life to do so.' Reconquista will never get their hands on the letter now, and so I have done my duty.
• In End of the Line, Sailor Moon's spell drew magic out of "everything fighting" to power a barrier that would protect her hometown from an apocalypse the Sailor Scouts had foreseen. Xander furiously berates her and Luna for this because "survival of the fittest" means everything alive is constantly fighting to survive. As a result, they ripped magic out of everything, causing the apocalypse in the first place.
• In eXtra power twin, Dumbledore secretly bribes the Mermen to attack Potter and have him fail the task. They succeed, alright, in making Aiden Potter fail the task. When Dumbledore angrily confronts the Mermen in failing to make Harry fail the task, the Mermen smugly say that he said "Make Potter fail the task", but didn't say which. Regardless, they still would've attacked Aiden for his overentitled behavior.
• In First Knight, the Scoobies are attacked by a giant flesh-eating rat. After Xander kills it (while treating the whole ordeal like a chore), Buffy wonders why it wasn't bigger, only for it to be pointed out that three feet tall is giant for a rat.
• Whistler liberally abuses this sort of loophole in Fun Sized when he's tasked with shrinking Xander to the size of a bug, driving him insane, and tossing him through a portal to another world. He uses Pym particles and a Wasp suit to shrink Xander, only drives him insane for a few minutes, and sends him to a world where he has a decent chance of surviving. Furthermore, while he has to stop anyone from interfering, he freezes them in place instead of stopping time. That way they can know what happened to Xander and hear his farewells to them.
• Played for Laughs when Fleurety employs this in A Game of Cat and Cat to get back at Kazuya. Since demons charge a flat rate per summon and Fleurety can complete every task given to him in one night, Kazuya gives him a list of menial chores on top of the job he actually needs to get done (stealing his money back). Fleurety annoys Kazuya by giving true but esoteric statements about which items he can and cannot do (such as stating that he can perform the third item on the list with a prime number of letters), forcing Kazuya to ask him about every item on the list one by one. He then tops it off by interpreting the order for 'a bowl of jambalaya' as 'a bowl constructed from frozen jambalaya'.
• Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters:
  • When Jade scrawls her desperate message on the last remaining bit of the Book of Ages ("Bring us all to a safe place") to save her family and friends from the collapse of their reality, not only does it take them to a new world because there isn't enough left to make a new Book, the "us all" bit is interpreted a bit differently than Jade expected as well, dragging along all their allies and enemies as well.
  • Harold gives Cornelia advice using experiences from his past, worded just right to avoid mentioning that he's King Arthur.
  • It's by using these that Charles Ludmoore depowers Wong. He offers himself to heal the Dark Chi Wizard's wounds in exchange for anything Ludmoore wants from him, making Wong swear that he will pay the price. Once Wong is healed, what does Charles take as payment? Well, all of Wong's Chi Magic, which includes the Rooster and Pig talismans' powers Wong had previously stolen, of course! After all, Wong's magic counts as anything and Ludmoore asked for it.
  • As we see in the first epilogue chapter's Origins Episode about the Ludmoore family, Jonathan Ludmoore was cursed to be unable to speak of the Dark Secret he learned without the person he speaks it to instantly dying. However, that's only if he speaks it; writing it down for someone to read is another matter.
• In Harem Deluxe, Waruna asks how many girlfriends Shirou has; one of said girlfriends replies defensively that it's "just the two of us". When pressed, she admits that she didn't mean Shirou was monogamous, but that he has two girlfriends- her and her sister. (Then Shirou interjects that even that is a lie- the number is closer to eight.)
• Harry Potter and the Boiling Isles: The House Elf oath to serve their family says that they must do so as long as they "walk this Earth", but as Ron points out, the Boiling Isles don't exactly count as ‘this earth’. He then proves that he's free of the binding by rearranging King's "minions", since he wouldn't be capable of following the orders of someone not in the family he's bound to if he was still under the oath, allowing them to free him before Harry attends Hogwarts, whereupon he takes up the janitoral position at Hexside.
• In Harry Potter the Mutant Obscurus Gamer, During the events of Iron Man 2, Harry has previously viewed Natasha's file, even if not met her personally, he avoids blowing her cover, but his hints are more like bludgeon blows. He says she "Looks like a Professional with killer thighs, killer legs, killer arms, killer face and a killer body". Tony does not notice, but does Head Desk when her cover is blown.
• In Hogwarts Rejection Letters, the Akuma sisters pull this twice over on Vernon Dursley. First they point out that they need a soul for their deal, not necessarily his soul, convincing him to sell Harry's soul instead (because they're getting Vernon either way but Harry's soul is valuable). Second, Vernon wishes to be "rich and famous"; he's arrested for the largest pension fraud in history.
• In How the Light Gets In, as the team prepares to ambush the Big Bad's convoy, Felicity comments that she isn't sure the plan Dean came up with is a smart one.
  Dean: I never said it was a smart plan.
  Felicity: You did! You said it was a good plan.
  Dean: But I never said it was smart.
  • A few seconds later, Hanna also questions the plan and asks Dean to "say something comforting". Naturally, Dean's reply is to simply say "something comforting".
• In A Hunter's Tale, on the advice of Mayor Wilkins, Whistler decides that the current situation in Sunnydale is technically what it's supposed to be. Angel is going through hell (because he and Buffy broke up), Buffy is devastated and heading to LA (for the same reason), and Acathla is out of commission (by being covered in protections and dumped in the ocean).
• An agent in The Illusive Emperor informs Aria he is an emissary for "His Majesty". When she tries to confirm that Schneizel, the Prime Minister of Britannia, sent him, the man responds that he said "His Majesty, not His Highness", letting her know he was sent by Lelouch, the presumed dead Emperor of Britannia.
• In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Chloe's home economics teacher tells the class to "make their own curry", expecting them to understand that he means for them to customize their dishes. Chloe, who doesn't like curry, simply follows the recipe exactly as written, stating when confronted that this is her own curry — she made it, after all! Unsatisfied with this, her teacher tells her that she'll have to redo it the following week.
• The Institute Saga has Superman tell Captain America that no matter how well SHIELD searches Antarctica, they'll never find the Fortress of Solitude. Admittedly, it's because it's underneath the Xavier Institute instead.
• In Justice League: The Spider, Doctor Octopus is able to program the various clones he created for Cadmus with a code phrase that allows him to make them obey his orders, but this only forces them to obey his immediate commands, allowing Kaine to suggest to Galatea that she knock him out and then escape.
• Played for Laughs in Justice Matrix when Wonder Woman, tired of Ben's antics, uses the Lasso of Truth to order him to admit the truth, which Ben does: He did not care for The Godfather.
  • And what were Ben's antics that annoyed Wonder Woman? When being interrogated under the Lasso of Truth, Ben willingly answered the questions with Exact Words, using very vague answers that could technically count as the truth to give away as little information as possible.
• Green Lantern in Kermit Was Right gives a press conference presenting the newest member of the Lantern Corps and reminds everyone that the vast majority of the Corps are aliens and not every alien species conforms to human expectations like gender or apparent age. As a result, he convinces everyone that the newest Green Lantern is an alien who just looks like a young human girl rather than a human ten-year-old Buffy Summers, all without lying.
• Kyon: Big Damn Hero: Kyon:
  • He tells a Yakuza that his PDA is custom. It is. Yuki made it from Asakura's junk data remnants.
  • He says that he got Akasaka's picture because if you do it right, people just look right through you. He made himself invisible.
• The Mother Box in The Last Son of Tomorrow is willing to stay within Terry's rule of Thou Shalt Not Kill, but Terry knows full well that the Mother Box's definition of "nonlethal weaponry" means "If the target survives, it was nonlethal". If motivated, it can not kill someone with a batarang, not kill them for hours. Likewise it defines "adequate force" as "enough force to get the job done" rather than the minimum force.
• In Loki, Lord Of, a group of cultists attempt to summon "The Father of Lies" and succeed. Unfortunately for them, they didn't summon Lucifer but Loki, who's none too pleased with them for trying to sacrifice an innocent woman to control him.
• In Lost in Camelot, Bo starts using this to avoid explicitly lying to anyone she wants to consider a friend in Camelot regarding her past, such as telling Gaius that Lauren was the equivalent of a court physician in her homeland or telling Morgana that her homeland had so many different customs that it's like a completely different world (planning to gradually drop hints about her true history to Morgana as their relationship develops).
• In Magical Orders and Thieving Angels, Umbridge repeatedly antagonises Zidane out of Fantastic Racism, convinced without evidence that he must be a half-breed of some kind. Zidane responds saying, "I'm quite sure I'm not part anything." Not technically a lie, as he's a genome and not human at all. Neville does call him out on it when the truth eventually comes out, to which Zidane points out this technicality but goes on to apologise anyway.
• Manehattan's Lone Guardian: When leaving a high school swimming pool, Gray Ghost trips and falls. When she's told that a nearby sign read "do not gallop", she tries to utilize this trope by saying she was trotting, not galloping.
• Mass Effect: Clash of Civilizations: Sergio Augusto said that the main armament of the Eternal Light of Sol was used on "a barren, resource-poor planet". He didn't mention that it destroyed every single Jiralhanae ship in its orbit.
• In Masters of Death, after Draco insults Mandy while trying to befriend Harry, Harry declares that their friendship will last the rest of Draco's life. They kill him right after the train arrives in Hogsmeade.
• My Hero Playthrough: Izuku has a power. He is very careful to never refer to it as a Quirk.
• A rather humorous example occurs in the Harry Potter/World of Warcraft crossover The Next Great Adventure when one of Harry's companions (Jasmine) keeps pacing, worried that Harry is going to get into trouble with Stormwind.
  Arko'narin: Pacing isn't going to help and you're going to wear a hole in the floor if you keep pacing in the exact same spot.
  (Jasmine takes a step sideways and continues pacing)
• When Xander fakes his death in The Nighthawk Chronicles as part of a duel between him and Batman, Batman is later surprised to see he's still badly injured. Xander snarks that he only faked dying, Batman still shoved a sword into his chest.
• In The Pirate's Soldier, when Heero is formally introduced to the Juraian court as the newest heir to the Empire, the nobleman Seiryo decides to challenge him to an honor duel to revoke his birthright, setting up the rules as victory through surrender or first blood. As soon as he gets the chance, Heero then proceeds to headbutt Seiryo in the nose, drawing blood.
• In A Pony Out of Place, Arceus agrees to let "the Ponyta" Flare Blitz stay in Equestria if he wins the Solar Run. Flare evolves into Rapidash mid-race, thus invalidating the agreement.
• In “Pokemon: Dark Multiverse”, when Bruce Wayne finds himself in the Pokemon world, when Serena asks Bruce what Pokemon he had as a child, Bruce avoids revealing the truth about his history by explaining how his parents were murdered at a young age and so he threw himself into other activities and basically “missed” his chance to get a Pokemon. He also claims that he got his son a Poochyena named Titus, which is basically accurate as the dog does resemble the Pokemon in question.
• In Princess of Themyscira. Hippolyta brings this up when Soarin' asks if Diana cheated by cutting a knot with a sword during an Intelligence Test; Hippolyta said to undo the knot, not untie it.
• Two cases in Re:Zero - The Princess and the Spider The Movie: No Way Home:
  • Peter demands Echidna to explain why she transports the other Spider-Men, sans Miles, to the Witches' Domain.
  Echidna: You're right, it is just you. And another you. And another you.
  • When the Spider-Men make a deal with her, Echidna asks that as compensation for her help, she wants the opportunity to see into their lives. Turns out it is never exclusively just the three Peters but every Spider across the Multiverse.
• When a Too Dumb to Live thug tries picking on Sawyer the Cleaner in Road Trip Gone... Huh, Xander warns the guy to give back her ultravoice and they'd cut him some slack. Later that night, Xander reveals that cutting him some slack means putting the man in the hospital rather than the morgue.
• In RWBY Zero, Nora's group is attacked by Berserker and Raven's band of bandits. After they call for help, Jaune uses a Command Spell to order Saber to teleport to them and protect Nora and Ren. When Saber arrives, she finds Nora guarding an unconscious Ren against the Bandits and Blake and Sun defending against Berserker. Nora tells Saber to help Blake and Sun, but Saber points out that due to Jaune's wording, she has to protect her and Ren. Nora then points out the bandits are cannon fodder to her and she needs no protection from them, freeing Saber to take on Berserker.
• As demonstrated in the Danny Phantom/Beetlejuice story, Say It Thrice, Betelgeuse isn't afraid to take advantage of these along with his normal Loophole Abuse. For example, as a child, he bet that he could move a heavy barrel from the ground to the table top with one hand behind his back. He didn't say he would lift it, allowing him to create a ramp to roll it up.
• The Secret Return of Alex Mack: The reason Shar is living with the Mack family is officially that her dad died and her home burned down. None of this is untrue, but it neglects to bring up that Shar's father was a former member of a Super-Soldier development program who was murdered by a CIA black ops team, that Shar's home when she was found by team Terawatt was a top-secret genetics lab where she was being experimented on, and the reason it burned down was that Shar is a God-tier pyrokinetic.
• Shadows over Meridian: When Vathek surrenders to Frost and the Razor Khan in Cavigor, it's on condition that his men fighting a losing battle against Frost's forces on the upper levels be spared. Frost agrees... and then orders that Vathek's men on the level the two of them are actually on be killed, as he only agreed to spare the ones further up.
• In Sifjarson, Lady Sif is seduced by Loki and becomes pregnant. When she decides to abandon her son in Midgard, Heimdall tries to convince her to look after him despite her insistence that Thor would never marry a woman with a bastard son. Sif asks if she'll be able to marry Thor and have his children if she keeps her son, to which Heimdall simply says "No." It's later revealed that the Norns prevented him from saying more; namely that she will marry Thor but the Norns will take her fertility for abandoning her child.
• In Spark of Creation, Naruto eventually reveals that his purpose is to destroy the multiverse. However, Naruto leaves out for some time that the multiverse is the broken remains of the universe and he's destroying the former by restoring the latter.
• In A Study in Magic, Hamon Lestrange's will stated his eldest wizard son would inherit all the Lestrange properties, gold and estate, but didn't specify names. When Greg Lestrade - born Rogerius Gregory Lestrange but thrown in the street for being born a Squib - gains the ability to use magic, he automatically becomes head of the Lestrange family, as Rodolphus and Rabastan were born after him.
• In an Omake of Superwomen Of Eva: Earth's Mightiest, United (a What If? side story of the Superwomen of Eva series), the Avengers (a team made of the Marvel side of the titular superwomen) decide to finally deal once and for all with Happosai (who has constantly, and implacably, terrorized Tokyo-3 with his Dirty Old Man tactics in other Omake of the series) by making him "meet his maker". Happosai crows that they are superheroes and won't kill him, only to find out that what they mean is "have Rumiko Takahashi arrive and drag him by the ear back to Nerima".
• In Tara Sheppard, after John Sheppard- Tara's half-brother through their mutual father- learns about Tara’s magic and her ability to sense deception, when he wants to conceal the truth from her before she learns about his own secrets, he’s very careful to pick his words so that she’s given a truthful context even if she can tell he’s hiding something.
• This One Time, At Cultivation Camp: Whenever Vicky and Taylor ask about their progress, their mentor Ten Springs always insists they're "faster than average but he's seen faster". It's not until they meet the God-Emperor that they learn that said emperor is the only person Ten Springs has ever seen learn faster, and he learned in a single year what took his grandfather, Ten Springs, two centuries to learn.
• In Thousand Shinji, Shinji challenged Asuka to a duel using wood axes. During the fight he punched her, and she called him a cheater. His answer? He never said that fight would be just with axes.
• In the Tok'ra Apocalypse series, when Crowley wonders if ‘Murray’ is a hunter, Teal’c states that he has spent many years destroying false gods, and has hunted Wraith and other creatures that threatened Earth; all true, but not in the sense that Crowley would expect.
• In Trust Doesn't Rust, Lucifer and Needy each try to exploit this in their Deal with the Devil when Needy is trying to save Jennifer after she’s possessed by a demon, with Lucifer guaranteeing that Jennifer will live after he’s killed the demon without specifying the condition she’ll be in and Needy insisting that Lucifer guarantees she gets ten years after making the deal (although Needy doesn’t consider that she failed to get further guarantees about what kind of life she’ll live in that time).
• Turnabout Storm: Phoenix Wright winds up summoned to Equestria. According to Twilight, she was trying to summon the best defense attorney in Equestria, but she accidentally forgot that last part, thus summoning the best defense attorney period. This turns out to be a lie, as she summoned him directly following Princess Celestia's advice.
• In The Weaver Option, an Astartes referring to himself as from the Dark Angels Legion as opposed to Chapter gives him away as one of the Fallen - the Astartes hadn't been organized into legions for millennia by this point.
• With Pearl and Ruby Glowing:
  • Played for Drama a few times. The fic is set in a rape survivors' support group, and several times it's noted that parents tell their kids not to let a strange man touch them, but that doesn't help if the person is a woman, another child, or not a stranger, or if the person doesn't actually make physical contact.
  • A more specific example occurs when Ao Guang tells his autistic thirteen-year-old son Bing that he should do "whatever you have to" to get away if someone tries to molest him, resulting in Bing murdering his disability aide in a school bathroom.
  • Yang Mie invokes this in a Shout-Out to Interesting Times; it's entirely true that he's not an undercover military officer and there aren't two thousand of his colleagues about to descend on the trafficking hub, but when he says it in the right tone of voice, he's assumed to be implying that he is and there are.
• A ritual used in Wizard Runemaster is designed to summon and subjugate the Burning Legion's "most deadly foe". The dreadlord Banehollow believes this will summon Tyrande Whisperwind, the Legion's most powerful foe. Instead, it summons Harry Potter, who killed thousands upon thousands of demons during their invasion of Earth.
• In Wolverines, Wendigos and Winchesters, Sam confesses to his girlfriend Jess that his latest medical flagged him as having a genetic condition, the same one that gave a metabolic issue to his brother. When Jess is later abducted by Reverend Stryker, he reveals to her that said condition is an active X-gene, which means both Winchester brothers are mutants.

Ace Combat

• Parrish promises to let Georg and his family go if he gives the General what he wants, the code to upgrade the drones software. When Georg does Parrish keeps his word and lets them go, into a warzone.

American Dragon Jake Long

• In Coming Back, Jake Long fathers a newborn named Benjamin. When Rose asks Lao Shi if Ben will become a dragon, Lao Shi says he doesn't know and that they will know "when he is older". Soon after that, Ben lets out a small burp that reveals he has fire-breathing. Lao Shi replies that "He is a few minutes older from when I made the statement."

Animorphs

• All Assorted Animorphs AUs: In "What if they saved Jake's family?", Jake and Marco promise that they won't kill Tom's Yeerk if he exits his host. Then, the real Tom crushes him in his fist.
  Jake: <We had a deal!>
  Tom: Deal was between you and him. Nobody asked me to promise anything.
• In The Thing from Another World, Doctor Short asks Tom how many alien species he's interacted with. He says two, because even though he's seen many more, it was his Yeerks interacting with them.

Arrow

• In Not Set in Stone, Oliver is breaking up with Felicity due to (in part) his feelings for Laurel. Laurel wants to stop him on the grounds that he and Felicity "have a future". It takes Thea a few seconds to recognize the importance of her word choice:
  "But that wasn't exactly what she had said, Thea thought, reconsidering Laurel's words. She had merely said that Oliver and Felicity had a future. That could be together or apart. And by contrast, it was as if Laurel was saying she didn't have one."

Avatar: The Last Airbender

• When Lee asks Zuko how he got his scar in Avatar: Flare of Redemption, Zuko tells him that he opened his mouth without thinking in front of a powerful firebender and wasn't prepared for the consequences, leaving out that said firebender was his father.
• The Masks we Wear (JiggleWigs): Ozai tells a young soldier that he won't burn him alive. That doesn't mean he won't kill him, though. Ozai slits the boy's throat.
• In one fancomic, Sokka is caught with a Water Tribe weapon while in the Fire Nation. He covers by saying that he received it from his father, who stole it from a Water Tribe warrior. Living Lie Detector Toph is confused that she can't sense anything but the truth from him.
  Toph: (whispering) Was that... not a lie?
  Sokka: (whispering) No, it's true, it used to belong to his friend Bato.

Bioshock

• The Prodigal Son: Dr. Tenenbaum does this quite a lot to Atlas when he demands to know about the first game's ending, which he cannot remember. She tells him that Jack is safe on the surface and that he killed Andrew Ryan "at [Atlas's] word" (true, but leaving out that Ryan was the one who actually said those words, which were the mental triggers Fontaine implanted), and when Atlas demands to know why Jack left without him, she states that there was a trap and the two were separated as a result (leaving out that Atlas triggered the trap by betraying Jack, and she saved him and took Atlas's place as Mission Control ). Atlas quickly realizes she's hiding something, but isn't able to get her to talk.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

• In The One With The Angelic Face series, when Spike asks Drusilla if she knows where Angelus is, Drusilla states "I don't know where HE is", but it takes a while for Spike to realize the relevance of her chosen emphasis.
• Variations On A Scene: In chapter 17: Spike is told by Darla's spirit/ghost after his death that if he words his wish properly he "could get everything [he's] ever wanted. Including the bottle-blond menace." She also tells him "Come on, William – you know she didn't love you. She was constantly pining over the dark-haired bastard who left her and broke her heart, and deep down, you've always known that. Sure, she slept with you last year – but she was quite disturbed, both emotionally and intellectually, and you took advantage of that." Spike goes through with it in the belief he'll be inserted into the timeline as a human and be in a relationship with Buffy. It's only after the new timeline starts and he "awakens" in 2003 that Spike learns Darla was leading him on and was talking about Anya.

Calvin And Hobbes

• In The Pez Dispenser and the Reign of Terror, Calvin upgrades the titular PEZ dispenser to run on his brainwaves - and his brainwaves alone. Of course, this is a non-issue for a duplicate of Calvin...

A Certain Magical Index

• A Certain Droll Hivemind: Misaka-11111 claims that her parents are "unrelated" to Misaka Mikoto's parents. That manages to be completely true by violently ignoring the context and spirit of the question.
  Misaka-11111: From one point of view, our parents are not related, because I do not have parents. From another point of view, our parents are not related, because we are genetically identical; hence, they are not related because they are the same people. And from yet another point of view, our parents are not related because my gestation mother-surrogate was a growth vat, and the mother of Misaka Mikoto is not a growth vat. Except perhaps in a technical sense, because she was used to grow my gene-donor.

Code Geass

• During the course of his experiments in Experiments, Lelouch learns that his orders via Geass can be open to interpretation at times. An order for someone to lick their elbow resulted in them cutting off said arm to do so. An modified order to someone else to lick their elbow without damaging their arm results in cutting off their tongue. Ordering someone to do something immediately can make them do so even if it's dangerous (a fire starting because someone walked away from their cooking to follow an order). And people's prejudice can affect how they carry out orders such as a nobleman ordered to become altruistic refusing to donate to Eleven charities and expanding his business so he has more money to donate.
  • A later order to "ignore Lelouch's existence" causes a freak out when the Geassed man sees a "man-shaped void in front of him" and experiences bouts of deafness or losing sensation in limbs due to his mind blocking out any sensory information regarding Lelouch.
• This was how Lelouch stops Euphie's massacre in The Japanese Are Already Dead after accidently Geassing her to "kill all the Japanese." He first stops her by saying the Japanese are already dead because everyone on the archipelago became Elevens when Britannia conquered them, then cements it by requesting that everyone joining the Special Area Zone refer to themselves as Japanians as a symbol of rebirth with the Japanese having died with the old government. Because there is no one that is Japanese in the vicinity, the Command in Euphie is put on hold, turning her back into her cheerful, kindhearted self.

The DCU

• Adventures of a Super Family: When Superwoman reveals the existence of Superboy to Perry White, he asks if she lied to him when said she was the last of her kind. Superwoman points out she said she was the last DAUGHTER of Krypton.
  "I'm sorry for asking this," Perry said, "but I distinctly remember you telling me that you were the last of your kind when you gave me that interview way back then. So either that boy there is a whole lot younger than he looks, or you lied to me."
  "Oh, I never lied to you, Perry," she assured him, smiling now. "If I may refresh your memory, my exact words were 'I am the last daughter of Krypton'. I never said anything about sons."
  He stopped, thinking back to that day, then groaned. He really should have noticed that very specific wording.
• In Billy Batson and the Troubles of Work-Life Balance, Captain Marvel states that he has not lived through human adulthood. Hal and John take this as Marvel being an Artificial Human Born as an Adult created by the gods instead of a kid with an Older Alter Ego.

Danganronpa

• There have been two cases so far in Graduate Meeting of Mutual Killing:
  • In Chapter 2, Monobear stated that since Matsukaze had suffered internal bleeding, his statement that "there was no significant blood loss" was true, since most of the blood was still inside Matsukaze's body
  • Also in Chapter 2, the graduates use this against Monobear, stating that since Hikasa had received authorization from one of the Monobear spares, he had not broken the rule about not entering the Principal’s Office without authorization, even if the permission itself didn’t come from the real Monobear
• In this comic, Hiro reads Toko's palm and says that she's going to marry Naegi, which naturally causes Makoto, Kyoko and Toko to freak out, but Hiro shrugs it off because of his 30% accuracy rate (which, admittedly, is quite good for a clairvoyant). But it is revealed that he was right, as Toko married Komaru Naegi. At no point did Hiro say the first name.

Death Note

• Lampshaded in I Won't Say: "No morning sex... *(Beat)* or afternoon sex, or evening sex or..."

Discworld

• In A.A. Pessimal's The New Guild, Mrs. Sandra Battye is able to explain to Patrician Vetinari why her request for the formation of a Guild (for the city's seamstresses) would warrant it being named "the Guild of Prostitutes, Copulatrices and Working Women" (a seamstress is, quite obviously, a woman that works, she does work for men by going to their places and handling their unmentionables for a price, and "copulatrices" in this case would mean "copulate pieces of fabric to create clothing"). Mrs. Rosie Palm (the leader of the city's actual Guild of prostitutes, or rather "Seamstresses") can only sputter outrage, while Patrician Havelock Vetinari is so amused by Battye's Refuge in Audacity that he approves her request.
• In Slipping Between Worlds, Lieutenant Holtack has to defend Fusilier Powell in court and pleads for his character by outlining Powell never told an outright lie or found guilty of theft... while mentally reflecting this is not the same thing as saying Powell never lied and never has been suspected of theft.

Dragon Age

• Invoked twice in Disorienuptials, part of the Skyhold Academy Yearbook series. First, after the Intoxication Ensues-spurred proposal, the future bride tells the future groom that when he proposes for real, she wants him to be completely awake and in full possession of his faculties. She never says that she has to be either of these things, a loophole he playfully abuses later. At the wedding itself, meanwhile, Varric makes the remark that he always knew Sebastian would marry Bethany one day. Bethany is the bride, but Sebastian is the officiant.

Dragon Ball

• In Total Immortal, Vegeta demands Dende make a wish for immortality. Dende decides to do so... by wishing for Gohan to be immortal instead of Vegeta.
  Dende: And what makes you think I wished for you to be immortal? All you told me was to make a wish for immortality, you didn't say whose.
• What If Krillin Became a Saiyan?:
  • The titular transformation comes about when Krillin wishes on the Dragon Balls to "be more like Goku". Shenron takes this to mean becoming the same as Goku biologically.
  • When Vegeta notes that Frieza won't like Zarbon pulling rank behind his back, Zarbon declares that he won't find out "so long as I'm around". Vegeta immediately echoes "As long as you're around," which Zarbon immediately recognizes as an Implied Death Threat. Unfortunately for him, Vegeta follows through before he can react.

Encanto

• In How Far Do These Roots Go Down?, Isabela — knowing that Alma still wants a vision about Mirabel even though she shattered the one of her with the broken Casita — proceeds to create mundane ones and shows them to her grandmother, giving her what she asked for.
• Through the crack in the wall: Since one of the primary rules in the Madrigal Household is "don't talk about Bruno", the kids justify this as the reason why no one outs Bruno for being a Secret Squatter to their parents or Abuela.

Fairy Tail

• And The Most Charming Prince is?:
  • Invoked at the beginning, when Bisca and Alzack put a job request for a Prince Charming for their daughter's birthday party with a thirty jewel reward and all the cake the prince can eat. When Erza sees the offer, she eagerly asks if it can be all the cake she can possibly eat if she takes the job. Alzack nervously says yes, before whispering to Bisca that they're gonna need a lot of cake.
  • The request itself was because Asuka asked her parents if she could have her Prince Charming come for her birthday. While her parents thought she meant hiring one of the guys from their guild to play the role, she actually meant if her Precocious Crush Panther Lily could come. After all the arguing about which of them is more charming, the guys (minus Laxus and plus Erza) are devastated that a talking black cat is considered more charming than any of them.
• In Double Trouble, Mira and Erza have become pregnant at the same time, though it is clear that Mira is getting bigger than expected, which becomes a touchy subject for her. So when Natsu asks her if she knows she's having twins, she sends him crashing into the floor since she thought he called her fat. However, it turns out Natsu did meant the truth about twins, since his dragon hearing picked up two sets of heartbeats in Mira's womb, which Mira's husband Laxus confirms when he hears for himself.

Final Fantasy VII

• In The Fifth Act, when questioned about his obvious mako eyes, Cloud responds that he had a severe case of mako poisoning. While true, said poisoning has nothing to do with why his eyes glow with mako.
• During a wargame in Once More With Feeling, an undermanned squad gets three Third Class SOLDIERs to help, but said Third Classes have instructions to follow orders precisely. Supposedly, this is to teach the cadets how to give clear and concise orders. Naturally, the Third Classes have a lot of fun creatively interpreting their orders.

Five Nights At Freddys

• Springaling: When the night guard of Fazbear's Fright asks the Puppet about the identity of the Serial Killer that plagued Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the latter responds that they don't know the murderer's full name and he's dead by that point. While true, the statement doesn't out Springtrap (who's in the room with them) as said murderer.

Fullmetal Alchemist

• In the backstory of My Master Ed, Edward was granted a one-way trip to go either forward or backward in time. Ed asks Truth to send him back to "a place and time when [Father] can still be defeated, before he executes his plan and kills everyone". Edward was aiming for sometime around the beginning of the series. Truth sends him back four hundred years to when Father was still the Dwarf in the Flask and prior to the first genocide he committed, which Ed had failed to take into account.

GI Joe

• In Show Some Respect, after Beachhead chews out some grassroots campaigners for setting up their booth on top of a memorial for fallen soldiers, the senator he was supposed to be bodyguarding complains to General Hawk, to which Hawk replies that he will "level an appropriate response" to Beach's behaviour. After the senator leaves, Hawk reveals that said "appropriate response" for Beach is a steak dinner. And pie.

Gargoyles

• In Broken Mirror, Demona is given a chance to save four survivors of Wyvern in return for "the magic the fey put on [her]". Demona initially assumes this just refers to the spell Puck used to allow her to become a human during the day, but it's only after she's made the deal that she realises this also includes her immortality.

Glee

• In Hunting the Unicorn, a statement that Blaine made ("I've never been anyone's boyfriend") is played with in the most depressing manner possible: He really hasn't had a boyfriend before Kurt—but not for lack of trying. He tried to invoke Sex Equals Love because he was a naïve and lonely sixteen-year-old. It was a disaster, and the emotional fallout is responsible for his Relationship Sue tendencies in canon.
• In The Tainted Grimoire, Ewen only promised to let Clan Gully leave the building alive.

Godzilla

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): It's hinted in the story and confirmed by Word of God that Ghidorah's central head, Ichi/Eldest Brother, would be all too happy to use careful wording as a way to manipulate or toy with others if Ghidorah wrapped its heads around the concept of lying. Which it does, with Ichi manipulating the Many into believing they are Pieces of God.

Good Omens

• In Compounding the Mistakes, an amateur magician summons and traps the angel Aziraphale, mistakenly thinking that Aziraphale granted his rival Professor Crowley magical powers. The magician demands the last thing Aziraphale gave Crowley, and Aziraphale obliges with a cup of hot tea.

Harry Potter

• In As We Chase the Sun, when Andromeda confronts Narcissa about the fact that she had to know that Sirius wasn't a Death Eater, Narcissa clarifies that Sirius was sent to Azkaban for killing Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles, which Narcissa had every reason to believe Sirius had done.
• In The Barry Jumper Show, the Dursleys drag Harry on to the titular talk show to hopefully win a vacation. When things don't the way Vernon and Petunia had hoped, the former starts to lose it and tries to convince everyone present that Harry is a wizard. When questioned about it, Harry never actually lies about having magic, he just gives answers that make it seem like he's a normal Muggle, such as offering to perform some sleight of hand tricks.
• Used heavily against Harry in Black Heir when he gains possession of a contract that makes Narcissa follow his orders. Every order he gives her is up to her interpretation (i.e. telling a house elf where he is despite being ordered not to tell anyone because she doesn't consider house elves people). When Harry changes the terms of the contract that she has to follow his orders and can't harm him or allow him to be harmed, but doesn't take her advice to make her unable to resent him, Narcissa uses a stunning spell to painlessly knock him out then changes all the terms of the contract before destroying it (which means it's still in effect but can no longer be altered).
• In Cold Blood Hermione promises no fooling around inside the house will take place. After her parents leave, she and Harry go fool around outside the house.
• In Correcting Mistakes Hermione spends the night at Grimmauld Place and Sirius tells Harry to put her next to him. She deliberately interprets this as meaning next to him in bed rather than in the neighboring room. When Sirius catches them there the following morning he states that after separate showers clothing is to remain on and she comments to Harry that he said nothing about their hands remaining above said clothing. When Sirius overhears this and says they should act like adults, she puts Harry's hand on her breast and says that adults do things like that.
• In Dudley Dursley Saves the World, Voldemort says that he wouldn't hurt the Dursleys, not that no harm would come to them.
• Played for Laughs in Distant Relations when Tonks accidentally walks in on Harry naked and turns around, telling him to let her know when he's decent.
  Harry: I'm decent now.
  Tonks: You're still starkers!
  Harry: Well, yes, but I'm still decent. The fact I'm not wearing anything doesn't change the content of my character.
  Tonks: I have no answer to that.
• In Enter the Dragon, the Black Woods Clan of centaurs is told they have to sacrifice one of their maidens to the Great Wyrm or they're doomed. It's believed by all that the Great Wyrm will kill and devour them all if they don't, when in reality the Great Wyrm (an 8 year old Harry Potter turned into a dragon) befriends said maiden and later saves the Clan from a horde of Acromantula because they're his friend's family.
• In Faery Heroes Harry, Luna, and Hermione go back in time to a parallel world and decide to restart the DA with only a few students. Before they join, Luna warns them that they can't talk about the club. When two of them try to tell their housemates two weeks later, they learn that they've been jinxed to speak random nonsense instead.
  Harry: Do you remember our first meeting, when we explained the rules to you? Luna said that you couldn't tell anyone about this. Not shouldn't. Not that we didn't want you to. Couldn't, as in we made sure it wasn't possible. We weren't sure we could trust you to keep a secret, and clearly our concerns were valid.
• In Fates Gambit, Child Services went to the Dursley household to ask questions about their treatment of Harry Potter. Dudley told it all and, when asked if his Dad ever asked him not to tell anything, he told his Dad told him never to mention anything if it's outside the house. Fortunately, Dudley didn't understand it'd be equally bad for his parents to have it mentioned to the authorities inside the house too.
• For Love of Experimental Time Travel: When sharing his method of traveling back to his birth to change the timeline with Dumbledore, Harry assures Dumbledore that his actions won't affect Harry as he's "protected from changes to the timeline". In reality, the ritual works on multiverse theory and Dumbledore performing it simply splits off a new timeline while leaving the current one untouched.
• In Geeks Bearing Gifts--A Ravenclaw House Story, Nick Cleveland, a Ravenclaw, promises the Slytherins a bribe of gourmet chocolates and butterbeer to get them to call off a prank war they've been waging against his House. He makes sure to deliver it to their common room at a time when most of the Slytherins are present...and sets off an incredible brawl. When tasked with this, he points out that he had told the Slytherins that "when dealing with the subtle, subtlety is useful" and that the labels on the butterbeer (a golden apple with the words "For the Fairest") should have warned anybody that he hoped the bribe would start a fight.
• The official synopsis for Thirty Hs states that "Harry Potter eventually eats a sandwich and discusses life with a famous author." He does. It just doesn't take into account all the Groinsaws, holy fuckfire, space ninjas, and other insanity present in the fic.
• Draco Malfoy gets screwed out of a couple of Sex Slaves this way in The Harem War. The Death Eaters forced the Greengrass family to make an Unbreakable Vow that their two oldest daughters would be sold as slaves to the next Lord Black, assumed to be Draco. Unfortunately, thanks to Sirius' machinations, Harry turns out to be Lord Black instead, and thus, he gets the daughters instead.
• Harry Is A Dragon, And That's Okay: The Mirror of Erised is enchanted so that the only person who can acquire the Philosopher's Stone is one who "wanted to find it, but not use it". Harry is able to get it by accident due to being a dragon and wanting to build a Dragon Hoard - meaning he not because he could use it, but just to have it.
• This is Harry's Modus Operandi in Harry Potter: Master of Malicious Compliance. He will follow any order that's given to him to the letter, mostly to annoy other people.
• In Hella potter and the Reincarnated OC, Treowe gives Hella a corsage in the form of a black hellebore flower, which means "lying tongues" in the language of flowers. While Snape assumes it means Treowe (a Slytherin) is using Hella for his own ends, others ponder what exactly the lie is and who it's being told to. The real lie is that Treowe and Hella are merely politically involved rather than lovers.
• Limpieza de Sangre, Voldemort knows part of the prophecy and assumes it's already fulfilled, something she mentions to Harry. It was specified that there would be "A child born with the power to vanquish the dark lord, born to those who thrice defied her as the seventh month dies". She tried to kill Harry, who was born at the end of July and whose parents "thrice defied her", and was vanquished. The prophecy never said she had to die, so as far as she's concerned, it was fulfilled over a decade ago. Voldemort's also willing to let Harry live because she's tried to kill him several times now and it never worked out for her.
• The many Deaths of Harry Potter: Successfully casting a Summoning Charm requires that the caster actually knows what the object they're trying to Summon is and refers to it as such; attempting to Summon a misidentified item won't work. This saves Harry's life when Voldemort tries Summoning him in Animagus form, but fails because he thinks Harry is a ferret when he's actually a mongoose.
  Voldemort pointed his wand and said "Accio ferret."
  Harry would have grinned if his current form was physically able. He wasn't a ferret, he was a mongoose. He suspected that Voldemort had never been a to (sic) zoo in his life.
• The Marriage Contracts Redux has Harry interrupt the forced wedding between a foreign noble and Daphne Greengrass, claiming fraud and line theft. After killing the count by accident in a duel and taking Daphne away, he explains that he bribed the goblins to covertly deposit Daphne's bride-price into her father's account and make illegally backdated marriage papers.
  Daphne: At the Reading of the Banns, you said you protested the wedding on the basis of Fraud and Line Theft.
  Harry: You got to admit, I committed both.
• In Nick Cleveland and the Pig in a Wig Nick flies out to Little Whinging and beats up Harry's cousin Dudley, stating after the fact that his absence fron Hogwarts is covered by a pass from his Head of House.
  Snape: So—-you lied to Professor Flitwick, I see. This gives you permission to leave Hogwarts in order to deal with a family emergency. You're a long way from Whitehaven, Mr. Cleveland, and I happen to know you don't have any other kin in the UK!
  Nick: Hey—-look at what it says. I never lied! I said I had to 'leave Hogwarts, to deal with a family emergency.' Well, the Dursleys are a family, and wouldn't you say having your son get the living daylights beaten out of him constitutes an emergency? I never specified which family, nor did I ever say what constitutes 'dealing with a family emergency!' It could just as well mean causing it, now couldn't it, sir?
• After Dobby puts Harry in the Hospital Wing in Oh God, Not Again!, there's this:
  Harry: Wait... Didn't Draco order you not to try to save my life or to try and drive me from the castle?
  Dobby: Dobby wasn't trying to save the Great Harry Potter's life nor was he trying to send him away from Hogwarts. Dobby was trying to break Harry Potter's arm.
• Old Soldiers Never Die has Harry refusing to turn over Death Eater prisoners to Dumbledore, knowing the ministry will just let them go free again. When Dumbledore asks for any Death Eaters that will not be an imminent risk to the community, Harry has one of his subordinates take him to the 'harmless Death Eaters', a room full of the terrorists recently killed in a retribution raid for the murder of several muggle families.
  Dumbledore: Has there been a mistake? Did you take me to the wrong room?
  McLain: No mistake. You may have as many as you wish.
  Dumbledore: But they're dead!
  McLain: That they are. Did you perhaps want more of them? I'd be happy to... render more Death Eaters harmless if you require more.
  Dumbledore: You'd really kill innocent people?
  McLain: Nope. But I'd have trouble finding an innocent person among their ranks, wouldn't I?
• Partially Kissed Hero: Dumbledore uses this to pretend to be looking out for everyone else's interests. He notes that people are susceptible to the phrase 'For The Greater Good.', and imagine it means 'for the greater good of the world', or 'society in general', when he really means 'for the greater good of Albus Dumbledore.'
• The Power of Seven uses this on various occasions, but a particular example is when Harry is talking with Susan to ‘feel out’ her interest in him; when she mentions a rumour that Ginny and Demelza are planning a threesome with him, Harry just says that’s crazy without denying that a threesome might happen. Later Susan is very careful when questioning a captured Bellatrix Lestrange under veritaserum, as she is aware that Bellatrix will try and take advantage of every possible loophole in Susan's questions to not give her a clear answer.
• Princess of the Blacks:
  • Many readers noted that one of the twins "knowing only darkness" could refer to Jen's blindness. Word of God confirms this.
  • Jen utilizes this when, after she asks why James Potter is there, Dumbledore insists that her "proper guardian" be present when she gets in trouble for hospitalizing ten students. When Dumbledore starts lecturing her, she asks why they aren't waiting for Sirius to arrive as he is her Head of House.
  • Jen quickly realizes that Baron Samedi offers three free rituals in return for her task, not three free sacrifices, meaning she could use rituals that require hundreds of sacrifices for free.
  • Utilized eons ago by Titania to functionally kill Enoch the Unending Wheel. She agreed to help change him into something else and send him to Earth so he could influence humanity in some unknown way. She got another Power to help butcher him into 108 pieces which she then bound and sent to Earth in the form of phoenixes.
  • When Luna wears Ravenclaw's Diadem and learns the Truth of anything she looks at, Jen has to be very careful with how she answers questions to make sure her lies aren't caught. As a result she emphasizes the horrible people she's killed while not mentioning the innocents who were simply inconvenient and says she doesn't enjoy killing (she doesn't but she doesn't mind it either).
  • It's referenced multiple times that Baron Samedi is the Gatekeeper of the dead, not the King. As such he can't actually revive those who've passed into the realm of the dead; one has to deal with the Lord of the Wild Hunt for that.
  • Jen explains to Hermione's parents that while their daughter believes she's the child of Lily and James Potter, she has test results proving she isn't. Of course, that's because the Blacks used Blood Magic to change her mother.
  • In the fourth book, Jen grows tired of Hermione's attempted interference with her life and makes it so Hermione can't interfere with her again. Word of God explains that while Hermione is still suspicious of Jen, she literally can't even consider acting against her.
  • Dumbledore frequently gives his followers information that's true but not the complete picture.
  • In the finale, Baron Samedi brings up the tale that whoever gathers the three Deathly Hallows would be the Master of Death. Jen notes that technically she is his mistress, just not in the way the legend implies.
• The Rigel Black Chronicles: Hermione is quite worried that Archie is going to steal another class' Polyjuice Potion and wreck their grades, but he assures her that he's not the kind of person who would steal a potion before it's graded. For a moment she's relieved, and then she realises that he's still planning to steal the potion, after it's graded.
  Hermione: Oh. Okay then, I thought—wait. Oh, no.
• After having a rather odd conversation with Harry and his friends in Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, Professor McGonagall asks them if they had been drinking. Note that she didn't specify what.
  Harry: Of course, Professor. Staying hydrated is very important to being healthy.
• In The Thief of Hogwarts, Tonks succeeds in making Fleur, Harry's betrothed, jealous by gloating about having bathed with Harry multiple times, conveniently leaving out the fact that she didn't know it was Harry at the time, but thought he was a regular cat (Harry was in his animagus form).
• In To the Letter, Dumbledore states that the Death Eaters and their families must be changed and redeemed. After a great deal of Transfiguration study, Harry turns them all into coupons.
• In Unprecedented Competition, Sirius punishes Harry with no dessert for two days. After he goes to bed, Kreacher gives Harry a slice of apple pie with whipped cream.
  Harry: Thanks, Kreacher. You won't get in trouble, will you? You're not breaking an order?
  Kreacher: Master Sirius said you is not to have dessert with everyone else, or to be sneaking it later. This is being a different dessert to the cake everyone had earlier, and you is not sneaking it, Kreacher is fetching it for Master Harold without you asking.
• What If? ... An Alternative to Order of the Phoenix: When Harry tickles Hermione in the back seat of the Grangers' car, her mother says to keep his hands where she can see them. As a joke, he puts on his invisibility cloak so only his hands are visible.
• Who Will Fill a Coward's Grave: Voldemort promises that he won't kill Dolores Umbridge if she tells him where Minister Fudge is hiding. Once she gives him the information he orders Pettigrew to kill her.

High School D×D

• The Lone Dragon Emperor: When Issei promises Asia he won't kill the Fallen Angels, he didn't promise that they wouldn't be in top condition. As such, all four fallen angels have their wings stripped, Donasheek gets his eyes gouged out, Mittlet has her tongue cut out and Kalawarner loses her legs.
• In Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Makoto ends up saving Raynare from Freed Sellzen and Halja and ultimately spares her. When Rias asks where she was, he says she "won't be causing us any more problems." Kiba thinks that means he killed her and questions him about it when he appears before them alive again after the events of Volume 3. Makoto responds by repeating his previous statement, which didn't mention anything about killing her, but that he knew she wouldn't likely be a major threat anymore.

How To Train Your Dragon

• In A Thing of Vikings, a chain of events leads to Hiccup being married to Astrid in a traditional Viking ceremony and being married to Wulfhild the Fair, princess of Norway, as part of a treaty between Berk and Norway, but at the time Hiccup assumed that his marriage to Wulfhild was just him taking her as a concubine. While this raises some questions about whether either of Hiccup's marriages are legitimate or one cancels out the other, Hiccup, Astrid and Wulfhild all genuinely love each other and resolve to find a way to make everything valid so that they can be together. When Berk sends a delegation to Rome, Wulfhild talks with a priest about her current situation, but is careful to discuss her relationship with Hiccup in a manner that answers all questions honestly without admitting such controversial details as her intention to marry Hiccup and Astrid in a legal ceremony later on, in the hope that this will limit the 'risk' of the Vatican trying to step in.

The Hunger Games

• Champion: Fen boasts that he climbs trees better than anyone he knows, but mentally notes that he doesn't know many people.

Invader Zim

• Gaz Dreams of Genie: When trying to figure out how to use her final wish in a way that won't backfire on her, Gaz settles on some Loophole Abuse by wishing for the ability to grant wishes herself. While obviously she meant she wanted the power to grant her own wishes at will, the genie Azie instead switches lives with Gaz, turning her into a genie and trapping her in the lamp.
• Re: My Hostage, Not Yours: Zim employs this at the end of the story, informing the Tallest about everything that happened without having to mention his relationship with Gaz or Skoodge going rogue.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

• When Josuke Higashikata travels to the past and meets the Stardust Crusaders in This is my fault, how?, he tries to act like a normal person and says that his name is Josuke Hirana. When Jotaro proves Josuke is a Stand User by getting him to react to Star Platinum, he claims that he never lied about his name being Josuke while not mentioning his faked surname.
• In this fancomic by Hajnarus, Noriaki Kakyoin wakes up from a 10-years coma but can't remember the events of Stardust Crusaders despite Jotaro's efforts. Wanting to help out Jotaro, Josuke reaches out to Rohan and tells him about the situation, asking him to fix it with Heaven's Door in exchange for granting Rohan to mess with Josuke's hair without repricutions. Rohan agrees, and returns to tell Josuke he fixed the situation... by erasing Jotaro's memories of Kakyoin so he wouldn't be depressed anymore.
  Jotaro: You were supposed to open Kakyoin's memories!
  Rohan: Excuse me, but when did you mention it? You were talking about Jotaro being depressed.
  • Rohan points out that it would have been difficult for him to sneak into the hospital and to the room Kakyoin was staying anyway. Regardless, he agrees to restore Jotaro's memories before they're gone forever so he can get the chance to mess up Josuke's hair after they reunite Jotaro and Kakyoin.
• In Josuko's chapter of The Joestar Chronicles, an older co-worker asks her if she and her boyfriend Okuyasu will get married soon after six-years of dating. Josuko says they've been busy saving up money and been busy with work. That is true, but that's because they've been saving up money so Okuyasu, who is trans male in the story, can have an operation for his transition and be allowed to marry Josuko. Her coworker thinks that they're saving up for a big wedding, though Josuko answers that she'll keep that in mind while already deciding for a more modest ceremony.

Kim Possible

• In Buried Trilogy, an aspiring criminal kidnapped Kim and buried her alive, then told Drakken what he did, hoping to impress him. Drakken promised the kidnapper that if he took her to the site where he buried Kim, he and Shego would see to it that the kidnapper would "never work another day in his life". Once he leads them to the burial site, Drakken and Shego kept their word...by killing him, as they were disgusted by what this monster had done to Kim.
• In Enemies With Benefits, Ron covers up knowing where Drakken and Shego's bases are when Kim calls him while Shego is nearby by saying he and Shego are Enemies with Benefits. When Shego questions that, he points out that since he's technically their accountant said benefits are things like medical and dental insurance, not sex.

Kingdom Hearts

• In Moons of Fate, Captain Minoru gets furious at Rimi for justifiably telling him he's a horrible Captain of the Guard and backhands her across the face. When Ansem subsequently calls him into his office, Minoru tries to brush it off, stating he overreacted and assuring Ansem that it won't happen again. Ansem agrees with him that it won't happen again... because effective immediately, he's firing Minoru from the Royal Guard and banning him from ever entering the castle again.

Lost Girl

• In The Human Doctor, the terms of Lauren's servitude with the Light are: full servitude and no contact with the outside world, in exchange for offering her the full resources of the Fae to cure Nadia of her illness, with the stipulation that she never be used to harm to kill anyone. The exact wording is used against her twice. When a Fae clan is suffering from a STD, Lauren is forbidden to treat them, as the Ash is punishing them. He justifies it by pointing out she isn't harming them, the disease is. This does not alleviate her guilt, but she has no choice. Later Lachlan reveals that the Ash knew all along that Nadia wasn't sick, but cursed and knew how to end it, and was merely exploiting her. If Lauren directly asked him about it, he would have to answer truthfully. But since she didn't ask, he didn't tell. Note that this is actually better than the canon version, where he actually ordered the curse in the first place.
  • Lauren later panics when she learns that Kenzi made a deal with The Morrigan, musing that she read the fine print and the Ash still screwed her; and Kenzi's deal is far too broad for them to have any chance. She then says that if Kenzi makes any other deals with the Fae, to please have her, Trick, or Dyson go over it and look out for exact wording.
• In Trading Places, Lauren has finally crossed the Despair Event Horizon and travels to the Norn, asking to be given her freedom in exchange for "that which is most valuable". The Norn says she will make the trade for "that which you value most." Lauren is smart enough to spot the difference, and asks for clarification. That which is most valuable for humans is the heart (which is what Lauren wants to give), that which she personally "values most" is her mind. Lauren is unwilling to make this exchange, and leaves.

Love Live

• An Explosive Way to Start the Day!: When Honoka, who is suffering from a hangover, is putting ketchup in her cereal, she tells her girlfriend Umi that she couldn't get the milk. Umi is annoyed at first that Honoka had forgot to buy milk this week, and then Honoka clarifies that she did buy the milk, she just can't get to it because there's a landmine in front of the fridge.

Lucifer

• In The Devil and His Urchin, when Amenadiel confronts Lucifer about Ramiel's awareness of a new Celestial in Los Angeles, Lucifer manages to answer the question in a manner that both avoids lying and avoids revealing that he knows who Ramiel detected (Trixie Espinoza, here Lucifer's daughter and thus part-angel).

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• In Balance, Supergiant claims that "The only thing that was destroyed on Asgard was Asgard itself." when telling Thor and Loki that Surtr survived Ragnarok. Several chapters later, Loki learns that Hela survived as well.
• Whenever one of the "rogue Avengers" ask about Tony's death in Terrible Horrible Very Bad No Good Fic, they're told that Tony "died in his sleep; it was peaceful". What they aren't told is that Tony chose to be euthanized and he was given a sedative to put him to sleep before receiving a lethal injection.
• The blurb for come as you are says that Steve Rogers "pursues truth, justice, and the American way". In the very first chapter, he roots out government surveillance and goes to war with the FBI. The FBI didn't bother to tell him about the surveillance detail that he rather justifiably mistook for HYDRA, and they very unjustly threaten to do all sorts of unpleasant things to the Wilsons, a bunch of civilians, if he doesn't comply. What's more American than fighting back against an unjust government?
• In God Save the Queen, Peggy tells Steve that she and Pinky are worried about Bucky flirting with Lizbet Windham, the (female) truck driver who rescued them, because her father "is quite high up in the Royal Navy", meaning he could cause an international incident. This is entirely true, since Lizbet Windham is actually Elizabeth Windsor, the future Queen of England, and her father, as King, holds the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.
• Played for Laughs in Reframing the Future when Tony is griping to Rhodey about how the team not helping Tony is somehow his fault.
  Tony: I'm going to snap. They're playing a dangerous game.
  Rhodey: They don't care.
  Tony: God, tell me something I don't know.
  Rhodey: The guy who created Frisbees had himself cremated and made into a Frisbee when he died.
  Tony: What? Seriously?
  Rhodey: Yup. There, bam! Something you didn't know.
  Tony: I'll give, I didn't know that. I'm a little concerned that you did, but I certainly didn't.
• In Well, Alrighty Then, the Infinity Stones respond to Thanos's desire for "half the universe to disappear" by making half of all people in the universe invisible.

Mass Effect

• In Transcendent Humanity, humanity is allowed to build more dreadnoughts than they technically should be provided they pay the Council members a cash amount equal to four dreadnoughts. At humanity's request, they are allowed to pay in goods equal to said dreadnoughts in value. The Council is unamused when they get paid in dreadnoughts.

Miraculous Ladybug

• In BURN THE WITCH, everything Chat Noir tells Lila is completely true, just phrased in a way that feeds into Lila's preconceptions. Sure, he said he's taking Lila where she needs to go, but he never said he was taking her to safety...
• In Burning Bridges, Building Confidence, Lila cherry-picks information from an article she found about Cole Sullivan. Specifically, the article reveals that 'Sullivan' being found guilty of child abuse, assault with intent to kill, corruption and obstruction of justice. Lila makes it sound as though Cole was the perpetrator instead of the victim, telling Alya that Cole's picture is included with the article and feigning concern that she 'escaped custody' in order to rile Alya up further.
• Chicken Scratch Rules has the Rooster Miraculous run on this: careful phrasing is key to making it work the way you want. Unfortunately for Gabriel, his impatience and lack of creativity ultimately proves his undoing, as he refuses to think things through, requiring Orikko to point out where each of his rules went awry.
• In Couturiere, the akumatized Marinette assures her classmates that she has no intention of killing Lila. Later, she instructs her that Lila should think carefully about what she says next, as they could be her last words. Ivan expresses confusion at this, with Couturiere irritably telling him to shut up. Turns out she always intended to sew Lila's lips shut.
• Dad Villain AU:
  • As part of his reality-rewriting Wish, Gabriel declared that he would be the only person who would recall the original timeline. Thanks to his phrasing, all of the kwami still remember what came before, as do animals like Jagged Stone's pet crocodile Fang and sentimonsters like Felix, Kagami and Adrien.
  • Gabriel Wished that the magical backlash from Emelie using the broken Peacock Pin would be redirected towards Ladybug and her loved ones, striking the latter first — he wanted her to be Forced to Watch everyone she cared about succumbing to the effects. This includes Adrien, who discovers just how much she's come to care about him the hard way.
• Dodged a Beetle: Tikki uses this to avoid telling Lila about Master Fu; when she asks where she'd gone, Tikki responds that she was "reassuring a coworker", letting Lila assume she meant Plagg.
• AlienSunflowers' Everything You Deserve has Adrien betray Ladybug when she wants to free the kwami, stealing the earrings and Wishing for his idealized world, only for each of his requests to fall subject to this:
  • I want to be able to transform whenever I like and have fun: Instead of keeping the Ring, he winds up with the Peacock Pin, and is known for being a destructive supervillain rather than a hero, due to having 'fun' at the expense of others.
  • I want Ladybug to be my loving, devoted girlfriend: Instead of the Ladybug he knows, Chloé is his doting, loving partner in crime, while the original Ladybug has become the new Cat Heroine.
  • I want my mother back, and for her and my father to be perfect parents: While Emilie is alive, and she and her husband happily indulge their son's every whims, they are not happily married, and Emilie is cheating on Gabriel with Nathalie.
  • I want to stop doing photo shoots, and instead get to do whatever I want: Adrien is no longer the face of Gabriel's fashion line and doesn't have to do any modeling work. However, this also means that he doesn't get to enjoy the benefits of being famous and widely recognized anymore.
  • I want to get everything I worked so hard to deserve: The new world is ultimately full of Laser-Guided Karma for Adrien, and he discovers that Marinette freed the kwami, meaning every heroes' partnership with their kwami is willing and he has no way of forcing another Wish.
• He Can Only Blame Himself: After Adrien cheats on her with Lila and Gabriel fires her from his company, Marinette reassures him that she won't talk to the press about him or his son. However, that includes refusing to say anything positive to the press as well... and nobody else around her is beholden to the same rules, leading to Felix and Emilie calling Adrien out during a red carpet premiere.
• Karma's a Bitch: Zoe likes to use this to keep her deceptions as credible as possible.
  • Zoe offers to personally deliver Adrien's invitation to Marinette's party, since his unpredictable schedule means he might not get it if they just leave it in his locker. Zoe already knows for a fact that Adrien won't get the invitation if it's left in his locker, since Lila is waiting to steal all the invitations as soon as Zoe and Marinette are back in the classroom.
  • At one point, before going out, Zoe leaves a note for Andre assuring him she's just going to the post office to ship some of her things back to New York. She is going to the post office to mail out packages, but they're actually the clothing and valuables she and Lila swindled their classmates out of being sent off to their buyers.
• The Karma of Lies: One of the ways Adrien defends his refusal to do anything about Lila manipulating and conning his classmates is by claiming that they aren't losing anything they can't afford to lose. This gets turned back against him after Lila cleans out the Agreste emergency funds. While his family remains quite wealthy, Adrien himself can't access any of that money himself... yet technically speaking, he didn't lose anything the Agrestes couldn't afford to lose. His guardian is still taking care of him; she just doesn't provide the same lavish, extravagant lifestyle that he's used to.
• LadyBugOut:
  • Lila naturally claims that as Ladybug's best friend, she's helping her out with her new blog. When Marinette posts a video revealing her involvement with the blog (as a way of protecting her Secret Identity), the fallout leads Lila to try and backtrack by claiming that she never actually said that she helped Ladybug with it. Only that Ladybug asked for her help. This attempt to weasel her way out only works on Alya, mostly because she claims she refused out of loyalty to her Ladyblog.
  • During The Balcony Scene, Adrien is worried that Marinette might have spilled his Secret Identity to others after witnessing him being stripped of the ring. She replies that "I, Marinette, didn't tell anyone that you're Chat Noir." Which is true. Ladybug had to inform her colleagues about that when he was akumatized, but Marinette hasn't told anyone.
• The Lament Series (ChaoticNeutral):
  • In Chloé's Lament, Chloé wishes to swap places with Marinette, expecting that this will make her the new Ladybug. In reality, this simply grants her the same opportunity Marinette had, which she unknowingly wastes by botching Fu's Secret Test of Character.
  • In the planned Alya's Lament, Alya thinks she can avoid any problems by simply Wishing to know Hawk Moth's Secret Identity. The Wish responds by creating a new reality where she is Hawk Moth. This scenario is also explored in the Recursive Fanfics Recklessness and Villain Of Your Own Story.
• Leave for Mendeleiev:
  • Used to highlight Alya's slanted way of thinking. She insists that Ladybug should be okay with revealing her Secret Identity because "Most American heroes" are fine with it. Ladybug responds that she's French, not American. However, Alya's own words also highlight the flaw in her reasoning: most American heroes have revealed themselves, but not all. Alya just ignores that little detail because she wants to know who Ladybug is, and who cares what Ladybug wants?
  • When Chat Noir confronts Ladybug and demands to know how she gained a new power, she replies that it was approved, then affirms to him that it was "Kwami approval". Tikki did vouch for it, after all... to the Guardian, whom Chat Noir isn't aware of. And given the sheer amount of disrespect Chat Noir has shown when it comes to keeping secrets, she intends to keep him that way.
• In Miraculous Fade Series, when Bunnyx is showing her various timelines, Lila demands to see one where she comes out on top. Bunnyx obliges and shows her one where she's an actually nice and genuine person who's a champion soccer player and later earns a Miraculous from Ladybug. Lila, who was hoping for a case of The Bad Guy Wins, is annoyed, but Bunnyx points out that having friends, a passion one enjoys and being a superhero is something most people would considering as being on top.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: Used in A Price To Pay; when Gabriel makes his wish, he only wishes that Emilie would be revived. He never mentions anything else, including that she would actually love him. Thus, he and Adrien are horrified to discover in the new reality that, due to Gabriel bribing his way out of legal consequences for killing Tom Dupain-Cheng, Emilie divorced him and now utterly loathes him and their son for their Lack of Empathy.
• Of Patience and Pettiness:
  • When pretending that she wants to apologize to Lila, Marinette chooses her words very carefully, with her inner thoughts revealing how she actually feels.
    Marinette: I realized that how I've been acting, by calling her a liar without having proof, that's really rude. (Even if it's true.) And I have to admit, all of the stories, they just sounded too good to be true, (because they are,) and I guess I just couldn't believe it, you know?
  • Truthseeker can compel anyone she strikes with her gavel to tell the truth. When she tags Chat Noir with it, he confesses his love for Ladybug — which isn't a secret, but it's one of his truths.
  • Nino uses this after Alya tells the whole class that she was Rena Rouge and tries to force him to back her up by outing him as well. He denies being Carapace, and when she confronts him about it, points out that he isn't Carapace anymore, thanks to being retired.
• Oh, You Don’t Have to Do That. (Communication): When Lila is assigned to work on a group project with Mylene, Alix, Nathaniel and Juleka, she asks each of them to work on a small part of her section. Upon comparing notes, they realize that between the four of them, all of her work was covered. Chloé points out that Lila was employing this, as she reassured each of them that she only needed them to help with part of her share.
• One step backwards and Three forwards: Tikki and Plagg took advantage of this to twist around and distort the Wishes made by Hawkmoth and his supporters.
  • Lila Wished for three things: to be a rich and famous celebrity, to be the center of Adrien's universe, and for Ladybug to suffer.
    • While her family was made wealthier, the tweaks made to their history made her mother turn out much harsher, perfectly willing to subject her daughter to humiliating punishments. Leading into the next point — her celebrity model status makes her prime tabloid bait, amplifying incidents. Fame and infamy run along the same lines, as well...
    • Adrien was split into two different people in the new reality; Adrien became her adoring boyfriend while Felix retained all of Adrien's memories of the original world, becoming her harshest critic. In addition, she didn't wish that he would love her; only that she'd be the 'center of his universe'... and as it turns out, he's intensely into superhero comics, so her status as a supervillain whose existence leads to the rise of their reality's very first superheroes counts as well.
    • Finally, the last part of her Wish effectively cursed the Ladybug Earrings, not Marinette — the Earrings ended up with Emilie, and Tikki strives to cause chaos with bad luck and vicious pranks.
  • Alya Wished to become a great reporter with a knack for finding fantastic stories. These instincts have repeatedly led her into trouble, without the protection of a friend like Ladybug looking out for her. What's more, she's also compelled to investigate... which includes fact-checking. Something she had difficulty with in the past, despite her insistence that "A good reporter always checks their sources!"
  • Nino Wished that he and Alya could be together forever. Rather than improving their relationship, this cursed the two to constantly cross paths, literally stumbling across each other, often during awkward moments.
• The One to Make It Stay: When Ladybug goes to tell Nino that his superhero alter ego is being sidelined for the summer, she comments on how he's likely already aware that Rena Rouge has been benched. Nino carefully replies that he wasn't aware... because when Alya told him, she claimed that Ladybug had permanently stripped her of the Fox Miraculous, dramatically overexaggerating her punishment to make it sound as though she was being unreasonable. Nino figures that Ladybug wouldn't be thrilled to hear any of that, so he makes it sound as though he hadn't heard anything at all yet.
• Prince Charming:
  • Tikki blessed Prince Adrien, by that name and title. So anything which causes him to cease to be "Prince Adrien" (such as being turned into a werecat by a cursed ring) shall also strip him of his blessing. And when Gabriel dies and "Prince Adrien" becomes "King Adrien", the power of his blessing is permanently weakened to something manageable.
  • True Love's Kiss breaks any curse. And even if he wants the one and loathes the other, Adrien's Cat Noir transformation is the curse and his aura of enthrallment the blessing.
  • Every chapter of the story begins with a brief fairy-tale. The last sentence of that fairy-tale is always repeated at the end of the chapter, and always applies to the events of the chapter... just not usually how you would expect.
• Scarlet Lady: Kim gets caught by this after losing the race in "Timebreaker". He scoffs at the consequences - being unable to dare anyone to take on one of his challenges hardly matters when it's already December, right? However, Max corrects him: the terms are that he can't challenge anyone for the rest of the school year.
• In set a course for winds of fortune, Nathalie arrives at the Dupain-Cheng bakery to ask if Marinette had heard from Adrien, who had run away from the Agreste home. Marinette answers that she hasn't seen, heard, or have any idea where he is. In actuality, Adrien had already transitioned to Valérie, which is the name her girlfriend Marinette accepts her as. Valérie's physical changes were also enough to deter Nathalie from recognizing her even when she was working alongside Marinette, especially as she was looking for a male Agreste child.
• In Someone to Watch Over Me, Nooroo has been ordered to report any intrusions by Ladybug or Chat Noir. When he comes across both their kwamis, he decides to only report Ladybug's presence, giving Chat Noir time to escape.
• Villain Of Your Own Story:
  • As in Alya's Lament, Alya impulsively Wishes to know who Hawk Moth is, creating a new world where she is Hawk Moth and has been terrorizing Paris, trying to get her hands on the heroes' Miraculi so she can play hero herself.
  • Alya also Wishes for Marinette's "worries to be lifted" and that she'll be happy, intending to rub in her bestie's face how she magically fixed everything for her. However, this doesn't take the form that Alya expected — instead of hooking her up with Adrien, she ends up dating Nino and Luka, and is no longer Ladybug.
  • She further believes that the Wish twisted her intentions, and that Lila's Laser-Guided Karma is actually her being unfairly punished since Marinette disliked her 'for no reason'.
  • When Alya asks Nooroo what her transformation phrase is, he informs her that it's "Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise." Upon hearing this, Alya assumes that the Butterfly must be meant for evil, rather than considering that it's because she's misusing it.
• In this story, Adrien tries to avoid revealing that he knows Lila has been lying by sidestepping the question of her truthfulness, claiming that he just wanted to protect her from Marinette. Hurt and heartbroken, Marinette then repeats his false reassurances from after the Chameleon incident: "She's a liar, I know. As long as you and I both know the truth, what does it matter?" Lila promptly latches onto the phrasing and spins it around to convince the class that Adrien lied to Marinette about her being a liar in order to manipulate her into doing what he wanted, leaving Alya and the others enraged at him for being so deceptive.

My Hero Academia

• During the Physical Assessment test in Cursed Blood, Aizawa tells the students to launch a ball as far as possible, including using their Quirks, without leaving a small circle. Izuku hands the ball to Tae and orders her to carry it a kilometer away then return.
• In U.A. Unsolved (a Recursive Fanfiction of Yesterday Upon The Stair), Izuku tells his classmates several times that the dorms aren't haunted and that "the only thing haunting the dorms is me". Izuku is the one who's haunted and has been for years. Rei, the ghost who haunts Izuku, messes with them even more than she did before just for fun.
• Present Mic told the Yuuei applicants to "bring whatever you like" to the entrance exam. In Unexpected, Izuku brings a tank Mei had built.
• In One for All and Eight for the Ninth Izuku asks Tsuyu for the names of who had previously bullied her just for her looks due to her Frog Quirk. Tsuyu states she doesn't want him to be charged with vigilantism. Izuku clarifies it won't be vigilantism because that requires Quirk use and "a pipe wrench isn't a Quirk". When the topic comes back around later on Izuku confirms, when asked by Tsuyu, that he actually doesn't own a pipe wrench... but fellow Ennead member Mei Hatsume does and Momo Yaoyorozu can make more with her own Quirk.
  • Chapter 18 of "All it Takes is One Good Friend" makes a Shout-Out to this when Izuku uses the same wording about the pipe wrench for a flashlight he had just used on Bakugo. That chapter's friend, who has a Quirk that causes temporary paralysis from shining a bright yellow light, had used it on Bakugo so many times his body involuntarily freezes up on its own whenever he sees a yellow light.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• 120 Days of Blueblood: Prince Blueblood does this twice.
  • In the first chapter, he arranges for Rarity and Sweetie Belle's father to be framed and arrested, and Prince Blueblood promises Rarity and Sweetie Belle that if they service him to his satisfaction, Blueblood will reunite them with their father. Rarity and Sweetie Belle assume that this means he'll let their father go, but actually, their father was executed a while ago. Blueblood reunites Sweetie Belle and Rarity with their father as he said he would, by executing them as well so they can be reunited in death.
  • In the third chapter, Blueblood has Pinkie Pie arrested on a false charge of being a witch. Pinkie Pie manages to persuade Blueblood to let her go home unharmed if she does everything Blueblood wants. After Pinkie Pie provides him the services he asks for, Blueblood has his guards make sure Pinkie Pie arrives back in her gypsy wagon safe and sound, exactly as he promised he would. Then he has the guards seal the wagon's doors and windows shut and has the wagon thrown in the ocean so Pinkie Pie drowns. After all, Blueblood never made any promises about Pinkie Pie being unharmed after being escorted home.
• Beyond the Wall: As long as you remain inside the village, Gaea will always love you. And to the villagers, being dead and buried in the village, loved by Gaea, is preferable to being outside the walls and alive, but not loved by Gaea.
• A Brief History of Equestria: King Aurum uses this to ensure that Princess Platinum takes the throne without having to marry (and give power to) any of the corrupt nobles. As he points out, Unicorn law says that Queens can't rule, but not that a mare can't be King.
• Choices by DuoCartoonist (since deleted due to COPPA and reuploaded by an independent channel): A young unicorn named Celestia worries for her sister's safety, and asks for the help of an imprisoned being named Discord. Discord offers her a deal, promising that, should she sign with him, "the day [Luna] takes her final breath will never come to pass". After Celestia signs, she (and presumably Luna) is transformed into an Alicorn.
• Diaries of a Madman: Both Navarone and Discord love this trope. The former practically makes it an art form, given how often he does it.
• Friendship Is Magic: Sweetie Belle asks Spike for a dollar in exchange for a photo of Rarity, but it turns out the photo barely features her in it. Later, Spike falls for it again when Sweetie asks for a plushie in exchange for a photo of Rarity at the beach. Spike was clearly expecting it to depict Rarity in a sexy swimsuit, but it turned out to be Rarity at four years old playing in the sand.
• Inner Demons:
  • When Applejack is captured by Queen Twilight's forces while trying to rescue Rarity, she promises to not try to escape. As she and Rarity are breaking out, she explains that she has no intention of trying to escape; they are going to escape.
  • This also pops up during the Final Battle — Queen!Twilight said that she would wait for the heroes in Tartarus to fight them one final time. However, as Scootaloo points out, she didn't say that her army would wait, and indeed her Elite Mooks start marching on Ponyville while she's fighting the Element bearers. Fortunately, the Royal Guard shows up to keep them busy.
• The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo: The Apples have been spitting into Filthy Rich's personal supply of Zap Apple Jam ever since they heard Diamond Tiara was bullying Applebloom. When Twilight points out that it's unlike Applejack to be so deceitful, AJ says that they warn him each year that they put their "blood, sweat and spit" into every jar.
  Applejack: Ain't my fault Filthy don't listen.
• Nine Days Down: While trying to find Twilight in Tartarus, Celestia makes a deal with her sister Terra where, if Terra finds Twilight for her, Celestia will owe Terra a favor to be redeemed at a place and time of Terra's choosing. Terra does so, fairly easily, but the deal was only that she find her, not that she actually relay this information afterwards.
• The Nuptialverse: Chrysalis sold out the Founders of Equestria to Discord when he offered to give her the power of all three pony races, which she took to mean he'd turn her into an Alicorn. Instead, he turned her into a changeling — apparently, he found the idea of just turning her into an Alicorn too boring.
• Oversaturated World: Oversaturation: Discord wanted to build a new science facility in Canterlot High. Celestia agreed, as long as it was not a human testing installation. So Discord made the Not A Human Testing Installation. It is in fact quite capable of human testing.
• The Palaververse: In Treasures, Cervile does this to others and himself, trying to forget uncomfortable truths through rephrasing, and "In a manner of speaking":
  "You tricked me as well, I guess," she said at last. "You said he was still in residence."
  Cervile hesitated before speaking. "In a manner of speaking—"
• Past Sins: Chapter 13: Exact wording as a description, instead of as intended dialogue, “She told me of Shining Armor's barrier, how it would keep out any single pony that was of sufficient magical power.”, but if such ponies could split themselves up... They wouldn't count anymore.
• The Powers of Harmony: Technically speaking, everything the Guards tell the Mane Six about their pasts are true. They just leave out that it all happened a thousand years ago.

Naruto

• Black Flames Dance in the Wind: Rise of Naruto:
  • Naruto promises a traitor that if she cooperates, he'll heal her fatally injured brother. After she tells him everything she knows, he does heal her brother... then immediately kills him.
    Naruto: There are two rules to making a deal with a demon. 1) Don't. 2) If you have to make a deal, be sure to read the fine print.
  • In chapter 45, Naruto and Anko capture a traitor and make him watch as his cousin is killed right before his eyes. When he begs not to be killed, Naruto tells him that HE won't, provided the traitor cooperates. Anko makes no such deal. So when the traitor spills everything he knows, Naruto walks away, keeping his word, but leaving Anko, or one of her summoned snakes, rather, to finish the traitor off.
    Anko: Your cooperation has been much appreciated!
    Traitor: You're welcome.
    Anko: And to show our appreciation, I won't have Uwabami-chan, here, eat you alive!
    Traitor: Thank y-
    Anko: She's still gonna eat you; you'll just be dead.
• In Catch Your Breath, the main character is not a particularly honest person to start with, but she's a lousy liar. She's either prone to tells or around people who can read her chakra, and therefore isn't successful with direct untruths. As a result, Kei makes a point to lie by saying things that are objectively true, but either missing important context or phrased misleadingly. The best example of this mindset comes up during Shell Game, a sidestory in which Kei has to maintain a civilian cover identity.
  Kei, narrating: It was technically true, and therefore the best kind of true.
• In The Empty Cage, Kuushou (the Nine Tails) corrects Sarutobi's assumption that the number of tails a tailed beast has indicates its strength, stating that they're all about the same level. When Sarutobi then tries to confirm that the eight tails isn't much stronger than the one tails, Kuushou corrects him that it's more accurate to say the one tails isn't much weaker than the eight tails.
• In Eroninja, Kyuubi shares that any of Naruto's lovers who are past their physical prime will be (over time) reverted back to it. This becomes noteworthy when some, like Tsume and Shizune, are getting younger, Tsunade is getting older because she'd previously been rejuvenated to eighteen.
• While explaining how they acquired chakra paper in For My Brother, despite not being allowed to purchase or own it, Hinata says she got it from her family.
  Sarutobi: Your family gave you the paper.
  Hinata: They provided it without objection, yes, Hokage-sama.
  Sarutobi: Your father is proud of your political training, is he?
  • The following chapter has Team 7 ordered to "protect the flag" as a training exercise. While Kakashi meant "Protect the clone holding the flag", Naruto grabbed the flag and ran. Kakashi admits he phrased it poorly but still accepts Hinata's remark that protecting an object is a valid mission objective.
• The Kakashi Way:
  • Indra (who's secretly an adult Sasuke who accidentally pulled a Peggy Sue) employs this when he meets his past self for the first time, passing himself off as an Uchiha who wasn't in Konoha at the time of the massacre. When Sasuke angrily demands to know why he hadn't met him sooner, Indra replies that he only just got back a couple of days ago, and wasn't able to see Sasuke because he'd been hospitalized. Both technically true, but leaving out key details like how Konoha doesn't know he exists and that he was responsible for hospitalizing Sasuke in the first place by dumping Danzo's severed, Sharigan-filled arm his doorstep.
  • Indra also uses this while trying to convince his younger self that he's not alone, declaring that he used to be just like him when he was younger. Naturally, Sasuke refuses to believe him.
  • When Inoichi informs Kakashi that he won't be released from their custody until he promises that he won't seek revenge upon Danzo or anyone in his family, Kakashi replies that he won't "go after" them (leaving open the possibility of "accidental" encounters) or attempt to kill them (leaving trolling as an option). Inoichi takes note of this, remarking that he's willing to leave those loopholes unaddressed to show a measure of trust in the Copy-nin.
  • Kakashi also used this to troll Ebisu, telling him that he meets up with Team Seven on a certain bridge at 10AM. What he doesn't clarify until confronted about the matter is that he instructs the kids to meet up with him at around 7 or 8AM, observing that if Ebisu never actually found them there, then they'd probably moved on to do their own training without him.
• In Kyubed: Shinobi's Revenge on Naruto the Kyuubi makes a contract (later revealed to be a marriage contract) with Naruto that so long as a treasure he's given (their son) is unharmed, she will never attack Konoha. When the Hyuuga later try to have Naruto and/or his teammates killed because his secret technique renders both the Byakugan and Juuken useless, Naruto reminds Hiashi about said pact. Not only is Naruto now the king of a magical race found everywhere on the continent, but Kyuubi only promised not to attack Konoha as a whole. She never said anything about not wiping out an individual clan.
• In The Mouse of Konoha, Naruto's entrance exams for the Academy are filled with him following the letter of his orders but not the spirit.
  • A test to capture a flag, several of which are tied at the tops of trees? Naruto distracts the proctor and steals an extra flag from her back pocket.
  • Told to land a killing blow on a small target on the far side of a web of tripwires? Naruto discards the kunai he's given and shoots the target with a crossbow.
  • Asked which animals can jump proportionally higher than a house? Naruto writes down, "Any animal. The house can't jump."
  • When faced with a taijutsu tournament, Naruto sets off several poison bombs in the academy, all filled with a minor irritant while making sure he's outside of the building. Everyone else has to spend several minutes getting the compound off their bodies and thus are disqualified by the iron clad Five Minute Rule^note Anyone who doesn't show up for their match within five minutes is disqualified; no exceptions, allowing Naruto to win the entire tournament.
• OrangeLemon's Sannin Swap: When Kiba and Shino arrive to provide backup against Pain, Kiba informs Sakura that "Shikamaru sent the two of us," with Shino adding that Shikamaru believed she'd realize what the plan was from their presence alone. This proves to be correct, as Sakura realizes that Kiba would never go anywhere without Akamaru, meaning the two must be clones — enabling her to run off and leave them to fight Pain while she follows Shino's trail of kikaichu towards her destination.
• When Anko informs Naruto in Scorpion Disciple that she can't teach him anymore, it takes him a moment to realize she's saying she's been forbidden from doing so, not that she has nothing more to teach him. After thinking on the situation, Naruto asks her an important question.
  Naruto: Is it because you're teaching me? Or because you're teaching me?
• In the prologue of Shadow Play, the Self-Insert asks to be born into a wealthy family that won't expect much of him. He's rather pissed to learn he was born as Shikamaru Nara.
• Son of the Sannin: During the Kirigakure Civil War arc, Naruto discovers that Kiri has been using golems powered by chakra and fuinjutsu originally developed by the Uzumaki clan. After the war is over, he requests to Mei Terumi to being allowed to take the golems and the plans to build them since they rightfully belong to his clan. She gladly agrees, but conveniently leaves out that she has made copies of the original plans since she's not planning on giving up such a valuable resource.
• Swapping The Cage:
  • When Neji questions Kuushou about his unusual chakra, Kuushou responds that he "can't say". Neji tries to elaborate only for Kuushou stress that he "can't say", making Neji realize the information is classified.
  • Earlier, Kuushou asks why Sarutobi is doing some paperwork and after receiving an explanation of how paperwork keeps the village running, Kuushou elaborates that he's not asking why the paperwork is being done but why Sarutobi is the one doing it. Some of it might be important enough to require the Hokage's input, but more trivial ones like someone wanting to expand their restaurant definitely do not. Sarutobi does some research and learns there's roughly a dozen Chuunin whose job it is to go over all the paperwork he receives, handle the trivial stuff, and forward the more important paperwork to him.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Advice and Trust: Shinji and Asuka use a lot of double wording to hide their relationship from everybody. Their guardian Misato calls and Shinji tells "We'll get to bed early, both of us", omitting the "together in the same bed" bit. People observes that Shinji's piloting skills are improving and Asuka tells that is due to "how much of she has rubbed off on him" omitting that all of her has rubbed off on him several times.
  Shinji: Well, it's about what I would have said anyway, before, and it's still true, so I'm not lying or anything...
  Asuka: Heh. Technically correct, the best kind of correct.
• A Crown of Stars: Invoked. At an early chapter Shinji and Asuka felt an empathic echo of the emotions of their hosts Daniel and Rayana. Rayana promised Asuka that she would feel that way again soon (meaning she would feel happy again). In chapter 13 Asuka asks Daniel if they will hit her with that echo again, since that would satisfy the letter of her promise. Daniel replies that is not their style.
• Evangelion 303: Chapter 13 is titled "The Death of Asuka Langley Soryu". She accepts Shinji's marriage proposal, meaning she will change her name.
• Long Time No See: Not long after arriving at the party, Shinji is already considering leaving. After all, his wife only said he "has better go to the reunion, or else". She never said how long he had to be there.
  Shinji: (thinking) Might as well go home then. She can't say I wasn't here. And there was no word about that I'd have to be the last one to leave.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: When Kluge hints that he'll kill Keiko if Nakajima doesn't cooperate, Nakajima protests that he never said anything about that child. Kluge retorts that he never said that he'd not threaten her.

One Piece

• After saving Alabasta in Blood Man Luffy, Luffy's requested reward is King Cobra's throne. While the man balks at handing over his kingdom, Luffy laughs and says he doesn't want Cobra's kingdom but his fancy golden chair.
• The Logia Brothers: When Masira confronts the Straw Hats over salvaging rights for the St. Briss, Vivi tells him that they haven't taken anything from any ships under the waves. Which is true, as Luffy and Usopp explored the ship and raided its contents before it sank.
• This Bites!:
  • Cross corrects Smoker that he didn't say anything about good Marines being a myth. There are far too many good Marines, but not nearly enough decent ones.
  • Conis' gift to the Straw Hats wasn't guns but a gunner.
  • After Spandam's incompetence helps completely humiliate the World Government and he announces his intention to overthrow the Five Elder Stars, Sengoku calls him and tells him to report to the Five Elder Stars and receive everything he has coming to him. Idiot that he is, Spandam thinks he's being rewarded.
  • Luffy, of all people, invokes this in chapter 43.
  Merry said that her dream is to sail the seas with us, and our goal coming to Water 7 was to make it so that that could happen. Who cares if she can't become a ship anymore? She's still alive and with us, and she can still live her dream. Isn't that good enough?
  • In chapter 66, Cross and Eustass Kid offer a slaver a "lifetime supply of chocolate", which turns out to be a single bar of chocolate and a bullet between the eyes if he doesn't give them what they want.

The Outer Limits

• In Farewell Match, boxer Ricky Redman faces a powerful alien in a match where "the loser dies". Despite his best efforts, Ricky loses, only to be informed that, "You will die the death of obscurity, human. While your physical existence will continue, your name will be forgotten, and your former fame will fade into nothingness. You will never again throw a punch inside a ring! That, human, is your fate!" The crowd and his sleazy manager starts mocking him, but Ricky gets the last laugh by pointing out that they never said anything about throwing a punch outside of the ring, and beats the crap out of his manager. Or, in other words, it's "A Game of Pool", but with boxing and with the original ending, but more bittersweet.

Persona

• The Body Reflects the Heart, the Shadow Reflects the Soul: In Chapter 17, when Akane Hasegawa transfers to Shujin, rumors work overtime about her being related to Zenkichi Hasegawa, the Phantom Thief Wolf. She dissuades them simply by saying that Hasegawa is a common name and that she's gotten a lot of grief from the rumor mills at her old school wondering the same thing, never once denying that the rumors are completely correct.
• Confide in Me: Throughout the interrogation, Joker invokes this when he has to answer Sae's questions about his girlfriend in order to tell the truth and still keep the secret that said girlfriend is Sae's younger sister.
  • Chapter 10:
    Sae: Do your girlfriend's parents know she's dating you?
    Joker: Told you, it's a secret. Her caretaker doesn't know about us.
    Sae: They must be pretty neglectful then, if they don't even know that the person that they're supposed to be taking care of is dating a criminal.
    Joker: (smirking) I love it when we agree on things, Niijima-san.
  • Chapter 15: On the subject of the police force and the corruption therein:
    Joker: See, my girlfriend's dad was a cop, and she's got nothing but good things to say about them.
    Sae: Anyone I would know?
    Joker: I...would think so, yes.
  • Chapter 16: Not long after Joker says that his girlfriend has an older sibling:
    Sae: ...Why don't you tell me about the elder sibling?
    Joker: They're quite stern, but they're a good person once you get to know them.
    Sae: Another confidant, perhaps?
    Joker: I think they might be! We've been talking a lot more recently.
  • Different instance: Joker recalls an incident where he proposed studying "adult things" with Makoto around exam time. She spent an hour teaching him how to file taxes. Sae actually chuckles at that.
• In the Persona 5 post-series story The F Word, Sae fears that Makoto might be distracted from studying for her University Exam by her boyfriend Ryuji. After a series of events, Sae manages to tell Ryuji that Makoto has been busy between her exams, getting their friend Ren out of prison, and her chores, thinking it will get him to leave Makoto alone for two weeks. When she comes home one day, she finds that Ryuji has been doing household chores at their house so Makoto would have more free time to not only study but to rest. Makoto later tells Sae that Ryuji got to the alternate meaning thanks to their friend Shiho Suzui.
• Foggy Nights and Phantom Flights: When Yu Narukami stays with the Dojima family for a year, he ends up sharing a room with his uncle's newly-adopted foster child Goro Akechi, who establshes some ground rules. Namely, Akechi puts in place a "No Girlfriends" policy for his new roomate, as he's a middle-schooler and he'd rather not walk in on anything unsavory. Yu responds by asking if boyfriends are still on the table, much to Akechi's exasparation.

PJ Masks

• In Chapter 8 of A Feline's Birdy Love, Night Ninja informs Amaya/Owlette and Greg/Gekko that he's come to tell them that they don't have to worry about him hurting Amaya physically again. When the confused duo return to HQ, they find it completely trashed and Connor missing. Night Ninja then appears on their video screen to say that he promised only that he wouldn't hurt Amaya physically and said nothing about hurting her emotionally, at which point he pulls back to reveal a badly beaten and unconscious Connor, who he made no promises about. On top of that, he points out that he made no promises about hurting Greg and that he didn't say he wouldn't revoke his promise as suits him.

Pokémon

• Mended is a fic where Ash learns that Professor Oak is his father. Looking back, Ash notices that his mother never technically told him that Will Ketchum was his father. He simply jumped to the logical conclusion.
• In The Road to be a Pokemon Master, during Ash's duel with Giovanni in Viridian City, they make a bet: if Ash wins Giovanni will disband Team Rocket. If he loses, though, all of his friends and family will be executed then and there. Ash manages to win the match, and Giovanni keeps his word to disband Team Rocket... right after he orders his goons to kill Ash and his friends. As Giovanni points out, they never specified that they would be spared if Ash won.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

• This, so Kyubey claimed, was what doomed Joan of Arc in A History of Magic. She had wished that France would hear God through her and free herself. And it was true, she would become an inspiration and spur France to free itself from English rule. She just had to die to do it. That knowledge was enough to turn her into the witch Elektra.
• In Persephone's Waltz, Sayaka makes a different wish than in canon: to find Madoka (who has been kidnapped and missing for days), with the unspoken assumption that she'd be powerful enough to free Madoka once she did. Upon being kidnapped by Madoka's captor, she realizes how naive this was.
• In A Wish Within Darkness, this is how Yuri Akemi, Homura's sister and Witch separated from her and given human form, skirts around the Awful Truth about the ultimate fate of Puella Magi when warning them about the risks of becoming Magical Girls: She tells them that every time a girl becomes a Magical Girl, an equally powerful Witch is created. Anyone who is familiar with the source material knows that Witches are the end result of a Magical Girl either overusing her magic or falling into despair.

Rizzoli And Isles

• In Calamity Jane Meets Doctor Isles, Maura’s inability to lie prompts her to instead choose her words carefully when visiting Boston with Jane posing as her husband; a particular example of this as shown when she is discussing if she and ‘Jake’ have considered having children;
  Maura: We have discussed children, yes. But going from the intimate knowledge I have of Jake and myself, I've begun handing myself over to the fact that certain factors I'd really rather not discuss will preclude us from ever having children of our own.
• In Hopes, Dreams, and a Little Bit of Crazy, after Jane and Maura admit that they're in love, Jane asks how Maura can feel that way about her when Maura previously stated that Jane wasn't her type and she didn't want to have sex with her considering that Maura can't lie. Maura clarifies that she didn't define Jane as her type as she doesn't feel that she has a type, and she was able to say that she didn't want to have sex with Jane because she wants more than just sex with Jane.
• In I've Loved You So Long, when Jane is shot by Doyle and he shows up at Maura's house, Maura tells Doyle that Jane's brother is a cop and he's been staying in her guest house until his apartment is ready; both true statements, but Maura doesn't specify that the cop brother isn't the brother staying with her right now.

Rosario + Vampire

• Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness:
  • In Act II chapter 29, when Moka and Kokoa explain the Eia Dreahl, they explain that, as per their agreement, the first girl to give Tsukune a nosebleed wins the right to be his mate, and the loser will have to forfeit their right to him forever under penalty of death. However, as Dark points out to them, Kokoa said the first girl to give him a nosebleed wins, which means that any girl who gives Tsukune a nosebleed can claim him for her own; cue Oh, Crap! when Moka and Kokoa realize this, as well as the fact that Yukari has already picked up on it and seizing the opportunity.
  • In Act II chapter 30, Inner Moka uses the exact wording of the Eia Dreahl to her advantage, realizing that the pact only said to give Tsukune a nosebleed; it didn't say how.
  • In Act III chapter 9, according to the elder in Heaven, the Holy Lock can withstand almost anything on Earth. Key word, almost: even it can't take the strain of Tsukune's full monster energy without cracking.
  • In Act III chapter 44, the gang accuses the headmaster of lying when he said that Fairy Tale was destroyed. However, Mikogami points out that he only said that the dark lords had informed him that Fairy Tale had disappeared and that they wanted the school reopened; he never explicitly said that the organization was destroyed.
  • In Act VI chapter 2, after knocking Ran senseless with a multitude of washtubs, Yukari agrees to respect Ran's feelings and not to hit her with any more of them. However, as she points out, she never said she wouldn't use her earth powers to bury Ran alive if she inflicts Marshmallow Hell on Ahakon again.

RuneQuest

• In the folktale How Chalana Arroy Brought Voria Back, the god of death says that he won't release Voria from the underworld, because she belongs there. He specifically points out that she is cold, not breathing, and pale, so she must be dead. So Chalana Arroy goes to Voria's corpse, and smears it with bright red berries. Then she places a burning ember in Voria's clothing, warming her heart. Last of all, she uses her power as the goddess of healing to breathe Life into Voria's lungs. Humakt lets them leave the underworld after that, because he can't deny that Voria feels alive.

RWBY

• Children of Remnant: To Ozpin's horror, Ironwood wasted one of Jinn's questions by asking if his plan to kill Salem would work. The plan would work - because the plan involves bringing the Relics together, which would destroy the entire planet alongside Salem.
• In A New World on her Shoulders, the exact rules regarding the Atlas Academy initiation were "you're considered to have finished initiation if you manage to return to Atlas Academy." Instead of going through the Grimm infested forests back to the airships, Ruby, Weiss, Ciel, and Penny avoid the armies of Atlas so they can make it back to the academy the opposite way.
• Roman in Professor Arc tells Jaune that he can trust him, but he can't trust in him. Eventually Jaune gets an explanation on the difference: trusting someone means being able to predict what they will do; trusting in someone means trusting them with your secrets and knowing they won't betray you.
• When a couple of wannabe gangsters hit on the Malachite twins in Service with a Smile, Miltia responds to the one grabbing her ass that she can smell he's a virgin a mile off. But it's a shame to keep living as a virgin and offers to take care of that for him. Naturally, she intends to kill him for groping her.
  • Roman tells Jaune that he and Neo are "in the removal business", causing Jaune to believe they're trash collectors or repo-men, not realizing they're thieves.
• In Stress Relief, Cinder promises not to condemn Pyrrha to a world without Jaune. Despite apparently intending to murder them both, it's later revealed Cinder planned a Suicide by Cop because she didn't want to live in a world without Jaune either.
• White Sheep:
  • Upon learning his mother is Salem, Ruby and Team RYBN claim Jaune said his mother was in real estate. Jaune replies that what he said was she owned a lot of land. And she does, 95% of Remnant in fact.
  • Nicholas Arc states his home is in the Grimmlands, which normal people take to mean he's Married to the Job. Naturally, what he means his home is with his wife Salem.

Sanctuary

• The Sanctuary Telepath: Janine has to keep a pretty big secret, but she doesn't want to lie to her friends all the time, cue the trope. One significant example occurs when the remaining group discusses the murders, and she emphasizes that Jack the Ripper is not her brother, which the others take as her disowning John. She just said the truth - it's actually the energy elemental inside his head who committed the crimes who is definitely not her brother. She later admits that she's disgusted with the professionalism she can display this behaviour, bringing up the case when she managed to twist an universal truth ("you can't save everyone") into a lie (they were discussing the possibility of saving her brother, and she said it to throw Helen off the case).

The Secret Saturdays

• In Arc 7: Beach, Ulraj challenges Zak and Doyle to a race from the beach to some rocks. When Doyle wins by using his jet pack, Zak and Ulraj complain that he didn't swim like they did.
  Doyle: You guys didn't say we had to swim. You said, and I quote, "I'll race you two to the edge of the rocks.".
  Zak: But it was implied!
  Doyle: Sorry little guy, but you need to be clearer next time.

The Silmarillion

• Several examples in A Boy, a Girl and a Dog: The Leithian Script:
  • Beren swore that his hand would hold a Silmaril the next time Thingol saw him. When they met again, Beren's hand was inside of the stomach of the Wolf of Angband… but it WAS holding a Silmaril, so that he fulfilled his vow.
  • Before leaving them, Beren ordered Huan to stay with Luthien. So that Huan carried Luthien on its back when they went after Beren.
  • Finrod had promised to Vairë to not move the walls again. When he threatens her with doing it…
    Vaire: Don't you dare, you miserable wretch!
    Finrod: (polite) Don't compel me to the choice, then, Ma'am.
    Vaire: What of your promise?!?
    Finrod: You only told me not to amuse myself by rearranging your home. This isn't a jest, my Lady.

A Song Of Ice And Fire

• In Chasing Dragons, Drogo promised the magister who sold out Qohor to him that no Dothraki would harm him or his household. Now, their horses on the other hand...
• In Robb Returns, Jon Arryn told Petyr Baelish he would get a fair trial. Not that he would get a public trial.

Star Trek

• In the Star Trek: The Original Series fic Insontis II, when the admirals call to complain about Spock using the age-regression technology, Kirk reminds them that they gave the Vulcan carte blanche in his investigation.
• In the Star Trek: The Original Series fanfic Step by Step, Spock reminds McCoy that he said to "get [Kirk] off the bridge", not to bring him to Sickbay.

Star Wars

• Count Dooku in Back From the Future points out the fallacy in the Jedi's belief in a "Chosen one who will bring balance to the Force" as they never considered what it would actually mean.
  Dooku: There's a certain symmetry to it all, don't you think? The Jedi wipe out all but one Sith. The Sith wipe out all but one Jedi. Doesn't that look like balance to you?

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

• In The Eclipse Of Marco, Eclipsa sets up challenges for her hand in marriage all based off this trope. Knowing that every suitor except Marco will be too dim to realize she's doing this.
  • Be allowed past a giant merchant: Other hopeful kings to try to fight the giant. Marco simply pays the giant, who lets him pass. Eclipsa points out that it was a giant MERCHANT that they had to be ALLOWED past.
  • Eclipsa gives all the hopefuls buckets without bottoms, points at a mountain named the Peak of No Return, and tells them their challenge is to fill the buckets with water. The rest of the suitors rush off to scale the mountain to their deaths, while Marco goes to a stream near the starting position and puts the bucket 'in' the water. Eclipsa said the challenge was to fill the buckets. She just pointed out the mountain, she didn't say they had to climb it.
• When trying to convince Star to tell him what the problem stressing her out is in A Tangled Web We Cut, Glosseryck tells her he can help her because he is 'wiser than the stars'. When she tells him the problem ^note  Marco and Hekapoo got together and had ten kids however, Glosseryck is stumped and tells her to tell her Mom. When Star said he thought he was wiser than the stars, Glosseryck tells her he meant that literally. It's not hard to be smarter than a giant ball of flaming gas after all.
• In this comic, when told by Marco's father that she is not allowed to live under the same roof as Marco, she magics up a tent, which does not have a roof.

Steven Universe

• In Crystal Gem Academy, Rose tells Steven that she doesn't have any children attending the Academy yet. Since Steven isn't at the Academy yet, this is technically true. And, as a bonus, it allows Rose to conceal her true relation to him.
• In The Traitorous Soldier, when learning about a human soldier that fought alongside the Homeworld Gems during the war for Earth, Connie asks what was the human's gender. Pearl answered that the human was originally male, but they didn't have a gender after the experiment. Due to the current customs of gender on present-day Earth, Connie thought that the human identifies themselves as nonbinary until Pearl clarifies that the Homeworld Gems stripped away everything "human" from them during the process.

Supergirl

• In Hellsister Trilogy, Brainiac declares Darkseid has been defeated. One of his partners-in-crime notes "defeated" isn't the same as "destroyed".
  Brainiac said, "It is finished. Darkseid is defeated."
  Kral noted that Brainiac did not say "destroyed."

Super Mario Bros.

• In Chapter 14 of Can A Boo Be Friends With A Human? Kamek releases Peach from her cage and tells Luigi that Peach won't be put in harm's way (not that Luigi has much choice in the proceedings). Luigi agrees to hand himself over to save the others. As soon as this is done, he immediately binds Luigi with magic and puts Peach back in her cage before Luigi gets the chance to do anything.
  Kamek: What better way to keep somebody out of harm's way than by putting them in a cage?

Sword Art Online

• SAO: Mother's Reconciliation: Asuna is outraged to discover that after their heart-to-heart in ALO, Kyouko has still been trying to arrange meetings with potential suitors, leading to this:
  Asuna: You promised that you'd let me choose my path in life back in January! I thought that meant that you'll stop with all this suitor nonsense! Yet, here I find you of all people breaking your promise!
  Kyouko: What I said back then was that you'll be allowed to stay in your current school as long as you keep your grades up and go to University. Nothing more than that.

Teen Titans

• In Collared, a freak show that had previously used Beast Boy as an attraction burns down. Since Robin was investigating, Cyborg pulls him aside and tells him off for excessive violence, even if the guy who opened the place deserved it. Robin informs Cyborg that he didn't go there to start a fire and Cyborg drops the subject. However, the narration reveals that the situation is this trope; Robin's intentions were to kill the man, not start the fire.

Thor: The Dark World

• In Chapter 10 of Canid, Fenrir invokes this in a horrifying way after a short-tempered Tyr harasses him to end his suicidal hunger strike.
  Tyr: You stubborn, spoiled brat, you will eat something!
  Fenrir: As you wish.

Total Drama

• A Codette World Tour: During the Niagara Falls challenge, Alejandro tricks Sierra into thinking that Bridgette kissed Cody while be very careful to not actually say those words.
  Alejandro: If you recall senorita, all I said was that Cody's face was bright red. 'Almost as if he had been kissed by a girl'. I never said Bridgette kissed him.
• Random Drama Series: This trope has defeated two villains.
  • When Alejandro gets the head shave dare in Island, he ends up shaving his own head and gets eliminated because the dare was for Chef to do it.
  • In order to get a spot in the finale of World Tour, you had to be one of the first two to set foot on Hawaii. So in spite of Matthew arriving first, Scarlett and Mal become the finalists since they hit the beach first.
• Total Drama Chris:
  • Episode 3 splits the two teams split into girls (dressed as Sailor Senshi) and boys (dressed as random generic monsters), armed with squirt guns... filled with vomit, and told to squirt the Senshi/monsters of the opposite team. Each of the teams proceed to use – and abuse – Chris' poor wording to the fullest extent:
    • Screaming Pansies: When Chris tells the teams that they have to do what their Sailor Moon orders- no exceptions- Lindsay's first order is for her team mates to speak their minds. Also, the fact that getting hit doesn't necessarily mean you can't still help your team mates.
    • Killer Chrises: The girls bribing Owen with jelly beans to surprise attack his team mates, on the grounds it wasn't forbidden. Also, Noah hiding out in his cabin, again, something not explicitly forbidden.
  • This is what ultimately allows the producers to fire Chris, despite having a contract: said contract was for Chris to host Total Drama Island, but he changed the name of the show to Total Drama Chris for the new season. And so, Chris is done in by his own Pride. Defeat by Irony indeed.
• In Total Drama Revenge of Pahkitew Island, during the superhero challenge, one of the rules Chris sets when everyone picks their powers is that you can't make yourself invincible. Duncan gets around this by giving himself a weakness to getting stabbed in the heart, but also gives himself a Healing Factor. So he's not outright invincible, he's just very hard to kill.

Transformers

• This comic has Megatron order Starscream to tell the Constructicons to repaint a mural; Starscream decides to vent his frustration at being told to do menial tasks by taking advantage of the fact that Megatron didn't specify how it should be repainted. Instead of restoring the faded parts of the Decepticon insignia, the mural is painted over with a spoof of Creation of Adam that replaces both God and Adam with Starscream.
  [Megatron is visibly silent]
  Starscream: Well? What do you think? Repainted as you asked.

Voltron

• In Voltron: Ancient Defense, Keith reveals to Lance about who killed his father, but makes him promise to tell no one. Lance, reluctant to do so as he feels it's unhealthy for Keith to keep his feelings bottled up, swears to do so on the grave of his grandmother. When Lance tells the team anyways, Keith finds out that neither of Lance's grandmothers are dead.
  Keith: Well he's a clever bastard, I'll give him that.

Worm/Ward

• A Darker Path is full of characters deceiving with the truth.
  • Atropos promises not to tell anyone about what Glory Girl did at the park, in exchange for Panacea owing her one. Note that this promise doesn't keep her from suggesting that Aisha do it for her. (And Aisha was present, so talking to her about it isn't breaking the promise.) Nor does it prevent Atropos from talking about how Glory Girl was beaten and embarrassed, so long as she doesn't mention the endangered civilians.
  • When Amy is going to meet Atropos and pay off the favour, Carol (not knowing what's happening) cautions her to quickly leave if she sees Atropos again. Rather than lie, Amy simply says not to worry and states honestly that "I have absolutely no desire to be that close to her ever again."
  • Atropos warns Jack Slash that if he lies to her again, she'll kill him. Of course, that doesn't mean she won't kill him if he's truthful.
  • Taylor truthfully tells Mrs Knott that she's looking after Cherie "until her father shows up this afternoon." (She leaves out the part where she's planning to gruesomely murder said father.)
  • When one of the newly formed committee members tries skimming funds, Danny warns him that "Atropos spoke to me this morning about the committee". All Taylor had actually said was to wish him luck with said committee.
  • Atropos promises Riley not to kill Barrow as he's never actually killed anyone. Knee-capping isn't killing. Bonus points because Barrow realises the distinction just a moment too late.
  • Atropos has already stated that she will kill the Endbringers 'with the Power of Friendship' (to Dragon's not so secret amusement). When the Simurgh shows up in Canberra, Atropos is carrying a shotgun with the words 'The Power of Friendship' engraved along each barrel, which she then gets empowered by Flechette.
    • Related to this, she pulls on Alexandria's friendship with Eidolon to make him subconsciously wish to stop the other Endbringers before Ending his powers, ensuring they are no longer a danger. Nobody said it had to be Atropos' friendship, after all.
  • Carol Dallon learns that Atropos has been visiting Panacea and getting her help with various endeavours, and Carol messages Atropos to insist that next time, she needs to knock on the door so they can discuss it. Atropos agrees, and complies — but during the conversation, also makes it clear that she doesn't actually need Carol's permission for anything.
    Atropos: You said to knock on the front door and talk. I've knocked, we're talking.
  • Defied when Atropos decides not to attach any strings to healing Genesis' spinal injury because she doesn't want to breed resentment and malicious compliance.
    I had no desire to find out just how big a mess a bunch of unhappy capes could make by 'helping'.
  • She declares that she'll put an End to the Machine Army with panache and style. She makes a computer virus called "Panache" that causes their programming to fizzle out, while "Style" is the name for the short-lived bacterium Panacea creates that can eat through metal and plastic.
  • When the cape Goddess from Earth Shin forces her to kill the members of The Resistance in her world by threatening to kill Emma, Riley, and Theo, Atropos promises that by the end of the day "the name of the Goddess will be the most celebrated one across the face of this world. They'll probably declare a public holiday." What she fails to mention is that the public holiday will be because Goddess will be dead, and the goddess celebrated will be Atropos (the actual one, not the cape).
• Mauling Snarks: When trying to discourage Aisha, Director Piggot tells her that applying for tinker fugue biological enhancements drastically increases her chances of running into members of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Completely horrified, Aisha immediately gives up on this idea. What she doesn't know is that the Nine are actually good guys and Bonesaw is one of the people making these enhancements, so they would have, indeed, run into each other if Aisha did go through with this.
• In Quicken, villain Hookwolf promises a rival thug that he'll not kill him if he answers his questions. And he didn't kill him. Hookwolf's partner did.
  "I – I won, didn't I? I won the game! You said you weren't going to kill me!"
  "I'm not," Hookwolf said distantly, still thinking about what Jürgen had said. "He is."
• In Peggy Sue story Warp, Dean asks Vicky what tipped her off about her sister's feelings. Unwilling to reveal she's a time-traveller, she answers she figured it out because of the bank robbery, which is technically true but omits the physical and emotional abuse Vicky was put through in the original timeline.
  Dean smiled, too, but it was a little strained. "So, uh, your sister," he said. "What tipped you off? She didn't—tell you, did she?"
  [...]
  "I figured it out because of the bank robbery," I said. It was only technically true, but I didn't think I could try to say anything further.

X-Men

• Stars From Home: Scott is prone to this. When Charles and Hank try talking to him about going to college, he keeps repeating that he doesn't want to go. It takes weeks for Charles to realize that Scott hasn't been saying he doesn't want college but that he doesn't want to go, as in go away.
• X-Men: The Early Years: In "Twinkies, Holdups and Other Things that Aren't Good For You", Hank said his dissolvent was guarantee to eat through the glue sticking Jean's study partner Joe to the table. He never said it'd not hurt Joe.
  "HANK!" Jean roared.
  Hank gave her an innocent look. "You said to find something that would eat the glue."
  Jean vowed she was going to murder Hank McCoy. "Something that won't hurt Joe in the process."
  Hank gave her an exasperated expression. "Well you Ms. Grey, should have been more specific."

Yu-Gi-Oh!

• From Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
  • Episode 51:
    Kaiba: I'm shutting down your research lab, Nesbitt.
    Nesbitt: Mister Kaiba, I beg you to reconsider!
    Kaiba: Kay.
    (shot of lab being blown to smithereens)
    Nesbitt: But you said you'd reconsider!
    Kaiba: I did. I was going to have the building renovated after I shut it down.
    Nesbitt: Then why did you—
    Kaiba: I reconsidered.
  • Episode 55…
    Kaiba: Oh hey, that reminds me of a joke. Why did the obnoxious green-haired punk cross the road?
    Noah: What?
    Kaiba: To show that he had guts. And man, did he have guts.
    Noah: That's not funny.
    Kaiba: I guess you had to be there.
    Noah I WAS.
    Kaiba: And that's why it's so funny.
  • Episode 58…
    Joey I'm warning you Melvin, don't even think about pullin' any funny business during this duel!
    Melvin: Don't worry Susan, this is going to be a fun, clean game. No bloodshed whatsoever.
    Joey: Well, good—
    Melvin: Tell me, would you prefer to be burned alive or just asphyxiated?
    Joey: Nyeh? But you just said—
    Melvin: I assure you, both methods are quite clean. No muss, no fuss.

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