Basic Trope: A character's secret becomes detrimental, much to the Secret-Keeper's chagrin.
- Straight: Alice wants to show the police a piece of evidence to clear Bob's name, but Bob doesn't want her to, as it would mean revealing an embarrassing secret, a secret Alice previously promised to keep.
- Exaggerated: Alice is so upset by Bob's decision that whenever others try to explain to her that Bob is the bad guy, Alice, privy to said evidence, can only jump up and down and scream in frustration.
- Downplayed: Alice is disappointed but moves on and looks for other ways to prove Bob's innocence.
- Justified: The secret would destroy Bob's reputation and simply isn't worth it.
- Inverted: Alice wants to keep Bob's secret but he urges her to break it to prove his innocence quickly.
- Subverted: Bob's secret embarrasses him personally but was harmless, so he tells Alice they may as well say what exonerates him.
- Double Subverted: Then he changes his mind back to preferring that his embarrassing secret stay a secret.
- Parodied: Bob's secret is that he gave (and received) Embarrassing Nicknames as a kid.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob keeps changing his mind from wanting to be known innocent to preferring that his secret stay hidden.
- Averted: Bob has no secret or hasn't been accused of a crime.
- Enforced: The movie is about a real person who decided they'd rather keep their embarrassing secret even if it meant being framed for a crime.
- Lampshaded:Alice: You're willing to let people think you're guilty?Bob: If it means people know my secret, yes. Unlike my alleged crime, I'll never be forgiven for it.
- Invoked: The real culprit, Adam, also knows Bob's secret and plants a Red Herring related to the subject thereof at the scene of the crime.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Alice disregards Bob's request and gives the police the exonerating evidence, embarrassing secret and all, or Bob does it himself.
- Adam reveals Bob's secret by itself, without the exonerating evidence, so Bob is both suspected and embarrassed.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Without the exonerating evidence, Bob is going to prison, and whether his embarrassing secret comes out is secondary to the emotional, mental, physical, and financial tolls such will impose on him.
- Reconstructed: Alice and Bob figure out a way to prove Bob's innocence while preserving the secrecy of whatever is embarrassing him.
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