History Main / FromACertainPointOfView

[[redirect:HalfTruth]]

->'''Luke:''' Why didn't you tell me? You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
->'''Obi Wan:''' Your father was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true... [[TropeNamer from a certain point of view.]]
->'''Luke:''' ''(incredulous)'' A ''certain point of view''?
->'''Obi Wan:''' Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
-->-- ''StarWars Episode VI - ReturnOfTheJedi''

-> '''Luke:''' That's Jedi code for, "I lied my butt off," isn't it?
-->-- ''IrregularWebcomic''

This trope is BlatantLies -- at least FromACertainPointOfView. The statement has a justification that rests on a very, very shaky technicality which most people would not consider valid. Usually this entails some feeble excuse, as in the quote at the top of this page. It may require a PersonalDictionary or outright InsaneTrollLogic.

This is most commonly used by oracles who are trying to create a ProphecyTwist but haven't sufficiently mastered the art of [[DoubleEntendre double meanings.]] Instead of taking advantage of a non-obvious but genuine [[ExactWords ambiguity of phrasing]], or relying on [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic elaborate symbolism]], the oracle takes an unambiguous statement and tries to pretend that there was another valid meaning. It is also what separates a LiteralGenie from a JackassGenie, as the latter stretches the interpretation of the wish beyond the bounds of credibility just to get the wisher into trouble.

Less commonly, it is used in the wake of a RetCon, in an effort to smooth over the inconsistencies introduced by that RetCon. In the [[TropeNamer original example]] shown at the top of the page, the line from the third movie practically [[HandWave Hand Waves]] the fact that the line from the first movie was originally intended to be describing two people (despite any of Lucas' [[DarthWiki.FallenCreator belated claims to the contrary]]).

Contrast ProphecyTwist, in which the alternative interpretation is not anticipated by the characters (and hopefully the audience), but makes sense when revealed. Sister trope to YesExceptNo. Compare DoubleSpeak and FalseReassurance. See also NoPurpleDragons and KeepingSecretsSucks. Compare ''or'' contrast BothSidesHaveAPoint, depending on the circumstances. For comedic versions, see StealthPun (or VisualPun).
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Anime/Manga}}]]
* Everything said by Xelloss in ''{{Slayers}}'' is technically true in manner in which he phrased it, though not always in the manner in which the listener chooses to hear it. The closest he comes to telling an actual lie is to deliberately mispronounce the name Bibble.
* In PuellaMagiMadokaMagica, what Kyubey tells to Kyoko when asked [[spoiler:if Sayaka could be turned back into a human after having turned into a witch]] is technically not meant to say that it is possible... But the way he phrases it doesn't make it look ''impossible'' either. This gives Kyoko enough hope to try, and ultimately results in [[spoiler:Kyoko having to sacrifice herself to put Witch!Sayaka out of her misery]] when it doesn't work. Later on, Kyubey acknowledges that he phrased his statement that way because [[spoiler:he wanted Kyoko to die]], so that Homura [[spoiler:was left with no companions to fend off the ultimate witch, Walpurgis, when it appears, unless Madoka accepts a Puella Magi contract]].
** In general, Kyubey is made of this; he never actually ''lies'', he just withholds any relevant information unless specifically asked about it.
* ''SaintSeiya'', the reason why Shaka, the Golden Saint of Virgo, followed BigBad Saga.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* Kyon, in ''[[{{Fanfic/Ptitle0028gzjm}} Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', tells a Yakuza that his PDA is custom [[hottip:*:Yuki made it from Asakura's junk data remnants]], and says that he got Akasaka's picture because if you do it right, people just look right through you. [[hottip:*:He made himself invisible]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* ''StarWars'' is an obvious example, being [[TropeNamer where this trope gets its name]]. Specifically in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'' when Obi-Wan tells Luke that the statement "Darth Vader betrayed and murdered your father" is, indeed, true "from a certain point of view." This is a RetCon. There is no historical evidence that anyone intended Vader and Anakin Skywalker to be the same person before work started on ''TheEmpireStrikesBack.'' Nevertheless, it's a [[TropesAreTools pretty good]] RetCon. It's true Vader slaughtered scads of Jedi, it's true Obi Wan feels betrayed and horrified and hates him for it, and it's entirely believable that the old man would put off telling Luke his daddy is actually an evil Sith Lord as long as possible.
** In the original novelisation of ''Return of the Jedi'' from 1983, when Yoda confirms Vader's identity, he also confesses that "Obi-Wan would have told you long ago, had I let him", which lets Obi-Wan off the hook somewhat.
** On the DVD release, the scene is actually ''titled'' "A Certain Point Of View".
** The way Alec Guinness played the scene in ''ANewHope'' makes it actually quite believable that he was lying to protect Luke from the truth. His pause and sigh indicate his decision to lie, alleged ret-con aside.
*** Of course, this was likely unintentional on Guinness' part as he is known to have disliked the script, only taking the role for the money, and is often described as visibly not trying hard with his acting.
**** The book on the making of ''ANewHope'', written by K.W. Rizler and based on contemporary interviews with those involved (including Guinness) would seem to disprove this statement. His later dissatisfaction, though, is another matter...
** Additional point making it a "good," or desirable, RetCon, is it helped the creative team develop the second film with more grown-up themes, like, "Sometimes good guys lie. Sometimes your friends screw you over. Sometimes the jerk gets the princess and the movie just ends and you didn't win anything. And sometimes the bad guy is the one telling you the truth." Back in the '80s, many fans actually assumed Vader was lying, all the way until the third film came out.
** There's another interpretation: Obi-Wan expected that Luke would eventually fight Vader and knew that, if he knew the truth, Luke might be conflicted about killing him. Of course, it backfires horribly when Luke rushes off unprepared for his first battle with Vader and thus Obi-Wan's fears are precisely realized.
** Interestingly, this single exchange prompted much of the writing for Kreia and the Jedi Council by ChrisAvellone in ''[[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic II]]''. Avellone has been quoted as to saying that he never really forgave Obi-Wan for his "point of view."
---> '''Atton:''' Because Jedi lie. And they manipulate. And every act of charity and kindness they do, you can drag it out squirming into the light and see it for what it is.
*** In point of fact, it certainly applies to the ''first'' game, though to a lesser extent.
** Anakin's new ship, the Twilight, in ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'', has been said to be placed as a way of {{Retcon}}ning Uncle Owen's lie ("[your father was] a navigator on a spice freighter") into a truth, i.e., the ''Twilight'' is a spice freighter, and Anakin is a navigator on it. Pretty action-packed navigation, though.
** Another interesting point: coloring Owen's own point of view was the fact that he was originally written as Obi-Wan's brother. (Read the original edition of the ''Return of the Jedi'' novel.)
** ''RevengeOfTheSith'' makes a subtle attempt at [[RetCon ret-conning]] Obi-Wan's original intentions into a subtle way of Dark Side-proofing Luke early on; notice that during the fight on Mustafar, when Obi-Wan tries to tell newly-minted Darth Vader that Palpatine is evil, the response he gets is, "''From my point of view,'' the ''Jedi'' are evil." The idea is that Obi-Wan pulls this on Luke ''intending'' for Luke to call shenanigans on him for it, thus teaching Luke that if he himself ever has to justify an extreme course of action by saying "Well, from a certain point of view, this is right," it's a sign that he needs to take a step back and seriously examine what he's doing.
** Another interpretation was that Obi was serious about the point of view thing. Perhaps to overcome the cognitive dissonance of his trusted best friend whom he loved turning pure evil, he internally separated Anakin and Vader into separate entities. He had been telling himself this lie for years to ease the pain. The problem was he didn't have the courage to tell Luke the bald truth when first asked.
*** The problem is that every decision '''is''' made from a certain point of view. This is what ultimately leads to the outcome of the movie since everyone's point of view doesn't match up to each other.
** Another example would be Obi-Wan stating in ''A New Hope'' that he never owned a droid after R2 D2 using that excuse to find him to deliver Leia's message. Technically, R2 D2 was never really Obi-Wan's droid. He was closer to the whole group's droid or, later, Anakin's. Another view is that he was simply his own droid and simply chooses to stay with them. It never seems like Obi-Wan actually owned R2 D2.
** Interpretations or not, several EU things imply that Obi-Wan has a habit of doing this in general, and Jedi Apprentice occasionally hints he got it from Qui-Gon: it's lampshaded in StarWars: The Clone Wars, where a senator refers to him as a "collection of half-truths and hyperbole."
* In AgathaChristie's ''{{Murder on the Orient Express}}'', pretty much everything [[spoiler:Princess Natalia Dragomiroff]] says to Hercule Poirot. S/he had to lie to throw him off the trail, but Honor dictated s/he couldn't do it outright. So s/he "merely" gave the nearest equivalent answer, like Mr. Whitehead became Mr. Snowpeak.
* In the first film of the ''{{Saw}}'' series, one of the victims says [[BigBad the Jigsaw Killer]] is "technically not a murderer" because he never kills anyone directly; he just puts them in situations where death is very likely. The point is really moot, as almost any jurisdiction would consider putting somebody in such a situation to be murder. ''Saw 2'' does at least have the JerkAss detective hero calls Jigsaw out on this defense: "putting a gun to someone's head and forcing him to pull the trigger is still murder."
** Not to mention that without the murder charge, his actions usually qualify as assault, kidnapping, and torture, often with lasting damage even for the survivors - possibly a FateWorseThanDeath in some cases.
*** Several of Jigsaw's disciples actually do commit straight-up murder in their games. But by the sixth movie even the real Jigsaw seems to be having a hard time coming up with new "games" that actually leave his victims with a chance to survive. For example, half his games are of the "decide which one of these people will live or die" variety. Well, if one person is guaranteed to die, then you ''are'' committing murder because your trap is specifically designed to kill people without any hope of escape.
** In the third movie, the victims were all totally helpless to save themselves and were reliant on the guy who ''had spent years plotting to kill them.'' Whatever happened to that whole 'testing their will to live' thing?
* Used in several of the ''StarTrek'' films, mostly by Spock. The later instances are call-backs to the first, from ''StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'':
-->'''Saavik:''' You lied.\\
'''Spock:''' I exaggerated.
** [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] repeatedly in ''StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', for example:
--->'''Spock:''' Mr. Scott, I understand you are having difficulties with the warp drive? How much time do you require for repair?\\
'''Scotty:''' There's nothing wrong with the bloody th--\\
'''Spock:''' Mr. Scott, if we return to spacedock, then the assassins will surely find a way to dispose of their incriminating footwear, and we will never see the Captain, or Dr. [=McCoy=], alive again.\\
'''Scotty:''' Could take weeks, sir.\\
'''Spock:''' Thank you, Mr. Scott.\\
'''Valeris:''' A lie?\\
'''Spock:''' An error.
** This one, though, eventually comes back to bite Spock in the hinder:
--->'''Kirk:''' I want the names of the conspirators.\\
'''[[spoiler:Valeris]]:''' I do not...remember.\\
'''Spock:''' A lie?\\
''' [[spoiler:Valeris]]:''' ...A ''choice''.
** Played with in ''Film/StarTrek'' (2009).
-->'''Spock:''' You lied.\\
'''[[spoiler:Old Spock]]:''' I implied.
* In ''{{Rango}}'', [[TheNarrator the leader of the mariachi band]] says that [[spoiler:Rango will die.]] Of course, the movie's plot progresses and [[spoiler:he's still alive and well to see the end credits.]] When one of the band members questions the narrator on this, he says that [[spoiler:Rango will still die -- ''someday,'' because everyone does.]]
** Looking at it metaphorically, it's even more applicable. [[spoiler:When he's shamed and had his lies exposed the Rango persona dies ''as a character''; when he comes back to fight, the nameless lizard he was dies and is subsumed by Rango.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/SmallGods'', Vorbis explains to Brutha that the claim that the Omnian priest sent to convert the Ephebians was killed by these ungodly savages represents a "deeper truth". According to Vorbis, this is ''much truer'' than the mundane truth, that the Ephebians listened, threw vegetables, then sent him away, and he was killed by the Quisition as an excuse to start a holy war.
** In ''Discworld/AHatFullOfSky'', "never lie, but don't always tell the truth" is among the pieces of advice Miss Tick gives Tiffany.
** Then there's ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''... "Upon my oath, I am not a dishonest/violent man.'' [[spoiler: Kind of hard to be a violent or dishonest man when you're actually a woman.]]
** Carrot does this surprisingly frequently when negotiating with hostile characters. However, he has never (as far as anyone can prove) told a direct lie.\\
\\
In fact, he has a tendency to use the truth as a weapon. Both he and his it's-complicated Angua have told someone impeding their progress that unless the person stands down, they'll be forced to carry out the orders they were given regarding resistance, and that they'll regret it terribly if they do, but they won't have any choice. The orders on both occasions were "leave the offending party alone, and see if you can find a workaround in this morass."
---> "Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration, he'd seen people bluff on a bad hand before now, but he'd never seen anyone bluff on no cards."
* George Martin's ''{{A Song of Ice and Fire}}'':"[[spoiler: The Hound]] is dead. -- [[spoiler: Sandor Clegane]] is at peace."
* In Robert Jordan's ''WheelOfTime'' the Aes Sedai tried to get people to trust them by swearing an unbreakable oath to "Speak no word that is not true". If you think about it, this oath is basically meaningless. Individual words have no inherent truth value; it's phrases that can be untrue. FridgeLogic aside, in the books it does prevent them from directly lying. But the Aes Sedai think they have OmniscientMoralityLicense (even though they are actually fairly stupid and ignorant), so they see all their oaths as unfortunate restrictions rather than moral standards to adhere to, so this trope and [[LiteralGenie other]] [[FalseReassurance deceptions]] abound. Of course, people realize this and anyone likely to deal with the Aes Sedai is warned to pay close attention because "The truth they speak may not be the truth you think you hear."
** And they STILL manage to complain about people (mostly the male main characters) not trusting them!
*** A note about the FridgeLogic in the oath: if you think about it, it's actually bordering on FridgeBrilliance. While it's true that individuals words cannot be untrue, it has been demonstrated that what the Aes Sedai believe is the crucial factor (as an Aes Sedai can say something that is not true if they believe it to be true). If the Aes Sedai believe that is it possible to speak an untrue word (and based on their actions it's clear that most of them don't possess even a basic understanding of logic), then they can't.
** It also doesn't help that they've believed and thus proclaimed a number of important things which are sporadically provable to be false (such as the existence of traitors within their order), so random people over the centuries have ''heard'' Aes Sedai "lie" to their faces. And as there's a fairly simple and obvious way to remove the oaths, and Aes Sedai culture involves keeping individual discoveries like that to themselves, there have probably been any number of non-traitorous Aes Sedai over the years who can and do lie as well. Even if the Aes Sedai are willfully blind to it, somebody's bound to notice eventually.
* In a novel by {{Albert E Cowdrey}}, a megalomaniacal criminal wants revenge on the human race for his imprisonment. Before he's allowed out of prison, he's asked a few questions, and there's a machine that can tell whether he's telling the truth or not. When asked if he regrets his behavior, he says yes (meaning he regrets that his mistakes got him caught). When asked if he wants to harm anyone, or something like that, he says "I do not wish to harm any human individual."
* In the ''{{Mahabharata}}'', Drona is convinced to lay down his weapons after hearing that his son, Ashwatama, is dead. Before doing so, he asks Yudhishtara, who notably cannot tell a lie, if this is true. Yudhishtara replies, "Yes, Ashwatama [[spoiler: the elephant]] is dead" -- with the key words muttered under his breath. You see, [[spoiler: the son was still alive, but the Pandavas had killed an elephant with the same name.]] Before the start of the battle, the Pandavas proposed a number of rules, on which both armies agreed, that would ensure that everyone would fight honorable. About every single rule is broken within the first days of battle by the heroes of both sides.
* In ''The Legend of Luke'' from the ''{{Redwall}}'' series, Vilu Daskar (evil pirate captain) promises to let some of the prisoners free if they tell him where treasure is, neglecting to mention that the last time he made this promise, he set them free by tying weights to them and throwing them overboard. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the heroes don't fall for it, and the whole treasure story was just a plan to trick Vilu Daskar anyway.]]
* The {{Inheritance Cycle}} has the elves, who, as Brom says, are masters of saying one thing but meaning another. They are able to do this because speaking in the ancient language prohibits one from lying.
** This is really an InformedAbility, as it's never really shown, or at the very least, never pointed out when it happens.
* In the {{Flashman}} novel ''Royal Flash'' Flashman swears that he will let a {{mook}} who has tried to kill him go, if he tells him what he wants to know. The mook tells and Flashman lets him go ... over a cliff and into a chasm. [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo He said he would let him go!]]
* In ''The Silence of the Lambs'' Clarice Starling tells Dr. Hannibal Lecter that her father was a marshal. Later on, when she is recounting to him how the man died, Lecter catches enough clues to easily deduce that the man had actually been a night watchman. Starling's defense is that the official job description had read "night marshal".
* The ''PrincipiaDiscordia'' either plays this straight or subverts it depending on your own point of view, in this exchange in an interview with Discordianism's founder, Malaclypse the Younger (Mal-2):
-->'''Interviewer''' : ''Is Eris true?''
-->'''Mal-2''': ''Everything is true.''
-->'''Interviewer''': ''Even false things?''
-->'''Mal-2''': ''Even false things are true.''
-->'''Interviewer''': ''How can that be?''
-->'''Mal-2''': ''I don't know man, I didn't do it.''
* In David Weber's WarGod series, [[RebelliousPrincess Lady Leeana]] asks her mother for permission to go riding. Mother wants to make sure that Leeana is planning on taking her guards along, and Leeana assures her mother that she knows that she won't be able to go riding unless her bodyguard goes riding too. [[spoiler: She's planning to run away from home, and she knows that unless she gets rid of her bodyguard by sending him out riding on a long errand, he'll try to stop her.]]
* In the {{Lensmen}} stories, it is a vital plot point that humanity (and the other allied races of civilisation) be LockedOutOfTheLoop, because of the [[HeroicBSOD consequences of realizing the truth]]. Even so, Mentor of Arisia goes to extraordinary lengths to keep Kim Kinnison from learning the truth without openly lying to him, right up to and including [[spoiler: altering Kinnison's perception of what species Fossten is]].
** Causing endless problems in fandom, as Smith admits to in his essay ''The Epic of Space''.
* In Frank Herbert's ''{{Dune}}'' , Baron Harkonnen suborned the Suk doctor Yueh by taking his wife, Wanna, hostage and torturing her. If Yueh betrayed Duke Leto, the Baron promised him that "I'd free her from the agony and permit you to join her." Subverted in that, as the Baron has Yueh killed, the doctor tells him "You think I did not know what I bought for my Wanna."
* The JohnDicksonCarr novel ''The Nine Wrong Answers'' has authorial footnotes that use this trope to an almost gleeful extent, to the point that the final one points out that at no time did previous footnotes ''technically'' lie about niceties like [[spoiler:whether a man who was poisoned actually died, and whether a man really was who he was claiming he was.]] (Although some critics maintain that Carr slipped in a few places and really ''did'' make the "incorrect" claims.)
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' author Stephanie Meyer (in)famously claimed that vampires are unable to reproduce. When Bella later got knocked up, she went back and used WeaselWords to try and claim she actually meant that only ''female'' vampires can't have kids all along(evidently by claiming an obscure definition of "have").
* Christopher from ''The Lives of Christopher Chant'' is very fond of these, and his friend the Goddess isn't above half truths either.
* Who deleted TheDumbledore? the Master of secrets and Lies owns this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* The [[PlanetOfHats Ferengi]] from the StarTrek universe have this trope as a point in their "Rules of Acquisition".
---> 126. A lie isn't a lie, it's just the truth seen from a different point of view.
* In a ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode, Garak was dying because an Obsidian Order anti-torture device in his brain was breaking down, and as Bashir struggled to remove or replace it, Garak gave several wildly varying accounts of the event that had gotten him kicked out of the Order and left on Deep Space Nine. At the end of the episode, Bashir demanded to know which version was true.
--> '''Garak:''' "My dear doctor, they were ''all'' true."
--> '''Bashir:''' "Even the lies?"
--> '''Garak:''' "''Especially'' the lies."
** As it turns out in the relaunch novel ''A Stitch in Time'', they actually were almost all true. Kinda.
* The [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Minbari]] in ''{{Babylon 5}}'' claim that they never lie, and a mere accusation of doing so warrants "a lethal response". While the humans initially take this at face value, Mollari, having been told otherwise by Lennier, explains that the Minbari are allowed to tell white lies to save someone from embarrassment or [[HolierThanThou dishonor]]. Even other Minbari are irritated at the Grey Council following this trope. Kalain says at one point that the Grey Council "never tells you the whole truth."
** A good example of Minbari half truths comes with Delenn early in Season 3. She is shown footage of a Shadow vessel and is asked if she had ever seen a ship like it before. Delenn says no. When she is later questioned about this by Sheridan she replies that whilst she was well aware of what the ship was, that was the first time she had actually seen one.
* In one of the ''{{Lost}}'''s [[ItWasHisSled most well-known twists]], John Locke, at the conclusion of his first flashback episode, is revealed to have been a cripple in a wheelchair prior to crashing on the island and miraculously regaining his ability to walk:
--> '''Tour Guide:''' You misrepresented yourself.
--> '''Locke:''' I never lied.
--> '''Tour Guide:''' By omission, Mr. Locke. You neglected to tell us about [[TomatoSurprise your condition]].
** Another ''Lost'' example is the cover story told by the survivors who [[spoiler:escape the island]]. They claim that [[spoiler:Boone died of internal injuries from the plane crash, Charlie drowned, and Libby did not survive long either]], all of which are technically true, but leave out massively important context details: [[spoiler:Boone died from being inside a smaller plane when it fell from some trees while he was trying to use its radio, Charlie drowned saving Desmond by sealing the door preventing the Looking Glass station being flooded and Libby did not survive for long... as a result of injuries from an accidental gunshot from Michael (who had just killed Ana Lucia in cold blood).]]
** Benjamin Linus is distrusted by every character on the show for his pathological penchant for this trope. "[[spoiler:John Locke]] is dead" is somewhat different than "[[spoiler:John Locke]] is dead ''because I killed him''."
*** Similarly, when Jack asks him, "Did you know [[spoiler:Locke killed himself?]]", Ben can honestly answer, "No."
** Sometimes Ben just [[ILied straight out lies]].
* RussellTDavies has been accused of this during his time in charge of ''DoctorWho'', particularly with respect to foreshadowing the season finales:
** Season Two continually said that Rose was going to die, and Rose (narrating) introduces the final two-parter as "the story of how I died". [[spoiler:She doesn't die. She is taken to a parallel world and is presumed dead by the authorities]].
** In the Season Four finale, we are repeatedly told "One will still die". [[spoiler: Nobody dies. Donna suffers a metaphorical death, erasing all of her CharacterDevelopment and consigning her to a [[YourMileageMayVary possible]] FateWorseThanDeath]].
* A straight in-story example in the old series. The Black Guardian tells Turlough that the Doctor is evil and must be stopped. When called out on it he claims he was not actually lying because "your evil is my good".
* [[PennAndTellerBullshit Penn & Teller]] once used this to get environmental activists to sign a petition to ban water. They sent someone to a gathering of them to get names for a petition to abolish the use of "dihydrogen monoxide" - which means water. They went around saying all kinds of technically true things about water while making it sound like a toxin. They got lots of names. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how many people in the environmental movement would sign a petition without bothering to check any of the facts first.
** Adam and Jimmie of ''TheManShow'' did the same thing, getting dozens of women to sign a petition to end Women's Suffrage (the right to vote) by phrasing it to sound like they meant "suffering". Things like, "Women have been suffraging in this country for decades, and nobody's done anything to stop it!"
** The Dihydrogen Monoxide gag is an old one.
* {{Aquila}} has a scene where an archaeologist explains, referencing the [[AncientAfrica ancient African]] proverb about truth being an elephant surrounded by three blind men, that he simply gave the boys a point of view not involving copious amounts of money.
* On ''{{Misfits}}'', a show about a bunch of "problem teens" on community service [[hottip:*: who develop superpowers]], the inevitable conversation soon arises - "what did you do to end up here?" While most of them admit to plausible-sounding crimes (drunk-driving, arson, drug possession etc) Nathan constantly insists - to the point where it becomes a RunningGag - that all he did was steal some "pick'n'mix". As we later find out, the incident actually did ''start'' with him stealing some sweets. He neglected to mention, however, that (in a CrowningMomentOfFunny) he subsequently ran riot in the bowling alley, trying to hurl himself down the back of one of the bowling lanes and causing a fair bit of criminal damage. When he was finally restrained he refused to pay for the damages (or co-operate in the slightest), persistently mocked the security guard and eventually attacked the guy with a stapler.
** However, it's entirely possible that Nathan really doesn't think he did anything wrong beyond eating the pick'n'mix.
* In BlakesSeven, the crew gets captured by an enemy that can keep them from lying, so they resort to evasions to prevent them from finding out that Orac is a computer.
-->'''Tarrant:''' If he’s not on the ship, I don’t know where he is.
-->'''Caliph:''' How tall is he?
-->'''Tarrant:''' (gestures to waist level, Orac's "height" when on a table.)
-->'''Caliph:''' A dwarf?
-->'''Tarrant:''' We never think of him as one.
-->'''Caliph:''' What is the color of his hair?
-->'''Tarrant:''' He hasn’t got any. A bald dwarf shouldn’t be too hard to find.
* The original trope name could just has easily been called Vulcan Truth instead of Jedi Truth. Vulcans are [[SarcasmMode always]] honest, except when they're deceiving, misleading, or flat out lying.
** In the [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]] episode "The Enterprise Incident", Spock explains to the Romulan Commander that the Vulcan reputation for being truthful is overblown. They'll lie like anyone if they have a reason to.
** In one early episode of ''StarTrekVoyager'', Tuvok tells Chakotay that he is always honest, to which Chakotay points out that he wasn't being honest when he pretended to be a Maquis in order to infiltrate Chakotay's ship. Tuvok then counters that he was being honest to his principles and within the defined parameters of his mission. Chakotay, of course, recognizes this as a load of crap.
** In another episode, he flat out lies to intimidate a prisoner. Janeway bluffs that she is gonna send the prisoner off to some people she's scammed (the prisoner, not Janeway). She asks Tuvok to tell her about the conditions of that world's prisons, and Tuvok wildly invents a tale of deplorable conditions where most prisoners don't survive long enough to be put on trial. The prisoner knows just enough about Vulcans to believe the story that they never lie, so she caves in.
* Deconstructed in TheWeddingBride, a fake movie from HowIMetYourMother about [[spoiler: Stella's failed relationship with Ted from her ex-boyfriend's perspective, making ''him'' the good guy getting TheWoobie Stella out of a loveless marriage, when in reality, it was nothing like that.]] We see the real reaction of [[spoiler: said guy who was left at the alter, Ted.]]
* In ''{{Farscape}}'', Crichton hits on this trope as a way of fooling the Scarran heat probe, which forces people to tell the truth. For example, while disguised as a Peacekeeper defector, he tries to get access to his captive Sebacean girlfriend by propositioning a Sebacean nurse, and he gets caught by a Scarran:
-->'''Scarran''': Why the deception?
-->'''Crichton''': Cos -- horny! Looking for a Sebacean woman.
-->'''Nurse''': You attacked me and attempted to release one of the patients.
-->'''Crichton''': No offense, but she's sexier than you are.
-->'''Scarran''': What would you have done had you gotten her?
-->'''Crichton''': Taken her back to my ship. [[PardonMyKlingon Frelled]] her. Made babies.
* [[TheDailyShow Jon Stewart]] lampshaded this in his [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-december-15-2010/the-great-gaffesby recent criticism of RNC Chairman Michael Steele]].
-->'''Fox Reporter (Archive footage):''' How much did you have when you took the reins?
-->'''Michael Steele (Archive footage):''' About $20 or so million.
-->'''Fox Reporter(Archive footage):''' And now you're down to three? So I realize you spent a lot of money for the campaign...
-->'''Michael Steele (Archive footage):''' Yeah, we spent a lot of money, but I mean, Greta, you can't look at it in terms of what you begin and what you end.
-->'''Jon Stewart:''' ''[Bemused]'' "...you can't look at it in terms of where you begin and where-" That is some [[LampshadeHanging Jedi bullshit]] right there, Michael Steele. "Yes, Greta; if you want to look at the budget in a linear, arithmetic way where [[{{Understatement}} we started with a high number and ended with a very low number]], but what you're forgetting is children's dreams and [[EverythingsBetterWithRainbows rainbows]], you can't put a price on that - is that a ''quarter'' [[WhatHaveWeEar behind your ear]]? Wait, a dove, '''[[SmokeOut SMOKE BOMB]]''', Steele out."
* Very well done in ''{{Nikita}}'', where Alex is hooked up to a brainwave-reading lie detector that can't be fooled. She gets around it by stringing together several statements that are each individually true, but together paint a very different picture than what actually happened, and gets herself free from suspicion.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* [[http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-01-09/ This]] ''{{Dilbert}}'' strip.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* A proverb about "the blind men and the elephant", where each man touches a different part of the elephant and declares that he knows its true form, comes from India. (It's known from written sources dating back at least seven hundred years.)
* During the Battle of Copenhagen, in order to ignore a recall signal from his senior officer, Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson held a spyglass to his near-blind eye, and reported, "I really do not see the signal."
** This is suspected to be where the saying "To turn a blind eye" comes from.
* Hugo Boss made uniforms for the SS. This is true. However, for most people this conjures up an image of a large fashion house aiding the most evil regime of all time. This is not true. In 1936, Hugo Boss was a fairly small family-run business whose main source of income was making uniforms for the German Postal Service, that just happened to land a highly lucrative government contract.
** The implication of "Hugo Boss" (today being a major fashion house) is also often that the company was the sole designer and supplier of the uniforms, when in fact they were designed by the government and production farmed out to many other companies as well.
* "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." (See TechnicalVirgin) and "The government does not torture people" (See EnhancedInterrogationTechniques)
** To make that first one better (or worse), the definition of "sexual relations" set for the purposes of the hearing was such that it was ''definitely'' true... technically speaking.
* A large number of proposition bets used by grifters can be solved by looking very carefully at the wording. For example, "I bet you that I can take a brand new deck of cards, make the ace jump out of the pack, fly across the room, and write your name on your forehead". If you hear this said aloud, most people assume that the ace will do all of the actions listed. Looking more carefully at the syntax of the sentence reveals that the actions can be done by the person making the bet rather than by the ace. (Incidentally, the usual way to win the bet is to flick the ace up from the bottom of the pack - where it usually is in most new, unshuffled decks - catch it, throw it across the room, and then take a pen to write the person's name on their forehead.)
* "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work liberates"), posted at the gates of Nazi concentration camps. It did liberate the worker...of his life.
* Politics as a whole can rest on this; for example, take this example of a [[http://twitter.com/#!/TomHarrisMP/status/12848387174965249 British MP]] claiming that his party had not broken an election promise, as the law would not take effect until after the next election (but was voted on comfortably three years into Parliament).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:TabletopGaming]]
* Meta example: In {{Exalted}}, it's not uncommon for new books to retcon or reinterpret statements made earlier in the series; for instance, "Fair Folk don't have Charms" became "Fair Folk don't have Charms as such, but they do have special powers that we're just going to call Charms." Freelancer Michael Goodwin explicitly said that "There are levels of Obi Wan truth operating here."
** In another rather similar case -- "Infernals don't have Charms." What was really meant was, "Their ''patrons'', the Yozi, have Charms, which the Infernals use by extension to exert their malefic will upon Creation." (Not true anymore, either. Now Infernals can make their own personal Charms.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* ''Othello'': Iago never actually tells a flat-out lie. Instead, he simply plays up everyone else's insecurities, creatively spotlights and phrases certain information, and lets them draw their own conclusions.
* ''SweeneyTodd'': [[spoiler: Mrs. Lovett: "No, I never lied. Said she took a poison, she did. Never said that she died."]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In ''PhoenixWright AceAttorney: Justice for All'', Phoenix is told [[spoiler: 'I never killed anyone']]. That's not a lie, but [[spoiler: the person saying it did hire an assassin to commit the murder.]] This is almost a case of SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: the only reason the liar gets away with it, since Phoenix has a lie-detecting Magatama, is because the lie is ''so'' specific that it is, in fact, the truth. Phoenix just asked the wrong question. [[spoiler: He should have asked: "Were you responsible for the victim's death?" Bet he never made that mistake again.]]
** It's also somewhat implied that this wouldn't have worked if the liar [[spoiler: wasn't such a complete sociopath that he legitimately thought hiring someone else to kill someone he wanted to get rid of wasn't the same thing as killing them, and absolved him of responsibility for the death.]]
* In ''{{Touhou}}'' canon, CuteWitch Marisa Kirisame notoriously steals books from the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. She claims it's not stealing because all the inhabitants of the Scarlet Devil Mansion are youkai, who will live many times longer than her, and they can simply take the books back when she dies. She calls it 'borrowing without permission'. Luckily, the Youkai don't mind; or at least; don't mind beyond mind-boggling BulletHell duels; but that's standard operating procedure.
* In the RogueLike game Game/{{Ragnarok}}, an Amulet of Eternal Life turns you to stone. That makes a certain kind of mythic sense, but it's not "life" as we'd recognize it.
* {{ADOM}}, another RogueLike, has the gauntlets of eternal peace, which make it almost impossible to hit anything while you're wearing them. The "eternal peace" either means you can't kill anything, or you will die quickly and be at peace since (duh) [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything Is Trying To Kill You]] and you won't be able to fight back. Even better, the gauntlets are [[ClingyMacGuffin autocursing]].
** At least they give you a moderate defense and armor boost while you search desperately for that scroll of uncursing.
* If you haven't played the ''{{Knights of the Old Republic}}'' it wouldn't be much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn't fully trust ''anything'' that ''any'' Jedi has to say to you. Indeed, their self-serving tendencies of filtering truth through "certain points of view" is significantly responsible for their eventual downfall.
** You can even call them on this at a few points. One character in ''KOTOR 2'' will freely admit to (and encourage) flat-out manipulation, and since she's your main source for exposition...
** In the first game, on the other hand, the only real example of this trope is Jolee's claim that "the Jedi left me" (and he doesn't consider himself a Jedi any more at this point). The other Jedi certainly do tell some outright lies, but don't continue to defend them as 'true' once they're exposed as lies.
* In ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'', Uzuki offers Neku a way out of TheGame if he kills his partner Shiki. However, before Neku can deliver the killing blow, he's stopped by Mr. H, who says that since his life is tied to his partner's, he'll die too...
-->Neku: "All that about letting me out of the game - that was all a lie!"
-->Uzuki: "Like, that is so rude! I do not lie. If I erased you, that's still letting you out of the Game!"
** Unfortunately, there's no similar way to weasel out of her claim that Shiki was a spy for the Reapers. No one calls her on this.
** At one point, Game Master Konishi tells Neku and Beat that she's going to hide in the same place for seven days, while they try to find her. However, she's able to move all over the city, because the "one place" she chose was [[spoiler:Beat's shadow.]]
* In ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', the [[LanguageOfTruth Red Truth]] can be twisted in this manner.
* This actually happens on the packaging for the tie-in ''{{Spider-Man}} 3'' videogame - it promises "five storylines, including the one from the movie". You would think this means that there are multiple possible main plots, such as one where the symbiote wins, right? Wrong. 'Storyline' in this context means 'subplot', so there's the movie plot, as well as the Morbius, Carlyle, Lizard and the H-Bomber gang subplots. It's not technically ''lying'', but it certainly wasn't telling the truth.
* A rare positive version courtesy of ''[[{{ptitle6dnod6okv1cj}} Another Century's Episode]]'': When it was announced that the {{Playstation 3}} installment would be limited to three [[HumongousMecha mecha]] per series, fans were upset - until the game's director posted on his blog, revealing that [[MidSeasonUpgrade Mid-Season Upgrades]] and [[MechaExpansionPack Mecha Expansion Packs]] would fall under the heading of their base machine and therefore only count as one, meaning they can fit in more playables while still maintaining the whole "three per series" idea.
* ''{{Castlevania}} Order of Ecclesia'' has Death's Ring, whose description is "One hit kills instantly." It is indeed true. Take one hit and ''you'' will instantly die.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''{{Order of the Stick}}'': After Roy, Haley, Elan and V attempt to escape from the prison, Durkon fools Miko with two examples of this trope back-to-back. One by saying that the '''five''' of them had never left their cells (because Durkon had stayed behind), then claiming that the cell door wasn't secure because of a mechanical defect (if you count "being able to be picked by a rogue" as a mechanical defect.)
** O-Chul pulls one too. When asked by Hinjo if he made the decision to destroy Soon's gate, he answers he did make that decision, and it was his blade that did the deed, and he will say no more lest he [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead speak ill of the dead]]. [[spoiler: After making said decision, the tide of the battle turned and it was no longer required. Miko ended up with his sword and destroyed the gate anyway - the resulting explosion killed her.]]
** There's a later subversion with the Oracle. Belkar's asked if he would get to cause the death of one of the following: Roy, Miko, Miko's horse, Vaarsuvius or the Oracle himself. The Oracle simply responds [[MathematiciansAnswer "Yes"]] without ever saying which. [[spoiler:On Belkar's return visit, the Oracle claims this prophecy has already been fulfilled. He argues, using [[InsaneTrollLogic increasingly dubious logic]], that Belkar caused the death of Roy, (a ''somewhat'' plausible argument) then also that he indirectly caused Miko's death, (really reaching for that one) and that he killed Miko's horse. (Which is pretty much complete BS). Belkar finally loses patience and fulfills the prophecy then and there--by stabbing the Oracle to death. The dying Oracle then reveals that he didn't actually believe any of the stuff he was spouting, he was just trying to weasel out of being stabbed (though fortunately DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist).]]
-->Oracle: [[spoiler: Yeah... I wasn't really buying those theories either... Worth a shot though...]]
* [[http://irregularwebcomic.net/119.html This]] ''{{Irregular Webcomic}}'' uses this trope to explain Obi-Wans high opinion of the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy.
** Alternatively, only Imperial Stormtroopers are ''exactly'' this precise. Others are either more so or less.
** From a statistical perspective, ''precision'' refers to distribution, while ''accuracy'' refers to how close something is to where it actually ought to be. So, of the Stormtroopers' shots are actually clustered in the wrong place, they could indeed be very '''precise''' without being at all '''accurate'''.
** Consider that he had been on Tatooine while they made the transition from Clone Troopers. He probably thought it was just a name change and didn't anticipate the drop in quality.
** [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2341.html And this one]] makes fun of the original quote. Sadly, it doesn't link to this page.
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' a pair of [[TheMafiya Mafiya]] henchmen leave Riff and Torg "free to go." If being tied to railroad tracks fits into your definition of "free."
* Parodied on [[http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=429 this page]] of the ''BMovieComic''.
* [[DarthsAndDroids "That's Jedi for "I lied my butt off," isn't it?"]]
** Later used in reference to the original...[[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0448.html because the DM's opening exposition was what the people believed rather than the truth.]]
* Seen in [[http://betweenfailures.com/2008/04/01/262-drink-soda/ this exchange]] in ''BetweenFailures''. Nina thought [[http://betweenfailures.com/2008/01/22/212-up-to-here/ Thomas was getting chewed out by their manager]], but what he actually got was... [[http://betweenfailures.com/2008/02/13/228-prelude-to-a-kiss/ more pleasant]].
* {{Collar6}}: Laura discovers Sixx's wealth and says "I thought you said you worked in a hotel?" Sixx replies. "I said I worked in the hotel business. By which I meant I own a few ... hundred."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Western Animation}}]]
* {{Robot Chicken}} turned it into a [[http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/a-certain-point-of-view.html full blown musical]] for their Star Wars special.
* As the above Amulet of Eternal Life, Xanatos, from {{Gargoyles}}, discovered a cauldron which allowed a person to live "as long as the mountain stone". [[GenreSavvy He was smart enough to test it first]]. Yup, Stone.
* In the episode "The Ninja" of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', [[BruceWayneHeldHostage Bruce explains to fellow prisoner Summer]] that they escaped because Batman arrived and took down the bad guy. Hey, his voice changed so it was mostly true...
* Katara's voiceover at the beginning of each episode of AvatarTheLastAirbender is this, though possibly unintentionally. It's revealed that the four kingdoms were not always at peace before the conquest of the Fire lords. In fact, 400 years before the time of the story, the Earth Kingdom was in a similar expansionist phase.
[[/folder]]
----

* Who deleted TheDumbldore? the Master of secrets and Lies owns this trope.

* In PuellaMagiMadokaMagica, what Kyubey tells to Kyoko when asked [[spoiler:if Sayaka could be turned back into a human after having turned into a witch]] is technically not meant to say that it is possible... But the way he phrases it doesn't make it look ''impossible'' either. This gives Kyoko enough hope to try, and ultimately results in [[spoiler:Kyoko having to sacrifice herself to put Witch!Sayaka out of her misery]] when it doesn't work. Later on, Kyubey recognizes that he phrased his statement that way because [[spoiler:he wanted Kyoko to die]], so that Homura [[spoiler:was left with no companions to fend off the ultimate witch, Walpurgis, when it appears, unless Madoka accepts a Puella Magi contract]].

** Anakin's new ship, the ''Twilight'', in ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'', has been said to be placed as a way of {{Retcon}}ning Uncle Owen's lie ("[your father was] a navigator on a spice freighter") into a truth, i.e., the ''Twilight'' is a spice freighter, and Anakin is a navigator on it. Pretty action-packed navigation, though.

* {{Twilight}} author Stephanie Meyer (in)famously claimed that vampires are unable to reproduce. When Bella later got knocked up, she went back and used WeaselWords to try and claim she actually meant that only ''female'' vampires can't have kids all along(evidently by claiming an obscure definition of "have").

* In a StarTrekDeepSpaceNine episode, Garak was dying because an Obsidian Order anti-torture device in his brain was breaking down, and as Bashir struggled to remove or replace it, Garak gave several wildly varying accounts of the event that had gotten him kicked out of the Order and left on DS9. At the end of the episode, Bashir demanded to know which version was true.

** O-Chul pulls one too. When asked by Hinjo if he made the decision to destroy Soon's gate, he answers he did make that decision, and it was his blade that did the deed, and he will say no more lest he [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead speak ill of the dead]].
*** [[spoiler: After making said decision, the tide of the battle turned and it was no longer required. Miko ended up with his sword and destroyed the gate anyway - the resulting explosion killed her.]]
** There's a later subversion with the Oracle. Belkar's asked if he would get to cause the death of one of the following: Roy, Miko, Miko's horse, Vaarsuvius or the Oracle himself. The Oracle simply responds "Yes" without ever saying which. [[spoiler:On Belkar's return visit, the Oracle claims this prophecy has already been fulfilled. He argues, using [[InsaneTrollLogic increasingly dubious logic]], that Belkar caused the death of Roy, (a ''somewhat'' plausible argument) then also that he indirectly caused Miko's death, (really reaching for that one) and that he killed Miko's horse. (Which is pretty much complete BS). Belkar finally loses patience and fulfills the prophecy then and there--by stabbing the Oracle to death. The dying Oracle then reveals that he didn't actually believe any of the stuff he was spouting, he was just trying to weasel out of being stabbed (though fortunately DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist).]]

** Then there's ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''... [[spoiler: "Upon my oath, I am not a dishonest/violent man.'' Kind of hard to be a violent or dishonest man when you're actually a woman.]]
** Carrot does this surprisingly frequently when negotiating with hostile characters. However, he has never (as far as anyone can prove) told a direct lie.
*** He has a tendency to use the truth as a weapon. Both he and his it's-complicated Angua have told someone impeding their progress that unless the person stands down, they'll be forced to carry out the orders they were given regarding resistance, and that they'll regret it terribly if they do, but they won't have any choice. The orders on both occasions were "leave the offending party alone, and see if you can find a workaround in this morass."