History Main / LyingToProtectYourFeelings

Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou, ThePowerOfLegacy, MotivationalLie, IDidntTellYouBecauseYoudBeUnhappy, LetThemDieHappy.

->'''Tedd''': You should have told me where you were going.\\
'''Grace''': I didn't want you to worry.\\
'''Tedd''': But you ''lied'' to me.\\
'''Grace''': It's okay to lie to people if you think it's for their own good!\\
'''Tedd''': Who gave you ''that'' idea?\\
'''Grace''': ''(unhappily)'' Everyone I have ever known ever.

This may involve a DarkSecret (if the liar has a personal secret), as well as LockedOutOfTheLoop (if the person the liar is concerned about has a secret not even that person knows). Related to TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife; whenever you feel that revealing yourself to your loved one would create problems and break feelings, you'd have no choice but to lie and hide it as much as possible.

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* ''Anime/Danganronpa3'''s DeadlyGame is set up in such a way that [[spoiler:Kirigiri]]'s survival is contingent on murdering her best friend (or otherwise letting him die) within a given time limit, or ending the game before then. Even when the latter appears impossible, being a heroic sort of person, she keeps this fact from him until death.

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-->--''WebComic/ElGoonishShive''

** [[spoiler: Lying about Alec's death will create a WhatTheHellHero moment when they finally wake up.]]
** [[spoiler: Lying about Habitat 7 results in the twin calling you out later, but they have already come in terms with it whem you meet.]]

Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou, ThePowerOfLegacy, MotivationalLie, LetThemDieHappy.

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* ''Anime/Danganronpa3'''s DeadlyGame is set up in such a way that [[spoiler:Kirigiri]]'s survival is contingent on murdering her best friend (or otherwise letting him die) within a given time limit. Being a heroic sort of person, she keeps this fact from him until death.

* In ''Webcomic/BloodStain'', Elliot [[YouHave48Hours rushes]] to take a flight to [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield God-knows-where]] for a professor's lab assistant position, ditching her boyfriend's date and causing her older sister to become alarmed that she's missing. She can't exactly say that she's living in the same house as her boss. All of them thought there would be student dorms, so Elliot fabricates that as a lie to make the explanation easier. She can't state that the sudden rush was due to [[AbsentMindedProfessor Dr. Stein's]] carelessness, so she claims that the position has tight deadlines. The gist of what actually happened is there, but the details have been smoothed out.

Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou, ThePowerOfLegacy, MotivationalLie.

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Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou and ThePowerOfLegacy.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThirteen'', Fang and Vanille mutually take on the burden of [[spoiler:becoming Ragnarok, which will kill ''a lot'' of people]]. Then Fang gets amnesia and Vanille decides not to tell her about [[spoiler:their Focus (or what Fang did to achieve it)]], because then only Vanille will be [[TransformationHorror punished]] for not fulfilling it. Unfortunately, soon after, Fang's memories come back.

Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou.

You find out something about your loved one and you can't bear to tell him/her the truth, feeling it would shatter that person's innocence and sanity. So you tell a little white lie to make the blow less powerful and all is well.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThirteen'', Fang and Vanille mutually take on the burden of [[spoiler:becoming Ragnarok, which will kill ''a lot'' of people]]. Then Fang gets amnesia and Vanille decides not to tell her about their Focus [[spoiler:(or what Fang did to achieve it)]], because then only Vanille will be [[TransformationHorror punished]] for not fulfilling it. Unfortunately, soon after, Fang's memories come back.

* The chorus of TheBeatles' "Tell Me Why."

* ''JoeDirt'' has Brandy telling Joe that his parents died at the Grand Canyon when he was a kid. However, his parents contact him and turn out to be alive and they reveal that they left him behind on purpose. He finally breaks and as he's on the verge of suicide, Brandy comes in and tells him the truth: that she managed to find his parents, then lied when she found out how horrible they were.

* In ''Film/MrHolmes'', Masada Umezaki's Anglophile father claimed that DaddyHadAGoodReasoningForAbandoningYou and used a meeting with Holmes as an excuse. After [=WWII=], Umezaki dupes the elderly Holmes into visiting Japan to demand the truth, and Holmes bluntly informs him that he'd never met Mr. Umezaki, and it must have been a cover for simply abandoning his family. [[spoiler:Later, after Umezaki's mother dies and some realizations on Holmes' part, Holmes sends a letter claiming that he ''does'' remember Mr. Umezaki and that he did sterling service as a British agent. It's a fiction, but one that will help Umezaki.]]

* In the ''KingOfTheHill'' episode "Life: A Loser's Manual", it's revealed that Hank and Peggy lied to Luanne about her father working on an oil rig so they can spare her feelings. Really, he has a nasty drug addiction and was in jail all this time.
* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Leela's Homeworld", it's revealed that Leela is a sewer mutant whose parents abandoned her on the surface so that she could pass as an alien and be spared the shame of being a mutant.

!!Examples

* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Leela's Homeworld", it's revealed that Leela is a sewer mutant whose parents abandoned her on the surface so that she could pass as an alien and be spared the shame of being a mutant.

* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Leela's Homeworld", it's revealed that Leela is a sewer mutant that was abandoned on the surface so she would be spared the shame of being a mutant and pass off as an alien.