History Main / LyingToProtectYourFeelings

* In ''Literature/TessOfTheDUrbervilles'', Tess's one-week old baby falls ill, and in an attempt to salvage his soul before he dies, she and her younger siblings give him an at-home baptism. After Sorrow dies, Tess goes to the new parish in town and asks if her baptism did as much for her baby as if the parish had done it. His first thought is to tell her no, but after seeing how much the question means to her, his "nobler impulses" are brought to the forefront, and he kindly tells her that what she did was just as good as an in-house ceremony.

* For a good portion of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Princes Ezran and Callum don't know that their father/adoptive father King Ezran is dead, killed by the elven assassin leader Runaan. Rayla, who has been traveling with them, hasn't told them. Later, when Claudia and Soren show up, Soren lies to tell them, telling them that their father is really looking forward to seeing them. Claudia is embarrassed by her brother's behavior, but later uses the truth as a means to try to get Callum to come back with her. Callum is mad at Rayla for not telling him the truth. Later, however, he can't bring himself to tell Ezran and realizes how Rayla felt and why she didn't tell them. The two discuss the matter and Callum wonders if maybe Soren wasn't doing the same thing.

* For a good portion of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'', Princes Ezran and Callum don't know that their father/adoptive father King Ezran is dead, killed by the elven assassin leader Runaan. Rayla, who has been traveling with them, hasn't told them. Later, when Claudia and Soren show up, Soren lies to tell them, telling them that their father is really looking forward to seeing them. Claudia is embarrassed by her brother's behavior, but later uses the truth as a means to try to get Callum to come back with her. Callum is mad at Rayla for not telling him the truth. Later, however, he can't bring himself to tell Ezran and realizes how Rayla felt and why she didn't tell them. The two [[ConversedTrope discuss the matter]] and Callum wonders if maybe Soren wasn't doing the same thing.

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* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Roy lies to the Elric brothers about where Hughes is, saying he retired so they wouldn't blame themselves. This doesn't last long, as Maria accidentally spills the truth about his death to them later that day.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Burnham takes it upon herself to lie to Saru while they are both trapped in the Mirror Universe. [[spoiler: Saru has asked if Burnham has seen any Kelpiens aboard the ISS Shenzhou, which Burnham denies. In reality, Saru's people are slaves, and Burnham is forced to ''eat'' parts of a Kelpien in a later episode.]] Once the truth comes out, Burnham directly cites this trope.

* In Series/StarTrekDiscovery, Burnham takes it upon herself to lie to Saru while they are both trapped in the Mirror Universe. [[spoiler: Saru has asked if Burnham has seen any Kelpiens aboard the ISS Shenzhou, which Burnham denies. In reality, Saru's people are slaves, and Burnham is forced to ''eat'' parts of a Kelpien in a later episode.]] Once the truth comes out, Burnham directly cites this trope.

Compare DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou, ThePowerOfLegacy, MotivationalLie, IDidntTellYouBecauseYoudBeUnhappy, LetThemDieHappy, EmptyPromise.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' ExpandedUniverse: In the novels, Captain John Harriman of the ''USS Enterprise-B'' had a strained relationship with his father, Admiral "Blackjack" Harriman, who was openly critical of him throughout his career. When the admiral was fatally injured in an accident, ''Enterprise-B'''s XO Demora Sulu asked him to give her a message to pass on to his son, offering him one last chance to mend their relationship. Instead, Blackjack continued to belittle him, saying his son was "weak, undisciplined, and ungrateful". Sulu then gives the admiral a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, and tells Cpt. Harriman that his father's last words were that he loved him and was proud of him.

This plays an important role in ''ComicBook/ThroughTheMoon''. Lujanne tells Callum that "White lies are illusions you build with your words to protect the hearts of those you love". He uses this to as a justification to convince Rayla to lie to Lujanne about the moon nexus. Later Rayla uses this as a justification to lie to Callum by agreeing to leave together in the morning, only to sneak off alone in the middle of the night.

-->'''Lawrence, nearly crying:''' Why didn't you show me this before?

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture of the three of them isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, when the two of them are having an heated argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly shaken, but tells Lawrence that the picture of the three of them isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, while the two of them are having an argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is visibly disturbed, and shakily tells Lawrence that the picture of the three of them isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, while the two of them are having an argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

* In ''Film/{{Saw}},'' when Lawrence throws Adam his wallet to show him a family photo of him with his wife and daughter, Adam opens it up onto to see that it's been replaced with a picture Jigsaw put in there of the two of them, bound and gagged, assumedly for Lawrence to find and spur him into killing Adam to save them. Adam is clearly disturbed, and shakily tells Lawrence that the picture of the three of them isn't there at all. Close to the climax of the film, while the two of them are having an argument, Adam finally throws Lawrence the picture Jigsaw took, and just as expected, he's completely horrified.

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 that 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.