History Main / MotivationalLie

* ''Film/{{Rubikon}}''. Gavin tries to commit suicide after realising the FogOfDoom has caused TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt but Hannah and Dimitri, the two other people on the space station, save his life. Dimitri tells Gavin that it's his business if he wants to kill himself, but he should know he'll condemn them both to death as well because the algae-based life support system needs at least three people generating enough CO2 to work. Gavin later succeeds in killing himself after the others refuse to help some survivors down on the surface, and Hannah thinks he did it to force them to help as they can't survive with only two. Dimitri however is devastated, saying it was just something he made up so Gavin wouldn't kill himself.

* In ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', John [=McClane=] only gets [[MalcolmXerox Zeus Carver]] to help him investigate a spate of bombings by telling him that one bomb was discovered in a black neighborhood. Towards the end of the movie he admits that it wasn't anyplace close to where he'd claimed it was found.
** He also rather specifically ''doesn't'' lie, ''per se'', but [[MetaphoricallyTrue simply phrases things a certain way]]: He asks Zeus if the latter knows about a particular playground in Harlem, then asks where he thinks the latest bomb was found. He never outright says the bomb was found on that playground, but he apologizes for lying later anyway.

Sometimes, the good guys get into a real jam where nothing seems like it's going to save them. Maybe TheHero is getting his butt kicked by TheRival or the BigBad. Maybe there's some kind of impassable barrier between the hero and his objective, or some kind of mind bending riddle has bogged them down. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't look good.

Then someone like a friend who's a GuileHero, the CynicalMentor or TheLancer comes along, and tells the hero a lie that gets them fired up with a fresh batch of HeroicResolve. Maybe he tells the hero that the BigBad [[YouKilledMyFather killed the hero's parents]], despite the fact the bad guy wasn't even in the country that night. Maybe you say that the FemmeFatale is waiting naked on the other side of the obstacle if the hero can just get through it, or that the world's greatest chef will make the hero's TrademarkFavoriteFood if he figures out the puzzle.

Wouldn't you know it, the hero suddenly manages to turn the tide and start kicking ass.

Although the person telling the lie usually isn't thinking beyond the short-term goal of overcoming an immediate problem, sometimes (especially in the hands of a prophet) this is done with a long-term goal in mind, such as forcing CharacterDevelopment or some other change in behavior or nature. In these cases, the lie may even become a form of ProphecyTwist.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4731555/33/One-Wizarding-Summer One Wizarding Summer]]'' Mad-Eye Moody casts the Virgin's Ease charm on a nervous Harry about an hour before a press conference, telling him that it'll provide enough of an increase in calmness and self-confidence to get Harry through the thing. Moody carefully doesn't mention that the charm only lasts for about fifteen minutes.

* In the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' tie in manga ''Visions of V'', Dante tells V that he get a lot of people lying and exaggerating about how dangerous or important the job they're trying to get him to take up. Usually he doesn't see it as a big deal and will take the job regardless. When V suggests that [[spoiler:Vergil]] is back, he assumes that V is no different from such liars, but sees someone lying about [[spoiler:his dead brother]] in order to convince him to take the job as crossing the line and gets so angry that he partially enters [[HulkingOut Devil Trigger]]. However, V is actually telling the truth and Dante quickly refocuses on the mission. [[spoiler:As it turns out, V is actually Vergil himself, [[LiteralSplitPersonality or at least the human part of Dante's brother]], while the threat he hired Dante to kill was Vergil's demonic half. While he does want Urizen stopped, he also wants to rejoin with Urizen in order to return to the completed Vergil.]]

** In ''Skin Game'' ancient evil warrior Nicodemus Archleone has had in his head a Fallen Angel for nearly two millennia. He has had his daughter at his side Deidre, and sometimes in bed, for the last fifteen hundred years with her own Fallen in her head. He must send her some place to keep her safe from a force he calls "the Enemy." Whether he means God or threats from beyond the boundaries of Creation, isn't said. [[spoiler:To that end, and needing her spirit to help him enter the private vault of the Greek God Hades, he kills her before the final gate: the Gate of Death. It requires a spirit of one who dies before it to willingly open the gate. The lies are many, as the Fallen are rarely keeping to their promises, but as Harry later tells Nicodemus his daughter is now condemned to a place that, unlike Hell which is more equal in its punishments to the damned the Greek Underworld, gets ''personal'' in its punishments. She will be far from safe for a very long time]].

Although the person telling the lie usually isn't thinking beyond the short term goal of overcoming an immediate problem, sometimes (especially in the hands of a prophet) this is done with a long term goal in mind, such as forcing CharacterDevelopment or some other change in behavior or nature. In these cases the lie may even become a form of ProphecyTwist.

* An unintentional meta-example: One of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'s'' developers says that the original game was very much ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' in space, [[http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Starcraft-orcs-in-space.png down to the graphics.]] At a con, they saw a rival RTS called DominionStormOverGift3 with much better graphics, gameplay, and all around better quality, the gameplay demo of which inspired them to start again and create the game we know today. Years later, the author learned that the game was in fact just as unprepared for the con as they were- [[http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/starcraft-orcs-in-space-go-down-in-flames they were watching a pre-made video with the demo guy pretending to play]].

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1599791657047745500
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:349:[[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/splie_4panel_2.png]]]]

* In ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' Mugen and a [[MsFanservice highly attractive]] ninja girl are in a room surrounded by more than 20 highly trained ninjas that want to kill them both for stumbling onto a counterfeiting operation. The girl, who has already used sex to motivate Mugen before, promises to do something too perverted to be spoken aloud if Mugen helps her. Mugen {{curb stomp|Battle}}s the armed ninjas ''barehanded''.
* Right at the beginning of ''Manga/LoveHina'', Keitaro tells Shinobu that she'd be able to get into Tokyo University because he got accepted. Almost immediately, he realized in his head that he just helped further the misunderstanding everyone had at the time of thinking he goes to Tokyo University.
* During Ranma and Ryoga's first battle in the anime version of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Ranma gains the upper hand until Nabiki gives Ryoga "steroids". They're later revealed to be mere vitamins, but that doesn't stop him from proceeding to [[CharlesAtlasSuperPower RIP A TELEPHONE POLE OUT OF THE GROUND AND CHASE RANMA DOWN WITH IT.]]

* In the ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', (29-year-old) Misato offers (14-year-old) Shinji this [[BlatantLies pearl]] after giving him a passionate kiss: "We'll do the rest when you get back." (Well, she doesn't.) [[spoiler: She then shoves him into an elevator, smiles as it closes, and immediately slumps to the floor as she bleeds to death.]] The kiss is a sexual stimulator for him, as Shinji's [[DudeShesLikeInAComa lack]] of sexual confidence is what chains him to inaction for at least the first third of the film. Unfortunately, her shoving him into the elevator is the only tangible difference she makes for him plot-wise [[spoiler: as her lie tells on itself when Shinji tastes/sees her blood inside his mouth/on his hand]].
** Considering the potential and ambiguous nature of the ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Rebuild]]'' series, [[spoiler: it may have been an unintentional truth! Depending on the content of the fourth and final movie...]]

* Kotetsu, one half of the superhero team ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'', once claimed that the collapsing building he was holding up was too heavy, and only the intervention of a young boy who's afraid of his own powers could avert tragedy. In reality Kotetsu (and the other heroes) probably could've saved the day without help, and his public image would've gotten a much-needed boost from it, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark but letting the kid prove his worth to the crowd and to himself was more important]].

* In the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' tie in manga ''Visions of V'', Dante tells V that he get a lot of people lying and exaggerating about how dangerous or important the job they're trying to get him to take up. Usually he doesn't see it as a big deal and will take the job regardless. When V suggests that [[spoiler: Vergil]] is back, he assumes that V is no different from such liars, but sees someone lying about [[spoiler: his dead brother]] in order to convince him to take the job as crossing the line and gets so angry that he partially enters [[HulkingOut Devil Trigger]]. However, V is actually telling the truth and Dante quickly refocuses on the mission. [[spoiler: As it turns out, V is actually Vergil himself, [[LiteralSplitPersonality or at least the human part of Dante's brother]], while the threat he hired Dante to kill was Vergil's demonic half. While he does want Urizen stopped, he also wants to rejoin with Urizen in order to return to the completed Vergil.]]

* ''Comicbook/ThePunisher''

* Near the end of ''ComicBook/TheBoys'', [[spoiler: Billy Butcher]] who has been defeated and paralyzed after a FaceHeelTurn, tries to get [[spoiler: Wee Hughie]] to give him a MercyKill. When he doesn't get one, he claims that he killed [[spoiler: Hughie]]'s parents, even providing a description of their house. [[spoiler: Hughie]] naturally flies into a rage and kills [[spoiler: Butcher]], and then just afterwards he gets a phone call from his parents, who remark on how charming his friend was when he stopped by their house.

-->[[spoiler:Negan]]: I'm not saying you outright lie to these people... at worst I'm suggesting you use the truth to manipulate people. And at the end of the day if that keeps people alive, what's the harm?
* In ''Comicbook/{{BPRD}}'', field agent Ashley Strode feels she's in over her head with her latest mission, so Kate Corrigan inspires her by reading her a report from Liz Sherman, saying how much potential she has. Once she's off the phone, Kate admits that [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Liz probably doesn't remember Ashley at all,]] and she was just taking advantage of [[HeroWorshipper Ashley's admiration of her.]]
* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/{{Fray}}'', [[TreacherousAdvisor Urkonn]] kills Mel's friend Loo, who Mel looks after like a little sister, and frames the vampires for it, figuring that it will give Mel the extra push she needs to stop [[spoiler:Harth/The One Who Will Lead]]. However, not long afterward Urkonn [[SayingTooMuch accidentally reveals]] that [[MustBeInvited vampires need to be invited into someone's home]], and Mel quickly guesses that he killed Loo and why. After [[spoiler:Harth]] has been defeated, Mel goes after Urkonn and kills him.

-->'''Dilbert''': If we don't upgrade our servers, a herd of trolls will attack our headquarters.
-->'''CEO''': No trolls!

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* While he's mostly just trying to save his own skin, Spicoli in ''Film/FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh'' makes it look like a rival high school wrecked Charles Jefferson's car, instead of Spicoli himself. Jefferson winds up taking that school's team apart in the next football game.

* Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy:
** ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' does this to the city of Gotham and Batman himself during the ending. In order to prevent mass chaos from the fallout of Harvey Dent's actions as Two Face, Batman willingly framed himself for the murders Dent committed, so that Harvey Dent could remain an inspirational figure to the rest of Gotham. Alfred also burned Rachel's letter saying she would marry Harvey, to spare Bruce further pain from her death.
** The trope is further examined and ultimately subverted in ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises.'' Dent's "murder" by Batman was used to rally support for the passage of the Dent Act, which curtailed civil liberties but also led to the near-elimination of organized crime in Gotham. However, Gordon's wife left him for covering up Harvey Dent's actions. Bruce retires from being Batman and becomes a recluse out of grief over losing Rachel, due to being convinced she would have married him if she's lived. [[spoiler:And when Bane reveals the lie about Dent, the downtrodden citizens and prisoners join Bane's army as retribution. Bane's "revolution" also serves as a Motivational Lie, since it was only intended as a distraction before blowing up Gotham.]]

* ''Film/Titanic1997'' features this during the climactic scenes. Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat. He assures her that both he and Jack will get off the ship safely due to Cal [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney bribing his way onto another lifeboat]]. Rose briefly buys it, seemingly having forgotten for a moment that Cal is [[DomesticAbuser an abusive self-centered jerk]] who would never do such a thing for the sake of a [[LoveTriangle romantic rival]]. Interestingly, Jack believes right away that it's a lie, but misinterprets Cal's intention; Jack thinks that Cal ''doesn't'' actually have an arrangement set up and has no way off the ship, but said whatever he needed in order to save Rose. Cal quickly disabuses Jack of that notion.
* ''Film/BlackCrab''. Caroline Edh is a soldier assigned to deliver a SecretWeapon that will win the war, by crossing a frozen sea at night through enemy territory. When she balks at what she describes as a SuicideMission, she's told her daughter--missing since the start of the war--has been discovered in a refugee camp and is waiting at her destination. After losing most of her fellow soldiers and crippling herself to get there, she's lauded as a hero but informed that the story about her daughter was just to give her the HeroicWillpower to succeed. Worse, if her daughter really is alive somewhere, the weapon she's delivered is a biological virus that will kill most of the civilian population and ensure her death.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', [[spoiler:Dumbledore letting Harry live in the belief that he could survive his hunt to destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes.]] While technically not a lie since it was never expressly stated, the spirit was there. [[spoiler:Averted in the end, though it's insinuated that Dumbledore wasn't sure what would or could happen.]]

* ''Literature/GodsAndWarriors'': [[RebelliousPrincess Pirra]] was allowed to believe her mother, High Priestess Yassassara, would release her from the House of the Goddess on her twelfth birthday, but she was all along intended to be sent to Lykonia for ArrangedMarriage. She's also angry at Userref, her Egyptian slave and big brother-figure, for not telling her the truth even though he knew, so he lampshades this trope while referring both to her situation and his own desire to return to Egypt which he has never tried to act on due to him being TheFatalist.
-->'''Pirra''': You let me go on believing I'd be free.\\
'''Userref''': You needed something to hope for. Everyone does. It's what keeps them going.\\
'''Pirra''': Even if it's a lie?\\
'''Userref''': Yes. Even then.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** In early Season 3 episode "Faith, Hope and Trick", Giles needs to know the exact circumstances of [[spoiler: Angel]]'s death for a spell to prevent the return of Acathla. Buffy finally summons the courage to tell him that [[spoiler:Angel's soul returned, just before Buffy was forced to kill him]]. Once Buffy leaves, Giles reveals to Willow that there ''was'' no spell; it was a ruse to get Buffy to open up to them and to accept what she'd done.
** A more controversial example is Xander's lie to Buffy so she won't hold back when fighting Angelus. Willow had told him she may have a chance of restoring his soul, so Buffy would need to stall Angelus (who is about to bring about the end of the world). Xander was never especially fond of the vampire and has seen him repeatedly commit horrifying acts including torture and murder throughout the season, only to get away with it each time largely because of Buffy's reluctance to kill him. As a result, Xander ignores Willow's intent and relays her message as "Willow said kick his ass."
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Big Bang," when Rory is having a HeroicBSOD over [[OnlyMostlyDead killing Amy]] while hypnotically controlled and doesn't believe he's human, the Doctor tells him one to show him otherwise:
-->'''The Doctor (sneeringly):''' Trillions of people have just been wiped from existence! Your ''girlfriend'' isn't more important than the entire universe.\\
''(Rory turns the Doctor to face him and slugs him in the jaw so hard he falls flat on his ass)''\\
'''Rory:''' SHE IS TO ME!!\\
'''The Doctor (delighted):''' Welcome BACK, Rory Williams!
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E21AllHellBreaksLoosePartOne "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21)]], Sam tries to get the others ready to fight the demon by pretending things will be all right if they work together, but he has his own doubts. Jake realizes this, and says, "It doesn't matter if we believe it. Only matters that they do."
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Devil's Due" revolves around a Motivational Lie that backfired almost catastrophically. A planet is facing mass hysteria because they believe a thousand-year contract is coming to term: Their ancestors had promised [[DealWithTheDevil servitude to "the devil"]] in exchange for a millennium of peace and prosperity. Now the devil has appeared to collect. It's up to the Enterprise crew to prove that the contract was nothing more than a MagicFeather, all the planet's improvements were the result of the people's hard work, and the devil is a [[ConMan con artist]] trying to cash in on the prophecy.
* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode featuring ''The Time Travelers'', Jonah introduces a series of brand new robots dedicated to doing a job particularly well. Crow and Tom, angry at this sort of thing, take baseball bats and start smashing them as they show up. At the end of the segment, Jonah reveals they weren't even functional -- he built them so the Bots could get exercise. They turn their bats on him.
* ''Series/HanginWithMrCooper'' sees Mark [[note]]a basketball player turned substitute teacher[[/note]] try to help a student pass algebra. Mark's former coach (the boy's current coach) points out that Mark would've failed algebra himself if the coach hadn't forced the teacher to pass him. This motivates Mark to retake his old algebra final to prove he can pass...and he does! Unnecessarily! Mark ''had'' passed algebra fairly, and the coach was just trying to guilt him into letting the kid cheat.
* Happens a few times in ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'' to push certain people's buttons the right way, but two major examples are:
** In ''Build NEW WORLD: Kamen Rider Cross-Z'', Evolto attempts to strangle Banjo's love interest just to have his Hazard Level naturally go up enough from accumulated rage and allow them to use the Muscle Galaxy Bottle and overpower Killbus. It's uncertain whether or not Evolto would have killed her, but given he simply leaves Earth after Killbus is killed it is very likely he turned a new leaf.
** In ''Build NEW WORLD: Kamen Rider Grease'', Sento tells Kazumi that his friends, the Hokuto Three, didn't survive the extraction of the Phantom Liquid. It was all just a lie, because the grief caused by thinking his friends died would cause Kazumi's Hazard Level to go high enough to use the Perfect Kingdom Grease form.
* An episode of ''Series/MamasFamily'' has Thelma get involved in an arm wrestling competition at the Bigger Jigger, which she basically has no chance of winning. However, her son Vint and his wife Naomi lie to her that they bet their entire life savings on the match, and that if she loses, they'll never be able to afford to move out of her basement. This manages to give her such a burst of strength and determination that she instantly wins.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler: after the fall of Thessia and the revelation that the Prothean beacon was the main reason why the Asari are technically superior to the rest of the galaxy, Liara confronts Javik and demands to know why he didn't fix things, because as a Prothean he's supposed to have all the answers. Depending on what you do, he'll tell her that his people believed that the Asari were the best hope for this cycle, which calms her down. After walking out of the room, Shepard can ask whether or not Javik was telling the truth. Javik doesn't give a straight answer, but it's implied he's just telling her what she wants to hear.]]

* When Mario becomes sick in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' Luigi is told to go to a cave where a horrible man-eating monster lives to procure a plant that will help Mario recover. The player is forced, due to Luigi being too terrified to even jump, to visit a resident magician who hypnotises Luigi into thinking he's Mario. When Luigi snaps out of it he already has the plant, so it's a slight aversion in that he never seems to realise that he's just as good as Mario when he's not terrified.
* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', Ray will tell Sissel that as a ghost, he'll cease to exist at dawn. This only serves as a motivation to get Sissel to the right place at the right time to resolve the game's main plot. [[spoiler: Because this isn't the first time the plot has happened...last time, Sissel didn't get involved at ALL, and it ended very badly.]]
* In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', the [[spoiler: Operation Enduring Freedom is this. A motivational lie to get everyone to fight to buy Project Zero Dawn time to complete the goal of setting up GAIA and all the infrastructure to restore the world after the extinction of the human race.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', when the heroes are pondering whether they'll simply fade away even if they defeat Chaos, Cloud Strife says that their actions will save the worlds they each came from, and that those will be the homes they return to when it's over. He immediately admits he just made that up, but everyone else agrees that it sounds pretty nice and are willing to believe it.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. [[spoiler: The Chosen Undead, the whole premise is a trick. The lie is used to make undeads sacrifice themselves to extend the Age of Fire.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Northgard}}'' Chapter 7 Jötunmheim, there are two factions of giants that are in conflict over the land and livestock. If the player achieves victory by gaining enough lore with the ancient sword, then Svarn tells both giant leaders that the ancient sword has writing from their ancestor telling them to share the land and livestock. This results in the giants resolving their conflict and agreeing to share the land. Later Svarn tells Rig that there was no such writing on the ancient sword.
* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' has a lot of fun playing with this trope in Chapter Five. Kokichi shows the remaining students [[spoiler:the secret of the outside world]] and tells them he is the mastermind, making them too apathetic to continue the game. His being the mastermind was a lie of course, as part of his plan to end the killing game. Unfortunately, the real mastermind created a Flashback light giving the class, save for Kokichi and Kaito, memories of being symbols of hope and Kokichi being a [[spoiler:Remnant of Despair]], reigniting their drive. This also lead [[spoiler:Maki]] to hunt down Kokichi to kill him.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', the culture of Nine-Tails Vale is based upon a good vs. evil myth that - unbeknownst to most of the Vale's citizens - never actually happened. One of the Vale's previous leaders made it up to keep people from finding an AppleOfDiscord hidden nearby. The citizens eventually find out the story isn't true...[[SerendipityWritesThePlot but they decide to go on telling it anyway]], because it's cooler than what "really" happened and it's become a tradition in its own right at this point. (Also, it brings in a lot of tourism dollars.)
* Played for laughs in ''VideoGame/Portal1''. [=GLaDoS=] constantly promises Chell cake as motivation to continue testing.

* ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': [[spoiler:Nikita tells Alessandro what the general wants to hear as soon as he realises this may result in a declaration of war with Lusitania.]]

* During WebVideo/BennettTheSage's review of the anime version of ''Literature/DemonCityShinjuku'', Sage mentions that one of the characters is named Mephisto, then cringes as that summons [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] who begins ranting about [[ComicBook/OneMoreDay that one Spider Man arc that everyone hates]], because it also featured a character named Mephisto. To get rid of Linkara, Sage claims that another reviewer was badmouthing some of Linkara's favorite comic writers. Linkara promptly storms off for revenge.
-->'''Sage:''' Hey, did you hear that WebVideo/TheLastAngryGeek called Creator/AlanMoore overrated?\\
'''Linkara:''' Well... I can see that. The man can only write so many classics before he taps out.\\
'''Sage:''' Wait, did I say Alan Moore? I meant ''Creator/NeilGaiman''. Yeah, Neil Gaiman.\\
'''Linkara:''' WHAT?!! Where is that slimeball, I'm going to rip him to shreds!

* ''Film/OsmosisJones'' had Jones telling Drix about some sugar pills he knew that cured cancer in an effort to motivate him. This exchange happens a bit later:
-->'''Drix''': Jones? You really know a sugar pill who cured cancer?\\
'''Jones''': Naw. But it makes for a good pep talk, don't it?

'''Dr. Hibbert:''' Oh, didn't I? ''[laughs]'' Nothing dissolves glue better than human sweat. I knew Bart would panic and start perspiring at the sight of this button applicator!\\

'''Dr. Hibbert:''' ''[sinister]'' Oh, heavens no! It had to be terror sweat!

'''Colby Kraus:''' ''[{{beat}}]'' Ok Homer, I don't know anything about planes, but I know about you. You have what made America great; [[AchievementsInIgnorance no understanding of the limits of your power]] and a complete lack of concern for what anyone thinks of you. So you'll land that plane, and do you know why? Because I heard some guy say you couldn't.\\
'''Homer:''' ''[furious]'' What?! I'll show him! I'll show that guy! ''[Lands plane successfully]''

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuyPresentsLaughItUpFuzzball''. [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Stewie]] [[Franchise/StarWars Vader]] tells a soldier that the Rebels killed his friend's dog to get him to attack the Rebel base. Seems like an obvious case of this trope being at work, but later Peter and Chris [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims reminisce about kidnapping and eating]] a dog...
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Aang lies about the source of the conflict between the two tribes to get them to make up. When he admits such to Katara and Sokka, they're floored.
--> '''Aang''': You could call it luck... or you could call it ''lying''. I made the whole thing up.
--> '''Katara''' ''[[NotSoAboveItAll (amused):]]'' You did ''not.'' That is ''so'' wrong.

** A more controversial example is Xander's lie to Buffy so she won't hold back when fighting Angelus. Willow had told him she may have a chance of restoring his soul, so Buffy would need to stall Angelus (who is about to bring about the end of the world). Xander was never especially fond of the vampire and has seen him repeatedly commit horrifying acts including torture and murder throughout the season, only to get away with it each time largely because of Buffy's reluctance to kill him. As a result Xander ignores Willow's intent and relays her message as "Willow said kick his ass."

* The ''WesternAnimation/OzzyAndDrix'' cartoon had Jones telling Drix about some sugar pills he knew that cured cancer in an effort to motivate him. This exchange happens a bit later:

* In the ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', (29-year-old) Misato offers (14-year-old) Shinji this [[BlatantLies pearl]] after giving him a passionate kiss: "We'll do the rest when you get back." (Well, she doesn't.) [[spoiler: She then shoves him into an elevator, smiles as it closes, and immediately slumps to the floor as she bleeds to death.]] The kiss is a sexual stimulator for him, as Shinji's [[DudeShesLikeInAComa la]][[ADateWithRosiePalms ck]] of sexual confidence is what chains him to inaction for at least the first third of the film. Unfortunately, her shoving him into the elevator is the only tangible difference she makes for him plot-wise [[spoiler: as her lie tells on itself when Shinji tastes/sees her blood inside his mouth/on his hand]].

* In ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' Mugen and a [[BuxomIsBetter highly attractive]] ninja girl are in a room surrounded by more than 20 highly trained ninjas that want to kill them both for stumbling onto a counterfeiting operation. The girl, who has already used sex to motivate Mugen before, promises to do something too perverted to be spoken aloud if Mugen helps her. Mugen {{curb stomp|Battle}}s the armed ninjas ''barehanded''.

* Towards the end of ''ComicBook/Fray'', Urkonn kills Mel's friend Loo, and frames the vampires for it, figuring that it will give Mel the extra push for her to stop Harth/The One Who Will Lead. However, when he accidentally reveals that vampires need to be invited into someone's home, Mel realizes that he killed Loo, and kills him after Harth has been defeated.

* In [[https://dilbert.com/strip/2006-08-05 one]] ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip, Dilbert and his CEO agree to do this to spare the boss a technical explination.