Keeping Secrets Sucks: Difference between revisions

Secrets are cool. Everyone wants to be in on them, making one or discovering one. What's more satisfying about these is selectively spilling the beans. One of the guiltiest pleasures of secrets comes from breaking them like a colorful easter egg full of surprises and skeletons. But ''actually'' keeping one? That sucks.

 

 

This is especially excruciating for characters who are [[The Fettered]], [[The Confidant]], are [[Magically-Binding Contract|magically]] [[Restraining Bolt|restrained]] from [[Tongue-Tied|spilling the beans]], or simply caught between the [[Conflicting Loyalty|conflicting loyalties]].

Of course, most secrets do eventually come to light--this is ''fiction'' we're talking about after all: every secret is made to be spilled. Depending on the secret, the keeper usually has a falling out with one or more characters, and may face great danger. Of course, if handled well it can make for a great cathartic payoff when this character chooses to unburden themselves and share the secret.

 

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Ranma One Half|Ranma 1/2]],'' Ranma swears to keep Ryouga's curse secret, even when Ryouga uses his cursed form to sleep with Ranma's fiancee Akane. Ryouga's cursed form is as a cute little piglet that Akane adopts as a pet. Semi-subverted in that while Ranma won't come right out and say it he does drop a megaton load of hints, but Akane is just [[Master of Delusion|that dense]] that she doesn't get it.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Totosai's role in hiding his dead master's plan for developing Sesshoumaru enough to {{spoiler|finally obtain Bakusaiga}} results in him putting his life on the line, as Sesshoumaru detests being manipulated so much he has a tendency to kill anyone he catches doing that.

* [[Symphogear]]: The heroine's need to keep her magical girl deeds secret puts a big strain on her relationship with her best friend.

** I'm really eighty-three years old and back from the dead. Secret keeper: {{spoiler|Hazel}}

** My life is tied to a piece of half burned wood. Secret keeper: {{spoiler|Frank}}

 

 

* Captain Awesome on [[Chuck]] is suffering from this these days. He stumbled on the fact that his soon-to-be brother-in-law was a spy near the end of Season Two. For a while he thought it was cool and interesting, but after he got asked to use his skills as a doctor to help, that was enough for him. Unfortunately, the spy life didn't let him go... now he's not sleeping much, not working out, and trying (and failing hilariously) to lie to his wife about what Chuck does when he isn't around.

* It's not always puppies and sunshine for the cast of ''[[Hannah Montana]]'', mainly due to this trope. In fact, {{spoiler|the title character breaks down ''twice'' for it. In the movie, she decides she's done leading a double-life and gives away her identity, but the crowd talks her into staying as Hannah. She breaks down again in the final season and finally reveals it on national television.}}

* Sheldon from ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' doesn't like being asked to keep a secret, and [[Cannot Keep a Secret|for a good reason]].

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** Eventually the stress drives Twilight mad and after struggling to keep herself quiet ends up blurting out {{spoiler|Spike's "[[The Not-Secret|secret]]" crush on Rarity}}.

* The title character of ''[[Jem]]'' maintains a double-life as the titular pop star and as Jerrica Benton, which wreaks havoc on her love life since she ends up getting her boyfriend, Rio, attracted to ''both'' identities and never does get the nerve to tell him for fear of how he'd react to being led on. She also deals with the affections of Riot from The Stingers, who's attracted to her Jem persona only. It also causes other problems since her method of staying in persona requires that she wear a pair of holographic earrings (as opposed to make-up), such as not being able to get through metal detectors. Furthermore, since Jem is entirely made up as a person, Eric Raymond tries to exploit this in one episode by setting most of the city on a massive manhunt to learn her real identity, though she's able to get people to calm down and leave her be at the end of the episode.