Metaphorically True: Difference between revisions

'''Obi-Wan''': Luke, you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.|''[[Return of the Jedi]]''}}

This trope is [[Blatant Lies]] -- at—at least from a certain point of view. 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 or [[Exact Words]]. It may require a [[Personal Dictionary]] or outright [[Insane Troll Logic]].

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 [[Trope Namer|original example]] shown at the top of the page, the line from the third movie practically [[Hand Wave|Hand Waves]]s the fact that the line from the first movie was originally intended to be describing two people, [[Lying Creator|despite any of]] Lucas' [[Word of God|belated claims to the contrary]].

Compare [[YesNo Except NoYes]], [[Double-Speak]], [[False Reassurance]], [[Loophole Abuse]], [[Keeping Secrets Sucks]], [[Both Sides Have a Point]] (or contrasting, depending on the circumstances), [[Stealth Pun]], [[Visual Pun]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUsWhAVcpAw Recent body work/NEW PAINT!!!!!] {{spoiler|The car has had its side bashed in, and is being pulled onto a tow truck. One wheel isn't turning.}}

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMml0zFrEE Slight water damage/NEW UPHOLSTERY!!!] {{spoiler|The car's going through a flood (the footage is from Hurricane Katrina).}}

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDCO_p9PUVA Minor smoke damage/This car is HOT!!!] {{spoiler|The car's on ''fire''.}}

* Everything Ryuk says in ''[[Death Note]]'' is true. The problem is that he ''never'' gives you the entire context. Like his telling Light not to think a human who's used a Death Note is able to go to Heaven or Hell {{spoiler|actually means there's [[Cessation of Existence|no afterlife for anyone.]]}} Though Light already figured that to be the case on his own.

{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Nonoko}}:''' And it's going to [[Jumped At the Call|turn me into a magical girl]]?<br />

* The dwarven noble [[Guile Hero]] protagonist of ''[[Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns]]'' somehow merges this with [[Honesty Is the Best Policy]] and [[Brutal Honesty]] seasonings, at times, even as he pulls of one [[Xanatos Gambit]] after another. Other times, he just refuses to answer questions, like whether or not he killed Trian. {{spoiler|He didn't, and neither did anyone else because that's what the second son wanted, and so it was.}}

** In ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', 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]], but it's a [[Tropes Are Tools|pretty good]] [[Retcon]], and rather tragic in context. It's("You truewere Vadermy killedbrother, Anakin! I loved you!" [[I Have No Son|Note the scadsuse of Jedi,the itpast tense.]]) It's truetherefore understandable that Obi Wan feels betrayed and horrified and hatesvery him for itbitter, and it's believable that the old man would put off telling Luke his daddy is actually an evil Sith Lord as long as possible (for Luke's sake, if for no other reason). In the ''original'' draft writen by Leigh Brackett, Anakin and Darth Vader were different persons, and indeed Vader killed Anakin after turning to the dark side. Also, Anakin was supposed to be a force ghost that would help Luke (that role was later filled by Obi-Wan). However, Brackett died, and Lucas and Brackett's substitute Lawrence Kasdan rewrote the script, adding the famous twist, so it's obvious that they had to fix "Darth Vader betrayed and killed your father" somehow. In a clear case of [[Fridge Brilliance]] upon rewatching [[A New Hope]], before Alec Guinness delivers the original line he fractionally hesitates with a considering look. You can practically see him considering what would be the best thing to tell Luke. That hesitation is amazingly lucky for the [[Retcon]].

** While this looks weaselly, it does fit later hints that the Jedi see the Sith as something like the walking dead, former people who've been turned into monsters by the Dark Side. Mace Windu says "which was ''destroyed'', the master or the apprentice?" -- not—not, say, ''slain''. Obi -Wan and Qui -Gon referred to Darth Maul as "[["It" Is Dehumanizing|it]]", while Yoda later warns Obi -Wan that Anakin is "gone" and has been "consumed" by Darth Vader - a line probably written for the purpose of bolstering the point-of-view of Obi -Wan's original statement to Luke.

** In the 1stfirst film, one of the victims says [[Big Bad|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."

** Without the murder charge, his actions usually qualify as assault, kidnapping, and torture, often with lasting damage even for the survivors - possibly a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] in some cases. Several of Jigsaw's disciples actually do commit straight-up murder in their games. But by the 6thsixth 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 3rdthird movie, the victims were all 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 ''[[Star Trek]]'' films, mostly by Spock. The later instances are call-backs to the first, from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'':

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] repeatedly in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'', for example:

'''{{spoiler|Valeris}}:''' I do not... remember.

** In ''[[Discworld/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', 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/A Hat Full of Sky|A Hat Full of Sky]]'', "never lie, but don't always tell the truth" is among the pieces of advice Miss Tick gives Tiffany.

** ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'': "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. In the circumstances an implied threat is very clear - [[Shame If Something Happened]]. However, the orders on both occasions were "leave the offending party alone, and see if you can find a workaround in this morass." The people they're sort-of threatening never notice.

{{quote|"Sergeant Colon was lost in admiration. He'd seen people bluff on a bad hand, but he'd never seen anyone bluff with no cards."}}

* 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—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.

'''Mal-2''': ''I don't know man, I didn't do it.'' }}

* In ''[[Forgotten Realms|The Knights of Samular]]'' by Elaine Cunningham [[Knight Templar|Renwick Caradoon]] used such tricks to twist the Abyss out of [[Deal with the Devil|his contract]] with an incubus lord and -- afterand—after this bright idea gone bad anyway and he needed help -- foolhelp—fool already suspicious Blackstaff (which may be more impressive).

** The [[Planet of Hats|Ferengi]] from the [[Star Trek]] universe have this trope as a point in their "Rules of Acquisition".

** In a ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' 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.

*** As it turns out in the relaunch novel ''A Stitch in Time'', they actually were almost all true. Kinda.

* In one of the ''[[Lost]]'''s [[It Was His Sled|most wellbest-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:''' By omission, Mr. Locke. You neglected to tell us about [[Tomato Surprise|your condition]]. }}

** There has been a rumor going about that [[John Simm]] will return as [[The Master (trope)|The Master]]. While Simm has shown interest in playing the role again, and [[Steven Moffat]] has stated that ''maybe'' (emphasis on '''maybe''') The Master might return someday, Simm posted a recent tweet that he doesn't plan on playing Master anytime soon. It's unknown whether this means he turned the role down or he hasn't been offered it yet, though.

* On ''[[Penn and& Teller: Bullshit!]]'', the duo use this trope 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.

* [[Aquila]] has a scene where an archaeologist explains, referencing the [[Ancientancient Africa|ancient African]]n 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 ,<ref> who develop superpowers</ref>, 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 [[Running Gag]] - 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 [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]) 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.

* In ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'', 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.

* ''[[The Daily Show|]]'': Jon Stewart]] lampshaded this in his [http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-december-15-2010/the-great-gaffesby recentDecember 2010 criticism of RNC Chairman Michael Steele].

* [http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-01-09/ This] ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip. It's true that the phrase was said.

* 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."

* This is one of the ways that Games Workshop [[Hand Wave|explain]] differences in the milleniamillennia-old backstories that occur in Warhammer40000''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' materials over multiple editions. It usually boils down to "The old stories were mistranslated, corrupted by years of oral tradition, or outright lies planted by seditious agents of Chaos." Which sounds suspiciously like the way "out of character" explanations of Imperial dogma and propaganda sound, and most of the fluff is written from the viewpoint of [[Unreliable Narrator|Imperial scholars]].

== Theater[[Theatre]] ==

* ''[[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.

* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'': {{spoiler|Mrs. Lovett: "No, I never lied. Said she took a poison, she did. Never said that she died."}}

* [[ADOM]], another [[Roguelike]], has the gauntlets of peace -- andpeace—and their artifact counterpart, [[The Same but More|the Gauntlets of Eternal Peace]] --, which make it almost impossible to hit anything while you're wearing them. The "peace" either means you can't kill anything, or you will die quickly and be at peace since (duh) [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Everything Is Trying To Kill You]] and you won't be able to fight back. Even better, the gauntlets are [[Clingy MacGuffin|autocursing]]. At least they give you a moderate defense and armor boost while you search desperately for that scroll of uncursing.

* A rare positive version courtesy of ''[[Another Century's Episode|Another Centurys Episode]]'': When it was announced that the [[PlayStationPlay Station 3]] installment would be limited to three [[Humongous Mecha|mecha]] per series, fans were upset - until the game's director posted on his blog, revealing that [[Mid-Season Upgrade|Mid-Season Upgrades]]s and [[Mecha Expansion Pack|Mecha Expansion Packs]]s 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.

* Might as well be named "Kirei Truth" after the I-tell-no-direct-lies priest from ''[[Fate/stay night]]''. Spending 3 routes while only telling one direct lie (which is a joke, and he's instantly called out on it) while still {{spoiler|manipulating the protagonist and turning out to be the [[Big Bad]] in two routes and [[The Dragon]] in a third}}? Yeah, he's very good at this.

* One of ''[[The Elder Scrolls|]]'': One of Vivec's]] stories of his involvement in the death of Nerevar indicates that the official Temple stance of it not being his fault is a ''literal'' [[Half Truth]]: Vehk the God was not to blame, but Vehk the Mortal is. Since Vivec ("V'vehk") is [[Mind Screw|both of those]]...

== WebcomicsWeb Comics ==

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|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 [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead|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.}}

{{quote|Oracle: {{spoiler|Yeah... I wasn't really buying those theories either... Worth a shot though...}}}}

** [http://irregularwebcomic.net/119.html This] explains Obi-WansWan's high opinion of the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]].

** 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.]

* Parodied on [http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=429 this page] of ''[[The B-Movie Comic|The B Movie Comic]]''.

[[color:white:{{spoiler|The concept is a very human one. It is the product of your story writing again. You have written a story about the truth, making emotional demands of it, and in particular, of those in possession of it.

One can make either true statements or false statements about reality. All of the statements I make are true.]]}} }}

** The narrator gets in on it, too. As Gamzee watches Jade's second prototyping from the CRITICAL MOMENT, the caption reads "[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005119 The most important character in Homestuck fondly regards the miracle of a new beginning.]" [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/cascade.php?s=6&p=6009 [&#91;S]&#93; Cascade] reveals that he has Li'l Cal (used to make Doc Scratch) in his lap, and is ''also'' watching Doc Scratch's body, which [http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006011 soon after] rises as Lord English.

* ''The Repository of Dangerous Things'' have [https://web.archive.org/web/20120512034833/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Repository_of_Dangerous_Things/4863929/ Davis trying to write a resume].

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' turned it into a [https://web.archive.org/web/20120726101511/http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/a-certain-point-of-view.html full blown musical] for their Star Wars special.

* "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." --[[Bill Clinton]] (See [[Technical Virgin]]) and "The government does not torture people" --[[George W. Bush]] (Seedoing [[Enhancedit Interrogationwith Techniques]]participation of the government would be comic book villainy, indeed. Now, ''allowing to''...).

* "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work liberates"), posted at the gates of Nazi concentration camps. It did liberate the worker... of his life.

** The same story is told in most of Europe in regards to soldiers signing up in [[WWI]] and [[WWII]].

* In a US election speech, RonaldGeorge ReaganH. W. Bush declared that if he was elected President, there would be "[[wikipedia:Read my lips: no new taxes|no new taxes]]". Well, he was elected and true to his word, there were no new taxes.... but the population of the US got very irate over the fact that he raised all of the ''existing taxes''...

** OfcourseOf course, while making the statement he honestly thought that the government didn't actually need taxes and was just leeching from honest businesses. Then he got in charge and the truth dawned toon him.

* An old standby for people making a journey - "We're not lost; I know exactly where we are.... I just don't know where we are in relation to where we want to be". Or "We're not lost; I know exactly where we are.... right here."

[[Category:MetaphoricallyTechnically Truea Trope]]