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Plot-Driving Secret: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
This is when the entire [[Plot]] of a work depends on someone being left out of the loop. It may be that the person or group keeping the secret is holding the [[Idiot Ball]], or is [[Properly Paranoid]], or maybe they simply [[Cannot Spit It Out]]. Whatever the reason, they have kept a key player from knowing something crucial, and it is that lack of knowledge that enables the plot to happen. Otherwise, they could simply [[Just Eat Gilligan]].
May result in [[Poor Communication Kills]].
Compare [[Idiot Plot]], [[
See Also:
* [[The Con]] - "Wait, you're ''not'' a Nigerian Prince who needs help hiding his fortune?"
* [[Bruce Wayne Held Hostage]] - "You mean our hostage is actually [[The Hero]]?"
* [[Locked Out of the Loop]] - "You ''all'' knew this?" "Yes, but there's a reason we didn't tell you."
* [[Loves My Alter Ego]] - "You mean the guy I love and the guy with an unrequited crush on me are the same man?"
* [[The Masquerade]] - "Dude, they're really vampires?"
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{{examples|Examples }}
== General: ==
* Almost every Mystery depends on someone not knowing who the culprit is. Once that knowledge is revealed, the story ends, unless the plot is actually about gathering evidence.
* Any character with a [[Secret Identity]] is likely to have a few stories of this nature.
* Pretty much every undercover cop story runs on this. If the criminals knew from the outset that the new guy in their ranks was a cop out to bust them all, he or she would be dead in short order.
== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Fearless (novel)|Fearless]]'' books, the plot was frequently driven by the fact that [[The Hero|Gaia]] was either keeping a secret from someone or having one kept from her.
* A minor plot point in ''[[Akata Witch]]'' was that Sunny was the only one in the group whose parents weren't magical and didn't know that she was taking lessons to improve her magic.
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