Masquerade: Difference between revisions

* ''[[The Breaker]]'' ([[Manhwa]]) has the ''murim-in'', a secret world of [[Charles Atlas Superpower|superpowered]] [[Supernatural Martial Arts|martial artists]]. The government has agreed to keep the ''murim-in'' secret and not to meddle in their affairs.

* [[The World of Narue]] has a lot of masquerade maintainence of the alien variety in it. It's difficult because most aliens(and whole alien ''battleships'') are fugitives and the occasional alien terrorist attack happens as well.

* The [[Magical Girl]]s of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' don't try very hard to maintain [[The Masquerade]]; it's more that with everything relevant being [[Invisible to Normals]] and/or taking place in a [[Phantom Zone]], it'd be considerably more work to explain what's going on than let people make up explanations.

* In [[ARAGO]], [[The Fair Folk]] and other "mythical" creatures most definitely exist, but the majority of humans are completely unaware of them.

* Tyler Durden's [[Fight Club]]s are a variant of this. Rules 1 and 2 of the Fight Clubs forbid revealing their existence. (At times, it seems like the entire male population of the US is in on it.) This is problematic when the main character wants to go public, and has to deal with protocols he himself has set up forbidding him from doing so.

** So many people get in on the secret because, as we see several times, members of Fight Club don't always follow the rules. Also there is one point in the film where a politician, who is vaguely aware of Fight Club and its vandalism/terrorist activities, promises to take action against them... then denies their existence after Tyler threatens to castrate him.

* In ''[[Independence Day]]'', [[Our Presidents Are Different|President Action]] says that [[Roswell That Ends Well|the Roswell Incident]] never really happened, only to be told by one of his advisors, "Uh, Mr. President, that's not... entirely accurate".

* In ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093148/ Harry and the Hendersons],'' [[The Obi-Wan]]-like museum curator declares "There is no such thing as Bigfoot" just as Harry steps into view behind him.

== Literature ==

* Most of [[H.P. Lovecraft|Mr. Lovecraft's]] work, and the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] as a whole, depends on a metaphorical 'veil' that shrouds us from any reality aside from the one right in front of our faces. Only the curious and academic seek to pierce it, and at their own peril. Justifying the veil varies according to its origin; the Mi-Go and Deep Ones are good ensuring they stay a secret for their own convenience and infiltration purposes, and the enormous time gap between now and the reign of [[Ancient Astronauts]] and currently-sleeping gods-monsters keeps them out of common knowledge. The [[Designated Hero|investigators]] themselves, however, often find reason to destroy evidence of strange and powerful beings, not simply to avoid a panic, and ''certainly'' not to protect what they have found, but rather to preserve the sanity of civilization as a whole. "The Call of Cthulhu" says it best:

** Actually, most masquerades in Lovecraft's work are of a less esoteric kind, being simply actively maintained by interested parties from alien species who do not care to have mankind at large discover their presence to cultists who'll happily murder any outsiders found to know too much. The above quote gets [[Quote Mine|mined]] quite a bit, usually leaving out the little fact that it's written in the 'voice' of the {{spoiler|dead}} ''narrator'' rather than that of the author himself.

** The Danish [[Cthulhu Mythos]] short story ''Tilfældet H.P. Lovecraft'' (''The Case of H.P. Lovecraft'') pulls a rather inserting twist on the usual Masquerade in Cthulhu Mythos stories. The main character, a Lovecraft fan, finds an encrypted blog written by his old friend, an esteemed Lovecraft researcher who recently committed suicide. The blog starts off being written as a project looking into some strange theories about Lovecraft's stories for a even strange company. {{spoiler|It eventually devolves with his friend's blog entries becoming more and more confused and rambling, and finally on goes to claim that H.P. Lovecraft never existed, that and he was just a fictional construct used as a pseudonym for a collective of writers headed by [[Robert E. Howard]], who wrote stories based on the ''real'' Necronomicon which the group had in their possession}}.

* ''[[Charmed]]'' used this as well, in that the sisters had to conceal their use of magic from normals. Not doing so led to disastrous results in a few cases (which were usually able to be reversed, in some cases with help by Lawful Neutral entities called the Cleaners who could [[Deus Ex Machina|just erase things and memories from existence]]).

** What's really weird is that even the bad guys supported the Masquerade, despite the fact that breaking it only ever hurt the protagonists. All the demons were [[Immune to Bullets]].

* Most, if not all, [[Sitcom|Sit Coms]] that involve magical worlds do this. Examples: ''Bewitched'', ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'', ''Wizards of Waverly Place''.

** Almost every [[Disney Channel]] live-action show since ''[[That's So Raven]]'' has had a Masquerade of some sort, except for ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' and its spinoff.

* In ''[[Continuum]]'', [[Time Travel]] isn't made public knowledge until 2222 AD. As a result, [[Stable Time Loop|it can't be made public knowledge until 2222 AD]], ''ever'', on penalty of [[Time Paradox|frag]] or a visit by [[Clock Roaches|the Inheritors]]. Most of a spanner's job is preventing Narcissists from creating paradoxes, which would include causing one by revealing time travel to the public.

* ''[[Nobilis]]'' has a Masquerade enforced for pragmatic reasons. Exposure to the true reality of [[The Multiverse]] usually results in ''dementia animus'' (i.e. insanity).

** In a similar vein, any citizen who goes around talking about heretics or aliens can expect a very unpleasant visit from the local Inquisition or Imperial Church.

* Warhammer Fantasy's Skaven take great pains to conceal their existence from humankind, presumably to aid in their attempts to undermine and enslave human society without anybody noticing until it's too late. What with regular massive incursions and devastating pitched battles to hush up, this usually involves such extreme measures as stealing back all surviving artefacts of Skaven manufacture, assassinating or discrediting witnesses by the thousand and conducting complex magical rituals every thirteen years to cloud human minds on a global scale. The fact that the Warhammer world contains untold other sinister underworld terrors and chaotic warbands that make no attempt to hide their existence makes things considerably easier, as does natural human superstition and gullibility. In the Empire and Bretonnia at least the Skaven are widely regarded as nothing more than a bad-taste myth put about by bored university students who should really know better. It should be noted, however, that the Skaven only seem to keep their existence a secret from human societies - the dwarfs, elves, orcs, lizardmen and others all seem perfectly aware of their existence following centuries of open warfare.

* The fourth game in the [[Desert Strike]] series, ''Soviet Strike'', hints at this. Rather than a part of the Kuwaiti liberation forces or government endorsed [[Incredibly Lame Pun|strike]] team, the player finds themselves in spook territory, the pilot of a covert operation that uses false news broadcasts and cyber warfare to prevent military action from escalating. A canny player might be able to hazard a guess that the game's [[Big Bad]] was in fact their co pilot, who goes rogue, is apparently killed, then turns up later. The third and fifth stages, at the very least, indicate he was behind the events that took place to scare Mother Russia into playing along with the shadow organization.

* Dragons in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' can take on a humanoid form to interact with the sentient races of Azeroth, though initially they didn't tell anyone who they really were, and the disguise was used to twist events; for example Onyxia infiltrating Stormwind under her "Lady Prestor" guise. Now the practice is [[They Walk Among Us|very well known]], and dragons do it because it's [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|more convienient to talk to a humanoid when you have a similar size and shape]], instead of being a house-sized reptile.

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** FOP has an ass-load of loopholes on this one. For example: Kids can pass them off as something else (used in the Jimmy Neutron crossovers), etc.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' must keep his ability to change into a ghost secret from everyone—especially his [[Secret-Chaser|ghost-hunter parents]]. However, he seems to have no problem with every single non-human recurring enemy he's ever faced retaining knowledge of his identity; only once or twice have any of them thought to actually use this against him.

*** Danny actually states this- if he gets exposed, his friends and family will stick by him (and when he eventually does, they do), but Vlad will be in big trouble (when ''he'' eventually exposes himself, other issues are at hand)

* In ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'', Dexter "must" keep his titular lab a secret from his parents and most other characters; a recurring exception is Dee Dee (since she breaks through security every time).

* ''[[Johnny Test]]'' is weird about this. The lab belonging to the title character's sisters is secret in some episodes. In others, it seems their parents are fully aware of it.

** I got the impression that the parents always know about it, but Susan and Mary just aren't allowed to be reckless with their inventions, or else their lab access will be shut down. This happens half the time.

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' largely maintained it partially because there didn't seem enough evidence to conclude the sighting of ''monsters'' was the real thing and all parties who did know were content to keep it that way. Mostly because Gargoyles were nigh-extinct the [[The Fair Folk]] were all incredibly disorganized and generally isolated from each other and humanity. Subverted in the potential [[Grand Finale]] when the Hunters exposed the Gargoyles' existence to the world once and for all.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' maintains a Masquerade of being a "perfectly normal human worm-baby" despite his incompetence, and total lack of knowledge about human norms and customs. This is possible because of the incredible stupidity of everyone in [[Jhonen Vasquez|Jhonen Vasquez's]] universe.

[[Category:Magical Girl Tropes]]

[[Category:The Index Is Watching You]]