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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Luke''': Obi-Wan? Why didn't you tell me? You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
'''Obi-Wan''': Your father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view.
'''Luke''': ''"A certain point of view"?''
'''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]]
This is most commonly used by oracles who are trying to create a [[Prophecy Twist]] but haven't sufficiently mastered the art of [[Double Entendre|double meanings.]] Instead of taking advantage of a non-obvious but [[Ambiguous Syntax|genuine]] [[Exact Words|ambiguity of phrasing]], or relying on [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|elaborate symbolism]], the oracle takes an unambiguous statement and tries to pretend that there was another valid meaning. It is also what separates a [[Literal Genie]] from a [[Jackass Genie]], as the latter stretches the interpretation of the wish beyond the bounds of credibility just to get the wisher into trouble.
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
Compare [[
Contrast [[Prophecy Twist]], in which the alternative interpretation is not anticipated by the characters (and hopefully the audience), but makes sense when revealed. Also contrast [[Motivational Lie]], where a lie or partial truth inflames the hero to succeed rather than fail.
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[
* There was a series of adverts for Carfax that showed cars in dire shape, and the sound of a description being typed that minimalized the problem, getting erased, then a description being typed that made the car sound like it was great! It was an advert for car histories. The ads included...
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUsWhAVcpAw Recent body work/NEW PAINT!!!!!]
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMml0zFrEE Slight water damage/NEW UPHOLSTERY!!!]
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDCO_p9PUVA Minor smoke damage/This car is HOT!!!]
* Everything said by Xelloss in ''[[Slayers]]'' is technically true in the manner in which he phrased it, though not always in the manner in which the listener chooses to hear it. The closest he comes to telling an actual lie is to deliberately mispronounce the name Bibble.▼
▲== [[Anime/Manga|Manga]] ==
** For example, he introduces himself as 'Xellos, the mysterious priest!' After that statement, the 'mysterious' part is in no way questioned. As to 'priest'... well, he does indeed serve a god
▲* Everything said by Xelloss in ''[[Slayers]]'' is technically true in manner in which he phrased it, though not always in the manner in which the listener chooses to hear it. The closest he comes to telling an actual lie is to deliberately mispronounce the name Bibble.
* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', what Kyubey tells to Kyoko when asked {{spoiler|if Sayaka could be turned back into a human after having turned into a witch}} is technically not meant to say that it is possible... But the way he phrases it doesn't make it look ''impossible'' either. This gives Kyoko enough hope to try, and ultimately results in {{spoiler|Kyoko having to sacrifice herself to put Witch!Sayaka out of her misery}} when it doesn't work. Later on, Kyubey acknowledges that he phrased his statement that way because {{spoiler|he wanted Kyoko to die}}, so that Homura {{spoiler|was left with no companions to fend off the ultimate witch, Walpurgis, when it appears, unless Madoka accepts a Puella Magi contract}}.▼
▲** For example, he introduces himself as 'Xellos, the mysterious priest!' After that statement, the 'mysterious' part is in no way questioned. As to 'priest'... well, he does indeed serve a god...
** In general, Kyubey is made of this; he never actually ''lies'', [[You Didn't Ask|he just withholds any relevant information unless specifically asked about it.]]▼
▲* In [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]], what Kyubey tells to Kyoko when asked {{spoiler|if Sayaka could be turned back into a human after having turned into a witch}} is technically not meant to say that it is possible... But the way he phrases it doesn't make it look ''impossible'' either. This gives Kyoko enough hope to try, and ultimately results in {{spoiler|Kyoko having to sacrifice herself to put Witch!Sayaka out of her misery}} when it doesn't work. Later on, Kyubey acknowledges that he phrased his statement that way because {{spoiler|he wanted Kyoko to die}}, so that Homura {{spoiler|was left with no companions to fend off the ultimate witch, Walpurgis, when it appears, unless Madoka accepts a Puella Magi contract}}.
▲** In general, Kyubey is made of this; he never actually ''lies'', he just withholds any relevant information unless specifically asked about it.
* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', the reason why Shaka, the Golden Saint of Virgo, followed [[Big Bad]] Saga.
* Everything Ryuk says in ''[[
* Schneizel of ''[[Code Geass]]'' uses this to such great effect, it's scary.
* In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga, Honda/Tristan enlists the help of Yugi and Jonouchi/Joey to confess his feelings to a classmate. Yugi helps to write a love letter and Jonouchi slips it into her desk. A [[Sadist Teacher]] discovers the love letter and gleefully humiliates the girl by reading the love letter out loud. When she tells the sender she [[Blatant Lies|will let them off easy]] if he shows himself, both Yugi and Jonouchi stand up, admitting to writing the letter and putting it in the desk respectively. Honda also stands up and says that his feelings were written in that letter. The teacher points out that only one of them could have done it and Jonouchi replies that [[Exact Words|none of them are lying.]]
== Fan Works ==
* Kyon, in ''[[Kyon
▲* Kyon, in ''[[Kyon Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', tells a Yakuza that his PDA is custom <ref>Yuki made it from Asakura's junk data remnants</ref>, and says that he got Akasaka's picture because if you do it right, people just look right through you. <ref>He made himself invisible</ref>
** {{spoiler|Achakura}} invokes this in order to get {{spoiler|Nonoko}} to bring Kyon his gear after he [[We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum|left it behind at home]].
{{quote|
'''{{spoiler|Achakura}}:''' For values of 'turning you into a magical girl' equal to 'you having a costume that protects you and operates on principles most people won't understand, and wielding equipment that few on Earth have ever seen, let alone held,' yes, this will turn you into a magical girl! }}
* The dwarven noble [[Guile Hero]] protagonist of ''[[Dragon Age:
== Film - Animated ==
* In ''[[Rango]]'', [[The Narrator|the leader of the mariachi band]] says that {{spoiler|Rango will die.}} The movie's plot progresses and {{spoiler|he's still alive and well to see the end credits.}} When one of the band members questions the narrator on this, he says that {{spoiler|Rango will still die -- ''someday,'' [[Life Will Kill You|because everyone does]].}}
** Looking at it metaphorically, it's even more applicable. {{spoiler|When he's shamed and had his lies exposed the Rango persona dies ''as a character''; when he comes back to fight, the nameless lizard he was dies and is subsumed by Rango.}}
* Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' used this in the direct-to-video conclusion of the series, ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves.'' An oracle tells Aladdin that his father, Cassim, is trapped within the world of the Forty Thieves. Well, he is. It's just that Cassim is not only there voluntarily, but what he's trapped by is his own greed.
* In ''[[
== [[Film]] - Live Action ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]''
** 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.
** 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?"
*** Palpatine/Sidious does something similar, but to more sinister intent, when he tells the newly-suited Vader that in his anger he killed Padme. It wasn't Anakin/Vader's force-choke that really killed her, but it ''was'' her shock at Anakin's betrayal that caused her to lose the will to live. So, from a certain point of view, Palpatine was telling the truth.
*** According to the novelization, and as far as Palpatine knows, the damage to her windpipe ''is'' what killed her. The explanation for the whole "lost the will to live" thing is that the robot doctors were built by the alien race that run the base she dies on and just made something up to cover for not actually knowing what they were doing when dealing with a human.
** Palpatine usually is more deft.
* In [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]]'s ''[[Murder On the Orient Express]]'', everything {{spoiler|Princess Natalia Dragomiroff}} says to Hercule Poirot. S/he had to lie to throw him off the trail, but Honor dictated s/he couldn't do it outright. So s/he "merely" gave the nearest equivalent answer, like Mr. Whitehead became Mr. Snowpeak.▼
{{quote|[http://www.stardestroyer.net/ROTS/Revelations-1.html We also learn] that Palpatine's genius is not in lies (despite what Yoda says about the Sith) but in carefully using the ''truth'' to his advantage. [...] When you look at the things he says to Anakin, to the Jedi, and to the Senate, you come to the surprising realization that he doesn't actually lie in this movie. He simply states the ''portions'' of the truth which are convenient to him, and ensures that those who know the ''rest'' of the truth do not live to speak it.}}
▲* In [[
* ''[[Saw]]''
** In the
** 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
** In the
* Used in several of the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Spock:''' I exaggerated. }}
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] repeatedly in ''[[Star Trek VI:
{{quote|
'''Scotty:''' There's nothing wrong with the bloody th--
'''Spock:''' Mr. Scott, if we return to spacedock, then the assassins will surely find a way to dispose of their incriminating footwear, and we will never see the Captain, or Dr. McCoy, alive again.
'''Scotty:''' Could take weeks, sir.
'''Spock:''' Thank you, Mr. Scott.
'''Valeris:''' A lie?
'''Spock:''' An error. }}
** This one, though, eventually comes back to bite Spock in the hinder:
{{quote|
'''{{spoiler|Valeris}}:''' I do not... remember.
'''Spock:''' A lie?
''' {{spoiler|Valeris}}:''' ...A ''choice''. }}
** Played with in ''[[Star Trek (
{{quote|
''' {{spoiler|Spock Prime}}:''' I implied. }}
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** ''[[
** 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|
* George Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'':
▲* George Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'':" {{spoiler|The Hound}} is dead. -- {{spoiler|Sandor Clegane}} is at peace."
* In Robert Jordan's ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' the Aes Sedai tried to get people to trust them by swearing an unbreakable oath to "Speak no word that is not true". If you think about it, this oath is meaningless. Individual words have no inherent truth value; it's phrases that can be untrue. [[Fridge Logic]] aside, in the books it does prevent them from directly lying. But the Aes Sedai think they have [[Omniscient Morality License]] (even though they are actually fairly complacent and ignorant), so they see all their oaths as unfortunate restrictions rather than moral standards to adhere to, so this trope and [[Literal Genie|other]] [[False Reassurance|deceptions]] abound. People realize this and anyone likely to deal with the Aes Sedai is warned to pay close attention because "The truth they speak may not be the truth you think you hear."
** And they STILL manage to complain about people (mostly the male main characters) not trusting them! If you think about it, it's actually bordering on [[Fridge Brilliance]]. While it's true that individuals words cannot be untrue, it has been demonstrated that what the Aes Sedai believe is the crucial factor (as an Aes Sedai can say something that is not true if they believe it to be true). If the Aes Sedai believe that is it possible to speak an untrue word (and based on their actions it's clear that most of them don't possess even a basic understanding of logic), then they can't.
** It also doesn't help that they've believed and thus proclaimed a number of important things which are sporadically provable to be false (such as the existence of traitors within their order), so random people over the centuries have ''heard'' Aes Sedai "lie" to their faces. And as there's a fairly simple and obvious way to remove the oaths, and Aes Sedai culture involves keeping individual discoveries like that to themselves, there have probably been any number of non-traitorous Aes Sedai over the years who can and do lie as well. Even if the Aes Sedai are willfully blind to it, somebody's bound to notice eventually.
*** Non-Black Ajah Aes Sedai using the Oath Rod to remove the Oaths? [[Flat What|What.]] Not if every single Aes Sedai's reaction to the idea of unBinding themselves (either forever, or just at retirement) is any guide: "When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming Aes Sedai. From the day I reached the White Tower, I tried to live as an Aes Sedai. I have lived as an Aes Sedai, and I will die as an Aes Sedai. This [unBinding at retirement] cannot be allowed!"
* In a novel by [[Albert E Cowdrey]], a megalomaniacal criminal wants revenge on the human race for his imprisonment. Before he's allowed out of prison, he's asked a few questions, and there's a machine that can tell whether he's telling the truth or not. When asked if he regrets his behavior, he says yes (meaning he regrets that his mistakes got him caught). When asked if he wants to harm anyone, or something like that, he says "I do not wish to harm any human individual."
* 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"
* In ''The Legend of Luke'' from the ''[[Redwall]]'' series, Vilu Daskar (evil pirate captain) promises to let some of the prisoners free if they tell him where treasure is, neglecting to mention that the last time he made this promise, he set them free by tying weights to them and throwing them overboard. {{spoiler|Fortunately, the heroes don't fall for it, and the whole treasure story was just a plan to trick Vilu Daskar anyway.}}
* The ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' has the elves, who, as Brom says, are masters of saying one thing but meaning another. They are able to do this because speaking in the ancient language prohibits one from lying, though they can still say something that they believe to be true. [[The Hero|Eragon]] uses this technique at one point in an attempt to conceal his actual feelings regarding [[Our Elves Are Better|Arya]].
Line 101 ⟶ 98:
* In ''The Silence of the Lambs'' Clarice Starling tells Dr. Hannibal Lecter that her father was a marshal. Later on, when she is recounting to him how the man died, Lecter catches enough clues to easily deduce that the man had actually been a night watchman. Starling's defense is that the official job description had read "night marshal".
* The ''[[Principia Discordia]]'' either plays this straight or subverts it depending on your own point of view, in this exchange in an interview with Discordianism's founder, Malaclypse the Younger (Mal-2):
{{quote|
'''Mal-2''': ''Everything is true.''
'''Interviewer''': ''Even false things?''
'''Mal-2''': ''Even false things are true.''
'''Interviewer''': ''How can that be?''
'''Mal-2''': ''I don't know man, I didn't do it.''
* In David Weber's [[The War Gods|WarGod series]], [[Rebellious Princess|Lady Leeana]] asks her mother for permission to go riding. Mother wants to make sure that Leeana is planning on taking her guards along, and Leeana assures her mother that she knows that she won't be able to go riding unless her bodyguard goes riding too. {{spoiler|She's planning to run away from home, and she knows that unless she gets rid of her bodyguard by sending him out riding on a long errand, he'll try to stop her.}}
* In the [[Lensmen]] stories, it is a vital plot point that humanity (and the other allied races of civilisation) be [[Locked Out of the Loop]], because of the [[Heroic BSOD|consequences of realizing the truth]]. Even so, Mentor of Arisia goes to extraordinary lengths to keep Kim Kinnison from learning the truth without openly lying to him, right up to and including {{spoiler|altering Kinnison's perception of what species Fossten is}}.
Line 112 ⟶ 109:
* In Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]'' , Baron Harkonnen suborned the Suk doctor Yueh by taking his wife, Wanna, hostage and torturing her. If Yueh betrayed Duke Leto, the Baron promised him that "I'd free her from the agony and permit you to join her." Subverted in that, as the Baron has Yueh killed, the doctor tells him "You think I did not know what I bought for my Wanna." {{spoiler|Yueh uses the opportunity to implant a poison gas pellet in Leto's tooth, which Leto is able to use in an attempt to assassinate the Baron. The Baron barely escapes with his life, while several of his [[Mooks]] aren't so lucky.}}
* The [[John Dickson Carr]] novel ''The Nine Wrong Answers'' has authorial footnotes that use this trope to an almost gleeful extent, to the point that the final one points out that at no time did previous footnotes ''technically'' lie about niceties like {{spoiler|whether a man who was poisoned actually died, and whether a man really was who he was claiming he was.}} (Although some critics maintain that Carr slipped in a few places and really ''did'' make the "incorrect" claims.)
* ''[[Twilight (
** If her [[Exact Words]] were "vampires cannot produce children" then she could argue that she simply meant two vampires can't reproduce (which is true). In the same way that you might say a couple with one infertile partner can't have kids.
* Christopher from ''The Lives of Christopher Chant'' is very fond of these, and his friend the Goddess isn't above half truths either.
* Dumbledore from the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series. In ''Order of the Phoenix'' this is justified, since he fears Voldemort may be able to listen in on Harry's thoughts.
* Schmendrick the Magician in ''[[The Last Unicorn (
* The Druids of the ''Shannara'' books are well known for only telling the heroes they recruit exactly as much as they think the heroes need to know and no more. Allanon, the Druid who started this tradition, justified it with the fact that his father gave a full briefing about the Sword of Shannara to Jerle Shannara, who then failed to properly wield it to defeat the Warlock Lord. The incomplete briefing he gave to Shea 500 years later allowed Shea to win.
** Walker Boh notably averts this trope when her teaches exactly how to use the Sword of Shannara. Possibly this is done, since the family already knows some about it and it is better to have full control than the half-knowledge which tends to fail if doubt exists. But considering he's part of the family that was strung along for over 300 years, maybe he also was tired of it.
*** Still, he didn't tell about the wishsong, or that Grianne's destiny was to succeed him. And he certainly didn't tell Grianne that the Sword of Shannara would work on her so well.
** Also done in the second book of the series, ''Elfstones of Shannara'', in a very sympathetic way. The dying King Eventine Elessidil asks his son about Amberle, his beloved granddaughter, who he has learned has just returned from her quest with Wil Ohmsford to prevent [[The End of the World
* In ''[[Forgotten Realms|The Knights of Samular]]'' by Elaine Cunningham [[Knight Templar|Renwick Caradoon]] used such tricks to twist the Abyss out of [[Deal
{{quote|
Khelben gave him a searching look, and Renwick felt the subtle tug of truth-test magic. It slid off him easily; few spells recognized a lie fashioned by placing two truths next to each other. Let Khelben think Nimra was the prideful wizard who had summoned the demon. }}
* The young adult novel ''Middle School Blues'' contains a [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] example of this trope. The set-up is this: Cindy's friend Jeff has run away from home, Cindy thinks she knows where he is, but she doesn't want to tell anyone because she doesn't want to raise his parents' hopes if she's wrong. She decides that she has to check it out for herself. Cindy goes to investigate, after telling her parents that another friend, Becca, asked Cindy to spend the day at her house. When she's caught, her parents accuse her of lying about going to Becca's house. Cindy insists that she didn't lie, she had been asked to spend the day at Becca's, and she never said that she was going there. Her parents are distinctly not amused by this, and explain that being deliberately misleading is no different from lying.
Line 129 ⟶ 126:
* In Vivian Vande Velde's ''The Conjurer Princess'', the morally questionable wizard whose talent is seeing the future tells one of the adventurers that if they go on a quest, he had better be prepared to die. Said character walks out of the party but later returns for a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment - and is captured, put on his knees in front of an executioner...and ducks away at the last second. Prepared to die, indeed. {{spoiler|Extra half-truth bonus points because it was the ''other'' adventurer who died on the quest.}}
* In Holly Black's Modern Faerie trilogy, pixie Kaye invokes this to fulfull a quest to find a faerie who could lie, which is impossible. She succeeds by claiming SHE can lie. {{spoiler|She can lie...on the ground.}}
* In the ''[[Dragaera]]'' series, [[Anti
* In ''[[
* This comes up several times in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', mostly to do with how the Men of Rohan and Gondor have muddled ideas about Lothlórien and Fangorn from the fact that their legend describe them as 'perilous' and 'dangerous'. As Gandalf explains, both those things are true, but that doesn't make them ''malevolent''.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'':
▲== Live Action TV ==
** The [[Planet of Hats|Ferengi]]
{{quote|
** In a ''[[Star Trek
{{quote|
'''Bashir:''' "Even the lies?"
'''Garak:''' "''Especially'' the lies." }}
*** As it turns out in the relaunch novel ''A Stitch in Time'', they actually were almost all true. Kinda.
** The original trope name could just has easily been
** In the [[Star Trek:
*** In one early episode of ''[[Star Trek
*** In another episode, he flat out lies to intimidate a prisoner. Janeway bluffs that she is gonna send the prisoner off to some people she's scammed (the prisoner, not Janeway). She asks Tuvok to tell her about the conditions of that world's prisons, and Tuvok wildly invents a tale of deplorable conditions where most prisoners don't survive long enough to be put on trial. The prisoner knows just enough about Vulcans to believe the story that they never lie, so she caves in.▼
**** The trick is that in both these cases, Tuvok had a perfectly logical reason to lie. We might reasonably assume that most Vulcans would not lie, for example, to spare a friend's feelings, or get out of a tedious duty, and other species would remember those instances of honesty as unusual, even extreme.
* The [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Minbari]] in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' claim that they never lie, and a mere accusation of doing so warrants "a lethal response". While the humans initially take this at face value, Mollari, having been told otherwise by Lennier, explains that the Minbari are allowed to tell white lies to save someone from embarrassment or [[Holier Than Thou|dishonor]]. Even other Minbari are irritated at the Grey Council following this trope. Kalain says at one point that the Grey Council "never tells you the whole truth."
** A good example of Minbari half truths comes with Delenn early in Season 3. She is shown footage of a Shadow vessel and is asked if she had ever seen a ship like it before. Delenn says no. When she is later questioned about this by Sheridan she replies that whilst she was well aware of what the ship was, that was the first time she had actually seen one.
* In one of the ''[[
{{quote|
'''Locke:''' I never lied.
'''Tour Guide:''' By omission, Mr. Locke. You neglected to tell us about [[Tomato Surprise|your condition]].
** Another ''Lost'' example is the cover story told by the survivors who {{spoiler|escape the island}}. They claim that {{spoiler|Boone died of internal injuries from the plane crash, Charlie drowned, and Libby did not survive long either}}, all of which are technically true, but leave out massively important context details: {{spoiler|Boone died from being inside a smaller plane when it fell from some trees while he was trying to use its radio, Charlie drowned saving Desmond by sealing the door preventing the Looking Glass station being flooded and Libby did not survive for long... as a result of injuries from an accidental gunshot from Michael (who had just killed Ana Lucia in cold blood).}}
** Benjamin Linus is distrusted by every character on the show for his pathological penchant for this trope. "{{spoiler|John Locke}} is dead" is somewhat different than "{{spoiler|John Locke}} is dead ''because I killed him''."
*** Similarly, when Jack asks him, "Did you know {{spoiler|Locke killed himself?}}", Ben can honestly answer, "No."
** Sometimes Ben just [[I Lied|straight out lies]].
* [[Russell T. Davies]] has been accused of this during his time in charge of ''[[
** Series 2 continually said that Rose was going to die, and Rose (narrating) introduces the final two-parter as "the story of how I died". {{spoiler|She doesn't die. She is taken to a parallel world and is presumed dead by the authorities}}.
** In the Series 4 finale, we are repeatedly told "One will still die". {{spoiler|Nobody dies. Donna suffers a metaphorical death, erasing all of her [[Character Development]] and her relevance to the show.}}
** A straight in-story example in the old series. The Black Guardian tells Turlough that the Doctor is evil and must be stopped. When called out on it he claims he was not actually lying because "
** 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
** The claims are true. This stuff has killed thousands of people in multiple high-profile incidents, and the petitions to ban dihydrogen monoxide are also nothing new. They've been circulating online since at least [[The Nineties]]. The TV show didn't originate this meme.
* Adam and Jimmie of ''[[The Man Show]]'' got dozens of women to sign a petition to end Women's Suffrage (the right to vote) by phrasing it to sound like they meant "suffering". Things like, "Women have been suffraging in this country for decades, and nobody's done anything to stop it!"
* [[Aquila]] has a scene where an archaeologist explains, referencing the [[
* On ''[[Misfits]]'', a show about a bunch of "problem teens" on community service
** However, it's entirely possible that Nathan really doesn't think he did anything wrong beyond eating the pick'n'mix.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
'''Caliph:''' How tall is he?
'''Tarrant:''' (gestures to waist level, Orac's "height" when on a table.)
'''Caliph:''' A dwarf?
'''Tarrant:''' We never think of him as one.
'''Caliph:''' What is the color of his hair?
'''Tarrant:''' He hasn’t got any. A bald dwarf shouldn’t be too hard to find. }}
▲* The original trope name could just has easily been called Vulcan Truth instead of Jedi Truth. Vulcans are [[Sarcasm Mode|always]] honest, except when they're deceiving, misleading, or flat out lying.
▲** In the [[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|original series]] episode "The ''Enterprise'' Incident", Spock explains to the Romulan Commander that the Vulcan reputation for being truthful is overblown. They'll lie just like anyone else if they have a <nowiki>[</nowiki>logical<nowiki>]</nowiki> reason to.
▲** In one early episode of ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek Voyager]]'', Tuvok tells Chakotay that he is always honest, to which Chakotay points out that he wasn't being honest when he pretended to be a Maquis in order to infiltrate Chakotay's ship. Tuvok then counters that he was being honest to his principles and within the defined parameters of his mission. Chakotay recognizes this as a load of crap.
▲** In another episode, he flat out lies to intimidate a prisoner. Janeway bluffs that she is gonna send the prisoner off to some people she's scammed (the prisoner, not Janeway). She asks Tuvok to tell her about the conditions of that world's prisons, and Tuvok wildly invents a tale of deplorable conditions where most prisoners don't survive long enough to be put on trial. The prisoner knows just enough about Vulcans to believe the story that they never lie, so she caves in.
▲*** The trick is that in both these cases, Tuvok had a perfectly logical reason to lie. We might reasonably assume that most Vulcans would not lie, for example, to spare a friend's feelings, or get out of a tedious duty, and other species would remember those instances of honesty as unusual, even extreme.
* Deconstructed in [[The Wedding Bride]], a fake movie from [[How I Met Your Mother]] about {{spoiler|Stella's failed relationship with Ted from her ex-boyfriend's perspective, making ''him'' the good guy getting [[The Woobie]] Stella out of a loveless marriage, when in reality, it was nothing like that.}} We see the real reaction of {{spoiler|said guy who was left at the altar, Ted.}}
* In ''[[
{{quote|
'''Crichton''': Cos -- horny! Looking for a Sebacean woman.
'''Nurse''': You attacked me and attempted to release one of the patients.
'''Crichton''': No offense, but she's sexier than you are.
'''Scarran''': What would you have done had you gotten her?
'''Crichton''': Taken her back to my ship. [[Pardon My Klingon|Frelled]] her. Made babies. }}
* ''[[The Daily Show
{{quote|
'''Michael Steele (Archive footage):''' About $20 or so million.
'''Fox Reporter(Archive footage):''' And now you're down to three? So I realize you spent a lot of money for the campaign...
'''Michael Steele (Archive footage):''' Yeah, we spent a lot of money, but I mean, Greta, you can't look at it in terms of what you begin and what you end.
'''Jon Stewart:''' ''[Bemused]'' "...you can't look at it in terms of where you begin and where-" That is some [[Lampshade Hanging|Jedi bullshit]] right there, Michael Steele. "Yes, Greta; if you want to look at the budget in a linear, arithmetic way where [[Understatement|we started with a high number and ended with a very low number]], but what you're forgetting is children's dreams and [[
* Very well done in ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'', where Alex is hooked up to a brainwave-reading lie detector that can't be fooled. She gets around it by stringing together several statements that are each individually true, but together paint a very different picture than what actually happened, and gets herself free from suspicion.
* Discussed on ''[[The Amazing Race]]'' 19 by Marcus when talking about keeping that he had been a professional football player a secret. Technically, as a tight end, it was his job to protect the quarterback, so it was not lying to say he was in "protection," and as he was retired at that point, if asked if he was a football player, it was technically correct if he said no.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* [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."▼
▲== [[Tabletop Gaming]] ==
▲* 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."
** In fairness, nearly everything about the Fair Folk is a lie on some level, up to and including their physical appearance.
** In another rather similar case -- "Infernals don't have Charms." What was really meant was, "Their ''patrons'', the Yozi, have Charms, which the Infernals use by extension to exert their malefic will upon Creation." (Not true anymore, either. Now Infernals can make their own personal Charms.)
* This is one of the ways that Games Workshop [[Hand Wave|explain]] differences in the
* ''[[In Nomine]]:'' Balseraphs take Dissonance (which is bad for any Celestial) when they're caught lying. One of the few ways to remove this Dissonance is for the Balseraph to get the person who noticed the variance from truth to believe it's true ... from a certain point of view.
* ''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."}}▼
== [[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 (
== [[Video Games]] ==
Line 215 ⟶ 210:
** It's also worth pointing out that while Marisa claims the youkai can have their books back when her human life ends, in some games' backstories it's mentioned that she's working on an Elixer of Life, to prolong her life ''without losing her humanity''. Trust Marisa to pair a [[Half Truth]] with [[Loophole Abuse]].
* In the [[Roguelike]] game [[Game/Ragnarok|Ragnarok]], an Amulet of Eternal Life turns you to stone. That makes a certain kind of mythic sense, but it's not "life" as we'd recognize it.
* [[ADOM]], another [[Roguelike]], has the gauntlets of
* If you haven't played the ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' it wouldn't be much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn't fully trust ''anything'' that ''any'' Jedi has to say to you. Indeed, their self-serving tendencies of filtering truth through "certain points of view" is significantly responsible for their eventual downfall.
** In the first game, on the other hand, the only real example of this trope is Jolee's claim that "the Jedi left me" (and he doesn't consider himself a Jedi any more at this point). The other Jedi certainly do tell some outright lies, but don't continue to defend them as 'true' once they're exposed as lies.
** While the [[Jedi Truth]] is an important plot point in the first game, the second game takes it to the point of [[Deconstruction]] with Kreia and the rest of the Council. As the film section reveals, Atton is used as the writer's mouthpiece on that particular topic.
* In ''[[
{{quote|
Uzuki: "Like, that is so rude! I do not lie. If I erased you, that's still letting you out of the Game!" }}
** Unfortunately, there's no similar way to weasel out of her claim that Shiki was a spy for the Reapers. No one calls her on this.
** At one point, Game Master Konishi tells Neku and Beat that she's going to hide in the same place for seven days, while they try to find her. However, she's able to move all over the city, because the "one place" she chose was {{spoiler|Beat's shadow.}}
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
* A rare positive version courtesy of ''[[Another
* ''[[Castlevania]] Order of Ecclesia'' has Death's Ring, whose description is "One hit kills instantly." It is indeed true. Take one hit and ''you'' will instantly die.
* Might as well be named "Kirei Truth" after the I-tell-no-direct-lies priest from ''[[Fate/stay
*
* In ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]'', Belleza befriends the protagonists, who take her with them to Temple of Pyrynn to find the Red Moon Crystal. She gains their trust by telling them a sad story about herself: that her father was a sailor who was killed in the Valua-Nasr war, and she was left orphaned. This much is true. {{spoiler|What she did not mention at that point is that her father was a Valuan sailor, not Nasrean, and she is in fact an admiral of the Valuan Armada. Her hatred of war was also not a lie; she believes that Valuan hegemony will bring stability and end war.}}
==
* ''[[
** 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]].
** There's a later subversion with the Oracle. Belkar's asked if he would get to cause the death of one of the following: Roy, Miko, Miko's horse, Vaarsuvius or the Oracle himself. The Oracle simply responds [[
{{quote|
*
** [http://irregularwebcomic.net/119.html This] explains Obi-Wan's high opinion of the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]].
*** Alternatively, only Imperial Stormtroopers are ''exactly'' this precise. Others are either more so or less.
*** From a statistical perspective, ''precision'' refers to distribution, while ''accuracy'' refers to how close something is to where it actually ought to be. So, of the Stormtroopers' shots are actually clustered in the wrong place, they could indeed be very '''precise''' without being at all '''accurate'''.
*** Consider that he had been on Tatooine while they made the transition from Clone Troopers. He probably thought it was just a name change and didn't anticipate the drop in quality.
** [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/218.html Ah, the Jedi Code.]
{{quote|'''Anakin''': Oh, there's all sorts of loopholes in the Jedi code. [[Call Forward|Obi-Wan says you can lie to the son of a former padawan about the fate of his father]], for example. Like ''that'll'' ever come up. }}
** [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2341.html And this one] makes fun of the original quote. Sadly, it doesn't link to this page.
** Likewise with [https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/4471.html this one].
* ''[[Darths and Droids
** 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
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' a pair of [[The Mafiya|Mafiya]] henchmen leave Riff and Torg "free to go." If being tied to railroad tracks fits into your definition of "free."
* Seen in [http://betweenfailures.com/2008/04/01/262-drink-soda/ this exchange] in ''[[Between Failures]]''. Nina thought [http://betweenfailures.com/2008/01/22/212-up-to-here/ Thomas was getting chewed out by their manager], but what he actually got was... [http://betweenfailures.com/2008/02/13/228-prelude-to-a-kiss/ more pleasant].
* ''[[Collar 6]]'': Laura discovers Sixx's wealth and says "I thought you said you worked in a hotel?" Sixx replies. "I said I worked in the hotel business. By which I meant I own a few ... hundred."
* ''[[Homestuck]]'':
** Doc Scratch, ''constantly''. As he puts it:
{{quote|
Your demands are based on a feeling of entitlement to the facts, which is very childish. You can never know all of the facts. Only I can.
And since it's impossible for me to reveal all facts to you, it is my discretion alone that decides which facts will be revealed in the finite time we have.
If I do not volunteer information you deem critical to your fate, it possibly means that I am a scoundrel, but it does not mean that I am a liar. And it certainly means you did not ask the right questions.
One can make either true statements or false statements about reality. All of the statements I make are true.
** Most notably, he tells Rose that The Tumor has sufficient power to destroy the Green Sun (the main villain's power source), that setting it off at the site of the Green Sun would lead to his death, and that destroying the Green Sun would kill him. Then she and Dave go to the site of the Green Sun and [[Stable Time Loop|find it empty, and the Tumor opens to reveal it channels exactly the amount of mass-energy the Green Sun contains]]...
** Aradia, who admits she's taking a page from Doc Scratch's book, likewise never lies "[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003985 but thr0ugh 0missi0n]." She tells the other trolls that playing Sgrub is their only hope of surviving the end of the world; she doesn't tell them it's ''causing'' the same, and never did say they would ''win''.
** 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
* ''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].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[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.
* As the above Amulet of Eternal Life, Xanatos, from ''[[Gargoyles]]'', discovered a cauldron which allowed a person to live "as long as the mountain stone". [[Genre Savvy|He was smart enough to test it first]]. Yup, Stone.
* In the episode "The Ninja" of ''[[Batman:
* Katara's voiceover at the beginning of each episode of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' is this, though possibly unintentionally. It's revealed that the four kingdoms were not always at peace before the conquest of the Fire Lords. In fact, 400 years before the time of the story, the Earth Kingdom was in a similar expansionist phase.
** This could be one of the reasons why Sozin wanted to "share Fire Nation prosperity."
== [[Real Life]] ==
Line 276 ⟶ 273:
* Hugo Boss made uniforms for the SS. This is true. However, for most people this conjures up an image of a large fashion house aiding the most evil regime of all time. This is not true. In 1936, Hugo Boss was a fairly small family-run business whose main source of income was making uniforms for the German Postal Service, that just happened to land a highly lucrative government contract.
** The implication of "Hugo Boss" (today being a major fashion house) is also often that the company was the sole designer and supplier of the uniforms, when in fact they were designed by the government and production farmed out to many other companies as well.
** Similarly, [http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/fanta.asp it is true that Fanta was invented in Nazi Germany]. However, it is ''not'' true that Fanta was invented ''by'' Nazi Germany, as in following some order or plan envisioned by the Nazi government, as it is often reported.
* "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." --[[Bill Clinton]] (See [[Technical Virgin]]) and "The government does not torture people" --[[George W. Bush]] (
** To make that first one better (or worse), the definition of "sexual relations" set for the purposes of the hearing was such that it was ''definitely'' true... technically speaking.
* A large number of proposition bets used by grifters can be solved by looking very carefully at the wording. For example, "I bet you that I can take a brand new deck of cards, make the ace jump out of the pack, fly across the room, and write your name on your forehead". If you hear this said aloud, most people assume that the ace will do all of the actions listed. Looking more carefully at the syntax of the sentence reveals that the actions can be done by the person making the bet rather than by the ace. (Incidentally, the usual way to win the bet is to flick the ace up from the bottom of the pack - where it usually is in most new, unshuffled decks - catch it, throw it across the room, and then take a pen to write the person's name on their forehead.)
** The actual syntax of that proposition makes it impossible for the grifter to win, as he will fail to fly across the room. He might when he tries to collect...
* "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work liberates"), posted at the gates of Nazi concentration camps. It did liberate the worker... of his life.
* Politics as a whole can rest on this; for example, take this example of a [http://twitter.com/#!/TomHarrisMP/status/12848387174965249 British MP] claiming that his party had not broken an election promise, as the law would not take effect until after the next election (but was voted on comfortably three years into Parliament).
* There's a free picture that comes on some iPod Touches that says "I didn't slap you, I high-fived your face." Technically true, since in a high-''five'' only one hand needs to be involved.
* A billboard for [[
** Similar thing happened for [[Mass Effect 3]] - the developer claims that its conclusion "has provoked a bigger fan reaction than any other video games' conclusion in history". It's true. They fail to mention, however, that it was a hugely ''negative'' reaction.
* An old, possibly apocryphal story about underage soldiers in the [[American Civil War]] says that when they went to join up, many of them would write "18" on a piece of paper and stick it in their shoe. When the recruiter asked how old they were, they could join without having lied, as they were "over 18."
** The same story is told in most of Europe in regards to soldiers signing up in [[WWI]] and [[WWII]].
* [[The Other Wiki]] has an [
* In a US election speech,
**
* An old standby for people making a journey - "We're not lost; I know exactly where we are...
* Before being revealed as Watergate scandal source [[Deep Throat]], W. Mark Felt stated "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or anyone else!" This is actually logically true; since he met only with Bob Woodward, he could not have met with Woodward AND anyone.
* People write books about such tricks and how to recognize them. ''How to Lie with Statistics'' by Darrell Huff. Okay, that was [[Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics|statistics]]. Let's step it up: ''How to Lie with Maps'' by Mark Monmonier.
* The U.S. Supreme Court had to settle an argument related to this in [[wikipedia:Bronston v. United States|Bronson v. United States]]; testimony that is "literally truthful but technically misleading" is not perjury. In their defense, the Court was somewhat dubious of sustaining a perjury prosecution on the basis of a possible misunderstanding. To provide further context, Bronston's testimony was only technically incomplete, but on its face only answered a specific part of the question, and the lawyer in question failed to ask an obvious follow-up question. "Q. Do you have any bank accounts in Swiss banks, Mr. Bronston?" "A. No, sir." "Q. Have you ever?" "A. The company had an account there for about six months, in Zurich." (Bronston had had a personal Swiss account as well previously, but note that the subject at hand was the ''company's'' bankruptcy.)
* Noam Chomsky being a professional propagandist, unsurprisingly he pulled a lot of these in his career, and was caught on many of his tricks -- especially in now-infamous support of the Khmer Rouge (a lot of his articles and others criticizing them are linked [https://web.archive.org/web/20180611102920/http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomskyhoax.html here]):
{{quote|I checked every citation in the entire article. Not one of them was wholly truthful. At best they were slippery equivocations, with the obvious meaning being a lie, and an alternate, hidden meaning, true but irrelevant, to provide an escape hatch should the lie be discovered.|'''James A. Donald''', ''Chomsky Lies''}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Truth and Lies]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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