The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"For ''this'', I'm missing a date?"''|'''Terry McGinnis''', |''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]''}}

What you do for a living is typically a big part of who you are, and when you start getting serious with a boyfriend or girlfriend, you probably like to talk about how your day went. But what if you spend your day saving the planet from alien invasions? Or hunting down vampire [[Serial Killer|serial killers]]? What if what you do for a living is so fantastical telling them about your [[Secret Identity]] will convince them you are a liar (in which case they dump you), convince them you are insane (in which case they try to have you committed and/or dump you), or horrify them to the point where they (guess what) dump you? Of course, the people you work for in this fantastical world may insist that should you ever tell your significant other, you'd have to immediately [[Killed to Uphold Thethe Masquerade|kill them]].

A lot of times, the pool of eligible bachelor(ette)s in on the [[Masquerade]] is rather small, and since [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex]], it won't take long for you to work your way through them. But if you try to date outside of the masquerade, be prepared to stonewall every time your new beau asks "So how was your day?" or "When do I get to meet your friends at work?" or "Why do you always come home with blood-stained clothes and smelling of gunpowder?" Expect [[Keeping Secrets Sucks|much angst about having to lie]] to the current most important person in your life that doesn't have a spot in the opening credits. That's if you can keep the many, ''many'' lies from collapsing in on themselves, that is. These relationships tend to end in one of twothree ways (don't they all?), with several subtypes:

# The strain is too much, and you break up.

** #:'''A.''' Your [[Love Interest]] senses you're hiding something, and threatens to call it off if you don't come clean. You can't, so he or she does.

**#: '''B.''' You can't stand lying all the time, and call things off yourself.

# Your [[Love Interest]] is [[Down the Rabbit Hole|introduced]] into the [[Masquerade]]

** #:'''A.''' Your [[Love Interest]] is kidnapped or otherwise put in danger, and you have to have a [[Applied Phlebotinum|phlebotinum battle]] right in front of him or her.

** #:'''B.''' He or she walks in on you while in the middle of official Masquerade business, and won't leave until you explain why you just staked some goth guy through the chest.

** #:'''A.''' [[Dating Catwoman|But is on the other side. This makes things complicated.]]

** #:'''B.''' [[Mutual Masquerade|Neither of you knows the other is in on it.]] [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarious complications ensue.]]

Usually, the [[Love Interest]] freaks out. Rarely... very rarely... the [[Love Interest]] [[Understanding Boyfriend|doesn't freak out at all]] and instead reacts with some variation of "Huh... well that explains a lot." Of course, adding a regular character who is in the know will remove a huge source of drama, so any girlfriends or boyfriends that find out about the Masquerade [[Status Quo Is God|have a life expectancy of a few hours]]. Compare [[ItsIt's Not You, ItsIt's My Enemies]]. May be because she or he [[Loves My Alter Ego]]. Often the cause of a character being [[Hollywood Dateless]]. A subtrope of [[Keeping Secrets Sucks]]. If your heroic job threatens your dating life for reasons other than its secrecy, see [[LovedDuty I NotFirst, HonorLove MoreSecond]]. If letting the [[Love Interest]] in on the secret is what causes the break up, that falls under [[Love Cannot Overcome]].

* Lelouch Lamperouge of ''[[Code Geass]]'' suffered several problems with his love interests--particularlyinterests—particularly Shirley--becauseShirley—because of his masquerade as Zero {{spoiler|to which her death can be directly attributed}}.

* This is a common theme of ''[[Codename: Sailor V]]'', in which Minako's love life is forever ruined by her duty. In the very first issue, she crushes on a boy who suggests she wear a red ribbon in her hair (said ribbon being an iconic accessory of the character). He turns out to be an agent of the Dark Kingdom and she is forced to kill him. Throughout the series, various one-shot crushes come in and out of her life, forever chased off in some fashion by the consequences of her job. Finally, she seems to be getting somewhere when her [[Mysterious Protector]], Kaitou Ace, finally gets close to her...only to be revealed to also be Danburite, the [[Big Bad]] of the series. Upon her killing him, he leaves her with an (accurate) prediction that she will never find love because she will always put her duty first.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': More social life than dating life, but that the [[Magical Girl|Magical Girls]]s have little spare time and few people they can bond with is a major theme.

*** Not to mention Betty Brant, his first love, who left him in a straight-up type A{{context}}<!-- There's three different "Type A" listed above. Which one is this? -->

* In ''[[Batman Forever (Film)|Batman Forever]]'' Bruce Wayne hides the fact that he's Batman from Dr. Chase Meridian...even as she demands to see Batman. She gets her wish, and Bruce still almost would've kept his Masquerade in force...until Two-Face and The Riddler kidnap her.

* In ''[[Men in Black (Filmfilm)|Men in Black]]'' there's a third type: inductees are to sever all ties with their old life - including loved ones. One scene shows Agent Kay pining over a lost love (and is later reunited with her, but only after he leaves MIB and has his memory wiped).

** Elaine, his teenage girlfriend. Harry killed their adoptive father Justin DuMorne in self defense, and Elaine disappeared in the property damage. Note - they were both adopted, so there shouldn't be any [[Squick]] involved in their relationship.

* ''[[The Scarlet Pimpernel (Literaturenovel)|The Scarlet Pimpernel]]'': Percy Blakeney had his ''marriage'' (nearly) killed by [[The Masquerade]]. He probably would have told his wife the truth had he not been led to believe she was a sympathizer for the other side just a few hours after the wedding. The lies and miscommunications that followed drive the plot of the book.

* This happens in ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' too. When Gwen's boyfriend finds out, however, their relationship improves considerably after a bit of awkwardness with the rest of the team.

{{quote| '''Ianto:''' Well, this is unprecedented, the fiance finding out.<br />

* Happens all the time in ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]''. Most of the main characters end up married to men who were already part of the masquerade to avoid this.

* Happens (''twice'') on ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]''.

** Not to mention Chloe, whowhose whole's relationship with Jimmy, from beginning to end, was strained by her keeping first Clark's secrets and later, [[Serial Killer|Davis]]'.

* Starts with Sydney's fiancee in the pilot of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' and goes downhill from there. After the [[Time Skip]] between seasons 2 and 3, she barely interacts with anyone who's not in on the conspiracy or a target of her mission.

* Parodied in ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' where [[Danny DevitoDeVito]] played a mobster who kept telling his wife that he can't tell her what he does for a living. Not only does she clearly know, but she's advising him on what to wear not to be seen, which gun to use for his hit and where to dump the body.

* George from ''[[Being Human (UK)]]"'' deals with this twice: with Sam, his rebound girlfriend, whom he {{spoiler|nearly transforms in front of because she won't let him get out of going to a parent-teacher conference for her daughter on the night of a full moon}}; and, most notably, with Nina, who starts out quite angry and annoyed about being constantly left out of the loop when it comes to George's secrets and then gets {{spoiler|introduced to the masquerade when George accidentlyaccidentally scratches her partway through a transformation and turns her into a werewolf. Her inability to cope with her introduction to the masquerade leads them to break up for a while.}}

* ''[[H 2 OH₂O: Just Add Water]]'' zigs and zags around on this trope with the four different mermaids (and one secret keeper) over the seasons:

* In [[Power Rangers ZEOZeo]] Tommy tries to go out on a date with someone outside the masquerade only to be called away by preparations for the next monster attack. Later he actually gets to the date, only to be called away by an actual monster attack.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Danny and Valerie are type 3. Valerie breaks up with Danny because, ironically, [[ItsIt's Not You, ItsIt's My Enemies]]. (They're a [[Dating Catwoman]] pair; Danny knew her other identity, but Valerie was in the dark.)

* ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'': [[Zig -Zagging Trope|Zig zagged]] via type 3B. Jake meets Rose at the start of his Masquerade, dates her, finds out she's on the other side of it and breaks up with her, gets her back via [[Heel Face Turn]], ''she'' breaks up with ''him'' because she thinks he's getting reckless about their relationship, she [[Hope Spot|starts considering getting back together with him]], then she gets {{spoiler|[[Reset Button|rewritten in history]]}} and Jake is left a wreck. His next two dating prospects at least have the decency to be a disaster right out of the gate.

* In ''[[Sym Bionic Titan|Sym-Bionic Titan]]'', Kimmy is fed up with Octus (with Lance and Illana) "going to the bathroom" all the time, especially when he leaves right before the prom.

* In ''[[WITCH (Animationanimation)|WITCH]]'', when Matt and Will started dating, he got more than a little suspicious of why she kept running off. Once he found out the reason why, he was more supportive... though, it didn't stop him from wanting to help. By the end of the second season, they evolved into a [[Battle Couple]].