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The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Difference between revisions

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The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life (view source)

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{{trope}}
{{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]].
 
Is it any surprise, then, that the [[Masquerade]] will (make you) kill your dating life?
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* Lelouch Lamperouge of ''[[Code Geass]]'' suffered several problems with his love interests--particularly Shirley--because of his masquerade as Zero {{spoiler|to which her death can be directly attributed}}.
** Intially with Suzaku and Euphemia, but having their respective masquerades broken allowed them both to genuinely get to know each other. {{spoiler|But Euphemia didn't tell Suzaku about Lelouch being her brother and still trusted him, which got her killed}}.
* 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.
* Something like this happened to one of the handlers in ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]''. His girlfriend even pointed out about how he always smell like gunpowder despite supposedly working for "a social welfare agency".
** A literal version occurs with cyborg girl Rico, who finds herself attracted to a boy she meets while doing her recon. When she runs into the boy during the hit, the brainwashed girl obeys her handler's instructions and [[Creepy Child|shoots him dead]].
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* ''[[The Sorcerers Apprentice]]'' has this as well, with the main character having to hide his newfound magical powers.
* In ''[[True Lies]]'' Schwarzenegger's character, a secret agent, pretends to his wife that he is an exceptionally dull computer salesman. This nearly kills his marriage.
* 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).
** {{spoiler|Come the sequel, she's left him, in a pseudo-Type 1a situation.}}
* Played for laughs in ''Mr. and Mrs. Smith''. Both are Elite Spies of different (and competing) agencies who both live an elaborate lie (similar to Schwarzenegger's in ''True Lies''. It all goes south when they are on the same job. Classical Type 3 situation...
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** Wizards live longer than muggles. Some of the more venerable wizards know their great-great-great-great-grandkids, and sometimes further.
** 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.
* Comes up in the all three books of Marie Brennan's [[Onyx Court]] series.
** In the first book, Lune and Deven fall in love while Lune is posing as a mortal to uncover secrets in Queen Elizabeth's court. Lune spends much time angsting about how he can never know what she truly is. Initially ends in a type 1B, but becomes a type 2B once Deven gets into terrible trouble trying to find her again.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* This trope's pretty much in full force in ''[[Dexter]].'' Invoked quite literally in the 4th season finale {{spoiler|when the serial killer Dexter was trying to kill murdered Dexter's wife}}
* 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 />
'''Tosh:''' Mainly because we're all sad and single. }}
* On ''[[Warehouse 13]]'', Pete's love interest fled the town after being possessed by an artifact that caused her to try and kill him. Thankfully, she stopped him before he used up his one chance to tell someone the truth about his job.
* 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.
* [[Buffy]]'s social life was constantly being derailed by this. An early boyfriend, Owen, followed her one night, and nearly got killed by a vampire, without ever realizing that's what happened to him, but he got off on the excitement and wanted to do it again, so she dumped him. Then with Riley in season 4, it turns out that they are both in on the masquerade, and have been hiding it from each other, until they run into each other in the middle of a fight. They get over it after learning about each other though. Something similar happens with Principal Wood in season 7 {{spoiler|but he knew who she was, all along.}}
* A staple of ''[[Hannah Montana]]''. It's particularly amusing when Miley's date is somewhere in the vicinity of a Hannah event and she chooses (poorly) to attend both engagements simultaneously.
* Happens (''twice'') on ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]''.
** Three times. This is probably going to be a recurring theme for this series.
* Straker's marriage in ''[[UFO]]'' was destroyed by keeping SHADO secret from his wife. It didn't help when she caught him meeting with one of the [[Bridge Bunnies]] and he was unable to tell her why.
* Has happened to both [[Superman|Clark]] and [[Green Arrow|Oliver]] in ''[[Smallville]]''.
** Not to mention Chloe, who 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.
* In ''[[Chuck]]'', Chuck's few attempts to date someone who wasn't Sarah ended up going sour pretty much for this reason.
** One episode revealed the case where ''he'' was on the other side of the equation. His college girlfriend was actually recruited into Fulcrum probably even before they started dating. After he was expelled, her handler forced her to end the relationship. When they meet again, they're on opposite sides (he's CIA/NSA, she's Fulcrum).
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* Just ask Cally Stone of ''[[Dark Oracle]]'' about this one. Every potential relationship she has (and most of her friendships) get torpedoed by her attempts at dealing with the comic book that has taken over her life. Conversely, her brother [[Cool Loser|Lance]], and his best friend [[Butt Monkey|Dizzy]], probably wouldn't have dating lives if the comic had forced them together with their respective girlfriends.
* George from ''[[Being Human]]" 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 accidently 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.}}
* [[H₂O: Just Add Water]] zigs and zags around on this trope with the four different mermaids (and one secret keeper) over the seasons:
** Cleo and Lewis's troubles have little to do with the masquerade, and are more mundane in nature. He's a little too involved in helping that it makes him a poor boyfriend.
** Emma's boyfriends become pushy over the secret and Emma pushes them away over it (or it causes a huge fight). She only reveals her secret to her second love interest in the last episode.
** Rikki starts out with the problem of being a mermaid in love with a guy (Zane) whose made it his only mission to prove Mermaids exist. Later he feels that mermaid stuff is coming before him in in their relationship. Incidentally Rikki's closeness to her mermaid sisters is strained when she lets Zane know she is, but doesn't tell them, and forbids him from telling them he knows. So we have a Masquerade in a Masquerade. Bella's initial problems with Will are much along these lines, as he's sure weird stuff is going on and wants the truth (which Rikki, Cleo, Bella, and Lewis don't want him to know).
** Lewis as secret keeper ends up straining his relationship with Charlotte since he must keep running to Cleo (his ex) and her friends when they are in trouble since he's the only one they trust with their secret. Once that's sorted the only issue in their relationship is Charlotte is a [[Yandere|super possessive controlling girlfriend]] on a ''[[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|mad power trip from having the combined powers of the other mermaids]]''. Nothing can go wrong with that relationship!
* 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.
 
 
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* Terry McGinnis of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'': His steady girlfriend Dana got ''really'' sick of being perpetually [[Stood Up]], and his foray into other prospects got him into a [[Dating Catwoman]] mess. Luckily for him, Dana eventually comes around, as seen in the [[Distant Finale]] the show got in [[Justice League]]. She knows his secret identity by then, so at some point she either figured it out or Terry wised up and just told her.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Danny and Valerie are type 3. Valerie breaks up with Danny because, ironically, [[It's Not You, It'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.
* [[Jem]] and Jerrica Benton are the same person. Unfortunately, Jerrica's boyfriend Rio doesn't know this, and he falls in love with Jem. If she only told Rio the truth everything wouldn't be so complicated and she wouldn't have to be her own boyfriend's mistress.
** Protestations aside, [[Alternate Character Interpretation|maybe she wants to be both?]]
* 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]].
 
 
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