Tongue-Tied: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''Oh, I'm begging on my knees
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This "curse" is usually magical in nature, since the character will find himself unable to share the secret regardless of how badly he wants or needs to, but [[Brainwashed|mental conditioning]] ''can'' sometimes be used to similar effect.
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{{examples}}
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* The Aes Sedai in Robert Jordan's ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' are unable to lie due to a magical promise on the Oath Rod; consequently, when asked a direct question about a secret, the best they can do is give a misleading but true answer. With the result that many people don't believe them at all, since they know about this oath. There's also reason to believe that the Black Ajah have a magical compulsion against betraying their fellow darkfriends, which is why they can't reveal names even under torture.
** {{spoiler|The exact function of the Black Ajah oath is that is prevents them from divulging any of their secrets until the hour of their death. In the thirteenth book, one of them abuses this loophole by poisoning herself so that she can betray the Black Ajah to Egwene.}}
* Germain from Eric Nylund's ''A Game Of Universe'' claims to have a
* One of the [[Big Bad
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'' the [http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fidelius_Charm Fidelius Charm] ''might'' cause this. The charm makes it so that once a secret is entrusted to the [[Secret Keeper]], the only way to discover the secret is for the [[Secret Keeper]] to tell you. One effect of this is that if you're told the secret by the [[Secret Keeper]] then you can't tell it to anyone else, but [[Canon]] doesn't establish how this is done. In might do it via
** There actually is a literal and [[Canon]] example of a tongue-tying charm in ''[[Harry Potter]]''. {{spoiler|When a [[Secret Keeper]] dies, everyone who knows the secret becomes a [[Secret Keeper]]. This includes Snape, though he probably wouldn't have told anyway. To prevent him from blabbing, Moody places a literal tongue twister curse on the house, preventing him from revealing its location.}} Another example, also in book 7, occurs when {{spoiler|Voldemort places a taboo on his name, causing Death Eaters to appear whenever anyone speaks it, in a delberate attempt to catch Harry & Co.}}
* [[Sheri S. Tepper]]'s ''[[The True Game]]'' series has an unusual variant: a character is prevented from speaking a certain piece of information, but is perfectly capable of writing it down. However, this bit of
* In [[James Thurber]]'s ''[[The 13 Clocks]]'', the wicked duke had a curse put on the Princess Saralinda so that she can only say "I wish him well" in the duke's presence.
* Mages in the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series can place this spell on others. Ethical mages will only do it with permission.
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* In a short story by Selma Lagerlöf, a young girl kidnapped by bandits has to solemnly swear she'll never tell what happened and where they're hiding to anyone. After escaping, she tells how to find them to her cat, while the family's in the room.
* Part of Sophie's curse in ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'' includes the inability to explain or describe the curse to anyone else.
* Non-informational variant: In ''Master of Five Magics'', sorcerers become progressively more
* The title character of ''Spider's Song'' is born tongue-tied and mute. He's tongue is "accidentally" cut free by a friend who doesn't remember doing it afterward.
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