Locked Out of the Loop

Harry: You've known that all this time, and you pick now to tell me?
Butler: I thought this would be the best time to tell you the truth.
Harry: I took a grenade to the face, dude!

— How It Should Have Ended on Spider-Man 3

The hero has a deep Dark Secret, and is still oblivious to it. The catch is, every other significant main character is fully aware of the secret and its implications, and they're all collectively conspiring to keep it hidden from the hero — either for the hero's own good or because it's crucial that the hero not know for some reason.

It hardly ever works. If they're lucky, though, the hero won't hate them too much when it finally comes out.

A favorite and none too successful technique to Save You From Becoming Your Parent. Unfortunately, this usually results only in the mysterious parent taking on the allure of Forbidden Fruit — which may result in a harder than usual crash. More often than not, this will be Not Quite the Right Thing.

On rare occasions, it might work in the hero’s favor. Anyone the event or secret doesn’t affect might become relieved to hear he has no part in what happened. Plus become more willing to listen to their innocence claims or side of the story.

See Tell Me About My Father. Compare Metaphorically True, a common method of obscuring the loop, and You Didn't Ask, where the person in question could have resolved everything for themselves by just posing a few queries. See also Learned from the News, where a character finds out about both the secret itself and that they were Locked Out of the Loop because the news media found out and published it. Can lead to It Seemed Trivial, when someone who knows something is Locked Out of the Loop and doesn't know the importance of his knowledge. Compare Unwitting Muggle Friend, We Would Have Told You, But..., and "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot. Often goes hand-in-hand with Poor Communication Kills. If a person who is given this treatment is abducted and forced by his captives to tell them what they think he knows, that's Interrogated for Nothing.

If people think a character is Locked Out of the Loop but they turn out to have known all along, you have a Secret Secret-Keeper.

Examples:

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Comic Books

Batman: This is Batman's schtick, especially during the period between the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, to the point where things would blow up spectacularly because he never bothered to tell people things at all. Some of the worst case scenarios include his backup plans against the Justice League (they were meant to be secret and he didn't want anyone to know... until Ra's al Ghul got them in JLA: Tower of Babel), his gang-controlling plan in Batman: War Games (He purposely locked Stephanie Brown out of it because he adamantly distrusted her) and not outright telling the Bat-Family that he might have let the Joker know that he might know their identities in Death of the Family (how was he supposed to know he'd figure it out?).
Early on in Cricket, Zoot the shrew was so nearsighted that he didn't realize he was sharing the margins of the magazine with insects and other invertebrates. Everybuggy else carefully nurtured his belief that he was hanging out with moles, rabbits and other small mammals, because shrews normally eat bugs. (Zoot later got some glasses and learned the truth, fortunately after he became a vegetarian.)
The Crossovers: None of the Crossovers are aware that the others have such huge secrets. In issue 7 Carter comes clean to Callista about being Archetype and while he becomes aware that she does have some sort of secret, he reassures her that he’s happy to wait until she’s ready to open up to him. Neither one of them learns that their daughter is a warrior princess or that their son is helping aliens invade, mainly since they dismiss his talk about UFOs being his overactive imagination, though Cris does learn that Cubby has superpowers even if she doesn’t understand how.
Empyre: The Avengers are tricked by the seemingly friendly Cotati into fighting the Kree and Skrull which is all a setup for the Cotati nearly destroying Earth and then conquering the universe. After it's all settled, Abigail Brand tears into Carol Danvers to point out how keeping Alpha Flight, the organization whose sole purpose is to monitor alien threats to Earth, out of the loop on the Cotati is a key reason things got this bad in the first place.
Brand: We are not your backup plan. The program cannot function if we're only "in the loop" when the A-list can be bothered to talk to us! If we are constantly blindsided by — by the idle whims of a celebrity in-group! The second you knew about the Cotati, you should have brought me in. The very second. But, no, your buddies knew better. How many died, Colonel? How many died because seven people decided the fate of the world around a campfire?
Fables:
- Flycatcher is constantly searching for a way to return to the Homelands to find his wife and children. Everyone else in the Fabletown office knows, from his ramblings whenever he's drunk (which he forgets completely afterwards) that his wife and children were tortured, his wife and daughters in fact raped in front of him, and killed when his kingdom was invaded, but they let him believe they're still alive for his peace of mind. There's some evidence that magic is being used to keep his memories suppressed.
- Beast had assumed that Flycatcher was sentenced to this work as some bizarre punishment and lets him out of it. Beauty tells him off for how without the job, Flycatcher can remember the truth
- Eventually, Flycatcher regained his memories, and was seen afterwards having something of a breakdown and lashing out at Santa Claus, who restored them. Thankfully, he got better.
- Only the higher-ups of Fabletown know that under her exterior of a flighty shoe-loving rich girl, Cinderella is the greatest secret agent on the planet. It comes up when the new council meets to discuss things and Belle keeps asking why Cinderella is there as "she only own a shoe store!"
Iron Man (1968): In issue #284, Tony Stark is presumed killed, with Rhodey taking over as CEO of Stark Enterprises and using the War Machine armor to take over to as Iron Man. In actuality, Tony was alive, but in cryogenic stasis while doctors fixed the damage done to him. When Rhodey found out, he was furious, since he and Tony were supposed to be friends. Once Tony came back and stopped Ultimo, Rhodey slugged him in the face and told him to piss off, initiating a Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure that lasted a few issues.
New Mutants: Early on, Karma goes missing, and the Professor refuses to tell the New Mutants that he thinks she's alive, because he has a strong suspicion as to what's happened to her, and what would happen if her friends went looking (namely, she's been abducted by Shadow King, and he'd corrupt them if they tried). He turns out to be right, but the kids are still quite furious when they learn their friend was alive and suffering for months.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Knuckles' Guardian lineage, the number of echidnas still around, and his family in general, at least pre-Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide. Up until Robotnik's Ultimate Annihilator went off, Knuckles thought he was the last of his kind, save for the power-mad Enerjak. Then, the Dark Legion came knocking. Then Echidnaopolis showed up, with his mother there still alive. Within a year, Knuckles would also find out about the Guardians and their purpose and that his dad was alive.
Lampshaded in Spider-Geddon by the mainstream Spider-Man. Having spent his portion of the event in one of his titles being manhandled by Morlun, he doesn't show up in the main storyline until the last half of the final issue, long after both Miles Morales and the Superior Spider-Man have it well in hand. He immediately complains that you miss the beginning and you end up totally lost.
Deconstructed in The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor. Supergirl discovered in The Girl with the X-Ray Mind that Lena Thorul was Lex Luthor's little sister, and her psychic powers were caused by an accident in her brother's lab when she was a child; nonetheless, Lex asked her to not reveal their relationship to his amnesiac sister. Lena's husband Jeff Colby also knew, but he kept quiet about it. Finally, Lena's mother-in-law reveals the truth after Lena has undergone brain surgery, and Lena is absolutely furious with everybody for keeping secrets from her for years. Lena even points out her brain stroke was caused by the lab accident which she was unaware of because people kept secrets from her.
Lena Colby: Supergirl felt she had to inform the F.B.I.! So even my husband — a Bureau agent — knew the truth about me! Everyone did — except the one person who had a right to: me! My doctors think that lab-accident caused the aneurism that resulted in my stroke! And because I didn't remember it, there was no way to prevent it! Don't you see? — Thanks to your playing God with my life, I almost died!
The Transformers (IDW): Kup was once marooned on a planet with radioactive crystals. The crystals caused him to view other Autobots as vicious zombies, leading him to brutally slaughter several rescue parties. He was ultimately saved, but had to be constantly be fed modified doses of the crystals to keep the hallucinations at bay. Everyone aware of what happened was sworn to secrecy to avoid burdening the ancient bot with guilt of having killed his own comrades.
In WildC.A.T.s (WildStorm), the team finds their way to the planet Khera. Zealot is surprised to discover Voodoo in what amounts to a ghetto filled with Daemonite refugees, baffled as to why her race's sworn enemies are on this planet. Vodoo spells it out for Zealot that the Kherubim-Daemonite war has been over for 300 years. Earth was simply too far away and considered so unimportant that word never reached it. The Wild Cats are naturally rocked to realize the conflict that's cost the lives of thousands of innocents was finished for centuries.
W.I.T.C.H.: Deconstructed. Will chose to keep Elyon in the dark about her and the others' double lives as Guardians and her true identity as the princess of Meridian... which bites them in the ass when Cedric and Phobos do tell her the truth and use it to manipulate Elyon into joining their side. Cornelia gives Will quite a bit of flak over it.
X-Men: For a while after Rachel Summers first joined the team, she asked them to keep her identity a secret from Cyclops. However, Kitty did note that for someone as observant as Scott this would only last for so long, given Ray looks almost exactly like her mom, has the same powers, and even wears a phoenix-themed outfit.

Film — Animated

Deconstructed in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. When the Clown Prince of Crime resurfaces, Bruce immediately forces Terry to retire without bothering to tell him exactly what happened in his last encounter with the villain, partly out of his own trauma of what happened and to protect Terry so that the Joker will not come after him. Terry, who feels the suit is the only way he can fix his mistakes from his past, quits without a second thought. Despite Bruce's good intentions, the Joker takes advantage of this by injuring Terry's girlfriend Dana and successfully launching an attack on the Batcave that nearly kills Bruce. Terry eventually coaxes the story out of Barbara because he is involved with the mess whether they like it or not.
In Frozen (2013), after Elsa's magic powers accidentally hit Anna in the head and knock her out, their parents choose to have the castle sealed, and Elsa isolated from almost everyone, including Anna. Anna subsequently not knowing about why Elsa shuts everyone out in her life (because of the trolls erasing her memories of Elsa's magic) is a key factor that kicks off the main plot.
In Justice League vs. Teen Titans, it turns out that Superman, who had been dating Wonder Woman ever since Justice League: War, never told her about kryptonite.
KPop Demon Hunters: HUNTR/X are a Kpop band that uses their Magic Music to hunt demons. Their manager Bobby has no clue about anything beyond the musician aspect, and is constantly bewildered by unplanned schedule changes, strange special effects, and the girls having an intense and violent rivalry with a new boy band.
Bobby: That's my girls! Not sure about this whole "demon" thing. I mean, they seem like nice people, but loving the energy!
Deconstructed in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. After Morgana threatens Melody's life for Triton's trident, Ariel decides it's best to keep Melody's mermaid heritage a secret and forbid her from going into the sea. This comes back to haunt her 12 years later since Melody goes to Morgana for help and the sea witch uses Melody's ignorance to her advantage; Ariel even acknowledges that if she had just told Melody the truth in the first place, the entire mess could have been avoided.
In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, nobody bothers to tell Flash Sentry what is really going on or that the human Twilight Sparkle is not the same person as Princess Twilight Sparkle. As a result, he spends most of his screen time confused and heartbroken when the human Twilight avoids him. Also, in this and later films, nobody bothers to tell him Sunset Shimmer has a magic journal that can communicate with Princess Twilight.
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost puts Fred and Velma in this role. Since they were completely absent during the events of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, they are completely baffled that Shaggy, Daphne, and Scooby once spent a summer traveling the world in a tricked-out van fighting and capturing actual demons. Turns out Shaggy and Daphne agreed to never speak of it again due to how badly the experience traumatized Scooby.
In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is deliberately excluded from Spider-Man 2099's Alliance of Alternates. He learns the reason why is because in Miguel's eyes, he was never supposed to exist as the spider that bit him was dragged in from an Alternate Universe, leaving that universe without a Spider-Man and getting the one from Miles' reality killed. What hurts Miles even more is that all of his friends knew but none of them had the heart to tell him, as even Miguel was trying to spare his feelings until Miles pissed him off.
Trolls:
- Branch's four brothers have no idea about the fate of their grandmother and that their youngest siblings grew up alone with no family to take care of him. However, after getting upset at three of his brothers for their selfish behavior, Branch snaps at John Dory, Spruce and Clay, as he told them half the truth of what he had to go through, such as the fate of their grandmother and having to grow up alone, but didn't tell them that he blame himself for her death, lost his happiness and colors and gave up both singing and dancing for at least twenty years until Poppy came into his life. The only brother that is fully unaware of what Branch had to go through is Floyd, as there are some indication that John Dory, Spruce and Clay decided to keep the information they got from their younger sibling a secret in order to protect him.
- Trolls Band Together:
  - Veneer didn't know that Velvet asked Crimp for a machine that will trap three of Floyd's brothers when they capture them until Crimp reveals it. Also, Crimp has no idea that Velvet plans to use her machine on Trolls, as she thought it was for smoothies, until she witnesses her use it on Floyd.
  - Viva and the rest of her tribe still live in fear of the Bergens, unaware that Bergens no longer want to eat Trolls, until Poppy, Branch and John Dory tells them this information.

Film — Live-Action

36 Hours (1965): Just before D-Day, the Germans construct an elaborate hoax involving an entire cast of English-speaking German spies in a fake hospital, all to make a captured American intelligence officer believe that he has had amnesia and the war is in the past. Their motive is to get him to reveal details of D-Day as part of his "therapy".
At First Sight: Amy is the only person whom Virgil doesn't tell about the imminent relapse of his blindness when it starts happening, and only tells her when they go to a stadium to see the New York Rangers in a hockey match and, upon seeing the one thing he had seen in his early childhood before losing his sight back then (cotton candy), his relapse kicks in abruptly.
Causes a bit of Conflict Ball late in The Bells of St. Mary's. A doctor diagnoses Sister Benedict with early-stage tuberculosis, decides that she should go to someplace dry like Arizona to recover, and prevails upon Father O'Malley not to tell her why she's getting transferred. Father O'Malley caves just as Sister Benedict is leaving and tells her why. She is relieved.
In Below, most of the crew are unaware of the Awful Truth that Brice, Loomis and Coors torpedoed a British hospital ship and then murdered Commander Winters to cover up their crime.
The Big Lebowski has Donny.
Walter: Were you listening to The Dude's story, Donny?
The Dude: Walter...
Donny: What?
Walter: Were you listening to The Dude's story?
Donny: I was bowling.
Walter: So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know...
The Dude: Walter, Walter, what's the point, man?
Walter: There's no reason — here's my point, Dude, there's no fucking reason why these two...
Donny: Yeah, Walter, what's your point?
Bowfinger: When Kit Ramsey refuses to star in Bobby Bowfinger's movie, Chubby Rain, Bowfinger decides to make the movie anyway by covertly following Kit, filming him in his everyday life and having him react to the other actors.
Captain America: Civil War:
- The reason Spider-Man fights for the Pro-Registration side is because Tony Stark told Peter that Steve Rogers and his team of heroes are going against the law and they're dangerous. Cap lampshades this and points out that there's more going on than what Stark told him. Unfortunately, Spidey tells Cap that Stark told him Cap would say that and doesn't listen to him.
- More tragically, Steve knows that Tony's parents were murdered by HYDRA, something Tony himself doesn't know, but what neither of them know is that Bucky Barnes, during his time as the Winter Soldier, was the one who pulled the trigger). Suffice it to say that Tony is furious when he finds out, and this, along with Steve's refusal to allow Bucky to be killed in retaliation for something he had no control over, severs the already-tenuous friendship between them.
In Dark Victory, Bette Davis' doctor and friend decide to not tell her that her surgery failed and her brain cancer is terminal. She is super-pissed when she finds out.
Friday the 13th Part III: Chris Higgins stands out as being the only protagonist in the Friday the 13th series who is never made aware of the history behind Jason Voorhees or the Crystal Lake murders. As far as she knew, Jason was just some random, deformed pyscho who had it out for her.
Friendship: Veit's father never made it to San Francisco, but died behind the Iron Curtain. The postcards were sent by a proxy of the state security.
Ghostbusters: Poor Louis Tully is the only character directly involved in the film's supernatural happenings that is never clued in on what the hell is going on. Unlike his neighbor, Dana, who already suspected the dark forces around her, Louis had no idea his building was haunted nor that he was being targeted by a demon until it made its move. Even by the end of the movie, he's never given full context on the events regarding Gozer and the Terror Dogs.
Good Bye, Lenin!: Alex tries to hide the fact that the German Democratic Republic is gone from his mother, who was in a coma when the Berlin Wall fell. And it turns out that his mother has kept a secret of her own from her two children: Their father didn't leave for the West because of a woman, he left because of harassment he received for not joining the Party, and he planned for his family to join him in West Germany. He even sent scores of letters which his wife hid behind the cabinets.
The Hasty Heart: The doctor doesn't tell Lachlan that he's doomed to die of a failed kidney in a matter of weeks. Lachlan is bitter and angry at everyone else for keeping the secret, once he finds out.
In Hustlers, one of Destiny's motivations for committing crimes, along with caring for herself and her daughter, is to give her grandmother a nice, comfortable life in her golden years. As the hustle becomes a success, she moves them out of their dumpy apartment into a beautiful home in the suburbs, gets lots of new clothes for them all, and regularly treats them to luxuries such as jewelry, a new car, or nights out. Her grandmother never seems to question where she gets so much money so quickly, and it's never clarified if Destiny's even told her she's a stripper (and she certainly wouldn't have told her she's also a thief). It's ambiguous enough that it's unclear if she's genuinely completely clueless to what her granddaughter does for a living, or if she's decided that she doesn't want to know.
Ikiru: The film shows the doctors attempt this trope with Kanji, but another patient had clued him into the lies they might tell to make him feel better. He later does this to his son and daughter-in-law, as he doesn't tell them about his ailment or his seeing a secretary, leading the pair to believe she's actually a Gold Digger.
Independence Day:
- Area 51 exists, and nobody told the President. He's not happy when he finds out.
  Whitmore: Why wasn't I informed of all this?
  Nimzicki: Two words, Mr. President: Plausible Deniability.
- The general is even more pissed, as this news isn't brought up until after they try launching a counterattack, one that fails miserably.
Played for Laughs. Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon 4 doesn't know that his oldest child married a cop or who she married. Even Riggs knows!
Pops up in the classic romance film Love Story, when the doctors and the husband decide to just not tell the wife she's terminally ill, right up until it's blatantly obvious she won't be getting better.
In Men in Black 3, when Jay can't find Kay so they can talk about the argument they had the night before, and he sees some unfamiliar people in M.I.B. headquarters he demand to speak with Kay, but agent Oh tells him Kay died in 1969, after failing to apprehend the Boglodite, Boris the Animal. Jay insists that he and Kay had an argument the night before, but Oh counters he's been dead for decades. When Jay mentions some weird symptoms, she suspects something else may be at play, but refuses to tell Jay what happening to him because it's below his pay grade. When he insists that "he needs a raise," she reluctantly tells him that he's suffering from the effects of a messed up Temporal Paradox, and that Boris may have traveled back in time to kill Kay and set in motion the Boglodite invasion.
In Moulin Rouge, the theatre cast hide Satine's imminent death from tuberculosis so she can clinch a deal with the Duke. This one is notable in that even Satine herself has this hidden from her (she knows she's sick, but not how bad it is) until Zidler suddenly tells her at literally the most inopportune moment.
Spider-Man 3:
- The beginning establishes that Mary Jane, despite now dating Peter and being his Secret-Keeper, doesn't know the reasons behind his and Harry's fallout, meaning Peter never told her about Norman being the Green Goblin or Harry's subsequent vendetta against Spider-Man.^note
- The Osborns' butler waits until after Harry is disfigured by Peter and one of his own pumpkin bombs to tell him that Norman/the Green Goblin died from being Hoist by His Own Petard, not by Spider-Man's hands.
Star Wars:
- Luke Skywalker is the most well-known case in the franchise — his Uncle Owen, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda all try to keep him from learning the truth about his father. Obi-Wan's explanation ("A young Jedi named Darth Vader... betrayed and murdered your father.") may be Metaphorically True, but it's still deliberately misleading, and Luke calls him on it.
- Early in Return of the Jedi, C-3PO is clearly unaware of the whole plan unfolding around him regarding Jabba the Hutt. Compare R2-D2, who was carrying Luke's lightsaber the entire time to give to Luke at the right moment. Presumably, this was because the heroes thought C-3PO being made aware of the plan would have made it much less likely to succeed.
- This gets Deconstructed during The Last Jedi: Holdo doesn't tell anyone what the plan is to save them from the First Order ship following them, even refusing to say there actually is a plan. This not only leads Poe to send off Finn and Rose on an unauthorized mission to break into the enemy ship to destroy the tracking device (a mission that completely failed and almost got them executed by the First Order because they trusted the wrong codebreaker), but he and several others end up convinced that Holdo is a traitor and mutiny against her after she refuses to explain what she needs seemingly-defenseless transports for. These two combined events kickstarted the chain of events that wiped out 95% of the resistance. Long story short, if Holdo reassured everyone that they did have a plan to escape, even if that plan needed to be on a need-to-know basis, none of that would have happened, and nearly all of the rebels could have survived the movie.
Son of a Rich, also known as Serf (Russian: Холоп, romanized: Kholop) is a 2019 Russian comedy film directed by Klim Shipenko. The plot follows a wealthy businessman's son who is made to believe he has traveled back to the time of serfdom in Russia, in order to reform his uncouth behaviour. Grisha gets into an accident arranged by his father and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, an entire 19th-century village is created and filled with actors who are fully aware of the plot, in the same vein as The Truman Show.
Thirteen Days: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy is initially trying to keep it under wraps so he can deal with it without everyone hounding him, which means not telling the press, which means not telling his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, who keeps getting the runaround when he tries to find out what's going on.
Through a Glass Darkly: While Karin is definitely aware she has schizophrenia, no one has told her that during her last hospital stay the doctors judged her to be incurable. She is not at all happy when she finds this out by reading her father's journal.
Transformers has a situation when Sector Seven head Tom Banachek shows Secretary of Defense Keller a frozen Megatron being kept in Hoover Dam:
Keller: And you didn't think the United States Military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?
Banachek: Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security.
Keller: Well, you've got one now!
The Truman Show is a classic case. Truman is the star of his own reality show, and he's the only one who doesn't know it. Everyone he's ever met has been an actor paid to keep the secret and the town he lives in is a massive set.
In Under Siege, Krill is dubious about Ryback being a threat as he's just a simple cook. Even after Ryback kills a few guys, Krill thinks he just got lucky but Strannix insists on seeing Ryback's file. Krill soon comes back to shock everyone by revealing Ryback happens to be a highly decorated ex-Navy SEAL. When Strannix snaps on Krill not knowing this, Krill replies that Ryback's file wasn't in the main records but in the captain's private safe which Krill didn't have access to. Thus, like everyone else on the ship, he had no idea Ryback was anything but a cook.

Manhwa

Everybody in The Bride of the Water God knows that Habaek is only a child during the day and regains his handsome adult form at night... except for Soah, Habaek's wife, who is in love with the adult Habaek but thinks he is a completely different person named Mui.

Tabletop Games

In Nomine: Litheroy, by his nature, is extremely bad at keeping valuable information private — it's difficult for Seraphim to deceive by default, and it's especially contrary to the nature of the Archangel of Revelation. The other members of the Seraphim Council don't begrudge this — he is simply following his nature and Word, after all — but at the same time prefer to not let him access valuable secrets to begin with. When the Archangels meet to discuss the strategy of the War, it's easier for everyone that Litheroy is just left out of the loop.

Theatre

In Cross Road, Elisa Bonaparte, Niccolo Paganini's patron and lover, is aware that the Devil of Music, Amduscias, exists, as he introduced them. What she doesn't know, until Niccolo faints after a concert, is that he has a contract with Amduscias, for one million songs of genius in exchange for his life — every song he plays brings him closer to death, and he's down to under 500. When Amduscias tells her that, she says she didn't know. Amduscias tells her she didn't need to know until now.

Video Games

Absented Age 2: Ghostbound:
- Yayoi wasn't informed of the original Karen/Mika's plan to have Satsuki claim her Heart Fragments and assume her identity, and when he spots the two in the Awakening Driftworld, Mika knocks him out and feeds him an amnesiatic. When he regains his memories of the current Karen's status as a Gänger, he tries to kill her out of the mistaken belief that she's the original Karen's enemy.
- Karen Alias's Gänger faction are the antagonists of Absented Age: Squarebound, but they are unaware of the Primal Gänger, Prim, and her own plans for the Driftworlds. They are pursuing the same goal of merging the real world and Driftworlds, but do so for different reasons, with Karen Alias seeking to turn itself and its fellow Gängers into humans while Prim wants to create a utopia for the sake of humanity and the Driftworlds.
Absinthia: In the May 2023 update, there's a new quest where the Cult of Drakon returns as the Drakonites. They seek to revive Typhus by practicing Human Sacrifice and using Freya's ring. However, Lilith never kept in contact with the cult, so they never realized that only she is capable of reviving Typhus and that the bones they gathered were from a random dinosaur.
ANNO: Mutationem: Several years ago, after unwittingly attacking her brother, Ann discovered that her Entanglelitis is directly caused by her evil Alternate Self, Amok. She withholds the information from the rest of her family out of concern they might get harmed. Ann would later admit the truth to Ayane, but still asks that she keeps it a secret from everyone else.
Assassin's Creed I:
- Modern-day Assassin Desmond was never told that the Assassins are still very much at war with the Templars. His ancestor, Ezio Auditore, wasn't even aware of his heritage until his father was wrongly hanged courtesy of Templar machinations. Later games make it clear that Desmond was vaguely aware of this while he was a kid in the Assassin camp in South Dakota, but couldn't really understand it; before being captured by the Templars for the series' Framing Device, he ran away from the compound and explained his past to others as having grown up in a cult.
- Several other characters that appear throughout the story are also unaware of the secret war between the Assassins and Templars — in Rogue, for example, the historical Captain Cook is an ally of the Templars but is deliberately kept unaware that they're Templars because he can't keep a secret, and instead thinks that they're secret agents working for the British Admiralty. In Assassin's Creed III, Connor debated telling George Washington the truth about the Assassins and Templars but ultimately decided against this, though Washington is vaguely aware that there's something more going on since he briefly owned an Apple of Eden (and his Templar brother in Rogue specifically requested that George be kept out of the the conflict). And in Origins, the family of Rudjek hate Bayek for killing him, unaware of Rudjek's role both as a Templar and in the death of Bayek's son.
Baldur's Gate: Throughout the game, lots of people seem to know about your heritage, but pointedly refuse to tell you about it. At most, they offer vague hints.
Brütal Legend: Nobody bothers to tell Eddie who Succoria is, leading him to conclude it was Ophelia and driving her away. Her Face–Heel Turn drives the entire second half of the plot.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: Jonathan Morris's father left him the legendary Vampire Killer, but never told him how to draw out its full power. It turns out he was trying to spare Jon the risks involved in wielding it (but apparently not the risks of being an inadequately-armed vampire hunter). Over the course of the game, he meets several characters who know all about it. Those characters being Eric Lecarde and his daughters.
In The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters, a group of Ghost Vigilantes has been dispatched to The Coma to kill Vicious Sister before she can infiltrate the real world. Everyone but Yaesol was aware that there was a Plan B that involved killing the vessel she was going to possess. And everyone but her was aware that said vessel was her friend Youngho. When she hears through Mina that this was planned, Yaesol is stunned, but admits that it makes sense to not have told her because she would never have agreed to a plan that involved harming her friend.
Dragon Age: Origins loves this trope. All of the Grey Wardens, including Duncan and Alistair, keep everybody locked out of the loop regarding the risks of joining their order and indeed why they're necessary, fearing that no one would become a Grey Warden if they knew. Morrigan keeps you locked out of the loop regarding why she joined your quest until almost the end of the game. Zathrian really, really isn't telling you the whole story about those werewolves. And so forth.
Fake Happy End: After their defeat, the Final Boss, the Guardian of the Tower, admits they don't know why someone built the towers to hide the existence of demons. They also don't know why humans transform into demons inside the tower.
In Fallout 3, every adult inhabitant of Vault 101 knows that James and the Lone Wanderer were both born in the Wasteland (even that the Vault was opened in the past) yet they hide it from the kids, including the LW. Of course, he/she ultimately finds out from Moriarty and the rest of the gang gets to know about it when Amata overhears someone saying that they should never have let James into the Vault 19 years ago. Needless to say, they are so pissed that the Overseer declares martial law to try and keep everyone in line. It doesn't really work with the youth demanding to open up to the outside and Vault Security planning to stage a raid on the "rebels" using live ammo without the knowledge of the Overseer. The outcome depends on the player's actions.
Fate/Grand Order: During "The Little Santa Alter" event, Mash Kyrielight was the only one who didn't know about the plan to save Jeanne Alter Santa Lily from disappearing. The others say it is because she sucks at lying and would have blabbed the plan to Jeanne, which could have endangered the plan. Once Jeanne is saved, Mash gets really upset at being left out.
Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy X:
  - Wakka is never clued in on Yuna being half-Al Bhed, and later Rikku being Al Bhed herself. When he did find out, he was not pleased, at first. And then, later Tidus learns that he was also Locked Out of the Loop concerning the fate of summoners when they summon the Final Aeon, i.e. they die. He's furious when he finds out and demands to know why they hid it, but Wakka and Lulu explained that they simply found it too difficult to say.
  - Tidus also never tell Yuna and the rest about his impending doom if Sin is permanently killed off, until the final battle.
- In Final Fantasy XIV, the Warrior of Light learns that the woman they know as Yda is actually her sister Lyse. Turns out the other Scions knew, but they thought the Warrior would have figured it out on their own.
- Dissidia Final Fantasy is an interesting case, in the fact that a majority of the heroes know nothing of the truth behind the cycles of war. Only Cid (The Great Will), Garland, Shinryu and Cosmos know the full truth. While many of the villains are able to piece together "what" is going on, none of them ever learn exactly why.
Fire Emblem:
- In The Blazing Blade, Hector's older brother dies, but the secret is kept from him until much later in the game per his instructions. Oswin was ordered not to tell him if anything happened to Uther.
- In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, King Fado tells Seth to keep Eirika from learning that her bracelet is one of the keys to unlock very powerful Sacred Relic Weapons(as well as the Sacred Stone of Renais, one of five that seal the Demon King away) until it's time. Too bad Seth only spills it after Erika loses it twice— the first time, a thief stole it and the second time, Eirika gave it to a Grado commander in order to save the lives of some civilians who were being held hostage. In the latter case, Eirika made her choice because had no reason to think that the bracelet was anything other than a sentimental keepsake due to this.
- Fire Emblem Fates:
  - Felicia did not know that she and her sister Flora are hostages rather than simple maids, and believes they were just commissioned with the job. On the other hand, Flora knew from the start but her and Felicia's dad Kilma told her to keep it quiet.
  - Kaze didn't realize that Kotaro and his clan were responsible for the death of his and Saizo's father because Saizo never told him of his suspicions until much later; as a result, Kaze thinks for years that their dad was simply killed in the line of duty. Additionally, he was unaware that Saizo's scar was a result of him trying to confront Kotaro, since Kaze was apparently away from their village on the day this happened.
- In Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, only a select few people (like Mycen) are aware that Alm is actually Rudolf's son and the true heir to the Rigelian throne. This is a particularly devastating loop for Alm and for Alm's cousin/Rudolf's ward Berkut to be locked out of: the first only finds out after he has already fatally wounded his father Rudolf and suffers a nasty Heroic BSoD, complete with him calling out Mycen for it, and when the latter discovers that his entire life and everything he ever fought for was all a lie, he completely loses his shit.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
  - Dimitri's story route primarily focuses on his own personal journey and doesn't touch on the overarching lore of the story very much. As such, he is the only one of the main protagonists who never finds out certain truths such as who the Children of the Goddess are, how the War of Heroes actually went down, and who those who slither in the dark are.
  - By reading between the lines, this happened twice in the backstory. Given how documents in the Abyss written by one of the Ten Elites has them expressing confusion on why Seiros is so hell-bent on killing them all, it's implied at least some of them never knew the true origins of the Crests and Hero's Relics that their leader Nemesis bestowed upon them, that being the murder of Sothis and the slaughter of the Children of the Goddess at the Red Canyon. Likewise, listening to Edelgard's recount and conclusions from the secret history written by her ancestor Wilheim, who fought in the War of Heroes alongside Seiros, and comparing them to what Seiros/Rhea herself will reveal makes it obvious Seiros never told Wilheim the truth of the Red Canyon either and her desire for vengeance.
In Fredbear and Friends, one of the audiologs reveals that the pizzeria's management knew about shady goings-on at the restaurant and the night guards going missing, but chose to mention none of this to the guards themselves — while ordering them to go everywhere armed and in pairs. How this worked out is unclear.
In Hi-Fi RUSH, Korsica, the Head of Security of Vandelay Technologies, is the only one of the six executives running the company to not be in the know about CEO Kale Vandelay's secret project SPECTRA. As far as she's aware, it's just another firmware update for the robotics. As it turns out, Kale keeping her in the dark was part of his Secret Test of Character for her; he wanted to ensure she trusted his vision completely. Chai's insistence that SPECTRA is dangerous leads Korsica to start investigating it herself, proving she's too principled to follow Kale blindly. Kale attempts to kill her in retaliation, which cements Korsica's Heel–Face Turn.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-: Neither Gotoh nor the Anti-Exodus Faction knows the Special Defense Unit are cloned Futurans, thinking they were obliterated as identities by the Exodus Project.
In Injustice 2, Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth alongside her cousin Kal-El to teach him the ways of the Kryptonians, but arrived many years later due to her cryopod being knocked off-course to find a world where her infant cousin had grown into an adult. Par for the course for Supergirl, except that in the Injustice Alternate Universe, Superman went completely insane, becoming a ruthless Knight Templar dictator. Unfortunately for Supergirl, she is recovered by Regime loyalists who fail to mention this.
In Jak X, no one wants to tell Rayn that Jak killed her father, Krew, during Jak II: Renegade. Inevitably, she finds out and gets pissed.
The Kingdom Hearts series has a strict rule in place that whenever the lead characters visit one of the multiple Disney worlds, they are strictly forbidden from telling anyone about the existence of these numerous realities. Most of the time, it doesn't prove to be an issue, but a few instances have deconstructed by proving how problematic it can really be. In Kingdom Hearts I, Ariel, who wants to visit other worlds, gets easily manipulated by Ursula when her adventures with Sora and company get her in hot water with her father. Then, in Kingdom Hearts III, Buzz Lightyear, who's already dealing with his friends going missing and his laser suddenly working, gets even more suspicious of Sora and his friends arriving to help, which is exactly what Young Xehanort wants to happen, so he can corrupt Buzz just enough as part of his experiments with hearts.
Yuki from The King of Fighters was like this at first, in regards to her boyfriend Kyo's double life as an Ordinary High-School Student and a street fighter. In the tie-in manga "KOF: KYO" she learns about it and isn't happy, but forgives him. (It doesn't help that she only learned about it when Athena transferred to this school and then Iori Yagami showed up.) However, she remains outta the loop in whart concerns her heritage and destiny in the whole Orochi story... as the as-of-now last descendant of Princess Kushinada, the legendary Barrier Maiden that must be ritually sacrificed so Orochi will return to this world. She only learns that when she's kidnapped for that by the New Face Team (who spill the beans in front of her), and then rescued by Kyo and his friends.
In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, Roselia does not know that there's a curse lurking around Erebonia or that said curse had been stalking her friend, the emperor Dreichels, for decades. She also didn't know that Lianne, also known as Arianrhod, had known about Dreichels' secret and only because Lianne caught Ishmelga in the act of stalking Dreichels. She also didn't know that Osborne, who is the reincarnation of Dreichels, ended up forming a contract with Ishmelga 200 years later after Dreichels' death and that Lianne had cut off any contact with her for twenty years after she accepted an invitation to join Ouroboros from the Grandmaster. When the truth finally comes out by Class VII viewing the events at Luna Sanctuary, Roselia is not happy about the fact that her friends hid the truth from her for two centuries.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Tetra's mother apparently locked her out of knowing that she's the eponymous Princess Zelda. She also fails to mention why the necklace she gave Tetra is so important. Then suddenly it is revealed that it is a piece of the Triforce, the almighty artifact of the Goddesses, which can grant absolutely any wish when fully assembled.
In Love & Pies, Amelia's close friends and family already know that her mother, Freya, is the infamous thief, The Purple Fox, but they didn't tell her sooner about it for various reasons.
- On Day 12, Sven confesses to Amelia that he didn't tell her about the debt she inherited from her mother and that she was The Purple Fox because he once caught her returning to him the golden axe trophy that she stole, because he didn't want Amelia to think badly of her, no matter what she did.
- On Day 13, Yuka admits to Amelia that she also wanted to solve the mystery behind The Purple Fox, so she spread a rumor that she hid a "super valuable" gemstone in the former's house to lure them into her trap. When she took a photo of them in the act, she was going to use it for her article, but was reluctant when she saw that TPF was Freya.
Mass Effect:
- Mass Effect 2 does this to whichever human squadmate survives the first game. It's one of the main reasons why the reunion doesn't go so well. Garrus and Tali (and Wrex, if he's still alive after the events of Virmire) find out Shepard's alive firsthand and take it in stride unlike the Virmire survivor, while they only hear rumors about him/her being alive and working for a terrorist organization — which had been leaked by the terrorist group in question in an attempt to isolate Shepard from anyone who was likely to make Shepard see through the charade Cerberus was putting on.
- In Mass Effect 3, fixing this is an important part of getting back on their good side. If the player chooses not to let them back in the loop, it will potentially end with their death because they can't be convinced that it's Not What It Looks Like. Why Liara, the very person who knows the looming threat that Shepard will face at the second game because she gave them Shepard's body, didn't pay them a visit to explain things before it became an issue is never addressed.
Aside from Zero, almost all major characters in Mega Man Zero 3 (Ciel, X, Weil, and maybe even the Four Guardians) seem to know about the truth that Zero (the real one and The Hero) is inhabiting a clone, while Omega is using Zero's original body. Ciel only finds out in the end of the game, when X tells her. The Four Guardians only as much as suspected, since Harpuia was present when Weil referred to Zero as that body. Of the four, only Phantom knows the truth, since he died fighting Zero in a previous battle and now wanders the Cyberspace afterlife, where all history is gathered.
In Metal Gear Solid, Snake believes his team knows more about what is going on around him (Anderson and Baker's deaths, the ninja being Gray Fox, etc.). He is 100% right : everybody was holding back some info so nobody knew who or what was behind Shadow Moses. The Patriots. Liquid wanted to take them out or free Big Boss from their clutches; they didn't give him the chance to try.
NieR: Automata
- 2B and many other androids like her die in Route C never finding out that the humans she and the rest of YoRHa were fighting for were already extinct even before the aliens invaded Earth.
- While Commander White knew about the various Dark Secrets of the organization, she never finds out that the Black Box of the androids were based on their Machine enemies and that they were set up to die thanks to a condition-triggered backdoor in their server.
Nira Oni: After the group gets trapped in West Nira Hospital and the titular monster starts stalking them, Cassey's little sister Ryan thinks that it's some kind of fake haunted house. Hiroshi goes out of his way to keep her believing this, framing the whole thing as a game. For instance, after hearing the monster nearby, he tells Ryan that they're going to play hide and seek, and she needs to find a good hiding place.
OMORI: Everyone except Sunny (the unwitting perpetrator), and Basil (who witnessed everything) were left in the dark about Mari's "suicide" actually being a murder. His parents are implied to be aware from the words his "dad" said, but it's not outright confirmed in-game. The final conflict comes when Sunny gathers up the courage to try and tell his friends the truth, only for Omori to attempt to stop him by any means necessary.
Persona 4:
- Both Detective Ryotaro Dojima (the MC's uncle) and Naoto Shirogane (freelance detective) are working on the same case as the Heroes, but the Investigation Team keeps them out of the know for rather understandable reasons. Like many other things in the game, this is deconstructed.
- Dojima's instincts catch onto the MC and the investigation team almost immediately, but he can't bring himself to suspect the person who watches over his daughter. And when he gets concrete evidence that the Protagonist is definitely involved in some way, a bad combination of Cassandra Truth and Idiot Ball leads to Nanako getting thrown into the television.
- Naoto is damn well aware that information is being withheld from him, or rather her. When the police refuse to listen to her doubts after a copycat killer takes credit for the previous crimes, she becomes frustrated enough that she resorts to rather drastic measures. Once this is settled, the Investigation Team lets her have it for being so stupid that she deliberately let herself be thrown into the TV.
Planescape: Torment:
- The hero has amnesia. Near the end of the game, you find out that Morte, who has been with you since the introductory scene knew almost everything you had to work so hard to find out.
- The reason Dakkon joins up with you so quickly is he has an existing life-debt to you and for all we know was hanging out in the bar because he knew you would be showing up soon.
For all the mocking the Pokémon games get for allowing 10-year-old children to fight criminal organizations of varying levels of lethality and letting them fight and control Olympus Mons that possess cataclysmic power, a common criticism of the plot of Pokémon Sword and Shield is that the story plays this straight. The moment anything bad happens in the Galar region adults and adult figures swoop in to intervene while politely shoving the protagonists out of the way by telling them to continue with the Gym Challenge, preventing them from figuring out what's going on or suspecting that anything's amiss. The actual story only kicks in during virtually the last hour of the game when the heroes inadvertently stumble into a Motive Rant after chasing down Leon when he misses their dinner reservation.
Played for Laughs in Saints Row IV, during Pierce's rescue mission.
Kinzie: Okay, now get inside the statue of Joe Magarac.
Boss: Now the statue has a name?
Pierce: Seriously, you didn't know that?
Boss: Nobody tells me anything!
In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the player character is running around the galaxy trying to stop the Sith Empire from finishing a war of conquest started by Darth Revan. The secret is that the PC is Revan, with his memories brainwashed out, and that the Jedi Council is trying to use him to uncover the location of the same superweapon that allowed him to begin his war in the first place. No one tells the protagonist all this, of course. Until Malak and Saul Karath find out he's still alive and Malak tells him, that is. It's up to the player to decide whether this revelation will turn the amnesiac Revan against the Republic and the Jedi.
Rise of the Third Power: Downplayed with Prince Gage. He's aware and complicit in Emperor Noraskov's purge of Arkadya's "undesirables," but isn't aware of actions such as starting a false flag operation against Cirinthia or the backup plan to kill the Cirinthian royal family.
Silent Hill 2: Laura has absolutely no idea that Silent Hill is anything other than a mundane ghost town, as the 'Otherworlds' of Silent Hill are specific to each character and don't overlap in normal circumstances even if the characters interact (for instance, Eddie's otherworld is freezing and his breath fogs up when the others in the same scene don't, and James notices a sudden jump in temperature when he visits Angela's otherworld, but Angela says it's always that hot to her) and are created out of the psychological issues of said characters- and Laura, being a little kid, is too innocent to give the town anything to work with, so she experiences none of the Otherworldly dangers that the adults do and is utterly oblivious to the fact that James is getting chased around by monsters.
If a Sonic the Hedgehog game has multiple stories, especially if one of those stories is Shadow, this will happen to Sonic, to varying degrees. In most of the Adventure era games^note, he isn’t clued in to what’s really going on till the final fight, in Sonic Forces and Sonic Generations he knows most of it and solves the main plot but isn’t aware of what Shadow was up to in his side stories, and in Sonic Rivals he never discovers the actual plot of the duology at all. Despite how often this happens, it doesn’t make him less effective.
One of Siffrin's goals in START AGAIN START AGAIN START AGAIN: a prologue is ensuring that none of his companions pick up on the fact that he's suffering a serious case of Time Loop Fatigue from being forced to relive their journey through the King's Castle over and over and over again. He fears that if they learned the Awful Truth, they'd despair at the thought that their quest to save Vaugarde from being frozen in time forever might be All for Nothing.
In The Roottrees are Dead, only the 5Pieces knew about Sam's true heritage and the whereabouts of E.C.: the former was the illegitimate daughter of Elias Jr. and Patsy and was sent away to the same farm as E.C., who was disowned for being gay. Sam was also lied to that her birth parents died, and when she was reluctantly let back into the family, she and the rest of the Next Generation, especially Lauren, were locked out from the truth until Elias Sr.'s death.
Tales Series:
- In Tales of Destiny 2, there are three loops being kept secret:
  - Loni and Rutee are keeping Stahn's death secret from Kyle, fearing he couldn't handle the truth and might end up like his father (which turns out about as well as one might expect).
  - Reala is keeping her origins and Elraine's powers and motives secret from everyone, though Judas knows some of it because Elraine tried to recruit him.
  - Judas himself is (poorly) hiding his own identity as Leon Magnus from everyone.
- In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Lloyd locks his former comrades out of the loop on why he hunts for the Centurion Cores. It's only with the revelation that Emil is Ratatosk that Lloyd decides to reveal why he did so: he was on a task by Martel to collect the cores so Ratatosk can be sealed away before he gets revenge on humanity. Lloyd couldn't risk anyone else on the chance they might let slip the name of the new tree, which would allow Ratatosk to take over and begin his revenge.
- In Tales of the Abyss, this trope is somewhat exaggerated: from the start of the game, every single party member except one has a different part of the loop that they're keeping Luke fon Fabre locked out of, for their own reasons, and for the most part unaware of all the others. Guy has been plotting with Van for years to kill Luke in front of his father as revenge for his own family's deaths. Anise is secretly reporting on all of their actions to Grand Maestro Mohs because he has her parents hostage. Tear wants to kill her brother Van because he actually wants to destroy the world, but she doesn't think anyone will believe her if she just says so because he's a Villain with Good Publicity. Jade figures out that Luke is a replica about two scenes after you meet him, but doesn't want to deal with the hassle of explaining when it's not relevant to the mission. The only one not deliberately keeping secrets from him is Natalia, and that's only because she doesn't know her own secret — that she's not the actual Princess, but was Switched at Birth. All of this is massively deconstructed to say the least as all those secrets screw them over in various ways; at the very least, Luke knows they are hiding things from him and it doesn't improve his attitude at all. Much less makes him able to trust them.
It is sometimes assumed Flandre Scarlet of Touhou Project fame doesn't know she's a vampire, as her maid Sakuya serves her blood under the appearance of normal food. Whether Flandre really doesn't know she's a vampire or not is up to debate, but Word of God says she at least doesn't know how to properly feed on humans. She just blows them up on the spot. All because Remilia won't let her outside, because she had the bad luck to be born with the power to destroy anything by clenching her fist. Canon appears to joss it though.
In Vagrant Story, both Ashley (the main character) and Hardin (the Anti-Villain's henchman) are largely unaware of the main plot up until the final cutscenes.
Played with in Wargroove, where the one locked out is the villain. Since the player controls Sigrid in the prologue, where she kills King Mercival and starts the border tensions that eventually boil over into the all-out war the story centres around, they tend to assume her actions are common knowledge. They're not, and when Valder finally hears about what she did, he's outraged, drops his grudge with Cherrystone, and promptly switches sides.

Visual Novels

Daughter for Dessert:
- In a rare lampshaded example, Mortelli lets slip that he knows the protagonist's “biggest secret.” Cecilia and Saul also know the “secret” to which he is referring, and they let Amanda in on it as well.
- The protagonist confides in Kathy when he initially decides to sell the diner, but doesn’t tell Amanda. Amanda finds out anyway when she runs into Kathy, who is applying for another job at the time.
The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty: By the end of Liang Chapter 5, Tongue is the only one in the group who's still unaware of the fact that Sui can speak and was just pretending to be mute. It took him a long while in later chapters to realize this, albeit in a dramatic way by suddenly busting open a door when Sui and Liang were conversing in secret.
In Little Busters!, Riki and Rin are the only ones in the main cast who don't know the secret of the world — that this world is a fake created after a bus crash left all but Riki and Rin near death. Why he's locked out varies — Kengo just wanted to be able to live happily in this world forever without worrying them about reality, while Kyousuke was deliberately trying to build them up and make them stronger so when they went back to the real world they could function on their own.
If the protagonist of Melody has a one-night stand with Isabella, they keep it a secret from Tim for obvious reasons. However, in Isabella’s epilogue, Tim reveals that he actually heard the whole thing, drunk though he was.
Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow, Shintaro tends to be this. Twofold, even!:
- Regarding Saori/"Kaname" being a Sweet Polly Oliver, the Vigilantes who find out early tend to keep this from him since he Cannot Talk to Women and they want to "spare" him the embarrassment. The exception, logically, is his own route where, after lots of awkwardness, he becomes her Secret-Keeper.
- In Makoto's route, Makoto goes through huge efforts to keep him in the dark about his once-mentor Toru's Face–Heel Turn because he knows that Shintaro's heart will break if it happens. This throws quite a wrench in the group's dynamics since Yuzuki believes that it's unfair to Shintaro.
Angie in Shikkoku no Sharnoth thinks that Mary has become the mistress of a rich man out of despair at her friend Charlie's condition. She's wrong, of course, but Mary only clears up the misunderstanding without actually explaining what she is doing.
Tsukihime: Honestly, does anyone tell Shiki the stuff he really needs to know? The only one who's really honest with him, Arcueid, doesn't actually know a thing about his backstory. Even the other sane love interest never feels that it's necessary to tell him or flat out lies about the Twin Switch between Kohaku and Hisui, so Kohaku doesn't realize he simply mixed them up until far too late.
Zero Escape:
- At the beginning of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, only Junpei and Lotus have no information about the Nonary Game at all. Two characters masterminded the original Nonary Game, four competed in it and one was a detective involved in the case. When characters finally start sharing information to aid their escape, Lotus is separated from the group right before a major exposition dump, and when the other characters catch up to her they are forced to focus their full attention on matters of immediate mortal peril, leaving her — much to her frustration — in the dark until the epilogue.
- In one ending of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Junpei and Seven silently decide not to tell Snake that his sister Clover was murdered because they're afraid that he'll have a Freak Out if he knows. Unfortunately, their attempt to keep Snake locked out of the loop doesn't last long because Ace, the one who murdered Clover, tells him about it, causing him to fly into an Unstoppable Rage (though thankfully only against the villain, not Junpei or Seven).
- In Zero Time Dilemma, Junpei is tetchy with Akane because he knows she's plotting something and Akane herself admits this, but she still refuses to tell him about it. Given that her last plan involved mass murder, it's unsurprising that he feels a right to know.

Web Animation

13 Cards: Granny has no idea about the magic cards or the fact that the main characters are clones, instead believing that Fëdor and the clones are a set of identical nonuplets.
The Amazing Digital Circus: "Beach Episode": Invoked. Abel instructs the players to leave Kinger out of discussions and plans by suggesting that he has done some sort of shady actions and can't be trusted, and him already being perceived as insane by the others leads them to go along with this. With Kinger having been in the Circus for the longest of the cast, he'd recognize that no such player like "Abel" ever existed, let alone as a colleague with actual knowledge and experience, so he's prevented from possibly revealing the truth of the matter to the other players in order for the false promise of an escape to successfully fool the others.
RWBY: As revealed in Volume 4, members of the White Fang are able to roam about Blake's hometown of Menagerie freely, because the inhabitants don't know that the White Fang chapter led by Adam Taurus played an instrumental role in the invasion of Vale and the destruction of Beacon Academy; Blake's parents only find out when Blake and Sun inform them as such when White Fang representatives of another leader, Sienna Khan, come to visit her father. Said representatives are able to avoid suspicion by claiming that the group led by Adam is a rogue splinter faction and they're trying to apprehend him, which is a lie.
Witch Academy: Aurora never learns that her aunt was actually Agatha, the witch who sparked the Cryptic War, until after she’s already been possessed by Agatha’s ghost. Even among her friends who’d never met her family, she was the last to know. Her friends and family all individually decided it was better to spare her feelings by not telling her, even if it might put her in danger.

Webcomics

Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: Dan's an incubus. His mother was one of the most powerful and infamous succubi around (it's later revealed that his maternal grandmother was even more so). No one told Dan this until his 'Cubi heritage started manifesting itself. He essentially locked himself out of the loop since everyone who knew about Destania (Dan's mom) either assumed Dan already knew, hence didn't bother bringing it up (like the other 'Cubi) or were waiting for Dan himself to start asking questions (like his older half-sister, Alexi) No one anticipated his utter lack of curiosity on the subject.
El Goonish Shive:
- During the storyline "Squirrel Prophet", Grace considers the revelations and secrets that she, Tedd and Sarah know about but Justin doesn't and realizes they've inadvertently done this to him.
  Grace: Wow, we have not kept Justin in the loop tonight.
- During the storyline "Title Pending 2: Even More Pending" (Working Title), this is subverted and discussed. The group decides that while they can invite Elliot's new girlfriend Ashley to a party where they're going to talking about everything magic, the truth about Grace's alien-shapeshifter-squirrel nature is something that needs to be kept under wraps... but Grace and Ashley end up getting along so well that the former instantly tells Ashley everything sans her Dark and Troubled Past (and even then, she promises to share later) before they both run to the mirror so Grace can demonstrate her abilities. Everyone else looks on in shock and confusion.
  Sarah: So I guess they're friends now.
- A few pages later, Susan and Diane talk about how the former has yet to tell her friends about recent events regarding an abberation fight. When the former is hesitant about Diane helping her talk about it by going with her to the aforementioned party, Diane lists how much she (and in some cases, the entire town) already knows about each of her friends' abilities, points out that fully explaining the fight would mean revealing Diane's own secret anyway, and asks if there's any serious benefit for keeping her out of the loop at this point. And we get another lock out during the aforementioned party: When Diane reveals her secret, the discussion reorients around said Long-Lost Relative (her father, Professor Raven). Everyone present is at least familiar with him, except Ashley, who's never heard of him before this point and spends most of the discussion bewildered.
Girl Genius had fun when Lars discovered who Agatha really is.
Krosp: The grownups knew.
Antimony in Gunnerkrigg Court was rather shocked to discover some facts about herself and her mother while all Surma's friends knew. And then it turns out this wasn't the only secret and this was even more widely known... "Seems like people enjoy keeping things from Annie" indeed.
Head Trip on Michael proposing to Kat.
Homestuck: The other characters deliberately avoided telling John that Vriska had died because they knew it would upset him. Similarly, his genetic mother, Jane, is the only one of her session who doesn't know that two of her other players live 4 centuries in the future and that one of them is her genetic daughter's pen-pal who is ensuring their very existence. Naturally, things get very confusing for her.
Everyone except for the main characters in L's Empire seem to know the significance of Beware the night of five lights. Since Dark Star is a god, he's able to know anything that has happened on screen. If the main characters found out, he would find out.
Off-White: Iki doesn't know he's a white spirit. Raigho started to tell him, but was interrupted.
Trevor (2020): When the new members of the medical team were brought onto the project, they were not told what the true scope of it was, or what they were really doing. Dr. Maddison tried to tell them with secret messages, but Enid caught wind of his plan, and intercepted them, so the others stayed none-the-wiser.
The Weekly Roll: Sir Becket is late to learn a few important details of his teammates' personal histories because he doesn't come to pub nights and they don't care to catch him up when they're sober.
Klara: Oh sorry. You weren't there when we had "tequila and childhood trauma night". You really need to go drinking with us more.

Web Original

The first Wham Episode shared by all incarnations of Noob reveals that Fantöm had been cheating for several years without knowing it.

Western Animation

American Dad!:
- In "Haylias", Stan believed that Project Daycare, which he put Hayley in, was discontinued because the subjects lost their free will permanently after seven days of activation. It isn't until after he activates Hayley and misses the deadline that he discovers from Bullock that the project was actually discontinued because the subjects turned on their handlers and killed them after seven days.
- Another example occurs in "Chimdale", wherein Stan is revealed to be bald and wears a wig to hide. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that the family knew all along, with the exception of Steve, who has been trying to expose Stan's baldness. According to Roger, they never told him because they believed he might overreact.
Jake's father in American Dragon: Jake Long is a normal human who unwittingly married into a family of dragons (though the ability to turn did conveniently skip his wife's generation). Throughout the series, everyone else in his family goes out of their way to not let him realize the magical goings on around him. Jake at one point gets so fed about having to keep it a secret from his father that he goes back in time in an attempt to tell him before he ever married his mom. It didn't go well. He does eventually find out and is accepting of it in Grand Finale. Trixie and Spud were as well, for the first few episodes.
Amphibia:
- In "The New Normal", since he was absent when Anne unlocked her connection to the Calamity Box and went berserk on Andrias in grief over his supposed death, Sprig is understandably confused when Anne and the others start referring to her "weird glowing blue powers" without context — not that they have much context for it either.
  Sprig: Blue powers?
  Polly: (dismissively) It was a thing.
- Played for Drama earlier in the same episode. After escaping Amphibia with the Plantars and they end up on Earth, Anne does not want to tell her parents about King Andrias' upcoming invasion, or Sasha and Marcy's betrayal, and especially her "blue powers". Thus whenever something is amiss or strange, Anne lies to them and passes it off as something different. This lasts until "Anne-sterminator" when they are attacked by Andrias' Cloak-bot and Anne is forced to reveal the whole truth to them.
- This actually causes a minor rift between Anne and her parents: when Boonchuys last saw their daughter five months ago, she was a lackadaisical kid who hated responsibility and always failed to be mindful of others. But since then, Anne has gone through a great deal of character development while in Amphibia — becoming significantly more mature, protective and conscientious - that they completely missed it, meaning Anne must also spend the episode convincing them that she is capable of handling these problems with their oversight.
- Anne and the Plantars show confusion when the assassin works to keep The Masquerade going around the market's shoppers, being unaware that Andrias specified that it wasn't to be witnessed by anybody when completing its mission.
Avatar:
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Earth King Kuei is being kept in the dark by his "cultural authority" the Dai Li as to the fact that there's been a hundred-year war between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. The Dai Li is mostly engaging in this to maintain power and to "prevent chaos." They also maintain an oppressive control over the city itself; people who disrupt the city or talk about the war are either terrified into silence or hauled off for "reeducation" into Dai Li sleeper agents.
- Happens in The Legend of Korra to the titular character, who always got upset that the Order of the White Lotus kept her at the training compound, but was kept in the dark from the fact that the Red Lotus tried to kidnap her at a young age. The only people outside of the White Lotus who knew were Tenzin, her father Tonraq, Lord Zuko, Lin Beifong, and even her Evil Uncle Unalaq.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "Last of Her Kind", the problem of the week involves the team stopping Looten Plunder from poaching elephants. Wheeler is completely oblivious to ivory's origins for much of the episode. Even when Kwame chews him out for planning to buy a necklace for Linka, he doesn't bother to explain why he thinks it's an awful idea, instead just snapping back with a vague statement that the trip will teach Wheeler the real cost of ivory.
In the Futurama episode "Parasites Lost", the crew has to make sure Fry doesn't know their plans to rid him of the worms. If he finds out, the worms will know too and can mount a defense.
In Macbeth's first appearance in Gargoyles, he set his entire plan to capture the Manhattan clan into motion with the assumption that Demona was still with the clan in order to lure her out of hiding. When Macbeth finds out the clan and her had a falling out and she left them, he is furious.
Gravity Falls: After Stanford Pines, the Author of the Journals is brought back, he obtains a piece of the inter dimensional rift that was created when he returned. If it falls into the hands of the Big Bad, it would cause the end of the world. Unfortunately, due to his Fatal Flaw of trust issues, he tells nobody save for Dipper, and he tells him to keep it secret from everyone, including Mabel and Stanley. This ends badly when Mabel gives it to a disguised Bill, not knowing what it was until it was too late.
Invincible (2021): Initially, Telia is Locked Out of the Loop about Allen's investigation into The Mole, but it's only a day before she's able to get her boyfriend into telling her.
King of the Hill:
- It's essentially an open secret that Joseph Gribble is the product of his mother Nancy having an affair with John Redcorn. The only people not aware are Joseph himself and his "father" Dale. The episode revealing this showed that Peggy Hill didn't know either, but Hank never told her because he figured it was so blatantly obvious he didn't have to say anything. Nobody tells them because it would destroy the Gribble family. Notably, later on in the series Dale comes to the conclusion that aliens impregnated Nancy...with his own sperm, in order to produce a race of super-warriors. Hank decides to let him believe this. In another episode Dale tells Hank that Bill's girlfriend's daughter shares DNA with his son...and just as Hank thinks he's figured out the truth, Dale concludes that the girl is also his artificially-inseminated child. Other episodes present it as being a case of Dale simply being in deep denial (and a fan theory has it that Dale knew all along but acted clueless about it so he could torment Redcorn by bonding with Joseph and subtly rubbing it in his face).
- This is also the case involving the one-episode character, Hoyt Platter, Luanne's father and Peggy's older brother. Luanne was told that her father works at an oil rig when actually been in prison the whole time. This even surprised the others too when he was released. Hoyt ends up committing another felony and sentenced for life under the "three strikes law". Luanne never knows the truth of her father being a disgraced convict which Lucky covers it up saying he is back at the oil rig, preserving her image.
In The Lion Guard, Kion and the guard are unaware of Zira’s death and Kovu and Kiara’s marriage because they were away at the Tree of Life. They came home as soon as they were alerted to Zira’s attack, but didn’t get filled in on the rest until they ran into Vitani and some of her friends calling themselves a Lion Guard. Kiara has to break up the fight so everything can be filled in for them.
In the Men in Black: The Series episode "The Out to Pasture Syndrome", Zed decides to retire and puts K in charge of MIB. When Alpha returns more powerful than ever, he captures J and uses a Mind Probe to discover Zed's location. After he leaves, Agent L rescues J and reveals Zed had not retired: every last one of J's fellow agents (and Frank the Pug) had been in on a scheme to capture Alpha, J being kept in the dark so that Alpha's probe wouldn't learn the truth. Unfortunately, J was confused as to why Zed's eyes didn't glaze over when he was neuralized, and Alpha picked up on that.
Phineas and Ferb:
- Linda is, by far, the only person in Danville (and possibly the whole world) who remains completely oblivious to Phineas and Ferb's big ideas, with them disappearing by the time she comes home and acts as if Candace has gone insane while trying to show them. Even a Chibi Tiny Tales short features her going about her daily routine while not even noticing the weird happenings going on around her.
- Phineas and Ferb, and by extension their family, are unaware of Perry's life as an OWCA secret agent and his battles with Dr. Doofenshmirtz, though the kids are aware of Perry's disappearances Once per Episode even if they can't figure out where he disappears to. Each time they actually did find out about Perry's secret agent life, it was either All Just a Dream or they have their memories erased later on in the story.
Ready Jet Go!: No one besides Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and possibly Mitchell knows that the Propulsions are aliens.
The Simpsons: In "The Great Money Caper" the entire town sets up a hoax on Homer and Bart to teach them not to con people, by creating a trick where Groundskeeper Willie is apprehended and found guilty for stealing Homer's car. The only person not in on the hoax? Willie himself, presumably to make his behavior more realistic.
Shimmer and Shine: Most humans other than Leah are unaware of Shimmer and Shine and Zahramay Falls, with them having to hide whenever Leah's friend Zac comes around; they even point out to Leah when they first met that nobody can see them or they won't be Leah's genies anymore. Zac is finally let in on it in the second season opener.
Sofia the First:
- Sofia, for the most part, is unaware of Cedric's secret plans to take over Enchancia and his constant plots to steal the Amulet of Avalor from her to use its power to rule the throne. Her family and animal friends are unaware as well, and the only ones he let in on are Wormwood and his parents Goodwyn and Winifred. It's not until the final season premiere are the heroes finally let in.
- Similarly, Sofia hasn't told her family or her friends at school about the Amulet of Avalor's powers and enchantments because for some reason, she feels she's not allowed to tell them, thinking they only see it as an ordinary accessory. The only ones who are in on them are her animal friends, the merpeople of Merroway Cove, and Aunt Tilly, who knows everything about the amulet because she was the bearer before Sofia. The family eventually learn most of the truth in "Elena and the Secret of Avalor", but they wouldn't know the full truth until the Grand Finale.
South Park: In "The South ParQ Vaccination Special", Stan, Kyle, and Cartman realize the COVID-19 Pandemic had torn their friendship apart, but they don't want Kenny to notice, so they distract him while they work out a weekly schedule in which they take turns hanging out with Kenny alone. Naturally, Kenny is confused at the end of the special when they put their schedule into effect, with Stan and Kyle going their separate ways and leaving Cartman to stay with Kenny for the weekend.
Star Trek: Prodigy: The entire crew of the Protostar suffer from this. Thanks to largely being enslaved miners in the Delta Quadrant, when they stumble across the Protostar they have no clue what it is, or what Starfleet or the United Federation of Planets are; it's up to a holographic copy of Captain Janeway to fill them in (initially they lie and tell her they're cadets, but ultimately the truth comes out; holo-Janeway isn't mad, however). This is intentional — the show is designed to introduce the basics of Star Trek to a younger audience who may not be familiar and therefore the crew serve as an Audience Surrogate.
In the penultimate episode of Static Shock, after he's kidnapped by a Villain of the Week Virgil's father puts two and two together and realizes Static's Secret Identity, giving him his blessing to continue his hero work upon being rescued. However, the two decide to hold off on telling his sister Sharon when she goes off on a rant about Bang Babies after having her car destroyed during the kidnapping and she's still none the wiser by the Grand Finale.
Star Wars shows:
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In one arc, the Jedi Council hatch an elaborate plot to infiltrate an assassination plot against Palpatine, by having Obi-Wan fake his death at the hands of criminal Rako Hardeen, and then going undercover as Hardeen to get close to the plot's ringleader, Moralo Eval. Anakin and Ahsoka aren't told about the plot in advance, as their reactions to Obi-Wan's "death" need to be genuine, but they aren't told about it once it's underway, either. By the time Yoda realizes this was a mistake, Anakin (with a little prodding from Palpatine) is already on his way to Nal Hutta to get his revenge on "Hardeen" and is very pissed off to learn the truth.
- Star Wars Rebels:
  - At the end of "Through Imperial Eyes", Thrawn and Yularen know that Agent Kallus is the traitor in the Imperial ranks. However, they choose to keep the rest of the Imperial officers in the dark so that Thrawn can Feed the Mole, necessitating letting Kallus' framing of Lieutenant Lyste stand.
- Star Wars: The Bad Batch:
  - Due to their inhibitor chips not working, the titular Batch don't know what Order 66 means in the first episode, although Wrecker's works properly later in the show.
  - In the first season, Hera keeps the rest of the crew in the dark about the existence of other rebel cells and the wider Rebellion as a security precaution in case any of them get captured. As the Ace Pilot, she's the one least likely to be in a direct combat situation, and thus the least likely to be captured.
- Star Wars Resistance: For most of the first season, mechanics Tam and Neeku don't know that their new co-worker, Kaz, is actually a spy for the Resistance, and that their boss Yeager hired him for his cover on the request of Poe Dameron. One of the reasons Tam is left locked out is because she has a massive case of Genre Blindness regarding the First Order, brushing off attempts by others to warn her about their true nature. When Kaz and Yeager's Resistance connections are revealed in "Descent", Tam takes the fact that she was lied to very badly, leading to her siding with the First Order on the naïve assumption that she'll be able to prove her innocence and they'll leave her alone. This naturally doesn't work out the way she thought it would.
Vampirina: Most humans in the series are unaware that Vee and her parents are monsters, except her girlfriends Poppy and Bridget, because they are keeping their identities a secret to try and act more like humans so they don't scare them, as people tend to get nervous or spooked around things they've never seen before. The one that is a big example of this is Edgar, who runs his own vlog "Weekly Weirdness" and is determined to find out of supernatural creatures live among them, which worries Vee. He eventually finds out in the Season 2 finale "Ghoul Guides Save The Day". According to Vee in the Season 3 premiere, things could get "pretty batty" if everyone found out.
The Venture Bros.:
- Through the first four seasons, Hank and Dean didn't know they were clones. Dean finds out in the interlude Halloween episode between Seasons 4 and 5, but chooses not to tell Hank.
- Rusty visits a Greek island as part of a vacation for a festival known as "Spanakopita". When Sgt. Hatred starts getting suspicious Brock tells him to drop it. It's later revealed that Spanakopita is an elaborate scam created by the locals as a way to fleece money off of Rusty and everyone deliberately keeps up the charade around him since aside from being the island's main source of income it's also the only time of the year he's truly happy.
Winx Club:
- In the first season, Bloom does not know she is the princess of a dead planet called Domino, and the guardian of a special power called the Dragon Fire, having lost her memory upon being sent to earth as a baby. That is, until the Trix, who do know, take it away from her.
- In a similar treatement to the first season, Faragonda knew exactly who Bloom was from the start, and why she came to Alfea and why she possesses such a powerful source, and never told her about it until the Trix stole her power.
This really backfires early on in W.I.T.C.H. (2004). Like in the source comic, the girls learn that Elyon's a princess and that her brother, Big Bad Prince Phobos, is looking for her. Cornelia's all for letting her know right away, but Will isn't so sure of doing so. As a result, when Phobos and Cedric find her, they tell her a twisted version of the truth, causing Elyon to join them instead. Corny isn't too happy with that.
WordGirl: The only one who knows of Becky Botsford's identity as WordGirl is her sidekick Captain Huggyface. Matter of fact, it's so secret that even her adoptive family doesn't know her identity— not even T.J, who is literally WordGirl's #1 fan (meaning he unknowingly idols his own older sister).
X-Men: Evolution:
- Mystique spends the first season acting as the Evil Principal of the high school the younger X-Men attend, with Professor X knowing and protecting her Secret Identity so the kids can have somewhat normal school lives. Magneto of all people calls Xavier out on hiding the truth from his students, with Wolverine agreeing that they're tough enough to deal with it. Xavier's then Instantly Proven Wrong when Mystique takes the opportunity to ambush Cyclops, and the team isn't happy about being made to find out the hard way with Jean asserting that withholding the truth is the same as lying to them.
- Xavier does so again soon afterwards, withholding the truth of Nightcrawler's parentage from him after learning that Mystique is his mother. Mystique herself tries to explain everything to Kurt, but she's prevented by Magneto who wanted to keep the experiments he performed on Kurt secret. This time the team was more forgiving, with Rogue reassuring Kurt that Professor X has good reasons for not telling them the whole story.
In one episode of Yin Yang Yo!, When Master Yo has to retrieve a powerful weapon, he keeps it a secret from Yin and Yang and pretends that he's taking them to an amusement park so that the Night Master would follow them and be thrown off the trail. At the end of the adventure, when the two correctly guess that Yo used them as bait, he offers them a dollar bill to not tell anyone he deliberately endangered children.

Real Life

Adopted children sometimes don't know they were adopted until they become adults. Sometimes, they never find out.
In the first half of the 20th century, quite a few U.S. doctors considered it merciful to tell a terminally-ill patient that they were sure to recover soon, but clue in the family to the real state of affairs. This happened to Richard Feynman's first wife, who died while he was busy building the first atomic bomb. And after Rudolph Valentino's perforated ulcer had deteriorated into peritonitis and pleuritis — massive, runaway infection of his guts and his lungs, that is — the doctors figured out he was going to die. They didn't tell him. Just hours before his death on August 23, 1926, Valentino was conscious and lucid, and talking about going home.
- Even today, many doctors believe it is best to keep a woman from knowing if something is wrong with her unborn child — as stress increases the likelihood of something going wrong with unborn children.
Intelligence agencies that normally cooperate (such as the American and British agencies) will start keeping things closer to their chests if they think their ally has a mole or a leak.
- Pakistan was locked out of the loop while the US conducted an operation to kill Osama bin Laden. The operation succeeded in 40 minutes, and Pakistan was only informed a couple hours later. This has been happening on a more general basis in US-Pakistan relations, for the simple reason that things the US told them kept getting leaked. The recent revelation that elements of the Pakistani intelligence service were actively helping Osama bin Laden to hide in Pakistan only highlights why this type of thing is sometimes done.
In politics, aides, advisors, and operatives often take actions without telling their boss — precisely so that if the situation does blow up in their faces, they can (truthfully) claim that they'd acted alone and their boss didn't know. This is called "plausible deniability". (The word is often misused to refer to a politician who did know but pretends not to.) Can also lead to politicians not monitoring certain of their aides, advisors, and operatives too closely so that if they are doing anything improper and keeping it from them, they won't accidentally find out.
- 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke in 1919, with First Lady Edith assuming partial control of the country with his permission. She respected his authority, but at the same time was worried about causing him undue stress and would curate all mail and news stories he was allowed to see. An Obvious Rule Patch was later applied to the law in the form of the 25th Amendment to establish a procedure for situations like this.
- 46th President Joe Biden's legacy was marred by this, as throughout his term he battled prostate cancer and cognitive decline that hampered his ability to lead the country. According to journalist Jake Tapper and multiple other sources, Biden's subordinates often took the administration into their own hands by using an automatic pen to fake his sign-off on official matters without his knowledge. Upon leaving office, Biden's detractors declared him a Puppet King with his rival and successor President Donald Trump swearing to prosecute everyone involved.
One can easily argue every wartime American President has done it, but Richard Nixon was especially notorious for this kind of activity. Under the smoke and mirrors of withdrawing 150,000 American troops from the frontlines during the Vietnam War, Nixon secretly expanded the conflict into neighboring Cambodia. Not just the government of Vietnam; but Congress and the Supreme Court were unaware and/or lied to about the invasion for at least FOUR YEARS until the full truth was revealed (and some information is still classified to this day). Nixon knowingly suppressed knowledge and ruined the career of several officers questioning the legality of it, because the overall action was a severe abuse of Presidential authority. The only reason Nixon wasn't impeached for the affair? The Watergate trials were also occurring and he was already being impeached for that. It was a major contributing factor for Nixon's resignation, given that even if he survived Watergate, there was another case of underhanded activity Congress could (and would) throw at him.
The United States Vice Presidency was considered an unimportant office for most of its existence, and the VP was often not privy to secret government projects or information of what the government was up to. This kind of bit the US government in the rear when Harry S. Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as president when the latter died — right at the tail end of World War II. He didn't even know the US had a nuclear bomb project.
- Immediately after the JFK assassination, security agents surrounded Lyndon Johnson and rushed him to a secret room in the hospital, fearing that someone might attempt to kill him too. The effect of this was that virtually every member of the presidential staff in Dallas knew that JFK was dead, and thus that Johnson was now President, before Johnson himself did.
This is the entire concept of Need To Know access. It's not enough that you have the clearance to access classified information — if it's not necessary to know it to perform your duties, you don't get to look at it. (The clearance just means that if the time comes where that information would be relevant, you're already cleared to have access to it, rather than having to go through an added process to get it or being barred entirely.)
Domestic abusers can do this, telling their victims something but selectively omitting critical details, leading the victim to screw up and "justify" the resultant abuse. Example: A man calls his wife and leaves a message to tell her they'll be going out for dinner that evening. Based upon their past history, she understands that this means they will be going to a casual dining restaurant, and dresses appropriately. What the husband failed to mention was that this dinner is at a very up-scale establishment, and it is with a very important person who is expected to significantly impact the husband's career. He comes home from work to pick up his wife, with no time to spare, only to find that she is grossly underdressed for the occasion. Abuse follows, in which he berates her and accuses her of intentionally trying to sabotage his career, and brushes off her legitimate defense as a lame excuse and an attempt to fix the blame on him.
Many North Koreans who fled their country were shocked to learn that other nations are far better in every way than their communist paradise. Even more shocking to them is that all humans are granted basic rights and freedom, something that was forbidden in their country.
Middle Eastern Terrorists are known for performing Suicide Attacks, but to make it worse for everyone involved, not all of them know they're being sent on suicide missions. Some suicide bombers, especially Child Soldiers, are told that their vests are equipped with directional charges that will explode outwards (which would still kill them, but they don't know better). During the 9/11 attacks, according to the mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the pilots were the only ones who knew they weren't coming back as their accomplices thought it was a simple hostage situation. Weaponizing the planes themselves had been mostly unprecedented until then.
On the morning of June 6, 2023, the PGA Tour was engaged in legal proceedings against the upstart LIV tour, which had faced much negative press over their owners being wealthy Saudi Arabians, as the country has come under fire as of late for their attitude towards money being the key to solving any problem and the human rights violations of the Saudi government. Then came the announcement that the PGA Tour and LIV were to merge. Absolutely nobody saw this coming, as it had been negotiated in secret by the higher-ups of both tours (and it's heavily suspected the Saudis simply bribed the PGA bigwigs with even more cash to make this happen). And by that we don't just mean the general public — the people working at both companies (including the lawyers working against each other), their broadcasting partners (like CBS), and even the golfers themselves were completely unaware this was going to happen until the news dropped. As of this writing (one year after the announcement), the fate of the deal is unclear as US and other governmental bodies are looking into preventing the merger on anti-trust grounds.

Locked Out of the Loop
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