Dead Man Writing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

This is a message from a dead character, either left in the knowledge of their death, or left in such a way that it won't be seen unless they die. Often it contains useful secrets, the reason why he's dead, the actual information that got him killed in the first place, and an apology for dying and getting the reader involved.

 

 

Quite often, [[Will Foresight]] is subverted when the person who made the will adds, after "I'm dead", "unless..." and adds a humorous (if unlikely) hypothetical meant to lighten the mood.

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Appeared in ''[[Vampire Princess Miyu]]'', in the episode "Woman Priest", in the classic "The letter ends up in the hands of its designated recipient against all probability" fashion. And, of course, it opened with "If you are reading this, it means that I have been devoured by the Shinma..."

* In the end of the first season of [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]], Setsuna sends a letter like that to Marina, after he is supposedly killed in the final episode.

* This is the entire premise of ''[[Shigofumi]]''.

* In ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Higurashi]]'', Keiichi leaves such a note at the end of the first arc.

*** Although the note is signed as her, it's implied to have been written by someone else. Whether or not that person was a victim has not been stated yet.

* Subverted rather gruesomely in ''[[Loveless]]''.

* [[Parental Substitute|Linith's]] diary in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] [[The Movie|Movie 1st]] [[Comic Book Adaptation|The Comics]]'', which Linith wrote with the expectation that Fate will find it after she's dead.

* ''[[The Big O]]''. In episode 24 Roger Smith receives a letter from Michael Seebach (Schwartzwald), which was to be delivered after his death.

* A character in the ''[[Death Note]]'' anime plants two of these at once. The first and more detailed is presumably there to cover for the brusque, low-byte-count second.

* In ''[[Summer Wars]]'', Grandma Sakae leaves a note to the family with her wishes on how they should carry on after her death: welcome the prodigal son Wabisuke back into their home and stay strong together as a family.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The [[Fantastic Four]] and [[Spider-Man]] viewed a holographic message from the Human Torch after his recent death. Along with various farewells, the Torch asked [[Spider-Man]] to take his spot on the team.

 

''Since you're still reading, it looks like I'm dead. Damn.'' }}

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (1976): A note written by Travis includes "By the time you read this I will be dead."

* ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]'' has the line "By the time you read this I will be dead."

* ''Serial Killer'': women kidnapped by a serial killer are forced to say "By the time you see this I will be dead." while being videotaped.

* ''[[The Caine Mutiny]]'' has this, with the main character's father.

* There's a complicated example in the interactive hologram from the movie ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]''.

* In ''The Pelican Brief'', finding one of these videos is how the protagonists figure out exactly what's going on.

* In ''[[Saw]] IV'', Jigsaw goes to an insane length to be sure nobody can find one of his messages until after he's dead: he coats a tape with wax and swallows it. It's only discovered when his body's being autopsied.

* Parodied in ''[[Beetlejuice]]''; Lydia tries (and fails) to write one of these.

* In ''[[Iron Eagle]]'', [[Cool Old Guy]] Chappy records a [[Rousing Speech]] for Doug specifically in case he goes down during their mission. "If anything happens to me, get as high as you can, and play this cassette."

* ''[[Serenity]]''

** The Operative runs Mr. Universe through with a sword, but makes the mistake of leaving him alone before he actually dies. Mr. Universe takes the chance to record a message for Mal, telling him where he can find a secret back-up broadcast system. Unfortunately, the Operative comes back after Mal has triggered the message, and hears it too...

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Hari Seldon from [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'' series recorded a series of messages to be played each time the Foundation hit one of the mathematically predicted "Seldon Crises". Even the first one was revealed decades after his death.

** Due to that formula, they consist of stunningly accurate predictions of the future, leading up to one of the classic [[Oh Crap]] Moments in sci-fi literature, Seldon listing off events that aren't occurring. Don't worry, though, [[There Is Another|there is a Second Foundation...]].

* A straight example occurs in the second book in the ''Looking Glass Wars'' series, where Hatter comes across a message which his former lover, Weaver, left him in case she died before they could meet again (which she obviously did... or did she?).

* This appeared in ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy|I, Jedi]]'', a [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel featuring Corran Horn, whose father, secretly the son of a Jedi, had died years before, and left a holographic message for him. It started with the "My hope is that we're watching this together..." variant, and the thought that they'd be laughing at how young he looked.

** Also in the EU, Lorn Pavan recorded a message for his son Jax. Jax had been taken and raised by the Jedi, and one of the last things Lorn did was tell the recording droid to find his son.

* In ''[[Tortall Universe|Lioness Rampant]]'' by [[Tamora Pierce]], the person sent the letter to a friend, thinking trouble was likely. If he survived, she was to burn the letter; if he didn't, she was to pass it on to Alanna.

* Played with in ''[[The Name of the Wind]]''. Kvothe leaves one of these messages for Bast, but survives his mission, to return home to find that Bast found the note earlier than he was supposed to and is pissed off.

* Subverted in the [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] novel ''Whose Body?'' with the smug murderer. When he knows the police are close to catching him, he plans to take poison and writes a gloating note to the police and Lord Peter to be found near his body. Unfortunately for him, the police burst in mid-sentence, and he's presumably tried and hanged as a common criminal.

* In Garth Nix's ''Shade's Children'' the escaped children routinely make these, very much aware that any mission could be their last.

* ''[[Neverwhere]]'': Door's dying father records a message for her. But Croup and Vandemar alter the message before she sees it.

* In [[David Eddings]]' [[Malloreon]], Belgarath and Belgarion find a message written by the [[Big Bad]] of [[The Belgariad]], Torak, that is addressed to Belgarion. It (not entirely typically) starts "If you are reading this, we have already met in battle and you have killed me..." and goes onto explain a few rather important points of the Prophecies that they both serve. It ends with the instruction that Belgarion must be ready to do anything, even kill his own son, rather than allow the Dark Prophecy to be fulfilled. Pretty ominous, considering the Dark Prophecy is the one Torak was serving.

* In ''Mockingjay'', the last book in [[The Hunger Games]] series, Katniss gets one from Cinna. His sketchbook contains designs for a suit of armor for her to wear into battle and the message "I'm still betting on you."

* This is the entire plot of ''[[Thirteen Reasons Why]]''.

* In [[Agatha Christie]] novels:

** Subverted ''twice'' in ''Death On The Nile'': The initial written by the murder victim in her own blood is quickly discovered to actually have been written by the murderer (the victim died instantly, leaving no time to write a message), seemingly to throw suspicion on a third party. {{spoiler|It later turns out the third party was actively involved in the planning of the murder and the message served to direct suspicion ''away'' from her.}}

** But played straight in ''And Then There Were None''; the murderer writes a message in a bottle revealing their identity and explaining in detail how and why they murdered everyone and stating how they hoped it was unsolved up until their point of reveal.

 

* ''[[Star Trek]]'':

** In the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Visionary", Chief O'Brien, before taking on a dangerous time-travel mission, informed Dr. Bashir that he had left a message for his wife Keiko in the event of his death.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

** In the episode "The Parting Of The Ways":

* A sort-of roundabout example in ''[http://jabootu.net/?p=585 Baywatch: Down Under]'': When his former lover dies, Cody travels all the way to Australia (her home) and finds a "goodbye" note left amongst her possessions.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has a few examples:

** Sheridan leaves a message for Delenn in the episode "Z'ha'dum", though he doesn't actually end up dead (at least, not permanently).

** ''Babylon 5'' also has an actually-dead example: in "The Parliament of Dreams", G'Kar receives a message from an old enemy: "By the time you get this recording, I will already be dead... Ah, but then, very shortly, so will you."

* In the fourth season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', this is used in Mayor Wilkins' video will to Faith. The mayor notes that it's either her watching it, or a bunch of kids at a museum celebrating his glory--"[[Affably Evil|In which case: hi, kids!]]"

* You could say it was inverted in the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "The Message", where the guy arrives in a coffin, with a tape recorder, asking them to bury him. Later on, he wakes up, having faked the whole thing to escape with the organic goods he was hiding in his chest. But the audio message still ends up being relevant, and ends up acting like the trope played straight when it {{spoiler|plays at the end of the episode, after he's [[Killed Off for Real]]}}.

** In the episode "To the Last Will I Grapple With Thee", the murder victim left a video tape claiming that a friend of Jessica's was out to kill him. {{spoiler|He actually committed suicide, arranging his death to implicate Jessica's friend, a man whom he blamed for making his life miserable.}}

* ''[[Monk]]'', on the series finale, it's revealed that Trudy left Monk a tape as a Christmas gift before she died. While the entire tape wasn't shown yet, she does reveal that she knew she was in danger.

* The letter Bart leaves for Chuck on ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' (which oddly enough mentions that he's left Chuck Bass Industries, but fails to mention the morality clause).

* In ''[[Murder Most Horrid]]'', an episode begins with a woman recording her suicide note that begins "Dear Mum, by the time you read this, I will be dead.", but she ends up embroiled in {{spoiler|an assassination attempt of sorts. By the time it's over, she's decided not to kill herself, and also decides to phone her mother to tell her all about it. Unfortunately, she dies anyway and the last words she says to her mum before the tape begins playing are 'I've got so much to say I could explode!'. Guess how she dies.}}

* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', before {{spoiler|Gabriel faces his brother Lucifer and is ultimately killed by him}}, he leaves a video for Sam and Dean containing some important information. In the form of a porno. Him as the leading man, of course, [[Porn Stache|'stache]] and all. He halts the action for a moment to deliver the info. After admitting that Dean was right, {{spoiler|Gabriel}} had been too much of a coward to face his family, he ends with this [[Funny Moments|little gem]]:

:: The porno then resumes.

* Parodied to death in the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch "Dear Sister."

* Lisa Moore in ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'', who died leaving a four-year-old daughter, left a number of tapes for the daughter to watch as she grew up. After the time jump Summer is seen watching at least two of them, one of which reminds her to tell her father to get his prostate checked.

 

 

== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==

* The prologue of ''[[Deadlands]]: Hell on Earth'' is a [[Apocalyptic Log]] written by a Templar named Jo about the state of the world and events that led to it meant to bring players up to speed on the lore. She is on her death bed, and is most likely dead by the time the player would realistically read it.

* ''[[Silent Hill]]'' RPG.

** In the Indian Runner delivery office there's a journal of an undercover officer working for a drug gang. The last entry says:

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The NES game ''[[The Guardian Legend]]'' has one of these after you complete the introductory space shooter level, when you first enter the labyrinth.

* Mary's letter in ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', though we don't get to read it all until James lets himself read it all. The very first thing James says in the game is that it can't be possible he got a letter from Mary, since she's been dead for years now. But near the end, we find out that she's only been dead about a week.

** The whole thing smells of [[Retcon]]. Probably done in order to be able to say that Sarevok and the PC could have exchanged places but for the smallest accident of chance.

* {{spoiler|George Crabtree}}'s journal in ''[[Dark Fall: The Journal]]''

* ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'':

* Appears twice in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' played straight (in "Homer's Odyssey" and "I Married Marge", although the second one is not a death, but instead him trying to run away) and once parodied ("Marge, if you're watching this, it means I worked out how to operate the video camera" in "Half-Decent Proposal").

** Again, during the episode where Mona dies.

* Professor Farnsworth leaves a holographic message to his crew after he is taken to the Near Death Star in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Clone of My Own". He even anticipates a smart remark by Bender and reveals that he recorded over Bender's soap operas.

* ''[[Iron Man: Armored Adventures]]'': Tony's father does one of these for Tony.

* Happens in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' when Brock conveniently finds a video from the late Dr. Venture with explicit directions for Rusty that had to be carried out within the next day.

* ''[[Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'': Subverted. When Zack and Ivy attempt to close the titular character's file following her death, they receive a video of one of these. Then {{spoiler|at the end of the episode, Carmen is revealed to not be dead after all, and to have in fact staged both the video and the avalanche that supposedly killed her specifically in order to determine who was "worthy" to be the successor(s) to her crime organization in the event that anything should actually happen to her.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Death Tropes]]