Missed Him by That Much: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

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Usually played for laughs, but can be used in an attempt to build suspense. Also used to execute and maintain a [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend]]. In any event, as some of the examples below will indicate, it is a schtick that is very ''very'' easy for a plot-creator to painfully over-do. For works with contemporary, real-world settings, this trope may soon fall victim to the prevalence of [[Tech Marches On|cell phones]] and wind up [[Discredited Trope|discredited.]]

 

 

{{examples}}

 

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

* The first [[All There in the Manual|sound stage]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's'' had both the protagonists and the [[Hero Antagonist|Wolkenritter]] visiting [[Hot Springs Episode|a newly opened hot spring]] and missing a chance meeting with one another. This was mostly thanks to Nanoha and Fate spending [[Ship Tease|most of their time there washing each other's backs]] instead of wandering around the place with [[Those Two Guys|Alisa and Suzuka]].

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' alters Misao and Kaoru's first meeting in Kyoto for the anime; you will go nuts.

** "''A Maze-ing Race''": Ash and company are lost in a maze and have been split up. In one amusing sequence involving [[The Rival|Paul]], in no particular order did Ash's, Dawn's and Brock's groups take turns asking him if he's found the other two groups, missing each other by less than a minute each.

** "''Jumping Rocket Ship''" has Croagunk lost in Canalave City by himself, and travels by way of boat. Several times did he pass by a location where Ash and the others were a mere second ago. The group only managed to find Croagunk when his trainer Brock tried to hit on a girl at the end of the episode.

** For something that doesn't involve Team Rocket for once, the recurring [[Cool Shades|sunglasses]]-wearing Krookorok, who faded from importance over 40 episodes ago,was revealed to have been stalking Ash and friends the whole time, only to miss them at every opportunity. (There was a quick flashback showing events of previous episodes and where Krookorok was around those times.)

* During the Soul Society arc of ''[[Bleach]]'', the separated group are looking for each other, while Chad accidentally saves Ichigo by blowing up a group of Shinigami mooks without seeing who they were chasing.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''Amazing [[Spider-Man]]'' Volume 2 #50 has Peter and Mary Jane trying to find one another with the results you're likely to expect from this page.

* Seen in an issue of ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|West Coast Avengers]]'', with most of the titular team stuck in ancient Egypt thanks to a defective time machine that can only take them further into the past. They try to contact and hitch a ride back home with any of several ''other'' time travelers known to live in or have visited that particular time period (including Rama-Tut, the early Fantastic Four, and Dr. Strange), but always just manage to miss them.

'''Hero:''' That was just bullshit to keep you guys on the hunt, Ciba. }}

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[An American Tail]]'': Young Fievel is separated from his family on their way to America, and spends the rest of the movie looking for them, barely missing them on several occasions; this was partly because his sister Tanya was the only one really looking for him, while the parents believe he's as good as dead or assume it's impossible he'd make it to America.

** In the sequel, ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', Fievel and Tiger walk past each other in the desert, under the assumption that the other is just a mirage. It doesn't even help that they address each other "Hi, mirage of Tiger", "Hi, mirage of Fievel".

* In [[Don Bluth]]'s ''[[Thumbelina]]'', the titular character spends a depressingly large amount of time walking ''away'' from her house.

** [[Don Bluth]] must love being such a bastard.

* In ''Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey'', the animals and their owners pass each other on the road without realizing it.

** However, Shadow the leader suddenly got a feeling he should go back, but thinks it was nothing.

* The film ''[[Serendipity]]'' has the two main characters constantly miss bumping into each other by ''this'' much as they're actively trying to find the other. This goes on and on until the viewer is sorely tempted to shout at the screen, "Just meet up ''already!''"

* In spite of coming within spitting distance of one another at various points throughout the film, Bruce Willis's character never once meets or even sees Gary Oldman's in ''[[The Fifth Element]]''.

* [[Buster Keaton]]'s silent comedy ''[[The Navigator]]'' shows two people repeatedly missing each other on a ship, in spite of the fact that they're also the only two passengers on the vessel.

* ''[[Minority Report]]'' features an awesome sequence with Anderton and Agatha avoiding the Future Crime cops, utilizing Agatha's future-seeing prediction to place themselves at the right place and right time for seemingly random events to hide them from the cops. (Example: Agatha tells Anderton to stop right in the middle of the mall, in plain view. Just as the cops stop at an overhead walkway to look down, a man with balloons blocks their view of Anderton.)

* In the movie ''[[Milo and Otis]]'', Otis the dog, while searching for his friend Milo the cat, goes to several places Milo has been, but he always arrives a little too late.

** Though, at one point in this, Jack is in the bathroom shaving, and Gower is in the adjacent bedroom changing, and each one believes that Betty is on the other side of the door.

* In ''[[The Terminator]]'', [[Agent Scully|Dr. Silberman]] scoffs at the idea of the Terminator, and he leaves ''just'' as the Terminator arrives at the station. He's looking at his pager when he first walks in.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* There is one case in a [[Forgotten Realms|Drizzt]] novel where Drizzt and Cattie-Brie are walking on one side of the street to meet Morik the rogue about Wulfgar (who went missing sometime last book), while, on the other side of the street, there is an elf going in the opposite direction to meet an informant to find out where Drizzt is, so [[Wholesome Crossdresser|she]] can kill him. Neither party ever realizes the other was so close by, and Drizzt isn't even aware the elf exists until the climactic showdown.

* In the fourth book of [[The Power of Five]], Scarlett is leaving her home to go to Hong Kong ''just'' as Matt and Jamie are around the corner, and miss her by maybe a dozen meters. [[Lampshaded]], of course.

* Ellis Peters has two people, who had never seen each other but are primary-importance characters, do this in one of the Brother Cadfael mysteries, to the point where one holds the others stirrup ''not realizing who the other is''.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* In what is probably the longest running example, ''[[Sesame Street]]'' spent over a decade (from 1971 to 1985) exhausting pretty much every conceivable variation of this trope with regards to [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend|popular character Snuffleupagus]]. He was perceived by the vast majority of the adult cast as a figment of Big Bird's imagination until extreme efforts were made to forcibly prevent him from once again fulfilling this trope and leaving just as the gathered adults were supposed to meet him. Behind the scenes, the evident reason for his final unveiling was due to fears about young viewers learning the wrong lesson about attempting to tell the truth.

** Not only the beginning of the episode, but almost all the way to the climax of the episode. Other instances include Donna parking her car and walking away, and mere moments later the TARDIS appears right behind the car; running down intersecting streets and stopping just short of the actual intersection; and so forth. Donna even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the trope by listing off a number of bizarre events that she investigated, believing the Doctor to have been involved, but dismisses the one where the Titanic almost crashed into Buckingham Palace... which was the only one that the Doctor was ''actually present for''.

** In "The Romans", Barbara is sold as a slave and ends up working in Nero's palace. At the same time, the Doctor and Vicki are guests at the palace. Through the middle two episodes of the serial, they repeatedly just miss seeing Barbara (though Vicki does unwittingly save her life).

** A rare dramatic example in "Girl In The Fireplace". The Doctor meets the Madame de Pompadour at various points of her life. Eventually, he tells her he will come back and take her traveling with him, and she eagerly awaits. However, when he does come back, she has just died and her body is being taken from her mansion. The Doctor's sadness and the letter she leaves him make this episode a real [[Tear Jerker]].

* One episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' had Turk and Carla chasing each other around the hospital, attempting to meet for a pre-arranged kiss.

** Another episode had Turk and JD chasing each other around the hospital, attempting to meet for a hug after Turk got back from his honeymoon. They each ended up in separate rooms, just next to each other. Then, somehow, JD ended up in the same room, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|one floor up]].

* In the Series 2 finale of ''[[Skins]]'', Sid and Cassie just miss each other while he's searching for her in New York City when the screen goes black and the series ends for that generation of characters.

* ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' has been getting lots of mileage out of this trope. As of the fifth season, Ted has picked up an umbrella owned by the titular mother at a party, accidentally walked into and taught the wrong class that she was in, and briefly dated her roommate, and left just after seeing her... left leg.

* ''[[Frasier]]'''s third season finale, "You Can Go Home Again", is a flashback to events before the pilot episode. Frasier and Niles are in Cafe Nervosa. Niles leans over to the next table to grab some napkins - and as he does so, his future love interest (and as yet unknown) Daphne leans over to his table to ask Frasier if he has finished with the sugar.

** The number of times that Character A would leave the Cafe, and then seconds later Character B would walk in.

** Gung-ho prosecutor just misses mysterious vigilante in ''[[The City Hunter]]''.

** ''[[You Are Beautiful]]'' is particularly egregious for this across the story arc.

** In ''[[Winter Sonata]]'', Yuujin misses her engagement party while wildly looking for someone who looked like her first love.

** Even historical dramas are not spared, with ''[[Dong Yi]]'' being an example.

* ''[[Mad About You]]'' ended its third season with a two-parter about an alternate world in which Paul and Jamie never met, because the location of their canonical [[Meet Cute]] burnt down. The trope is played straight for almost the two full episodes, and only averted in the final scene

* Happens a lot in [[Bassie En Adriaan]], where the villains would often just barely miss the duo.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Sora and [[Donald Duck]]/Goofy from ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', the first time they're in Traverse Town.

* In ''Fallout3'' your character is looking for his/her father who left the Vault right before you. Every time you pick up his path, you learn that he was ''just'' there not a few hours before.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

** Later on, he explains why he overlooked it, and his friends point out that the way he ended up doing things worked out for the better anyway.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'': "Adventures in Rufus-Sitting" Kim's pursuit of Rufus always brings her within a few feet of Ron and his family in Paris.

* [[Peter Pan]] and Captain Hook do this in the [[Disney]] cartoon around a rock, when Peter is pretending to be a water spirit.

* The ''[[Duckman]]'' episode "Bev Takes A Holiday" goes through this when twin sisters Bernice and Beverly unknowingly end up in the same house together.

 

 

[[Category:Narrative Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]