Poor Communication Kills: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Sometimes this poor communication can be entirely legitimate. After all, miscommunication and misunderstanding happens all the time in real life, and some stories are written with this point in mind. This often happens in mystery stories, such as ''[[Detective Conan]]'' episodes, in which a murderer kills an innocent victim due to a misunderstanding.

But frequently, a situation arises where the author wants the plot to go a certain direction, but for it to do so one or more characters have to misunderstand each other. Common enough in [[Real Life]], so it should be no trouble to pull off in fiction, right? Well, there's a few problems... the misunderstanding is pretty easy to clear up, and the characters are pretty good speakers who are on good terms and speak frankly to each other without needlessly holding back.

 

 

All the characters involved go [[Out-of-Character Moment|out of character for a moment]] so that they [[Cannot Spit It Out|can't (or won't) tell]] their [[One Side of the Story|side of the story]], or creates a false urgency because there's "[[No Time to Explain]]", or just plain making them act like a disgruntled loner and telling their friends to [[Figure It Out Yourself]] when cooperation (or at least [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand|non-interference]]) is infinitely preferable. No matter which reason, it seems that at least half of the people involved have simultaneously gotten hold of the [[Idiot Ball]], if not [[Idiot Plot|everyone]].

 

 

Though similar, this trope does not include things like [[Selective Obliviousness]], [[You're Just Jealous]], or [[Sarcastic Confession]] as those are failures to ''listen'' rather than speak; though honestly authors can nerf even ''that'' ability when they need the [[Reasonable Authority Figure]] to become a [[Adults Are Useless|useless adult.]]

Contrast: [[Just Eat Gilligan]], [[Amnesia Danger]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Gakuen Tengoku]],'' Oshino's inability to articulate the fact that he's a new teacher got him his ass beat.

* One ''[[Detective Conan]]'' case had an injured American tourist recuperating in a Japanese household and falling in love with a young woman. Because of a mouth injury, at first he could only communicate by writing out Japanese phrases phonetically. As he was leaving, the young woman asked if he loved her, and he wrote down the word {{spoiler|"shine", referring to his earlier words that he wanted a "shining bride", but which she quite naturally interpreted as "shi-ne," which happens to be Japanese for "die". The woman committed suicide after he left, and when he came back he ended up murdering her father and a family friend in revenge.}} [[What an Idiot!]].

** Another one: {{spoiler|A handsome singer is killed by his manager after he started treating her badly after she got plastic surgery. What she didn't know was that he liked her the way she was and only learned the truth after she killed him and took another listen to his last song.}}

* Most trouble in ''[[Binbou Shimai Monogatari]]'' stems from the two sisters simply not ''talking'' with each other about what's bothering them.

* This was {{spoiler|[[Colonel Badass]] Sergei Smirnov}}'s [[Fatal Flaw]] in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]''. {{spoiler|His inability to reach for his son Andrei after the death of his mom Holly, leads to Andrei growing so embittered and hateful that he ends up ''killing'' his father in battle, believing him to be a traitor on top of [[You Killed My Father|responsible for Holly's death]].}}

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'':

** A significant amount of the angst had Kira (or anyone else on the Archangel) felt the need say to ZAFT something along the lines of "Hey, there's about 30 civilians on board this ship". Then again,[[Hot-Blooded|Yzak]] would most likely just shoot them anyway, believing them to be fleeing soldiers.

** Athrun telling Nicol that the pilot Strike was a friend of his whom tragic circumstances forced him into reluctantly fighting, and not evil and hell bent on slaughtering them would have likely saved Nicol's life later on. Instead Nicol suicides into Strike in a vain attempt to save Athrun's life, which was never in danger because Kira would likely have just left Athrun alone.

* In ''[[Appleseed Ex Machina]]'' the government advices the general public to hand over very handy Connexus-devices telling that they've been "deemed harmful". Instead of simply saying: {{spoiler|"These devices turn you into insane cyber-zombie and may force the police to shoot you."}} Needless to say, few listen.

** Mai gets involved with the HiME Festival by being told she'll have to risk the most important thing to her. She assumes it's her life. [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|Not quite.]]

** Nagi informs the HiME that {{spoiler|1=the HiME Star is descending and will continue to do so until someone gains its power. The earthquakes and weather shifts caused by its movemement make the HiME consider that it will destroy the world otherwise.}} Not really, but the {{spoiler|1=perceived time crunch forces several of the more impulsive HiME into actions they might've waited before taking otherwise.}}

** Yukariko blames {{spoiler|Nao for attacking her after the above revelation, in reality [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit|an illusion projected by her CHILD]].}} Nao, already a bitter, cynical girl by nature, {{spoiler|1=assumes the HiME coming to confront her about attacking Yukariko are attacking her first, and [[Eye Scream|loses an eye in the resulting fight]], firmly shoving her from Anti-Hero into an antagonist slot.}}

** Mikoto's training and {{spoiler|arguable brainwashing at a young age}} repeatedly spawn [[Diabolus Ex Machina]], {{spoiler|killing Takumi and Yuiichi both.}}

** Shizuru's failure to inform Haruka she was leaving the school to look after her grievously hurt best friend leads to Haruka {{spoiler|tracking her down, seeing Shizuru's private actions while Natsuki is asleep, and jumping to all the wrong conclusions.}} Her eventual accusations {{spoiler|of her molesting Natsuki while she slept, in Natsuki's hearing, cause Natsuki to react...poorly to Shizuru's attempts to reassure her, and the perceived rejection causes Shizuru to have a psychotic break and kill lots of people that "could threaten Natsuki", ending in the deaths of Haruka, Section 1, Nao's mother, and Shizuru and Natsuki themselves in the final showdown.}}

* Parodied in ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]''. There is an episode that has Hayate spending the night at Hinagiku's house; then Hinagiku end up bumping with Ayumu, Hayate's other love interest and Hina's new friend as well. That's when she says this is bad, and the narrator detailedly explains this trope, commenting that Hinagiku fears that Ayumu will find out somehow that Hayate is inside the house, then will run away and get frustrated because of a misunderstanding. And then it happens.

** Although it hasn't killed anyone yet, Hayate seems to be a master at this. The entire story was started because he couldn't articulate himself correctly.

** Well to be fair, they didn't know he was a Jinchuriki since he never bothered to tell them.

*** This is Justified: who wants to tell anyone they have a demon sealed in their guts, especially without good reason.

* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'''s Holland. If you take a shot for every time he conceals important information from other people (especially Renton), don't expect to be awaken by the end of any given episode. No, nobody necessarely dies because of it, but he was the source of much pain and frustration for everyone just because he ''wouldn't talk''.

** Possibly one of the best examples: at a point in the series, Eureka {{spoiler|tries to "return to the earth" due to her Realian nature}}; after that, her body goes through mild modifications and she gets comatose. Nobody wants to tell Renton that {{spoiler|Eureka is not human}}, so nobody tells him ''anything''. This reaches the stupid level when Holland decides to go on a [[A Mech by Any Other Name|LFO]] to find a priest who could help her. Renton practically begs for him to tell him what's happening to Eureka. Any normal person would simply say: "Eureka's sick. Rare disease. Gonna get a doctor". Holland, on the other hand, goes "SHUT UP, BRAT!" and punches Renton in the face. Smooth.

* In [[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]], the newest conflict with the {{spoiler|Shimon Family}} could've been completely avoided if not for [[Cliché Storm|an important note that was blown into a bin by a convenient breeze]].

* Used heavily but then averted in ''[[Heroic Age]]'', in that the aliens attack and war against humans without warning, but when several actions make it clear they have a hard time understanding each others' motives, {{spoiler|both sides enter negotiations and call a truce}}.

** In later chapters (300+), Negi seems to have understood this, but most of his opponents are too pissed off against him to listen. He's also been pretty vague about what he's going to do about that, so it at least goes both ways.

* In [[Bleach]], a filler villan {{spoiler|spent the majority of his lifetime becoming a captain so that he could kill Yamamoto for killing his father, spending countless years researching and acquiring a bakoto, which his father had told him about in his last words, and he assumed Yamamoto had killed him for using one to become more powerful.}} Then it turns out {{spoiler|his father's last words were "Beware the Bakoto," telling his son to STAY AWAY FROM the things which had killed him. Because Shuuske didn't hear ONE WORD, he completely misinterpreted the meaning of his father's last words, and died.}} [[Epic Fail|Yep.]]

* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'', late in the series. Cobra has captured a bunch of G.I.Joes. Cobra Commander, off-site, says to let them go. Unfortunately he conveys this as 'Get rid of them'. The officers on site dither and whine. Instead of calling back to ask 'You mean shoot them?' they agree to let a mook do it. Several Joes get their heads ventilated. GRAPHICALLY. Yikes.

** To be fair, Cobra Commander is historically very ''very'' impatient with people who call him back to ask him questions. As in 'shoot this idiot for wasting my time' impatient. The main flaw in this sequence is Cobra Commander's original phrasing of his order, which is epically counter-intuitive.

* Oh Jason, if only [[Batman]] had told you he loved you. How much trouble, trauma and violent murder could have been avoided? Possibly justified in that Batman thinks his love for his boys is [[Cannot Spit It Out|perfectly obvious.]] And Jason probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.

* In Jango Fett: Open Seasons, the Mandalorians and Jedi fight a pitched battle that leaves all of the Mandos except Fett dead and most of the Jedi still in the snow, as well. This happened because Fett's archnemesis implicated the Mandalorians in mass murder of civilians and the Jedi reacted accordingly. However, the Jedi are ''Jedi'': they tell the Mandalorians to surrender and promise that they'll be treated fairly. If Fett had surrendered and tried to clear up the misunderstanding, things might have ended differently. Granted, a massive force of clearly hostile Jedi stepped into his camp and told them to surrender, and Fett ''knew'' that his archnemesis was behind it.

 

== Fan Works ==

 

 

* In ''[[Star Wars|Revenge Of The Sith]]'', Master Yoda helps get the entire Jedi Order put to the sword because he couldn't get across to Anakin how important it was to be clear-headed when he tries to change what his visions show him. He just told Anakin what to do, expecting either that Anakin would simply do what he was told or that he would respect Yoda's wisdom. Yoda does this rather than take the time to explain that if he was so terrified of losing someone, he would be willing to do ''anything'' to save them, no matter how far-fetched, dangerous, or self-destructive. And that this is a bad mental state to make any kind of decision in.

** The novelization is even worse at this. The Jedi act cold, distant and shifty towards Anakin; even commanding him to spy on Palpatine (who is a close friend of his) without a proper explaination. On the other hand, Padme is having secret meetings with other Senators to prepare a plan in the case Palpatine does not relinquish his emergency powers after the end of the war; and does not tell a word to Anakin in fear she may offend him. Of course that, being a [[Magnificent Bastard]], Palpatine takes advantage of these facts to trick Anakin into believing the Council is plotting to take over the Republic and Padme is having an affair.

* The Finnish film ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378848/ Tali-Ihantala 1944]'' has a scene that shows the tragic results of a language barrier between the Finnish troops and Swedish volunteers. One of the Finnish veterans is instructing the volunteer troops on using a ''panzerfaust'', stressing the fact that the weapon releases a lethal tail flame upon firing. However, he tells this in ''Finnish'', which the Swedish troops do not understand. Later, during an ambush against Soviet tanks, one of the volunteers gets killed by the tail flame. One of the Finnish soldiers tries to warn him not to hold the weapon against his shoulder while firing, but since the warning is again in Finnish, he does not understand it and fires anyway.

* In [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'', the movie begins with a man chasing after a dog with explosives and a rifle, trying to warn the others that the dog is a monster in disguise and must be destroyed. The man's warning is unheeded and he is shot and killed because he was speaking Norwegian while the main characters were American and couldn't understand.

** As mentioned in the [[28 Days Later]] entry, it's hard to imagine the main characters reacting any different no matter what language the guy had been speaking.

* Subverted in ''[[Mars Attacks!]]!''. At first it appears that poor communication is the cause of the Martians' attacks on the humans. Later it's made clear that the Martians intended to invade and destroy humanity anyway.

* In ''[[The One (film)|The One]]'', the protagonist routinely tells other police officers about his sociopathic alternate-universe duplicate with the words "He is me," instead of "He looks exactly like me." While it's possible that the police might not have believed him, he never seems to make any effort to tell the mundane cops about his doppelganger, so he has to fend them off as well.

{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Electra'''}}: "You killed my father!"

{{spoiler|'''Daredevil'''}}: "No I didn't. That guy did. Over there. The Bad Guy".

{{spoiler|'''Electra'''}}: "Oh. I didn't see him. OK. My bad. Let's go get him".

{{spoiler|'''Daredevil'''}}: "Aces!" }}

* The Spiderman movies. This trope should be called 'Don't Tell Harry'...

* In the recent film ''[[Tucker and Dale vs. Evil]]'', the college kids inherrent belief that Tucker and Dale are murderous backwards hillbillies leads them to believe that they kidnapped one of their friends, rather than helping her out of the lake as they had actually done. Then again later when this mindset causes them to all start dying from their own stupidity. If at least one of them had bothered to take two seconds and simply talk to Tucker or Dale about their friend then gory hijinks would not have ensued.

*** OTOH, the guy was too distracted by the ''angry swarm of bees'' stinging the hell out of him.

** Their de facto leader Chad is also egging on the other college kids with his us-against-them mentality since he's very prejudiced against hillbillies.

 

== Literature ==

* [[David Weber]] has this on a grander scale then most with his ''[[Hell's Gate]]'' series when poor communication causes two civilizations, which hadn't even known the other existed until recently, to start what is promising to be a long and brutal war.

** And in the ''[[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]]'', deliberately tampered with communication restarts the Manticore-Haven war. The guy who did it wanted to make the Havenite president just angry enough that she was ''almost'' ready to go to war and he could step in and save the day. He underestimates by about one degree of anger, and millions die.

** An unintentional example from that series was the attempted McQueen coup: McQueen knew that she'd eventually be considered too much of a threat by the Committee for Public Safety and would be eliminated, and so starts planning her contingency plan for when the time came. Pierre and St-Just also recognized she'd be a threat and would probably have to be eliminated so start planning ''their'' contingency plan for when the time came. A partially overheard conversation results in McQueen believing they were moving against her immediately (instead of merely planning to at some point in the future), causing her to launch her own plan prematurely.

* In ''[[The Forever War]]'', a war that lasts centuries between humans and an alien race {{spoiler|turns out to be based on a misunderstanding}}. Considering that the author is a Vietnam vet, one need merely read The Pentagon Papers to see where he gets his idea.

* ''[[Metro 2033]]'' with the Dark Ones, they just want to find a way to help the humans out, but the telepathy caused people to go mad and thought they were out to kill them like other mutants. Needless to say Artyom realize this a bit too late as he plants the transmitter.

* In ''Arrow's Fall'', part of the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series, the novel's primary romantic tension is caused by Dirk assuming himself to be part of a [[Love Triangle]] consisting of himself, Kris, and Talia, and trying to pull an [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]], when in fact both Kris and Talia are trying to get her hooked up with Dirk. Dirk's stubborn refusal to discuss the matter with either of them sends him into a [[Drowning My Sorrows|breakdown]], and causes the resolution to be put off until after {{spoiler|Talia nearly dies and Kris ''does'' die}}.

* In the [[Agatha Christie]] novel ''Sparkling Cyanide'', Sandra Farraday knows that her husband Stephan is having an affair with Rosemary Barton, is afraid Stephan will leave her for Rosemary, and is prepared to kill Rosemary to prevent that from happening. Stephan, on the other hand, has grown tired of Rosemary and realized that Sandra is his real true love, but he's afraid that Sandra will leave him when she finds out about it, and is prepared to kill Rosemary to prevent the affair from becoming public. {{spoiler|Technically, poor communication didn't actually ''kill'' in this case, since neither Stephan nor Sandra was the murderer, but it very easily could have.}}

* In ''[[The Elenium]]'' series, an Eshandist leader had a speech problem and at one battle he yelled "Fall on your foes!" but mangled it and his followers heard "Fall on your swords!" He spent the next several years wondering why he lost.

* In ''[[The Onion]] Our Dumb Century'', all the casualties of [[World War I]] turn out to be this. Archduke Fraz Ferdinand wasn't assasinated he just went on vacation; when he finally returns, sees what happened, and explains the misunderstanding, the war is called off and the survivors go home mildly embarassed.

* In ''Corelli's Mandolin,'' {{spoiler|Pelagia spends decades waiting for Corelli, during which time she adopts an abandoned baby (named after him, no less). Turns out that Corelli did come back relatively early on, but saw her with the baby, assumed she must've had it with another man, and stormed off without talking to her. When Pelagia asks if he didn't consider the possibility that she was raped in his absence, he [[Values Dissonance|admits that]] [[Defiled Forever|it probably wouldn't have made a difference to him]].}}

* In ''[[The Shahnameh]]'', a series of accidents and deception both well and ill-intentioned result in Rostem killing Sohrab, the outcome neither of them wanted.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* The climax of the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "The Message" has the intrepid crew under siege and almost certainly about to die at the hands of an overzealous cop hunting down Mal and Zoe's friend, Tracey. Shepherd Book hatches a plan: the first part is surrendering to the cop and telling him they're going to turn Tracey over to him. Tracey, upon hearing this, becomes understandably upset, but it's not until after he's flipped out for several seconds, threatened the crew with a gun, [[Kick the Dog|held Kaylee hostage]], and finally been ''mortally wounded by Mal'' that they inform him that the rest of the plan was to threaten and blackmail the cop into leaving without actually giving him what he came for. Tracey, rather than angrily demanding why they didn't tell him that in the first place, ''feels bad'' for screwing up the plan before dying moments later. Although, to be fair, Tracey didn't really give them a chance to explain before becoming violent.

** Also mitigated in that Mal and Zoe were Tracey's superior officers in the military, accustomed to giving orders to him without a need for explanation. Given Mal's attitude about his [[Nakama]], he may also have thought it obvious that Tracey would understand their plan, or at least their loyalty.

*** ''Safe'' wasn't really like that. {{spoiler|Shepherd Book had been shot, Simon and River had wandered off and gotten kidnapped. Mal didn't have time to look for them.}}

* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', the whole Human/Minbari war starts because of this, mostly because they don't know each-others language or cultural traditions.

** There's a ''whole'' lot of other unnecessary lack of communication. Just watch the end of Season 1 / the beginning of Season 2.

* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'', under the writing of Toshiki Inoue, tends to suffer from this. Both ''[[Kamen Rider Agito|Agito]]'' and ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva|Kiva]]'' had near-identical situations: a member of the secondary cast (Ryo Ashihara/Gills and Keisuke Nago/IXA, respectively) is friends with the main character while despising and seeking to destroy his Rider identity (Ashihara because he thinks Agito killed the woman he loved, Nago because he thinks Kiva is an [[Omnicidal Maniac]]). Shoichi and Wataru never think to reveal their identities in order to defuse the situation, which lets the tension build. In the end, {{spoiler|Ryo and Nago find out by accident, and they're both relieved; Ryo because he knows a good guy like Shoichi could never be a murderer, and Nago because he thinks the power of Kiva is in good hands with Wataru.}}

* Dear Lord, ''[[Roswell]]''. Max and Liz have a giant misunderstanding in season two that fans will never get over.

* Happens ''so many times'' on [[Smallville]], usually because the spirit of Jor-El in the Fortress of Solitude is a total prick and insists on talking cryptically. In the episode ''Lazarus'', Jor-El warns Clark Kent that "a great darkness" is coming. Sure enough, Lex Luthor {{spoiler|(actually his clone)}} returns. Clark defeats him and reports his success. {{spoiler|Jor-El reveals that he doesn't really give a crap about Lex Luthor. The "great darkness" he was refering to was ''[[Darkseid]] '', who arrives on Earth safely and unnoticed. To make this situation even worse, Jor-El just tells off Clark for the mistakes he made during the episode and shuts himself and the fortress down, ''without telling Clark anything about the actual threat.''}}

** Rex gets aggravated by the tendency of Gwen and Jack to run off and try to handle things on their own instead of just asking for help. He lampshades this trope when Gwen receives a message through the special contact lenses that {{spoiler|her family is being held hostage until she brings them Jack.}} Given the fact that the bad guys could only see whatever Gwen could see or receive a transcript of what was said while Gwen was looking at someone. She could easily have told Rex and Esther (and, you know, Jack, before {{spoiler|kidnapping him}} what was going on without tipping her hand.

* Much of the latter half of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', if not the entire series, could have been avoided if the humans and cylons had ever just sat down and compared notes, but even after the humans have cylon allies, they still don't even seem to consider sharing information with each other, despite all the half-information and lingering questions they all have about prophecies, the backstory, etc.

* If you've seen the [[Survivor]] end game...

* This happens twice in ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' with disastrous results.

 

== Music ==

* [[Steven Curtis Chapman]] covered this topic in "Still Called Today," which stresses the importance of making the wrong things right before it's too late.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', the Slaans - the mage-priests of the Lizardmen - sleep most of the time, and when they wake up, they speak in very short sentences without any context. As a result, unpleasant things have happened. When the High Elves arrived in Lustria, they were brought before a Slaan who said, "They should not be here". His Saurus guards read this as "Destroy all High Elves" and killed them. Whether he actually meant "Send them home" will never be known.

** This is also kind of one [[Planet of Hats|hat]] that the Eldar like to wear. They usually like to manipulate the other races of the galaxy into whatever situation they feel would best benefit them, often sacrificing billions to save hundreds (if that) of their own. While that's bad enough, even when they DO directly confront others, their cryptic nature ends up leading to easily half the failures of their grand schemes: for instance, "Don't go into that huge black pyramid because you're too stupid to deal with what's inside" doesn't usually work against a group being lead by someone whose literal meaning for existence is to find and exploit lost technology; "don't go inside that huge black pyramid because it's what's sealing up one of the most powerful Greater Demons of Chaos to have ever existed and unleashing him will kill this entire world" would be a bit more helpful.

*** This happens ''twice'' in almost the exact same fashion, (right down to the "pyramid containing a demon of Nurgle") in ''Dawn of War II'' and the Space Wolf novel ''Ragnar's Claw.''

** While we're on the subject of [[BioWare]] RPGs, ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' contains a joke the player character can tell based on this trope. A group of Sith ask the player to make them laugh, and they'll let him live in return. The player can fight, or go right into a wonderful joke (requires decent ranks in Persuade): Two [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Mandalorians]] are walking through the forests of Dxun, when they're attacked by an animal. One is critically wounded, but the other manages to kill the beast. The standing one radios back to base, saying, "My partner's wounded! What do I do?" His commanding officer responds, "Relax, trooper. First, make sure if your partner's dead." Blasterfire echoes through the communicator, followed by "Okay, now what?"

*** Though if you go to Korriban after [[The Reveal]], while playing as a dark-side character, there is a much better example. If the inhabitants of the Sith Academy had just decided to ''believe'' you when you tell them {{spoiler|you are Darth Revan}}, you would be able to take over the Academy with a whole lot less bloodshed.

* Partially into the second third of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', the party passes through a town of [[Wolf Man|werewolves]] led by Kelgar, a wolf who once fought [[Big Bad|Exdeath]] alongside Galuf. As Galuf explains that the other three party members came from the "other half" of the world, Kelgar jumps to the conclusion that they work for Exdeath and were responsible for [[Sealed Evil in a Can|his release]]. Without giving Galuf a chance to deny this (never mind that he was the one who introduced them in the first place), he challenges main character Bartz to a fight to the death, which ends with the wolf ''bedridden for the rest of his life''. Any possible explanation of how he reached his conclusion would be appreciated, especially considering that ''the two halves have never been at war at any point'', and that the player is meant to acknowledge that ''Kelgar is a hero''.

** It's stated [[All There in the Manual|in background info]] that in this universe, the [[People's Republic of Tyranny|United Earth Directorate]] is ''far'' from diplomatic...

** In a bizarre example, ''[[Non-Entity General|your]]'' poor communication also kills. Your character witnesses Duran abandon his position and allow the zerg to overrun a UED position. In the very next mission, your character also witnesses Duran tricking DuGalle into thinking that Stukov is the real traitor. Your character inexplicably does not mention Duran's treachery.

** Also done in the sequel. {{spoiler|Valerian Mengsk}} seeks to ally his forces with Raynor's Raiders to stop Kerrigan. Yet he only waits to tell them this after they've fought their way into his ship, killing countless men in the process and causing plenty of damage. One simple transmission could have saved so much trouble.

** He consumes the Super-Oh-My-God [[Artifact of Doom|powerful demonic artifact]], the Skull of Gul'Dan and turns into a half demon, but only because that's the only way he can not only deny the Burning Legion its power, but defeat the otherwise invulnerable burning legion forces that would've conquered Azeroth. He never mentions this to anyone, so his brother tells him to go away, since he's clearly only looking after himself.

** He uses another powerful artifact to attempt to destroy the [[Zombie Apocalypse|Scourge]] (and [[Eldritch Abomination|Yogg-Saron]] by virtue of the fact that Saron's prison is well inside the line of fire), but doesn't bother to tell anyone, so everyone rushes to stop him assuming he's doing something evil.

'''Mastermind''': Be a dear, won't you? [presses button]

'''Superhero''': [Drops into the [[Shark Pool]]]

* While a lack of communication will cause casualties, in [[America's Army]] this trope is also subverted. When a player throws a grenade, the soldier will shout "Frag out" (albeit in a foreign language), giving away his position and alerting the enemy to the incoming grenade.

* In ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'', Dante finds {{spoiler|Arkham's}} dead body, and is immediately confronted about it by {{spoiler|his daughter}}. She asks if Dante killed him, and in spite of having no involvement whatsoever in his death, Dante responds "So what if I did?" Cue a fierce battle between the two...

** Alternately, if they had talked to each other first, they could have come to the conclusion both teams were being played, convinced their teammates of this, convinced their superiors of this, and rallied both companies together, which would lead to the Administrator, Saxton, and every higher-up at Mann Co. and TF Industries collectively having more dots on their domes than any [[Testosterone Poisoning|Hale]] could hope to survive. Machiavellian and disgusting though she may be, the Administrator had pragmatic reasons for breaking them up.

{{quote|"''Talking?!'' Friendship is even worse than I thought. No, this won't do at all. If they talk, Miss Pauling, they might talk about work. And if they talk about work... they might talk about ''us''."}}

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':

** The plot of ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' practically runs on this. If Terra and Aqua had compared notes more often they probably could have prevented most of the disaster and would have been able to stop {{spoiler|Vanitas and Ventus making Xehanort's weapon}} and if Master Eraqus had just told the three of them "Xehanort can't be trusted" they would probably {{spoiler|be around to stop the events of ''[[Video Game]]/Kingdom Hearts'' and ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', many of which wouldn't have even happened in the first place, instead of each being trapped somewhere}}. That's not even considering how much could have been prevented if had told them [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|everything]] [[Complete Monster|else]] [[Fallen Hero|he knows]] [[Manipulative Bastard|about the guy]]. [[It Gets Worse]] when you factor in {{spoiler|Mickey Mouse. If you remember from KHII, he had actually met Xehanort as Ansem The Wise's apprentice in the past. However, [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|since he never met or heard about Terra OR Xehanort]] in Birth By Sleep, he can't get suspicious, despite [[Old Master|his master, Yen Sid]] knowing about it all.}}

* In ''[[Free Space]]'', the original conflict between the Terrans and Vasudans is largely sparked by the Terrans screwing up a Vasudan linguistic ritual called "The Conversation."

* Damn near the ''entire plot'' of ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'' took place because Prince Weiss never bothered to explain the setting's Dark Secrets to his brothers until it was too late and they had already both unknowingly made a [[Deal with the Devil]], one of them having gone too far in doing so to turn back in good conscience.

* ''[[In the 1st Degree]]'' had this trope occur. Ruby knew that her boyfriend Tobin had a gun in his possession, but she said nothing about it because she was afraid (which she puts a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on). She may have a point, because Tobin was a bad boyfriend for her. Simon showed Tobin the gun Zack had locked in his desk drawer, because Simon was worried that Zack was going to kill his boss Tobin. Too bad he didn't realize that Tobin was going to kill Zack and not the other way around until it was too late. Yvonne Barnes {{spoiler|actually has a tape recording of Tobin threatening her husband Zack, because Tobin was trying to get money as part of insurance fraud, and Zack didn't want to be part of it}}. She did not reveal anything about this before, because she was trying to protect her husband's reputation from being ruined by him being implicated in an art theft and insurance fraud.

* As the various conspiracies going on in the story are too numerous to list for brevity's sake, let us just say that had the antagonists of the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' games simply sat down and talked with Snake (or Raiden) then the various tragedies and unfortunate consequences of the ENTIRE series could have been avoided. I avoid using the word villain because the major antagonists like Revolver Ocelot and Big Boss actually had very good reasons to do the things that they did, and because they never share this knowledge with Snake he is left none the wiser and treats them as terrorists, this inevitably forces their plans to reach their logical conclusions much later than what was intended.

* In ''[[Solatorobo]]'', [[Idol Singer]] Cocona receives a letter from the Howler [[Sky Pirates]] warning her of their imminent arrival, and it's Red's job to stop them from apparently attempting to kidnap her. After fighting off a few of them, their leader explains that {{spoiler|the sky pirates are just really big fans of hers and wanted to get some autographs. The letter was just a friendly warning about them coming over, which is hard to come across as benign, given their occupation.}}

* Pretty much the entirety of ''[[Dragon Quest IX]]'' could have been prevented by {{spoiler|someone letting Corvus know Serena was tricked instead of selling him out to the Gittish Empire. Greygnarl had already trashed Gitt and killed all the important bad guys after Corvus's capture, and whatever means Corvus used to resurrect them all and then ''kill God'' while still shackled in his prison could presumably have been used somewhat less destructively for an SOS to the Celestrians to break him out.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* In [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0367.html this] ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' strip, Thog is questioned by a prison guard, and gives an honest and accurate account that confirms Elan's attempt to explain that {{spoiler|he was framed by his [[Evil Twin]] brother Nale.}} However, Thog's statement is chock-full of homophones (and [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|far more elaborate than his usual speech]]), rendering it comprehensible (with a bit of effort) to the reader but total gibberish to the guard.

** In a particularly tragic example of this, Varsuuvius in the Battle of Azure City is inadvertently discovered by fleeing soldiers who stumble upon him while invisible. They ask hir to save them with hir magic, but since s/he fled the battle because s/he was out of spells, the soldiers stand around allowing the hobgoblins to catch up and slaughter them. V might have convinced them to continue running if s/he said "I am out of spells you fools! Flee for your lives!", though doing so might have made the hobgoblins aware of him as well. V spends the next few months in a sleep-deprived equivalent state so as not to relive that nightmare.

*** V's verbosity is such a strong characteristic that this could indicate the dream was a guilt-induced distortion rather than a true flashback of the events.

*** However, they [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080416 eventually] could compare notes with Gil, making him the guy who knows the most about what's going on.

*** This is hopefully what will save them from an Agatha vs. the Baron war in the end (assuming that the Baron's subordiantes, running the show while he's down for the count, don't put a rush order on- {{spoiler|Wooster}} slowed that down, but may not have completely scuttled it)--Gil is the only party Klaus and Agatha both have reason to trust and who would be in a position to MAKE them both listen. {{spoiler|Especially if they come up with a dead body/captured body of Zola-with-Other and a lot of supporting testimony that the Other's not really trying to use Agatha any more. There's also the possibility Zeetha's presence can sway the Baron one way or another, once he finds out she isn't here to kill Gil.}}

* In ''[[Panthera]]'', Onca, who is inexperienced with her transformation, and consequently has trouble speaking in it, barely manages to convey the message that {{spoiler|they've been tricked and are fighting the good guys instead of the bad guys}} to Tigris. However, in an almost comedic case of [[You Have to Believe Me]], she fails to provide any of the evidence that led her to this conclusion, resulting in Tigris being disgusted that {{spoiler|the villains managed to trick Onca into switching sides in a few hours}}. It doesn't help that [[Not Now, Kiddo|Tigris views Onca as dangerously incompetent and naive]].

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', this is averted by Justin when confronted with an angry, incomprehensible fire monster; his first response is to try and work out a way to communicate, rather than go straight to beating the tar out of it. {{spoiler|It attacks anyway, but it's the thought that counts.}}

* In ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'', Aaryana nearly kills Dan because an Oracle's vaguely worded answer strongly implied that Dan killed her beloved mentor Destania {{spoiler|aka Dan's mother}}. The misunderstanding is immediately cleared up by Dan's sister before any murder happens. Later in one strip the characters wonder why Oracles are always so vague; the last panel reveals that the cryptic bullcrap act is mandated by the Oracles' Union.

 

== Web Original ==

'''Johnny:''' Tell him to suck a lemon. }}

* Many of the worse parts of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' could have been avoided if Sumdac had told them about how he found their "friend" Megatron...

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'': Princess Bubblegum needs the Ice King to howl with pain. She tells Finn and Jake ''that'' part, but not ''why''. And then leaves them to guard him. She was called away at the last moment, but it wouldn't've been particularly hard to say, {{spoiler|"A plague is affecting my land and I need his howls to cure it."}}

* Invoked in the ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "Chocolate With Nuts" with a character that is so ''insanely enthusiastic'' about the prospect of buying some chocolate from door-to-door salesmen Spongebob and Patrick that he scares them away for the entire episode, both afraid that they've pressed his [[Berserk Button]] instead. "'''''CHOCOLAAATE!'''''"

** This was also one of the contributing factors to the end of the UK's Anime Central on TV.

* The aviation industry uses a standardized vocabulary, English is used even when the pilots and controllers aren't native speakers, and air traffic instructions must be repeated by pilots to ensure mutual understanding. Many crashes and incidents have been caused because someone ignores, misunderstands, or assumes wrongly what someone else said, the most notable being the 1977 [[wikipedia:Tenerife airport disaster#Communication misunderstandings|Tenerife airport collision]]. Investigations focused around several misunderstandings in communication, especially the Dutch co-pilot saying "We are at takeoff" - a phrase the controller interpreted as 'we are ready' not 'we are taking off'. Even worse, the controller answered just with "okay".

** The [[wikipedia:1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision|1996 Charkhi Dadri Mid Air Collision]] is attributed to the Kazhak Pilots' poor English skills which led them to descend well below assigned altitude to that of the Saudi 747. Worse, ATC had no radar capable of measuring altitudes to warn them.

** A midair collision in San Diego was caused in part by a critical misinterpreted word: the copilot on an airliner reported that he thought they'd passed by a small plane already, however a burst of static made it sound to the ground controller that they were pass''ing'' the plane, leading the controller to assume they had the plane in sight and knew where it was relative to them: if he'd heard the word in the past tense, he might have realized they didn't know where the plane was as his radar clearly showed it was still in front of them.

* Preventing this sort of situation is why modern militaries and other organizations make such a big deal about communicating in specific ways: NATO armies have a standard method to issue orders, air traffic control and pilots (and submarine and ship crews) acknowledge instructions by repeating them back, and so on.

** It has been claimed that bad communication is the number one cause of major military disasters. From the top of my head, Gallipoli counts, and the ''[[Bravo Two Zero]]'' and the ''[[Black Hawk Down]]'' incident as well. The Grenada invasion of 1983 was full of communication snafus, but was saved due to the incompetence of the defenders.

** The War of 1812, at least for the British. Especially as the long travel period required to carry any message between the British and American governments caused the Battle of New Orleans, the largest battle of the war, to be fought two months after both sides signed an armistice. The signed copy just hadn't gotten to the British commanders or the American government yet. The entirety of the war was this in some sense. America declared war due to several reasons stemming from the Napoleonic wars, such as blockading of ports and the impression of their sailors into the British navy. The law which had allowed the impression of sailors had been repealed just prior to the American declaration of war, but with the travel time across the Atlantic nobody knew one of the major reasons had been eliminated.

* The Lydian king Croesus, thought to be the richest man of his age, went to the Oracle of the Delphi to ask what would happen if he invaded Persia. After being told that he "will destroy a great empire", Croesus went ahead and launched the invasion. Things did not go well for him, and he narrowly escaped being burned alive by Cyrus the Great. Later he sent another emissary to the Oracle asking for an explanation. Her response: Croesus ''had'' destroyed a great empire - his own.

** The assumption though is that this was deliberate poor communication on the part of the Oracle so they could claim they were correct no matter who had won.

** Nicely spoofed in the first series of ''[[Blackadder]]'', when two knights overhear the King merely ''quoting'' Henry II in midst of a discussion about how glad he is not to have the same trouble (the King is actually very pleased with the job Edmund is doing as the new Archbishop). Of course, it doesn't help that the King is played by [[Brian Blessed]] and so everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like an angry command.

*** Or that the person he was quoting to wasn't paying attention, so he got frustrated and had to yell it more than once.

** [[Averted Trope|The importance of the misunderstanding is questionable, as the Americans were unwilling to accept any response other than unconditional surrender.]]

* There's a reason that in the US armed forces (and possibly other english-speaking NATO allies) you will have your ass chewed for requesting that someone "repeat" their last transmission. The proper request is "say again" because when "repeat" is used as a proword it means to send another artillery or naval gunfire barrage to the previous coordinates. Fire discipline is a wonderful thing.

* "The world wonders" - during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in WWII a part of cryptographic padding (essentially a nonsense text to throw off enemy cryptographes) caused William F. Halsey of the USN 3rd Fleet to stop pursuit of a fleeing carrier group that was [[Schmuck Bait|used as a decoy]]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_wonders

* During World War 2 a joint Navy/Air Force operation to supply the besieged island of Malta came to grief (or nearly so) because of a misunderstanding over the distance RAF airplanes had to cover to get there after taking off from an aircraft-carrier. The Royal Air Force always used statute miles and therefore thought the number was given in statute miles, but the Royal Navy had, as it always did, given the distance in nautical miles (1 nautical mile = 1.151 statute miles).

* The [[wikipedia:San Bernardino train disaster|San Bernardino train disaster]], involving a cargo train taking a heavy load down a steep incline and going out of control, was caused by two of these.

* [[wikipedia:Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster]] was full of poor communication, some of it intentional. The company responsible for one of the most critical components of the shuttle (the O-rings that sealed the joints of the SRBs) had not tested them properly in very-low-temperature conditions. What information they had suggested that anything below about 40F would cause them to not function properly. The weather on the day of the launch was 31F, with an estimated temperature of about 8F around the O-rings. The company responsible for these critical components (Morton Thiokol) stalled for hours before lying to NASA and telling them to go ahead with launch and that the parts would hold. The reasoning after the fact by the engineers responsible for why they didn't do more to prevent the disaster is that they kept silent in protest of their employer's actions, knowing that the launch would inevitably fail and being unable to stop this because their employer would not risk the loss of business by telling NASA to hold back the launch. It didn't help matters that NASA put a great deal of pressure on Morton Thiokol to see the shuttle launched on time, giving them the impression that they would lose NASA's business if they didn't launch.

* [[Russell Peters]] talks about a variant of this in one of his routines. He says that when a Filipino girl asked if he wanted to see her "susu" (breasts), he was confused because to Indians, "susu" means "pee-pee". So he tells the girl "Eww, no, flush it!", but the girl just thinks he's really [[Rule 34|kinky]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:A Failure to Communicate]]