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.

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.]]

 

{{examples}}

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

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' takes a very... er... literal angle on this due to the fact that most arcs are [[One Side of the Story]], and that the series in general contains proliferation of [[Cryptic Conversation]]s and characters who [[Cannot Spit It Out]]. In fact, the latter point becomes a major [[Aesop]] of the series. In some cases the use of this trope is mildly justified by the fact that the 'main' character hasn't really known the rest of the cast for that long—and the things they're not talking about are often rather more serious secrets than is usual for this trope. Like, say, {{spoiler|the fact that you just murdered someone}}.

** 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.

* ''[[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-character poor communication: In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', because the four detest the Hunter and get into a pissing match with him as they travel, they don't tell him crucial things about their worldview, notably that they're [[Actual Pacifist]]s and don't kill, and that they can easily protect themselves. Thus, when they're set upon by a pack of Poison Wolves, the Hunter immediately springs into action and kills about half of them, causing Paul to nearly attack him and to have a [[Heroic BSOD]] later, partly because he knew very well that their lack of communication both doomed the animals and almost made him a murderer.

 

 

** 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.

*** In both cases the problem is a matter of trust. The Jedi Council, with the exception of Obi-Wan who dislikes the [[Dirty Business]], doesn't fully trust Anakin because he is close to Palpatine. Padme doesn't tell Anakin about the Senators' plan because she doesn't trust him with it—again, because he is close to Palpatine.

* 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.

* 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.

* ''[[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.}}

* ''The Key to Rondo'' could plausibly have instead been titled: ''Poor Communication Kills: The Novel''.

** 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.

* 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.

* One of the Fluff asides in ''[[Reign]]'' involves an instance of [[Nonverbal Miscommunication]] that rises to this level—the mercenary commander had a troop of mixed nationality that each knew one of three different sets of military hand signals; he'd only bothered to check that they all knew hand signals, not that they all knew the ''same ones''. His signal to "hold up" was variously interpreted correctly, as an order to attack, or as an order to retreat, and they were routed in the chaos resulting.

** 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.''

**** To be fair, none of them have the remotest reason to believe you. {{spoiler|Not only have they never met you, most of them weren't even recruited into the Sith until after you left. You went around in a full-identity-concealing mask and getup anyway. And Darth Revan was last seen being surrounded by an entire strike force of pissed-off Jedi Masters before eating a full turbolaser broadside from a starship, so nobody has the slightest reason to suspect he's still alive.}}

* 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.

*** 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 ==

** Much of the butchery on the first day of the Somme was due to this: word of initial lodgements in the enemy front line with requests for urgent reinforcement prompted dispatch of said reinforcements, which is good military sense ("reinforce success"). By the time the message got through (no walkie-talkies in those days), the picture had changed and the reinforcements were massacred; the advancing barrage couldn't be called back to deal with unsuppressed machine guns; etc. etc. The tragedy of an industrial war in which communications technology lagged behind everything else. The British eventually fixed the problem by de-emphasising initiative and dash in favour of carefully rehearsed and scripted advances onto limited objectives and [[More Dakka|improvements in artillery technique]], to the point where the last 100 days of the First Word War was a series of unbroken victories over the Germans.

** 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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]

[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]

[[Category:A Failure to Communicate]]