Never Got to Say Goodbye: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', Orihime is regretful that the last time she spoke to her brother Sora before he died, they fought, and she let him go off to work without saying goodbye. In fact, when she finally gets a chance to see Sora's spirit one last time, at the proper moment of goodbye she tells him "Have a nice day," like she always did except for ''that'' day. Cue the [[Tear Jerker]].

** At some point, Yoruichi Shihouin ran away from Soul Society after her best friend, [[Mad Scientist]] Kisuke Urahara, was exiled. That did NOT suit Yoruichi's [[The Lancer|Lancer]] and pupil, Soi Fon, who grew [[Broken Bird|embittered and cold]] after her idol left. When they finally met again and Yoruichi defeated Soi Fon, the normally [[Emotionless Girl|stoic]] Soi Fon broke down in tears, hysterically begging her mentor to explain why she abandoned her without asking her to come along or even saying goodbye.

* Narrowly averted with [[Twice Shy|Yoshiko Fujisawa and Hikaru Matsuyama]] in [[Captain Tsubasa]]. {{spoiler|She didn't want to either distract him from the Furano v/s Nankatsu match and [[Trying Not to Cry|cry in front of him]], so she left to the airport without a word when the match was barely over... but Matsuyama learnt about it and raced against the clock to catch her before her flight to the USA took off. He succeeded, so cue the mix of [[Tear Jerker]] and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]}}.

** A non-romantic example is played straight in the first part, with Roberto and a 12-year-old Tsubasa. {{spoiler|Roberto left without saying a word to not separate Tsubasa from his friends and family and to not stunt his growth as a player.}} Cue to a [[Tear Jerker]] as Tsubasa has an Heroic BSOD.

** Also played straight in the manga, with {{spoiler|Hyuga recalling how he was not being able to say goodbye to his dad, since Hyuga Sr. died in a road accident in his way home, when Hyuga himself was 10. The kicker? He recalls it when his ''mom'' is seriously ill and in the verge of death.}} [[Tear Jerker|Sob!]]

* In ''[[Gankutsuou]]'', Franz not only didn't say goodbye to his father who had to leave on business during his birthday, he also told his father that he hopes he never comes back. Oops when [[Be Careful What You Wish For|his father dies in a car accident]]...

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'' during TSR, this is pretty much the thing that {{spoiler|Gauron}} takes drastic measures and an incredible amount of planning to prevent from happening to himself with Sousuke. It wouldn't be too far off to assume that the only thing that probably was sustaining him and keeping him alive was his desire to see Sousuke for one last time, and he even goes so far as to order the complete destruction of a city just so he could lure Sousuke and have some last words with him. Sousuke, on the other hand, [[Why Won't You Die?|could have done without seeing him again...]]

== [[Fan Fiction]] ==

* The ''[[Nineteen Eighty Three Doomsday Stories]]'' for ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' has this happening to Austria, who's initially found still waiting for Hungary, hoping that she made it out of the [[After the End|nuclear war]] alive. By that point, however, she's been {{spoiler|dead for over 20 years}}. It's eventually revealed that he never really had a chance to even say goodbye before the bombs fell.

* In the [[Katawa Shoujo]] fanfic [http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=5600#p80479 Reconciliation], which takes place after Hanako's bad ending {{spoiler|Hanako}} regrets {{spoiler|her}} actions, only to {{spoiler|find out that Hisao has died of a heart attack}}. The trope name is used more literally when {{spoiler|Lilly talks about how Hisao died before she could reach the hospital}}.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* One of the recurring phrases in the film ''[[Left Luggage]]'' is "Never leave without saying 'I love you'". This phrase was even used on the Spanish title.

** He does grab Indy into a fierce hug - probably the first ever shared by those two - and practically sobs, "I thought I'd lost you, boy..." I think that was actually enough for Indy at that moment.

* In ''[[Donnie Darko]]''. {{spoiler|Donnie and his mother, Rose, get into an argument at the beginning of the movie. That night, the airplane turbine crashes into Donnie's room, but Donnie avoids it because he's sleepwalking at the time, and the events of the movie play out. The night before she goes out of town, Rose sees one of Donnie's disturbing drawings in his room, but embraces her son instead of freaking out. When time is rewound to shortly before the turbine (which was from the plane she was on) crashes into Donnie's room, he chooses to stay in his room, the crash killing him in the process. At the end of the movie, Rose laments that she ended things with her son on a sour note, the last words that he ever said to her was calling her a "bitch".}}

* Sarah Jane in ''[[Imitation Of Life]]'' to her mother, Annie. In her attempt to pass for white, she shunned her mother. When her mother died, Sarah Jane in her grief, disrupted her funeral procession screaming that she "killed her mother." She hadn't spoken to her mother since the day she told her to leave her alone.

 

* [[Star Wars|Tahiri]] in the latter half of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|New Jedi Order series]] regrets {{spoiler|holding off on a last kiss for Anakin, telling him he could have it after they won. [[Heroic Sacrifice|Anakin, of course, doesn't make it back]].}} Subverted in an internal monologue (dialogue?) sequence, when an implanted personality tells her her guilt is actually because she's moved on with her life. In the Legacy of the Force novels, {{spoiler|she and Jacen "flow-walk" back to the time of the mission and Tahiri literally physically forces her past self and Anakin together. She has to leave before she can see what, if anything, happened, and [[Timey-Wimey Ball|since this Verse doesn't usually have time travel]] nobody's ''quite'' sure what did.}}

* ''[[Maximum Ride]]'' has this from [[Mad Scientist|Jeb]] [[The Woobie|Batchelder]] to his son Ari when {{spoiler|Ari dies at seven. Jeb is about two minutes too late to apologize to his son for all the bad things that have happened to him. Cue Jeb cradling his son in his arms and repeating [[Heroic BSOD|"I'm so sorry"]] until Max, [[Jerkass|as]] [[Heroic Sociopath|usual]], interrupts...}}

* In the [[World of Warcraft]] novel [[The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm]], {{spoiler|Thrall and Cairne Bloodhoof}} part ways for the last time after an argument over the decision to {{spoiler|make Garrosh Warchief}}. At {{spoiler|Cairne's}} funeral, {{spoiler|Thrall}} regrets having parted with him like this.

* Played straight in [[The Tomorrow Series]], when Ellie finds {{spoiler|Corrie's}} grave and realizes that she never got to say goodbye.

** Harry never got the chance to say goodbye to Sirius. It got worse when he realised he could have talked to Sirius the whole time and prevented his death.

** Subverted in ''Goblet of Fire'' - when Mrs. Weasley reads about the Dark Mark being cast at the Quidditch World Cup, she goes into hysterics, not just out of fear for her family, but because the last thing she had said to Fred and George before they left was that they hadn't gotten enough OWLs.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** And Ivanova has similar regrets regarding Marcus. Marcus however did get to say "I love you" to a dying Ivanova, leading to the touching yet funny line, "I thought: God really does have an English accent, just like in those old movies."

* It both appears ''and'' is averted ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Rose and the Doctor are separated, each stuck in a different parallel world. The Doctor manages to use the power of a supernova to get a goodbye message to Rose. She tells him that she loves him... he starts to respond, only able to say "Rose Tyler - " before the connection is severed forever {{spoiler|Or so they think...}} and the scene cuts to a weeping Doctor. Also, Sarah Jane Smith calls him on never properly saying goodbye to her face, something the Doctor was notorious for doing in regards to his companions, but when she leaves in "School Reunion", she makes him say goodbye so that she can have closure.

** This also arguably applied to {{spoiler|Donna}} at the end of season 4. Since {{spoiler|all her memories of her time with the Doctor were wiped, when he turns and says a final goodbye to her, she says a very perfunctory 'Yeah, see ya' to the man she thinks she has just met.}}

*** '''River:''' The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was! The towers sang, and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Dead Like Me]]'': The main (female) character [[Tomboyish Name|George]] is reluctant to start her new job, and complains that the clothes her mother has picked out for her look like funeral clothes. Her mother responds with "There's going to ''be'' a funeral if you don't get your ass out of bed!" The audience suddenly hears a voiceover from George: "Those are the last words my mother will ever say to me. Boy is ''she'' gonna be sorry." {{spoiler|George is later killed by a [[It Makes Sense in Context|space toilet seat re-entering Earth's orbit]] that very same day.}}

* While {{spoiler|[[Adventures in Coma Land|she was shot and dying]] by the unsub of that episode and hallucinating that her dead father was visiting her}}, Elle in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' revealed that the last words she said to her father was "I hate you!"

** Done again later on in the series. Spencer said these ''exact'' words when he and the rest of the team discovered that {{spoiler|Emily Prentiss had died after she was stabbed in the torso.}} It turns out that {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|she faked her death]] and left the country.}}

* When Trapper was discharged from the army in ''[[MASH]]'', Hawkeye becomes quite upset because he was on leave at the time and never got to say goodbye. This comes up again in the finale, when Hawkeye becomes angry at BJ's refusal to actually ''say'' goodbye, saying he's still hurt that Trapper didn't.

* In ''[[That 70s Show]]'', Red's mother dies as Eric is driving her home. Because she was being a heartless crow (like usual), no one had anything good to say about her, but were still heartbroken when she was gone.

'''Eric:''' ...Dad, the last thing I said to Grandma was "It wouldn't kill you to be nice once in a while." But I guess it did, because then she died. }}

* In a short-lived sitcom about friends from preschool, one girl lost her parents at a young age. In a conscious effort to avert this trope, she insists on ending every phone call with "I love you," so that if one of the participants dies, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|those will be the last words they said to each other]]. [[Comically Missing the Point|Her husband finds this creepy]].

 

 

 

== [[Radio]] ==

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' 4, it's rather ironic that both Eva and Ocelot {{spoiler|never managed to see Big Boss one last time before dying, despite their whole purpose and plan being to revive him}}.

** Eva does {{spoiler|hallucinate that [[Tear Jerker|Snake is Big Boss]] after the motorbike crashes. That sort of counts.}}

* In ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'':Red/Blue Rescue Team, the player character is taken away before many of the Pokemon can give him/her a proper thank you or goodbye (the partner and Shiftry, for example).

** Back in 'Fate', Saber doesn't let Shirou have a chance to say goodbye, instead [[Dying Declaration of Love|revealing that she did indeed love him in return]] and not letting him have the chance to reply before she vanished to the past and died. Shirou comments that that was "Just like her."

* Discussed by Garlot and Siskier in one route of ''[[Blaze Union]]'' when {{spoiler|they're trying to find Jenon, who pulled a [[You Shall Not Pass]] resulting in him [[Never Found the Body|being swept away in a river]], and Siskier is breaking down because the last words she said to Jenon were an insult. [[It Got Worse]] after this--a lot worse--but at least in the end they're able to [[Meaningful Funeral|say goodbye to him properly]]}}.

 

 

** A mistake he gets to correct later.

* Discussed in [http://get-medieval.livejournal.com/121168.html this] ''[[Get Medieval]]'' strip.

* In [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005338 this] [[Homestuck]] flash, Equius explains to Nepeta how sad he is that {{spoiler|Aradia}} didn't even say goodbye to him before {{spoiler|she exploded}}. He then [[Defied Trope|defies]] this trope by making a point of saying goodbye to Nepeta before going to {{spoiler|face Gamzee}}.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Subverted in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Tweek vs. Craig", in which the shop teacher constantly says this about his dead fiancée. When her ghost appears to him and he finally gets to say it, he realizes it didn't make him feel better at all.

{{quote| '''Fiancée''': [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Saying good-bye doesn't mean anything. It's the time that we spent together that really matters, not how we left it.]] }}

* [[Jem and The Holograms|Jem]] was in a fight with her mother and neglected to say "I love you" on the night that she died.

* Played straight and for laughs, interestingly enough, in [[Pixar]]'s ''[[Cars]]'', where Mater is upset that he never got to say goodbye to his new friend Lightning McQueen after he is suddenly whisked away to a big race. The next time they meet, Mater greets McQueen by saying "goodbye."