History Main / PoorCommunicationKills

* The famous "{{Marvel}} misunderstanding" -- the stock situation in which superheroes who unexpectedly run into each other promptly start a fight because at least one side jumps to the conclusion that the other is up to no good. Once in a while even lampshaded by more [[GenreSavvy self-aware]] characters (such as ComicBook/{{Quasar}} in one of his own issues).
-->'''Ms. Marvel:''' Why didn't the Hulk tell us he needed help?
-->'''Jen Walters:''' Did you ''ask?''

* Pretty much the entirety of ''DragonQuestIX'' 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.]]

** In the second situation, Gaea doesn't pay much attention to [[spoiler:her place getting broken into but nothing being stolen]] beacause [[spoiler:she thought that her impulsive and extremely strong roomate had simply forgotten her keys]].

* ''Series/{{Noob}}'' had a couple of blatant cases.
** In the first situation, the guild that Gaea somehow got [[TheAce Fantöm]] to help her level up. Later on, they get confronted by Fantöm's teammates, two of which are his guild leader and said guild's recruiter. Omega Zell, who dreams of being the next Fantöm, somehow interprets the leader's "Were's looking for a member of your guild. It's about Fantöm" as "We're looking for an understudy for Fantöm and Omega Zell totally didn't make sexist remarks in our recruiter's presence last Season". Omega Zell says he's the person they're looking for and it's only in the middle of strangling him that Fantöm's leader says "Actually, we're looking for the person who has been ''blackmailing'' Fantöm". ''After'' Omega Zell's ManChild collegue asked what the strangling was about.

** In the first situation, the guild that Gaea somehow got [[TheAce Fantöm]] to help her level up. Later on, they get confronted by Fantöm's teammates, two of which are his guild leader and said guild's recruiter. Omega Zell, who dreams of being the next Fantöm, somehow interprets the leader's "Were's looking for a member of your guild. It's about Fantöm" as "We're looking for an understudy for Fantöm and Omega Zell totally didn't make sexist remarks in our recruiter's presence last Season". Omega Zell says he's the person they're looking for and it's only in the middle of strangling him that Fantöm's leader says "By the way, we're looking for the person who has been ''blackmailing'' Fantöm". ''After'' actually being asked why he was strangling Omega Zell.

** Twilight's lack of evidence might also be justified in the sense that she had no possible way of collecting any in this case, let alone any that could not be contradicted.

** It happens again in "Bridle Gossip", where Zecora attempts to [[spoiler:warn the cast that they've wandered into a patch of magical plants. Unfortunately, because she insists on [[RhymesOnADime rhyming everything]], it ends up sounding like a threat, and when the effects of the plants kick in the cast blames Zecora for cursing them. It doesn't help that that they're already somewhat scared of her.]]
** In "A Canterlot Wedding", Twilight Sparkle notices her brother's bride acting suspiciously in a number of ways, but the most sensitive way she can express this is to burst in on the wedding rehearsal shouting that SHE'S EVIL!, which only makes everyone turn against her. The lack of messages given to Twilight about the wedding early on due to heightened security, making her find out about the wedding just a day or two away from the ''actual'' wedding might have contributed to this.

** During the Fullbring arc, half of the problems could have been avoided if [[spoiler: Ishida had shared his suspicions about Ginjo earlier]]. Ryuuken even calls them out on not sharing information. Although he's the one to talk...

** The start of that pursuit had another example. When Halsey telegraphed a message said that "Task Force 34 will be formed" and would guard the San Bernardino Strait, other admirals assumed the Task Force would be formed right now while Halsey meant he might form it in the future. When Halsey announced he was going after the carriers, those admirals assumed Task Force 34 was still guarding the straight, when in fact it was completely open and gave the main Japanese fleet a practically clear path to the American transport ships they were supposed to protect. When the tiny American fleet left to defend it send for help, the message "Where repeat where is Task Force 34 the world wonders" was send, which was intended as an inquiry but with the three added words sounded like biting sarcasm to Halsey. Luckily, the Japanese didn't know where Halsey's fleet was either and when the [[RefugeInAudacity tiny US destroyer force attacked the huge Japanese fleet]], the Japanese assumed they must be backed by the whole US fleet [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu and retreated]].

* A recent example from Sweden: a woman had passed out in Gothenburg wile she was walking with her pitbull. When police and an ambulance arrived to help her, the dog acted violently and aggresivly towards the potential saviors of the woman, thinking that they were going to harm her. Sadly, the situation ended with the dog getting shot in order to be able to carry of the woman safley to the nearest hospital.

* In ''AppleseedExMachina'' 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.

* 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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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".

* In the case of ''SchoolDays'', [[spoiler: literally]].

* This is what caused General Ashdown to kick John Connor out of LaResistance in ''TerminatorSalvation''. Of course, what Ashdown didn't know was that John Connor wanted to save someone vital to Tech-Com (his father, Kyle Reese, then a teenager), and even though Connor didn't give the full details to his own unit, the whole unit rebels against Ashdown by siding with Connor so he could save Reese. (Of course, Ashdown doesn't know about the rebellion until after he learns that the attack on Skynet wouldn't go forward until Connor gave the order, thereby deposing Ashdown mere minutes before he gets blown to smithereens.)

* In ''MyCousinVinny'', When Vinny's cousin and his friend are first arrested, they end up [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves deeper]] as they answer the police's questions while simply assuming they were being arrested for shoplifting, and the police never even mention to the two why they were arrested until well into the process.

** In ''TheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Dumbledore admits that his failure to tell Harry some very important stuff is responsible for [[spoiler: Sirius's death.]]

** And invoked repeatedly and at length by [[spoiler:[[ManipulativeBastard Kyubey]], who specifically withholds AwfulTruth revelations until the most dramatic possible moments in order to coerce the girls' [[DespairEventHorizon despair-driven]] transformations into EldritchAbominations.]]

* During ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'''s second season, Angel [[FaceHeelTurn becomes evil]], and Spike [[EnemyMine forms an alliance with Buffy]], but neither of these developments lasts that long; by the time Season 3 starts, [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor Angel's back to being a good guy, and Spike's back to being a villain]]. No one told Joyce this, however, so she welcomes Spike into her home and locks Angel out when he comes to save her.

*** Even if she thinks she can't call him (you're not allowed to talk about Sekirei to {{Muggles}}, and she doesn't know he's an Ashikabi), visiting Izumo Inn would have resolved this whole subplot [[spoiler: and now she's been kidnapped by [[JerkAss Higa]]]].

** Of course [[spoiler:Mei]] acting ambiguously and not letting anyone know her [[spoiler:Long lost twin sister]] was actually the first victim in the curse didn't help things either, Nor did [[spoiler:Akazawa]] blaming her for everything since it seemed that at that point in the anime/manga mostly everyone was so passed the {{Despair Event Horizon}} that they were willing to agree and...[[FromBadToWorse well]], [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom things just]] [[{{Dying like animals}} got wost after that]]...

* In ''{{Sekirei}}'', the protagonist's sister gets a Sekirei named Shiina. His goal is to find Kusano, his sister (whether they're actually related is unknown, but Shiina is #107 and Kusano is #108). Yukari proceeds to [[CurbstompBattle heartlessly beat]] any Ashikabi she comes across (she's become a massive bitch in the process somehow, even though some of her victims deserved it) and then ask them where Kusano is.
** Kusano is one of ''her brother's'' Sekirei.

** 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 [[AMechByAnyOtherName 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.
*** It's even [[{{Lampshaded}} LampshadeHanging]] in SuperRobotWarsZ, with several of the other characters (including [[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Garrod]], amusingly enough) calling Holland out for his douchebaggery after Renton leaves.

* This is a RunningGag with Princess Vivi in ''Manga/OnePiece''. She constantly forgets to inform the Straw Hats about very important things from Baroque Works agents to the Alabastian Desert Wildlife until they have already happened.
** A more serious example occurs when Luffy and Usopp were arguing about whether to keep Merry who was beyond fixing. Usopp misinterprets Luffy's decision to not fix Merry as "dumping" whatever became useless (and Usopp had been dealing with confidence issues since the beginning). Usopp fails to mention that [[spoiler: he believes that the ship is ''sentient'']] which goes a long way to explain his behavior.

* ''[[Anime/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]]'' - The Producer doesn't clear Miki's misconception about her entering the Idol unit that Ritsuko created, which almost ends up with Miki quitting being an Idol for good a few episodes later.

** [[CassandraTruth Well, to be fair, he wasn't sure they'd believe him]], and doing so [[spoiler:would have alerted Moeka's bosses and possibly make things worse, [[CrazyPrepared as they probably had contingency plans if they found out]]]]. Plus, he did end up realizing this and [[spoiler: Told Kurisu because she was the most reliable and only person he realized would take him seriously]], Though telling the others would have been a good idea...

* During the Cell Saga DragonBall Z, Goku's utter failure to explain his plan for defeating Cell. Had he taken a moment during the several ''days'' of prep time that Cell gave them to explain that he intended for Gohan to fight Cell, someone - Piccolo, maybe, or even Gohan himself - could have told him just why this was a bad idea. Yes, Gohan was the only one strong enough to have a chance against Cell, but if Goku had been a bit more open from the beginning, at the very least he might have taken the fight more seriously. Instead, we ended up with the fiasco that resulted his death and very nearly resulted in his son's.

* In the case of ''SchoolDays'', [[spoiler: literally.]]

* In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0367.html this]] ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick 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 EvilTwin brother Nale.]] However, Thog's statement is chock-full of homophones (and [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness far more elaborate than his usual speech]]), rendering it comprehensible (with a bit of effort) to the reader but total gibberish to the guard.

*** 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.

*** Or, quite possibly, Varsuuvius couldn't even think of a way to weasel hir way out of this one. V knew s/he did it for all the wrong reasons and didn't want to confess that.
** Lord Shojo's death was a literal example of this trope. While in some ways, his ObfuscatingInsanity and scheming served him sell during his life, it came to bite him in the ass when the [[KnightTemplar insanely overzealous]] Miko misinterprets his behavior as that of a traitor and with her typical yell of "smite evil", kills him. Since he wasn't evil, she loses her Paladin status/powers.

* In the recent film ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'', 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.