History Main / PoorCommunicationKills

** In the first situation, the guild finds out 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 the 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 we completely forgot about the bad impression Omega Zell gave our recruiter 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 guildmate asked what the strangling was about.

* GilbertAndSullivan were also fond of this trope, but the they actually hang a lampshade on it in the Act I finale of ''Theatre/TheMikado'', when Katisha tries to tell the people of Titipu that [[spoiler:Nanki Poo is the son of the Mikado]], only to have the chorus interrupt her every time she opens her mouth.

** Although that's actually not quite what happened. In his first appearance, he actually did seem to want to explain himself, but after fighting off several other supervillains, Linkara simply assumed he was another one and declared he didn't care about any {{Motive Rant}}.

* HeadbuttingHeroes: You and another hero do NOT get along.

* ItSeemedTrivial: Someone keeps his mouth shut about a vital fact because he doesn't know how important that fact actually is.

* LoveYouAndEverybody: - A character confesses platonic love for something, and is misunderstood to mean romantic love.
* MathematiciansAnswer: You ask someone a question, and the answer they give you is completely correct and completely useless.

* NonAnswer: A response that superficially ''resembles'' an answer, but when looked at more closely, is not one at all.

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist: Brotherhood'', Hohenheim gives us one. Instead of say saying : "Alphonse. Edward. Dad has something very important to do and might be gone for a long time. Take care of each other and your mom until I get back okay?". Instead he gives his kids what amounts to a DeathGlare with the expressions on Al and Ed's face making it look like they think their dad hates them and having "Dad abandoned us" issues when their mom dies. [[SarcasmMode That's good parenting right there]].

* In ''AppleseedExMachina'' the government advises the general public to hand over very handy Connexus-devices by saying 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.

** Possibly one of the best examples: at a point in the series, Eureka [[spoiler:tries to "return to the earth" due to her Coralian 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.

* 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.

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

*** 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.

* In ''TheElenium'' 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.

* Jack from ''Film/RiseOfTheGuardians'' is guilty about this halfway through. After the other Guardians think he betrayed them, all he would have had to say was "I found Pitch's lair, and the tooth fairies." Instead, he just stutters and mumbles, and doesn't defend himself.
* ''WreckItRalph'': A lack of communication is the catalyst for the entire plot of the movie. Fix-It Felix, the protagonist of the game, is a [[NiceGuy good guy]] who genuinely tries to be courteous to Ralph. However, he's unable to be an effective mediator between Ralph and the {{Jerkass}} [=NPCs=] of their game, which is what causes the confrontation that leads to Ralph leaving the game. Also, Felix simply [[SpoiledSweet has no frame of reference]] for how horrible Ralph feels. This means that, since Ralph never tries to communicate his feelings to either Felix or anyone else in their game, he has no way of knowing that Ralph isn't happy. Even the fact that Ralph is [[HomelessHero homeless]] can be blamed on a lack of communication. If he had asked, or even ''implied'', Felix would have certainly taken the [[MrFixit thirty seconds]] out of his day to give Ralph a house. He never did, because he legitimately thought that Ralph was happy where he was.

Common ways to ''NOT'' get the point across:

* Happens in "Resonance" half way through the game. [[spoiler: Anna (or the player) is tasked to decide what to do with Resonance; destroy the vault or open it. However, no matter the decision, Ed hastily shoots Anna in the head. All this, despite Ed's pleas to talk things out, because Anna wouldn't what she was thinking.]]

** ''{{Equestria Girls}}'' shows that ''all'' the human versions of the Mane Six suffer from this, as Sunset Shimmer is able to destroy their friendship simply by dropping a few pieces of misinformation that could easily be cleared up. Instead, they all assume the worst of each other, and it takes several years and the influence of Twilight before they think to actually ''talk'' to each other about what happened.

* ''KamenRider'', under the writing of Toshiki Inoue, tends to suffer from this. Both ''[[KamenRiderAgito Agito]]'' and ''[[KamenRiderKiva 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 OmnicidalManiac). 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.]]

** [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Liara]] was the only party member from the first installment to be aware of the Collectors' attempts to obtain Shepard's body, or that Shepard would need to work with [[EvilInc Cerberus]] to deal with the threat once they brought him/her BackFromTheDead. This is because she apparently didn't think the rest of the party needed to know. As a result, the only information Ashley/Kaidan had access, which had in fact been leaked by Cerberus itself in an attempt to isolate Shepard, pointed to Shepard faking his/her death and turning traitor.

** [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Liara]] was the only party member from the first installment to be aware of the Collectors' attempts to obtain Shepard's body, or that Shepard would need to work with [[EvilInc Cerberus]] to deal with the threat once they brought him/her BackFromTheDead. This is because she apparently didn't think the rest of the party needed to know. As a result, when Ashley/Kaidan began seeing the reports of Shepard resurfacing in Cerberus' company and Shepard acting like it was no big deal when they finally met up, they concluded that Shepard had faked his/her death and turned traitor.

** Another one: [[spoiler: A manager murders the lead singer of her rock band because he was an abusive {{Jerkass}}. It turns out that the singer was in love with the manager, but was upset over her getting rhinoplasty because he liked her the way she was. His rude behavior was him lashing out when he was really mad at himself for inspiring her to change herself just to please him.]]
** Only barely averted in a more recent story about a wife who tends to go overboard and her fed-up husband who thought she was ruining his relationships with his workmates by emailing them with her suspicions [[spoiler: she was actually thanking them for taking him out on camping trips but to be careful because of his rare blood type; because they didn't want to accidentally hurt him they stopped asking him out. Unfortunately he didn't realize this until after ''he tricked her into attacking him to cure his hiccups so he could kill her''. Fortunately she survived and even forgave him -- after all they're going to be parents!]]
** A woman killed her sister because she stole her boyfriend. [[spoiler: Turns out the boyfriend was actually the one who initiated everything by falling for his girlfriend's sister and telling the sister to pretend that she was the one who initiated things, not the guy]].

* This was [[spoiler: ColonelBadass Sergei Smirnov]]'s FatalFlaw in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 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 [[YouKilledMyFather responsible for Holly's death]].]]

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

* ''Anime/{{Another}}'': Seriously, you couldn't tell the new transfer student that the entire class's lives depended on [[spoiler:[[TheMasquerade ignoring a student's existence]]]] so you could avoid an evil ghost curse BEFORE he started attending class and tried making friends with [[spoiler: [[{{Unperson}} said ignored student]]]] and not trust you because you chose to be threateningly vague about it until [[RuleOfThree THREE PEOPLE DIED]] and it became obvious that the "Charm" was no longer an option...

* The entirety of the third ''RebuildOfEvangelion'' movie [[spoiler: including Fourth Impact and Kaworu's TearJerker HeroicSacrifice]] could have been avoided had Misato, Ritsuko, or really ''anyone'' in WILLE stopped to tell Shinji [[spoiler: that he was being held in confinement because he had accidentally initiated Third Impact prior to the TimeSkip. Since nobody bothered to inform him of this, he just assumed they were being a bunch of [[JerkAss Jerkasses]] and ran away]].

** The time it nearly resulted in someone getting killed was in [[spoiler: Izumi]]'s arc. Her father asks him if his child, [[spoiler: Izumi]] loves him, and he answers 'yes' [[spoiler: Kotetsu]]. Hayate ends up having to fight in a lava pit, what is supposed to be a fight to the death. [[spoiler: Izumi gets closer to dying because she's wearing silk.]]
* ''Anime/CodeGeass''' Lelouch, in his arrogance, is guilty of this multiple times. The best (or worst) example is when he's informed by his enemies that their [[TheAce Ace]] Suzaku is carrying a weapon of mass destruction on board his mecha, but ''fails to tell any of his subordinates''. When Lelouch's top pilot Kallen confronts him, [[spoiler: Suzaku, despite not wanting to use the weapon, [[ICannotSelfTerminate is forced by the command to "live" that Lelouch placed upon him]] to fire it, which killed ''35 million people''.]]
** Lelouch could be forgiven, considering no bomb had ever been that powerful before, and destroying your own city is considered a really bad idea, in theory.
** Not to mention that Lelouch was convinced Suzaku had just lied to and tried to betray him, so he really thought that Suzaku was lying about the bomb.
* 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.
** 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]]]].

* In ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'', the newest conflict with the [[spoiler: Shimon Family]] could've been completely avoided if not for [[ClicheStorm an important note that was blown into a bin by a convenient breeze]].

* The two major conflicts in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' could theoretically have been mostly avoided, had the {{Big Bad}}s just sat down with everybody else and explained [[WellIntentionedExtremist the situation and proposed solution]], rather than causing massive amounts of trouble and not telling anyone why they're doing what they're doing. Case in point, [[spoiler: If Chao and/or Fate would have taken the time to explain that Mundus Magicus was in danger of collapsing rather than going freelance and causing tons of collateral damage, they probably would have solved the problem by now.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', a filler villain [[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.]] [[EpicFail Yep.]]
** Another filler villain [[spoiler: got his master sealed away for a hundred or so years because their relationship deteriorated, causing him not to be able to hear his call, and come to his side.]] So[[spoiler: Muramasa spent a century and a half trying to recruit a force to free his master Kouga.. Only to be stabbed to death by said master because the fact that Kouga was a {{Jerkass}} to him before he got sealed away meant that Muramasa couldn't hear him calling him.]] Again, [[EpicFail yep.]]
** 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, considering the number this trope's done on his relationship with his kid...

** A more serious example occurs when Luffy and Usopp were arguing about whether to keep the Going 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.

** [[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]]]]. However, 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 might have been a good idea too...

** Sayaka hates Homura because she thinks Homura [[spoiler: deliberately waited until after Mami was killed before showing up to save the day]]. Madoka was there and knows that [[spoiler: Mami tied Homura up with magic ribbons that only [[NoOntologicalInertia dissipated when Mami died]]]], but is unable to speak up before Sayaka leaves.

* Jeremy tries to tell Sandra, Ian, and William a couple different times that Greg is abusing him. However, due mostly to {{Cannot Spit It Out}}, his efforts are trampled and he [[spoiler: eventually tampers with Greg's car and kills him, and by accident, Sandra.]]

* In the case of ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'', [[spoiler: literally]].
* In ''Manga/{{Kurokami}}'', had the BigBad simply explained that he was out to kill off a whopping third of the entire human population because [[spoiler: if he didn't, a BiggerBad would come along and kill off ''every single living being on the planet'']], at the very least, the good guys might have been at least more willing to sit down and talk things out. It didn't help that the BigBad seemed to only employ ObviouslyEvil [[JerkAss jerkasses]] into his organization.

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* This is the actual name of a chapter in ''[[FanFic/TheNuptialverse Families]]'', wherein the use of this trope in Spike's storyline comes to a head -- his refusal to talk to Twilight about ''why'' he feels so guilty, along with making the Cutie Mark Crusaders promise not to tell anyone, leads to [[spoiler: him running away rather than confront his problem]].

** Phoenix not being able to explain to Twilight Sparkle [[spoiler: why he's accusing Fluttershy]] at that moment caused more than a few problems.

** [[spoiler: Cruise Control went to tell the cops about how something "big" was going to go down in the forest. However, he was in his cocky personality and wasn't taken seriously, and thus the murder happens]].

--> [[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!"

* Early in ''Film/TheStrangers'', the protagonist calls for his friend to give him a ride back home from his isolated cabin in the woods, right about the time that three masked lunatics decide to sabotage his only car and try to kill him. Later, when the friend arrives to find that someone's broken into the cabin (and a few minutes after someone throws a rock through ''his'' car's window), his first instinct is to silently tiptoe into the cabin...without thinking to phone the police or call out to the protagonist to let him know that he's arrived. [[spoiler: The protagonist, who's barricaded himself inside with a shotgun, thinks he's one of the masked assailants, and shoots him dead.]]

** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]'', Dumbledore admits that his failure to tell Harry some very important stuff is responsible for [[spoiler: Sirius's death.]]

** The series also shows the corollary: when the protagonists finally ''get a clue'' and start working together and sharing information, plots get solved. Since Brandon Sanderson took over the series, the pattern of nobody talking to anyone else has broken, and this has allowed them to start preparing for Tarmon Gai'don. Even before then, Rand only survived the Battle of Shadar Logoth because Cadsuane forced him to take some backup along instead of running off and trying to [[spoiler: cleanse ''saidin'']] with only Nynaeve's assistance.
* In TheRepublicOfTrees, Isobel tells Michael that she broke up with her previous boyfriend because he wanted something from her that she wouldn't give him... [[spoiler: he wanted her to stop cheating on him ]] As the result, Michael learns the truth at the worst possible moment and the already unstable situation spirals out of control to LordOfTheFlies proportions.

* A large part of later books in the EndersGame series. Turns out [[spoiler:the formics were not hostile, but simply unaware that humans were intelligent, at least on an individual level. After the second war, they tried to apologize, but were destroyed before they learned to communicate with us.]] In addition, the whole debate over whether two alien species can communicate and coexist is dominant, especially as a situation gets closer and closer to "Communicate with them, or commit Xenocide." [[spoiler: Placing our heroes in the exact same situation as the formics.]]

* In the Creator/AgathaChristie 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.]]

*** ''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 "Trial by Fire", an episode from the {{revival}} version of ''Series/TheOuterLimits'', alien forces are hovering above the Earth, and have sent out a message to the world's leaders. The message, unfortunately, is unable to be deciphered, and the President of the US is presented with two options - Preemptive strike, or wait things out and hope they can translate the message. [[spoiler: He eventually takes the Hawk approach and launches a nuclear warhead at the [[FlyingSaucer UFOs]], which fails. As a retaliatory strike comes in, he's informed that they just cracked the code... by submerging the audio beneath water; it was a message of Peace.]] But what were you expecting? There's a reason that the trope CruelTwistEnding was originally called Outer Limits Twist.

** ''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.

* About half of the Winchester family drama in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' could have been avoided if Sam and Dean simply ''told'' each other about their problems rather than insisting they're fine. Also, Castiel's [[spoiler: slide into evil]] in Season 6 could have been avoided if he'd simply asked the Winchesters for help, and if the Winchesters hadn't blown off the ''civil war in heaven'' as [[BystanderSyndrome somebody else's problem]].

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Granny's decision not to [[spoiler: tell Red that she's actually [[TheBigBadWolf the wolf]]]] gets many people [[spoiler: including Red's LoveInterest]] killed. Afterwards, Granny [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] [[IdiotBall how stupid doing so was]].

* GilbertAndSullivan were also fond of this trope, but the they actually hang a lampshade on it in the Act I finale of ''Theatre/TheMikado'', when Katisha tries to tell the people of Titipu that [[spoiler: Nanki Poo is the son of the Mikado]], only to have the chorus interrupt her every time she opens her mouth.

** In ''VideoGame/TouhouLabyrinth'', a whole slew of people pick on Reimu's party because they think Reimu caused the incident and wouldn't hear it any other way until they get blown up in the face. They are visibly shocked when they meet Sanae later, who claims that people must be senile to thinks someone as lazy as Reimu can cause an incident of its scale. [[spoiler: Yukari to Rinnosuke (and the party eventually) as well, although she does have a good reason for the fact that she CannotSpitItOut]] The same people are also the ones who are really straight examples of DefeatMeansFriendship in the game, as opposed to most optional characters who aren't really recruited so much via DefeatMeansFriendship as opposed to Defeat Means You're Coming Whether You Like It Or Not.
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', [[spoiler:Shadra Jerro]] wouldn't had had to die if she could have gotten her [[spoiler:Grandfather]] line out before [[spoiler: her grandfather Amnon Jerro blasted her for releasing the demons and devils that gave him his extra powers (and minor demon army)]].

** Also done in [[VideoGame/StarCraftII 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 a lot of marines in the process and causing plenty of damage. One simple transmission could have saved so much trouble. Though it is in character for Valerian to be overly dramatic.

** Also, [[spoiler: Medivh]] could have been a lot more forthcoming when he warned people about the approaching conflict. Its not a big shocker that King Menethil, Arthas, Antonidas et. all don't believe him when he shows up, rambles about coming catastrophe in vague terms, then flies away in a huff when he's not immediately obeyed.

* ''PhantomOfInferno''. The whole problem with [[spoiler: Cal]] in Act 3 could have been completely averted if Reiji had just told her [[spoiler: how happy he was to see that she was still alive]] [[CannotSpitItOut instead of keeping it in monologue]] and being defensive and confrontational at every given opportunity for no particular reason. [[spoiler: Cal]] even prompts Reiji to tell his side of the story several times in hopes that he'll give her an excuse to back down.

* With much of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' feeling kind of rushed, many of the side quests simply end in completely unnecessary massacres. If you're pro-Mage, the Best Served Cold quest is one long example of this - just about every member of [[spoiler: Thrask's]] mage-templar alliance assumes you're hunting them on Meredith's orders and attacks you on sight.

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorney'' has this problem a lot. Vague letters or notes with no clear addressee on them are the most common culprits, although the entire backstory of "Bridge to the Turnabout" could have been solved by good communication [[spoiler: without anyone dying.]] The last one is tragically lampshaded by [[spoiler:Godot,]] who points out that the whole situation would never have happened if [[spoiler:he had simply told Phoenix what was going on instead of trying to redeem himself.]]

** The plot of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep 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 ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', 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 [[WellIntentionedExtremist everything else]] [[FallenHero he knows]] [[ManipulativeBastard about the guy]]. Now 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, [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything since he never met or heard about Terra OR Xehanort]] in ''Birth by Sleep'', he can't get suspicious, despite [[OldMaster his master, Yen Sid]] knowing about it all.

* ''InThe1stDegree'' 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 LampshadeHanging 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.

*** Actually, [[spoiler: they ''did'' leave behind a VI on the Asari homeworld for that purpose. But the Asari government kept it secret, which fits the trope even better.]]
** The [[spoiler: Catalyst]], tasked with [[spoiler: negotiating between naturals and synthetics]], didn't bother to negotiate at all, instead repeatedly deciding to start from scratch without explaining the why until it was far too late
** The Reapers, [[spoiler: protecting naturals from synthetics and visa-versa]], jumped right to the "kill them all and create a Reaper out what remains" stage, rather than explaining why they saw it as necessary to give people (natural or synthetic) a chance to prove otherwise.
*** [[spoiler: The Leviathan DLC indicates the Catalyst's terrible reasoning might have been a simple application of LiteralGenie in the [[NeglectfulPrecursors Leviathans]] wording its directive poorly. To try and smooth out trouble with their era's slave species building machines that turned on them [[PragmaticVillainy (cutting off the Leviathans from enough tribute to make them care without really understanding the situation)]], the Leviathans gave the Catalyst the directive to preserve organic life at all costs. It concluded the simplest way to do this was to harvest it regularly and force it into the near-indestructible Reaper shells. Shepard can later point out to a dying reaper that this doesn't change that the preservation ''only'' works as an excuse for the repeated genocide in that the species exist as Reaper power sources; the culture of the species that created the reaper he points this out to is long, long dead. The Reaper is implied to be so dumbfounded by this realization it spends its final moments in stunned silence before shutting down without a hint of resistance.]]

** In [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0367.html this]] 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.

** It gets worse: when V [[spoiler: tells hir mate that s/he made a DealWithTheDevil to save hir and their children]], and s/he gets angry. S/he insists that s/he doesn't know the whole story. S/he admits this, but calls hir on [[spoiler: keeping the power she needed to save their family]], and asks hir to make a choice between hir power and their family. V could have tried to explain more, if only to justify hirself and why s/he needs (or wants) to keep hir power a little longer, but instead s/he just says that s/he needs to make everything right again. An ultimatum had been issued and time was slipping away, but for someone who wants to keep both, V certainly isn't acting in a manner that will let hir do so. Though hir mental state may be justified.

** What probably makes the problem worse is that the BigBad is very good at sowing deception and hostility within groups. [[spoiler: She being the most obvious root of mistrust between Barry and Klaus, while the problems caused in later chapters were most definitely due to the Big Bad's moles and hidden supporters along with seceretly mind controlling first Agatha and now the Baron]]

* 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 YouHaveToBelieveMe, 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 [[NotNowKiddo Tigris views Onca as dangerously incompetent and naive]].

** The whole musical is based around a more tragic instance, though. If Billy had just [[spoiler: told Penny how he felt at the start, he may never have built the death ray, leading to her tragic death.]]

** In ''Burning Low'',[[spoiler: after learning about [[TheHero Finn]]'s new relationship with [[PersonOfMassDestruction Flame Princess]], she tries to warn he and Jake that FP's physical instability risks world-ending catastrophe if she became too excited. Unfortunately, her warning came in the form of a long, boring technobabble-heavy slide show that neither of the boys paid attention to, leading to them assuming that PB's real problem was mere jealousy. A lot of unnecessary heartache and near-Armageddon followed.]] PB really should take a couple of speech classes to get her point across more quickly.

** There's also the communication gap of life-or-death proportions in [[GrandFinale "The Phoenix King"]]. [[spoiler: Zuko is outraged at the rest of the Gaang's seemingly slacking off when Sozin's Comet is due any day. Turns out they forgot to tell him that they've figured the Fire Nation already rules the whole world so they might as well just wait until after the comet's come and gone before fighting the Fire Lord again. Zuko then tells them the Fire Nation is going to use the comet to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, which he's slightly more justified in withholding from the rest as he assumed they were still planning to have the fight before the comet arrived.]]
-->'''Aang''': [[spoiler: Why didn't you tell me about your dad's [[OmnicidalManiac crazy plan]] before?]]
-->'''Zuko''': [[spoiler: I didn't think I had to. I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet. No one told ''me'' you decided to wait!]]

** Then there was the time Metron stopped time to warn Luthor not to continue in his attempt to revive Brainiac, but neglected to explain ''why''. [[spoiler: It was Darkseid he was about to bring back to life.]]
*** Luthor even called him out on it, but Metron made a vauge comment that made it sound like [[spoiler: Darkseid's return instead of Brainiac]]'s was only the most likely option, not an absolute. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Lex then threatans to shoot him if Metron doesn't help fix things (note, Metron is a god, being held up with a gun).]]