History Main / PoorCommunicationKills

* ''Roleplay/TheMurderverse'': Very narrowly [[AvertedTrope averted]] in ''A Game of Mafia 2''. Robin, due to their results as the Investigator, begins pushing to have Nagibaldi executed. Despite dropping some pretty blatant hints, Cutbug doesn't quite understand where they're getting this information and starts suspecting them as a result—but eventually Robin just straight-up spells it out for them.

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

Compare DramaticallyMissingThePoint; OpenMouthInsertFoot; ImpededMessenger; DoomedAppointment; SuspiciousMissedMessages.

* At the climax of ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', just as Eugene and Rapunzel are about to kiss, the former saw the Stabbington Brothers waiting in the shore and in order to keep Rapunzel safe, he decides to head on shore to give the tiara to them. However, since he does not tell Rapunzel of their presence (whom she previously saw attempting to kill them), she is led to believe that Eugene truly abandoned her for the tiara, which traumatize her enough that led to Gothel successffuly regaining hold of her to return to the tower.

** In Volume 7, Blake and Yang promised General Ironwood that they won't tell anybody about the Amity Colosseum being turned into a satellite as part of a plan that involved uniting the entirety of Remnant against Salem and his minions. A promise that's broken once both of them are forced to tell Robyn Hill the truth. For a time, it worked, as Robyn allied with Ironwood believing they were doing the right thing, however, as soon as Ironwood knows the truth, trust between Team RWBY and the Atlas authorities begin to crack and they begin to fight each other, thus attracting even more Grimm to Mantle and Atlas.

* ''Roleplay/TheMurderverse'': Very narrowly averted in ''A Game of Mafia 2''. Robin, due to their results as the Investigator, begins pushing to have Nagibaldi executed. Despite dropping some pretty blatant hints, Cutbug doesn't quite understand where they're getting this information and starts suspecting them as a result—but eventually Robin just straight-up spells it out for them.

[[folder:Webcomic]]
* [[spoiler: [[{{VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog}} Sonic's]] plan to get the Divorce Lawyer to kill Alec by writing a letter claiming Alec wants to divorce WesternAnimation/BettyBoop. The lawyer had previously agreed to kill Alec if this was ever the case.]]
** [[spoiler: Subverted when Alec easily defuses the situation by simply telling the lawyer what's going on.]]
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[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Subverted in crossover ''Fanfic/PointMeAtTheSkyrim''. The three times that Victoria has introduced herself to a faction have resulted in her either being attacked or threatened with death due to the way Victoria presented herself (not that she is aware of this). All three times Victoria has successfully avoided conflict by acting passive or in the faction's interest.
[[/folder]]

* Staple of the humor of ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'': poorly worded notes end up causing havoc, telephone-conversations are misinterpreted due to being heard only from one end and out-of-context and instructions are laid out properly leading to big misunderstandings among other things.

* [spoiler: [[{{VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog}} Sonic's]] plan to get the Divorce Lawyer to kill Alec by writing a letter claiming Alec wants to divorce WesternAnimation/BettyBoop. The lawyer had previously agreed to kill Alec if this was ever the case.]]

* Of all the things this could refer to in ''WebOriginal/SCPFoundation'', you wouldn't think it would be the SCP itself, but it has happened. SCP-2703 is a [[EldritchAbomination horned, tentacled griffon-thing]], but she's also a polite and classy lady who just wants to [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu have platonic dinner-dates and see shows with humans]]. Unfortunately, she chooses to advertise these things in ways that seem like prostitution (apparently she never realized what "For a good time, call..." in BathroomStallGraffiti refers to), and as such she's apparently had a bad experience with a would-be "friend".

* Of all the things this could refer to in ''WebOriginal/TheSCPFoundation'', you wouldn't think it would be the SCP itself, but it has happened. SCP-2703 is a [[EldrichAbomination horned, tentacled griffon-thing]], but she's also a polite and classy lady who just wants to [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu have platonic dinner-dates and see shows with humans]]. Unfortunately, she chooses to advertise these things in ways that seem like prostitution (apparently she never realized what "For a good time, call..." in BathroomStallGraffiti refers to), and as such she's apparently had a bad experience with a would-be "friend".

* All over the place in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch''. Stitch never properly explains that his spasms are completely uncontrollable, Lilo never asks why Stitch has been freaking out and wrecking things, and most importantly Jumba and Pleakley never tell anybody that Stitch is malfunctioning. In fact, they even make it a point to keep it a secret for reasons they never explain. If even just one of these characters communicated a little better, the entire plot could have been avoided. Especially annoying because both Lilo and Stitch have plenty of times where they should have nothing better to do but discuss what just happened, and yet somehow they just don't. Lilo can maybe be excused because she's only 6 or 7 years old, but Stitch is supposed to be as intelligent as a supercomputer.

* All over the place in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch''. Stitch never properly explains that his spasms are completely uncontrollable, Lilo never asks why Stitch has been freaking out and wrecking things, and most importantly Jumba and Pleakley never tell anybody that Stitch is malfunctioning. In fact, they even make it a point to keep it a secret for reasons they never explain. If even just one of these characters communicated a little better, the entire plot could have been avoided.

** Anna gets struck in the head with Elsa's ice magic, so the sisters are separated for thirteen years to keep Anna from getting harmed again. Due to Anna's memories of the incident getting erased, she has no idea why Elsa shuts her out. A lot of the film's conflict (especially regarding Elsa's glove and the major argument between the two sisters over Anna's impromptu engagement to Hans) might have been avoided if Elsa or their parents had just told Anna about Elsa's powers when they felt she was old enough. One gets the idea that Elsa was ordered specifically not to tell her, and it seems to be suggested that had they not been killed prematurely, they may have had a point in time where they were going to tell Anna something along the lines of "we had to isolate you from Elsa because she has this ability to make ice that she is unable to control".

* Subverted in crossover ''Fanfic/PointMeAtTheSkyrim''. The three times that Victoria has introduced herself to a faction has resulted in either being attacked or threatened with death due to the way Victoria presented herself (not that she is aware of this). All three times Victoria has successfully avoided conflict by acting passive or in the faction's interest.

* Parodied in "The Poptart Tragedy", a SoBadItsGood story (most likely deliberately awful) about a boy and girl. The girl wants some Pop-Tarts, and asks her boyfriend to get them. When he returns, she tells him that she's pregnant and asks if he'll stay with her as her boyfriend. When he says "no", she cries and runs away--but without eating the Pop-Tarts, her blood sugar lowers and she tumbles to the ground, somehow dying. The boyfriend then reveals that he said he wasn't going to be her boyfriend because he planned on proposing, thus becoming her ''husband.'' Listen to the [[SarcasmMode heart-rending tragedy]] narrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcn1Q9fWahM here.]]
* A similar example occurs in "5ever". A girl asks her boyfriend if he will love her forever. Again, he says no, and again, she runs away and dies (this time, she's struck by a car). When he finds her corpse, he explains that he didn't plan on loving her forever -- he was going to love her ''five''ever, which is apparently more than "four"ever.

* Parodied in "The Poptart Tragedy", a SoBadItsGood story (most likely deliberately awful) about a boy and girl. The girl wants some Pop-Tarts, and asks her boyfriend to get them. When he returns, she tells him that she's pregnant and asks if he'll stay with her boyfriend. When he says "no," she cries and runs away--but without eating the Pop-Tarts, her blood sugar lowers and she tumbles to the ground, somehow dying. The boyfriend then reveals that he said he wasn't going to be her boyfriend because he planned on proposing, thus becoming her ''husband.'' Listen to the [[SarcasmMode heart-rending tragedy]] narrated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcn1Q9fWahM here]].
* A similar example occurs in "5ever." A girl asks her boyfriend if he will love her forever; again, he says no, and again, she runs away and dies (this time she's struck by a car). When he finds her corpse, he explains that he didn't plan on loving her forever -- he was going to love her ''five''ever, which is apparently more than "four"ever.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'' goes about this in a rather silly way. The GoodAllAlong "villains" outright tell the protagonists what they plan to do, but the protagonists are under the impression that they're lying. It doesn't help that the villains used to run on BlueAndOrangeMorality (being "controlled" by a younger sister who was once a toddler), which means that the protagonists tend to shoot first whenever it comes to an actual fight and then mistake defensiveness as aggression. Consequently, genuine change of hearts get mistaken as brainwashing, and a genuine SugarBowl is interpreted as a CrapsaccharineWorld. This gets lampshaded pretty hard later on.

** Little girl Aggie had no idea how to explain her ability to see and speak to the dead in terms that her [[TheFundamentalist accusers]] could see in any way except as "witchcraft". In trying, she basically admits to being "guilty" and dies for it. [[spoiler: The result is a curse that causes Judge Hopkins and his jury to turn into zombies, doomed to wander the streets looking for a way to properly pass on.]]