History Main / MissedHimByThatMuch

* When the contents of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin's library were examined after his death, one of its books was found to contain a copy of Gregor Mendel's ground-breaking manuscript on genetic inheritance. Those particular pages were still uncut, indicating Darwin never got around to reading it. Many, many biologists have wondered WhatMightHaveBeen, had Darwin gotten to read the paper that clarified the one part of his theory (patterns/mechanisms of heredity) for which he'd not found decisive evidence.

* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Near the end of Volume 10, [[spoiler:Caera arrives in the newly liberated Dicathen in order to enlist Arthur's aid for Seris's rebellion only for her to be detained by Bairon who [[MistakenForSpies believes she is a spy]]. Although Arthur could have easily validated Caera's statements and secured her release once he returned from the third ruin, his attention gets distracted by the sudden arrival of Avier, who is bearing summons from the exiled asuran general Aldir. This leads to a chain of events that sees Arthur getting stuck in the aether realm for two months in order to resurrect Sylvie, which in turn leads to Caera languishing in prison for much longer than she should have. Making her ordeal even worse is that Kezess ordered his forces to occupy Dicathen in the meantime as part of his deal with Arthur, and the asuras naturally treated Caera rather badly given their contempt for Vritra-blooded Alacryans like her]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Mike, Sulley, and Boo are hiding in a bathroom stall from Randall. Randall punches the stalls open one by one, and Sully flinches as every door opens. Before Randall can burst into the stall where the trio are hiding, however, his assistant Fungus [[CaptainObvious points out that Boo is on the front page]]. After a short discussion, Randall punches the door of the stall where Sulley, Mike, and Boo are hiding - but he isn't looking at the time, and the door closes before he can spot them. Then he yells at Fungus and chases him out of the bathroom, demanding that he get to work on his plan.

* ''{{ComicBook/Laika}}'': Liliana and her mother happen to be in the public market on the same day and time that Kudryavka, their dog who they love and miss, is caught by dogcatchers and delivered to the Soviet space program. At one point they are close enough that Liliana can hear Kudryavka howling. Sadly, they never encounter each other again.

-->'''Doña Florinda/Doña Clotilde'': What happened? I just heard him.\\

* Doña Florinda once asked ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' to find Quico for her and Doña Clotilde asked Quico to find El Chavo. The two boys kept missing each other until they gave up searching.

** Done in-episode with "Thanks But No Thanks", when Candace realizes an old lady next door has witnessed all of Phineas and Ferb's big ideas and wants to introduce her to Linda so she can tell her everything. By the time Linda is brought out, the lady has left her window and Linda calls out Candace for her supposed imagination before leaving; once Linda has went back inside, the lady reappears seconds after.

** And again (but with the roles reversed this time) in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]" when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house in anger, Hank convinces him to help him expose Walt's criminal activities as a better way to get back at him, and takes him away in his car]]. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after [[spoiler:Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wonder where Jesse could've gone]].

** And again (but with the roles reversed this time) in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]" when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house, Hank convinces him to help him expose Walt's criminal activities as a better way to get back at him, and takes him away in his car]]. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after [[spoiler:Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wondering where Jesse could've gone]].

** And again (but with the roles reversed this time) in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]" when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house, Hank convinces him to get back at Walt by testifying against him instead and takes him away in his car]]. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after [[spoiler:Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wondering where Jesse could've gone]].

** And again in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]" when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house, Hank convinces him to get back at Walt by testifying against him instead and takes him away in his car]]. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after [[spoiler:Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wondering where Jesse could've gone]].

** And again in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]" when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house, Hank convinces him to get back at Walt by testifying against him instead and takes him away in his car. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wondering where Jesse could've gone]].

** And again in ''[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E12RabidDog Rabid Dog]]'' when, after [[spoiler:stopping Jesse from burning down Walt's house, Hank convinces him to get back at Walt by testifying against him instead and takes him away in his car. A literal couple of ''seconds'' after Hank drove off, Walt's car shows up at the end of the street, leaving Walt to discover his gasoline-soaked house and wondering where Jesse could've gone]].

* This, combined with NoPeripheralVision and DeusExMachina, is why Linda Flynn never finds out what ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' are doing.

** Michael would replicate his feat during Act 1 of the similarly-named sequel ''Film/Halloween2018'' where he stalks a couple of influencers who visited him in the penitentiary that he later broke out of who;e they stop at a gas station, remaining in the background as he violently beats a mechanic to death for his jumpsuit without either of them realizing until shortly after when Michael ambushes and murdering them both in order to recover his signature mask ahead of his imminent reign of carnage.

* ''Film/{{Serendipity}}'' has the two main characters constantly miss bumping into each other by ''this'' much as they're actively trying to find the other. This goes on and on until the viewer is sorely tempted to shout at the screen, "Just meet up ''already!''"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode, "[[Recap/RugratsS2E2ChuckieVsThePottyTogetherAtLast Together at Last]]", Betty separates Phil and Lil after they argue, and lets Didi take Lil to Tommy's house to play with Tommy and Chuckie. The twins soon find themselves missing each other, and when Tommy, Chuckie, and Lil go to Phil and Lil's house to look for Phil, Phil goes to Tommy's house to look for Lil. Phil and Lil don't see each other because Phil goes over the fence as Lil goes under it.

* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': The titular girl spends months looking for her friends in the city. One day, she believes to see her friend Beppo standing on a bridge, but by the time she arrives at the bridge, he is long gone.

-->'''Randall''': You just keep the machine up and running, I'll take care of the kid. And when I find whoever let that kid out... THEY'RE ''DEAD''! ''(punches open the stall the trio is hiding in, but he isn't looking in their direction; the door closes again before he can notice them)'' WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?! GET OUT!\\

** For something that doesn't involve Team Rocket for once, the recurring [[CoolShades sunglasses]]-wearing Krokorok, who faded from importance over 40 episodes prior, was revealed to have been stalking Ash and friends the whole time, only to miss them at every opportunity. (There was a quick flashback showing events of previous episodes and where Krokorok was around those times.)

[[caption-width-right:300: [[DramaticIrony "Look, there's no way that kid survived being lost at sea and is now wandering around up above looking for us."]]]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', courtesy of Team Rocket's scheme/s, has this happen at least twice: