History Main / INeverGotAnyLetters

* ''Literature/BootCamp'': Teens imprisoned at Lake Harmony are allowed to write to their parents, but the staff rip up any letters that complain about the abuse.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the episode where Homer first meets his long-lost mother, he asks why she never wrote, she says she sent him a care package every week. It turns out the postman didn't mention the undelivered care packages because Homer never bothered to tip the mail carrier at Christmas. This is PlayedForLaughs/Heartwarming rather than drama or tragedy though.

* ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'': Inverted -- [[WhiteDwarfStarlet Norma Desmond]] receives hundreds of fan letters a day, but it turns out they were all written by her [[LoveMartyr dutiful and unconditionally loving butler Max]] to cushion her from the realities of being discarded by the Hollywood star system and forgotten by her fans.

* ''Series/ADifferentWorld'': Inverted -- Whitley herself did not mail her letters to Dwayne, both afraid of his rejection and wanting to play hard to get. Unfortunately, it backfires -- assuming that her lack of response to him means she's not interested, Dwayne gives up and starts dating someone else. When the two finally do get together, she hands him a packet of her unsent missives.

* ''Film/TheHauntedMansion2003'': Edward was so distraught over his beloved Elizabeth being DrivenToSuicide before their marriage that he spent his soul could not rest, and he tried to marry Sara thinking she was Elizabeth reincarnated. However, a letter was eventually discovered in the attic, revealing that Elizabeth truly did want to marry him. This letter was intercepted by Edward's butler Ramsay, in an effort to prevent their marriage, as it would've been multiracial in a time where that was less accepted.

* ''Literature/TheFolkOfTHeAir'': In the second book, Cardan assumes that since Jude hasn't responded to any of his letters rescinding her banishment and begging her to return to [[LandOfFaerie Elfhame]], Jude must be fed up with his nonsense and has moved on in the mortal world. In reality, [[spoiler: Cardan's mother]] has been intercepting his letters, and Jude assumes she's still under threat of execution if she comes back.

* ''Literature/InCryptid'': After Thomas is [[ClosedCircle trapped inside his house]] and Alice is away at college, her OverprotectiveDad Jonathan starts intercepting any letters between them. His father Alexander eventually tells him to knock it off when this keeps them from finding out about the baby hodag Alice is hiding in her dorm room, which will soon be too big to hide. When Alexander visits, he doesn't tell Alice what her father's been doing, still hopeful that they can reconcile.

* ''Film/TheHauntedMansion'': Edward was so distraught over his beloved Elizabeth being DrivenToSuicide before their marriage that he spent his soul could not rest, and he tried to marry Sara thinking she was Elizabeth reincarnated. However, a letter was eventually discovered in the attic, revealing that Elizabeth truly did want to marry him. This letter was intercepted by Edward's butler Ramsay, in an effort to prevent their marriage, as it would've been multiracial in a time where that was less accepted.

* ''Series/{{Oshin}}'': The protagonist is working in Tokyo and then in Sakata and writes to her husband Ryuuzo, who is in Saga, regularly. However, when she moves to Sakata Ryuuzo stops writing to her, so she comes to believe that he has remarried and ditched her. [[spoiler: What actually happened is that Ryuuzo's [[MeddlingParents very possessive mother]] Kiyo has been intercepting their correspondence, and Ryuuzo doesn't even know Oshin has left Tokyo. When Oshin's HopelessSuitor Kota writes to Ryuuzo ''and'' Ryuuzo's sister-in-law Tsuneko deduces what's going on, Ryuuzo gets ''pissed off'' and screams at Kiyo to leave him alone, then properly writes to Oshin and explains what happened.]]

* ''Film/TheDevilCommands'': When Anne finally gets to see her father after years of separation, she demands to know why he never replied to her letters, he says he never recieved any. When she insists she sent them, Dr. Blair says Mrs. Walters collected the mail from the post office and starts to realise that Mrs. Walters has been deliberately keeping him isolated and manipulating him for years.

When a character is angry that another character never answered any of his letters, only to discover that a third character had been intercepting them. This can work the other way, as well, with a character angry that he never ''got'' any letters from someone, and the same explanation.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* Some ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfics suggest that Harry Potter was regularly sent owls with fan letters before he started attending Hogwarts, but he never received them because they were intercepted by the Ministry (or Dumbledore).

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* ''Manga/FoodWars'': Early in the manga, Alice complains to Erina on how the latter never answered any of her letters when they were younger while she was in Denmark. [[spoiler:Later on, it turns out that Erina never got them, as her father Azami shredded them in order to isolate her while he was training (read: brainwashing) her. Alice knew this, and that's why, despite complaining to Erina about it, it's Azami she really hates for what happened]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Crankshaft}}'': Taking things to the very extreme, the older of the two old maid sisters (Crankshaft's neighbors) intercepted her younger sister's letters during [=WW2=] because she was afraid she would abandon her for her beloved, who got the impression that he was dumped and although he still loved her he never wrote again. The older sister never confessed until her sister was comatose and dying of Alzheimer's. She later had a dream where she went back in time, met her sister's younger self and gave the letter to her sister's beloved, whereupon her sister forgave her.

* ''Animation/KikoRiki'': In the episode "The Lost Apology", Olga reflects how she fought with her friend (or boyfriend), and never made up because she was waiting for his apology. Turns out there were over thirty letters placed between the pages of a magazine she was ordering by mail but had no time to read.

* Some ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfics suggest that Harry Potter was regularly sent owls with fan-letters before he started attending Hogwarts, but he never received them because they were intercepted by the Ministry (or Dumbledore).

* ''Fanfic/TheLastSon'' (''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' crossover): In Book Four, it's revealed that Superman had previously met [[spoiler: Emma Frost]] at age 13, and they struck a friendship for a time. When she recognizes him as Clark Kent at adult age, she complains that he never wrote to her, to what he replies that he ''did'' write and she never answered. [[spoiler: It's then revealed that Selene manipulated Emma's dad to intercept Clark's mail out of spite, leading Emma to believe Clark had forgotten about her.]]
* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/65656/letters-from-a-friend-at-the-end-of-the-world Letters From a Friend at the End of the World]]'' (''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''): The story starts with Twilight receiving a letter from Trixie Lulamoon, much to her surprise. Then she reads it and learns it's not the first one she's been sent... just the first one she's gotten. She soon finds out that Rainbow Dash had accidentally found Trixie's actual first letter over a year ago and, rather than giving it to Twilight like she planned, got nosy about the contents. Finding them to be pretty unpleasant, she unilaterally decided Twilight didn't need to get such letters and had all Twilight's mail redirected to her own house instead so she could intercept any future mail from Trixie. Twilight is disappointed in her for this, but ultimately forgives her since Rainbow Dash still has all the letters and agrees to hand them over.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5768891/1/Who_Saves_the_Hero Who Saves the Hero]]'' (''Franchise/MassEffect''): In chapter 29, Shepard is revealed to be in trouble because (among other things) she retained her military position in the System Alliance while she was a Spectre (during ''[=ME1=]''), when she was supposed to resign her commission within one month. The reason why this didn't happen was because Udina kept the message saying so from Shepard, so that the SA could maintain a hold over her.

* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'': In the 1996 TV miniseries adaptation, Gulliver's wife tries to write letters to Gulliver, who has been committed to an asylum, but Bates, the man who was trying woo Gulliver's wife until he returned from his travels after 8 years, intercepts them. The stash of letters are found by Gulliver's son.

* ''Film/SingleWhiteFemale'': When Allie's ex Sam shows up, hoping to reconcile, he asks why she never responded to the letter he sent. She claims to have never gotten it. Later in the film, when rifling through her roommates things, she finds it.

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': It's unknown whether it's standard-operating procedure to prevent letters from home to go through, but it's certainly one of the ways they isolate Ender. Eventually, a letter gets through from his loving sister Valentine, but Ender realizes that since she obviously had to write it under duress, it just means they have begun to use her to manipulate him as well.

* ''Series/TheHouseOfEliott'': Beatrice's letters from her first boyfriend Phillip were intercepted by her father until Phillip gave up on her. She only discovered this after father was dead and Phillip married to someone else.

* ''Series/KeepBreathing'': Liv's mom actually sent her many postcards after she had left, reaching out to connect with her again, but her dad had gotten rid of them before she saw. Her dad claims the words weren't for Liv, but her, as she knew where they were but never came to visit. As a result, he didn't want Liv hurt by her any more. Liv insists it wasn't right to decide that for her, and she left but didn't forget at least as shown by the postcards. [[spoiler:It turns out this is why she went out into an isolated region of Canada-her mom's last postcard was from there, and Liv wants to reconnect with her.]]

* ''Series/ShadowAndBone'': After Alina is taken away to the Little Palace, she writes letters to Mal, unaware that he's not receiving them. Meanwhile Mal keeps writing letters to her even though he can't find anyone to deliver them. When they have their BigDamnReunion they're both angry, thinking one doesn't care about the other. Alina later discovers her friend Genya never delivered the letters because she's an agent of General Kirigan, who wanted Alina under his sway by [[LoveIsAWeakness making her think Mal had abandoned her]].

** An aged man and an aged woman who have some sort of grudge against one another. It turns out that they were once sweethearts, but the old man's father didn't approve and eventually they were separated. The old man promised to write but never did. The old woman assumed he just didn't care. It culminates into both of them telling each other that they never wrote and the man insisting that he wrote hundreds of letters to her. She says "I never got them." He answers [[WhamLine "How couldn't you??? My own father was the mailman!"]] Cue awkward silence between the two. Tough break.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': Wallace is angry at his biological father (whom he did not even know he had until recently) for never trying to get in contact, until his father shows him all the letters he wrote that Wallace's mother sent back.

* ''Webcomic/CursedPrincessClub'': Because she was banished from the Polygon Kingdom as a result of the events that gave her a {{Curse}}, Princess Calpernia is convinced that her family want nothing to do with her, a belief that is reinforced by them apparently making no effort to keep in touch with her during her exile. But when she sees them for the first time in years at the Bippity Bop gala and rushes over to confront them about it, she finds out that they ''had'' been regularly sending letters to her at the house where she was running the Cursed Princess Club. Unfortunately, a bunch of intelligent spiders had been nesting in the CPC mailbox and scaring off the postal workers.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the episode where Homer first meets his long lost mother he asks why she never wrote, she says she sent him a care package every week. It turns out the postman didn't mention the undelivered care packages, because Homer never bothered to tip the mail carrier at Christmas. This is PlayedForLaughs/Heartwarming rather than drama or tragedy though.

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