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What we've got here is failure to communicate.
Cool Hand Luke, 1967

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can fuckin kill you.
Taylor Mali

Anthropologists posit that one of the turning points in human development was a growing ability to communicate. In fiction, one of the turning points in dramatic development was the ability not to communicate.

Sometimes the author wants the plot to go a certain direction, but for it to do so one or more characters have to misunderstand each other. Common enough in Real Life, so it should be no trouble to pull off in fiction, right? Well, there's a few problems... the misunderstanding is pretty easy to clear up, and the characters are pretty good speakers who are on good terms and speak frankly to each other without needlessly holding back.

So what's the author to do? They have the coolest plot twist or Climax Boss fight, but it absolutely hinges on these guys being, however briefly, unable to articulate their point. To solve this problem the author gives the characters Poor Communication Kills, reducing their verbal skills to those of three-year-olds. Shy three-year-olds, with a stutter.

All the characters involved go out of character for a moment so that they can't (or won't) tell their side of the story, or creates a false urgency because there's "No Time To Explain", or just plain making them act like a disgruntled loner and telling their friends to Figure It Out Yourself when cooperation (or at least non-interference) is infinitely preferable. No matter which reason, it seems that at least half of the people involved have simultaneously gotten hold of the Idiot Ball, if not everyone.

Or to cut through all the pretentious Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness above: Poor Communication Kills is when a misunderstanding is entirely implausible and against the characters' previously exhibited communication skills, personality and relationship, and any normal person could clear up the misunderstanding in less than 30 seconds and solve the plot.

Though similar, this trope does not include things like Selective Obliviousness, Youre Just Jealous, or Sarcastic Confession as those are failures to listen rather than speak; though honestly authors can nerf even that ability when they need the Reasonable Authority Figure to become a useless adult.

Compare Right Hand Versus Left Hand.

Contrast: Just Eat Gilligan, Amnesia Danger.
Common ways to NOT get the point across:


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