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Bearer of Bad News
- 468 statements
- 88 feature instances
- 104 referencing feature instances
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Someone doesn't know the bad news. And you have to tell them. When dealing with villains, may combine with You Have Failed Me, leading to Shoot the Messenger. When dealing with heroes, there is merely the horrible pain that you know you will inflict. In comic stories, it is often merely your imagination. In dramatic works, it is usually as bad, or worse, than you expect; the Bearer-Of-Bad-News often finds himself feeling that it was Dirty Business. Euphemisms don't cut it, and only prolong your agony. On the other hand, being clear up front may lead to recriminations: why didn't you break it to him ''gently''? You may have to cope with Manly Tears. Worse, you may find the character tearless and not know how to cope. (And all this, perhaps, after you have labored to Bring News Back.) Characters who frequently bring bad news may be blamed for it, and regarded as actively unlucky. Talk to the Fist is possible with hot-tempered recipients. If you're translating for such a character or a Bad Boss or Big Bad type, you might want to try to do a Tactful Translation in order to avoid the pain. Accusations of Malicious Slander may also follow. The Herald and the Almost Dead Guy are often bearers of bad news. In more lighthearted moments or comedic works, the bad news may merely be met with a Collective Groan. More serious news often comes with a preamble of "You'd better sit down..." He Didn't Make It is one of the commonest, and hardest. A Super-Trope to Breaking Bad News Gently, Bad News in a Good Way, Good News, Bad News, Bad News, Irrelevant News. Not to be confused with Bears Are Bad News (although, come to think of it, they could overlap if somebody brought bad news about a bear attack). |
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Dragon Age: The Grey Wardens tend to fill this role. The bad news is usually Darkspawn related, i.e. "Darkspawn are coming", "Darkspawn are already here", "A Blight has begun so get ready for an army of Darkspawn led by an Archdemon"... as a result, people tend to have mixed feelings when Wardens show up. In Dragon Age: Origins, one of the sidequests has you informing the widows of fallen soldiers of the fates of their husbands. You can either do this yourself or have a party member do it for you. Alistair, Wynne, and Leliana try to break the news as gently as they can, while Morrigan, Oghren, or Sten will either be incredibly blunt or just plain insulting. Dragon Age II: During one quest, you have to bring news to a man that part of his missing wife's body has been found. You can either break it gently ("Just know that she will not be coming home") and return her recovered wedding ring, or blurt the truth callously and send him into a complete meltdown. Depending on your choices during the expedition to the Deep Roads, you may have to bring the news to your mother that your surviving younger sibling either died or had to become a Grey Warden to avoid death. Later, you get to be the one to inform your mother's brother that she's been murdered by a serial killer. How he initially reacts depends on your chosen delivery, although either way he mellows by the end of the conversation. If your sibling is still alive, he takes on the duty of this trope himself, promising to break it to him/her gently. Dragon Age: Inquisition: Depending on whether you sided with the mages or the Templars, either Cole or Dorian shows up at Haven to announce that the Elder One is attacking. Later in the game, if Hawke is chosen to make the Heroic Sacrifice in the Fade, Varric will take on this duty, sending letters to the Kirkwall companions. |
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In Monster, Tenma finds himself having to meet up with his ex-fiancee to let her know that her current love interest is dead. | |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_1face1d7 | type |
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In an episode of Adam-12 Malloy and Reed notify a woman that her husband was killed in an accident. At first, the woman doesn't believe them and says he's working on a ship in Galveston, Texas. Malloy says they know — the police in Galveston contacted the LAPD to make the notification in person rather than over the phone. | |
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Angel: "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb" ends with the heroes returning from an adventure in another dimension, all feeling pretty good about themselves... only to find Willow waiting for them, looking miserable. One look at her face is all Angel needs. In Season 5, Wesley has to tell Fred's parents their daughter's body has been hollowed out and possessed by an ancient demon. Illyria spares him the trouble by briefly shapeshifting *into* Fred. |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_22147342 | type |
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Arrow In "Heir To The Demon", Felicity Smoak discovers evidence that Thea Queen is actually Malcolm Merlyn's love child with Moira Queen. Seeing how Felicity is smitten with her son Oliver, Moria tries to use this trope to threaten her into silence, saying that the revelation will tear their family apart and Oliver will always blame her for that. It doesn't work because Felicity isn't an Ignored Enamored Underling but Oliver's Fire-Forged Friend (and it's implied he has romantic interest in her) so Oliver gets the truth from her anyway and Moira's actions remove any sympathy he might have had for his mother. In the same episode a flashback shows that Moira had the unpleasant task of telling the Lance family that their daughter Sara absconded on the Queen's Gambit with Oliver and was Lost at Sea. Given that she witnessed the subsequent destruction of the Lances and Quentin's hatred of her own family, it's likely she's thinking of her own experience when she threatens Felicity. Oliver starts to be this for Nyssa after she has come searching for Sara, only for her to realise before he tells her that Sara's dead. Katrina Law's acting is so good in this scene, you can literally see the moment that Nyssa realises the love of her life is dead. |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_247422c7 | type |
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Honor Harrington features this trope (among pretty much all of them): In Field of Dishonor, Michelle Henke, the title character's best friend, is the one to bring her the news of Paul Tankersley's death. In At All Costs, Thomas Theisman is the one who has to tell Eloise Pritchart that her lover Javier Giscard has been killed in battle. |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_24e41891 | type |
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The titular character of Dexter, not normally known for his tact, botches this horribly when he has to tell his stepkids, Astor and Cody, that their mother has been murdered. While wearing Mickey Mouse ears. | |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_27831967 | type |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_27831967 | comment |
Parks and Recreation's upbeat Chris doesn't like to give bad news. Fortunately, he has Ben to do it for him. | |
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Into the Storm (2009) features the historical figure of Captain Pim. Poor Captain Pim. Man only gets to announce the bad news. Lampshaded by Churchill when he finally announces something good (the German surrender and the war's end). | |
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In Teresa Frohock's Miserere: An Autumn Tale, Lindsey's brother dies, but it's several chapters before Raechel, who knows, connects with her. Then she has Lucian do it, since he's her Elder. | |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_32c541e6 | type |
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Subversion of sorts: Nobody in Fullmetal Alchemist wants to be the one to tell the Elric brothers that their friend, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, has been brutally murdered. This is made even worse (for the reader) by juxtaposing scenes of the boys and their friend Winry laughing and having fun on a train at the same time that the funeral is taking place. How do they finally find out? From the newspaper. In Brotherhood, an oblivious Edward asks Roy Mustang about Hughes's whereabouts; Mustang, having taken the situation hard himself, can't bring himself to tell Edward, and instead tells him that Hughes decided to retire and move to the countryside. Edward takes the lie at face value, and decides to discuss it with Maria Ross when he bumps into her in the hallway. Ross, who wasn't privy to Mustang's lie, assumes Edward already knows the truth, and discusses it as such. The miscommunication doesn't sink in until Ross notes that Hughes was promoted two ranks posthumously — which Edward realizes wouldn't happen to somebody who'd willingly retired. Ross is then forced to explain the truth to an increasingly distraught and guilt-ridden Edward. |
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This is actually the name of a mission in Borderlands 2, where the player must tell the folks of Sanctuary about Roland's death. | |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_3840524e | type |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_3840524e | comment |
The Courier in 1776 exists solely to deliver despondent and doom-laden dispatches from George Washington to Congress... and to sing a tearjerker song about how his best friend died alone at Lexington and Concord. | |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_39fe00f1 | type |
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Dragon Age: Inquisition: Depending on whether you sided with the mages or the Templars, either Cole or Dorian shows up at Haven to announce that the Elder One is attacking. Later in the game, if Hawke is chosen to make the Heroic Sacrifice in the Fade, Varric will take on this duty, sending letters to the Kirkwall companions. |
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In L'Orfeo, Sylvia delivers the news of Eurydice's tragic death, and is so upset by being the one to deliver it and break Orpheus's heart that she exiles herself. | |
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Champions of Far'aus: One of Dorawn’s guards goes to tell Wila that her sister and brother-in-law had died to a monster they were hunting, while also escorting her nephew Will to the Hyperia Pantheon House so he can live with her. Punnily enough, the guard happens to be an Ursarer, making them the Bear-er of bad news. | |
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In the Darkest Powers series, Chloe, being a necromancer, is the one who has to break the news to Liz that she (Liz) is dead. The book ends just before Chloe tells her. The second book reveals that, understandably, Liz didn't take it well. | |
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In the Discworld book Night Watch, Nobby Nobbs is never allowed to be this, due to what is only referred to as "the "bet you a dollar you're the widow Jackson" nonsense".note i.e., "I'm looking for the Widow Jackson", "She ain't a Widow", "Bet you a dollar". | |
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Toward the end of The Elenium trilogy, Sparhawk dreads having to deliver the news of his squire Kurik's death to his wife. He reaches the house only to find that she already knows, having received the information from another bearer. | |
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Man Stroke Woman: Subverted when a doctor tells his patient that they have her test results. He asks, "May I be blunt with you?" to which she responds, "No." He looks confused and struggles for what to say. Finally he says, "Well, everything is fine. You're not gonna die!" She is very happy with this information and leaves as the doctor sighs to himself. In another episode, a doctor sits in his patient's lap and tells her that her father is dead. As she cries, the doctor calls someone on speaker phone and tells a friend that sitting on the lap didn't work. She was still crying. |
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World of Warcraft has a veritable wealth of opportunities to break bad news. One of the most notable examples would be when you must carry the shield of Bolvar Fordragon (Alliance) or rent armor of Dranosh Saurfang (Horde) to King Varian Wrynn and Warchief Thrall after the catastrophic "Wrathgate incident." | |
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Ready Jet Go!: In "Back to Bortron 7", Eggplant is the person who tells Carrot and Celery that after they do their presentation, they will have to leave Earth forever. Yikes. In "Project Pluto", Jet loses to Sean and Sydney in a game of "not it" and has to tell Mindy that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, he gets off easy because when he tries to tell her, she tells Jet that she already knew. |
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In The Order of the Stick, Haley has to tell Celia of Roy's death. She takes it better than Haley had thought; after all, it still means they are only a spell apart. | |
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Howard Cosell of Monday Night Football turned into this when John Lennon was killed in 1980. Thanks to Alan Weiss, producer for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News (at the time, the highest-rated local newscast in the country) being brought to Roosevelt Hospital after a motorcycle accident, overhearing the cops saying the blood-soaked, lifeless man they'd just brought in was John Lennon, and lying on a gurney right outside the room where the surgical team tried to save him. Weiss managed to get word to his staff, who contacted Roone Arledge, then head of both ABC News and ABC Sports. He promptly passed it down to Cosell, who was in the booth calling a game between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins. Cosell and the other commentators debated during a break whether or not to announce it, but ultimately agreed. | |
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The taxi cab driver in We Were Soldiers. Mrs. Moore is not pleased when he scares her by coming to her door with the telegram, only to ask for directions to another house. He sadly replies that he didn't want that job, he's just trying to do it. note Truth in Television, tragically enough. Consider that the guys who deliver those messages in the military are specially trained to deal with the consequences of this trope, while taxi cab drivers are not. Mrs. Moore tells him to bring all future telegrams to her house, so she can take on the job herself. | |
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The premise of The Messenger (2009), about an American army officer whose job is to inform the relatives of soldiers that their loved ones have died in Iraq. | |
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In Schlock Mercenary, Lieutenant Fobius and two grunts have to inform Captain Tagon's father of his death. However, due to the killers' policy they were going after his family and associates too, and so the Toughs wound up rescuing him from assassins in his home, and not having to break the news because the assassins had already done so. | |
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The Barrier: Regularly used, since, when Learned from the News isn't used, either the police or one of the two main families finds out about something a significant amount of time before someone else who is entitled to the knowledge. When Enrique's reason to visit the Covarrubias household is to bring news, it tends to not be good news. A scene of the second-to-last episode has Luis telling the President that he has been seeing a lot of Enrique recently and that he has come to associate Enrique with bad news for reasons he's unsure of. Begoña takes it upon herself to inform Emilia of the death of Sergio/Juan's biological parents. A female character who was established to be pregnant and to have been in close proximity to a confirmed case of noravirus within the same day finds herself breaking the latter news to the father. Right after he comes to tell her that he's willing to give raising the child a try if she wants to keep it. |
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| Bearer of Bad News / int_629cd094 | type |
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In Dragon Age: Origins, one of the sidequests has you informing the widows of fallen soldiers of the fates of their husbands. You can either do this yourself or have a party member do it for you. Alistair, Wynne, and Leliana try to break the news as gently as they can, while Morrigan, Oghren, or Sten will either be incredibly blunt or just plain insulting. | |
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In Captain America: The First Avenger, one of the Hydra officers comes back to the Red Skull to tell him Cap and the Howling Commandos destroyed another of their factories, but they "fought to the last man." Red Skull pulls out a pistol, saying, "Evidently not!" ''*bang*' | |
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Subverted in Caesar and Cleopatra, where the garrison of a border post receives a bearer of evil tidings with much fuss and honour. A Persian mercenary expresses surprise at this, and his commander explains: | |
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A female character who was established to be pregnant and to have been in close proximity to a confirmed case of noravirus within the same day finds herself breaking the latter news to the father. Right after he comes to tell her that he's willing to give raising the child a try if she wants to keep it. | |
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In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, Skall is desperate to avoid this. | |
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In Something*Positive, Davan — who has to be the one to do it because he's the only one who knows — takes on the duty of informing his sisters and his two closest friends (who might as well be his sisters too) that his father, Fred, has Alzheimer's disease. He gives them this information immediately after his mother's funeral, his mother having died without ever finding out that her husband was sick. | |
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Major Paul Davis of Stargate SG-1 is nicknamed "Disaster Davis" by the fans, as he usually appears with bad news, sometimes at bad times with even worse news. This is a Justified Trope by the nature of his character however, he's the liaison between the Pentagon and Stargate Command, so he is really only ever sent when the Pentagon has bad news. This moment from the episode "Fragile Balance": |
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In Antony and Cleopatra, a messenger has to tell Cleopatra that Antony has remarried. She is not happy. An earlier scene has a messenger that lampshades this trope and foreshadows the beating that Cleopatra would give. |
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X-Wing Series: In Wraith Squadron, Wedge Antilles has to compose and send a letter to Admiral Ackbar explaining that his niece Jesmin Ackbar died in combat. He's shown agonizing over the phrasing of the opening line; among other things he rejects "I'm afraid this letter comes as the bearer of bad news". In the end Wedge spends the entire night on the letter, thinking with a faint pride that at least It Never Gets Any Easier, because he never gets deadened to or glib about the deaths of his people. Later in the series, General Melvar has to bring Zsinj some very bad news: not only has a deathtrap failed to kill Wraith Squadron (or even any of its members), but they have managed to take one of his key personnel alive. In a subversion of You Have Failed Me (and an inversion of Shoot the Messenger), Zsinj has an epic Villainous Breakdown where he destroys practically everything in his office but the person who brought him the bad news. |
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In "Project Pluto", Jet loses to Sean and Sydney in a game of "not it" and has to tell Mindy that Pluto is no longer a planet. However, he gets off easy because when he tries to tell her, she tells Jet that she already knew. | |
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Much like Wedge, above, the Mass Effect 2 DLC pack "Lair of the Shadow Broker" includes a file on Tali writing and rewriting the letter to the parents of someone who was killed serving with her. She even uses some similar lines — trying not to be trite, finding the right balance between distance and closeness, etc. In Mass Effect 3, Shepard has to tell the asari councilor that not only did s/he fail to retrieve important data that could have turned the tide in a very one-sided war with the Reapers, but also that s/he failed to prevent the fall of Thessia, the Asari homeworld. It takes him/her a minute before s/he's finally able to get it all out. |
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In Mass Effect 3, Shepard has to tell the asari councilor that not only did s/he fail to retrieve important data that could have turned the tide in a very one-sided war with the Reapers, but also that s/he failed to prevent the fall of Thessia, the Asari homeworld. It takes him/her a minute before s/he's finally able to get it all out. | |
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Farpoint have Dr. Grant Moon being the bearer of the discovery to his colleague, Dr. Eva Tyson, that the planet they're stranded upon isn't near Jupiter, as they assumed, but turns out to be 3 billion lightyears away from Earth, where after being stranded on said planet for two months, they would likely never see Earth ever again. Eva doesn't take it well. | |
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Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Rick Stanton. Throughout the film, he's the one who reports unfortunate and negative turns of events to the rest of the cast. Notably examples include telling everyone that they've lost track of Godzilla (apologetically saying in advance that he hates to crash the party), and solemnly reporting Godzilla's apparent death after the Oxygen Destroyer's blast which has in turn left Ghidorah free to take his office as the King of the Monsters. | |
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In the The Goodies episode "Earthanasia": | |
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Tough Guys: Richie has to reluctantly tell Harry and Archie a lot of bad news upon their release (such as that Harry has reached mandatory retirement despite his desire to have a job and that the terms of their parole forbid them from hanging out for three years). | |
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In Thunder Cats 2011, prodigal Four-Star Badass Grune informs his king Claudus of mutual friend and fellow general Panthro's death with a headshake, and melancholic praise for his skill in battle. Then he hands over a single nunchaku of Panthro's. | |
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Horus Heresy series: In James Swallow's novel The Flight of the Eisenstein, Dorn strikes Garro for the news he brought. Then, as Qruze pointed out, Dorn had clearly held the blow, which could have killed Garro, because he wanted to hear it all. He listens to the rest, and accuses him of insanity. When Garro accuses him of blindness, he decides to execute him. Only Keller's intervention saves him. In John French's novella The Crimson Fist, Perturabo beats his adjutant Berossus after the latter informs him that Sigismund, whom Perturabo expected to be in command of the Imperial Fists fleet that the Iron Warriors are attacking and was hoping to capture, is not present on the battlefield. The beating is so severe that Berossus ends up interred within a dreadnought. |
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In Million Yen Women, Minami works at night and comes back before the rest of the household. This causes her to be the one to find Nanaka's dead body and to have to tell the others. | |
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At the start of The Right Stuff, the widow of a test pilot is shown cowering in fear from the saturnine black-clad priest approaching her door, being all too aware of what his presence means. | |
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M*A*S*H: Radar, in the episode "Abyssinia, Henry": This was an unusual example of Radar's actor, Gary Burghoff, also being the bearer of (much less serious) bad news to the rest of the cast. Until he came in and read the telegram, the cast had no idea that there was any intention to kill off the character of Henry Blake. In a later episode, a soldier dies in an ambulance wreck; he was the driver, had previously been called out on his Drives Like Crazy tendencies, and was responsible for the wreck. Radar brings in a suggested draft of the letter to the soldier's parents that puts the death in a kinder light. In another episode, a young officer asks Colonel Potter for advice on writing a letter to the family of a soldier killed under his command. Potter ruefully notes that he has written too many such letters himself. |
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NCIS: In the pilot episode "Yankee White", Gibbs finds out that Caitlin Todd's ex died shortly after meeting with her. He takes her aside and drops the news bluntly into the middle of their conversation, so that he can observe her reaction and gauge her guilt or innocence. Happens also when Director Jenny Sheppard is killed and Ducky is told by phone, and then has to tell Abby and McGee. And again in Season 6, when Gibbs has to tell Michelle Lee's little sister, whom she has been raising like her daughter, that Lee is dead. |
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In the Orange Is the New Black episode "Appropriately Sized Pots," Healy is this to Rosa. While she's been undergoing cancer treatment for the length of the show, Healy has to tell her that a life-saving treatment isn't covered by the DOC, and she doesn't have much time left. | |
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This is Butch's main role in Recess. Randall can do this sometimes as well. | |
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In A League of Their Own, a Western Union man would have been the bearer (of the news of Betty's husband's death), but he treats it so disrespectfullynote He forgot the form the recipient had to sign after he came into the locker room and was going to leave to collect it, leaving the ladies not knowing who was the recipient that Dugan kicks him out and shoulders the duty himself.note Then again, Jimmy might've forced the issue knowing if it waited, it would've been a distraction to the team. | |
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In Pokémon, Absol is noted under its Pokedex entry to be able to sense disaster and attempts to warn others of its arrival. Unfortunately for it, it frequently gets mistaken as causing said disaster. Poor Absol. | |
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Mother 3 has a very sad example: So the forest's burning and everyone is looking for Flint's family. A search is organized for his wife. When the kids are finally found, a neighbour wants to tell Flint some news. The good news? They found an awesome Drago Fang that would make a great weapon! The bad news? It was found lodged in his wife's heart. | |
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In The West Wing, Bartlet's best friend and chief of staff Leo has to bring him two of the worst pieces of news of his life. Once is when Mrs. Landingham, his beloved secretary, has been killed in a car accident; the other is when his youngest daughter Zoey has been kidnapped. Notably, there is no sound in either of these scenes. In the final season, it's C.J. who has to tell him that Leo has died of a heart attack. Another moment, featuring severe Mood Whiplash, is in a flashback to the Bartlet campaign's first big victory at the Illinois primary, when Donna (who's only recently started working for Josh) has to interrupt his celebrating to tell him his father died. | |
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Several members of the player's staff in Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis are this by profession in-game, owing to the nature of their jobs. Park veterinarian Dr. Sattler will only contact you if dinosaurs are sick and/or dead, Peter Ludlow will only contact you if the park’s finances or reputation are dire enough (John Hammond will contact you if they’re doing well), and when Game Warden Robert Muldoon calls and the player hasn’t just constructed a ranger station or a park tour… odds are good that something very dangerous has just broken out. | |
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In The Bible, David gets word from his military that his rebellious son is dead, and goes into a Heroic Blue Screen of Death. The messengers repeatedly try to avoid the issue, afraid they'll be killed, but David just goes into mourning. | |
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The Crown (2016): When George VI suddenly passes away Princess Elizabeth is on safari in Kenya. Her secretary Martin Charteris learns the news first and approaches her husband Prince Philip and offers to be the one to inform the new Queen. Philip declines the offer and tells Elizabeth himself, allowing her at least a brief moment to mourn her father before regal duties take over. | |
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In J.B., a pair of unnamed Messengers report the successive deaths of Job's children in Scenes Three through Six, with their occupations varying from scene to scene. They agree in each case that the Second Messenger was the sole witness to their demise ("I only am escaped alone to tell thee..."), but he is always the less articulate of the two. | |
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In The Commish, two police officers dither for an entire episode about passing on the news to a family that their father is dead. When they eventually do, And There Was Much Rejoicing happens instead. | |
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In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Mervyn (The Sheriff of Rottingham) comes to tell Prince John about Robin. Prince John tells him that he doesn't want to hear bad news. The Sheriff tries to tell him the news while laughing about it. John asks him, "What are you insane? That's terrible news!" | |
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Temeraire: The protagonist survives a shipwreck that kills Tom Riley early in Crucible of Gold. When he crosses paths with the dead man's wife late in the book, he realizes to his horror that the news hasn't reached her yet, and she immediately guesses the truth from his abrupt change in demeanour. | |
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In Game of Thrones, Roose Bolton delivers most of the bad news for Robb: that Winterfell has been seized by the Ironborn and later that it has been sacked, that Bran and Rickon are presumed dead, and that his grandfather Lord Hoster has died. He also tries to invoke this to Jaime by trolling him about Stannis' attack and taunting him with the possibility that Cersei and the others might have died. In the final scene of the first Season Finale of House of the Dragon, it's Daemon Targaryen who announces to his wife Rhaenyra that her son Lucerys has perished (eaten by Vhagar, the massive dragon of the enemy faction to hers). From then on, nothing can stop the Civil War from erupting. |
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A slightly bizarre example occurs in Faust: First Part of the Tragedy, where Mephisto informs a widow: "Ihr Mann ist tot, und läßt Sie grüßen" ("Your husband is dead and sends his regards"). | |
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Saving Private Ryan. Mrs Ryan collapses on seeing an army vehicle turn up at her house with a priest. | |
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In Young Justice (2010), when everyone is mourning the death of Artemis, a few people angrily wonder why Nightwing isn't here. When they're told that he's gone to break the news to her boyfriend, Wally, their expressions turn to one of pain and sympathy. Sure, he wasn't actually going to do that at all, but still. | |
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This is one of the duties of Robert Sean Leonard's character in Swing Kids, as part of his Nazi training. Thing is, he doesn't actually know that he's delivering bad news — he's just delivering boxes. When one of the recipients screams after opening hers, he opens the one he has yet to deliver and sees that he's bringing Jewish widows — who had been unaware that they were widows — the ashes of their husbands.' | |
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In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Bossy Boots", Mr. Krabs doesn't have the heart to fire Pearl, so he has SpongeBob tell her because "It's okay if she hates you." | |
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Wade Barrett frequently does this as a running gag for WWE webshow The JBL and Cole Show... not out of any genuine concern or to inform people of things, but just to be an obnoxious jerk. And now he's doing this on the TV shows as well, going so far as to officially change his ring name to Bad News Barrett. This change has definitely helped his career big time, as even as an obnoxious heel, he gets Bad News Barrett chants whenever he appears, including the WWE Hall of Fame. | |
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Warhammer 40,000: In Gav Thorpe's short story "Renegades", after the company goes renegade they find that Rykhel launched a saviour pod to get away from them; the captain is angry that he did not stand up and face him, but Rykhel is determined to bring back news of their treachery and murders. (The captain thinks No One Could Survive That!.) Horus Heresy series: In James Swallow's novel The Flight of the Eisenstein, Dorn strikes Garro for the news he brought. Then, as Qruze pointed out, Dorn had clearly held the blow, which could have killed Garro, because he wanted to hear it all. He listens to the rest, and accuses him of insanity. When Garro accuses him of blindness, he decides to execute him. Only Keller's intervention saves him. In John French's novella The Crimson Fist, Perturabo beats his adjutant Berossus after the latter informs him that Sigismund, whom Perturabo expected to be in command of the Imperial Fists fleet that the Iron Warriors are attacking and was hoping to capture, is not present on the battlefield. The beating is so severe that Berossus ends up interred within a dreadnought. In Ben Counter's Soul Drinkers novel Hell-Forged, despite Lygris's Frozen Face, Sarpedon can tell he brought bad news. In James Swallow's Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius, Mephiston meets Dante in the garden to bring him news — and Dante knows it's bad at once. Mephiston tells him that Vode, Gallio, and all Gallio's men are dead; Dante tries to deny the obvious implication, thinking of other possibilities than that they were killed by fellow Blood Angels. Later, Stele brings Arkio news of why the power plant failed and warns him that it was hard. Arkio is angry that he tries to shelter him — and then still more angry as Stele tells him that it was an attempt to kill them all by having the plant blow up. Arkio guesses the saboteur was a Word Bearer or other renegade, and Stele tells him it was not only a Blood Angel but his own brother. In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, Skall is desperate to avoid this. |
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The Wizard of Id. The King, aware that his useless knight Sir Rodney is bringing news of his defeat, reminds him of the old Roman custom in which the bearer of bad tidings was put to death. A sweating Rodney replies with the 'joyous' news that one of the King's more awful provinces with its rebellious peasants, stinking swamps (etc, etc) has been given to the Huns to worry about. | |
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In Final Fantasy X and its sequel, it is the role of seemingly every Zanarkand character to tell Spirans facts they don't want to hear. "Death is inevitable" (Yevon), "You can't solve your problems by killing yourself" (Tidus), "There's a giant apocalypse machine about to go off" (Lenne), "War Is Hell" (Shuyin), etc. Notably, the destruction of Zanarkand and everyone living in it is what plunged the entire continent into an era of censorship and ignorance. Maybe truth is Zanarkand's hat? | |
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In Child of the Storm, Strange observes that, like Gandalf, people generally aren't happy to see him because he usually only pops up when everything's about to go wrong. | |
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In The Bill, a police officer is sent to tell a man his brother has died, only to have him flee the house at the sight of him. Turns out he's involved in criminal activity; when he's arrested at the end of the episode, the police realise they still have to tell him the bad news, but he takes it calmly as they weren't close anyway. | |
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In the JAG episode “Critical Condition”, Admiral Chegwidden has to tell Bud’s wife Harriet that her husband stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan and is in critical condition. | |
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From Mostly Harmless: | |
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No one had the heart to inform Annerose von Grünwald about Siegfried Kircheis's death in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Fortunately for them, Oberstein had already done that. In general, with the rate of death in the series, this happens often. | |
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In Criminal Minds, this is actually part of JJ's job description. | |
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In Amazing Fantasy, Aleksei frantically calls Melissa to tell her that something has gone wrong with the Electro System and Max is caught in the middle of it. | |
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Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: Bard Loen wanted to write a letter to Lady Aidra about his travels, after not being able to see her in years. Joulran informs him she has passed away a long time ago. In turn, Bard has to tell her old maid about it. | |
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Dragon Age II: During one quest, you have to bring news to a man that part of his missing wife's body has been found. You can either break it gently ("Just know that she will not be coming home") and return her recovered wedding ring, or blurt the truth callously and send him into a complete meltdown. Depending on your choices during the expedition to the Deep Roads, you may have to bring the news to your mother that your surviving younger sibling either died or had to become a Grey Warden to avoid death. Later, you get to be the one to inform your mother's brother that she's been murdered by a serial killer. How he initially reacts depends on your chosen delivery, although either way he mellows by the end of the conversation. If your sibling is still alive, he takes on the duty of this trope himself, promising to break it to him/her gently. |
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Taylor, aka Labor Day, is this when he has tell the protagonist of Holiday Wars that the Easter Bunny is out to get her. | |
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The Perfect Storm. Bob Brown, the owner of the Andrea Gail, has to personally drop the news to the crew's friends and relatives that the rescue helicopter had to ditch in the middle of the storm. Lampshaded by Bobby's mother at the moment he enters the tavern: | |
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According to the Strong Bad Email "Best Things", this was apparently going to be a Running Gag on the Band Toon Within A Toon "Limozeen: But They're In Space!", with manager Teeg Dougland preceding the exposition with the line, "I'm afraid I've got some bad news, boys..." | |
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Inverted by Sherlock Holmes with regards to Watson: Watson bringing news of trouble means an interesting crime for Holmes to solve. | |
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In the Revolution episode "Ties That Bind", Corporal Lawrence has to tell the bad news to Sergeant Strausser that they failed to capture Miles Matheson. Strausser, being a sociopath, responds by stabbing Lawrence to death. | |
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In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Bonding", Captain Picard has to tell the young son of one of the crew that his mother was killed on an away mission. He laments to Troi that this is why he disagrees with children being aboard ship, while Troi points out the blow would not be any softer if the boy was on Earth. It's also implied Picard also was the one who told Beverly and Wesley Crusher about Jack's death. | |
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