Message Cut By Departure

''Guy, your true father is-- ACH! (dies)''

Do you want to have your audience hate you in less than five seconds? Then don't settle for something that's Cornier Than Corn Itself; go for having someone, most preferably the Mentor, about to deliver an extremely crucial piece of information to the Hero, only to have them killed right before they say it. And if you really want your audience to hope you drop dead, have this followed by the Hero yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!".

Used as a means to extend The Hero's Journey inconveniently, Message Cut By Departure is unfortunately a common UnTrash found in fiction. This happens when the next step in the Hero's Journey is about to be revealed so then they'd be forced to look around for what to do next, the Hero's Parents are about to be revealed to them, or someone's (true) identity is going to be given. But No. That needs to be hidden for later so then we'll turn to the sequel for more details on what we need to know in the case of Message Cut By Departure being played at the end of the story.

This UnTrash is called "Message Cut By Departure" because the person giving information might not always die. They could be simply kidnapped or silenced by someone else.

Message Cut By Departure Plays
Basic: An important message is about to be delivered, but it's cut off by death or some other form of departure.

Reinforced: The dying person is just about to say it, but they're stalling the hell out of their line like by repeating the word "is" until they die or some other time-wasting nonsense that only Annoys The Audience.

Downplayed: The messenger dies right before they get to their critical message, but we learn what it is they were trying to tell us soon after.

Negated: The person dying does eventually die, but then somehow springs back to live to give their message. Then they die again.

Inverted: --

Justified: We as the audience already know what the information is but its recipient does not.

Gleeful: --

Dismal: --

Zip: --