delivering bad news theme

Someone has the undesirable duty to deliver very bad news, i.e., to inform of the death of kin.

Examples

Captain Picard had the unpleasant duty of informing Jeremy Aster that his mother Marla had died on an away mission in tng3x05 "The Bonding".

13 total · 1 major · 12 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ent3x20 major Tucker struggled with having to write a letter to Taylor's parents explaining that she was killed in the line of duty.
ahp5x02 minor Mark regretted to inform Stella that her husband had perished while climbing a glacier covered mountain.
as1985e2x20 minor Val reluctantly informed his son, Alan, that they would be relocating to a distant city on account of Val finding a new job.
ds92x13 minor Benjamin telling Keiko about Miles death in the line of duty
ent1x26 minor Archer lamented having to deliver the bad news to alien homeworld that he had accidentally ignited the atmosphere of one of their colonies, resulting in the deaths of 3600 of their people.
ic1976e11 minor Calpurnia was tasked with breaking the news to Claudius that Messalina had been unfaithful to him.
movie: Stowaway (2021) minor David reluctantly broke the news to Michael that Michael would have to die, and considerately left behind a painless lethal injection device.
movie: The Astronaut (1972) minor Kurt Anderson visited Gail with the intention of informing her of the death of her husband, but he couldn't bring him self to go through with it.
pieceofcake1988e1x04 minor Squadron Leader Rex prepared a next-of-kin notification letter regarding Trevelyan's death.
pieceofcake1988e1x06 minor Kellaway made a personal visit to Mary's flat to break the sad news that her husband, Fitz, was missing and almost certainly dead.