It’s a plot point I’ve seen in various media-but why is it sad? I wouldn’t want to die knowing that my partner has a kid they’ll be raising on their own and who will never meet or know their dad. I’d rather die not knowing! I get you’d have wanted to meet them, but I’d just rather not have that info at all until I’m safe, not while I’m bleeding out or whatever.
Do you have any examples?
This is just a WAG since I don’t know the context, but: maybe the idea of dying thinking that you’re leaving nothing behind—that you made no difference to the world that will outlive you?
“At least I died a man.” /s
Yeah, I agree with the OP. Dead is dead, and you’re not thinking about anything ever again. But most people are hard-wired in their brains to think “reproduce!”, so those that do also think everyone else thinks the same way. And having children is the best and only thing.
In a related thought, I just don’t get the recurring cop show plot: guy goes on a spree, kidnapping murder, dismemberment, traitor, whatever, so when cornered he wants to shoot himself. The good cops (usually on CBS*, but not entirely) convince him to live, because of his children, and how he wouldn’t want them to grow up never seeing him again.
yea, right, seeing your father behind a glass partition once a month, knowing he murdered X number of people, and getting constantly harassed at school for having a murdering traitor dad, is SOOOO much better.
*The most recent FBI episode used this.
A scene I’d like to see:
Bad Guy: I’m going to shoot myself!
Cop: Oh! I thougt you were threatening others. Well, go ahead, get it over with. I’ve got a lunch appointment.
That’s a bit different. I’d see it as my duty to stop the bad guy from shooting themselves. They’re clearly having a mental health issue.
I will confess that I have no definite examples, but I’d swear I’ve seen or read about it somewhere before. Perhaps a trope, but I’m not sure how to search for it.
That is entirely a matter of your opinion. Not one everyone shares.
As to the OP topic I think it’s real simple.
IMO the person making the sad “he never knew” comment is thinking of how the newly dead guy would have reacted at the time he got the news. Not how he’d have felt while dying later with the news.
An implicit assumption is that everone / anyone would be ecstatic at hearing “Congrats! You’re gonna be a father!”. And that the guy is in a traditional marriage that was happy & cheat-free as far as he knew.
In other words it’s an innocent 1950s era trope.
Because of course, TV Tropes:
and
To me, it’s a way (an overdone, overblown way) to show how much character ABC had to live for, and an attempt to increase the emotional impact of the death. Alternately, it can be used to soften the blow (to the audience) of the loss of a beloved character, in the sense that a part will always go on… (insert overly overblown cinematic closing song of your choice).
I think it is more common to die never having seen your kid.
I’ll also suggest as to movies, books, etc., the trope dates from awhile ago.
In WWII a lot of troops were married. Most people married immediately after high school. Plus the very real fraction of single troops who got married just before shipping out as some kind of either ownership claim on the wife, or as a good luck talisman.
For a war movie set in e.g. 2010 Iraq, a lot more of at least the first term troops would be single. Not from any DoD policy difference, but just because people in 2010 didn’t have nearly the social pressure to marry ASAP as did folks in the 1940s & 50s.
I don’t know about that - from what I’ve seen both in TV/movies and real life although the general social pressure to marry ASAP is less than it was in the 40s and 50s , that may not be the case for those in the military. There are supposedly some benefits that go along with being married , such as different housing options and survivor benefits. And there’s also the notification issue.