History Main / DiseaseByAnyOtherName

** Maelys the Monstrous, the last Blackfire pretender, had a parasitic twin in the form of a smaller, secondary head sticking out of his neck. Unrealistically, the people of [=ASOIAF=] were aware that this was caused by Maelys absorbing his twin in utero and considered him an involuntary [[SiblingMurder kinslayer]].

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton and Gregor Clegane, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply lumped into the catch-all of "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when PragmaticVillainy would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death as a child, which is common among serial killers, while Cersei is implied to have thrown her best friend down a well and watched her die when they were little girls for having designs on Jaime and/or to keep the prophecy they received from Maggy the Frog secret.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton and Gregor Clegane, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply lumped into the catch-all of "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when PragmaticVillainy would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death as he was a child, which is common among serial killers, while Cersei is implied to have thrown her best friend down a well and watched her die when they were little girls for having designs on Jaime and/or to keep the prophecy they received from Maggy the Frog secret.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton and Gregor Clegane, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply termed "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death as he was a child, which is common among serial killers, while Cersei is implied to have thrown her best friend down a well and watched her die when they were little girls for having designs on Jaime and/or to keep the prophecy they received from Maggy the Frog secret.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton and Gregor Clegane, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply termed "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death as he was a child, which is common among serial killers, while Cersei is implied to have thrown her best friend down a well when they were little girls for having designs on Jaime and/or to keep the prophecy they received from Maggy the Frog secret.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton and Gregor Clegane, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply termed "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death when he was a child, which is common among serial killers, while Cersei is implied to have thrown her best friend down a well in their youth for having designs on Jaime and/or to keep the prophecy they received from Maggy the Frog secret.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with characters who show signs of being [[TheSociopath sociopaths]] or psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei, Joffrey, and Ramsay, but their condition either goes unacknowledged or is simply termed "madness". They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death when he was a child, which is common among serial killers.

** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei, Joffrey, and Ramsay. They have no empathy or remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death when he was a child, which is common among serial killers.

This trope is when a medical condition or disease is described in enough detail that the viewer/reader knows what it is, but the characters don't. Typically, this is because the disease hasn't been identified in-universe. The characters will refer to it by some term describing its effects or symptoms, while on the other side of the fourth wall we're nodding our heads. In this case, it's a version of ViewersAreGeniuses.

** The issues King Henry VIII’s wives had with having children (as well as his own later mental and physical health problems) are thought to be from him having a rare blood type, Kell positive. If a Kell-positive man gets a negative blood type woman pregnant, the first pregnancy is normal but the woman will develop antigens to attack the fetus with each successive pregnancy, causing stillbirths or miscarriages. He’s thought to have caused at least eleven pregnancies, which resulted in only four full-term pregnancies. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had six miscarriages. A British team of researchers have found issues with bearing children after a first pregnancy to run in males on their mother’s side of the family to further support this theory. The health problems he faced in later life may be viewed as being from [=McLeod=] syndrome that runs in Kell-positive men.

** The bloody flux is obviously a dysentery analogue.
*** It’s not an analogue, “bloody flux” is a real life historical term for dysentery.

Differs from VictorianNovelDisease in that consumption/tuberculosis was a known disease at the time, it just got seriously cleaned up for that trope. Compare to TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed, which is known in-universe but not spoken of by name because it's seen as shameful, and AmbiguousDisorder, when there's clearly ''something'' [[note]]mentally[[/note]] wrong, but since the symptoms are determined by the plot, there's not enough information for anyone in- or out-of-universe to figure it out.

* ''Fanfic/{{Divorced}}'': The characters don't fully understand it, but Zelda has trouble conceiving and coming to term due to RH incompatibility. Her husband Ganondorf is RH positive while Zelda is RH negative. When Zelda was pregnant with her first daughter Zelda Marie, she was injured and her immune system attacked the baby, resulting in a stillbirth. Her second daughter Mina survived because she was RH negative like her mother.

* In ''Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall'', Daring Do leads an expedition into an ancient tomb bearing a curse and a warning from an unknown civilization of millennia past, which is summarily dismissed. As the diggers delve into the inner chambers, many begin falling ill with a unnamed wasting illness of unknown origin. However an astute reader would recognize it instantly as [[spoiler:radiation sickness]], implying that the "tomb" is very likely [[spoiler:the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, finally opened long after humanity has gone extinct]], and the characters have unknowingly done ''everything wrong'' in trying to contain it.

* In ''Film/HanselAndGretelWitchHunters'', Hansel is described as having "sugar sickness" from his time imprisoned in the witch's gingerbread house. To the audience, it is obvious he is talking about insulin-dependent aka Type I diabetes. (Which is also a case of ArtisticLicenseMedicine; diabetes isn't actually caused by eating sugar, and especially not Type I.)

** Heke (the first Reek) had something that has to be [[https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/trimethylaminuria trimethylaminuria,]] a disorder whose main symptom is strong, pungent-smelling body odor.

** Tyrion Lannister has dwarfism caused by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achondroplasia achondroplasia.]] In the first book, Tyrion was capable of doing impressive physical stunts in spite of his small size, but [=GRRM=] eliminated them after learning that this is impossible for a person with achondroplasia. [[{{Fanon}} Some readers]] also believe that Tyrion is a human chimera because of his mismatched eyes, two colored hair, and the fact that fraternal twins run in the Lannister family.
** The CrapsackWorld of the books is filled with psychopaths, the most notable being Cersei, Joffrey, and Ramsay. They have no empathy, remorse nor can they even refrain themselves from inflicting danger when that would serve their own interest better. Joffrey even tortured animals to death when he was a child, which is common in serial killers.

** Renarin has this played for laughs at one point, although his disease is specifically named. He says he has a "blood weakness," which Kaladin (who actually has medical training) notes is a folk description that could indicate any number of illnesses. He quizzes him for a few minutes and diagnoses him as a symptomatic epileptic, and Renarin asks why Kaladins training in "field medicine" includes seizures. WordOfGod has also confirmed he is autistic, something that there are numerous small signs throughout the series, but in universe people just think he's a bit strange.

* Played with in ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'': In the baseline arc, Lancelot sometimes has "moods" where he's filled with despair and doesn't leave his room, while at other times he's the exact opposite. This is generally assumed to be part of his deep piety; going from self-flagation (sometimes literally) to religious ecstacy. In the future arc, however, Guenevere diagnoses him as bipolar pretty quickly, and he gets the same diagnosis in the contemporary arc.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': [[spoiler:Korra]] has all the hallmark signs of mercury poisoning, but the liquid she's poisoned with is never referred to as such.

** The issues with King Henry VIII’s wives had with having children (as well as his own later mental and physical health problems) is thought to be from him having a rare blood type, Kell positive. If a Kell positive man gets a negative blood type woman pregnant, the first pregnancy is normal but the woman will develop antigens to attack the fetus with each successive pregnancy, causing stillbirths or miscarriages. He’s thought to have caused at least eleven pregnancies, which resulted in only four full term pregnancies. His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had six miscarriages. A British team of researchers have found issues with bearing children after a first pregnancy to run in males on his mother’s side of the family to further support this theory. The health problems he faced in later life may be viewed as being from [=McLeod=] syndrome that runs in Kell positive men.

* TheFairFolk of Celtic/European society are widely known for their BlueAndOrangeMorality, [[CannotTellALie difficulty telling lies]], and sometimes a LackOfEmpathy — so both they and the kidnapped, cursed, or [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe illicit]] part-human children of the ChangelingTale frequently show traits that modern doctors recognize as autism. Unfortunately, with the Fair Folk being notoriously feared, ancient folks extended that fear to their children--a widely known method of "breaking the curse" was to [[BeatTheCurseOutOfHim beat or]] [[OffingTheOffspring KILL]] the "changeling."

* In ''Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall'', Daring Do leads an expedition into an ancient tomb bearing a curse and a warning from an unknown civilization of millennia past, which is summarily dismissed. As the diggers delve into the inner chambers, many begin falling ill with a unnamed wasting illness of unknown origin. However an astute reader would recognize it instantly as [[spoiler: radiation sickness]], implying that the "tomb" is very likely [[spoiler: the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, finally opened long after humanity has gone extinct,]] and the characters have unknowingly done ''everything wrong'' in trying to contain it.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}: Naturally, no specific diagnosis is mentioned, the closest being references to the general "fear" Elsa feels, but in the first movie, her social isolation, emotional invalidation, and the trauma of nearly killing her beloved sister and losing their parents certainly left its marks: Elsa is emotionally unstable, brooding, anxious, and irritable. The creators state that she suffers from depression and anxiety.

Differs from VictorianNovelDisease in that consumption/tuberculosis was a known disease at the time, it just got seriously cleaned up for that trope. Compare to TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed, which is known in-universe but not spoken of by name because it's seen as shameful, and AmbiguousDisorder, when there's clearly ''something'' [[note]]mentally[[/note]] wrong but since the symptoms are determined by the plot there's not enough information for anyone in- or out-of-universe to figure it out.

* Played with in ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'': In the baseline arc, Lancelot sometimes has "moods" where he's filled with despair and doesn't leave his room, while at other times he's the exact opposite. This generally assumed to be part of his deep piety; going from self-flagation (sometimes literally) to religious ecstacy. In the future arc, however, Guenevere diagnoses him as bipolar pretty quickly, and he gets the same diagnosis in the contemporary arc.

* TheFairFolk of Celtic/European society are widely known for their BlueAndOrangeMorality, [[CannotTellALie difficulty telling lies]], and LackOfEmpathy — so both they and the kidnapped, cursed, or [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe illicit]] part-human children of the ChangelingTale frequently show traits that modern doctors recognize as autism. Unfortunately, with the Fair Folk being notoriously feared, ancient folks extended that fear to their children--a widely known method of "breaking the curse" was to [[BeatTheCurseOutOfHim beat or]] [[OffingTheOffspring KILL]] the "changeling."

* In ''Series/Bridgerton,'' Edmund Bridgerton dies very suddenly of a bee-sting in the backstory, and his wife and children can't make sense of it. It's clear that he suffered a severe allergic reaction--he develops a huge rash at the site of the sting, and he has so much trouble breathing that he collapses and dies in minutes.