Line #20 Main/PerfectHealth


1	Characters never sneeze, cough, belch, blow their noses, or in any way display less than perfect health unless it is [[SickEpisode central to the plot]] (as in AnnoyingPatient or NurseWithGoodIntentions). A simple cough might warrant a subplot to handle the ramifications if it is not itself a [[IncurableCoughOfDeath symptom of terminal disease]]. If ever such symptoms have no plot significance, it's probably because the actor is [[RealLifeWritesThePlot actually sick]]. However, they'll usually try to work around that.
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3	Occasionally either justified or subverted when it turns out that the fact the character has perfect health is significant -- it may be due to a superpower (often a HealingFactor), or they may be a robot.
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5	One of the few exceptions is CatchYourDeathOfCold, where temporary illness is a harmless effect of going out in cold weather. This is a fairly modern development, however; the same situation was once a popular way for fragile young ladies to catch an IncurableCoughOfDeath.
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7	Sort of a medical incarnation of TheLawOfConservationOfDetail. Compare: SoapOperaDisease.
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9	See also IdealIllnessImmunity, where never getting sick is justified with fantastic means, and WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture, where it's justified by [[ScienceMarchesOn Science Marching On]].
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12	!!Examples:
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15	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
16	* Shiori, from ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}},'' initially {{hand wave}}s her skipping of classes and lack of energy as "[[DefinitelyJustACold a cold]]". While this excuse rapidly wears thin, the [[TheReveal heartbreaking revelation]] is somewhat spoiled by the audience being well aware it could only be a fatal condition.
17	* Ohno catching a cold on ''Manga/{{Genshiken}}'' is what forces Saki to perform cosplay. Much to the latter's regret.
18	* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Mr. 4's weapon, a gun which can become a dog by the name of Lassoo, has a cold during the fight for no particular reason. It mostly causes a comic effect when his sneezes also fire bombs. This is a turning point twice in the fight when Chopper forces the dog to sneeze bombs into the tunnels used by Ms. Merry Christmas, and when a knocked out Lassoo sneezes one last ball which blows up him and his owners.
19	** Also, Nami's falling ill was the central plot of the Drum Arc, where it was also mentioned that Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp [[IdiotsCannotCatchColds have never been sick before]].
20	* Averted and PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/CowboyBebop: [[TheMovie Knockin' On Heaven's Door]]'' where a character sneezes on a few occasions - due to his allergies - amidst an [[TheVirus unknown outbreak]].
21	* This trope is the key to a ChekhovsGun in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' that was developed over many years: any time [[spoiler:Ai or Shinichi temporarily reversed their FountainOfYouth]] you'll notice they had a cold at the time, even if it had no immediately-obvious connection to the plot. It eventually turned out [[spoiler:rather than [[ImprobableAntidote baigar]] being a cure that [[ItOnlyWorksOnce only working once]], the cure was taking baigar ''while'' you had a cold.]]
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24	[[folder:ComicBooks]]
25	* ComicBook/SpiderMan occasionally catches a cold from staying out too long in the rain wearing nothing but his costume. He rarely has the luxury of staying in bed until he gets better.
26	* Averted in ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'' (also notorious for a four-page NobodyPoops aversion showing him urinating); Cerebus has a cold at least once but it isn't a big deal, plot-wise.
27	* Averted in James Robinson's ''Comicbook/{{Starman}}'' from DC Comics. The dad, the original Starman, far older in mind than body, has a couple moments of coughing. In the odd way of narrating Robinson tends to do, dad reveals it was a cough, nothing else, not an incurable old man disease. And indeed it wasn't.
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30	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
31	* Averted in ''Film/SchindlersList'', in which sadistic camp commandant Amon Goeth does appear to have a cold, and doesn't drop dead of consumption at the end of the film. It's to set up the mind-bending irony of an extermination camp commander telling one of the inmates not to get too close to him so she won't catch his cold.
32	* David Dunn's perfect health is a key plot point in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''.
33	* Also averted in ''Film/TwelveAngryMen''. Juror #10 has a head cold. It's not a plot point or anything. He just has a head cold. It's one of many distractions that cause some jurors to want to rush through the deliberation and go back to their lives.
34	* Averted in ''Film/{{Locke}}'', in which the character has a cold and occasionally blows his nose or chugs cold medicine during his drive. It has no pay-off. Actor Tom Hardy just had a cold during filming and it was written into the plot.
35	* ''Film/YouWereNeverReallyHere'': Averted in the case of Joe's handler John, who has a nosebleed when they meet about Joe's next job. John lays a few wadded up and blood-stained tissues on his desk. This is foreshadowing for when we next see John [[spoiler:with his throat slit and blood pooling on his desk]].
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38	[[folder:Literature]]
39	* Perfect health has some significance in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice''; the fact that Jerin is healthy and his father and grandfather died of "normal" disease and an accident, respectively, means that his genes are likely good. Men are rare in his world and negotiating marriage contracts is a tricky business; a family history of weak hearts and easy susceptibility to illness would lower his potential value.
40	* David Sedaris expresses his annoyance with this trope in one of his essays concerning ''The End of the Affair''. When the lead character coughs it's an indicator that she will be dead in 20 minutes; "It might have been different had Julianne Moore suddenly started bleeding from the eyes, but coughing, in and of itself, is fairly pedestrian."
41	* ''Literature/TheGoldfinch'': Averted in the case of the main character, who, in the framing narrative, has a nasty flu and is stuck in his hotel room for over two weeks while he recovers and contemplates HowWeGotHere.
42	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'': Thirteen-year-old Tash insists that she's never been sick in her life, though her slightly younger brother has come down with things before. Might have to do with the Force. It's plot-important in ''The Planet Plague'' when she gets infected with TheVirus and it works far more slowly than expected.
43	* The ''Literature/TortallUniverse'' subverts this a couple of times.
44	** ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'': Kel is rarely sick, but she wakes up with a cold in this book. It annoys her for a few hours, but a healer burns it off for her and makes her drink nasty-tasting teas. Magical healers being pretty common in this world, minor sicknesses are usually ended as quickly as that.
45	** ''Literature/BekaCooper'': In the first book, Beka comes down with a nasty head cold. Her journal writing suffers as a result, with one brief entry about how she hates having to drag her sniffling, hacking, wheezing bum through duty. Unfortunately for Beka, ''her'' mage friend's healing expertise stops at brewing expectorants, so Beka suffers for the duration, but it clears up.
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48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', Sheppard is shown to have a mild cold at the beginning of the episode "Irresistible". This turns out to be of use to him as it makes him immune to the airborne chemical that has the rest of Atlantis under its spell. This of course brings up the question of just what would have happened if he hadn't had that convenient cold. Obviously, the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]] must be watching over him.
50	** A subversion: in one episode, a character's abnormally perfect health (as in, she wasn't just ''not'' sick, it seemed she'd never been sick ever) is cause for suspicion.
51	* Avoided in the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie (and early first season of ''Series/StargateSG1'') in which Daniel Jackson is stated to have allergies and he sneezes constantly.
52	** He [[InformedAttribute mentioned once]] that he always sneezes when he travels. The movie-based novels turn this into the manifestation of a phobia caused by a childhood tragedy. ''Every'' incarnation of Dr. Jackson is TheWoobie.
53	** Daniel Jackson also missed an episode because he had to have his appendix removed. Originally he was going to be in that episode, except Michael Shanks [[RealLifeWritesThePlot had to have HIS appendix removed]] and the writers apparently weren't feeling especially creative.
54	* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Lex Luthor has the meteor-granted power of a superhuman immune system. Being Superman, so does Clark (the one time he gets sick in "[[Recap/SmallvilleS06E02Sneeze Sneeze]]", it's because he went into the Phantom Zone; however this illness [[CursedWithAwesome causes him to develop]] his SuperBreath).
55	* Contradicted in the "Killed by Death" episode, where Series/{{Buffy\|the Vampire Slayer}} has a severe flu which is not directly life-threatening, but nearly makes her lose a fight. Her high temperature does make her able to see an otherwise invisible killer though. It's lampshaded and justified at the same time, within the same episode when it's mentioned that Buffy very rarely gets sick; the same magic that gives her super-strength and abnormal reflexes also boosts her immune system to increase the speed at which she heals.
56	* In ''Series/ICarly'' a minor character named Jeremy is an almost perfect inversion. He sneezes every few seconds, all day, every day (at least when he appears), to the point that he is nicknamed "Germy."
57	* Averted on ''Series/{{House}}'' where the main character occasionally has a cold, a headache, or some other minor health issue without it impacting the plot. This comes from being around sick people constantly.
58	* Parodied in a ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' sketch with ''The Man Who Has A Cough And It's Just A Cough And He's Fine''.
59	* Illya Kuryakin catches a cold about halfway through the ''Series/TheManFromUncle'' episode "The King of Diamonds Affair." ("I've been fighting a headache and a cold. Personally, I prefer THRUSH.") It's not important to the plot in any way, and it doesn't impede his later BigDamnHeroes rescue of Napoleon Solo; its only apparent purpose is to make him miserable. RussianGuySuffersMost...
60	* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' TV movie ''River Of Souls''. A Soul Hunter announces his imminent arrival at Babylon 5, and the command staff remarks that Soul Hunters only show up when someone is about to die. Zack Allen starts coughing and is alarmed to see everybody staring at him as if he is about to keel over.
61	* In the "Sontaran Strategem"/"Poison Sky" two-parter of ''Series/DoctorWho'', Donna uses her Magical Temp skills to deduce that no one in the factory has ever been sick, which becomes the first sign that something is quite wrong.
62	* When Axl on ''Series/TheAlmightyJohnsons'' gets sick, he does not think much of it initially. However, he is now the incarnation of the Norse god Odin and is not supposed to get sick. This makes his illness the equivalent of a NegativeSpaceWedgie. What seems like a simple cold ends up almost killing him and all the other gods lose their powers while he is ill.
63	* Averted in ''Series/BreakingBad'' when Walter White starts coughing blood, leading him to believe his cancer is getting worse, but it turns out it's an expected complication from his recent surgery.
64	* ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': Averted as a RunningGag with Mr. Poe, who has a perpetual cold that causes him to constantly cough and sneeze. This helps characterize him as distracted and incompetent at his job.
65	* ''Series/{{Deadwood}}'' Averts this a few times:
66	** Al Swearengen getting kidney stones is a major plot point in the second season.
67	** As a RunningGag, the socially awkward A.W. Merrick always manages to have a cold during funerals and interrupts the proceedings with his thunderous sneezes.
68	* ''Series/{{Forever\|2014}}'': Played with. When Henry reappears after dying, he's in perfect health, but not only ''can'' he still catch communicable diseases, he's apparently already caught most of them; Adam's blood contained antibodies to diseases that don't even exist anymore. No communicable illnesses are shown onscreen, though, for immortals or mortals, so the trope is played straight.
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71	[[folder:Video Games]]
72	* Sonic in ''VideoGame/{{Sonic and the Secret Rings}}'' has a cold in the very first cutscene and wishes for handkerchiefs. The cold is never referenced for the rest of the game but his first wish is referenced at the very end when he wishes for a mountain of them for Shahra due to her tears.
73	* A random man in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' complains that "Qunari don't never get sick" (WordOfGod is that this is due to [[TheDungAges better sanitation practices]]). While your companion Anders runs a clinic, the people there don't seem to be sick or injured - except for the already-dead ones to the side with sheets over their bodies.
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76	[[folder:Webcomics]]
77	* Not only does the titular RealityWarper in ''Webcomic/{{minus}}'' say that she's never been sick, but she doesn't seem to know what sickness ''is''. When her friend explained that she had been absent from school because she was sick, minus made herself sick to see what it was like... [[VomitDiscretionShot and threw up]]. She then assumes that her friend likes to throw up.
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80	[[folder:Western Animation]]
81	%%* Carl Wheezer of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' is an inversion of this.
82	%%* Macy of ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' is an almost perfect inversion of this.
83	* Averted twice in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Once in "The Snuke," where Kyle has a cold, and once in "A Very Crappy Christmas," where Cartman has a cold. There's also one hilariously random moment in "Die, Hippie, Die!" when Cartman's summary of the plan is interrupted by the sudden onset of a sneeze.
84	* Averted in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', in which Rudy has the flu, and is home sick in bed with a fever, in the middle of July.
85	* Averted with Bear from ''Literature/{{Franklin}}''. On the day of Halloween, Bear came down with a cold with a stuffy nose and sneezes. He couldn’t make it to the Halloween party that night. Considering that his mother is a doctor and some episodes focus on doctors and health care, the show averts Perfect Health by having the doctor treat characters’ illnesses.
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Context Main / PerfectHealth