Line #76 Main/SoapOperaDisease


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8	->''"Her condition was a case of ''terminal moe'', a dangerous illness which crops up in anime whenever they want to make a character more sympathetic through illness but don't want to actually attribute a real illness to them."''
9	-->-- '''Creator/GabrielBlessing''''s comment on the real illness behind [[Manga/{{Sekirei}} Chiho]]'s condition
10
11	Common ailment found on the SoapOpera. It is notoriously difficult to diagnose and often exhibits vague symptoms. Often fatal, but the victim can linger on for a long, long time. Sometimes results in [[ConvenientComa a lengthy coma]] which, upon the victim's recovery, may also manifest a radical change in appearance (see: TheOtherDarrin).
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13	Creator/JMichaelStraczynski has mentioned one riff on this, in which a soap opera writer supposedly put a character into a coma with very specific and carefully-researched symptoms, for a plot that was only supposed to last a couple of episodes... and then realized that if the character's recovery was delayed, he could continue to crank out script after script without ever needing to worry about a pink slip, since nobody else on the writing team knew enough about the disease to write the character's recovery. The actress didn't mind either since she got a paycheck day after day for a few minutes' lying absolutely still in bed. The producers were somewhat less than pleased at this.[[note]]Rumor has it that a couple of years later, the same writer called the producers asking if they needed his services again; he was told that the producers were still in a coma.[[/note]]
14
15	The anime trope of the DelicateAndSickly suffers from the same plague of vague. See its page for the full story but the gist of it is the same; some kind of frailty to gain sympathy.
16
17	A common mutation anywhere is the IncurableCoughOfDeath; a terminal illness with no symptoms of any kind besides coughing. More likely than not evolved from VictorianNovelDisease, which tends to have a surprisingly similar set of syndromes -- though, unlike this trope, most novels from the time period of [=VND=]'s heyday would at least give a definite name to the condition they were aiming for.[[note]]Consumption (aka tuberculosis) is among the most common examples of diseases that were used as plot devices in Victorian novels, for example.[[/note]] The character may insist the illness is DefinitelyJustACold. Not to be confused with SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome, which isn't actually a disease so much as a PlotHole that sucks up babies and children and spits out [[SheIsAllGrownUp teenagers or even adults]].
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19	May result in WringEveryLastDropOutOfHim, when a character is on the brink of death, but takes a while to actually die.
20	----
21	!!Examples:
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26	* In ''Manga/BokuNoHatsukoiWoKimiNiSasagu'', Takuma suffers from a heart condition that doesn't allow him to do any physical effort nor get him too excited, as it causes him to faint. Other characters, like his childhood friend Teru and [[spoiler:Kou and Ritsu's father]], suffer it too.
27	* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02TheBeginning'', Lui's father is comatose and hooked up to a life support system at their family home, and his mother is paranoid that Lui even being in the same room could lead to his death if it were tampered with in any way. Lui's father appears to undergo a miraculous recovery thanks to Lui's wish to Ukkomon [[spoiler:but his body is actually just being puppeteered around to please Lui]].
28	* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Goku suffers from a mysterious heart virus during the Android Saga. According to Future Trunks, it took his timeline's Goku's life and many others before a cure is discovered. Trunks gives Goku this cure and it’s given to him when he is finally affected by it, but it lays him up for a good while, which is particularly bad as Androids 16, 17, and 18 are active and hunting him down. ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' changes it to a cholesterol-induced heart attack caused by eating too much [[TrademarkFavoriteFood bacon]], and makes it so that [[ObsessedWithFood Goku]] stopped taking the medicine when he was supposed to because it was grape-flavored (later revealed to be less an instance of DoesNotLikeSpam and more of his BizarreAlienBiology making him cough blood and sweat purple painfully).
29	* Trisha from ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' died of such a disease. It's never stated what it was but fans consider it either stress-related or cancer. Averted in the manga, where it's said she had a disease that was going around.
30	* ''Manga/IllBoyIllGirl'' has a disease that has no particular ill effects outside of (possibly) coughing up black blood. The only huge effect it has is that names, faces, and practically anything that relates to a person is, in the eyes of the infected, blotted out or obscured. The only faces they ''can'' see are other people who are infected and provided the disease hasn't advanced enough, [[spoiler:the faces of the dead]].
31	* ''Franchise/KagerouProject'': Haruka Kokonose ([[spoiler:Konoha's former self]]) has a rather ambiguous illness (although a shot in the ''Konoha's State Of the World'' PV seems to imply it's a heart condition) that lands him in hospital for weeks, and prevents him from participating in physical activities. [[spoiler:He dies at 17, a year after his introduction. However, since it was triggered by the BigBad on purpose, we'll never know how long he would have lasted on his own]].
32	* In ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'', [[spoiler:Reinhard dies of a completely straight example of this. Which comes off as a little strange since he's in his early twenties and living in the future a couple of thousand years ahead of the present day in which one would think medical technology would be advanced enough to at least identify it. Especially considering they're dealing with the emperor of the entire galaxy. Rubinsky dies of a more explicit brain tumour]].
33	* Inverted by Hayate in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs''. While her doctors have no clue as to why the paralysis in her legs is slowly moving up her body, the Wolkenritter and the audience are all too aware that it's being caused by the [[ArtifactOfDeath Book of Darkness]].
34	* MadScientist Ghinias Sakhalin in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam'' has some sort of disease that he has to take medication every day for. It mostly looks like paranoid schizophrenia, but he does have some poorly defined physical symptoms as well. The symptoms seem to fit Wilson's Disease, a genetic disorder that prevents the body from metabolizing copper properly whose most common symptoms are brain damage that often presents with schizophrenia-like symptoms and liver disease.
35	* In ''Anime/MomokoKaeruNoUtaGaKikoeruYo'', it's not said what the titular Momoko's condition is, however, given the fact that she was born with it and her twin brother Riki wasn't (though they are fraternal twins), along with it coming with a slew of issues (the which affects her muscular and motor functions), it can be assumed that she probably has a severe form of cerebral palsy. Tragically, by the end, [[spoiler:she passes away]].
36	* In ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', the disease that Satsuki and Mei's mother has is never revealed, though it is [[WordOfDante believed by many fans]] to be tuberculosis. The movie is based on Creator/HayaoMiyazaki’s childhood and it’s what his mother had before she was cured with antibiotics in 1955. [[note]] Tho, Yoshiko (Miyazaki's mother) had a specific kind of TB called "Pott's disease" and not the respiratory kind that we're familiar with[[/note]]
37	* Tsukimi's deceased mother in ''Manga/PrincessJellyfish'' had a vague, deteriorating disease that apparently lasted a few years. Eventually, she was hospitalized and died.
38	* At one point in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Master Happosai suffers from a case of this. Unfortunately, he gets better. Also, the teacher Hinako Ninomiya had a case when she was young. She gets better as well.
39	* Provided you can take the [[GreekChorus Shadow Girls]] at their word, this was part of the motivation for [[spoiler:Ruka]] in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' to come to Ohtori. [[spoiler:He was in love with Juri but knew she preferred someone else who didn't love her back. Upon learning he's dying of something fatal, dramatic, and completely not in evidence on-screen, he manipulates the dueling game to give Juri some closure with his last days.]]
40	* In the ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' episode "The Desperate Racer," Hap Hazard desperately wants to win a race so that he can [[HealthcareMotivation cure his sick sister Eloisa]]. What sickness Eloisa has is not elaborated upon.
41	* Kaori Asaka from ''Manga/TheSummerYouWereThere'' suffers from an unnamed respiratory disease, one she's had since she was young. It causes her to gasp for breath and even collapse if she overexerts herself and worsens as she ages- midway through the story, even an ordinary outing without any strenuous exertion causes her to collapse. She expects that she will not live past the end of the summer because of this disease, [[spoiler:and dies of it in the penultimate chapter, at the age of 15]].
42	* Sahana from ''Sundome'', with her nosebleeds, dizzy spell and [[IncurableCoughOfDeath bloody coughs]]. [[spoiler: In the end, it gets her, and there is nothing that can be done. Hideo does his best to make her last days happy. He succeeds with that.]]
43	* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': Satomi's kid brother, Daisuke, suffers from an unspecified medical condition that keeps him bedridden with a hacking cough and, occasionally, seizures. The costs of his treatments are expensive, [[PerpetualPoverty even with Satomi working two jobs.]] Which is why she originally wanted to enter the VG tournament in hopes of winning the prize money and real estate.
44	* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'':
45	** Kousei's mother died of an illness that left her wheelchair-bound.
46	** [[spoiler:Kaori]] suffers from a similar disease that caused her to gradually lose the ability to walk or [[spoiler:play the violin]] over the series. She dies of complications during surgery instead of the illness itself, though it was considered terminal.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Comic Books]]
50	* One of these is the reason that ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' villain Mr. Freeze placed his wife in cryogenic suspension, a concept introduced in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.
51	* ''ComicBook/LifeWithArchieTheMarriedLife'': Miss Grundy gets diagnosed with this in the first issue, and dies a few issues later as a result.
52	* ''ComicBook/TheMagnificentMsMarvel'': Kamala learns that her father has a mysterious disease and doesn't have much longer to live. Tony Stark later reveals to her that it's an Inhuman-related disease accidentally reactivated by the Terrigen Mists' release and recruits Dr. Strange (who had regained use of his hands again) to help excise it.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Fan Works]]
56	* Naruto's illness in ''Fanfic/AccidentalCompanions'' isn't named, however, he has been ill with it for a long time and is implied to have [[spoiler:died of it]].
57	* From one Anime/KillLaKill fic, titled ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11037352/1/%E9%A3%9B%E9%B3%A5-Asuka Asuka]]'', we have this with either Satsuki or Ryuuko (it's never made clear which), who was diagnosed with something that is described to be "chronic sans cure" and [[spoiler: she dies of her illness in the end]].
58	* ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'': Zelda's PosthumousCharacter mother died of a vaguely described, long-term illness on her seventh birthday. She had headaches, vision problems, and convulsions. One morning she lost consciousness and never woke up. According to the comments on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, she died of eclampsia.
59	* This is averted in the fanfic ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1854724?view_adult=true Endless Numbered Days]]'' by janewithawhy with Satsuki's illness being [[spoiler:lung cancer, the which progresses to terminal]].
60	* ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'' series:
61	** Keine and, besides the fact it was terminal, the symptoms were only described as "pneumonia and lumps in her lungs". Her diary implies that it's a form of lung cancer
62	** The second time is with Reimu's mother, Reiko, and she passed away of a long-term illness, although this is justified in that they didn't know what she has and neither could they diagnose it but it is implied to have had something to do the radioactive fallout.
63	** Ran and, apparently, it's chronic but not terminal, however, it does leave her with bouts of paralysis (the authoress describes it as being similar to multiple sclerosis). Likewise, the same occurred with Yume Ni and her chronic illness, which she's passed away from.
64	** Reimu and frequent illness (the which are treated with intravenous therapy) and Renko's illness which caused her a degree of brain damage, leading to some degree of blindness and memory loss.
65	* ''Fanfic/KedaborysElmoreChronicles'': The titular illness of "The Disease" is never clarified. The symptoms include a fever, coughing, and wheezing, the latter two end up becoming a chronic condition, but the disease is never named, and the doctor instead chooses to name the illness it could ''not'' be (these being scarlet fever, strep throat, and whooping cough).
66	* ''Fanfic/LittleFires'': Lightfur has some sort of possibly immune-related illness that makes it very easy for him to catch other's sicknesses. As a result, he was put in the Elder's den [[DreamCrushingHandicap before even becoming a warrior]].
67	* ''Fanfic/MindBrigade'':
68	** Jill has a fatal heart condition. She's always had a weak heart and couldn't finish school because she was too ill. It wasn't expected that Jill would make it to adulthood. Shortly after arriving in Flower Bud Village, Jill is hospitalized and is left bedbound. Her only potential cure is a heart transplant. The closest ''Mind Brigade'' gets to giving a name to Jill's disease is Jamie mentioning cancer during a rant, but he has barely talked to her so it's likely he's spouting an inaccurate diagnosis.
69	** Jamie's mother died of a rare genetic illness that put her into a cold sweat and gave her a quick-acting heart attack. [[spoiler:Jamie dies of the same illness after he goes into shock when it looks like he had given Jill a fatal heart attack]].
70	* In Fanfic/{{Suikakasen}}, [[spoiler:Yoshika]]'s main motivation revolves around her dying (and the subsequent fear of death) of a disease. This disease is not named and the only shown symptom is BloodFromTheMouth, but it's pretty clear that it's terminal.
71	* In ''Fanfic/TravelsOfTheTrifecta'', Paul and Reggie's mother died of an unnamed terminal illness. [[spoiler: Paul learns that he has the same mysterious illness because it's genetic. It seems to have periodic coughing up blood, physical frailty, and weakened immune system as general symptoms]] but it is not stated to be any real-life disease. Given that Pokemon has animals that don't exist in real life, the Pokemon world having its own genetic diseases isn't too unusual.
72	* ''FanFic/TruthAndConsequences:'' According to Gabriel, the illness killing Emilie is so rare, it didn't even have a name; he was less than amused when the diagnosing doctor decided to name it after ''himself''.
73	* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' AU fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/15332802/ Two Hearts One Beat]]'' has Sora dying from an unspecified disease as a four-year-old. What little we learn is that his heart is weak, but this seems to be referring to his Heart in the metaphysical ''Kingdom Hearts'' sense: [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep when Sora gives his body up to Ventus's Heart]] in his final moments, the rest of his body immediately starts recovering, allowing Ventus to grow up as Sora without anyone knowing.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
77	* In ''Anime/{{Arrietty}}'', the male protagonist Sho has had a heart condition ever since he was a child. Just a short period of physical activity can cause him pain.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
81	* ''Film/DancerInTheDark'', a drama and musical film, focuses on a female protagonist who has a genetic disease that causes her vision to weaken as she gets older. Early on in the film, she is already legally blind, and this serves as a big element of the plot.
82	* Parodied in ''Film/TheLivingWake'' where the self-deluded main character is certain he will die of "a vague and grave disease" despite clearly being in perfect health. [[spoiler:He ends the wake by stepping ceremoniously into a coffin where he instantly dies.]]
83	* ''Film/LoveStory'' has been accused of playing this straight. (see Magazines, below.)
84	* Shilo Wallace, the protagonist of ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', has a rare blood disease that she inherited from her mother that makes her unable to go outside without becoming ill; her father thus keeps her locked inside her bedroom while he researches a cure. [[spoiler: Eventually justified: Shilo isn't actually sick at all. Her symptoms come from the medication that her father is poisoning her with.]]
85	* In ''Film/TheSignal2014'' Nic walks with two crutches because of an unnamed wasting disease which he says will eventually put him in a wheelchair.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Literature]]
89	* Appears as Drummant's gift in ''Literature/AnnalsOfTheWesternShore''. {{Justified}} because that seems to be the whole ''point'' of the Drum gift, which is called "wasting". The victim just gets weaker and weaker for no apparent reason until they eventually die, which takes about a year. [[spoiler:This is how Melle, Orrec's mother, dies.]]
90	* In ''Literature/EndoAndKobayashiLive The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte'', Lieselotte's late uncle August had always been sickly since birth, and by the time he could have married his [[ArrangedMarriage officially betrothed fiancee]] [[spoiler:Elizabeth]], he's already too weak to get out of his bed. This is important to [[spoiler:Fiene]]'s backstory, as his fiancee's family issued a ParentalMarriageVeto out of this exact reason, despite [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage they're completely in love with each other]]. This is why [[spoiler:Fiene]] is raised as a commoner despite her parents being some of the most {{Blue Blood}}ed people in the setting, since the two decided to sleep together anyway so that [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy she can have his child]], knowing well that they're technically [[RoyalBastard committing adultery]].
91	* In ''Literature/FoundationAndEmpire'', Emperor Cleon II suffers from some painful and unknown disease that no one can cure.
92	* In the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'', Matrin Silenus mentions that when he wrote his ''[[CashCowFranchise Dying Earth]]'' books, book 3 introduced a telepathic child dying from some strange disease. He went into a drinking celebration once he was allowed to let her die in book 9.
93	* ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'': [[spoiler: Jem's. It was caused by a demon drug that was used to torture him and his parents when he was younger. There is no known cure for it, and he has to keep taking a specific drug to keep on fighting - as Brother Enoch says, taking the drug means a slow death, but keeping him off the drug would mean a quick one.]]
94	* Doki in the 56th ''Literature/MadgieWhatDidYouDo'' story. What she has is something she was diagnosed with over eighteen months prior and no doctor could tell if it was terminal or not. Likewise, in the previous story, she was terminally ill and was suffering kidney failure, thus being in what would be considered hospice care, however, what she had wasn't stated but she does die from it.
95	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] "Strike Zone" the Selelvian Jaan Baat-Utuul-Bayn-Devin learns he has a terminal illness the Selelvians call "The Rot" and has about six months to live. Picard wants to transfer him off the ''Enterprise'' right away, but backs down when Dr. Pulaski confronts him and says that Jaan is not contagious and can continue his work for some time before the end. Becoming desperate too escape his fate, Jaan unwittingly gives Wesley Crusher a telepathic compulsion to research a cure to his illness and later betrays the ''Enterprise'' to the Kreel Aneel, who tells him the Kreel have the cure for The Rot. What Jaan doesn't realize until too late is that Aneel intends to kill him once Jaan [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlives his usefulness]] to the Kreel on the grounds that death cures everything. Wesley suffers an emotional collapse after learning Jaan was killed and undergoes counseling before returning to duty.
96	* Alan Stuart in ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' had a nondescript disorder in his early years, causing him to be completely bedridden for the first fives years of his life, and people once thought he was going to die of it as a child. However, the disease's lasting effect is more pronounced on his healthy ''twin brother'' Geordo, as Alan's condition indirectly caused a ''very'' bad case of ParentalNeglect on Geordo, which became his CynicismCatalyst.
97	* ''Literature/NowhereStars'': Initially [[AvertedTrope Averted]], and then weirdly ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]''. [[DarkMagicalGirl Liadain Shiel]] was born with a fictional but realistically-portrayed immuno-deficiency disorder, which several rejected marrow transplants failed to improve. After becoming a MagicalGirl, however, it stopped being a mundane illness and became a ''supernatural'' one. Because magic follows TheoryOfNarrativeCausality more than any concrete rules, it essentially ''became'' this trope; as one doctor describes it, it became "a story about a girl dying from a disease."
98	* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', Viktor Dashkov is ill with Sandovsky's Syndrome, a Moroi-exclusive disease, which is slowly killing him.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
102	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In the comics, it was retroactively explained that Drusilla was tortured by an "Inquisitor" while in Prague, including the use of a magic torture chair, leaving her in a frail condition. Spike initially hopes the Hellmouth will restore her, but later learns that the blood of her sire (Angel) can cure her affliction.
103	* Alzheimer's Disease, which normally takes years and years to build up, not only progressed ten times faster than real life but then slew Mike Baldwin in a matter of mere ''months'' in ''Series/CoronationStreet''
104	* Appears in, of all things, the profiler procedural ''Series/CriminalMinds''. In an early episode, in a very dramatic scene, Hotch's son has had to go to the hospital to get "some tests" done and it turns out he has "a condition". This is [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment promptly never mentioned again]].
105	* This is essentially the fate of [[spoiler:The Mother]] in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. The disease is fatal, and that's pretty much all we know about it.
106	* Series/IZombie: In season 4 Isobel is brought to New Seattle to be cured of Freylich Syndrome, which a quick search online will reveal does not actually exist. The only symptom given so far is nosebleeds, and that the condition is eventually terminal. In the meantime, Isobel seems perfectly healthy.
107	* [[spoiler:Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda]] from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' is revealed to have one of those, it's actually his main ulterior reason for entering the Rider Battle. Very vaguely described and with no apparent symptoms other than the occasional fainting and easily acted spasms, but it's terminal (he had a few months left at best at some point) and incurable. The novel reportedly had him have Alzheimer's instead, which is odd since he looked to be barely in his [=30s=] in the show.
108	* The first episode of ''Series/MrShow'' opens with Ronnie Dobbs doing a PSA for his disease "Entitilitus." He notes that no one knows where it comes from or what it is, but "entitilitus kills." Toward the end of the episode, Terry sells the rights to make a {{Biopic}} of Ronnie [[spoiler:after he dies]]. In the film, the Ronnie reveals to Terry that he suffers from entitilitus [[spoiler: then dies in his arms]].
109	* The protagonist in ''Series/OneLiterOfTears'' suffers from a harsher and much rarer kind of this.
110	* ''Series/{{Vikings}}'': In season 3, Ragnar's health slowly starts to deteriorate while besieging Paris. Whether it's from some illness, an accumulation of battle wounds, or a combination of the two, it's never revealed. When he gets back to Kattegat, he's bedridden and everyone assumes that he's dying. However, he eventually makes a slow and equally unexplained recovery in season 4.
111	* Parodied in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' during the "Lesbian Period Drama" skit making fun of movies like ''Film/{{Ammonite}}'' and ''Film/PortraitOfALadyOnFire''. The main character is told she is "medically upset."
112	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
113	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E6TheSchizoidMan The Schizoid Man]]" the USS ''Enterprise'' crew comes across Data's "grandfather" Ira Graves and finds he's suffering from a terminal illness called Darnay's disease. Initially planning to [[BrainUploading copy his brain]] into a computer, upon meeting Data Graves instead uploads himself into Data's positronic brain instead until he realizes that he was wrong to do so. He then transfers his knowledge into the ''Enterprise'' computer but his personality is lost in the process.
114	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E19TiesOfBloodAndWater Ties of Blood and Water]]" the elderly Cardassian dissident Tekeny Ghemor travels to [=DS9=] in order to see Major Kira, who the Obsidian Order once tried to convince both that she was his [[MissingChild long lost daughter]] in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E05SecondSkin}} Second Skin]]." Ghemor has the terminal illness Yarim Fe and wants to pass on all his secrets to Kira in the Shri-tal ritual. He does this in the hopes the Federation can use what he knows against Gul Dukat and his new Dominion allied government.
115	** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In the first season Picard learns that he has a terminal brain abnormality that will kill him before too long. [[spoiler: His original body dies at the end of the season but his friends [[BrainUploading transfer his mind]] into a quantum simulation where Data lives before transferring his consciousness into a new android body, or golem, that was sculpted to resemble Picard's original body at the age when the organic body died]].
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Magazines]]
119	* Magazine/{{MAD}} referred to this as "Old Movie Disease" in their parody of the movie ''Film/LoveStory'', along with the claim that it makes you more attractive so you can die a beautiful death.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Video Games]]
123	* In ''VideoGame/DarkElfHistoria'', if the player manages to get through enough of Freylia's early quests without failing, then Ruse will come down with a disease that will force Freylia to put new jobs on hold in order to track down a cure.
124	* In ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'', if you're able to use magic powers, it also means that you have vaguely defined illness that is eventually fatal, though it's hard to say exactly when.
125	* The terminal disease that Mary suffered from in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' is not specified, but it started with an IncurableCoughOfDeath and eventually left her bedridden and in constant pain, along with causing hair loss and some kind of severe psoriasis-type skin condition. [[spoiler:It's also not what ultimately killed her.]]
126	* The Twelve-Year Disease in ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'' has no symptoms besides fever and frailty. [[spoiler:It's what Velvet's brother Laphicet had, and it's ultimately fatal--he figured it out because he read extensively during his periods of illness and so volunteered to be sacrificed to Innominat. Later, the party finds another child who has it and goes on a hunt for a lost ancient cure.]]
127	* ''VideoGame/WildArms4'': One character, [[spoiler:Raquel, one of your party members]], is slowly dying of an unspecified condition. Its only shown symptom is occasional IncurableCoughOfDeath, although the dialogue implies that there are more symptoms hidden beneath their clothes. The cause of this condition is eventually revealed to be "toxins from the reactor", implying it to be radiation poisoning, but the symptoms do not really match with the real thing. Naturally, this condition didn't stop them from living with it for years, being an extremely good fighter, and eventually [[spoiler:becoming a mother, and living on for a couple more years]].
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
131	* Any Creator/KeyVisualArts game will have at least one ill girl that suffers from this, with the exception of ''VisualNovel/{{Planetarian}}'' where the disease is [[spoiler:low battery power with no way to recharge]]. Thus one of the alternate titles for this page, "Key AIDS".
132	* In VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}, Nagisa suffers from an undefined disease that prevents her from attending school from time to time. [[spoiler:Her daughter Ushio gets the same undefined condition. In both cases, it turns out to be fatal.]] [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Or at least until the]] ResetButton [[SubvertedTrope is used in the final episode/"true ending" of the game.]]]]
133	* Subverted with [[spoiler:Shingen]] in ''VisualNovel/IkemenSengoku''. He appears at first to have a classic lingering soap opera-ish illness that's only vaguely defined by occasional [[IncurableCoughOfDeath violent coughing fits]] and the main character even comments that it may not be pneumonia, tuberculosis, or any other disease she's familiar with. However, the route where he receives medical treatment in modern times has a doctor diagnose him with the real-life condition [[https://www.hindawi.com/journals/crim/2011/939808/ endobronchial lipoma]] and even correctly describe it as a tumor that's benign on its own but can cause breathing difficulties and pneumonia. The game does still take some liberties with its portrayal of this disease, but it still gets major points for explicitly linking it to something that actually occurs in the real world.
134	* Almost all of the main characters of the ''VisualNovel/{{Narcissu}}'' series suffer from some form of terminal illness, though specifics are very rarely described, and it never seems to stop them from traveling long distances by car and subsisting on junk food.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Webcomics]]
138	* In ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', while they are not terminal, although severe, some of the illnesses Ryuuko suffers from are not named and neither are her symptoms described, however, she is often seen attached to machines and intravenous drips. This is played with in ''Room 002108'', chapter 9, where it is stated by an American doctor that she has some unknown illness, which turned into septicemia, which implies it was some kind of bacterial infection, causing her blood to poison her, the which almost killed her or should have.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Web Original]]
142	* From Website/{{Killerbunnies}}, we have Anwen's condition and not too much information is known about it besides the fact that will eventually kill her, along with it being progressive.
143	* Creator/LittleKuriboh parodied this in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bvGhzLQbCY Patreon video]]. He was diagnosed with a specific and chronic, but not fatal, colon condition, and Martin and his [[Creator/MarinMiller spouse]] [[{{Melodrama}} wept and wailed about it]].
144	* Inverted in the ''WebOriginal/{{Paradise}}'' setting, in which humans are randomly, permanently Changed into {{Funny Animal}}s by causes unknown. The change is InvisibleToNormals, to whom the Changed will still appear to be his old human self. In order to prevent Changed from being injured by medical practitioners because of physiological differences the medics can't see, the Changed invented a fictitious ''real-world'' disease—-"Sleeping Sickness (Ivory Coast Variant)"-—and issued medical alert bracelets for it so that a Changed or Known physician could be alerted at need.
145	[[/folder]]
146
147	[[folder:Web Videos]]
148	* In episode 9 of ''WebVideo/MemeHouse'', Twitch Chat abruptly gets an unnamed terminal illness in Part 9, which Joel names 'Boofa Ligma Sugma'. Thankfully, he gets healed before his time runs out.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:Western Animation]]
152	* Also mocked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks''. Theodore gets hooked on a soap opera where one of the characters has a disease called Zomboid Rigadosis. Alvin and Simon try to convince him it isn't real, but they all panic when Dave appears to have become stiff and motionless, and try to find a way to cure him. It was actually a wax statue. Things get especially amusing when they try to take "Dave" out to get some sun, and he begins to melt.
153	* Mocked (as with many other soap opera tropes) in the ''[[SoapWithinAShow All My Circuits]]'' segments of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''.
154	* In ''WesternAnimation/MagicGiftOfTheSnowman'', Emery has a disease that can be fatal, and one of the symptoms is paraplegia. Modern medicine can't do much to treat it, but people who have the disease can fully recover if they want to recover enough. When Emery recovers, the symptoms disappear overnight, including her paraplegia.
155	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': One episode reveals that Rose "was sick" when she was younger and it "could come back at any time." She gets a headache at school that necessitates going to the hospital for the rest of the day, but otherwise, no symptoms are mentioned, and she's well enough a few days later to help deal with the latest Akuma.
156	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Mother's Day", it's revealed that Chuckie's mother, Melinda, died not that long after Chuckie was born. ''How'' she died is left ambiguous, but Chas mentions that she died in the hospital and that she kept a diary while she was there--it's implied (though not confirmed) that she died of some kind of terminal illness.
157	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'' episode "Terminal", where Space Ghost is supposedly dying of some undefined terminal condition, whose symptoms are things like "sometimes it hurts when I sit down" and suspiciously fake-sounding coughing. He spends the whole episode trying to be serious and wistful while nobody takes him seriously and accuses him of faking it for attention, until he finally falls over dead at the end [[spoiler: ...only to open his eyes after [[LeaveTheCameraRunning an overly-long zoom-in]] and remark "Huh. This isn't so bad."]]
158	* Shiro from ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' had an unspecified degenerative disease that may or may not be ALS. He doesn't show any symptoms after being turned into a cyborg by the Galra Empire.
159	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SoapOperaDisease