Basic Trope: A character has a serious disease but insists it's nothing.
- Straight: Alice, who is Delicate and Sickly, keeps having fainting spells, but insists it is just a very unusual kind of cold.
- Exaggerated: Alice goes blind or loses her mobility and insists that it is just allergies.
- Downplayed:
- Alice insists it is just a cold when her symptoms are more flu-like.
- Alice coughs and sneezes, then denies having a cold, claiming that the air is dusty.
- Justified:
- Alice is in denial, doesn't want to worry her friends, or is holding the Idiot Ball and truly believes it is just a cold.
- Alice has a history with hay fever, it's that time of year and the symptoms are right for that (mis-)diagnosis.
- Inverted: Alice sneezes or coughs once, or feels a bit itchy and is convinced she is dying.
- Subverted: It turns out Alice has a disorder that makes fainting spells an actual symptom of a cold.
- Double Subverted: But it turns out to be a serious disease anyway.
- Parodied: Alice is turning into a cat and insists she is not turning into one, despite having grown pointy ears, a fluffy tail and whiskers, falling asleep curled up in the middle of the day, and getting food cravings for fish.
- Zig Zagged: Alice is having fainting spells, and insists she just has a cold, but a doctor says it is not just a cold: it's epilepsy and a cold.
- Averted: Nobody gets sick in this setting, or all diseases are addressed properly.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "Are you sure it's just a cold? Fainting isn't usually a symptom."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The Big Bad poisons Alice because he knows that will get her out of the way so he can Take Over the World as she will insist it's nothing.
- Defied: Alice is a hypochondriac and doesn't ignore anything.
- Discussed: "I'm worried about Alice, she has been fainting and insists it's just a cold. Why, how could fainting spells possibly be a cold?"
- Conversed: "Why do characters insist serious illnesses are just a cold? That's dangerous."
- Deconstructed: Due to her not taking the deadly disease seriously and just laughing it off instead, Alice dies from not being able to treat it properly.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice publicly denies being sick, while seeking treatment discreetly.
- Painkillers and rest are not able to fix her ailment, but they do keep it from getting worse until she finally seeks treatment.
- Played for Laughs: Alice's disease is something funny and is causing her to have a Malfunction Malady.
- Played for Drama: Alice's disease could be fatal.
- Played for Horror: Alice is infected with a zombie plague.
You can go back to Definitely Just a Cold now, you're healthy! Don't worry about those flesh wounds, they're probably nothing.
