History Main / ConvenientTerminalIllness

* After [[spoiler:Snape kills Dumbledore]] at the end of ''{{Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince}}'', we are informed in Deathly Hallows that [[spoiler: The curse on Dumbledore's hand was slowly killing him, and he had ordered Snape to kill him so that Draco wouldn't have to do it, thus saving Draco's soul.]] Interesting in that the character is not revealed to have been critically ill until after his death.

* ''{{Naruto}}'': Played straight with Kimimaro, who dies with his weapon just centimeters away from [[EyeScream piercing Gaara's eye]].

* In ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', CTU Director George Mason gets a fatal case of radiation poisoning while searching for a nuke in Day 2. At the end of the Day, Jack flies an airplane carrying the nuke on a suicide course to the desert to prevent it from killing anyone only for a stowaway Mason to reveal himself, convince Jack to not throw his life away and take his place at the controls while Jack parachutes to safety.

** In ''The Conqueror of Shamballa,'' TheMovie of the first anime, Hohenheim does this incomprehensibly.

* Early in the ''{{X-Men}}'' comics, Professor Xavier died. Then [[HeGotBetter he]] [[DeathIsCheap returned]]. It was explained via flashback that a terminally ill mutant scallywag calling himself the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Changeling]] offered to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath pose]] as Xavier so the Prof could prepare for an imminent invasion. Jean knew, so as to help the shape-shifter better pass off as the X-Men's mentor.

** In ''The Conqueror of Shamballa,'' TheMovie of the first anime, Hikari no Hohenheim does this incomprehensibly.
** In the manga and ''Brotherhood'' adaptation, Van Hohenheim [[spoiler: offers to do this]] since his [[NoOntologicalInertia ontological inertia]] has been broken down in the battle and he is dying anyway. [[spoiler: Ed refuses and sacrifices his own ability to do alchemy instead. Hohenheim went and died smiling on his wife's grave instead.]]

* In ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', CTU Director George Mason gets a fatal case of radiation poisoning while searching for a nuke in Day 2. At the end of the Day, Jack flies an airplane carrying the nuke on a suicide course to the desert to prevent it from killing anyone only for a stowaway Mason to reveal himself, convince him to not throw his life away and take his place at the controls while Jack parachutes to safety.

* At the end of ''GranTorino'' when [[spoiler: Walt tricks the local street gang into shooting him to death in front of all the neighbors so that they'll all go to prison. Earlier Walt is revealed to have a serious but unnamed condition that causes him to cough up blood.]]
* After [[spoiler:Snape kills Dumbledore]] at the end of ''{{Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince}}'', we are informed in Deathly Hallows that [[spoiler: The curse on Dumbledore's hand was slowly killing him, and he had ordered Snape kill him so that Draco wouldn't have to do it, thus saving Draco's soul.]] Interesting in that the character is not revealed to have been critically ill until after his death.

* ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' goes meta with this trope: just before King Arthur and his knights start a battle with a giant, hard-to-kill monster, the animator goes into cardiac arrest and dies.

* FullmetalAlchemist. Hikari no Hohenheim does this incomprehensibly in TheConquerorOfShambala movie. Van Hohenheim, in the manga, [[spoiler: attempts to do this]] since his [[NoOntologicalInertia ontological inertia]] has been broken down in the battle and he is dying anyway. [[spoiler: Ed refuses and sacrifices his own ability to do alchemy instead,]] which is almost as annoying as...''everything'' the original anime's version of Hohenheim did. Hohenheim went and died smiling on Trisha's grave instead.

* MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail goes meta with this trope: just before King Arthur and his knights start a battle with a giant, hard-to-kill monster, the animator goes into cardiac arrest and dies.
* In Fanfic/MGLNCrisis, [[spoiler:The clones of Miyuki and Kyouya]], according to Shamal, have about a year to live. They make a HeroicSacrifice toward the end of the fic.

So something bad is about to happen; a nuclear weapon is about to go off, or an asteroid is about to impact the planet and the only way to avoid this is if [[SomeoneHasToDie someone stays behind]] and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to stop it.]] But who will go? All of these characters are life long friends. There's no easy way to decide. [[OrIsIt Or is there?]] One of the characters has an IncurableCoughOfDeath and only a few months to live. He'll do it - after all, he's dying anyway, and in a [[DeathisDramatic far less dramatic and spectacular way]].

* [[RepoTheGeneticOpera Rotti Largo]] is told that whatever illness he has is terminal, so he sets the movie's plot in motion, namely [[spoiler: naming Shilo as the heir to Gene Co]]. He dies at the end of the movie.

So something bad is about to happen; a nuclear weapon is about to go off, or an asteroid is about to impact the planet and the only way to avoid this is if someone stays behind and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to stop it.]] But who will go? All of these characters are life long friends. There's no easy way to decide. [[OrIsIt Or is there?]] One of the characters has an IncurableCoughOfDeath and only a few months to live. He'll do it - after all, he's dying anyway, and in a [[DeathisDramatic far less dramatic and spectacular way]].

* After [[spoiler:Snape kills Dumbledore]] at the end of ''HarryPotter and the Half Blood Prince'', we are informed in Deathly Hallows that [[spoiler: The curse on Dumbledore's hand was slowly killing him, and he had ordered Snape kill him so that Draco wouldn't have to do it, thus saving Draco's soul.]] Interesting in that the character is not revealed to have been critically ill until after his death.

* MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail goes meta with this trope: just before King Arthur and his knights start a battle with a giant, hard-to-kill monster, the animator goes into cardiac arrest and dies.

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', Seymour's mother indirectly cites this as being part of her willingness to [[spoiler:sacrifice herself to become his [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting Final Aeon]], with which he could destroy [[CosmicHorror Sin]] and save the world]]. Uniquely for this trope, it manages to backfire ''spectacularly''.
** Because what any outcast HalfHumanHybrid needs is for his mother to lay the weight of saving the world on his shoulders as she kills herself/leaves him forever

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', Seymour's mother indirectly cites this as being part of her willingness to [[spoiler:sacrifice herself to become his [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting Final Aeon]], with which he could destroy [[CosmicHorror Sin]] and save the world]]. Uniquely for this trope, it manages to backfire ''spectacularly''.

* After [[spoiler:Snape kills Dumbledore]] at the end of ''HarryPotter and the Half Blood Prince'', we are informed in Deathly Hollows that [[spoiler: The curse on Dumbledore's hand was slowly killing him, and he had ordered Snape kill him so that Draco wouldn't have to do it, thus saving Draco's soul.]] Interesting in that the character is not revealed to have been critically ill until after his death.

So something bad is about to happen; a nuclear weapon is about to go off, or an asteroid is about to impact the planet and the only way to avoid this is if someone stays behind and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to stop it.]] But who will go? All of these characters are life long friends. There's no easy way to decide. [[OrIsIt Or is there?]] One of the characters has terminal cancer and only a few months to live. He'll do it - after all, he's dying anyway, and in a [[DeathisDramatic far less dramatic and spectacular way]].

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', Seymour's mother indirectly cites this as being part of her willingness to [[spoiler:sacrifice herself to become his [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting Final Aeon]], with which he could destroy [[CosmicAbomination Sin]] and save the world]]. Uniquely for this trope, it manages to backfire ''spectacularly''.

* [[RepoTheGeneticOpera Rotti Largo]] is told that whatever illness he has is terminal, so he sets the movie's plot in motion, namely [[spoiler: naming Shilo as the heir to Gene Co]]. He dies at the end of the movie.

** Subverted later in the Sasuke vs. Itachi fight. Itachi appears as though he's about to kill Sasuke, when he keels over dead after [[BloodFromTheMouth coughing up copious amounts of blood]] throughout the fight. But then it's revealed that [[spoiler: even if he hadn't died from his illness, he wouldn't have killed Sasuke anyway]].

* FullmetalAlchemist. Hikari no Hohenheim does this incomprehensibly in TheConquerorOfShambala movie. Van Hohenheim, in the manga, [[spoiler: attempts to do this]] since his [[NoOntologicalInertia ontological inertia]] has been broken down in the battle and he is dying anyway. [[spoiler: Ed refuses and sacrifices his own ability to do alchemy instead,]] which is almost as annoying as...''everything'' the original anime's version of Hohenheim did. Hohenheim went and died smiling on Trisha's grave instead.

* In ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'', CTU Director George Mason gets a fatal case of radiation poisoning while searching for a nuke in Day 2. At the end of the Day, Jack flies an airplane carrying the nuke on a suicide course to the desert to prevent it from killing anyone only for a stowaway Mason to reveal himself, convince him to not throw his life away and take his place at the controls while Jack parachutes to safety.

** Subverted later in the Sasuke vs. Itachi fight. Itachi appears as though he's about to kill Sasuke, when he keels over dead after [[BloodFromTheMouth coughing up copious amounts of blood]] throughout the fight. But then it's revealed that [[spoiler: even if he hadn't died from his illness, he wouldn't have killed Sasuke anyway]].

* Subverted in ''{{Naruto}}''. AloofBigBrother Itachi appears as though he's about to kill Sasuke, when he keels over dead after [[BloodFromTheMouth coughing up copious amounts of blood]] throughout the fight. But then it's revealed that [[spoiler: even if he hadn't died, he wouldn't have killed Sasuke anyway]].

* Early in the ''{{X-Men}}'' comics, Professor Xavier died. Then [[HeGotBetter he]] [[DeathIsCheap returned]]. It was explained via flashback that a terminally ill mutant scallywag calling himself the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Changeling]] offered to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath pose]] as Xavier so the Prof could prepare for an imminent invasion. Jean knew, so as to help the shape-shifter better pass off as the X-Men's mentor.

So something bad is about to happen; a nuclear weapon is about to go off, or an asteroid is about to impact the planet and the only way to avoid this is if someone stays behind and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to stop it.]] But who will go? All of these characters are life long friends. Theres no easy way to decide. [[OrIsIt Or is there?]] One of the characters has terminal cancer and only a few months to live. He'll do it - after all, he's dying anyway, and in a [[DeathisDramatic far less dramatic and spectacular way]].

Obviosly this is a DeathTrope so spoilers abound.

* Near the begining of SpaceCowboys [[spoiler:TommyLeeJones' character]] is told he has pancreatic cancer with only eight months to live. Naturaly the only way to save the world from[[spoiler: a russian satelite armed with nuclear missiles]] is for somebody to [[spoiler: fly it into the moon]]and since he ''is'' dying and going there has been his lifelong dream, guess who volunteers.
* At the end of GranTorino when [[spoiler: Walt tricks the local street gang into shooting him to death in front of all the neighbors so that they'll all go to prison. Earlier Walt is revealed to have a serious but unnamed condition that causes him to cough up blood.]]
* After [[spoiler: Snape kills Dumbledore]] at the end of HarryPotter and the Half Blood Prince we are informed in Deathly Hollows that [[spoiler: The curse on Dumbledore's hand was slowly killing him, and he had ordered Snape kill him so that draco wouldn't have to do it, thus saving draco's soul.]] Interesting in that the character is not revealed to have been criticaly ill until after his death.
* The entire point of JoeVersusTheVolcano with a twist: [[spoiler:he was never sick]].

* Early in the {{X-Men}} comics, Professor Xavier died. Then [[HeGotBetter he]] [[DeathIsCheap returned]]. It was explained via flashback that a terminally ill mutant scallywag calling himself the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Changeling]] offered to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath pose]] as Xavier so the Prof could prepare for an imminent invasion. Jean knew, so as to help the shape-shifter better pass off as the X-Men's mentor.

So something bad is about to happen; a nuclear weapon is about to go off, or an asteroid is about to impact the planet and the only way to avoid this is if someone stays behind and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself to stop it.]] But who will go? All of these charaters are life long friends. Theres no easy way to decide. [[OrIsIt Or is there?]] One of the characters has terminal cancer and only a few months to live. He'll do it - after all, he's dying anyway, and in a [[DeathisDramatic far less dramatic and spectacular way]].

*Played with in ''{{Madagascar}}: Escape 2 Africa'' with Melman also going to jump into a volcano. [[spoiler: Also never sick.]]