History Main / ConverseWithTheUnconscious

* In ''LightNovel/KyouKaraMaou'', while [[spoiler: Wolfram]] is technically dead, Yuuri doesn't have any doubt that he'll get better and promises to save him.

SisterTrope to DudeShesLikeInAComa, TauntingTheUnconscious, and UnbrokenVigil. Compare TalkingToTheDead.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', during the Battle City Finals, after Odion is knocked out, Marik's SuperpoweredEvilSide takes over, and during the last climactic duel between the Pharaoh and Yami Marik, the spirit of Marik's "good" side manifests in Odion's room to apologize for the way he has treated him up to this point and to say goodbye. In the very next episode Odion awakens and staggers up to the battle platform to help Marik overcome his evil side, and Yugi wins the duel shortly afterward.

* ''ThePlainJanes'' by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg has an unconscious character to whom the main character talks and (after moving away) sends letters.
* Geordi spends a lot of time talking to Data after he's damaged in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Fifth Annual''.

* The one time Snake-Eyes of ''ComicBook/{{GI Joe}}'' '''ever''' speaks is whispering Scarlett's codename to her while she's in a coma. Naturally, this is enough to wake her up.
** Just to note, this happened in the [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel Marvel comics]] run, where he wasn't completely mute, but his vocal cords were so damaged that he could only speak in a very low whisper, and it was implied that is was painful to do so.
* ''ComicBook/RisingStars'': Not only does the muscle superhero guy talk to the special cop guy for like ten years, when he recovers he remembers every single word of it. Yeah, it's a superhero comic.
* In issue #50 of ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'', Mayday (Spider-Girl) sits at the bedside of her comatose friend Courtney Duran, even bringing up things she did as Spider-Girl earlier in the issue. Their mutual friend Moose arrives at the point, and Mayday and Moose are telling each other not to blame themselves for the accident that put Courtney in the coma when Courtney awakes. It's not clear just how much of the conversation Courtney heard, though if her behavior in subsequent issues is any indication, she doesn't know that Mayday is Spider-Girl.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': While his father was in a coma during the early part of Tim's stint as Robin Tim would sit by his bedside and talk to him about his worries and plans, and note that they never really got to talk candidly while his father was awake.

* Subverted in ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}, where Mike talks to JJ about their relationship problems while she's in a coma, only to find that she was faking it. Furthermore, she was filming him talking to put in a movie.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27539824 Mind Sifter]] has Spock delirious after being subjected to the titular MindRape device by Klingons. Jim holds him in his arms and talks to him, trying to comfort him. It seems to work, probably thanks to the Vulcan's TouchTelepathy.
--> You didn’t betray me. Us. You didn’t let them find out a single thing. And, even if you had let something slip, even if they had made you say something, that’s no betrayal. Not when they’re… Not with the MindSifter.
* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': After Daniel rescues Kyoko she spends several weeks sleeping unconsciously. Her daughter Asuka watches over her whenever she can, and often talks to Kyoko, telling her how she is feeling or what she has done lately (as in chapter 25 when she told her mother [[spoiler:Shinji said he loved her.]]

* In ''Fanfic/HumanCuriosity'', after the [[spoiler:kidnapped nations are recovered from the HCS]], their friends and family sit with them while they sleep. It's noted that [[spoiler:South Korea sits and reads to North Korea.]] At the end of the fic, [[spoiler:Liechtenstein plans on doing this for the still-frozen Switzerland, but arrives to find that the frozen nations were melted and vanished.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Zenith}}'': Spike regularly reads to the comatose Twilight from her favorite book. However, he also has entire normal conversations with her where he tells her what he's been up to, and pleads her to wake up; he is afraid of being overheard doing that, lest someone think that he's going insane.
* ''Fanfic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'': In an experimental "emergency petrifaction" hospital wing, terminally ill ponies are deliberately [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] so that they can survive until a cure is invented. Since some of them can still hear and see in this state, they are treated similarly to comatose patients, with the nurses reading books and newspapers to them, and sometimes talking to them.
* ''Fanfic/KitsuneNoKenFistOfTheFox'': Sai and Ino do this to each other at different points. During the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational, when Ino is unconscious [[spoiler:following her NoHoldsBarredBeatdown at Aoi's hands]], Sai sits by her bedside and admits he likes her as more than a friend. Much later, Ino gets to return the favor when she talks to an unconscious Sai [[spoiler:following his having been force-fed Gold Sand pills by Aoi and Arashi's gang]].
* In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10270896/1/When-Irish-Eyes-Are-Smiling this]] ''Series/DustysTrail'' fic, Lulu does this to pass the time while keeping vigil over Mr. Callahan.
* In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Shinji did this to [[spoiler:Asuka]] to wake her up when she was in a coma after [[spoiler:being {{Mind Rape}}d.]]

* In the first chapter of ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'', Shinji talks to Asuka while she is in a coma, trying to help her to wake up.
* At the start of the ''VideoGame/KanColle'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Eternity}}'' there are two shipgirls that still haven't answered the call to fight the Abyssals, Enterprise and Yamato, who in this story had [[GoingNative Gone Native]] after the WWII and became JDS Yonaga and USS Montana. Many tried to wake them up by talking to them, both from their old and new navies, but failed. Hiryuu, in particular, tried to get at least some kind of reaction from Enterprise by arranging that all Kidou Butai (that attacked Pearl Harbor) carrier shipgirls would have their shore leave time together on her museum ship, but no luck.
* In ''Fanfic/TheCorniceInTheGround'', after Eggsy falls into a coma after resurrecting Harry from the dead, Harry sits by his bedside and begs him to come back.

* In ''Film/RockyII''. Rocky was talking to Adrian after she spent time in a coma following a complicated childbirth. Fortunately, she got better, but not well enough soon enough to be present for his rematch with Apollo Creed.

* Subverted in ''Film/BigFish'': Will is sitting quietly with his unconscious father in the hospital, and the doctor tells him how annoying it is when people talk to unconscious patients since they can't hear you anyway.
* In ''Film/ImagineMeAndYou'', after Heck falls asleep Rachel confesses that she fell in love with someone else, but is going to stay with him anyway. Subverted in that [[spoiler: he was faking it.]]
* Sandra Bullock in ''Film/WhileYouWereSleeping''. The movie title is pretty self-explanatory.
* In ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'', [[spoiler:Maleficent talks to an unconscious Aurora when Prince Phillip's kiss fails to wake her up. However, when she kisses Aurora on the forehead, that's the {{True Loves Kiss}} needed to break the spell]].
* In ''Film/KillBill'', Buck, a hospital orderly frequently visits the Bride during her coma. He openly taunts her about making money by [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil letting customers raping her while inconscious]]. When waking up, the Bride perfectly remember, and considering that she is a [[BullyingADragon profesionnal assassin]]...
* In ''Film/OceansThirteen'', since Basher is stuck monitoring the tunnel-digger that the crew is using to set up their caper, he writes a series of letters which he asks Linus to read to the catatonic Reuben. Linus only manages to read a few lines before the [[SickeninglySweet unbearable sappiness]] makes him give up and leave the letters on Reuben's nightstand.
** Reuben, however, is very appreciative once he recovers enough to read them.

** Also done in ''Film/WalkHardTheDeweyCoxStory''.
%% Hyphen is to prevent collision with Series.
* Happened in ''[[Film/{{K91989}} K-9]]''. Yup, he's talking to a dog.
** Except the dog was perfectly fine, which leads to Belushi's deadpan delivery of "I hate you."
* This trope forms much of the basis of the Spanish-language film ''Hable con Ella (Film/TalkToHer)'' by Pedro Almodóvar.

* Also subverted in ''Film/SteelMagnolias''. M'Lynn talks to her daughter trying to get her to [[PleaseWakeUp wake up from her diabetic coma]]. [[spoiler:She ultimately dies.]]
* ''Film/SupermanReturns'': Lois brings her son to the hospital to see a comatose Superman and reveals certain information to him.
* In the 2011 dark comedy ''Film/TheDescendants'' multiple characters talk to the main character's wife while she's in a coma. Justified in that she is a driving character of the film and spends the entire film in a coma.
* Played with hilariously in the film version of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''. When Ron is unconscious from a poisoning, Lavender Brown (who he had been dating) rushes to his bedside. She starts to call his name, which causes him to stir...and croak out Hermione's name. Cue Lavender running away in tears, while Hermione takes her place sitting by Ron. After Ron recovers, he thinks that this was just a dream and has no idea why Lavender is angry with him.
* ''Film/SnowWhiteAndTheHuntsman''. After Snow White falls into the coma after biting the poisoned apple, Prince William fails to wake her up with a kiss as per the fairy tale. She's lying in state alone in a chapel when Eric the Huntsman enters, and talks of how Snow White [[YouRemindMeOfX reminds him of his wife]], how he crossed the DespairEventHorizon after her death, only for Snow White to bring him back to the man he once was. Eric then kisses her, and it works this time.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Robocop 2014}}''. After his partner is shot during a failed arrest, Alex Murphy starts pouring out his guilt at his hospital bed over not waiting for backup, only to realize his partner is only pretending to be unconscious.
* Invoked in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', as Rey departs for the mysterious planet where Luke Skywalker is hiding, she bids a heartfelt farewell to Finn, hoping they will meet again when her Jedi training is complete. In a deleted scene in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', the droid BB-8 plays a recording of this to Finn, who finds it odd that he recorded it.
* ''Film/DeathSentence'': When Lucas is lying in a coma in the hospital after being shot in the head in retaliation for Nick's vigilante activities, Nick stands by his bed and tells him all of the things he probably should have told him while he was awake; especially that Lucas was not really TheUnfavorite, but that Nick just did not know how to relate to him like he did with his elder son.
* ''Theatre/PerfectPie'': In the film version, before leaving town Marie says her goodbyes and apologies at Patsy's bedside while Patsy is still in her coma after being hit by a train. She nearly breaks down in tears while telling Patsy that she'll never come back and bother her again, as she was indirectly the cause of Patsy's injuries.

* In Lee Lightner's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Wolf's Honour'', Mikal feels heavily burdened by the role that fell on him when Berek was gravely wounded. He sees the unconscious leader and asks why him -- and is enraged when he realizes that the skald, Morgrim, listened to him. Morgrim is able to reassure him.

* The events of the novel ''Literature/SeaFire'' left Literature/JamesBond's then-girlfriend Fredericka von Grüsse in very bad shape, and the next book ''Literature/{{COLD}}'' has him visiting her daily, and talking to her despite her comatose condition.
* A version of this happens in ''[[Literature/TheInfernalDevices The Clockwork Princess]]''. Will and Magnus have a conversation over a dying, unconscious Jem, in which Will mentions his love for Tessa. When Magnus leaves and Will is about to say his final goodbyes, Jem wakes up.
--->"I am not dead yet, Will. What did Magnus mean by asking you if I knew you were in love with Tessa?"
* Lt. Eve Dallas tends to do this once every few books throughout J.D. Robb's ''Literature/InDeath'' series.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''; [=McGonagall=] catches Ron and Harry sneaking about while the school is on lockdown, and the best excuse they can come up with is they want to tell a petrified Hermione that the mandrakes are almost mature and a cure for her can be made soon. [=McGonagall=] actually buys this and lets them into the infirmary. Subverted in that they don't actually ''tell her'' anything: Harry at least is well aware it's pointless to talk to a petrified victim and that they're wasting their time - [[spoiler:at least until they spot the piece of paper in Hermione's hand]].

* Attempted in ''Literature/TornadoBrain''. [[spoiler:Colette is found days after a bike accident and ends up in the hospital with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 5, meaning she's probably doomed. Her mother brings Tess and Frankie in to talk to her to see if hearing their voices helps, but Colette dies anyway.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/PoliceQuest Police Quest 3]]'', the main character does this on a daily basis after [[spoiler:the villain puts his wife in a coma.]] ItsPersonal, of course.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has the player character talk to their opposite-sex twin while they are in a coma following an accident during their cryo revival process at the beginning of the game. Because of the AI implant the twins share, this is a justified case in which the unconscious sibling can talk back.
* In ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', Idaho can pour his heart out to [[spoiler:the frozen form of his wife Rebecca]] if he manages to find (and visit) the CryoPrison complex on Lazarus-IX.

* In ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'', Penny visits her ex-boyfriend Rich, who's comatose after being stabbed. Encouraged to talk to him, Penny initially lets out her anger over his risky lifestyle, ending with, "Just hurry up and die!" After getting that off her chest, on a subsequent visit she whispers something presumably more gentle into his ear. Of course, when Rich regains consciousness and returns to school, he reveals what he actually heard: "'Hurry up and die'? You know I never do what you tell me."

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', [[KnightTemplar Abraham]] to [[spoiler:Ellen]]. The context is different, though; this is because he's [[CuriousQualmsOfConscience talking to someone - anyone - to justify]] the [[DirtyBusiness murder he's about to commit]].
* In ''Webcomic/EnnuiGo'', [[spoiler: the main reason why [[http://ennuigo.thecomicseries.com/comics/1393 Izzy wanted to take over Florida]]; her mother was in a hospital there and she felt like she had to conquer the entire state just to have the emotional strength to visit her.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': When Glenn Quagmire was in an auto-erotic asphyxiation-induced coma, his sister came into the city to sing a song from his childhood, hoping it would wake him up. The lyrics were "Glenn Quagmire, please don't die of auto-erotic asphyxiation/Your friends want to go fishing with you."
-->'''Brian:''' This is from ''childhood?''
* Aaron Herbst in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Disappearing Inque" has spent months talking to the frozen Inque as if she were his confidant; he's fired when it gets to the point of kissing her ice block. Inque, who was conscious the whole time, is not happy about it after she gets out. He'd later be on the other end of this at the end of the episode.

* In ''Film/OceansThirteen'', since Basher is stuck monitoring the tunnel-digger that the crew is using to set up their caper, he writes a series of letters which he asks Linus to read to the catatonic Reuben. Linus only manages to read a few lines before the [[TastesLikeDiabetes unbearable sappiness]] makes him give up and leave the letters on Reuben's nightstand.

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Agnes sing "Saving Jasper" while Jasper is still unconscious from falling into the wasteland.

* Titus, the protagonist of M.T. Anderson's dystopian novel ''Literature/{{Feed}}'', does this at the end of the book, [[spoiler: to his girlfriend Violet, whose mental state has deteriorated to comatose and will never improve. Talk about DownerEnding.]]

* In ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'', in series finale ''Sweet Revenge'', [[spoiler:Hutch gives a disjointed, despairing speech to a comatose Starsky about not knowing what to do to get to the guy who organised Starsky's shooting - and Starsky wakes up]]

* Happened in ''Film/{{K-9}}''. Yup, he's talking to a dog.

SisterTrope to DudeShesLikeInAComa and UnbrokenVigil. Compare TalkingToTheDead.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E19StormOverRyloth "Storm over Ryloth"]]: Admiral Yularen is knocked out during the initial attack on the blockade, and while he's unconscious in the medbay, Ahsoka apologizes to him for her recklessness that caused his injury. He turns out to have been awake and heard her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Wolfwalkers}}'', after Robyn and Mebh become friends, Mebh talks to her mother Moll's unconscious human body about the new friend she made, but this soon gives way to Mebh wondering why Moll still hasn't come back to her body yet (as [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Wolfwalkers]], they can send their spirits out of their bodies in the form of wolves). This reveals that for all of Mebh's boisterous and confident nature, she still greatly misses her mother and desperately wants her to come back.

* At the start of the ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Eternity}}'' there are two shipgirls that still haven't answered the call to fight the Abyssals, Enterprise and Yamato, who in this story had [[GoingNative Gone Native]] after the WWII and became JDS Yonaga and USS Montana. Many tried to wake them up by talking to them, both from their old and new navies, but failed. Hiryuu, in particular, tried to get at least some kind of reaction from Enterprise by arranging that all Kidou Butai (that attacked Pearl Harbor) carrier shipgirls would have their shore leave time together on her museum ship, but no luck.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In "Thanksgiving", Oliver Queen has a falling out with his longtime friend John Diggle. They're in the hospital at the time, so Oliver then goes to the bedside of his little sister Thea, who has been in a coma since last year's season finale, and begs her to wake up. She might have heard him since she wakes up at the end of the episode, though Felicity Smoak [[[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just puts this down to having found the right drug]].

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In "Thanksgiving", Oliver Queen has a falling out with his longtime friend John Diggle. They're in the hospital at the time, so Oliver then goes to the bedside of his little sister Thea, who has been in a coma since last year's season finale, and begs her to wake up. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane She might have heard him]] since she wakes up at the end of the episode.

* Near the end of season 4, Connor tracks down the hidden and comatose Cordelia to explain his motives for the first time. When she eventually wakes up there's little to indicate she heard any of it though.

* Near the end of season 4 of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' Connor tracks down the hidden and comatose Cordelia to explain his motives for the first time. When she eventually wakes up there's little to indicate she heard any of it though.
** Technically, [[spoiler: she didn't actually wake up, and Connor wasn't around at the time anyway.]]
** In "Birthday" Angel appears to be going to make an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to the unconscious Cordy, only to start railing on her for not telling him that the visions were slowly killing her.

* ''Manga/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer'' does this in the final episode. [[spoiler: Hikaru has just been hit with Athena's Astral Emission attack, which has been shown to instantly defeat any Angel. Cue Misaki crying out for Hikaru to get up, to keep fighting; then Hatoko starts, then Tamayo and Kotaro...followed by every single person in the audience (even Ogata in the control room) shouting Hikaru's name and calling for her to get back up. Hikaru not only gets back up but continues fighting with just a tiny bit of her "life bar," sprouts a pair of wings and counters a second Astral Emission to win the fight.]]

* ''Anime/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'' manages to turn this one around on itself in episode eleven after Tanda performs the "soul call" and gets his spirit stranded out of his body. With no idea of how to return, Tanda talks to Balsa while she watches over his body, admitting that when he'd [[WhatTheHellHero called her out]] two years prior about the people she was killing, it wasn't really what he'd wanted to say. Before he gets around to what he ''did'' want to say, however, Balsa begins talking to his unconscious body, telling him that she'd let her pride get the better of her back then, and thanking him for what he'd said at the time. Tanda and Balsa being the sorts that they are, neither of them mentions it after Tanda manages to return to his body.

* In ''{{Manga/Horimiya}}'', Miyamura confesses he'd liked Hori for quite a while now when he thinks she's passed out due to a fever.
* In ''{{Manga/The Seven Deadly Sins}}'', [[spoiler:Elizabeth]] tells a comatose [[spoiler:Meliodas]] that everyone is waiting for him to wake up. She also confesses that [[spoiler:he better wake up because she can't bear to live in a world without him]].

* ''Manga/{{Evangelion 303}}'': In chapter 10 while Shinji is [[UnbrokenVigil keeping watch over a comatose Asuka]], [[http://eva303.smackjeeves.com/comics/1703838/014/ her doctor advised him to try and talk to her]] to give her some direction to go in.

* In ''FanFic/HumanCuriosity'', after the [[spoiler:kidnapped nations are recovered from the HCS]], their friends and family sit with them while they sleep. It's noted that [[spoiler:South Korea sits and reads to North Korea.]] At the end of the fic, [[spoiler:Liechtenstein plans on doing this for the still-frozen Switzerland, but arrives to find that the frozen nations were melted and vanished.]]

* ''FanFic/KitsuneNoKenFistOfTheFox'': Sai and Ino do this to each other at different points. During the Uchiha Zaibatsu Invitational, when Ino is unconscious [[spoiler:following her NoHoldsBarredBeatdown at Aoi's hands]], Sai sits by her bedside and admits he likes her as more than a friend. Much later, Ino gets to return the favor when she talks to an unconscious Sai [[spoiler:following his having been force-fed Gold Sand pills by Aoi and Arashi's gang]].

* At the start of the ''VideoGame/KantaiCollection'' fic ''FanFic/{{Eternity}}'' there are two shipgirls that still haven't answered the call to fight the Abyssals, Enterprise and Yamato, who in this story had [[GoingNative Gone Native]] after the WWII and became JDS Yonaga and USS Montana. Many tried to wake them up by talking to them, both from their old and new navies, but failed. Hiryuu, in particular, tried to get at least some kind of reaction from Enterprise by arranging that all Kidou Butai (that attacked Pearl Harbor) carrier shipgirls would have their shore leave time together on her museum ship, but no luck.