Basic Trope: Someone is injured, walks away but dies later without realising anything was wrong.
- Straight: Redshirt Bob is struck over the head by Carrie. He later drops dead while talking to Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is blown up by Carrie. He later explodes into Ludicrous Gibs while speaking to Alice.
- Bob dies because of the hit, fifty years later.
- Downplayed: Bob dies a few seconds after his injury, having just enough time to walk away from Carrie.
- Justified:
- Bob was already anaemic and somewhat drunk, so the blow didn't hurt too much despite being strong enough to cause internal bleeding.
- The hit caused Bob an intracranial hemorrhage and he didn't showed symptoms until intracranial hypertension or brain herniation ensued.
- Bob is stabbed in a nonessential area but dies later because the blade was poisoned.
- Inverted:
- Bob dies of a heart attack before he can be struck by an angry Carrie.
- Bob is resurrected, but he takes a while to realise he's not dead anymore.
- Subverted: Bob appears to have died of the blow to the head...but it was actually caused by a heart attack...
- Double Subverted: ...brought about by the shock of being struck on the head.
- Parodied: Bob was walking around with a football sized hole in his torso all day. Everyone's shocked when he drops dead.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is hit by a rock on the head and continues like nothing as happened. Later on he drops unconscious and Alice thinks he's dead, but is then informed that Bob is narcoleptic, so it happens to him from time to time. But later on they find him lying on the floor and on a pool of red liquid; he just fainted once again while he was carrying a can of red paint. And then Bob explodes without any warning due to the rock having accidentally hit one of his pressure points.
- Averted:
- Bob drops dead the moment he's struck.
- Bob simply shrugs it off and lives out his life.
- Enforced: "We need a good excuse for a Locked Room Mystery. Have the guy die a few hours after he's stabbed or something."
- Lampshaded:
- "Why can't anyone die when they're attacked these days?"
- "I'd look pretty dumb if it was one of those things where I drop dead-"
- Invoked: Carrie learns how to hit someone over the head such that the victim dies a few hours later.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: After being struck over the head, Bob goes for a medical checkup just to be sure.
- Discussed:
- "Hey, if you hit him just right, he'll bleed to death in a few hours without leaving a mark."
- "Ouch, that could kill me in a few hours!"
- Conversed: "Why does every wound on this show seem to be harmless, but then kill the character later on? It's like they're trying to confuse us."
- Deconstructed: Carrie carefully planned her assault so Bob would die from his injuries later, allowing her to frame Alice.
- Reconstructed: Bob is hit by a poisoned arrow shot by a villain, and he's informed he only has 5 minutes to live. The assassin wants to use that time to give him a demoralizing speech to send him into afterlife in complete despair, but instead of listening, Bob launches a surprise attack at full power and takes down the villain for good. Then he accepts his death in peace and leaves with a smile.
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