Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,600
edits
Ill Girl: Difference between revisions
standardized section headers, markup, copyedits
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (standardized section headers, markup, copyedits) |
|||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:kari sick 3372.jpg|link=Digimon Adventure|
{{quote|''"The first [witch], by name Asha, was sick of a malady no Healer could cure. She hoped that the Fountain would banish her symptoms and grant her a long and happy life."''
|''[[The Tales of Beedle the Bard]]''}}
The ill girl is almost inevitably a [[The Woobie|sympathetically cute girl]].<ref>though lately, more and more handsome males are taking up the role</ref> The disease can be anything from anemia to organ failure. Smart writers avoid such specifics, making it a [[Soap Opera Disease]]. It will never disfigure or impair her cuteness, [[Healthcare Motivation|but usually prompts an older brother or sister figure into shady business to help pay the medical bills]]. Or prompts them to rush into some dangerous/brave deed while she cheers them on.
Line 15 ⟶ 16:
{{examples}}
== Female Examples ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Hikari (Kari) Yagami (pictured above) in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', younger sister of Taichi (Tai), who gets the [[Incurable Cough of Death]] during one episode. Through a flashback in the anime, she is shown to have gotten pneumonia, but as she ages her illness mysteriously vanishes.
** Actually, it's stated that {{spoiler|Hikari had ''not'' properly healed from a huge cold that left her bedridden and unable to join the kids who'd become the Digidestined in their fateful school trip. Said cold came back with a vengeance when they were in the Digital World, causing Hikari to fall down with a fever that was just as bad as back home -- only that in this particular [[Sick Episode]], they had no ways to properly treat her, and for worse Metal Seadramon was following them. It triggered Taichi's bad memories of the incident in which, years ago, he accidentally caused Hikari to almost die of pneumonia.}}
Line 123 ⟶ 124:
* Kiku from ''Idaten Jump'', also {{spoiler|[[Ninja|Kouhei]]'s little sister}} and the local [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]. {{spoiler|Her illness turns out to be a consequence of the disbalance between the X Zone and Earth, and once it's fixed she starts to get better.}}
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* {{spoiler|Cheryl Blossom}} in [[Archie Comics]], [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/06/archie-cheryl-blossom-breast-cancer/#ixzz1oMquJ4CK according to recent issues.]{{when}} {{spoiler|She has cancer.}}
=== [[Film]] ===▼
▲=== Film ===
* ''[[Repo! The Genetic Opera]]'' has two of these as various points - Marni, who died before the film started, and her daughter Shilo, who inherited the disease. {{spoiler|Until it turns out that she's not really ill--her father was poisoning her so she would have to stay with him.}}
* ''[[The Hand That Rocks the Cradle]]'': Claire (Annabella Sciorra) is an adult Ill Girl who suffers of chronic asthma. {{spoiler|And Payton (Rebecca De Monray), the [[Cute and Psycho]] [[Villain Protagonist]], uses said illness to her advantage... among ''other'' things. She still loses in the end.}}
Line 143:
* The Doctor's wife in ''[[The Fountain]]'' from 2006.
* Kate from ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]''.
* Bastian's mother is shown to be this in a flashback in ''[[The Neverending Story (film)|The Neverending Story
* Maggie Murdock's role as this is most of the entire plot of ''[[Love and Other Drugs]]''.
=== [[Literature]] ===▼
▲=== Literature ===
* Liza, Madame Khokhlakov's daughter, in ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]''.
* Fantine in Victor Hugo's ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]''. She subverts a few characteristics of this trope, popular in that era and genre, because her illness is named, her wizened, aged appearance is described in detail, and when she dies, she does not die from the disease itself. On the other hand, she manages to soliloquize paragraphs on what she's going to do when she gets better (despite the fact that the narration says she coughs near-constantly) and win the heart of all around her. Either way, it's [[Older Than Radio]].
Line 165 ⟶ 164:
** Jane Fairfax, in ''[[Emma]]'', crosses this with [[Incurable Cough of Death]]. [[Word of God]] states that {{spoiler|she died of tuberculosis a few years after the end of the book}}.
* Queen Ehlana, in the ''[[Elenium]]'' trilogy by [[David Eddings]], is a variation on the trope. Under normal circumstances, she's perfectly healthy and energetic, but as it gets explained to her personal champion, she's been getting progressively more sick since her coronation, and her sickness isn't something that anyone's ever seen—her symptoms contradict each other. They eventually work out that she's been poisoned, and the poison she was given has no known cure. {{spoiler|Except one.}}
* Mercy from ''[[The Witch of Blackbird Pond]]'' has a lame leg and poor health as a result of a fever she caught as a very small child.
*
* Diggory's mother Mabel Ketterley-Kirke in [[Narnia|The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew]]. In fact, she and Diggory live with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Lettie because they're taking care of her while Mr. Kirke has to work in India. {{spoiler|With a little help of Aslan and a magical apple he gives to Diggory at the end of his and Polly's adventures, Mabel ultimately gets better.}}
* The aforementioned Kate in ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]'', with leukaemia. Arguably, ''My Sister's Keeper'' is a deconstruction of this type of story, showing how Kate's mother's efforts to save her daughter take a considerable toll on the whole family.
Line 179 ⟶ 178:
* Sister Edith from Selma Lagerlof's "Thy soul shall bear witness!", a Salvation Army membress who caught an [[Incurable Cough of Death]] while at work and has a single wish to be fulfilled: to speak with a man named David Holm, whom she has tried to redeem. {{spoiler|Little does she know that David has died and his soul has forcibly made into the rider of the Death Cart, so he can see how he has ruined other people's lives. As such, David is the one who fetches Edith's soul -- thus ''sorta'' fulfilling her wish.}}
* In [[Gene Stratton Porter]]'s ''Michael O'Halloran'', Peaches, the crippled girl.
* ''[[The Fault in Our Stars]]'' is practically centered arond this trope. Hazel is a prime example, although her disease is clearly known from the [[First Episode Spoiler|opening chapter.]]
=== [[Live-Action TV ]]===▼
* The episode "Awakened" of ''[[Charmed]]'' revolves around Prue and Phoebe discovering that Piper is terminally ill with the disease Oroya Fever. While real life symptoms of Oroya Fever include being covered in warts and rashes, Piper only experiences coughing, exhaustion, and fainting, all done adorably. {{spoiler|Of course, being the main character, Piper survives, but not until after the crying and good-byes.}}▼
▲=== Live-Action TV ===
* The titular Esmeralda of phenomenally popular telenovela ''[[wikipedia:Esmeralda (telenovela)|Esmeralda]]''
▲* The episode Awakened of ''[[Charmed]]'' revolves around Prue and Phoebe discovering that Piper is terminally ill with the disease Oroya Fever. While real life symptoms of Oroya Fever include being covered in warts and rashes, Piper only experiences coughing, exhaustion, and fainting, all done adorably. {{spoiler|Of course, being the main character, Piper survives, but not until after the crying and good-byes.}}
▲* The titular Esmeralda of phenomenally popular telenovela [[wikipedia:Esmeralda (telenovela)|Esmeralda]] is born blind. This is later revealed to be due to congenital cataracts and she successfully regains her sight after an operation. It is interesting to note how her personality switches from [[The Ingenue|sweet and gentle]] while blind to [[Broken Bird|tough, stubborn and unforgiving]] almost overnight.
** The female lead from Chilean telenovela ''Corazon de Maria'' is an [[Ojou|upper class]] Ill Girl with a severe [[Heart Trauma]]. She gets a heart transplant coming from a middle-to-low class bride killed in a tragic car accident ''right after her wedding''. The drama starts when she starts searching for the donor Maria's family, and then she meets and falls for her handsome and hard-working husband Miguel...
** Alicia, a cute young girl in a wheelchair from [[Maria La Del Barrio]]. The scene where the [[Big Bad]] Soraya threatens her while screaming "MADITA LISIADA!" ("Goddamned crippled bitch!") is so [[Narm|ridiculous and overacted]] that it has reached [[Memetic Mutation]] levels.
Line 198 ⟶ 196:
* Scully takes on this role for a season in ''[[The X-Files]]'' after it is revealed that {{spoiler|the tests preformed on her during her abduction have left her with (probably terminal) cancer.}} In accordance with the conventions of the trope, her appearance is relatively unaffected by the illness, and the only visible symptom is a {{spoiler|''[[Deadly Nosebleed]]''.}}
=== [[Music]] ===▼
▲=== Music ===
* The song "Love You to Death" by [[Kamelot]] is about one of these.
* Kamei Eri had decided to quit [[Hello! Project|Morning Musume]] due to a long term illness, though it's not a life threatening condition.
=== Theater ===▼
* Mimi in just about every version of ''[[La Boheme|La Bohème]]'' And, yes, despite dying of consumption she's still "beautiful as the dawn" on death's door.
* Fosca from the [[Stephen Sondheim]] musical ''Passion'' suffers from a [[Soap Opera Disease|conveniently vague illness]] that waxes and wanes according to her mood, but does nothing to make her more attractive; in a notable subversion of the "consumptive heroine" version of the trope, she's ugly, demanding, self-pitying, and doesn't inspire protectiveness in those around her so much as exasperation and mild disgust.
* The illness of Eva Peron (see Real Life below) is glamorized in the musical ''[[Evita]]''. She's made to look beautiful and fragile. Photos of the real Eva Peron from this period show that her beauty was quickly fading. RL death is seldom pretty.
* The point of ''Radium Girls'', especially Grace and Kathryn who appear throughout the play. The worst part is that it's based on a true story (see Real Life).
* ''[[Little Shop of Horrors
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Castille from ''[[Phantom Brave]]''
* Muse from ''[[Romancing SaGa 3]]''. Surprisingly enough, she is one of the better characters to recruit after {{spoiler|she is cured of her sickness}}.
Line 232 ⟶ 227:
** Actually, he cured her alright. At the cost of her life energy. In short, she got better, but her life was cut in half ''at least''.
* Fana from ''[[Avalon Code]]''. Interesting in that you can actually heal her by removing the illness code attached to her, but this requires a series of related plot events, as you can't just pluck out the code and slap it on something else (codes with this property are marked with spiked borders).
* Ameena from ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'', who's also an Expy of [[Final Fantasy VII|another flower-selling girl]]. It ends [[Diabolus Ex Machina|even worse than this implies]].
* In the ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' series, there's [[Meganekko|Mio]] [[Hot Librarian|Kisaragi]] of Tokimemo 1, who suffers from anemia and thus and can't handle violent physical activities and emotions, and Hotaru Izumi of Tokimemo 3, who had to stay for a long time at the hospital, and still suffers from some aftereffects, due to a car accident a few years prior the game's proper, which also {{spoiler|[[The Mourning After|cost the life of her dear boyfriend]]}}.
* In ''[[Mitsumete Knight]]'', the [[Spiritual Successor]] of ''Tokimeki Memorial'', the resident Ill Girl is [[Meganekko|Sarah]] [[Hot for Student|Pixis]] ; she suffers from a heart disease that prevents her to go outside, and the Asian (the player avatar) gets to meet her as his private teacher. Other Ill Girls are [[The Woobie|Sophia's]] [[The Unfavourite|estranged mother]] and little brother, Dolphan's Queen, as well as {{spoiler|[[Hospital Hottie|Teddie Adelaide]], Sarah's nurse and friend, who suffers from the same heart disease as her and thus why the two are close}}.
Line 238 ⟶ 233:
* Patchouli Knowledge from ''[[Touhou]]'' is really sick. She suffers from asthma, anemia, and Vitamin A deficiency because of her refusal to leave the library she lives in for ''centuries''.<ref>and also because of all the poisonous chemicals that she uses for her magic</ref> This is used to justify her occasionally-differing power level; when she's an Extra Boss in one game, she explains beforehand that her asthma has cleared up.
* In the JRPG [[Lost Odyssey]] the player can acquire an ingame codex entry of the maincharacters past experiences. One in particular centers around an Ill Girl whom liked to hear his stories of far off places when ever he stopped by. The codex ends with the last encounter with this Ill Girl has her comatosed and on the brink of dying when he arrives to tell her one last final story.
* Occurs a couple of times in the ''[[Growlanser]]'' series:
** ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' includes Charlone's younger brother in this role.
** ''Growlanser 3'' has this as part of {{spoiler|[[The Dragon]]'s motivation to side with the [[Big Bad]]}}.
* ''[[Professor Layton and the Last Specter]]'' has {{spoiler|Arianna; she is cured a year after the events of the story.}}▼
▲* [[Professor Layton and the Last Specter]] has {{spoiler|Arianna; she is cured a year after the events of the story.}}
▲=== [[Visual Novels]] ===
* Miku in ''[[A Profile]]'' as a result of a slightly botched liver transplant.
* Toko in ''[[Kara no Shoujo]]'' is anemic and spends a lot of time sleeping. She also requires some special medicine. All in all, though, it's not too bad {{spoiler|until Mizuhara thinks it's some sort of drug, steals it and Toko ends up getting hit by a truck when she passes out.}}
Line 264 ⟶ 255:
* Played with in [[Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.]]: Chihiro Shindou doesn't spend almost any time bedridden or hospitalized, but she still suffers the serious consequences of having been hit by a car three years prior to the story ( {{spoiler|the loss of an eye that she covers with a white eyepatch, and retrograde amnesia that takes effect every 13 hours}}), so she requires to be taken care of.
** In short: Chihiro is an Ill Girl turning into a [[Bandage Babe]] when she got better.
* ''[[Da Capo II]]'':
** There is a double example in one route: {{spoiler|Anzu. Said girl was the first to fall ill, then comes the protagonist boy's turn. They both spoon spoonfeed soup to each other when the other one lies sick in bed.}}
** In another route, there is [[Genki Girl|Yuzu]].
* ''[[Canvas 2]]'' gives the role to Tomoko{{spoiler|, but she stopped being one by the end of her route}}.
* ''[[eden*:
=== [[Web Comics]] ===▼
▲=== Web Comics ===
* Larisa from ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'' is, as a diabetic, on insulin, [http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2010/01/04/0126-secrets/ among other things]. "Cute" is not the right word to describe the [[Chaotic Neutral|chaotic]] [[pyromaniac]] [[Fille Fatale]] that is Larisa, though.
* Miho from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' is possibly {{spoiler|the in-universe [[Trope Maker]]}}.
Line 277 ⟶ 267:
* Mecha Maid in ''[[Spinnerette]]''.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===▼
▲=== Western Animation ===
* Parodied in the ''[[Animaniacs]]'' movie, where a sickly Dot needs money for an operation. At the end of the movie, it turns out that all the operation was was receiving a beauty mark to make her even cuter.
* Subverted on ''[[The Batman]]''. A scientist working for Wayne Industries claims to be studying bats so he can cure his niece's deafness. Bruce Wayne goes to see the girl and give her a hearing aid... and she turns out not to be deaf. The scientist was actually studying bats because he was obsessed with Batman, and he eventually managed to turn himself into "Manbat".
** This is the reason why Victor Fries, better known as Mr. Freeze, constantly has to commit crimes in most of his appearances in ''[[Batman: The
* Played straight in ''[[Jem and The Holograms]]'': In the three-part "Starbright" storyline, the Holograms keep on going with a movie shoot the Misfits have bought themselves into because they need money for an operation to save Starlight Girl Ba Nee's sight. Ultimately the production splits into rival films, and when the Holograms' is a hit, the money is raised and Ba Nee is saved.
* In the [[Christmas Special]] ''[[Santa Claus is Comin' to Town]]'', Kris Kringle gets the bright idea to enter locked houses through their chimneys largely because he has to deliver a toy Noah's Ark to "Susan, a tiny little girl who was very very sick."
* Janice, the main character of the ''[[Peanuts]]'' special ''Why, Charlie Brown, Why?'' She's a friend of Linus's who is diagnosed with leukemia.
** And also Lila, Snoopy's previous owner in
* Michelle from ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]'' becomes comatose after inhaling toxic fumes from a gas leak, and her friends have to search the wilderness to [[Find the Cure]].
* Pamela (aka Poison Ivy) in ''[[DC Super Hero Girls]]'' looks gaunt and sickly in her civilian identity, likely a result of her unbalanced and unhealthy diet which eschews fruits and vegetables of any kind. She looks far better as Poison Ivy, suggesting the change of identities is far more than a costume-switch.
Line 291 ⟶ 280:
=== Multimedia ===
* Maria Robotnik, in various ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' continuities. [[Dead Little Sister|Motivator of Shadow's actions after her death]].
=== [[Real Life]] ===
Line 319 ⟶ 307:
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' script writer Chiaki Morosawa, who has been afflicted with an unspecified cancer by several years.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXURnZ92cGM&feature=grec_index Esther Earl], an influential and inspiring Nerdfighter was one of these. She suffered from cancer for four years and died earlier this year (2010) at age 16. As you can see from her videos, she was as sweet and hopeful a person as any fictional example.
* [[wikipedia:Kazuya Minekura|Kazuya Minekura]], the author of ''[[Saiyuki]]''. First she had an undiclosed illness that made her have to go through an hysterectomy, and later had a tumor removed from her jaw.
* Sadako Sasaki was two years old when an atom bomb was dropped one mile from her home in Hiroshima. Her story was memorialized in the book ''Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes'', which was inspired by the belief that if a person managed to fold a thousand paper cranes, they would be granted a wish from the gods. She died at the age of 12.
== Male Examples ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Captain Jushiro Ukitake from ''[[Bleach]]'' may fit this trope. He's been suffering from tuberculosis all his life, which makes him spew blood if he exerts himself too much, turned his hair white, and causes him to spend most of his time in bed. (Although since he's over two thousand years old, it's obvious he isn't dying from it... Unless he's dying ''very, very slowly'').
* Oddly enough, Mai Tokiha's brother Takumi from ''[[My-HiME]]'' and ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' manages to fit this trope while also being a domestic type (at least in the former show), and is inordinately fond of his older sibling.
Line 377 ⟶ 364:
* A few characters in [[Another]] have this.Our protagonist,Kouichi Sakakibara has pneumothorax(collapsed lung),{{spoiler|and it makes him hospitalized for almost a month at the start of the story,making him misses his first day at [[New Transfer Student|his new school]] }},Ikuo Takabayashi has heart condition,{{spoiler|[[Killed Off for Real|and it takes away his life]]}},and Daisuke Wakui is asthmatic.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': Abraham Kieros was a Vietnam War veteran who ended up horribly crippled and pretty much abandoned in an hospital. Then, he takes a [[Deal with the Devil]] from Apocalypse and becomes his follower, [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|War I]]. {{spoiler|After the group is disbanded, Kieros is again paralyzed, but recently he has been healed by his ex-fellow Horseman Archangel.}}
* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6245901/1/Three_Years_At_Sea Three Years At Sea
▲=== Fan Fiction ===
▲* In the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6245901/1/Three_Years_At_Sea Three Years At Sea,]'' Zuko was "sickly" for most of his childhood, making him appear even weaker in comparison to Azula in his father's eyes.
* Lance Wabisuke-Hamilton from ''[[One Piece: Parallel Works]]'' has a mysterious illness that causes him to fall asleep at random times and makes him physically weak. However, [[Word of God]] states that Lance's condition is not life-threatning.
* Chopin in ''[[Impromptu]]'', although during the period in which the movie's set he's only a bit delicate, not dying.
* [[Tombstone|Doc Holliday]] and his friends were aware of his terminal condition (and the audience was reminded with his [[Incurable Cough of Death]],) but it was less often cause for depression than morbid jokes and [[badass]]ery. He also doubles as a [[Real Life]] example.
* In ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men Origins: Wolverine]]'', [[Wolverine|the titular character]], for the first two minutes of the movie until his mutation manifests.
=== [[Literature]] ===▼
▲=== Literature ===
* Holden Caulfield from ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', who actually has tuberculosis.
* Smike in Charles Dickens' ''[[
* Hello? [[A Christmas Carol|Tiny Tim]], anyone?
* While Robert Arryn of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is indeed ill, he subverts what you'd expect from the usual [[Ill Boy]] [[Kids Are Cruel|quite]] [[Spoiled Brat|completely.]]. Blame it on [[My Beloved Smother|his terribly overprotective mom]], huh.
Line 405 ⟶ 389:
* Selma Lagerlof's "Thy soul shall bear witness!" has, aside of Ill Girl Edith, {{spoiler|the main character David Holm, who has tuberculosis. (In fact, he's to blame for Edith being an Ill Girl). He dies of his [[Incurable Cough of Death]] and then his soul is forcibly bound to the Death Cart as [[Break the Haughty|punishment for being a total asshole bordering in]] [[Complete Monster]]. In the end, however, he's [[Back from the Dead]], stops his [[Broken Bird]] wife [[Kill the Cutie|from killing herself]] [[Offing the Offspring|and their kids]] and [[Character Development|becomes a much kinder and humbler person]].}}
** Also {{spoiler|David's younger brother Bernard, who also led an astray life and is dying of tuberculosis in prison, lamenting how he couldn't fulfill a promise that he made to a child. David, as the Death Cart Rider, promises to fill that vow and helps Bernard to die in peace.}}
* ''[[The Fault in Our Stars]]'': Arguably Isaac. {{spoiler|also, Gus, when his cancer returns. Also doubles as a massive [[Tear Jerker]].}}
=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===▼
▲=== Live-Action TV ===
* Ayase/[[Time Blue]] from ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'' suffered from the incurable Osiris Syndrome throughout the entire series. {{spoiler|However, after time has been altered near the finale, a cure for his disease is found.}}
* Jayne Cobb from ''[[Firefly]]'' faithfully sends money home to treat his ill brother Mattie's damp lung disease.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' has a female character whose younger brother is an ill boy. And yes, there is a mysterious "operation" that can cure him, and this provides that character's main motivation. In a slight variation on the usual plot, the character's family is very wealthy and can easily afford the operation, but the Ill Boy is afraid to go through with it because it is reputed to be extremely painful. (Maybe the [[Magitek]] of the setting doesn't include anesthetic?)
* Despite being a genius-level [[Badass Bookworm|dark magic user]], Prince Lyon of Grado from ''[[Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones]]'' has a very weak health that causes him to think he's inferior compared to his best friends, Ephraim and Eirika, and his stern but gentle father Emperor Vigarde. And then [[It Got Worse]] for him.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|FireEmblem: Path of Radiance]]'', local [[White Magician Girl|White Magician Guy]] Rhys appears to constantly suffer from one illness or another, with several characters inquiring about his health.
* In [[Fire Emblem Elibe|FireEmblem Sword of Seals]], the [[Spoony Bard]] Elphin {{spoiler|aka Prince Mildain}} has a really bad eyesight. {{spoiler|He once was poisoned to almost death, with said partial blindness as the only still remaining after-effect.}}
* Earlier than all of them, {{spoiler|Prince Yurius of Velthomer/Grandbell}} from ''[[Fire Emblem Jugdral|
* In ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 3'', a kid named Mamoru has an illness with a vague acronym (HBD) that essentially boils down to a heart defect. Lan helps the kid out and even convinces him to go through another operation that is supposed to cure it {{spoiler|because it just happens to be the disease that killed Lan's twin brother Hub, whose mind was digitized and placed inside Megaman.EXE}}. Of course, the hospital just has to be attacked on the day of the operation, and it's up to Lan to save everybody, including the kid.
* Ion from ''Tales of the Abyss'' is known to have a weak constitution, and upon using a Daathic fonic arte, becomes weak to the point of collapsing. {{spoiler|This is actually because the Ion seen in the game is a replica of the original Ion, who died a few years prior. Doing things such as using fonic artes or reading the Score cause Replica Ion's body to degenerate.}}
Line 428 ⟶ 411:
* Shiki Tohno from ''[[Tsukihime]]'' fits into the role in two different respects. The accident that didn't quite kill him still left him with poor health and occasionally life-threatening anemic attacks. On a more subtle but drastic level, his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception growing constantly stronger means {{spoiler|his lifespan is cut extremely short, and he's likely to die before long when his brain overloads.}}
* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|Hanbe Takenaka]] from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' is a villanous version of this, as he spends most of his time proving just how [[Eviler Than Thou|evil he is]] through sheer [[Magnificent Bastard|manipulation]] and [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]] despite his [[Incurable Cough of Death|tuberculosis]].
* Akinari Kamiki, the Sun Arcana from ''[[Persona 3]]'', whose days have been numbered ever since he was born. Developing his S-Lin is about having him learn to enjoy his last days of life. {{spoiler|He will die before the game is over, leaving the children's book he wrote with the MC's help and encouragemente as a [[Tragic Keepsake]], and if his link is maxed his soul will cheer on you before you take on Nyx.}}
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Parodied in ''[[Ansem Retort]]'', where Axel and Zexion deliberately infect Riku with AIDS to make him the poster child for their charity AIDS Aid.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===▼
▲=== Western Animation ===
* The plot of ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'' revolves around Ms. Brisby trying to take care of her son Timmy, who has pneumonia.
* Played with often in ''[[South Park]]'' with Kyle. In the
** Strangely enough, usually averted with Kenny as he almost always died as a result of violent mishaps. The only times he succumbs to a disease when they nearly killed him off for real and an STD he picks up from the elementary school slut.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
Line 466 ⟶ 446:
* [[Noah Antwiler]] is currently this - in one of his video blogs from November 2010, he revealed that the reason his schedule has been slipping, and the reason why he looked so unapproachable during his E3 trip, was because he has a heart condition that was making him severely ill.
** And now his depression has his sleep cycle out of whack among other side effects. [[The Woobie|The guy needs a hug]].
== Mixed Examples ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* In ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'', the holy beasts named ''kirin'' choose [[Fisher King|each of the rulers]] for the realms. If said king or queen doesn't do well and the land suffers, they get struck with a fatal illness named ''shitsudou'', manifesting itself via [[Facial Markings]] and physical weakness that quickly kills them. Only the full redemption (which has never happened) or the [[Redemption Equals Death]] ( {{spoiler|Joukaku of Kei and Shishou of Sai}}) of the sovereign can save them from death. Kirins of ''both'' genders (Hourin, Kourin and Sairin are females; Keiki is male) have gotten it due to their masters's mistakes or madnesses: {{spoiler|Sairin and Keiki}} get better, {{spoiler|Hourin and Kourin}} do not.
=== [[Video Games]] ===▼
▲=== Video Games ===
* The quarians from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' are an entire ''species'' of Ill People. Since their forced exile from their homeworld 300 years before the events of the games, quarian immune systems (which were already weaker than those other species) have deteriorated to the point that all quarians must wear [[Latex Space Suit|environmental suits]] at all times just so they don't die. ''Every'' quarian Shepard meets in the games—from [[Wrench Wench]] party member Tali'Zorah to [[Badass]] marine Kal'Reegar to the valley girl complaining about her boyfriend on Illium—is one suit breach away from potentially deadly sickness. That said, they don't appreciate the stereotype:
{{quote|"I'm not gonna die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That's just insulting!”}}
* The main characters of ''[[Narcissu]]'' are a terminally ill boy and girl. The prequel adds two more ill girls to the cast, one of them an [[Littlest Cancer Patient|eight-year-old orphan.]] And the third game... let's just say the whole series pretty much revolves around this trope.
=== [[Web Original]] ===▼
* ''[[Ilivais X
▲=== Web Original ===
▲* [[Ilivais X|Iriana Estchell]] fits the typical characteristics, but she's not EXACTLY sick. However, she only has a handful of non-artificial organs and is very limited in the physical activities she's capable of doing, and will definitely go into a coma after five minutes outside. Why? Because she was made for the sole purpose of being the titular mech's pilot, without the intent of ever leaving it. Her body IS capable of regeneration mostly as a side-effect of her internal recycling so as to not require nutrients, but her source of energy is the mech. Without her battery, she's essentially immortal inside her Ilivais, but if she stays out too long, she'll eventually die.
{{reflist}}
| |||