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Secretly Dying: Difference between revisions
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A character knows [[Your Days Are Numbered|His Days Are Numbered]] and tries to keep it under wraps. If he's diagnosed with [[The Virus]] or an [[Incurable Cough of Death]], [[Herr Doktor]] may be begged or ordered to keep silent about it. If he's harboring a [[Secret Stab Wound]], he may wear extra shirts and haphazard bandages to avoid a [[Mortal Wound Reveal]]. This may invoke [[Fridge Logic]] of the [[Stupid Sacrifice]] variety if medical treatment could have prolonged the victim's life.
Why? Perhaps he [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!|doesn't want his friends treating him with kid gloves]] or passing the [[Despair Event Horizon]], or he wants to spend his last days seeing his sweetheart [[When She Smiles|smiling]] rather than grief-stricken. Alternately, he might want to keep his enemies from getting a morale boost out of it, especially if he's engaged in a [[Thanatos Gambit]]. It can also be a selfish act if his condition represents a danger to others, such as with [[The Plague]] or a [[Zombie Infectee]].
Very much [[Truth in Television]], some people prefer normality if they're dying. Also, many terminal diseases such as cancer and AIDS used to have (and in some cases still have) huge stigmas attached to them. Political figures often need to do this, otherwise [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]].
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'''This is a [[Death Trope]], and usually a MAJOR [[Plot Twist]]. The examples section is a minefield of unmarked spoilers.'''
{{examples
== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* Roy Fokker's death in ''[[Macross]]''. After coming back from a mission where his fighter got shot up, he spends a quiet night at his girlfriend's place strumming his guitar... then keels over, revealing bloody wounds in his back. Possibly a [[Stupid Sacrifice]] since the injuries weren't severe enough to debilitate him -- he might have lived if he'd gotten immediate treatment.
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* In ''[[In Famous (Video Game)|inFamous 2]]'', Zeke catches [[The Virus]] and hides it from Cole until Cole's powers allow him to plainly see it.
* Shinjiro Aragaki in ''[[Persona 3]]'' is slowly killing himself with power-inhibiting drugs. He refrains from mentioning his poor health to anyone, mostly because he's expecting one of two ''other'' things to kill him before the side effects of the drugs manage to do it, and because he thinks he deserves it. Even when it comes out that he was taking the suppressants, he waves off any concerns about the side effects, and only comes close to hinting how little time he has to the female protagonist in the last few stages of his Social Link.
** Also the Protagonist themselves go through this in [[Multiple Endings|the good ending]]. After perfoming a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], s/he is just living to meet up with everyone on graduation day, like they promised. However, everyone in SEES has [[Victory
* Hanbe from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' hides his [[Incurable Cough of Death|tuberculosis]] from Hideyoshi and Mitsunari, who know he's ill, just not that it's terminal. If they were aware they'd probably either lose hope and abandon the conquest of Japan, or force him to stop being [[The Strategist]].
* Comes completely unexpected in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' with Naomi Hunter, who reveals it just after she disabled the implants that extended her life for the last couple of years, and dies within the next few minutes, having completed the last thing she needed to do.
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[[Category:Plot Twist]]
[[Category:Secretly Dying]]
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