History Main / SecretStabWound

A subtrope ClothingConcealedInjury, which is when clothing has to be used to hide the wounds.

A supertrope to ClothingConcealedInjury, which is when clothing has to be used to hide the wounds.

A subtrope of the GameBreakingInjury and/or BulletHolesAndRevelations. Also a subtrope to ClothingConcealedInjury if clothing has to be used to hide the wounds. When a character hides that they've received a GBI, and in some cases may be SecretlyDying. The key is that it's not necessarily revealed by a fight scene and that they hide it from their friends as well -- differentiating it from MortalWoundReveal. Often accompanied by the injured party stating that "it was nothing", "I'm fine", or after the seriousness is discovered, "ICanStillFight".

OnlyAFleshWound if the character survives, and the TruthInTelevision aversion of the InstantDeathBullet when the injury is fatal. In the appropriate setting, this may lead to the sufferer becoming a ZombieInfectee. If the injury is discovered posthumously, it can fall into TimeDelayedDeath. If someone is particularly good at hiding the wound, their friends might not notice until they collapse, or maybe [[DistractedFromDeath not even until after that]].

A subtrope of the GameBreakingInjury and/or BulletHolesAndRevelations. When a character hides that they've received a GBI, and in some cases may be SecretlyDying. The key is that it's not necessarily revealed by a fight scene and that they hide it from their friends as well -- differentiating it from MortalWoundReveal. Often accompanied by the injured party stating that "it was nothing", "I'm fine", or after the seriousness is discovered, "ICanStillFight".

* ''Theatre/{{Cyrano de Bergerac}}'' is an older example of this. When Cyrano is dying of a head wound, he keeps it from Roxane until while telling her about court gossip, until he comments that "Cyrano de Bergerac was foully murdered".

** [[spoiler:Greil]] in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem 9]]'' (''Path of Radiance''). Unique in that it was self-inflicted.

* In chapter 49 of ''{{Webcomic/Drowtales}}'', Vala'drielle [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=11075 is revealed]] to have suffered what's implied to be several stab wounds during the MassHypnosis event of the previous chapter, when everyone around her began trying to kill her. Already feeling weak and realizing the popular opinion has turned against her, she decides to AbdicateTheThrone to its intended successor.

A subtrope of the GameBreakingInjury and/or BulletHolesAndRevelations. When a character hides that they've received a GBI, and in some cases may be SecretlyDying. The key is that it's not necessarily revealed by a fight scene, and that they hide it from their friends as well -- differentiating it from MortalWoundReveal. Often accompanied by the injured party stating that "it was nothing", "I'm fine", or after the seriousness is discovered, "ICanStillFight".

* Tsume in ''Anime/WolfsRain'', probably. It's possible he just didn't realize he was ''that'' badly hurt until the adrenalin wore off, since he seemed rather surprised to see a pool of his own blood. In any case, [[spoiler:he doesn't get better.]]

* Ban in ''Manga/GetBackers'' did a sort of DivingSave (without the diving) for Ginji who was about to be stabbed by Akabane's Sword. Afterwards, he lead Ginji to believe that it was an illusion caused by his MagicalEye. He didn't reveal it till later.

* In ''{{Anime/Robotech}}''[=/=]''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', Roy goes on a date with Claudia after coming back from a battle and collapses from the internal injuries he had sustained. [[spoiler: He apparently knew he was wounded and refused medical treatment, perhaps because he suspected the doctors couldn't save him, and wanted to see Claudia one last time before he passed away.]]

* Date Masamune in the ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' anime gets shot, but doesn't reveal the injury until miles from the battlefield where he'd been riding his horse unconscious for quite a way. Leads to a ShirtlessScene and two ICanStillFight moments. A glorious injury all around.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. Hilshire gets shot in the gut during an assassination he carried out himself instead of leaving it to his cyborg. Triela notices something's wrong on his return to the hotel room, and is so upset (she's conditioned to protect him at the cost of her own life) that she runs out on Hilshire despite his efforts to play down the injury.

* Shaun's mum in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' hides the fact that she's been mortally bitten by a zombie and will shortly become one, so that Shaun wouldn't worry.

* Andre the thug hid the fact that his wife was zombie bitten in ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004''.

* In the final scene of ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'', Kee sees blood on the bottom of the boat and assumes it's her own (she'd given birth a short time earlier), but Theo assures her he'd been shot minutes ago and just paid it no mind in the heat of the situation. [[spoiler:Theo survives long enough to help Key escape, before succumbing to his wound.]]

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. After Frodo is pinned against a wall in Moria by an orc chieftain's spear, he says he can walk (and does so). After the Fellowship escapes, Frodo feels more pain with every step and is gasping for breath but doesn't tell anyone. Eventually Legolas notices them falling behind the others and Aragorn treats Frodo's injury. (Frodo was wearing a mail-shirt, so the injury was a horrible blow with bruising and the rings driven into the flesh, but all in all not as bad as could have been.)

* Kirk did this after being stabbed in the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode ''Journey To Babel'', so that Spock would acquiesce to giving blood to his ailing father, but Kirk had to stick it out for the climactic battle anyway.

** [[spoiler:Greil]] in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem 9]]'' (''Path of Radiance''). Unique in that it was self inflicted.

* Admiral Yi Sun-Shin died this way, suffering a mortal injury due a chance shot during the Battle of Noryang. Witnessed only by three people, his final orders were to press the attack home and to hide his death from the crew and fleet, to avoid ruining morale at a critical moment. His final victory was thus won posthumously.

** The 3rd Armored Division in WWII's European theater had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Armored_Division_%28United_States%29#Combat_Statistics 16,122 casualties]] out of a 16,000 strong division. Division Commander Major General Maurice Rose was killed in action, one of 11 KIA US Generals in the war. There's a fantastic book called [[http://www.amazon.com/Death-Traps-Survival-American-Division/dp/0891418148/ref=pd_cp_b_1 Death Traps: Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II]] written by a mechanic. He excoriates the M4 Sherman as a piece of crap both offensively and defensively. His story about hosing out the prior, deceased crew before manning the patched-up machine with a new tank crew certainly lends weight to his claim.

* In Creator/JamesSwallow's ''[[Literature/BloodAngels Black Tide]]'', when [[spoiler:Vetch]] [[TakingABullet takes a bullet]] for Rafen, Rafen [[MoreHeroThanThou calls him a fool]], and he chides him as disrespectful and reveals that the wound he took in the fight before that one had been poisoned.

* FireEmblem has a couple of these in more recent installments:

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': In "Retribution", Archie Kennedy tries to hide from Horatio that he was shot in the fight aboard the ''Renown'' with their Spanish prisoners. When Horatio notices his blood, he insists that it's just a scratch. He doesn't do a very good job of it, though, since Horatio rips his uniform coat open which leads to a very sad MortalWoundReveal moment. [[spoiler: It was a fatal injury, leading Archie to [[HeroicSacrifice take sole blame]] for the mutiny to save Horatio's life and career.]]

* Another OlderThanPrint example: in the [[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Icelandic Saga]] Vatnsdæla Saga, the kindly old man Ingimund is mortally stabbed by the villain Hrolleif, but rides home and hides the wound until his sons find him dead in his blood-soaked bed the following morning.

* ''LordOfTheRings''. After Frodo is pinned against a wall in Moria by an orc chieftain's spear, he says he can walk (and does so). After the Fellowship escapes, Frodo feels more pain with every step and is gasping for breath but doesn't tell anyone. Eventually Legolas notices them falling behind the others and Aragorn treats Frodo's injury. (Frodo was wearing a mail-shirt, so the injury was a horrible blow with bruising and the rings driven into the flesh, but all in all not as bad as could have been.)
* One section in a ForgottenRealms book describes a dwarven legend who got his belly cut open in a battle, but quickly tucked his innards into his shirt to prevent any of his men from noticing, and continued fighting.

* Ban in GetBackers did a sort of DivingSave (without the diving) for Ginji who was about to be stabbed by Akabane's Sword. Afterwards, he lead Ginji to believe that it was an illusion caused by his MagicalEye. He didn't reveal it till later.

* [[{{Film/Gladiator}} Maximus]] being stabbed by Commodus could also fall into this, but it was already mentioned in GameBreakingInjury.

* A rare self-inflicted example forms the climax of [[spoiler: ''Film/BlackSwan'']].

* In ''{{Anime/Robotech}}''[=/=]''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', Roy goes on a date with Claudia after coming back from a battle and collapses from the internal injuries he had sustained. [[spoiler: He apparently knew he was wounded and refused medical treatment, perhaps because [[GenreSavvy he suspected]] the doctors couldn't save him, and wanted to see Claudia one last time before he passed away.]]

* In Baz Luhrmann's ''WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'', Mercutio plays off his mortal stab wound as not being that serious.

* In ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'', Roy goes on a date with Claudia after coming back from a battle and collapses from the internal injuries he had sustained. [[spoiler: He apparently knew he was wounded and refused medical treatment, perhaps because [[GenreSavvy he suspected]] the doctors couldn't save him, and wanted to see Claudia one last time before he passed away.]]

* Tsume in ''WolfsRain'', probably. It's possible he just didn't realize he was ''that'' badly hurt until the adrenalin wore off, since he seemed rather surprised to see a pool of his own blood. In any case, [[spoiler:he doesn't get better.]]

* In ''TenchiUniverse'', Ryoko suffers one of these while fighting [[BigBad Kagato]]. The injury lingers through the penultimate episode, being further aggravated when Ryoko is attacked while disabling Jurai's planetary defenses. She holds out just long enough to pilot Ryu-Ohki to the landing docks of the Jurai Royal Palace and deliver Tenchi before passing out in front of a very worried Ryo-Ohki. We're led to believe that she died, but she didn't.