History Main / ThereIsNoCure

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': a potential cure for Flood infestatiom is brought up on occasion, and it is suggested that ancient humanity had discovered this cure, but the knowledge was lost when the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] devolved them. In ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' prequel trilogy, [[spoiler: it's clarified that ancient humanity ''thought'' they had discovered a cure, but in actuality the Flood was deliberately tricking them, pretending to be "cured", so it could play the long game and take down the Forerunners later.]]

** Maledictus are a type of Animagus who can transform into snakes, with a catch; women ([[OneGenderRace and it's always women]]) who have it will permanently transform into snakes in the long run, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. [[spoiler:According to WordOfGod, Nagini is a Maledictus. This is shown in full in ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald''.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', [[Characters/HarryPotterAlbusDumbledore Albus Dumbledore]]'s right hand has become black. In [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the next book]], [[spoiler:it's revealed after Dumbledore's death this was because he wore a [[SoulJar Horcrux]] and got his hand cursed. Severus Snape can only state he, with all his knowledge about the Dark Arts, can only slow the curse]].

This trope unfortunately has a significant grain of TruthInTelevision to it in regards to many RealLife illnesses and other ailments, so Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' fanfiction, Monster X at one point begs San-Who-Could-Have-Been/Youngest Brother ([[spoiler:Keizer]] Ghidorah's [[spoiler:attached]] [[MultipleHeadCase left head]]) to purge [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonTitansAndOtherCreatures the Many]] from an infected living Titan to save the latter's life, but San-Who-Could-Have-Been's thoughts reveal he and his brothers can't remove the infection once it's set in even if they wanted to.

* ''Fanfic/TheUltimateEvil'': In this ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' fanfiction, the binding ritual which permanently connects one to their natural [[{{Synchronization}} Other]] is an irreversible process. In the second story, Valerie approaches her Other Shendu to ask how a binding can be severed, and he replies that it can't be undone by anything. The first story's ending did indeed demonstrate that [[spoiler:not even the Book of Ages' reality-rewriting power can undo a binding between Others]].

* ''Film/Blade1998'': {{Discussed}} and {{averted}}. When Karen tells Frost she cured herself of vampirism, Frost and Mercury scoff at the notion and Frost tells her there's no cure, to which Karen counters she's discovered there ''is'' a retroviral cure if a vampire was originally human.

* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': After Wonka demonstrates his Wonka Vision machine that transports huge, oversized chocolate bars (as in several square feet and weighing dozens of pounds) to a person's [=TV=] as regular sized candy bars, Mike TV excitedly goes into the machine because he gets to be on [=TV=] (the [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2005 adaptation]] shows [[InsufferableGenius Mike]] jumping in because he hated Wonka's MundaneUtility for a matter teleporter). However Mike comes out a few inches tall, and when he and his father tell Wonka to just teleport him back so he'll return to normal size, Wonka says that the teleporter's resizing works one way (big things can be made small, not small things made big). The only solution is to take Mike to the taffy room and stretch him, and he's last seen coming out of the factory, not normally proportioned but looking very tall and ''very'' skinny.
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': {{Subverted}} in ''Literature/WerewolfSkin''. The exposition-providing teacher who seems to know everything about the werewolves in this book says there is no cure. [[spoiler:The protagonist discovers through practice that keeping a werewolf away from their wolf skin (which they need in order to transform) until after the moon peaks will break the curse]].
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', [[Characters/HarryPotterAlbusDumbledore Albus Dumbledore]]'s right hand has become black. In the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows next book]], [[spoiler:it's revealed after Dumbledore's death this was because he wore a [[SoulJar Horcrux]] and got his hand cursed. Severus Snape can only state he, with all his knowledge about the Dark Arts, can only slow the curse]].

* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': Season 2 sees Nina join up with Kemp's organization as a volunteer for their experiments in the belief that they can cure her lycanthropy. When she goes to George about this, he at first denies that any cure for their condition exists, but eventually joins Nina. In actuality, it's more of a treatment than an actual cure which suppresses a werewolf's transformation during the full moon -- and even then, it has fatal side-effects which Kemp ''intentionally'' allows so he can covertly murder supernaturals. Overall, the possibility of turning vampires, werewolves, ghosts or other supernaturals back into humans isn't really touched upon, implying they're all incurable -- [[spoiler:the SeriesFinale saw the main cast seemingly render themselves human when killing the Devil broke their curses, but the ending hints and a bonus episode confirms that this is actually a LotusEaterMachine]].
* Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}: This series is a pretty big FantasyKitchenSink, but one of the few transhuman conditions that's truly considered to be incurable is lycanthropy. It can only be treated (or altered by exposure to AnotherDimension), not cured.
* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': After [[Characters/GrimmMain Juliette]] is [[spoiler:turned into a Hexenbiest]] as a side-effect of a spell involving her, she approaches Henrietta for help, only to be told her [[spoiler:transformation]] can't be reversed. She slowly but surely goes out of control with her newfound powers from there. [[spoiler:Ultimately {{subverted}} in the show's last few episodes, where Juliette (now Eve) is rendered human after returning to Earth from AnotherDimension which was affecting her Woge, with Diana speculating the Hexenbiest part of her got left behind there (a time reset returns her to her Hexenbiest state)]].
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': The ''Yersinia pestis'' [[ThePlague bacterial bioweapon]] which infects Tony in "[[Recap/NCISS02E22 SWAK]]" is a mild case. When Gibbs confronts the people responsible, it turns out there is no cure, but the bacteria has a short lifespan and Tony's immune system subsequently fights the symptoms off on his own.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In season 2's "In Extremis" the VictimOfTheWeek is poisoned with [[WhodunnitToMe a lethal dose]] of a radioactive isotope. There is no cure. Reese is able to arrange it, however, so that the man who poisoned him is [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine given a dose of his own medicine]], and the victim [[FaceDeathWithDignity dies peacefully]] with the satisfaction of knowing that his murderer is [[KarmicDeath going out the same way]] he did.

*** When Vulcans reach around 200 or so, a rare few develop a condition called Bendi Syndrome, where every emotion they've bottled up gets telepathically transmitted to everyone within range, causing them to act violently and angry. Sarek is revealed in [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E23Sarek the titular episode]] to experience this condition, and continues to decay when he boards the ''Enterprise-D'' for a diplomatic mission. Since there is no treatment or cure, all Picard can do is willingly mind-meld to take the brunt of these emotions on himself until Sarek can complete his mission. [[spoiler:Sarek later succumbs to the disease in Season 5]].

** Picard himself, in a possible future timeline, gets hit with Irumodic Syndrome that starts causing severe memory lapses. Though there is some level of treatment, there is no cure. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' later reveals [[spoiler:he does indeed have it, and it proves increasingly difficult to rein in as he goes on an important mission]].

** [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycanthropy]] is portrayed as almost-completely incurable, with [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E17Heart the show's first werewolf episode]] seeing Sam and Dean try and fail to cure a werewolf using a bogus method, and being forced to accept at the episode's end after scouring all their sources that there's no curing the werewolf in question. From Season 12 onward, this is {{downplayed}} when it's discovered the British Men of Letters have an experimental cure which can work ''if'' the lycanthropy is caught in the early stages of infection.
*** Transhuman monsters ("monster" meaning the supernatural creatures descended from [[MonsterProgenitor Eve]]) are overall [[ImpliedTrope implied]] throughout the show to be incurable unless their infection is caught in the early stages. On top of the aforementioned werewolf treatment, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] can only be turned back into humans if they're fed a special potion ''[[DownplayedTrope before]]'' [[DownplayedTrope they feed on blood for the first time]].
** Dean's future self in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS05E04TheEnd The End]]" mentions the [[TheVirus Croatoan]] [[HatePlague Virus]] currently ravaging the world is incurable.

** {{Subverted}} with the [[TheCorruption Mark of Cain]]. Part of the Season 10 StoryArc is [[FindTheCure finding a way to rid Dean of the Mark]], and when Team Free Will confronts Cain himself on the matter, he bitterly declares there is no cure. The SeasonFinale however reveals that [[GrimReaper Death]] is capable of removing the Mark from a person in exchange for another bearer taking their place, and there's also a powerful spell that can erase the Mark entirely ([[SealedEvilInACan at a cost]]).
* Franchise/{{Whoniverse}}:
** Conversion into a [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul Cyber]][[FullConversionCyborg man]], once it's occurred, is usually considered irreversible.

*** After [[spoiler:Bill]] is converted into a Cyberman but fights off the programming, the Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]" vows that he'll fix her. He later admits when she brings this up that he wasn't being entirely truthful: he has hope she can go BeyondTheImpossible with what he said, but it's unlikely she'll ever be human again. [[spoiler:Bill finds another way when Heather removes her consciousness from her Cyber-converted husk and turns it into a "pilot" (long story)]].
** One of the reasons Captain Jack wants to find his way back to the Doctor after becoming immortal is to find out if his immortality -- granted by a HumanoidAbomination with temporal power accidentally "bringing him back forever" and turning him into a living anomaly -- can be removed. The Doctor simply tells him there's nothing even he can do about it. That being said, a couple ExpandedUniverse materials have introduced one or two things that are stated to be capable of removing Jack's immortality, and the show's ''[[Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay Miracle Day]]'' season sees the same force which rendered all humans on Earth immortal in turn apparently render Jack mortal (although WordOfGod speculates that it probably only removed Jack's HealingFactor and not his immortality). And then there's the hint that [[spoiler:Jack will slowly transform into the eons-old Face of Boe (who apparently dies for real in the year 5,000,000,000) if his immortality makes him live for long enough]].

* ''Series/{{The Witcher|2019}}'': [[Characters/TheWitcher2019Protagonists Yennefer]] gives up her reproductive organs to be transformed into a beautiful woman. Later she wants to have a child and seeks a cure for her infertility, but she is informed by Borch Three Jackdaws that she will never regain her fertility.

--> You’re just a sadistic piece of shit\\
Somehow I just couldn’t see\\\
But then I looked it up…\\

There’s no\\
There’s no cure for psycho\\

There’s no\\
There’s no cure for psycho

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': {{Muta|nts}}tion from {{Chaos|IsEvil}} exposure is both irreversible, even to [[HealingHands healing magic]], and a [[TorchesAndPitchforks death sentence]] in polite society. Some [[BackAlleyDoctor Back-Alley Doctors]] discreetly remove the cosmetic effects where possible, but other effects of the mutation persist. Some heretical [[HealerGod Shallyans]] believe that the goddess ''can'' cure mutation, but haven't had any luck actually doing so.

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'': This is the case for [[TheCorruption the Blight]], which destroys any living thing it touches - even bacteria. The larger a creature is, the longer it takes for them to die, so humans can be ill with the Blight for months. It's also extremely contagious. The Blight has been presumed to be incurable for centuries InUniverse, and the closest thing to a 'cure' is to become a Grey Warden, which extends the lifespan to roughly thirty years and stops it from being contagious, but even then the body will eventually succumb to it if they aren't killed in battle first. Possibly {{subverted}} as of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''; [[spoiler:the Hero of Ferelden (the PlayerCharacter from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'') is [[FindTheCure on a quest to find a way to reverse the condition]]. It remains to be seen how successful they will ultimately be]].

** {{Subverted}} and {{exploited}} with vampirism and lycanthropy. Both are widely believed throughout Tamriel to have no cure, but in actuality, knowledge of how to cure either affliction is suppressed; partly because most of the curing methods are unpleasant at best or immoral at worst, and partly to discourage [[VampireWannabe wannabes]] from getting themselves turned.
** Zig-Zagged in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''. [[BigBad Dagoth Ur]] is spreading the Corprus Disease, created from the divine power of the heart of the series' [[GodIsDead dead creator god]], which turns its victims into insane BodyHorror {{Plague Zombie}}s... while also making them TheAgeless and [[IdealIllnessImmunity immune to all other diseases]]. It is said to be incurable and, naturally, the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]] catches it partway through the main quest. With the help of a [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld 4000 year old]] wizard Divayth Fyr, they are "cured", but only of the disease's ''negative'' effects. This actually makes them eligible for the plot's driving prophecy, as "neither blight nor age can harm him." However, they still have the disease, and the "cure" fails on every other patient Fyr tests it on, ultimately zig-zagging the trope.

** In ''Shadowbringers'', the dwarves of Tomra once suffered from a plague known as "stoneblight" that was inevitably fatal and had no cure, forcing the village elders to isolate the afflicted deep in the mines to avoid infecting the rest of the village. This swift and decisive action is said to have saved the Tomran dwarves, who revere the elders' actions as a ShootTheDog moment a century later. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} as in truth, Lamitt, one of the Warriors of Light from before the flood, was able to venture deep into the ruins of Ronka to devise a cure from the ancient magics there. The formerly stoneblighted dwarves were none too happy about being left for dead and decided to remove their helmets and leave Tomra in protest. To maintain order and their own political standing, the elders exiled Lamitt along with the stoneblighted dwarves, who all perished in the Flood, allowing the Elders to [[WrittenByTheWinners perpetuate their own self-serving narrative]]]].
** Primals can 'temper' people enthralling their minds into worshipping them and doing their bidding.. There is no known way to reverse this, and no defense save the Echo, a rare power possessed by the PlayerCharacter and a very few others. Tempered individuals are usually put to death to prevent them from empowering the primals with worship.[[spoiler: However in 5.4, Allisae is able to develop a spell to reverse tempering, using knowledge learned from a scholar of souls on the First, and the lost research of an Allagan scientist.]]

--> this is no conversion but a total metamorphosis, it cannot be reversed as far as i can tell.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In "Paradise Lost," Kate and Pal are devastated to find out that as they get older, they will understand each-other less and less to the point where Kate will eventually forget she could even talk to Pal. When they seek advice to reverse or at least stop the process before it gets worse, they're told the process is irreversible and there's nothing they can do about it. However, they feel better when they talk to Grandma Nora's dog, who tells them they don't need to have full conversations to communicate, and just a few words, barks and body language are enough to let each-other know what the other is trying to say and how they feel.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E8And9InjusticeForAll Injustice for all Part I]]" has Lex Luthor discover to his horror that he has terminal cancer as a result of carrying Kryptonite for so long. [[NeverMyFault After blaming Superman for his condition]], he demands his doctor for a cure, only to be told there is no cure and there is nothing he can do. This is subverted later when his cancer is mysteriously cured in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E9QuestionAuthority Question Authority]]" and we later find out in "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E12DividedWeFall Divided we Fall]]" that [[spoiler:this is because Brainiac was hiding within Luthor and had cured his cancer in addition to giving him SuperStrength]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}}'': {{Subverted}}. During the final battle of Season 14, [[Characters/NinjagoNinja Nya]] decides to merge with the ocean using her powers in order to defeat the main villains. This action is irreversible, and Nya is forced to say goodbye to the Ninja as she must stay there for the rest of her life. However, in Season 15, Nya gets Aspheera to take her powers away, thus breaking her connection to the ocean and making her a normal human.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': In the episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E7TheWayOfAllFlesh The Way of All Flesh]]," Corben is turned into Metallo by Luthor by having his mind implanted into [[FullConversionCyborg a bionic body]]. At first, Corben's happy he now possesses SuperStrength, [[NoSell can't feel getting shot by the police]], and can go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel himself, especially since he now possesses a piece of Kryptonite. However, when Corben plants a ForcefulKiss on Lois Lane, [[OhCrap he realizes]] [[SenseLossSadness he can't feel anything at all]]. When he confronts the scientists Luthor hired for the procedure, Corben is told that he has to get used to not feeling anything anymore because the procedure is irreversible. Corben then decides that from now on [[ThatManIsDead he'll go by Metallo]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'': [[Characters/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Carter]]'s mutation which gives him the ability to transform into a giant, bio-mechanical creature as a result of exposure to the Turtles' mutagen is considered incurable in the present day. Seemingly {{subverted}} in his last appearance when he accepts an offer to go to the future so their technology can cure him.