"In the myth, Bellerophon was a prince who killed the Chimera. A monster with a head of a lion and a tail of a serpent, that plagued the ancient world. I think Nekhorovich created a monster virus in Chimera. And you need an antivirus to kill it called Bellerophon."
— Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible II
If a virus, cybernetic or organic, has a fancy name then expect a related name for the cure. It might be that the names allude to opposite concepts, that one is derived from the other, or that they follow a common theme. At the very least, both names will have a similar termination or suffix.
Remember that Tropes Are Flexible, so non-viral substances and their counteracting agents also count.
Compare Unified Naming System, which is this but for hero and villain organizations. Sub-Trope of Theme Naming, when certain related elements of a story are named following a specific theme or pattern.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Reborn! (2004): Tsuna becomes afflicted with demonitis. The cure is its opposite, angelitis.
Comic Books
- Green Lantern: The Green Lantern Corps includes a sentient smallpox virus, Leezle Pon, who fights off the evil Sinestro Corps virus Despotellis.
Films — Live-Action
- Escape from L.A.: Subverted with the Plutoxin 7 virus. Its cure is nothing since it's just a common flu virus. Snake is tricked into believing otherwise.
- Mission: Impossible II: Chimera (virus) and Bellerophon (cure) are named after a monster from Greek Mythology and its slayer. This is justified, as those are actually their codenames from the project that created them.
Literature
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: There is a pill called Wonka-Vite which makes people younger. The cure for those who are aged too young — that is to say, out of existence, which happened to the Oompa-Loompas he tested the prototypes on — is a Rapid Aging liquid called Vita-Wonk.
- Ender's Game: The descolada and recolada viruses translate as "un-glueing" and "re-glueing" because of their effect on DNA.
- Snow Crash: Snow Crash and Snow Melt.
Live-Action TV
- Battlestar Galactica (2003): Mellorak, cured by Bittamucin.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: The episode "Requiem for Methuselah" introduces the Rigellian Fever, a bacterium-caused disease similar to Earth's bubonic plage. It's cured by Ryetalyn.
- The X-Files: "The Erlenmeyer Flask" introduces the infectious, alien form Purity, also known as black oil. The same episode gives a putative name — Purity Control — to the vaccine that wouldn't be developed until several episodes later.
Video Games
- Deus Ex:
- Gray Death, cured by Ambrosia.
- The "good" AI Daedalus and the "evil" AI Icarus. And they merge to form Helios.
- Metal Gear: There's FOXDIE and FOXALIVE, reflecting the latter's purpose as a computer virus designed to destroy the Patriots and free the world of their control - essentially, the exact antithesis of FOXDIE's intended purpose..
- Moshi Monsters: The "Glumping Potion" turns Moshlings (essentially the game's equivalent to pet animals) into Glumps. Its antidote is the De-Glumping Potion.
- Resident Evil:
- The T-Virus and its vaccine Daylight because in the daylight, you don't need an umbrella.
- The G-Virus was named partly for Golgotha (the site at which Jesus was crucified) and partly for its creator's wish to create God-like Transhuman Abominations. Its cure was named DEVIL as a play on these factors, fitting with the religious theme of the two.
- The Las Plaga parasites and the Las Plaga Removal Lazer.
- The C-Virus has the Anti-C vaccine.
- Snatcher: "Lucifer-Alpha" ravages Eastern Europe, but mutates into a benign form by the present day. SD Snatcher follows more in line with the trope with "Lucifer-Beta" (the New and Improved virus) and "L-Angel" (the antidote).
- StarCraft: Brood War brings the Hyperevolutionary virus, cured by Infestation Antidote.
- Uplink: The computer virus is called Revelation, while the cure is Faith. Both of them follow a religious theme.
Webcomics
- 5 Elementos: Subverted. The Dawn Project isn't about creating a cure for the Dusk virus (in fact, the virus is implied to have been extinct back then), but about creating a Power Nullifier that would allow virus elementals to touch other people. Then again, the Dawn Project is actually a cover to recreate the Dusk virus.
Websites
- Neopets: Several of the medicines have the name of the disease or related words in their names:
- Bubbles is cured with a Bubbles Herbal Drink.
- Hoochie Coochies is cured with Hoochie Coochie Tablets.
- Itchy Scratchies is cured with Itchy Scratchy Cream.
- Kikoughela is cured with Kikoughela Drops.
- Neezles is cured with a Neezles Jab.
- Neggitus is cured with a Neggitus Injection, while NeoMites are cured with a NeoMites Injection.
- NeoFlu is cured with NeoFlu Jelly Pills.
- NeoPox is cured with NeoPox Pizza.
- NeoWarts are cured with Neowart Fungus.
- Shaky Flakies is cured with Shaky Flaky Cream.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: In "Treehouse of Horror VII", Lisa invents a shrinking device called a "debigulator", and the device that reverses it is called a "rebigulator".
Real Life
- Old-school hackers had a taste for the dramatic that actually made this sort of thing reasonably common, e.g. "Creeper
" vs. "Reaper".
