Basic Trope: An affliction or state of some kind (superpower, transhumanism, disease, etc.) is stated to be irreversible/incurable/irremovable.
- Straight: Bob and his friends try to cure him of having X, only to learn that X is incurable.
- Exaggerated: X is fairly mundane or easy to engineer by the setting's standards, yet even the Powers That Be cannot cure/remove it.
- Downplayed:
- There is a cure, but there's only a limited time window after X is contracted before X becomes irreversible.
- Contracting X can only be cured by the Curse Escape Clause.
- There was a cure, but it's run out and there's no known alternative nor way of renewing the first cure.
- A cure for X does exist, but it's incredibly rare, and the process of curing X is very difficult.
- X isn't completely curable, but proper treatment can allow Bob to live a mostly normal life.
- Justified:
- X is a real disease or condition that's currently incurable in Real Life, and Bob lives within a non-Speculative Fiction setting.
- X is very high on the setting's Power Levels.
- Inverted: X is much more curable than expected.
- Subverted: Bob having X is thought to be incurable, but later a means of removing X turns up.
- Double Subverted: Having X is incurable... but then a means of removing X turns up. Except the cure was a lie or just doesn't work after all.
- Parodied:???
- Zig Zagged:
- Some of the aspects of having X can be permanently removed, but other aspects of it remain irremovable.
- Bob's case of X is technically curable because he meets certain conditions, but Alice's isn't.
- Averted: Bob has X removed from him; Alice, who is Locked Out of the Loop, says X has no cure.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz uses the knowledge that X can't be cured once contracted to create fear of contracting it.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: Characters talk about whether or not X can really be cured/removed.
- Conversed: ???
- Enforced: The author made the work to denounce the quack cures that are all the rage
- Implied:
- A search to Find the Cure! starts, but it disappears from the plot without any resolution, and characters don't bring up the possibility of curing X again.
- X is fairly low-tier on the Power Levels and mundane-seeming comparative to other Phlebotinum in the setting, but not once is the possibility of curing/removing/reversing X brought up.
- Bob encounters gods who are very high on the Power Levels and never once asks them about curing him of having X even though he clearly resents having X.
Back to There Is No Cure.
