- Basic Trope: A character dies a slow, horrible, painful death from AIDS.
- Straight: Bob is diagnosed with HIV. Ten years later, it has progressed into AIDS, and Bob is slowly wasting away before dying at the age of 40.
- Exaggerated: Almost as soon as Bob is diagnosed, he dies.
- Downplayed: Bob is diagnosed with HIV, and while he is able to get medication and live a fairly normal life, he does die decades below the expected age for the area.
- Justified: Back in The '60s or The '70s, Bob led a wild lifestyle involving sharing needles and lots of unprotected sex. The disease hadn't entered the public consciousness yet, so Bob didn't know any better. 20 years later, when he's settled down, he starts to realize he doesn't feel right; by the time he was diagnosed, it was too late.
- Bob contracted the virus from a tainted blood transfusion but (again) wasn't diagnosed for decades.
- Inverted:
- HIV is not only treatable in this setting, but curable.
- Bob has already been diagnosed at the start of the plot, yet he manages to survive longer than all other named characters in the series.
- Subverted: Bob lives with HIV, but he manages it with medication such as the protease inhibitor cocktail. He also always has sex with condoms (even with his long-term partner or spouse) or else he's a Celibate Hero so as not to infect anyone else. And he gets his viral load and white cell count checked regularly. Other than that, he leads a normal life.
- Bob is wasting away, but he says it's from cancer.
- Double Subverted: Bob loses his job and the health insurance he was using to pay for his meds. When he's unable to afford the meds, the virus wins.
- He tells people he has cancer because of the social stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.
- Parodied: The priest in charge of Bob's funeral derails the ceremony by ranting on the podium about how Bob's decadent lifestyle should serve as a warning to everyone else rather than something to feel sorry for... And swiftly gets kicked off of the podium.
- Zig-Zagged: Some characters die from AIDS, others simply live with HIV.
- Averted: HIV does not exist in this setting.
- Enforced: The story is set early in The '80s when (due to HIV being newly discovered) diagnoses were often made too late, and the social stigma didn't help either.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: In The '60s or The '70s, Bob gets caught up in the counterculture lifestyle. He uses all sorts of drugs, sometimes sharing needles with others, and has lots of unprotected sex. 20 years later, he's settled down, but he starts to feel tired and achy all the time. So he goes to the doctor, who diagnoses him with this newly-discovered disease for which there is no cure (or at this point, even treatment). Over the ensuing months and years, Bob grows weaker and sicker. He loses a lot of weight, can no longer work, and (due to social stigma) dies all alone in the hospital.
- Exploited: A "hellfire and brimstone" pastor uses this to portray the (earthly) consequences of living a "wild" life, which then segues into the afterlife.
- Defied: Bob takes (or maybe even starts creating) experimental drugs which manage to keep him alive and (relatively) well for years to come.
- Discussed: When Bob's grandparents find out that Bob isn't heterosexual, one of them mentions that they used to have a friend who died of AIDS and expresses relief that Bob lives in better times.
- Conversed: "Wait, is Bob seriously gonna spend this episode sharing needles with this random guy? Ten bucks that he won't live to the series finale due to AIDS."
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