Basic Trope: A person carries the disease, but shows no symptoms. Usually, they don't even believe they have it.
- Straight: Alice shows no symptoms of The Plague, but can still infect others. But since she doesn't seem to be infected, she doesn't believe she is.
- Exaggerated: Even going near Alice is enough to get one infected by The Plague. Despite everyone she meets swiftly sickening right in front of her, Alice refuses to believe that she's a carrier.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is merely resistant to the symptoms, or shows them later than normal.
- Alice has an unusual reaction to The Plague which makes her appear to be infected with something completely different.
- Justified:
- Alice was genetically engineered to be immune to the symptoms of The Plague as part of a bioterrorism plot.
- Alice's immune system is just strong enough to never affect her but cannot wipe out virulent ones meaning she becomes a reservoir for every deadly disease she was infected with.
- The plague works on one's Y chromosome, which Alice* doesn't have.
- Inverted:
- Alice shows all the symptoms, and indeed believes herself to be sick, but she's just hypochondriac and doesn't really have The Plague.
- Alice looks visibly sick and feels it, but isn't contagious. Not that anyone would believe the obvious plague-bearer isn't contagious. Thus she is a sick outcast when she is a danger to nobody.
- Alice appears sick with the plague but she is actually sick from a wish for a cure having her lungs changed to constantly produce plague eating phages. She is a walking plague to the plague itself. Any who show compassion and don't turn her away will be cured if infected and protected from the plague.
- Subverted: Alice realizes that she has The Plague and undergoes treatment before anyone else can get sick.
- Alice is suspected of carrying the plague. It turns out she is an android and not only unable to be infected but also made of materials which kill off any microbes on her in seconds.
- Double Subverted: The treatment doesn't work. Alice still has The Plague, but now she doesn't believe it, since she's already gotten treated for it.
- Parodied:
- Alice is an asymptomatic carrier... for the Disco Fever!
- The carrier is literally known as Typhoid Mary but is still treated normally.
- Zig Zagged: Alice doesn't show symptoms at first, but they come out in full later... only those symptoms are psychosomatic. Throughout the whole ordeal, Alice is infected with The Plague.
- Averted: Alice gets sick just like anyone else infected with The Plague.
- Enforced: "We need a plausible way to spread an outbreak. An asymptomatic carrier would be a good way to sneak the disease in unnoticed."
- Lampshaded: "Alice, remember Typhoid Mary? You're like her: you don't show the symptoms but you really are sick."
- Implied: Alice has spent her whole life trying to eradicate the plague despite never being affected directly. Wherever she goes she finds it even in places that really shouldn't have it.
- Alice doesn't seem to be sick, yet many people get sick after being around her.
- Invoked: Dr. Evulz designs The Plague this way to make it easier to spread.
- Exploited: The Big Bad does his best to let Alice go everywhere among the heroes, knowing that she'll spread The Plague wherever she goes.
- Defied: Alice realizes that she's a carrier and agrees to take the necessary steps to prevent infection of others.
- Discussed: "With The Plague running rampant, I'm sure there will be some infectees who don't show symptoms and don't believe they're sick. We'll need to be careful about that."
- Conversed: "Given that The Plague is everywhere, you'd think these characters would take asymptomatic carriers into account."
- Deconstructed: Bioterrorists attempt to use this to spread the plague. Heroic scientists are able to analyze the carriers. Thus their plan accidentally causes a previously incurable plague to gain a 'vaccine' of sorts.
- Reconstructed: This was part of the bioterrorists' plan to develop a stronger plague by letting the vaccine get created as part of their research.
- Played For Laughs: Alice carries a disease that makes people fart constantly but has no other symptoms.
- Played For Drama: Alice ends up killing most people she encounters.
- Played For Horror: Alice carries a zombie virus that spreads via air.
Back to Typhoid Mary
