An incomplete list of successful dead or dying foreshadows in fiction

[conuly]

Successful here means that I got it on the first try, not after the character was revealed as dead or, worse, after somebody explained it to me.

1. A leaf or petal falls
2. Snow falls
3. Night falls
4. Pretty much anything else falls and then breaks
5. A warrior takes off his helmet and then puts it on the floor instead of wherever it's supposed to go
6. A window is left open
7. There is a crow or raven, or another culturally appropriate animal or flower, just hanging out
8. A person actually says "good-bye" when hanging up the phone
9. A tree is dead in the spring or summer
10. A child's toy is abandoned
11. Somebody has a headache or a nosebleed or a cough

You'll note that none of these things are fatal in real life, but in fictionland the rules are different.

You'll also note that I didn't include "Somebody who has no business making long-term plans suddenly decides to announce their plans to all and sundry" or "Somebody who just left a life-threatening situation declares that they're safe now". That's not foreshadowing, that's just recklessness. Don't do those things.

Comments

[jessie_c]

That's not foreshadowing, that's just recklessness. Don't do those things.

[conuly]

He was so careful, too...!

[marahmarie]

11. Somebody has a headache or a nosebleed or a cough

Kinda pushing it there. Are we all supposed to be psychic though only when we read?

[conuly]

I've never seen anybody just randomly have a nosebleed on TV without it being SRS BZNS.

[marahmarie]

OK, I'll admit nosebleed's such a trope that I had an ex 10-15 years ago who I thought was dying every time he got one (he also bled from his ears, evidenced by how he'd wake up with blood on his pillow from his ear(s)).

He's still living, and healthy as a horse afaik, which shows you how tropish the nosebleed is (those ears, though! Brain cancer for sure, or so I thought).

[conuly]

What on earth could be making him bleeding from his ears so much, though?

[marahmarie]

He never did figure that out - he was one of those "Oh, it's alright" types who go to a doctor only once their body's handed over by the EMTs. Don't know if he ever found what was causing it.

[conuly]

But if he keeps thinking it's a sign of cance... oh, whatever, it's his weird bleeding.

[marahmarie]

No, I seriously thought it might be so he'd crack jokes because he knew it scared me: "It's cancer! I'm dying!" because he was an asshole.

(Meanwhile his pre-teen nephew really *was* dying, of cancer, so he was really not funny at all.)

[shewhostaples]

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver coughs a lot - it almost seems to be a tic - and at one point in the series the author does actually add a note to say, lots of readers have asked but no, there's nothing wrong with her.

[conuly]

Well, that's certainly unusual.

[thewayne]

I remember when Moulin Rouge came out and the lead coughed early in the movie, I turned to my wife and said "well, she's dead". And by the end of the film - TB! Whoudathunkit!

Telegraphed it too early. Checkov's Cough.

[conuly]

Nobody ever coughs.

[sabotabby]

Hah. Now I'm trying to think of what I've read recently that's tipped me off. It's usually something hamhanded like "declaration of future plans" or "confession to someone they've been into for awhile."

[conuly]

When it's good, it's good, and when it's not it's just cheesy.

[sallymn]

Somebody has a headache or a nosebleed or a cough... except in Asian drama, where as far as I can see a nosebleed means they are about to dramatically swoon all over the place :)

(Coughing up blood simply means they have been told Something Dire.)

I d like the list though... lots of tropes from the old ghost/spooky stories I've read :)

[hashiveinu]

In anime/manga, a nosebleed is code for sexual arousal.