Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Difference between revisions

* [[Rip Van Winkle|Rip Van Wink]] a character in early issues of [[The Beano]] had as his main gimmick that he had been asleep for 700 years which easily makes him 700 years old at least.

* Princess Jody from ''[http://fav.me/d4a27sp Super Milestone Wars]'' looks ten but she's actually over 1000 years old.

* ''[[Bag Enders]]'' features the [[The Lord of the Rings|Fellowship of the Ring]] living in early-2000s England. Technically all the characters fall under this heading, being Really Six Thousand Years Old, but the hobbits in particular are constantly mistaken for children. This gives them problems when being carded in pubs, but allows them to get away with childrens' fares on trains and infiltrate the Boy Scouts.

* In ''[[Noir Ange]]'', a ''[[Soul Eater]]'' fanfic, Zelda Kitsune is this literally, but she looks like a 17-year old girl. There's also Yuuki and Yuuka, and all of the other Witches count as well.

* Dorian Gray, in the film version of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]''. His exact age isn't given, but curmudgeonly old Allan Quartermain (played by Sean Connery) mentions that as a boy, he saw Gray giving a lecture at Eton College. In the original novel, Gray is never said to be immortal or invulnerable, he just retains his youthful appearance.

* In ''[[7 Faces of Dr. Lao]]'', the eponymous doctor is technically an example of this trope, in that he looks rather old, but not nearly his true age of seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-two.

'''Snails:''' Twenty-three. Yeah, I know I'm a little young for you, but what if I get my hands on an aging potion, huh? I'll sacrifice a couple of years for you.

'''Norda:''' I'm two hundred and thirty-four. }}

* Although [[WALL-E]] is seven hundred years old, he is actually still working even after the day humanity left Earth.

** Somewhat justified in that he's seen replacing damaged parts using components from other robots of the same model, of which there are hundred or thousands lying around. It's likely he's replaced every part of himself many times over, save for his motherboard, RAM and long-term memory (and even then, was it ever clarified how hot-pluggable these robots are?).

* Two minor examples occur in ''[[The Tin Drum]]'' with further discussion therein. The main character, Oskar, willingly stops aging, resulting in an adult male in the body of a toddler. Towards the end of the film, he meets a dwarf who appears to be an adult but he reveals that he's really close to one hundred years old. Like Oscar, he decided to stop aging and mentions that there are others like him. They mention that they could essentially become immortal if they wanted, invoking this trope.

* Wolverine in the [[X-Men (film)|''X-Men'' movies]] as in [[X-Men (Comic Book)|the comics]] is mentioned by Jean Grey to likely be older than Prof. Xavier due to his [[Healing Factor]].

* Andre [[Significant Anagram|Linoge]], from ''[[Storm of the Century]]''. It's never made clear how long he's been around, but it's implied to have been at least since Biblical times. Toyed with in that, though he is old and still has at least another century to live -- stating to the town that he will still be alive when the youngest among them has grown old and died -- even others of his kind consider him to be nearing death. Which makes sense -- if you've been around for at least 1000 years, another 100 is going to seem like just a few months.

* All of the vampires and Lycans in the ''[[Underworld (film)|Underworld]]'' series are centuries old. The main character, Selene, is explicitly stated to be roughly 600. None of the others have their ages stated even in ballpark figures, though it's obvious that most, if not all, of the other named vampires and Lycans are at least older than Selene.

* Also, in ''Strata'' by [[Terry Pratchett]], the heroine is not only several hundred years old, but also wealthy enough to buy herself a practically endless amount of extended life (while still physically appearing as a well-preserved 30-something).

** Aside from the hair. That's always the first thing to go, apparently.

** At one point Legolas reflects that he has lived longer than the country of Rohan has existed.

** Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are as old as the world itself (at least ol' Tom is) and don't look much older than the elves.

{{quote|'''Tom Bombadil:''' Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words my friends: [[Third Person Person|Tom]] was here before the river and the trees: Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving....When the Elves passed westward, Tom was already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Dark Lord came from Outside.}}

** And Gollum is over 500, having had his lifespan greatly increased by the One Ring. Of course he doesn't look young, or even his original ''species''. And [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|he went mad]] and [[Gonk|ugly]] from the Ring's powers.

*** Elros, his brother who decided to live as a human, lived for 600 years as well and was, together with the remaining folk of the Edain, the founder of the long-living line of the Númenórians.

*** His daughter Arwen, born about 250 years after the War of the Last Alliance, eventually marries the Númenórian Aragorn—who is 2,690 years her junior.

* In [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s ''[[Familias Regnant]]'' series, one of the major plot drivers is "rejuv", which reverses aging and brings you back to a biological 25 or 30 years old. You then age normally, but can do it again when you start feeling old. This causes no end of problems, including having successful parents continue to run companies instead of turning them over to the next generation, having the military be loaded with senior sergeants and admirals instead of having them retire to make way for the next generation, etc. This means that the current generation of people will never take over responsibility, since their 30 year old parents are doing fine. Further, this is scaring the heck out of neighboring groups who fear the resultant population explosion of perpetual 30 year olds, with the attendant pressure to take over the planets of the neighboring groups.

* In [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' stories, every human in the universe above the age of 40 takes a longevity drug called Boosterspice as a matter of course. This has affected humanity's attitudes and prejudices to the point that when hero Louis Wu (himself 250 years old in the body of a 20 year old) meets a human being who hasn't taken Boosterspice (and thus is "suffering" from wrinkles, gray hair, a missing tooth or two, and the scars one normally finds on a person of 40+ ), he thinks the other man is a member of a human-like alien species.

* In ''[[Discworld]]'', we have the Abbot of the History Monks, who through the process of advanced reincarnation wound up in the body of a young baby—with most of his knowledge intact. Hard to say precisely how old he is, if he's gone around a few times like that. Of course, the History Monks play with time anyway, so...

** On the other hand, Lu-Tze the Sweeper never bothered with reincarnation and is still quite spry for someone over 800 years old.

** Don't forget Cernunnos, [[Up to Eleven|who's even older than Hekate.]]

* Zoe Nightshade from ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]''. In fact, any of the Hunters who have been members for a long time. Artemis herself prefers to appear as a 12-year-old girl when she's traveling with them. And then there are the rest of the gods and mythological characters...

* Many of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s reoccurring characters are members of the Howard Families, and blessed with natural longevity on the order of a couple hundred years, but none more so than Lazarus Long. By his last appearance Lazarus is several ''thousand'' years old, though he appears to be in his thirties due to both being a Howard and future medicine. At one point someone tells him he cannot die when he seems to be mortally wounded. The reader is left to decide whether that is the plea of a distraught spouse or a prescient statement.

* In [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[Anathem]]'', {{spoiler|Fraa Jad}} offhandedly makes it known that he is at least several hundred - and possibly several thousand - years old.

** Another Stephenson example: Enoch Root, who appears in both the ''Baroque Cycle'' and ''[[Cryptonomicon]]'', despite the combined storyline spanning about 300 or 400 years.

* In ''[[Sewer Gas and Electric]]'', Kite is a former [[Sweet Polly Oliver]] veteran of the American Civil War ... and is still alive, and fairly healthy, in the early 21st century. No magic, super-science, or non-human blood involved: she's just a statistical outlier for lifespan. Most people assume she's in her nineties, and nuts.

* The Canes, a whole race of werewolves in ''[[Codex Alera]]'' may fit in these trope. They can live up to 1000 years and still have the appearance/strength associated with youth.

* In the ''[[Mortal Instruments]]'' series Magnus Bane is said to look like he stopped aging at age 19, but is thought to be over 300 years old. in the book City Of Glass it is revealed when he is having an argument with Alec Lightwood that he is in fact MUCH older than previously thought.

'''Alec''': You're ''seven hundred years old?''

'''Magnus''': Well, eight hundred. But I don't look it. Anyway, you're missing the point. }}

** And of course there's Nicholas Flamel. Though never seen, he is stated to be over 600 years old. (Although this is specifically because he can make the Philosopher's Stone, unlike most people).

* In [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''Queen Zixi of Ix''—Queen Zixi of Ix. Except that she can see her real age in her reflection.

* The wizard Nevyn of the ''[[Deverry]]'' novels swore an oath in his youth that he would not rest until he had set right the mistakes that resulted in the deaths of three of his friends. The gods made him keep his oath, he lived to be about 450. This actually turns out to be good for his official profession: He makes and sells medicine for a living, and a doctor who appears to be roughly seventy (in a society where fifty is old) and is still in perfect health would presumably be very good at maintaining his (and by extension, his customer's) health.

* The ''[[Galactic Milieu]]'' had technology that allowed people to rejuvenate to a younger age. Thanks to a certain gene complex, most members of the Remillard family rejuvenated automatically, leaving most of them looking like twenty or thirty somethings indefinitely. Rogi (The oldest member of the family {{spoiler|not counting Mark as Atoning Unifex}}) still looked like he was in his early fifties at 150.

* In [[Octavia Butler]]'s ''Fledgling'', Shori is a 53 year old vampire (or Ina, as they call themselves) in the body of a 10 year old, because Ina age slower than humans. This leads to some squick, due to the [[Hemo-Erotic]] tendencies of the Ina, which means that Shori's 23-year-old human symbiont is having sex with a 10-year-old.

* In ''[[The Excalibur Alternative]]'' the alien captors infuse the English with technology to make them age slower. Granted, they also used "sleep" to help.

* The witches in ''[[His Dark Materials]]''. Serafina Pekkala appears to be a young woman, but is at least three hundred years old.

* The wandering storyteller Norna-Gest of the Old Norse "[[The Tale of Norna Gest|Tale of Norna Gest]]" reveals himself as a three-hundred years old immortal.

{{quote|''"I remember a hundred years ago as if it were the last minute. A thousand, two thousand, ten thousand years ago."''|'''Elder Seth''', ''Comeback Tour''}}

* Just about everyone in Pentexore in ''[[A Dirge for Prester John]]'' by way of the [[Fountain of Youth]].

* Sosra in [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''The Ring of Thoth'' is 3,500 years old and looks in danger of becoming a [[Time Abyss]], thanks to a life-extending drug he developed.

* ''[[The Munsters]]'': Grandpa Munster was 597 years old when the series premiered in 1964; daughter Lily was 137 while Herman Munster was 152 years old. By comparison, Marilyn was in her 20s and Eddie was 10 during the series' first season.

* ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]'': Although she looks like a 30-year-old babelicious blonde, Jeannie is at least 2,000 years old (her age coming thanks to being trapped in a bottle by the Blue Djinn in retaliation for rejecting his marriage proposal). Jeannie is, in fact, one of the few examples of this trope where an actual date of birth is known: April 1st, 64 BC. The date was decided by a contest run by NBC ("Guess Jeannie's Birthday") and revealed in a four-part story arc.

* In ''[[Power Rangers]]'', count on any alien, even [[Human Aliens]], to number their ages in at least four digits. This is especially true for any mysterious children you run into. {{spoiler|They tend to be the spirits of ancient [[Humongous Mecha]].}}

* [[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]] seems to age incredibly slowly. Hilda and Zelda claim to be somewhere in the 500-700 age range, but both actresses were in their mid-30's.

'''Kirk:''' You seem more like a boy.

'''Metrone:''' I am approximately 1,500 [[Two of Your Earth Minutes|of your Earth years]] old. }}

{{quote|'''Janice Rand:''' Miri... she really loved you, you know?

'''Capt. Kirk:''' Yes.

'''Sheridan''': You're one of the first ones.

'''Lorien''': No -- not one of the first ones. I ''am'' the first one. }}

* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' currently looks to be in his mid-twenties (or even younger), but is over a thousand. Stated onscreen as 1103 as of 2011, though [[Fanon]] maintains that it's been well into the quadruple digits long before that, with his age ''decreased'' from 953 to 900 in 2005. It's often assumed he's lying about his age. [[Steven Moffat]] [[Word of God|has said]] that the Doctor doesn't ''actually'' know his true age.

** To quote the Fourth Doctor in the 1976 story "The Stones of Blood" - "I've known hundreds of people who've lived for hundreds of years!"

** ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' has the five Greeed (Ankh, Kazari, Uva, Mezool and Gamel) all of whom are over 800 years old. Their human forms all look early to mid-20s, except for Mezool, who resembles a pre-teen girl. Later, {{spoiler|the "lost" Ankh adopts the human form of a small child.}}

* On ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', {{spoiler|Galen Tyrol, Sam Anders, Tory Foster, Saul Tigh, and Ellen Tigh}} are really two thousand years old, though this is because of travelling on a relativistic ship. Even without that, they are [[Older Than They Look]], because their ship finished its journey at a time when Bill Adama was a teenager.

* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' strongly implies this in the case of Papa Lazarou, who shows up in a flashback set about 30 years earlier, and he looks exactly the same.

* There was an episode of ''[[Smallville]]'' where a seemingly middle-aged mechanic turns out to be Dax-Ur, a Kryptonian who moved to Earth around the beginning of the 20th century.

* The vampires on ''[[True Blood]]'' but most notably, Russell who is supposed to be 3000 years old, but only looks like he's in his mid-forties and Godric, who at 2000, looked about 18.

** The maenad Maryann is ancient, supposedly predating ancient Greece, which would put her at over 4000. She, however, looks to be in her forties, and looked the same over a decade before entering the series.

* ''[[Alphas]]'' has Stanton Parish, an Alpha whose history has been traced as far back as the US Civil War. It has not been revealed yet how old he really is.

* On ''[[Supernatural]]'' many of the supernatural beings who appear human can be quiet old

* [[Insane Clown Posse|Violent J]] in "I Want My Shit".

* In [[The Bible]], before the great flood, men lived to be over 900 years old, the oldest being, of course, Noah's grandfather Methuselah.

** According to some midrashim, Cain died in the Flood aged 1656, making him the longest-lived human.

* Changeling folklore often includes the changeling (who looks like a baby or small child) revealing that it's actually several hundred years old or 'as old as Wester Wood'.

* Pick a deity. Any deity. Unless special circumstances require it they will ''always'' appear in a form that is at least recognisably human, if not necessarily young, despite ages being anywhere from centuries to as old as the universe, or ''even older''.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The title character of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''Iolanthe'' is a fairy who looks like a 17-year-old girl. In the backstory, she married a mortal and had a son, Strephon; in the play, his age is 25. This causes problems for Strephon when he is seen in Iolanthe's company, since no one will believe that's she's his mum.

* The opera singer Emilia Marty, in Karel Čapek's play (and Leoš Janáček's opera) ''The Makropulos Affair'', is really 300 years old. She gets more than a bit tired of life, however.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The One Electronic from ''[[Rice Boy]]'' has [[Walking the Earth|roamed Overside]] for thousands of years. The number "three thousand" gets tossed around.

* In ''[[The KAMics]]'', ex-valkyries Gertrude, Brunhilda and Nikki are several thousand years old, although they appear to be in their 20s.

** Vaarsuvius the elf is over 100 years old, but doesn't look any older than the rest of the Order. Apparently OOTS elves take a very long time to reach adulthood, as well as aging slowly once they're there; V's children, who are in kindergarten and look the part, are stated to be 26.

* The three main characters in the furry webcomic ''[[At Arm's Length (webcomic)|At Arms Length]]'' appear to be in their late 20's, but are actually closer to three hundred years old. Ally's mother appears to to be in her late 40s/early 50s, but is actually several thousands of years old.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', the "Immortals" (or "fairies", as other entities immune to ravages of time call them). They live indefinitely, but have to "reset", keeping only some memories and power to avoid madness. Pandora Raven is an and has lived for at least 300 years in her current incarnation. Despite this the most common form she chooses to interact with humans with is that of a little girl.

** Their offspring with humans are "[[Our Elves Are Different|Elves]]", pretty much like humans, but somewhat tougher, with great magic potential and [[Immortality Begins At Twenty|not aging past their prime]]. Such as Adrian Raven, her son, is also a good deal older than he looks, though he at least has the decency to make himself look middle-aged when in public. His true form appears to be somewhere in his mid-twenties.

* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' has the [http://yafgc.net/?id=1926 case] calling for a [[Beat Panel]]. Past the first century one can't tell exactly how old those elves are...

* In ''[[American Barbarian]]'', [http://www.ambarb.com/?p=418 the scientists].

* Elves in ''[[Ears for Elves]]'' live into their 900s, and don't look old for any part of that. Luero is only a young adult, and [https://web.archive.org/web/20150121073523/http://www.earsforelves.com/archives/390 in his prime] at 77.

== [[Web Original]] ==

* Turns out {{spoiler|[[Neurotically Yours|Foamy the squirrel]] is in fact over 400 years old and maybe even older.}}

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Kida in ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'' is said to be old enough to forget her original written language, whatever that means.

** Milo estimates her age as somewhere around 8,500 years. She replies "yes", as though this isn't anything to be surprised about.

* Several characters in ''[[Wakfu]]'': the dragon Grougaloragran, [[Big Bad]] Nox, Moon the monkey, and Goultard the barbarian.

* The Nibblonians and Brainspawn from ''[[Futurama]]'' have been arch nemeses since the dawn of the Universe. The Nibblonians, and the planet-tentacle monster Yivo are even ''older'' than the Universe. It's fairly common for humans to reach 160 years of age, which, while still looking very old, appears to be far closer to 80-90.

* In one episode of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons (animation)|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' the heroes meet the Lost Children, whose are members of an entire species who are very long lived. Although the Children themselves don't fit the Trope yet (one of them is 73 years old, despite physically being a prepubescent) their guardian Alfor certainly does, being 552 years old, which the Children claim is middle-age for their kind.

* The Utrons in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' are a race of long-lived aliens, the ones the Turtles encounter in the present day having been stranded on Earth since the days of Feudal Japan, and a virtual reality flashback shows they underwent no physical or mental signs of age since that time.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Youngsters]]