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The Fog of Ages: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|'''Treebeard''': I don't suppose you've seen Entwives in the Shire?
'''Pippin''': [''shakes head''] What do they look like?
'''Treebeard''': I don't remember now.
|[[The Two Towers]]}}
So, it has been clarified, [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|immortality ''sucks'']]. You see all your [[Mayfly-December Romance|friends and loved ones die off]], you have to constantly [[Masquerade|come up with new forms of ID]], and if you don't keep abreast of mortal matters, you're going to find yourself [[Totally Radical|completely irrelevant]] in a century or two. On the plus side, you're a living witness to history. You could have been alive at the fall of the Berlin Wall, the treaty at Appomatox Court House, or even the signing of the
Well, hold on a second... see, one could argue that [[My Skull Runneth Over|there's only so much space the brain can hold, like a video cassette]]. Which means that, if you live long enough, your brain's going to start recording over itself. You might forget where you were born, what your parents looked like, hell, maybe even what your real name is. And it'll be lost forever to the sands of time.
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Unless, of course, the immortal character in question records everything in a diary/volume of books or something, but how often does this happen?
A common partial aversion is to have the
Not to be confused with [[Shrouded in Myth]].
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* C.C. from [[Code Geass]] suffers from this, {{spoiler|until Lelouch has a [[Journey to the Center of the Mind|journey to the center of her mind]] and then Marianne returns all her memories.}}
* In the [[Samurai Deeper Kyo]] manga, this is the [[Start of Darkness]] of [[Magnificent Bastard]] Chinmei.
== Comic Books ==
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* Det. Christian Walker, the main character of ''[[Powers]]'', is actually an [[Immortality|immortal]] who's been around since caveman days. He just doesn't remember anything before the early 20th century. His [[Arch Nemesis]]/[[Evil Counterpart]] who has been around just as long, on the other hand, seems to remember most of it. However, at the final tragic confrontation between the two, Walker demands to know why the nemesis has done the things he's done, and why the two have been fighting all this time. His enemy pauses, then admits that he can't remember anymore.
* [[Wolverine]], although some of this is due to [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]; other explanations have been simply that he can't remember more than a lifetime of stuff he's done, or that it's an unfortunate side effect of his [[Healing Factor]].
== Film ==
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** Could be it's not really this trope, as the "ups and downs" are generally what ''everyone'' remembers, ancient or not.
* Max Schreck, the vampire actor in ''[[Shadow of the Vampire]]'', suffers from this; most of the memories of his early life and his sire have faded, and throughout the film he claims to have forgotten killing members of the film crew less than a few hours after doing so. However, it's implied that Schreck isn't a "complete" vampire, given that he has continued [[Age Without Youth|aging despite being immortal]], and that he was never capable of siring vampires of his own.
== Literature ==
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* Crystal Singers in [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s series of that name have this problem, though it's brought on more by long-term exposure to Ballybran crystal than actual age. {{spoiler|Killashandra eventually finds a solution to this problem, accidentally.}}
* Age appears infinitely extendable in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Strata]]'', and "memory surgery" prevents brain overload.
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
* In Kim Stanley Robinson's ''[[Red Mars Trilogy]]'', advances in medicine let people live to over 150, but their memories start showing significant deterioration.
** This is pretty much cured by a drug cocktail that apparently 'refreshes' the taker's memory, to the point where they have highly detailed recall of practically their entire lives.
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* Vampires in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' have [[Photographic Memory]], but Alice cannot remember anything from back when she was human.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In the last episode of ''[[Angel]]'', the eponymous character asked Harmony if she remembered what it was like being human because he no longer remembers himself.
** Earlier Darla, resurrected human, realized she no longer remembered what her name had been before she became a vampire.
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* Parodied on Canadian teen sitcom ''Mr. Young'' with Mrs. Byrne, who has a memory span of a few seconds due to having lived through an ice age.
* According to the fan favourite episode [[Musical Episode|"Brigadoom"]], the Brunnen-G of ''[[Lexx]]'' suffered pretty heavily from this trope, after retreating behind a nigh-impregnable shield on Brunnis II and cracking the immortality problem. It's implied this contributed to their insular behaviour and eventual downfall.
== Tabletop Games ==
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** Kaa may be a justified exception: his focus is the preservation of cultures, knowledge, etc., that would otherwise be destroyed.
* The Sindar (elves) of Hârn suffer from an extreme form of this, to the point where they will completely forget friends after a long absence. Often an elf will remember songs and tales of events he took part in but have no memory of the actual events.
== Video Games ==
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** According to [[Chris Avellone]], Ravel's apparent senility actually stems from the fact that due to her nature and having all of her "branches" (including Mebbeth, Marta and Ei-Veine), she sees across many planes and time periods all at once and she sometimes has trouble distinguishing exactly where or when she is (hence some of the strange diaglog—it was meant to be spoken by another one of Ravel's "selves")
* In ''7th Saga'', the robot Lux was built with a finite amount of memory and as a result has forgotten who built him and why.
== Web Comics ==
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{{quote|'''Petey''': I might - MIGHT - be [[Body Backup Drive|immortal]], but on galactic time I'm still a baby. Look around! [[Fridge Logic|If it's this easy to live forever, where]] are all the [[Precursors|grown-ups]]? }}
* Jin of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' has lived for over 80,000 years due to immortality and a [[Groundhog Day Loop]], and, as a result, she often has difficulties remembering details from previous cycles. She often entrusts people with information to help her remember.
== Web Original ==
* In [[Orion's Arm]] this can easily happen to [[Muggles|nearbaselines]] who live more than a few hundred years. Though cybernetic and [[Nanomachines|nanotech]] enhancements to memory are usually widely available, it is still rare to live longer than about 1,500 years without [[Brain Uploading|trans]][[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|cending]].
* [http://www.furaffinity.net/user/-three-/ Three] (aka [[I Have Many Names|Clarion, Silver, Assistant...]]) has been jumping from universe to universe for about 30-50,000 years, give or take. She can't remember exactly how old she is. She's also forgotten what her species or homeworld was called and possibly even her original name. She does try to hold on to certain memories, particularly those of close friends, lovers, and adopted children.
== Western Animation ==
* Paradox from ''[[Ben 10:
** He also had a [[Bored with Insanity|small bout of insanity]], which couldn't have helped.
*** The fact that he exists outside of linear time probably doesn't help either.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Elders]]
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[[Category:This Index Will Live Forever]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fog of Ages, The}}
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