Who Wants to Live Forever?: Difference between revisions

|'''The Bag,''' ''Plastic Bag''}}

 

 

The [[Fate Worse Than Death|worst fate possible]] might well be [[Immortality]]. Sure, you might like the idea that you get to live forever and see what the world's like hundreds of years from now, but what's eternal life compared to the pain of life in general, from getting thrown in a [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] chamber, to the [[Mayfly-December Romance|emotional anguish]] of seeing your loved ones die, one by one, as you stay fixed in time? See [[Who Wants to Live Forever?/Analysis|Analysis]] for more horrifying details.

 

 

This attitude toward immortality is [[Older Than Feudalism]], going back at least as far as the Greek myths about Tithonos's [[Age Without Youth]] and Prometheus's punishme- ''[[Brick Joke|is your hand still up!?]]''

 

 

{{examples}}

== Trope Namer ==

** Never mind the fact that ''many'' people will want to kill you. Some because they think the fact you're immortal in the first place means you've made [[Deal with the Devil|a pact with Satan]] or are otherwise some sort of [[Humanoid Abomination]]; others, fellow immortals, want to kill you because doing so makes them more powerful, and the whole idea of your immortality is that "There Can Be Only One" so ''all'' of you will ''have'' to kill each other at some point, until only a single one is left. By the way, the only way to kill you is [[Off with His Head]]- the former group probably don't know this, so prepare yourself for a lot of painful non-deaths. Which, it so happens, is how your immortality was activated in the first place- you died a ''violent'' death to get it. And you probably didn't know about it until that happened.

** And we've seen in the very beginning of the first movie how people react when someone mysteriously survives an horrible death.

* Also played with in the anime ''Highlander: The Search For Vengeance'', both Colin and Marcus embody this, as neither have been able to get over some large events of their early lives - Marcus still pines for the fall of Rome, hoping to recreate it and working towards that for 2000 years. Colin wants to avenge the murder of his wife, and he has been hunting Marcus for two millenia.

 

* ''[[Noblesse]]'': Rai is an incredibly powerful being known qw the Noblesse who has lived for millennia. Despite being very kind, he was feared for his incredible power and only received visitors every few decades or so. He was alone. Until the start of the series, when he's found happiness in the practice of masquerading as an [[Ordinary High School Student]] in the modern day.

* ''[[Rumbling Hearts]]'' references this trope. In the last episode, {{spoiler|when Haruka decides she cannot live with Takayuki after the coma}}, she explains the book "Mayal's Gift," about an immortal fairy who plays with human friends. After a few years of playing, the kids grow up, and Mayal is still as lively as ever. The kids become too old for Mayal, and leave the forest.

* Hiroaki Samura's ''[[Blade of the Immortal]]'' (think ''[[Highlander]]'' meets ''[[Samurai Champloo]]''), in which the title character - thanks to an infusion of 'kessen chu' or 'sacred blood worms' which instantly repair virtually any injury which he sustains - is, to all intents and purposes, incapable of dying (and quickly comes to the realization that effective immortality sucks). When it's suggested that he simply decapitate himself, he protests that he wants to die a *normal* death and suggests that he slay 1000 evil men in return for the "cure" for his immortality (and partially to redeem himself for killing 100 men when he was an outlaw).

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has "Sympathy for the Devil" where the bounty leads them to a child who at the time is actually over 80 and apparently can neither age nor sustain permanent damage {{spoiler|until Spike shoots him with a [[MacGuffin]] that causes him to age rapidly and die in seconds.}} He was pretty crazy by the time we met him, likely from watching his family die and being experimented upon for decades by scientists hoping to figure out how to replicate the freak accident that made him the way he was.

* Baku in ''[[Nightmare Inspector]]'' are immortal, and, well... {{spoiler|The original Hiruko let Azusa become his vessel because it was the closest he could get to dying. Then Azusa got sick of immortality and looked for a dream frightening enough to swallow him up and destroy him.}} The current Hiruko seems to avert this, though.

* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'': {{spoiler|[[I Cannot Self-Terminate|Emeraude.]]}} 'Nuff said.

* Tabris of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is immortal and will live forever if he merges with Adam... but that's not his desire. He's driven by the instinct of all Angels, denying him the free will he envies in humanity. He sees death as complete freedom, and so welcomes his defeat.

 

* ''[[The Sandman]]'' issue "Facade" depicts Elemental Girl as a washed-up superhero who takes no joy from life, but finds it impossible to commit suicide due to her powers.

** There was also a subversion done on this trope: a man is granted immortality by Death and Dream, and Dream visits him once every hundred years. During each visit he asks whether or not he wants to continue to live forever. Even after seven hundred years - including the death of his family and being unable to eat for years on end due to extreme poverty - he continues to want to live forever. When asked by Dream whether he will choose to die because of the pain, he responds simply with "Why? I've got so much to live for!" It's suggested that Dream subconsciously desired this, as he suffered from immortal loneliness.

* After dedicating his entire villainous career to cheating death by killing anything in the universe that might be a threat to him (which is [[Omnicidal Maniac|everything]]), [[Fantastic Four]] foe Annihilus' latest incarnation has come around to this line of thought. Turns out, in the Negative Zone, everyone is like [[Great Lakes Avengers|Mister Immortal]] mentioned above, and the endless cycle of death and resurrection gets old fast.

 

* The ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3754902/1/ Forevergreen]'', is a [[Tear Jerker]] that dives into this in detail.

* There is a ''[[Ranma ½]]'' fanfic in which Cologne thinks to herself about her long life. Pretty much it boils down to One: After the first three centuries it starts to get rather boring. Two: Everyone finds a crutch. Cologne has managing her village, Happosai has Liquor and Women, and another one that she heard about is trying to play every game of Go. And finally Three: That crutch can not turn into your only reason for living. Happosai is unbearable and the Go player has only come out of his cave once in the last century because he needed a new Go board.

* One ''[[Ecco the Dolphin]]'' fanfiction had the eponymous dolphin endure immortality, outliving his family and friends, watching species pass into and out of existence, and even getting to see the sun swell tremendously within the span of his long, long life. He eventually attempts to kill himself with the incredible pressure of the deep ocean, {{spoiler|ending in something of a [[Mind Screw]] in that he somehow finds the surface of his youth, friends and all. It then cuts to Ecco's dead body, very old by dolphin standards but hardly immortal, and two young dolphins commenting that he'd been off in his own world for most of his old age.}}

* ''[[Touhou Ibunshu]]'', as a [[Dark Fic]] of ''[[Touhou]]'', naturally has characters that were originally on the [[Living Forever Is Awesome]] side of things take a turn closer to this trope. Mokou is the most spectacular and insane example, having lost her mind completely a long time ago (she claims to have spent a decade or so experimenting on interesting ways to kill herself), but the most altered from the original is {{spoiler|Yukari}}, who is so utterly ''bored'' of being confined to the same old Gensoukyou for centuries that she decides to {{spoiler|obliterate Gensoukyou entirely, which would finally give her a chance at being free}}.

* ''In [[Travels Through Azeroth and Outland]]'', the undead narrator isn't worried about this, because he's pretty sure he'll be killed exploring some hellhole before the endless years get to him.

* The ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' fic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1759811/1/A_Seedling_Among_The_Ashes A Seedling Among The Ashes]'' has {{spoiler|Makoto}} deal with it since by the time the Sailor Senshi gain their immortality {{spoiler|she is already married with two kids}}. It does have a happy end though.

* Princess Celestia reflects on this trope a bit in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130813213433/http://www.fimfiction.net/story/16112/whispers Whispers]'':

{{quote|'''Celestia''': I am admitting my own inability to experience one of the joys of thy mortality. I will be honest with you, Arcanus, as I always have been. Immortality has precluded me from truly living out a mutually full romantic companionship with another pony. They would grow old, and after a heartwarmingly sincere farewell, they would die. What mortals only truly experience once, we - my sister and I - have enjoyed, and suffered repeatedly, and will continue to do so. She was the only long-term companion I ever truly had, and the bond of friendship carried us through the maddening ages. Now that even she is gone, I am alone.}}

 

* In ''[[The Fountain]]'', Tom Creo seeks to discover a medical means to immortality through experiments with the bark of a rare tree, but he ultimately learns to accept death as a necessary aspect of life. Though our bodies die, the material is recycled into new organisms, and so we live on through new life. Even planets and stars that die become new stars and bring new life to other worlds. Two parallel stories feature different versions of Tom achieving immortality and finding it fruitless. Tomas the Conquistador seeks and finds the Tree of Life, but ultimately the sap {{spoiler|turns his body into flowers, in something of a [[Literal Genie]] ending}}. Spaceman Tom has apparently succeeded in becoming immortal by consuming bark from the rare tree that was grown from the body of his dead wife, but {{spoiler|the tree dies before he can resurrect her in a supernova. A vision of his wife convinces him to accept death with joy, and he dies in the supernova, becoming part of a new star}}. Interestingly, the story also makes room for a very unsympathetic priest to prattle on about immortal souls, which the film seems to dismiss outright.

* The cult film ''[[Zardoz]]'' features a future Earth which has degenerated into two classes—a race of mortal slaves, and the immortal "Eternals." who live lives of purposeless luxury. Occasionally, an Eternal will develop a mental illness which makes them fall into a state of catatonia. (These people are called "The Apathetics"). If an Eternal commits a crime, they can be punished by being artificially aged (although they don't die—they just become permanently decrepit). The end of the movie has most of the Eternals joyously welcoming their own destruction at the hands of the "Exterminators," a [[Barbarian Tribe|primitive warrior class]] to whom the main character belongs.

* In ''[[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus]]'', Doctor Parnassus makes a wager with the Devil, with immortality as the prize. A thousand years later, Parnassus is a [[The Alcoholic|broken-down drunk]] and so miserable that he believes the Devil let him win just to torture him.

 

* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's [[Second Apocalypse]] series. They gained immortality, but since they only evolved to deal with a couple hundred years' worth of memories, the millennia have driven many of them insane, some of them to the point where {{spoiler|they commit major atrocities on purpose in order to so severely scar themselves emotionally and psychology that they can't forget it.}} Then add on the fact that most of those millennia have been defined by untold misery and suffering...

* [[Douglas Adams]] examples:

*** Marvin has also lived several times longer than the lifetime of the universe through various [[Time Travel]] mishaps. He still hates it.

**** {{spoiler|Yeah, but he gets to die eventually. It's hard to understand [[Fridge Logic|why he doesn't just kill himself.]]}}

***** {{spoiler|Simpler answer: he died once he had something to feel good about. His misery and contempt for life had kept him running up to then.}}

***** {{spoiler|Not to mention the terrible pain in all the diodes down his left side, which were the only components in all his incredibly long existence that nobody ever bothered to replace.}}

* [[Lloyd Alexander]]'s short story, ''The Stone'', was about a man who found a stone that made him live forever - by making everything on his farm exactly the same, day after day after day. He couldn't get rid of it easily, either - the stone was a [[Clingy MacGuffin]].

* The protagonist from [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Bicentennial Man]]'' is a robot, who can quite literally live forever by repairing himself whenever necessary. However, his wish is to be human. In an age of cybernetic prosthetics and replacement body parts, the boundary between man and machine blurs - and eventually, he gets himself legally declared human, but only after he introduces inevitable decay into his robotic brain, ensuring that he will eventually ''die'' like a human, rather than live forever as a robot.

* Also from [[Isaac Asimov]], ''[[The Last Answer]]'' has [[God]] harnessing dead beings' inevitable desire to snuff it, {{spoiler|in an effort to figure out how he himself can do the same}}.

* Natalie Babbitt's ''[[Tuck Everlasting]]''. The main character sacrifices the chance to live forever with an immortal who loves her for a normal life. Note usually this kind of character has to choose between eternal life and a mortal love; here, she can get [[Immortality]] ''and'' love... but gives up both.

** Granted, the one who she was going to live forever with's brother told her about his love life as an immortal... he was married, with two children, but when his wife saw that he didn't age, she left him, thinking he had made a deal with the devil... and then she went insane. He also had to watch his two children die... one of whom was older than him.

* In [[Stephen Baxter]]'s ''[[Manifold Space]]'', Nemoto keeps herself alive with advanced medical treatments for well over a thousand years, so she can deal with the problem of the alien Gaijin (and whoever the Gaijin are fighting). She doesn't seem to enjoy it much, and becomes extremely crotchety—but she's too much of a control freak to leave things in anyone else's hands.

** In Baxter's ''[[Xeelee Sequence]]'' of novels, a group of people known as Jasofts gain [[Immortality]]. However they suffer in that ultimately, they can only hold one thousand years' worth of experiences, and live many times that, sometimes able to vividly remember events, before seeing something which brings back other memories and pushes those away.

* A significant subplot in [[Peter S. Beagle]]'s ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]'' involves Schmendrick, whose mentor made him immortal until he could come into his real power. When his power transforms the unicorn into a human woman, he tries to tell her about the beauty of things that can die, a lesson she learns all too well before she regains her [[Immortality]] (and he loses his).

** From halfway through the book, when the unicorn is first transformed (and freaks out about being in a mortal body):

* In [[C. J. Cherryh]] 's ''[[Morgaine Cycle]]'' the gates can be programmed to provide a kind of [[Immortality]] for their users. The user's physical condition can be scanned upon entering a gate for the first time, and subsequently each time they enter a gate they will emerge on the other side in that original condition, thus [[Reset Button|resetting]] their biological clock to its earlier state.

** This pisses {{spoiler|Vanye}} the hell off when he learns he's been thus fixed a few years ''before'' his physical prime.

* In [[Brian Jacques]]' ''Castaways of the [[Flying Dutchman]]'' series, the main characters are an immortal boy and dog. Leaving aside the fact that the boy is stuck at age 14 ''forever'', they have to leave everyone they ever get close to before someone notices that they don't age.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s auto-racing elves who get involved with humans are in fact traumatized by the deaths of the people around them, especially lovers and spouses, but they live with it.

* In [[C. S. Lewis]]' ''[[Narnia|The Magician's Nephew]]'', a tree's fruit comes with the warning that it brings eternal life and despair. The White Witch eats it, and from her expression, the title nephew understands the warning. [[Narnia]] is then protected from her by a tree grown from one of the apples; she cannot stand to come near it afterward.

** The Witch tries to tempt Digory (the Nephew) into eating the apples and living forever as well, invoking [[We Can Rule Together]]. Digory promptly responds that he'd rather live a normal amount of time and go to heaven rather than stay living and watch all his friends die.

{{quote|"What don't die can't live. What can't live don't change. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you ... you've lived longer'n me but I'm older'n you, and I'm better'n you."}}

** Carrot uses the trope name in an inspirational speech in one of the Watch books. Sergeant Colon snarkily replies that he doesn't know, ask him again in a few centuries.

** There are similar themes in many [[Larry Niven]] short stories and novellas. (And subverted by Louis Wu in the ''[[Ringworld]]'' novels).

** Indeed, several characters appearing throughout the entire series decide to commit suicide because they are bored with eternal life or just tired of living in "The Savage Garden." The usual means is walking into a fire but later on, we learn that many senior, i.e. "powerful," [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] use their power of flight to ascend to high altitude to greet the morning sun.

** A similar variation can be found in the ''[[Anita Blake]]'' novels. One of the more disturbing vampires, called Valentina, was turned at the age of eight by a vampire pedophile who was bringing over children to be his permanent ''companions''. The few vampires turned as children who survive a few centuries and described as twisted things. In Valentina's case, "(She) was taken before her body grew large enough for much physical pleasure. She has turned such energies into other avenues of interest," which in this case means torturing others.

*** Vamps can be killed if you apply enough force.

* Byron's closet drama ''[[Manfred]]'' is a melodramatic refashioning of the ''Faust'' legend. When he summons seven Spirits who swear to do his bidding, he asks not for power but for forgetfulness. The entire play is his search for death, since the star under which he was born cursed him to live forever.

* While the denizens of [[John Varley]]'s ''[[Eight Worlds]]'' books may all be potentially immortal (due to really advanced medical technology) but very few of them actually live much beyond 300 years, largely due to the effects of this trope.

* As Ijon Tichy finds in [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''Observation on the Spot'', most people who've tried immortality in a seemingly "everything-is-possible" society of Lusania, didn't really like it. It seems that mortals' psychology (the guys in question ''are'' aliens, but [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|surprisingly humanlike]] psychologically) is simply ill-suited to immortality. There are just ''six'' immortals who finally learned to cope and hasn't ended it all in different ingenious ways, and all of them don't like to talk about it.

* Invoked and deliberately averted in ''[[A Dirge for Prester John]]''. The Abir exists to change up people's lives every couple centuries to make sure no one is bored or dissatisfied with living forever.

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'''s third season, characters seem to take turns pointing out all of the above to Angel. Even ''Spike'' (although he mostly mocks the idea of him and Buffy being "friends").

** Sid the demon slayer, cursed to immortality in his puppet body, points out that his body is dust and bones, but all he wants is to be free of the damn thing. {{spoiler|While the EU later shows that he may still be both alive and trapped in the puppet body.}}

* 2000 year old Godric from ''[[True Blood]]'' fits this trope in that he becomes weary of his existence and {{spoiler|chooses to expose himself to sunlight at dawn.}}

* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'': {{spoiler|In the series finale, Arvin Sloane solves Rembaldi's riddle while in an underground chamber, gaining immortality. Jack Bristow finds him and detonates a bomb. The explosion kills Jack and buries Sloane alive under tons of rubble. Sloane is doomed to be alone and [[And I Must Scream|immobile, yet conscious]], for the rest of time.}}

** In "The Family of Blood" the Doctor was being pursued by creatures who wished to gain long-lived nigh-immortal bodies like that of the Doctor. The Doctor granted them immortality, but punished them severely. One was wrapped in unbreakable chains. One was thrown into a collapsing galaxy. One was trapped inside ALL the mirrors. One was suspended in time and posed as a scarecrow.

{{quote|'''Son of Mine''': We wanted to live forever. So The Doctor made sure that we did.}}

** The Fourth Doctor story, "The Brain of Morbius," is a direct articulation of the trope. The Doctor openly states that the Time Lords reject permanent immortality, even though they could theoretically extend their regeneration cycle indefinitely.

* As a contrast to Jack, in the second series of ''[[Torchwood]]'', {{spoiler|after Owen dies and is resurrected, there's an entire episode about how his life sucks now that he's super-undead. Great quotes include "You get to live forever... I get to die forever," and "I can't drink, I can't sleep, I can't shag... and those are three of my ''favorite'' things." Also, he doesn't heal anymore, leading to inconveniences when he slices his hand open with a scalpel. Admittedly this is more about the character having to live through being dead rather than having to live forever, but it's pretty close.}} Indeed, Jack's distaste for his own immortality means he probably regrets choosing to {{spoiler|resurrect Owen, which he didn't know would last more than a few minutes.}}

** In ''Children of Earth'' viewers are frequently reminded how horrible it would be to have Jack's immortality. Despite seemingly coming to terms with his 'condition' in series three of the new Who, his weariness towards his immunity to death appears to be rekindling. And if you've seen ''Children of Earth'', you probably understand why.

* The ''Curiosity'' episode "Can You Live Forever?" plays with this concept, outlining the practical concerns of immortality - replacing lost limbs, rejuvenating dead tissue, increasing memory once the organic brain is full, etc. - and how they can be addressed through technological means. The "outliving your loved ones" issue is touched upon briefly, but the show does address a bigger problem in more detail: if your immortality is dependent on technology, what happens when that technology is wiped out by an Extinction-Level Event? Luckily the subject is [[Adam Savage]], who is nothing if not resourceful.

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM1AqivB1G8 Across the Highlands] by Kamelot.

* The [[Ayreon]] universe is based on living beings called Forever, who, you guessed it, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|live forever]], but have lost the ability to feel emotions.

* The Boston indie rock band Hayley Jane and the Primates has a song called "Mabel" about a 380-something immortal who can't bring herself to [[Mayfly-December Romance|love anyone]] because everyone she's ever cared about is dead.

* [[Queen]]: "Who wants to live forever... when love must die?"

 

* In a ''[[Dilbert]]'' cartoon, an android make in Dilbert's image boasts that he will live forever and lets out an [[Evil Laugh]]. Then, a few seconds later, he complains that he's bored.

 

 

* In both of the ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' and ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'', immortality is never considered a blessing. The foremost problem is that one spends eternity wrestling [[Enemy Within|the Beast]], but there's the matter of boredom as well. ''The Masquerade'' didn't really address this, as the [[Metaplot|Jyhad]] kept everyone busy, but it's an important issue in ''The Requiem'': ennui is so pervasive that vampires have constructed a massive political/social framework, the Danse Macabre, almost solely to keep themselves occupied.

** The main sourcebook for ''The Requiem'' also tries to prevent [[Player Characters|PCs]] from sitting around and moping about all of the things mentioned at the top of the page by pointing out that anyone who wasn't strong-willed enough to deal with all of the assorted nastinesses of vampire society or didn't have a long term goal in mind would probably have just killed themselves by staying outside during the next sunrise after they were Turned. ...[[Fridge Logic|except that]] the things capable of permanently destroying a vampire (fire and sunlight) are ''very'' likely to cause the aforementioned Beast to [[Grand Theft Me|temporarily hijack control of their body]] and cause them to flee from the potential source of [[Final Death]].

* Elves in [[Eon]] call themselves "The People of the Curse". Elves can live forever, and get a few other pretty nifty perks. However, as they become older, elves find it increasingly difficult to relate to people around them. This, coupled with the emotional traumas of the few friends they manage to keep dying and degradations of their innate magic inevitably leads to increasingly severe bouts of clinical depression and catatonia. Elves reaching 500 years of age without becoming complete hermits is the stuff of legend. Most open their veins long before then.

 

* ''The Makropulos Affair'', a play written by Czech playwright Karel ?apek and subsequently adapted into an opera by Leos Janacek, concerns a woman who has been granted 300 years of life through a magic potion, with an option for renewal. She finds that such a long life is an ordeal that leaves her exhausted and numb to human emotions. She decides that death is better.

* ''An Ordinary Wonder'' by Russian Yevgenii Shvarts. There is a wizard in the play, who tells his wife near the end: "But alas, I am immortal, so I will spend the rest of eternity missing you."

 

* The protagonist in ''[[Chakan: The Forever Man|Chakan the Forever Man]]'' (based on a comic book) is given eternal life after besting [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] in a duel. Problem is, he didn't also get eternal ''youth'', and Death will not take him until all evil has been wiped out. So unlike pretty much every other game ever made, the entire goal is to ''not'' survive.

* In ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', the player character cannot die (unless he pisses off a god or some other damn fool act), but instead returns to the starting point (the Mortuary) - or sometimes some other location - every time his health drops to zero, and regenerates there. The catch is {{spoiler|every time he cheats death, another person somewhere in the universe dies in his place.}} Plus there's the whole memory-loss thing—you start out the game with a case of complete amnesia, and eventually find out it's because {{spoiler|if you die in the Fortress of Regrets, where The Transcendent One (who is actually the Nameless Ones mortality and does not want to be reacquired) lives, he wipes your memory to stop you from trying to make yourself mortal again. In every past life you tried to uncover your identity, eventually wound up facing The Transcendent One, got your memory wiped, and started again from square one. In-game, the Fortress of Regrets is the last level, and if you die there you have to reload (true only a few times before that in the game).}} The goal of the game is initially to recover the Nameless One's memory, and eventually to cure his immortality.

* {{spoiler|Porky Minch}}, the main villain in ''[[Mother 3]]'', is an odd, but particularly powerful, example of this. Screwing with time travel has aged him, previously a child no older than 13 or so, past the point where he can die naturally. For one reason or another he is stuck in the time period that the game takes place in, and although he pretty much rules what is left of the world, he's still, in the end, a little kid who wants his mom and the closest thing he had to a friend, {{spoiler|Ness}}, giving the viewer sympathy towards a character one has been built up to loathe both for his actions in [[EarthBound|the previous game]], and for the terrible atrocities the player experiences first hand in this game.

** The entire plot is also caused by a large and convoluted attempt to {{spoiler|destroy the world, leaving Porky the only thing left alive in it, giving him the closest thing to death he can possibly achieve}}, but in the end he is {{spoiler|trapped inside an inescapable capsule forever}}, which achieves essentially the same effect.

** The manual for the first ''[[Mega Man X]]'' game has a bit a Dr. Light's notes saying that X can function indefinitely as long as he can maintain his energy level.

* Brought up in the visual novel ''[[Songs of Araiah]]'', where it is mentioned that most magicians (who can be immortal) revoke their own immortality after having lived about a thousand years. In addition, immortality works by "freezing" the state that the body is in, meaning that immortals do not age, women can not have children, and their bodies will get neither better nor worse (for example, the lead female, Melissa, will ''always'' have to wear glasses, despite the existence of spells which could fix her vision). Outliving loved ones is a minor issue, as a magician can grant immortality to anybody.

* The flash game known as Kill Me is about an immortal superhero who can resurrect after death. He has to navigate a warehouse containing an highly toxic elixir that will... [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|well...]]

 

* In ''[[Jix]]'', Kelelder the Planet Thief got bored after immortality was thrust upon him and started killing his own kind and claiming their colony planets as his own.

* In the webcomic ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', one race attempted immortality through technology, only to have it backfire on them rather badly - as their people invariably went insane after a few normal lifetimes as their mental health didn't regenerate like their bodies did - almost destroying their civilization. The few survivors altered themselves so as to live in a permanent state of senility to prevent something like this ever happening again. The whole ordeal is described in more detail [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20070902.html here].

* This is a major plot point in [[Ginpu]], where demigods are pretty much doomed to spend their lives losing those they love. Heck, the BBEG's whole plan revolves around {{spoiler|making a child who is immortal, so he'll have at least one family member that doesn't die.}}

** Guess what {{spoiler|Morgan's}} biggest desire is of God? {{spoiler|Live, grow old with family, die like a human.}}

 

* While Iriana in ''[[Ilivais X]]'' may be suicidal for [[Dark and Troubled Past|reasons]] [[Rape as Backstory|unrelated]] [[Wetware AI|to]] [[Driven to Suicide|immortality]], the result is the same. She wants to die, but can't no matter how hard she tries or how much she frappes herself.

* As the title suggests, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNHHG8n13hQ&feature=sub Die Now or Live Forever] has this trope, but inverted. Nobody wants to become a vampire, but once you are one, you enjoy it.

* ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s [http://www.cracked.com/article_18708_5-reasons-immortality-would-be-worse-than-death.html 5 Reasons Immortality Would be Worse than Death].

* ''[[Tales of MU]]'' has one of the few cases of immortal elves who do ''not'' avert this. Many elves have spoken at their own funerals and "taking elven leave" is a dwarf euphemism for suicide.

 

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': "You wanna live forever?" [[Rhetorical Question Blunder|"Was that an option?"]]

** The fact that {{spoiler|the reason the Earth is barren and ruined is because ''he'' destroyed it}} probably had something to do with it as well.

** Savage does acknowledge that if he didn't keep busy, he would go (more) insane with the boredom and loneliness. He occupies himself with many projects, from farming to restoring the ruins of Metropolis to dabbling in time travel (which he explicitly ''can't'' use to fix things, as he cannot coexist with his past self... {{spoiler|Good thing Superman came along}}). The only thing that really seems to bother him is {{spoiler|his guilt of destroying the planet, to the point where he has constructed a fully operational spaceship but doesn't use it because he feels that his isolation is a suitable punishment for his crimes.}}

* Averted for the immortal main cast of ''[[Mary Shelley's Frankenhole]]'', all whom seem to enjoy their immortality. However, there was an episode featuring the Wolfman, who desperately wanted to die. [[Our Werewolves Are Different|Since he can only be killed by a silver bullet, and that silver bullet must be fired by a lover in order for the death to be permanent]], dying was nigh impossible. {{spoiler|The episode ends with him not only still alive, but it turns out he brought the curse upon himself, by going back in time, trying to kill himself. [[Stable Time Loop|Only to turn into a werewolf by the full moon and bite himself]].}}

* [[Played With]] on ''[[South Park]]'' with [[They Killed Kenny|Kenny]]. In his case, he ''keeps dying,'' yet somehow spontaneously resurrects, without anyone around him even remembering afterwards. It's not so much the immortality that bothers him—it's [http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/360464/i-cant-die#tab=featured having to die over and over again].

* A vlog in a series on [[Required Secondary Powers]] found [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDAtUkDniBg here] describes how Immortality can lead to [[Body Horror]], [[We Are as Mayflies]], [[And I Must Scream]] and multiple [[A Fate Worse Than Death|Fates Worse Than Death]].

 

* Some scientists argue that the longer you live, the faster time seems to flow. If you could live forever, then time would go faster and faster until everything was a blur. Eventually, years could pass in a blink of an eye. Your existence would be meaningless, and you wouldn't even remember it.

* If you assume the theories of universal entropy and the big crunch are true, then millions of years floating in completely empty space, eternally suffocating, only to to be eventually crushed into a singularity sound like a very hard price to be for a (relatively) short amount of extra time doing things you enjoy. But you also have forever to get used to it.

* The modern Transhumanists heavily avert this trope, most holding the opinion that if you do get bored eventually, then you are free to [["Seen It All" Suicide|end your own existence]], but why not try to see how long you last just in case that doesn't happen, after all. Lots of interesting hypotheses have been made for escaping the universal heat-death, as well, although how well those would work in practice is still anybody's guess. Then again, there're countless of billions of years to test them, so there's hardly any hurry.

* A recent survey all around Europe from Readers Digest asked the question "Do you want to live forever?" On average, only 30-40% of people said yes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Undead Index]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Will Live Forever]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:This Index Asked You a Question]]