History Analysis / WhoWantsToLiveForever

...''Seriously, how is your hand still up?!''

Eventually, say in a few trillion years from now, the Universe itself shows its mortality (lucky bugger) and dies. As you hop from one dying planet to another, if you can, eventually they too will end. Soon, it'll just be the endless void of subatomic particles that can never reform into anything. And you, floating there. Forever. Unless, of course, you get lucky and it turns out all matter in the universe will contract into one small mass and then make a new Big Bang, in which case after a sufficient amount of time (say, a few billion years) you might be able to find life to talk to. Assuming you survive the Big Crunch, of course... Then again, such life would likely consider you an EldritchAbomination.

Or maybe you will fall into a deep pit or sink into the ocean, or get thrown into a TortureCellar from whence you can not escape. Or worse, {{Room 101}}. A different person would starve and die, but you will have to wait there often for centuries -- and that's even assuming that someone ''will'' eventually find you. No wonder so many immortals end up crazy...

Of course, many of the above points assume that you end up invulnerable and "truly" immortal. A person who has given this a bit more thought can opt/ask/strive to simply remove ageing and indeed, that version would be mercifully bereft of many of the above points (due to the possibility of dying and the ability to change one's body to suit one's preferences or needs).

[[RunningGag Seriously, put your hand]] ''[[RunningGag down.]]'' Or, hey, you know what? If you're still in the mood for immortality, [[DeconstructedTrope let's talk you through it.]]

[[ImmortalityHurts And what about injuries?]] Did you remember to ask for a HealingFactor? Good luck to you if you didn't, because now you are at a daily risk of obtaining some really crippling injuries that will stay with you forever. Count yourself lucky if it ends with only going comatose, because you may very well get crippled to a degree where you cannot even move, [[AndIMustScream cannot even speak]], [[ICannotSelfTerminate but still going on]], [[FateWorseThanDeath forever and ever...]]

...''[[OverlyLongGag Seriously, how is your hand still up?!]]''

Even if it's possible for you to surround yourself with immortal friends, [[SeenItAll there are only so many places to go and life-defying antics you can perform]] ([[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLifeand tropes you can browse]]) before life settles into a repetitive boring monotony.

Even if it's possible for you to surround yourself with immortal friends, [[SeenItAll there are only so many places to go and life-defying antics you can perform]] ([[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife and tropes you can browse]]) before life settles into a repetitive boring monotony.

Any friends you make will only become grave resters eventually, and you must steel your heart against love because, for you, love is fleeting. Perhaps you'll never [[WalkingTheEarth have a permanent home]] because you have to keep on moving from location to new location every few years before your neighbors (and possibly the government, if you live in a sufficiently advanced society) get suspicious that there's something [[ImmortalityImmorality just not right about you]]. [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/23/haunting-images-show-why-time-really-does-seem-to-go-faster-as-you-get-older/?utm_term=.570f58bb5af5 Some studies have also suggested]] that you literally experience time more quickly as you get older. Remember when you were a little kid, and thirty minutes seemed like forever? That was because that was ultimately thirty minutes out of seven years. Now, try that when you're nine thousand.

Also, bear in mind that the reasoning for why immortality would suck is largely based on our present societal, moral, cultural and cognitive views, which needn't be correct or don't necessarily encompass everything there is to be known about everlasting life and/or the finite nature of things (there are things we know, things we know that we don't know and things we don't know that we don't know). Us arguing about such a concept would make as much sense as two hunter-gatherers arguing and debating the merits and pitfalls of modern civilization.

And after some more billions of years, that new star system you've moved to will suffer a similar fate to ours. You'll have to pick a new solar system again. And again. If you're lucky, the cosmologists who predict the Big Rip will be right, and in a paltry 20 billion years the universe will be expanding so rapidly that your ''atoms'' won't even be able to hang together any more and your existence will finally end. If you're lucky. But if the cosmologists are wrong about the Big Rip, then after a while of hopping from one star system to another, you'll be faced with a new problem: as the stars die, fewer and fewer new stars are born to replace them. After a few hundred billion years, the only stars left in the galaxy -- in the whole ''universe'', in fact -- will be the long-lived red dwarfs, each so dim that the range of distances from them inside which a habitable world can exist is horrifically slim. You'll have to search a ''lot'' of red dwarfs before you can find one with a planet at the right distance, and there'll be no guarantee it'll actually be inhabited. It will become harder and harder for you to find a planet to call home.

[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]] are obviously subject to this trope (though UndeathAlwaysEnds), as are [[FlyingDutchman Flying Dutchmen]] of various types. (And the occasional [[Series/NewAmsterdam non-flying Dutchman]].)

One of the biggest reasons CessationOfExistence (formerly a ''{{primal fear}}'') is considered to be a comforting heaven by many people nowadays, especially the more atheistic, cynical, and [[TheExistentialist existentialist]] ones, is that after giving a deep {{deconstruct|ion}}ive thought about immortality, they realize the inherent FridgeHorror within.

One of the biggest reasons CessationOfExistence (formerly a ''{{primal fear}}'') is considered to be a comforting heaven by many people nowadays, especially the more atheistic, cynical and [[TheExistentialist existentialist]] ones, after giving a deep {{deconstruct|ion}}ive thought about immortality and realizing the inherent FridgeHorror within.

Oddly, [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]], {{God}}s or naturally immortal species are portrayed to be immune to this (although in some cases they too may grow weary of immortality, given enough time). Maybe they're good at finding hobbies? At the least, living among fellow immortals is a good way to ameliorate the strain. After all, they've had a lot of time to work out cultural mores and general psychological structures necessary to deal with the relatively unchanging social landscape. ([[ImmortalProcreationClause They usually have trouble with procreation, though]]). It's also worth noting that, as an immortal, you have an infinite amount of time to deal with these problems, which may mean simply making peace with them, or even somehow finding a solution that does not necessarily involve ending said immortality.

{{Vampire}}s are obviously subject to this trope (though UndeathAlwaysEnds), as are [[FlyingDutchman Flying Dutchmen]] of various types. (And the occasional [[Series/NewAmsterdam non-flying Dutchman]].)

Any friends you make will only become grave resters eventually, and you must steel your heart against love because, for you, love is fleeting. Perhaps you'll never [[WalkingTheEarth have a permanent home]] because you have to keep on moving from location to new location every few years before your neighbors (and possibly the government, if you live in a sufficiently advanced society) get suspicious that there's something [[ImmortalityImmorality just not right about you]]. In short, any kind of companionship from mortals will only last (from your perspective) an instant[[note]]unless you're of the 'experiences life at normal human rate' variety. In which case it's arguably even worse because it's no longer a 'blink and you miss their lives' situation, it's now 'watch them slowly fall prey to illness and old age while you stand idly by'. Yeah[[/note]].

Any friends you make will only become grave resters eventually, and you must steel your heart against love because, for you, love is fleeting. Perhaps you'll never [[WalkingTheEarth have a permanent home]] because you have to keep on moving from location to new location every few years before your neighbors get suspicious that there's something [[ImmortalityImmorality just not right about you]]. In short, any kind of companionship from mortals will only last (from your perspective) an instant[[note]]unless you're of the 'experiences life at normal human rate' variety. In which case it's arguably even worse because it's no longer a 'blink and you miss their lives' situation, it's now 'watch them slowly fall prey to illness and old age while you stand idly by'. Yeah[[/note]].

Maybe you're thinking that you could be relatively lucky and become one of TheNeedless. You won't have to worry about eating, drinking, sleeping, or even breathing ever again. Except, without using them or needing to use them, your organs will gradually shut down, meaning EatingIsOptional no longer applies. Your sense of taste will disappear, along with any joy that you may have gotten from eating your favorite foods. No sleeping also means you'll find yourself with even ''more'' time that you'll need to spend looking for something to alleviate your boredom.

So to wrap up. In order to properly "enjoy" true immortality in a way that does not involve the radical alteration of your being or some sort of deus ex machina, [[RequiredSecondaryPowers you would have to never start relationships with mortals, have some sort of time and memory control, be able to travel a lot, and tons of other stuff as well]].

There are also those chronic diseases and ones that do horrible things to your body, like Leprosy, Hoof and Mouth, Smallpox, and flesh-eating bacteria. Imagine being stuck with those forever.

And what about cancer? Since tumors are the result of mutations in your own cells, they would be immortal as well.

There's also the issue that being immortal doesn't automatically mean having perfect health. What happens if you get sick? Viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens reproduce by using the proteins in host cells to create more of themselves. While you couldn't die from diseases like Ebola or Syphilis, would they end up acquiring your immortality as a result of infecting you? If so, then congratulations! You've become the carrier of the most dangerous disease in history. One that literally cannot be cured.