History Main / WeAreAsMayflies

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': In an extreme example, Transformers may very well be incapable of dying of old age, so long as they remain properly nourished. Indeed, throughout the entire franchise, only Ratchet from ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' dies of old age, sometime in the DistantFinale. The characters from the first series went into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] four million years ago, and when they woke up, all their old acquaintances were still fighting the war. They're rarely shown as being affected by old age (except for one character, Kup), and one character, Vector Prime, may very well be nearly as old as time itself. The [[Film/{{Transformers}} movies]] add [[GrumpyOldMan Jetfire]] to the list. Apart from being ''one of the first Transformers to ever live'', his aging is explained as from being starved of energon. He even comments that his father was the ''first wheel,'' ("What did he transform into? Nothing! But he did it with honour!") It is however conceivable that energon starvation and/or [[GoMadFromTheIsolation hiding in a museum with nobody to talk to for several years]] has made Jetfire go a bit peculiar, or that he's just trying to mess with Sam's head when he says this. The Fallen, one of the original Thirteen, is even older and is still spry from better care over the years.

** Unlike in alot of fantasy fiction, Orcs appear to live a long time. In the ''Literature/TheHobbit'', Bolg was in perfect fighting shape 150 years after the death of his father. Media like ''VideoGame/LordOfTheRingsOnline'', also depicts Bolg as a fully grown adult by the time of his father's death. Similarly, the Great Goblin, recognized the sword, orcist, despite it not being used for hundreds of years.

* ''VideoGame/HonkaiStarRail'': Humans are considered "short-life species" relative to the Foxians and the Vidyadhara, the former of which have a lifespan of roughly 300 years and the latter of whom can live for a thousand years or more. The Xianzhou Alliance expressly forbids MayflyDecemberRomance on its vessels to avoid complications that naturally arise when a human in a relationship with a long-life species passes away.

See also PunyEarthlings, MayflyDecemberRomance, MayflyDecemberFriendship, TimeDissonance, WeAllDieSomeday. Contrast RapidAging. Compare and contrast TimeAbyss. Sometimes used to explain why DeathMeansHumanity in-universe.

* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': Dragons live an unspecified but very long time, with a few decades being next to nothing for them while humans could die in that same period. Their species is so old they were around when humans ancestors' had first evolved from the slime.

-> ''"Every man is a spark in the darkness, by the time he is noticed he is gone forever.\\
A retinal after-image that fades and is obscured by newer, brighter lights."''
-->-- ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''

* The ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020'' episode "[[Recap/Animaniacs2020Episode23 Exercise Minute]]" demonstrates the trope with a literal mayfly who starts out young and withers away before our eyes in a matter of minutes.

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* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': In the storyline, although there are no humans with which one can compare lifespan, almost everything lives for undetermined amounts of time. Every Matoran on Mata Nui has been there for one thousand years and lived on Metru Nui for who-knows how long before that (less than 100,000, at least), Toa Lesovikk has been wandering for at least several millenia, and Karzahni is almost as old as the universe itself. Toa do not seem to visibly age, but instead turn into somewhat more decrepit Turaga after sacrificing their Toa energy (sort of an example of EvolutionaryLevels). Understandable, since they were only partly organic MechanicalLifeforms. When mostly organic characters have been introduced with a similar lifespan, things got weirder. Some, like Gresh, were still seen as youngsters by others, despite being at least ''tens of thousands of years old''!
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** ''Literature/TheAlgebraist'' has (most) of the species of the galaxy divided up into two groups: the slow and the quick. The quick have human-like life spans, the slow live [[TimeAbyss much, much longer]] (up to a billion years or so).
** ''Literature/TheCulture'': When a Culture ship investigates Earth, the ship stresses the difference between human and Culture lifespans to the narrator, stating the many human generations will come and go over the span of her life.
--->"Their children's children will die before you even look old, Diziet. Their grandparents are younger than you are now..."

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': Mentioned by name in one novel. The Clans, a faction of humans descended from an army that left the bulk of human-controlled space (the Inner Sphere) behind centuries ago, use a program of genetic engineering to breed new, supposedly vastly improved generations of warriors every five years. Because the superiority of their breeding program is indisputable (to them, at least) a warrior facing warriors two or three generations younger than he or she is will be hopelessly outmatched. Most Clan warrior careers are over by the age of about thirty. In negotiating a truce between the Clans and the Inner Sphere, the Inner Sphere representative, Anastasius Focht, wants a long truce, initially proposing "forever." The Clan representative, ilKhan Ulric Kerensky, is pushing for a short truce ([[ItMakesSenseInContext even though he's opposed to the invasion in the first place,)]] because of the rapid nature of Clan warrior careers. As Focht asks for thirty years, to give the Inner Sphere a full generation to advance their technology (which is hopelessly far behind that of the Clans) and training, Ulric replies that the Clans "are as mayflies to you." The eventually agree on a fifteen-year truce.

* ''Literature/{{DFZ}}'': This is the ultimate source of all the problems between Yong, ancient Dragon of Korea, and his completely human daughter Opal. She wants freedom, but he is terrified of her "wasting her life" partying or living away from Korea. From his perspective, she's got so ''little'' life, it's best if she spend it at his compound, where he can guarantee her complete safety and anything she could possibly desire. Toss in the fact that as a dragon he has difficulty making a distinction between "daughter that I love unconditionally" and "treasure that I must possess," and they spend most of their time yelling at each other.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Dwarfs live for centuries, trolls even longer, elves are immortal, and so forth. The only races which appear to have shorter lives than humans are gnomes and pixies.

** ''Literature/ReaperMan'': One segment is from the point of view of a group of actual mayflies. Their elders reminisce about "the good old hours". Another is from the perspective of a group of trees, who don't notice anything that takes less than a day to happen (like one of their number being cut down -- he just vanishes).

* ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'': Demons. Most of them are ''much'' older than they look (such as the protagonist, Laharl, who looks to be about 13 despite being over 13 ''hundred''-years-old).

* ''Fanfic/ADestroyersRemorse'': Eunie is a half-Homs orphan in a (mostly) Homs orphanage. Even only being half High Entia, she's going to be legally a child until well into her ''eighties''. Meaning most of her friends outgrow her within a few years, while she's expected to stay there for decades more.

* ''Fanfic/AFrozenFlower'': Inverted with awoken ''lamberos'', who only live to be ten to twelve years old before they explode and die. With "exceptional control", as Till notes, they can stretch their lifespan by only a couple years, but nothing past that.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': It' established that Martians have a longer lifespan than Humans due to aging at a slower rate. This may be a result of the fact that Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun than Earth, so a year on Mars is roughly equal to two years on Earth. Hence why in Season 1, Miss Martian is the Martian equivalent of a 16-year-old Human, despite being born 48 Earth years ago.

* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': In their fight, Akaze offers Rengoku a chance to become a demon in order to give Rengoku the longevity to get stronger for the rest of eternity, lamenting that humans' mortality prevents them from ever becoming truly strong. Rengoku counters that the shortness and inevitable death of humans is part of what makes living as a human worthwhile.

* ''WebOriginal/HamstersParadise'': The AlwaysChaoticEvil harmsters are described as never dying of old age due to their intensely violent lifestyles. However, even without this factor they still seem to have a naturally short lifespan as one individual from the [[BeastOfBattle Bruterider]] empire named Pi-pipipupu is considered an elder despite only being fifteen years old, this also makes her TheDreaded since she [[EvilOldFolks still remain formidable despite this]].

* WeAreAsMayflies: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], as a literal mayfly demonstrates the trope.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' builds on this trope, with longer-lived races stating that they're impressed at how fully humans ''live'' their short lives compared to themselves.

* The ''WesternAnimation/Animaniacs2020'' episode "[Recap/Animaniacs2020Episode23 Exercise Minute]]" demonstrates the trope with a literal mayfly who starts out young and withers away before our eyes in a matter of minutes.