History Main / WhoWantsToLiveForever

->'''Alfred Fellig:''' Seventy-five years is enough. Take my word for it. You live forever, sooner or later, you start to think about the big thing you're missing and that everybody else gets to find out about but you.\\
'''Dana Scully:''' What about love?\\
'''Alfred Fellig:''' What? Does that last forever? Forty years ago, I drove down to the city hall, down to the Hall of Records, Record Archives, whatever they call it. I wanted to look up my wife. It bothered me I couldn't remember her name. Love lasts seventy-five years, if you're lucky. [[TearJerker You don't want to be around when it's gone]].
-->--'''Series/TheXFiles'''

* In ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone'', the Animus Bell tries to tempt Magnus with eternal life and is ''immediately'' shut down, because dying for him means reuniting with his dead wife Julia, to the point that early in the adventure he was a borderline DeathSeeker who longed to go out in a blaze of glory.

'''Magnus:''' [[QuickDrawDecision I'd hate it. Shut the fuck up.]]

* Sort-of immortality is possible in the Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} but most prominently for this trope, ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has Heroic Spirits and Guardians. Archer, during his life, swore over his existence to the world so that he could continue to save people. Eventually, he died still believing in his ideals, but after that he, in his position as a Guardian, is sent back repeatedly to stop devastating conflicts by killing people instead of saving them. He doesn't even get to remember any of this, but he knows it happens and it affects his psyche. Small wonder he [[spoiler:decides to wait until he can pulled into a time with Emiya Shirou so he can kill his past self and hopefully commit suicide that way and escape his current life, where he has no free will.]] Then again, that ''is'' a pretty sucky form of immortality and no one takes it up for that reason.

* Elluka Clockworker of ''Franchise/EvilliousChronicles'' expresses this viewpoint from time to time, seeing her immortality as more of curse due to her loved ones being lost to her and sees her life as being mostly about killing time.

->''"You don't get happy endings when you live forever."''
-->-- ''Redneck''

** In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheMoon'', the tragedy of the story of Chang'e revolves around this, where she was made immortal and she is separated forever from her mortal lover Houyi. Even after hundreds and hundreds of years, she still desperately tries to find a way to bring Houyi back to her.

** In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheMoon'', the tragedy of the story of Chang'e revolves around this, where she was made immortal and she is separated forever from her mortal lover Houyi.

See also ImmortalityHurts, which is a subtrope. ImmunityDisability is a supertrope (here, the "immunity" is to death).

!!Examples:

* [[WhoWantsToLiveForever/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever/WebComics

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

* While Iriana in ''Literature/IlivaisX'' may be suicidal for [[DarkAndTroubledPast reasons]] [[RapeAsBackstory unrelated]] [[WetwareCPU to]] [[DrivenToSuicide 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.
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-910 SCP-910]], which makes people essentially immortal. However, [[AgeWithoutYouth they continue to age]] well past the point where their body would ordinarily shut down and any wound, no matter how minor, never heals. Imagine every nick from shaving, every papercut, every bruise and scrap, raw and hurting for the rest of your life. Now imagine that life never ends.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/ExistentialComics'': [[https://existentialcomics.com/comic/353 Here]] it's {{discussed}} by an elf with a mayfly who laments having a very short life, while elves live forever. The elf replies that the mayfly shouldn't be sad in the end, because immortality runs thin. Over time, you do everything and see no point in doing things. His people are burdened with massive boredom, always fearing they will run out of something to do. The mayfly therefore dies comforted by the idea that a short life is better. However, then it's {{subverted}} as we learn this was just a lie-in fact, the elf is still working on new projects, with no sign he actually ran out of things to do with his immortal life.
[[/folder]]

Contrast LivingForeverIsAwesome for those who like it, and ImmortalitySeeker for those who seek it, and EternalLove where immortals fall in love. See LivingForeverIsNoBigDeal for the middle ground.

* ''Webanimation/{{RWBY}}'': the [[CrapsackWorld World of Remnant]] has been the arena for a [[SecretWar secret]], [[ForeverWar ancient]] war between [[BigGood Ozpin]] and [[BigBad Salem]]. Both of them are immortal, and both for different reasons. However, the one thing they have in common is that their immortality is treated as a curse rather than a blessing. [[spoiler:In ancient times, Salem incurred the wrath of the gods by trying to resurrect Ozma, a love she lost to sickness. Cursed with CompleteImmortality to learn the importance of life and death, it was impossible for her to die and join him in the afterlife, so she tried to turn humanity against the gods [[RageAgainstTheHeavens in revenge]]. To give humanity one single chance at redemption, the God of Light resurrected Ozma with the mission to [[ResurrectiveImmortality constantly reincarnate]] into the [[BodySurf body of a living man or boy]] to guide humanity towards peace and harmony; the flaw in the mission is that Salem was corrupted by the God of Darkness's pools of annihilation and destruction, and is trying to divide and destroy humanity. As long as Salem exists, Ozma cannot save humanity. Unable to die or defeat the other, they are locked together in an eternal war for the fate humanity, their love long since lost to grief, despair and rage.]]

* ''Webanimation/{{RWBY}}'': the [[CrapsackWorld World of Remnant]] has been the arena for a [[SecretWar secret]], [[ForeverWar ancient]] war between [[spoiler:[[BigGood Ozpin]] and [[BigBad Salem]]]]. Both of them are immortal, and both for different reasons. However, the one thing they have in common is that their immortality is treated as a curse rather than a blessing. [[spoiler:In ancient times, Salem incurred the wrath of the gods by trying to resurrect Ozma, a love she lost to sickness. Cursed with CompleteImmortality to learn the importance of life and death, it was impossible for her to die and join him in the afterlife, so she tried to turn humanity against the gods [[RageAgainstTheHeavens in revenge]]. To give humanity one single chance at redemption, the God of Light resurrected Ozma with the mission to [[ResurrectiveImmortality constantly reincarnate]] into the [[BodySurf body of a living man or boy]] to guide humanity towards peace and harmony; the flaw in the mission is that Salem was corrupted by the God of Darkness's pools of annihilation and destruction, and is trying to divide and destroy humanity. As long as Salem exists, Ozma cannot save humanity. Unable to die or defeat the other, they are locked together in an eternal war for the fate humanity, their love long since lost to grief, despair and rage.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[ThisIsGonnaSuck There is no easy way out of this.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[ThisIsGonnaSuck So much for Plan B.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[ThisIsGonnaSuck There goes Plan B.]]]]

* ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'': The chronologically last ''Global Guardians'' story is "The Last Man on Earth", featuring The Shield, whose power immunity to harm. Having lived for billions of years, he's the last human on Earth when the sun finally begins its expansion. The story ends with the Shield sitting on a cliff on Mount Everest, watching the sun get bigger and bigger and redder and redder in the sky, hoping that this time, he's finally found something that's powerful enough to overcome his power, and dreadfully fearful of what will happen if it isn't.

* The superhero guide ''WebOriginal/HowToHero'' has an entry on Old Immortals who wish they could die and tips on how to do just that.

* Tsugumi of ''VisualNovel/Ever17'' has eternal youth, immunity from infection, high healing factor and possibly increased strength. On the downside, the handful of people who know about her really want to study her lots. Oh, and she gets sunburned really easily, but she can see in pitch blackness anything due to infravision. She can even pass the immortality on to whoever she pleases. [[spoiler:Except two specific characters, one of whom is implied to be changing into a being that exists in the fourth dimension and is thus outside time and effectively immortal as well.]] Yet all she can do is whine and complain about how much it sucks. She gets better but never seems to see it as a ''good'' thing.

** Eos asked Zeus to grant her lover Tithonus immortality, but neglected to ask for eternal youth to go with it, and apparently Zeus was not in an especially giving mood when he granted her request. [[AgeWithoutYouth The result is that Tithonus shriveled away into increasing decrepitude.]] In some versions of the story, Eos eventually shut him up in a room with shining doors to babble endlessly in his senility, too weak to move; in other versions, he ultimately became a cicada, [[AndIMustScream eternally living and begging for death.]]

* This is the fate of StingyJack (AKA Jack o' Lantern). He was an evil man who tricked the Devil into being trapped in a tree by putting a holy symbol on the trunk whilst the Devil was in the tree. Jack would only allow the Devil down if he promised never to bring Jack into Hell. The Devil agreed. However, since Jack was still too selfish and wicked to get into Heaven, [[BarredFromTheAfterlife he had nowhere to go after he died]]. The Devil gave him an ember from the fires of Hell to light his way, which Jack kept in a hollowed-out turnip (since pumpkins were more plentiful and easier to carve, they became the vessel in which the ember was kept). Jack is now cursed to wander forever, carrying his lantern, a Jack-o-Lantern.