Some immortal characters are disappointed by eternal life, find it boring at best, unbearable at worst, and wish, more than anything, to die. They are covered by Who Wants to Live Forever?. Then on the contrary, we have those who take advantage of their immortality, and enjoy it: Living Forever Is Awesome. And then… there are those characters.
They are immortal. They don't age. They're Older Than Dirt, maybe even Time Abyss. And… they never address the issue. Their life goes on and they don't question it, and if asked about what they think of their immortality, their answer would probably be just as vague as a random Mr. Smith asked "What do you think of life in general?"
The reasons for that vary: sometimes, they're just born that way, and living forever is for them the "normal" kind of life (they may even have an issue grasping the very idea of Death); sometimes, the writer's idea (since most writers are mortals) is that living forever would be, well, living, and continuing to live just like you live your normal life.
Tends to be the general mindset of a Society of Immortals.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Hellsing: Unlike Alucard, who feels that immortality is downright a curse, Seras takes it all in a remarkably nonplussed stride. Maybe once the centuries wear on her she might start to feel differently, but as of right now she just takes it with a positive attitude.
- In/Spectre: In contrast to Rikka, Kurō isn't particularly bothered by having been forcibly made immortal by his grandmother. While he likes to think he eventually will die of old age, he doesn't let his immortality get in the way of him leading a normal lifestyle and actually finds it convenient for taking several part-time jobs without the effects of overwork. When Rikka forces Iwanaga into agreeing to help her find a way to get rid of the mermaid immortality, Kurō admits he doesn't actually care about staying immortal, but wouldn't like to become a normal mortal if it means losing his relationship with Iwanaga.
- Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms: A character who turns out to be a hybrid between an ordinary human and an immortal one upon his second appearance is quite nonchalant about his immortality.
- Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood: Sophie and Ellie don't really think much of their vampiric immortality. They live alongside humans as if it's normal. It's downplayed with the former as she gets a tad self-conscious when someone asking her age makes her realize she's 360 years old already.
Comic Books
- Judas: The Last Days: Many of the Apostles are implied to stand by this trope, with many engaging in fun past times, hobbies, or entirely new religions, and others being utterly miserable or suffering from boredom. All in all, only Judas has gone out of his way to attempt suicide.
- The Sandman (1989):
- Immortals like Hob Gadling, who can be anywhere from centuries to millions of years old, tend to lead perfectly ordinary lives in the everyday society without making a big deal out of themselves. One recently-deceased immortal who tries to brag to Death about how long he lasted is told that he got as much as everybody else: one lifetime.
- Hob is the first to admit that his centuries-long lifespan hasn't given him any special wisdom. He's learned from his mistakes, but he's also had more time to commit more mistakes.
Fan Works
- The Celestia Code: In The Twilight Enigma, the Twilight presented in the 24th chapter has seen thousands of years but shows no signs of ceasing her eternal duties as a facilitator of maintaining what she believes to be the optimal social structure for Equestria. The following quote about the original Twilight's objections to five statues through which the alternate Twilight can channel her five friends who have long since passed sums up her acceptance of her world: "I have no interest in debating it. I settled the matter to my satisfaction thousands of years ago, and whatever thoughts you have about it will not change my mind."
- Despairing Vacation 2: Saturday is the daughter of Death and as such an immortal herself. The only indication of her opinion on the matter is that she romances Pearl, an angel who is immortal too. In other words, she doesn't mind it much but is not setting herself up to get hurt either.
- For Love of Magic: Harry admits that he and Adrastia are fine with eternal life because they're both sociopaths whereas Luna can handle it because she's mastered living solely in the present.
- Gender Confusion: Once she and Naruto ascend to godhood, Xanna (the Nine Tails) changes her mind to not caring about her immortality. She's not lonely anymore and has faith that when she and Naruto get bored with eternity, he will find a way to kill them both.
- Life Ore Death: Ra’s al Ghul sees his imprisonment as a form of retirement, which he uses to give a pep talk to Wonder Woman and let business as usual continue while his heirs stretch their legs.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The Alicorns of are like this, and one scene mentions an offscreen moment when Luna gave Shining Armor The Talk about his fiancée Cadenza living on with her youth while he withers and will eventually die, and how she will indeed mourn and never forget him, before moving on and finding new love further down the road.
- Sansûkh: For most Elves, immortality is just part of who they are.
- So, What Colour Is Your Toothbrush?: Silverpelt and Hawksky are The Undead, Kiri and Chill are possibly dead without having died, and the Plot Reaper is a Time Abyss. All five of them act as though nothing about this is weird. The normal-life-spanned sporkers also completely accept it, aside from the occasional jibe.
Films — Animation
- Disney's Hercules: The Gods are, by nature, immortal, and this movie is no exception to the rule. It is clearly stated that they're immortal, can't be killed, and don't age, and… they don't seem particularly happy about it. It's just part of their lives. When Baby Hercules becomes mortal thanks to one of Hades's schemes, they are more concerned by the fact that he can't live on Mount Olympus because of that, than "Oh my! Now our baby will die! While we have the incredible luck of NOT dying!". In this case, this is because we deal with characters born immortal, while most Living Forever Is Awesome and Who Wants to Live Forever? apply to characters who gain immortality through some magical way.
Films — Live-Action
- Phantom of the Paradise: Swan's deal with the Devil didn't grant him any special powers beyond eternal youth and the ability to make Faustian bargains; he was already a cunning young man with an ear for hits, he just now happens to have a lot more time and vitality to enjoy the senseless hedonism that being a cruel, depraved record exec offers. The one downside is that he has to film himself every day, confiscate any independent footage, and play it all back at night to see what a rotten, putrid husk he's become inside, but Swan seems to treat this as an obligation, like exercise, and does so in a very detached way.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: A Toon doesn't age, although mentally their spirit can evolve. Death is literally unknown among toons, may it be by old age or injury. They're crazy enough not to care about it.
Literature
- Aeon Legion: Labyrinth: Most native Saturnians are centuries old and, other than stagnating population growth to prevent crowding, simply don't mind it. They see it as just another fact of life.
- The Belgariad:
- It largely applies to the various immortals in the setting. While they're met with a certain degree of awe and respect, this is mostly because of what they've done rather than how old they are. Some take a certain satisfaction out of it, but Belgarath, the oldest living human at 7000 plus years old, is mostly just pretty comfortable and not overly angsty about his losses, a trait most of them share.
- It's worth noting that he makes an exception if someone, mortal or immortal, died before their time. For instance, his daughter, Beldaran (who didn't inherit the lifespan and died of natural, if somewhat expedited, causes), his wife, Poledra (who died in childbirth or so it seemed), and his brother disciples Belmakor and Belsambar (committed suicide after going over the Despair Event Horizon - though Belmakor he might have been pushed by Zedar). However, he more or less adjusted to Beldaran's death, and is just a little sad about his brothers. Poledra's death is the one that really devastates him because it's the one he feels he could have done something about if he was there.
- Polgara, meanwhile, largely dismisses her three thousand plus year lifespan, which is all the more startling because her father at least looks old - albeit like a very vigorous seventy-year-old - while she looks about 30, if that. When it finally sinks in for Durnik, her husband, she casually says words to the effect of, "and? You knew I was older."
- In general, the immortals tend to be comfortable whiling away entire centuries studying.
- Beware of Chicken: This seems to be Rou Jin's attitude towards rejecting the cultivator quest for immortality. It's not that he particularly wants to die, but to make a serious attempt at ascension he would have to abandon his friends and family, give up his farm and live a life of constant battle and scrabbling for power, and that is simply a higher price than he is willing to pay.
- Dora Wilk Series: Lucifer, Prince of Hell, doesn't seem to worry much about the passage of time or any such things.
- Gods Play: There are plenty of immortals and some, like Cassie, have used the opportunity to cultivate wealth and a life of luxury. Others, like Meryl, have used their long lives to live simply and seek enlightenment.
- Heralds of Valdemar: Sister Lashan doesn't display strong, unmixed positive or negative feelings about what she is, at least where others can see it. There's a suggestion that she struggled at first. When talking about offering to put another character into a sword of her own Need says "There are worse fates than being hard to break, heart included." She doesn't want to die and certainly not for anything but a very good reason, but neither is she fearful of it. That said at the end of Mage Storms, when asked about her plans for her afterlife Need says one thing is for sure, she's never putting herself into a sword again.
- The Iron Druid: Atticus cultivates this attitude, being apparently completely comfortable with the fact that he's 2100 years old and has outlived pretty much everyone he ever knew who's not a god of some sort, indulging in Immortal Immaturity (some of it to keep up the facade that he's lived only a little more than 20 years, not centuries and avoid attention). However, it's Subverted. He's gone through a lot of heartache, including losing his wife of 200 years and finding that their vastly extended family had come to see him as an immortality dispenser, which unsurprisingly soured him on humanity for a while. He also has some serious advice to both his apprentice and his old archdruid about dealing with immortality, pointing out its pitfalls with examples from his own experience, such as: your personality changing for the worse as you risk getting detached, the inescapable fact that you will almost certainly outlive the vast majority of your loved ones (if, as he can, you can share the source of your immortality), and that you need to find a purpose and a reason to keep going or you risk falling into a depressive spiral and eventually committing suicide.
- Malazan Book of the Fallen: Onrack the Broken doesn't mind being a clanless undead who walks the earth, contrary to some of his fellow T'lan Imass. As he puts it, there's always something new to see.
- Perry Rhodan: This seems to be a pretty common attitude among immortals of all kinds, including the eponymous protagonist and his circle of long-term friends. Justified on closer examination because this is a setting where "immortality" has been repeatedly shown to be less than absolute (open-ended lifespan, sure, but even Sufficiently Advanced Aliens and Powers That Be aren't completely immune to violence or even sheer bad luck) and so opting out by dying would always be an option if they really wanted to; it's just that they're generally not in any hurry and so simply keep going on with their lives in the meantime.
- The Postmortal: While the Cure is a major scientific breakthrough greeted with the expected fanfare and excitement, it eventually becomes a commonplace thing that everyone gets, likened to smartphones.
- Pyramids: Dios is eventually revealed to be as old as the Old Kingdom itself. And he might actually be infinity years old thanks to a temporal paradox. When he's incredulously asked how any man can stand to live for so long, he just shrugs and says that "seven thousand years is just one day at the time."
- Starsnatcher: While there are anti-technology terrorists on Shadowmoon that vigorously oppose AI, automation, and virtual reality, no-one ever objects to immortality technology. It's explained that this is due to the Seizers' unusually strong fear of death.
- This Immortal: This seems to be The Ageless Conrad's approach to life as he's never known any other, and he even seems to have no issue with his relatives and descendants dying before him.
- Uprooted: The near immortality of wizards is a question that troubles Agnieszka throughout the book. She hates the thought of watching her child nieces and nephews grow old and die, and their children, on and on. When she begins cleansing the Wood, she eventually decides she'll probably allow herself to become a tree when she has enough of life. Until then she has many adventures to do.
Podcasts
- The Bunker: Dave, one of the immortal survivors of the Apocalypse How, in the first episode forgets what "getting older" even is.
Video Games
- Bravery Network Online: Everyone living within Tower 6 is incapable of truly dying, though it's still possible to suffer, as Odette's recruitment has her talk about how the first people in charge of the Tower's food starved everyone else before the Dissidents threw them out (and in the process learned that they return to mortality outside, in the inhospitable Endless Winter). However, aside from the boredom that leads to the creation of Bravery, none of the other people in the Tower ever make a big deal over their current condition.
- In Coffee Talk, Hyde is aware that as a vampire, he'll outlive his mortal friends, but he's long gotten used to it. On the other hand, he has all the time in the world, so he's in no rush. Either way, he doesn't make his immortality a big deal most of the time, but according to Gala, the only constant in life he can't get used to is change. This is why he longs for the past, like reconnecting with his old dwarf friends.
- Tattered World: Kith have never been recorded to die, but they never comment on their immortality.
- Master Detective Archives: Rain Code: It was later revealed that every citizen of Kanai Ward are a race of undead, immortal creatures known as homunculi with all of the original ones being killed off by them three years prior to the events of the game. However, when Makoto Kagutsuchi revealed to everyone the truth of what they are (originally trying to protect them from this secret), most of the citizens are pretty chill with it. One of the main characters named Kirumi Wendy was chatting to a citizen when they both brushed off them being immortal as a natural thing. Kirumi even makes preparations to seek out Yuma Kokohead despite him saying he was going to come back to Kanai Ward eventually. Kirumi's reasoning for this is summed up in this phrase she made: "Just because I am immortal doesn't mean I am patient."
- World of Warcraft: The Draenei appear to be functionally immortal (they do not seem to die of old age) and their leader Velen is at least 100,000 years old. Immortality does not bother them at all; they don't even talk about it. The only impact this has on their culture is that they can travel for decades through space in search of new planets to live.
Visual Novels
- Amplitude: Downplayed. Theo isn't thrilled to have everyone else passed on him, but he isn't complaining either. His stoic attitude might play a big part here. He is, overall, just showing disappointment at constant battles and turmoils, having to see people he cares for leaving him while being quite indifferent to his own immortality.
- Asher Series: Devne Reish asks Kalevel to transform him into a demon and doesn’t seem nearly as disturbed by his new condition as his sister does.
Webcomics
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: A strip in World Stars shows Italy being asked by one of his period bosses how it feels to be immortal, his vague answer was just like anyone being asked about how's life so far, "Well now come to think of it, it's not always fun. But I meet a lot of people". He then proceeds to casually persuade said figure to buy him lunch, "If you treat me lunch, I would slip-tongue about them". Although so far only Italy has shown this attitude towards immortality, the others like France, America and Prussia definitely have more reserved feelings about it.
- Nebula: The characters are Anthropomorphic Personifications of planets and stars, and so take the fact they live for billions of years and are The Needless as a matter of course.
- Kuro Shouri: It features a whole society (and some main cast) of demons that appear to live forever and age slowly. That being said, they live in a world with few resources, so many die regardless of starvation, violence, and illness anyway.
- Noblesse: Cadis Etrama Di Raizel, a.k.a. Rai, seems more like Who Wants to Live Forever? when seen by the rest of the cast, being an incredibly powerful being known as the Noblesse who has lived for millennia and feared for his incredible power and only sparsely received visitors and only looks happier in recent time when living in a masquerade as a schoolboy. However, Rai himself doesn't think much of his predicament; He is happier now in the company of the schoolchildren as well as his newfound friends, but otherwise he's content with his life, sipping tea, reading books or just staring out of the window for reasons unknown.
Web Original
- 17776: Everyone alive is at least 15,000 years old, since birth and death ended in the 21st Century for unknown reasons. For the most part, they go about their business as usual, having engineered a post-scarcity society precisely advanced enough to let them pursue their hobbies without making life trivially easy for them.
Lori: We're just ordinary and forever, I think.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time: Hunson Abadeer is immortal but doesn't share any of his daughter's angst. Possibly because he's had a long time to get used to it and that he has a Blue-and-Orange Morality.
- Steven Universe:
- Gems, being sentient gemstones, don't age, though it is possible to kill one by smashing their gem, and even then it's implied that the remaining shards are still somewhat conscious. The Crystal Gems, the ones who reside on Earth, have already lived for thousands of years, with their youngest full-Gem member being five to six thousand years old. It doesn't bother them in the slightest, and to them, their lifespans are as natural as humans having skin (although part of it is that they do perceive time differently — to them, several decades have about the same emotional weight as a day or two to a human). None of the humans that know of them make a big deal of their immortality either.
- "Raising the Barn": Subverted. Peridot shares the same attitude as the other Gems but clearly takes issue with the idea of living forever separate from both Earth and the Gem Empire.
Peridot: Sometimes you need to do things you don't want to do! Like get jettisoned into space to live forever on a floating rock with a barn and just us for as long as time exists!
- Winx Club: There's a handful of immortal characters throughout the series and all but two don't seem to mind their eternal lives, instead prioritizing their personal goals or simply... existing. The three Ancestral Witches were born a little after the Top God finished creating the dimension and have devoted millennia to track down said deity's power, the Dragon's Flame. The Shadow Phoenix, the Anti God, wants to hunt down the Great Dragon's Chosen Ones to combine their powers and enter the Realix dimension. The Council of the Elders, which includes the first fairy Arcadia, never complains about their duty of protecting the Water Stars. They as well as the Ethereal Fairies exist outside time, so it's dubious how they perceive its passage. Nonetheless, they are all happy sharing their wisdom and power (in the latter's case) with the heroines. The Great Dragon is an ambiguous example as it spends countless years bringing magic and life to the Magix dimension until it decides to just go to sleep in Domino. It's never mentioned how the Dragon feels about eternal life.
