History Main / ExpositionOfImmortality

* Subverted in ''TheManFromEarth'': John Oldman ("Old Man"), an immortal human being born in the stone age and surviving, barely aged, into the 21st century, has a particular paleolithic tool in his home, which he claims he bought in a flea market. Even after [[TheReveal he reveals]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld that he is really about 20,000-40,000 years old]], he still claims that the tool came from a flea market. When asked by his friends why he doesn't keep some mementos of his old life, John tells them that the idea of a person hanging onto the same object for thousands of years is actually pretty absurd.

* Subverted in "TheManFromEarth": John Oldman ("Old Man"), an immortal human being born in the stone age and surviving, barely aged, into the 21st century, has a particular paleolithic tool in his home, which he claims he bought in a flea market. Even after [[TheReveal he reveals]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld that he is really about 20,000-40,000 years old]], he still claims that the tool came from a flea market. When asked by his friends why he doesn't keep some mementos of his old life, John tells them that the idea of a person hanging onto the same object for thousands of years is actually pretty absurd.

* ''TheEvent'': The extraterrestrials look just like humans, but live much longer and age slowly. Photos of these characters taken decades ago, but still looking just the way they do now, are often the only clue the human characters get that reveal the true nature of friends and family members they thought they knew very well.

* ''{{Highlander}}:'' Connor [=MacLeod=] has a collection of things he's picked over his life, masquerades as an antique dealer and gets found out thanks to his handwriting on old title deeds and some inconvenient photos. [=MacLeod=]'s also got many memories of times gone by; saving Rachel from Nazis, dueling drunk in 17th Century England, and of course, his original life in 16th Century Scotland.

* ''TheXFiles'' episode "Squeeze", Mulder is shown a photograph of the suspect in his current case from 1933--who hasn't aged at all since then.

* ''DoctorWho'' uses this on several occasions. [[Characters/DoctorWhoDoctors Fourth Doctor serial]] ''The Stones of Blood'' is a case of Incriminating Evidence in the form of a set of portraits showing TheVillain over several centuries.

* [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius The Brain Of Morbius]] contains a sequence in which the three previous incarnations of the Doctor are shown, and [[CanonDiscontinuity eight additional faces beyond that]]. Morbius asks ''"How far back Doctor, how long have you lived?"'' - even by Time Lord standards, it seems The Doctor has been around for a while.

* ''DoctorWho'' uses this on several occasions. [[DoctorWhoDoctors Fourth Doctor serial]] ''The Stones of Blood'' is a case of Incriminating Evidence in the form of a set of portraits showing TheVillain over several centuries.

** In an episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the ''Enterprise'' crew runs into Guinan, the El-Aurian bartender on their ship, while on a TimeTravel trip to the 19th century.

* In the {{Supernatural}} episode "Something Wicked," Sam discovers the identity of the witch they are looking for, because he finds a news article with a picture of the witch as a doctor back in the 1890's.

** The Count de Magpyr (the old, traditional one, not the trendy new one) recognises the names of several of the peasants in the mob at his castle and makes mentioning of remembering their grandparents.

* * In the original TwilightZone episode ''Long Live Walter Jameson'' the titular character is a history prof. who knows his stuff, who has a retiring colleague who comments on his appearance, and who is seen in a Civil War picture.

* In the ''TabletopGame/Ravenloft'' setting, Dr. Van Richten realized that the fiend Drigor had been manipulating a particular family for generations when he looked at the family journals, and realized their writing styles hadn't changed for the past two hundred years.

ExpositionOfImmortality will often lead to two sub-tropes being invoked: ExposureOfImmortality and EvidenceOfImmortality.

* ExposureOfImmortality: When a character in a work is immortal they are often either perceived to be normal or actively trying to be perceived as such. Sometimes, they'll need to out themselves to the world at large in order to prove the existence of the supernatural to doubters and deal with a greater threat. Sometimes, they just want to prove it. And sometimes, they're exposed by others deliberately; either to reveal their True Nature and bring about their downfall or during the course of a mundane investigation that uncovers their secret.

--> ExposureOfImmortality: When an immortal is outed by themselves or other parties.

* EvidenceOfImmortality: Exposition that shows a character to be immortal or otherwise older than they appear to be [[CaptainObvious can happen in any of the forms listed in]] ExpositionOfImmortality. However; memories, conversations and flashback sequences don't tend to hold up too well as evidence. Photos, paintings, objets d'art and a series of documents showing that you and the last ten generations of your 'ancestors' have the same handwriting are much more damning proof of your unnatural longevity.

--> EvidenceOfImmortality: When documentary and / or objective evidence is presented to expose an immortal character (or when they do so themselves).

* In ''ClanDestine'', a group of villains figure out that Adam Destine is immortal based on finding portraits of him- all at the same apparent age- spanning several hundred years.

* ''{{Highlander}}:'' Connor [=McLeod=] has a collection of things he's picked over his life, masquerades as an antique dealer and gets found out thanks to his handwriting on old title deeds and some inconvenient photos.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':[[Really700YearsOld Resident immortal Evangeline]] recalls Negis Father and a couple of things outside that range (including recalling her past with exact details).

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':[[Really700YearsOldResiden immortal Evangeline]] recalls Negis Father and a couple of things outside that range (including recalling her past with exact details).

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'': Resident [[Really700YearsOld Evangeline]] recalls Negis Father and a couple of things outside that range (including recalling her past with exact details).

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'''s Hob Gadling. Hob lives forever, thanks to the whim of Dream. He meets up with Morpheus every 100 years, allowing for several instances of Type IV-A in their conversations with each other.

** Major ''League'' character [[KingSolomonsMines Allan Quatermain]] keeps coming back to life anyway, even without the benefits of the Fountain of Youth he receives in the comics. Much as with Orlando, it's through his conversations with Mina that we connect the youthful Allan Junior with the allegedly deceased elder Quatermain.

* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' has a brief scene in which Professor X and Magneto walk into a bar to talk to Wolverine who, of course, looks exactly like he does in the [[Film/X-Men first film.]]

* '''I Was Old When The World Was Young.''' Emperor Evulz knows he is superior to TheHero, because he's [[TimeAbyss been around since the dawn of time]]. And he's going to tell them all about the things he's seen since then.

* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' has a brief scene in which Professor X and Magneto walk into a bar to talk to Wolverine who, of course looks exactly like he does in the first film.

* ''{{Discworld}}'' Many of the golems evoke this trope via their ancient scripts and long memories. Anghammarad is a particularly extreme example.

* JohnMasefield's TheBoxOfDelights had Ramon Lully, aka Cole Hawlings, 14th century philosopher posing as a 1930s children's entertainer. His reveal comes courtesy of the BigBad, Abner Brown, who's been in pursuit of him for some time and shows his henchmen a book with pictures of Lully when he was alive (which look remarkably like Hawlings.

* ''DoctorWho'' uses this on several occasions. ''The Stones of Blood'' is a case of Incriminating Evidence in the form of a set of portraits showing TheVillain over several centuries.

* * In the {{Supernatural}} episode "Something Wicked," Sam discovers the identity of the witch they are looking for, because he finds a news article with a picture of the witch as a doctor back in the 1890's.
* ''{{Torchwood}}'' Captain Jack Harkness shows his age [[AnythingThatMoves every way possible.]] There's his Army greatcoat, his Webley revolver, a PhotoMontage of him through the ages in one episode and him remembering meeting fae in WorldWarI and of course, being the British contact for the 456. He speaks normally, though.
* In the original TwilightZone episode ''Long Live Walter Jameson'' the titular character is a history prof. who knows his stuff, who has a retiring colleague who comments on his appearance, and who is seen in a Civil War picture.

ExpositionOfImmortailty will often lead to two sub-tropes being invoked: ExposureOfImmortality and EvidenceOfImmortality.