History Main / MayflyDecemberFriendship

** Averted with ravens and large parrots, which have the same lifespan as humans, sometimes even a bit more. It's more common for these birds to outlive their masters than the other way round, since humans tend to grow them from chick age while themselves being adult.

* Toki [[http://tokiandcowiki.wikidot.com/wiki:toki]] and Doki, [[http://tokiandcowiki.wikidot.com/wiki:doki]], [[http://makeyourownfurryandotheranimals.wikia.com/wiki/Erin erins]], will most certainly outlive any friends or adopted children, as erins tend to live for at least two or three millenia, as is pointed out Literature/MadgieWhatDidYouDo. However, they will enjoy generations of descendants.

* In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'', Umbra, who's immortal, has this relationship with all his mortal friends save for Lina and the Ghost type members of his team, who are also immortal.

* ''WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb''. Wilbur ends up experiencing this with Charlotte, as she ends up passing away just as he's become a full-grown pig. In a sense, part of it is actually because of Wilbur: [[{{Squick}} Charlotte's eating habits of catching live flies and drinking their blood bothers him immensely]] and begins requesting she set flies free, causing her to lose her main food source.

* Although never addressed in the movie, but if rats and humans have the same life expectancies in ''Film/{{Ratatouille}}'' as in RealLife, then the friendship between Linguini (human) and Remy (rat) cannot last for more than a few years.

* The [[Literature/TheHobbit Tolkien]][[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings verse]]:
** Gandalf is Really700YearsOld. His friends among the hobbits (Bilbo and Frodo) and humans (Aragorn) are not likely to live more than 100 years. It's subverted with Bilbo and Frodo, however, given that they also become immortal go to Valinor together with Gandalf in the last chapter of ''The Lord of the Rings.''

** [[ResurrectiveImmortality Captain Jack Harkness]] has this problem as well. He outlives all his friends and his ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' coworkers have a habit of dying young anyways. In one of the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' tie in novels, there's a flashback to the 1960s, where he admits he doesn't so much have friends as acquaintances and what feels like years of comradeship to them feels like mere months to him. Although on a slightly less depressing note, the character he was talking had seen Jack's future and assures him that the 21st century team the series focuses on are truly his friends.
* PlayedWith in ''Series/NewAmsterdam'', where an immortal (but looks early 30s) man is great friends with and gets advice from grizzled old black bartender, who it turns out is his son from a relationship he had in the 1930s.
* When the head of Commander Data (in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow") is found among 20th century relics on Earth, the crew attempt to comfort him about his destruction. Rather than being morose about this, Data is delighted that he will have a "death," as his expected longevity means that so many of his friends in Starfleet will have lived and died that he will be unable to remember them all properly; whereas having only a limited few close friends means that Data can cherish them much more dearly. See {{Literature}}.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' often has this with the playable manaketes(Dragons taking humanoid form to survive).
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia''. The manaketes Gotoh, Xane, Bantu, and Tiki all befriend Marth. Needless to say they all outlive him, the first three even outlived Marth's ancestor Anri. In a conversation with Xane, he mentions this as a reason why he has trouble connecting with humans.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe''. Half manaketes, Ninian and Nils outlive, and never see their human friends if they go through the Dragon's gate. If Ninian stays on Elibe to be with Eliwood though, it is inverted as due to the world's atmosphere all her human friends outlive her.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius''. In the Laguz tribes(animal shapeshifters), all three tribes outlive humans, as do the [[HalfHumanHybrid laguz/human hybrids]].
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. In Tiki's support with Nah(a half manakete), Tiki laments that this is a "curse" of their race, saying Manaketes that care for the human race, are destined to suffer because they always outlive them.

* A variation (Mayfly December Family) occurs in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. At one point, you can overhear a conversation between a Salarian tourist and his Asari stepdaughter where he frets about she and her mother will outlive him by several centuries (because Asari live for up to 1,000 years while Salarians are lucky if they make it to 40.)This is an extremely common issue for the Asari, especially because mating with other species is considered ideal for them, and yet most other species have much shorter lifespans.

** Marivel Armitage who is an immortal vampire, and the LastOfHerKind, has this kind of friendship with the main characters. She helps work on the group's tech early on in the game, and it's possible to have her join your party late in the second half of the game's story, although she's hesitant to do so as she's afraid of being too attached to people.

While this resembles and may overlap with IntergenerationalFriendship, that trope is about the age gap between friends. Mayfly December Friendship focuses on the fact that one friend, who does not need to be older or younger than the other, will outlive him/her. Additionally, while Mayfly December Friendship can be done with two non-immortals, the life expectancy gap is much greater than would be expected for an IntergenerationalFriendship.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': Master Chief, a Spartan supersoldier, is paired with an AI named Cortana, and the two grow to become inseparable. However, their friendship contains a dark undertone: Halo-verse [=AIs=] live for only seven years before [[AIIsACrapshoot they become rampant]], meaning Cortana will have to be killed by then before she goes insane. By the time of ''Halo 4'' Cortana has surpassed her lifespan but is rapidly deteriorating, and Master Chief struggles to get to Earth in hopes of her creator formulating a cure. [[spoiler: He fails and Cortana dies, though not before saving John's own life in the process.]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius''. In the Laguz tribes(animal shapeshifters), the bird, and Dragon tribes outlive humans. This is averted with the beast laguz though.

* A variation (Mayfly December Family) occurs in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. At one point, you can overhear a conversation between a Salarian tourist and his Asari stepdaughter where he frets about she and her mother will outlive him by several centuries (because Asari live for up to 1,000 years while Salarians are lucky if they make it to 30.)This is an extremely common issue for the Asari, especially because mating with other species is considered ideal for them, and yet most other species have much shorter lifespans.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. Nowi, Tiki, and Nah being Manakete's (Dragon people, or in Nah's case a half dragon hybrid) live for thousands of years, and have this kind of friendship with their non romantic supports. In Tiki's support with Nah, Tiki laments that this is a "curse" of their race, saying Manaketes inherently care for the human race, but are destined to suffer because they always outlive them.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': While it's only {{Fanon}} that [[BigGood Princess Celestia]] is immortal, she has been alive for thousands of years without any sign of wear. Given the word from the creators that "Twilight will not outlive her friends", this means that Celestia will outlive her faithful student. Not to mention Twilight is not Celestia's first personal student...

[[AC: FanFic]]

As with MayflyDecemberRomance, this is a good way to add {{Angst}} to an immortal character and explain their attitude of WhoWantsToLiveForever If they could find a fellow immortal to share their lives with or discover some way to make their current {{True Companion}}s immortal, they might change their minds and decide that LivingForeverIsAwesome.

As with MayflyDecemberRomance, this is a good way to add {{Angst}} to an immortal character and explain their attitude of WhoWantsToLiveForever If they could find a fellow immortal to share their lives with or discover some way to make their current {{true companion|s}} immortal, they might change their minds and decide that LivingForeverIsAwesome.

As with MayflyDecemberRomance, this is a good way to add {{Angst}} to an immortal character and explain their attitude of WhoWantsToLiveForever If they could find a fellow immortal to share their lives with or discover some way to make their current {{true companion|s}}] immortal, they might change their minds and decide that LivingForeverIsAwesome.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': While it's only {{Fanon}} that [[BigGood Princess Celestia]] is immortal, she has been alive for thousands of years without any sign of wear. Given the word from the creators that "Twilight will not outlive her friends", this means that Celestia will outlive her faithful student.

* Paul Edgecomb has learned in his many days in the retirement home to avoid getting close to anyone. Ever since his contact with MagicalNegro John Coffey while serving as a prison guard in ''Film/TheGreenMile'', Paul has outlived all his family, friends and acquaintances ... except one: a tiny mouse likewise touched by Coffey.

Romances aren't the only things that are complicated by a longer-than-natural lifespan. A hero who is immortal (or even extremely long-lived) may outlive his friends as well.

As with MayflyDecemberRomance, this is a good way to add {{Angst}} to an immortal character and explain their attitude of WhoWantsToLiveForever If they could find a fellow immortal to share their lives with or discover some way to make their current [[TrueCompanions True Companion]] immortal, they might change their minds and decide that LivingForeverIsAwesome.

While this resembles and may overlap with IntergenerationalFriendship, IntergenerationalFriendship is about the age gap between friends. Mayfly December Friendship focuses on the fact that one friend, who does not need to be older or younger than the other, will outlive him/her. Additionally, while Mayfly December Friendship can be done with two non-immortals, the life expectancy gap is much greater than would be expected for an IntergenerationalFriendship.

* ''Literature/DresdenFiles''. Due to wizards living for 3 to 4 hundred years, pretty much every friendship Harry (or any wizard) has with a regular human will be this
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel ''Immortal Coil'' dealt with this in connection with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Data]]. Taking place not long after ''First Contact'', the plotline includes Data's emotional realization of what he\'s always known intellectually — he will almost certainly outlive all of his friends on the ''Enterprise''. And then another set, and another. The actual plot of the book assuaged these fears [[spoiler: by introducing a league of artificially-created organisms, which Data could retire to whenever he wants.]] And then ''Film/{{Nemesis}}'' happened...[[note]]Though Data was resurrected via BrainUploading afterwards, so back to square one...[[/note]]
* In ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' Nimune/Merlin is in a robot body with potential life in the thousands of years, [[GenderBender she/he's]] injected his/her friends with nanites that will give them perfect immunity to infectious illnesses and cancer, but doesn't dare give them life extension treatments because their very public life makes it impossible to do so without it being noticed.

** In ''TheLordOfTheRings'', Legolas (an immortal elf) and Gimli (a mortal dwarf who may live for centuries) become best friends. Subverted in the appendices when it is stated that Gimli was eventually granted immortality and left for Valinor with his elven friend.

** [[ResurrectiveImmortality Captain Jack Harkness]] has this problem as well. He outlives all his friends and his ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' coworkers have a habit of dying young anyways. In one of the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' tie in novels, there's a flashback to the 60s where he admits he doesn't so much have friends as acquaintances and what feels like years of comradeship to them feels like mere months to him. Although on a slightly less depressing note, the character he was talking had seen Jack's future and assures him that the 21st century team the series focuses on are truly his friends.

* When the head of Commander Data (in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Time's Arrow") is found among 20th century relics on Earth, the crew attempt to comfort him about his destruction. Rather than being morose about this, Data is delighted that he will have a "death," as his expected longevity means that so many of his friends in Starfleet will have lived and died that he will be unable to remember them all properly; whereas having only a limited few close friends means that Data can cherish them much more dearly. See {{Literature}}.

* ''VideoGames/FireEmblemAwakening''. Nowi, Tiki, and Nah being Manakete's (Dragon people, or in Nah's case a half dragon hybrid) live for thousands of years, and have this kind of friendship with their non romantic supports. In Tiki's support with Nah, Tiki laments that this is a "curse" of their race, saying Manaketes inherently care for the human race, but are destined to suffer because they always outlive them.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. Master Chief, a Spartan supersoldier, is paired with an AI named Cortana, and the two grow to become inseparable. However, their friendship contains a dark undertone: Halo-verse AIs live for only 7 years before [[AIIsACrapshoot they become rampant]], meaning Cortana will have to be killed by then before she goes insane. By the time of ''Halo 4'' Cortana has surpassed her lifespan but is rapidly deteriorating, and Master Chief struggles to get to Earth in hopes of her creator formulating a cure. [[spoiler: He fails and Cortana dies, though not before saving John's own life in the process.]]
* A variation (Mayfly December Family) in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. At one point, you can overhear a conversation between a Salarian tourist and his Asari stepdaughter where he frets about she and her mother will outlive him by several centuries (because Asari live for up to 1,000 years while Salarians are lucky if they make it to 30.)This is an extremely common issue for the Asari, especially because mating with other species is considered ideal for them, and yet most other species have much shorter lifespans.

* ''VideoGames/{{Wild ARMs 2}}''

[[AC: WebComics]]
* ''WebComics/VampireGirl''. Levana explains this to Laura as part of her reasons for not wanting to be a vampire, on the grounds that she'll always outlive anyone she may befriend.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': While it it's only {{Fanon}} that [[BigGood Princess Celestia]] is immortal, she has been alive for thousands of years without any sign of wear. Given the word from the creators that "Twilight will not outlive her friends", this means that Celestia will outlive her faithful student.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011''. The protagonists came across a group of plant people named the Petalars, which have a lifespan of a day. Lion-O in particular became friends with one petalar called Emrick who goes from a curious child to an Eager Squire to a level-headed warrior to an wise old man all in the span of said day, and while for the Petalars the Thundercats were lifelong friends who were with them in their intergenerational Exodus, for the Thundercats it was a tragically short friendship.

* Humans and their pets. Most human beings have longer lifespans than dogs and cats, so their pets will probably die before they do.

Romances aren\'t the only things that are complicated by a longer-than-natural lifespan. A hero who is immortal (or even extremely long-lived) may outlive his friends as well.

* \'\'Anime/BannerOfTheStars\'\'. Though she doesn\'t show it much openly, Lafiel does worry at times about her friendship with Jinto, since Abh live much longer than humans do.

* \'\'Comics/TheIncredibleHulk\'\' and all his various friendships if \'\'The Incredible Hulk: The End\'\' is to be believed. He is the last sentient being on the entire planet Earth. Even Banner dies, and [[BittersweetEnding the Hulk is finally alone]], [[WantingIsBetterThanHaving as he has always requested.]]
* Franchise/{{Superman}} is sometimes portrayed as immortal, meaning that he will outlive the human friends he cares about. It becomes a plot point in \'\'Superman/Batman #76\'\'. Superman is talking to Franchise/WonderWoman in the wake of Bruce Wayne\'s death. Clark is discussing how they\'ll outlive everyone they know and how they\'re higher beings. Diana stops him, telling him that no matter how he wants to rationalize it, he\'s just a man grieving for a lost friend.

* In the \'\'Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries\'\' FanFic \'\'Always Tomorrow\'\', a disabled Kirk mentions this, saying that Spock shouldn\'t leave Starfleet to be with him, because he will die while Spock is still fairly young, leaving him with nothing. Spock counters that he was alone before Kirk\'s arrival and being alone after his death will be worse if he can\'t even have the time with him that\'s possible.

* Paul Edgecomb has learned in his many days in the retirement home to avoid getting close to anyone. Ever since his contact with Magical Negro John Coffey while serving as a prison guard in \'\'Film/TheGreenMile\'\', Paul has outlived all his family, friends and acquaintances ... except one: a tiny mouse likewise touched by Coffey.
* Although never addressed in the movie, but if rats and humans have the same life expectancies in \'\'Film/{{Ratatouille}}\'\' as in RealLife, then the friendship between Linguini (human) and Remy (rat) cannot last for more than a few years.

* \'\'Literature/DresdenFiles\'\'. Due to wizards living for 3 to 4 hundred years, pretty much every friendship Harry (or any wizard) has with a regular human will be this
* The \'\'Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration\'\' novel \'\'Immortal Coil\'\' dealt with this in connection with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Data]]. Taking place not long after \'\'First Contact\'\', the plotline includes Data\'s emotional realization of what he\'s always known intellectually — he will almost certainly outlive all of his friends on the \'\'Enterprise\'\'. And then another set, and another. The actual plot of the book assuaged these fears [[spoiler: by introducing a league of artificially-created organisms, which Data could retire to whenever he wants.]] And then \'\'Film/{{Nemesis}}\'\' happened...[[note]]Though Data was resurrected via BrainUploading afterwards, so back to square one...[[/note]]
* In \'\'Literature/{{Safehold}}\'\' Nimune/Merlin is in a robot body with potential life in the thousands of years, [[GenderBender she/he\'s]] injected his/her friends with nanites that will give them perfect immunity to infectious illnesses and cancer, but doesn\'t dare give them life extension treatments because their very public life makes it impossible to do so without it being noticed.

** Gandalf is Really700YearsOld. His friends among the hobbits (Bilbo and Frodo) and humans (Aragorn) are not likely to live more than 100 years. It\'s subverted with Bilbo and Frodo, however, given that they also become immortal go to Valinor together with Gandalf in the last chapter of \'\'The Lord of the Rings.\'\'
** In \'\'TheLordOfTheRings\'\', Legolas (an immortal elf) and Gimli (a mortal dwarf who may live for centuries) become best friends. Subverted in the appendices when it is stated that Gimli was eventually granted immortality and left for Valinor with his elven friend.

* \'\'Series/DoctorWho\'\'. The Doctor is very aware of the fact that he will outlive all his Companions.
** [[ResurrectiveImmortality Captain Jack Harkness]] has this problem as well. He outlives all his friends and his \'\'Series/{{Torchwood}}\'\' coworkers have a habit of dying young anyways. In one of the \'\'Series/{{Torchwood}}\'\' tie in novels, there\'s a flashback to the 60s he admits he doesn\'t so much have friends as acquaintances and what feels like years of comradeship to them feels like mere months to him. Although on a slightly less depressing note, the character he was talking had seen Jack\'s future and assures him that the 21st century team the series focuses on are truly his friends.
* PlayedWith in \'\'Series/NewAmsterdam\'\', where an immortal (but looks early 30s) man is great friends with and gets advice from grizzled old black bartender, who it turns out is his son from a relationship he had in the 1930s.
* When the head of Commander Data from \'\'StarTrekTheNextGeneration\'\' episode \"Time\'s Arrow\" is found among 20th century relics on Earth, the crew attempt to comfort him about his destruction. Rather than being morose about this, Data is delighted that he will have a \"death,\" as his expected longevity means that so many of his friends in Starfleet will have lived and died that he will be unable to remember them all properly; whereas having only a limited few close friends means that Data can cherish them much more dearly. See {{Literature}}.

* \'\'VideoGames/FireEmblemAwakening\'\'. Nowi, Tiki, and Nah being Manakete\'s (Dragon people. or in Nah\'s case a half dragon hybrid) live for thousands of years, and have this kind of friendship with their non romantic supports. In Tiki\'s support with Nah, Tiki laments that this is a \"curse\" of their race, saying Manaketes inherently care for the human race, but are destined to suffer because they always outlive them.
* \'\'Franchise/{{Halo}}\'\'. Master Chief, a Spartan supersoldier, is paired with an AI named Cortana, and the two grow to become inseparable. However, their friendship contains a dark undertone: Halo-verse AIs live for only 7 years before [[AIIsACrapshoot they become rampant]], meaning Cortana will have to be mercy-killed by then before she goes insane. By the time of \'\'Halo 4\'\' Cortana has surpassed her lifespan but is rapidly deteriorating, and Master Chief struggles to get to Earth in hopes of her creator formulating a cure. [[spoiler: He fails and Cortana dies, though not before saving John\'s own life in the process.]]
* A variation (Mayfly December Family) in \'\'VideoGame/MassEffect2\'\'. At one point, you can overhear a conversation between a Salarian tourist and his Asari stepdaughter where he frets about she and her mother will outlive him by several centuries (because Asari live for up to 1,000 years while Salarians are lucky if they make it to 30.)This is an extremely common issue for the Asari, especially because mating with other species is considered ideal for them, and yet most other species have much shorter lifespans.
* \'\'VideoGame/{{Touhou}}\'\': Fujiwara no Mokou is an immortal human who\'s best friend is Keine Kawamishira, a half-youkai human. {{Fanon}} likes to explore what happens when Keine dies, leaving Mokou entirely alone (the only other immortal is her ArchEnemy).
* \'\'VideoGames/{{Wild ARMs 2}}\'\'
** Marivel Armitage who is an immortal vampire, and the LastOfHerKind, has this kind of friendship with the main characters. She helps work on the group\'s tech early on in the game, and it\'s possible to have her join your party late in the second half of the game\'s story, although she\'s hesitant to do so as she\'s afraid of being too attached to people.
** In a CutScene it\'s shown that Marivel\'s also developed this kind friendship with Tony offscreen. Tony is a kid living in Ashley\'s village. He looks up to her, and implies he wants to become a vampire like her so she won\'t be alone.

* \'\'WebComics/VampireGirl\'\'. Levana explains this to Laura as part of her reasons for not wanting to be a vampire, on the grounds that she\'ll always outlive anyone she may befriend.

* \'\'WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic\'\': While it it\'s only {{Fanon}} that [[BigGood Princess Celestia]] is immortal, she has been alive for thousands of years without any sign of wear. Given the word from the creators that \"Twilight will not outlive her friends\", this means that Celestia will outlive her faithful student.
* \'\'WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011\'\'. The protagonists came across a group of plant people named the Petalars, which have a lifespan of a day. Lion-O in particular became friends with one petalar called Emrick who goes from a curious child to an Eager Squire to a level-headed warrior to an wise old man all in the span of said day, and while for the Petalars the Thundercats were lifelong friends who were with them in their intergenerational Exodus, for the Thundercats it was a tragically short friendship.