History Main / MayflyDecemberFriendship

** Also Inverted with turtles and tortoises, who can live to be far older than humans. Unless the owner is a child -- in which case it's unlikely they'll keep the pet for its entire natural lifespan anyway -- such owners have to consider what might happen if their beloved pet were to outlive them.
*** It has not be unheard of where such a pet can outlive a couple generations of the family, meaning that (for example) some kid could grow up with the same pet that their grandparent had. Obviously that's a huge commitment to make (not to mention that it's illegal to own most animals that live that long to begin with).

*** Goldfish are only so notoriously short-lived because they're taken care of incorrectly. A goldfish can easily live ten to twenty years when treated properly. It's still shorter than their human owners though.

** ''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.

** Any friendship between an asari or krogan with someone from a shorter-lived species..

** Inverted with turtles, tortoises, and large parrots, who can live to be in their 70s or older. Unless the owner is a child--in which case it's unlikely they'll keep the pet for its entire natural lifespan anyway--such owners have to consider what might happen if their beloved pet were to outlive them.
** It would not be unheard of where a said pet could outlive a couple generations of the family meaning that (for example) some kid could grow up with the same pet that their grandparent had. Obviously that is a huge commitment to make (not to mention that it is illegal to own most animals that live that long to begin with).
** Although goldfish have a reputation for being very short-lived pets, a well-cared for carp in a pond can be one of the longest lived animals in the world.
*** Goldfish only are so notoriously short-lived because they're taken care of incorrectly. A goldfish can easily live ten to twenty years when treated properly. It's still shorter than their human owners though.

* It happens in real life that a single person is very old, even over a hundred years, but his friends are not. They often talk about all of their friends being dead for a long time. Of course, nobody can know beforehand whether he will be one of the long-lived people.

* ''Green's Eevee'' is a ''Pok&ecute;mon Yellow'' comic themed around Blue (Green in Japan) and his recently deceased Eevee. Eevee could have lengthened his life by several years if only he had evolved, however he refused to because he felt the various Eeveelutions had downsides that would ruin his relationship with his trainer Blue.

* In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' it is the case that the higher the level, the more longevity is granted by the gods to an adventurer. Many breeds such as [[OurElvesAreDifferent elves]] are naturally long-lived. High-ranking elves like Riveria are therefore likely to be close to [[TheAgeless The Ageless]], which also means that many of their friends will die long before her. On the other side, a life as adventurer ist very dangerous, and many adventurers die in the dungeon.

* Hiyori with her gods and spirit friends, especially Yato and Yukine, in ''Manga/{{Noragami}}''. She is a human teenager while the others have potentially an unlimited lifespan and the gods can reincarnate if they do die.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' has the titular hero. He will survive his human friends Miroku and Sango far. Only Shippo, the fox youkai, has a similar lifespan as he does. With Kagome, it is a MayflyDecemberRomance.

* This is sadly the case for countries that befriend or fall in love with regular humans in ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia''. Countries are immortal (or at the very least cannot die of old age) whereas regular humans are, well, human. Especially tragic in the case of a young America befriending a boy named Davie. He left to find a particular flower Davie told him about, and by the time he finally got one and came back Davie had died of old age. To put that in perspective, Davie grew up, got married, had children, grew old, and died while in that same timespan America had aged maybe only a few years (he started off the comic as a toddler and by the end of it was a small child.) For extra punches to the gut, at Davie's funeral a young America looks questioningly at Davie's IdenticalGrandson and says "Davie?"

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddparents'' fanfiction, ''FanFic/NeverHadAFriendLikeMe'', the issue of the different lifespans of fairies and genies in comparison to humans comes up near the end. [[spoiler: After the TimeSkip, Amanda is dying of old age a century after meeting Norm]], which is a very short timespan by the standards of magical creatures. Timmy is in a similar situation since Poof, who is younger than him chronologically, is barely a toddler by that point. [[spoiler:But Norm solves it by [[EmergencyTransformation transforming Amanda and Timmy into a genie and fairy respectively]].]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':

* Brought up in ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS''. Ai (an ArtificialIntelligence) invites [[TheHero Yusaku]], the human he is based on, to convert his consciousness into data and [[FusionDance fuse with him]] so that they can live together forever in the network without worrying about the lifespan difference. [[HomosexualSubtext That the scene comes across as a marriage proposal is not lost on fans.]]

* The [[Literature/TheHobbit Tolkien]][[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings verse]]:
** Gandalf is Really700YearsOld. His friends among the hobbits (Bilbo and Frodo) and humans (Aragorn) are long lived as mortals go; hobbits regularly live past 100 and Aragorn is of the long-lived royal line of Numenor, with some elvish ancestry; he's still in the prime of his life at 87. However, hobbits rarely make it past 120 and Aragorn himself died of old age at 208. Even after departing to the Undying Lands, the Valar have no power to grant the Ringbearers immortality, and they would eventually expire. Despite the name Undying Lands, this is a common misunderstanding that Tolkien himself cleared up in his Letters.
** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Legolas (an immortal elf) and Gimli (a mortal dwarf who may live for centuries) become best friends. Even after traveling ("it is said") with Legolas to the Undying Lands, like with the Hobbits, the Valar have no power to grant Gimli immortality and he eventually must die as well.
** ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': The Noldorin prince Finrod Felagund forges a friendship with Bëor, leader of the first group of humans to arrive in Beleriand. Bëor becomes Finrod's vassal and they are close friends for the rest of his life. Finrod was present at Bëor's deathbed, and it was the first time he ever witnessed anyone die without being wounded physically or spiritually. Generations later Finrod befriended Andreth, a human poet and loremaster; she and Finrod have a discussion on the metaphysical differences between Elves and Men, which is recorded as "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", or "The Debate of Finrod and Andreth", in ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth Morgoth's Ring]]''.
* Creator/MCAHogarth's ''[[Literature/{{Paradox}} The Dreamhealers]]'' books are about the friendship between Vasiht'h, a Glaseah who could live a couple centuries, and Jahir, an Eldritch capable of living over a millennium.

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': Petty thief Andy Merton stole a magic amulet and accidentally activated it, [[FusionDance merging with his corgi Hank]] and gaining superpowers. The joining created a psychic link that remained active even when the two were separated, and the dog's personality and protective instincts nudged him away from crime and toward becoming a superhero and a better person in general. However, the magic didn't prevent Hank from growing old while Andy was still relatively young.

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': Petty thief Andy Merton stole a magic amulet and accidentally activated it, [[FusionDance merging with is corgi Hank]] and gaining superpowers. The joining created a psychic link that remained active even when the two were separated, and the dog's personality and protective instincts nudged him away from crime and toward becoming a superhero and a better person in general. However, the magic didn't prevent Hank from growing old while Andy was still relatively young.

* In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' it is the case that the higher the level, the more longevity is granted by the gods to an adventurer. Many breeds such as [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]] are naturally long-lived. High-ranking elves like Riveria are therefore likely to be close to [[TheAgeless The Ageless]], which also means that many of their friends will die long before her. On the other side, a life as adventurer ist very dangerous, and many adventurers die in the dungeon.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' FanFic ''Always Tomorrow''[[http://www.scotpress.co.uk/story_archive/vp/Always_Tomorrow.htm]], 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.

* The [[TearJerker soul-destroying]] theme of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': Jessie, as an unchanging toy, "outlived" Emily's childhood. This is continued in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' where Andy has grown up and no longer needs his toys.

* The song "Music/PuffTheMagicDragon" describes a Mayfly December friendship between the dragon and his best friend in its final verse. It breaks the dragon's heart ([[TearJerker as well as its listeners']]). The issue is that he and all his adventures 'make way for other toys'.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Unlike the rest of the party, Fran is a viera, and her lifespan is three times that of a hume's. Her age is never given (and she refuses to give it when Vaan asks her). She had left Golmore Jungle fifty years before the events of the game - and before any of the other player characters were born. She is friends with Balthier, a hume who is only 22 years old. Though her age is not given, she could very well outlive the rest of the party.
** In the novella of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', On the Way to a Smile, Red XIII laments that he shall outlive all his fellow teammates thanks to his species long lifespan. Vincent Valentine, a human, reassures him that he will still be around and will meet with him every year, due to a [[PlayingWithSyringes lab experiment]] that left him effectively immortal.

* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: Zeno]] is actually two thousand years older than the rest of the gang and was [[spoiler:the original yellow dragon warrior who personally served the legendary King Hiryuu]].
* Hiyori with her gods and spirit friends, especially Yato and Yukine, in ''Manga/{{Noragami}}''. She is a human teenager while the others have potentially an unlimited lifespan and the gods can reincarnate if they do die.
* It's not discussed in the show, but ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' features the human Nate being friends with various {{youkai}}. Yo-kai are DeadToBeginWith but not everyone becomes a yo-kai when they die. [[spoiler:It is possible that Nate might become a yo-kai though, as he died in a movie and is shown to have a yo-kai form]].
* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', this turns out to be the case of any friendship involving a [[spoiler: half-human]], who only live about 1/3 the normal amount of time. [[spoiler: Kishou Arima]] is revealed to have been SecretlyDying from old age, and was already middle-aged by the time he even met the rest of the cast.
* ''Anime/MaquiaWhenThePromisedFlowerBlooms'' is about a girl from a SocietyOfImmortals living among ordinary humans and befriending a few along the way, including raising a baby into teenhood and meeting him again as an adult.

* This is sadly the case for countries that befriend or fall in love with regular humans in ''Manga/Hetalia''. Countries are immortal (or at the very least cannot die of old age) whereas regular humans are, well, human. Especially tragic in the case of a young America befriending a boy named Davie. He left to find a particular flower Davie told him about, and by the time he finally got one and came back Davie had died of old age. To put that in perspective, Davie grew up, got married, had children, grew old, and died while in that same timespan America had aged maybe only a few years (he started off the comic as a toddler and by the end of it was a small child.) For extra punches to the gut, at Davie's funeral a young America looks questioningly at Davie's IdenticalGrandson and says "Davie?"
* ''Manga/InuYasha'' has the titular hero. He will survive his human friends Miroku and Sango far. Only Shippo, the fox youkai, has a similar lifespan as he does.
** With Kagome it is a [[MayflyDecemberRomance Mayfly-December Romance]].

* Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} was born in the late-19th century. Even ignoring that most of his friends have been fellow soldiers, mercenaries, assassins, X-Men, and others who can be expected to have their lives cut unnaturally short, his longevity alone guarantees that he will eventually outlive every single one of his friends. His daughter/OppositeSexClone Comicbook/{{X 23}} faces the same future, a fact which she has yet to address in the books.
* As of 2017, this is becoming a serious concern for ComicBook/TheVision. A storyline in ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentAvengers'' involves him meeting a future version of himself from ''the end of time'', and grappling with the implications. Hercules advises him to live in the moment as much as possible, as someday their memories will be all that remains of their mortal friends.
* ComicBook/AtomicRobo is a one-of-a-kind sapient robot destined to outlive all his human friends and colleagues. He doesn't talk about it much, but the second issue alludes to it with him reminiscing about a friend from World War II who just died of cancer (after living to be a grandfather). In a much later story, Phil suggests this is why Robo takes a while to get close to his colleagues. "It'd kill him to get close to everyone he meets."

* 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.

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10317033/1/We-Live-Forever-But-Not-Together This]] interesting short-form fanfic for Franchise/{{Pokemon}} portrays the inevitable end to the relationship between [[ABoyAndHisX a trainer and her]] immortal OlympusMons.

* Popular {{Fanon}} for WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTheGummiBears is that Gummis live for centuries, with the age 100 being the prime of life; this naturally turns any human and Gummi friendship into this trope, with Cubbi and Sunni often taking Cavin and Calla's descent into old age hard. They usually cope by remaining [[HonoraryUncle honorary family to Cavin and Calla's descendants]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', Hogarth is a pre-teen human. The titular giant, unless it can travel very fast through space, is probably hundreds of years old. Given this and [[spoiler:the ability to reform itself which it displays in the last scene]], it's likely it will outlive Hogarth.

* 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, to which Data could retire whenever he wants.]] And then ''Film/{{Nemesis}}'' happened...[[note]]Though Data was resurrected via BrainUploading afterward, 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 Creator/LFrankBaum’s ''Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus'', near the end of the book Claus has become a very elderly man and his immortal friends, family and allies were about to face the cost of having adopted a mortal into their circle. [[spoiler: It was voted to grant Claus the cloak of immortality, so he continued to give gifts to children to this day.]]
* In ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' the kandra [=TenSoon=] [[TheAgeless does not age]], is virtually unkillable, and can expect to live several millennia at least. He forms a very strong bond with the human Vin, who can expect to live a normal human lifespan. [[spoiler:This being a CrapsackWorld, she makes a HeroicSacrifice to avert the end of the world in her early twenties.]]. However, one of his human friends survives: [[spoiler:Sazed, who becomes the DeityOfHumanOrigin Harmony]].

* ''Literature/TheNakedSun'': Humans from {{Earth|ThatUsedToBeBetter}} have a normal lifespan, while those from "spacer" worlds live for centuries. After they form a brief but strong friendship, Gladia the spacer is quite distraught to be reminded that in forty years, Elijah will be dead while she'll be nigh-unchanged.

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': Dragons become lifelong companions with their [[DragonRider riders]], but are capable of far outliving them. The oldest ones often bond with successive generations of the same family, [[IWantGrandkids so Laurence is encouraged to hurry up and have a child]] so the transition will be easier for Temeraire when he dies.
* The andalite Ax from ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' once said that Andalites can live up to two hundred years. Because of this, he would probably outlive his human friends far. However, he is killed at the end of the series.
** It is particularly extreme with Tobias. He is [[ShapeshifterModeLock permanently trapped in the body of a bird of prey]] and does not want to be human again. The real bird, whose body he took over, was already fully grown, so Tobias doesn't even have the bird's full lifespan.
** Toby Hamee is likely to die in front of her friends because Hork-Bajirs have a shorter life expectancy than humans.
* Several people in ''Literature/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' have this problem. For this reason, most [[WitchSpecies warlocks]] and vampires only have other immortals as friends, since don't want to see their friends die in old age [[TheAgeless while staying young themselves]]. Some specific cases:
** Simon Lewis worried about this after he got turned into a vampire, since all of his friends (and family) were either Shadowhunters or humans. It was something that bothered him a lot. However, at the end of ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'' [[spoiler:he was transformed back into a human]], and at the end of ''Literature/TalesFromTheShadowhunterAcademy he became [[spoiler:a [[{{Nephilim}} Shadowhunter]].]]
** At the end of ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices [[spoiler:Jem Carstairs]] became an immortal silent brother. This meant that he would outlive his parabatai and most of his other friends.

* ''Series/{{Moonlight}}''. PlayedWith by Mick and his dog. Every time his dog dies, he gets a new dog of the same breed and gives them the same name and a number. He's up to the 30s by the time of the series.
* ''Series/{{Forever}}''. Morgan and Abe, the former discovering the latter as a healthy infant survivor of a concentration camp. Abe {{lampshade| hanging}}s this when Morgan prepares to move away to Europe to avoid and outlive the person who knows his secret. Morgan could outlive the person, but Abe couldn't.

* A brutal variant of this can be found in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Slayers are discouraged from having friends because they usually have a short life due to their constant struggle against demons. It's unusual for a slayer to survive her teenage years at all.
** Angel is an immortal vampire who will survive his human friends far beyond Spike, who is also a vampire. Doyle, Cordelia, and Whistler were half-demons and probably could have been by his side for a long time, but were killed in the course of the plot.
* The [[WitchSpecies half-witch]] Sabrina Spellman from ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' is as longlived as any pure witch. However, this does not apply to her human friends.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': Unlike the rest of the party, Fran is a viera, and her lifespan is three times that of a hume's. Her age is never given (and she refuses to give it when Vaan asks her). She had left Golmore Jungle fifty years before the events of the game - and before any of the other player characters were born. She is friends with Balthier, a hume who is only 22 years old. Though her age is not given, she could very well outlive the rest of the party.
* In the novella of VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII, On the Way to a Smile, Red XIII laments that he shall outlive all his fellow teammates thanks to his species long lifespan. Vincent Valentine, a human, reassures him that he will still be around and will meet with him every year, due to a [[PlayingWithSyringes lab experiment]] that left him effectively immortal.

* ''VideoGame/{{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 of 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.
* ''VideoGame/HometownStory'' has a two century old witch and other magical creatures that are either even more LongLived or immortal cohabitate with ordinary humans. All befriend the human PlayerCharacter, but some have pre-existing friendships with other villagers as well.

* The main relationship in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' is a platonic Mayfly-December love between two best friends, one a normal man approaching middle age, and one a clone with [[PlotRelevantAgeUp rapidly-accelerated ageing]] which has left him physically seventy while being only about forty-three years old.

* ''VideoGame/Mother3'': Alec, the grandfather of Lucas and Claus, is good friends with Ionia, a [[WholesomeCrossdresser Magypsy]]. Magypsies live for millennia, while Alec is just a normal human being likely in his seventies.

* ''Webcomic/VampireGirl''. Levana explains this to Laura as part of her reason for not wanting to be a vampire, on the grounds that Levana will always outlive anyone she may befriend.
* Discussed in a ''Webcomic/{{Meadowhawk}}'' strip about [[http://meadowhawk.net/2014/12/06/lifespans/ dragon lifespans]]. Two friends, Abraham Pickett (human) and Daniel "the gentle giant" Bloodthorn (dragon), were both born in 1902; when Abe died in 1994 Daniel (who hadn't even reached his full size yet) swore never to befriend another human because the pain of losing them was too great.
* Half of the main cast of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' are humans in their 20s. Traveling with them are the 55-year-old dwarf Durkon and 130-something elf Vaarsuvius, who can expect to live for another 200 and 400 years respectively.

* The VillainousFriendship between the Annihilator and Sircea the Platinum Priestess in ''Webcomic/TheYoungProtectors'' is implied to be this. Given her occasional references to TheTimeOfMyths before [[spoiler:the Walls of reality separated Earth from Hell]], her name's resemblance to the witch Circe from Greek legend is probably a clue.

* ''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 a 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.

* In the ''Red Planet'' miniseries based on the novel ''Literature/RedPlanet'', Jim's friend Willis turns out to be a larva of the native Martians. Near the end of the minseries, Willis goes into the hibernation phase of its lifecycle between larva and adult and sadly explains to Jim that he will not live to see Willis wake up since human lifespans are too short. The final scene of the miniseries nonetheless ends on a happy note, with a grown up Willis telling Jim's grandchild stories about Jim.
* In ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks'', young troublemaker Fee becomes friends with CoolOldGuy Blister, who lives in a retirement home. His mortality is brought up in "Later, Dingus" where Fee is told the news of Blister's death, but Fee believes [[FakingTheDead Blister is pulling a massive prank]] which he recently mentioned he wanted to do.
* In the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'' it looked as if Callum and Rayla would face it because they are friends, but elves live much longer than humans. From the third season, however, it is a [[MayflyDecemberRomance Mayfly-December Romance]]. Of course, both are in the middle of a dangerous adventure, with either one of them at any time or they could both perish.
* Bender, the TokenRobot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s core group of TrueCompanions, has a potential lifespan of up to a billion years, while the most naturally LongLived human in the setting is still under 200 years old. [[ComedicSociopathy Being Bender]], [[AngstWhatAngst he's way more bothered by the fact that]] [[spoiler:a non-transferrable HeartDrive makes him technically as mortal as his friends, meaning that, at best, he'll only outlive them by an unthinkable number of years, not ''infinite'' years.]]

* ''Literature/DresdenFiles''. Due to wizards living for 300 to 400 years, pretty much every friendship Harry (or any wizard) has with a regular human will be this. It's explicitly cited by Karrin Murphy as a reason why [[MayflyDecemberRomance her and Harry shouldn't be a couple]]: although she's actually a few years older than him, by ordinary human standards she's already approaching middle age, while he has centuries ahead of him.

* The [[Literature/TheHobbit Tolkien]][[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings 'verse]]:

* Bender, the TokenRobot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''s core group of TrueCompanions, has a potential lifespan of up to a billion years, while the most naturally LongLived human in the setting is still under 200 years old. [[ComedicSociopathy Being Bender]], [[AngstWhatAngst he's way more bothered by the fact that]] [[spoiler:a non-transferrable HeartDrive makes him technically as mortal as his friends, meaning that he'll only outlive them by ''many'' years, not ''infinite'' years.]]

* In the ''Red Planet'' miniseries based on the novel ''Literature/RedPlanet'', Jim's friend Willis turns out to be a larva of the native Martians. Near the end of the minseries, Willis goes into the hibernation phase of its lifecycle between larva and adult and sadly explains to Jim that he will not live to see Willis wake up since human lifespans are too short. The final scene of the miniseries nonetheless ends on a happy note, with a grown up Willis telling Jim's grandson stories about Jim.

* Several people in ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' have this problem. For this reason, most [[WitchSpecies warlocks]] and vampires only have other immortals as friends, since don't want to see their friends die in old age [[TheAgeless while staying young themselves]]. Some specific cases:

* In ''Franchise/TheShadowhunterChronicles'' it initially looked for Simon Lewis that he would survive all of his friends because he is immortal as a vampire and his friends would not. It was something that bothered him a lot. However, shortly thereafter he was transformed back into a human, and then into a [[{{Nephilim}} shadowhunter]].
** For Jem Carstairs, it was an important point of the plot that he suffered from surviving his friend Will Herondale for a long time.
** For this reason, most [[WitchSpecies warlocks]] only have other witches as friends. As witches, they are immortal and don't want to see their friends die in old age [[TheAgeless while staying young themselves]].

* In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' it is the case that the higher the level, the more longevity is granted by the gods to an adventurer. Many breeds such as [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]] are naturally long-lived. High-ranking elves like Riveria are therefore likely to be close to [[TheAgeless The Ageless]], which also means that many of their friends will die long before her. On the other side, a life as adventurer ist very dangerous, and many adventurers dies in the dungeon.