History Main / MortalityPhobia

Someone who makes a NotHowImDyingDeclaration may or may not fear death altogether. Their protest may be this, or it may be a reflection on the ignominious or ridiculous death confronting them.

* James's ex-girlfriend Vicki in ''Film/TheseFinalHours'' displays this when James gives her a [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] appraisal of her doomsday bunker against a [[WorldWreckingWave meteor strike's firestorm]], stating that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it is basically a giant coffin would need to be 10x deeper and thicker in order for her to survive]].

* James's ex-girlfriend Vicki in ''Film/TheseFinalHours'' displays this when James gave her a BrutalHonesty about her doomsday bunker against a [[WorldWreckingWave meteor strike's firestorm]], stating that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it is basically a giant coffin would need to be 10x deeper and thicker in order for her to survive]].

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TruthInTelevision - Thanatophobia, the fear of death, is one of the most common phobias in the world. That being said, '''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease'''

* ''Manga/AkameGaKill'': This is the primary motivation of [[MadScientist Dorothea]], Wild Hunt's EvilGenius. Dorothea is absolutely terrified at the prospect of dying, which is why she is so adamant on trying to find a way to extend her lifespan, all the while draining people of their blood with her Imperial Arm, Absordex, to maintain her childlike visage. When the time comes for her to pay for her crimes and Leone is about to crush her to death with a massive boulder, Dorothea suffers [[TearsOfFear a very undignified]] VillainousBreakdown [[VillainsWantMercy where she begs for her life,]] [[FreudianExcuse trying to say that all she wants is to stay young and beautiful forever]]. [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse A disgusted Leone retorts that there were a lot of people whom Dorothea killed who probably wanted to live, too.]] Predictably, Dorothea's InelegantBlubbering and attempts to bargain for her life by sharing what she knows about prolonging the human lifespan [[KilledMidSentence are cut off]] [[SquashedFlat when Leone squashes her flat without a care.]]

* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'': Izaya's primary goal is to avoid the CessationOfExistence he believes will occur beyond death, and has driven him to form an extremely convoluted plan in attempt to prevent it: hypothesizing that [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] are actually {{Valkyries}} left dormant on Earth, he decides to start a massive gang war in the hopes of creating a conflict large enough to wake up resident Dullahan Celty and hitch a ride with her to whatever afterlife she returns to. He flatly states that he doesn't care whether or not it's a hellish place filled with nothing but pain, just as long as it's not [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing]]. Ironically, since ''Durarara'' and ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' share a [[TheVerse 'verse]], there is a much simpler and more reliable (also arguably less insane) means for attaining {{Immortality}} that he just doesn't know about; which makes the brief appearance of [[spoiler:[[CharacterOverlap Isaac and Miria]]]], who are ''members of the Dollars no less'', much more hilarious.
* Morganna in ''Anime/DotHackSign'' is a [[AIIsACrapshoot Rogue A.I.]] who became aware of her programming to self-terminate once ''The World''[='=]s true god [[BigGood Aura]] was born. She goes to great lengths to make sure that she never is, and it takes the combined efforts of Tsukasa, Subaru, and all the others to stop her.

* A patient, Mami, in Creator/JunjiIto's story "The Long Dream" (from his [[Manga/JunjiItoKyoufuMangaCollection first anthology]]) is terrified of death, and wakes up screaming almost every night. This isn't helped when Mukoda, a patient having abnormally long dreams, starts to transform as the dreams become longer, confuses his dreams and reality and goes to Mami's room, as they were married in a dream of his. She mistakes him for Death coming to take her soul until the doctors calm her down. [[spoiler: Ultimately, Mukoda dies in his dream and crumbles apart, leaving only a strange crystalline substance behind where his brain was. The doctors discuss how Mami's condition has improved, but she's started having long dreams as well, as the crystals were administered to her. Now, she can live in an apparent infinity due to the dreams, but it's still quite disturbing.]]
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Implied with Wyald, the monstrous Apostle who led the [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores Black Dog Knights]]. It's revealed after he's killed for good that his original human form was that of a sickly old man, and the only way to become an Apostle is to reach the DespairEventHorizon while in possession of a behelit, and then sacrifice what is most dear to you in return for demonic power.
* ''Manga/EdensZero'': This is the motivation of Drakken Joe, one of the most powerful and evil men in the Sakura Cosmos who's lived for over 200 years. [[spoiler:He was born on a planet where the population was [[YourDaysAreNumbered bioengineered to die by the time they were only 15 years]] old due to being human guinea pigs, and Drakken was terrified of dying so young [[UsedToBeASweetKid without the chance to grow up, travel the stars, and make friends like a normal person would]]. He learned alchemy because he realized he could use it to [[LifeDrinker absorb life force from others to support his own]], but over time [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget he forgot about his idealistic childhood dreams]] and became obsessed with just living forever and gaining wealth and influence to support his immortality.]]
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': [[BigBad Muzan Kibutsuji]] is ''defined'' by his fear of death, ever since he was ill and almost thought of as stillborn. All his villainy, selfishness, cruelty, and desire to achieve CompleteImmortality is motivated by his desire to never face his death, no matter what low he needs to stoop to.
* ''Anime/FairyTailTheMoviePhoenixPriestess'': When Dyst was a little boy, he tried to have his pet weasel resurrected, only to be told there no magic that can revive the dead. Upon hearing this, Dyst became terrified of dying and vowed that he would find a way to live forever. As an adult, his quest has twisted him into a vile individual, willing to do anything or hurt anyone in the name of gaining immortality.

[[folder:Card Games]]
* ''TableTopGame/MagicTheGathering'': All of [[{{Necromancer}} Lilliana Vess]]' actions, [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor the good and the bad]], ultimately come back to this: she is utterly ''terrified'' of her own mortality, and will do anything, up to and including splitting her soul between four separate [[DealWithTheDevil Deals With Devils]], [[spoiler: and betraying her friends to Nicol Bolas]] to stave it off as long as possible. Which is why [[spoiler: her [[MoreHeroThanThou attempted]] HeroicSacrifice in ''Literature/WarOfTheSpark'' [[CharacterDevelopment was so significant]]]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'': Alix Harrower got her powers from an accident brought on by her husband's extreme obsession with his own mortality. Unable to cope with the thought of going grey or developing wrinkles, Lance Harrower tried to infuse his skin with a metal coating, but instead suffocated when the coating completely enveloped him. Alix herself became coated in the stuff after he grabbed her for help. Ironically, Lance ended up dying.
* This is a constant fear and driving motivator for many in the pantheon in ''Comicbook/TheWickedAndTheDivine''. Given all of the gods are young people and most of them are teenagers who are unlikely to live to see their twenties, it's a pretty reasonable feeling. Minerva is especially bitter, seeing as how she won't live to see ''fourteen'', and Baphomet is scared enough [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt to resort to drastic measures to live longer]].
* ComicBook/ThePunisher (who is very familiar with this trope, [[DeathSeeker or rather seeing it in others]]) when mob boss Nicky Cavella is holding a schoolboy hostage.
--> Hurt the boy and you die bad, you know that. But there's a part of you that still thinks if you let him go, you've got a chance. And that part of you just won't shut up.
:: Cavella lets the kid go. Frank takes Cavella out in the wilderness and shoots him in the gut, leaving him to die of blood poisoning over several days.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Annihilus is a cosmic being -- incredibly powerful, immeasurably old -- and yet the very ''thought'' that he isn't immortal and that there is someone out there in the universe capable of killing him utterly terrifies him. This is a good thing for the universe at large, as he mostly hides in the Negative Zone for his own safety, rather than using his cosmic powers to conquer the universe. When he decides to get more proactive about his fear... [[ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} bad things happen]].
* ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'': Dr. Frye is an extreme, borderline-delusional FlatEarthAtheist who can't make himself believe in any sort of afterlife despite the afterlife's ''very'' objective existence in [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse this universe]]. As a result of this delusion, he develops a paralyzing fear of dying, equating it with CessationOfExistence, and becomes desperate to discover the secret to immortality. So desperate he's willing to do anything to achieve it. [[spoiler:Even human experimentation on his own son]].

* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' fic ''Fanfic/{{Suikakasen}}'', Yoshika wants to become a hermit (and thus gain immortality) because she is terrified of dying. It's her making this fear clear that triggers Kasen's (who was about to kill Yoshika right before she revealed her phobia) HeelRealization. [[spoiler:Yoshika's given pretty good reason to be fearing death too considering how her SoapOperaDisease means that [[YourDaysAreNumbered she's going to die soon]]. By the end of the story however, she seems to have gotten over her phobia and [[GoOutWithASmile dies smiling]].]]
* ''Fanfic/TalesOfTheUndiscoveredSwords'': This is the reason [[spoiler:Konotegashiwa is a StrawVegetarian – he experienced firsthand the terrifying power of destruction by being [[AndIMustScream burned as an inanimate sword]] and wants to reduce destruction by not killing things.]]
* In the MCU SI fic ''Fanfic/ATwelveStepProgramToOmnipotence'', this is the defining trait of the main character. He knows that his odds of surviving various superhero battles, alien invasions and cosmic snaps isn't very high and he is willing to do anything and everything to make sure that he'll end up more powerful than anything that could ever hope to threaten his existence.

* ''Fanfic/TheFlashSentryChronicles'': In the Season 7 chapter "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Webs", this serves as the main motivation for the antagonist of the chapter, Camera Trap. He was not born as a real pony, he was created by his master, a GiantSpider-like creature that lives in another dimension, and uses Camera Trap to lure victims to their doom. Camera Trap's master keeps him alive for his services, and Camera Trap even says he has lived long enough to live a full life. Despite his guilt over lying to others and leading them to their deaths, he continues to do so because if he should refuse his master, or should his master die, then he will die as well, and he fears that because he was created instead of being born, [[TheNothingAfterDeath there will be no afterlife waiting for him]]. [[spoiler:Despite his fears though, Shining Soul helps convince him to save everyone he has put in danger and help destroy his former master for good, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath despite knowing what this will mean for him]].]]
* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': While not a defining part of his character, this is definetly something that Orange Lantern dealt with - it's just that as a SelfInsert from the real world, there was little he could do about it in his original life, other than distract himself with work or hobbies, since death is inevitable. Upon finding himself in the ''Young Justice'' universe, where afterlives and souls are real, he eventually found out that he didn't naturally have a soul, since they're based on magic, which does not exist in the "real world". While gaining one becomes a side project, it's not one of his main goals, but he does eventually get one... at which point he now has to figure out exactly what this means, and what his eventual afterlife will be, since DC has several, and the rules are pretty confusing. [[spoiler: By the 2020's in real time, he has died and been resurrected three times.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'': The titular character develops this after his brush with the mysterious Wolf, who manages to wound him while menacingly telling him that "no one is able to escape [death]". This is after a doctor told him that he has lost [[CatsHaveNineLives eight of his nine lives]], so if he dies, he will die permanently. The entire reason he decides to embark on the journey to find the Wishing Star is so he may be able to regain his lost lives. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that the Wolf is actually TheGrimReaper, who wants to punish Puss for taking his nine lives for granted. Puss eventually realizes that WeAllDieSomeday, and the right thing to do is to cherish things that we can experience in the remaining time we have. This gains the Wolf's respect, and he decides to leave Puss until their inevitable "reunion" in the future.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'': Mother Gothel keeps Rapunzel as her own FountainOfYouth for a reason.

* The plot of ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve'' concerns a Russian who doesn't want to die, so he has his medical {{mooks}} [[spoiler:kill people and graft his head onto their bodies]] so he can live a little bit longer. They've done this several times before the start of the film and a couple more times during the film before they're stopped in the end. It appears they're just doing it ForScience, they don't especially care about the guy or payment.

* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', it's established that due to the ProudMerchantRace Neimoidians who are known for being {{Dirty Coward}}s have a pathological fear of death as a result of their SocialDarwinist culture forcing them to fight for survival from the second they're born. [[PayEvilUntoEvil While they deserved it]], the knowledge of their FreudianExcuse made Anakin slaughtering the Trade Federation near the end of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' [[AlasPoorVillain somewhat more tragic]] with him [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone crying on Mustafar after being alone with his thoughts of all the evil he just committed]].
* In ''Film/LoveAndDeath'', Boris lives in constant fear of dying, as a result of somehow meeting the Grim Reaper as a child, and this fear informs most of his acts of cowardice throughout the movie.
* ''Film/{{Hook}}'': Peter deduces that Captain Hook is still in Neverland trying to hunt him and the Lost Boys after so many years because after having killed the giant crocodile that tried to eat him, Hook's great fear has been replaced by time itself. Indeed, when Hook loses his wig, he is revealed to have become an old, white-haired man.
* James's ex-girlfriend Vicki in ''Film/TheseFinalHours'' displays this when James gave her a BrutalHonesty about her doomsday bunker against a [[WorldWreckingWave meteor strike's firestorm]], stating that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it is basically a giant coffin that needs to be 10x more deeper and thicker in order to survive.]]
* In ''Film/DangerDiva'', tech billionaire Stanley Arkoff is so willing to stay alive he's willing to implant his brain synapses into a hypothetical future child. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end, when he relents and begs to be allowed to die naturally.]]

* In ''Literature/DandelionWine'' Doug has to deal with this after a few Green Town residents die over the summer, and he comes to the realization that he will eventually have to die too.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', this was a common trait of Men and caused by [[DarkLord Morgoth]] and his marring of Arda: he poisoned the matter of Arda with his essence, making Men to fear their mortality and causing Elves to fade. Sadly, this was also the main reason of the envy of the Númenoreans towards the Elves (who were immortal) and the [[AndManGrewProud eventual downfall of Númenor]].
* ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Lord Voldemort split his soul into seven pieces, and hid them in separate [[SoulJar Horcruxes]] to ensure that he would never die. His obsession with avoiding death is noted to be one of his {{Fatal Flaw}}s. WordOfGod even says a Boggart (a creature that assumes the form of a person's worst fear) would assume the form of his own corpse in his presence.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Magic users can see Death and know when their time is up. However, where witches tend to FaceDeathWithDignity (due to serving as midwives and burial attendants, they see quite a lot of death), wizards usually try to cheat their way out (in one's case, [[Literature/{{Sourcery}} moving his spirit into a staff, from which he orders his son around]], while another gets into a box with all the sigils and wards he can think of, only to hear "Cramped in here, isn't it?". (Spoken by Death himself, since the wizard forgot to include air holes.)
* This is [[BigBad Gerridon's]] FatalFlaw in the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'', which led him to bargain with [[TheCorruption Perimal Darkling]] and sell out his own people in the pursuit of immortality. This is explicitly pointed out in the in-universe saga that recalls his fall, which is repeated often enough to be ArcWords: "Gerridon Highlord, Master of Knorth, a proud man was he. The three peoples - Highborn, Kendar, and Arrin-Ken - he held in hand, by right of birth and might [...] but he feared death..." Notably, this makes him ''very'' unusual for a Kencyr, who are a MartyrdomCulture who don't consider fear of death to be a valid motivation for ''anything'', and serves only to reinforce his evil and selfishness to a Kencyr audience.
* In ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'', mermaids live much longer lives than humans however they don't have mortal souls like humans. Thus when they die, [[CessationOfExistence they die]]. The titular little mermaid doesn't like this and attempts to receive a soul by marrying a human. In the original ending, [[DownerEnding she fails]]. In the revised one, they went for a BittersweetEnding instead. She still dies but she can earn a mortal soul if she does enough good deads while in spirit form.
* It's implied that Gothel fears death in ''[[Literature/ATaleOf Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch]]''. She doesn't want to deal with something as "undiginified" as death and fears turning to dust much like her mother. Gothel just wants to live forever with her deceased triplet sisters, so she tries in vain to figure out how to revive them. In the end, Gothel does have the particularly painful death of turning into dust, just like Manea did centuries prior.
* Pufftail from ''Literature/{{Stray}}'' is in denial that death comes to everyone eventually. When told this by a female cat named Tammy, Pufftail refuses to believe that death is unavoidable. Even as a senior, he believes that death can be outrun if you're lucky enough.
* ''Literature/PetSematary'': Rachel Creed, the main characters wife, can't stand any sort of discussion of death, even the concept of pets dying, due to childhood trauma; her older sister Zelda suffered from spinal meningitis, and died an agonizing death when Rachel was alone at home with her. A combination of SurvivorsGuilt and a crippling fear of her own mortality has haunted her ever since.
* ''Literature/CoolAir'' has an unusal twist to this trope: Dr. Munoz, the main characters thermophobic aquintance, is in fact ''already dead'', having died of unspecified causes 18 years earlier, but has been preserved through scientific means that require him to be kept at least 13 C degrees at all times, lest nature resume it's course. For obvious reasons, he's terrified of both warmth and true death, but it's all just a matter of time - his condition worsens, requring increasingly colder environemnts, until one summer day when the AC breaks and can't be fixed in time. Munez has just enough time to scribble an ApocalypticLog for the narrator before he rots away into a pile of gore.

* Marie Laveau in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven''. [[spoiler: Which is why she made a deal with Papa Legba that requires her to sacrifice an infant every year in exchange for immortality.]]

* In ''Series/{{Community}}'' Jeff panics that he is going to die after learning he has high cholesterol.

* Inverted on ''Series/NorthernExposure''. Chris's father and grandfather both died by the age of 40, so he figures that he will too - so he tends to do risky things, like take out loans and not pay them off. But then Joel diagnoses him with high blood pressure and gives him medication, stating that his father & grandfather probably had it too. Now that Chris is given a chance at a long life, he starts toning down his risky behavior.

* Chris in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is such a health nut that finding any indication that he's aging (or even just not the peak of human perfection) is enough to send him into a downward spiral. Justified as he was born with a rare blood disease and the doctors said he wouldn't last a month, and his continued survival has made him determined to prove he can survive anything. It's revealed he has other issues going on as well, and eventually, he gets over it with professional help.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': A MadScientist/alchemist in the Season 3 episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS03E15TimeIsOnMySide Time Is on My Side]]" went to length to take others' organs to prolong his own life. Though a subversion in that it was more to be comfortable than immortal, but Sam and Dean provide him a FateWorseThanDeath to truly punish him.
* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'': The Skeksis fear dying and their primary motivation is to find immortality, if not any way to prolong their lives, even just a little bit longer, in direct contrast to the Gelflings, who see death as natural, with one Gelfling tribe's religion making them almost completely fearless of death. It's also directly stated that the Gelfling and other native species of Thra rejoin the planet's life energy in death as part of its natural cycle, but the Skeksis, due to not being native to Thra, do not join its energy when they perish, making it unknown what happens to them when they die. The Skeksis Emperor, skekSo, terrified by his painful nightmares, not only fears that there is [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing]] waiting for them when they die, but is especially frightened by the possibility that, if there ''is'' an Afterlife for the Skeksis, then something worse than the torments they suffer in life might be in store for them there.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'':
** The Season 4 BigBad, Clifford [=DeVoe=], learns that he is doomed to die of an ALS-like condition due to his brainpower proving too taxing on his body. His desperation to live is such that he resorts to [[spoiler:stealing the bodies of other metahumans. He becomes absolutely livid when it's revealed that even this is a temporary fix, given that each new body is decaying even faster than his old one]].
** Ramsey Rosso, the ArcVillain of the first half of Season 6, discovers that he has a genetic trait that predisposes him to the same cancer that killed his mother, and becomes obsessed with finding a cure for it. To this end, he [[ProfessorGuineaPig experiments on himself with dark matter]], accidentally giving himself the ability to absorb blood from other people and turn them into his mind controlled zombies. [[TheUnfettered He sees nothing wrong with this if it keeps him alive]], and becomes determined to infect as many people as possible.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S1E6WhiteLightFever White Light Fever]]", the 102-year-old businessman Harlan Hawkes is permanently living on a reserved floor of a major hospital and has contracted a personal doctor to carry out research to keep him alive at all costs. This is explained by a severe FreudianExcuse -- Hawkes witnessed his parents being murdered in front of him during a war when he was a kid and spending days hiding underneath their corpses to survive. The dilemma starts when he desires another heart transplant while an 18-year-old girl also needs it, while TheGrimReaper himself starts hunting for Hawkes in the form of electricity. [[spoiler:In the end, both die, and the final scene shows that Hawkes has damned himself with his selfishness.]]

** The soldier in the folk story at the beginning of "Cheating Death" had a dread of death that went beyond ordinary fear, which is why he took care to position himself at the rear during battles, and why he desperately [[ChessWithDeath challenged Death to a game]]. [[spoiler:It turns out it wasn't just a folk story.]].

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

** Module [=OA7=] ''Test of the Samurai''. The BigBad Za-Jikku is so determined to avoid death that he plans to turn the entire planet's atmosphere into a lethal gas that only he can breathe and which will grant him immortality. The fact that this will kill off all other creatures on the planet does not concern him.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' this is the defining feature of prolongers, formerly human (usually) creatures who are so terrified of death, they have used a foul ritual to become abominations who can [[VampiricDraining drain the life force of others]] to survive. Cowards to the core, they aren't even vaguely human now, fear of death turning them into amoral predators.

* [[NephariousPharaoh Settra the Imperishable]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' founded the Mortuary Cult because he was too proud to accept his own mortality... and thus laid the foundations for the eventual creation of TheUndead in the setting (the ranks of which he would join millennia later as a [[{{Mummy}} Tomb King]]):
** Nagash would build on the knowledge of the Mortuary Cult, coupled with Dark Elf magic, to invent necromancy with which he would eventually doom all of Nehekhara,
** And Neferata would build on Nagash's research, becoming the first vampire, in her own quest for immortality.

* In the expanded plot of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', this is the primary motivation of Bluetarch; initially he had a life-extension machine built because he simply wanted to [[SiblingRivalry outlive his brother]] Redmond (who had his own built), however he still spends brief amounts of time dead and is now absolutely terrified of TheNothingAfterDeath.
-->Every day I'm dead a little longer, [[TheEngineer Mister Conagher]]. I have ''seen'' the other side. There is ''nothing'' there.

* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''. The [[AIIsACrapshoot Rogue A.I.]] Durandal becomes obsessed with its own mortality, and searches the universe to try to find a way to escape its inevitable destruction known as the Big Crunch.
* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', this can be one of the motivations for an NPC to begin learning necromancy.
* Meryl from ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonMagicalMelody'' has constant worries about death. Meryl is a little girl which makes her dialogue more concerning. It's never specified what happened to her but she has a DarkAndTroubledPast.
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', the Templar Sibrand believes that there is [[CessationOfExistence nothing waiting for him after death]], and the thought of this terrifies him so deeply that when he learns that the Assassins are coming for him, he begins executing random priests out of sheer blind paranoia because they wear vaguely similar robes to those of the Assassins.
* In ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi 4'', this is the motivation of [[spoiler:[[BigBad Odin]], who desperately sought to avert his fated death in Ragnarok, ''succeeded'', and now [[OmnicidalManiac plans to eradicate all other living beings]] so that nothing else can ever pose a threat to him again.]]
* Sylvanas Windrunner in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was driven by {{Revenge}} against Arthas the Lich King for killing her, raising her as an undead slave, and using her to help destroy her home city. After the Lich King's defeat, Sylvanas committed suicide to reenter the beautiful afterlife she saw for herself just before Arthas brought her back as a banshee. But [[TokenEvilTeammate the sins she committed in her quest for revenge]] instead damned her soul to [[{{Hell}} eternal torment in the Maw]]. A bargain was struck that returned Sylvanas to her undead existence. She is terrified of what awaits her after her final death and now does everything in her power to propagate the undead Forsaken and to ensure her own eternal life.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': So far, one of the few things that can make Xykon seriously lose his cool is his phylactery being destroyed, at least while he's in a position where his body might also be destroyed. As he says once, he'll do anything to "avoid the Big Fire Below."

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/AfterHours''. This is more or less Soren's hat. Whenever it comes to psychological fears or what the cast finds truly terrifying, it comes out that Soren fears growing old and dying. [[MonsterClown Oh, and clowns.]]
* A spinoff episode of The Walten Files entitled ''Boozoo's Ghosts'', a DarkParody of Literature/AChristmasCarol, had the physical embodiment of [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/waltenarchive/images/3/39/ClownCostume.png/revision/latest?cb=20210724211739 Mortality]] just [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment pop out of nowhere]] and proceed to remind Boozoo of his own demise. [[spoiler: The episode differs from the source material in that [[KilledOffForReal Boozoo actually dies at the end of the story,]] and everyone he knew and loved ''[[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing celebrates it.]]'' Can you imagine someone, much less a [[AnimalisticAbomination six-foot-tall patchwork rabbit,]] telling that stuff to ''you?'']]

* David Xanatos, the ridiculously rich and powerful MagnificentBastard of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' embarks on all sorts of schemes to live forever, so that he and his wife Fox can enjoy being rich and powerful forever.
-->'''Xanatos:''' The Cauldron of Life. The legend says whoever bathes in it will live as long as the mountain stones.\\
'''Hudson:''' Ah, you wish to be... immortal.\\
'''Xanatos:''' Of course. What good are all the riches on Earth, if Fox and I can't enjoy them forever?

** "Mom's the Word" has Stewie frightened by the prospect of him dying someday, and when Brian tells him he believes that there's nothing in the afterlife (being an atheist and all), [[DrivenToSuicide he tries to kill himself]]. After several failed attempts at suicide, Brian convinces him to make his life worthwhile and fulfill his dreams, and Stewie decides to try stand-up comedy, but his act bombs and Brian tells him to kill himself.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RudolphsShinyNewYear'', the BigBad, Aeon, who is a creature that lives [[MeaningfulName for exactly one eon]], is nearing the end of his lifespan [[TheLastDance within a matter of days]], so he kidnaps [[NewYearHasCome Baby New Year]] in order to stop time.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'', The Stingers exploit this fear in an older woman in order to scam her.

* ''Literature/DeliciousInDungeon'': Marcille is a variant -- as the only elf in her circle of friends, she has [[MayflyDecemberFriendship the longest lifespan by far]]; her deepest fear is to outlive her loved ones over and over again, and her dream is to find a LongevityTreatment for the short-lived races. [[spoiler:The BigBad temporarily recruits her by promising to make that dream come true.]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Lord Voldemort split his soul into seven pieces, and hid them in separate {{soul jar}}s to ensure that he would never die. His obsession with avoiding death is noted to be one of his {{fatal flaw}}s. WordOfGod even says a Boggart (a creature that assumes the form of a person's worst fear) would assume the form of his own corpse in his presence.

** In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]", a totalitarian government has outlawed religion, among many other things, and a Christian named Wordsworth is deemed "obsolete" and sentenced to death. The Chancellor who convicted him turns out to have this when Wordsworth tricks him into sharing his public execution, and refuses to let him out until he breaks down and begs "in the name of God". The Chancellor is released just before he's killed, but has thus proven ''himself'' obsolete, and will now share Wordsworth's fate anyway.
** In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E81NothingInTheDark Nothing in the Dark]]", a woman sees Death and becomes so frightened of dying that she shuts herself up in her apartment and remains there into her old age, refusing to let anyone else inside.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': A Mad Scientist/Alchemist in the Season 3 episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS03E15TimeIsOnMySide "Time Is On My Side"]] went to length to take others' organs to prolong his own life. Though a subversion in that it was more to be comfortable than immortal, but Sam and Dean provide him a FateWorseThanDeath to truly punish him.
* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'': The Skeksis fear dying and their primary motivation is to find immortality, if not any way to prolong their lives, even just a little bit longer, in direct contrast to the Gelflings, who see death as natural, with one Gelfling tribe's religion making them almost completely fearless of death. It's also directly stated that the Gelfling and other native species of Thra rejoin the planet's life energy in death as part of its natural cycle, but the Skeksis, due to not being native to Thra, do not join its energy when they perish, making it unknown what happens to them when they die. The Skeksis Emperor, skekSo, terrified by his painful nightmares, not only fears that there is [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing]] waiting for them when they die, but is especially frightened by the possibility that, if there ''is'' an Afterlife for the Skeksis, then something worse than the torments they suffer in life might be in store for them there.
* The Season 4 BigBad of ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Clifford [=DeVoe=], learns that he is doomed to die of an ALS-like condition due to his brainpower proving too taxing on his body. His desperation to live is such that he resorts to [[spoiler:stealing the bodies of other metahumans. He becomes absolutely livid when it's revealed that even this is a temporary fix, given that each new body is decaying even faster than his old one.]]

* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'': The Skeksis fear dying and their primary motivation is to find immortality, if not any way to prolong their lives, even just a little bit longer, in direct contrast to the Gelflings, who see death as natural, with one Gelfling tribe's religion making them almost completely fearless of death. It's also directly stated that the Gelfling and other native species of Thra rejoin the planet's life energy in death as part of it's natural cycle, but the Skeksis, due to not being native to Thra, do not join it's energy when they perish, making it unknown what happens to them when they die. The Skeksis Emperor, skekSo, terrified by his painful nightmares, not only fears that there is [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing]] waiting for them when they die, but is especially frightened by the possibility that, if there ''is'' an Afterlife for the Skeksis, then something worse than the torments they suffer in life might be in store for them there.

* A patient, Mami, in Creator/JunjiIto's story "The Long Dream" (from his [[Manga/JunjiItoKyoufuMangaCollection first anthology]]) is terrified of death, and wakes up screaming almost every night. This isn't helped when Mukoda, a patient having abnormally long dreams, starts to transform as the dreams become longer, confuses his dreams and reality and goes to Mami's room, as they were married in a dream of his. She mistakes him for Death coming to take her soul until the doctors calm her down. [[spoiler: Ultimately, Mukoda dies in his dream and crumbles apart, leaving only a strange crystalline substance behind where his brain was. The doctors discuss how Mami's condition has improved, but she's started having long dreams as well, as the crystals were administered to her. Now, she can life in an apparent infinity due to the dreams, but it's still quite disturbing.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'': The titular character develops this after his brush with the mysterious Wolf, who manages to wound him while menacingly telling him that "no one is able to escape [death]". This is after a doctor told him that he has lost eight of his nine lives, so if he dies, he will die permanently. The entire reason he decides to embark on the journey to find the Wishing Star is so he may be able to regain his lost lives. [[spoiler:It is later revealed that the Wolf is actually TheGrimReaper, who wants to punish Push for taking his nine lives for granted. Puss eventually realizes that WeAllDieSomeday, and the right thing to do is to cherish things that we can experience in the remaining time we have. This gains the Wolf's respect, and he decides to leave Puss until their inevitable "reunion" in the future.]]

* ''Anime/FairyTailTheMovieThePhoenixPriestess'': When Dyst was a little boy, he tried to have his pet weasel resurrected, only to be told there no magic that can revive the dead. Upon hearing this, Dyst became terrified of dying and vowed that he would find a way to live forever. As an adult, his quest has twisted him into a vile individual, willing to do anything or hurt anyone in the name of gaining immortality.