History Main / MortalityPhobia

Contrast WhoWantsToLiveForever, NotAfraidToDie, DeathSeeker, and WeAllDieSomeday. For fear of ''someone else's'' death, you'd like to see {{Protectorate}} and all of their protectors.

Why a character may have a Mortality Phobia is strangely not commonly gone into, though when it is, it often has to do with a fear of having to pay for all the bad deeds they've done in the afterlife, or a fear that there isn't one at all. Such characters are generally secular, wealthy and powerful, so presumably they can't stand the possibility of losing all that and starting over, either.

Contrast WhoWantsToLiveForever, NotAfraidToDie, DeathSeeker and WeAllDieSomeday. For fear of ''someone else's'' death, you'd like to see {{Protectorate}} and all of their protectors.

* 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.
* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[spoiler: Dante's wish to never die]] is what runs the military agenda and what makes the homunculi do what they do.

* 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 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 ''[[AdultFear fourteen]]'', and Baphomet is scared enough [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt to resort to drastic measures to live longer]].

* 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 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 ''[[AdultFear fourteen]]'', and Baphomet is scared enough to resort to drastic measures.

* In ''{{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.

While not wanting to die is a great motivator to spring into action in the short term, some people take that to the extreme, plotting and scheming and searching for ways to hold it off indefinitely, even when the prospect of having to meet the reaper seems reasonably far off. Performing bizarre rituals, which are sometimes nothing more than personal superstitions, extreme paranoia and carefulness, disregard for the lives of others in favor of their own, and a willingness to buy into fantasy or myths that promise to extend their life are all side-effects of having such a phobia. This is often the motivation for an ImmortalitySeeker.

* In ''{{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.

The clinical term for 'fear of death' is actually "Thanatophobia", but it can have additional or altogether different symptoms or behaviors not represented in the trope.

->'''Hudson:''' Getting old terrifies you, doesn't it?\\

* ''LightNovel/{{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 ''{{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.

* ''LightNovel/{{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 ''{{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.

Contrast WhoWantsToLiveForever, NotAfraidToDie, DeathSeeker and WeAllDieSomeday. Not to be confused with IDontWantToDie. For fear of ''someone else's'' death, you'd like to see {{Protectorate}} and all of their protectors.

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* ''LightNovel/{{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 ''{{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.

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* ''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, [[{{Discworld/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 "[[AC:Cramped in here, isn't it?]]").

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* ''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]].

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Why a character may have a Mortality Phobia is strangely not commonly went into, though went it is, it often has to do with a fear of having to pay for all the bad deeds they've done in the afterlife, or a fear that there isn't one at all. Such characters are generally secular, wealthy and powerful, so presumably they can't stand the possibility of losing all that and starting over, either.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer Rudolph's Shiny New Year]]'', the BigBad, Aeon, who is a creature that lives [[MeaningfulName for exactly one eon]], is nearing the end of his lifespan [[LastDance within a matter of days]], so he kidnaps [[NewYearHasCome Baby New Year]] in order to stop time.

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* In ''[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer Rudolph's Shiny New Year]]'', the BigBad, Aeon, who is a creature that lives [[MeaningfulName for exactly one eon]], is nearing the end of his lifespan [[LastDance within a matter of days]], so he kidnaps [[NewYearHasCome Baby New Year]] in order to stop time.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' Classic 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.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Lord Voldemort split his soul into seven pieces in order to never die.

* In ''DwarfFortress'', this can be one of the motivations for an NPC to begin learning necromancy.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' Classic episode "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.

* In ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' episode "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 was explained by a severe FreudianExcuse where 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.

* In ''TabletopGames/MageTheAscension'', one of the major villains is a death-obsessed euthanatos. In one of the finale scenarios he becomes the BigBad, attempting to stop a mass ascension event, even at the risk of breaking reality, just to keep himself alive.

->'''Hudson:''' Getting old terrifies you, doesn't it?
->'''Xanatos:''' (Somewhat rattled) Nothing terrifies me. Because nothing is beyond my ability to change.
--> -- ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''

* The plot of ''Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve'' concerns a Russian who doesn't want to die, so he has his medial {{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.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Dead Man's Chest''. This trope is what enables Davy Jones a way of getting new recruits on ''The FlyingDutchman''. He saves people from the brink of death and simply asks them: "Do you fear death?" If the answer is "yes", the rescuee will be saved but [[DealWithTheDevil must in return work as a servant on the ship]], eventually even [[FateWorseThanDeath becoming one with it]].

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. Sheldon plans to download his consciousness into a computer in order to live forever. When he gets concerned that the technology won't be available in his lifetime, he constructs a robot with a webcam and monitor so he can interact with others virtually while remaining sealed in his room away from anything that might harm him

* 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 absolutly terrified of TheNothingAfterDeath.
->Every day I'm dead a little longer, [[TheEngineer Mister Conagher]]. I have ''seen'' the other side. There is ''nothing'' there.

->'''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?

** Another example: "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.

* The servant in "AppointmentInSamarra" who, seeing Death, borrows a horse from his master and flees to Samarra in order to escape. The master confronts Death, asking why Death scared his servant. Death replies that he didn't mean to scare the servant, he was just startled to see the servant there, since they had an appointment in Samarra that evening.