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"I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that, I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice."
CEO Nwabudike Morgan - MorganLink 3D-Vision Interview (The Longevity Vaccine), Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Immortality is no picnic: living to see all your childhood friends and great grandchildren die, having to drift from place to place or be chased out of town as a witch, needing to eventually deal with the issue of finding a new planet when the Sun turns into a red giant and immolates the Earth, and having to crawl across the Sahara for three weeks without food or water with a broken leg because you can't die.

But hey! You're alive! And you know what? Life is awesome!

Want to learn to speak Swahili and six other languages? You have the time! Care to take up bungee jumping? No fear! Literally, your pain and threat reflexes will be burned out by the second century. Speaking of: all that stuff about eternity being boring? Have you seen the last one hundred years? It was pretty eventful. The future sure isn't slowing down either. If you still get bored, you can jump to another planet (you'll be there for the development of Faster-Than-Light Travel after all) or even to another dimension.

Money can come and go, but will mostly come since you have an infinite time horizon over which to accumulate wealth and make investments, and you'll always be around to enjoy it! As for the ones you'll love and lose — well, "Kiss today goodbye, and point me towards tomorrow." Try not to forget your old friends, but don't let that shut you out from the amazing people you can and will meet! There are also cases in which the drawback of the loved ones dying is removed by them becoming immortal as well. There can even be a Society of Immortals where even your neighbors and coworkers live forever.

Besides, in some universes, death is more boring than life could ever be, or is too terrifying to consider. Basically, rather than Sour Grapes griping, the immortal character decides to see the upside of immortality and enjoys it. It may not be a bed of roses, but life can be good. Because really, how can life ever get boring if it's always changing?

This trope is the goal of the Immortality Seeker. See also Eternal Love, which may be a contributing factor to enjoying immortality. Contrast Who Wants to Live Forever? and Living Forever is No Big Deal. Rarely overlaps with Immortality Immorality (even though the "immoral" character usually expects that living forever will be awesome), because the focus is generally on the immoral things the characters do to prolong their immortality rather than the experience of it.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Baccano!:
    • Firo Prochainezo sums up his thoughts about being "cursed" with immortality as, "WOOHOO!" and even manages to talk his 200-year-old, world-weary mentor into trying to enjoy it again. Seventy-two years later, he's still using the fact that he can bleed in reverse as a party trick.
    • Isaac and Miria freaked out a little bit when they figured it out seventy years later, but adjusted quickly and had a great time, for example, being Dollars.
    • The last episode in the series is subtitled "Both the Immortals and Those Who Aren't Sing the Praises of Life Equally."
  • Tenzen Yakushiji from Basilisk has a parasite living inside his body that grants him immortality (though he's not completely immortal) and is shown to greatly enjoy it, even going so far as to gloat about it towards opponents who thought they killed him.
  • Casshern Sins:
    • All of the robots that want to eat Casshern are this trope. They're pissed because they were enjoying immortality and now they can't because of the Ruin.
    • The other robots follow rumors of Luna's revival in the hopes that she can make them live forever too.
    • Luna herself enjoys eternity and is determined to make every robot in her presence share in it if they want.
    • Casshern himself reconstructs the trope. After seeing Luna's subjects laying about doing nothing with their eternal lives and how the robots he met on his journey did everything they could to find meaning in their brief lives, he decides to become the local Grim Reaper to prevent them from forgetting about death, and therefore, doing something with their time.
  • Code Geass: C.C. was originally the other trope but after the Grand Finale no longer feels that way, because Lelouch never hated or blamed her for the tragedy that his life became, and through everything he honestly cared about her, allowing her to live out her immortal lifespan with the happy memories he gave her.
  • Dance in the Vampire Bund: These are a minority among vampires but they exist. Generally, speaking there are two varieties: hedonistic ones that enjoy the eternal youth and disease immunity, and more noble ones that devote themselves to a cause or a person. Veratos, Akira, and the maids (sans Nanami) live for Mina, and Mina lives for Akira and her fangless.
    Veratos: With just one feeling, a vampire can live forever.
  • Highlander: The Search for Vengeance: Marcus pines for Rome but, unlike Colin, he looks to the future because he believes he can recreate it through conquest. He knows things die, but you move on and help build civilizations.
  • Magician's Academy: Immortality means you have all the time in the world to study moe and collect rare items like limited edition capsule toys.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Evangeline sure seems pleased with her immortality, though it's implied that when she was younger that wasn't the case. If anything, she probably wishes she could still be immortal but with a body that was ten years older.
    • Brought up by Kurt Godel. While everyone else is busy being all depressed about how someone immortal will outlive everyone they know, the idea simply thrills him instead. No need to worry about assassination, the ability to maintain an iron grip on the world for as long as you like... However, he was in the minority opinion on that one.
  • No Game No Life: Jibril has lived long enough to remember the War of the Old Deus and she's still happily looking for new books. One hundred years simply isn't long enough to read everything in the world.
  • Shakugan no Shana: Considering that it replenishes his Power of Existence every night, Yuuji wonders if the Reiji Maigo will make him live forever. If this is the case, then he considers it a good thing because it means he can stay with Shana forever.
  • Soul Eater: Free was imprisoned and restrained for a long time with the knowledge that not even death could free him. It was so long he doesn't remember his own name. Does that bother him? No. The first time Soul impaled him, he bragged about it.
  • Tenchi Muyo! has numerous happy immortals. The message essentially being: Immortality is great as long as you have a family of other immortals to spend it with, and you all really like each other.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
    • Lordgenome spends his endless life raising kids, spawning beasts, suppressing revolts and has fun doing all three.
    • Viral is made immortal by Lordgenome and gloats about it to Simon.
  • Trigun leading man Vash doesn't age, and while he has a lot of angst none of it stems from this fact. He's a happy and goofy guy when his brother's not giving him grief.
  • Touta Konoe from UQ Holder! gains immortality and doesn't really understand the concept of it being a bad thing. He only slightly complains about not aging past twelve. Although, given the implication that he was created at his present age, he may not have aged past it in the first place.
  • Zombie Land Saga: While it takes them time to adjust to their status as zombies, none of Franchouchou are particularly upset about the idea that it makes them both ageless and immortal, at least until Saki discovers Not Growing Up Sucks in Episode 2 of Revenge. Lily in particular is happy with it, as it means she can stay a cute girl forever and never worry about developing a body that conflicts with her gender identity.

    Comic Books 
  • The elves and trolls in ElfQuest may count, since they're all either immortal or very long-lived. None of them ever seems to complain about life getting boring (some of them are too busy trying not to get killed anyway) other elves strike up bittersweet friendships with short-lived humans. The exceptions are the Glider elves who are bored and decadent. They are the oldest living elves, except for Timmain, who spent millenia in wolf form. As a wolf, she could not note the passage of time, giving her immunity to this effect.
  • The Sandman (1989):
    • Morpheus makes a deal with Hob Gadling: he doesn't die, but they meet every hundred years in the same tavern. After two hundred years, Hob tells Morpheus how he got rich, married, and had a son. Next time, he's poor, his son died young, he can't remember his wife's name or face, he generally looks the picture of misery, the kind of guy the Pope would gladly Mercy Kill. Morpheus asks if Hob wants to die... to which Hob smiles and says "Are you crazy? Death is a mug's game. I've got so much to live for." Centuries later, when Death comes to see Hob to tell him that Dream is dead and asks him if he wants to die, he still says no. Hob seems to ultimately manage because he accepts that life has both ups and downs so there's no point in despairing completely during the bad parts or expecting the good times to last forever.
    • Mad Hettie is determined to keep on going no matter what it takes, even though she's mad. It's unclear whether she was mad to begin with or whether immortality made her so.
    • The Brief Lives storyline features Bernie Capax, a dull, unassuming lawyer who dreams of the mammoths he once walked among. He's usually a lawyer; people always need lawyers. He's quite surprised to hear himself scream "NOT YET!" when he's killed in a freak accident.
  • The Eternal Flame from Troy Hickman's Common Grounds was the man to whom Prometheus gave fire. It gave him power over fire and immortality. He becomes a superhero and is still able to enjoy his immortal life.
  • All of the Century Babies in Warren Ellis' WildStorm universe, including Elijah Snow from Planetary and Jenny Sparks from Stormwatch and The Authority, greatly enjoy their agelessness. In Jenny's case she didn't turn out to be as ageless as expected, since as the spirit of the 20th century she's not allowed to out-live it.
  • The Archons in The Secret History may go through a lot of shit, but hey, they still more or less control world events and Reka gets to bed famous men throughout history.
  • The DCU:
    • Vandal Savage occasionally has bouts of weariness concerning his existence, but for the most part he really gets a kick out of being an evil immortal bastard. He's got an entire world he hasn't conquered yet and enemies that are still alive after all. Most telling is that Vandal could end his immortality by refraining from eating his descendants' flesh and organs but he doesn't.
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Part of the reason Paradise Island was a paradise was that the Amazons lived forever in an all female utopia where they could bring along their daughters to choose the lifestyle themselves when they got old enough.
  • Played straight for the most part in Fables, with the notable exception of Pinocchio, but only because he's stuck as a permanent pre-adolescent and wants to age so he can grow up. Thus, it's not 'living forever is bad' but 'living forever as a child is bad'.
  • Marvel Comics
    • X-Men: Cameron Hodge is a dark version of this trope. He founded an anti-mutant organization targeting Warren Worthington, aka Angel, and his current team, X-Factor. As part of his preparations, Hodge made a deal with the demon N'Asrith for immortality. Unfortunately by that point Angel had become Archangel and he cut Hodge's head off in short order. As per the deal, Hodge survived... as a disembodied head. Hodge returned later with a cyborg body during the X-Tinction Agenda, only to end up as a disembodied head buried under a mountain of rubble. He returned a third time as part of the techno-organic Phalanx, at which point the authors had forgotten about his immortality and supposedly killed him off, only for him to return again and finally get Killed Off for Real (maybe) during the Second Coming crossover. While he suffers many pitfalls of immortality, he never laments his condition — instead, he throws it back in the X-Men's faces. He's so insane with hatred that being a buried head is worth it if he can hurt just one mutant.
    • The Elders of the Universe relish immortality since it lets them pursue their personal obsessions forever. Then again, they are insane.
    • This is the case with The Eternals and most gods (especially Hercules). Since most of them live in a Society of Immortals and their closest friends and relatives are immortal too, they only have to feel bad about their mortal relationships.
  • Scrooge McDuck and Hazel in the Disney Ducks Comic Universe do not explicitly state that Immortality is awesome, but they sometimes say that they're glad to have lived so long and are often quoting things they saw.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Orlando has spent the past 4000 years screwing and fighting his way across the world multiple times.
  • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Due to their incredibly long life spans, many Cybertronians believe that Cybertronians never die of natural causes, only trauma, and with a cure for the only thing that really challenged this — cybercosis — now being found, this indeed seems to very much be the case. Religion claims this is because the Transformer god of death, Mortilus, was destroyed in ancient times. They definitely fit this trope as this is something that cybertronians do like to openly brag about and seem quite proud off.

    Fan Works 
  • Brave New World (Pokémon):
    • Anyone that joins Deoxys' crew is offered immortality. Even after traveling to the far reaches of the Omniverse and living for millennia they still enjoy it.
    • Giovanni and Mickey have lived since the Catacylsm a thousand years ago. Neither of them have any complaints.
    • Leo has been gifted with Resurrective Immortality and Darkrai has explicitly told him how to become fully immortal. He even admires Leo's work on the iron-clad immortality contract he drew up. So help us, Arceus...
  • Duel Nature: Luna's opinion is that a mortal pony's lifespan is far too short to accomplish anything of true merit and only by living through eras, rather than digging through their remains, can one understand them. This opinion makes her Innocently Insensitive to the mortal ponies around her. It drives Twilight nuts, and later leads to her giving Luna verbal hell for disparaging the work ponies trying to accomplish great things with their limited time.
  • The Great Alicorn Hunt seems to be a backlash against all the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fics about the opposite trope. Yes, Princess Celestia and Luna are tired of outliving everypony else (besides each other), but everything else about immortality is great so they're trying to end mortality for everypony by helping them Ascend to Alicorndom.
  • Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality have Harry himself take this stance (and give a long list of the things he would do with his time to Dumbledore, in answer to his Who Wants to Live Forever? position), not only for himself, but for everybody on Earth. He even dreams of the very idea of death becoming nothing more than a grim story that future children aren't told until they're old enough to take it. This facet of the story has faced a fair amount of criticism, as Rowling herself once said the entire point of the original books was being willing to accept mortality.
  • In A Hero, Daleks, who are perpetually at war with everything, consider a long life a mark of great skill.
  • A fanfiction from The Elder Scrolls, I, Eternity, follows a vampire who runs through first Who Wants to Live Forever? and gradually comes around to this as time passes.
  • In The Infinite Loops, loopers generally come to this conclusion eventually. Whether they come to it because they decided to look at the bright side or because they've been driven mad varies.
  • The Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic Jack To The Future postulates that Captain Sparrow successfully located and used the Fountain of Youth, achieved Type II immortality, and spent the next few centuries participating in various historical events. This includes both positive and negative experiences, but overall he seems to be having a good time.
  • Marceline seems to lean more towards this trope than its opposite in the Adventure Time fanfic The Last Human, but doubts form when she realises she will outlive Finn.
  • In the Death Note fanfic Low Light, Light and L are (for reasons unknown) favored by the Shinigami King who makes it so that they cannot be killed (at least by the Notebook). They’re loving it.
  • In the Kingdom Hearts fanfic Luminary Uprise, Xehanort is immortal. He loves it.
  • In Luminosity, Bella does not understand why anyone wouldn't want to live forever.
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Luna The Match Maker, this is the conclusion most of the ponies (and dragon) granted it come to after some time to think on it.
  • The main antagonist of Manehattan's Lone Guardian has this mind-set. They've been jumping bodies since before Discord's reign ended, and they've grown to enjoy their increased lifespan. They state to their underlings on one occasion that ponies underestimate just how much there is to learn.
  • In Marionettes, it turns out that Trixie is an android. While this at first disturbs her, one of the things that helps her come to terms with it is the realization that she is for all intents and purposes immortal barring being destroyed (which isn't exactly easy), which excites her a great deal. Suri Polomare, another android, is also quite excited by the prospect.
  • The Petriculture Cycle: Discussed in π. Twilight doesn't want to use her newfound powers to solve the story's conflict because using them would make her live forever. Penumbra, an immortal, talks her into it by, among other things, refers to a saying common among Alicorns: "Mortals pass away eventually, but an immortal doesn't leave until they're ready to go."
  • In RealityCheck's Nyxverse: Celestia and Luna certainly think so and have a master plan to make everyone immortal as well.
  • In the fanfic Sailor Moon 4200, which takes place centuries after the destruction of Crystal Tokyo and most of the Senshi dead. Only Rei, Setsuna and Artemis live, being effectively immortal. While Rei especially seems to have some problems with her immortality, Artemis is a lot more positive-minded about it, and shows the mindset of this trope when talking to the new Sailor Mercury, Sharma Dhiti:
    Dhiti: Artemis, you've lived so long. Is there... is there ever enough time? To do everything you want? To see everything, and go everywhere...
    Artemis: No. Never. But that's not a bad thing, you know. That's a triumph! That's the universe telling us that, no matter how far we've come, there’s still room for us to grow.
  • In Lightning Round in Sailor Moon: Legends of Lightstorm, Lita has this reaction when Jason tells her that she will live forever unless something kills her.
  • In Scar's Samsara, the main character is furious at the fact that only the Lion Kings get to enjoy the afterlife, and tries to give immortality to himself and everyone in the Pridelands. He even considers killing Mufasa to not really be murder, since he's only helping him "migrate to greener pastures", after all. At the same time, he's also terrified at the idea of having to face his brother again in the afterlife, however.
  • Shadowjack Watches Sailor Moon has Future Ami explain why she thinks this is so to past Ami.
    Mercury-2: Not really. I know, you're worrying if after a thousand years a person starts getting bored with life?
    Ami: That was one thought...
    Mercury-2: It's sour grapes. Think about it: every single day, all over the Galaxy, something new is happening. Something new to see or do or learn or talk to. A thousand years hasn't been nearly enough.
    Ami: ...But... do you ever get tired of each other?
    Mercury-2: Well, everyone has disagreements now and then. Mars and I once spent fifteen years... well. My fault, really. But... You know how good it feels to fall in love... and how much better it gets after you've been together for a while?
    Ami: Yes.
    Mercury-2: It's a linear progression. Add a thousand years.
    Ami: ...!
    Mercury-2: You're just starting a very long and wonderful journey. Trust me: you won't regret it.
  • Discussed briefly by 419 and 426 in the Lilo & Stitch: The Series/Star Trek crossover Starlight. 426 postulates that perhaps mortality is for the best, so people don't get too cynical. 419, on the other hand, couldn't imagine such a thing because The World Is Just Awesome.
  • In Tom Riddle's Schooldays, Tom initially feels that all wizards and witches should live forever.
  • The common view in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica fanfic To the Stars — most people don't angst about it at all. Those who do are free to join the military.
  • In the Transcendence AU for Gravity Falls, Dipper becomes a demon and his view on his immortality changes between this and Who Wants to Live Forever?
  • Undocumented Features, like Tenchi Muyo!, says that living forever is great if you are spending it with other immortals who care about you.
  • In the Hellsing fanfic series Worse Than Death Series, though they don't outright say the trope word for word, none of the good characters angst over being immortal. Probably because there's so goddamn many of them that they don't need to angst over leaving people behind, and they won't have to move about since they're tied to one organization.
  • Mortal. Fanfic revolves around this topic. Twilight opposes the proliferation of immortality, even in the face of the death of her friends, leading to a conflict with Rainbow Dash, who are this trope. In the fifth chapter, she changes her mind and, together with rainbow Dash, confronts Celestia. The sequel is already about "Society of Immortals" .

    Films — Animation 
  • In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Genie tells the nephews how his last master, the evil wizard Merlock, wished to live forever. The nephews' first response was, "Good wishing!". The Genie answers that immortality is not a good attribute for someone so evil and insane, but the case is more that it's problematic for other people that he's immortal, not that it makes him unhappy.
  • In TMNT, Yaotyl learned over the millennia that this is not the case, since he spends all of history having to lose any loved ones and anything he gains due to having to constantly start over and outlive anybody he loves. By the present day alignment of the Stars of Kikan, he wants to end his immortality so he can finally pass on in peace. However, his generals do not share this opinion since they spent the last few thousand years as inanimate statues, and have woken up to find themselves immortal, nigh-invincible war machines ready to restart their conquest.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Kaulder, from The Last Witch Hunter Zig Zags between this and Who Wants to Live Forever?. On the one hand, he obviously misses his wife and daughter, and is sorely tempted when the option to finally die is presented to him. On the other hand, he seems to have decided to make the most out of his immortal existence, cheerfully indulging in modern technology like iPads and sports cars.
  • In The Man from Earth, the immortal John Oldman makes the best of eternity, gathering huge amounts of knowledge over the centuries.
  • Highlander:
    • Despite being the Trope Namer for Who Wants to Live Forever?, it counts here too. Even after thousands of years immortals are willing to kill each other to preserve their own immortality. That may be the system but they could always opt out by dying, retiring on holy ground, or killing all the other immortals.
    • Some immortals - namely the good guys - are shown balancing the loneliness of immortality by enjoying life to the fullest and using their immortality to develop new pastimes and experience the world like no humans can. For example, Methos - the oldest immortal - has written a journal chronicling most of his life and experiences (at least some of it -he is older than writing, so some stuff went undocumented). The episode "Stone of Scone" shows this very well.
    • The Kurgan, the Big Bad of the first movie, relishes his immortality... because he's a gleeful hedonist with no empathy for mortals. In the expanded lore, the Kurgan fought for several barbarian peoples over the centuries (the Vandals, the Visigoths, the Vikings, the Mongols and the Russian Cossacks, to name a few) to sate his lust for Rape, Pillage, and Burn.
  • Casca, the eponymous mercenary of Casca: The Eternal Mercenary, is rather satisfied with his immortality as a whole although he has his occasional moments of regretting it when stuck in a Fate Worse than Death like being buried alive for decades.
  • Groundhog Day plays with this trope. The main character goes back and forth between enjoying and despairing over his situation. But it's a bit different from standard immortality since he's living the same day over and over which obviously has different advantages and drawbacks. He begins with hedonistic excess, falls into despair as nothing he does means anything, and finally finds peace in deciding to be the best version of himself he can.
  • Identity Theft: Whoever the original person was that has been jumping from body to body seems to enjoy the fact that they can live forever.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest:
    • Jack Sparrow wonders whether immortality as the captain of the Flying Dutchman, which would mean only getting to visit land for one day every ten years at sea, is this or Who Wants to Live Forever?. Hilariously he uses rum as his criterion and tries to figure out whether a mortal lifetime with an unlimited access to rum means more or less rum than an immortal existence with access to rum once every ten years. Ultimately, all the opportunities Jack has come across that could render him immortal have come at too high a price for him to accept. If he could find one that didn't require a Human Sacrifice or some other kind of undesirable commitment, he'd probably go for it.
    • Davy Jones himself certainly enjoys his eternal dominion over the ocean and he sells this idea (or, more appropriately, that death is worse) to new recruits. One can presume he originally took up his post on the Flying Dutchman hoping for Eternal Love with Calypso.
  • Hancock: Hancock and Mary decide to split permanently because they enjoy their immortality. Hancock, for instance, wants to be a super hero forever.
  • In The Wolverine, Logan refuses Yashida's offer to revoke his immortality. Despite his hardship, he prefers living with his pain to the alternative.
  • Count Yorga: If Yorga's speech to Erica before he completely drains her is any indication, he doesn't see anything wrong with being a vampire. Even if he's undead and feeding on blood, it doesn't bother him. After all he gains more knowledge as time goes on and seeing sights of the world come and go. Heck he had moved to Los Angeles from Bulgria to experience the modern day era... along with spreading more of vampirism. Hey the man loves his undead ways.
  • Bit: The vampires all seem quite happy to live forever. Laurel is fine with becoming one too as a result. However, Izzy and she do admit dismay at the idea of outliving mortal loved ones.
  • We Are the Night: Nora seems very happy with her life as a vampire, saying it means anything you want to buy, with no consequences of drugs, food or sex. She's also the youngest until Lena joins them. Louise attempts to sell Lena on it too, expressing it to be bearable with other people. Lena initially appears somewhat happy with their swanky lifestyle, although is increasingly horrified at them killing people to feed aspect as opposed to the longevity. Charlotte, on the other hand, has grown so unhappy with her lot that after her very elderly daughter dies, she ends her life.
  • Theresa & Allison: Allison firmly believes this, saying that vampires like her can do anything they want to and stay young forever. On the other hand, if she was still human she'd be an old, ugly woman. Her lover Theresa is not as convinced, though she doesn't answer when Allison asks if she'd desire her that way.

    Literature 
  • Lestat in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. Being immortal has had its downsides but his lust for unlife impresses even the oldest and most powerful of his kind. Unfortunately, this backfires in Queen of the Damned. It all works out in the end, though.
  • Malazan Book of the Fallen: Onrack is a T'lan Imass that's quite happy with his condition, as "there was always something else to see, after all."
  • Nightfall (Series): Prince Vladimir certainly thinks so. He has used his many years to travel the world, learn forty-two languages, and expand his knowledge in a variety of subjects. He does sometimes get bored, but he never laments his immortality. Instead, he constantly seeks new excitements (such as conquering the world and killing billions.)
  • Invoking this trope is one of the Duumvirate's stated goals. They refer to it as "going to the future". Their rejuvenated fifty-year-old creator strongly agrees.
  • Several of the Old Gods in American Gods seem to still enjoy their eternal life immensely, despite their lack of worshipers cutting their powers down to the barely-superhuman level. Most notably, of course, is Anansi, who is always enjoying life, even on those occasions when he's (temporarily) dead.
  • Woodrow Wilson Smith of Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, once he finds something he hasn't done before.
  • For the most part, the sorcerers of The Belgariad seem perfectly content with eternal life. This is in part because they keep very, very busy. (One, Senji, doesn't even notice he's immortal until he takes a break from trying to turn lead into gold and realizes several centuries have passed.) Not all of them were so content. Of course, those ones are not around anymore.
    • And those who hated their life usually had another reason than immortality to hate it. For one, it was the horrors of war.
  • Nowhere Stars: Liadain firmly believes this to be the case, and anyone who doesn't think so is lying to themselves to cope with a terrible fate they can't change. It's why she's an Immortality Seeker; having been born with a crippling disease that would've killed her before she could turn thirteen, had she not become a Keeper, she really, really hates when people try to paint death as something romantic, or that gives meaning to life. She's on a quest for Complete Immortality and won't stop until she gets it.
  • I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level: Azusa requested a long and lazy life when she reincarnated, and then spends the next three hundred years gardening, hunting slimes, mixing medicines and reading. She refers to this time as an endless vacation of relaxation, exercise and tranquility. She is also on excellent terms with the local and mortal villagers, who revere her as something like a guardian deity because the medicines she's provided have saved so many lives.
  • Peter Pan milks every bit of fun out of eternal youth. It helps that his memory spans an average of five minutes.
  • The Twilight Saga:
    • Bella finds no qualms at all to be spending all eternity with her teenage husband, super-quick aging daughter, and her beautiful and wealthy extended family.
    • Likewise, the members of the Quileute tribe that are blessed with spirit wolves rapidly age to probably about their early twenties and then stop aging until they choose to willingly give up their ability to transform by remaining human for a certain amount of time. Jacob is lucky enough to have imprinted on the half-vampire Renesmee, who likewise ages rapidly before abruptly stopping somewhere around age 16. While the future is never confirmed, it can be assumed that Jacob probably opted to keep his wolf form for as long as possible.
  • Tarzan and a few of his friends attain eternal life and youth by stealing some immortality pills from one novel's Big Bad (he cannot share immortality with the world, due to the pill's morally dubious manufacturing method). Tarzan has a very upbeat, "seize the day" mindset and is completely unbothered by the consequences of his immortality. When asked by someone if the thought of all his friends growing old and dying bothers him, he replies that the promise of making new friends makes up for it. When asked if he is worried about boredom, Tarzan replies that he lives such an exciting life, he doesn't worry about it.
  • In Aleksandr Zarevin's Lonely Gods of the Universe, not one person (either human or Ollan) who has become immortal after consuming Ambrosia regrets being mortal. Yes, women become sterile (see Immortal Procreation Clause), but they don't really care. Men can and do still father children with mortals. Their lives get even better after they eliminate monogamy among themselves (at the women's request) and just have giant orgies. They have a limited supply of Ambrosia and no way to get more, so they have to hand it out sparingly, but one full dose is enough to heal any injury (even regrow lost limbs) and restore youth, as well as grant eternal life.
  • Reconstructed from the scraps of what our modern culture thinks of immortality as the main theme of The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant. The plot revolves around some scientists In a World… where an immensely powerful dragon forces the people to sacrifice senior citizens for it to eat. Long thought invincible, these scientists manage to synthesize a compound sharp enough to pierce dragon scales. The fable documents their quest to persuade the people to help them craft an anti-dragon missile, who firmly believe that death at the hands of the dragon is natural and good. Due to social norms only existing to serve the people, claiming that eliminating death will cause unforseen problems is always Skewed Priorities. The story pushes the idea that we could potentially cure aging within the next generation if we invested our idealism into the urgency.
  • Honor Harrington: It's not quite living forever, but pretty much everyone agrees that Prolong, an anti-aging treatment which extends the active human life to around three centuries, is pretty damn awesome. Amongst other things it lets you spend fifty or so years in a Naval career and still have over two centuries left to do other things if so desired.
    • In particular, humans who have bonded to treecats cheer the development of Prolong, as it removed the tragic aspect of the bond, which saw the long-lived 'cats having to sacrifice a century or more of lifespan (because they were almost always Driven to Suicide when the bond was inevitably severed by the human bondmate's death).
  • In the Iron Druid Chronicles Atticus is more than two thousand years old and he is still enjoying his life enormously. It helps that he is an earth druid so he has a very close bond with nature which grounds him and preserves his sanity. The werewolves also seem to enjoy their long lives.
  • The Others in Night Watch (Series) almost never have regrets about their unnaturally long lives. However, most of them try to avoid having children so as not to have to watch them grow old and die. An Other's child can become an Other, but this has about as much chance of happening as an Other born from Muggles. The only exception are vampires and werewolves, who turn their children, but they are the lowest of the low in the Dark Other hierarchy.
  • In Sergey Lukyanenko's short story "I'm in no hurry", a student summons a devil and offers his soul in exchange for infinite wish fulfillment. As a side effect, a deal made him completely immune to age, harm and restrictions to action or communication, except for those caused by the wish itself. Decades later, the devil finally freaks out about his master (now a world-famous, wealthy scientist, still looking as he did in his prime) never making a single wish. The professor reveals that he feels pretty capable of achieving anything he wants on his own, and all he needed was an unlimited (and youthful, and And I Must Scream-free) time.
  • Fablehaven: There are 5 immortals who all function as Barrier Maidens. Two aren't identified and killed offscreen, Marcus is Who Wants to Live Forever?, Civia regards her immortal life as a duty which she always regards as important. Roon, though he died offscreen like the first two, was said to have enjoyed his immortality. He formed a hunting pack of the finest men to go and hunt various dangerous monsters, and was described as a Boisterous Bruiser. His body is found amidst the bodies of his attackers and allies; his familiar even suspects that he would have won the battle if not for the enemy having magic.
  • Adventure Hunters: Gargoyles live for a very long time, and since many of them are historians, they find this very helpful.
  • Dirge for Prester John: Invoked. The Abir exists to change up people's lives every couple centuries to make sure no one is bored or dissatisfied with living forever.
  • The Misenchanted Sword zigzags this trope. The main character receives a sword which will not allow him to die until he has killed 100 men with it. He decides to live forever and not kill people, but this decision is based on morality instead of the merit of eternal life. Then he discovers that the sword lacks a Healing Factor and will not keep him young so he goes on a killing spree as an old man then he discovers magic that can keep him young and at the end of the story is quite happy with his situation.
  • Inheritance Cycle: This becomes a vague plot point in Brisingr, when Eragon realizes he has become immortal. Instead of angsting about it, he decides to look for a wife among the elves, because they are all immortal. Good thing he's already head over heels for Arya.
  • There are three sources of immortality in Harry Potter but only The Elixir of Life lacks downsides. It will keep you alive with repeated doses, and has eternal youth (or at least eternal middle age) added in.
  • Tortall Universe: Part of the reason Faithful / Pounce keeps coming down to the mortal realms is because there's always more heroes to follow and snark at.
  • Journey to the West:
    • There are no end to mortals who "cultivated their conduct" and/or "refined their spirit" to become immortal and love it. It's Truth in Television, sort of, as this was the goal of real life Taoists.
    • The Wuzhuang temple has a community of immortals because of a tree that produces life extending fruit, and the temple's monks are extremely protective of it.
    • Son Wukong began his journey seeking to become immortal and only regretted it during that one time he was trapped under a mountain. He takes pride in calling everyone he meets "grandson" because of his great age.
  • The Vampire Diaries: Damon revels in vampirism, being immortal and being powerful.
  • The Council of Chains, from The Memory Wars, believe that immortality is a far better alternative to death and reincarnation. This is because no-one's ever remembered what it's like between incarnations, and most members join the Council out of fear that they won't really be themselves anymore if they are reincarnated.
  • Journey to Chaos:
    • The Silver Dragon writes about how awesome immortality is in her autobiography. One of her hobbies is visiting a place after a century has passed; the mix of familiar and new is something "only an immortal can truly appreciate".
    • It's implied that Henry Pupil Sr was already an old man two thousand years ago when he spoke with a young Dengel. He's still merrily recording history and looking for new sources of excitement.
    • Elves are an immortal species and so their culture developed around an eternal lifespan. Young elves are encouraged to find an Eternal Hobby, something that will keep them busy and fulfilled throughout the years. Without such a hobby, they risk going insane.
  • In the story "Child of All Ages", the protagonist, having lived several hundred years as a permanent child, is quite happy to continue life, even if she is stuck as a child. She does bemoan the fact that modern society makes it pretty hard to be independent as a child, but she still can't wait to see what life brings next.
  • After the return of its rightful ruler, Princess Ozma, everyone in the Land of Oz become immortal and eternally happy as Oz becomes a utopian Adventure-Friendly World.
  • For those who can become immortal, the people of the Commonwealth Saga are happy to be able to upload their bodies every so often as they live in a post-scarcity far future where stellar and even dimensional travel is commonplace.
  • In Smoke and Ashes, 3,000-year-old Leah couldn't be further away from Who Wants to Live Forever? if she tried. She greatly enjoys her career as a stuntwoman precisely because she knows that none of the stunts she performs could possibly injure, much less kill, her. Tony lampshades this by briefly considering "Immortal Stuntwoman" as a TV series pitch.
  • This is usually the attitude of vampires in Straight Outta Fangton by C.T. Phipps with most Old Ones having large harems, vast amounts of wealth, and eternity to party. The Youngbloods notably suffer Who Wants to Live Forever? as they haven't yet adapted to their condition. Apparently, if you don't like living forever then you don't live to reach Old One status.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
    • Professor Randolph is a Asgardian warrior that retired on Earth. Now he teaches Norse Mythology. The Team estimates that he's been alive for a thousand years, and his only complaint is a student putting too much Lit Crit and not enough History in their paper. He's had numerous paramours over the ages. He's also so patient that he's perfectly willing to wait for a human he doesn't like to die of old age.
    • Due to her slow rate of aging, Jiaying has been able to provide comfort and guidance to many generations of Inhumans.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The greatest difference between Spike and Angel is that the former believes in this trope. He even vampirized his mother so that between her and Drusilla he'd never be lonely (it didn't work out, but that was thanks to the vampiric transformation).
  • In Can You Live Forever?, Adam's greatest regret after his first thousand years is that his children all died before his 132nd birthday. However, he loves to show off his collection of awards and spare bodies.
  • Dead Like Me: Played with. Unlike the other reapers who are angsty or apathetic, Mason's pretty happy with his lot in death. On the other hand, he envies the souls that get to pass on while he has to stay behind, but this is because whatever's on the other side is better than the side he's on.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor experiences a lot of heartbreak, but still feels that life is worth living so long as there's something left to see in the Universe.
    • The Face of Boe is one of the oldest creatures in the universe during the first three series of the revival, and he gives off this "serene old sage" vibe. He's respected as such by everyone around him.
    • The Master has utilized numerous means aside from regeneration to extend his life. Other than the constant sounds of drums in his head, he truly enjoys Time Lord longevity.
    • "The Lazarus Experiment": Professor Lazarus wonders, with his (flawed) rejuvenation tech, what he could get done in multiple lifetimes.
  • A good number of Immortals in Highlander: The Series seem to be having a grand old time; sure, they have problems, but they still enjoy their lives. The protagonist is a major exception — but he'll still fight tooth and nail to survive. He only seems to regret being immortal when something really bad happens in his life.
  • The Middleman has Cecil Rogers, in the episode "The Cursed Tuba Contingency". He's been cursed to wander the earth unaging ever since he kicked some people out of a lifeboat on the Titanic, and says that, he thinks this is pretty neat.
  • The Sandman, "The Sound of Her Wings": Morpheus meets every century with Hob Gadling, a human who was gifted with immortality to see how he took it. He's taken it very well, always looking forward enthusiastically to what life will bring next. Even the century where he lost all his loved ones and all his material possessions and, he tells Morpheus, has hated every moment of the past eighty years, he's astonished when Morpheus asks if he's ready to die and declares that he has "so much to live for!"
  • There's a human turned robot in Stargate SG-1 who refers to his immortality as "The Gift". For context, he is trapped in a facility that's constantly falling apart because if he left his body would run out of electricity within hours. He spends all his time fixing problems or checking for problems. All alone. Even after living this way for centuries he still considers immortality a good thing.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: The opinion of his race as a whole but Q in particular believes this trope. One of the most severe punishments they have (and sentenced Q to once) is to make one of their own mortal. He was ecstatic when they reinstated him.
  • In Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness in general. Sure, he has ocasional angst over it, but considering his average deaths per episode count, he sure is getting his money's worth out of the deal. Also, more time to go hit on people.
    • Inverted in Torchwood: Miracle Day, where (almost) everyone on Earth becomes unable to die. Even suicide bombers are still alive, despite being charred beyond recognition. Also, while people stop dying, no one stops aging. Inversely, Jack loses his immortality and has the time of his (very long) life, although now he insists on using condoms.
  • Wizards of Waverly Place: Juliette dated Julius Caesar and she still hasn't tired of finding a new boyfriend.

    Manhwa 
  • In The Legend of Maian, most of the Regis Knights, immortal super warriors who can't die till their -also immortal-master dies.

    Music 
  • One of the songs Queen wrote for Highlander, "Princes of the Universe", is about how the Immortals are cool (a contrast to the song that names Who Wants to Live Forever?):
    I am immortal. I have inside me blood of kings.
    I have no rival. No man can be my equal.
    Take me to the future of your world!
  • The song "Immortal" by Clutch makes it sound pretty awesome:
    Who's the man who stole fire for the people?
    Who causes trembling in the bones of evil?
    Who carved a mountain into a cathedral?
    I am immortal.
    • The backing lyrics for the chorus repeats the phrase "in dog years," suggesting the narrator isn't immortal—at least not literally.
  • The Brazilian song "Eu nasci ha 10000 atras" (I was born 10000 years ago) by Raul Seixas is (obviously) about a man born 10000 years ago who talks about famous events he witnessed. He sounds very enthusiastic about his life:
    Eu nasci há dez mil anos atras... (I was born 10000 years ago)
    ...Eu vi Cristo ser crucificado... (I saw Christ crucified)
    ...Vi Babilônia ser riscada do mapa... (I saw Babylon be wiped off the map)
    ...Eu vi conde Dracula sugando sangue novo... (I saw Dracula drinking blood)
    ...Eu tava junto com os macacos na caverna...(I was with the monkeys on the cave)
    ...Eu vi a estrela de Davi brilhar no céu (I saw the Star of David shine in the sky)

    Myths & Religion 
  • A feature of the afterlife in many religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and some forms of Buddhism like Pure Land feature a new existence in eternal bliss (at least if you go there-most also have a negative alternative which isn't awesome to dwell in for eternity).
  • Ancient Egyptians had a vision of the afterlife that was virtually identical to their mundane lives, which seems to indicate that their mortal lives were good enough if not almost perfect. To ancient Egyptian religion, LIVING forever is awesome.
  • Taoism holds that functional immortality is theoretically possible to achieve, if exceedingly difficult, and is also considered a very legitimate pursuit, as not being a jerkass is usually fundamental to reach it. The exact dynamics of the whole thing change completely depending on the school and philosopher (some believe you can achieve it while alive, others believe it's a state of existence you only find after death, others believe both, others none...), but they are unanimous in that it's awesome.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • The long-lived and nigh-immortal Eldar fight tooth and nail to survive. Granted, it's not so much that Living Forever Is Awesome but rather that dying is much much worse. If Eldar are lucky they will have their souls trapped in crystals for all eternity. Otherwise, they become the playthings of the Chaos god Slaanesh.
    • This trope fits the Dark Eldar even more. They can achieve immortality by drinking the souls of lesser races (read that as "anyone who isn't a Dark Eldar"), and they get to live a life of fighting, torture, sex, drugs and cruelty, which is extremely fun to them. Of course, they're Eldar too, so there's also the Chaos god Slaanesh out to get their souls when they kick the bucket and can't be brought back. For this reason, the Dark Elder cheat death all the time by transferring their souls to a new body.
    • This trope fits Orks. They're like lobsters; they never die from old age, they just keep growing bigger and stronger until something kills them. The largest and oldest Orks are the size of Imperial Dreadnoughts and just as powerful, while also having lived for hundreds if not thousands of years and probably seen just as many battles. Of course, very few will actually reach that state due to the incredibly brutal and violent nature of their existences, although being Orks, they don't really mind.
    • Even humans fit to some extent. There are a variety of methods to allow humans greatly extended lives, from Longevity Treatment to being a genetically engineered supersoldier. Despite the constant warfare, alien invasions and eldritch abominations, the vast majority of those mentioned in stories appear more than happy to live as long as possible.
  • In Warhammer, Wulfrik the Wanderer was once a Norse warrior who killed every other Chaos champion he came across and slaughtered an entire army all on his own. He celebrated by drinking seven barrels of mead and boasting that he was the greatest warrior to have ever lived. For this the Chaos Gods cursed him with immortality and told him "Go prove it." Ever the Blood Knight, Wulfrik thinks this is a really lame idea for a curse.
  • The Mummies of the Old World of Darkness are generally of this opinion. They might live in a Crapsack World and have often difficult battles against terrifying foes but hey, they have literally all the time in the world to put things right and plenty to enjoy along the way.
  • The liches of Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder are generally of this opinion, which isn't a big surprise since most become liches for this reason. It helps that they have a lot to occupy themselves with — studying the deepest darkest arcane mysteries, or consolidating wealth and power for elaborate schemes that play out over centuries are the more common motives.

    Video Games 
  • Dragon Age: This trope is part of the reason that the Dalish elves are so mad at humans. Apparently elves were immortal until humans showed up in Thedas (leading to the elvish slur for humans, "Shemlen," which translates to "quick children"). The Masked Empire reveals that it was only the upper class elves who were immortal, and that elves were mistreating each other long before humans arrived.
  • Fallout 4:
    • Hancock sees his ghoul appearance as a Cursed with Awesome more than acceptable trade off for near-immorality. Numerous other ghouls also seem to be quite happy with this longevity, with Kent being just as enthusiastic about even the superhero Silver Shroud as he was 200 years ago when the bombs fell. It helps that ghouls are only about as durable as humans, so any of them who don't feel this way can easily just commit suicide whenever they feel like it.
    • The Cabot family (Minus Emogene) revel in their eternal life, provided by a mysterious serum Lorenzo Cabot obtained.
  • Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: The Longevity Vaccine and Clinical Immortality projects, The Longevity Vaccine will eliminate 1 to 2 Drones and/or boost your economy by 50% based on your economic model, and Clinical Immortality nets you a free Talent at every base plus 50% more votes in elections. It helps that these are presumably widely available treatments, meaning everyone lives forever and the worst aspect of Who Wants to Live Forever?, the losing people you love, is not a problem.
    "I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice."
    — CEO Nwabudike Morgan, Morganlink 3D-Vision Interview
    • Interestingly, the novelizations claim that the treatments are only available to the higher-ups. This handwaves why the faction leaders are still alive after centuries of rule.
  • The guy who constructs the training courses in Immortal Defense seems to think this. Even as all the other path defenders go insane one by one and start leaping across the Moral Event Horizon. It helps that path defenders tend to go insane because they fixate on something and will go to any lengths to protect it; he ended up fixating on...constructing training courses.
  • Many characters in the Touhou Project series are happy with their immortality.
    • Yuyuko sacrificed her body to seal an Eldritch Abomination soul-sucking cherry tree, and her ghost was appointed ruler of the Netherworld, effectively removing her from the cycle of life and death. She now lives quietly whenever she isn't causing trouble to sate her boredom. Although her canonical Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass nature makes it hard to tell for sure, she seems to generally enjoy her eternal un-life, especially when it comes to teasing her overly-earnest subordinate, Youmu.
    • Eiki and Komachi, respectively as judge of the dead and ferrywoman of the equivalent of the River Styx, never really seem to complain about "outliving" everyone they know, but then, being Anthropomorphic Personifications of death and rebirth, and the knowledge of how the afterlife works may give them a radically different perspective on the whole thing.
    • Kaguya and (probably) Eirin, seem to be enjoying immortality quite a bit. Kaguya seems to mostly suffer from boredom, but has had Eirin taking care of her essentially her whole life. She also has mortal, if extremely long-lived servants, but she seems not to care about them to the point of calling any and all of them "Inaba", rather than learning their names.
    • Fairies may have the most amusing of all immortalities — they are functionally immortal as long as the force of nature that they represent still exists. They, however, are all permanently child-like, and spend all eternity playing pranks on one another, don't bother with notions like owning any property they don't wear on their backs (if clothing doesn't just magically appear on them in the first place, it's not like they would manufacture all the frilly dresses they wear) not really understanding the difference between yesterday and ten thousand years ago.
      • To be specific, they have Type IV immortality: they simply regenerate after being killed.
    • We could've made this list so much shorter simply by stating that the only character who isn't of the opinion that immortality is awesome is Fujiwara no Mokou, whose lifestory goes something like this: Father got disgraced by above mentioned immortal Kaguya, Mokou drank the Hourai elixir in a key moment of weakness, got ostracised when people eventually noticed her unchanging appearance, became a hermit and lived alone for quite some time, went absolutely Ax-Crazy for two-hundred years and proceeded with killing anyone and anything that came in her way, went into a bit of a decline and lived in an apathetic depression for a few hundred years, finally found her way to Gensokyo where she found Kaguya again, ignited a rivalry, using her father's humiliation as an excuse, and has since then spent the time locked in an eternal circle of revenge murders with her arch-enemy. Even so, eventually she started growing into the trope's mindset by the time of Urban Legend in Limbo, where she met some of Gensokyo's other immortals and villain of the week Sumireko, and decided having friends (immortals or not) ain't so bad after all.
  • In Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, Mad Scientist Doctor Victor seeks this and he gets his wish in Soul Hackers.
  • Soulcalibur - Zasalamel, who had previously been all about Who Wants to Live Forever?, gets to see a vision of mankind's far future in the fourth game and decides to keep his immortality instead of ending it to see the advance of mankind. We get a scene of him as a rich businessman with a helicopter in the 21st century in the end.
  • The basic premise behind the ending of Lost Odyssey. Kaim and two of the other good immortals settle contentedly into their immortal lives, reasoning that eternity isn't so bad after all. It helps that two of them are married to one another, and the third, although her husband is mortal, is a queen with a whole country to keep herself busy with throughout the centuries to come.
  • Radiata Stories: When Parsec the Fire Dragon asks Aphelion the Silver Dragon why he defends the humans, his reply is, in a nutshell, "it's not fair that dragons and elves get to live forever when humans don't.' His ultimate goal involves extending his own immortal life.
  • The Sims 3: Can be played this way if a sim gets an age freeze potion. They can master every skill, get to the top of every career and even complete every lifetime wish, but even after all that, they could always just settle down, start a garden even, and watch as their family and legacy grows and prospers, shaping the very town around them. Maybe they'll even write some books about all they get to see too.
  • In World of Warcraft:
    • The High Elves (by way of the Well of Eternity) and one of their descendent branches, the Night Elves (by way of the World Tree), were contentedly immortal for well over 10,000 years (not including the whole War of the Ancients thing). Many Night Elves were rather sad to lose their immortality due to the events of Warcraft 3, and though it was a necessary sacrifice World of Warcraft opens with the Night Elves trying to regain their immortality through the creation of a new World Tree (the attempt does not go as planned).
    • Sylvanas Windrunner used to be all Who Wants to Live Forever?, but after getting a taste of The Nothing After Death all evil Undead are doomed to visit when their undeath ends, she's decided that an unending undead existence isn't that bad in comparison.
  • GLaDOS's final song in the end of Portal 2 has a tinge of thatnote , though many speculate that it hides her bitter hatred at her own existence and that she just sent the closest thing she had to a friend away.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Most of the Daedra in the series, particularly the Daedric Princes, rather enjoy their Complete Immortality. A good example is Sanguine, who basically just lives to have fun. His quest in Skyrim could be described as an Elder Scrolls version of The Hangover or Dude, Where's My Car?. That said, the Daedra's inability to die makes it impossible for them to truly understand how mortals think - mortals live finite lives and face constant reminders of this, and their ability to simply accept this and continue existing without succumbing to despair is something no Daedra can comprehend.
    • The series has a number of other "immortal" beings to which this trope frequently applies, including dragons, vampires, liches, and various mortals who are attempting/have attempted to ascend to godhood (with varying levels of success). Based on those who talk or write about their immortality, most acknowledge some of the downsides (such as the Dunmeri Tribunal deity Vivec) but nearly all will fight to keep their immortality.
  • In The Secret World, Säid the Mummy enjoys his immortality a great deal, given that he has plenty of time to savour every single vice that the passing eras can offer him; having long-since gotten used to his hideous appearance and the deaths of his family during the centuries since his resurrection, he loves dressing in expensive suits and lording it over Cairo's underworld from his latest-model IPhone. Lore entries suggest that the other members of the Kingdom feel the same way.
    • Variation: Cucuvea the mystic believes she would have had this attitude... had she been able to spend her immortality anywhere other than Transylvania. Living in an extremely damp hole under a tree, obligated to defend the local villagers, and under constant threat from roaming vampires and werewolves, she's not exactly having a good time.
  • Forerunners of Halo wear armor that effectively stops aging, among other things. Aside from a few "naturalistic" eccentrics, this applies to their entire society, so it's less "Living Forever is Awesome" and more "Living Forever is Normal". They are capable of dying, but this is exceedingly rare, aside from the lowest rates with dangerous jobs.
  • Suikoden: Every holder of a True Rune is immortal by default. The responses to this are mixed.
    • Jeane is immortal or something and she's always happy.
    • Geddoe carries True Lightening and while he's not a happy guy he's not angsty either and it comes in handy in his line of work.
    • Ted didn't like his rune, the Soul Eater, and at one point gave it up but then he took it back and lived for hundreds of years more. He only died because the villain of Suikoden I stole the rune from him.
  • Defied in Final Fantasy III. The three immortal students received the gift of magic, the gift of dream, and the gift of mortality. Mr. Mortality is PISSED but the other two and their master firmly believe the ability to die was a great gift.
  • Played with in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The Heart of Chaos makes Caius immortal but the endless life doesn't bother him. It's watching his charge, Yeul, die at a young age over and over again that drives him to madness and his Evil Plan. However, that plan involves merging the world of the living with the world of the dead so no one would die.
  • The Suul'ka in Sword of the Stars enslaved the rest of their fellow Liir so they could live forever in outer space. None of them feel any regret about this decision.
  • In Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Sissel seems to believe his final fate is fantastic. It helps that he accidentally gained the power while he was altering time to make all his friends alive and happy. It also helps that he's a cat and thus possesses less qualms and fears than most immortal characters.
  • In the Dark Arisen expansion of Dragon's Dogma, Barroch is an Arisen who realized that he's immortal as long as he never fights the dragon as he's destined to. As such, he abandoned his duty and has been adventuring in Bitterblack Isles for centuries with no regrets.
  • This is the defining belief of Goetia in Fate/Grand Order, but it's played in a decidedly cruel fashion. Goetia wants to serve humanity, and believes that the cruelest thing for humans to suffer is the fact that they die. Unfortunately, Goetia is very guilty of Condescending Compassion and Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. He isn't really capable of understanding human emotions or happiness, and thinks on a timescale measured in eons. Consequently, he doesn't understand why humans would be happy to live at all if they're just going to die, and escalates the idea from "it would be nice if things lasted forever" to "anything that doesn't last forever is meaningless", and escalates further to "since humanity can't last forever, there's nothing wrong with me destroying it so I can recreate humans as an immortal race."
  • In King of the Castle, the Ascension scheme involves the Counts of the East offering the King a drink from a potion of immortality, and if the scheme succeeds, the King is sufficiently intrigued by the Counts' pitch of how amazing it is to live forever that they agree to surrender the throne to the East's preferred claimant (although they do have to spend eternity avoiding sunlight and Church Inquisitors).

    Webcomics 
  • Dinosaur Comics: T-rex isn't a fan of the Who Wants to Live Forever? trope.
    You know in those stories there's this immortal guy and they talk about how bored they are and how boring life is after 5000 years or whatever? I am going to call something. I am going to call SHENANIGANS.
  • The Kingfisher: Most of the vampires in this comic show no signs of boredom or guilt at the prospect of immortality. Dragomir vampires especially seem to enjoy eternal life.
  • Raven Wolf: is half this and half the other trope. The titular tribe was cursed by their totem spirits with "removal from the cycle of life" until the domestics (a faction of "civilized" furries) are no more. The usual angst about outliving one's loved ones is partially averted because anyone who marries into the tribe is cursed as well and their children inherit it, but if they fall in battle their souls are devoured by the wolf spirit.
  • The Gods of Arr-Kelaan: Claremont asks a fellow god for a favor to bless a potion destined for his daughter to give immortality upon consumption, to which is refused - death is a birthright to all humans - but Thanatria nuances it the right way. Whomever takes this potion will not die until they wish to.
  • This Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has a genie curse someone with immortality, and goes through the standard list of reasons for immortality to suck (stagnation, alienation, outliving loved ones), but the guy refutes all of them. Eventually the genie comes up with "You will have to watch continued remakes of beloved movies."
  • The Order of the Stick: Xykon only has one regret about becoming an immortal lich; he can't enjoy coffee. He enjoys the invulnerability, the regeneration, and the fact that he doesn't have fleshy problems anymore.
    Xykon: Be a vampire, or a ghost, or an immortal with a paint-by-numbers portrait in the rec room. Hell, even a brain-in-a-jar, in a pinch. Anything to avoid the Big Fire Below.

    Web Original 
  • Not awesome per se, but the narrator of The People I Have Been from The Wanderer's Library seems quite happy with his arrangement, saying "I've been a soldier and a minister, a leader of men and a follower of causes. I've preached hellfire and harmony. I've said words profane and holy. I've been people I didn't like, and people I wish I could be again. But that's life, Emma. Life isn't static, it isn't frozen. Life doesn't stand still. It changes, and it changes us. This is just another step."
  • As the title suggests, Die Now or Live Forever has this trope. Nobody wants to become a vampire, but once you are one, you enjoy it.
  • CGP Grey's video Why Die? explores the idea from the opposite perspective. Instead of talking about the benefits of living forever, he talks about the painful downsides of aging and being mortal that we simply accept because we feel like we have no other choice.

    Western Animation 
  • Ben 10: Happens to Professor Paradox. It drove him insane at first, but eventually, his purpose allowed him to enjoy eternity.
  • Bunnicula: Chester, when he thought that he is turning into vampire was initially devastated - until Bunnicula pointed out, that living forever he would be able to meet all great peoples of the future, witness scientific advancements, read all books ever existed.
  • Gargoyles plays with this trope:
    • Demona has lived for centuries and there's not a trace of weariness or boredom to be found.
    • Macbeth, who became immortal at the same time as Demona, lives only to kill her so that he himself may die. Eventually, though, he finds something else to live for.
    • David Xanatos wholeheartedly believes this but is savvy enough to know how to avoid the wrong kind of immortality. That's why he tested the Cauldron of Life to see if it guaranteed the wrong kind of eternity.
      "What good are all the riches on Earth if Fox and I can't enjoy them forever?"
  • Teen Titans: You don't see General Immortus complaining about seeing the same basic battles over and over again. He's Seen It All and so has a leg up on every other strategist alive.
  • The immortal main cast of Mary Shelley's Frankenhole, all seem to enjoy their immortality. However, there was an episode featuring the Wolfman, who desperately wanted to die. Since he can only be killed by a silver bullet, and that silver bullet must be fired by a lover in order for the death to be permanent, dying was nigh impossible. The episode ends with him not only still alive, but it turns out he brought the curse upon himself, by going back in time, trying to kill himself. Only to turn into a werewolf by the full moon and bite himself.
  • Batman Beyond: Ra's Al Ghul loves immortality so much he's gone through three separate methods of beating back the grim reaper.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Uncle reads from a scroll explaining why the Immortality Talisman is the Dog Talisman, dogs are man's best friend. Not only does the user gain eternal life, but all the strength and stamina of youth. When Uncle used it, he retained all his skill but regained his vigor. He could even eat cheese again because it wouldn't gum up his..."none of your business."
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, 1,000+-year-old Winged Unicorns who govern the sun and moon as well as the entire country. They refer to centuries ago as if it were yesterday but never complain about it. Celestia is especially well-adjusted considering everything she's been through.
    • There is also Discord, a draconequus Reality Warper with complete control over chaos magic, who rather enjoys being around to cause as much mischief and mayhem as possible. Of course, then he undergoes some serious character development, so the mischief and mayhem lessen but never fade completely. If the comics of Generation 5 are canon, then he lives for thousands more years working to honor the friends he made in the time of Generation 4 (even though he gets it wrong).
  • The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: One episode has Captain K'nuckles informed that he is an immortal in the style of Highlander by a man who fits the description of this trope. It eventually turns out the man isn't immortal at all and is actually an escapee from the Stormalong Asylum.
  • Elena of Avalor: In "Party of a Lifetime", it's revealed that Captain Chiloya and his crew saved a sorceress' life 400 years ago and she rewarded them by making them immortal. They still enjoy it.

    Real Life 
  • Many (though not all) Transhumanists hold this opinion. With many arguments in favor of this tropes from them ranging from potential future knowledge and technology curbing boredom/ennui so that truly nothing interferes their immortal enjoyment, to the possibility of allowing oneself to end your own existence if boredom actually does set in. Some have hypothized have been made about how they could possibly escape the heat-death of the universe, though how well any of them would work in practice is anybody's guess.

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