Basic Trope: Immortal beings cannot reproduce.
- Straight: Angie, being an angel, is not able to die, but also not able to reproduce. Angels in this setting are created as needed by God, or were created at the beginning of the universe on a one-time basis.
- Exaggerated: Angie doesn't even have genitals or secondary sex characteristics (like breasts). If Angie has a gender identity of any kind, it's a Purely Aesthetic Gender.
- Downplayed:
- Angie has all the necessary parts, but no sexual desire.
- Reproduction is technically possible but the odds are so low that it is practically non-existent. If Angie found a male angel and spent the next millennia on reproductive sex there would be less than a thousandth of a percent chance of a pregnancy — and most angels are too busy to spend that long literally screwing around.
- Justified:
- There is limited space in Heaven, so angels (who can't die) can't reproduce because otherwise space and resources would be strained.
- In this setting, Sex Is Evil and is connected with death and mortality... both things beneath angels.
- A huge portion of angels are homosexual—it's not that they can't reproduce, they just don't want to have sex with the opposite gender.
- If it is an alien species that has developed the ability to be immortal, sterility could be a side effect.
- Long-Lived beings age really slowly, so they are very likely to die before they become old enough to bear children.
- Inverted:
- Humans, despite being mortal, are unable to reproduce. Meanwhile, angels and other immortal beings procreate like rabbits!
- Immortal beings have to reproduce constantly in order to survive. Their children may or may not have any immortality.
- Subverted:
- It's revealed that Angie is pregnant.
- Angie has children on Earth.
- Angie is not entirely immortal.
- Angie can reproduce, but chooses not to.
- Angie is just a regular human, not an angel.
- If Angie administers Holy Water to a human, she can transform them into an angel, thus "reproducing" in that way.
- Angie can reproduce with others of her kind, but not humans.
- Half Human Hybrids of angels and humans walk the Earth.
- Double Subverted:
- Ordinarily, she wouldn't be; her pregnancy is either a Mystical Pregnancy, or the result of some kind of outside influence (either scientific, supernatural, or both, depending on the setting).
- In this setting, angels were once living humans that were deemed worthy of Heaven. Angie had children before she died and was granted immortality in that way.
- But still can't reproduce, because she has the ability to live for hundreds or thousands of years, and cannot die as a result of natural causes.
- Because she is a Barrier Maiden with Virgin Power, and doesn't want to give that up.
- But she cannot reproduce in the normal way.
- Only archangels have the ability to reproduce; regular ones like Angie are sterile. (Similar to worker bees vs. the Hive Queen)
- And they are considered to be evil; a moratorium on reproduction was put into place.
- Parodied: Angie uses this as an excuse to turn down a date or sexual encounter with someone she's not interested in.
- Zig Zagged: Angels and faeries can reproduce, but zombies and vampires can't.
- Angels in fact can and do reproduce but their children develop so slowly that even if they were conceived at the dawn of the universe they wouldn't be born until after its end. Thus while they can and do reproduce it is on a beyond-cosmic timescale.
- Averted: There are no supernatural or immortal beings in this setting.
- Enforced: "Ugh immortal characters wind up cluttering up shared universes. No more than those who officially exist at setting creation."
- Lampshaded: "Angels cannot reproduce with humans."
- Invoked: Angie sees mortals procreating and wants to experience that, but is told no.
- Exploited: The fact that evil immortals can't reproduce makes the task of hunting them down much easier.
- Defied:
- Angie wants it bad enough that she takes some kind of Phlebotinum (perhaps even at the cost of her immortality) to do so.
- There are laws that place heavy restrictions on immortals when it comes to procreation, yet Isaac and Isabel willfully disregard them and make babies like there's no tomorrow.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The current population of immortals is stated to be fixed. There will always be X number of immortals: no more, no less.
- Deconstructed: Since angels can't reproduce in this setting, when Bob Badguy starts killing or imprisoning them, the effects are much more permanent and devastating.
- The actual impact on a psychology of a species that does not reproduce is shown - they just plain don't care for social interaction at all and lack motivations. They have no mates to impress, no children to care about.
- Reconstructed: This same feature is what keeps malevolent immortals (like demons) from overrunning the world... the fact that they just can't die is offset by the fact that there's only about a dozen of them.
- Played For Laughs: Angels are technically just as fertile as humans but are so truly hilariously inept at sex reproduction rarely happens.
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