Immortality Immorality – TV Tropes

"When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it... Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher. It would be the survival of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not our poor world become?"

Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Creeping Man

Immortality, at least for normal humans, is often seen as just plain wrong. Especially if they used to be mortals who actively wanted to be immortal. The rationale goes:

This trope focuses on immortality viewed by others as a bad thing, as distinct from Who Wants to Live Forever?, which focuses on the immortal character feeling that eternal life is a curse rather than a blessing. It may come up in discussions of The Singularity, as immortality and moving beyond traditional principles of human thought are seen by some as some of its defining characteristics.

The trope may result in a Broken and/or Anvilicious Fantastic Aesop. Expect anyone going ahead with these plans to become Enemies with Death. Also expect them to believe that Living Forever Is Awesome because why else they would commit such a heinous action except for something they want?

Also note that there are generally many kinds of immortality: Biological immortality (live "until killed", like Tolkien's elves) is usually natural, and full immortality rarely is (except for gods). A person actively seeking the latter is almost always evil (The Epic of Gilgamesh being a notable exception, although even there the same basic Fantastic Aesop of "Mortal Man should not seek to rise above his station" was enforced).

See also Immortality and its subtropes.

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Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Comic Strips

Fan Works

...having been all but immortal from birth, never knowing vulnerability, far too many of them never developed notions of empathy or restraint, or found them far too late.

Films Animation

Films Live-Action

Teague: The trick isn't living forever, Jackie. The trick is living with yourself forever.

Blackbeard: I'm a bad man.

Literature

Kumori: Can you imagine if da Vinci had continued to live, to study, to paint, to invent? That the remarkable accomplishments of his lifetime could have continued through the centuries rather than dying in the dim past? Can you imagine going to see Beethoven in concert? Taking a theology class taught by Martin Luther? Attending a symposium hosted by Einstein? Think, Dresden. It boggles the mind.

"Her only sin was that she loved life and all the meanings of life," said the Stygian girl. "To win life she courted death. She could not bear to think of growing old and shriveled and worn, and dying at last as hags die. She wooed Darkness like a lover and his gift was lifelife that, not being life as mortals know it, can never grow old and fade. She went into the shadows to cheat age and death "

Live-Action TV

Podcasts

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Video Games

Web Comics

Web Original

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Western Animation

Narrator: [singing] Oh Marceline! Why are you so mean? Marceline: '[singing back] I'm not mean, I'm a thousand years old, and I just lost track of my moral code.

Real Life

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Immortality Immorality - TV Tropes

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