the flip side of immortality theme

also known as: the curse of immortality

A character lives so long that they start to see the downsides to "immortality", i.e., the boredom and lack of purpose.

33 total · 7 choice · 18 major · 8 minor

StoryLevelMotivation
ldr2019e2x03 choice A message of the story is that attaining practical biological immortality comes at the cost of losing one's humanity. Additionally, the idea is there that society stagnates if people do not die off and make way for new generations.
movie: Frankenstein (2025) choice The Creature lived as an outcast from society and longed for death, but could not die because its flesh regenerated almost instantly from any injury.
tas1x04 choice The Taurean women had attained a bleak form of immortality which they maintained by draining the life forces of male that passed by their planet.
tos2x04 choice Apollo :: The Greek god Apollo, who was actually an alien, had lived in solitude and despair for thousands of years until such time as he encountered the Enterprise crew.
tz1959e1x06 choice Walter found that immortality was not all he thought it'd be - he became bored.
tz1959e1x24 choice Walter was fed up with seeing his loved ones age and die after 2000 years of immortality.
voy2x18 choice The god-like alien Quinn came to despair his immortal existence and wanted to die.
ds91x13 major The prisoners came to despair their immortality because they were trapped fighting an eternal war where casualties revived from the dead.
movie: Bicentennial Man (1999) major In living to be 200 years old, the robot-become-human Andrew saw everyone around him grow old and die, and in the end he decided to get an upgrade that would result in him, too, growing old and dying.
movie: Chronopolis (1982) major The floating city people struggled with the monotony that came with being immortal.