Post #2644359
2026-05-05 17:19 UTC
And I'm sure there's some overlap in this effect between immortals (vampires, elves, um... robots?) and elderly mortals, but I'm not the biggest fan of immortal protagonists personally so I wouldn't know and it just seems to me it's not the same effect though there might be similarities. The poignancy an elderly mortal protagonist is not just the time they've lived but the fact that their time is drawing to an end: The world they knew, the good, bad, and everything in between, will die with them and the people who knew it along with them are gone or going fast. Decline in faculties and health also means that the elderly mortal's ability to learn this changed world and move in it will be increasingly limited, though it's certainly there. And so the death of the elder reflects the death of the world they knew. Whether that's more or less emotionally resonant than being immortal and an eternal mausoleum of long-lost worlds is a matter of taste and the individual works involved, but the effect just seems different to me.
Replies (2)
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@ljwrites@writeout.ink 2026-05-05 17:20
Also, possibly unpopular opinion: I don't like immortal protagonists because living forever is like the worst fate I can imagine and I'm not a big horror fan XD
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@tessaracht@kitty.town 2026-05-05 18:23
@ljwrites@writeout.ink I'd agree they're very different. I think that's why I'm drawn to well-written immortal characters though, exploring the ideas around outliving your society and place in it, how that affects you as time goes on, etc. Frieren explores this in a really gentle way, while something like Dragonoak runs a whole gamut of experience, and I find both really interesting. the biggest problem I find with lots of authors who create immortal characters is they don't even bother to think about this.