History Main / AgeWithoutYouth

* Again, General Immortus, who appears in ''Series/TeenTitans'' and ''Batman: The Brave And The Bold''.

So someone wishes to be [[{{Immortality}} immortal]] - well, they better [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor be careful what they wish for]]. While some characters may be [[OlderThanTheyLook older than they look]] and actually [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld several hundred years old]], other characters look ''exactly'' how old they are...they simply keep [[BlessedWithSuck aging without dying]]. Because the most simple definition of "immortality" is "unending life." There's nothing about ''youth'' in there.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/olddrac.jpg
[[caption-width:325:Aw, cheer up, emo Drac.]]

* Again, General Immortus, who appears in ''Series/TeenTitans''.

* Again, General Immortus, who appears in ''TeenTitans''.

* Multiple characters from {{Dragon Ball}} have this, including Kame-Sennin and Tsuru-Sennin who are over 300 years old.

* Ra's al Ghul from ''Batman'' becomes this if he doesn't periodically rejuvenate himself in the lazarus pits. There's a JusticeLeague animted episode featuring him that shows he will inevitably succumb to this anyway as the Lazarus pits cannot extend him effectively forever.

* Max Schreck, the vampire actor (based on the real life actor who portrayed ''{{Nosferatu}}'') in ''Shadow of the Vampire'', appears to suffer from this: though he is still powerful enough to defend himself, his outward appearance has become decidedly grotesque, his bloodlust has become almost uncontrollable ("I feed like old men piss," he remarks), and much of his memories from his early life as a vampire have faded. At one point, Schreck himself quotes Tennyson's poem.

** This leads to a CrowningMomentOfFunny, when Jacob finds out and warns Will. [[spoiler: Will incredulously comments about how old the queen must be and Jacob replies, "Yes, but [the years] haven't been kind to her".]]

* Near the end of the ''HarryTurtledove'' series "The Videssos Cycle", [[spoiler:Avshar]] is shown to be this.

* The Norwegian folktale "The True Grandfather", about a traveler who has to find the true grandfather of the house so he can stay the night. The true grandfather is [[spoiler: a little shriveled up mouse-sized man, who sleeps in a hunting horn.]]
* In ''Thieves Like Us'', [[spoiler:the protagonists find the ancient leader of a cult. He has lived in a trance-like state and pretty much looks like a living mummy, causing Jonas to comment in disgust about how being in such a state is "not living". When the BigBad tries to hold the cult leader's mouth closed for CPR, it just comes off "like a piece of soggy bread". Ick.]]

** In "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords", the Master artificially ages the Doctor in order to show the Doctor's appearance if he never regenerated and really looked all of his 900 years. (In a nod to continuity, the result looks more like William Hartnell (the first Doctor) than David Tennant.)

** The Master, in "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Keeper of Traken", having used up his (natural) regenerations, has aged to the point where he's little more than a walking skeleton.

** Bilbo started to feel the effects of this in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', describing it as feeling like too little butter spread over too
much bread. After he gave up the ring his one hundred and eleven years really caught up with him.
** It is explained that the One Ring cannot grant new life, but simply stretches what's left over, slowly warping the bearer into a shade of what he was.

** Bilbo started to feel the effects of this in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', describing it as feeling like too little butter spread over too much bread. After he gave up the ring his one hundred and eleven years really caught up with him.

* in TheImaginariumOfDoctorParnassuss the titular character suffers from this

* An episode of ''TheRealAdventuresOfJonnyQuest'' featured a man who was cursed with eternal life without eternal youth. [[spoiler: And he still looks better than his former friend whose DealWithTheDevil turned him into a soulless squid monster. Incidentally, it was his "friend" who cursed him in the first place.]]

** Paid {{homage}} by LarryNiven: his KnownSpace series includes a "Struldbrug Club" whose minimum age limit for membership rises every two years.

* Cassandra from ''DoctorWho'' has aged to the point where she's literally nothing but a patch of skin. She decides the right way to solve this is via GrandTheftMe.

* ''XMen''[=/=]Gambit character Amanda Mueller, alias "Black Womb" for her part in a secret mutant-breeding program, was very long-lived, but slowly aged into a shrivelled form that didn't quite look like a normal elderly woman, more like someone mummified but still alive (that could simply be the artist's style).

* TheBrothersGrimm [[spoiler:has this as a central plotpoint. A queen gains immortality to protect her from a plague, but is not [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor careful what she wishes for]] and ends up indefinitely prolonged. She must kidnap twelve girls and steal their youth in order to revitalize herself, a project the aforementioned Grimms are eager to stop.]]

** In "The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords", the Master artifically ages the Doctor in order to show the Doctor's appearance if he never regenerated and really looked all of his 900 years. (In a nod to continuity, the result looks more like William Hartnell (the first Doctor) than David Tennant.)

* As stated above, Tithonus the cricket. Eos' sister [[ThreeFacesOfEve Selene]], the moon, averted this trope when she fell in love with a mortal, carefully asking Zeus to freeze Endymion ([[SailorMoon no, not that one]], nor [[{{Hyperion}} that other one]]) just as he was, in that moment - so she had an ever-sleeping ([[AndIMustScream hopefully!]]), eternal {{Bishounen}} for company.

* ''VampireTheRequiem'' mostly averts this... except in one case: the Oberloch bloodline. Each [[PrestigeClass bloodline]] has a flaw that comes with activating it. For the Oberlochs, that flaw is, despite being [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]], ''they still age''. Physical Attributes go down for every 50 years the vampire's been alive, to the point that elders of the line are basically shrivelled old crones who only get pull because the Oberlochs believe ''very'' strongly in family values. Though I'm sure the fact that they get [[CompellingVoice Dominate]] has some influence...

** The Master, in "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Keeper of Traken", having used up his (natural) regeneratins, has aged to the point where he's little more than a walking skeleton.

-->"The world cycles...each generation must negate the generation before it. Overstay your welcome and you'll become a tall tale for children. Fodder for terrible films and television serials. All because you committed the cardinal sin - you aged."\\
-- '''Dracula''', ''[[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Tales of the Vampires]]'', "Antique"

''Immortal age beside immortal youth''\\
-- '''Alfred Lord Tennyson''', "Tithonus"

This is a sister trope to VainSorceress, who hides her aging with [[FunctionalMagic magic]]. Compare ImmortalityImmorality and WhoWantsToLiveForever. May be a punishment [[TheGrimReaper Death]] levies on [[EnemiesWithDeath its enemies]]