History Main / MerlinSickness

* Happens to Lion-O in the ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'' episode "Time Switch" after he is accidentally exposed to gasses from one of the [=ThunderCats=]' old suspension capsules. Despite knowing the risks involved, the other [=ThunderCats=] decide they should take Lion-O to the Cave of Time and put him in there until he regains his normal age.

* ''Fanfic/OSMUFanfictionFriction'': Basil Valentine seeks to find out the secret as to how Odd Squad agents go through ProportionalAging, [[Really700YearsOld being decades, centuries, or even millennia old despite looking like children,]] and forces Todd to tell him it. The reason he wishes to find out the secret is so he can stop himself from aging backwards and eventually disappearing forever. His current state is that of a young boy, who is so small that both Ambrosia and Nectar, his two henchwomen, can carry him on their shoulders with ease.

Merlin Sickness is generally associated with fantasy and works that are on the soft end of MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', Torunka, who is better known as the Dark Sage (the 1000 years older form of the Dark Magician), is cursed by [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys Zeman the Ape King]] with the Minus Curse, resulting that he becomes younger when the time progresses. When Torunka meets Ruca, he's already a small child and still gets younger. He reverts back to his old age after Zeman is killed by [[PantheraAwesome Regulus]].

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* In ''Fanfic/NoCharmEqual'', After Harry starts to become mortal again, he deages from appearing to be in his fifties to appearing to be about thirty.
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' fanfic "Dear Sora", which chronicles Kairi and Lea training under Merlin, the wizard himself mentions that he "experiences time differently". Later on, Lea explains this comment more to Kairi, elaborating on the fact that Merlin ages backward and therefore remembers the future. During said explanation, Lea does not shirk the MindScrew implications of Merlin's attribute, and Kairi herself wonders if it explains Merlin's often odd mannerisms.

* Adam One in Creator/PaulCornell's ''ComicBook/{{Stormwatch}}'' was [[TimeAbyss an old man at the beginning of the universe]], and ages both backwards and very slowly. He currently looks like he's in his thirties. (As revealed in ''ComicBook/DemonKnights'' he's also [[spoiler: actually Merlin]]).

* One of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' radio plays contains a throwaway joke about a race of beings called the Hrarf-Hrarf that begin life old, age backwards, and culminate their lives with the exciting event of being born. While other creatures have midlife crises, thes-e creatures have midlife celebrations. They also enjoy a hangover, because they know that it will soon be followed by a fabulous evening of drinking.

* ''Film/TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'', where it is milked for every ounce of romantic tension and general drama they can wring out of it.

* Philip K. Dick's ''Counter-Clock World'' has ''all of Earth'' doing this.

* One of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' radio plays produced post-AuthorExistenceFailure contains a throwaway joke about a race of beings called the Hrarf-Hrarf that begin life old, age backwards, and culminate their lives with the exciting event of being born. While other creatures have midlife crises, thes-e creatures have midlife celebrations. They also enjoy a hangover, because they know that it will soon be followed by a fabulous evening of drinking.

* [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/4014617/1/Reversion Reversion]]: A semi-open secret is that Miles Prower suffers this, aging backwards in time from his previous adult incarnation. In a twist on how the usually met, Miles was the one who adopted a child Sonic, only later contracting the disease after exposure to an artifact from Little Planet. Tragically the younger Tails becomes, the more his memories of the past fade as his neural pathways rework themselves, forcing Sonic to adopt the "Older Brother" role he is better known for. A big part of the story set in the present is Sonic and others having to come to terms with Tails potentially disappearing from their lives when the disease runs it's course.

* [[Reversion https://m.fanfiction.net/s/4014617/1/Reversion]]: A semi-open secret is that Miles Prower suffers this, aging backwards in time from his previous adult incarnation. In a twist on how the usually met, Miles was the one who adopted a child Sonic, only later contracting the disease after exposure to an artifact from Little Planet. Tragically the younger Tails becomes, the more his memories of the past fade as his neural pathways rework themselves, forcing Sonic to adopt the "Older Brother" role he is better known for. A big part of the story set in the present is Sonic and others having to come to terms with Tails potentially disappearing from their lives when the disease runs it's course.

* In the Chinese film ''Film/LeagueOfGods'' (based on the novel ''Literature/FengshenYanyi''), the fox demon Daji curses Jiang Jiya with a spell that makes him younger whenever he uses his magic. At the end of the movie, he has regressed into being a baby.

* A minor Chess Pieces in ''Anime/{{MAR}}'' uses a set of darkness arms that give her the ability to paralyze opponents and then inflict pain on them through a VoodooDoll, but they have the side effect of causing her to age backwards whenever she uses them. The previous owner regressed himself into a fetus and vanished.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, Orgnum, the King of the [[OurElvesAreBetter Maormer (Sea Elves)]], is said to be an "immortal wizard". Not only is he said to be immortal, he supposedly appears ''more youthful'' with each passing year. (The Altmer, [[ArchEnemy Arch Enemies]] to the Maormer, claim that Orgnum is not actually immortal and uses "foul" magics and sacrifices in order to maintain his youth.)

* Happens to Lion-O in the ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats'' episode "Time Switch" after he is accidentally exposed to gasses from one of the [=ThunderCats=]' old suspension capsules. Despite knowing the risks involved, the other [=ThunderCats=] decide they should take Lion-O to the Cave of Time and put him in there until he regains his normal age.

* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'' has a species of Moshlings the Baby Tumteedums. Apparently they age in reverse, so baby ones are really hundreds of years old.

* Macros the Black, in Raymond E. Feist's ''[[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar Saga]]'', is another who remembers the future instead of the past. Though he was born and aged normally until he stopped aging. He inherited this immortality from his father, hinted to be the Wandering Jew.

* The Creator/StephenKing-penned miniseries ''Golden Years'' centers around a janitor at a research lab who begins to undergo this after an explosion.

* ''Literature/WaywardChildren'': Ms. Lundy tries to purchase [[NeverGrewUp eternal childhood]] so she can stay in a magical world that evicts its human visitors at age 18. The treatment makes her age in reverse at a one-quarter rate, ensuring [[GoneHorriblyRight she'll spend the rest of her life a child]]. Then she's kicked out for rule-breaking anyway.

* In the ''Videogame/KingdomHearts'' fanfic "Dear Sora", which chronicles Kairi and Lea training under Merlin, the wizard himself mentions that he "experiences time differently". Later on, Lea explains this comment more to Kairi, elaborating on the fact that Merlin ages backward and therefore remembers the future. During said explanation, Lea does not shirk the MindScrew implications of Merlin's attribute, and Kairi herself wonders if it explains Merlin's often odd mannerisms.

* At the end of the ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel ''Better Than Life'', Lister -- who has become an old man due to time dilation -- is left in the backwards universe with the intent that the others will do the time dilation thing again, and pick him up when he's back in his twenties. At this point the universe splits in two. In ''The Last Human'', this works as planned. In ''Backwards'', the retrieval goes wrong, and leaves the Dwarfers trapped on Backwards Earth for another ten years, by which point Lister and Cat are teenagers.