Basic Trope: Immortality is achieved through ethically dubious methods and/or is inherently evil.
- Straight:
- Alice can live forever at price of killing people by draining their life forces.
- An immortal always becomes insane.
- Exaggerated:
- Even attempts to simply increase life span are evil and must be stopped, even when God or another benign being is responsible.
- Alice murders an entire planet with billion of inhabitants as part of a spell to make her immortal.
- Based on the idea that the ideal life-time isn't longer than natural, people figure it's almost definitely shorter (it's not going to happen to be exactly the same), and have everyone killed at 50.
- Humans are portrayed as the cruelest and pettiest race, as opposed to the the wiser elder races, specifically because they are consumed with the fear of death.
- Life itself is portrayed as immoral, since it can be seen as a fraction of immortality. Bob, an Omnicidal Maniac who wants to end all life (including his own) in the universe, is portrayed as a hero.
- Downplayed:
- Alice, while immortal, is definitely not evil, but she is a Jerkass.
- Alice has extended her lifespan by a few decades using a highly controversial medical procedure.
- Wizards naturally live for hundreds of years and can extend it into the thousands with various spells. Nonetheless these abilities are all acknowledged as "delaying the inevitable", attaining actual immortality is considered forbidden if it is even possible at all.
- Justified:
- Immortality can only be gained by draining life from others.
- When someone lives too long, it upsets the balance of life and death, and the laws of magic and destiny cause death and pain in the world to bring back the balance, and the only true solution is the death of the immortal.
- An immortal always will become insane because their long lifespan means that they will experience more loss and tragedies.
- Immortals quickly become reckless since they can no longer be killed, whether it be by accident or capital punishment.
- Inverted:
- Not only is immortality acceptable and desirable, but any willingness to or acceptance of death is considered suicidal and immoral.
- Immortality is possible only by becoming exceptionally good.
- Alice was evil in general as a mortal, but she ends up getting immortality one day, and Alice becomes good and actively atones for her past crimes because knowing she would die one day motivated her to live a selfish and immoral lifestyle.
- Subverted:
- Immortality is possible with the use of a Applied Phlebotinum, which is initially portrayed as evil, but it's eventually revealed to be not.
- Alice may be immortal, but she was evil back when she could die. After becoming immortal, she does a Heel–Face Turn.
- Double Subverted:
- However, that Applied Phlebotinum is later discovered to be Powered by a Forsaken Child.
- But becoming immortal eventually causes her to cross the Moral Event Horizon.
- Parodied: Bob has found a safe and responsible way to make himself immortal without any damage or ill effect to himself or anything around, then is subjected to an panicked mob out to at least try to kill him when he goes public with his secret.
- Zig Zagged:
- The show flip-flops between its portrayals of immortality. Sometimes it requires immoral actions to be sustained, sometimes it's harmless and the immortal is a perfectly decent person.
- The act of achieving immorality is portrayed as a wicked thing, but naturally immortal beings are portrayed neutrally or positively.
- As an immortal Bob was a downright moral leader for millennia back in the bronze age. As time marched on he increasingly was judged as a Jerkass tyrannical dictator without any changes to himself.
- Averted:
- Immortality never has any moral stigma attached to it.
- The villian's reasons for being evil have nothing to do with their immortality.
- Enforced:
- "The executives think that immortality is evil, looks like we'll have to portray it as such."
- "An immortal having no problem with his condition seems boring and might be too strong."
- Lampshaded: "Why does being immortal always require people to eat souls and whatnot? Can't they find a way that's harmless?"
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz deliberately puts a "must eat souls" factor into his immortality treatment so that it will corrupt anyone who steals the secret.
- Exploited: The Big Bad Emperor Evulz offers Alice an immortality potion, knowing that its side-effects include puppy-chewing evil, because he wants her on his side.
- Defied: In the middle of Alice's rant about his "evil" nature, the vampire Bob argues that he can live from artificial blood and could still be a productive member for the society at night.
- Discussed: "I bet that guy's evil — immortals always are!"
- Conversed: "Why is it that immortals in these stories are always portrayed as insane monsters?"
- Deconstructed:
- When someone tries to argue that Vampire Alice would need to kill people to drink blood, the kind hearted vampire tells that she can just feed of animals.
- Alice is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and a Tragic Villain who genuinely does not want to hurt people or consume souls, but is so afraid of death that she will do anything to overcome it, no matter how guilt-ridden her actions make her.
- Reconstructed:
- Most of the vampires who attempt to only eat animal blood can't consistently resist the desire to drink human blood.
- Alice is still seen as wrong for wanting to become immortal at the expense of others, even if the heroes sympathize with her, and Alice eventually agrees that she was wrong and decides to Face Death with Dignity.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob's immortality gives him the gall to go to the same bar every day for hundreds of years just to gloat about how all the other regulars from generation to generation are "looking a bit older, and a bit deader". He is regarded as a legendary Jerkass amongst the townsfolk, who warn The Hero not to venture to said bar, lest he come back either depressed or furious.
- An immortal tells people that he's not evil because he lives forever. He is for completely different reasons.
- Played For Drama: Bob has the power of immortality due to winning the Super Power Lottery, and doesn't even need to suck souls to remain immortal. Sadly, there is a heavy prejudice against immortals, causing Bob to lose his wife, family, friends and everything that he held dear.
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