Basic Trope: There is a significant life expectancy difference between the partners in a romantic couple.
- Straight: Alice and Bob are lovers. Alice's life expectancy is about average, while Bob's life expectancy is 150 years.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice's life expectancy is only 40 years, while Bob can't die from old age.
- Bob will live forever while Alice is going to die in one second.
- Downplayed:
- Alice's life expectancy is about average, while Bob's is just a little above average.
- May–December Romance.
- Justified:
- Bob comes from a species that have a large lifespan or can't die from old age.
- Alice comes from a species that have a short lifespan.
- Alice is terminally ill, and both are aware of this fact.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob are as close to the same life expectancy as possible.
- Eternal Love.
- Subverted:
- It seems like Bob is going to outlive Alice because she has a normal human lifespan and he can't die of old age. But Alice ends up outliving Bob as he dies making a Heroic Sacrifice to protect her.
- It seems like Bob is going to outlive Alice because he's immortal and she isn't, but Alice finds some means or other to make herself immortal so she can be with him forever.
- Double Subverted: Alice was still a young woman when Bob died, and now has to spend the rest of her life alone as she will not love another.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No one in the story dates outside their own life expectancy category.
- Enforced: "We need drama; let's have Bob and Alice, who have a significant life expectancy difference, fall in love!"
- Lampshaded: "You do realize that Bob's probably going to live to be twice your age when you die right?"
- Invoked: Bob is unsure what to do now that he has incredible longevity, so someone suggests he finds a girlfriend.
- Exploited:
- There is a dating site specifically devoted to finding people with extreme longevity.
- Bob decides to be The Bluebeard, given that everyone expects him to outlive his various wives.
- Defied:
- Bob decides not to go out with Alice after all; it's more sensible to stick with women that share his own life expectancy.
- Bob uses some means or other to extend Alice's life so she can be with him forever.
- Bob commits suicide after Alice dies, so they can be Together in Death.
- Discussed: "I don't see how your relationship and life expectancy differences could possibly end well."
- Conversed: When Alice tells her friends that Bob doesn't age, her friends list off a list of stories with similar plots.
- Deconstructed: As predicted, Alice's succumbs to her terminal illness and dies young. Bob is devastated because the person he fell in love with died. He does not think he can ever love again, and he becomes nihilistic after questioning why he would be cursed with falling in love with someone he could not long be with.
- Reconstructed: Bob eventually comes to term with what happens, and concludes that the happiness he gained from the relationship with Alice more than made up for the sorrow he felt at her death. He concludes that since everybody is going to die, it is important to make the best of what life you do have and to not avoid your feelings simply for fear of being hurt.
- Implied: Alice finds that Bob has old photos of himself with young women, and he never seems to get older.
- Played For Drama: Bob is very depressed that he will outlive Alice.
Back to Mayfly–December Romance.
