Immortal characters is one of my favorite tropes (lol is it even a trope?) where it can explore how one’s humanity or sense of self is affected by lacking the one thing that ties everyone else to them. It also goes hand in hand with one of my other favorite tropes in a way, time travel, either with flashbacks to earlier periods in their life or touching on the different eras they live through as time marches on.
Some notable works I’ve enjoyed before include the Immortal series by Gene Doucette, The Man From Earth movie, The Sandman Netflix show (well the first half for the most part lol), Memories of Emanon, To You The Immortal, the Forever live action show, and I’m sure there’s some I’m forgetting lol
I’m open to new things but some of the concepts I liked exploring and have been wanting to see more is something like Immortal where there’s sections set in the past or it starts in the past going forward. Another interesting one would be reincarnation kinda like Emanon but I don’t think I’ve read anything else that had reincarnation with persisting memories as the mode of immortality which could be cool to explore how they would handle reconnecting with the people of their previous life, if it’s even possible.
I’m largely craving a lot of what was in the Immortal series between the combination of experience of a well lived character, seeing windows into the past along with a fresh take on fantasy creatures where the legends are rooted in reality more or less but the extent of their abilities were exaggerated through legend and even the slight jabs and inversion on the trope like not meeting every notable figure in history cuz of the odds of being there at the right time and place while still touching on historical significant people and places. I know that feels really niche since I haven’t found any like it since lol so I’m mainly trying to find any good immortality focused stories preferably with at least some anecdotes set in ancient/medieval times if not centered there.
Would also love to hear what everyone else likes about the immortality tropes and what it can bring to a story whether it be through a side character or a main focus, but aside from that, thank you in advance for any suggestions and happy reading! 🙂
by notilovepie20