Rambling Sage

so one of my main characters is immortal
any comments or observations about immortality and its aspects, drawbacks, and advantages

what are some things, as readers, you would like to see in an immortal character?

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ClancyBoy

Psychologically human beings aren't meant to go past 60 or 70. I'm sure you've heard about or met very old people who couldn't wait to die.

As to what could happen to someone after 200, 500, 10,000 years... be creative. Anything could happen.

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Charlie_Eleanor

I would like to see someone that is not all knowing...someone that still has questions, but questions people who only live to be 60-70 don't have the time to think of or answer.

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Rambling Sage

yea that is what i had been thinking too
as he gets older, he begins to notice patterns in society and he notices things about human nature, leading to questions like why those things happen

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If one is lucky,
a solitary fantasy can totally transform
one million realities.

Mr Sci Fi

I would like to see a character that is completely human, fallable, Oh, and can DIE, so we have conflict.

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Rambling Sage

just because he can't die doesn't mean there can't be a conflict. He can also be fully human in the sense that he suffers from human flaws like temptation, jealousy, etc. He can still make mistakes. being immortal doesn't mean you are perfect.

__________________
If one is lucky,
a solitary fantasy can totally transform
one million realities.

Charlie_Eleanor

It would also be interesting to see him ask really stupid questions. For instance, how insane could a person get if he was immortal? You could make him think about what type of color looks best when worn in a material that has the consistancy of mustard?

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Lost in Some Story

Charlie Eleanor, this is why everyone loves you.

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"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior."
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ClancyBoy

Have him use up his entire brain, then overuse it to the point that it pops like a big zit. Our think meats don't exactly have infinite capacity you know.

__________________
"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

CaptainFreedom

Another drawback to being immortal is that nobody takes your suicide attempts seriously. har har

CF

Mike C

I think it was Shaw that said "Everyone wants to live forever, but nobody wants to get old" or suchlike.

Personally I think immortality would be extremely boring.

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Balmarog

Immortality... Let's see...
You get to watch everyone you know and love die, sometimes slowly. As they say - history repeats itself, so I think this individual would get frustrated by this as well. I can easily imagine him feeling like he doesn't belong to the human population as a whole. There's also culture shock. What if he's unable to or has trouble moving on with new customs and technology?
Immortality can be a curse or a blessing or a combination of the two.
That's my opinion at least.

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UNDEAD

As an aspect of immortaliy, why not have it so he can't die of old age, but can be killed by someone's gunshot? That way, he has the time to think about these questions and patterns of society while still having to be carefull. Maybe a cult is chasing him to find out how he became immortal?

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Mr Sci Fi

How can you make a mistake if you have eternity to make up for it and forget about it? I'm sure it sounds cool in your mind to have a "Super cool uber l33t character who will pwn everyone," but it makes for terrible story telling.

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