(Am I in the right topic section for that ? Haha I don't really know... )

Okay so last week's poll's results REALLY surprised me !
It is so obvious for me that immortality is a curse ! Why would there be so many people thinking of immortality as a blessing ?? I just don't get it

I've read several mangas dealing with immortality (Mugen no Juunin, Bloody+Mary, or Silver Diamond for example) but I think the one which struck me the most was Akatsuki no Yona. How can anyone who's read volume 18 consider immortality as a blessing ?! It's impossible!!

So yeah I'd appreciate it if someone could explain to me why they think that immortality (for yourself only!) is a blessing

Last edited by nausicaa70 at 8:35 am, Mar 28 2017

I would agree with your opinion on immortality. However I can also see why some people believe it to be a blessing. Imagine all the things you can do. It means that you can not die. It should be thought as different than living forever since that has nothing to do with mortalilty. To put it bluntly it is the difference between a deity and an elf. Immortality by definition means, in theory, that you would survive a shot to the head(is my understanding of the definition). One could probably do many heroic deeds with this feature or amass huge fortunes and other things that many would want. All the information that you could gather, not to mention the skills once could polish to perfection. But it would be a curse since you will have to watch people you love die and a lot of other things. It's arguable that a person could go mad while living under these circumstances. To be afraid of falling in love knowing that the love interest will eventually die while you have to, again recuperate from it. The same person knowing that you wont grow older nor ever die. Don't know if you can just bluntly say that it would be a form of "love-curse" keeping you from dieing happily knowing that you spent your life loving and being loved.
Yet, at the same time... Most people don't want to die.

________________
Idk how many different mangas, manhuas or manhwas that I've read but it's more than 3000. More to come!
(Number of H-mangas and one-shots: unknown and not included)

Over 180 anime shows watched and there's a vast sea of shows to go.

J/K-drama's 50+ shows watched.
It's Mr to you!

i'm one of the people who think immortality is a blessing (btw i didn't read any of the manga you mentioned), i'm not obsessed with immortality and i'm not afraid to die but i think immortality is a blessing because you don't get old or sick and you have all the time in the world to do the things you like or to redo things and enjoy everything unhurried (i like to do things slow) you can travel and see every inch of the earth. When i think of immortality i don't think that you can't die, i think that you don't die of old age or sickness but you can die of unnatural causes (when you're bored after living too much you can die if you want ). And about that thing that "you have to watch the people you love die or afraid of falling in love knowing that the love interest will eventually die" i don't really care about that, this things happen in movies and books mostly about vampires, it's something unreal in real life people break up a lot. obviously i'm not a romantic person.

yes

Yeah, the 'seeing people you care about die off' isn't that big of a problem. Unless you're afraid of death, people reasons are going to be that they want to use that extra time for something. In real life you get attached to people, but probably on a more reasonable degree than say Zenos in Akatsuki no Yona. What people forget is that on the flip-side you could make new relationships, and being immortal would give you way more chances to get to know amazing people than you could ever hope for. Being immortal is not going to mean that you will end up spending less time with the people you know and love, it could even be more if you end up dying before them. if you die later then you are going to have to deal with losing them anyway. I guess it's all depend on how attached you are, how much you are willing to let go, and how much are you willing to connect with new people.

Being immortal doesn't mean that you won't be able to appreciate time, or something along that line. Time will continue, and unless you are completely cut off to what's happening to the world or to societies, then chances are that you won't end up as someone who think time is meaningless. Because the things around you keep changing, there will always be certain things that you can do only at certain time until it irreversibly past.

I mentioned this before on the poll thread, personally I think it is a blessing as long as I have access to some kind of intelligent being and if I don't get into some sort of long term troubles. Imagine all the things you can do, all the knowledge you can get, all the discoveries you can find, people you can meet etc.

Some poeple's definition of immortality is deifferent. WHat your referring to is a an almost magical immortality where noting possibly could kill you, and you would never need to take care of your body. While others think of immortality of never dying through sickness or aging, while still needing sustinence, oxygen etc. Godlike immortality would be nice in the short term but suck with no off switch. Never aging or dying by illness would be hella cool.

It completely depends on the individual. If, like me, you are either an atheist or agnostic (personally I'm agnostic), knowing that you will always exist is definitely a plus. Yes, it would suck to lose loved ones and friends as life moves on, but over a long period of time I'm sure it would be something you could get used to. Time heals all wounds. If you have all time forever, I'm sure it would be something that I could get passed eventually.

Realistically I'd be more in favor of something that could make everyone potentially immortal (like live forever and not die of sickness or aging, not immortal like a god). Funny enough, there is actually very promising research coming out of Harvard and the UK where they have successfully tested age-reversing in mice with some type of chemical compound called NAD+. It made the 3 year old mice indistinguishable from the 2 month old mice in a matter of weeks. It literally reversed the ages of the mice. I believe they are moving onto human trials soon. Within 10 or so years, aging may very well be something that no longer exists for those who don't want to grow old and die of old age. I guess it would also depend on the price of the drug they eventually make as well.

This thread should have started with a definition of immortality. Living forever is definitely a curse, deciding myself when I die can be a blessing.

i think in Mugen no juunin they tried to be "realistic" that you cant hold too much information in a human brain
so you would just forget things every 100 years or so
of course you would remember important things longer and thats where mugen no juunin fail
and also blood worms so why even try to be realistic

so even with immortality unless your brain change
it would be impossible to remember more than a set amount

Some people here seem to have a weird understanding of what immortality means. A person who is immortal (mortal meaning "fatal" or can/will die) cannot die and they will simply live forever. There is no way to truly die/be killed if you are immortal - that's all in fiction and wouldn't make them actually be immortal.

I'm personally torn as to whether immortality is more of a blessing or a curse, though I tend to be a pessimistic person and lean more towards it being a curse, especially in the long run. I'm agnostic atheist and I'm terrified of death/dying and feeling pain, so being immortal could be either a blessing or a curse from the beginning depending on what the specifics of it are. For example, immortality could possibly grant you secondary abilities, such as regeneration (healing yourself and growing back lost body parts). This could allow for a few different possibilities in which this works, such as: 1) either letting you live until you "die" and start to decompose, but then you regenerate back into either a baby, a teenager, a young adult, a middle aged adult, OR an elderly person again; 2) regenerating slowly or quickly upon having a wound inflicted upon you; 3) self-curing/removing of sicknesses and diseases, either by killing the surround cells and body parts, forcing them outside of the body until they fall off and then growing new ones OR having a limb die and fall off and then regrow a new one. It could be a curse though if you have to "die" first before regenerating because you'll likely lose most/all memories of your previous life (feel free to use that and anything else here as a story idea/element).

Unfortunately, there are other, more frightening possibilities. If you live forever, eventually you will end up in a very bad situation that could be long-lasting. For example, say that WW3 or some other apocalyptic/cataclysmic event occurs here on Earth before we have significantly improved technology and space-related stuff. You would have to deal with most/everyone else on Earth dying, radiation, little-to-no food, lots of greenhouse gases/CO2 and bad quality air. If the Earth is destroyed, you'll be forced to live out your existence floating around in space with no air, food, water, or other survivors, during which you'll be subjected to: extreme cold; random debris floating around in space; constant suffocation; possibly ending up on random, inhospitable planets; possibly getting burned alive by suns/stars; and possibly getting sucked into a black hole.

Another likely possibility, though more short-term, is that you are captured and experimented on and/or tortured by a government or some hostile/evil group. You could be locked in a cage/prison a long period of time. Just imagine that happening and then WW3 happens and everyone dies but you and the other prisoners aren't released and left to die. You'll be trapped in the prison until the Earth becomes extremely hot from the growth of the Sun and its increased levels of brightness that will make Earth unsuitable to harbor life in a few billion years and ultimately consume the Earth in its helium burning phase a few billion years after that.

Because of these horrifying, but likely "curses", I can only see any "blessings" for having immortality existing in the beginning, when other humans are still around and you can form relationships with them, though it will inevitably turn into a "curse" when loved ones and friends start dying and you either go crazy or become a cold, distant person as a result before the previously mentioned possibilities start to occur.