Would anyone even want to live beyond natural age borders? All the people you grew up with, your friends and all your acquaintances would be gone. You'd be stuck in yourself in a world where you know nobody and nobody knows you. Unless you're okay with constantly making new friends to "replace" the old aged ones, there's not much benefit at all of living for a very long time.
Alignn said: It's clear you haven't experienced true fear of death yet.
It's clear you haven't truly overcame the fear of death yet.
Seriously, it's a stage. You realize that at some point you'll stop existing, then you panic about it, then you somehow come to terms with the idea and then you get over it.
redtails said: Unless you're okay with constantly making new friends to "replace" the old aged ones, there's not much benefit at all of living for a very long time.
_cf said: It's clear you haven't truly overcame the fear of death yet.
Seriously, it's a stage. You realize that at some point you'll stop existing, then you panic about it, then you somehow come to terms with the idea and then you get over it.
Mostly I've just stopped thinking about it, because standing at the edge of the abyss all the time really drains the spirit. I'd be too busy worrying about dying to live, so to speak.
But the terror is still there. Waiting for a weak moment of the flesh.
Explosion said: Or you could just make friends with other immortals.
Exactly - the overwhelming majority of characters in Touhou are ALSO extremely long-lived and/or immortal. Assuming Alice and Patchouli are friends, there's at least one person she can still hang out with.
I'd also point out that in Gensokyo, you can just float your way to Heaven, Hell, the Netherworld, and basically any other place the dead might go and just strike up a conversation with the dead. Even with Reincarnation in play, you can simply go pay Shiki a visit and try and ask her who or what your dead friends reincarnated into, and see about paying them a visit.
Being immortal when all your friends are also immortal kind of removes most of those downsides except for maybe the Brigadoon problem of living so long you forget if that guy was your son or your father.
Boredom would also be put into play but it doesn't look like Mokou, Kaguya, Yuyuko and Akyuu are anywhere near that yet. Okay, granted, Akyuu is doing an altered version of rebirthing, for me, close enough.
While I completely accept that I havent overcome the fear of death (which btw is a must for rock climbers and hikers, my hobbie), thats the reason of why I want to be inmortal.
To elaborate, the only thing I truly fear isnt death itself, but to cease existing (many religions have life after death or reincarnation) but since Im atheist my only way to continue existing is doing something so great that my name will be remembered. To be this century best writer, best actor, find the cure to AIDS or Cancer, discover the secrets of quantum physics, travel time, save the world form a greater evil or be that greater evil that threatens to conquer the world (I would never try to destroy it, as much as I hate humanity, there has to be some survivors to remember me).
But sadly, for having my name burned into history I need time, and I dont really think that the 60-80 years (assuming that I dont get a "mind that bus! - What bus? - Splat*" death) that I have left are really enough (I may be able to accomplish something, as many other have). So basically, I want more time.
NWSiaCB said: I'd also point out that in Gensokyo, you can just float your way to Heaven, Hell, the Netherworld, and basically any other place the dead might go and just strike up a conversation with the dead. Even with Reincarnation in play, you can simply go pay Shiki a visit and try and ask her who or what your dead friends reincarnated into, and see about paying them a visit.
This isn't entirely true. Both Komachi and Eiki weren't very pleased with the protagonists going to the Sanzu river and Higan; I doubt they'd just tell a trespasser who reincarnated in what. And while you can go to the Netherworld, going to Hell was never really show to be possible (Touhou 11 takes place in OLD Hell; it's an abandoned section of the thing), and Heaven is "full" (in reality they just don't want any more people up there), so if someone in the cast died, at best they'd be able to be visited for a while in the Netherworld before they reincarnate.
Sagus222 said: This isn't entirely true. Both Komachi and Eiki weren't very pleased with the protagonists going to the Sanzu river and Higan; I doubt they'd just tell a trespasser who reincarnated in what. And while you can go to the Netherworld, going to Hell was never really show to be possible (Touhou 11 takes place in OLD Hell; it's an abandoned section of the thing), and Heaven is "full" (in reality they just don't want any more people up there), so if someone in the cast died, at best they'd be able to be visited for a while in the Netherworld before they reincarnate.
This is Touhou, since when has what everyone else wanted stopped a heroine from getting what SHE wants? The Youmu path in IaMP involved Youmu trying to find out the truth by just randomly attacking people with the sword that cuts through confusion in order to tell who's lying when they say they don't know anything until she finds a liar.
They just need to invade the afterlife and bludgeon the right authority figure into submission ("Bitch, get outta my way!") to get what they want... the same way they always do.
