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{{trope}}
[[File:
An extension of [[No Ontological Inertia]] and [[This Was His True Form]]. When an immortal and eternally youthful character has his (or her) immortality taken away, [[Rapid Aging|his years have a tendency to catch up with him]], with tragic and often grisly results.
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Sympathy for the Devil" had an immortal child named Wen whose circadian rhythms were disrupted due to the gate explosion that makes up part of the series [[Backstory]], resulting in him not aging like he should. {{spoiler|The vast energy of the explosion was enclosed into the gem of a ring that his latest victim, Giraffe, threatened to use to "return time to him." Spike crafts the gem into a bullet and then puts it through Wen's skull during their final battle. Wen rapidly ages to death before Spike's very eyes}}.
* In the film of ''[[
* In ''[[Witch Hunter Robin]],'' a [[Monster of the Week|Witch of the Week]] who had been alive for apparently thousands of years by feasting on others' life force crumbled into mere sand when his powers were taken from him.
* Tsubaki from ''[[Inuyasha]]'' had this happen when all of her yōkai were killed and her jewel shard was taken back by Naraku. In the manga, she just began to look her true age (about the same age as Kikyo if Kikyo hadn't died); in the anime, she turned into dust.
* Averted (and, to an extent, '''inverted''') in ''[[Code Geass]]''. When V.V. loses his Code, he just dies, though that's almost certainly from the injuries sustained in a [[Humongous Mecha]] battle earlier that episode. When C.C.'s Code is temporarily sealed, she mentally regresses to the last point in her life where she was mortal - which was when she was 10 years old and living in the Dark Ages. Dialog in a later episode implies that this has happened to her before.
* Used to an extreme in ''[[
* {{spoiler|Hohenheim}} in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' shows the marks from transmutation all over his skin when he loses all the philosopher's stones in his body. Then he ages to what is not exactly his true age, but old age nonetheless and dies by the end of the day... ish. Traveling to {{spoiler|Trisha's grave}} probably took a little while.
** Similarly, once {{spoiler|Furher Bradley's}} Philosopher's stone runs out, he ages rapidly.
* Tsunade of ''[[Naruto]]'' has something that looks a bit like this. She's in her 50s (at least) but wears an illusion to make her appear much younger. She also focuses most of her chakra on the seal on her forehead as a reserve which she can draw on in battle to give her perfect regeneration - at the cost of increased aging. At the end of the battle she is too tired to be able to maintain her illusion, which ''looks'' like massive rapid aging - but there's no way to tell just how bad the extra aging she took was, since we don't know how old she really looked under the illusion beforehand.
== Comic Books ==
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* The 1945 Marvel Family #1 (the first team-up of all the Marvels) featured the origin story of Black Adam. He originally gained his powers from the wizard Shazam 5,000 years ago. After he gained his superpowers he decided to conquer the world and Shazam sent him into outer space 5,000 light years away. Black Adam spent the next 5,000 years traveling back to Earth at the speed of light, arriving in modern times. The Marvels tricked him into saying the word "Shazam", which changed him back into his non-powered form. Unfortunately for him his accumulated age caught up to him and he suffered from [[Rapid Aging]], turning into a skeleton.
▲== Fan Fiction ==
* In the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' fanfic ''Does Fate Allow a Second Chance?'', {{spoiler|Vincent}} is [[Older Than They Look|older than he looks]] and is on a quest to become mortal. {{spoiler|At the end, he succeeds, but his apparent age does not change, making this an [[Averted Trope|aversion]].}}
== Film ==
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** This may also be because said person was clutching the hair as it lost its power.
* There is a German gay porn movie named ''Boytropolis'', which depicts a community of guys living in the jungle, minding their own business, and keeping themselves young and handsome by drinking a potion made out of plants. If they're deprived of it, they ''melt''.
* ''[[Horror of Dracula]]'' has a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130426212513/http://www.cinemorgue.com/valeriegaunt1.JPG hot young vampiress] who turns into an [https://web.archive.org/web/20130427011144/http://www.cinemorgue.com/valeriegaunt2.JPG old corpse] when staked.
* Zordon starts aging "at an accelerated rate" when Ivan Ooze breaks him out of his time-warp capsule in ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (film)|Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''. Later in the film, the immortal [[Ms. Fanservice|Dulcea]] tells the Rangers that she too will rapidly age if she leaves her domain on the planet Phaedos.
== [[Game Books]] ==▼
* Book 17 of the [[Lone Wolf]] series ''The Deathlord of Ixia'' combines this with [[Load-Bearing Boss]]. Killing the titular [[Big Bad]] breaks the enchantment that kept the city of Xaagon in a suspended state. The moment Lone Wolf strikes the killing blow, milennia of wear and tear catch up to the city, and Lone Wolf has to haul ass out of there. Breaking the spell also removes the permanent cloud cover over the city, allowing sunlight to warm Ixia again.▼
== Literature ==
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** Gollum comments, however, that if the Ring is destroyed, he will "die into the dust," which fits this trope exactly, aside from him not getting the chance.
*** It was implied that this would also happen to the 3,000 year old Nazguls upon the Ring's destruction, but this wasn't explicitly shown. In an indirect sort of way, this happened to the bearers of the elven Rings as well: the bearers are all immortal without the Rings, so we don't see them becoming older, but what happens to Elves as they age is that they tend to leave Middle-earth for Valinor...which is exactly what Elrond and Galadriel do a year later.
* Played with in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]: Final Hope''. Laura herself becomes a little stronger and [[Took a Level
* The first book of the ''[[Mistborn]]'' series uses this trope. The [[Big Bad]], who has essentially been the emperor of the entire world for the last thousand years or so managed to obtain immortality by heavily abusing multiple forms of magic, essentially keeping himself young with a number of magical trinkets. When they get removed, his youth does too.
* The ''Secrets of the Immortal Nickolas Flamel'' series: not only are Nickolas and his wife rapidly aging without their book that has the recipe of the elixir of life (they can't rebrew it from the same process as last time because it changes every month and old recipes cause them to age faster). Also it is the standard punishment for an immortal that displeases their master Elder the have their immortality removed and quickly age to dust. {{spoiler|John Dee's master has now threatened Dee with undoing it and just before Dee dies of age making Dee immortal at that age for the rest of eternity.}}
** The alternate universe, somewhat more benevolent, version of Nicholas Flamel was used in the first ''[[Harry Potter]]'' novel. He had used the Philosopher's Stone for centuries as a part of the process of brewing an elixir of life, but after learning that Voldemort was seeking it out, he and his wife willingly turned it over to Dumbledore for safekeeping. The trope is played straight, though bent sideways; without the Stone, Flamel only has a limited supply of the elixir remaining. Just enough, Dumbledore says, to put his affairs in order and finish up last-minute business before he and his wife pass on. Though it's not explicitly stated, the tone of it is that he will eventually pass away quietly of natural causes, without any skin-sloughing ickyness. [[Fridge Logic]] tells us, however, that Voldemort's defeat several years down the line might've made him reconsider.
* [[Discworld]] did a non-living form of this in [[
** Huh [[Characterization Marches On|Time doesn't seem like she'd be afraid]]
*** I hear Dungeon Dimension Denizen blood is hell to wash out of your clothes.
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* Oskar Matzerath from ''[[The Tin Drum]]'' was a [[Older Than They Look|three-year old adult]] who remained a child out of his own free will. Once he had enough, he underwent the same process to reverse it. His years caught up to him immediately, although he was in his twenties at the time so it wasn't as dramatic as other examples here.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has Adam Monroe, when he got his ability stolen by Arthur Petrelli.
** They try to explain it by the fact that, over the centuries, Adam has died and was damaged so many times, that his [[Healing Factor]] kicked into overdrive. His cells are continuously dying and recreating. So, when you remove the "recreating" part, it's clear why he suddenly crumpled into dust. It's possible that Claire will have the same problem in a few hundred years.
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** TOS episode "The Guests": Several people are trapped in a house where [[Time Stands Still]]. If they leave, they grow old rapidly and die.
** Something like this happens in one of the new series episodes: a scientist finds a way to seemingly keep people young and immortal, however it is discovered that this is done by hyperstimulating the cells of the person in question, thus causing them to eventually grow old and die in a matter of weeks.
* The pilot episode of ''[[Eerie, Indiana]]'' had a woman who was keeping herself and her children young forever by sealing them in bed-sized tupperware containers every night. When she was stopped, the three of them aged 30 years overnight.
* In the first season finale of the [[Sci Fi]] series ''[[Sanctuary]]'', James Watson (''almost'' THAT [[Sherlock Holmes|John Watson]]) finally dies. He had lived for over one hundred years thanks to a combination of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] and a special mechanical device that kept him young, but the device finally failed and Watson died from accelerated aging.
** A flashback episode shows Watson being tortured by [[Jack the Ripper|John Druitt]] by turning the device on and off, causing Watson great pain.
* The Master does this to the Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' by suspending his capacity to regenerate with a laser screwdriver.
** Also in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "Miri." Children live for hundreds of years due to a virus, but when they reach adulthood they quickly grow old and die.
* ''[[Hex]]'' has immortal witch Ella Dee. At one point, Azazeal foils Ella by cutting off her powers with St John's Wort. This has the effect of rendering her mortal, and, well, how many mortals do you know that are over the age of 500?
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* In the ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' episode "The Tale of Many Faces", the [[Big Bad]] falls dead and turns into a skeleton when given back her original face.
== Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends ==
* In ([[Our Vampires Are Different|some]]) folklore, usually what happens to vampires if you manage to actually kill them.
* In the Japanese folktale of Urashima Tarou, the title character returns home after living it up in the undersea kingdom, having been given a box to never open. Turns out a long time has passed on land and everyone he knew is now dead because there's no aging in the undersea kingdom. He decides he has nothing left to lose and opens the box, causing all of his age to catch up with him.
* This is also a recurring theme in the Western fairytales where the protagonist is spirited away into the Fairyland for centuries without realizing or feeling the passage of time. Sometimes they would return to the human world, only to discover that in the meantime year, decades, or even centuries had passed while they hadn't aged. Upon their return, all that missed time would catch up with the victim spectacularly.
* In one fairy tale, a human newly returned from fairlyand has to actually touch the ground for the aging to kick in, presumably because otherwise he hasn't ''really'' returned to the mortal world yet. His fairy wife/girlfriend/whatever lets him return on a horse, warning him not to dismount; inevitably something makes him fall off, of course.
* The Irish tale of [[wikipedia:
* This is why King Herla of ''[[The Wild Hunt]]'' can't get off his horse. He spent a few centuries at a fairy wedding party. As soon as he gets off of his horse (given to him by the fairies) and sets foot back on the earth of the mortal world, time will catch up and he'll age to death in a matter of seconds.
== Tabletop Games ==
▲* Book 17 of the [[Lone Wolf]] series ''The Deathlord of Ixia'' combines this with [[Load-Bearing Boss]]. Killing the titular [[Big Bad]] breaks the enchantment that kept the city of Xaagon in a suspended state. The moment Lone Wolf strikes the killing blow, milennia of wear and tear catch up to the city, and Lone Wolf has to haul ass out of there. Breaking the spell also removes the permanent cloud cover over the city, allowing sunlight to warm Ixia again.
==
* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'':
** The game makes it clear that the younger the vampire, the more... meaty the remains. Elder vampires just turn to dust when they die.
** Additionally, Ghouls (humans fed on vampire blood and granted some of its power) do not age as long as they get a dose of vitae once a month. If they miss it however, they rapidly age-up until they're where they should be.
** The same is true of both vampires and ghouls in the earlier game ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]''.
* While the spell "Polymorph any object" in ''[[Dungeons
* One of the plots for a ''[[All Flesh Must Be Eaten]]'' campaign has an evil Chinese alchemist who found the formula for immortality. Some of the rare herbs just went extinct and he's looking for replacements, but he has to hurry because he's aging a year each month.
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' adventures
** "The Secret of Castronegro". Bernardo Diaz has lived for 300 years due to the ruby ring he wears. If it's removed from his finger, he will instantly die and his body will shrivel.
** ''The Fungi from Yuggoth''. Lang Fu's Coat of Life has allowed him to live for centuries. If it is ever removed for more than a few minutes, his body will begin an irreversible aging process that will cause his rapid death.
== Video Games ==
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** Aegwynn is in a similar boat, using her powers as Guardian to extend her life for more than 800 years. After expending most of her magic {{spoiler|(read: having it forcibly ripped from her body by her own son)}} some thirty-odd years prior to Vanilla [[WoW]], she no longer has the power to keep herself young, and has been steadily aging as a result. Though the comics would show otherwise...
*** This is because, after her banishment, she comes back to use her remaining magic to resurrect her son (after he is decapitated by his own apprentice), who, in turn, used his powers to give his mother proper retirement. She is given a hidden house in a valley in Kalimdor, protected by multiple wards (one of which keeps her healthy) and thunder lizards. Then Jaina Proudmoore decides to settle the valley...
== Western Animation ==
* One episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' ended with Morgan Le Fay's spoiled son keeping his immortality, but losing his youth, turning him into a shriveled, toothless and senile old man.
* A ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' episode features an age-sucking villain. When the heroines disable his magic crystal thingy, he crumbles into dust.
* A ''[[Freakazoid!]]!'' episode has the villainess dying in such a manner when she fails to drain Freakazoid's essence in time.
* The zombies and cat monsters in ''[[Scooby
* In a [[Nightmare Fuel]] moment for the ''[[Captain Marvel]]'' cartoon, the villain Black Adam was tricked into saying "Shazam," and reverted to his "mortal form." He hadn't previously assumed that form in several thousand years, being a native of ancient Egypt. He crumbled instantly into dust. An unexpected [[Family-Unfriendly Death]], made worse by the normally [[Technical Pacifist]] heroes manipulating him into killing himself.
** This actually happened in the comic book too.
** And there's a similar sequence in ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]''.
** Also happened in the direct-to-dvd crossover with [[Superman]], only it wasn't Captain Marvel who made Black Adam transform back. {{spoiler|Instead, he did it willingly to die rather than spend a hundred-thousand years in the farthest reaches of the universe.}}
* In ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Robotnikotep IV actually disintegrates after having the Chaos Emerald of Immortality taken from him by his
* In the ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' episode "Jack and the Lava Monster," Jack defeats a warrior who had been immortal for thousands of years as a punishment from Aku. He immediately ages to look about 80, but that's still pretty spry for someone in their thousands.
* Averted in ''[[Highlander the Animated Series]]'', where most of the immortals had performed some kind of magic ritual that allowed them to transfer their special skills to [[The Chosen One]] without doing [[Buffy-Speak|the whole head-cutting-off-thing]]. Instead of dying upon transfer, they simply lost their immortality and would live out a natural lifespan from whatever their physical age was. Considering they lived in [[After the End|a post-apocalyptic wasteland]], though, this probably wouldn't take very long.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:This Index Will Live Forever]]
▲[[Category:No Immortal Inertia]]
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