Your favourite undying MC archetype?

[Justhetip...]

#1: Quite literally invulnerable in every sense of the word. Think Baldur without the mistletoe, or Superman without Kryptonite.

#2: Self-explanatory. You'd be planning his death not knowing you've been killed so many times you're now nothing more than a skip-ad sequence.

#3: Think Deadpool. Will snap, will pop, and go splat, but he'll still come back.

#4: Very, very annoying to deal with. Will just switch bodies when you kill the one he's in. Surprisingly, no examples in my head at the moment.

For me, I'll go with #3. I can't resist the pleasure of a gorefest and seeing my MC torn from limb to limb, or the visceral action and brutality of the fight scenes. And all this without permanent consequences, cuz he'll recover after it's over.

You can post the ones I missed. These were the only four in my head. So what's your favourite?

 

[Puji-Maki]

I'm a fan of time loop novels so I voted for regressor.

 

[Justhetip...]

I'm a fan of time loop novels so I voted for regressor.

There were just too many examples I couldn't even think of one. ?

 

[expentio]

I like the undefined body archetype. Slimes, or water elementals. Maybe even an eldritch horror shapeshifter. They can functionally always reassemble, no matter how they are obliterated.
Though, from those three I personally am closest inclined to water elementals, or in my turn on them, water angels, as they wield powers on a far greater level, capable of creating the greatest constructs of water.

 

[Empress_Omnii]

#2: Self-explanatory. You'd be planning his death not knowing you've been killed so many times you're now nothing more than a skip-ad sequence.

Picked this one due to SSS-Class Revival Hunter

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Lich!

 

[RedMuffin]

Picked this one due to SSS-Class Revival Hunter

You mean The SSS-Class Suicide Hunter?

 

[Empress_Omnii]

You mean The SSS-Class Suicide Hunter?

Yeah, I couldn’t remember the name and that's what Google gave me. Thank you, I've been meaning to read it more.

 

[LilRora]

Bruh there's like 5 more kinds of "undying" beings you either haven't mentioned or just loosely grouped, maybe more depending how exactly we interpret it. I really don't like your super regeneration, because this can apply to most kinds of undying beings.

Liches can move their souls to other undead bodies (this is similar to your parasite, but the mechanism is completely different).
Reincarnators are arguably undying as well, though this can be debatable; if we're talking about undying MCs though, then it should count.
Gods or spirits in some settings are beings of faith that do not die so long as people believe in them; they may regenerate, reform, or be reborn as a new entity.
Some beings like spirits or gods may possess a body or an avatar, death of which doesn't affect them.
Some elementals, slimes, and many more beings remain alive so long as at least a singular building block remains, and they can reform or regenerate with time or other resources (this is where most regenerators end up).
Some supernatural beings are fundamentally neither alive nor dead, such that they inherently cannot die.

My favorite overall is that last one, but for a main character I would choose various kinds of regeneration.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Voting #4 because everything else is overdone. Parasitic MCs aren't popular outside of some really small niches.

 

[Veschool]

#4: Very, very annoying to deal with. Will just switch bodies when you kill the one he's in. Surprisingly, no examples in my head at the moment.

I think Klein from LoTM could have been like this, but he was too busy getting chased around by the even bigger parasite.

 

[ElijahRyne]

#1: Quite literally invulnerable in every sense of the word. Think Baldur without the mistletoe, or Superman without Kryptonite.

#2: Self-explanatory. You'd be planning his death not knowing you've been killed so many times you're now nothing more than a skip-ad sequence.

#3: Think Deadpool. Will snap, will pop, and go splat, but he'll still come back.

#4: Very, very annoying to deal with. Will just switch bodies when you kill the one he's in. Surprisingly, no examples in my head at the moment.

For me, I'll go with #3. I can't resist the pleasure of a gorefest and seeing my MC torn from limb to limb, or the visceral action and brutality of the fight scenes. And all this without permanent consequences, cuz he'll recover after it's over.

You can post the ones I missed. These were the only four in my head. So what's your favourite?

I like the ones where every time the MC ‘dies’ they are isekaied into a new world/universe

 

[NotaNuffian]

I would go for #1 and/ or #4.

Because I hate #2.

And I had seen #3 way too many times.

There's even this CN MC with #1, #3 and #4.

#1 is because his absurd defence, #3 is because of his ridiculous regeneration rate and #4 is because he has a spare body somewhere else.

When the opponents went through his first two, MC would often give them the middle finger (he gave twice, and not funnily to the same person) as he respawn elsewhere.

Bruh there's like 5 more kinds of "undying" beings you either haven't mentioned or just loosely grouped, maybe more depending how exactly we interpret it. I really don't like your super regeneration, because this can apply to most kinds of undying beings.

Liches can move their souls to other undead bodies (this is similar to your parasite, but the mechanism is completely different).
Reincarnators are arguably undying as well, though this can be debatable; if we're talking about undying MCs though, then it should count.
Gods or spirits in some settings are beings of faith that do not die so long as people believe in them; they may regenerate, reform, or be reborn as a new entity.
Some beings like spirits or gods may possess a body or an avatar, death of which doesn't affect them.
Some elementals, slimes, and many more beings remain alive so long as at least a singular building block remains, and they can reform or regenerate with time or other resources (this is where most regenerators end up).
Some supernatural beings are fundamentally neither alive nor dead, such that they inherently cannot die.

My favorite overall is that last one, but for a main character I would choose various kinds of regeneration.

I think you forgot Players the 4th calamity.

Technically they are info based creatures that somehow downloaded themselves into the plane of existence.

 

[LilRora]

I think you forgot Players the 4th calamity.

Technically they are info based creatures that somehow downloaded themselves into the plane of exexistence.

Players may count as possessing a body/avatar, depending on how specific we want to be.

Creating a list like this is kind of stupid because on one hand you have to make some generalizations so you don't end up with thirty barely different categories, but if you try to compress them, you'll frequently have to lump distinctly different things together. How much is appropriate mainly depends on whether we're focused on the mechanism or function. OP didn't specify and did both.

 

[Theirl]

I would go for #1 and/ or #4.

Because I hate #2.

And I had seen #3 way too many times.

There's even this CN MC with #1, #3 and #4.

#1 is because his absurd defence, #3 is because of his ridiculous regeneration rate and #4 is because he has a spare body somewhere else.

When the opponents went through his first two, MC would often give them the middle finger (he gave twice, and not funnily to the same person) as he respawn elsewhere.

I think you forgot Players the 4th calamity.

Technically they are info based creatures that somehow downloaded themselves into the plane of existence.

Well in im an orc they had a solution to kill of players that could respawn they would not kill them and would bury them up to the nexk in concret ans force them to start from 0 again eventually they would quit lol

 

[CharlesEBrown]

#4: Very, very annoying to deal with. Will just switch bodies when you kill the one he's in. Surprisingly, no examples in my head at the moment.

Maybe the villain in the movie Fallen?

Or maybe, one of my favorites, the man known in life is Firoun Al'Faisel (or something close to that), but who, until an experiment turned his domain from Darkon to Necropolis, was known better by a corruption of his title, A'Za-lan (Warrior/Mage/King) - Azalin the Lich. As long as his phylactery remained intact, his essence would transfer to the nearest corpse within his domain and transform it into an exact copy of his body.

 

[Justhetip...]

Lich!

Aren't these the folks who use a phylactery?( Correct me if I'm wrong)

Their immortality is tied to an object and is not assured.

I think Klein from LoTM could have been like this, but he was too busy getting chased around by the even bigger parasite.

Bruh! How did I forget this?!

And LoTM is among my top 5 favourite webnovels.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Aren't these the folks who use a phylactery?( Correct me if I'm wrong)

Their immortality is tied to an object and is not assured.

If we go this route, regressor isn't immortal either. You can't kill them, but they will die of old age. ?‍

 

[Justhetip...]

Well in im an orc they had a solution to kill of players that could respawn they would not kill them and would bury them up to the nexk in concret ans force them to start from 0 again eventually they would quit lol

The NPCs?

If we go this route, regressor isn't immortal either. You can't kill them, but they will die of old age. ?‍

Imagine dying of old age and regressing back to your save point. Kek.

Lord I never want to be an infinite Regressor.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

Out of those, probably regressor, but overall I'd say the "Literally too angry to die" kind.