It must be nice to be a fictional character at times. Sure, they tend to live lives that are a bit more perilous than ours, but in the end, they usually win out and make it through no worse for wear, all ready for the next edition of the movie, TV show, or novel that features them. Some even expressly have immortality. Guess they don’t need to worry about term life insurance.

There are some characters we wish would die. Others we’re kind of glad they’ll live forever. At any rate, here are some of the top fictional characters who really don’t have any need for term life insurance:

• Connor MacLeod. OK, so technically, he can be killed. But only by another Highlander. And even though they live forever, it’s not like you run into one every day. Besides, he’s the hero, so he gets to live forever anyway, right?

• Dracula. He’s been portrayed dozens of different ways in the movies, from bloodthirsty to rather suave, to a tortured soul who just needs some understanding. But as a vampire, he lives forever, as long as he can avoid people with stakes and crosses. Should be simple enough.

• The entire lot of Twilight vampires. OK, they’re pretty much in the same boat as Dracula, albeit with a whole lot of teen angst and a following of teenaged girls. Not only will they live forever, but they stay eternally young enough not to have anyone they really need to take care of. Not a bad gig, when you think about it.

• Jedi Knights. The Star Wars heroes aren’t allowed to get married or be in love. They’re not supposed to have kids, either. Good thing it happened once, though, I suppose, or the original Trilogy, about the adventures of Luke and Leia (Vader’s kids) would never have happened. Still, can you picture Darth Vader discussing his life insurance needs with an agent?

• Gandalf. First of all, he’s a bit of a loner, so there’s really no one to name as beneficiary. And, perhaps more important, when he gets killed he comes back. The only real difference is that his cloak has changed colors. He could probably get a really low rate, though, if the insurance company took that into account.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t live in fictional settings. Most of us have people who depend on us, who would really lose out if we were to die. So, although vampires, Jedi, and the assortment of odd immortals don’t need life insurance, we do.

Photo via Rob Young