Cool Old Guy: Difference between revisions

|'''[[Five Iron Frenzy]]''', "At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys"}}

 

 

He usually [[Badass Normal|won't have any special powers]] but that's only to marginally keep him from intruding on the other's limelight. He usually either has a dated and dramatic but lovable personality or is a complete no-nonsense hardass, depending on how the other characters act.

** While not the [[Trope Namer]], Garrick is referred to as "One cool old man." By Jack Knight in JSA #2.

** Wildcat slept with [[Wonder Woman]]'s mom. That is all.

** Batman becomes this whenever the timeline pushes him into clear agedness. Elseworlds aside, even the current comics continuity has him in the 'grandfather' age bracket. The most famous example being ''[[The Dark Knight Returns]]''. For an animated version, see ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' ''And'' the Batman Beyond version of Old Bruce who guest-stars in a time-travel episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' ...and proves to still be a downright scary interrogator, even ''moreso'' than his younger self!

* Marvel's short-lived ''[[Alpha Flight]]'' revival featured an elderly superhero called Centennial, a little old man in a sweater who came out of a coma thanks to ''extremely'' delayed [[Puberty Superpower]]s identical to [[Superman]]'s. He was played mostly for laughs, but when the team needed someone to give them a good kick in the pants for motivation, he was always ready to provide.

** Marvel also has Roger Aubrey (the Destroyer) and the Thin Man, and they did have Iron Cross, who was still active as a hero in the present day despite being old enough to have seen service in [[World War I]], until he sacrificed himself to save the world.

* Master Splinter from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''. While his motivations, history, and personality can change, [[Depending on the Writer| depending on the continuity]], he's ''always'' a Cool Old Guy.

* [[Douwe Dabbert]].

* [[Asterix|Getafix the Druid]], maker of the magic potion, speaker of Gothic, one of the calmest and most sensible inhabitants of the village, and [[Badass Grandpa]] with [[Magnificent Bastard]] tendencies. No wonder the Romans are after him.

 

== Film ==

** Obi Wan Kenobi, at least in the original trilogy. Make that all of [[The Obi-Wan|The Obi Wans]]. Yoda is more of a [[Badass Grandpa]].

** Palpatine initially comes across as a Cool Old Guy to Anakin, even though we in the audience already know of [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|his]] [[Big Bad|true]] [[Magnificent Bastard|personality]]. [[Evil Is Cool|(Doesn't mean he's not cool, of course.)]]

{{quote|"I couldn't do the running. I was eighty! I said to [[George Lucas]], I can do the swordfighting, but I can't run!"}}

* Yondu from ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy (film)|Guardians of the Galaxy]]'' is this ''and'' a [[Badass Grandpa]].

** To clarify on the hobbits. According to the birth dates given on family trees and so forth in the appendixes: At the start of the Quest, Samewise is 39, Merry's 37, and Pippin's 29. Still in his tweens, which is apparently the equivalent of the teens in a human, since thirty-three is coming-of-age for hobbits. This is going by the year of 1419 S.R. as the year the quest began.

** Hobbits also [[Word of God|were thought specifically by Tolkien]] to retain childish appearance (and somewhat childish and carefree way of thinking) for most part of their lives. Peter Jackson's film played this accurately - Bilbo Baggins still has the language and mannerisms of a young lad despite being over 100 years old and near the end of his lifespan.

** Vetinari. About as old as Vimes (if not older). Not only a political mastermind skilled at manipulating people to act in his favour but a former assassin of incredible skill.

** Ridcully, especially when he has a crossbow in his hand.

*** One of his predecessors, Galder Weatherwax was almost as good, but lost it, after going against fate by trying to capture Rincewind.

** Also Reg Shoe, I mean he's not much older than Vimes, but he's 30 years '''dead''' (dies at the end of Night Watch).

** Various other Zombies and Vampires would fit if 'cool' could be used to describe them.

** Alberto Malich, the Wizard who started UU. 87 years old when he blew himself into Death's Domain, and it's been almost 2,000 years since.

* Zedd in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' saga.

** Though Nathan is even older and in most cases even cooler. Someone who can serve as estrogen brigade bait (in-universe, anyway) at nearly ''a thousand years old'', be one of the only existing prophets in the world, and be such a powerful wizard and (implied) swordsman to boot definitely deserves a mention here.

* Albert (Robert Vaughn) in ''[[Hustle]]''.

* Both James Whittaker III on Hustle and Archie Leach on Leverage, both played by Richard Chamberlain.

** Until Serenity, in which {{spoiler|he's forced to shoot down the Alliance ship destroying his colony before he dies from his injuries.}}

*** That wasn't very Christian of him.

*** Speaking of ''Shindig'', ''Sir'' Warwick Harrow.

* John Locke from ''[[Lost]]''. Subverted when we discover just how pathetic and needy the guy is, though he's definitely starting to [[Character Development|work]] back up to a traditional Cool Old Guy.

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', Tirion Fordring. A retired man living in a hut until the player shakes him up, at which point he reforms an order of paladins, redeems an army of death knights, and leads an army to some [[Grim Up North|godforsaken corner of the world]] to bring judgment to a [[Complete Monster]] [[Physical God]] who threatens all life.

** Tortolians are an entire race of Cool Old Guys. Well, except the females, but [[Cool Old Lady|they're pretty cool too.]]

** Better still, in {{spoiler|his fight in [[Aria of Sorrow]]}}, he can use the Grand Cross and it makes PARTS OF THE CASTLE CRUMBLE, and claims to have been holding back despite {{spoiler|being [[That One Boss]] for some people, and this is only using subweapons after halfway into the fight}}. In Dawn, he is bested by Dario, some fire punk foe, but only because he can't seal his dark power. The badass part is that Julius has dealt with sealed enemies before, except he's just beaten the shit out of them before they can regenerate. That's how awesome he is.

* ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]'': Professor Oak. Wait, what? Well, in the ''[[Pokémon Special|Adventures/Special]]'' manga, at least - Oak actually competes in the Pokemon League, and beats Blue, and without his lab-coat, he looks surprisingly fit for someone his age. The games themselves note that Oak was a top-class trainer before switching professions, roughly around the level of the Elite Four, since he was friends with Agatha.

* Augus from ''[[Asura's Wrath]]''.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]''; the Dragonborn is whatever age the player desires, so he can easily be this Trope.

 

== Web Comics ==

** Anet is the elder of a village of [[Forgetful Jones]] Elephant Monks. Wise and kind when focused, but constrained by a need to meditate on any decision, they seem largely useless when an invading army comes seeking a [[MacGuffin]], until Anet leads his people in [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|routing the army]] and defeating an enemy General ''barehanded.''

** In the original [[Thundercats]] Lynx-O was the resident Cool Old Guy.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Michael Caine]]

* [[George Carlin]]

* [[Winston Churchill]]: Because [[Honor Before Reason|He Never Surrenders]].

* Dick Clark. Until his stroke a few years ago, he still looked so untouched by age that he epitomized his "World's Oldest Living Teenager" nickname.

* [[Anthony Hopkins]]

* [[Jacques Cousteau]], the great aquatic explorer who seemed like the Ancient Mariner himself in his documentaries.

* The late John Peel fit this trope when he got older. He never settled into a routine of playing his old favorites on another radio station; even up until the very end, he kept his Radio 1 gig of playing new, upcoming acts and making sure that if a demo tape/CD was good enough, it'd be played on his program, regardless of whether the artist was signed or unsigned.

* Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband. Still grills at the age of 90, flew over 5,000 pilot hours by the time he turned 70.

** And most of the other US Presidents who lived past sixty.

*** His Excellency, General and President [[George Washington]] was a [[Memetic Badass]] within his own lifetime and has continued to be ever since. He survived near-death experiences on the battlefield and rallied the troops to keep fighting for independence. Later, the inability of the first Congress to pay the troops' long-overdue salaries in the aftermath of the war created a situation where angry troops wanted to overthrow Congress and many wanted to convince Washington to lead this coup and become a military dictator, which would have crushed American freedom in its infancy. George Washington refused, and successfully convinced his troops to relent. By doing so, Washington saved the early American republic (for the second time, considering the fact that his military leadership had preserved it during the Revolution), and became the [[Cincinnatus]]. Years later, he became the first President and set another important precedent by stepping down after two terms (becoming the [[Cincinnatus]] a second time), a precedent followed by all following Presidents except FDR. The early Americans were well aware of Washington's status as "the American Cincinnatus", and one of the first veterans' associations in the United States was named the Society of the Cincinnati in recognition of this fact. This is also where the name of Cincinnati, Ohio comes from. Even Washington's archnemesis, King George III of the United Kingdom readily admitted that by giving up power, Washington would deserve the title of greatest man then-currently alive. That's right, Washington was so badass that his own archnemesis couldn't deny it.

* [[Ringo Starr]], obviously.

** [[Paul McCartney]] as well.

***** [[The Rolling Stones|Charlie Watts]] deserves special mention for making a decades-long marriage, clean living and jazz drumming look cool for 50-plus years.

* Jim Steranko. Instantly recognizable at any comic book convention in his double-breasted suits, tinted aviator glasses, and wave of silver hair, Steranko continues a lifetime of being a Cool Guy, having been an escape artist, early rock-n-roll musician, ground-breaking comics artist, and collaborator of [[Steven Spielberg|Spielberg]], [[George Lucas|Lucas]], and [[Francis Ford Coppola|Coppola]]. In a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/21/jim-steranko-comics-jonathan-ross recent interview], he revealed that he only sleeps two hours a day and only eats one meal of raw fruits and vegetables. Interviewer Jonathan Ross asked him, "You know how mad that makes you sound?" He replied, "Yeah, I don't give a damn." Ross concludes his article by expounding, "I believe it when he tells me he still runs miles every day, pumps iron, and fornicates blissfully like a man a third his age."

*** In that case Genghis Khan gets to be on here, too, though he didn't get quite as old. ''He'' actually conquered China.

**** And his personal charisma was so high that Chinggid rulers of his bloodline were the only legitimate ones for ''centuries'' in many regions of the empire even after it broke apart, even if they were only figureheads. (Timurids had a similar if lesser value in his region later on, and Timur himself married Chinggid princesses for legitimacy.)

* [[Crowning Music of Awesome|Nobuo Uematsu.]] Singlehandedly wrote and composed ALL the [[Final Fantasy]] songs from FFI to FFX. Is also [[Autobots Rock Out|in a metal band]] called the Black Mages.

* [[Norio Wakamoto]] definitely counts amongst the Seiyuu circles.

* Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington was still active in both politics and the military up until his death.

* [[John Cleese]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Always Male]]

[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]

[[Category:Elders]]

[[Category:The Utterly and Completely Definitive Guide to Cool]]