Gentleman Adventurer: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:gentleman-
{{quote|'''Prisoner''': But who in blazes is ''that''?
'''Othar''': Why, ''I'' am '''[[Large Ham Title|OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN]], ''[[Trope Namer|Gentleman Adventurer!]]'''''
'''Sanaa''': [[Oh Crap|Uh oh.]]
|''[[Girl Genius]]'', "Othar!"}}
A [[Dead Horse Trope]] which used to be common in adventure, mystery, and espionage fiction where the hero was an independently wealthy (or at least doesn't do much work for a living) "gentleman of leisure" whose adventures were initially motivated by a [[In Harm's Way|lust for adventure]] and [[Rich Boredom|hatred of idleness]], even if the character ultimately acted for heroic/patriotic motives. It seems probable that the [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] is an outgrowth of this character type. Has some overlap with the [[Adventurer Archaeologist]] and [[Great White Hunter]]. Often ends up a [[Cool Old Guy]] and insists on wearing an overblown [[Adventurer Outfit]]. His [[Distaff Counterpart]] is the [[Lady of Adventure]], and if he ''marries'' one you can expect a [[Battle Couple]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Arsène Lupin III of ''[[Lupin III]]'', gentleman thief. He's such a discerning burglar that he once broke into someone's house only to leave a note letting the owner know that he would return once the reproductions were replaced with something worth stealing.
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* Similarly, the Kaitou Kid of ''[[Magic Kaito]]'' returns each gem he steals, as he is looking for one in particular. He's also known to be quite charming and gentlemanly, even once cracking a safe for one of his enemies to save their trapped dog at no cost.
== [[
* [[DC Comics|Green Arrow]] started out this way. When he then lost his fortune, he suffered an identity crisis over whether he'd been superheroing out of a legitimate desire to do good, or just for fun. He thereafter became a much more passionate and socially-conscious do-gooder.
* Polly of ''[[Polly and The Pirates]]'' has a father who definitely falls under this category. He even makes his entrance being lowered on the ladder of a hot-air balloon.
* [[Richie Rich (comics)|Richie Rich]]'s butler Cadbury loves to reminisce about his escapades with his former employer Sir [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Ruddy Blighter]], "adventurist and time-waster extraordinaire."
* Charles Fort and [[
{{quote|
'''Robo:''' You guys don't ''look'' like adventurers.
'''Fort:''' Adventure was more a hobby. We're ''writers'', really. }}
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** By the second film, he's acquired a briefcase full of cash from different eras. Considering his objection to Marty using future knowledge to bet on sports, how he acquired this money is unexplained.
*** I think Doc's smart enough to use the [[Compound Interest Time Travel Gambit]].
*** I had always assumed that the changes Marty had caused kept Doc from squandering his fortune trying to figure out what the flux capacitor did and how to get the time machine to work.
*** He could simply sell some patents. While the time machine is his greatest invention, it's hardly the only one, and there has to be something marketable among his many gadgets.
* George (Jane's boss) in ''[[
* At one point, [[O Brother, Where Art Thou?|Emmet]] describes himself and Delmar as adventurers. They are not, however, gentlemen. Just gentle men.
== [[Literature]] ==
* Allan Quatermain [[Lost in Imitation|in adaptations]], although in the original [[H. Rider Haggard]] novels, his pals Sir Henry Curtis and Capn. John Good fit the trope much better than him.
* Rudolph Rassendyl in ''[[The Prisoner of Zenda]]''
* [[Richard Hannay]] in John Buchan's novels.
** ''Some'' of the novels. In others, he's a hard-working officer in the war and Intelligence doesn't have an easy time getting him away from active service. Which may be a subversion of this trope. Hannay's so annoyed about it.
* The unnamed protagonist of ''Rogue Male'' appears to be one of these. Apparently just for the fun of it, he tries to see if he could get into a position to assassinate a dictator (implied to be Hitler), but is captured and brutally tortured. His experiences afterward resemble a much darker version of Buchan's ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'', until it turns out that he is an [[Unreliable Narrator]] with motives very different from any thirst for adventure. {{spoiler|The dictator's regime murdered the hero's probably Jewish girlfriend, and he really ''was'' trying to kill him. The book ends with the hero preparing for another attempt.}}
* The [[Gentleman Thief]] Raffles from the short stories by Ernest William Hornung affects the ''style'' of an adventurer, but really relies on crime to support himself financially.
* The Jackal in ''[[Day
* The Time Traveler in ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
* Mr. Toad from ''[[The Wind in
** Or so he'd describe himself. The rest of the world regards him as a [[
* While as noted, the [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] is more of a modern variation, and that character tends to motivated by a quest for justice more so than adventure, the ur-example of that trope, [[The Scarlet Pimpernel (
* Phileas Fogg from the [[Jules Verne]] classic ''Around the World in 80 Days''.
* Lord John Roxton in Conan Doyle's ''[[The Lost World (
* ''The Pickwick Papers'' by [[
* [[The Saint|Simon Templar]], although most of the money he has was [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|extracted from crooks he'd taken down]].
* [[The Count of Monte Cristo]].
* Prince Florizel of Bohemia in [[
* [[
* ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'' once wrote a paper on this trope. He held that society moving past the stage where a man could be both a respected member of society (Gentleman) and totally apart from society (Adventurer) forced individuals to choose which they wanted to be, and stay with that choice for the rest of their lives. DiGriz himself chose to be outside of society, as a thief.
* Bilbo and later Frodo in ''[[The Hobbit (
* [[Biggles]] was a borderline example in the inter-war period, since he never seems to be in real financial difficulties and apparently comes from money, but the "adventurer" part tended to happen to him largely against his will: The usual formula for a short story of that era was that Biggles and his chums would take on some seemingly innocuous freelance aviation job and have skullduggery of some sort (often involving [[Sky Pirates]] or smugglers) abruptly become their problem whether they liked it or not. Occasionally they'd also get hired by a straighter example of this trope to fly him to some remote destination and then have to bail him out when the expedition went pear-shaped.
== [[Live
* The TV series of ''[[The Saint]]'' and ''[[The Persuaders]]'' (both starring Roger Moore).
* The Doctor from ''[[
* Dixon Bainbridge of ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]''.
* Lord John Roxton from ''[[Sir Arthur Conan
* Higgins from ''[[Magnum,
** In point of fact his stories when compared to each other sometimes give the impression that he was on opposite sides of the world at the same time. Despite the slight implausibility of this Higgins is very much a [[Retired Badass]].
* Mr. Fuddle of [[Turkey Television]] was one of these in the same sense as Commander Mc Bragg below.
* Adam Adamant of ''[[Adam Adamant Lives!]]'' was one of these, frozen and then revived in the (then) modern era.
== [[Music]] ==
* [[Steampunk]]
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* Being a game set in the style of pulp serials, [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Trinity Universe (
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** Certainly he exhibits some elements of an adventurer. Aside from puzzles, he is a skilled fencer, and regularly makes his own way out of dangerous situations, {{spoiler|such as using what's lying around to create a homemade glider and a ''machine gun''.}}
* Recent example in ''[[Penny Arcade Adventures|On The Rainslick Precipice Of Darkness]]'': [[Penny Arcade|Tycho and Gabe]]. Although they certainly run a detective agency (Startling Developments!), they certainly don't seem to have too many clients. Indeed, the entire plot of episode one begins with them following a very large robot out of ''curiosity''.
* The titular character in ''[[Henry Hatsworth in
* [[Final Fantasy VI|Setzer Gabbiani]], although in reality this is all a smokescreen to cover up the fact that {{spoiler|He is a nihilistic [[Death Seeker]] who blames himself for the death of his fiancee, and would rather catch bullets instead of ladies' handkerchiefs until he meets the party.}}
* The recurring Gentleman trainer class from the [[Pokémon]] games. They have a tendency to use Pokémon based on loyal pets, such as Growlithe.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Othar Tryggvassen, '''[[Large Ham Title|Gentleman Adventurer!]]
** For those not familiar with the series, that means ''himself included.''
*** [[No Place for Me There|Himself last]].
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** [[It Makes Sense in Context|Or so he]] [[Meaningful Name|claims...]]
* Does [[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack|Lord Nicklebottom]] count as a subversion
{{quote|
* [[
== [[Real Life]] ==
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* Charles Darwin, who [[Jumped At the Call]]. And promptly was seasick for the rest of the next few years. When he got back to England, he never left again, and busied himself with experiments in his garden and documenting the sex lives of barnacles, among other things.
** And completely overturning the scientific and religious paradigms of Western civilization, can't forget that.
* [
* The late [
* George Gordon, Lord Byron: Poet, Aristocrat, [[Byronic Hero|Infamous]] [[Jerkass]] womanizer, and by virtue of this trope... a national hero in [[Greece|a country that absolutely had nothing to do with his own]].
* The Grand Tour was the 18th to early 19th Century equivalent of a gap year for the upper class, and it was more or less about a Gentleman (or woman) going Adventuring for some time before settling down.
* Sean Flynn, son of movie actor [[Errol Flynn]], took photos of [[the Vietnam War]] for [[Time Magazine]], [[Going for
* [[Brian Blessed]]: When he isn't shouting in films or shouting on the television, he's trying to climb up Mount Everest. He's also boxed with the Dalai Lama.
* In an interview on CSPAN's Q and A, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat described William F. Buckley Jr. as one of these after describing his experience of skinny-dipping with the (at that point, very old) Buckley after he (and other young National Review interns) had eaten a fancy meal on his boat.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Always Male]]
▲[[Category:In Harms Way]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:An Index of Ladies and Gentlemen]]
[[Category:Steampunk Index]]
▲[[Category:Gentleman Adventurer]]
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