Good Old Ways: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Ancestral Weapon|It's your father's lightsaber]]. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. [[Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age|An elegant weapon for a more... civilized age]]."''|'''Obi-Wan Kenobi''', ''[[Star Wars]]''}}

This character [[Awesome Anachronistic Apparel|dresses in an old-fashioned manner]], uses old courtesies and practices things that have fallen by the wayside since [[Ye Goode Olde Days]]. Obviously a good man -- theman—the writer is using his adherence to the [['''Good Old Ways]]''' to signal it, as a convenient shorthand.

[[The Hero]], the [[Old Master]], and other characters may explicitly affirm their loyalty to the [['''Good Old Ways]]'''. If the [[Defector From Decadence]] has left a culture that has lost (in his eyes) its former virtues and defends his behavior, he ''will'' invoke this.

Not all [['Good Old Ways]] are entirely good; the characters may concede their faults but point out that only their virtues have been lost, as when a violent and courageous race loses their courage but not their taste for violence. [[Even Evil Has Standards]] can be a form of [[Good Old Ways]].

The [[Noble Savage]] and the [[Arcadia|Arcadians]]ns run on this trope. [[Ludd Was Right]] is a subtrope. [[Sacred Hospitality]] often invokes this.

In [[Real Life]], [[Good Old Ways]] are often used symbolically. The Soviet Union's flag showed an old-fashioned sickle, not a tractor. [[Cool Sword|Swords]] are routinely used in military ceremonies. And the British Royal Family's horse-drawn carriage, used at weddings, in fact post-dates their owning an automobile. (This is a common source of [[Newer Than They Think]].)

It's similar to [[Disco Dan]], in that both involve someone longing for a "simpler," or "better time." The main difference, though is that [[Good Old Ways]] tends to have more to do with traditions, values, and high culture, whereas [[Disco Dan]] has more to do with pop culture. The two can and sometimes do overlap, however.

== Anime[[Advertising]] ==

* Then there was the ''[[Family Guy]]'' version;

* ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'': Detective Spooner is portrayed as 'old fashioned' because he wears [[Product Placement|Converse]] and has a non-voice-activated entertainment system. His [[The Obi-Wan|mentor]] lives in a very old-school [[Big Fancy House]]. {{spoiler|In contrast, the villain is a highly futuristic-looking [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|AI]].}}

* In William King's [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Space Wolf]] novel ''Ragnar's Claw'', Ragnar informs an inquisitor

* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]] novel ''The Warriors of Ultramar'', the [[Space Marine|Space Marines]]s have a weapon to deal with the tyrannid queen itself, but they explicitly say they must get to her "the old-fashioned way" -- "with flesh, blood and steel."

* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', this is the core of Keeler's appeal to Qruze "the half-heard". She repeatedly tells him that he is the only one who remembers the ideals of the Astartes. {{spoiler|When he kills Maggard to allow their escape, he is heartened because he killed him face to face, not with treachery, from far away, and tells how they used to fight that way, respecting their enemies.}}

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'', [[Old Retainer|Igor]] revives the old vampire to deal with the odious innovations of the younger generations. The witches and the mob agree that the old master had been better: he had played fair.

** In ''[[Discworld/The Fifth Elephant|The Fifth Elephant]]'', Angua complains that barbaric as her father had been, he had played fair with such customs as the hunt; her brother had corrupted things.

** In ''[[Discworld/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]'', the wizards are big on traditions, the changing of rules is justified by finding an ''old'' set of rules in the urn, and Glenda objects to mucking with the rules because football is not supposed to keep up with the times.

** In ''[[Discworld/Eric|Eric]]'', a demon grumbles about how the new King of Hell is ruining things, there was a time when the damned were not just numbers, but ''victims''.

** In yet another eampleexample from Unseen University, the changing of the guard ceremony seems to be based on a time one of the guards lost his keys. But tradition is tradition, and "Damn, swore I just had them," etc, becomes an official part of the process.

** Similarly, many characters appear to view being a true chivalric knight to be a sign of following the [[Good Old Ways]], Rhaegar Targayren and Barristan Selmy other examples of this trope. (Eddard Stark, while he is as fiercely honorable as any "true" knight, worships the Old Gods, and is therefore not a Ser, as knights are anointed by a Septon, a cleric of The Faith of the Seven.)

* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] story "The Returned", Tarikus and Thryn [[Handshake Substitute|shake hands "the old way" -- palm to wrist]].

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* Leonard McCoy from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' both enforces and subverts this trope. He's rabidly in favor of fighting the dehumanizing effects of too much technology (especially the transporter) in favor of enjoying "the simple things in life", and yet sees "primitive 20th-century medicine" as just above trepanation, leeches, and blood-letting in its barbarity, preferring the "high tech approach" to healing.

* Fraser in [[Due South]] is like this. He continues to be a stereotypical Mountie in a modern age. At one time he is even complimented by calling him "the old breed".

== [[Music]] ==

* "[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?|As I went down in the river to pray /]] studying about that ''[[Good Old Ways|good old way...]]''"

* In addition to the literary entries above, the Imperium of Man from [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] is generally reluctant to improve on its millenia-old technologies, let alone adopt those from other alien races. They seem to have culturally dead-ended themselves as well, as their quasi-state religion primarily revolves around the worship of their half-dead, demi-god Emperor.

** In a less depressing example from the setting, this is [[Planet of Hats|the entire shtick of]] the [[Clan Of Hats|Snakebites clan]], who appear to be four parts tribalistic counterpart to the rest of the Orks, and one part expy of the WFB Orcs.

* The Amish in ''Plain and Fancy'' defend their [[Good Old Ways]] in the song "Plain We Live."

* Hakumen--ofHakumen—of ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]''--uses—uses archaic words and phrases ("How dare you interrupt me, [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe|Grimalkin]]!"), at least in the English dub. He's also polite enough to formally declare doom on most of his opponents ''before'' cutting them in half, and generally holds himself as a [[Knight in Shining Armor]], going so far as to warn all of humanity that they'll need to reform or die. {{spoiler|His status as a practitioner of the [[Good Old Ways]] is heavily subversive, though: not only is his [[Pride]] so intense it ''violates physical laws'', but he dips into [[Knight Templar]] territory often. Oh, and he's actually from the future, not the past. [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Kind of.]] }}

== Webcomic[[Web Comics]] ==

* Inverted in ''[[Girl Genius]]'': For [[Town with a Dark Secret|Mechanicsburg]], it's the [[Good Old Ways|Evil Old Ways]]. The Heterodynes who are usually [[Mad Scientist|Mad Scientists]]s and [[Evil Overlord|Evil Overlords]]s have for the last and immediate generations been [[The Hero|The Heros]]s. Specifically it [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080806 shows] up when the grandson of the [[Old Retainer]] goes [[Squee]] over one of the security measures for the town going active.

** Meanwhile, the Jägermonsters, the [[Super Soldier]] minions of the Heterodynes who are currentlywere banned from Mechanicsburg until "The Heterodyne" was found, are still trying to figure out what kind of Heterodyne Agatha will be, and hoping that she'll turn out to be ''vun ov de '''fun''' vuns!''

* ''[[The Dreamland Chronicles]]'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20120622061632/http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-08/page-496/ The king defends receiving humans as this trope]. Nicodemus is less than impressed.