Old Retainer: Difference between revisions
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Many servants are deeply attached to the person (or family) they work for. The old retainer is indeed often elderly, and his service has often been long, but the essential trait is his loyalty and propriety. He identifies his interests with those of his employer, regards himself as slighted by any injuries to him, and strives mightily to keep things going properly.
Sometimes an
Children who live in a family with an
If the employer does not live up to the standards he expects (particularly in [[Good Old Ways|keeping up traditions]]), this isn't a person afraid to [[Speak Truth to Power]]
Deep personal affection is likely, but the
Common in such feudal societies as [[Feudal Future]], where, indeed, [[Legacy of Service|his family may have worked for the employer's for generations]].
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== Ballads ==
* In some variants of [[Child Ballad]] 5, ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch005.htm Gil Breton]'', Billie Blin, the family [[The Fair Folk|household sprite]], advises Gil Breton that his bride is pregnant. {{spoiler|Though not that he himself is the father.}}
* In [[Child Ballad]] 6 ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch006.htm Willie's Lady]'', the family household sprite Belly Blind advises Willie how to defeat his
* In some variants of [[Child Ballad]] 53 ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch053.htm Young Beichan]'', the family household sprite Belly Blin warns Isobel that her lover is about to marry another woman. (Yes, there ''is'' a certain pattern to those names.)
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== Film ==
* Hobson in ''Arthur''. In fact, when {{spoiler|Hobson dies, Arthur says his father died}}.
* The Disney movie ''[[Candleshoe]]'' features a butler that has served an old woman for years. When she starts to fall on hard times, he fires her
* ''[[Fearless (film)|Fearless]]'': The personal servant Huo Yuanjia had as a child is still there to tend for the abandoned family estate when Huo comes back after years of self-imposed exile.
* Clifton, faithful valet to down-on-his-luck movie star George Valentin in ''[[The Artist]]''. {{spoiler|He remains steadfast to Valentin even after being hired by Peppy Miller.}}
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** Kurik also has quite a few prejudices against knights, most prominently that they always place [[Honor Before Reason]], have no common sense, and in general couldn't find their own arses with both hands and a map if he wasn't there to tell them where to start looking.
*** Also, at the peak of her time as Duchess of Erat, [[Belgariad|Polgara]] had a family of servants for several generations.
* For '''Oldest'''
* NDR-113, better known as Andrew, serves several generations of the Martin family before gaining emancipation in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s story, "The Bicentennial Man" (expanded to novel-length as ''The Positronic Man'' by Asimov and [[Robert Silverberg]], and adapted to film as ''[[Bicentennial Man]]'', starring [[Robin Williams]]).
* Willikins, the Ramkin/Vimes family butler in ''[[Discworld]]'' novels. Although in later appearances he seems to have been retconned to about the same age as Vimes, making him more believable as a [[Battle Butler]].
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* In ''[[The Secret Garden]]'', Ben Weatherstaff, the gardener. His mistress Lillias had asked him to take care of her roses; after her [[Death by Childbirth]], his master had locked up the garden, but he climbed the wall to do it.
* Probably the one of the more famous example of this trope is Hoke from the play ''[[Driving Miss Daisy]]'', who becomes one to the titled Miss Daisy. Also, Aedelia from the same play.
* Paul Atreides in ''[[Dune]]'' has not one, but three Old
** Miles Teg and Patrin. It's implied that their relationship isn't platonic, though.
* In Mary Stewart's ''Arthurian'' series, a character called Ulfin is rescued from effective slavery as a boy by King Uther. He repays this with absolute loyalty and rises to be Uther's most trusted servant, going on to a similar position with King Arthur after Uther dies. He's also the ''only person'' who actually seems to mourn Uther's death.
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* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' ''[[Blood Angels]]'' novels, Fenn, having failed to qualify as a [[Space Marine]], has worked for Caceus so long and so well that he has received longevity treatments.
* Good old Gabriel Betteredge from Wilkie Collins' ''[[The Moonstone]]''.
* Sergeant Hoong is a faithful
* Kostas Matsugae from the ''Empire of Man'' series. It's [[Backstory|Backstoried]] that Kostas has been assigned to generally look after Prince Roger for most of Roger's life, and it's implied - and then later outright stated - that Kostas is a father-figure to Roger (who never knew his father, growing up, {{spoiler|and is not terribly impressed when he finally does meet the man}}). Kostas actually does mention how proud he is of Roger, once the prince starts pulling his head out of his arse and taking on the responsibilities he needs to. So when {{spoiler|Kostas is killed by a damncroc}}, Roger's [[Heroic BSOD]] is only natural - as is the depression he sinks into, for some time afterwards.
* Variation in [[One Hundred Years of Solitude]]. [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Santa Sofi­a de La Piedad]] is actually the mother of three of the Buendias (Remedios The Beauty and thwe twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo), but she's always treated and seen as a maid. Even more, Santa Sofia not only doesn't mind it, but she ''likes'' such a treatment since it lets her help the family from the shadows, which is her speciality.
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* Arguably, Mac from the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series. He is one of the few people in the galaxy who can make her give in to something, although unlike many other examples he didn't come into her service until she was an adult.
** This attitude seems to be standard for stewards in the RMN.
* [[Anne McCaffrey]] likes for her [[Spoiled Brat
* [[Sassy Black Woman|Mammy]], the house slave from [[Gone with the Wind]], loyally [[Unfortunate Implications|stays with the main character]] even after [[The American Civil War|emancipation]].
* Subverted in Kazuo Ishiguro's ''The Remains of the Day'' (and the film adaptation by James Ivory): Mr. Stevens very much sees himself as the
* Mr. Amos (among others) in ''[[Chrestomanci|Conrad's Fate]]''. Subverted at the end, when it turns out that {{spoiler|he is actually the [[Impoverished Patrician|Count himself]] gone undercover to maintain the family fortunes}}
* Grigory Vasilievich in ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' initially was a serf on the Karamazov estate who acted as his house servant, but even after the serfs were emancipated and his wife suggested the possibility of using their savings to start a shop in the city, he proudly declared that it was his duty to serve the Karamazov estate, even if his wife could not comprehend the duty. If he had a master other than [[Complete Monster|Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov]] this might be understandable.
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* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' has a few of these, such as Oswin for Ostia in the seventh installment and Marcus in the sixth and seventh installments.
** Mind you, Oswin is [[Younger Than They Look|only in his 30s]] and ''really'' dislikes being called old, so he comments he'd rather be called a gentleman than an old man in a support with Hector. Compared to bona fide geezer Marcus, who in that game is at least in his 40's...
** In fact, most [[Crutch Character
*** Unless they're of the "Oifaye" archetype like Seth from ''Sacred Stones'', Titania from ''Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn'' and Oifaye himself from ''Holy War''. They're all in their 30's too.
* Mr. Nakamura, butler of the Daidouji family for at least two generations in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]''.
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== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[The Specialists]]'', [http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-85/ Henry gets the butler rather than his father on the phone]
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