Old Soldier: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Old soldiers never die; they just fade away''.|'''Douglas MacArthur'''}}

The [[Old Soldier]] is the grizzled veteran who has been through and seen everything in war. He would more than qualify for being a [[Shell Shocked Senior]], both in age and experience, but he's still going into battle and odds are that he's the backbone of whatever unit he or (more rarely) she is in. This character type is almost never an officer or a commander, and is instead usually a [[Sergeant Rock]]. Generally you can expect them to be tough, to have a few [[Good Scars Evil Scars|badass scars]], and to be eternally pissed off at (or at least exasperated by) the younger troops around him. Despite that, he may still turn out to be one of the best sources of mentoring or seasoning a young soldier can get.

The [[Old Soldier]] is the grizzled veteran who has been through and seen everything in war. He would more than qualify for being a [[Shell Shocked Senior]], both in age and experience, but he's still going into battle and odds are that he's the backbone of whatever unit he or (more rarely) she is in. This character type is almost never an officer or a commander, and is instead usually a [[Sergeant Rock]]. Generally you can expect them to be tough, to have a few [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|badass scars]], and to be eternally pissed off at (or at least exasperated by) the younger troops around him. Despite that, he may still turn out to be one of the best sources of mentoring or seasoning a young soldier can get.

Expect the [[Officer and A Gentleman]] to rely on him quite a bit in running the unit, ala [[Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough]]. [[Ensign Newbie]], on the other hand, will rarely know to do this or will actively tick off the [[Old Soldier]] in attempting to control a unit, a mistake he usually pays for. Despite the first page quote, old soldiers have about a 50-50 chance of dying in a work of fiction, but usually not until rather late in the story, generally in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of some kind or in a suitably impressive way. If this character dies early in a story, odds are you're dealing with a story on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynical end of the scale]], and that it's [[Anyone Can Die|going to have a high Mortality rate]].

If the soldier is ''too'' old to fight, but denies that fact, he may be a [[Perilous Old Fool]].

== Comics ==

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* [[The Force Unleashed]]: General Rahm Kota.

* Zaeed Massani from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', who is arguably the toughest member of the team aside from Garrus, and of course, Shepard.

* The Regretful Soldier from ''[[Echo Bazaar]]'' fits quite well. [[Shell Shocked Veteran|He's always drunk and frequently weeping]], but he's still one of the best brawlers there are.

* The Regretful Soldier from ''[[Echo Bazaar]]'' fits quite well. [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|He's always drunk and frequently weeping]], but he's still one of the best brawlers there are.

* In [[Far Cry]] 2, Josip is 48 years old and a heavy drinker, but still described as a man "who will break you in two."

* Auron from [[Final Fantasy X]].