Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Difference between revisions

However, either through his superior combat experience, being less reckless or just plain toughness, the older hero soundly defeats the young villain. At or near the end, the old hero proclaims something like "I may be older, but I'm better!" Furthermore, the other principal characters quickly agree that the older hero is still a valuable member of the team.

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', [[Badass Grandpa|Yamamoto]] does battle with [[Big Bad|Aizen]].

** Most of the Captains and Visoreds participating in Fake Karakura town battle are older than aforementioned main antagonist (especially those characters, who fight him directly), who is rather young, but still older than several other heroes.

* Most climactic fights in ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' follow this template, as the titular character is a decade older than most of his supporting cast. Specifically comes into play Enishi Yukishiro, his vengeful brother-in-law.

* ''[[Mai-HiME]]'' has an arc where the various HiMEs who are at youngest middle school age and at oldest full adults go up against nine-year old {{spoiler|Alyssa Searrs}}.

* Page vs. [[A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil|Enchu]] in ''[[Muhyo and Roji]]''. Muhyo's quite young himself, [[Vague Age|although his age is never specified]], and he sometimes has to deal with the spirits of those who died in childhood (but depending on when they died, they might technically be older than he is).

* In ''[[Striker S Sound Stage X]]'' of the ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' franchise, the main culprit turns out to be {{spoiler|Teana's subordinate Runessa, who is a year younger than she is}}.

* Happens a lot in comics featuring superheroes from [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]. One of the major reasons why the original Wildcat has a huge fanbase is because of an early issue of JSA, where he took on the Injustice Society alone. With a broken leg. Naked (for the first few pages). This seems to be pretty common for the [[Justice Society of America]] these days.

* In the ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' comics, Aunt May has had some of these moments. The most recent was when the Chameleon tried to kill her by pretending to be Peter. She baked him cookies and made him tea, while knitting a nice shawl... and when he revealed himself, she revealed that she'd known all along, and that the "almond" cookies had cyanide in them (actually, just a tranquilizer, but she was feeling mean). The last thing he saw was her holding up the shawl, with "Gotcha!" embroidered on it.

* In the comic book ''[[Sin City]]'' by [[Frank Miller]] and the associated film, the Yellow Bastard ridicules Hartigan that he is "too old to even lift that cannon [he] is carrying." Of course Hartigan wins the day, and then kills himself after saving the girl, because he's so old it's not worth himself staying alive and keeping Nancy, a young woman, a target.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has it in an interesting way when Yoda is forced to fight his former student Count Dooku. Dooku is eighty years old, but Yoda is ''nine hundred.'' Similarly, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi dealt with this a couple of times after Anakin's fall.

** Not to mention the example in the page quote, where Darth Vader fights Obi-Wan Kenobi - a man at least fifteen years his senior.

* ''Paul Blart Mall Cop''. After being caught by the Big Bad of the criminals taking over the mall, Paul admits that he was younger, stronger and smarter than he was. And that literally he was the man with the gun.

* The entire plot of ''[[Rocky Balboa]]'' leads up to Rocky's comeback match against the undefeated 29-year-old champ, Mason "The Line" Dixon, at a point when Rocky himself is just shy of 60.

* In ''[[Dragonheart]]'': {{spoiler|Bowen, a knight of the Old Code, eventually fought back against his former pupil, Einon, when he became king and showed he was just as vile as his father, if not moreso}}.

* ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' is built around this; we get John McClane, the world-weary old-school cop vs Thomas Gabriel, the younger high-tech computer hacker.

* ''[[Despicable Me]]'' is a case of Older [[Villain Protagonist]] vs. Younger Villain, with the rivalry between the middle-aged [[Diabolical Mastermind]] Gru and his young, smarmy rival Vector.

* ''[[Lethal Weapon 4]]'' has Riggs and Murtaugh whom are both reaching retirement facing off against Chinese martial artist and crime lord Wah Sing Ku who is the youngest of the main antagonists.

** But [[Deconstructed]] very painfully in ''[[Lethal Weapon 3]]'', when Murtaugh had to blow away his son Nick's friend, Daryl, in a drug bust after Daryl shoots at him. [[Heroic BSOD|Murtaugh doesn't take it very well]].

* ''[[The Hunted]]'' is all about [[Tommy Lee Jones]] having to take down his former student [[Benicio Del Toro]] who has gone rogue.

** Being the oldest actor to play Bond, many of Roger Moore's Bond villains were younger that him.

* This trope is often used in [[John Wayne|John Wayne's]] later films, very notably in ''[[True Grit]]'' and ''[[The Shootist]]''. But even as early as ''[[She Wore a Yellow Ribbon]]'' you have ageing Nathan Brittles - about to be retired from the army - up against young chief Red Shirt, while bonding with his contemporary, chief Pony That Walks. ''Red River'' and ''[[The Searchers]]'', where Wayne played characters who are, to say the least, morally ambiguous, invert the trope in a couple of scenes.

 

* This happens in ''[[Space Channel 5]]'' Part 2. Ulala, who is 22 years old, takes on Purge, who is only 18 years old.

* In ''Phoenix Wright: [[Ace Attorney]] Justice For All'', 25-year old Phoenix's main adversary in court is Franziska von Karma, an 18-year old [[Child Prodigy]] prosecutor.

* [[Henry Hatsworth]] looks to be quite a bit older than his rival, Weasleby. {{spoiler|He's definitely older than Cole.}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* An episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]'' had Hudson and an injured Goliath playing cat and mouse with a gun-toting Demona. Hudson's plan was eventually revealed to be: hide just out of sight and let her yammer on till the sun came up. Despite what it looks like, this is actually something of an inversion -- Demona is really [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|several centuries older]] than Hudson, thanks to magical eternal youth on her part and a case of [[Human Popsicle|suspended animation]] on his, so she has both the advantage of centuries of experience without the disadvantages of aging. Hudson's victory is instead thanks to Demona's [[Immortal Immaturity]]. Whereas Demona has spent her centuries in a vicious cycle of rage, distrust and betrayal, Hudson made peace with life and found wisdom.

{{quote| '''Hudson:''' I know how to ''wait''.}}

* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'' with Professor Farnsworth's [[Rival]] Ogden [[Say My Name|WEEEERNSTROM!!]] constantly calling the 160 year old Professor "Old man" etc, in keeping with this tropes style. The twist? Wernstrom is a "mere" 120. Yeah, he's only slightly less ancient.

* In the obscure Canadian series ''Zeroman'', Rusty was probably young enough to be the hero's grandson.

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