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Retired Monster: Difference between revisions
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The [[Retired Monster]] may look like that archetype but his past is full of evil and atrocity and he's okay with it. In fact, he caused most of it. When you first see him, he'll come across as [[Affably Evil]]; he'll also have experience and advice that he might give out to a young hero, although possibly the best he can do is "You should stay away from people like me". However, he'll be creepier than the other guy, and he'll tempt the young ones, giving them advice more on the cynical side of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. You see, he's not doing any gross evil acts now -- he may not have done so much as run a red light in the past ten years -- but that's only because he's tired. As the backstory of this character becomes known, we learn that they [[Kick the Dog|kicked the dog]] a number of times, perhaps took a hopscotch over the [[Moral Event Horizon]], only stopping because for some reason they got sick of it.
Perhaps he finally came out worse for wear after a run-in with the guy who's now [[The Obi
They've never said sorry, or at least never meant it, there was no [[Heel Face Turn]] and they are not [[The Atoner]] who'll help to make up for some wrong. No, they'll just sit back, but if a character underestimates their evil, if they think that because they aren't as bad as the more active monsters, that they're OK, they may get a horrid reminder of what the [[Retired Monster]] [[Not So Harmless|is capable of.]]
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'''[[No Real Life Examples Please]]'''
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* Paul Moses from ''[[RED]]'' by Warren Ellis. At least at the start of the story. His last line is: "I'm the monster. Do your best."
* The original premise of ''[[Comicbook/Nexus|Nexus]]'' was that the title character was compelled by [[Touched By Vorlons|alien forces]] to seek out and execute mass murderers. Most of them were [[Complete Monster|complete monsters,]] but some actually were repentant or just old and tired, and the alien forcing Nexus to kill them didn't care. Nexus was not at all happy about this.
* In ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'', Gunther Hahn, the Angel of Death and, at the end of the story, {{spoiler|the Saint of Killers}} all qualify.
* A future, senile version of [[Doctor Doom]] appearing in [[X Factor|X-Factor]] has faded away into a quiet life in his empty, decaying castle attended to by robot servants. But he still builds the occasional [[Death Ray]] in his more lucid moments.
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* ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'''s Baron Ether. He was the world's first supervillain, and he's committed every crime you can think of, now he's a wheel chair ridden mildly senile old man.
* An odd example both for being a main character and for being relatively young is Chane the vampire from the ''[[Saga of the Noble Dead]]''; in the series' first arc he was a sadistic [[Psycho for Hire]], but ultimately had a [[Heel Realization]] and cut back on the sadism (because it meant he'd lost control; don't think for a moment he seriously regrets the deaths themselves). Currently the [[Token Evil Teammate]] trying to help stop the [[Eldritch Abomination|much, much worse things in his universe]], and is working somewhat to improve his behavior, if only for the sake of his [[Morality Pet]]'s sensibilities rather than guilt. Whether he'll ultimately backslide or get a [[Heel Face Turn]] fully is as of yet unknown.
* In ''[[Lonely Werewolf Girl]]'' [[Our Demons Are Different|Fire-Queen]] Malveria is presented as a fashion-obsessed, [[Shipper On Deck|matchmaking]], [[Ditz]], but this because she's already killed all her serious enemies long ago and (currently) finds her title of "Persecutor of Mankind" to be boring. In Book two someone from her [[Complete Monster]] days turns up as the [[Big Bad]] of the story to tell her [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod]].
* [[Corvis Rebaine]], Terror of the East in ''The Conqueror's Shadow'' until the Current [[Complete Monster]] threatens his wife and kids. The remainder of the book is an illustration in why provoking one of these into coming out of retirement is '''a really bad idea!'''
** In the end, {{spoiler|he is content with "merely" being a [[Man Behind the Man]] via [[Mind Control]] magic.}}
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* In ''[[Fallout New Vegas]]'', level 50 characters with Evil or Very Evil Karma can take the "Ain't Like That Now" perk to restore it to Neutral levels and gain a bunch of bonuses. The name of the perk comes from a quote from the aforementioned William Munny.
* John Marston, the main character of ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'', is considered by [[Knight Templar|Edgar Ross]] to be this. Ross fails to see the irony or hypocrisy of the fact that Marston is trying to stop killing people and Ross is forcing him to keep killing people. {{spoiler|And that he becomes this trope as well ([[From a Certain Point of View]]).}}
* The vampire Vorador spends most of the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series as a [[Retired Monster]], having given up on the mortal world after the murder of Janos Audron- though not before killing off most of the Circle of Nine in revenge. He's clearly still as hedonistic and depraved as ever, living in a luxurious mansion (complete with a torture chamber), surrounding himself with brides, drinking the blood of human captives from golden goblets; nonetheless, he advises Kain to avoid meddling in the affairs of mortals. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|If only he'd listened...]]
* [[Stoic Spectacles|Jade]] [[Mad Scientist|Curtiss]] from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' {{spoiler|is responsible for creating fomicry at the age of 9, which he used to murder innocent animals and monsters, and committed generally evil acts, rightfully earning the nickname "Necromancer". However, after the death of his teacher, Nebilim, which he accidentally caused, he forbade himself from using fomicry ever again. Unfortunately for him, others with a limited understanding of fomicry would pick up his research from where it left off for their own unscrupulous goals, and the one that does have great understanding of it wishes to [[Well
* In ''[[Jade Empire]]'', {{spoiler|Sagacious Zu used to be a Lotus Assassin.}} Even though he quit over a case of [[Pragmatic Villainy]] ({{spoiler|he was ordered to [[And Your Little Dog, Too|kill the family of the emperor's brother as a punitive action]], which he argued was pointlessly cruel}}), he seems to have no regrets about any of the other things he did up until that point.
* Certainly Travis in [[No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle (Video Game)|No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle]]. He doesn't even remember the first assassin he killed when his brother comes for revenge. Well, he is this to a point...{{spoiler|he most likely still hasn't gotten past how he dishonored Holly Summers by not killing her in battle when she wanted such a fate.}} Otherwise, he doesn't care to get back into the games until {{spoiler|Bishop}} is killed and Sylvia "convinces" him, perfectly fine with his pathetic lifestyle. It's mainly because killing has become boring to him after killing the best of the best. He does regret {{spoiler|killing Matt's cheerleaders}} but that and {{spoiler|Holly}} seem to be is only two regrets.
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