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{{trope}}
{{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
[[The Hero]], the [[Old Master]], and other characters may explicitly affirm their loyalty to the
Not all
May overlap with [[Good Is Old-Fashioned]], with villains and other characters taunting him as old-fashioned, but this is when the writer uses the shorthand, or the character himself, and those who admire him. Note that being uniformly old-fashioned is not necessary; the character can pick and chose the best of both eras, as long as those characters he is contrasted to reject the best of old times as old-fashioned.
The [[Noble Savage]] and the [[Arcadia
In [[Real Life]],
It's similar to [[Disco Dan]], in that both involve someone longing for a "simpler," or "better time." The main difference, though is that
Contrast [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]. Compare [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]; [[Nostalgia Filter]]; and all of their related tropes.
▲Contrast [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]. Compare [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]; [[Nostalgia Filter]]; and all of their related tropes.
{{examples}}
==
* Played with in [[Samurai Champloo]] -- set in medieval Japan, most characters behave like it's modern day, which is the whole premise of the show. Jin, the one character who acts appropriate to the age, is remarked upon as being "old fashioned."▼
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' The titular character speaks in the same way one would speak to a Japanese feudal lord (even though it's the Meiji era), and this is commented on by other characters more than once. ▼
* [[Bartender]] dwells a lot on the difference between traditional cocktail bartending and modern nightclub bartending, usually to the effect of how much better the old ways are.▼
== Comic Books ==▼
* [[Captain America]] is sometimes seen as a practitioner of these. He grew up in New York during the Great Depression, and sometimes he attributes his [[The Cape|Cape-like]] morality to his past.▼
** This is more pronounced in [[Ultimate Marvel]], where there's a bigger gap between Cap getting frozen and thawed, and he has had far less time to get adjusted. For instance, while dating the Wasp, she was annoyed that his chivalry bordered on patronizing, he was bewildered by what she wore and watched on TV, and talked like her grandfather. To his credit, Cap was ahead of his time in some respects such as in the ''Ultimates Annual'' which has a World War II photo of him in costume, proudly standing with the African American Tuskeegee Airmen at a time when doing so was considered taboo by mainstream American society.▼
* There is also Turner D. Century, a supervillain who is dedicated to forcing society to change back to what it was before [[World War One]]. He was eventually killed off by the Scourge of the Underworld, a character created ''specifically'' for killing off minor and/or ill-conceived villains.▼
* [[Hawkman]] and his partner/lover Hawk<s>girl</s>'''woman''' frequently use maces, spears and other primitive weapons against criminals. Justified in that they're reincarnations of ancient Egyptian lovers. Subverted during the Silver Age when they were extra-terrestrials from a world that had developed FTL starships.▼
* "Pepperidge Farm remembers"
** Parodied on ''[[Futurama]]'' with [[Human Popsicle|Fry]] watching recordings of old TV shows which include lines such as
{{quote|'''TV:''' Remember when women couldn't vote and certain folk weren't allowed on golf courses? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
'''Fry:''' Those were the days. }}
* Then there was the ''[[Family Guy]]'' version;
{{quote|Remember when you hit that pedestrian with your car at the crosswalk and then just drove away? Pepperidge Farm remembers, but Pepperidge Farm ain't just gonna keep it to Pepperidge Farm's self free of charge. Maybe you go out and buy yourself some of these distinctive Milano cookies, maybe this whole thing disappears.}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
▲* Played with in [[Samurai Champloo]]
▲* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' The titular character speaks in the same way one would speak to a Japanese feudal lord (even though it's the Meiji era), and this is commented on by other characters more than once.
▲* [[Bartender]] dwells a lot on the difference between traditional cocktail bartending and modern nightclub bartending, usually to the effect of how much better the old ways are.
▲== [[Comic Books]] ==
▲* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] is sometimes seen as a practitioner of these. He grew up in New York during the Great Depression, and sometimes he attributes his [[The Cape (trope)|Cape-like]] morality to his past.
▲** This is more pronounced in [[Ultimate Marvel]], where there's a bigger gap between Cap getting frozen and thawed, and he has had far less time to get adjusted. For instance, while dating the Wasp, she was annoyed that his chivalry bordered on patronizing, he was bewildered by what she wore and watched on TV, and talked like her grandfather. To his credit, Cap was ahead of his time in some respects such as in the ''Ultimates Annual'' which has a World War II photo of him in costume, proudly standing with the African
▲* There is also Turner D. Century, a supervillain who is dedicated to forcing society to change back to what it was before [[World War
▲* [[Hawkman]] and his partner/lover Hawk<s>girl</s>'''woman''' frequently use maces, spears and other primitive weapons against criminals. Justified in that they're reincarnations of ancient Egyptian lovers. Subverted during the Silver Age when they were extra-terrestrials from a world that had developed FTL starships.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[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 [[
** Also subverted in that {{spoiler|the other hero of the story is ''also'' a highly futuristic-looking piece of technology.}}
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Invoked by Obi-Wan in the quote above.
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* ''[[Ghost Dog]]'' is entirely about this trope. The title character lives as a samurai in nineties Jersey City, working as a hitman for the mob. The film is interspersed with quotes from the ''[[The Hagakure|Hagakure]]'' demonstrating how Ghost Dog is doing his best to live by the code of the samurai in the modern age. {{spoiler|It doesn't go so well.}}
* ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]'' features David Niven as the original, retired James Bond, who considered spying to be a noble calling and expressed contempt for the current breed exemplified by his namesake.
* A persistent Chinese legend is of a traveler who finds an [[Arcadia|Arcadian]] village living peaceful and happily in some out-of-the-way corner. Talking with them, he learns they are under the impression that they are still living under the last dynasty, or the one before that. In Communist China, they are said to have asked "Who now sits on the Dragon Throne?"▼
** The Mao Dynasty, of course.▼
* There is a persistent myth in the study of Greek warfare that the Greeks in the [[Ye Goode Olde Days|Olden Days]] used to fight honourably, agreeing where and when to engage, refusing to exploit advantages and even banning missiles to keep fights fair. This myth is almost entirely based on a single passage in Polybius praising the [[Good Old Ways]]. There is practically no real evidence backing up his statement.▼
** More likely they fought the same way because they had low training and their way worked with low taxes. They fought in the same place, because that is how geography worked out. And they refused to exploit advantage because they wanted to be back on their farms.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]' [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] novel ''Gaudy Night'', the work at the university is presented as Good Old Ways, and explicitly described as a rearguard defense.
* In ''[[The Caves of Steel]]'' the majority of the Earth population are 'medievalists' and cling to old fashioned views like not having robots do every job and not talking in public restrooms. The main hero lampshades it, thinking about every era has it... and one day, his own times will be viewed as such.
* In William King's [[Warhammer
{{quote|''We hold with the old ways from the time of Russ. The truths do not change.''}}
* In [[Graham McNeill]]'s [[Warhammer
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s [[Warhammer
{{quote|''I also know that [[Good Is Old-Fashioned|your counsel is not heard because yours is the voice of a past age]], when the Great Crusade was a noble thing, not for gain, but for the good of all humankind.''}}
** Then, when Horus addresses the iterators, he declares the ideals of the Crusade are dead, but he will restore them, bringing it back to its rightful path. {{spoiler|For which, he doesn't need them, so he stages a massacre.}}
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* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|Chessmen of Mars]]'', the ancient I-Gos is perpetually praising his days. So thorough is his admiration that he [[Turncoat|changes his loyalties]] on realizing who is [[The Hero]].
{{quote|''Then I did not fully realize the cowardice of my jeddak, or the bravery of you and the girl. I am an old man from another age and I love courage. At first I resented the girl's attack upon me, but later I came to see the bravery of it and it won my admiration, as have all her acts. She feared not O-tar, she feared not me, she feared not all the warriors of Manator. And you! Blood of a million sires! how you fight! I am sorry that I exposed you at The Fields of Jetan. I am sorry that I dragged the girl Tara back to O-Tar. I would make amends. I would be your friend. Here is my sword at your feet.''}}
* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** In yet another
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': Most of the people of the North (and, by extension, House Stark) worship the old gods and keep old traditions instead of having burned their Godswood and converted to worship of The Seven like the rest of Westeros. It is implied that said gods are responsible for the [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]].
** Similarly, many characters appear to view being a true chivalric knight to be a sign of following the
** That being said, there are some old ways that even traditionalists have attempted to toss out. The Starks, for example, have attempted to outlaw the right of first night (i.e. the right of a lord to bed a woman any smallfolk or bannerman of his wants to marry), but according to {{spoiler|Roose Bolton, it is still practiced, by the Boltons and even the Umbers, who are staunch allies of the Starks when the lord is strong}}.
* In Brian Jacques's ''[[Redwall]]'', [[Impoverished Patrician]] Squire Julian of Gingivere disdains his ramshackle estate and [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!|repels Matthias's sympathy]] because he knows nothing of loneliness or trying to preserve standards.
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* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene|The Golden Age]]'', ''The Phoenix Exultant'', and ''The Golden Transcedence'', Helion and the Silver-Gray movement he helped found intensily support this to provide discipline and structure in a way that can't be enforced by law.
* [[The Dresden Files|Harry Dresden]] likes to act old-fasioned, partly because he's a wizard, and partly because it annoys Murphy. This is taken [[Up to Eleven]] by some of the older supernatural entities
* In [[James Swallow]]'s [[Warhammer
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series. Villains like Lucius Malfoy uphold [[Black Magic]] and [[Fantastic Racism]] as "the old ways".
* Also inverted and Deconstructed with Resthaven in ''[[The Ear, the Eye and the Arm]].'' It's a natural preserve of pristine beauty, and it's a very good place to live - if you're a man. If you're a girl, you can look forward to polygamy and drudgery for the rest of your life, and {{spoiler|if twins are born, one of the twins ''will'' be killed. Yes, probably the girl.}}
* [[Alice, Girl from the Future]] features an old fashioned man who doesn't trust modern tech. That is, he refuses to use air cars, preferring the old fashioned personal wings, he doesn't like a new electronic food distribution computer installed in the zoo, insisting old fashioned robots are better (well, the computer does prove to be bugged)... and he is the only man capable of urgently repairing some advanced alien equipment.
== [[Live
* Leonard McCoy from ''[[Star Trek: The
** In general, he embraces the positive, constructive aspects of technological progress rather than the destructive or dehumanizing ones.
* 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".
* Jacob from [[Lost]] is implied to adhere to a (possibly negative) version of this, especially in seasons 3 and 5.
* Pretty much the hat of the Minbari in [[Babylon 5]]. Quite well drawn though [[Our Elves Are Better|less mundane]] than similar human cultures actually are in practice. Both the virtues and the faults of traditionalist cultures are well shown. Minbari, are often loyal, brave, and honorable but they can also be bigoted and vicious. Still when one sees Minbari act, one can actually belief in them and it is a tribute to the writer and perhaps the actors(Mira Furlan was a Croatian exile and might have had the advantage of being able to act what she knew to some extent).
** [[Word of God]] says that the Minbari were modeled on the Japanese. Personally the connection doesn't seem that obvious; they seem like a number of human cultures and in some ways more typical of humanity throughout history then the humans on the show which are more like modern westerners.
== [[Music]] ==
* "Gimme that old time religion / 'cuz it's good enough for me."
* "[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?|As I went down in the river to pray /]] studying about that ''
* [[Chap-Hop]] works often incorporate this, targeting [[The Edwardian Era]].
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
▲* A persistent Chinese legend is of a traveler who finds an [[Arcadia
▲** The Mao Dynasty, of course.
▲* There is a persistent myth in the study of Greek warfare that the Greeks in the [[Ye Goode Olde Days|Olden Days]] used to fight honourably, agreeing where and when to engage, refusing to exploit advantages and even banning missiles to keep fights fair. This myth is almost entirely based on a single passage in Polybius praising the
▲** More likely they fought the same way because they had low training and their way worked with low taxes. They fought in the same place, because that is how geography worked out. And they refused to exploit advantage because they wanted to be back on their farms.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by that the old-fashioned weapons and spirit magic works just as well as the [[Post-Modern Magik]] of the urban tribes.
*** Unfortunately, this also leads to one of the biggest examples of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: The two tribes who were supposedly the champions of the Wyld, the spirit and force of change, were the most static and rigid, to the point where one of them was frozen in place, an evolutionary dead end, doomed to extinction ''by their own choice and statement''. The two tribes supposedly most in thrall to the Weaver, the force of stasis, were the most adaptive and flexible.
* In addition to the literary entries above, the Imperium of Man from [[Warhammer
** "Quasi-state religion" nothing, by the "current" time of 40K, the only effective difference between the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperium government is who your direct superior is. There's also implications that "the good old ways" are just that, and if the Mechanicum were somehow able to retrieve and revive ALL of the old Standard Template Constructs, Mankind would never again need fear an external threat. Internal threats, however.. Then again that's what the Inquisition is for.
** In a less depressing example from the setting, this is [[Planet of Hats|the entire shtick of]] the
{{quote|"Live off the land. Go to find war. Kill wot comes close. The old ways are best."}}
== [[Theatre]] ==
* The Amish in ''Plain and Fancy'' defend their
== [[Video Games]] ==
*
==
* Inverted in ''[[Girl Genius]]'': For [[Town with a Dark Secret|Mechanicsburg]], it's the
** This very history made the town a great tourist trap, however. So the locals are still proud of their roots, but as they still prosper, happy to have it either way, or both, and most of them would gladly follow the old Heterodynes, Heterodyne Boys or Agatha. A few ''did'' prefer the new ways enough to see the return of Heterodynes as a threat. But this being Mechanicsburg, their conspiracy was noticed by a guy whose loyalty was set to "fanboy", and a series of "unfortunate accidents" happened before their plans could go too far.
** Meanwhile, the Jägermonsters, the [[Super Soldier]] minions of the Heterodynes who
* ''[[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.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Goodness Tropes]]
[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Good Old Ways]]
|