Badass Grandpa: Difference between revisions

They can be the strongest character in the entire story. The reason for this is obvious: "Experience and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time." Old men in a dangerous line of work have been doing it for a very long time. Additionally, in a [[Crapsack World]], or when [[Earth Is a Battlefield]], a man may well only live to be old if [[HAD to Be Sharp|he is already very bad-ass]] to start with.

 

 

Badass Grandpas hide their [[Memetic Mutation|power level]] well...at least [[Let's Get Dangerous|until it really matters]]. When the chips are down, and even [[The Hero]] looks like he's in need of assistance, it's time for the Badass Grandpa to step up and throw down, proving that age has done nothing to quell their ability to take down [[Big Bad]]s literally decades their juniors. Even then, it's still the hero's job to ultimately save the girl and the day—otherwise, they aren't [[The Hero]], now are they?

* ''[[Bleach]]''

** Pictured above: Genryuusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. [[The Captain|Captain]] of the First Division, creator of the modern two-thousand-year-old Shinigami Academy (yes, he really is that old), he's been [[The General|Captain-Commander]] of the entire [[Authority Equals Asskicking|Gotei 13]] for [[Asskicking Equals Authority|a thousand years]]. He has the most powerful [[Playing with Fire|fire-based]] [[Empathic Weapon|weapon]] which doubles as the strongest offensive power of ''any weapon'' in the series to date. Despite his aged, scarred appearance, he's incredibly [[Elderly Immortal|toned and well-muscled]]. He can outpace Shunsui and Ukitake easily (both considered brilliant in their own right) and take them both on in his primary release form without breaking a sweat. He has a [[Pillars of Moral Character|stern sense of justice]] and will [[Handicapped Badass|sacrifice his own limbs]] in battle without hesitation. Even the [[Invincible Villain]] fears his strength. In fighting games, he's almost a [[Game Breaker]]. Playing him makes fights easy.

'''[[Badass Boast|Yamamoto]]''': "There is no need to worry. I am here. There is no better security than this." }}

** And now we have ''another'' Badass Grandpa...among the Arrancar: Barragan Luisenbarn, owner of a [[An Axe to Grind|frigging huge axe]] and with the power to {{spoiler|age anything he touches or breathes on into nothingness.}}

** Although he may not be quite on the level of Watari, there's also Light's father, Yagami Soichiro. Often cited as being the only truly righteous character in the [[Black and Grey Morality]] of the series, he pulls off various feats of badassery in the name of his idea of justice.

*** Just to give you an idea, he rammed a van into a TV station in order to shut down the pro-Kira broadcast. And in the manga and anime, this was after suffering a ''heart attack''.

* ''[[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]]'': Juzo. Kabuto.

* Yagyu Retsudo from ''[[Lone Wolf and Cub]]''. Despite his old age he virtually controls the nation and is equal in combat with the main character (who is awlays portayed as the most skilled swordman).

* Aburame Katsu from [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4627879/1/The_Middle_Ground The Middle Ground] (A [[Naruto]] fanfiction) is so bad-ass he can make Jounin shake in their boots by drinking tea. His son-in-law Aburame Shibi considers him to be scarier than his maternal grandfather who was a prison torturer. In fact he's so bad-ass he can take down a minor in-clan rebellion by just making it generally felt he disapproves of it, without once even mentioning it. That's how bad-ass he is.

* The ''[[Firefly]]'' fic ''[[Forward]]'' has [[Badass Preacher|Shepherd Book]] further cement his badassery multiple times over the story, including having a scene where he silently knocks out several mercenaries while Mal keeps their leader distracted, and a particularly memorable moment where he {{spoiler|saves River's life}} by facing off against {{spoiler|an entire horde of Reavers singlehandedly, armed with nothing but a pistol and a sword.}}

* {{spoiler|The Arbiter}} in [[The Last Spartan]] is in his golden years by the time he and Master Chief meet again, but even then, charges headlong into a warehouse full of mercenaries holding the Spartan prisoner with only [[Mass Effect|Garrus]] [[Badass Normal|Vakarian]] for assistance.

 

* Characters like Firestar, Cloudtail and Graystripe in ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' are grandpas, but still manage to kick large amounts of [[Hold Your Hippogriffs|tail]].

* Benedict from [[Book of Amber|The Chronicles of Amber]] has spent millennia studying combat and warfare. His godlike siblings have stated that if Benedict wanted the throne, they'd abandon their game of multiplayer [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] and let him have it.

* Kit Carson of [[Time Scout]] found out he was a grandfather well after becoming a badass.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Either Deconstructed or Subverted in the book ''Home Free''. Harry Wong is training to become the number one martial artist in the world. To that end, he hires an old martial arts teacher who is at least 100 years old. Unfortunately, the old man does nothing except sit there and sleep...for 24 hours a day. Harry's friends, Jack and Bert pull some strings and have the old teacher/master carted out and bring in another old martial arts teacher who is at least 80 years and could wipe the floor with all three men. Shortly afterwards, the three men discover that the old teacher has up and died! In the end, Jack and Bert decide to be Harry's teachers.

* An episode of ''[[Kamen Rider W]]'' featured a Dopant who can affect people's age. After he ages Shotaro into an old man, Kamen Rider W is unable to form since one half is having trouble just staying awake through the fight. {{spoiler|Then Old Man Sho decides to take on Old by himself, including his trademark 'Count up your sins!' catchphrase and pose. He's not very effective but damn he's got guts.}}

* ''[[Star Trek]]''

** Captain James T. Kirk was busting bad guy asses well into his 50s and then came out of retirement to help Picard take down Tolian Soran.

** Admiral Kathryn Janeway (the older, gray-haired version of Capt. Janeway) who defied the Prime Directive, the ''Temporal'' Prime Directive, lied to Starfleet, '''and''' swindled a Klingon and gave him the finger. All to bring ''Voyager'' home earlier. Even people who don't like Captain Janeway love the Admiral.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'': Admiral William Adama. In season 4, {{spoiler|during a mutiny of Galactica's crew, the Admiral can be seen dual-wielding ''assault rifles'' for the better part of the conflict.}} He's also '''''73''' by the end of the series''.

** Arguably Battlestar Galactica as well, akin to a [[WW 2]] era aircraft carrier taking on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and winning

* John Locke from ''[[Lost]]''.

* ''[[Community]]'': The old billiards instructor in the episode "Physical Education".

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Scout Sgt. Torias Telion of the Ultramarines. He's personally trained at least three of the Chapter's Captains, making him older than many people who outrank him. Most Ultramarines say that they owe their lives and successes to his training.

** Commander Dante, the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels is one of the oldest Space Marines alive, being over 1000 years old. The closest most Marines has gotten is several hundred. This makes Dante a master strategist and is still a beast on the table.He even fought and clove one of The Mightiest Daemons of Khorne,the Bloodthirster Skarbrand,in two.

* ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' has a whole Lodge of these, known as the Lodge of Scars. Somewhat justified, as the werewolves who quality for said Lodge have survived ''decades'' in a life where they're constantly hounded by hostile spirits, in the middle of a holy war with their bastard cousins, and always one step away from going into a killing rage.

** Another New World of Darkness example is the Chevalier Theleme from ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]''. A veteran member of an order whose members [[Half-Human Hybrid|believe they are the children of Lucifer and have the powers to prove it]], his aging has been greatly slowed, and he's still kicking monstrous ass centuries into his Vigil. The field handbooks of the [[They Would Cut You Up|Cheiron Group]] basically say, "If you encounter him, ''do not engage''. Just summon reinforcements. ''All of them.''"

** Some veteran players and [[Game Master]]s, especially those who do not keep [[Comic Book Time]] between dungeons/campaigns, end up with characters that become this. Veteran players themselves, can be seen as this to younger players, in that they know very well how to break a character - because they had to try much, much harder back in the day to do so.

** Monks (or at least 3.X monks) are destined to become this if they hit level 17 while still "young". They will not receive any further penalties (existing ones stay) to physical ability scores for aging, but continue to gain the increases to mental scores. As wisdom is a mental score, and important to monks, if they do hit level 17, they will be at the peak of their combat skills at an age where any other melee class would be '''long''' retired.

* Drachma from ''[[Skies of Arcadia]]''

** To elaborate, he's an old Captain Ahab expy who uses a freaking MECHANICAL ARM to fight, either by shooting the hand at the enemy, or running up and pimp slapping the enemy in the face. Lets not forget that he's likly to be at least twice the level of any of the other party members at the time and will easly double the HP of any party member except maybe Vyse long after they've caught up.

* The End from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]''. Sure, the guy's over a hundred years old, with about a week's worth of life left in him, but he's still the best sniper in the world. In addition, he can run faster then Snake, is capable of photosynthesis, and is the absolute king of camouflage. He may be as old as the hills, but he ''will'' take you down. With ''[[Cherry Tapping|tranquilizer rounds]]''.

** What about Old Snake himself in [[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|MGS4]]?

* Muramasa from ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' (specifically ''Ninja Gaiden 2''). In the first one you can tell he was awesome in his prime. In the second one, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRB16kS9Dbg you gotta wonder why he isn't taking on hell instead of Ryu.]

* Ammon Jerro in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' probably counts {{spoiler|as he's the warlock in the game's intro, going toe-to-toe with the King of Shadows. He's also a very powerful warlock in his own right (insofar as the game's rules can let a warlock be powerful).}}

** Altair as well in his segments, where at the age of 60 he's still at least capable of free-running. While Ezio lived to be 65, Altair lived to be 92 in the 14th Century. He even lived to see his own son Darim become a Badass Grandpa as well.

*** Subverted in one of the later segments, when Altair's age is clearly taking its toll on him. He can no longer run or climb and he occasionally goes into coughing fits. He makes up for his physical infirmity with the upgrades to his gear he invented by studying the Apple {{spoiler|like the second Hidden Blade and the Hidden Gun.}}

* It's rather relative to species in ''[[Mass Effect]]''. For example, krogan can live over a thousand years, and Urdnot Wrex is old even for one of them. He's got the battle philosophy of a seasoned old wardog, and is packing [[Applied Phlebotinum|Bio]][[Psychic Powers|tics]] to boot. There's also Mordin, who is 38 (approximately 88-ish in human years). Most salarians don't live past 40, and looking at his face you can see the wrinkled, dry skin and numerous injuries.

** Asari have an entire stage of life devoted to this; Matriarchs are explicitly stated to be some of the most powerful biotics in the galaxy. In the second game, your asari squad member, Samara, is technically a marginal case of this trope: she hasn't entered the [[The Hecate Sisters|matriarch stage]] of her life, so she's probably only middle-aged. That said, she can devastate much younger opponents, and you can level up her class ability to the point where her biotic power is equivalent to a matriarch's. One can only imagine what she'll be capable of when she actually does reach matriarch status.

** There's also {{spoiler|Quercus Alba}} in the same game, not from a physical standpoint (though he does have an imposing physique), but from a mental standpoint. Using the facade of {{spoiler|a frail, overly apologetic old man, he's a steel-hearted criminal mastermind and former military veteran who runs a highly successful smuggling ring from the shadows and has destabilized the economy of at least one country. When Edgeworth catches on to his true intentions and intends to expose him for the criminal scum he is, Alba drags him through the mud and dismisses almost every bit of potential evidence against him and comes dangerously close to being able to walk away a free man. When he is finally exposed, it's only after a dauntingly long and tough series of cross-examinations.}}

* Zeus in ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]''. He looks like an old man, but is still more physically imposing than Kratos. When you fight him at the end of the game, Kratos has a half-dozen weapons, including a supposedly-ultimate weapon called the Blade of Olympus, and Zeus is still a tough opponent even though he's only using his bare hands for most of the fight. And towards the end of their fight in ''III'', Zeus [[Let's Get Dangerous|officially quits screwing around]] and unleashes his full power, overwhelming Kratos completely, and at that point ''would have killed him'' had Kratos not used {{spoiler|the power of hope}}.

* Boyd in [[The Rumble Fish]]. He's old and short, yes, but he is an assassin. And he'll fry you with his [[Finger-Poke of Doom|Finger Poke of]] [[Shock and Awe]].

* McBain in Legend of Heroes V: Song Of the Ocean. Sure, he's a troubadour, but he's a troubadour who can punch through solid rock. At age 62. And, while Forte is the designated protagonist, it's really McBain that is leading the party to save the world.

* Sam Fisher of [[Splinter Cell]] is practically an embodiment of this trope. Let's see what's on the menu! A S.E.A.L vet? Check. Capable of taking down numerous Special Forces operatives more than half his age? Check. Can and WILL take these operatives on without a weapon? Check. A fan of the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique? As every victim knows (assuming they're still alive), check. Oh, Dear Lord, check.

* Does Tung Fu Rue of [[Fatal Fury]] qualify? I certainly think so!

 

== Real Life ==

* Jean Parisot de la Valette, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallier. He led the Knights from the front during the Great Siege of Malta, refusing all of his advisers arguments that he was too valuable to risk and killing a good score of Turks with his own sword, all without taking a wound. At age 69. In a time period in which the average life expectancy was around 35. And he lived on to die peacefully at 74 years of age. Valetta, the largest city on Malta, is named after him.

** While he is undeniably badass, living to 69 in an era with a life expectancy of 35 isn't that special. Infant/child mortality often deflates life expectancies by a huge amount, since life expectancy is the average age a person in a society dies at. If a bunch of people are dying before their first birthday, it's going to drag that average down. One analysis of ancient Roman life expectancies says that surviving your first five years would nearly double your life expectancy. I'm not sure what the life expectancy tables looked like for 16th century Europe, but it's fairly likely that somebody who lived to 18 could expect to see 70.