The Last DJ: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Well you can't turn him into a company man''

''You can't turn him into a whore''

 

This is a character type with a lot of integrity. His skills at what he does has made him something of a legend, [[A Father to His Men|often greatly admired by those who work beneath or alongside him.]] He refuses to just go along with what his [[Executive Meddling|bosses or administration want]]. Unfortunately, because he doesn't play by the rules of office politics, and because house politics here promote blind obedience, his superiors have blacklisted him and made his career stall out at a certain point. This results in a tense situation where management may be actively looking to get rid of him but can't because of his reputation, while he wants to either just do his thing or make changes to the existing system.

Contrast [[Limited Advancement Opportunities]], where characters never advance in their position because that would force the writing team to separate the cast. The exact opposite of [[Kicked Upstairs]], where an unwanted and incompetent person ''is'' promoted, to get them away from the real work so they can no longer screw things up. See also [[Bothering by the Book]] and [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]. Also compare [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], where the traits that would hold back a Last DJ get overlooked on account of how much of an asset the character is otherwise. Will very frequently overlap with [[Knight in Sour Armor]]. Music wise it overlaps with [[Music Is Politics]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' - Yang Wen-Li is the greatest military genius to be born since [[Genghis Khan]] conquered Eurasia, is [[Honor Before Reason|loyal to a fault]] toward his country and politically savvy enough to know what [[The Federation|the Free Planets Alliance]] should do to ensure its perenity and prosperity for a few generation at least and probably the nicest guy of [[The Verse]]. Because of this, ''a lot'' of corrupt officials in the alliance fear and hate him, knowing that he would easily beat them should he decide to quit the army and run against them in an election. Fortunately {{spoiler|for his rival Reinhart von Lohengram, Yang is so devoid of ambition that he pass every opportunity to gain political power, unwittingly giving Reinhart the opportunity to conquer the Free Planet Alliance}}

* Kotetsu from ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]'' is an idealistic hero who thinks that saving people is more important than scoring points...or [[Hero Insurance|worrying about collateral damage]]. His lack of respect from his [[Executive Meddling|superiors]], his [[Butt Monkey|peers]], and the [[Unpopular Popular Character|general public]] is a [[Running Gag]] in the first season!

 

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[The Losers]]'' has supporting character Agent Stegler, a CIA agent who is an experienced field agent that has been [[Reassigned to Antarctica|reassigned to a desk job]] that he hates due to his unpopular opinions on what the agency should be doing, and his objection to young agents doing crappy work and just using their jobs as a networking opportunity to get in with corrupt private companies. (At one point some younger agents even ask why Stegler seems to be unable to get the point that his reassignment was an obvious attempt to get him to resign).

* John Hartigan, the last honest cop in ''[[Sin City]]''. Until he is framed and sent to prison for refusing to let the son of a senator rape a little girl.

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'', the boardroom scene heavily implied that this became the case for Alan Bradley, who questioned the rest of the executives on their improvments to the new operating system, and got "we put a twelve on the box" in response.

** The [[Tron|first film]] had the same for Walter Gibbs, who was essentially locked out of his own company for protesting Dillinger's shoddy treatments of programmers and [[Information Wants to Be Free|lockdown of data through the system.]] His counterpart, Dumont, was almost a literal case, operating the last free I/O Tower on the System in defiance of Master Control.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Discworld]]''

** Vetinari himself holds the unique position of being this trope, in a position of power. Vetinari believes in only as much authority as absolutely necessary; since this is far less authority than many influential people think is natural (and especially far less than they think should naturally be held by them), they'd love to be rid of him. But at the same time, he's managed to get the city working far better than any of the previous patricians, and he's the only one who knows the language the instruction manual is written in; in other words, he's made himself not just effective, but ''[[Vetinari Job Security|necessary]]'', which (as is noted with some frequency) has far better staying power than being feared, and thus puts him leagues ahead of Machiavelli by just about every metric.

* Eva Wolfe from the ''[[Burke]]'' series by [[Andrew Vachss]] was fired from her job as the head of City-wide Special Victims for refusing to "go along to get along", in the form of giving a pedophile a merciful deal.

* In the ''[[Elemental Logic]]'' series, [[Supreme Chef]] Garland deserted the Sainnite army because the General ordered him to cook badly, which he was completely unwilling to do.

 

* ''[[Treme]]'' has Davis, a quite literal embodiment of this trope. He gets fired from the last "real" DJ position at WOL for blessing their "soulless" post Katrina digs with a voodoo ritual. He then proceeds to make several different short careers out of refusing to keep his mouth shut.

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' has Dr. Cox, whose stubborn idealism makes him a near perfect example of this. In a very early episode, Dr. Cox is criticized for this by a former chief of medicine and mentor.

* The premise of ''[[The Good Guys]]'' is based on this. Dan and Jack both pissed of their superiors but cannot be fired so they are relegated to investigating property crimes (petty thefts and vandalism). Dan disdains police procedures and disrespects his superiors but is a hero cop with his own TV movie. Jack in turn is a by-the-book cop who is so straitlaced that he once corrected the police chief's grammar at a public event. To be fair these heroes have a big tendency to blow things up and cause tons of property damage and Dan can be a serious menace to society.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has several cases that are at least alluded to. Dr. Stephen Franklin is the most orthodox one: when the war with the Minbari was going very, very badly for Earth, he and other xenobiologists were called on to create biological weapons to combat the Minbari. He refused, and destroyed his notes so no one else could use them, and promptly spent most of the war in a jail cell as a result. In the pilot, the station's initial [[Number Two]] describes being stuck in a position where the only way to get promoted was to pay for it, which she refused to do.

 

== Music ==

* The title track of [[Steely Dan|Donald Fagan]]'s first solo album, ''The Nightfly'' is sung in-character as this sort of DJ - "''An independent station, WJAZ, with jazz and conversation, from the foot of Mt. Belzoni. Sweet music! Tonight the night is mine - late line 'til the sun comes through the skylight''".

 

* The title character of ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'', by Edmond Rostand, is quite possibly the ur-example of this trope, making it [[Older Than Radio]].

{{quote|''But what would I have to do? Cover myself with the protection of some powerful patron? Imitate the ivy that licks the bark of a tall tree while entwining itself around its trunk, and make my way upward by guile, rather than climbing by my own strength? No, thank you. ... [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|I may not rise very high, but I'll climb alone!]]''}}

** This trope is deconstructed in the play: Cyrano refuses Cardenal Richelieu (the most powerful man in France) patronage as a playwright because [[Executive Meddling|Richelieu could correct one of two of his lines]], [[Honor Before Reason|recriminates De Guiche his use of deception and spies in the war]], and [[Caustic Critic|stubbornly attacks all the phonies he encounters with his satirical letters]]. He never compromises. What destiny waits for the [[Last DJ]] in [[Real Life]]? He got the respect of his peers, but almost all of them died honorably at war. [[Reality Ensues|At the end of his life, Cyrano lives alone, unknown and in poverty. Besides is clearly implied that his numerous enemies were sick of him and arranged a cowardly assassination]]. Cyrano realizes that none of his works will ever be remembered except the one scene that was plagiarized by Moliere (who certainly was a genial playwright, but also he had to compromise a lot with his patrons to be allowed to play... and is a thieving author, but so it was Shakespeare!) and dies surrounded by only three friends (whom gladly would have helped him, [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!|but as Mother Margarita said, Cyrano certainly would not have let them do it)]].

 

== Video Games ==

* Subverted and parodied in the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series -- [[GTA Radio|Lazlow]] ''thinks'' that he's this, but is really just an arrogant, [[Small Name, Big Ego|egotistical]] [[Jerkass]] who doesn't realize that he's no longer relevant, with most people treating him as a joke.

* Junichiro Tokuoka from the [[.hack]] franchise was an eccentric, almost-worshiped director for The World's Japanese localization. After The World hit the jackpot, he was discarded by CC Corp because of his behavior and how it conflicted with the executives.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The main reason Optimus Prime in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' is stuck leading a glorified repair crew is that he won't kiss ass and toe the line like Sentinel Prime does. Most obviously presented when Prime refuses to cave in and lie about the presence of Decepticons on Earth, even though Sentinel threatens to have him locked away for "Inciting panic".

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Authority Tropes]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]

[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]