History Main / OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety

** Party member Urdnot Wrex felt this way about his father. Decades or even centuries before the start of the games, Wrex and his father [[ArchnemesisDad came to blows]] about how to save their DyingRace. His father was a krogan hero who had fought back in the [[BugWar Rachni Wars]]. He was set in the old ways, [[ProudWarriorRace seeking to go to war with everyone]] regardless of the fact that doing so at this point would be suicide. Wrex, trying to think radically about their survival, wanted to create a more civilized society of krogan. This made him very unpopular with his old man and ''many'' of their race. In the end, his father tried one last time to sway Wrex to his side, and when Wrex refused, [[OffingTheOffspring he sprang his trap]]. However, it failed: Wrex [[SelfMadeOrphan killed his father]] instead and fled the planet.

* Observe the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment. [[note]]Remember: a {{dystopia}} disqualifies an example from being this trope. Thus, no matter ''what'' the characters, setting or narrative says, any normalized or celebrated societal changes that involve ethical or human rights violations ''as established by modern standards'' (ecological damage, slavery, abuse, bigotry, lower "quality of life", etc.) are usually signs that the setting is such a dystopia. Even if not, at the very least, it would likely prove too controversial for this page.[[/note]]

* One segment in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' season four finale, "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E22TheDeconstructionOfFallingStars The Deconstruction of Falling Stars]]", set 100 years in the future from the rest of the show, has some {{Pompous Political Pundit}}s questioning John Sheridan's motives in creating the Interstellar Alliance, essentially calling him a megalomaniac who was out to feed his ego (though they acknowledge he did do a lot of good despite this). [[spoiler:Then Old Lady Delenn shows up, just to tell several million people watching to [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech call them out on their hatchet job]] that Sheridan was a good man.]]

* One segment in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' season four finale, "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E22TheDeconstructionOfFallingStars The Deconstruction of Falling Stars]]", set 100 years in the future from the rest of the show, has some {{Pompous Political Pundit}}s questioning John Sheridan's motives in creating the Interstellar Alliance, essentially calling him a megalomaniac who was out to feed his ego (though they acknowledge he did do a lot of good despite this). [[spoiler:Then Delenn shows up, just to tell several million people watching that Sheridan was a good man.]]

* PlayedWith in ''Series/TheBoys'' with Soldier Boy, a ComicBook/CaptainAmerica {{expy}} who spent the last 50 years as a Russian POW and is troubled by how much the West has changed since. However, it's ultimately subverted as it's revealed that even back in his own time he was ''already'' a massive jerk to begin with.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'': As recently as the beginning of Queen Moon's rule (the mother of the teenage protagonist Star), Mina Loveberry was considered a hero to Mewni for fighting in its wars against armies of monsters. Times since have become more peaceful, so Mina's gung-ho attitude is thought of as less favorable. When Eclipsa becomes queen, and most of the kingdom at least ''tolerates'' her pro-monster reforms, Mina becomes an outright EvilReactionary who wants her dethroned.

* In Creator/MarvelComics' mythology works (''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'' and others), many gods succumb to this trope as they can't deal with a world that's moved on without them. (Or, in fact, [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly their lives may depend on being worshipped.]]) In particular, in some of their douchebaggiest moments, [[TopGod Zeus and Odin]] have both hatched terrible schemes to trick or cow humanity into worshipping them again, usually by some sort of apocalyptic show of force. Fortunately, Thor, Hercules, and other characters who are loyal to humanity have typically talked them out of it.

* Creator/StanislawLem's novel ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' plays on this trope with a ScienceHero. The protagonist and his pal return to Earth after an exploratory mission with a century-long relativistic gap, to a society which had long removed its violent impulses, and which sees them as borderline savage and a little bit scary. These same violent impulses are implied to be a main driving factor in [[BoldExplorer heroic exploration]] of the kind they engaged in.

** The reason the DC version of [[ComicBook/HerculesUnbound Heracles/Hercules]] is often depicted as a villain is that society has changed greatly since Ancient Greece while Herc has stayed exactly the same and the actions that used to get him acclaimed as a great hero now get him condemned as a monster.

** In his original time of AncientEgypt, ComicBook/{{Black Adam}}'s methods were the mark of a great and mighty hero who would stop at nothing to free his people, rule them as a wise and just king and provide them with plenty, and keep them safe from threats. Five thousand years later, those same methods make him an ultraviolent, bloodthirsty, vengeance-prone mass murderer whose tendency to go on massive rampages whenever he feels personally wronged cause him to continually come into conflict with the heroes of the day.

* ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the ComicBook/{{Black Knight|MarvelComics}} before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list. At the conclusion of the 2021 ''ComicBook/XMenTheTrialOfMagneto'' story, he [[spoiler:gladly admits he was wrong about Wanda and tells the children new stories about how 'the Pretender became the Redeemer']].

* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': PlayedWith, because in his case society may have improved, but the government running it hasn't. While he laments some things he did during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he remained TheCape and fought for what he understood to be good in accordance with contemporary values. Helping matters was the fact that, during his day, America was an isolationist country and not quite the HegemonicEmpire it became during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. During comic book arcs that were published during TheSixties, TheSeventies, and TheEighties, a lot of angst was tossed his way because certain things like UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and a lot of corrupt government officials generated an extreme (InUniverse and out) hatred for "TheMan" and anything that represented him (like Cap). In nearly all portrayals of the character, Cap reaches a point where he realizes that his country isn't merely defending the world from evil, but has in its own way become the problem. DependingOnTheWriter, his stories either take a GrayingMorality bent, whereas Cap is OnlySaneMan, or ''this'' trope, whereupon Cap realizes that he ''is'' on the wrong side. But really it depends on [[WriterOnBoard what point that particular writer wants to make.]]

* ''Film/DemolitionMan'': SubvertedTrope. One of the major plot points is that John Spartan, your average Eighties/Nineties red-blooded American CowboyCop, is seen by everybody in the futuristic city of San Angeles (which runs on PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad) as a curiosity at best and a mindless brute at worst (they [[SmugSnake really have no problem calling him terms like]] "neanderthal" to his face). Of course, the reality is San Angeles runs on a very prissy kind of fascism and it takes someone with Spartan's will to point it out, let alone do something about it.

* In ''Anime/RurouniKenshin'' the titular rurouni Himura Kenshin suffers this on occasion, as do many of his colleagues and enemies who also survived the wars that led up to the Meiji era. He himself prefers it, and hopes that the Meiji government, for all its flaws, can be an improved society where people don't have to suffer and die like they did during the Revolution, while many of the villains are {{Evil Reactionaries}} trying to push for a remilitarized society more like the age of bloodshed they remember. That said, it's also inverted in that several of the old revolutionaries instead parlayed their success to become {{Corrupt Politician}}s, morally-bankrupt businessmen, or criminal kingpins, abandoning the virtues of their warrior age for the vices of capitalism and profiteering, which is [[EndOfAnEra another source of tension in the series]].

* In ''Anime/RurouniKenshin'' the titular rurouni Himura Kenshin suffers this on occasion, as do many of his colleagues and enemies who also survived the wars that led up to the Meiji era. He himself prefers it, and hopes that the Meiji government, for all its flaws, can be an improved society where people don't have to suffer and die like they did during the Revolution.

* ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'': [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the ComicBook/{{Black Knight|MarvelComics}} before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list. At the conclusion of the 2021 ''ComicBook/XMenTheTrialOfMagneto'' story, he [[spoiler:gladly admits he was wrong about Wanda and tells the children new stories about how 'the Pretender became the Redeemer']].

* ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'': [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the ComicBook/BlackKnightMarvelComics before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list. At the conclusion of the 2021 ''ComicBook/XMenTheTrialOfMagneto'' story, he [[spoiler:gladly admits he was wrong about Wanda and tells the children new stories about how 'the Pretender became the Redeemer']].

* In Creator/MarvelComics' mythology works (''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', ''ComicBook/IncredibleHercules'' and others), many gods succumb to this trope as they can't deal with a world that's moved on without them. (Or, in fact, [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly their lives may depend on being worshipped.]]) In particular, in some of their douchebaggiest moments, [[TopGod Zeus and Odin]] have both hatched terrible schemes to trick or cow humanity into worshipping them again, usually by some sort of apocalyptic show of force. Fortunately, Thor, Hercules, and other characters who are loyal to humanity have typically talked them out of it.

* ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'': At the end of ''Literature/EndersGame'', Ender is universally respected as the savior of humanity for his defeat of the Buggers. By the time of this sequel set 3000 years later, however, he is universally reviled for his extermination of the Buggers, who are regarded sympathetically. This shift is largely due to his own actions; Ender himself was empathetic to the Buggers and wrote a book (under the PenName [[TitleDrop "Speaker for the Dead"]]) from their perspective that proved to be very influential.

* ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'': At the end of ''Literature/EndersGame'', Ender is universally respected as the savior of humanity for his defeat of the Buggers. By the time of this sequel set 3000 years later, however, he is universally reviled for his extermination of the Buggers, who are regarded sympathetically. This shift is largely due to his own actions; Ender himself was empathetic to the Buggers and wrote a book (under the pseudonym [[TitleDrop "Speaker for the Dead"]] from their perspective that proved to be very influential.

* ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'': At the end of ''Literature/EndersGame'', Ender is universally respected as the savior of humanity for his defeat of the Buggers. By the time of this sequel set 3000 years later, however, he is universally reviled for his extermination of the Buggers, who are regarded sympathetically. This shift is largely due to his own actions; Ender himself was empathetic to the Buggers and wrote a book from their perspective that proved to be very influential.

** DependingOnTheWriter, he may fit this trope during his StartOfDarkness origins. After surviving horrible atrocities against the worst types of human beings (usually [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Nazi concentration camps]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), the young man who would be Magneto saw similar [[FantasticRacism hate-mongering]] starting to appear against [[WitchSpecies mutants]], which he himself was. At some point, he joined forces with another mutant named Charles Xavier and the two made great achievements protecting and advancing mutantkind. However, Magneto remained convinced that human-mutant coexistence was impossible and that mutants had to eventually take control from humanity. The falling out between himself and Charles and their incompatible ideologies is the impetus for the ''Franchise/XMen'' series.

* The reason the DC version of [[ComicBook/HerculesUnbound Heracles/Hercules]] is often depicted as a villain is that society has changed greatly since Ancient Greece while Herc has stayed exactly the same and the actions that used to get him acclaimed as a great hero now get him condemned as a monster.
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': PlayedWith, because in his case society may have improved, but the government running it hasn't. While he laments some things he did during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, he remained TheCape and fought for what he understood to be good in accordance with contemporary values. Helping matters was the fact that, during his day, America was an isolationist country and not quite the HegemonicEmpire it became during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. During comic book arcs that were published during TheSixties, TheSeventies, and TheEighties, a lot of angst was tossed his way because certain things like UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and a lot of corrupt government officials generated an extreme (InUniverse and out) hatred for "TheMan" and anything that represented him (like Cap). In nearly all portrayals of the character, Cap reaches a point where he realizes that his country isn't merely defending the world from evil, but has in its own way become the problem. DependingOnTheWriter, his stories either take a GrayingMorality bent, whereas Cap is OnlySaneMan, or ''this'' trope, whereupon Cap realizes that he ''is'' on the wrong side. But really it depends on [[WriterOnBoard what point that particular writer wants to make.]]
** This trope also applies to William Burnside, who was Captain America's replacement in the 1950s. A social conservative who was also preserved in stasis, he's [[BadPresent absolutely horrified by modern America]]. Whilst he was seen in his own time as a heroic, patriotic, and affable individual, in the modern era, his attitudes are seen as at best quaintly old-fashioned and at worst offensive, racist and sexist, with the only people who seem to share his values that "the commies have won!" being derided as bigots and hate groups. Combined with a mind [[PsychoSerum already unhinged by failed super-serum]], and it's little surprise that Burnside [[EvilReactionary has become a supervillain fighting to restore America to its 1950s values]].
* In his original time of Ancient Egypt, ComicBook/{{Black Adam}}'s methods were the mark of a great and mighty hero who would stop at nothing to free his people, rule them as a wise and just king and provide them with plenty, and keep them safe from threats. Five thousand years later, those same methods make him an ultraviolent, bloodthirsty, vengeance-prone mass murderer whose tendency to go on massive rampages whenever he feels personally wronged cause him to continually come into conflict with the heroes of the day.
* [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the Black Knight before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/SHIELD to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list.

* ''Film/JamesBond'': Ever since ''Film/{{Goldeneye}}'' and especially in the Creator/DanielCraig reboot series, one of the underlying plot points of the franchise is how super-spies like Bond are seen as [[WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell relics of the Cold War]], useless because everybody thinks that drones and hackers are the way of the future, terrorism is a murkier enemy and even that Bond's [[GirlOfTheWeek preference for sleeping around]] is a representation of sexual predation. The answer: it's likely true that Bond is a relic of a dying age, but it's his ''methods'' that will likely prove unnecessary in the future, not his function. Espionage will always be necessary for the defense of national security, believing that all of it can be done without having someone on the field is utter foolishness, and it will ''never'' be a nice business with 100% clean methods...but unsavory tactics will become exceptions more than rules.

* ''LightNovel/OurLastCrusadeOrTheRiseOfANewWorld'': A century ago, the Empire branded women born with magical power as "witches", hunted them down, and killed them. One of the most powerful of these witches, Nebulis, rebelled and led her fellow witches against the Empire, forming the Sovereignty of Nebulis before she was eventually sealed away. A century later, and both the Empire and Nebulis are still locked in a ForeverWar that both Alice (a witch and direct descendant of Nebulis) and Iska (an elite swordsman of the Empire and successor of the swordsman who sealed Nebulis) wish to end to stop the senseless bloodshed. After Nebulis is released from her seal, declares her intention to destroy the Empire and everyone in it, and then attacks Alice when she tries to reason with her, both Alice and Iska realize that regardless of her actions a century ago, she's now a threat that needs to be dealt with.

* [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the Black Knight before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/SHIELD to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch - though following the ''Trial of Magneto'' [[spoiler: he gladly promotes Wanda by telling stories of how 'the Pretender became the Redeemer' - though that had quite a lot to do with how Wanda outright created mutantkind's own 'Elysian Fields', the Eldritch Orchard, which not only added mutants who died before Cerebro started its backups, but before they manifested their X-Gene if they had the potential, which also acts a permanent, indestructible Cerebro back-up]]), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list.

* [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the Black Knight before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/SHIELD to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list.

** Party member Urdnot Wrex felt this way about his father. Decades or even centuries before the start of the games, Wrex and his father [[ArchnemesisDad came to blows]] about how to save their DyingRace. His father was a krogan hero who'd fight all the way back in the [[BugWar Rachni Wars]]. He was set in the old ways, [[ProudWarriorRace seeking to go to war with everyone]] regardless of the fact that doing so at this point would be suicide. Wrex, trying to think radically about their survival, wanted to create a more civilized society of krogan. This made him very unpopular with his old man and ''many'' of their race. In the end, his father tried one last time to sway Wrex to his side, and when Wrex refused, [[OffingTheOffspring he sprang his trap]]. However, it failed: Wrex [[SelfMadeOrphan killed his father]] instead and fled the planet.

* Similar to Black Adam is [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Exodus]], an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the Black Knight before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/SHIELD to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Anime/DDFistOfTheNorthStar'' where the great nuclear wars of 199X never happened. As a result, there are no barren wastelands, no bloodthirsty bandits, and no need for Hokuto Shinken. As such, Kenshiro, Raoh, and Toki's [[YouAreAlreadyDead usual skills]] are next to useless, with Kenshiro having been fired from his job at the start of the story, and the plot revolves around the brothers competing against each other for the position of a part-time convenience store worker.