Line #44 Main/OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety


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6	->'''Iska:''' Nebulis, you may have been the hope that led all astral mages 100 years ago. But no... seeing your actions made me understand... Right now, in this age...\
7	'''Alice:''' You are no longer needed!
8	-->-- ''Literature/OurLastCrusadeOrTheRiseOfANewWorld''
9
10	Someone who was unambiguously considered to be TheHero or ALighterShadeOfGrey in the past has now reached the point where their actions or viewpoint can be considered unnecessary, bigoted, or even outright villainous.
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12	They may become a [[HeelFaceTurn Heel]] or [[TookALevelInJerkass Jerkass]] after SlowlySlippingIntoEvil or suffering MotiveDecay, but they're roughly the same as they ever were. It's just that, now, their ideologies, goals, or methods, which once could have been seen positively, are now widely considered outdated. At best, they've become a PoliticallyIncorrectHero. If they slip further, they can become an AntiHero who opposes TheHero or the BigGood but otherwise has [[WellIntentionedExtremist good intentions]]. However, at their worst, [[ValuesDissonance society has progressed]] so far in morality that now they're [[EvilReactionary unambiguously the bad guy]].
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14	The point to this trope is that society has moved on without incident since the hey-day of the FallenHero. In other words, within the work, we see little or no downsides for what the society criticizes the past hero about. Either it has gotten closer to (or actually become) an honest-to-God {{Utopia}}, or the past hero's methods simply no longer work.
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16	The setting does not have to be LikeRealityUnlessNoted, but it cannot be {{dystopi\|a}}c. If the change is something modern-day RealLife considers "wrong" (everyone is now extremely obese), issues that make it "bad" must be addressed in-universe (obesity is not only attractive in this world, but the related health issues and disabilities are a thing of the past). If the change is morally complicated, then at some point, [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope the old-fashioned character]] MUST be on the "wrong" side.
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18	A subtrope of NostalgiaFilter and combination of ValuesDissonance and FallenHero. May overlap with NobleBigot (and NobleBigotWithABadge), CowboyCop, MilitaryMaverick, RacistGrandma, BornInTheWrongCentury, and JadedWashout. Subversion of HeroWithBadPublicity and VillainWithGoodPublicity, since the one with the bad publicity is the one that's wrong. Sympathetic portrayals may overlap with TragicVillain or ByronicHero, as well as BrokenPedestal. A character that expects this will often proclaim that there's NoPlaceForMeThere. May be considered a heroic version of "YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness".
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20	This is an UndeadHorseTrope and the polar opposite of GrayingMorality. Because of that, it's far more common to see aversions, inversions, subversions, or deconstructions of this trope, such as CrapsaccharineWorld, HappinessIsMandatory, GrayAndGreyMorality, GoodIsOldFashioned, GoodIsBoring, VictoryIsBoring, BadFuture, or BadPresent.
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22	Before adding examples to this page, please note a few things:
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24	* Since calling a RealLife person a hero or a villain, and an idea outdated, is very subjective and controversial, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease
25	* 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.
26	----
27	!!Examples:
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29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32	* 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. Instead, the streets of Japan remain clean and civilized. 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.
33	* PlayedForLaughs in ''Manga/Level1DemonLordAndOneRoomHero'', which takes place after the fantasy hero Max defeated [[MaouTheDemonKing the Demon Lord]]; when said Demon Lord resurrects ten years later and seeks out his old foe, it turns out Max has become an unemployed slacker who lives in a one-room apartment since heroes like him aren't needed anymore, and it doesn't help that he got caught up in some scandals that tarnished his reputation.
34	* In ''Manga/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 [[EvilReactionary trying to push for a remilitarized society more like the age of bloodshed they remember]]. That said, it's also inverted in that the ''other'' class of villains come from several of the old revolutionaries instead parlaying 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]].
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37	[[folder:Comic Books]]
38	* ''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 "The Man" 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.]]
39	** 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]].
40	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': In Marvel's 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.
41	* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': In his original time of AncientEgypt, ComicBook/BlackAdam'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.
42	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'': 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: He is extremely and needlessly violent as well as incredibly arrogant and entitled, expecting to be treated with groveling adulation just for existing. He's also a raging misogynist who personally raped Hippolyta and led the mass rape/sexual enslavement of the Amazons that got him turned to stone and forced to bear the burden of holding up Themyscira, which he personally sees as time served for a misdeed and cannot understand why the Amazons would still happily kill him on sight given the chance.
43	* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
44	** DependingOnTheWriter, ComicBook/{{Magneto}} 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 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 ''X-Men'' series.
45	*** In particular, Creator/GrantMorrison's run on X-Men directly makes the claim that Magneto's contribution to mutantkind is over and that even the mutant populace would rather fondly remember him as an obsolete hero.
46	--->'''Professor Xavier:''' Magneto had become a legend in death, an inspiration for change. Now look at you--just another foolish and self-important old man, with outdated thoughts in his head. You have '''nothing''' this new generation of mutants wants...except for [[LampshadeHanging your face on a T-shirt.]]
47	*** The series ''Magneto: Not A Hero'' made the case that Magneto is neither a "hero" nor a "villain". He is a MoralPragmatist. He will always seek the most direct and proactive ways to end mutant oppression and help them become the dominant species on the planet. Depending on the current status quo, sometimes the most direct method is to help the X-Men or other heroes, and sometimes it means battling against them, in which case, he becomes this trope.
48	*** Ironically, post 2010s, the fanbase has swung the other way as it's become increasingly obvious that mutantkind does need some militant leaders. The Krakoan age has pushed Magneto to even higher prominence, while guys like Cyclops believe that Xavier's dream, while noble, requires a lot more force than he wished to believe. The guy who is considered outdated these days is Xavier, as his dream and nigh-pacifism are considered incredibly naive these days.
49	** [[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/XMen2019''. 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']].
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52	[[folder:FanWorks]]
53	* ''Fanfic/BelatedBattleships'': Many of the [[VideoGame/KanColle shipgirls]] have retained the anti-Japanese sentiments that were commonplace back in WWII, only to learn that such beliefs are no longer acceptable in the modern day, forcing them to struggle against their own biases.
54	* ''Fanfic/TheNegotiationsVerse'': Rainbow Dash and Applejack combine this with FallenHero after Equestria loses the Conversion War. While many other ponies are willing to make peace with the humans, especially after learning the AwfulTruth behind the conflict, Dash and Applejack cling to their UndyingLoyalty to the disgraced Princess Celestia, eventually joining a terrorist cell in hopes of preserving the "old Equestria".
55	-->'''Rainbow Dash:''' You can't do thish to me! Imma el-el... Huack! E-element of Harmony! A hero! Ah used to save... all your ungrateful butts all the time! And thish is the kind of treatment ah get?!\
56	'''Pony Joe:''' Hero or not, you're yesterday's news! Get with the program, Rainbow Dash. Everypony else is.
57	* Myth/{{Merlin}} in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3155629/6/A-Tale-of-Too-Many-Worlds A Tale of Too Many Worlds]]''. As Literature/{{Chrestomanci}} sadly notes, he's still a fundamentally good guy; the problem is that the world has long changed since his era and there's really no place for him.
58	-->"I think he still is," Chrestomanci said, "but the world has changed around him. Thrones are getting along quite happily, you see," he told Merlin. "Civilised worlds don't take well to smiting. We no longer stand on mountaintops and hurl fireballs at enemy hordes. Instead, we work for the government and help pass laws to stop others doing things like that." He looked a little regretful.
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60
61	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
62	* ''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 PoliticalOvercorrectness) 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. He's also not any less critical of those who live in squalor because they [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority reject rules simply for existing]], and gives both extremes a talking to in the closing scene of the movie.
63	-->'''John Spartan, in the epilogue''': ''(To DaChief)'' You're gonna get a little dirtier, ''(to Edgar Friendly)'' and you're gonna get a ''lot'' cleaner... and somewhere in the middle, I think things will work out.
64	* ''Film/{{Into The Storm\|2009}}'' has this as its theme when it comes to Winston Churchill, and arguably imperial Britain as a whole.
65	* ''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.
66	* ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'': Captain Balthazar Edison was a hero of the [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Romulan and Xindi Wars]]. When Starfleet was formed and the Federation preferred cooperation between alien species rather than waging wars, Edison, a SpaceMarine, was made a SpaceNavy captain and given an exploration ship. That, coupled with [[spoiler:being abandoned (so he thinks, the Federation simply never received his DistressSignal due to electromagnetic interference) in uncharted territories by the society he once proudly served was the final straw that drove him mad and led him to swear vengeance, becoming the film's villain Krall]].
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69	[[folder:Literature]]
70	* ''Literature/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'' looks at a world where Raul and countless other Heroes find themselves at a loss at what to do with their lives after the war with the Demon King abruptly ended. While Raul valiantly attempts to adjust by finding work at a department store, others decide that the best way to deal with their problem is by starting a ''new'' ForeverWar, believing that continuing the conflict indefinitely in order to preserve their place in society is more important than actually ''stopping'' the evil they were supposed to be defending the world against.
71	* In ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'' Kelsier is considered a messianic figure and, while we're led to question his motives and methods, he's still portrayed as heroic overall. By the time of the sequel series, though, it's noted that a character follows the same black and white unforgiving attitude. And that definitely makes him a villain, because he's not fighting a horrific dystopia anymore.
72	* ''Literature/OurLastCrusadeOrTheRiseOfANewWorld'': A century ago, the Empire branded men and women born with magical power as "witches", hunted them down, and killed them. One of the most powerful of these witches, Eve Sophi Nebulis (better known as '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' young twin Alicerose) 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.
73	* Creator/StanislawLem's novel ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' plays on this trope with a ScienceHero. The protagonist is an astronaut who returns to Earth after an exploratory mission with a century-long relativistic gap, to a society which had long removed its violent impulses and sees him as borderline savage. These same violent impulses are implied to be a main driving factor in [[BoldExplorer heroic exploration]] [[ForScience of the kind he engaged in]], and now such sacrifices in the name of science are viewed by society as wasteful and unnecessary showing-off which doesn't really benefit anyone.
74	* ''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. Interestingly, while "Ender" the military commander was reviled, the "Speaker for the Dead" became revered and the founder of a kind of pseudo-religion of "speakers for the dead" who would be invited to "speak the death" of an individual (usually with BrutalHonesty). Ender himself became one of these (before converting to Catholicism, but we won't get into that).
75	* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' this is played with, in that it's implied Dalinar will come to be seen this way if they win. Wit tells him that he's a tyrant, but that he doesn't think Roshar is ready for anything better. And it certainly isn't ready for massive social change in the middle of the apocalypse. So, while in other times he might denounce Dalinar viciously, here he may be exactly what is needed.
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78	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
79	* 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 [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech call them out on their hatchet job]] and tell several million people watching that Sheridan was a good man.]]
80	* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': [[DeskJockey Inspector Luger]] goes out on a call with one of the detectives to catch a thief. When they do, the Inspector cuffs him and then smacks the perp around until he gives up the goods, which used to be the norm but isn't allowed anymore. The Inspector's temporary partner Wojo is quite upset over this.
81	* In ''Series/BlueBloods'' there's a recurring theme of how being a CowboyCop was a lot more accepted when Grandpa Henry was on the force than it is now: the streets of New York were rougher and there weren't any cell phone cameras. In one episode, there's a threat to an officer from organized crime, and Henry remarks to an old friend about how in a similar situation when he was police commissioner, he sent the boys in blue out to crack heads until somebody coughed up a name. This then shows up on Website/YouTube as [[ManipulativeEditing Henry admitting to]] PoliceBrutality. [[spoiler:It's revealed later that Henry was being a PapaWolf; the officer in danger was his son Frank Reagan, the current PC.]]
82	* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in ''Series/TheBoys2019'' 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.
83	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
84	** The first two seasons have the Kohn-Ma and the Circle, both being Bajoran groups that came out of LaResistance to the Cardassian Occupation but who now are violently opposed to ''any'' foreign presence on Bajor, including the Federation protagonists' humanitarian relief efforts out of Deep Space 9 at the request of the Bajoran Provisional Government. Bajorans friendly to the Federation regard them as little more than terrorists, [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters and not the good kind]].
85	** The series has a recurring theme of Cardassians attempting to reclaim what they see as Cardassia's glorious past. Late in the series, after Legate Damar pulls a HeelFaceTurn against the Dominion who have reduced Cardassia to a puppet state, he's even forced to gun down one of his own allies and an old friend, Gul Rusot, when he lets his enthusiasm for the old ways get in the way of the immediate mission of bringing down the Dominion.
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88	[[folder:Tabletop Gaming]]
89	* General Varchild from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is a tragic example. A Kjeldoran FallenHero from the time of the Dominarian Ice Age, she started out as a CountryMouse turned knight whose valor won her a place of leadership under King Darien, and despite her bone-deep racism towards the Balduvian barbarians (who had killed her brother and uncle in their raids), she was able to set that aside and accept an EnemyMine situation with them against the necromancer Lim-Dûl. But after Lim-Dûl's defeat, Varchild couldn't accept a long-term peace with the Balduvians and rebelled against Darien in the hopes of seeing "Balduvia burn to warm Kjeldor's hearth" once and for all. While Varchild's final fate is unknown, it is known that her crusade failed, with the Kjeldorans and Balduvians ultimately uniting into the nation of New Argive some twenty years later.
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92	[[folder:Video Games]]
93	* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir's worldview is stuck in the time of the Orlesian occupation of his country, so he considers a handful of Orlesian [[ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction Grey Wardens]] and [[spoiler:the possibility of King Cailan divorcing Loghain's daughter and marrying the Orlesian Empress instead]] a much bigger threat to Ferelden than, say, an endless horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters who spread ThePlague and are led by a giant unkillable {{Dracolich}} from the underworld. This ultimately makes him the secondary BigBad of the story, after said dracolich.
94	* ''Videogame/HonkaiImpact3rd:'' This is partly why Kevin Kaslana is a villain: in the "Previous Era", he was hailed as one of its greatest heroes and warriors, even though he and his friends failed to prevent the Honkai from eradicating their civilization; he and a few other survivors were then put into cryosleep and given a mission to guide the next era. The thing is, even though he means well, he still has the Previous Era mindset of "desperate times, desperate measures" (his era was just ''that'' crapsack) that as he saw the other "projects" either failing or turning out inconclusive, he decided to run their most dangerous project: Project Stigma, which will essentially turn the current humanity's nature against their wills in order for them to survive the Honkai. His friends believed that the "price" for said project would be too much for the current humanity to bear, so much that one of them, Su, decided to turn against him.
95	* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
96	** [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy The Krogan]] were originally seen by the galaxy as heroes for their aggression, {{determinat\|or}}tion, SuperToughness, and {{Explosive Breed\|er}}ing which allowed them to survive [[DeathWorld their homeworld]] turning the tide of and winning the [[BugWar Rachni Wars]]. But in the peace and prosperity afterward those traits led the Krogan to overpopulate the planets they were given so they seized more by force, then responded to diplomatic efforts to make them stop by going to war with the rest of the galaxy stopping only once [[SterilityPlague the genophage]] was deployed meaning they no longer had the numbers to continue fighting. Other than keeping the statue commemorating their past heroism the Krogan are now viewed as a menace because they're sticking to their outdated ways so would go back to warmongering given the chance, which will happen in ''3'' unless they're led by Urdnot Wrex who's one of the few Krogan to recognize his race needs to change to have a place or future.
97	** The Illusive Man, aka Jack Harper, was once an Alliance hero who fought in the First Contact War against the war-like (and mildly genocidal) turian species. From the viewpoint of the humans, this was their FirstContact (natch) with an alien race and these guys were willing to nuke entire civilian cities [[DeathFromAbove from orbit]] to force humans to surrender. However, the whole "war" was a tragic misunderstanding and once things were cleared up, humans were welcomed into galactic society. However, peace was a bitter pill to swallow for many humans (such as Harper), who never lost his "Humans First" priorities. Many humans, in fact, still see him as a hero; even humans with no hate for aliens appreciate what he does to protect mankind--which is how he pooled together thousands of like-minded persons from the military and civilian spheres to create Cerberus, a major antagonist faction across the first ''Mass Effect'' trilogy.
98	* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': Almost every major BigBad or GreaterScopeVillain in the franchise qualifies for this trope. Part of the conflict of the series revolves around the problem of what becomes of great soldiers once their job is done. For example, many in [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Army's Heaven]], [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 Outer Heaven]], [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid FOXHOUND]], and [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty the]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Patriots]] are once-heroes who have no idea how to cope with peace.
99	* ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'': Jean Bison is a nineteenth-century Canadian lumberjack who has survived into the modern via being frozen alive following an avalanche. He is oblivious to the need to conserve natural resources as he seeks to continue his mission to "tame the wild North" via unrestrained chopping down of forests. The writers acknowledge the DeliberateValuesDissonance by having Sly Cooper mentioning that Bison would have been a Hero in his time.
100	* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'': The opening of the game shows that the Star Fox team has fallen on hard times since the war with Andross ended. In a time of peace, nobody has any need for an elite mercenary combat team, and they don't have the money to maintain their very expensive equipment. They ''had'' been offered a commission in the Cornerian military a the end of the last game, which would have provided stable employment, but Fox had declined, wanting to remain independent.
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103	[[folder:Webcomics]]
104	* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'':
105	** One comic has a fertility god tell a (modern) woman he's going to fulfill all her wishes. She looks ecstatic... [[DeliberateValuesDissonance and then he tells her she's now fertile and assured to bear boys.]]
106	** Several comics focus on Superman's crimefighting methods no longer being adapted to the modern world. Such as [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2010-09-26 trying to punch the people involved in making others turn to crime]] ([[spoiler:he gave up because it was too hard]]), [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-07-13 or providing energy to the world]] ([[spoiler:he's used as a museum greeter then exhibit after mankind moves on to non-fossil fuels]]), [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/super-efficient or even recognizing that 30s superheroics today isn't possible anymore]] ([[spoiler:so instead of taking new sidekicks, he takes unpaid interns]]).
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109	[[folder:Western Animation]]
110	* In the first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', the [[MugglePower Equalist Movement]] holds this opinion of the Avatar, the one person in the world with the power to [[FullContactMagic bend]] all four elements who is usually also a world-renowned hero (or is destined to be one). Korra, the titular character, is the current living Avatar and isn't quite fully trained when all this goes down. Deconstructed, in that the Equalist Movement really isn't a movement for an improved society but an extremist movement symptomatic of a class divide between benders and non-benders that had been festering since long before Aang, Korra's predecessor, had died. But it came to a head in the peaceful generation after the hundred year war.
111	* ''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 ''and'' executed by her own hand.
112	* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/SuperMansion'' with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica {{expy}} American Ranger, a jingoistic PoliticallyIncorrectHero and FishOutOfTemporalWater with slight biases towards minorities and women [[InnocentlyInsensitive but never maliciously so]].
113	[[/folder]]

Context Main / OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety