-->''"There's a voice, that keeps on calling me.\\
Down the road, it's where I'll always be.\\
Every stop I make, I make a new friend.\\
[[InHarmsWay Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again]]."\\
-- '''The Littlest Hobo''' theme song''

-->"Well she moved down here, age of eighteen,\\
She blew the boys away, was more than they'd seen\\
I was introduced and we both started grooving.\\
She said, I dig you baby but I've got to keep moving\\
on, keep moving on."
-->--Tom Petty, "Mary Jane's Last Dance"

Like a gust of wind, TheDrifter quietly blows into a [[AdventureTown troubled town.]] He’s [[TheStoic low key]], and usually TheQuietOne that’s not looking for trouble. He’ll rarely raise the interest or curiosity of the [[{{Muggles}} townspeople]] or the BigBad that’s been slowly draining the town of all life and money. Usually, he just wants an odd job to make ends meet before leaving again, the implication being that he’s either [[SternChase running from someone]] or WalkingTheEarth [[InHarmsWay for the fun of it]]. Occasionally The Sheriff and his deputies, or a QuirkyMinibossSquad of the BigBad (sometimes one and the same) will visit the DeterminedHomesteader employing the Drifter or him directly, to try and lay down the law and [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord extort some money.]]

[[IAmNotLeftHanded Then the gloves come off.]]

By this point, he’s either got a personal stake in helping the [[InnocentBystander Meek Townsmen]] chase off the BigBad, like saving a hostage Determined Widow or other [[LoveInterests love interest]], or will do it just because it’s [[GoodSamaritan the right thing to do.]] An interesting twist on the above is that TheDrifter is not just pretending he [[IAmNotLeftHanded is Not Left Handed]] in terms of martial skill, but is also hiding his true purpose: to depose the BigBad and his goons. Hiding in plain sight as a mere {{Muggle}} to get information to bring him down.

In some variants, he'll be approached by the [[InnocentBystander Meek Townsmen]] and appointed TheSheriff (the previous one having been run off or killed). He usually requires some convincing, in which the BigBad helps out by [[KickTheDog kicking]] a few nearby dogs in TheDrifter's presence. Once the BigBad is defeated, expect him to lay down his badge, perhaps passing it on to one of the townsmen who showed some backbone in the fight.

He's a strange combination of traits: A Guardian Angel come to help a town that can’t help itself, rarely grim but usually has a bit of TheStoic in him, or at least [[TheQuietOne values few words]]. Sometimes a TechnicalPacifist and former [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]] WalkingTheEarth. Though he’s not a KnightInShiningArmor, he’s usually several clicks above an AntiHero or IneffectualLoner, being motivated by more compassionate standards than the WellIntentionedExtremist. Once he's done, [[ButNowIMustGo he'll probably have to go]].

Also known as the Stranger archetype, from Joseph Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces" [[spoiler:well, quotes from "Hero With A Thousand Faces" from the StarWars exhibition catalogue anyway.]]

See also WesternCharacters. Fairly common in AfterTheEnd settings, where he'll get a [[DisasterScavengers scavenger sidekick]]. [[CastCalculus Occasionally]] joins up or becomes the leader of a band of HitchhikerHeroes. Closely related to the KnightErrant, who wanders the land actively seeking wrongs to right.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Van from GunXSword is this, both pre-series and during.
* The Medicine Seller of ''Ayakashi'' (short horror stories) and ''Mononoke'' animes.
** Although he rarely seems to actually help the people, more often then not, a good portion of the cast is killed off (Bake Neko) or scarred mentally and emotionally for the rest of their life (Umi Bozu), and he is indifferent to them all.
* Kenshiro of ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' fits this trope to a tee, especially at the beginning of the series. He wanders the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] landscape from town to town looking for his kidnapped lover, has his sidekick in Bart, is theoretically not looking for trouble, and yet somehow always leaves behind body counts that range from dozens to hundreds.
* The protagonist, Ginko, from {{Mushishi}} (a sort of ''mononoke''-ologist)
* Dr. Tenma from ''{{Monster}}'' (slightly subverted as any troubles are almost always connected with the "monster" Johan).
* Raven Tengu Kabuto, from the anime of the same name. The above description is almost a plot synopsis.
* Vash The Stampede of ''{{Trigun}}.''
* ''RurouniKenshin'': In the Jinchuu arc, Sanosuke decides to leave the main cast temporarily and relieve some stress, which he does by becoming one of these. He then takes this time [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome to save a town, beat the shit out of two hundred men, and terrorize the local yakuza.]] His stress being relieved, he then leaves town and returns to Tokyo. And nobody even knew his name.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

*Naturally, it happens in ''{{Preacher}}''. Jesse Custer indulges in this trope when he drifts into the town of Salvation.
* The comic books spun off of the original ''TheLegendOfZelda'' give this sort of backstory to Link, who happens to wander into Hyrule from his native Calatia just as Ganon is starting to wreak havoc.
* ''UsagiYojimbo''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* John J. Macreedy in the classic film ''Bad Day at Black Rock'', although he arrives in the titular town with a specific purpose in mind (which is ''not'' to clean the place up.)
* The first paragraph describes fairly accurately John {{Rambo}} in ''First Blood'', right down to being harassed by the law. Only his subsequent actions are not to help the town at all...
* Sundown, from ''LiveALive.'' Also an example of a [[TheGunslinger Gunslinger]], both Type A and B.
* Most "{{Spaghetti Western}}s" invoke this trope heavily.
* Max from the ''MadMax'' films. Shane in black leather.
* Many ClintEastwood characters, most notably ''[[TheNameless The Man With No Name]]''.
** Note also that one of the films he directed is called ''High Plains Drifter''.
*** High Plains Drifter plays with the conventions of this trope a bit, mainly in that The Stranger (as he is credited) is hinted at being [[spoiler: the ghost of a man murdered by the townsfolk (indirectly) years prior and thus brings on a little vengeance by turning the town's folk against each other, manipulating and scaring them into giving him absolute power and pretty much ruining the town's economy (by blowing up the hotel, tearing down the barn and not paying for any of the many goods and services he takes advantage of, such as buying everyone in town a drink from the bar at the bartender's expense. In fact, he's barely in the town for ten minutes before he kills three men, drags a woman to the barn and rapes her. ]]
* IndianaJones act somewhat this way in ''Temple of Doom''.
* Sanjuro, in Kurosawa's ''Yojimbo'' (the prototype for ''For a Fistful of Dollars'') and ''Sanjuro''.
* Also Zatoichi, hero of a ''long''-running series of Japanese films. In each film, he wanders into a new [[AdventureTown Adventure Town]], where he at first pretends to be a simple itinerant masseur and gambler. But when some local yakuza boss or corrupt official threatens him or the group of innocent commoners he's befriended, he reveals himself to be a master swordsman and all-out [[BadassNormal badass]]. Oh, and he's blind, too.
* The Animated Film ''{{Kung Fu Panda}}'' starts off with a dream sequence, where Po fits this trope PERFECTLY. Of course, this is just his dream self, but it does seem to show how {{Genre Savvy}} he is. Two tropes for the price of one?

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Bill Door, aka [[/folder]]

[[folder: [[The Grim Reaper Death ]]
]], in the {{Discworld}} novel ''Reaper Man''.
* Made famous in literature, and later in film, by ''{{Shane}}''.
* Roland, Stephen King's Gunslinger, especially in ''The Wolves of the Calla''.
* The Jon Shannow/Jerusalem Man series by DavidGemmell personifies this trope, often three or four times a novel.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The Doctor in ''DoctorWho'' does this throughout time and space.
* ''TheFugitive''
* The TV version of ''TheIncredibleHulk''.
* Caine from ''KungFu''.
* The unnamed hero of ''TheLittlestHobo'' is essentially a drifter version of ''{{Lassie}}.''
** Whose lack of visible problems that would realistically be associated with WalkingTheEarth may be [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as well, it's a dog. It can find a river to dunk in, and scraps lying around, and [[KickTheDog only the pure evil would hurt him.]]
* Sam Beckett from ''QuantumLeap.''
* The ''{{Sliders}}.''
* This is an absolutely perfect description of Cheyenne Bodie from ''{{Cheyenne}}''.
* Bronco Layne from ''{{Bronco}}'', a SpinOff from ''{{Cheyenne}}''.
* ''TheWesterner''
* The goddamn [[TheATeam A Team]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* The Whitesnake song ''Here I Go Again'' fits this trope. It even has the line "Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone".
* {{Metallica}}'s "Wherever I May Roam".

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Similarly, the new Prince in ''PrinceOfPersia'' ends up in Elika's kingdom while caught in a sandstorm.
* Played Straight in ''LiveALive'' with Sunset
* While they be called Dream Chasers, Mercenaries, Wanderers, or yes, Drifters, these make up most of your [=PCs=] in the ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' series.
** [[TropeNamer build up foundation]] indeed
* Adol from {{Ys}} series is this trope.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The episode "Zuko Alone" of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' pegs Zuko squarely into this role, or at least when he's not busy interrupting the above mentioned plot with [[WholeEpisodeFlashback flashbacks about his tragic past]]. In a subversion, the inevitable IAmNotLeftHanded moment reveals to the townsfolk that said drifter is fire nation and they promptly shun him, leaving him to thanklessly drift on.
* ''{{Samurai Jack}}''.

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