The
Wasteland Elder is the de facto leader of his small, rundown community. Maybe it’s
After The End, it could be a
Western frontier town fallen on hard times, or even just a
Tent Town for squatters in the middle of a city. No one elected him, he never put his name in a sorting hat, nor does he push his leadership on his people, he's simply an old survivor and respected enough that his word carries weight. Male pronouns are used throughout this trope, but this is an
equal opportunity character.
If there's an actual mayor, he's either corrupt or been forced to help the
Big Bad. When
The Hero comes to town, it's usually the
Wasteland Elder who serves as
Mr Exposition and asks him for help. If the story is about empowering normal people, or
The Hero needs help taking down the
Big Bad, he's the one who
rallies the
Untrusting Community to
take up arms and become a
Posse. With a little luck, they won't be
Dying Like Animals any longer.
Once the
Big Bad is beat, the
Wasteland Elder usually rallies his constituents to start working to improve their town, thanking
The Hero for all they've done and offering them a more permanent home if he's
The Drifter.
See also
After The End,
Reasonable Authority Figure,
Western Characters,
Character Witness.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- The very first episode of Fist of the North Star contains a Wasteland Elder when Kenshiro, dehydrated, meanders into a remote village in search of water and later encounters him.
- In the second story arc of Ergo Proxy, Hoody plays the role of the Wasteland Elder, though he bears a more flawed and human personality than others, and not everyone in the commune respects his word.
Film
- The narrators in the second and third Mad Max films are later shown to be grown versions of two children in the films.
- Pappagallow of the second film also counts.
- The Old Man in The Magnificent Seven is probably the ur-example for the Western.
- The Old Woman in Terminator Salvation among the unfriendly survivors in the 7-11 gas station that Kyle Reese, Marcus Wight, and Star encounter after leaving Los Angeles.
- Ethan in World Gone Wild is this, with more than a bit of Trickster Mentor thrown in.
Literature
- In the Strugatsky Brothers' novel Prisoners Of Power, the mutant settlement on the southern frontier of the Fatherland have several, and a council formed thereby, but by far the most authoritative of them is a short, prematurely-aged man named "the Wizard", who is an outright genius, not to mention able to mind-control small animals. He and the others manage to keep the mutants alive, but between the various sicknesses and the increasingly horrible mutated lifeforms around them the future seems bleak. And the heroes really can't do anything to help, although the mutants still let them stay and later give them a super plane.
- Tom Barnard from Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore is the only member of the post-apocalyptic South Orange County community who remembers the Old Days before The War.
Live Action TV
- Doctor Who: In "Daleks of Manhattan" Solomon leads a Hoovervile in Central Park.
- Jack in Lost seems to have fallen into this position, although the degree to which he brought it on himself is debatable.
- Played with a bit in that as time goes on, uncertainty in his leadership grows until several members of the group break off and head out with Locke to stay on the island.
- Subverted in the Twilight Zone episode "On Thursday We Leave for Home". Captain Bentine is the leader of the surviving colonists on the desert planet, who keeps them together and keeps their hopes up by telling them that there will be a ship coming from Earth to take them back home. But when that ship finally arrives, Bentine is less than willing to give up his position of leadership and authority, and tries to obstruct the efforts of the rescuers and keep them from taking "his people" back to Earth.
- Played straight then subverted in "The Old Man in the Cave." A town is managing to survive After The End by following the directions of a hermit living in a cave in the nearby hills, who sends his instructions through more traditional Wasteland Elder. Then a group of really asshole soldiers show up and storm the cave, revealing the hermit to be a computer that the real Wasteland Elder had been using to determine what food and areas were radioactive and therefore to be avoided. The soldiers and townspeople destroy in a fit of rage. After that, of course, they all die from not being able to tell what's radioactive or not.
Video Games
- There are numerous examples in the Fallout series of computer games; Killian Darkwater, the shopkeeper/sheriff/mayor of Junktown, to name one.
- The elder from 2300 AD in Chrono Trigger qualifies.
- King Damas in Jak And Daxter 3 fits this trope to a T, except for the fact that, as a Proud Warrior Race Guy, he and the citizens of Spargus City have taken up arms against the Marauders long before the main character arrives. And the fact that he doesn't survive to see the rebuilding.
- One such elder runs the city in Crimson Tears, asking you from time to time to donate money toward its renovation.
- Talgeyl in Suikoden V plays this almost perfectly straight. Sadly, he's too pessimistic about his town's future to even ask for help when The Hero shows up, though he does later take a turn Training The Peaceful Villagers.
Webcomics
- Dominic Deegan Oracle for Hire: After the death of the mayor of Barthis and destruction of the town in a horrific necromantic attack, Pamela Chayler becomes the unofficial town spokeswoman and stands up to slimy businessman Serk Brakkis. She's later officially elected mayor, and not only gets the town rebuilt but adds cultural institutions and lowers the crime rate.
