Badass Grandpa - Television Tropes & Idioms

Judge Dredd is becoming one of these the hard way, due to the lack of Comic Book Time in his universe. 22nd century medicine helps, but several stories have focused on his feeling like the old man of the Justice Department, and the decreasing number of his classmates still alive and active.
Gorgo from Love and Rockets, retired hit man and self-proclaimed protector of Luba's family. He's around 90 and spends most of his time asleep, which doesn't stop him from taking out two armed assailants by himself. With his cane.
Jay Garrick. Alan Scott. Wildcat. Just about any surviving member of the original Justice Society Of America falls into this category. (Hawkman is an iffy case, considering that he's been reincarnated into a younger form.)
Nick Fury, original flavor. Over ninety, looks like he's fifty, can kick your ass like he's twenty-five, and a Magnificent Bastard, to boot.
- And then Next Wave gave us his parody Captain Ersatz Dirk Anger, who is a subversion in the Who Wants To Live Forever vein:
  "I'm ninety years old. You know how I look so pretty? I take drugs. Special H.A.T.E. drugs. Life-extending drugs. H.A.T.E. has the best drugs. Because H.A.T.E. loves me. And I love H.A.T.E. Every day of my horrible drug-extended terrorist-fighting life."
Captain America is a World War II veteran. On the other hand, he was turned into a Human Popsicle in his twenties, and only defrosted 13 to 15 years ago, comic-book time, so he only counts if Buck Rogers does.
- Ultimate Red Skull being Cap's illegitimate son is in his 60's at least, but is A) in his physical prime and B) doesn't really have a face so it's difficult to judge.
Jenny Sparks, She may be as old as the 20th Century, but don't mess with her or London or she'll electrocute you back to 1945. And she looks like she's in her early 20's to boot.
The Punisher. Doesn't fully fit the description as he's been anything but passive, but he's still an Badass Normal Ax Crazy antihero, despite being over 60. Lampshaded in the first Arc of Punisher MAX, as Microchip points out that Frank would've been a grandfather by that time, if his family hadn't died.
Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, period.
John Hartigan from Sin City (Frank Miller seems to like this trope).
- Frank Miller has said that he has a problem with certain badass heroes being younger than himself.
You do not mess with Scrooge McDuck. Period.
Bor, the father of Odin and grandfather ot The Mighty Thor. He was at last as strong as combined powers of Thor and Odin and possibly could easily destroy the Earth. When Thor has to kill him, he has to punch so har, that his hammer was broken.
Great-Uncle, really, but Aloysius Crumrin, relative of Courtney Crumrin is at least over eighty and will still fuck up the nastiest hobgoblin ever (with a cane sword!) or fight off vampires threatening his great-niece. It's acknowledged fact that even at his age, he's still the one that gets called in to handle the nastiest business that threatens the witch and warlock community.

Close Comic Books

Colonel (Retired) Nick Parker is an aging veteran of the First Tiberium War well into his seventies, spends much of his free time as a conservative pundit on the 24-hour news networks, and is twenty-percent cybernetics by this point. He also keeps a submachine gun in his car's glove compartment, can still land a headshot with a pistol at a hundred meters (left-handed), and once the Third Tiberium War breaks out starts hunting down and demolishing Avatars by his lonesome. "But that was why they called him 'Havoc.'" He's got a present for ya.

Close Fan Fic

John Wayne in Big Jake cut a swath through a gang of desperadoes who kidnapped his grandson.
Il Duce from The Boondock Saints. He's an undefeatable hitman, who, in one scene, ambushed the three Saints and took them down (although he didn't get to kill them). When later the police were investigating the crime scene, the main investigator from FBI decided that the Saints were ambushed by six men, because Il Duce was carrying six guns.
Even though he's gotten older and balder, Die Hard Detective John McClane still owns the bad guys. In some ways he's only gotten more badass with age.
- God forbid he runs out of bullets...
He may have aged considerably, but Indiana Jones has not lost his badassitude at all.
- His father is straighter example of this trope. Takes down a Nazi airplane with just an umbrella? Check. Frees himself and his friend out of a tank full of Nazi soldiers? Check. Played by Sean Connery? Check.
Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid. Beep, beep.
In the Played By Sean Connery department, Allan Quatermain from The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (more in the film than the graphic novels).
The Lost Boys features a grandpa who only reveals his trope-worthiness at the very end of the film, by crashing his jeep through the wall of his own house and killing the Head Vampire with a hood full of fenceposts. He also delivers the best line, "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach — all the damn vampires."
Star Wars: Yoda. That should be enough, but elaboration is just too fun to miss out on. Despite being around 800, during the time of the prequel trilogy, Yoda can still go toe-to-toe with both Count Dooku and Emperor Palpatine (though not at the same time). Even thirty years later, Yoda retains enough power to easily lift an almost-completely submerged X-Wing from a swamp.
- The height of his asskickery, however, may be the Clone Wars cartoon, wherein he not only forcewields a lightsaber for a short time, but does so in the middle of a busy battlefield, fighting off an entire battalion of infantry droids and several of their Giant Robot backups. He does this again, later, where he takes down an entire droid company while perched with his back to a blizzard-suffering cliff edge. The frightening thing is, he does both of these without even making it look difficult, let alone breaking a sweat. "A Jedi's strength flows from the Force.", indeed.
- Also, Count Dooku, who not only takes down the respected Obi-Wan Kenobi but the prodigious Anakin Skywalker in the same fight, and still has enough in the tank to go to a fighting retreat with Yoda.
- Also again, Sith Lord/Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine. Takes on five of the best swordmasters in the Jedi Order despite maybe 40 odd years lack of practice. Kills all but Mace Windu in roughly 10 seconds. Then battles Yoda into submission, then (decades later) Luke Skywalker. And that's after Luke beat Darth Vader. It's ironic that he goes down (literally) at the hands of the wounded Darth Vader at the end, though.
Nimoy!Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie.
Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson), Papa Wolf on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge in Taken.
20 years after defeating the Russians alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, John J Rambo can still single handedly waste the Burmese military, in spite of being a 60 year old man.
- It helps being thick as a tree and wielding a .50 caliber mounted machine gun.
Hub McCann in Secondhand Lions takes on four teenage greasers. Then takes them home and gives them his "What every boy needs to know about being a man" speech.
(After being attacked by a teenager with a knife) You hold it wrong, son. Not like this. You always do it like this... smooth. (tosses the knife back) Try it again.
- All of which he does right after giving one of the greatest Badass Boasts of all time.
  - All of which he does right after getting out of the hospital for a heart attack.
Three of the main characters in Kung Fu Hustle (Landlord, Landlady, and the Beast) are shown as unassuming older folk — until they start kicking the hell out of asses.
The old man guarding the Wall in the film version of Stardust, whose Badassery came as a surprise to Tristan.
Though Oogway from Kung Fu Panda doesn't get to show off his Badass Grandpa skills much, one flashback shows a fight with fellow bad ass Tai Lung that lasts all of a couple of seconds. Oogway completely immobilizes Tai Lung with a couple of whisper-quiet, well placed nerve hits and the fight is over.
- Also Shifu, who can trounce all of the Fearless Five at once and held his own against Tai Lung for a good while, even though he could hardly bear to.
While only in his fifties at the time, Principal Joe Clark from Lean on Me, played by none other than Morgan Freeman laying the smackdown on a knife-wielding, teenaged drug dealer by using his megaphone is a badass moment.
Basil L. Plumley from We Were Soldiers. Hardass extraordinaire, he doesn't so much as duck when the Vietnamese soldiers are taking pot shots at him. He doesn't even bother with a rifle, and uses his pistol for the entire battle. Even more impressive? He's based on a real person.
Most Clint Eastwood's late films, Gran Torino being the pinnacle of this.
- In Million Dollar Baby the Badass Grandpa is Eddie Scrap-Iron (Morgan Freeman), defeating a much younger fighter just to teach him a lesson.
- The emergence of this in Clint's work appears to have been Unforgiven, which he admits having suppressed because he badly wanted to play the lead role but wasn't old enough.
Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore. And in real life, too.
- Unless you happen to be a housepet's scrotum, how is Bob Barker a badass?
  - Well he did beat the shit out of Adam Sandler (though that may be because Sandler is a housepet's scrotum)
Parodied with The Chief in the Get Smart movie, who tackles the Vice President during an argument and later punches out an obnoxious Secret Service agent.
The 2009 animated Pixar film UP has Carl Fredricksen.
Jetfire. To quote the Transformers Wiki: "His cane is also an axe. This is awesome". "He can open a space-time bridge. In other words, he can teleport. This is also awesome". "He kills two Decepticons single-handedly in the battle. Also awesome. However, when he sees that Prime doesn't even have the energy to stand, he rips out his own spark so Prime can use his parts. Incredibly awesome. It's official — Jetfire is the coolest old man ever, and we're gonna miss him".
Joe Sarno in Way Of The Gun puts a lampshade on this after getting attitude from some hot-shot younger guys: "The only thing you can assume about a broken down old man... is that he's a survivor." Later, the two main characters shoot it out with some older bag-man, though only Sarno himself proves to be much of a threat.
Although in the comic the specifics of his death are left much more vauge, Hollis Masons death in the extended cut of Watchmen shows that he fits this trope pretty damn perfectly. Although surprised by 6 gang members, he get's in more that few hits on them and even, I think, knocks one out (There seems to be one less later on in the scene) It's easily the most moving scene in the whole film.

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Belgarath from The Belgariad. He is seven thousand years old, generally accepted as the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and has about three and a half thousand years worth of descendants whom he calls "Grandsons". To add to it, Belgarath likes drinking, thieving, wenching, and has a surprisingly young body for a man who appears to be at least in his seventies.
Discworld has almost as many Badass Grandpas as it has younger badasses. Commander Vimes is also almost old enough to qualify, but he's just the tip of the iceberg.
- Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde distill the trope, chill it, and serve it with fava beans and your liver. The books take the variation of 'A barbarian hero who gets to be that old is a very good barbarian hero indeed.'
- In Thief of Time, it's taught to young History Monks as Rule One: "Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men."
  - Bear in mind that Rule 19 is "Never forget Rule One," emphasizing the importance of Rule One, which Lu-Tze emphasizes by example several times over the course of the book.
  - For that matter, Lu-Tze is actually the reason Rules 1 and 19 exist in the first place.
- Quite a few of the staff at the Unseen University probably qualify, but the best example would be ArchChancellor Mustrum Ridcully.
- As of Night Watch, Vetinari and Vimes are both in their late forties or early fifties. It's established that the "in the past" part of the book occurs roughly thirty years prior to the Discworld present. Vimes is sixteen at that point and Vetinari is somewhere in his late teens so that would make them both somewhere around fifty.
- Technically Death is one of these because he adopted a human girl who gave birth to Susan who is almost as badass as her grandfather. Just off the top of my head Death takes on an entire army of Auditors during the Apocalypse during Thief of Time/ This is badass in itself, but even moreso when Death acually used a loophole to attack them (the true villains). To wit: Nowhere does it say to whom we must ride out against. In Reaper Man where he was forcibly retired and in a semi - indestructible body he rescued a child from a burning building, defying fate and ended up killing the New Death with a scythe sharpened by his anger. He blackmailed the multiverse into letting the main characters of Soul Music live . . . really, any moment where Death appears show him as a badass. Even while masquerading as the Discworld equivalent of Father Christmas!
- Also, Sgt Jackrum. Having been in the Borogravian army for sixt... a very long time and not dying makes you a prime example, even though he's not a grandpa.
Lord Of The Rings: Gandalf the White. After coming "back from the dead" (he was sent back, because his job wasn't done - very much hinted at in the book and by Word Of God to have been by Eru Ilúvatar aka God), he is granted an even greater use of his power — specifically, it's estimated that he was allowed to use about a third of his full strength as "the White", and was still able to take down a Balrog with his old strength.
- And of course Aragorn is eighty-seven years old at the time of The Lord Of The Rings... Theoden is a straighter example, though.
Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter. Although he was acknowledged to be the greatest wizard of all time since practically the beginning, so his magical abilities didn't came as a surprise; it's the raw badassitude he shows from the end of the fourth book onward.
- Also McGonagall, who is in her sixties or seventies, is still an awesome duellist.
Lazarus Long's Badass Grandpa, Ira Johnson, from Robert A Heinlein's Time Enough for Love. At seventy, we're told, he can hold an anvil at arm's length. By the horn.
- An age of seventy doesn't really mean as much to him, however. That would be more like an age of forty, tops, due to the Howard Foundation thing.
  - And Lazarus Long's first known appearance is at over 200. It's implied his lifetime is so long he may never die, and is bad ass enough to be a master at every profession including Piracy. He wears a kilt to have better access to his weapons at all time.
  - Ewwwww...
Barristan Selmy in A Song Of Ice And Fire is around sixty, the commander of the royal kingsguard and later the queensguard, winner of many tourneys even at advanced age and still one of the most able swordsman around. When the idiot king dismissed him from service he froze all his former subordinates with a mere look and effortlessly left the capital after killing all the guards that opposed him (supposedly even without having an own sword at this point) and record the . This is even more notable, considering that he lives in a realistic and rather cynical Crapsack World and successfully makes his living as one of the few more important straight Knight In Shining Armor in the story.
Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson are Badass Grandparents in development. They are detective archeologists in a mystery series by Elizabeth Peters, and started the series at thirty-something. They are now actual grandparents but just as formidable as ever. Their major disqualification is that they aren't cryptic enough about it. Having been badass archaeologist detectives in Egypt for at least thirty years, their badassery is well-known to the locals. Also, Emerson at sixty-something is still a roaring bull of a man, only rendered more distinguished-looking (at least in Amelia's eyes) by the streaks of gray at his temples.
David Gemmell's Druss the Legend. Half a million Mongol Mooks are attacking a fortress held by nine thousand raw recruits. The only thing they're scared of is a 60-year-old man with an axe and an attitude.
In Sandy Mitchell's novels, Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, manages to retain his badass status well into his ostensible retirement in Cain's Last Stand, going so far as to defeat Warmaster Varan in personal combat. On live, planet-wide pictcast.
- Same can be said for Commisar Yarrick. At least a hundred years old by now, he keeps coming out of retirement to fight the orks on Armageddon, and will probably keep fighting until he and Gazghul Thraka kill each other.
Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin of their respective adventures are in their fifties in their latest books and yet they still get to kick serious ass and save the world.
Papa Jan from This Perfect Day. A construction worker into his early 60's, as a young man he helped build UNICOMP, the supercomputer that rules the world, but came to regret it. Inspires his grandson Chip to break the system, and gives him crucial information on how to do so. Wanders around without touching his bracelet to scanners, defeating UNICOMP's efforts to keep tabs on him.
David Weber has Wencit of Rum. The only living White Wizard and Wild Wizard. He's several thousands of years old and the one person upholding the rules of White Wizardry. He also is a Person Of Mass Destruction, controlling the Strafing Spells that will coat an entire continent with Flames when he wills it.
- Elsewhere in the Weber bibliography, given Prolong, in the Honorverse physical infirmities from old age are effectively no longer a bar to maintaining badassitude decades into the future.
Les Miserables: Jean Valjean.
In the Star Trek Expanded Universe Millennium trilogy, Picard is a 95 year old Admiral in poor health and well into the process of going senile. But when three Romulan assassins armed with disruptors attack him, he kills them all with a bat'leth. Naked, because he was in the shower when they attacked.
In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Luke Skywalker has gotten well along in years, but shows little sign of this other than mellowing out. He is still considered the strongest Jedi to have ever lived and perhaps the best lightsaber duelist as well. Toward the end of the last lengthy series, Luke pins Jacen Solo, also know as Darth Caedus, to a wall using Force Telekinesis in what essentially amounts to a shrug while he proceeds to calmly ask questions and inspect the room.
Snow Crash: Uncle Enzo, who is head of the Mafia as well as an ex-special forces soldier. He manages to fight off Raven with a straight razor.
Papa O'Neal from John Ringo's Posleen War Series certainly qualifies. Though not perhaps as physically old as some mentioned on this page, he is a grandpa, literally, and is (or was, until the end of The Honor of the Clan) the head of a Badass Family.
The old blind gardener from World War Z. We know his age because his blindness is from the bombing of Nagasaki during World War Two, and the story takes place around 2006. His exploits as recounted in the book include killing Over Nine Thousand zombies with his cane, teaching other people (including one comically out-of-place Otaku) to kill Over Nine Thousand zombies, and being crazy... Crazy Awesome. His last line sums it up.
"I told him that we might be facing fifty million monsters, but those monsters would be facing the gods."
Any old wizard from The Dresden Files. Wizards only get more powerful with age and after a couple hundred years (or more) they are extremely powerful.

Close Literature

Bra'tac from Stargate SG-1. "Not bad, for an old man."
- Let's not forget Teal'c himself who, despite looking young, was actually about 100 when the show began. Then, in the last episode he alone is aged 60 years on top of that. He still mopped floors with those who were dumb enough to cross him.
- General George Hammond, despite being over 60, put on fatigues every now and again and blasted the crap out of bad guys. (see also General Jacob Carter, father of Colonel Sam Carter).
- In Stargate Atlantis Major Sheppard is aged into an old man by the constantly feeding Wraith. Most people would literally wither and die. Major Sheppard ain't most people....
Firefly's Shepherd Derrial Book? He punches out cops, shoots down space ships, decapitates deathbots, and shoots out men's kneecaps with rifles, one-handed, without even having to aim. If you called him a Badass Grandpa to his face, he would point out that he never married, so he is not a grandpa, but he couldn't deny the rest.
The first three Doctors of Doctor Who. The First Doctor was a crotchety old man... who somehow outfought armed knights with just his cane. The Second Doctor pretended to be a clown, yet was more than capable of taking out the strongest Yeti. And then there was the Third... who was a master of Venusian Akido and was also capable of out-fighting two men in a sword fight at the same time, while wearing a horribly clunky suit of armor that offered little protection ("I'm rather spry for my age."). That's right, these three are the guys you dreamed were your Grandfathers.
- The 10th Doc was aged to some ridiculous age (we're talking like 1047 years old) and because his ability to regenerate was nulled, he looked every year of it. It didn't stop him from cleaning the Master's clock though.
  - It was his actual age he was forcibly aged to. The Master claims it's around nine hundred.
- And then there's Susan, who actually was the granddaughter of the Doctor...
- In his last appearance in the old series The Brigadier was getting into this territory as well, facing down the Destroyer of Worlds all by his lonesome with nothing but a revolver and silver bullets. And winning.
  "Get off my world!"
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, especially in the movies.
- To be fair Captain James T. Kirk was busting bad guy asses well into his 50's and then came out of retirement at like 65 to help Picard take down Tolian Soran.
- How about an example of the Bad Ass Grandma, Admiral Kathryn Janeway the older, gray-haired version of Capt. Janeway who defied the Prime Directive, the Temperal Prime Directive, lied to Starfleet, and swindled a Klingon and gave him the finger. All to bring Voyager home earlier. Even people who don't like Captain Janeway love the Admiral.
Heroes has Daniel Linderman, Maury Parkman, Angela Petrelli, and the granddaddy of all badasses Arthur Petrelli. (See also Kaito Nakamura).
Mrs. Weston from Burn Notice manages to break a suspect by just sitting down and explaining how things will end if he refuses to talk.
24's Jack Bauer as of season 7.
Midsomer Murders episode Sins of Commission has a female version, Camilla Crofton. She killed them all. In self-defence, as they were trying to off her. It's quite possibly one of the most awesome "how they did it" flashback sequences ever (spoileriffic).

Close Live Action TV

Joseph Joestar in Jojos Bizarre Adventure Part 3 and Part 4.
The Third Hokage from Naruto takes this to extreme levels as well, but only truly shows his full prowess when battling Orochimaru shortly before his own demise while battling the reanimated corpses of two of his predecessors. In an interview the author stated that the Third was the strongest ninja ever lived along with the Fourth, except by a couple of alive characters.
- The Third, while undeniably Badass, is a bit of a subversion. While he does have a mastery of jutsu that Orochimaru can't begin to match, the ANBU members observing the fight realize that the Third has less chakra than he did in the past due to his old age. This is one major reason the Third had to resort to a Heroic Sacrifice to stop Orochimaru.
- Jiraiya also counts, being around 50 at the time of his introduction, a Kage level ninja who spends his time writing porn and perving on young women.
Subverted in Dragonball Z. Goku, though The Hero for most of the series, and never, ever regarded as frail or feeble, tries to become a Badass Grandpa during the Buu Arc. It's revealed that he could've defeated Majin Buu himself, but instead thought it wiser to let Gohan and the others fight the battle for themselves, rather than they becoming reliant on a dead Goku. This, however, royally blows up in his face, and in the end, he's the only one who can save the day after all. This was because of Executive Meddling however, as Toriyama really did want Gohan, Goten and Trunks to save the day.
- However, he does eventually becomes a literal grandfather with the birth of Gohan's daughter Pan.
- Did we seriously forget Master Roshi, the man who taught Goku his most powerful regularly used technique, and who is being played by Chow Yun Fat in the live action movie? Shame on us.
  - Does that really count? Roshi is surpassed by Goku relatively early in the original Dragon Ball, and by just about every other major fighter not long after. He functions as goofy comic relief for most of DB and the entirety of DBZ.
  - He was one of the very few people to beat Goku in a fight.
  - He's also one of the most powerful humans alive at the beginning of the story, and at the end, is still #4 or #5. Of his three latest students, two take the "strongest humans alive" spot, and the other becomes "strongest anything anywhere", except perhaps for his own son. The guy simply breeds pure badassery.
  - How about the beginning when all fights were fistcuffs? Master Roshi looked just like your average old geezer with a frail frame and everything. Gondor calls for help, and they come. Roshi says he can do it - he takes his shirt, comments on "how strong he is", and all around just looking comical. Then, suddenly, Roshi gets dangerous and activates his Hulk mode. Then he proceeds to ERASE AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN OF FIRES AND FLAMES WITH AN ENERGY BLAST. Goku is able to replicate this technique instantly (Master Roshi took 50 years to master it!), but all he could do was to "slightly" damage Bulma's Ford Pinto.
In The Prince Of Tennis manga, Tezuka's grandfather Kunikazu is in his 70's, but still has incredibly sharp reflexes (is able to use chopsticks to catch a falling teapot) and is one of the most respected (if not feared) instructors in the Tokyo Police Academy.
Genji Kamogawa and Jinpachi Nekota in Hajime No Ippo. Both are in their 70's and retired, but still have impressive strength for their ages.
Kimura: (after seeing them exchange blows as a greeting) ... THAT is how old men fight? Wow!
Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryuusai from Bleach. Not only was he already elderly three thousand years ago (as we see in flashbacks to Ukitake and Kyoraku's training), but he has huge muscles and is covered with combat scars. They even spoofed his Badass Grandpa status in one of the previews.
- Yama-jiji... Captain of the First Division, he has been established as being at least 2000 years old (having established the Shinigami Academy 2000 years prior to the main story line, NOT the Gotei 13 itself as is often misunderstood). It is also established that not only does he have the most powerful Fire-based weapon, but the most powerful attack power of any weapon in the series to date. Despite his outwardly old and hunched appearance, he is actually incredibly well built and toned under his robes, rippling with muscles (as well as scars across his body). He can outpace Shunsui and Ukitake easily (both are considered to be the next oldest captains along with Unohana, the next oldest captain after them is at least 1800 years younger) and take them both on in his primary release form without breaking a sweat. Currently it appears that there is no one else in the manga that could stand directly up against Yama in his primary release, let alone his final release (which has no been revealed yet). He appears stern and is often misunderstood as harsh (with regards to Rukia's execution) although many forget that the decisions during these times were made by Aizen (using his ability to make everyone think it was the Centrel46 Chambers). Ultimately he sends four of his captains to Hueco Mundo to aid Ichigo and his gang, who would most certainly have ended up dead had it not been for the captains' timely intervention.
- And now we have another Badass Grandpa... among the Arrancar: Barragan Luisenbarn, owner of a frigging huge axe and with the power to age shit into nothingness.
  - Slightly subverted in that, before the official ranks were revealed, everyone(both fans and characters alike) immediately assumed Barry was the Primera Espada, based on his resemblance to Captain Old Dude, turns out he's just the Segunda(Second) Espada.
Master Asia. Taking out a Humongous Mecha with only a loincloth (ON FOOT!) may be unscientific, but it cements his badassery and he follows up with much more feats of bad ass. Look! The east is burning reeeed!!!
- Grey Stroke, the future version of Judau Ashta is possibly the best pilot in U.C. .While everyone has there claim to fame Grey Stroke can admit to living until 80 years old, piloting the Gump, a broken ZZ Gundam with a PEG LEG and barely any of the original parts,and defeating ZANSCARE EMPIRE MOBILE SUITS despite a tech difference of 60+ YEARS
More a case of a Badass Great Uncle than Grandpa but still... Thorkell the Tall of Vinland Saga. Pure Bad Ass, despite the goofy grin he's always sporting.
- Askeladd's getting along in years as well, yet he is still stronger and harder than most men half his age.
Tenchi's grandfather Katsuhito in the Tenchi series, who is later revealed to be Ayeka's half-brother Yosho.
- Some exposition may be needed, since there are like 5 different continuities. In the spoiler above is the case in the OVAs, and his feats include fighting off a mind controlled Ryoko. In the Tenchi Universe series, he's still related to Jurai, but ran away to chill on Earth. As an old man, he...does fairly well...against the Big Bad. In Tenchi In Tokyo, he's the guardian of the entire universe, if memory serves. In Magical Girl Pretty Sammy...who knows?
  - Well, in TinT he's Guardian of the Earth, but he was getting Tenchi to take over. In Pretty Sammy he never shows up, and in M Agical Project S he makes a cameo as a sickly old man. Though he still talks like a badass though.
Hiko Seijiro from Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin's teacher and master of the Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū swordsman style, is an example of this trope. He is by far the most powerful swordsman in the series, capable of matching Kenshin, already established as an impossibly fast and powerful swordsman, in speed even when wearing a 30 kilogram cloak made of metal and possessing strength beyond any other character in the series by a ridiculous degree. In fact, during Kenshin's second training, Kenshin strikes at Hiko with his "entire body and soul" at one point (devoting so much attention that he fails to land properly and passes out), and only manages to graze one of Hiko's bracers.
- Word Of God says Hiko is so powerful that he could very easily take on virtually ANYONE in the series and completely ''curb stomp'' them.
Among the many things about the Yu-Gi-Oh anime that don't make sense: the Dark Magician becoming more powerful when aged a thousand years by the Time Wizard.
- Doesn't make sense?!
- Because magic requires practice and experience, not just brute force. What the older Dark Magician lacks in raw power, he makes it up with knowledge of very advanced magics. Just look at The Dumbledore. =P
- Ironically, in the real card game, Dark Sage (the aged Dark Magician) really does have a slightly higher ATK than the Dark Magician.
  - Irony does not work that way. (Thank you Morbo).
  - Yet doubly Ironically, no person in their right mind would include such a card in their deck owing to the difficulty required to actually summon him. The Magician of Black Chaos (or his effect counterpart) which is part of Yugi's Magician Triangle (Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Magician of Black Chaos) has equivalent attack and is by comparison easier to summon because you ritual summon him from your hand as long as you have the materials in your hand and field. Dark sage on the other hand requires Dark Magician, Time Wizard and launching his effect successfully (a 50% chance it will fail). As a result, we have comparably a younger wizard who the dark sage would require 1000 years of practice just to get equally as good.
"Dark King" Rayleigh from One Piece certainly qualifies for this. He was the first mate of the former Pirate King, and even after about 20 years is able to fight toe to toe with a Marine Admiral, one of the strongest fighters in the World Government (and in the case of this particular Admiral, capable of moving at the speed of light).
- Garp, the grandfather of the protagonist, who likes to attack people with a ball on chain the size of a boat, or throw/punch cannonballs at them.
- Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate he called "The Strongest Man in the World" has the power to create shock waves that can be used to create earthquakes and massive tidal waves and is stated to have the power to destroy the world as well as controls a vast pirate fleet.
Master Yupa from Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind is the ultimate Hayao Miyazaki Badass Grandpa. He wanders the world in peace and solemnity, looking for a solution to the Toxic Jungle, but also has a reputation across the entire world for being a legendary warrior. His finest moment may be stopping a sword at its point with his own forearm.
- It should also be noted that the force behind the sword in question is the titular princess in an Unstoppable Rage.
From Berserk, we have Azan. He was once called the Bridge Knight for keeping one hundred knights from crossing a bridge, and while he's no longer in the prime of his life he's still able to match an injured, but still very mean protagonist, Guts in combat.
Hayato Fūrinji in History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi might be the baddassest grandpa of them all. His nickname translates to "The Man Without Enemies", because nobody in the entire world qualifies.
- He's only ever faced one opponent in his past that gave him trouble in a fight (it still ended in a draw). Unfortunately, it's implied that his opponent was Pencak Silat Master Silcardo Jenazad of YAMI.
- Another nickname (or perhaps a different translation of the same nickname) is "The Invincible Superman."
- To get an idea at just what we're dealing with here, this is what Hayato considers holding back.
- For further reference, he's currently operating at 0.0002 percent of his full power.
Death Note's Watari. Not only is he able to put up with L (a fairly awesome feat by anyone's standards), he's also able to work round-the-clock with him and in the anime version, he shoots Higuchi from a helicopter at least 10 metres away.
- Although he may not be quite on the level of Watari, there's also Light's father, Yagami Soichiro. Often cited as being the only truly righteous character in the Black And Grey Morality of the series, he pulls off various feats of badassery in the name of his idea of justice.
In Twentieth Century Boys, a couple time skips causes just about the entire original main cast to become this. "When a man is singing, you DON'T SHOOT HIM!"
Juzo. Kabuto.
Yagyu Retsudo from Lone Wolf and Cub. Despite his old age he virtually controls the nation and is equal in combat with the main character (who is awlays portayed as the most skilled swordman).
Shiryu's master from Saint Seiya.
- Isn't Dohko a bit of a subversion, since thanks to his powers, his old appearance is just an illusion and he hasn't really aged at all in 200 years?
Balgus from Vision of Escaflowne definitely counts for chopping off the arm of a mecha with a giant sword, on foot. The only reason he lost was because he was fighting giant robots. On foot.
Bookman from D.Gray-Man. Just try to call him "Old Panda" and you'll see.
Tokaki and his wife Subaru from Fushigi Yuugi are Badass Grandparents, fighting demons and the Seiryuu Seishi Miboshi at over 100. Justified as both of them are Byakko Seishi. Tatara, their fellow Byakko Seishi, is a subversion of this trope, seeing as Subaru cast a spell on him to make him look, feel and fight like he's younger.
While not actually related to anyone, and a Dirty Old Man to the core, Happosai of Ranma One Half is also a legitimately dangerous old man who, when he puts his mind to it, can be the most powerful Old Master in the series. Though one of two Miniature Senior Citizens, he has once stopped a bomb the size of a small house with just his finger, sent a giant yeti-ox-crane-eel mishmash rocketing skyward with only his pipe, knocked said abomination against nature out with a single one of his homemade bombs, can use his Battle Aura with such proficiency he can grow into a kaiju-sized giant version of himself, and can defeat just about any combination of the teenaged cast with no difficulties whatsoever.
- From the same series, we have Cologne, Shampoo's Badass Great-Grandma. While possibly having less raw power than Happosai, she makes up for it by lacking his arbitrainess, easily distracted nature, and exploitable weaknesses for women's underwear and cute girls. In between the anime and the manga, she has been able to hurl Pantyhose Taro (the aforementioned giant monster) through the roof with a wave of her staff, create water blasts in the shape of a giant shark as well as conjure waterspouts, create whirlwinds with a flick of her staff, use telekinesis to fly around on the back of a life-sized ice sculpture of a grizzly bear while simultaneously flinging ice boulders, and shatter steel and stone with merely a touch of her finger.

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From the Badass Grandpa anthem "The Swordsman," "Old swordsmen get to be that way...by being very good"

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There are a few to be found in the realms of Professional Wrestling — Harley Race and Stan Hansen spring to mind — not to mention Terry Funk, who took part in a No DQ match featuring copious amounts of barbed wire in his SIXTIES. Most retired wrestlers also get the Badass Grandpa treatment whenever they show up for a cameo.
Ric Flair. This troper is still awed at the worked shoot promo Flair cut on Carlito ("I’ll tell you what my problem is. Guys like you that have no passion, no GUTS! You want all the money, you want all the glory, you wanna fly first-class, you wanna walk around with someone like her? You don’t deserve it!"). Not to mention working a full-time schedule in his sixties and blading like a mofo more than a few times to sell a feud. Still king of the craaaazy eyes, Flair.
WWE Hall of Famer / wrestling legend The Fabulous Moolah qualifies as a Badass Grandma; Moolah won her last WWF Women's Championship in 1999 at the age of 76 and remained a force in the Women's division right up until her death at age 84. Her longtime friend and tag-team partner, Mae Young, is still semi-active at age 85, and has promised that she will have a match on one of WWE's programs to commemorate her 100th birthday; however, she's more of a comedy character in the mold of Mae West.
More common in Japanese wrestling: some older wrestlers develop an ability known to some fans as "grumpiness", when they get so fed up with those gosh-durn kids with all their fancy moves that they just suddenly no-sell everything and knock the whippersnapper's block off with a single slap. Best exemplified by Genichiro Tenryu, though by no means is he the only wrestler who does this.
Terry Funk once commented that he thought the most hardcore man in wrestling was Vince McMahon. Terry's reasoning? On some level, the wrestlers do what they do because they need a paycheck; Vince, on the other hand, is a billionaire who will never want for money again, and could do anything he pleases with his life, but gets beaten up, thrown around, steel chairs wrapped around his head, thrown through tables, etc. on national television just because he likes it. And yes, Vince is an actual grandfather, which puts him squarely in this trope in Real Life.
British wrestling legend Johnny Saint, though semi-retired now, has been wrestling since 1958. That's right, he's been a professional wrestler for over half a century. And he's still very capable of wrestling circles around men half his age, as the footage of him facing off against Delirious starting at the two minute mark clearly displays.
The Undertaker certainly qualifies. Even in his forties, he's capable of putting out a good effort against guys younger and healthier than he; in fact, 'Taker and Shawn Michaels - both at least 40 years old at the time - showed up pretty much EVERYONE younger than them at Wrestle Mania 25.
- And on that note, Shawn Michaels has to be considered: he's over 40, and he can still pull out at least a three-star match out of pure instinct. And this is AFTER suffering a back injury that left him on the shelf for four years and unsure if he'd ever wrestle full-time again.

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Warhammer 40000. Commissar Yarrick. He's not a Super Soldier, a Space Elf or a robot zombie. He's just an old, old man with unfinished business and a giant power claw for a hand and a laser beam eye.
A sizeable portion of the Magi in Magi Nation are like this. In particular, if you ever meet a Magi with "Elder" in their title, it's probably a good idea to run away.
Mutant Chronicles have Jake Kramer, part of the spec-ops well past the time when he should have gotten a discharge. And kicking ass.
White Wolf's epic anime fantasy game Exalted has plenty of those. To name a few most outstanding:
- Chejop Kejak is about 5000 years old and will die of old age in about 5 years. He's old, tired and bitter. He's also the most powerful Exalt currently living and a master of several Kung Fu styles capable of literally rewriting the reality. Not to mention he actually rules Heaven.
- Saibok Gauto's age is hard to assess, but definitely over ten thousand years. He's a feeble, senile man with more wrinkles than body hair, and the only thing he cares for is his great garden. When in danger, however, he shows superb strength and fighting abilities sufficient to beat the living crap out of any starting character.
In Battle Tech, Clan Mechwarriors are but mayflies to the Inner Sphere, where your average 'Mechwarrior (Assuming s/he isn't killed in combat) will be in the cockpit till their 40's. But several examples of Badass Grandpas (And Grandmas) include Natasha Kerensky (In her 70s when she was finally taken down by a rare Clan 'mechwarrior almost as old as her), Jaime Wolf (died in his 80s during the Word of Blake-sponsored invasion of Outreach, after taking out an entire company nearly singlehandedly), Takashi Kurita (Who at the age of 80 had to be restrained by an agent of his son just to stop him from charging headlong into a clan invasion force of the capital world) and his son Theodore (Who fought a war on two fronts, against the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns forces, and against his own army's staunch traditionalism sponsored by his father, at the age of 43, and only went further as time went on.)
- Special mention should be made of Morgan Kell, who fought in his ancient Archer Battlemech into his 90s, and was the only living 'Phantom Mechwarrior' - essentially invisible to targeting computers, a condition he gained in his late 30s.
Werewolf The Forsaken has a whole Lodge of these, known as the Lodge of Scars. Somewhat justified, as the werewolves who quality for said Lodge have survived decades in a life where they're constantly hounded by hostile spirits, in the middle of a holy war with their bastard cousins, and always one step away from going into a killing rage.
Dungeons And Dragons characters can potentially become this if the player makes them old. Outside of this though, two specific examples come to mind: Elminster from the Forgotten Realms and this guy◊ who appeared in 3.5 Edition's DMG 2.
- Some veteran players and D Ms, especially those who do not keep Comic Book Time between dungeons/campaigns, end up with characters that become this. Veteran players themselves, can bee see as this to younger players, in that they know very well how to break a character - because they had to try much, much harder back in the day to do so.
Call Of Cthulhu has an option to pre-age your character at character generation. The harshness of the penalties depend on the era you're playing in, but by the 1920s you can effectively trade a little strength for enough skill points that you never miss with your preferred firearm type at a realistic range.

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Hectan, from the obscure-yet-well-known Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. He's got to be AT LEAST 60, has sky blue hair, and, well... NEXT.
And from Zelda games that actually count, there's the Hero's Shade and Auru from Twilight Princess.
From The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, we have Orca, who is an aged and avid swordsman. He practices constantly, and is Link's primary trainer in the ways of the blade. His intellectual older brother Sturgeon is exasperated by Orca's apparent refusal to exercise his brain in favor of sword practice, but surprisingly he himself used to be a talented swordsman in his younger days.
Adam, from the Trauma Center series. He may not be able to move, but not only is he 121 years old, he uses his own body to manufacture deadly pathogens that border on the self-aware, plus his skin is dark grey with blue lines. DARK GREY WITH BLUE LINES. I really don't know how he isn't the entire representation of this trope.
Johnson, in the Halo Games,and books, and comics. Classified Spec Ops in his 20s and/or 30s, was at the start of the Human/Covenant war, end of it, and was able to kill enough Flood to startle John-117. He is also a chemically enhanced S-I, and has driven a Scarab. He badmouthed the Prophet of Turht to his face while being beaten by a Brute. All this in his eighties. Even taking into account cryo-sleep, he's still probably biologically in his seventies or so.
- While not as Bad Ass, Captain Keyes certainly qualifies.
Final Fantasy IV: Tellah may appear to be an old codger and have a pathetic supply of MP, but keep in mind he was quite the mage back in his days — this is demonstrated in the fact that he knew (and forgot) almost every White and Black spell there is, and fully remembers them, along with Meteor, at far earlier levels than either of your other Black Mages can hope to learn them. The only shame, then, is that actually pulling Meteor out of his bag of tricks is his swan song. And then there's Fusoya, who actually knows them ALL, AND dispels Zemus' hold on Golbez and Kain in one transaction.
- And one must not forget this game's incarnation of Cid. In the original game, he's 54 years old, and in Final Fantasy IV The After Years, he's 71, which ties with Strago for oldest playable character ever. What are his accomplishments? Let's see: he invented the airship (duh), is a playable character relying on brute force and hammers, has a boisterous and loud personality, and... oh yeah, he takes a flying leap from an airship and detonates what appears to be a mini nuke in his hand in order to seal up a passage for the party. And in a week, he's back on his feet and fixing your airship again.
In FAMOUS has Alden Tate, an "old grizzled man" who can lift huge metal objects with his mind, and throw them.
Strago from Final Fantasy VI proves to be an exceptionally powerful wizard in spite of his age, and his granddaughter is also a player-character. Note that he is ten years older than the abovementioned Tellah, and that his first act as a member of the party is to charge into a burning building to rescue his adopted granddaughter.
- And we must not forget Cyan. At fifty years old, he's nearly twice the age of any of the other party members, save Strago. His first act in the story is to single-handedly kill the leader of the Imperial siege of Doma, and then later to go on a Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, fully ready to kill every last Imperial in their base before stopping..
And Auron finds himself belonging in yet another Bad Ass trope. Obi Wan on steroids indeed...
- Auron wasn't all that old. Trema, the Bonus Boss of Final Fantasy X-2, however, fits this perfectly, being a little wizened old man who can kick your ass faster than you can blink, as well as being a complete aversion of the normal tendency for Bonus Bosses to be giant robots, cosmic horrors, or otherwise huge and improbable monstrosities.
Gen from the Street Fighter series. A professional assassin in his heyday, he's still capable of matching Akuma in his old age. Oro from Street Fighter III is over a hundred and is more or less the most powerful character in the series outside of Gill and Akuma. In fact, Akuma himself is old enough to be an example.
- Actually, Akuma himself faces Oro, a match that apparently ends in a draw. Mind you, Oro has magically sealed his other arm to prevent him from accidentally killing someone.
- And in Street Fighter 4, Gouken, the former master of Ryu and Ken and older brother of Akuma, makes his debut as a fighter. He hits like a bus and is surprisingly nimble. He's also built like a mountain of muscle and has a wicked awesome beard.
- Not to mention surviving an attack that's supposed to send you to hell.
Baldurs Gate has Keldorn Firecam. Quoting the Badass page: Sixty-something, but still covered in armour and swinging a two-handed sword whilst singing the praises of his rocking-out god. Plus he's the only NPC in the game capable of wielding the game's most powerful sword, and is a rare example of how to be a righteous paladin without having a stick up his ass.
- Is he, though? He may not be a day over fifty. Men don't dye their grey hair or try to hide their age like Hollywood actors in Medieval settings! And Keldorn certainly never comes off as a frail old (or even frail older) man, being a clear Badass from square one, and thus doesn't really make this trope.
- He does make this trope - making it to forty is rare in a medieval-esque setting, unless you're a wizard, and making it past then is rare indeed: Keldorn explicitly notes that he's old enough to be Imoen's father, and Imoen is twenty, meaning Keldorn could very well be a grandfather. Also given that he's a paladin on active combat duty, and has been for a long time, he definitely clocks in with the others who *have* to be a Bad Ass simply to make it to old age, given their chosen career.
- If the age thing is still a problem, well his epilogue says he eventually checks out at age sixty, pulling a fatal You Shall Not Pass on an army of Giants only to get picked to be the right hand man to the God of Righteousness. That should be enough to qualify him even if we disallow his earlier accomplishments.
Final Fantasy V: Let's not forget Galuf, who can best be summed up in the following quote:
"But man, you fucking kids! Back in GALUF'S day, you didn't die from a single sword wound from a pretty boy! No sir! If you wanted to die, you had to go and find the world's most powerful black mage, who despite BEING a mage is wearing FULL ARMOR and WIELDS A SWORD, and knows all the most powerful spells in the game. And hell, just getting to him was a lot harder, too! You had to go through TWO worlds. And it was uphill in BOTH of them. And when you were finally AT that fucking mage, you didn't say "oh hey, stab me, it's a cut scene". No, you PUSSY, you FOUGHT him! And you kept fighting until your hit points were fucking negative ten thousand billion. THEN you can die, you cock-sucking youngin'."
- That quote forgets to mention that he also fights that battle alone, the rest of the party being incapacitated by three of that worlds crystals respectively. The fourth? It TRIED to keep Galuf down with that magic beam, only to be shattered to pieces by pure grampa willpower. Oh, and his granddaughter was captured inside a paralyzing magic bubble made of what seems fire. The solution? Galuf jumps into the bubble, pushes her out, and THEN proceeds to whoop X-Deaths ass, the magic fire bubble completely powerless to hold him back. Was it mentioned that he's also a king who when discovering the enemy has his friends hostages tells his own army to fall back, jumps on a dragon and rides into the enemy fortress and raids it alone, rescuing friends. Galuf is the most badass character seen in the series.
Same place as Kliff Undersn from Guilty Gear, apparently. As a previous Commander of the Holy Order of Sacred Knights (at bare minimum 76 years old by the final battle of the Holy War, and he doesn't have Sol Badguy's enhanced longevity), he was an engine of destruction in his prime, being able to go toe-to-toe with Justice no less than seventeen times throughout the war and living through all of them. Even as an old and stooped dwarf of a man, he can still expertly wield his Dragonslayer Sword and strike hard enough to easily stun people one quarter of his age and four times his size. His only limiting factor is apparently his back, which does give out from time to time.
Dynasty Warriors brings us Huang Zhong, easily the oldest looking character in the game, but a good swordsman and an amazing archer nonetheless.
Sister series Samurai Warriors, not to be outdone, gives us Yoshihiro Shimazu, who - despite being a craggy old man with the requisite white beard - is built like a brick outhouse and can swing around a giant hammer with ease.
Drachma from Skies Of Arcadia
The End from Metal Gear Solid 3. Sure, the guy's over a hundred years old, with about a week's worth of life left in him, but he's still the best sniper in the world. In addition, he can run faster then Snake, is capable of photosynthesis, and is the absolute king of camouflage. He may be as old as the hills, but he will take you down. With tranquilizer rounds.
- What about Old Snake himself in MGS 4?
- You can't forget Big Boss himself, who, by the time of the first Metal Gear game, was in his 60s and was considered THE most badass soldier of the century. By the time of MGS 4, he's already survived being (supposedly) killed TWICE (the first time had his fortress collapse around him, the second involved being set on fire), was in a coma for about 15 years, had his body restored partially from the remains of his dead clones, and he was STILL considered to be THE badass to end all badasses. Also, he still scared Snake shitless when they had their little encounter in the cemetery. He was in his eighties.
- Revolver Ocelot Was in his sixties in MGS1, but that didn't stop him from being a badass 'Ricochet Genius' or handling his revolvers like he was still in his twenties. In MGS 4 he's aged 10 years, and he's able to take Old Snake on in hand-to-hand combat. Twice.
- Really all the Cobras can count for this. You have to remember that they were already veteran soldiers when the group was founded 32 years ago and by the time of their deaths were well into their 50's. The Boss is a slight exception since she is only 48, but she makes up for it in sheer badassness.
Bill from Left 4 Dead may look like a nursing-home candidate, but he doesn't walk, talk, or shoot like one. He is, in point of fact, a former Green Beret who did two tours of duty in Vietnam.
- "I was too old for this shit fifteen years ago."
Heihachi Mishima from Tekken is improbably hardcore... not just incredibly strong and muscled for such an old guy, but also highly proficient at martial arts and he can generate electricity from his fists. And beat up 4 generations of his own family who tried to go against him. And he's incredibly rich and runs a world-spanning corporation. And he has a grizzly bear as a pet.
- And you can then go one step further into the Mishima family tree with Heihachi's dad, Jinpachi Mishima. Had the family business taken from him, but chose to remain peaceful even though he kicks arse... Then he gets possessed by a demon. Now he has blue skin, huge muscles, a gaping demon pair of jaws WHICH BREATHE FIRE in his chest, and has electricity always coruscating around him. That makes him a Badass GREAT Grandpa. Oh, and his goal is to destroy all of existence.
- Soul Calibur had Edge Master.
Muramasa from Ninja Gaiden (specifically Ninja Gaiden 2). In the first one you can tell he was awesome in his prime. In the second one, you gotta wonder why he isn't taking on hell instead of Ryu.
Ammon Jerro in Neverwinter Nights 2 probably counts as he's the warlock in the game's intro, going toe-to-toe with the King of Shadows. He's also a very powerful warlock in his own right (insofar as the game's rules can let a warlock be powerful).
J from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow spends most of the game wandering around as an amnesiac. He's at least fifty years old, and honestly, doesn't seem like he can do much. Then right before you get to the final boss, he's standing in the doorway. With Vampire Killer. And of course you've recently found out Soma Cruz, the main character, is Dracula's reincarnation. This is when he reveals he's in reality Julius Belmont, last in the line of very, VERY good-at-it vampire hunters. Oh, guess what you are. Belmont charges, and you realize all of a sudden you are about to be in an entire universe of hurt.
- Well, at that point Soma's got Black Panther, and is blazing fast beyond all sanity. Julius is still fast, just not as much as Soma. And he still hits like a fully-loaded freight train.
- Julius is, without question, the fastest, least predictable boss in the game. Every other boss has some kind of pattern to their attacks, a cue that you can spot fast enough to know what's coming and avoid it even if you're pretty much a klutz at the controls. I laugh at Death and Chaos. Julius makes me cry.
  - Oh, and for a bonus? He's the only enemy in the game who resists the holy damage dealt by Claimh Solais.
If the player doddles long enough, he can become a Badass Grandpa in Fable. The ancient hero Scyth is also supposedly pretty badass.
Jolee "I'm Too Old For This" Bindo from Knights Of The Old Republic (the original). When you first meet him, he goes four-on-one against some of Kashyykk's native predators. And wins. Without breaking a sweat. Also, he's a Jedi, and old and respected enough to basically walk out on the Council without consequence. Also, Kreia from the sequel.
Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2, who serves as a rather morally ambiguous Obi-Wan to your character after having already been a Jedi Master and a Sith Lord. If that's not enough, her ultimate purpose is equally badass: she wants nothing less than the death of the Force itself, so people will stop being so weak and dependant on it. You're the key to making it happen, and she will remove any obstacle or inconvenience to her plan.
- The best example of her Badass skills? Killing the Jedi Council with the Force then fighting the main character with three lightsabres at the same time.
  - So this old woman wants to kill the Force, all while being almost completely dependent upon it in order to kill the Jedi Council AND fight you, with two of those three lightsabers being wielded by the Force? And she wants to kill the Force to stop people from being ''so weak and dependent'' on it? Irony: It's not just how iron tastes.
  - She does acknowledge the hypocrisy, and even admits that her rationalisations are likely just "the excuses of an old woman".
  - Actually, all three lightsabers are controlled by the Force. And she kills the Jedi Council with an extremely powerful Force Drain, highlighting their crippling dependence on the Force. She's aware of how much she herself depends on the Force, but that's part of why she wants to destroy it.
1000 years prior to the setting of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, eight legendary heroes cleansed the land of dragons. Two of them are still alive, and still the most powerful beings on the continent (one of them becomes playable for the final chapter and is the most powerful character you ever get, but the other one outdoes him by bringing a dragon back to life, complete with its original soul. The Big Bad qualifies, also, having been an old friend of one of those two some 500 years previous before a differing in opinions led to his turn toward evil.
Anduin Lothar from the Warcraft series. He formed the Alliance and led it to victory while in his sixties.
- Let's not forget Cairne Bloodhoof and (according to some accounts) Prophet Velen.
- Velen is a lolsmitepriest who makes self fulfilling prophecies and managed to outsmart Kil'Jaeden for 25,000 years. He definitely qualifies.
  - If by "outsmart" you mean "ran away and let countless planets get invaded by demons just because he'd been on them, and was willing to doom countless more by his presence"... So Yeah.
Gogen from Arc The Lad: 3.000 years old, already survived one apocalypse and spent most of his time sealed with the big bad: during his first appearance in Arc II he litteraly blows up the game's equivalent of the Statue of the Liberty with one spell.
In Xenogears, Fei Fon Wong is 10.000 years old and the ancestor of most of the cast. Then considering how ungodly powerful he is, he can be called a Grandpa of Mass destruction
Daitetsu Minase from Super Robot Wars Original Generation. Has a six year old graddaughter, qualifying his on the age front. On the Bad Ass? Well, he survived getting blown the fuck up by the Granzon mecha (whose weaponry can warp dimensions), commanded a single battleship against some crazy odds involving submarine warfare, facing off against an entire enemy force by himself twice (first time against six submarines, second time against the combined forces of the Divine Crusaders at Aidenous while his crew were beating the piss out of Bian Zoldark's Valsion), and has served as captain of two battleships that he kicked major ass with in both the first game and the anime adaptation.
- In the second game, he gets many Big Damn Heroes moments, and at the risk of spoilers, manages to get his troops to safety after Operation Plantagenet goes awry, and flips a massive middle finger in the form of a massive energy blast at the enemy troops simultaneously.
- Super Robot Wars has a whole bunch of those, for example Master Asia (the grand-daddy of badasses from G Gundam), Master Rishu (he trained The Sword That Cleaves Evil, and he's still good for a fight) and Alpha 3's Baran Doban.
Wess from Mother 3 is probably the most powerful and helpful Nonplayable party member in the game.
Two words: Master Xehanort. Good fuckity God. The guy's a bald, bent, skinny old man who might just be the biggest Badass out of Sora, Riku, every other Xehanort, Oragnization XIII, Mickey Mouse and Sephiroth. This is really no exaggeration. Behold.
Not exactly an old man but has the same "Must be good or else he would be dead" pre-requisite. Namely the Demoman from Team Fortress 2, "What makes me a good Demoman? If I was a bad demoman I wouldn't be sitting here discussing it with you!"
The title character of Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure, a Quintessential British Gentleman Adventurer Archaeologist. In-game, he can however de-age when properly powered up, but his default from is his white-haired form.
No one has mentioned Cidolfas Orlandu of Final Fantasy Tactics yet!? The Thunder God himself?! The leader of the Nanten Knights and a general within the ranks of the banner of the Black Lion of Prince Goltana, he defects to Ramza's (you) forces because he realizes that despite having served the house of Goltana for decades...the war the Prince is esclating against Duke Larg for the crown will tear Ivalice (the games' setting) apart. Right from the moment you see him, even though he's among the ranks of many of the games' antagonists...you know he's honorable and awesome, daring to question his liege' intentions. You realize from reading his profile that he can probably do this because no one would stand a chance against him if they felt then need to quiet him...as is displayed later in the game. No martyrdom for this undefeated swordmaster! Oh no, he joins you after that and subsequently breaks the game because he's so damn powerful...the need for your other party members becomes tertiary. He has every major sword ability in the game including one that heals him while still doing massive damage, he comes with excalibur, and he has superior stats. He IS Ramza's army by the end. If you can actually lose with Cid on your team then you...you just suck.
Tenchu 2 had Master Shiunsai and... Urano Takehito.
Tobias from Lock's Quest: Lock's (grand)father figure, and the Big Bad.

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Uncle Iroh from Avatar The Last Airbender. For most of the series, Iroh seems an overweight, over-the-hill, past-his-prime wise man who would rather spend his days sipping tea, playing music and Pai-Sho, and generally forgetting about his past warrior-exploits. Early inklings of his badassness are shown, though, when, after being captured, not only does he manage to lead Zuko to him, but also nearly escape by himself; finally, with Zuko's help, he completely frees himself, and both fight off a band of half-a-dozen Earthbender soldiers with nothing but a pair of chains and martial skill (they didn't even have to Firebend... that would've been unfair).
Earthbender: Stay where you are! You're clearly outnumbered!
Iroh: That's true... but you are clearly outmatched!
- Not to mention smoking his niece Azula, one of the most feared Firebenders in the world, in two seconds flat. Or tearing apart thick prison bars with his bare hands. Or using the Sozin's Comet powerup to blast through the functional equivalent of the Great Wall of China like it was tissue paper. Or leading a hand-picked team of four other Badass Grandpas to defeat an entire Fire Nation army...
- And then there's the over 100-year-old King Bumi: "You thought I was just a frail old man, but I'm the most powerful Earthbender you'll ever see!" While Toph later proves that statement untrue, he certainly lives up to it for the moment. Can Toph earthbend with her FACE?
  - Then again, while Toph is the most versatile Earthbender, thanks to her movement sensing abilities and Metalbending, she never launched buildings into the air or stacked a bunch of tanks on top of each other. Bumi has her beat in terms of raw power.
  - Toph deadlifts libraries.
  - I never said she was a distant second. At the rate she's going she'll probably be able to move mountains by the time she hits puberty.
Splinter of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame quickly comes to mind. Not only does he train otherwise normal mutant turtles to be freakin' ninjas, he also manages to kick his own fair share of ass on several occasions in the comic books and the television series.
- Otherwise normal?! And sadly, at least in the 1980's series, his job was all too often to get captured or otherwise indisposed. That being said, he was pretty much the only character who could take Shredder in a fair fight.
- The more recent series sees Splinter kick butt a lot. The first time they fight Shredder, he waits until it's clear the Turtles can't take him on their own, then proceeds to beat him without any help (except for gravity, perhaps).
- Also, later in the show they all go to a multidimensional fighting tournament, and the Turtles learn from a contest veteran that Splinter once won the whole thing... with a broken leg, no less.
American Dragon Jake Long. Despite his old age, Grandpa Lao will still take on his dragon form to fight side by side with his grandson on frequent missions. This is the opposite case in The Life and Times of Juniper Lee where Grandma Jasmine only assists Juniper Lee in extreme circumstances or when she is absent during a mission.
Nana Possible from Kim Possible. While only making a few appearances in the show, the two times she's been directly involved in one of Kim's adventures, she's shown remarkable martial skill for anyone of any age. In fact, Dr. Drakken revealed that, in her prime, her exploits apparently dwarfed even Kim's (in fairness to Kim, it's implied Nana's career was much longer than Kim's has been so far), and after he uses a mind-controlling transition on Nana, he has her fight Kim herself. Nana had one clean hit on Kim, but when Kim quickly ended the fight by shutting off the said transition. After everything is back to normal, we see Nana beat Kim in a sparring match, and the end.
Master Fung in Xiaolin Showdown.
Max Tennyson in Ben 10 — the protagonist's literal Grandpa, a former Plumber and Badass Normal.
Atomic Betty's grandma Beatrix was a famous Galactic Guardian in her day, and still kicks butt as needed. Bakes great pies, too.
Transformers Animated has Ratchet, the old war veteran medic who can kick your ass and then put you back together again. Also known as the person who had the ball bearings to call out the Autobot Elite Guard on their unethical practices.
Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond. A bat-shit Crazy Prepared old man who can beat up street thugs with nothing more than his cane, and who can still beat supervillains as well (in fact, Terry has stated that Bruce was the only person who could beat his toughest foe, Inque). Subverted in the fact that Bruce is Terry's father, not his grandfather but now we're just playing with semantics. Made all the more awesome when the writers make him believably old — when he gets riled he needs a dose of his heart meds and a nap afterward, but you're lucky if you survive him getting riled. Oh, and he's still got pinpoint accuracy with batarangs.
Not actually an example, but the Beast With A Billion Back four-episode Futurama special has Dr. Farnsworth describe Electromatter as "matter's badass grandma".
The last surviving member of the Blackhawks in Justice League Unlimited. Has what looks like a modified (to have two heavy cannon) F-4 Phantom-II in his barn. Shoots down a robot-vulture (part of the subverted Blackhawk Island defences) that was giving Hawkgirl, Flash, and Fire serious trouble. Gets taken hostage by Lex Luthor, which is not so Bad Ass, but manages to get away and get back to disable the island self-destruct, which is.
In the Adventures of Sam And Max Freelance Police episode "Christmas, Bloody Christmas", Sam's Granny Ruth is a former prison warden who manages to both spread holiday cheer at the prison where she used to work and thwart a prisoner's escape attempt.
Grampa Abe Simpson from The Simpsons is for the most part a crazy old man, but he showed he still had it in "The Flying Hellfish."
- When he helped Bart in "Bart the General" that was pretty awesome too. It's quite sad that this this side of Abe is rarely shown, and nowadays is all but forgotten.
Hudson and the Archmage of Gargoyles. Macbeth is certainly a Bad Ass. His aging may have been magically done, but now he's one step removed from immortal due to said magic, and as such he's been alive for about 1,000 years.
- Halcyon Renard manages to pull this off while riding around in a wheelchair. Just look at him when Goliath is about to escape in "Outfoxed". He quietly shoots and knocks Goliath out! "I am trembling in my chair".
  - One of this troper's favorite moments regarding Raynard was, after capturing Goliath and calling him out on the destruction of his last airship, he respnods to Goliath's denails with "You sound like every whiny employee I ever fired."
Both the hero and villain of Up, which is played for laughs at one point when they both throw their backs out in the middle of their climactic duel.
One More Thing... Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures appears to be your typical elderly Chinese man obsessed with the cleanliness of his shop... but he's also the local expert on the mystic arts and no slouch in the martial arts, either. Not that he cares... if he had a choice in the matter, he'd rather just run his shop.
- He gets even more Bad Ass in The Dog and Piggy Show, when powered up by an immortality/youthful energy talisman. Not so antique anymore...
Claude Frollo of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Although he mostly makes his soldiers do all the work, he's quite capable of going after anyone himself. He's almost as physically strong as Quasimodo.

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Feng from Sluggy Freelance is supposed to be one of these, but his combat skills remain an Informed Ability.
- Until he fights Kusari on even terms.
Thaco from Goblins.
Old Man-Man from Dresden Codak.
Clark from Shape Quest, who is a wizard.

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LessThanThree Comics' Uncle Sam maanges to hold his own against a horde of ninjas... At around 80 years of age. Sure, Mr Perfect helped him out, but the <3-Verse's oldest superhero held his own.
Semi-retired mystery man The Stranger of Red Panda Adventures would prefer to stay retired but Nazi Germany and other magical forces won't let him.

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Any tenth-degree black belt. Since almost every martial art requires at least half a century of study before you can try for tenth-degree, these are some of the most dangerous old men/women alive. (Apparently, martial arts is second only to swimming for exercise, as proper training will work every muscle group.)
George Foreman. Won a heavyweight boxing championship aged 48, and STILL can beat the crap out of anyone.
- Evander Holyfield is trying to follow his footsteps, at the age of 45.
- We must mention boxing's original Badass Grandpa Archie Moore, who won his first world title at the age of 39 and defended it for the next 10 years. His second to last fight was against a young Muhammad Ali well into his 50s, after having begun his career when Joe Louis hadn't even won the title yet. He still has the all-time record for most knockouts, 131. Think about that. The man had more knockouts in his career than Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather have fights combined.
Keith Richards. It's been over forty years since the Stones formed up; after all the drugs, sex, trials and blood transfusions, Keef Riffhard can still kick your ass.
- And his role models, both in music and longevity? Many of the classic blues, R&B and rock icons who influenced Keith, like B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, who were alive and well and still active into their seventies and eighties (and some of whom are still with us today). Many of them had also cheated fate with wild lifestyles and hard living.
- "Listen, sunny Jim. Sleeping like this will add ten years to your life. I learned it from Keith Richards when I toured with the Stones. This may be the reason why Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons."
- Or witness this Rolling Stones concert in which a rogue fan runs onstage. Keith takes off his guitar, whangs the guy in the face, then calmly puts his guitar back on and picks up exactly where he's supposed to in the song. Best part is that the rest of the band continues playing "Satisfaction" like nothing out of the ordinary is going on.
Buster Martin. Kicking the butts of young muggers at the age of 101?!
Actors: Harrison Ford, Jackie Chan, Willem Defoe, and Chow Yun Fat are HOW OLD and STILL do almost all their own stunts?
- Sifu Lau Kar Leung. Veteran Hong Kong martial arts actor, director, and choreographer. Practitioner and Grandmaster of Hung Gar style Kung Fu (a.k.a. "earthbending".) He's old enough to be your grandpa but he can still kick your ass. His last starring role (as of yet) is in the film Drunken Monkey, and as you can see, he's not mellowing with age. (He's nearing 70 there, for crying out loud!)
Lemmy Kilmister. He has taken more drugs than you or I have cells in our body, he's been in Motorhead since the beginning and he still owns every stage he walks on.
Recent example from Florida. 75-year-old man has just bought a computer (he plans to take classes to learn how to use it) and is waiting to be picked up. 6'1", 230 lb., 29-year-old grabs the goods and takes off. Rightful owner of said goods throws a flying tackle and takes him down. For extra Badass Grandpa goodness, off-duty cop who assists in the capture is himself a senior citizen at 68, per comments.
Chuck Norris. In Real Life the man has a 10th-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do, an 8th-degree black belt in Taekwondo (one of only 3 Americans to ever achieve this), black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Shito ryu Karate, belts in Muay Thai and Shotokan, invented his own martial art style incorporating all of these, and has a tournament record of 183-10-2.
- Those "losses" are lies!
This real story's even better than the would-be-computer-thief saga. This one features two attackers vs. 84-year-old. 84-year-old is a WWII veteran and retired prison guard. 84-year-old kicks two butts (along with other body parts) and sends the offenders fleeing (they were later captured by police).
Never mind bringing a knife to a gunfight, Never bring a gun to a handbag-fight!
Daniel M’Mburugu is a 77-year-old grandfather who earns his living by farming. On June of 2005, M’Mburugu was tending to his farm in Kenya when a sneaky leopard suddenly attacked him. When the leopard sank its teeth into M’Mburugu’s wrist and started mauling M’Mburugu with its claws, M’Mburugu did NOT take the machete that was in one of his hands and start striking the animal with it. Instead, M’Mburugu decided to take care of business by reaching his hand into the leopard’s mouth and pulling the animal’s tongue out. Think about that. Simply hacking the cat into bits with a machete wasn’t good enough for him; he jammed his fist down the creature’s throat and ripped out its tongue.
Mark Shuey is not only a Badass Grandpa himself, he's out teaching other seniors the art of Cane Fu, so they can ALL be Badass Grampas and Grannies Not to Mess With.
Tom Wanyandie, a 78-year-old man who, when confronted with an enraged Mama Bear attacking his son, proceeded to beat the bear with his walking stick, shove the stick down its throat, punch the bear in the face, take a solid blow from said bear across the face, and then tackled the goddamn bear and beat it into retreat with his stick.
A former junior boxing champion by the name of Frank Corti showed that, at age 72, he could still throw one HELL of a punch. When a man less than 1/3 his age tried to attack him at knifepoint, Corti responds by beating the man so hard that he appeared to have been hit by a train. With only TWO PUNCHES. See for yourself.
Bass Reeves. Got his job as a Deputy Marshal in the Indian Territory when he was in his late forties, early fifties. Kept going until well into his eighties. Thousands of arrests, many gunfights, never wounded. Lotsa kids, lotsa grandkids. The best part? Escaped slave. Though he didn't get his cushy government job until after the Civil War,
At age 96, Jack Ury broke his own record and became the oldest personal to ever play in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2009. Despite the fact that he's blind in one eye, nearly blind in the other, and deaf in one ear, he's still played in the past three Main Events (with the aid of his grandson) and even more incredibly, has made it to Day Two every time. Moreover, this year he pulled off a Crowning Momentof Awesome by beating his opponent's full house with a full house of his own. Jack Ury is the man.
Konrad Adenauer wasn't known for physical prowess, but for crying out loud, look at the dude!
Vladimir Putin's well on his way to becoming a Badass Grandpa.
Bolo Yeung. He was 50 when he was in Bloodsport.
Shih Kien played the Big Bad in Enter The Dragon when he was sixty years old, and still managed to look like a fearsome adversary for Bruce Lee (who was about thirty years younger at the time).

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