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alt title(s): Rock You Like An Irohcane
Kick your ass, he surely will.
"Be wary when facing small, wrinkly, smiling, bald old men."
Old men are weak, right?
Wrong.
When it comes to Sci-Fis, Fantasies, and Epics, more often than not, the oldest, apparently feeblest characters are the ones to be feared the most. They kick ass, take names, and can fend off armies single-handedly... or, rather, need entire armies to fend them off. In any given show, book, movie, or whatnot, they can often arguably be the strongest character in the entire story. The reason for this is obvious: "Experience and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time." In short: old men in a dangerous line of work have been doing it for a very long time. Additionally, in a Crapsack World, or when Earth Is A Battlefield, a man may well only live to be old if he is already very bad-ass to start with.
The defining characteristic of the Badass Grandpa is that, as the story begins, they already have several or max levels in Badass, and will almost always have more than anyone else, including, in many cases, the Big Bad; yet, they generally opt for quiet & simple lives, rather sharing their guidance & wisdom with younger generations than become directly involved themselves — after all, every generation of heroes has to grow up and fight on their own sometime, right?
As such, Badass Grandpas hide their power well... at least until it really matters. When the chips are down, and even The Hero looks like he's in need of assistance, it's time for the Badass Grandpa to step up and throw down, proving that age has done nothing to quell their ability to take down Big Bads literally decades their juniors. Even then, it's still the hero's job to ultimately save the girl and the day — otherwise, they aren't The Hero, now are they?
A Bad Ass Grandpa may be the patriarch of a Badass Family.
See also Retired Badass. Compare Cool Old Guy, Old Master, and The Dumbledore.
Is often The Obi Wan on steroids. If it's an old woman who is the badass, it becomes Never Mess With Granny. Alternately, Rock You Like An Irohcane. May overlap with Badass Bystander.
Examples
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, the witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg being the best examples. Commander Vimes is also almost old enough to qualify.
- 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.'
- Cohen and the Horde got within spitting distance of returning fire to the Gods and ending existence, before Carrot stopped them. And he didn't even stop them, but rather gave them pause enough for the expedition to explain the downside of their plan.
- In Thief of Time, it's taught to young History Monks as Rule One: "Be wary when facing small, wrinkly, smiling, bald old 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.
- 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.
- 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...
- 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.
- 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. the fact that he is able to take on Raven in hand-to-hand with just a straight razor and win should certify his sheer badassery.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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!"). Still king of the craaaazy eyes, Flair.
- Wrestling also gives us the ultimate Badass Grandma, The Fabulous Moolah. 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.
- All over the place in Warhammer 40000. Almost all Space Marines will see their first century, Eldar live much longer than normal humans, the remnants of the original Traitor Legions are ten thousand years old and still counting, while the Necrons with their undying, regenerating shells are older than pretty much everyone else to a "man".
- And then there's Commissar Yarrick. Unlike the above examples, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- And in Street Fighter 4, Gouken, the former master of Ryu and Ken and 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.
- 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.
- 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'."
- 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.
- Drachma from Skies Of Arcadia
- 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.
- 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 MGS 1, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Wess from Mother 3 Is probably the most powerful and helpful Nonplayable party member in the game.
- 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.
- 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."
- 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".
- 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.
- 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.
- 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."
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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