"Well she moved down here, age of eighteen,
She blew the boys away, was more than they'd seen
I was introduced and we both started grooving.
She said, I dig you baby but I've got to keep moving
on, keep moving on."
—Tom Petty, "Mary Jane's Last Dance"
Like a gust of wind,
The Drifter quietly blows into a
troubled town. He’s
low key, and usually
The Quiet One that’s not looking for trouble. He’ll rarely raise the interest or curiosity of the
townspeople or the
Big Bad that’s been slowly draining the town of all life and money. Usually, he just wants an odd job to make ends meet before leaving again, the implication being that he’s either
running from someone or
Walking The Earth for the fun of it. Occasionally The Sheriff and his deputies, or a
Quirky Miniboss Squad of the
Big Bad (sometimes one and the same) will visit the
Determined Homesteader employing the Drifter or him directly, to try and lay down the law and
extort some money.
Then the gloves come off.
By this point, he’s either got a personal stake in helping the
Meek Townsmen chase off the
Big Bad, like saving a hostage Determined Widow or other
love interest, or will do it just because it’s
the right thing to do. An interesting twist on the above is that
The Drifter is not just pretending he
is Not Left Handed in terms of martial skill, but is also hiding his true purpose: to depose the
Big Bad and his goons. Hiding in plain sight as a mere
Muggle to get information to bring him down.
In some variants, he'll be approached by the
Meek Townsmen and appointed
The Sheriff (the previous one having been run off or killed). He usually requires some convincing, in which the
Big Bad helps out by
kicking a few nearby dogs in
The Drifter's presence. Once the
Big Bad is defeated, expect him to lay down his badge, perhaps passing it on to one of the townsmen who showed some backbone in the fight.
He's a strange combination of traits: A Guardian Angel come to help a town that can’t help itself, rarely grim but usually has a bit of
The Stoic in him, or at least
values few words. Sometimes a
Technical Pacifist and former
Gunslinger Walking The Earth. Though he’s not a
Knight In Shining Armor, he’s usually several clicks above an
Anti Hero or
Ineffectual Loner, being motivated by more compassionate standards than the
Well Intentioned Extremist. Once he's done,
he'll probably have to go.
Also known as the Stranger archetype, from Joseph Campbell's "Hero With A Thousand Faces"
well, quotes from "Hero With A Thousand Faces" from the Star Wars exhibition catalogue anyway.
See also
Western Characters. Fairly common in
After The End settings, where he'll get a
scavenger sidekick.
Occasionally joins up or becomes the leader of a band of
Hitchhiker Heroes. Closely related to the
Knight Errant, who wanders the land actively seeking wrongs to right.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Van from Gun X Sword is this, both pre-series and during.
- The Medicine Seller of Ayakashi (short horror stories) and Mononoke animes.
- Although he rarely seems to actually help the people, more often then not, a good portion of the cast is killed off (Bake Neko) or scarred mentally and emotionally for the rest of their life (Umi Bozu), and he is indifferent to them all.
- Kenshiro of Fist Of The North Star fits this trope to a tee, especially at the beginning of the series. He wanders the post-apocalyptic landscape from town to town looking for his kidnapped lover, has his sidekick in Bart, is theoretically not looking for trouble, and yet somehow always leaves behind body counts that range from dozens to hundreds.
- The protagonist, Ginko, from Mushishi (a sort of mononoke-ologist)
- Dr. Tenma from Monster (slightly subverted as any troubles are almost always connected with the "monster" Johan).
- Raven Tengu Kabuto, from the anime of the same name. The above description is almost a plot synopsis.
- Vash The Stampede of Trigun.
- Rurouni Kenshin: In the Jinchuu arc, Sanosuke decides to leave the main cast temporarily and relieve some stress, which he does by becoming one of these. He then takes this time to save a town, beat the shit out of two hundred men, and terrorize the local yakuza. His stress being relieved, he then leaves town and returns to Tokyo. And nobody even knew his name.
Comic Books
- Naturally, it happens in Preacher. Jesse Custer indulges in this trope when he drifts into the town of Salvation.
- The comic books spun off of the original The Legend Of Zelda give this sort of backstory to Link, who happens to wander into Hyrule from his native Calatia just as Ganon is starting to wreak havoc.
- Usagi Yojimbo
Film
- John J. Macreedy in the classic film Bad Day at Black Rock, although he arrives in the titular town with a specific purpose in mind (which is not to clean the place up.)
- The first paragraph describes fairly accurately John Rambo in First Blood, right down to being harassed by the law. Only his subsequent actions are not to help the town at all...
- Sundown, from Live A Live. Also an example of a Gunslinger, both Type A and B.
- Most "Spaghetti Westerns" invoke this trope heavily.
- Max from the Mad Max films. Shane in black leather.
- Many Clint Eastwood characters, most notably The Man With No Name.
- Note also that one of the films he directed is called High Plains Drifter.
- High Plains Drifter plays with the conventions of this trope a bit, mainly in that The Stranger (as he is credited) is hinted at being the ghost of a man murdered by the townsfolk (indirectly) years prior and thus brings on a little vengeance by turning the town's folk against each other, manipulating and scaring them into giving him absolute power and pretty much ruining the town's economy (by blowing up the hotel, tearing down the barn and not paying for any of the many goods and services he takes advantage of, such as buying everyone in town a drink from the bar at the bartender's expense. In fact, he's barely in the town for ten minutes before he kills three men, drags a woman to the barn and rapes her.
- Indiana Jones act somewhat this way in Temple of Doom.
- Sanjuro, in Kurosawa's Yojimbo (the prototype for For a Fistful of Dollars) and Sanjuro.
- Also Zatoichi, hero of a long-running series of Japanese films. In each film, he wanders into a new Adventure Town, where he at first pretends to be a simple itinerant masseur and gambler. But when some local yakuza boss or corrupt official threatens him or the group of innocent commoners he's befriended, he reveals himself to be a master swordsman and all-out badass. Oh, and he's blind, too.
- The Animated Film Kung Fu Panda starts off with a dream sequence, where Po fits this trope PERFECTLY. Of course, this is just his dream self, but it does seem to show how Genre Savvy he is. Two tropes for the price of one?
Literature
- Bill Door, aka Death, in the Discworld novel Reaper Man.
- Made famous in literature, and later in film, by Shane.
- Roland, Stephen King's Gunslinger, especially in The Wolves of the Calla.
- The Jon Shannow/Jerusalem Man series by David Gemmell personifies this trope, often three or four times a novel.
Live Action TV
Music
- The Whitesnake song Here I Go Again fits this trope. It even has the line "Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone".
- Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam".
Video Games
- Similarly, the new Prince in Prince Of Persia ends up in Elika's kingdom while caught in a sandstorm.
- Played Straight in Live A Live with Sunset
- While they be called Dream Chasers, Mercenaries, Wanderers, or yes, Drifters, these make up most of your PCs in the Wild ARMs series.
- Adol from Ys series is this trope.
Western Animation
