History Main / CityGuards

The City Guards are the local authorities. They strut about between one tile square and another, looking busy, decked out in more armour than your [[InformedEquipment hero]] and generally acting superior. In stories, the training and equipment of city guards varies according to the wealth and power of the city or town. A wealthy MerchantCity's guard may wear gleaming armor and carry costly swords; a dingy town's guards may have rusted, battle-dented breastplates and old spears.

Beyond the duties implied in their name--guarding gates to the city--the guards also enforce laws and regulations and patrol the city. The degree of discipline and adherence to law and order varies a great deal. The city guard to a wise, good king will be just and fair, but the guards to a sleazy dictator will be the mirror to their boss, and they will likelybe [[CorruptCop corrupt]].

The City Guards are the local authorities. They strut about between one tile square and another, looking busy, decked out in more armour than your [[InformedEquipment hero]] and generally acting superior. In stories, the training and equipment of city guards varies according to the wealth and power of the city or town. A wealthy MerchantCity's guard may wear gleaming armor and carry costly swords; a dingy town's guards may have rusted, battle-dented breastplates and old spears. The degree of discipline and adherence to law and order also varies a great deal. The city guard to a wise, good king will be just and fair, but the guards to a sleazy dictator will be the mirror to their boss.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Severral units of dwarf guards are seen guarding the entrance to Khazad=dum or patrolling the city.

The City Guards are the local authorities. They strut about between one tile square and another, looking busy, decked out in more armour than your [[InformedEquipment hero]] and generally acting superior. In stories, the training and equipment of city guards varies according to the wealth and power of the city or town. A wealthy MerchantCity's guard may wear gleaming armor and carry costly swords; a dingy town's guards may have rusted, battle-dented breastplates and old spears.

The City Guards are the local authorities. They strut about between one tile square and another, looking busy, decked out in more armour than your [[InformedEquipment hero]] and generally acting superior.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': The guards are in the employ of the villains -- ''they hold their own princess captive'' and try to arrest Link for it later. The oft-ignored guard on Hyrule Castle's battlements will comment on how [[JustifiedTrope most of the guards lost their minds]] since [[EvilChancellor Agahnim]] took over, and muses that it'll only be a matter of time before he's affected too.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', you have to [[StealthBasedMission sneak past them]] to get to Zelda. ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' depicts them as [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy generally useless cowards]], although they thankfully never really get in your way either. Well, they ''try'' if you run around as Wolf in Hyrule Town...
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', the guards wouldn't let you out of Clock Town in the beginning of the game (because you're trapped in the body of a young Deku Scrub). Later, when you're back to human form, they try to protest that it isn't safe for children, but then decide that this particular young child is carrying a sword, and therefore will be perfectly fine. Nice job, guys.
** At one point in ''Majora's Mask'' an old lady walks through a field in front of a guard when she is mugged and completely ignores her cries for help. If that weren't enough, after running around a bit the mugger escapes through the very door he is guarding. It seems the only job these guys were hired for was keeping small children from going outside.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]'', the guards were in the employ of the villains -- ''they held their own princess captive'' and tried to arrest Link for it later. The oft-ignored guard on Hyrule Castle's battlements will comment on how [[JustifiedTrope most of the guards lost their minds]] since [[EvilChancellor Agahnim]] took over, and muses that it'll only be a matter of time before he's affected too.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheMinishCap Minish Cap]]'', the guards stationed around Hyrule Town never antagonize Link and will comment on the king's strange behavior. You do have to sneak past the guards at Hyrule Castle in the later parts of the game, just like in ''Ocarina''.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', the guards outside Gerudo Town will prevent Link from entering [[LadyLand because he's a man]].

** For more specific examples see below but in general the role of the guards in this series can be summed up as one of the three: incompetant, non-existent, or active hindrence to the player character.

[[caption-width-right:350:"No, peasant, you will not be allowed to throw off the Emperor's groove. Begone!"]]

[[quoteright:250:[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Reduced_in_size_2871.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Your crime has been reported.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:Your crime has been reported]]

* These are rather ubiquitous in RealLife. In English-speaking regions, they tend to be known as "the Police". In many historical cities, they actually had surprisingly few guards however (usually called "the watch" or something similar), with a very low ratio in comparison with other citizens. Sometimes guards or watchmen were [[LawEnforcementInc paid for privately]], to cover specific districts. Even some ancient cities such as Constantinople though had police forces similar to modern ones. However, these dissipated in the West after Rome fell, and didn't reemerge until much later in the 1600s. The invention of gas lamps also helped, as before it was very difficult to police the city at night (while punishments for crimes committed then were also much greater). Frequently other citizens were expected to help, either through something like conscription to serve as guards, raising the "hue and cry" after crimes has been committed in public and serving in posses when called on to pursue criminals. This remained the case in rural areas much longer as cities gained professional police forces similar to those now existing.

** Where this gets frustrating is that, as quick as the guards are to arrest you for crimes, in the base game they'll do absolutely nothing if you're attacked by thugs in front of them (but they won't charge you for murder either since you were defending yourself). At least one mod made it so if you're attacked by thugs with guards nearby, they'll actually do their job and help you.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' there is a guard who you have the option of either bribing ''every'' time, or just beating the crap out of him. In retaliation, though, he will sarcastically bitch at you for the rest of the game.

* These are rather ubiquitous in RealLife. In English-speaking regions, they tend to be known as "the Police".

* This trope is deliberately subverted in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', where Creator/TerryPratchett's Ankh-Morpork City Watch take every associated trope [[UpToEleven up to and past eleven]]. This is reflected in the computer games based on the Discworld, such as ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir''.

!!Other Examples

!!VideoGame Examples

!!Non VideoGame Examples
* In a non-game example, this trope is deliberately subverted in the Literature/{{Discworld}}, where Creator/TerryPratchett's Ankh-Morpork City Watch take every associated trope [[UpToEleven up to and past eleven]]. This is reflected in the computer games based on the Discworld, such as ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir''.
* TabletopRPG example: This trope is [[ExaggeratedTrope taken to it's logical conclusion]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' with the demon Sondok, whose literal ''reason for existing'' is to guard things (thus the title "She-Who-Stands-In-Doorways"). She's ''so'' good at her job, that some of the merchants who summon her have formed a cult expressly devoted to her as a form of contract.
* Non-game [[spoiler:(sort of)]] example in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone'': the guards that are found in the Pyar, Guardians, and Circle cities (and quite possibly the cities for the other Power Groups as well, though the four never visit them). The four are initially impressed by the Pyar cities' guards' friendliness and helpfulness, and they're rather awed by their efficiency when they witness the guards taking down bad guys. And ''then'' they find out that the guards are also empowered as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner, at least up to city or town limits.

* These are rather ubiquitous in RealLife. In English-speaking regions, they tend to be known as "the Police".

* Similar to the above, each of the Houses in ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' has their own police force and their own SpaceNavy, with the former patrolling the trade routes to scan for contraband and the latter acting as general muscle, particularly in frontier systems without trade routes. Each are distinct factions with their own AllianceMeter, so you can be wanted by the police of one House while their navy doesn't care (and vice versa), and a different House's forces care even less about what you did in a rival's territory. Police and Navy of the same House are always allied with each other, though, so opposing one too much will also turn the other hostile eventually. Some police forces are state agencies, others are private corporations, but they all act the same regardless. As usual, all of them can be bribed to make them non-hostile again in case your relations with them have deteriorated to this point, but the randomly generated bribe offers tend to make this approach somewhat unreliable. How dangerous these forces are depends solely on their House due to how the campaign is structured, with Liberty guards being complete pushovers while Kusari guards put up more of a fight. They all become trivial in the endgame, though, and they generally [[PoliceAreUseless fair poorly against all but the worst-equipped criminal factions]].