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How exactly old does a character get to be a Cool Old Guy?

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RayKVega423 Ray from small rural town in Central USA Since: Oct, 2019 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Ray
#1: Nov 6th 2024 at 12:46:09 PM

I’m wondering about that.

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WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#3: Nov 6th 2024 at 1:21:27 PM

Yeah, technically it's not a trope anymore.

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Aquillion Since: Jan, 2001
#4: Nov 9th 2024 at 7:56:55 AM

As far as this specific question goes, though, the trope description does seem to make it clear: It's about their deviation from the median age of the cast. In a cast where most of the characters are teenagers, someone in their middle age can qualify (as the trope description specifically says is the case for most anime.)

If the trope is to be salvageable otherwise, though, I do think that middle age has to be the lower limit - in addition to being above the median age of the cast, the character also has to be old enough for their age to plausibly be slowing them down, since some of the meaning of the trope comes from "age isn't slowing them down."

Therefore, even in a cast of toddlers a teenager or young adult can't qualify (outside of odd situations where applying the trope to someone where it shouldn't is Played for Laughs, eg. a teenager in that situation complaining about their aching joints and how they're getting too old for this.)

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