History Main / CoolOldLady

* Sethra Lavode in the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' series, legendary enchantress, legendary general, vampire, holder of an OmniscientMoralityLicense and military nerd. She's about 200,000 years old (the average Dragaeran lives to about 2000), counting the years after her death.

* Augusta Longbottom in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' also meets this trope. She is described as being formidable. She has the skills to back it up. When Dawlish, who is an Auror and said to be elite, went to arrest her, she sent him running with his tail between his legs straight to St Mungo's! Plus, she participated in the Battle of Hogwarts. She is seen running very quickly ''into'' the battle.
** Not to mention Professor [=McGonagall=].
* Alex's mother, former Olympics gold medalist in basketball, from ''Literature/HeartInHand''. She beats current NHL players soundly at a game of backyard basketball and is fiercely supportive of Alex when [[spoiler:the photograph of him kissing another man is leaked]].

* Niime from ''VideoGame/TheBindingBlade'' is a caustic, powerful druid famous throughout Elibe as the [[HermitGuru "Hermit on the Mountain"]] and, according to supports in [[VideoGame/TheBlazingBlade the prequel]], wrote a book on dark magic so high-quality that [[GentlemanAndAScholar the very well-read Pent]] is shocked by its existence. Gameplay-wise, she starts out with an A in both dark magic and staves as well as a whopping 21 in Magic, which is helpful considering she wields the hardest-hitting magic type in the game.

*** Jadzia's successor Ezri Dax also looks like a young woman but she is the [[TheNthDoctor next incarnation of a 350-year-old alien]]. She's not like Curzon or Jadzia and doesn't always like the same things they did. She went to rescue Worf after the Klingon ship he was on was destroyed then endured capture by the Dominion. She does all this while intergrating all the personalities into herself, something much more difficult as Ezri never wanted to be joined and therefore did not undergo any of the training or testing that other joined Trill did.

*** Although she appears to be a middle aged woman, Guinan is several hundred years old, being able to listen to people centuries younger than her, facing down Q, and stopping bar fights single handledy.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Though she doesn't look it, Jadzia Dax is the [[TheNthDoctor eighth incarnation of a 350-year-old alien]]. She's a master of hand to hand combat and an [[AcePilot expert pilot]], drinks and parties hard, [[BarBrawl likes to brawl with Klingons]], [[DeadpanSnarker snarks]] and makes dirty jokes a lot. She once destroyed an entire bar, caused [[NoodleIncident a couple of diplomatic incidents]], and thinks that spending early mornings having broken bones fixed is a healthy sex life.
** The magistrate who oversees Dax's extradition hearing in the episode "Dax" qualifies too.
--->"Gentleman, I am 108 years old. I intend for this to an ''informal'' hearing. In short, I intend to be here until supper not ''senility''."
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Lwaxanna Troi was very active for an older lady, but there is some strong evidence that she was acting rather annoying to her own daughter, Captain Picard and Worf.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Castle's mother and Alexis' grandmother Martha Rodgers is still leading the good life. She's an actress.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': Eda the Owl Lady. It's unclear what her actual age is, but her character design and speech style channel Phylis Diller, while being a LovableRogue with witchcraft. Luz describes her as, "Magical, sassy, [[SilverVixen surprisingly foxy for her age]]."
** Her gray hair's ''really'' meant to make her look like a ''[[WitchClassic traditional]]'' witch, and she's played by 70-year-old Creator/WendieMalick, the modern Creator/MargaretHamilton.

* Wrestling/MaeYoung, the most [[NeverMessWithGranny badass old woman ever to set foot in a wrestling ring]]. During her Attitude Era return to WWE she smoked cigars, got into a torrid sexual relationship with Wrestling/MarkHenry, and most famously got powerbombed off the elevated stage and through a table by [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Bubba Ray Dudley]]. During rehearsals, Bubba Ray was hesitant about doing the spot with a woman in her late seventies, only for Mae to slap him across the face and demand ''"[[BringIt Throw me through the table,]] [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior asshole!]]"'' During her last appearance on Old School Raw in 2010, she responded to taunts from Wrestling/LayCool by demanding a match with them, [[RefugeInAudacity calling them "sluts" and "bitches" on PG TV]], and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome while she obviously wouldn't be able to work an actual match with them at the age of 87]], she commanded so much respect from the locker room that four other girls came charging out to reinforce her, beating down the obnoxious pair and draging Layla in front of Mae for the old champion to slap her to the ground and pin her with a foot on her chest. After her passing the Wrestling/WWEMaeYoungClassic was named in her honour.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E156TheBewitchinPool The Bewitchin' Pool]]", Aunt T is a sweet, kind-hearted elderly woman who adores children and is endlessly patient with them. Her realm is a paradise for children such as Sport and Jeb Sharewood whose parents are neglectful and do not deserve them. Although the children have to do chores, they spend a great deal of their time playing and helping Aunt T to make cakes.

%%* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Unlike Grandma Lydia who is closer to MyBelovedSmother and Great Aunt Irma who is an EvilMatriarch, Great Grandma from "Witch Trash" is this.

* Lady Fingers, the female (in the 1930s, no less) poker ace in ''The Cincinnati Kid''.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'' had a fondness for this trope, starting with [[WitchDoctor village shaman]] Mistwalker, who used her knowledge of the [[DeathWorld local flora and fauna]] to make an invading gang of criminals very sorry. Second was Arizona [=McGee=], a blowtorch-wielding sculptor who made statues of giant bugs and cold-cocked a crook half her age. Lastly, there was Ariel, Niko's mentor. A cheerful trickster, she turned the tables on SealedEvilInACan several times over, culminating in paraphrasing Sun Tzu and blasting it with all she had.

* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'''s grandmother. She's so wild even Angela is unnerved by her...and it's implied that this is Angela's [[GenerationXerox future.]]
* About the only thing that changed for [[LittleMissBadass Toph]] between ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' is that she's now 85 and not twelve; her [[HairstyleInertia hair]], [[LimitedWardrobe outfit]], and [[BoisterousBruiser personality]] are all still intact.

* ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty'''s grandmother Beatrixo, a former Galactic Guardian.

* Sam's grandmother on ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' thinks her parents are a little hard on her, so she lets the girl out when they've grounded her and is usually the first to defend her actions, having been a non-conformist herself during her youth. It's no surprise that Sam gets along better with her than her parents.
* Aunt Amy in ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'', a splitting older image of the titular character with a more laid back personality. Understandably, she is the most beloved of Daria's relatives and a fan favourite.
* Davey's Grandma in the ''WesternAnimation/DaveyAndGoliath'' EasterSpecial "Happy Easter" definitely counts, going as far as to help Davey perfect his baseball skills. [[spoiler: No wonder Davey was so depressed when she died later in the episode.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/DennisTheMenace'' episode, "So Sorry!", Mr. Wilson gets roped into a Sumo wrestling match after he is stripped down to his underwear, due to Dennis getting his clothes wet chasing after a kite that snagged his wallet. Mr. Wilson loses, but when Mrs. Wilson finds out from Dennis, she single-handedly defeats the Sumo Wrestler and wins the championship Sumo wrestling belt.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s Grandma Opal from "Doug on the Wild Side" may have odd taste in fashionable gifts, but she rides a motorcycle (and shows off family photos to a scary, leather-clad biker, [[BruiserWithASoftCenter who responds in kind]]), encourages Doug to try sushi, and gives him advice on how to talk to Patti when he's feeling shy. Doug starts out wishing she was more of a GrannyClassic but eventually comes to appreciate her for who she is.
* Arnold's grandmother from ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' is a mix of this and {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
* Rosey from ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' can be seen as a robot version of this trope, especially in her debut episode where she plays football with Elroy and helps Judy do her homework. And clobbers Mr. Spacely with an Upside-down cake.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'''s Nana started as an overprotective granny until she started kicking Kim's ass in Kung Fu.

* Rock's mother on ''WesternAnimation/MyDadTheRockStar'' presents as a sweet little old lady but is really a hard-rockin' biker chick when she can get away with it.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Granny Smith. While she doesn't get much screen time and has definitely seen better days both mentally and physically, she still plays along with hyperactive foals well, and was apparently quite the badass in her youth; in "Family Appreciation Day", she relates how she ventured into [[EnchantedForest the Everfree Forest]] to find Sweet Apple Acres' famous Zap Apples and how, thanks to those apples, the town of Ponyville grew around her family's farm.

* Eda the Owl Lady of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''. It's unclear what her actual age is, but her character design and speech style channel Phylis Diller, while being a LovableRogue with witchcraft. Luz describes her as, "Magical, sassy, [[SilverVixen surprisingly foxy for her age]]."

* Suga Mama from ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', a sassy black version of this trope. She even wrestled professional wrestlers.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson's mother, especially in contrast with Homer's father. She's a hippie, educated and cultured, and she bonds with her grandchildren, especially book-smart Lisa who finally feels she is a Simpson.
* Grand Maul Granny from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' is one of the three members of the Drasticals, and even having a prosthetic hip, she partakes in extreme sports on a regular basis.
* The True Master from the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "The Quest". (In fact, she seems to have been based, at least partially, on Mr. Miagi from ''Film/TheKarateKid'' movies, who clearly fit the CoolOldGuy Trope.)
* Yan Lin in ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'', a former guardian who helps the girls get accustomed to their powers.
* Granny May from ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl''. For one thing, she has a big robotic supersuit...

* Wrestling/MaeYoung, the most [[NeverMessWithGranny badass old woman ever to set foot in a wrestling ring]]. During her Attitude Era return to WWE she smoked cigars, got into a torrid sexual relationship with Wrestling/MarkHenry, and most famously got powerbombed off the elevated stage and through a table by [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys Bubba Ray Dudley]]. During rehearsals, Bubba Ray was hesitant about doing the spot with a woman in her late seventies, only for Mae to slap him across the face and demand ''"[[BringIt Throw me through the table,]] [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior asshole!]]"'' During her last appearance on Old School Raw in 2010, she responded to taunts from Wrestling/LayCool by demanding a match with them, [[RefugeInAudacity calling them "sluts" and "bitches" on PG TV]], and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome while she obviously wouldn't be able to work an actual match with them at the age of 87]], she commanded so much respect from the locker room that four other girls came charging out to reinforce her, beating down the obnoxious pair and draging Layla in front of Mae for the old champion to slap her to the ground and pin her with a foot on her chest. The Wrestling/MaeYoungClassic was named in her honour.

* The Jewish grandmother in Creator/JudyBlume's ''Literature/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret'' is a mild example, who gives Margaret presents, takes her places, pays for her summer camp, and only occasionally insists that's she's really Jewish. For comparison, the Christian grandmother is a rather dowdy old woman, who visits only because she's taking a trip to New York anyway, and makes a point of wearing a huge cross and insisting that Margaret is Christian.