History Main / GoodOldWays

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is sometimes seen as a practitioner of these. He grew up in New York during the GreatDepression, and sometimes he attributes his [[TheCape Cape-like]] morality to his past.
** This is more pronounced in ComicBook/UltimateMarvel, where there's a bigger gap between Cap getting frozen and thawed, and he has had far less time to get adjusted. For instance, while dating the Wasp, she was annoyed that his chivalry bordered on patronizing, he was bewildered by what she wore and watched on TV, and talked like her grandfather. To his credit, Cap was ahead of his time in some respects such as in the ''Ultimates Annual'' which has a World War II photo of him in costume, proudly standing with the African American Tuskeegee Airmen at a time when doing so was considered taboo by mainstream American society.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is sometimes seen as a practitioner of these. He grew up in New York during the Great Depression, and sometimes he attributes his [[TheCape Cape-like]] morality to his past.

-->-- '''Obi-Wan Kenobi''', ''Franchise/StarWars''

* Oddly enough for a brutish mercenary, Canderous Ordo of ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' admits that the Mandalorians cannot go on fighting the way they once did, and is often ''furious'' at the Mandalorian mercenaries and bandits seen in the game, which he sees as embarrassments to the armor. At the end of the first game, he expresses a desire to do more with his life and preserve the ways of his people so they'll be remembered. By the second game, he's taken the title and helm of Mandalore - ''Mandalore the Preserver'' (Te Taylir Mand'alor). [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Three centuries on]], a splinter faction of Mando'ade, unhappy with the current Mandalore (an Imperial puppet) call themselves "Preservers" and follow ''his'' teachings as The Good Old Ways, at least until [[ShaggyDogStory they were wiped out]] and their leader exiled to Taris.

** In Essos, Slaver's Bay are quite proud of Old Ghis, a civilization that was vanished and replaced by Valyria 3000 years ago, and are fierce at maintaining their "traditions" of chattel slavery. Daenerys, in response, revives the Targaryen tradition of shutting things down with extreme prejudice.

** Inverted by the ironborn, such as Balon Greyjoy, who seek to return to the Old Way of reaving, raping, and enslaving.

** True with many other characters in the Star Trek universe. Among others, Picard prefers paper books and drinks real wine and Sisko likes to cook real food and play baseball.

** Michael Garibaldi is a fan of 20th century Warner Brothers cartoons (specifically Daffy Duck; B5 itself was produced by WB), and generally basks in a FilmNoir vibe. Also has a 20th century revolver (his great-whatever-great grandmother was apparently a UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} cop) and motorcycle, each of which only pop up for one episode.

* In William King's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} SpaceWolf novel ''Ragnar's Claw'', Ragnar informs an inquisitor

* In Brian Jacques's ''{{Redwall}}'', ImpoverishedPatrician Squire Julian of Gingivere disdains his ramshackle estate and [[DontYouDarePityMe repels Matthias's sympathy]] because he knows nothing of loneliness or trying to preserve standards.

** The Starks still keep to the traditions of the First Men: strength, honor, justice, bravery, and faith in the old gods.

* "[[OBrotherWhereArtThou As I went down in the river to pray /]] studying about that ''good old way...''"
* TheKinks ''The Village Green Preservation Society'' seems to largely about a group of people staunchly opposed to progress and "protecting the old ways from being abused".

* In Creator/DorothyLSayers' LordPeterWimsey novel ''Gaudy Night'', the work at the university is presented as Good Old Ways, and explicitly described as a rearguard defense.

** This is more pronounced in UltimateMarvel, where there's a bigger gap between Cap getting frozen and thawed, and he has had far less time to get adjusted. For instance, while dating the Wasp, she was annoyed that his chivalry bordered on patronizing, he was bewildered by what she wore and watched on TV, and talked like her grandfather. To his credit, Cap was ahead of his time in some respects such as in the ''Ultimates Annual'' which has a World War II photo of him in costume, proudly standing with the African American Tuskeegee Airmen at a time when doing so was considered taboo by mainstream American society.

* In JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', ''The Phoenix Exultant'', and ''The Golden Transcedence'', Helion and the Silver-Gray movement he helped found intensely support this to provide discipline and structure in a way that can't be enforced by law.
* Literature/TheDresdenFiles:
** Harry Dresden likes to act old-fasioned, partly because he's a wizard, and partly because it annoys Murphy.

* A persistent Chinese legend is of a traveler who finds an {{Arcadia}}n village living peaceful and happily in some out-of-the-way corner. Talking with them, he learns they are under the impression that they are still living under the last dynasty, or the one before that. In Communist China, they are said to have asked "Who now sits on the Dragon Throne?"

* In ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'' the majority of the Earth population are 'medievalists' and cling to old fashioned views like not having robots do every job and not talking in public restrooms. The main hero lampshades it, thinking about every era has it... and one day, his own times will be viewed as such.

** Then, when Horus addresses the iterators, he declares the ideals of the Crusade are dead, but he will restore them, bringing it back to its rightful path. [[spoiler:For which, he doesn't need them, so he stages a massacre.]]

** In ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'', a demon grumbles about how the new King of Hell is ruining things, there was a time when the damned were not just numbers, but ''victims''.

* In JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/TheGoldenOecumene The Golden Age]]'', ''The Phoenix Exultant'', and ''The Golden Transcedence'', Helion and the Silver-Gray movement he helped found intensily support this to provide discipline and structure in a way that can't be enforced by law.

* ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'' features an old fashioned man who doesn't trust modern tech. That is, he refuses to use air cars, preferring the old fashioned personal wings, he doesn't like a new electronic food distribution computer installed in the zoo, insisting old fashioned robots are better (well, the computer does prove to be bugged)... and he is the only man capable of urgently repairing some advanced alien equipment.

* Some people interpret ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' in this light. The majority of the Fellowship - the hobbits, the wizard, the elf, the Ranger, even the dwarf - come from natural or spiritual backgrounds, while Sauron and his allies are far more industrialized. The story itself begins in the peaceful, pastoral Shire and ends in the barren, fiery Mordor. Even the author admits that such days can't last forever, though, as the epilogue ends with [[spoiler: the elves departing Middle-Earth for good]].

May overlap with GoodIsOldFashioned, with villains and other characters taunting him as old-fashioned, but this is when the writer uses the shorthand, or the character himself, and those who admire him. Note that being uniformly old-fashioned is not necessary; the character can pick and chose the best of both eras, as long as those characters he is contrasted to reject the best of old times as old-fashioned.

* ''Film/IRobot'': Detective Spooner is portrayed as 'old fashioned' because he wears [[ProductPlacement Converse]] and has a non-voice-activated entertainment system. His [[TheObiWan mentor]] lives in a very old-school BigFancyHouse. [[spoiler:In contrast, the villain is a highly futuristic-looking {{AI|IsACrapshoot}}.]]

* John "Black Jack" Geary embodies this trope in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, being practically an {{expy}} of Captain America, but in his case the Good Old Ways really ''were'' better. A century of all-out war has left the navy in a dire state, with jerry-built spacecraft crewed by barely-trained officers thrown into battle to replace dreadful losses that only get worse the more corners are cut to fill the gaps. Reintroducing the lost arts of formation discipline and proper tactics turns the titular Lost Fleet into probably the most dangerous military force in human space. When the fleet finally makes it back to Alliance space, the brass initially calls him a liar for claiming that the fleet has engaged in all those battles due to the relatively low losses for a "true battle" in the "spirit of the Ancestors". Propaganda can be blamed for that, though, as Geary himself has been idolized as a paragon who followed these "tactics" (in fact, Geary himself is merely a NormalFishInATinyPond, having fought a total of one battle before being defeated and becoming a HumanPopsicle; it's just that everyone else is absolutely ''horrible'' at coordinated fighting).

* John "Black Jack" Geary embodies this trope in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, being practically an {{expy}} of Captain America, but in his case the Good Old Ways really ''were'' better. A century of all-out war has left the navy in a dire state, with jerry-built spacecraft crewed by barely-trained officers thrown into battle to replace dreadful losses that only get worse the more corners are cut to fill the gaps. Reintroducing the lost arts of formation discipline and proper tactics turns the titular Lost Fleet into probably the most dangerous military force in human space.

* There is also Turner D. Century, a supervillain who is dedicated to forcing society to change back to what it was before UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne. He was eventually killed off by the Scourge of the Underworld, a character created ''specifically'' for killing off minor and/or ill-conceived villains.

** Michael Garibaldi is a fan of 20th century Warner Brothers cartoons (specifically Daffy Duck; B5 itself was produced by WB), and generally basks in a FilmNoir vibe. Also has a 20th century revolver and motorcycle, each of which only pop up for one episode.