History Main / GoodOldWays

** This is taken UpToEleven by some of the older supernatural entities. You can expect vampires to dress in Middle Ages royal attire at formal functions and Elves to always be good guests even when not invited. Even demons speak in Old English styles. Old rules of hospitality and honor run deep inside of them and violating it is very poor form. That said, if the Good Old Ways do allow for ways to kill you, they will go for it.

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}:

** In a less depressing example from the setting, this is the entire shtick of the [[ClanOfHats Snakebites clan]], who appear to be four parts tribalistic counterpart to the rest of the Orks, and one part expy of the WFB Orcs.

Contrast ManOfWealthAndTaste. Compare TheyChangedItNowItSucks; NostalgiaFilter; and all of their related tropes.

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* Kazuma Kiryu of the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series is a firm believer in the classical depiction of the yakuza lifestyle: that of being a protector of the community with a sense of honor and fair play, who doesn't exploit civilians and proudly wears his allegiance to the cause for all to see. Much of the conflict of the series is Kiryu's idealism running smack into the reality of running a 21st century criminal enterprise, where the new generations discard honor and tradition for pragmatism and profit.

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* A villain version in ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'', where [[BigBad Ruber]] expresses in his villain song his desire to return to the "good old bad days". Said "good old bad days" were from the time before KingArthur took Excalibur out of the stone, when the earth was ravaged by war and chaos.

->''"It's your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more... civilized age."''
-->-- '''Obi-Wan Kenobi''', ''Film/ANewHope''

This character [[OutdatedOutfit dresses in an old-fashioned manner]], uses old courtesies and practices things that have fallen by the wayside since YeGoodeOldeDays. Obviously a good man -- the writer is using his adherence to the Good Old Ways to signal it, as a convenient shorthand.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', it seems that Britain, (or perhaps merely London), has apparently decided to keep their iconic [[PhoneBooth red telephone boxes]] well into the 22nd century, despite having numerous forms of interstellar communication technology on hand that render such devices obsolete. Of course, it's entirely possible this is merely the facade, while the internal workings are [[SchizoTech standard 2186 technology]].

* Somewhat the point of the Purity philosophy in ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth''. The universe is a cold, dark place, and even though it has had to leave Earth, humanity needs to cling to it's past and it's identity. Maybe that's why their [[PoweredArmor Battlesuits]] are styled to look like Roman legionnaires.

** This is the hat of the Minbari. Quite well drawn though [[OurElvesAreBetter less mundane]] than similar human cultures actually are in practice. Both the virtues and the faults of traditionalist cultures are well shown. Minbari are often loyal, brave and honorable but they can also be bigoted and vicious. Still, when one sees Minbari act, one can actually believe in them and it is a tribute to the writer and perhaps the actors (Mira Furlan was a Croatian exile and might have had the advantage of being able to act what she knew to some extent).

* VideoGame/TheSims 3 expansion pack ''Supernatural'' adds the "proper" trait, allowing a Sim to "discuss matters of ettiquette" and the like.

* A big part of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. In a BadFuture dominated by evil robots and crazy advanced technology, the titular hero really stands out with his traditional gi, his hat, his sandals, his SamuraiPonytail and his magic katana. When he's shown to have abandoned these for heavy armor, guns, and a motorcycle in Season 5, it's a clear indicator that something has gone ''[[DespairEventHorizon very]]'' wrong in Jack's psyche.

* A big part of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack''. In a BadFuture dominated by evil robots and crazy advanced technology, the titular hero really stands out with his traditional gi, his hat, his sandals, his SamuraiPonytail and his magic katana.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'', [[OldRetainer Igor]] revives the old vampire to deal with the odious innovations of the younger generations. The witches and the mob agree that the old master had been better: he had played fair. In a twist by the time he shows up this regard is all that keeps the vampires from being wiped out; he held back and played fair because it encourages the humans to do the same.
** In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'', Angua complains that barbaric as her father had been, he had played fair with such customs as the hunt; her brother had corrupted things.
** In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', the wizards are big on traditions, the changing of rules is justified by finding an ''old'' set of rules in the urn, and Glenda objects to mucking with the rules because football is not supposed to keep up with the times.
** 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''.

Not all Good Old Ways are entirely good; the characters may concede their faults but point out that only their virtues have been lost, as when a violent and courageous race loses its courage but not its taste for violence. EvenEvilHasStandards can be a form of Good Old Ways.

* Leonard [=McCoy=] from ''Series/{{Star Trek|TheOriginalSeries}}'' both enforces and subverts this trope. He's rabidly in favor of fighting the dehumanizing effects of too much technology (especially the transporter) in favor of enjoying "the simple things in life", and yet sees "primitive 20th-century medicine" as just above trepanation, leeches, and blood-letting in its barbarity, preferring the "high tech approach" to healing. In general, he embraces the positive, constructive aspects of technological progress rather than the destructive or dehumanizing ones. This gets a LampshadeHanging in the book ''[[Literature/StarTrekDepartmentOfTemporalInvestigations Forgotten History]]'', where a character is surprised to hear [=McCoy=] railing against the past because she thought he was suspicious of modernity, and he replies "I'm suspicious of all kinds of things."

* 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, only to be [[ShootTheShaggyDog unceremoniously crushed]] and their leader exiled to Taris.

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

* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} and his partner/lover Hawkgirl[=/=]Hawkwoman ([[ContinuitySnarl It's complicated]]) frequently use maces, spears and other primitive weapons against criminals. Justified in that they are both reincarnations of ancient Egyptian lovers; furthermore, the weapons are made up of the mystical Nth metal which has anti-gravity and sometimes anti-magic properties. Subverted during the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] when they were extra-terrestrials from a world that had developed FTL starships. Nowadays it varies though the reincarnation cycle started when they found a ship of a world with the same name and touched it.

* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} and his partner/lover Hawkgirl[=/=]Hawkwoman ([[ContinuitySnarl It's complicated]]) frequently use maces, spears and other primitive weapons against criminals. Justified in that they're reincarnations of ancient Egyptian lovers; furthermore, the weapons are made up of the mystical Nth metal which has anti-gravity and sometimes anti-magic properties. Subverted during the Silver Age when they were extra-terrestrials from a world that had developed FTL starships. Nowadays it varies though the reincarnation cycle started when they found a ship of a world with the same name and touched it.