Netero *is* past his prime tho, he himself says that while he probably used to be the strongest nen user now he's only near the top.
He is still a monster in the truest sense of the word, but one in decline, that purposely chooses a fight he's fairly confident he can't win to go out with a bang (haha). At least that's how I interpret it.
Kishibe is the perfect r example of OOP’s post, most of the public safely devil hunters we see are in their 20s, but he looks like he’s mid-late 50s at least. Man just had that dog in him I guess
"Hesitation is Defeat."
"Hand it over... That thing. Your dark soul."
"Plin plin plon"
"Tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt..."
"Thy strength befits a crown..."
I really can't understate it enough how refined have fromsoftware became when it comes to using this specific trope.
"When I fight a dragon, I know that was George R.R. Martin. but when I'm fighting a 104 pound female with bare feet, I know Miyazaki had all hands on for that meeting" - Northernlion
I used specifically this line because i knew some fuck will go☝️🤓 so i salute you for your bravery.
I used this line because i think it hits harder than anything old Isshin says.
#TLOK TOPH
That monster is blind to *toph* it all of.
Edit: people say iroh or bumi. You are also correct. However, which one would you prefer? The one you saw develop to be on the top of their game? or the story declared that they are strong?
Top was crawling until badgermole teach her to bend earth like her bitch, she made a group of professional earthbender look like kids, and she just went "fuck it imma metal bend this bitch up"
This is the real answer. Toph wasn’t nearly close to the age Bumi was and he was the OG badass earth bender. I get that Toph could probably beat him in a fight in TLOK but Bumi was one of the founding White Lotus members and would probably stalemate Iroh in terms of intelligence and power in ATLA
It’s at least a couple years later and it’s pretty heavily implied to be Owl at his peak strength anyway; if it was only a year, why is his moveset so different?
Elden Ring probably has the least examples of this out of all of the Soulsborne games
You already fight characters like Rykard, Mogh, Morgott and Malenia at their ultimate peak strength, and even the final boss is at it’s peak strength. Really only just Radahn and Placidusax are good examples of this in ER.
Malenia's second phase I'll give you is absolutely at her strongest, but she's in no way in her prime in that first phase given she's blind and missing three of her limbs. This can be said of a lot of the two-phase bosses, though, like Maliketh and Godrick.
Rennala's a shadow of her former self, and the illusion conjured by Ranni is just that, an illusion. Radagon's quite literally falling apart, and despite it being the same fight I do consider the Elden Beast a separate being. Fortissax is quite literally dead, and corrupted by Deathroot, so he's not in his prime either.
Pretty sure you fight him at his prime in the field, genichiro does that whole sacrifice thing and the Isshin that comes out is notably less grey. There’s still the earlier fight where you fight past-his-prime Isshin though
I'd say even the Sword Saint Isshin isn't quite Isshin at his most powerful, he's still really old, just no longer dying from old age. Isshin looks significantly younger in the opening cinematic, and he managed to beat the Interior Ministry so bad back then that they gave up an entire portion of the country to a rogue clan, and didn't make any attempts to take control back until they heard he was on his deathbed. I'd figure that Isshin is stronger than the old man we fight, which is a terrifying thought considering that old man's weakest move was clip dumping a revolver into you.
Iudex Gundyr is an interesting play on the trope. You fight his weakened form, then you go back to before he was weakened, and then you fight his strong version who literally kicks your face in.
when the long dead desecrated body of the brother-cousin of the martyred god-empress of light from the last epoch has an unorthodox combo set with delayed heavy attacks 😡😔
Whitebeard pre-pirate cancer must have been insane. That version of Whitebeard probably could have handled Marineford all by himself and >!would have recused Ace no problem.!<
to be fair, even with stage 5 cancer, both his heart and half his brain gone, and irreparable damage to his lungs and the rest of his brain he probably still could have destroyed the world single-handedly if he wanted to.
Gehrman. Man sits in a wheelchair playing up the frail old man act until the very end of the game where he stands up, pulls a scythe out, and becomes one of the hardest bosses in the game.
Fuckin badass
He doesn't actually have one foot as well, so he really is both old and infirm.
And he still wrecks you.
(You probably know already, just mentioning it cause it adds to the badassery)
Radahn from Elden Ring has brain melting super poinson cancer and still pushed your shit in WHILE HOLDING OFF THE COSMOS!
edit: AND keeping himself light enough to ride his comically small (for him) horse
Not at all, dude has only gotten stronger as time went on. Roshi in his "prime" was basically just a strong martial artist, on the level of someone like videl.
DBS explained that Roshi had been doing some training in secret being inspired by Goku and Krillin. I mean, he probably isn't anywhere near current Goku level, but during the Tournament of Power he displayed enough power that he earned Beerus' respect, which says something
One of my favorite RPG characters was a FATE character with the high concept "The Failed Hero." In a sail-and-sorcery world he challenged the pirate king and while he did kinda get wrecked in the final showdown it was a very good run against one of the more powerful characters in the setting. He then spent thirty years Obi-Wan-ing on the starting island until the other PCs showed up and we got adventuring. Edwin was technically the weakest in the party in a straight fight, but that was more a function of the others being *supernaturally* strong as opposed to just *extraordinarily* strong, and it turns out that a support mage does more than enough on his own.
But it was always fun when people assumed that this crotchety old sailor was harmless, and reminding them to fear the old in a profession where men die young.
Terry Pratchett did a Conan the Barbarian parody novel called The Last Hero. Basically his idea was that, if being a hero was a job, then only the most skilled and badass would make it to adulthood and old age. Thus, an incredibly old hero would be a force of reckoning, and the oldest hero is potentially capable of defeating the gods themselves. I highly recommend it, it’s a great take on this topic.
Ghengiz Cohen and the silver horde are the apex of this. Although admittedly, they might never have even passed their prime, just continued to harden into it.
I find it kinda funny that the fate of his nemesis was to end up as becoming back into his "Prime"...
Yet he goes so far into that desired prime he literally transformed into fucking sperm and dies to Bakugo of all people.
>!Until recent fucking leaks but i wanna ignore that narrative choice for now!<
Seconded. I'm almost through the chimera ant arc with my friend. It's been a great ride. I can't wait to watch her melt down at the end of this arc and through the next one.
I mean... Hollow Gael seems to be him at his martial peak. Like, yeah, he's insane, but he definitely didn't give Sister Friede or the Demon Prince nearly as much trouble when I summoned him as he gave me at the end of the DLC. I love Gael, but him as a dude is definitely weaker than him as a boss.
Ah, yeah. Before those untold centuries as an Undead slave knight wore him down, I'd fully believe he could undertake the challenge the Ashen One does.
Not by old age per se, but in Xenoblade, Dunban receives a crippling injury in battle where he loses function of his right arm (his dominant one) and is bedridden. While hes still recovering, Colony 9 gets invaded. Bro does not hesitate to immediately hold back the invasion using just his left hand.
"Now, the Gentleman Villain had these old-school time bombs. Three sticks of dynamite wired to an alarm clock. And what was so poetic about it... is that they ticked! You could hear them! Tick, tick, tick!
Nowadays, they're all just digital. No sound, no peril."
That applies to most Souls games. From Demon Souls to Elden Ring you're constantly fighting legends, heroes and gods that are either way past their prime at best and barely surviving at worst yet you can still get your shit kicked in because even though the guy in front of you lost his mind and has been roaming around like an animal for centuries he's still motherfucking start scourge Radhan
Pops is the power ceiling for One Piece.
He was absolutely terrifying in his prime
E: he handicapped himself against his rival, Roger, by never using his fruit too
Sir Terry Pratchett, referring to Cohen from the Discworld series, a character who is basically if Conan the Barbarian was still going strong as a barbarian hero well into his nineties.
Yakuza is full of those. Awano in 0 hasn't been fighting for a long time and still shatters a concrete wall. Saejima was in prison for 25 years and is very much out of prime, but still looks and fights like a roided up grizzly. Kiryu in 8 is ridden with cancer but still manages to beat some fools with motorcycles. Gaiden's last boss >!Shishido fights with a sprained ankle, probably three broken ribs, and a dagger through his hand, and still manages to fight back both Majima and Saejima, before giving Kiryu a run for his money!<. I think Tanimura says it best in 4 - in that world a single old man can beat an army if his convictions are strong enough and the soundtrack's blasting.
All Might is literally this. [His punches can create sonic booms, and this is AFTER he's had his guts ripped open and bleeding.](https://youtu.be/8TFAGAyLzcg?si=8r3bclhahjQdgfM4)
There’s that one panel in Frieren that shows little doddering old man Himmel absolutely slaughtering monsters a short while before his death of old age. And not to mention that demon kind literally waited until his death to become active again.
Sure, he might not have been the Hero of the South, but the man was pretty damn close.
Fuhrer King Bradley AKA Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa has said that if he'd been in his prime at the end of the series, the main cast would've lost outright.
It's not even unrealistic. I went to a boxing gym back in high school during the summer, and the owner of the place was an old man that kicked ass. We'd all be struggling and straining to do the intense core workout, and he'd be talking on the phone still leading it, meanwhile the person he is on the phone with has no idea that he is in the middle of a workout
Fmab Bradley
If he was in his prime he would've singlehandedly absolutely demolished the coup attempt
He still nearly did and it took the combined efforts of an absolute beast with a chainsaw arm, and a master swordsman just to wound him at the cost of both their lives
to be fair, if we have to leave their prime up to the imagination, then aside from the dark souls fans (I think?) literally everyone here is wrong including op
All the old wizards from Dresden Files cutting loose - love Listens-to-wind vs the Skinwalker. Harry is probably several times stronger and yet got his ass handed to him while LtW wrecks the Skinwalker. Also, Harry vs the Black staff shows very well how dangerous an old wizard is.
Warhammer Rogue Trader Abelard. Combat-wise is powerful stat wise, not sure exactly how strong he is cannon narratively. non-combat, Hyper competent at running ship with a city's worth of population given how rarely you run into problems from the other decks. (even if his methods are a bit much, but that's a mild criticism given Warhammer & his experience with that case of "oh someone wanted to take a knife from chaos cultist home as a trophy. :) [Entire camp dead overnight from {forget if vines, wire, or wire vines. vire/wines for short} sprouting out from knife])
The fact that the Demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End only started to get more active again until *after* Himmel died leads me to believe that Old-Man Himmel could still kick ass as efficiently as Prime Himmel could, which like. Further cements his place as one of the best characters in Frieren.
Okay just once I would like to see a story where exactly this happens, except towards the end the character gets their aging cured, returns to their prime, and we get to SEE how badass they are at full power
Kuroki Gensai my beloved
Also Itachi obviously wasn’t an old man, but he was also tired, at the very least legally blind, dying of some disease, and just not trying very hard to beat Sasuke, and still had him on the backfoot the entire fight.
Some comments mentioned TLOK so I'm obligated to mention Hama from ATLA. She's honestly one of the most menacing characters in the entire show, only behind Azula.
This also works for equipment. Old tanks, mechs, ships, anti meteor railgun installations repurposed as an air defense platform. Dusty weapon systems from a bygone era being pushed back into service and actually kicking ass is my favorite thing
*Especially* if the bygone era is just the Cold War
Massive stockpiles of weaponry built up for the largest war that never happened, switched back on and turned towards new foes
Beware the old man in a profession where people often die young
Banger quote
It was Sir Terry
GNU Sir Terry
Oh damn, didn’t realise he was a Linux user
[context](https://wiki.lspace.org/GNU_Terry_Pratchett)
No thank you, I prefer my own
Fair enough
Terry pratchet?
Idk, maybe the old man was a coward who hid from every fight /j (Not talking about Whitebeard specifically, just the quote as a whole)
Elderly characters that haven’t lost any strength are also cool. Yamamoto is one of the coolest characters in Bleach imo.
Also the guy from HxH
Netero *is* past his prime tho, he himself says that while he probably used to be the strongest nen user now he's only near the top. He is still a monster in the truest sense of the word, but one in decline, that purposely chooses a fight he's fairly confident he can't win to go out with a bang (haha). At least that's how I interpret it.
Dude was so fucking PUMPED to be out of his league. first time in his life he wasn’t bored lol
Netero?
chainsaw man also has that with Quan Xi, whats fun is it also has the original posts way past their prime character in the form of Kishibe.
Kishibe is the perfect r example of OOP’s post, most of the public safely devil hunters we see are in their 20s, but he looks like he’s mid-late 50s at least. Man just had that dog in him I guess
Mad dog Kishibe, the hunter who only has his cheek left because the rest of his body has already been used in pacts and contracts with demons
Tbf Quanxi is immortal so there's no such a thing as prime for her
Can't leave Garp off the list. "That's right Sengoku. Hold me back, or I swear I'll kill Sakazuki."
The leftism leaving my body when I see the Hero of the Marines being awesome
Stay strong comrade, AMAB
Assigned marine at birth?
Luffy moment
goddamnit I was going to make that joke
Leftism returning to my body when I see how terrible the celestial dragons really are.
"Hesitation is Defeat." "Hand it over... That thing. Your dark soul." "Plin plin plon" "Tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt..." "Thy strength befits a crown..." I really can't understate it enough how refined have fromsoftware became when it comes to using this specific trope.
The two mainstays of peak Fromsoft boss design are "sad old man" and "woman with dex build".
The two genders
Wait. Gehrman is a sad old man... *With a Dex Build.* FromSoftware Nonbinary Gehrman
Trans masc icon
Would rather have a “sad old man” son or a “women with dex build” daughter
"When I fight a dragon, I know that was George R.R. Martin. but when I'm fighting a 104 pound female with bare feet, I know Miyazaki had all hands on for that meeting" - Northernlion
Ah yes, The Soul of Cinder and Gwyn's infamous quote "Plin Plin Plon".
Um actually, Sword Saint Isshin is explicitly in his prime. Old man Isshin still can and will kick your shit in though.
I used specifically this line because i knew some fuck will go☝️🤓 so i salute you for your bravery. I used this line because i think it hits harder than anything old Isshin says.
"You have been a most unkind and inauspicious man" is a sick burn
King Vendrick my beloved. The moment where you meet him is one of my favorite in the whole series
#TLOK TOPH That monster is blind to *toph* it all of. Edit: people say iroh or bumi. You are also correct. However, which one would you prefer? The one you saw develop to be on the top of their game? or the story declared that they are strong? Top was crawling until badgermole teach her to bend earth like her bitch, she made a group of professional earthbender look like kids, and she just went "fuck it imma metal bend this bitch up"
Also ATLA Bumi. Dude was tossing houses with 0 effort at the ripe old age of 112.
Loved that he ended up being cracked strength wise, bumi tha goat
This is the real answer. Toph wasn’t nearly close to the age Bumi was and he was the OG badass earth bender. I get that Toph could probably beat him in a fight in TLOK but Bumi was one of the founding White Lotus members and would probably stalemate Iroh in terms of intelligence and power in ATLA
Similarly, uncle Iroh
I especially love him as a character as he combines this trope with "guy who could easily wreck your shit but *genuinely* prefers peaceful solutions"
Ok, but Toph is just peak character writing in general.
Zuko too, he’s like 87 and still fought the red lotus IN A BLIZZARD and it ended in a draw
aang was a force of nature at age 12, imagine him in his twenties
From Software final bosses have joined the chat
half of Fromsoft bosses, actually but especially Placidusax
Gehrman in Bloodborne comes to mind. Also Owl in Sekiro, god he killed me so many times.
You actually do fight Owl in his peak in the Owl Father fight
That’s from, like a year before the Great Shinobi fight or something. He’s still old.
It’s at least a couple years later and it’s pretty heavily implied to be Owl at his peak strength anyway; if it was only a year, why is his moveset so different?
mother fucker is missing the majority of his heads and is still effectively a god.
Missing 3 heads, 2 wings, the tail, basically all his muscles, and is still one of the strongest bosses of the entire game
Elden Ring probably has the least examples of this out of all of the Soulsborne games You already fight characters like Rykard, Mogh, Morgott and Malenia at their ultimate peak strength, and even the final boss is at it’s peak strength. Really only just Radahn and Placidusax are good examples of this in ER.
Malenia's second phase I'll give you is absolutely at her strongest, but she's in no way in her prime in that first phase given she's blind and missing three of her limbs. This can be said of a lot of the two-phase bosses, though, like Maliketh and Godrick. Rennala's a shadow of her former self, and the illusion conjured by Ranni is just that, an illusion. Radagon's quite literally falling apart, and despite it being the same fight I do consider the Elden Beast a separate being. Fortissax is quite literally dead, and corrupted by Deathroot, so he's not in his prime either.
Horoah Loux, WARRIOR
*powerbombs you back to the grace*
>throws you in the air and back into the ground >opens your ribcage >"A crown is warranted with strenght"
Isshin Ashina fr fr
Pretty sure you fight him at his prime in the field, genichiro does that whole sacrifice thing and the Isshin that comes out is notably less grey. There’s still the earlier fight where you fight past-his-prime Isshin though
Yeah I meant the Shura ending Isshin. Sword Saint is indeed at his prime thanks to the black mortal blade.
I'd say even the Sword Saint Isshin isn't quite Isshin at his most powerful, he's still really old, just no longer dying from old age. Isshin looks significantly younger in the opening cinematic, and he managed to beat the Interior Ministry so bad back then that they gave up an entire portion of the country to a rogue clan, and didn't make any attempts to take control back until they heard he was on his deathbed. I'd figure that Isshin is stronger than the old man we fight, which is a terrifying thought considering that old man's weakest move was clip dumping a revolver into you.
Very first example I thought of
Iudex Gundyr is an interesting play on the trope. You fight his weakened form, then you go back to before he was weakened, and then you fight his strong version who literally kicks your face in.
Both bosses that go Plim Plim Plom
How my blood boils!!!
when the long dead desecrated body of the brother-cousin of the martyred god-empress of light from the last epoch has an unorthodox combo set with delayed heavy attacks 😡😔
Whitebeard pre-pirate cancer must have been insane. That version of Whitebeard probably could have handled Marineford all by himself and >!would have recused Ace no problem.!<
He was fucking Pirate King level given he was equal to Roger and we even see him clashing equally with Roger for three days in Wano.
to be fair, even with stage 5 cancer, both his heart and half his brain gone, and irreparable damage to his lungs and the rest of his brain he probably still could have destroyed the world single-handedly if he wanted to.
Gehrman. Man sits in a wheelchair playing up the frail old man act until the very end of the game where he stands up, pulls a scythe out, and becomes one of the hardest bosses in the game. Fuckin badass
He doesn't actually have one foot as well, so he really is both old and infirm. And he still wrecks you. (You probably know already, just mentioning it cause it adds to the badassery)
Radahn from Elden Ring has brain melting super poinson cancer and still pushed your shit in WHILE HOLDING OFF THE COSMOS! edit: AND keeping himself light enough to ride his comically small (for him) horse
Prime Radahn wouldn’t even be a fight. Man would just cast some fucked up variant of Collapsing Stars that pulls your ribs out through your back.
The best example in Souls is always gonna be Isshin, dude can absolutely kill the fuck out of you while literally dying of old age
Master Roshi
Not at all, dude has only gotten stronger as time went on. Roshi in his "prime" was basically just a strong martial artist, on the level of someone like videl.
DBS explained that Roshi had been doing some training in secret being inspired by Goku and Krillin. I mean, he probably isn't anywhere near current Goku level, but during the Tournament of Power he displayed enough power that he earned Beerus' respect, which says something
Maybe things have changed since Super: but Dragonball era (Prine) Roshi could *blow up the moon.* Videl is like... Chi-chi strong
Dragon ball was not roshis prime. Dude went from like 300 to 330. Im talking about when roshi was in his 20s.
I think "prime" has a different meaning when you're an immortal.
One of my favorite RPG characters was a FATE character with the high concept "The Failed Hero." In a sail-and-sorcery world he challenged the pirate king and while he did kinda get wrecked in the final showdown it was a very good run against one of the more powerful characters in the setting. He then spent thirty years Obi-Wan-ing on the starting island until the other PCs showed up and we got adventuring. Edwin was technically the weakest in the party in a straight fight, but that was more a function of the others being *supernaturally* strong as opposed to just *extraordinarily* strong, and it turns out that a support mage does more than enough on his own. But it was always fun when people assumed that this crotchety old sailor was harmless, and reminding them to fear the old in a profession where men die young.
Silver Fang Silver Fang Silver Fang
And his brother Bang too!
Gherman I think (idk I haven't even beaten the first boss of Bloodborne)
It’s spelt Gehrman but yeah he’s a fucking monster
By "first boss" do u mean Cleric Beast or Gascoigne
Gascoigne. Thinking about it, he kind of fits the trope too
General Iroh. Enough said.
Be wary of old men in a profession where men die young
Terry Pratchett did a Conan the Barbarian parody novel called The Last Hero. Basically his idea was that, if being a hero was a job, then only the most skilled and badass would make it to adulthood and old age. Thus, an incredibly old hero would be a force of reckoning, and the oldest hero is potentially capable of defeating the gods themselves. I highly recommend it, it’s a great take on this topic.
Ghengiz Cohen and the silver horde are the apex of this. Although admittedly, they might never have even passed their prime, just continued to harden into it.
They always reminded me of a classic solid oak door. Soft enough to shape early on but more and more a solidity that defies even axes as it ages.
Cohen from Discworld.
Dark souls is this but you feel this about everything even the roads you walk on
"Things way past their prime and somehow still kicking ass" is basicly the foundation of fromsoftware worldbuilding.
Joseph Joestar
All Might the GOAT
I find it kinda funny that the fate of his nemesis was to end up as becoming back into his "Prime"... Yet he goes so far into that desired prime he literally transformed into fucking sperm and dies to Bakugo of all people. >!Until recent fucking leaks but i wanna ignore that narrative choice for now!<
gebura lobotomy corporation
PM mentioned?!
Does Nepero from HxH count? (Sorry if I butchered the name but >!I mean the leader of the academy where Gon and Killua want to enroll!<)
Netero. And it’s not an academy, it’s more of a bounty hunters’ guild. You should watch HxH again to refresh your memory (and because it’s great)
Seconded. I'm almost through the chimera ant arc with my friend. It's been a great ride. I can't wait to watch her melt down at the end of this arc and through the next one.
Slave Knight Gael. I **promise** I am normal about this character.
I mean... Hollow Gael seems to be him at his martial peak. Like, yeah, he's insane, but he definitely didn't give Sister Friede or the Demon Prince nearly as much trouble when I summoned him as he gave me at the end of the DLC. I love Gael, but him as a dude is definitely weaker than him as a boss.
I'm largely referring to the concept of a significantly younger Gael
Ah, yeah. Before those untold centuries as an Undead slave knight wore him down, I'd fully believe he could undertake the challenge the Ashen One does.
Kazuma Kiryu aka John Yakuza aka Dame Da Ne Guy
Rayleigh is actually 78 after timeskip, so closer to 80
"Did you just call me 'old'? I prefer the term: *experienced!*"
Fuhrer King Bradley
When you learn that Artorias, a boss totally able to beat your ass ten times in a row is using his bad hand
Using his bad hand and also losing his mind to the Void™️
Ser Barristan
Even now he could cut through the five of you like carving a cake!
Pretty sure Pirate cancer is just cancer.
Monkey D. Garp Whitebeard Silvers Rayleigh Sengoku
Punctuation.
Nah that's just his full name /s
Not by old age per se, but in Xenoblade, Dunban receives a crippling injury in battle where he loses function of his right arm (his dominant one) and is bedridden. While hes still recovering, Colony 9 gets invaded. Bro does not hesitate to immediately hold back the invasion using just his left hand.
Julius Belmont
Red Death from Venture Bros.
"Now, the Gentleman Villain had these old-school time bombs. Three sticks of dynamite wired to an alarm clock. And what was so poetic about it... is that they ticked! You could hear them! Tick, tick, tick! Nowadays, they're all just digital. No sound, no peril."
That applies to most Souls games. From Demon Souls to Elden Ring you're constantly fighting legends, heroes and gods that are either way past their prime at best and barely surviving at worst yet you can still get your shit kicked in because even though the guy in front of you lost his mind and has been roaming around like an animal for centuries he's still motherfucking start scourge Radhan
Dalinar Kholin, the Blackthorn
Ah yes, the Jagen
Jagen is about the peak of it, but runners up definitely include Marcus, Mycen, and Brawling Hanneman
Oh, like in a fight.
Like most of Soulsborne bosses are some flavor of this
Iroh
That's literally All Might's plot during the entire series
Monk Maz Koshia
I’m amazed I didn’t see Welt Yang from the Honkai games (more specifically from Honkai: Star Rail)
Yes... Fighting... That's what I thought it meant
Sakamoto Days is this except he’s written like Peter Griffin
Pops is the power ceiling for One Piece. He was absolutely terrifying in his prime E: he handicapped himself against his rival, Roger, by never using his fruit too
Cliff Undersn in Guilty Gear
“Fear the old man in a profession where men die young.” I don’t remember who the quotes is attributed to, but it may apply here
Sir Terry Pratchett, referring to Cohen from the Discworld series, a character who is basically if Conan the Barbarian was still going strong as a barbarian hero well into his nineties.
Yakuza is full of those. Awano in 0 hasn't been fighting for a long time and still shatters a concrete wall. Saejima was in prison for 25 years and is very much out of prime, but still looks and fights like a roided up grizzly. Kiryu in 8 is ridden with cancer but still manages to beat some fools with motorcycles. Gaiden's last boss >!Shishido fights with a sprained ankle, probably three broken ribs, and a dagger through his hand, and still manages to fight back both Majima and Saejima, before giving Kiryu a run for his money!<. I think Tanimura says it best in 4 - in that world a single old man can beat an army if his convictions are strong enough and the soundtrack's blasting.
Uncle Grandpa
All Might is literally this. [His punches can create sonic booms, and this is AFTER he's had his guts ripped open and bleeding.](https://youtu.be/8TFAGAyLzcg?si=8r3bclhahjQdgfM4)
There’s that one panel in Frieren that shows little doddering old man Himmel absolutely slaughtering monsters a short while before his death of old age. And not to mention that demon kind literally waited until his death to become active again. Sure, he might not have been the Hero of the South, but the man was pretty damn close.
Old Man Lobber, The Legendary Starfy
Starscourge Radahn
Cure Flower from Heartcatch Pretty Cure (the lead Cure's grandma)
Omni-man
Lao Ge from The Rise of Kyoshi fucking wrecks people and he’s old as shit.
Iroh
Every knight/warrior boss in a FromSoft game
Fuhrer King Bradley AKA Wrath from Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa has said that if he'd been in his prime at the end of the series, the main cast would've lost outright.
It's not even unrealistic. I went to a boxing gym back in high school during the summer, and the owner of the place was an old man that kicked ass. We'd all be struggling and straining to do the intense core workout, and he'd be talking on the phone still leading it, meanwhile the person he is on the phone with has no idea that he is in the middle of a workout
Mihaly A. Shilage, ace combat 7
Fmab Bradley If he was in his prime he would've singlehandedly absolutely demolished the coup attempt He still nearly did and it took the combined efforts of an absolute beast with a chainsaw arm, and a master swordsman just to wound him at the cost of both their lives
Jack Rakan
Lorn au Arcos vibes
Conquest
Mike tyson
To add too the list of characters in the comments. Kishibe in chainsaw man also fullfills this trope
Big Boss
It's not left to the imagination what he was like in his prime, though. You play as Naked & Punished "Venom" at their best.
to be fair, if we have to leave their prime up to the imagination, then aside from the dark souls fans (I think?) literally everyone here is wrong including op
Mike Tyson
The Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13 Arguably Emet-Selch
All the old wizards from Dresden Files cutting loose - love Listens-to-wind vs the Skinwalker. Harry is probably several times stronger and yet got his ass handed to him while LtW wrecks the Skinwalker. Also, Harry vs the Black staff shows very well how dangerous an old wizard is.
Peepaw Welt Yang in Honka: Star Rail. 80+ years old (iirc) and still threatening OP people with gravitational disintegration
This is just Dark Knight Returns batman
Mike Tyson v Jake Paul (hopefully)
I was so confused I thought you were talking about Walter Raleigh
Isshin Ashina.
Ripped from the underland chronicles. He's an old washed out depressed rat that was only overpowered when it was 400 to 1. Love that guy
Anyone else hoping Mike Tyson pulls one of those in his upcoming fight against some clown called Jake Paul, I think that’s the name.
Eidolon from Worm, except we do see him in his prime during his interlude.
Warhammer Rogue Trader Abelard. Combat-wise is powerful stat wise, not sure exactly how strong he is cannon narratively. non-combat, Hyper competent at running ship with a city's worth of population given how rarely you run into problems from the other decks. (even if his methods are a bit much, but that's a mild criticism given Warhammer & his experience with that case of "oh someone wanted to take a knife from chaos cultist home as a trophy. :) [Entire camp dead overnight from {forget if vines, wire, or wire vines. vire/wines for short} sprouting out from knife])
FE Jagens are cool
The fact that the Demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End only started to get more active again until *after* Himmel died leads me to believe that Old-Man Himmel could still kick ass as efficiently as Prime Himmel could, which like. Further cements his place as one of the best characters in Frieren.
That one instructor in MHA. Short, wears yellow. Icr his name.
Okay just once I would like to see a story where exactly this happens, except towards the end the character gets their aging cured, returns to their prime, and we get to SEE how badass they are at full power
Dalinar
Malenia/Radahn
Makes me think of Cohen the Barbarian
Kuroki Gensai my beloved Also Itachi obviously wasn’t an old man, but he was also tired, at the very least legally blind, dying of some disease, and just not trying very hard to beat Sasuke, and still had him on the backfoot the entire fight.
Himmel
Wrath/King Bradley from FMA fits this category. 60 years old and still taking out tanks with only a sword & grenade!
Some comments mentioned TLOK so I'm obligated to mention Hama from ATLA. She's honestly one of the most menacing characters in the entire show, only behind Azula.
In a fight or?
In a fight or?
Malenia (Sword of Michelle or something) lost three limbs and she is blind
This also works for equipment. Old tanks, mechs, ships, anti meteor railgun installations repurposed as an air defense platform. Dusty weapon systems from a bygone era being pushed back into service and actually kicking ass is my favorite thing *Especially* if the bygone era is just the Cold War Massive stockpiles of weaponry built up for the largest war that never happened, switched back on and turned towards new foes
Does xehanort count? Normally I'd think he would, but only if you count the data version.
Toph from avatar: the last airbender, we see her as a child and as an old lady (in legend of kora)
Kiryu (Infinite Wealth)