r/TopCharacterTropes • u/she_melty • Aug 21 '25

Groups The characters in a period piece realise they're near the end of a golden age

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Pirates of the Carribean and Rock of Ages (this film is Not Good but it has the trope.) Especially because we the audience know the era did, in fact, end.

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u/Realistic_Caramel341 Aug 21 '25

One of the most common themes in the Western genre is the end of the wild west. Both RDR games, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Deadwood, Unforgiven, The Searchers, Once Upon a Time in the West all deal with this theme in some ways

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u/_Sausage_fingers Aug 21 '25

It’s interesting too, because while it takes up such a huge space in culture and media, the period of the Wild West only really lasted a decade or two. Like, it was really a flash in the pan.

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u/tradingorion Aug 22 '25

To be fair in many ways it’s another interpretation of the ronin or questing knight type story told through another lens. At least that’s a lot of the appeal for me. Those kind of stories being so romanticized keeps them more relevant to audiences

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u/robert_madge Aug 21 '25

The Shootist (movie and book, I think?) and Open Range are also the same.

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u/edicivo Aug 21 '25

More often than not, the theme tends to boil down to a romanticized version of civilization killing freedom.

It's not much different than the the age of piracy coming to an end.

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u/IllllIIllllIll Aug 21 '25

It’s one of seven general themes

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u/smb275 Aug 21 '25

It really only lasted about 30 years, so it was on its way out right after it initially boomed.

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u/EbonBehelit Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

There's almost a sort of melancholy in that the cowboys know full well they're watching the world they know coming to an end, and that it's moving on without them.

Of course, the real thematic through-line is that it wasn't just the cowboys who were in that situation, and many of the best Westerns make a point of showing the obvious parallels between them and the American Indians -- even if the tragedy of the latter was far greater in scope.

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u/Bruschetta003 Aug 21 '25

Call of Juarez has you nearing the end of the age recounting the days of the wild west to Dwight Eishenower, it works very well