Days (TV) BEST
The plot revolves around a Philadelphia family, the Days. The father, Jack Day (David Newsom) is a corporate lawyer who quits his job at a pharmaceutical company in the midst of a mid-life crisis. His wife, Abby Day (Marguerite MacIntyre) has recently re-entered the work force as an executive for an advertising firm after taking time off to raise their children. The couple's eldest child, daughter Natalie Day (Laura Ramsey), is homecoming queen, a soccer star, and the most popular girl in school, until she finds out she's pregnant. Cooper Day (Evan Peters) is the middle child and an aspiring writer who counts the days until his graduation. He begins and ends each episode with a monologue of an entry in his journal. Nathan Day (Zachary Maurer) is the youngest child, a child prodigy, who attends a private school and frequently suffers panic attacks.
Days (TV)
When a character had to leave a dangerous life for a more mundane one, and spends it longing for his glory days, he is in love with being In Harm's Way. If the character is using her children as a vector through which to either achieve what she never did or relive her glory days (instead of letting the kids be who they are), she may become an Education Mama or a Stage Mom. See also Jock Dad, Nerd Son.
Mythology Many mythologies (and modern religions as well) espouse a belief in a glorious past age where humankind and the world existed in a kind of "perfect" state. The usual trend of this belief is that due to some kind of sin, both humanity and the world have "fallen"; the result is the present age, which is often seen as more corrupt and miserable. Most of said mythologies emphasize an attempted return to the "perfect" pre-fallen state, either figuratively or literally.
Jason from the Argonautica met his end because of his obsession with his glory days. After Jason's lack of faith to Medea destroyed his life, he found himself years later on the beach where the hulk of his old ship the Argo lay. As he sat reminiscing about his adventure, the rotting prow of the Argo fell on him and killed him.
Sports Many, many sports teams or cities have this trope, particularly in sports with promotion and relegation where messing up can well mean the team getting passed down to the third or fourth division with countless former champions never making it back. There is also a surprising number of washed up former pro sports stars in real life, many of them nursing the effects of one too many injuries and some broke because they never learned to handle money or never made as much as you'd think to begin with. Schalke 04 is a good team to this day (though they've had their slumps and even relegations) but they're still longing for the glory days of the Schalker Kreisel (basically 1930s tiki-taka) when they'd reach the final more often than not and could dominate their competition with ease. Their last championship dates to 1958 (before the Bundesliga was founded) and their last measurable success that wasn't "second place in..." was the 1997 win of the UEFA-Cup.
The 1. FC Nürnberg used to dominate soccer in Germany in the 1920s, sometimes sending six players to the national squad with their arch-rival Fürth supplying the other five (there were no substitutions back then) but ever since they followed the 1968 championship with relegation the following year, fans have had to hold on to grainy black and white pictures of days long past and dream of names half-forgotten by others if they want to see a Nuremberg squad actually winning something. They did win the DFB-Pokal in 2007 but got relegated in 2008 - naturally.
The Cleveland Browns started out as one of the hottest names in football, winning the All-America Football Conference in all four seasons of its existence (1946-49). When the AAFC folded, the Browns were merged into the NFL, and won four more championships between 1950 and 1964. When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, the Browns were still a power to be reckoned with in the playoffs (albeit with Every Year They Fizzle Out tendencies). Then the 1995 relocation controversy sent the original Browns to become the Baltimore Ravens, and what has haunted the league since the franchise was revived in 1999 can only be described as a punchline for the saddest joke to ever torture the good citizens of Cleveland.
Hambledon Cricket Club was once the preeminent cricket club, and was responsible for defining and updating the Laws of Cricket. With the rise to prominence of the Marylebone Cricket Club it rapidly declined, and is now only a village club playing in the local league. Marylebone Cricket Club is no longer the institution it once was: it used to write the Laws of Cricket (now in the hands of the ICC), ran the English international team (now the England and Wales Cricket Board), and so on. However, it does retain a lot of prestige, both within the world of cricket and as a social institution.
Tabletop Games The Star League era of BattleTech. During its time the Star League was the unifying entity that held the Inner Sphere together, with the Star League Defense Force to protect it. However after the Amaris Civil War the Great Houses couldn't decide who would be new First Lord, and where eager to wage war with each other for supremacy. When the SLDF left the Inner Sphere, the Great Houses plunged the galaxy into the destructive Succession Wars which lead to a technological deterioration with each state scavenging anything they can use to maintain their war effort against each other.
Warhammer 40,000 has a few examples: The Eldars used to have galaxy-spanning empires which imploded with the birth of Slaanesh, and reduced to a Dying Race who can never return to their home worlds (which now lie in the midst of the Eye of Terror). It helps that the Eldars still maintain their supreme arrogance and superiority complex, wanting to put the other younger races to their place and reclaim their former glory.
Humanity themselves had the Dark Age of Technology, where mankind created anything that could have been created and rapidly colonized known space. Then the Age of Strife happened, throwing everything to the crapper. Fortunately for humanity, after the Age of Strife came the rise of The Emperor and The Imperium of Mankind, which led to the second glory days of the Great Crusade. With Space Marine legions backed with mighty war machines fighting as the Imperium's basic troops, nothing could hope to stand in The Imperium's way. Then the Horus Heresy happened, and everything went to an even deeper crapper than before, and The Imperium has been repeatedly described as 'rotting' or 'decaying' ever since. Roboute Guilliman, who was put in stasis towards the end of the Heresy, was brought back to the current modern times. In a conversation with the Emperor, he actually says it might have been better that Horus succeed instead of the utter wreck that was left.
Theatre That Championship Season is about an all grown up group of friends from high school who long for the simplicity of their youth, even though some of them are now successful (though their success is built on rotten foundations).
In The Club, Jock spends a lot of time reliving his time as a star player, and wants the club to be run the way it was in the old days. He also wants Laurie ousted as coach so that he can maintain the club record for most games coached.
Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman is so obsessed with his glory days that he occasionally flashes back to them. Whether or not the glory days actually had that much glory in them, or if Willy and his son are re-imagining the past is an important part of the story.
Web Comics In Manly Guys Doing Manly Things, it turns out Commander Badass doesn't worry about these."Cool thing about actively tryin' t' be a better person is y' never gotta pine over yer glory days 'cause yer always th' best version of yerself." What brought this speech on is that Lord Zedd does that: people nicknamed him 'Al Bundy'.
Web Original The Best Page in the Universe was one of the most talked about websites of the Web 1.0 era. His attempts to translate his old popularity into YouTube popularity haven't fared well, as his real persona doesn't match well with his over the top troll style used in the writing that made him popular back then.
In The Gamer's Alliance, after Agarwaen becomes the king of Manster, he gradually grows bored with his kingly duties and yearns for the days when he was a free adventurer.
In Survival of the Fittest, it's often argued that Version 1 was the glory days of the board, and that people preferred the old system. This was subverted in a thread on the board in which both V1 and V2 were criticised - V1 for being too spontaneous and for a lesser writing quality, and V2 for being overplanned. To quote the Admin of the site, "for the most part, V3's found a good mix of both planning and spontaneity". Read the thread here.
The main theme of There Will Be Brawl. Mario, Link, and a few other characters in particular seem to have taken it hard.
Western Animation Bojack Horseman opens with Bojack constantly watching episodes of his own show from the Nineties, due to being unable to move on from that era, though he still hates when the paparazzi recognize him and chase him down.
Camp Lazlo: on the episode "Dead Bean Drop", Slinkman, of all people misses his days as a death-defying daredevil, but he seems to have shoved it into the back of his mind over the years until Lazlo, Clam, and Raj find out and begin talking about it nonstop. He apparently moves past it when after fifteen years of having quit, he manages to jump the titular cliff, and it is never mentioned again. His inability to let it go was probably because he failed his final stunt; Turns out Lumpus sabotaged him out of petty envy. It's this that causes Slinkman to try once more, this time with Lumpus riding as well. He gets him to apologize and succeds in jumping.
Chowder has the episode "Big Food" regarding Chowder coming across the legendary Big Food, a now washed up Grand Dame actress based a lot upon Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Big Food: I am Big Food, it's the refrigerators that got small.
King of the Hill gives us "Big" Willie Lane, a former backup lineman for the Dallas Cowboys who had an unremarkable career, except for when he blocked a kick that allowed the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. He's pretty much spent his entire life since coasting on that glory and constantly brags about it. By the time he moves to Rainy Street, he's become an incredibly obnoxious, overweight alcoholic. This is best exemplified by Willie's Super Bowl Ring; he's never taken it off, and he's gained so much weight that it's now virtually impossible for him to do so, because of how fat his fingers have gotten. By the end of the episode, Hank has gone from worshipping him to blackmailing him with a potential assault charge to get him to move away.
In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", Gilda's grandfather is stuck in the days when the kingdom of Griffonstone was a mighty nation instead of a dump. Another episode, "Rarity Investigates", has an antagonist set up Rainbow Dash for a crime he committed so that he can preserve his flight speed record. He is exposed by Rarity for his frame up and is immediately stripped of his position and retirement benefits.
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