Ah the gentleman. Within fiction they are either complete useless or a proper bad @$$; but their personalities always entertaining. That can be thanks to their mannerism, who the person is (or their family), but whatever they’re awesome. I’ve even modeled myself as a more modern gentleman, even though I’d never could pull off the upper crust accent. My favorite ‘version’ of the gentleman archetype  & my choice for today’s costume  are one of the same: Sir Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard from Jade Empire. The character, who should win a award for the name alone and ten more because the voice of Sir Roderick is John Cleese, is comedy gold every time he opens is mouth. An explorer from an unknown region (dollars to doughnuts its England) he finds his way to the Jade Empire and, in total Magnificent Bastard style, starts listing out the flaws of a country he’s not from. When the main characters meet this strange stranger they believe they can take him down a peg, both mentally and physical. Depending how good you are you can soundly trounce the good douchebag both ways and if you’re smart you’ll choose his rifle ‘Mirabelle’. Yes – in a game where there’s living walking statues, frog demons, ghosts, magic, martial arts, time control, bamboo & paper airplanes that you fly a la galaga, and dragons; they also give you a gun that shreds through a would be opponent like an actual flintlock rifle would. Is there any wonder why Jade Empire was ‘the’ RPG of its day.

TV Tropes calls what Dudley and Sir Roderick are as ‘Cultured Bad@$$’ to which I agree. After all who else knows the finer points of dinning and polite conversation while beating someone like a government mule? A Cultured Bad@$$ that’s who!