More musing on Fantasy Tropes: Fantasy Names

I have a tendency to some snarky, silly humor sometimes. Last night after watching Legend of the Seeker (see my last post), I couldn’t help but cringe and even though it was my wife’s choice, I found myself wanting to apologize to her for the hour and a half we spent watching the show. At the end, she asked me what I thought and I told her that I just wish that the people that write these shows would stop being so formulaic. We then proceeded to joke about some of the more clichéd elements. Names were at the top of the list. I can’t even recall the name of the major villain of the series but it started with Dark. Why is it that we (fantasists – the people that create the fantasies) feel that we need to fall back on such tired things? I’m weary of all of the fantasy place names/character names that are essentially some nonsensical mish mash that tries to emulate some imagined European language. Like Rogar, Zoldar, etc. So, as I mentioned, my wife and I joked about the names. I’m still chuckling a bit over some of them. Here’s some of them we came up with:

Zolgar the Comfort Seeker
Zycam the Decongestant
Rogar the Rabbit
Flem the Noisy
Rice the Brown
Bob the Undistinguished

OK, OK, so we both have colds and are probably a bit loopy from that and all of the holiday preparations. What other things annoy/bemuse you about this otherwise wonderful genre/hobby that still captivates us well into adulthood?

Comments

  1. PorkyDecember 27, 2010 at 10:39 AM

    Good post. My mind's churning over the rules of fictional universes and this goes in.

    I agree with you on naming, but I'd go back to the wider point of so much being so formulaic. I think it's about attracting the widest possible audience but also keeping production costs low. The problem is, it seems to take time to do it Tolkien's way, and time can be a scarce commodity these days.

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  2. UnknownDecember 28, 2010 at 12:50 AM

    Actually, the production values weren't bad on the TV show. It's just that they were not very original in the plot line. I wish that someone in TV or movie production would think of a fantasy series that was different than "we must defeat the big evil guy and save the world". There is more to fantasy than that but it seems that it doesn't get put out to the meida that way.

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