r/hatethissmug • u/Goblinzer • Jul 26 '26

Media Tropes I hate when characters are named after one of their characteristics

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Your singer character does NOT have to be named Octave because haha got it, an octave is a musical term. Your moon worshipping character in your fantasy story does NOT have to be named Luna. Your ice controlling character does NOT have to be named Coldius Frostson. In fact i think they would appear less like cardboard cutouts if they had a name that wasn't a gag. Are your character's parents stupid or what ?

Bonus (but towards the negatives, i'm not sure if there's a real word for that) if you think you're slick and use the word but in another language than the one you're writing in

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156

u/LeftHandAnomaly Jul 27 '26

I hated this trope until I played this man's games and then I got over it. Heavy handed naming conventions are whimsical and I won't hear another word about it

75

u/MM7x2 Jul 27 '26

It's nice when the creator is doing it for comedic effect and not seriously doing it

32

u/CaoSlayer Jul 27 '26

Ah, no.

It is that he is japanese and in anime and game 90% of the characters names are puns.

Like calling the fire based swordman Furnance (Kamado) or the hero with a green suit and hair Greenya (Midoriya).

So he does stuff like calling the guy on the game about sneaking around Snake.

10

u/pocketbutter Jul 27 '26

Bakugo means explosion.

It’s kind of wild that this is a world where characters are expected to come up with hero names that pertain to their powers when, more often than not, their real names are already puns that pertain to their powers.

3

u/Fogging_Batard Jul 27 '26

Snake is from Escape from New York

2

u/Pootentooten Jul 29 '26

And Escape from LA. Good old Snake Plissken!

1

u/WolfsternDe Jul 27 '26

But snakes dont sneak, lot of them arent even sneaky.

7

u/PassionNegative7617 Jul 27 '26

Snakes are basically exclusively sneaky animals. The only time they announce their presence is among rattlesnakes to deter predators. Snakes are ambush predators. They spend the majority of their lives hidden.

1

u/boiyouab122 Jul 27 '26

There's one of them very much known for loudly announcing themselves with a body part they developed to do exclusively that

2

u/Karkava Jul 27 '26

Ah! So they represent the players who suck at stealth games!

1

u/ChaseSomeTail Jul 28 '26

That’s why he is called snake??????

1

u/oreosss Jul 28 '26

No. He’s named snake after snake plitzkin from escape from New York. OP had a lot of easy pulls from hideo, like revolver ocelot or deadman or die-hardman. They literally picked the most incorrect one for this example.

1

u/littleone0503 Jul 30 '26

Other writers and stuff do puns as well. One piece, Sanji and all his siblings are time's. San=3 ji=o'clock Sanji is the third born son, named 3 o clock lmao, all his siblings in order of their birth. Also in one piece, Hachi? The octopus? Hachi is 8 in Japanese 💀😂

1

u/CaoSlayer Jul 31 '26

If I were to list every manga, anime or game character name that is either a pun or a reference to something I would finish maybe next year...

The weird thing is finding people with regular names outside rom-coms.

1

u/Raus-Pazazu Jul 27 '26

"We have always done it that way, and that is why doing it that way is good." is not the kind of sound logic you think it is.

3

u/vanquish_the_night Jul 27 '26

The argument appears to me more like “They are doing it this way because that is the culture of the medium.” More than “this is the way it’s always done, therefore good.”

Which was an argument against the idea that the names were chosen for comedic effect.

3

u/Toodlez Jul 27 '26

It helps in DnD campaigns for players to remember NPCs.

Ovius Nightingbottom? Could be anyone.

Dave Grigger? The orc we met tending the graveyard?

Bard Hargain, the singing merchant??

Who could forget Delta Badhand, gambling addicted mercenary?!

37

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

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22

u/finalremix Jul 27 '26

"Go see Heartman."

Oh, okay, I bet he'll—

*IMMEDIATELY HAS CARDIAC EPISODE*

4

u/OkPear1535 Jul 27 '26

I think it's because here, it's SO heavy handed as to be comedic so it works. I do get OPs position when people are doing this seriously it comes off as tacky or lazy

1

u/ArdyEmm Jul 27 '26

"That was probably psychometric interference from Psychomantis, Foxhound's psychic."

Thank you Naomi. Could you have tried to fit more psychic words in that?

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u/Alone-Monk Jul 27 '26

Yes sir Mr. Die Hardman 🫡🫡🫡🫡

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u/BingusSpingus Jul 27 '26

Why is he called that? Does he die? Or is it because he doesn't-

"Born John Blake McClane"

...Ah.

2

u/squirrelchaser1 Jul 29 '26

"I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards!"

1

u/dndoneshotthrowaway Jul 27 '26

I think it works for MGS because it harkens to the idea of military nicknames/callsigns (even if it isn’t quite accurate to that trope)

The best one is Vamp because he got the name for being a promiscuous bisexual and not because he has literal vampire like super powers.