Egopolis: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Tashist!.jpg|link=Tintin|frame| [[Sigil Spam|Count the 'staches]]]]

 

{{quote|''"They say Tapioca's a real tyrant... he's cruel and he's vain... In fact he's so vain he changed the name of the capital from Los Dopicos. He called it Tapiocapolis after himself."''|'''[[Tintin]]''', ''Tintin and the Picaros''}}

There is some [[Truth in Television]] to this, such as Stalingrad and [[wikipedia:Saparmurat Niyazov|Saparmurat "Turkmenbashi" Niyazov]].

 

 

[[Sub-Trope]] of [[Meaningful Rename]].

 

Compare [[Conspicuous Consumption]] and [[Airstrip One]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[The Tower of Druaga (anime)|The Tower of Druaga]]'''s second season gives us "Meltland".

* Leopard of ''[[Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo]]'', being big enough to contain a city structure within him, takes pride in his city by, for example, naming all the animal species within him after himself. ''Crocodilius leopardus'', anyone?

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]''

** Satan City is named after [[Fake Ultimate Hero|Mr. Satan]] [[Blatant Lies|following his courageous defeat of Cell]]. He's not actually in charge, but he does have a large influence.

** Also deserving of mention is Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after the royal line of the Saiyans' king <ref>''Every'' male member in this family who ascends the throne seems to bear this name.</ref> after they defeated the Tuffles.

* And when you've got a city that's named [[Kyo Kara Maoh!|"May the great original king and the Mazoku people flourish!]] [[Overly Long Name|And may we never forget, everything that makes up our world came from the first Mazoku!]] [[Up to Eleven|We Mazoku have our wisdom, our bravery, and our ability to push aside feudal lords.]] [[Awesome McCoolname|As proof of our prosperity, we have our eternal kingdom!"]]... you have to wonder if the first Mazoku was really, really liked or really, really hated.

 

== Comics -- Newspaper ==

* ''[[Doonesbury]]'' has a running storyline involving the country of Berzerkistan, led by [[The Unpronounceable|Trff Bmzklfrpz]]. Not only did he [http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2007/11/12/ name a city, lake and mountain range for himself], but he later expanded the name to [http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2008/03/09/ a month of the year, a plant, and a bird].

* Jason in ''[[FoxTrot]]'' names the setting of his [[Show Within a Show|Slug-Man comics]] "Jasonopolis". Naming things after himself is a [[Running Gag]] for him in general.

 

* In the first ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]'' movie, Lex Luthor has already planned to rename at least a dozen cities with some form of "Lex" or "Luthor" following completion of his plot. Luthorville, Marina del Lex, etc. Humorously, he gets angry when his henchman tries to name a town "Otisburg", so much so he makes him erase it from his makeshift map.

* In ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'', Bedford Falls is renamed Pottersville in the [[Alternate Universe]] ruled by George Bailey's rival, Mr. Potter.

* Todd Spengo does this to an entire planet in the backstory of ''[[Mom and Dad Save The World]]''. Whatever it was is lost to the sands of history, but he is proud to be the Emperor of Planet Spengo.

* ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' has TRON City as the setting of the main action. It's a subversion, though, since it was Kevin Flynn's idea, and Tron never was a dictator, more like a protector of the system.

 

== Game Books ==

* A variant is found in, of all places, [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''Northern Lights'' (or ''The Golden Compass''), the first book of the ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' trilogy: it is mentioned that Iofur Raknison, being completely enchanted with [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bitch in residence]] Marisa Coulter, will soon create a capital city for the armored bears, and name it after her.

* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], they have the [[Planetville|ecumenopolis]] [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Empress_Teta_system Empress Teta], which was named after the empress who united the planet and fought off the Sith invasion.

* In the ''[[Tunnels]]'' series, [[Adventure Archaeologist]] Dr. Burrows, while heroic, has a somewhat alarming tendency to attempt to rename anything he discoveries after himself.

{{quote|'''Dr. Burrows:''' "The Garden of the Second Sun"... I shall call it "Roger Burrows Land"!}}

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Las Vegas]]'': Neither of them gets the chance to go through with it, but {{spoiler|before her death}} billionaire Monica Mancuso planned to rename the Montecito Resort and Casino ''The Monica'' when she was the property's owner, while Sam Marquez toys with renaming it the "''Samecito''" when she later inherits the ownership from Casey Manning.

 

* The King (Mickey Mouse) in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. Though he's on your side, you have to wonder about a king who stamps his silhouette on damn near everything in his realm....

* Depending on how you play, you can name your alliance in ''[[Star Control]] 2'' after yourself.

* ''[[Rune Factory: Frontier]]'' has a side character named Roland (which was [[Dub Name Change|changed to Nolan]] in the localization), the former king of the Kingdom of Roland. It's unspecified whether this is in effect or inverted (i.e. he was named Roland ''because'' he was to be the King of Roland).

* The ''[[Warcraft]]'' universe has the city of Thaurissan, named by (and after) Sorcerer-thane Thaurissan when he declared himself emperor of the Dark Iron dwarves. Destroyed when Emperor Thaurissan summoned Ragnaros the Firelord, its ruins are in what became the Burning Steppes.

 

== Web Comics ==

* The terrible country of Tyrinaria in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', home to Lord Tyrinar The Bloody, and source of a good deal of backstory motivation for Haley. The problem being that, by the time Haley gets to the continent where it is located, it's not there anymore; countries there tend to get conquered, renamed, and conquered again every year or so. At current time, there's a Cruelvania, Dictatoria, and two Despotonias (East and West).

 

* Pineapple Pokopo and Pokoponesia in ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' (who was ported directly from the Tick comics). Pokoponesia's primary export is pineapples, in what is ''surely'' a giant coincidence.

* Not a leader, but ''[[Mutant League]] Football'' give us KT Slayer, the star player of... the Slaycity Slayers. Hmmm, must have had [[Metalocalypse|Dethklok]] negotiate his contract.

** Omashu was renamed to the city of New Ozai, after the current Fire Lord, after being conquered by the Fire Nation. This of course implies there is another city named Ozai.

*** Omashu itself was, according to legend, named after a pair of lovers named Oma and Shu.

** Kyoshi Island was named after Avatar Kyoshi, its most famous past resident. Pretty [[Justified]], since {{spoiler|she basically ''made'' it herself, breaking her home peninsula off from the mainland}}.

* In ''[[ReBoot]]'', when Megabyte {{spoiler|takes over [[City of Adventure|Mainframe]]}}, he {{spoiler|re}}names it Megaframe.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]''

** Dr. Drakken plans way too far ahead, to what he'll name certain places after his "inevitable victory". When he launches an attack on the Great White North, he plans to rename it Drakanada.

** Shego pulls this herself. In the [[Bad Future|future where she takes over the world]], she changes Middleton to Shegoton, Upperton to North Shegoton, and even the clothing chain store Club Banana to Club Shego, leading to one of quotes in the [[Egopolis/Quotes|quote page]].

* Even though it's a country, Petoria, named after Peter Griffin of ''[[Family Guy]]'', is only the size of the Griffin's house and front/back yard, with the entire city of Quahog surrounding it, effectively making it the smallest country in the world (surrounded by the smallest state in America, no less). To drive the point home, the national flag has the words "PETORIA" and a crude drawing of Peter on a white background.

{{quote|'''Peter:''' I was gonna call it Peterland, but that gay bar down by the airport already took it.}}

** And in a slight variation, when Peter decides to "annex" his neighbor Joe's swimming pool as Petoria's "newest province", he renames it "Joehio".

* In the [[Wonderful Life]] episode of ''[[Donkey Kong Country (animation)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', the [[Alternate Universe]] version of Diddy, who's an evil dictator, says that he plans to rename the island Diddyland when he takes over.

* The ''[[Transformers]]'' episode, "Megatron's Master Plan." The Autobots have been driven from Earth and Megatron conquers a city. Megs: "I christen this city Megatronia One! Soon there will be many more!"

== Real Life ==

* Indianapolis, Indiana and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma are examples of state capitals that use this trope.

** Interestingly, there is a town in Ohio called "Ohio City", but it's not a state capital.

* The unofficial name of Gliese 581 g (the first exoplanet widely believed to be capable of supporting Terragen life) is Zarmina's World. In a slight variation of this trope, Zarmina is named not after the discoverer (Steven Vogt) but rather after his wife.

*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvRWUCfAPs0 There is also this]

* Subverted with Emperor Hadrian, who traveled throughout the entire Roman Empire, commissioning buildings and civil works projects wherever he went. Many of those cities renamed ''themselves'' Hadrianopolis in order to enjoy the emperor's favor. Played straight with Antinoopolis, the city he founded in memory of his dead lover.

* The Russian cities St. Petersburg (named by Peter The Great for the saint that was his namesake), aka Petrograd (renamed during WWI because it sounded too German), aka Leningrad (after Lenin), aka St. Petersburg again; and Stalingrad (now Volgograd). There's a move to rename it back to Stalingrad, not in honour of Stalin but in honour of the [[wikipedia:Battle of Stalingrad|famous victory over Germany]].

** Lenin's home town was renamed Ulianovsk, after his real surname, Ulianov. It hasn't been changed back.

{{quote|A general is asked about a specially magnificent medal on his chest. "Ah yes, I got that for my part in the battle of Volgograd. It was presented to me by Volgin himself."<ref>Don't you love [[Russian Humor]]?</ref>}}

*** Another variant:

** Truth to be told, Stalin reportedly disliked that personality cult, but [[Magnificent Bastard]] that he was, encouraged it because of its political usefulness.

** After Emperor Alexander I conquered Finland from Sweden, he relocated the capital further east (from Turku to Helsinki) and renamed the main street. Because his rule was seen as an improvement (and then that of his nephew Alexander II even more so), the Finns kept the name.

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]] had the German city of Salzgitter receive the title of ''Herman Göring-Stadt'' due to the industrial and mining areas built there (Goering was in charge of [[Nazi Germany]]'s economic development) and the Polish city of Zamosc into ''Himmlerstadt'' (after Heinrich Himmler, chief of the [[State Sec|SS]] and [[Gestapo]]).

* Saddam International Airport in Baghdad, now called Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) or Al Anbar Airport. And Saddam City, a region of Baghdad now renamed Sadr City. Under Saddam, Iraq was arguably the most extreme example of this trope, a role later taken by Turkmenistan.

* Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. However, it's worth noting that Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, a full six years before Saigon fell to North Vietnam. Since it was ''Saigon'' that got renamed, not Hanoi, this could also be taunting America.

* [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] dictator [[Rafael Trujillo]] did this a ''lot'', going as far as changing the capital city's name from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo.

** [[Older Than They Think|I think]] [[Covered Up|you mean]] "[[wikipedia:The Four Lads|nobody's business but the Turks"...]]

** It wasn't actually renamed Constantinople until after Constantine died. And Nova Roma (New Rome) was never the official name, just a reflection of Constantine's desire for it to be as prestigious as Rome had been at the height of the Roman Empire.

** All the places named after her beloved Prince Consort Albert, though most of those came after his death. It's often joked that she would have changed the name of England to Alberta if she thought for one second she could get away with it. She also tried to get her son to agree to reign as King Albert Edward after her death, leading to an endless line of British kings named Albert [Something]. This plan failed despite her son's name ''being'' Albert Edward (he chose to reign as [[The Edwardian Era|Edward VII]] instead).

** The Australian state of Victoria was named for her. Its capital Melbourne was named for her Prime Minister, and before that known as Port Phillip (after the Governor of New South Wales). Virtually any suburb of Melbourne dating from before about 1880 or so will have streets somewhere in it named Victoria and Albert -- almost always running parallel to each other.

* Exception: George Washington. He was chagrined to find that they named the new capital after him. He actively tried to stop it in favor of a different name. It didn't get much better, there's an entire state named for him (with his face on the state flag!), not to mention the 30 Washington Counties, hundreds of Washington Townships, 50 or so cities named Washington (besides the capital), and hundreds of streets named for him. To be fair, a lot of these, including the state (and even the territory that preceded it, as Washington Territory was formed from the leftovers of Oregon Territory after the State of Oregon formed) came about long after George's death.

* Virginia; Jamestown, Virginia; and Williamsburg, Virginia were named, in that order, after the Virgin Queen (that is, Elizabeth I), James I and William III.

** Baltimore is named after the Lord Baltimore, who's family coat of arms even became the state flag.

*** His full name was Cecil Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, so he got not only the city, but two Maryland counties, Cecil and Calvert, named after him.

** The Carolinas were named after Charles I; Maryland after his queen, Henrietta Maria (unless you prefer to believe it was the Catholic settlers being sneaky - which is [[Epileptic Trees|wildly unrealistic]] and even [[The Man Is Sticking It to the Man|childishly naive]], given that their leaders were to a man staunch and even bigoted Protestants/Puritans sent to prevent the settlers from doing this very thing!); its capital, Annapolis after Princess (later Queen) Anne; Charleston, SC, after Charles II; Georgia after George II; Charlotte, NC, after George III's queen; and Louisiana after Louis XIV of France. That's not even getting into smaller cities and county names and whatnot. As mentioned in the entry on Victoria above, these were not named for royals out of compulsion or even the hope of getting some money; these places received royal names because the persons who named them thought it was the right thing to do, nothing more. [[Captain Obvious|Colonialism and egotripping might go together,]] but not necessarily in the way some people assume they do.

*** Charlotte being named after the current queen must have made the [[The American Revolution|Battle of Charlotte]] a bit more humiliating.

** [[Denver]] was named after an early governor of Kansas Territory, James W. Denver.

** Seattle was named after [[wikipedia:Sealth|Chief Sealth]], who was admired by the white settlers in the area. Notably, he did not want the city named after him because it went against his religious beliefs.

** Another fun fact; you can actually tell approximately how old any particular street in Sydney's (Named after Lord Sydney, of Course) CBD is by its name; almost all of Sydney City's streets are named after an English Politician or Monarch contemporary to the time the street was built (With the exception of Elizabeth; they were talking about the first one, not Her Majesty Liz Windsor.)

** Further, All of Australia's capital cities operate on the same principle, with the exception of Darwin and Canberra (Canberra was purpose built.)

* Roman Emperor Commodus renamed Rome, the months ('''every''' month<ref>That doesn't mean he named every month "Commodus", [[I Have Many Names|he had many names]]</ref>), the legions, the Senate and even the Roman people after himself.

* According to legend, Rome was already an example, with Romulus, but in reality, it's probably the other way around; Romulus and Remus were mythical characters who were likely named after Rome.

* [[wikipedia:King Abdullah Economic City|King Abdullah Economic City]], Saudi Arabia.

** and [[wikipedia:King Khalid Military City|King Khalid Military City]], also in Saudi Arabia.

* The Belgian city of Charleroi (Charles-king) is named after the famously imbred Charles II of Spain, ruler of the Spanish Low Countries when the initial fortress was constructed. The celebrated king was inglorious enough that most of the locals are persuaded the city takes its names from either or both of the much more prestigious Charlemagne and Charles V von Habsburg, both raised in the Low Countries. The same Charles V also named a Belgian fortress Philippeville in honour of his son; and his sister Mary of Hungary christened Mariembourg after herself when she was governor of the Low Countries.

* The nearby French city of Charleville-Mézières was created by Charles Gonzague, duke of a whole load of places, to serve as the capital of his brand-new principality of Arches.

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