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.

* 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.

{{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.

** 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.

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