Fluffy the Terrible: Difference between revisions

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** Other similarly terrifying creatures with cutesy names appear throughout the series; Hagrid has a tendency to treat dangerous supernatural creatures as if they were fluffy little housepets. He's half-giant, and they usually respond quite well to such treatment. The more dangerous the animal, the cuter the name. See Norbert the dragon.

** On the other hand, he named his extremely friendly but cowardly sissy dog Fang.

* ''[[Discworld]]''

* ~~On [[Discworld]]~~ [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] rides a pale horse, and it is named ''Binky''. Although it is just a regular horse (albeit an impressive, incredibly intelligent one).

** [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] rides a pale horse, and it is named ''Binky''. Although it is just a regular horse (albeit an impressive, incredibly intelligent one).

** And then there's Errol the swamp dragon. He may not be particularly terrifying, but he ''will'' melt a hole in your floor.

** One of [[Those Two Bad Guys]] in ''[[~~Discworld/The Truth|~~The Truth]]'' is a gentleman named Mr. Tulip. He's the rather large [[Implacable Man]] with [[Hidden Depths|an inexplicable eye for art]] who keeps snorting [[Beat Bag|all those household solvents he's mistaken for drugs]].

** One of [[Those Two Bad Guys]] in ''[[The Truth]]'' is a gentleman named Mr. Tulip. He's the rather large [[Implacable Man]] with [[Hidden Depths|an inexplicable eye for art]] who keeps snorting [[Beat Bag|all those household solvents he's mistaken for drugs]].

** In ''[[~~Discworld/Hogfather|~~Hogfather]]'' Mr. Teatime, a man who planned the death of the Hogfather, the Discworld's Santa Claus stand-in, embodies this trope to the point where [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|his name is pronounced in an affected, fluffier flourish,]] and his mere presence unnerves even the Assassins Guild.

** In ''[[Hogfather]]'' Mr. Teatime, a man who planned the death of the Hogfather, the Discworld's Santa Claus stand-in, embodies this trope to the point where [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|his name is pronounced in an affected, fluffier flourish,]] and his mere presence unnerves even the Assassins Guild.

** Adora Belle Dearhart. Despite her cutesy name - which she hates - she chainsmokes, prefers golems to people, has a ''very'' dry sense of humour, and can do nasty things to your feet with her stilettos.

* An [[Empathic Weapon]] sort-of example from ''[[Dragaera]]''- The owner of the Great Weapon Godslayer thinks that its/her name is melodramatic and instead calls her by the name of the person whose personality she has (from eating her soul, no less.) Thus, we get a magical knife that can and does destroy souls entirely accidentally, eliminates magical effects, and was designed to kill the Demon Goddess Verra (who, despite the title, is not a villain, exactly)... and it's referred to as {{spoiler|Lady Teldra}}.

* An [[Empathic Weapon]] sort-of example from ''[[Dragaera]]'' - The owner of the Great Weapon Godslayer thinks that its/her name is melodramatic and instead calls her by the name of the person whose personality she has (from eating her soul, no less.) Thus, we get a magical knife that can and does destroy souls entirely accidentally, eliminates magical effects, and was designed to kill the Demon Goddess Verra (who, despite the title, is not a villain, exactly)... and it's referred to as {{spoiler|Lady Teldra}}.

* One of the major plots in [[The Diamond Age]] revolves about a chinese crime lord suspected to deal in child trafficing {{spoiler|but is actually rescuing tens of thousands of abandoned baby girls and raising them in secret over many years with heavy use of nano technology to be an army of [[Tyke Bomb]]s}}. As the chinese love to give flowery names to things, he calles them the Mouse Army. Even {{spoiler|at the age of twelve}} they become the largest and by far strongest army in the civil war.

* One of the major plots in ''[[The Diamond Age]]'' revolves about a chinese crime lord suspected to deal in child trafficing {{spoiler|but is actually rescuing tens of thousands of abandoned baby girls and raising them in secret over many years with heavy use of nano technology to be an army of [[Tyke Bomb]]s}}. As the chinese love to give flowery names to things, he calles them the Mouse Army. Even {{spoiler|at the age of twelve}} they become the largest and by far strongest army in the civil war.

* The [[Anti-Hero]] protagonist of the ''[[Burke]]'' novels by [[Andrew Vachss]] has a hulking Neapolitan mastiff named Pansy. This is intentional as authorities are automatically suspicious of dogs with names like 'Killer' or 'Satan,' and tough guys are reluctant to report that they were savaged by a dog named 'Pansy.'

* In the ancient Roman novel ''The Satyricon'', one character has a hulking watchdog whose name translates as "Puppy" and apparently, this was a joke also found in some earlier satirical works. This makes this trope [[Older Than Feudalism]].

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* The [[The Men in Black|Orphan Disposal Agency]] in Sean Cullen's ''[[Hamish X]]'' series are led by [[Those Two Bad Guys|Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet]]. All the other agents we see [[Theme Naming|keep this in mind.]]

* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', by [[Terry Pratchett]] and [[Neil Gaiman]], Adam, the young man who is fated to {{spoiler|become the anti-Christ}} names his dog "Dog." Dog, however, is {{spoiler|a hell hound.}}

** This slowly {{spoiler|becomes a subverted trope when Dog becomes as harmless and friendly as his name suggests, ''because'' this is his name}}.

* In ''Hiero's Journey'' and ''The Unforsaken Hiero'', Hiero's morse (a giant, combat-trained, mutant moose riding animal) is named "Klootz." During one fight, it caves in the skull of an equally-large mutant bear with one kick.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' features Harry's massive, evil-hunter mastiff/dog-a-saurus cross {{spoiler|and is actually a Foo dog, which is so reliable in its abilities that his glare could be used as evidence in the highest White Council courts}} named "Mouse", whose bark can send shocks through multiple dimensions. Dresden describes this as 'every cell of his body flinching' or something like that. It also scares the ectoplasmic piss out of every other supernatural being in the local vicinity. He also survived a hit from a speeding van and was only mildly inconvenienced at worst by a gunshot wound. Unless there's danger present, he's just a [[Big Friendly Dog]].

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* The Pakistan Army has a long standing tradition of giving "feminine" sounding nicknames to its Artillery guns. Popular names include "Rani" (Queen), "Shazadi"(Princess) and "Soni"(cute girl).

* "[[wikipedia:Katyusha (song)|Katyusha]]" is a Russian diminutive of the name Yekaterina, and there's a popular song about it. It's also the name of [[wikipedia:Katyusha rocket launcher|rocket artillery]] that the Russians used in WWII.

* There was a Royal Navy submarine which sent many Italian and Japanese ships to the bottom of the Ocean.She was feared and respected. Her name? ~~HMS Shakespeare.~~http://~~www.~~rnsubs.co.uk/~~Boats~~/~~BoatDB2~~/~~index~~.~~php?[[Boat~~ ID]~~]=357~~

* There was a Royal Navy submarine which sent many Italian and Japanese ships to the bottom of the Ocean. She was feared and respected. Her name? [http://rnsubs.co.uk/boats/subs/s-class/shakespeare.html HMS Shakespeare].

* Gustave sounds like one of the least intimidating names ever, right? It's also the name of a 20 foot crocodile in Burundi, Africa that's a notorious man-eater.

* "Love waves" sound pretty romantic, hem? They are actually the most destructive of seismic waves. The kind that tears down building foundations, brings down bridges and makes railroads wavy. (In case your wondering, geologists aren't sadists, the waves are named after the man who discovered them, [[wikipedia:Augustus Edward Hough Love|Augustus Love]].)

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[[Category:More Than Meets the Eye]]

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[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

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