Noun Verber: Difference between revisions

m
 
(14 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:Wolfwalkers poster.png|frame|link=Wolfwalkers]]
So, you're a Filmmaker. You're sitting down with a Scriptwriter between the Water-cooler and the Coffee-maker, trying to decide on a name for your epic story about a guy who [[Calvin and Hobbes|verbs nouns]]. Yeah, he verbs them till they're adjective. Wait, that's it! He's the '''Noun Verber!'''
 
This isn't a very popular trope for the actual titles of movies or TV shows, but it's an old standby for lazy fantasy and science fiction authors who need a name that sounds detached from the real world and yet is immediately understandable. For some reason, a very common verb for this is "stalk." The most common noun is probably "death."
 
Of course this construction is ''extremely'' common in [[Real Life]] too. Firefighter, cab-driver, wine-maker, ironmonger, car dealer, [[Ambulance Chaser]], ditch-digger, lion-tamer, news-reader, coal-miner, watchmaker, computer programmer, bartender, gas-fitter, dishwasher, childminder, wine-taster, greengrocer, snack-dispenser, bricklayer, dressmaker, chess-player, piano-tuner etc. etc.
 
Compare [[Luke Nounverber]], when the same principle is applied to character names. See also [[We Will Use Wiki Words in Thethe Future]].
{{examples}}
 
 
{{examples}}
== Anime &and Manga ==
* ''[[Air MasterAirmaster]]''
* ''[[Kemono no Souja Erin]]'': Translates to Beast Player Erin.
* ''[[Speed Grapher]]''
* ''[[Speed Racer]]''
* ''[[Soul Eater]]''.
* ''[[Soul Taker (Animeanime)|Soul Taker]]''.
* ''[[Night WalkerNightwalker]]''.
* Many characters in the ''[[ScryedS-Cry-ed]]'' universe are Alter Users. Guess what they do.
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' has Dragon Slayers.
* ''[[Princesss Lover]]''
* ''[[Gunbuster|GunBuster]]''
 
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
Line 28 ⟶ 29:
 
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Windtalkers (Film)|Windtalkers]]''
* ''Firestarter''
* ''[[Moonraker (Film)|Moonraker]]''.
* ''[[Trash Humpers]]''
* [[The Onion Movie]]: ''Cockpuncher''.
* [[Super Troopers|Bear Fucker!?]] Do you require assistance?
* [[Deathstalker Series (Film)|Deathstalker Series]]
* Nightrider in [[Mad Max]]
* ''[[Blade Runner]]''
* ''[[Wolfwalkers]]''
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* The Death Eaters from ''[[Harry Potter]]''.
* In the book ''The Gift'', the [[Chosen One]]'s title is Wind Tamer.
* ''[[Alex Rider (Literature)|Stormbreaker]]''.
* ''Banewreaker'' and ''Godslayer'' by Jacqueline Carey.
* [[David Gemmell]]'s Druss the Legend is known as "Deathwalker" to his enemies. Well, one nation of his enemies.
* In the comic book tradition of doing this with super-person codenames, the [[Whateley Universe]] has one of its heroines named Bladedancer. Not to mention side characters like Shadowdancer.
* In ''~[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy~]]'', Arthur Dent is... [[What Do You Mean It'sMundane NotMade Awesome?|The Sandwich Maker.]]
* Less often done in the "hero pulps", but often in the paperback original series of the 1960's to 1980's. The Executioner, the Penetrator, the Sharpshooter, the Liquidator, the Destroyer, the Butcher, the Nazi Hunter, the Terminator, the Revenger, the Avenger, the Protector, etc. stand as examples. Many retrospectives on the paperback original trend (e.g. Jeff Siegel's The American Detective: An Illustrated History, Sons of Sam Spade, Geherin in American Private Eye, Warren Murphy's article in The Fine Art of Murder, Murder Off the Rack's Matt Helm article) derisively point out how common the agent noun series title turned out.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Chronicles of Narnia]]'': [[The Voyage of the]]'' Dawn Treader|'''''[[The ChroniclesVoyage of Narnia|the '''Dawn Treader]]''''']]
* In the ''[[Black Company]]'' series by Glen Cook, most of the original Ten Who Were Taken with the exception of the Limper and the Howler. (Stormbringer, Soulcatcher, Bonegnasher, Moonbiter...the list goes on. Most are [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]], too.)
* And another ''[[Deathstalker (Literaturenovel)|Deathstalker]]'', [[Rule of Three|just to prove a point]].
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' villain Deathwalker.
** And don't forget the Soul Hunters.
* ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]''
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
* ''[[Community (TV)|Punch Kicker]]'' and his nemesis ''Kick Puncher''.
* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' appears to subvert this trope. The Peacekeepers are much more unnecessarily violent and cruel than peaceful, but the majority of them seem to believe they are doing what's right to protect the galaxy, even when they do more harm than good. In "The Peacekeeper Wars", it is revealed that {{spoiler|a group of the shared ancestors of Humans and Sebaceans were taken from their homeworld by Eidelons, a group of very powerful negotiators who can influence rationality in others, and used to keep the peace after negotiations finished. Once the Eidelons disappeared, the Peacekeepers kept peace the only way they could, "at the barrel of a gun"}}, indicating that originally, at least, the trope was played pretty straight.
 
== Music ==
Line 63 ⟶ 65:
* "Star Star", by the [[Rolling Stones]] fits this trope in its [[Censored Title|original form]] {{spoiler|of "Starfucker"}}
 
== [[Tabletop RPGGames]] ==
* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' is positively brimming with Nounverbers, such as the famous Planeswalkers. Many of their nounverbers verb nouns with verbs that don't even make sense. How does one [httphttps://ww2web.wizardsarchive.comorg/gathererweb/CardDetails20191216181724/https://status.aspx?&id=29709wizards.com/ weave smoke?] Or [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002192754/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=139465 braid it?] How does one [https://web.archive.org/web/20080609234045/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=121133 grin gristle?] Why would some elves who live in the wild want to [https://web.archive.org/web/20080924172051/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=135436 slay it?] What's so great about [https://web.archive.org/web/20070718061605/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=118912 a creature who can see something six feet away?] And who would ever want to [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002130813/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=28009 buy spirits from a giant monster?]
** Aw, c'mon, at least ''one'' of those is an Adjective Verber. Also, I think it is a creature made of gristle that is grinning.
* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' also has its fair share of monsters that are nounverbers, most famously the Mind Flayer.
** Not to mention the D&D supplement ''[[Spelljammer]]''.
* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has a few Chaos Legions that fit this trope - Word Bearers & World Eaters, for example.
** As does the Imperium. The Blood Drinkers and Flesh Tearers. Yes, those are the good guys (relatively speaking, of course).
 
== [[This Very Wiki]] ==
* '''[[Trope Namer]]'''
* ''[[Noun Verber]]'', this very page
* [[Ambulance Chaser]]
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|Darkstalkers]]''
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' might be the number one addict of this trope. If you can make nounverbers and [[Luke Nounverber|put two words together into a made-up compound word]], congratulations, you're at least as good as the whole Blizzard creative team.
** Granted, [[Loads and Loads of Characters|they need thousands and thousands of names]] for all the mobs in the game, but that doesn't make the trope any less annoying [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|when you start paying attention to it.]]
* [[Fate]] has many examples of [[Noun Verber|Noun Verbers]] in its randonly-generated monster names. Each part of the names is picked at random from a list.
* And who can forget ''[[Landstalker]]''?
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]: '''Snake Eater'''''
* In the opening sequence of [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Zork (Video Game)|Zork]]: The Undiscovered Underground'' (a prelude to ''[[Zork: Grand Inquisitor]]'' done in the style of golden-age [[Infocom]]), desperately trying to get out of a dangerous assignment, the player character rattles off the names of a half-dozen [[Noun Verber|Noun Verbers]] better qualified for the job. He is cut off as he asks about "Kolchak the--"
* ''[[Tom Clancy]]'s [[Ghost Recon]]'': '''''Advanced Warfighter'''''.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: theThe Wind Waker (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]''.
** Note that this is due to the American translation. The original name of the game was "Kaze no Takuto" which translates to "Baton of Winds".
** Not that 'Baton of Winds' is that dramatic of a title.
* The weapons in the ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' series often follow this format, such as Air Shooter, Flash Stopper, Crash Bomber, Dust Crusher and Ice Slasher.
* In the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''The Gostak'', the darftunder [[Captain Obvious|tunds darfs]].
* No one has mention ''[[Street Fighter]]'' - weird.
Line 99 ⟶ 102:
 
== [[Truth in Television]] ==
* The U.S. Military has often utilized Code Talkers, Native American servicemen and women who use their native language as part of an unbreakable radio cypher. The most famous of these were the Navajo Code Talkers who served in the Pacific theater during [[World War II]].
* [[Jon Stewart]] made a [[David Letterman|Letterman]] appearance where he claimed this was George Bush's favorite speech pattern. "I A B -- I'm a B A-er. I make decisions -- I'm a decision maker!"
 
Line 106 ⟶ 109:
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]
[[Category:Noun Verber{{PAGENAME}}]]