Earn Your Title: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'' has Roberta, an unassuming housemaid who turns out to be the "Bloodhound of Florencia." So known because she was once an assassin for FARC known for never failing to kill a target.

** There's also Sawyer "The Cleaner". She cleans up messes, usually in the form of people who haven't exactly died yet. [[Chainsaw Good|Not that it stops her for very long.]]

 

== Film ==

* As noted on [[The Butcher]], General "Bloodbath" McGrath in ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]'' (1999).

* Boris the Bullet Dodger from ''[[Snatch]]''. He dodges bullets.

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|Vimes: "Well, that's an unusual name."

Prince Khufurah: (deadpan) "No, the name Ahmed is actually very common where we come from." }}

* Lyra Belacqua in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' gets dubbed "Lyra Silvertongue" (and occasionally just "Silvertongue") by Iorek, because of her ability to beguile and fool people with her words, and her ability to "talk her way" out of anything.

* Beka Cooper of the [[Tortall Universe]] eventually earns the nickname Terrier for her tendency to never let any case go.

* The ''only'' way to get any kind of name in the children's book series ''[[The Borribles]]'': until you've earned a name by an impressive feat of daring {{spoiler|such as assassinating a leader of a rival gang}} the best you can expect is to be referred to as "hey, you!" The plot of the first novel is driven in part by the protagonist's desire to get a ''second'' name (which is not unprecedented; one of his associates has several names, each commemorating some memorable deed.)

 

* Spike of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] is known as "William the Bloody". It's assumed to derive from his violent vampiric ways for three seasons, then revealed to date from his life as a sweetly dorkish human, when his attempts at poetry were mocked as "bloody awful."

** Another example, Spike.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Exalted]]'', [[Rule of Cool|naturally]], has quite a few of these. Probably the most prominent is the god known as the Unconquered Sun. [[Captain Obvious|Guess how he earned the name.]]

* Both ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' feature the idea of "deed names"—that is, werewolves who've attained deeds of great Renown will often take on a name to reflect it, such as "Evan Heals-the-Past" or "Dares-the-Night."

 

== Toys ==

* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', warrior-class Skrall are not allowed to have ''any'' sort of name unless they are awarded one for their deeds.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV'' get's you "The Hero of {{spoiler|Kvatch}}" and "The Hero Of Tamriel" from the main quest, Arch Mage (and lesser titles you get as you rise in the guild before that) from the Mages Guild quest, Head of the Fighter's guild, {{spoiler|Grey Fox}} from the Thieves Guild, Knight Of The Nine for the quests from the Knights of the Nine expansion and {{spoiler|Sheograph, god of madness}} from the Shivering Isles expansion. When you get them, certain NPCs will mention them (most notably the first, which causes the vast majority of NPCs to say "You're the one who closed the gate! The Hero Of Kvatch!?" as their default line and the Mages guild titles, which make everyone in the guild greet you with "Hello [rank]").

* In ''[[Overlord]]'' your jester follows you around in your castle and hails you with various titles depending on your actions ("Saviour of Elves", "Abuser of jesters" etc). In the sequel his successor also makes little songs to go along with the titles once you take a Harp from the Elves, from which he'll start a band with.

* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', Jade earned his title "The Necromancer" because he would scavenge corpses after battles {{spoiler|to use them in [[Cloning Blues|fomicry]] experiments. And he ''was'' trying to revive the dead, just not as zombies.}} Contrary to rumor, all his troops are alive and not even slightly zombified.

 

* Richard from ''[[Looking for Group]]'' has so many of these it's used for a [[Running Gag]].

** They're based on kills.

{{quote|'''Mab:''' Friend of beer-wenches?

'''Dan:''' Hey, now! I earned that title just like the rest! }}

 

 

== Real Life ==

* Too many, some of whom probably didn't deserve them.... '[[wikipedia:Vlad III Dracula|Vlad the Impaler]]' probably deserved his, though.

** The monarchs of England mostly earned theirs: William the Conqueror conquered England; Richard the Lionhearted was a valiant soldier; Alfred the Great saved his people from being wiped out by invading hordes of [[Horny Vikings]]; and [[Braveheart|Edward the Hammer of the Scots]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|hammered the Scots]] (and the Welsh; and the Irish; and [[Complete Monster|the Jews]]...) However, YMMV as to whether ''Bloody'' Mary and ''Good'' Queen Bess deserve those nicknames.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Meaningful Titles]]

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]