The Magnificent: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

It's a staple of Medieval Fantasy that whenever a hero does something noteworthy, they get a "surname" (more properly termed an ''epithet'' or ''byname'') out of it, like say [[The All the Tropes Cast List|Sir Tropesalot]], Dragon Slayer. Occasionally, it even sticks as a surname and informs the history of an entire heroic legacy. Eventually, the mere act of ''[[Try to Fit That on A Business Card|saying their full name]]'' constitutes a [[Badass Boast]] in and of itself—or [[Famed in Story]] when others recite it. Obviously, prone to [[Meaningful Name]].

 

{{examples}}

* In the ''[[One Piece]]'' universe, it seems like everyone with a high bounty acquires an epithet. Luffy's is "Straw Hat Luffy", while his crew mates each get one: "Pirate Hunter Zoro", "Cat Burglar Nami", "Devil Child" Nico Robin, "King of the Snipers" Sogeking, "Black Leg" Sanji, "Cyborg" Franky, and "Dead Bones" Brook. (Poor Chopper gets stuck with "The Cotton Candy Lover.") Then you get "Fire Fist" Ace, "Supersonic" Van Auger, "Grim Reaper" Doc Q, and the list goes on. Occasionally their name is entirely absent which would make it fit [[Sobriquet]] instead.

** Brook is actually the only one who has referred to himself as "Dead as Bones"; because he was still alive when his bounty was issued, his poster bears the name "Humming Brook". A little less ominous, but we'll see how long that sticks given his new appearance.

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', Duke's favorite card, [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Orgoth_the_Relentless Orgoth the Relentless].

 

* In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', Baravadans have personal names and descriptive names ("given names") rather than surnames. These names can be invented by a person or hung on them. Examples:

** Lyndess Groundburner, except in Ta'akan everyone now derisively calls her Lyndess the Example.

* ''[[My Little Avengers]]'': The [[Big Bad]], Loki, refers to himself as "Loki The Magnificent" several times during the story. Though he probably gave himself the title as an act of arrogance, he ends up [[Magnificent Bastard|living up to it]] (unfortunately for the heroes).

 

* In ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'', the protocol droidette who refers to Jabba this way so often she ''starts running out of good adjectives!'' It goes from "Jabba The Wise" to "Jabba, the Omnipotent".

{{quote|'''Arthur''': Knights! Forward!

[pyrotechnics galore]

** The enchanter actually ''had'' a long, impressive name, but John Cleese forgot it, so they [[Throw It In|threw it in]].

* ''[[Krull]]:'' "I am Ergo the magnificent. Short in stature, tall in power, narrow of purpose and wide of vision... My name is no jest, beanpole. Its all very well to have a short name when you're twenty feet tall, but small people need large names to give them weight." Rell answers, "Your actions give you weight, my friend."

{{quote|'''Peter''': High King Peter, The Magnificent.

'''Susan''': You probably could have left off the last bit.

'''Barf:''' Yogurt the Magnificent!

'''Yogurt:''' Please, please, don't make a fuss. I'm just plain Yogurt. }}

 

** Before becoming king, Peter was earlier given the title "Sir Peter Wolfsbane", in honour of his successful battle against one of the White Witch's wolves.

** In the film, their royal epithets were bestowed by Aslan at their coronation which, while not ''illogical''—he knows quite a bit about the Pevensies—cheapens them, rather. However, since the film pretty much skips over their entire reign, it was the only way to include the epithets at all.

* This is the way how [[Conan the Barbarian]] volumes get their titles, and yes, there is one novel (although not from Robert E. Howard original works) titled Conan The Magnificent, you also got Conan the Triumphant, Conan the Conqueror, Conan The Liberator, Conan the Victorious, Conan the Formidable, Conan the Champion...

** And we have to recognize he is worth all of them.

** "For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!"

** Many characters get called "Name The Adjective" in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. Some of these titles are cool (Fingon the Valiant, Finrod the Faithful, Eärendil the Bright, Maedhros/Galdor/Elendil the Tall), some...less so (Brandir [[Have a Gay Old Time|the Lame]]...)

** Frodo (of) the Nine Fingers and Samwise the Stout-hearted (which decays to 'brave' in the films).

*** ''[[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]]'' also had Smaug call himself "Smaug the Magnificent" and "Smaug the Golden".

** And then there's Arkio the Blessed. And Mephiston the Lord of Death. Apparently Rafen was "Rafen the Ready" when a new Blood Angel, but it appears in the novel as proof that Sachiel is contemptuous.

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', Issus is plentiful endowed with titles.

{{quote|''By my first ancestor, but never was there so grotesque a figure in all the universe. That they should call such a one Goddess of Life Eternal, Goddess of Death, Mother of the Nearer Moon, and fifty other equally impossible titles, is quite beyond me.''}}

** Dian the Beautiful in the same author's ''Pellucidar'' series.

** Plenty of the former Kings of Ankh. There was King Ludwig the Tree (who issued royal proclamations on the need to develop a new type of frog, among other things) and King Loyala the Aaargh (whose reign lasted 1.13 seconds, from coronation to assassination).

** Former [[Just the First Citizen|Patricians]] of Ankh-Morpork have included Frenzied Earl Hargarth, Deranged Lord Harmoni, Nersch the Lunatic, Laughing Lord Scapula, Homicidal Lord Winder and Mad Lord Snapcase (also known as Psychoneurotic Lord Snapcase, though considered merely eccentric by some of the upper classes). The current Patrician is downright unusual in not following this trope (and also, apparently, in not being raving bonkers).

** Lancre had Queen Griminir the Impaler. (She was also a vampire; her official portrait listed five different reigns.)

{{quote|'''Mrs Whitlow:''' Grampone the White? He'll be Grampone the Grey if he can't take better care of his laundry.}}

* In the ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'', the protagonist Eragon receives the name "Shadeslayer" after [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|killing a]] [[Demonic Possession|Shade]].

* In [[Stephen Hunt]]'s ''The Court of the Air'', King Steam arrives at court and interrupts courtiers reeling off his titles on the grounds that what is needed now is not hearing what new titles they invented to flatter him.

* In John Barnes's ''[[One for the Morning Glory]]'', kings receive such a title posthumously. Early in the book, characters who had thought he would be King Boniface the Shrewd consider that maybe he'll turn out King Boniface the Jolly. {{spoiler|At the end, we have a play: "The Tragical Death of King Boniface the Good."}}

* Alaric the Betrayed in [[Ben Counter]]'s novel ''[[Grey Knights|Hammer of Daemons]]''.

* In ''[[Honor Harrington|Crown of Slaves]]'', after Berry Zilwicki is drafted into becoming Queen of Torch, one of her advisers tells her that there have been lots of monarchs who became known as "the Great" or "the Magnificent" and other such things, but that the best of them came to be known by the rarest of sobriquets: "the Good."

* Several heroes in the ''[[Redwall]]'' series have names like this. Some examples are Martin the Warrior and Urthstripe the Strong.

* In ''Men'', all eleven people remaining on earth have a self-chosen epithet, except Aristos the King, whose name was given to him by his most loyal friend. Since they are self-chosen names, they are usually words that simply apply to the person. Torthus [[They Call Him "Sword"|the]] [[An Axe to Grind|Axe]] didn't put much thought into his, and Mozer the Traveler (a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Ghostbusters]]'') travels a lot.

* In ''[[The Borribles]]'', the name Chalotte gives Knocker posthumously {{spoiler|(or so she thinks)}} -- "Burnthand" -- functions as this.

 

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]''. In the [[Flash Gordon Serial|Flash Gordon]]-type holoprogram ''The Adventures of Captain Proton!'', Chaotica refers to himself as "Ruler of the Cosmos!" When the Doctor has to enter the program B'Elanna asks sarcastically if he's going as "Emperor of the Universe", whereupon the Doctor (who could teach Chaotica a thing or two in the ego department) replies that he's going to have to scale down his role in the interests of credibility—so he's playing "The President of Earth" instead. Not to mention the hero played by Tom Paris.

{{quote|''Tom Paris enters in a blaze of dramatic music''

* Then there's the noted horror host Momus Alexander Morgus, AKA Morgus the Magnificent.

 

* The arc of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' where Calvin insisted on being called (and [[Third Person Person|referring to himself as]]) Calvin the Bold.

{{quote|'''Mom:''' How about Calvin the Deranged?}}

* [[Flash Gordon]]'s foe, [[Names to Run Away From| Emperor Ming the Merciless]]

 

** All six of the Eldar Phoenix Lords have a title of this sort; as do most special characters.

*** To be specific: Maugan Ra, The Harvester of Souls; Jain Zar, The Storm of Silence; Asurmen, The Hand of Asuryen; Karandras, The Shadow Hunter; Baharroth, The Cry of the Wind; and Fuegan, The Burning Lance.

* Werewolves in both ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' have the practice of deed names, or replacing part of or the whole of a werewolf's birth name with something they're well known for. This leads to names such as "Evan Heals-the-Past" or "Mephi Faster-than-Death."

 

* In ''[[Pippin]]'', after Pippin is crowned king, the Leading Player dubs him "King Pippin, the Charitable" for distributing money to the poor, "King Pippin, the Just" for giving land to the peasants, and "King Pippin, the Peaceful" for abolishing taxation and the army. Then, when the threat of war forces Pippin to suspend all these reforms, Fastrada dubs him "King Pippin the Unpopular."

* ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'':

* While [[In-Universe]] it's marketing and self-aggrandizement, it's sarcasm (and no small amount of pity) on the meta-level to have named the borderline-incompetent [[Stage Magician]]/villain of ''[[The Magic Show]]'' "Feldman the Magnificent".

 

* The second game in the ''[[Civilization]]'' series bestows various titles on you at the end, which start out at "[[Hello, Insert Name Here|Insert Name Here]] [[Take That|The Worthless]]" and get progressively more positive as your score increases, with "[[Hello, Insert Name Here|Insert Name Here]] The Magnificent", appropriately, being the top one.

* Bowser gets a variant in the ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' games: various titles based on "your highness", but with far less complimentary adjectives than "high".

** And being a gleeful [[Card-Carrying Villain]], he ''likes it that way''.

* Player characters in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' earn the right to choose from a list of these titles once they've reached a sufficiently high level.

* In ''[[Runes of Magic]]'', players can get various titles from defeating boss-monsters.

* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', all of the God-Generals have titles like this: Asch the Bloody, Legretta the Quick, Arietta the Wild, Largo the Black Lion, and Sync the Tempest. And Dist, who [[Insistent Terminology|insists his title is "the Rose"]], but whom everyone else calls Dist the Reaper - except Jade, who calls him Dist the Runny.

* In ''[[Fable]]'', a title is all you go as. You can purchase other titles as you go along, and townspeople will refer to you by it. Otherwise, you're a nameless hero.

** Self-parodied in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrSihRXTrq4 April Fools' spotlight on Lee Sin]. "Thanks for tuning in to the Lee Sin, The Blind Monk champion spotlight, [[Department of Redundancy Department|featuring Lee Sin, The Blind Monk]].

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', the most powerful Persona of each Arcana is introduced with an appropriately awesome-sounding epithet when the player character unlocks them by mastering that Arcana's Social Link. Examples range from "Surt, the inferno god" and "Scathach, the Teacher" through "Metatron, attendant to the infinite" and "Messiah, the savior."

 

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', Reynardine the Great [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=97 does not play with dolls]. [[Real Men Wear Pink|Except when he does.]] Which is probably why he doesn't call himself Reynardine the Great anymore.

* Roy Greenhilt's family from ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' was named after their ancestral sword as explained in #113. (It isn't linked because it contains spoilers.) Guess what color the sword's hilt is.

* ''[[Get Medieval]]'': Sir Michel L'Incroyable (Michel the Incredible), though he never actually appears in the comic. Also Sir Edward Sans-Nom (Edward the Nameless)--there ''is'' a reason for that one, but at least one other knight meets him and is confused by it.

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [[Path of Inspiration|Angelo]] is referred to by his followers as "Our Beautiful Worship."

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' offers us the defence chair of the yomingian people, Assassin Martre Flamb.

{{quote|'''Captain Tagon:''' Assassin...

'''Martre Flamb:''' Oh, it's not honorific. I ''earned'' it. }}

 

 

* The ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "My Three Suns" had a planet of water creatures who gave their kings titles describing their structure and consistency -- "King [name] the [word meaning 'wet']". When Fry became king, he was given the title "King Fry the Solid... who enjoyed a soup composed principally of Thron the Chunky..."

** "I am the Professor, Wise and... uh... [[Absent-Minded Professor|Forgetful]]!

{{quote|'''Iroh:''' Do you know why they called me the Dragon of the West?}}

** And, in fact, there are ''four'' reasons, from the obvious to the secret. ([[Breath Weapon|He shows off the obvious in that scene.]])

'''Bugs:''' My, he's a ''big'' one. }}

** Bugs then procedes to spoof this trope by talking about some of his friends: "Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway, Satchmo of Armstrong."

* In the ''[[Sonic Sat AM]]'' episode "No Brainer" Snively wipes Sonic's memory and convinces him that the two are old friends, introducing himself as "Snively the Great." When the effect is reversed at the end of the episode, Sonic plays the trope literally by dubbing himself "Sonic the Magnificent."

** The Great and Powerful Trixie

 

* Mario Lemioux had many nicknames and "The Magnificent" was one of them.

* Some kings get pretty bizarre titles: William the Conqueror was also William the Bastard; James II was known as Séamus an Chaca (James the Shit) in Ireland.

** Then again, William the Bastard really was an illegitimate child, and James II became rather disliked after he abandoned his Irish allies to their fate. Odder ones from England alone may include Henry II "Curtmantle" or Ethelred the Unready, which would be better translated as "Ill-advised," the latter aimed not at the king but at his courtiers. And of course, few could forget [[Robin Hood|John Lackland]], sometimes also referred to as "[[Freud Was Right|Softsword]]."

*** A couple of centuries before Ottoman dominance, the Turks already gave us Alp Arslan, meaning "Warrior Lion". [[Badass|He earned the name]].

** A ''lot'' of rulers and other figures in the Muslim world have al-''something'' names, even where people don't speak Arabic as a general rule.

* Prior to the widespread use of family names, bynames were a pretty standard way of sorting out every Tom, Dick and Harry from every other Tom, Dick, and Harry. Everyone would have bynames—mutating perhaps according to their changes in life. Joan of Arc's mother, for instance, was known as Joan who has been to Rome, because she had gone on a pilgrimage to Rome (of all places).

* Vlad III, Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia, also known as Vlad [[Dracula|Draculea]] (Son of Dragon) or Vlad Tepes (the Impaler).

** And then there's [[Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons|Ragnar Lodbrok]] [[Fluffy the Terrible|(Meaning "Ragnar Hairy-Pants")]], one of the most feared warlords of the era. Go figure.

** Harald Hardrada—roughly translates as "Harald the Ruthless", although a more literal translation produces "Harald Hard Advice."

*** Simply because he was memorable doesn't mean we went ahead and did it.

* In the letters that Charles I of Spain interchanged with his rival Francis I of France, the former always signed with a absurdly long list of titles. [[Deadpan Snarker|Francis I]] simply signed his own as "a denizen of Paris".

* The Douglas family. Probably the most famous member is Sir James Douglas the Black (as the English called him. To his fellow Scots he was Good Sir James), son of William Douglas the Hardy, brother of Hugh the Dull and Archibald the Tyneman (meaning "The Loser"), and father of Archibald the Grim.

* Sixth century Sassanid emperor Khusrau I has the rather unique appellation of Anushirvan, or "He of the immortal soul," due to his enlightened rule.

* Spain made no bones about some of its [[Incest Is Relative|genetically unfortunate]] Trastamara and Habsburg monarchs, such as Juana la Loca (Joan the Mad)<ref>A Trastamara--daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella--who married the Habsburg Philip the Handsome, producing the (quite sane and well-formed) Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Odd how things turn out.</ref> and Carlos el Hechizado (Charles the Bewitched, a.k.a. Charles II), whose incapacity caused the [[War of the Spanish Succession]].

* Bulgarian national hero Vasil Ivanov Kunchev is universally known as Vasil Levski ("Leonine") - a nickname he earned for his courage and agility in training and fighting the Ottoman turks for the Fortress of Belgrade. His revolutionary activities and ideology seeking the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule had also earned him the titles "Apostle of Freedom" and "The Deacon".

* One really odd one is "Tahir the Ambidextrous", a one-eyed Persian rebel noble in the early days of the slow collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate.

* And a particularly badass one—the prophet Muhammad's general, Khalid ibn al-Walid, who won more than 100 battles, was given the nickname Sayf Allah al-Maslul—The Drawn Sword of God.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Royalty and Nobility Tropes]]

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:These Tropes Love to Brag]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnificent, The}}