ZEITGEIST List of Pop Culture References in Zeitgeist

Frankie1969 · Sep 25, 2018

Zeitgeist has a bunch of references that people might not get if they don't know the source material. I only know a few of them, so please add to the list.

SPOILERS AHEAD, obviously.

updated by info from hirou, Elfshire, Andrew Moreton, MrPereira, and of course Ranger Wickett

Part 1: Functional References (match events/capabilities/behaviors, possibly also name or appearance)

Name	Ch	Reference
Ash Wolf	0	Insanity Wolf internet meme
5 biomes of the fey titans	0	Magic the Gathering game (basic lands)
King Dukain	0	Community TV show (AD&D character)
The Dreaming	0	Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman
Mad Shootist (beams)	0	Metroid games (Samus Aran's power suit)
Rock Rackus	0	Kanye West (musician)
The Family	0	Italian Mafia (and Godfather movies)
The Obscurati	0	The Illuminati (conspiracy)
RNS Coaltongue	1	Space Battleship Yamato TV show (wave motion gun)
Lt Dale, coffee & cherry pie	2	Twin Peaks TV show (Dale Cooper)
Dr Wolfgang von Recklinghausen & Andrei	2	Frankenstein (characters)
Gale & Tinker Oddcog	2	4 Color to Fantasy game (characters)
Mindmaker & Steelshaper	2	X-Men comics (Professor X & Magneto)
Wand of Expelliarmus	2	Harry Potter (spell)
RHC's "S.C.P. Division"	5	SCP Foundation games
Operation Paperclip	6	Cold War recruiting of former Nazi scientists
Nicodemus "cigarette smoking man"	7	X-Files TV show (character)
[4E] "Beshela uses Splash against each enemy. It's super effective."	7	Pokemon (quote)
The Primo	8	Final Fantasy VI game (Ultros)
The Webway	9	Warhammer 40K game (dimension)
Fourmyle & Gully Foyle	10	The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (character)
Mojang	10	Minecraft game (creator)
"Choose the Form of your Destroyer"	11	Ghostbusters movie (quote)
Lost Riders	11	Metalocalypse TV show (Dethklok band)
Bhoior	12	Discworld novels (A'Tuin)
Doverspike	12	Order of the Stick webcomic (Familicide)
Dunkelweiss	12	German dark beer style
Golden Legion's "Goonswarm" of skyships	12	EVE game (alliance)
Kinava Monks	12	Avatar TV show (airbenders)
Teykfa	12	Long Now Foundation (clock)
Damata "Masked Avenger"	13	Zorro
?	?	?

Part 2: Shout-Out References (match name but not functionality)

Name	Ch	Reference
Elfaivar	0	Legend of Five Rings (L5R) games
[4E] Monument of War "Cannon Overture"	0	1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky
Han, Luc & Lya Jierre	1	Star Wars movies (characters)
The House Elf	2	Harry Potter (character)
"Make Them An Offer"	2	Godfather movie (quote)
"Monsters, Inc"	2	Monsters Inc movie
Colonel Harlock	3	Captain Harlock anime
Bruse "Le Roi"	6	Last Dragon movie (character)
"The Leone, The Lich, and the Snowglobe"	7	The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
"Mission Impossible"	7	Mission Impossible show
"Brave New Worlds"	7	Brave New World novel
"Splinter Cell"	7	Splinter Cell video game
Reason, the Diplomatic Rifle	7	Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson (firearm)
"Apocalypse Then"	8	Apocalypse Now movie
"Raiders of the Lost Arc"	8	Raiders of the Lost Ark movie
"One Does Not Simply Walk Into Methia"	8	Lord of the Rings movie (Boromir quote)
"I Don't Think We're In Danor Any More"	8	Wizard of Oz (Dorothy quote)
"That is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie"	9	Call of Cthulhu
"Much Ado"	9	Much Ado About Nothing play
"Elementary Deductions"	9	Sherlock Holmes
Iratha Ket	12	Eartha Kitt (singer, dancer, actress)
"World of Ruin"	13	Final Fantasy 6 video game
"God is Dead"	13	Friedrich Nietzsche (philosopher)
?	?	?

Part 3: Wink & Nod References (match appearance but not functionality or name)

Name	Ch	Reference
Stover Delft	1	Mark Sheppard
Thames Grimsley	1	William Shatner
Aodhan Lesterman	1	Clarke Peters
Roland Stansfield	1	John F Kennedy
Rutger Smith	1	Che Guevara
Harkover Lee	1	Ricardo Montalban (Mr Roarke)
Asrabey Varal	1	Shahrukh Khan
Kasvarina Varal	1	Indira Varma
Heward Sechim	2	Cleavon Little (Sheriff Bart)
Nevard Sechim	2	Bill Cobbs
Gale	2	Katrina Kaif
Verzubeck Tantovlich	4	Patrick Stewart
?	?	?

hirou · Sep 25, 2018

Red veil in adventure 2, Lt. Dale "Coffee and cherry pie" technique - Twin Peaks (apparently, I still haven't watched it)
Primo - Ulthros from FFVI (see recent thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?653513-Who-s-That-Crime-Lord-(Spoilers))
There was a separate thread about all the prototypes of character portraits, but I can't find it now. Han, Leya and Luc are obvious, others less so, I only remember Verzubak Tantalovich as bearded Patrick Steward.

RangerWickett · Sep 25, 2018

I don't know if I've explicitly stated the Gully Foyle or Iratha Kett ones before, so good catch!

When I was designing the Mad Shootist, we were getting art for the Gidim warbeasts, and the donut monster was basically a Metroid. But Samus doesn't get a shrink ray, does she? I'm trying to remember if we gave Tinker Oddcog a grappling hook beam.

Elfshire · Sep 30, 2018

Chapter 0 - I can't be sure, but is "Elfaivar" supposed to sound like "L5R," or rather "Legend of the Five Rings"?

Chapter 5 - There is a Player Handout which acts as a dossier for the heroes at the start of the adventure; Attachment PN16a is authored by someone from the Slate RHC's "SCP Division," which is a reference to the fictional SCP Foundation... I guess it's a subreddit? I'm not familiar, but one of my players was.

Chapter 7 - Referring to Nic as the "Cigarette Smoking Man" is a reference to a character with the same moniker in X-Files. Again, caught by one of my players.

Chapter 7 - Beshela's stat block uses the phrase, "It's super effective." This is a phrase in Pokemon that appears when you use an attack that exploits a vulnerability of your opponent.

Chapter 7 - A section in Act 2 is titled, "The Leone, the Lich, and the Snowglobe," which is a reference to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis. A few other colorful section titles include, "Walking on Sunshine," "Mission Impossible," and "Blue Banquet" (a possible reference to "Red Wedding," especially considering the massacre that follows).

RangerWickett · Sep 30, 2018

Wow, I'd forgotten some of those. But yes, correct.

Tormyr · Sep 30, 2018

~~Should this be a wiki thread?~~ Never mind, I missed the banner at the top and was looking for the thread to be yellow in the forum.

Very cool list.

Andrew Moreton · Sep 30, 2018

You are incorrect about the Cigarette smoking man, I thought it was too, BUT rangerwickett says Nicodemus is inspired by his father rather than the x files character

The chapter headings in the second act are full of joke references ,
Apocolypse Then
Raiders of the lost Arc
One does not simply walk into Methia (and Methia has a big tower too)
D(anor)-Day
I Don’t Think We’re in Danor Anymore........................................

Frankie1969 · Sep 30, 2018

In Ch 3 "That's Classified", is Colonel Harlock and his tentacle technique an anime reference? Is Harlock Hentai a thing?

RangerWickett · Oct 1, 2018

Eh, Harlock is just a vague allusion to the anime. I wasn't explicitly shooting for tentacle hentai, though, no.

The "Cigarette Smoking Man" moniker was definitely yoinked from The X-Files, but the name and some background elements of Nicodemus were drawn from my dad.