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You are so right- Murder and silly sounding names are totally on the same level.
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Why CompoundWord Monsters Don't Bother Me
- Thread starter Fifth Element
- Start date
You are so right- Murder and silly sounding names are totally on the same level.
It's not that the RW doesn't have compound name critters, since we could all easily name a dozen in a minute- spoonbills, scissortails, flycatchers, seahorsees, sea lions, sea anemones, ant lions, mountain lions, water striders, razorbacks, lyretails and veiltails, for example- it's that 4Ed's naming convention spreads through classes, locations etc., in such amusing fashion.
(See the "War___" post above.)
The name combos are mockable. "Shadowfell" sounds like something I did when the lights went out.
When stacked up on single creatures, they become doubly so. In 4Ed, your Rockhopper Penguin would probably be named something more like Rockhopper Waterbird. And if it were found near some compoundword locale?
Their use relative to the source material is disproportionate. If you looked at the RW names, I bet that we'd have less than 1% of all such critters having such names.
See, and I think that is where this sort of logic falls apart. Everyone will have a different threshold of what sounds reasonable, and whether compoundwords are relevant to it or not. Shadowfell sounds perfectly iconic and thematic to me. Shadowdark, on the other hand, sounds silly.
Thing is, some folks seem out to portray the very use of compound words as intrinsically bad. Which seems to ignore both the many, many silly names seen in the game since its inception, as well as how subjective such opinions are.
I'm cool with people disliking them, but sometimes it seems like there is a desire to claim they are objectively bad names, and I don't buy that. Particularly since the usual practice of pointing this out is to invent some especially egregious examples that don't actually exist in the game.
Sure, Duckbeard Bladesmackers isn't what I want to find as the name of a monster. I also don't want a monster named a Frider or a Grider, but that doesn't make the name Drider inherently bad, either.
Agreed!
It's called broad satire. It's the same as when your friends mock you mercilessly when your new girlfriend uses a pet name for you in their presence. Pet names are not intrinsically bad or mockable, but you wouldn't know it from the chorus of "honey bunny" catcalls that will follow you for a week. And if she comes up with another before that joke has run it's course, the mockery will redouble.
(See McD's ad for example.)
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
Or the "Schmoopie" episode of Seinfeld.
And then you get the ones that were CLEARLY not tested for RW meaning before use, like "Fell Taint."
Brother, when that got out, the satire machine got a nitrous oxide boost.
Brother, when that got out, the satire machine got a nitrous oxide boost.
And then you get the ones that were CLEARLY not tested for RW meaning before use, like "Fell Taint."
Brother, when that got out, the satire machine got a nitrous oxide boost.
Brother, when that got out, the satire machine got a nitrous oxide boost.
Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
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"Taint" is a slang term for "perineum." Google it if you like (potentially NSFW).
In N.D.'s defense, buddy is one of my people, and "taint" just isn't a common slang word at all for that region of the anatomy once you get north of the border (I had NEVER heard it used to mean the perineum until I moved to FL).
We have other words/phrases for that (A.B.C., gootch, etc.....of course, the former I have never heard outside of Manitoba/Northwestern ON).
Cheers,
Colin
P.S. Sorry mods if we're treading dangerously close to offending Eric's grandma.
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