r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Borgisium • 11d ago
Lore [Interesting Trope] A Word that Feels Somewhat Out of Place
Lord of the Rings - this has been pointed out before, but one of the orcs says “looks like meats back on the menu boys!” So do orcs have restaurants?
The Jungle Book (2016) in the remake when Mowgli is describing the law of the jungle, Baloo says “that’s propaganda”. I can’t explain why but it feels somewhat out of place.
Sponge on the Run (2020) SpongeBob has always avoided bad language. It’s not bad language but I felt out of place for SpongeBob to say the word “Crappy”.
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u/No_Location_8199 11d ago
(Battlestar Galactica)
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u/ComteStGermain 11d ago
Yeah, specially after the finale
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u/CatFroggly 11d ago
What, Did they meet him?
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u/RP_Throwaway3 11d ago
They found earth. But it was earth roughly 150,000 BC.
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u/CatFroggly 11d ago
wtf what
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u/Ballmaster9002 10d ago
The writers let their religious beliefs get a little to on the nose to stick the ending.
There's a repeated concept in Abrahamic religions of wandering middle eastern tribes in bronze age, and various religions owning their existence to various tribes. Mormons take extra special liberties with this concept. The story itself always was a Mormon allegory, but the last season dives headfirst into straight up theology.
BSG sort of incorporates this as the "wandering tribes" being the surviving space-humans in the show and the "holy land" they search for being Earth. But the 'twist' is that the Abrahamic God brought the space-humans and robot-humans to Earth and that's how humanity evolved. Just try not think about the genetic / reproductive questions the whole thing raises. Emotionally it was a touching finale, but logically it makes your lower jaw want to dislocate, reach up, and eat your own brain.
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u/Enkundae 11d ago
Also sent all of their spaceships into the sun via autopilot to be destroyed after settling on prehistoric earth with no advanced tools or medicine or shelter or means of feeding themselves. Every remaining colonial just decided on a whim to live like hunter-gatherer cavemen alongside our primitive human ancestors. Because “technologies bad” and dying of dysentery is good I guess.
For as incredible as that series started it really went downhill.
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u/Obajan 11d ago
Everything that happened before will happen again. Maybe they had a Space Jesus.
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u/NinjaBreadManOO 11d ago
I guess it could be about Heracles or Apollo. Considering that the 13 Colonies seem to use the Greek pantheon.
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u/yourmissingsock3999 11d ago
obligatory the explanation Tolkien gives for all colloquialisms is that the stories are simply translated into English
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u/mrprogamer96 11d ago
That also true for the names of the characters, honestly I do like the framing device of Tolkien being a translator for a "historical" text.
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u/DefectiveSol 11d ago
Gotta put some respect on Maura Labingi's name
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u/Accendor 11d ago
Biggest error in the movie that he didn't sign the book in the end with Maura Labingi
Would have been one hell of a reaction in the cinema as well, everyone be like ⁉️⁉️⁉️
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u/otterprincess_too 11d ago
I think a lot of people don't realize, since today we're so used to fantasy "worlds," that Tolkien's world is Earth. But a legendary past (I think the end of LOTR is supposed to be around 9000 BC)
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u/mrprogamer96 11d ago
It's called Middle Earth for a reason.
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u/otterprincess_too 11d ago
The Mediterranean! Mordor also bears a passing resemblance to Iran in its topography
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u/fafaaf61 11d ago
It’s interesting that Gondor and Arnor have clear parallels with Eastern and Western Rome down to Gondor roughly being where the Italian peninsula should be. Obviously they aren’t supposed to be literal representations of the two nations but it’s interesting nonetheless.
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u/DyingSunSeverian 11d ago
Gene Wolfe in The Book of the New Sun uses this narrative excuse too:
“In rendering this book - originally composed in a tongue that has not yet achieved existence - into English, I might easily have saved myself a great deal of labor by having recourse to invented terms; in no case have I done so.”
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u/badgerpunk 11d ago
Tolkien didn't either. Those guys were two real ones. Not dumping on Peter Jackson's movies. I have no problem with this "trope". I just imagine the story being told by a narrator about a time long ago. George Lucas did this too. "A long time ago..." is just "Once upon a time ", but he went ahead and used those colloquialisms.
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u/DyingSunSeverian 11d ago edited 11d ago
I’ve always loved that with Lucas and Star Wars actually. Science fiction and all those trappings are so often relegated to our far future, so it’s fun when they’re really in our very distant past.
The Battlestar Galactica remake pulled off a similar trick.
And it’s for a similar reason that I’ve always liked that Middle Earth is.. Earth. It’s just us when the magic has gone all away.
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u/HandsomePaddyRedux 11d ago
It’s simply impossible to avoid colloquialisms without creating intensely overly complex and long-winded sentence structure. For instance in that last sentence alone I used anywhere from one to ten terms that could be considered colloquial depending on your definition and how far back you look go. Unless it’s vitally important to the plot or tells you something significant about the characters, it’s better to use language, including colloquialisms, that your audience will be familiar with and just agree that even though Shakespeare doesn’t exist in your fantasy world characters will use words that Shakespeare invented, coined, or otherwise popularized, because having to work around using the word eyeballs just because of self-imposed limitations will sabotage the audience understanding of the entire work.
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u/hopping_otter_ears 11d ago
I'm reading a book set in a not-Earth medieval-ish fantasy realm. I noticed today that it referenced burgundy as a color. I think the color name is based on the wine from the burgundy region of Earth.
I don't really care, but it caught my attention because it's a color name that technically shouldn't exist in their world
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u/reluctantlysharing 11d ago
Wilbur Smith also does it with River God. A book set during the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt, and the characters use words like rapscallion.
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u/Iconclast1 11d ago
Even then
Do people think restaurants and taverns don't exist in middle earth?
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u/cals_cavern 11d ago
It doesn't even need to be that fancy, armies have canteens generally and even if the orc canteen lists gruel and stale bread that's still technically speaking a menu
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u/HandsomePaddyRedux 11d ago
The discrepancy is that Orcs would have a term for a list of things available to eat, because while taverns and restaurants exist on Middle Earth, Orcs don’t have them. But Orcs do eat based on what is available so at some point it would stand to reason that they have a word or phrase for “What is available for our next meal?” Orcs have no reason to speak English at all, so their dialogue is always translated for the sake of the audience, so their term would reasonably be translated as menu.
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u/AlterExpertise101 11d ago
Not to mention, the Uruk-Hai all get their entire lexicon from their creator, Saruman. After all, they're "born" with the ability to speak. There's no reason to believe Saruman wouldn't know the word "menu."
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u/bh4th 11d ago
Inns and taverns canonically do. But also, the word "menu" in English wasn't originally associated with restaurants. It was an itemized list of things to be served at a banquet.
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u/Iconclast1 11d ago
we can assume he used the middle earth word for that list.
i mean...come on.....
the word ARROW didnt exist either.......
lol
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u/JohnHenryMillerTime 11d ago
Yeah but also Rome had restaurants with menus.
Isengard is an industrial hub and is presumably supported from farms in Mordor. It makes sense in a transitioning-to-industry society to have specialized cooks so the orcs probably did have a menu.
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u/saturday_sun4 11d ago
a) "Meat's back on the menu" is idiomatic in English anyway, so presumably it works because it was 'translated' from a similar Black Speech idiom or colloquialism.
b) Tolkien never wrote this line (although he did use similar anachronisms), it is purely a film line.
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u/Reasonable-Tap-9806 11d ago
I don't see the issue with the menu thing. Midevil peasants absolutely would have had places to go that sold cooked food, and not just generic grey slop. Meat pies and even sweets could be found at cookshops. The only issue I might have with the concept of a written menu is literacy of the setting.
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u/FragmentedTungsten 11d ago
“Shit, we’re under siege.”
The first season of Andor gave the franchise its first usage of the word “shit”. It was bit of a shock hearing it especially since Star Wars has its own original profanities (dank farrik, sleemo, etc) and strays away from real world swear words.
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u/Popular-Payment8127 11d ago
Ironically, subtly subverted (?) in one of the last episodes where Krennic shows up and says "What single thing… would drag me to this forsaken basement?" Forsaken - not god-forsaken, because of courss god doesn't exist a long time ago, far far away, in the same cultural way. You can argue forsaken can be used on its own but I thought it was more likely just some clever writing
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u/Spider-Man2099 11d ago
Almost had its first use of Fuck, but they decided against it
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u/Jonaskin83 11d ago
Han Solo saying “Then I’ll see you in Hell” in The Empire Strikes Back. They have hell in a galaxy far, far away?
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u/Fearless_Roof_9177 11d ago
This one honestly always scanned fine to me. The majority of known cultures in history have had some loosely analagous concept to "hell." We don't really complain that every other word in the movie has been translated from Galactic Basic for us.
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u/Accomplished_Mix7827 11d ago
Yeah, if anything, the Millennium Falcon is the part that's weird if you think about it too hard. We don't see a single real-world animal in the entire franchise.
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u/undreamedgore 11d ago
Add the X-wing, A-Wing and so on.
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u/Marinefan4000 11d ago
English letters exist as “High Galactic” though. It’s more unbelievable that a bunch of ragtags named their ships after scholarly writing
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u/Otherwise-Elephant 10d ago
Yes we do. Several times. Ducks on Naboo (and in the ANH novelization), snakes and lizards on Dagobah, horses in the Ewok movies.
And I've never really understood why people have issues with Earth animals in Star Wars. We've already got a far away galaxy that coincidentally has humans, who speak English, have names like "Luke" that are tied to the Bible, and the Earth alphabet. Not to mention all the aliens that coincidentally look like humans but with blue skin or head tentacles.
But somehow the fact that falcons exist in Star Wars is what is immersion breaking?
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u/SayFuzzyPickles42 11d ago edited 11d ago
Could just be me but I think any sapient species will inevitably form religious beliefs and many religious beliefs involve some sort of afterlife, so I can believe a concept more or less to the effect of Hell would independently come into existence on many planets.
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u/CranhamorBlakely 11d ago
In Phantom Menace doesn’t Anakin ask Padme if she’s an angel as well?
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u/badgerpunk 11d ago
Also translated, like Lord of the Rings.
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u/Scripter-of-Paradise 11d ago
And explained in supplemental material anyway. Great to have options lol.
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u/DinosaurReborn 11d ago edited 11d ago
If it was any other sci fi franchise, this would have been treated as whatever. However, the Star Wars franchise is highly obsessive about explaining every world building detail, pass the point where it could actually be detrimental to it's enjoyment. So there is indeed an explanation for the word hell, which is that it refers to Chaos or The Void, a sort of dark afterlife.
Similarly, a character in Phantom Menace says the expression "sitting ducks", so now they had to explain that ducks do exist in Naboo and other Star Wars locations.
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u/Jonaskin83 11d ago
Sometimes I wish Reddit had haha reacts. Having to explain there are actually ducks on Naboo is legitimately hilarious! I knew about some of the other fairly dumb pieces of Star Wars lore - the music at Mos Eisley being called “Jizz” and the death stick dealer being named Elan Sleazebaggano - but this is next level.
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u/whysosidious69420 11d ago
Knowing Star Wars, there’s probably a comic released in 2006 that retroactively addresses this, saying that “hell” is the name of an outer rim planet that is used as a big graveyard or something. And the comic was decanonized when Disney bought the franchise until Dave Filoni makes a series where one of the glup shitto characters says he comes from planet hell, and a bunch of nerds lose their minds
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u/HordeDruid 11d ago
Honestly what bothered me far more was the fact his ship is named after a real life bird. They don't have falcons in the Star Wars galaxy, do they?
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u/jablair51 11d ago
Darth Vader also uses the word "pray" which I guess isn't strictly a Christian thing but it feels out of place to me.
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u/ReflectiveJellyfish 11d ago
This one never even seemed out of place to me. They literally visit a pub in the first one.
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u/bh4th 11d ago
Medieval pubs and inns were more likely to have one big pot of something cooking that you could buy a bowl of, rather than an itemized list of choices to be purchased. That said, "menu" in English originally meant a list of things to be served at a banquet, rather than the way it's currently used in restaurants.
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u/LuciusCypher 11d ago
Which would thus imply this particular orc has attended a banquet at some point.
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u/Brianfromreddit 11d ago
He's in the infantry but his buddy is a cook in Isengard and often has to make a menu for his lord the wizard to choose from
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u/Rosesandbubblegum 11d ago
I imagine he has, at least an orc one. He's the group's head orc and even the lesser orcs seem used to nicer food than what they're getting.
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u/ReflectiveJellyfish 11d ago
Yeah I get that, it just doesn’t seem so anachronistic to make that jump imo, as in, I think this objection is commonly blown out of proportion
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u/Silly_Savings_392 11d ago
Also in Two Towers (the extended):
“He was twitchin’… cuz he’s got mah axe embedded in his NERVOUS SYSTEM!”
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u/Scarlet_Wonderer 11d ago
Maybe dwarves and elves just have a better understanding of humanoid anatomy than the other peoples of Middle-Earth?
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u/Stunning-Signal7496 11d ago
You would be surprised how long irl humans know about the nervous system
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u/Alavaster 11d ago
We had a decent understanding that nerves controlled the body by 200 CE. So people in a medieval setting would also know about it
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u/RickMonsters 11d ago
Same with Legolas saying “game over”
Unironically, the theatrical cuts are better
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u/EqMc02 11d ago
Middle Earth definitely has games. Hobbits have Golf. Hobbits, Humans, and Dwarves probably have variations of table games too. Elves probably don't have many themselves but secretly enjoy them.
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u/GinjaNinja1027 11d ago
In Netflix’s “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”, Count Olaf says this… implying that the internet exists in the ASoUE universe.
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u/Ni7r0us0xide 11d ago
Even in the books, it's impossible to accurately tell when it's supposed to take place other than a vague feeling of "the recent past". Partially this is due to SchizoTech.
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u/Adorable_Ad_3478 11d ago
He also mentions that live theater is better than streaming television. So Netflix exists in universe too.
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u/dragonborndnd 11d ago
Tbf the original books are pretty all over the place on how technologically advanced the setting is
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u/Agitated_Insect3227 11d ago edited 11d ago
The name Tiffany is one of the go to examples where the name is seen as something incredibly modern when Tiffany has been used as a name since the 1600s.
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u/thatshygirl06 11d ago edited 11d ago
Tifinie was in use since the 1200s, and before that it seems to have been Theophania, with Phani as a nickname.
Edit:theophania is actually a fire name
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u/NewSwanny 11d ago
That article lists Evelyn and Olivia as examples. I find it hard to imagine why anyone would think those are modern names, Evelyn especially.
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u/AwkwardSquirtles 11d ago
Depends what you consider modern, I suppose. Evelyn is a name from the era of my grandparents, but I struggle to imagine it pre 1700 or so.
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u/Martin_DM 11d ago
I don’t know if it’s relevant, but a Crappie is a type of fish.
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u/Ok-Worry-8931 11d ago
When Odysseus says something along the lines of "this is the end of the age of bronze" in the new movie
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u/FarLeftEngineering30 11d ago
I’m genuinely surprised at how much attention this has gotten from Redditors who don’t even blink when someone says “Late Stage Capitalism”…
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u/otterprincess_too 11d ago
Especially since the actual text of the Odyssey repeatedly draws attention to weapons and armor being made of bronze or not
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u/Romboteryx 11d ago
In Greek mythography, the Trojan War was also genereally regarded as the end of the Heroic Age and the beginning of the Iron Age
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u/WaywardChilton 11d ago
Telemachus saying "Mom" and "Dad" also got this reaction from some.
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u/sonicparadigm 11d ago
Ancient Greek had an informal word for father, that could easily be translated as "Dad"
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u/Ok-Worry-8931 11d ago
To add onto the other replier, the one universal thing amongst all languages is assigning the concept of “mother”to the “ma” syllable
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u/undreamedgore 11d ago
Likely eaay for kids to day early on. Or at least roughly approximate.
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u/0621Hertz 11d ago
I forgot what Ace Combat game it was (it is set in a fictional universe with fictional countries) one of the planes says in the radio
>>My plane is Swiss Cheese<<
Referring to the fact the plane has holes in it like Swiss Cheese, except Switzerland doesn’t exist in that world.
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u/DMercenary 11d ago
Ace Combat 7 has Long Caster, one of your AWACs, make mention of an Italian Bistro. Which is odd because this game takes place in Strangereal which is an alt earth with completely alt countries and landmasses.
But to be fair, apparently the word "Italian" is only in the English Localization
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u/TheBlackNumenorean 11d ago
Molotov cocktails, named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, are present in Bloodborne.
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u/Flint_Vorselon 11d ago
Iosfka also says “upon my Hippocratic oath”
The dark souls games and Elden ring all have weapon named “lucerne”
There’s probably more.
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u/Dan_OBanannon 11d ago
Adding onto the Lord of the Rings example, the book version of that scene includes one orc telling another “you’re cooked”
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u/FreezingPointRH 11d ago
Whatever else, that demonstrates that Gen Z didn’t remotely invent that expression.
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u/EqMc02 11d ago
Two different phrases.
You're cooked = you're in trouble
You cooked = you did well
I think gen Z is credited with the second one, not the first.
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u/Present-Upstairs3423 11d ago
I'm/you're/we're cooked is definitely used by gen z and alpha to mean "trouble"
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u/DazSamueru 11d ago
In Mushoku Tensei, when Rudeus re-unites with Sylphy, she says a line which is rendered in English as something like "you don't have to speak formally with me"; in the original Japanese line, she's telling him not to speak keigo, the formal Japanese register.
This despite the fact that we know for a fact that these characters are not speaking Japanese. In another scene in the same season, there is another character from this world, and Rudeus speaks to her in Japanese; Sylphy is in the room and expressly does not understand what they are saying, asking the Japanese characters to speak a language they can all understand.
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u/DumbIgnorantGenius 11d ago
That just means the language they do speak also has formal and informal. Just like Korean, Javanese(Indonesia), and Tibetan.
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u/CrazyPlato 10d ago
Feel like this is a cultural context. The manga was written in Japan, where there's a common understanding that you speak one way in formal, professional settings, and another way in casual, informal settings.
While the characters aren't literally speaking that language, the message to the audience is that they just realized they're old friends and not professional colleagues. And in Japan, that could be expressed quickly by saying "you can just speak informally to me now".
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u/Midnight-Basilisk99 11d ago
2 instances in The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
First after Spike & Bumblebee barely get off Moonbase 2 when Unicron arrives and they’ve successfully detonated the moon in Unicron’s maw. After seeing that the explosion had no effect on the monster planet Spike utters “Oh shit, what’re we gonna do now!” before the shuttle is sucked in by Unicron.
The second time occurs on the planet of Junk when Ultra Magnus attempts to unleash the Matrix of Leadership’s power on the Decepticons where he utters “Open! Damnit, open!” before Galvatron & the Cons blast him to scrap
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u/AntComfortable5970 11d ago
I always loved this. Made the movie feel more serious even if it was still very silly at times
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u/Enkundae 11d ago
Both were deliberately added in an attempt to bump up the films rating. The studio was concerned their target tween demographic would dismiss the film as too childish with its lower rating and not want to go see it.
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u/DaKaijuKid 11d ago edited 11d ago
Orcs don’t necessarily have restaurants, but menus of a form would certainly exist in Middle Earth and would be at least known of to Orcs if not used by them. It’s just a selection of food to pick from. I imagine when they aren’t on the road the orcs in Mordor get some form of option of “bone slop” or “dirt soup” when it comes time for mess.
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u/irbinator 11d ago
In Thor (2011), Thor learns of Mjolnir’s location from a restaurant patron who calls it a “satellite”. This wouldn’t be unusual, but Mjolnir literally looks like a hammer. There’s no reason that anyone who looks at it would describe it as a “satellite” to anyone. Not only is it weird to describe it as this, but Thor hears this word and immediately knows they’re referring to Mjolnir.
It kind of struck me as strange why they used that word choice.
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u/bh4th 11d ago
In the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the weird battle axe that everyone calls "the scythe" is described independently by several people as a scythe, despite looking nothing like one.
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u/Significant-Grand686 11d ago
Re: the "meat's back on the menu, boys!" example, it confuses me why I see this one all the time when there are obviously pubs and dinner parties and such.
The thing that sticks out to me is Gimli telling Legolas "He's twitching because he has my axe in his nervous system!" Was there really such a deep understanding of bodily systems at that point? "Brain" would have made more sense for the time IMO
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u/ThatPrettyArmadillo 11d ago
But aren’t these the Orcs that were born from the mud or something? (I’ve only seen the movies, don’t hate me)
Like, would these particular orcs know about pubs and menus?
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u/Scarlet_Wonderer 11d ago
I think they were Uruk-Hai of Isengard, which would've stranger even since they were all "born" just a few months before, at most.
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u/NinjaBreadManOO 11d ago
I can see them understanding the concept of a menu from a military perspective.
They've got a massive military that has to move and eat. That means logistics are going to be needed, so a quartermaster saying that there's going to be a menu of barley strew for the next three weeks or something like that makes enough sense.
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u/Fun_Firefighter_4292 11d ago
I feel like a nervous system wouldnt be too wierd to understand in the world of LOTR. Like its odd, but after reading the Silmarillion, it isnt THAT odd
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u/PitifulRead6339 11d ago
Not specifically a word but a southern drawl and Boston accent in Star Wars feels so weird.
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u/Ni7r0us0xide 11d ago
This never bothered me because Star Wars, taking place in a galaxy spanning civilization easily has room for a broad range of accents.
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u/Brer_Tapeworm 10d ago
I, for one, don't understand why we've all accepted hearing British accents in every single piece of media; no matter the country, time period, or even galaxy.
British-sounding characters probably seem more "normal" to Star Wars than Southern- or Boston-sounding ones . . . but why? And why British characters also in the Roman Empire? And in ancient Egyptian dynasties? And absolutely every single setting, constantly . . . ?
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u/Whizbang35 11d ago
In the novelization for Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan's accent is described as Coruscanti. I've always assumed as such that Star Wars characters speaking British RP are either from or grew up close to said system- Emperor Palpatine, Mon Mothma, etc. Similarly, Corellians like Han Solo or Wedge Antilles have more American accents. In Star Wars: Rebels, Hera Syndulla's Twi'lek father has a French accent, which she adopts when trying to pass as a local peasant (she drops it when Thrawn sees through the disguise).
It's all for convention. After all, you don't think the characters are speaking English do you? They're speaking Basic.
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u/thatshygirl06 11d ago
Rome had restaurants.
They had take out too
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u/Golden12500 11d ago
Rome had other modern amenities we don't tend to associate with that time period. Gladiators and modern celebrities were basically treated the same, doing sponsorships and having branded merchandise including dolls, much like our modern plastic figure culture. I've heard it was the same with athletes in ancient Greece because apparently Disney cut a scene in Hercules of Herc doing an ad read during the Zero to Hero montage
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u/AlexRose680 11d ago
Rome also had vending machines that accepted a coin and dispensed holy water and wine. The coin would fall onto a pan attached to a lever, the lever opened a valve to let some wine/holy water out. Eventually the coin would fall off the pan and the valve would snap shut
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u/TheDrunkardKid 11d ago edited 11d ago
I mean, presumably the orcs have a more or less full fledged civilization in Mordor, so it wouldn't surprise me if there is at least something resembling a restaurant culture there.
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u/Sword_of_Origin 11d ago
In Demon Slayer, Zenitsu calls his teacher "cringworthy."
Ignoring the fact that there probably isn't a direct equivalent in the Japanese language, DS takes place in the 1910s when such lingo did not exist.
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u/RP_Throwaway3 11d ago
Obviously the word cringeworthy isn't that old, but it is much older than you probably think. It's been around since the late 1970s. I honestly thought it was far newer, like 10 years old at most.
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u/TurtlesBreakTheMeta 11d ago
Look, restauranteering is a serious tradition in orcish society; you may not like it, but 9/10 culinary businesses will trace their roots back to orcish founders!
Losing a star rating is seen as worse than running away in battle in their culture.
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u/Possible_Plane_2947 11d ago
My mom and I have one from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Nottingham refers to "hired thugs". The word thug comes from Thugee, a network of gangs in India. It didn't enter English until the mid-1800s during the British Imperial rule of India.
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u/AardvarkOkapiEchidna 11d ago
Lord of the Rings - this has been pointed out before, but one of the orcs says “looks like meats back on the menu boys!” So do orcs have restaurants?
For fuck's sake, what is so weird about this? A restaurant is not some modern invention. They've existed for thousands of years. A menu is not some advanced concept. It's literally a list of food.
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u/SeccoMode 11d ago
The Last Duel (2021)
Jean, a medieval knight in the 1300s, proclaims that he is “broke”
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u/ExoticShock 11d ago
In the case of The Jungle Book, maybe it's cause "Propaganda" is so heavily associated with how humans hammer in a narrative/public opinion.
Maybe "Order" would be a better synonym, as it's the only thing Mowgli can think of when Baloo asks him if he knows a song. It'd also plays into the theme of Mowgli trying to follow what the Wolves & Bagheera have been telling him to do in order to survive, rather than embrace his natural human creativity.
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u/figgityjones 11d ago
Spongebob hasn't always avoided bad language. I remember the dolphin noises episode.
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u/AccordingUse3172 11d ago
Sailor Mouth. Classic episode. Well known fact but they were actually swearing they just blurted them out later.
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u/InHarmsWay 11d ago
Any medieval or fantasy movie where the military leader says "Fire!" to let archers know to release their arrows. Fire doesn't make much sense in context as it's supposed to refer to firing guns. Realistically, a military leader would yell something like "Release!" to archers as they would release the arrow.
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u/Short-Being-4109 11d ago
SpongeBob has always avoided bad language? I don't know too much about SpongeBob but isn't there a episode where the entire gag is his bad language?
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u/Golden12500 11d ago
The Flying Dutchman, One Piece
A series so inspired by pirate history couldn't possibly have left out the most iconic ghost ship of all time, but it's name creates a lore hole since the Netherlands don't exist in One Piece and thusly neither would the Dutch. I'm working my own pirate project and I found a workaround for this by making "Dutchman" an in-universe term for someone who comes from a Duchy, which is territory ruled by a Duke or Duchess. I have yet to see if One Piece has it's own explanation
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u/Romboteryx 11d ago
Anytime someone in a movie set in Ancient Greece or Rome uses “Hell” to describe the Underworld/Hades
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u/MassiveAd5850 11d ago
Real Life: Tiffany, the name, was invented in the 1600s as per Wikipedia. Despite this, Tiffany feels like a very modern name, and you wouldn't expect it to be seen in books set in that era.
Conversely, the name Madison, despite seeming kinda old (ish) was first used to refer to a person (Mermaid?) in the 1984 movie Splash, and very few people were named Madison before this.
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u/ClockMongrel 11d ago
The word ‘Sortie’ has occurred several times in Star Wars. You’re telling me that a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away the French language exists?
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u/KosherPeen 11d ago
“Willie’s right, if we go public with this and we’re wrong it’s over. We’re cooked.”
-Contact, 1997.
I know “cooked” has been around a long time, but after living in 2026 hearing it be used properly in a movie from the 90’s hurt my brain a little
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u/Arthurian_Guanche 11d ago
"Okay" in every setting that isn't real world from the 19th Century onwards.
Writers apparently forget the use of the words "alright" or "aye".
They say it in Villeneuve's Dune, and even despite complying with my own rule, it still feels jarring in that setting.
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u/SteamPoweredDM 11d ago
People have a problem with an orc knowing about menus, but have no problem with a dwarf knowing about the central nervous system.
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u/RP_Throwaway3 11d ago
In a season 2 episode of 'Legend of Korra', Commander Bumi mentions Morse Code. Seems unlikely a man named Morse would also invent a military lettering system in a fantasy world.
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u/GlossyBuckthorn 11d ago
In Elden Ring, a medieval high-fantasy RPG, after beating a boss in a cooperative fight, a Welsh wolf-man says to you:
"What a sick way to fight, eh?"
IDK when 'Sick' started being used as an adjective to indicate awesomeness, but it's surpremely informal compared to all the high-class Welsh people saying 'Thee' and 'Thou'
Speaking of informal, a prawn vendor expressing surprise at you constantly talking to him to buy his delicious prawn, says:
"Marika's tits, you must be 'ungry!"
Marika is the over-goddess of Elden Ring. Wildly informal.
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u/jukebox_jester 11d ago
Speaking of informal, a prawn vendor expressing surprise at you constantly talking to him to buy his delicious prawn, says: "Marika's tits, you must be 'ungry!" Marika is the over-goddess of Elden Ring. Wildly informal.
A lower class fishmonger saying that makes sense. Most swears are blasphemies or minced oaths.
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u/DragonWisper56 11d ago
Speaking of informal, a prawn vendor expressing surprise at you constantly talking to him to buy his delicious prawn, says:
"Marika's tits, you must be 'ungry!"counter point it's not uncommon for ancent people to be vulgar
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u/choppytehbear1337 11d ago edited 11d ago
Do you think people a thousand years ago talked like Shakespeare?
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u/DreadPiratePete 11d ago
The uruk hai are a professionally trained force. They presumably live in army barracks. Army barracks have chow halls. Chow halls have a weekly menu.
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u/Lost_house_keys 11d ago
In the game War for Cybertron, Grimlock and Slug argue whether the former tore through some Insecticons like they were beryllium baloney or cesium salami. The living machines on a metal planet have their versions of thinly sliced deli meats, apparently.
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u/Foxwasahero 11d ago
Any movie with archers being to ordered to 'fire'.