Rename due to ambiguity: Red Baron

I was thinking we could split it between people who are only known by their badass nickname and those who merely have one. We'd have to do it from the audience's perspective, though. The real Red Baron had a name, after all, but as far as his enemies (and the audience of the movie) were concerned, he was just the Red Baron.

Bump.

If I may add my own title suggestion: Nickname Of Fame. Descriptive and has that Sublime Rhyme feel to it.

Also, if we do end up renaming the trope and not using Red Baron as a redirect, can I claim it for a page about the Red Baron himself as a Historical Domain Character?

edited 5th Jun '11 9:16:53 PM by Specialist290

We're looking at a disambiguation for the main namespace, methinks.

Fair enough. I'll probably end up writing a page using his real name and throw up a link on the disambig, then.

While you're at it, you may want to add this one to the disambig as well: VideoGames.Red Baron.

Would the expanded definition include cases where the nickname/epithet itself is not inherently badass-sounding, but the reputation behind its holder is?

Example: Alex interrupts Bob while the latter is trying to making an armed robbery of a bank, Bob - having never met Alex in person nor saw his picture before - demands to know who he is, and Alex gives the nickname of "Fluffy the Blue". Bob then shits himself, because he has heard of "Fluffy the Blue" before, as well as stories of how he curbstomped He Who Must Not Be Named when he tried to cause The End of the World as We Know It.

^Wouldn't that just be Names to Run Away from Really Fast?

edited 22nd Jun '11 5:19:17 PM by StarryEyed

Nvm

edited 22nd Jun '11 5:27:17 PM by Raso

No, that's being born with a name that is inherently evil/terrifying/dangerous, like "Hilter von Killington", or General Grievous.

Skimming through the video game examples, there seems to be some confusion with Boss Subtitles for when the characters are given a title by the narration but no one ever uses it in dialog or anything.

edited 22nd Jun '11 7:33:56 PM by Clarste

I created this page when we where going by quirky names like The Toblerone, and all the pages had names that where example. Even in the YKTTW someone complained that the title was vague. The best choice would probably be Badass Nickname it clearly defines what it is, and the average person would be able to remember it.

So are we going with the idea that we have two tropes here (Badass Nickname and Known Only By Their Title) then? Or what?

Doesn't Only Known By Their Title overlap too much with Only Known by Their Nickname or Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"?

This The last thing we want to do is cure 'obscurity' and create 'confusion'. The former is the lesser of the two evils, methinks

I actually like Nickname Of Infamy best, though Badass Nickname or Nickname Of Fame would be good too.

Quick summary of the various tropes involved here:

• Red Baron: A nickname given to a character after they prove to be badasses. Always given to the character (one cannot choose their own Badass Nickname) and only after they do something impressive.
• Code Name: A nickname used by a character to hide their real identity. May be chosen by the character or given to them, and their real name may or may not be known as well.
• Nom de Guerre: A false name taken by a character when joining a martial organization, specifically for the purposes of hiding their true identity (and symbolic of breaking with their past).
• Only Known by Their Nickname: When a character's nickname has completely eclipsed his real name, to the point where people don't actually know his real name, even when they could reasonably be expected to.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": When a character's nickname refers to their position, occupation, or profession.
• They Call Him "Sword": When a character's nickname refers to their Weapon Of Choice.

Whew. Does that about cover it? Maybe we need a Nickname Tropes index...

Note that these are not all identical to the tropes as they're currently written. Specifically, there's a ton of overlap between Code Name and Nom de Guerre specifically (both include fighter pilot's call signs, for example, which would go under Code Name as I've defined it), which I've tried to make a little more distinct here.

edited 26th Sep '11 6:16:08 PM by NativeJovian

What about when a character has a self-chosen moniker that they picked for a reason like "I like how it sounds" (it might even be completely untrue, i.e. calling himself "Iron King of Women" when he's a Casanova Wannabe at best), and people eventually associate that moniker with Badassery due to several impressive feats that the character performed after picking that moniker? Does that still fall under Red Baron?

Yeah, a Nickname Tropes index would probably be a good idea.

edited 27th Sep '11 5:07:54 AM by MarqFJA

I think Naming Conventions already covers all of that, though maybe having a redirect from Naming Tropes would help that.

I don't see any harm in having a sub-index for tropes about pseudonyms, aliases, nicknames, and other kinds of names that are supposed to be not the person's real/legal one.

There's also Spell My Name with a "The": When a character is referred to only by a nickname beginning with "The". This has a huge overlap with Red Baron. I suspect this is more or less the Only Known By Their Title trope.

This thread has been around way too long. Crowner. Hollered for hooking.

Checking all of the "C" wicks.

Correct:

Used for a badass nickname:

1. Memes.Capcom Vs Whatever: Deadpool, "The Merc with a Mouth"
2. Characters.Captain America: The Winter Soldier
3. Characters.Captain Tsubasa
4. Carmen Sandiego: The Queen of Crime
5. Characters.Castlevania: The Blue Crescent Moon
6. Characters.Cerberus Daily News Sarona Net: The Ghost of Miae’gor
7. Chaotic Neutral: The Mad Monarch
8. Characters.Character Development Thread
9. Char Clone
10. Characters.CHIKARA
11. Chinese People: "Divine Warrior"
12. Chrono Trigger: "The DS retranslation gives Magus the (additional) title of "Fiendlord"."
13. Characters.Chuck: "Awesome"
14. Chyna
15. Code Geass, Characters.Code Geass, Characters.Code Geass Main Characters (I'm just gonna count all of these as one)
16. Cold Sniper
17. Colin Mc Rae Rally
18. Colonel Kilgore
19. NamesToRunAwayFrom.Colors: This wick has someone actually saying "has a Red Baron" in place of "has a nickname", which is impressive.
20. IAmNotShazam.Comic Books
21. Community S2 E23: A Fistful of Paintballs
22. Cool Sword
23. Cool Versus Awesome
24. Corsair: "The Devil Killer"
25. Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: "Death God of Muay Thai"
26. Culdcept

Overlap with The Magnificent (it's okay, that's allowed):

1. Characters.Classical Mythology: The Hekatonkheires, "The Vigorous", "The Sea Goat", "The Furious", "The Big Limbed".
2. Chronicles Of The Kencyrath
3. Characters.Claymore, Colleen Clinkenbeard (counting both of these as one since they're about the same character)
4. Characters.Code Geass Others
5. Cody Rhodes

Pro wrestler stage name thingies. I'm assuming these are legit?

1. Chris Jericho: "The Lionheart"
2. Christian: "Captain Charisma" and "Instant Classic"
3. Christopher Daniels: The Fallen Angel
4. Cool Old Guy: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

Unclear:

1. Class 12-K: The entire class gets nicknames, but are they giving themselves badass nicknames or just regular ol' ordinary nicknames?

Incorrect:

Referring to von Richthofen, the original Red Baron:

1. Cavalry Officer
2. NamesToRunAwayFrom.Colors
3. RealLife.Cool Plane
4. Corto Maltese

Referring to the color red (?):

1. NamesToRunAwayFrom.Colors

I count 35 Correct (85.37%), 5 Incorrect (12.20%).

For the record, there are 876 wicks and 147 inbounds at this time.

edited 13th Oct '11 6:13:23 PM by troacctid

...huh. Well, I'm changing my vote to down. Sometimes you get surprised by which names are working.

Looking over this trope again, it actually seems to be broader than I thought it was. I was under the impression that, like the Trope Namer, it was a nickname bestowed upon an individual after they did something suitably impressive. In actuality, the description and examples are basically "a nickname for a Badass".

Maybe some subtropes are an order?

I like the idea of subtropes. What did you have in mind? If it's just based on who named them, whether they have another name and so on, I think we already have a lot of those (Appropriated Appellation, Only Known by Their Nickname, etc), we'd just have to formalize this as the supertrope.

edited 13th Oct '11 6:13:27 PM by Discar

Changing vote to down if that's all the misuse there is.