Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy
Go Ad-Free Report Bug
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The X of Y

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cad7547ee51d42d1968a6954f04613bc_thpng.jpg

Epic Voice Guy: Travel to Westeros, a place where everything is the Thing of Nouns.
King Robert: The Hand of the King!
Sam Tarly: Light of the Seven...
Brienne of Tarth: Brienne of Tarth.
Ygritte: Lord of Bones...
Lord Beric: Lord of Light...
Lord Tywin: Master of Coin...
Queen Daenerys: Mother of Dragons...
Shagga: Son of Dolf.
Melisandre: Son of Fire...
Melisandre: Warrior of Light...
Tyrion: Bank of Braavos...
Lord Stark: Lord of Winterfell, and Warden of the North...
— Honest Trailers: Game of Thrones Volume 1

An extremely popular title and naming convention in almost every media and most genres, including Real Life. This is one of the oldest known naming formulas; it is already an established formula in One Thousand and One Nights, with internal stories named things like "The Tale of the Bull and the Ass" and "The City of Brass".

Some of the most common variant formulas are:

  • The (Common Noun) of (Proper Noun) (e.g. The Sword of Shannara, The Riddlemaster of Hed, The Tale of Genji, The Chronicles of Amber);
  • The (Common Noun) of (Common Noun) (e.g. The Valley of Fear, The Ambassadors of Fear, Attack of the Clones);
  • The (Proper Noun) of (Placename) (e.g. Elric of Melnibone, The Phantom of the Opera).

The presence or absence of articles ("the", "a", and "an") and their placement create even more variants, as do the optional use of adjectives before either the "X" or the "Y".

A sub-convention is Character Name and the Noun Phrase. Please put examples that fall into that convention on that page, not here. For the related form "The Adjective Noun" see Mad Lib Thriller Title.

Revenge of the Sequel looks like a Sub-Trope, and its examples usually overlap, but it's actually the broader "Sequel title announces something's reappearance."

A large number of entries are also Work Info Title, saying something about the work in the title... Such as with some of its Sub Tropes listed below.

Sub Tropes:

Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

     Arts 

    Asian Animation 
  • Happy Heroes: Quite a few of the official English episode titles follow this naming convention.
    • Season 1 episode 46, "A Tale of Food Revenge".
    • Season 2 episodes 1 and 2 (Multi-Part Episode), "The Trail of Careful S."
    • Season 2 episode 8, "The Crisis of Being Late".
    • Season 2 episode 12, "Loss of Gravity".
    • Season 2 episode 23, "Hearts of Gold".
    • Season 2 episode 30, "The Escape of Boss Lightbulb".
    • Season 2 episode 38, "The World of Careless S."
    • Season 2 episode 49, "The Secret of the TV Station Boss".
    • Season 2 episode 52, "Race of Champions".
    • Season 7 episode 9, "The Arrival of the Royal Cat Guard".
    • Season 7 episode 26, "A Change of Heart".
    • Season 7 episodes 47 to 50 (forming a Story Arc), "God of War Legend". It's called this in the English-dubbed episodes themselves but is known as "Battle God" in the Amazon listings, averting the trope.
    • Season 8 episode 2, "Magical Fellow, Part 2: Token of the Old Grand Master".
    • Season 8 episode 30, "The Secret of Gnomes".
    • Season 8 episodes 39 and 40 (another multi-part episode), "The Ancestor of Magic".
  • Motu Patlu: The title of the theatrical film is Motu Patlu: King of Kings.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf has the seasons Joys of Seasons and War of Invention.

    Comic Books 

    Fairy Tales 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Game Books 
  • Fighting Fantasy uses it extensively:
    • The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
    • The Citadel of Chaos
    • The Forest of Doom
    • City of Thieves
    • Island of the Lizard King
    • Caverns of the Snow Witch
    • House of Hell
    • Talisman of Death
    • Temple of Terror
    • The Rings of Kether
    • Seas of Bood
    • Demons of the Deep
    • Sword of the Samurai
    • Trial of Champions
    • Masks of Mayhem
    • Creature of Havoc
    • Crypt of the Sorcerer
    • Phantoms of Fear
    • Chasms of Malice
    • Slaves of the Abyss
    • Stealer of Souls
    • Daggers of Darkness
    • Armies of Death
    • Portal of Evil
    • Vault of the Vampire
    • Fangs of Fury
    • Dead of Night
    • Master of Chaos
    • The Keep of the Lich-Lord
    • Tower of Desruction
    • Siege of Sardath
    • Island of the Undead
    • Knights of Doom
    • Revenge of the Vampire
    • Curse of the Mummy
    • Howl of the Werewolf
    • Kharé — Cityport of Traps
    • The Crown of Kings
  • Every book in the GrailQuest series:
    • The Castle of Darkness
    • The Den of Dragons
    • The Gateway of Doom
    • Voyage of Terror
    • Kingdom of Horror
    • Realm of Chaos
    • Tomb of Nightmares
    • Legion of the Dead
  • The Lone Wolf series is rife with this:
    • The Caverns of Kalte
    • The Chasm of Doom
    • The Kingdom of Terror
    • The Jungle of Horrors
    • The Cauldron of Fear
    • The Dungeons of Torgar
    • The Prisoners of Time
    • The Masters of Darkness
    • The Plague Lords of Ruel
    • The Captives of Kaag
    • The Legacy of Vashna
    • The Deathlord of Ixia
    • Dawn of the Dragons
    • The Curse of Naar
    • The Buccaneers of Shadaki
    • The Fall of Blood Mountain
    • The Hunger of Sejanoz
    • The Storms of Chai
  • The Time Machine series:
    • Secret of the Knights
    • Sword of the Samurai
    • The Rings of Saturn
    • The Mystery of Atlantis
    • Secret of the Royal Treasure
    • Blade of the Guillotine
    • Flame of the Inquisition
    • Sword of Caesar
    • Death Mask of Pancho Villa
  • The Return of Zaltec

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 

    Manhwa and Manhua 

    Music 
  • Cannibal Corpse: The album Gallery of Suicide, which itself has a Title Track and the song "Chambers of Blood".
  • Gojira: The Way of All Flesh and its title track.
  • The Lovin' Spoonful's third album was titled Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful.
  • Joni Mitchell's "Refuge of the Roads" from Hejira.
  • Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon
  • Savatage's "The Hall of the Mountain King", a Shout-Out to Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
  • Tears for Fears:
    • "Start of the Breakdown"
    • "Sowing the Seeds of Love"
    • The Seeds of Love
    • "Standing on the Corner of the Third World"
    • "Year of the Knife"
    • "Rhythm of Life" note 
    • "Lord of Karma"
    • "Sketches of Pain"
    • "Queen of Compromise"
    • "The Madness of Roland"
    • "War of Attrition"
    • "Size of Sorrow"
  • The They Might Be Giants song "The Bee of the Bird of the Moth".
  • The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve" (from The Christmas Attic), "Queen of the Winter Night," "For the Sake of Our Brother," and "The Wisdom of Snow" (from The Lost Christmas Eve), and "The Dreams of Candlelight" (from Beethoven's Last Night).
  • Frank Zappa's The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • A very popular naming pattern for magic items in many fantasy games. Examples from Dungeons & Dragons: Breastplate of Command, Mace of Smiting, Potion of Healing, Ring of Invisibility, Sword of Sharpness.
  • Call of Cthulhu: Named after the first work of the Cthulhu Mythos that it's based on.

    Theatre 

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk (The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk), and three of its seasons/novelization: La Couette de l'oubli ("The Quilt of Oblivion"), L'Orbe de Xaraz ("The Orb of Xaraz") and Le Conseil de Suak ("The Meeting of Suak")...
  • The Questport Chronicles is full of this trope. Examples include character names (the Lord of the Supreme Council, the Master of Darkness, the Queen of Rogues and Robbers), artifacts (the Tree of Light, the Harp of Remorse) and places (the Courts of Tenus).
  • RPC Authority: Multiple RPCs fit this trope:
  • SCP Foundation: It has a metric ton of them.
  • Whateley Universe: "Revenge of the Alphas", "The Case of the Unseen Switch"

    Web Videos 
  • The Great War: Various seemingly mundane inanimate objects are given impressive sounding names such as the Chair of Wisdom in which host Indy Neidell sits and answers viewer questions in the "Out of the Trenches" series, said chair's temporary replacement, the Chair of Madness, and the History of the Desk, an elaborate on the spot invented history of how the simple desk used in their set supposedly came from Byzantine Emperor Justinian.
  • From Kickassia, "The Fall of the Risen"
  • World War II: Indy's Chair of Infinite Knowledge in which he sits and answers viewer questions in the "Out of the Foxholes" series, as an Alternate Company Equivalent to the Chair of Wisdom from The Great War.

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • Circuit of the Americas
  • The Summer of Love, and various sequels.
  • The Wars of the Roses
  • The War of 1812
  • Gates of the Arctic and Craters of the Moon National Parks.
  • Throughout history, many important battles in various wars are referred to as "The Battle of [important historical place]". Among the many examples are the Battle of New Orleans (which was famously used as the subject of a popular country song), the Battle of the Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto, note  the Battle of San Juan Hill, and many others. One exception is the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, which was used by the press to refer to the "bulge" of the Allied front line inward (according to The Other Wiki).
  • The Tower of London
  • The Colossus of Rhodes
  • The Republic of Ireland

Alternative Title(s): The Noun Of Adjective

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top