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American Accents In Fantasy


Macsen

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I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this, but American accents in fantasy games and movies are really starting to get on my nerves. I don't have anything against Americans, and find some of their accents quite lovely, but they have no place in the distant past!

 

I've watched and played countless fantasy films and games over the past few years which were clearly set in medieval europe or edo-Japan, only to have every character talk with american accents. I'm currently playing through the new Zelda game, and even though they don't 'speak', the text is full of all kinds of 'golly' and 'gee-whizz' that makes them sound like some hillbilly family.

 

Yes I know it's supposed to be fantasy and so 'anything goes', but putting the American accent (which didn't exist at all a few hundred years ago) in a medieval setting seems to me to be just as anachronistic as putting a tank or a cruise missile in the same setting. It just makes suspension of disbelief a bit harder.

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I agree with you in principle, however I don't think it is clear cut as "American accents didn't exist a few hundred years ago". I have heard it said that the current American accent is closer to the English accent of the 18th century than the modern English accent is, so it is possible that American accents are actually more authentic in some cases.

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But there isn't one American or one English accent, so that is meaningless even if you could hypothesise such a thing.

 

For instance, Kelsey Grammar's accent is much closer to one sort of "English" accent than a Texan yokel, but what we recognise as "English" in his voice is not shared by all English accents - it's not Cornish or cockney, and certainly not at all northern.

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I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this, but American accents in fantasy games and movies are really starting to get on my nerves.

You're not the only one.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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Orbweaver, that may be the case for the 18th century but most fantasy is set in a pre 16th century middle ages. Misspellings are a good way of telling how people pronounced things back then, and it certainly didn't sound like an American accent. An english accent is closest, without being incomprehensible to modern ears.

 

Fing, I think anything similar to an English accent would do, or even any European accent. The film Steamboy is the only one I can remember that cast English actors in a fantasy world that was clearly set in England - they all had Manchester accents, and it was great. (Pity the film was crap though.)

 

By the way, I'm not just saying this because I'm British. My accent is nothing like an English accent.

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However, it is hard to pull off an accent (ref: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins; Natalie Portman, V for Vendetta) so in some cases I'd rather voice actors stick to what they can do rather than attempt something and fail embarrassingly.

 

I agree mostly with what you're saying, however I also found it strange in Gladiator that they were talking English with British accents - talking English is inauthentic enough, it shouldn't matter if Russell Crowe uses his native accent or not, should it? It's no less authentic!

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Erm, how about just hire English actors in the first place? It's not like we have a shortage of good ones. Especially in video games, does it matter than it is some big American star or 'jobbing British actor #163#' doing the voice?

 

What really annoyed me was a recent film where Christian Bale, an actor born in Wales, was doing a fake American accent for a animated film which was obviously set in Europe. This makes no sense!

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I agree mostly with what you're saying, however I also found it strange in Gladiator that they were talking English with British accents - talking English is inauthentic enough, it shouldn't matter if Russell Crowe uses his native accent or not, should it? It's no less authentic!

 

I guess even the Americans accept that it sounds better. There is similarly no reason why the Lord of the Rings should use British accents, but I guess a bunch of Americans going "I'm gonna kick your Orc ass, bitch!" would spoil the effect somewhat.

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I think you've hit the nail on the head with the LotR comparison, OrbWeaver. Maybe the problem isn't so much the accent but the kind of language used. Even though there were many American accents in Thief they were tolerable to an extent because there was no American slang. It's the modern 'Yo!' and 'Gee whizz!' that benumb my ears.

 

I think the British accent is Gladiator might have more to do with the English trying to associate themselves with any powerful empire going or gone. The Romans were cultured and has lots of land so they must have had posh English accents! Same with the Egyptians, they couldn't have built those pyramids without some stiff upper lip.

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Lord of the Rings might have been done in british accents since it's based on a novel by an Englishman whose works aim to create a pseudo-mythology for England?

Yeah but Tolkien made it clear that the characters weren't actually speaking modern English in the book, but some kind of old anglo-saxon English. Het þa hyssa hwæne hors forlætan, feor afysan, and forð gangan, hicgan to handum and to hige godum!

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I think you've hit the nail on the head with the LotR comparison, OrbWeaver. Maybe the problem isn't so much the accent but the kind of language used. Even though there were many American accents in Thief they were tolerable to an extent because there was no American slang. It's the modern 'Yo!' and 'Gee whizz!' that benumb my ears.

 

There was American slang in Thief. 'Boy, my dogs are killin' me tonight' (my feet are sore) is pure American slang.

I much preferred that sneery english actor they had playing the builder and mechanist parts, he was the best of the bunch.

I really despised the american actors attempting to use the 'Shakespearian' dialogue (doth, thou etc) It just sounded so fake, and they weren't very good actors either, which made it worse.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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As an American, I agree that our accents don't work for most fantasy settings. And its really bad when you hear them taken out of time, like that goddamned aweful Robin Hood movie with Kevin Kostner from a few years back. He has this kind of mid west drawl thing going on, which totally shattered any sense of immersion that pile of shit could have possibly conjured up. Not that it could.

 

The sad thing was everyone else, even the American actors like Morgan Freeman and that other goofball who played Kostners side kick tried to use period accents. Not Superstar Kostner! I wish he was eaten by those wolves he was dancing with.....

 

I think the earlier the accent and word usage in Western history, the more immersive for me in fantasy. Not one particular period alone, I think it would be effective to use maybe late medieval to early Renaissance for aristos and mages. For common folk I guess a mixture of "common folk" phrases and words from the same periods.

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Anyone want to take bets on what accents they use in the upcoming HBO series A Song of Fire and Ice?

 

As an American I think maybe it's mostly a matter of impression. We, as a movie audience, just have this impression that English sounding accents fit medieval fantasy.

 

But what about Sci-Fi? I supposed it's just more mixed. In Star Wars I can't imagine Grand Moff Tarkin (sp?) not sounding English "You may fire when ready". But then Luke and Han are as American as you can get. Whatever accent James Earl Jones has is perfect though

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But what about Sci-Fi? I supposed it's just more mixed. In Star Wars I can't imagine Grand Moff Tarkin (sp?) not sounding English "You may fire when ready". But then Luke and Han are as American as you can get. Whatever accent James Earl Jones has is perfect though

Star Wars is all about the plucky Americans throwing off the yoke of British imperial rule. That's why all the rebels are American and everyone in the Empire has eeevil English accents. Of course by the time we would get to Star Wars XII or so the American rebels would be the new Empire, and teaming up with their former oppressors to invade Tatooine.

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Not really, they cast British actors as the baddies in a lot of movies.

It's the same as a James Bond movies almost always having some swarthy foreign type as the villain.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

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The sad thing was everyone else, even the American actors like Morgan Freeman and that other goofball who played Kostners side kick tried to use period accents. Not Superstar Kostner! I wish he was eaten by those wolves he was dancing with.....
I seem to remember hearing that Kostner was going to use an english accent, except it turned out to be so incredibly god-awful that everybody insisted he stop using it.
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It's not that hard really to do an good accent of any type if you put some effort into it, Christopher Guest & Co do a great job of it in Spinal Tap, and even Brad Pitt does a pretty good Northern Irish accent in 'The Devils Own'

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Well my opinion is, the odd non-english out of place accent is okay if its used sparingly, and for effect...

 

It's getting a bit commonplace, and that's definetly getting on my nerves.

 

Re: Starwars - I don't think its why the evil guys have british accents... :D It might be, but I thought it was just the stereotype of the evil but inteligent villain. He always has a very refined british accent. Like when people want to act all prudish or posh, they put on a british accent.

And when we want to act stupid, we put on an american red-neck accent.

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The only American accent that's really acceptable in fantasy would be the Midwestern accent--given as it is considered to be the "accentless" American accent, and even then only in moderation. Although, if you were doing a period piece on the Elizabethan court, you could always use an Appalachian accent (it's almost identical).

 

In general, accents work better in fantasy when they're only barely noticeable. The nationality of the accent invariably becomes what is most noticeable, with only the slightest hint of any particular region. Certain accents are probably too grating to be heard in fantasy at all, such as a North London or a Bronx accent, being extremely distinctive and rather harsh (not to mention they are only barely recognizable as English).

 

...and if you just want to be unintelligable put on a Babwa Wawwa accent

Eh...whaa?? :huh:

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