Sandbox.Names To Run Away From Really Fast Single Words: Adjectives (The Adjective One) | Nouns (Animal | Body Part | Colors | Weapons) | Verbs | Titles (Noun X | The Person) Etymology:Ancient Dead Languages | Foreign Language Names Named After: Conquerors | Notorious Killers | Redneck Names | Religious Names (Biblical Names | Demons or Angels) | Shady Names Sounds and Letters: K Names | Mor | Names Ending In Th | R Names | Xtreme Kool Letterz | Unpronouncable Names Various: Mix and Match
Some people are so infamous that they need no introduction. Sometimes this is a title hiding their true identity... but if it isn't, then run.
A form of Names to Run Away from Really Fast.
The Master and The Butcher have their own pages.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In Excel♡Saga, it's That Man, who's the main villain for Pedro and Nabeshin. After That Man is defeated, they then face That Man There, This Man, That Man Over There, That Man Over Here, and This Man Over Here.
- In Trinity Blood, if you hear the names The Knight of Destruction and/or The Lady of Death... run, fast...
- Run even faster from the Contra-Mundi (the alias for Cain Nightroad).
- In Rurouni Kenshin, our hero was formerly known as the Hitokiri Battousai, the "hitokiri" part meaning "The Manslayer" (in one of the dubs, "The Slasher" was used instead, while "The Manslayer" was used in the other). Yeah, might not want to make him mad.
- With few exceptions, the most significant (and dangerous) characters in Trigun have the trope appended to their names. This includes the series main protagonist: Vash the Stampede. Also known as the Humanoid Typhoon. All the titles are justified in some way.
- In Sword Art Online, our hero Kirito is known as "The Black Swordsman". He's actually (usually) a very nice guy, despite the name, if a bit clueless about girls.
- Berserk also has a Black Swordsman in the form of Guts. He's so named because of his black armor and his ginormous sword, and has quite the infamous reputation for destruction, not the least because of his demon-attracting Brand of Sacrifice and his habit of going after any demon that he gets a fix on.
Comic Books
- Batman: The Joker. And on similarly (but only if you're a criminal), The Batman. In fact, a LOT of Batman's more notorious rogues have "The" in front of their names...
- X-Men: Juggernaut (Marvel Comics).
- The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk.
- The Punisher: The Punisher.
Fan Fiction
- Child of the Storm has a few.
- Thor is occasionally known as 'the Thunderer'.
- Harry Dresden is sometimes referred to as 'the Detective'.
- Doctor Strange is sometimes referred to as 'the Doctor', 'the Evergreen Man', and 'the Lord of Time'. These titles are all very Doctor Who themed, which is unsurprising, since the author is a definite fan and admits that he patterned Strange partly off the Doctor, and In-Universe, he's noted as an inspiration for the show. As it is, though, his actual name (well, not his actual name, Taliesin, which is known to only a very few people) terrifies people far more than any of these titles.
- Dudley is alternatively known as 'the Blob' and 'the Beast.'
- The Juggernaut appears.
- And then, of course, there is the Phoenix.
- And even more so, the Dark Phoenix.
- In Forewarned is Forearmed, Akira's "the Trickster" moniker proves to do more harm than good, as Lavenza's constant attempts to hide him from the Investigation Team to ensure the story proceeds as usual makes Yu suspicious of the nebulous and conniving-sounding "Trickster". Even though said Trickster hadn't done anything to him or anyone he knows, the fact that there's another rogue Persona user with such an ominous name constantly puts Yu on edge, and Akira learning about this makes him reluctant to spill the beans to him.
- The Wizard in the Shadows/The Black Wizard/The Darkness Slayer. Like the Doctor, basically... run.
- From the Tamers Forever Series we have The Nightmare and The Son Of Destruction the former is actually an Invoked Trope, since Takato dubs the virus this due to his own sense of melodrama. The being's actual name is revealed in GOSPEL as Niflheim
Film
- The Matrix uses this for almost every program that's given a personification. We have The Architect, The Oracle, The Trainman, The Merovingian, The Keymaker, and of course, The Machines. It's inverted, however, with the most dangerous opponents in the series given names like Smith, Brown and Jones. They are collectively referred to as The Agents, though.
- The Terminator.
Literature
- In Discworld, the Lady. Not evil, per se, but you do not want to annoy her. Especially not by saying her namenote . Rincewind is immune, but only because he doesn't believe he has gotten anything but a long series of lucky breaks.
- In Louis Sachar's Holes, The Warden.
- In Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the protagonist eventually becomes known as "The Boss". He is not very scary, until you notice that he has substantial knowledge of 19th century science and engineering - in the 6th century. This includes gatling guns.
- The Man in Black.
- The Bard from The Sea of Trolls and the sequels. Also known as Dragon Tongue by the Vikings.
- The Bane (his real name is Pearlpelt) from The Underland Chronicles.
- The Judge in Blood Meridian. "What's he a judge of?", the Kid asks. He finds out soon enough.
- The White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle from The Chronicles of Narnia. The White Witch actually gets a name—Jadis.
- The Sphinx (or the Ethiopian) from the Fablehaven series.
- In the 1632 series, through a quirk of fate, regiments in the USE army have names as well as numbers. In 1635: The Eastern Front, an elite regiment is formed in the Third Division to deal with problems of discipline — The Hangman.
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen has several. Primarily, you don't want to mess with the Son Of Darkness, The Rope, or any Knight of a House.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four gives us—who else?—Big Brother.
- In The Zombie Knight, Gohvis is known as "the Monster of the East" or "the Black Scourge." Hector had heard that last one, but thought it was a plague.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides.
- Space Marine Battles has slavemaster Algol, who goes by moniker "Skintaker" and is by far one of the cruelest characters in the novel.
Live-Action TV
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Master, The First Evil, The Mayor (Ok, we get his name, but he's normally called The Mayor), to vampires and demons, The Slayer is an example of this.
- Charmed When you hear about a demon, who's title is The Source of All Evil, run, fast, now.
- When you are fighting something only known as The Beast, you have a problem.
- Likewise when you're up against someone the residents of Hell call "The Destroyer".
- The Pretender: Miss Parker.
- Was it The Cancer Man or The Smoking Man? Or The Cigarette Smoking Man? Seemed to creep The X-Files fans out no end, and make them worry what would happen to Mulder. The Man needs no name, and no freakin' nicorette.
- The Man a.k.a. Irina Derevko from Alias.
- Leverage: The Butcher of Kiev.Hardison: "Have you ever been to Kiev? The Cakemaker of Kiev'd kick all our asses, this is the BUTCHER."
- Doctor Who The Doctor, despite being the main good guy. It's even lampshaded at one point. His other famous titles include the Trickster, the Last of the Time Lords, the Phantom, The Oncoming Storm, the Mighty Warrior, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Lonely God and the Madman With a Box. As Eleventh puts it, "Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run.
- On the other hand, if someone introduces himself as "the Master", run.
- Also, Omega and the Valeyard.
- Let's not forget about the Monk and the Rani, not to mention series 5 and 6's The Silence.
- Also the Last Centurion is becoming one of these.
- We must not forget Stormaggedon, The Dark Lord of All. (Also answers to Alfie.)
- In season 6, The Doctor learns that his antics are changing the meaning of his name throughout history from meaning "healer" to "great warrior."
- The Bad Wolf.
- And the most terrifying being to appear on the show. The Time Lord Victorious. Guess Who.
- Some say that his tears are adhesive, and that if he caught fire, he'd burn for a thousand days... all we know is, he's called the Stig.
- Lost Girl has a fae called the Mongolian Death Wurm. She also answers to Velma.
- The Haitian from Heroes.
- The Clairvoyant
- House of Anubis has The Betrayer and The Collector, with turn out both to be Aliases. They're both Rufus Zeno.
Music
Professional Wrestling
- The man who finally brought down "Gorgeous" George Wagner was simply known as The Destroyer.
- Decades later, Samoa Joe would adopt the same moniker in his run with WWE.
- IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW FAR YOU RUN FROM HIS NAME! IF YOU SMELLLLLLLLLLLLLL! WHAT THE ROCK! IS!! COOKING!!!
Tabletop Games
- In Magic: The Gathering, most planeswalkers have dramatic titles on their cards like "the firebrand", "The Mind Sculptor" or "The Unseen". Nicol Bolas simply has "Planeswalker".
- The Butcher of Khardov in the Iron Kingdoms universe.
- Warhammer40000 Abaddon the Despoiler, and Kharn the betrayer.
- Warhammer: Settra the Imperishable.
Video Games
- In I Wanna Be the Guy your mission is to kill "The Guy", and the only thing standing between you and him is the hours of the most frustrating Platform Hell ever devised. Good Luck.
- It should also be noted that the protagonist is known as "The Kid."
- Team Fortress 2: All the characters are referred to this way, although due to his mediocre mastery of the English language, The Heavy refers to himself as "Heavy Weapons Guy," which also works.
- Lu Bu in virtually any Dynasty Warriors game. Historically one of the most powerful generals in the time of the Three Kingdoms, pretty much everyone speaks of Lu Bu in hushed whispers, and when he shows up, he goes on a total rampage tearing through everything in his path. While there are some missions where you must actually kill Lu Bu — he's appropriately nerfed — in most missions attempting to do this is suicide, as he's many, many times stronger than anyone else in the game including your primary target for the mission (usually Dong Zhuo). If he's not kicking your ass, he's chasing you down, and it doesn't help that he always rides the fastest horse in the game. Yuan Shao's line, "Don't pursue Lu Bu", is probably the most useful advice you will ever receive in Dynasty Warriors.
- Ironically he was uncontrollable as the story had dictated. Although Lu Bu was powerful, what ultimately did him in was the fact that he was impulsive and prone to attacking or betray everything that was not nailed down. Had he been more stalwart and noble or at least more calculated, he would have been accepted by Liu Bei with open arms and may not have been himself betrayed and turned over to Cao Cao for execution.
- Dawn of War: Araghast the Pillager, Eliphas the Inheritor, Gorgutz 'Ead Hunter.
- Mass Effect 2: The Illusive Man.
- And The Shepard, in the epilogue of Mass Effect 3.
- That Man, from Guilty Gear, the enigmatic creator of the Gear biological weapons.
- We don't mention Him.
- From Prince of Persia (2008): the four bosses are The Corrupted, legendary figures who sold their souls to Ahriman for great powers and were twisted over the ages into monsters. They are known only by their titles: The Hunter, The Concubine, The Warrior, The Alchemist, and The King.
- The Duelist in Red Dead Revolver.
- Satan "The Accuser" from Shin Megami Tensei. The series features 2 versions of him, as he appears in Judaism (The Accuser) and Christianity (the fallen angel, Lucifer). The two are not fond of each other. His title is often used to avoid any confusion.
- The Arcana Shadows from Persona 3 are all named after the first 12 trumps in the Italian tarot, and some of them would fall under this category; namely, The Magician, The Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor and The Hanged Man.
- Not to mention Death (the 13th trump), who sometimes lurks in the floors of Tartarus. Unless you beat the game once and have a super powerful team, run as soon as you hear the chains.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has The End, The Fear, The Pain, The Fury and The Sorrow, commanded by The Boss. Oh shit.
- In BlazBlue, The Black Beast is not to be messed with. The last time he showed up he killed almost everyone on the planet, it took the most powerful beings on the planet years to stop his rampage.
- The Ghost of Sparta. Running won't do you any good, though.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, with the right perks, you can turn even your introduction into a Badass Boast."They call me The Courier."
- The Patriarch from Killing Floor. Just in case the hybrid machine-gun/rocket launcher he has for an arm didn't tip you off.
- The Ruler of Evil in Dragon Quest IV. Which is actually a role any sufficiently powerful demon can claim for himself via the Secret of Evolution. Hence, the player has to kill two Rulers of Evil over the course of the game. Or, in the remake, three.
- Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories: The God of All Overlords. Who's actually the girl you summoned at the start of the game.
- .hack: Cubia is sometimes called by the title "The Anti-Existence". Small wonder this guy's essentially an unkillable force of pure destruction, eh?
- Deadly Rooms of Death: The Pit Thing has a name like this. Subverted in that it's actually not malicious whatsoever, and even allies itself in Beethro's favor; it's just incredibly cryptic to the point of frustrating poor Beethro.
- One of the bad guys you face among the Silver Hand, a group of very nasty werewolf hunters, during the Companions questline in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a piece of work known as "The Skinner". As Aela tells you, "I don't think I need to tell you why."
Webcomics
- The Big Bad of Girl Genius is simply known as "the Other" to the general public. If that's not Ominous Mundanity then heaven knows what is.
- Kore of Goblins is also known as the Cursed Scourge of the Realm. Anybody who knows who he is run when they recognize him.
- A heroic example, Dante from The Story of Anima is also known as "The Executioner
". A group of mercenaries known as the equally ominous Bloody Flames were instructed specifically to not engage him. - In Yokoka's Quest, Fahrin the Reaper is the feared and respected leader of the Darkness Clan.
Web Original
- The Watcher in KateModern, and the Shadow even more so. You really don't want to mess with the Shadow.
- Red vs. Blue has the Meta. Oh, dear lord, the Meta.
- The Slender Man.
- Slenderman's brother, Sexual-Offenderman. [1] If he offers you one of his roses, DON'T TAKE IT!!! Touching it is what marks you as his next rape victim. Unfortunately, refusing the rose will still get you in a heap of trouble. He'll start stalking you, messing with your stuff behind your back, and laying down trails of rose petals with a nasty surprise at the end...
- Hazbin Hotel has Alastor, who is known across Hell as "The Radio Demon". Though the title is considered lazy, his infamous accomplishments since his damnation makes him a person you do not want to mess with.
- The Viceroy, from Pay Me, Bug!. No, that's not his title, it's his given name. He chose it himself upon becoming a Sword.
- The Architect from Shadowhunter Peril is a weird heroic example. Considering his personality and species, he's not exactly the kind of person to run away from. At least not until you factor in the fact that he's incredibly brilliant (if slightly mad) as well as some other notable characteristics. Then he becomes a force to be reckoned with among the demons.
- The Web Serial Novel Brennus includes villains like The Dark, Desolation-In-Light, Heretic and Atrocity, for just a few examples of villains that are as scary as they sound.
Western Animation
- Him from The Powerpuff Girls.
- Combustion Man from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sokka's original name for him was "Sparky Sparky Boom Man," but it didn't have quite the same effect.
