Saga Darth Titles Annoyance

I love the OT and one of the things that kind of irked me in the EU/PT was the Darth title.

I never really liked the idea of "Darth" being a title, but I played along. Darth Vader worked for me as a full name of this menacing individual, but then they made Darth a title.

Okay, fine.

But, the part that really bothered me was the foolish names that went along with it - Vader was a unique name. Whereas the subsequent Darths were essentially Darth "Generic_Bad_Word".

Darth Sidious - play on the word "insidious".
Darth Maul - as in to maul someone.
Darth Plagueis - a plague.
Darth Tyranous - tyranical.
Darth Bane - bane of existence.

Am I the only person that this frustrates? It just makes the Sith seem ... cheesy. Like they sit around a room and go:
"Hey, hey ... I want to be known as Darth Killface!"
"No, bro. How about Darth Badguy?"
"Or... or... Darth Evildude!"

Okay, I'm done now. Sorry. Just had to get that off my chest.

/endrant

 

Darth Vader is a play on the word 'inVADER' and, I believe, is the Dutch word for 'Father'.

Yeah, imagine being Dutch and seeing ANH for the first time.
OBI-WAN
"A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine before he turned to evil..."

Dutch Dude Watching This
"Wait, why did he have an apprentice named Darth Father? Who came up with that crap name?"

 

The Vader linkage was probably just coincidence that Lucas latched onto later on. I don't think he ever said anything about it prior to the PT.

The problem here is that Darth Vader was obviously his name in the beginnings of the OT. Obi-Wan even refers to his as "Darth" which would seem weird to do since they were pretty formal. You'd think he'd continue to refer to him by his name as a way of showing a lack of respect for his choice to switch to the dark side.

 

I think Darth might be the contraction of "Dark Lord of the Sith." I'm absolutely fine with it being a title that all Sith share (despite the "You're only a master of evil, Darth" line sounding weird in the new context), but the naming convention is just... you're right, it makes it sound like they sit around a room and think up their names; whoever's sounds the edgiest wins.

Vader sounds fine. It's great. Like someone said, it's a play on "invader" and it just so turned out to be "father" in Dutch, which I don't think was intentional since Vader and Anakin were initially two separate characters. But then you have all the others you listed. One of them would be fine. Two would be pushing it a little. And then at a certain point it just gets ridiculous.

There's even the non-Sith characters. General Grievous. Freaking Savage Opress. I mean, c'mon. Come on. And this is just canon stuff, not even delving into names like Darth Nihilus or anything like that.

Also, a mod might want to consider moving this to Saga. It would probably fit a bit better there. anakinfansince1983 Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

 

Oh lord, I forgot about General Grievous.

I can forgive the cartoon for Savage Opress -- it was a cartoon afterall (an adult-ish one, but still).

But like you said - I could get past Darth becoming a title, it's just their names that are bad. So, so bad.

I never really pujt together Vader and inVader ... it might even be a coincidence. But, Darth Ruin?

 

TS I am right there with you... It's not a problem for me though as I only watch the OT and now TFA.

So Darth Vader is the only Darth...
The Emperor is "Emperor Palpatine" and that's it!

I do love Darth Maul as a character though - But I never made peace with the prequels so just decided they weren't for me...

 

So it's a bit cheesy! Star Wars has always been a bit cheesy! It doesn't take itself a hundred percent seriously, that's just how it is.
And for the record, I like cheese - as long as it's fairly mild


Regarding the notion that "Darth" is a title, I disagree:

"A young Jedi named Darth Vader..."

"The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker..."

"...a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious."

All of these lines treat "Darth" as a name.
"Lord" is the title.

 

Came here to say that. It's a double standard to complain about Sith names being a pun and then being fine with Vader > Invader.

 

While this may be true - I wonder whether that was coincidental?

Ultimately, I think it worked with Vader because it wasn't so obvious (to me, at least). The other ones are just too obvious for comfort.

It was like when Chronicles of Riddick had Necromongers. Really!? Roughly translated "Dealers of Death"? Oh boy. Why not just tattoo "Big Baddie" on your face and have a super-secret handshake?

 

Just wait until they introduce Snoke as Darth Meanie in Ep 8.

 

darth as title hasn't really bothered me.

But I don't like Dooku's Darth title or Palpatine's.
Tyranous makes me think of Dinosaurs(T-rex) Dooku is not a dinosaur.

When I think about it Darth is better as a name then title, but's not a biggie to me.

 

Darth Gollum?

Darth Voldemort?

Darth Gollmort?



Nooo... I got it:
Darth Preciousssssss?

 

That Vader stands for Invader? No, it was intentional.

Dooku's Sith name is Tyranus, related to tyrant. The name Tyrannosaurus means tyrant lizard in greek, since it was assumed that he was at the top of the food chain during his time. Both are related to tyrant/tyranny, not the other way around.

 

I've never seen that stated for a certainty, but I don't doubt it.

Even still - it wasn't quite so obvious as Sidious or Tyranus or any of the future Sith names.

 

Then I bet the Knights of Ren bother you too.
Kylo Ren
Milo Ren
Tyleonal Ren
Whino Ren

 

"Vader" also, frankly, sounds a bit less cheesy. You could probably have a good guy named Vader, in scifi.

That being said, I actually like "Darth" as a title, and there are some good ones! Darth Revan is cool, as is Darth Krayt and Darth Talon.

I'm pretty bummed that the ST has pretty much done a way with the Sith, apparently (Abrams trying to distance it from the PT). For me, Star Wars was centrally about Jedi vs. Sith; the old EU sort of conditioned that.

 

Ha. Not especially since "Ren" is being classified as a title at the beginning.

Although Ren does seem very last name-y.

 

Wait until the new EU makes every villain from now on have Ren.

 

From your point of view

 

[in]Vader, [in]Sidious, Tyran[us]. I see no difference, honestly.

 

The difference is that if taken alone - I would never have thought to put 'in' before Vader. Vader felt like it's own name.

Sidious, Tyranus, Bane, Plagueis ... different story. Just saying Sidious makes one think Insidious.

 

Skywalker, Solo, Vader, etc... Some names have always been obvious from the beginning as far as describing the characters. You never thought about the word invader for Vader? Fine. But the meaning was always there. Same for many others.

 

This complaint was ripped straight from Red Letter Media.

 

It's all part of Lucas becoming more juvenile and not taking his work seriously as he aged. You're right that "Darth Vader" was originally meant to be his name, and it was just retconned into a title. ...but the word "Vader", while it does sound vaguely ominous, isn't on the nose! Also remember that "Darth Sidious" was also invented in the PT, as he was just "The Emperor" originally. The dumb, obviously evil sounding name fit right in with the mustache-twirling villains he was trying to create.

I assume you heard Lucas' recommendations to LucasArts game developers that they had a choice to name a character either Darth Icky or Darth Insaneous.