# The mundane unrealistic details that take you out of the batshit fantastically unrealistic setting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755 "2015-03-23T02:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/61 "2015-03-24T03:28:43Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Well, the point of the thread IS stuff that irrationally pushes you over when already suspending your disbelief. If it made logical sense that that’s the thing to put you off, there wouldn’t be any reason to talk about it. It’s cool dude, just wanted to see how far you took it. Personally, I have something like a sliding scale of contemporary dialogue acceptance. I wouldn’t expect a fantasy knight to talk like a '60s surfer. But “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” was apparently invented in the 1660s. Gotta let it slide, man. How about the word “OK”? I’ve seen some people rant about that since it’s “too modern.” Even though it was invented in the 19th century. Biblical phrases, no problem. These worlds are already pastiches of Earth cultures and countries. “Oh, they’re like Romans, but with dragons.” Some old well known book with these phrases isn’t exactly a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/62 "2015-03-24T05:10:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 😕😕:dubious: She’s a double amputee. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/63 "2015-03-24T05:49:10Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > . . . How about the word “OK”? I’ve seen some people rant about that since it’s “too modern.” Even though it was invented in the 19th century. . . . In a “Hyborian Age” sort of fantasy, it would bring me up short. Fritz Leiber used to play games of this sort in his Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. At one point, he said (quote only approximate from memory) “Don’t kill the chicken that lays brown eggs with rubies in the yolk or white eggs with diamonds in the white.” An obvious riff on a familiar English aphorism, but made alien by the wording. He also spoke of “Gahveh” in a way that made it clear he was describing “Coffee.” I’m damned if I can tell you why these didn’t bother me, but if he’d used the familiar English saying, or said “Coffee,” it would have jarred terribly. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/64 "2015-03-24T06:03:38Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > The word he actually used in his native Westron would likely have been _nîn-phûru_; the literal translation is “water-delving”. Faramir was probably using it to mean “river tunnel”–an escape or sally tunnel that passed under the river. The term would have been somewhat dated, but given that the tunnel was an old construction, an archaic place-name would not be out of place. > > The translators of the _Red Book_ have a tradition of attention to detail, but perhaps we can forgive such a small slip as taking an archaic word for “water tunnel” to mean “sewer”. > > 😃 …OK, sure, we can go with that. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/65 "2015-03-24T06:34:41Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Can’t we assume there was a classic well-known and quoted-to-the-point-of-cliché book in the fantasy world with a similar-meaning phrase, and the translator did a good job? I mean, if someone was translating from Spanish, and the original had a similar phrase from Don Quixote, wouldn’t using a similar-meaning Shakespeare quote be the best translation? So assume there’s an equivalent book in the fantasy world. A specific example of this: The play (and movie) Cyrano De Bergerac contains an allusion to French literature that would be lost on an English speaking audience. In the translation by Burgess it is rendered as “Oh that this too, too, solid nose would melt.” The film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves isn’t filmed with authentic 12th century Middle English. Nevertheless, the Sheriff calling Robin and his men a band of [Thugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee)really made me go WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/66 "2015-03-24T06:57:07Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Because the _phrase_ has an origin you can pinpoint here in our very specific and genuine history of Earth, not on the fantastical World of Erania. So ? A translator, even a “translator” is writing for you the reader, and for your understanding. He adapts speech with that fact foremost in mind- his job is not to provide a word-for-word account of what is said/written. That’s Google Translate’s niche :p. Finding equivalent or semi-equivalent idioms is part of that (and can often be a right pain in the arse). For example, you’ve got the French expression “Ne vends pas la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué” which I would translate as “don’t sell your chicks before they’re hatched” without a second thought even though a literal translation would be “don’t sell the bear’s pelt before you’ve killed it”. The sentiment is exactly the same, but we each have our idioms and images, each with their own history/origins. Ultimately idioms are condensed “meaning packages”, where a minimum of words are used to convey a maximum of sense. Translation the words make no sense : it’s the meaning you’re really after. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/67 "2015-03-24T07:56:33Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > So ? A translator, even a “translator” is writing for you the reader, and for your understanding. That doesn’t stop it from being jarring and taking me out of the moment. Sure it can be rationalised, but the point of the OP is that, despite the suspension of disbelief we’re all participating in, some things sometimes just make you go “Huh?” and that’s the one that does it for me. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/68 "2015-03-24T12:02:30Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I don’t know if this is exactly what the OP is looking for, but I hate when fantasy worlds are almost-but-not-quite geographically Earth, so that I feel like I’m spending most of my brainpower separating fact from fiction rather than just enjoying the fiction. That’s what bothered me about the _Star Wars_ original trilogy…every planet was ONE type of climate. Ice, desert, forest, swamp. No temperate zones along with polar regions. While I don’t want them to be just like Earth, it seems odd that there’s no variation to be found. > [@buddha\_david](#): > > I always thought the line was “nerve-hurter”, which actually makes more sense. (What the hell is a “nerf”??) A [nerf](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nerf) is yak-like animal that was native to Alderaan, but found all over the galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/69 "2015-03-24T12:08:55Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > **Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter** > > SPOILER: > Vampires were helping the Confederacy. The US was losing because they could only by killed by silver. So the government melted down all the silver in DC the night before Gettysburg. Chalices, trays, candelabras, all melted an forged into bullets. It was already nighttime when they started doing this. Count Dracula: No, Abraham, that is a werewolf Abraham Lincoln: A werewolf? Really? Are you sure? [Guards start to take him away] AL: [to the guards] No harm done! The man’s all right! This was for a werewolf! No problem! Calm down! Take it easy! I’m the President! I know where I’m going! See, that’d do it for me, right there. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/70 "2015-03-24T14:57:50Z")
I know medieval history and out of date armor styles bothers me, either in the period the movie is set in on just comparing two people standing next to each other with 500 years of fashion between them. I don’t care if it’s a fantasy movie, it’s like seeing a guy in a Zoot suit stand next to a dude in a toga. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/71 "2015-03-24T18:25:59Z")
How about the recent **Battleship** movie? (SPOILERS) Interstellar Aliens attack: Accepted Shield that neutralizes military outside and inside Oahu: Accepted Board-game references, like peg-bombs and I-9 coordinate battle scene: Accepted USS Missouri brought out of mothballs, controlled by aging vets: Accepted But I could not buy that the screw-up who robbed a store, found the gumption to “turn his life around” and suddenly became a US Navy _officer_. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/72 "2015-03-24T19:42:45Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > But I could not buy that the screw-up who robbed a store, found the gumption to “turn his life around” and suddenly became a US Navy _officer_. And has a real hard time following orders. Even the mundane and sensible. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/73 "2015-03-24T19:47:20Z")
**X-Men: First Class** - the young Prof. X and Magneto are training their debut class of mutant superheroes at Xavier’s Westchester school. Magneto displays his “tough love” method of educating by magnetically levitating himself and Banshee to the top of a nearby SETI-scope radiotower (or [whatever it is](http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/xmen-banshee2.jpg)) about a mile away from the school. I can accept the premise that there is a sub-species of people have extraordinary superpowers. I can accept that one or two mutants can get away with independently training a whole team of superhuman mutants as field agents with minimal to no involvement from the U.S. government. I can specifically accept that one of these lucky individuals can emit a super-sonic scream that (somehow) enables him to fly. I can even accept that the U.S. in 1962 - when the film takes place - actually HAD enormous SETI radioscope towers. But building an enormous, view-obscuring eyesore of a SETI radioscope smack in the middle of one of the richest counties in New York state?? No. The taxpaying citizens would ensure that zoning ordinances expressly forbade it from ever being built. That is just too hard to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/74 "2015-03-24T20:02:56Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > I just finished Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Halfway through the final book: > > It took me right out of the story because I couldn’t stop laughing. Really? What page is that on? That’s a pretty embarrassing continuity error, given that she is one of the four major characters and that was the sixth book King had written about her! ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/75 "2015-03-24T20:12:57Z")
The Fly. OK, so both organisms get equal genetic vote regardless of relative biomass. Cool. I can deal with that. But what about genetically distinct microbes living within and without Brundle and especially the fly? (Also aren’t mitochondrions genetically distinct, too?) Shouldn’t they have become Brundlegerm, the 185-pound single-celled organism? Actually that might be scarier, especially if he could divide via fission and consume via osmosis. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/76 "2015-03-24T20:34:19Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I know medieval history and out of date armor styles bothers me . . . In Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Cate Blanchett, as QEI, is encouraging the troops to resist the expected landing of the Spanish army. She’s wearing a gorgeous set of fantasy armor. This kicked me back and forth. My initial reaction was failure of suspension of disbelief: what is this stuff? It belongs in Lord of the Rings! By my counter-reaction was, she’s a really rich Queen: maybe she had someone tart her up a set of completely fake…but damn pretty…armor, to inspire the troops. It could have been historically plausible. I’m still weaving back and forth! What was your reaction to that armor? (If you saw the movie. Hope you did, as it’s pretty good!) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/77 "2015-03-24T21:06:00Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > What was your reaction to that armor? (If you saw the movie. Hope you did, as it’s pretty good!) Have you seen [her dad’s helm](http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2011/08/horned-helmet-of-henry-viii-1514.html)? Or his buddy [Henri II’s armour](https://wanderingmuseumconsultant.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/7076352219_f99fa3ed90.jpg). [Elizabeth’s armour](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/28/article-2031177-021DB610000004B0-326_233x423.jpg)is perfectly fine armour (if somewhat thin parade-style and not nearly as decorated as it _could_ have been). There’s not really anything fantasy-like about it. Shit like the _300_ movies etc, those feature [fantasy armour](http://payvand.com/news/14/mar/300-Rise-of-an-Empire-Queen-Artemisia-HR.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/78 "2015-03-24T21:53:26Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > But building an enormous, view-obscuring eyesore of a SETI radioscope smack in the middle of one of the richest counties in New York state?? No. The taxpaying citizens would ensure that zoning ordinances expressly forbade it from ever being built. That is just too hard to swallow. That’s not nearly as bad as the gigantic soundstage built for _The Truman Show_, which apparently [engulfs all of downtown Los Angeles.](http://www.vlux.de/sci/frontiers/frontiersimg.htm) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/79 "2015-03-24T22:27:25Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > That’s not nearly as bad as the gigantic soundstage built for _The Truman Show_, which apparently [engulfs all of downtown Los Angeles.](http://www.vlux.de/sci/frontiers/frontiersimg.htm) :smack: But that’s not the mundane unrealistic detail: it’s the batshit fantastically unrealistic setting. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/80 "2015-03-24T23:31:08Z")
Like shooting fish in a barrel I know, but it really bothered me in **Attack of the Clones** when Owen said “This is my girlfriend, Beru.” Was that necessary? Couldn’t they just have been married? Why bother with that crap? “This is my girlfriend, Beru. Well, more than my girlfriend, I mean, we’re living together and she’s helping with the moisture farm - I guess you could say we’re engaged to be engaged. I’ll probably marry her someday, but we want to take things slow…marriage is a big decision, you know? We met one night at Tasche Station, you know, not a lot of humans out here. Anyway, after that night we started seeing each other - dates for Pod racing, drinks in Mos Eisley, picnics at Beggar’s Canyon…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=5)