# What was the most anachronistic thing you've seen in a fictional work that wasn't intentional or an accident? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956 "2021-11-08T03:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/341 "2022-06-08T12:28:05Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > You can do like what is done in a movie supposedly set in ancient Rome. You can’t have all the cast speak Latin, so you just have them speak in contemporary English. You could have them all speak in one English-language accent, or you could just have everyone speak in their normal accents. In effect, you’re indicating to the movie audience that they have to pretend that they’re hearing everyone speak in one accent of Latin. In **Spartacus** the upper-class Romans speak in British accents and the slaves all speak with American accents (most notably Tony Curtis). The sole exception is Jean Simmons’ Varinia, with her very pronounced British accent. But she was supposed to be a governess, among other things, teaching children, so she had an excuse. I think I’ve seen this same dodge used in other films, or something like it. IIRC, in the TV movie **Masada** the officers had proper British accents while the enlisted met used dialects. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/342 "2022-06-08T12:30:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > a movie supposedly set in ancient Rome As opposed to what? Actually set in ancient Rome? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/343 "2022-06-08T12:34:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In **Spartacus** the upper-class Romans speak in British accents and the slaves all speak with American accents (most notably Tony Curtis). The sole exception is Jean Simmons’ Varinia, with her very pronounced British accent. But she was supposed to be a governess, among other things, teaching children, so she had an excuse. This fits with Wendell’s idea about _Star Wars_ - Fisher used a British accent when speaking with Tarkin, suggesting that the Leia was using more elevated language in a diplomatic situation than she did when calling a member of the lower classes a “nerf herder” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/344 "2022-06-08T12:42:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The sole exception is Jean Simmons’ Varinia, with her very pronounced British accent. But she was supposed to be a governess, among other things, teaching children, so she had an excuse. It was also mentioned, I think, that she was from Britannia, as if that’s some kind of explanation. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/345 "2022-06-08T12:59:05Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It was also mentioned, I think, that she was from Britannia, as if that’s some kind of explanation. Britannia, where even the slaves have upper-crusty accents. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/346 "2022-06-08T13:04:20Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Just as the audience is supposed to pretend that the characters are speaking in the languages of that time and place, they are supposed to pretend that the main species in the movies (the ones played by actors without alien makeup) are some species that looks vastly different from humans, but they are played without makeup just as they are speaking English. As an aside - I’ve never seen it that way. As far as I’m concerned, they’re humans, just like the people in Middle Earth and Westeros are human. It’s a fantasy story set in an alternate universe. (Why do you assume that the ‘Long Time Ago…’ was addressed to _us_? Maybe the movies are a tale told to people in the future of their own universe). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/347 "2022-06-08T13:27:36Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Maybe the movies are a tale told to people in the future of their own universe And that’s the way that you’ve decided to pretend, as opposed to the way that I’ve decided to pretend. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/348 "2022-06-08T14:08:00Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I have played in games where a teammate pitches to the batter. The pitcher doesn’t field but it’s a way to field a team when you have limited players. I’ve also been in a One Pitch tournament where the batter gets one pitch from a teammate who is pitching. > > I haven’t seen Our Family Wedding but it is possible for one teammate to pitch to another. I agree it’s not very common and you’ll definitely never see it in MLB or bigger organized leagues. Did they make any effort to explain it? I doubt that it was explained. If it had been, it wouldn’t have irritated me so much! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/349 "2022-06-08T14:09:00Z")
Any one other than your own. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/350 "2022-06-08T14:17:57Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It was also mentioned, I think, that she was from Britannia, as if that’s some kind of explanation. If she were from Britannia, she would have had a Celtic accent. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/351 "2022-06-08T14:20:41Z")
If it was explained, it would have irritated different people - no way for them to win! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/352 "2022-06-08T14:26:40Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > The pitcher pitches to her own teammates! I thought does no one that’s connected to this movie know how softball or baseball is played? I watched this movie over 10 years ago and that scene still comes to mind and irritates me. UGH > [@Horatius](#): > > There are also some recreational leagues in which the team pitches to their own hitters. Hitting the ball is more fun for everyone, so they put in a pitcher who makes it easier for the people to hit. > [@TRC4941](#): > > I doubt that it was explained. If it had been, it wouldn’t have irritated me so much! As you can see, it’s not unheard of in casual or recreational settings. It wouldn’t be worth using screen time to explain it. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/353 "2022-06-08T15:20:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > You can do like what is done in a movie supposedly set in ancient Rome. You can’t have all the cast speak Latin, so you just have them speak in contemporary English. You could have them all speak in one English-language accent, or you could just have everyone speak in their normal accents. In effect, you’re indicating to the movie audience that they have to pretend that they’re hearing everyone speak in one accent of Latin. It seems unlikely to me that there was only one accent of Latin spoken in Rome. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s my contention that this is what is happening in all the Star Wars films. All the actors simply speak in their native accents, and there’s no attempt to have them be just one accent of English There’s a couple problems with this assertion. The first is that it’s just broadly incorrect - even in the first film, you have Carrie Fisher code switching between talking to Imperials and talking to Rebels, and later films you’ve got actors like Ewan MacGregor and John Boyega completely abandoning their native accents. There’s overall a clear attempt to sort characters by accent to at least some degree - generally, Imperials have British accents, Rebels have American accents. It’s debatable the extent to which this was deliberate world building versus Lucas copying what he’d seen in other movies, such as the previously mentioned American/British accent split in Spartacus, but it was definitely a conscious decision around handling the actors’ accents. The idea that the human characters in Star Wars aren’t supposed to look human is novel to me. Do you make the same assumption about characters in other fantasy stories that don’t have a connection to the real world? Do you assume the characters in _Game of Thrones_ are similarly non-human? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/354 "2022-06-08T15:29:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Do you assume the characters in _Game of Thrones_ are similarly non-human? I did that in the remake of Battlestar Galactica. They were related to humans, but had at least some significant differences. [In the episode “33”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_(Battlestar_Galactica)), > After over 130 hours and 237 jumps, the fleet’s crew and passengers, particularly those aboard [_Galactica_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(fictional_spacecraft)#Battlestar_Galactica_(2003)), have been [operating without sleep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation) while facing the strain of nearly constant military action. …they were only just starting to talk about using stimulants to keep fighting. A normal Earth Human would have collapsed long before that. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/355 "2022-06-08T15:49:23Z")
That’s just standard Hollywood over-estimating how durable humans are. Sam Spade isn’t a near human because he can take repeated head trauma without brain damage, nor John McClane for being able to run barefoot over broken glass without crippling himself. **Wendell** was saying that he views the characters in Star Wars as actually _looking_ non-human, but “translated” to look human the same way their speech is translated to sound English. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/356 "2022-06-08T15:52:28Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It seems unlikely to me that there was only one accent of Latin spoken in Rome. Hell, they didn’t even [all speak Latin](https://acoup.blog/2021/06/11/collections-the-queens-latin-or-who-were-the-romans-part-i-beginnings-and-legends/) in Rome… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/357 "2022-06-08T16:00:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The idea that the human characters in Star Wars aren’t supposed to look human is novel to me. Can anyone familiar with the Star Wars universe tell me whether the “human” characters are supposed to be _homo sapiens_ and, if so, how people who lived “long ago, in a galaxy far far away” are related to the natives of our planet? > [@Miller](#): > > Do you make the same assumption about characters in other fantasy stories that don’t have a connection to the real world? Do you assume the characters in _Game of Thrones_ are similarly non-human? If they are human, does that mean they’re all either Asian or Black (i.e. looking like people of African ancestry) or White (i.e. looking like people of European ancestry) or… well, resembling humans as they evolved in some part or parts of our world? I certainly wouldn’t assume that humans in an unconnected fantasy world have the same racial/ethnic categories as those of our world. But that gets tricky when you try to put them on screen, by casting actors who do fall into the racial/ethnic categories of our world. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/358 "2022-06-08T16:14:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Can anyone familiar with the Star Wars universe tell me whether the “human” characters are supposed to be _homo sapiens_ and, if so, how people who lived “long ago, in a galaxy far far away” are related to the natives of our planet? Apparently they are supposed to be “human”. > **[Human](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Human)** > > Humans were a species of sentient, bipedal mammals with bilateral symmetry possibly native to the planet Coruscant. Throughout the galaxy, they constituted the culturally dominant species and were commonly encountered on most settled planets, from... ---
**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:** [June 8, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/359 "2022-06-08T17:02:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Can anyone familiar with the Star Wars universe tell me whether the “human” characters are supposed to be _homo sapiens_ and, if so, how people who lived “long ago, in a galaxy far far away” are related to the natives of our planet? Humans in Star Wars have been a space faring species for tens of thousands of years, and nobody remembers what world they originally came from. Physically, they’re identical to humans, except that some of them have Force powers. It’s possible that lost home world was Earth, but I prefer to think of Star Wars as existing in an unconnected fantasy universe. “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” means that we’re watching a myth or legend - not one from our past, but from the past of whatever universe Star Wars takes place in. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If they are human, does that mean they’re all either Asian or Black (i.e. looking like people of African ancestry) or White (i.e. looking like people of European ancestry) or… well, resembling humans as they evolved in some part or parts of our world? I certainly wouldn’t assume that humans in an unconnected fantasy world have the same racial/ethnic categories as those of our world. But that gets tricky when you try to put them on screen, by casting actors who do fall into the racial/ethnic categories of our world. It’s pretty common in visual adaptations of fantasy works to use real-world ethnicity as a stand-in for fantasy ethnicity. The people of Fantasica are Europeans, the people of Madeupia are Asian, and so forth. It can get problematic sometimes when the fantasy version reflects real world stereotypes, such as the people of Madeupia always being super obsessed with honor, or when someone uses a real world culture for the culture of a nonhuman race, like _World of Warcraft_’s Jamaican voodoo trolls. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2022, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956/360 "2022-06-08T17:06:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > or when someone uses a real world culture for the culture of a nonhuman race, like _World of Warcraft_ ’s Jamaican voodoo trolls. Or Jar Jar Binks… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-anachronistic-thing-youve-seen-in-a-fictional-work-that-wasnt-intentional-or-an-accident/953956.md?page=19)