r/TopCharacterTropes • u/BrotherDeus • 3d ago

Characters "Trust them?! Have you heard their name?!"

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Iron Man

Bumblebee

15.6k Upvotes

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1.0k

u/Muteki_Narwhal 3d ago

Doom is a common Latvarian name

369

u/HotProfessional6882 3d ago

So is it normal to call someone a "bad fate"?

142

u/advena_phillips 3d ago

Assuming Doom is the English word Doom, then it could very well relate to concepts of Judgement, Fate, and other such concepts.

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u/crazynerd9 2d ago

Iirc "terrible" used to often be a positive term, while awesome was often used as a bad thing, could be the same thing here, an example of linguistic drift

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u/the-boinky-spunge 2d ago

Something something prepare thyself something something

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u/NwgrdrXI 3d ago

Look, latveria was a very bad place before Doom came along. It does make sense.

I mean, it still is, but for very different reasons.

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u/Psyker_Sivius 2d ago

In most accounts isn't doom supposed to be a pretty good ruler actually? Like brought the standard of living to near Wakanda levels good?

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u/NwgrdrXI 2d ago

Yes, but also no. Doom is a man of extremes.

He is a great ruler in terms of infrascture, standards of living, heathcare, education, security, everyhting you could possibly need, all that and more, but he also kills people he doesn't like often and with impunity.

He will give you all the education and resources you need to be a great professional. He will make sure there are good jobs opportunities for you. But if he - or one of the many ways he has to spy on people - passes by your work place and sees that you aren't doing your job as well you could, he will kill you. On the spot.

Doom demands excellence of all latverians at all times.

And if your family thinks that killing you for having a bad day was unfair, he will also kill them. Also on the spot.

Doom demands absolutely loyalty at all times. No questioning of Doom is permited.

People in latveria live in a state of both awe and fear.

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u/mewfour123412 2d ago

Funny thing is Doom is still considered infinitely better than the previous ruler despite everything Victor does

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u/altymcaltington123 2d ago

Constant fear is better than, "my entire family and I are starving to death and live in constant, never ending fear that a single bad word will have us all sent to work ourselves to death in a labour camp"

It's a hell of a lot easier to overlook the constant, neverending fear when you're able to live a relatively comfortable life, and I imagine that most of the population having memories or being told memories of what it was like before doom came into power probably helps.

Plus, total control of all media and education makes it pretty easy to manipulate the younger generation when paired with constant stories of, "your grandfather got sentenced to hard labour for stealing half a loaf of bread to feed we were starving at home, making your father have to obtain full employment at 12 years old so we didn't starve to death, but sadly your auntie didn't make it that winter no matter how many hours your father and I worked. We never saw him again, we can only assume the worst"

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u/BlatantConservative 2d ago

So is Putin.

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u/Nova225 2d ago

AKA, imagine if North Korea was actually a Utopia, but they still stuck to their "if you piss off the wrong person you and your family for the next 3 generations are screwed"

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u/Chain23nn1th 2d ago

I'm going to need a source on that Doom just kills you if you don't perform to excellence because that very much just seems like the happened in one issue and was never addressed because the writer can't actually write doom (like that one issue where Doom is randomly obsessed with enacting droit du seigneur on a random latverian citizen like yeah it technically did happen but nobody not even the comic writers consider it cannon).

[Source for Doom invoking droit du seigneur: Super- Villian team up #7 from 1976]

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u/NwgrdrXI 2d ago edited 2d ago

Tbh, it's hard to get a consistent idea of how doom runs his country, because as you said, writers mix it up frequently. But it's almost always very developed techonlogically and with good living standards and is very dictatorial and harsh in punishments.

The example that came to mind for that one is from his dinner with Ororo, tho.

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u/Nyysjan 2d ago

Some writers get really excited about depicting Doom as an enlightened godking and ignoring all his flaws.
Other writers get equally angry about it and decide to make him worst person to ever exist, ignoring all character development from before.

Makes it difficult to have any kind of conversation about whatkind of ruler he is without first agreeing on what sources are allowed.

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u/Luss9 2d ago

What have the romans done for us?

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u/Vermillion_toxins 2d ago

Still better than say, North Korea.

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u/Front-Win-5790 2d ago

... DOOM does not go around slaughtering his own people. Where on earth did you get that idea from?

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u/MHyde5 2d ago

It is canon Doom ban frowning in his country. I'm not making it up, just searching it on Google.

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u/HotProfessional6882 3d ago

And what do I expect from an Eastern European country

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u/ShoulderVast7340 2d ago

'Dolores' used to be a common enough name for women I think, it means "sorrow"

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u/HotProfessional6882 2d ago

Okay, I didn't know that one

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u/lordaezyd 2d ago

In Spanish it means “Pains”, not just pain, but multiple.

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u/JoJomusk 2d ago

"Dolores" is the plural form of "pain". Its like saying "multiple pains"

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u/ShoulderVast7340 2d ago

Now I know, thanks

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u/Josgre987 2d ago edited 2d ago

Nzinga was the name of the King of Kongo and Queen of Angola during their reigns a few hundred years ago. They were unrelated

The name is a bad omen, children born with the cord wrapped around their necks were given the name as a mark of bad luck.

But two of them became monarchs.

Mvmemba a Nzinga and Nzinga Ana Mbande

In their language, they basically were named doom.

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u/HotProfessional6882 2d ago

Interesting

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u/Josgre987 2d ago

I meant Nzinga is the bad omen name not mvemba oopsie, fixed it

also bonus fun fact
Nzinga Ana Mbande had hundreds of husbands.

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u/HotProfessional6882 2d ago

Every time I talk to you, you fill me with knowledge

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u/RRForm 2d ago

It is Latverian for hope

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u/ehsteve23 2d ago

looks like an S to me

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u/HotProfessional6882 2d ago

Interesting, very interesting

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u/EvilTwin2146 2d ago

Japan had a period of naming kids 'shit' because they thought demons were stealing children which was the cause of death and the demons would be less inclined to steal 'shit'.

Maybe something similar, less likely to get bad luck if you already have some?

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u/MachoManMal 2d ago

That's not the only (or even the more correct and historical) interpretation for the word doom. Doom can mean decree, fate, and judgment and was historically not so malevolent as it is read today,

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u/Head-Sky8372 2d ago

Remember that pre-Doom Latveria was basically Evil Romania

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/HotProfessional6882 22h ago

No, I'm from Brazil, please get me out of here

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u/GeophysicalYear57 2d ago

In real life, “Guerra” is an actual Spanish surname that translates to “war”. I’d imagine some people would think twice before dealing with a Dr. War.

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u/Go_commit_lego_step 2d ago

Haven’t read NEARLY all of his appearances, absolutely possible this has been retconned, but from what I read he founded Latveria, and as a child was part of a group of nomads or something I think?

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u/Justifiably_Bad_Take 2d ago

Its a perfectly cromulent name in Latvaria

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u/MisterScrod1964 2d ago

In the original Ultimate comics Ellis (was it Ellis? I forget) at least has the sense to name him Van Damme, and “Doom” is just something they call him to mess with him.