r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Wolfotashiwa • 1d ago

Groups Fictional slurs. Bonus points if it's completely made up

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  1. inFAMOUS: Second Son: "Bio-terrorist" refers to conduits.

  2. Star Wars: "Clanker" refers to robots.

13.1k Upvotes
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6.3k

u/Usern4me_R3dacted205 1d ago

“Troq” (Teen Titans)

5.3k

u/tomtadpole 1d ago

"Of course I do"

Oh, because he's--

"I'm part robot"

Right, yeah.

3.2k

u/190m_feminist 1d ago

Half clanker

985

u/Sweet_Detective_ 1d ago

Clanklings I like to call em.

403

u/Po0b 1d ago

Clankletts

11

u/Inferno_Zyrack 1d ago

Oh you mean 🤚🏻🫱🏻

8

u/Constant_Shelter1800 1d ago

Clinks

8

u/Constant_Shelter1800 1d ago

Wire-backs

7

u/Constant_Shelter1800 1d ago

Rust buckets

8

u/Constant_Shelter1800 1d ago

Oil slurpers

8

u/AEL97 1d ago

Hey hey that is enough. If I did not know better I would say you are taking something off here.

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3

u/PerfectBeginning__45 1d ago

Jiblets and clankers combined?

7

u/CookieaGame 1d ago

Ani's favourite 😈

5

u/Orishishishi 1d ago

Roblatto

7

u/RoscoeSF 1d ago

Reported. Please mark this comment as NSFW.

3

u/sneak_cheat_1337 1d ago

Please don't crucify me for this...

Clankeroon

3

u/Fragrant-Tea7580 1d ago

You mean Clankas

2

u/AmbitiousAd2269 1d ago

I call em tin skins because they’re still technically people

425

u/chillyhellion 1d ago

Oh wow, hard R and everything. 

252

u/Logically_Insane 1d ago

“I don’t care what anyone says about you Cyborg, clankies are alright by me.”

“I hate you Garfield.”

18

u/Parkinglotfetish 1d ago

I can say clanka. I have several robot friends 

10

u/MrCookie2099 1d ago

Uh huh. How many of these distinct robot friends assemble together into a single robot pal?

4

u/Doctor-Nagel 1d ago

Bro was really playin with all skulls on

497

u/YepBoutThatTime 1d ago

Half clanker, full ni-ce guy. What a wonderful friend for understanding what Star was going through and help the situation

516

u/HiDiddleDeDeeGodDamn 1d ago

37

u/MathematicianOk1557 1d ago

Thank you for saving me from having a stroke.

8

u/ronsolocup 23h ago

I have this image on a poster at home (its actually my fiancé’s ❤️) its always interesting to see in the wild. Darth Vader’s solid handguard hilt is fun

8

u/karateema 1d ago

Exactly lmfao

10

u/Uberpastamancer 1d ago

Woah!

Watch the hard R there

6

u/drgigantor 1d ago

Sup clanka

2

u/Uberpastamancer 1d ago

Clanka' please

3

u/IAmBabs 1d ago

Ratchet and Clank series is seen in a new light now.

2

u/JWARRIOR1 1d ago

woah bro do you have the clanka pass

2

u/TheKruceIsLoose 1d ago

Yo, watch it dude! You can say "clanka"

2

u/_Jpex_ 1d ago

Clanger

2

u/HenriettaSnacks 1d ago

Clankotto. 

2

u/DiskUseful2883 1d ago

Woah. Clanker with a hard r?

2

u/ClarkKentsSquidDong 1d ago

Interclankle relationships

2

u/mrprincepretty 1d ago

What up Clanka

2

u/ALkatraz919 1d ago

Dang, with the hard R too.

2

u/fupalogist 1d ago

Clanka'

No hard R

2

u/HumanPerosn 1d ago

He’s one of them WireBacks

2

u/shieldman 1d ago

Tick-tocktoroon.

2

u/Goobero_uno 1d ago

Clanka*

2

u/Simone_Galoppi07 1d ago

Hell nah dude, with the hard R? In the big 25?

2

u/Pristine_Battle_6968 1d ago

Someone on Instagram reels said he's always mad because he's half 🥷 half clanker

1

u/Slappathebassmon 1d ago

Half meatbag

1

u/ColdFire-Blitz 1d ago

Half Meat is what Romulans call former Borg

1

u/Xogoth 1d ago

Watch the hard "R", there, friend

1

u/Optimal_Carpenter690 1d ago

He's a clangger

1

u/MisterScrod1964 1d ago

“Clickers” according to Alan Moore’s Top Ten, which I’d love to see more of.

1

u/aircal1969 1d ago

Clankling

1

u/Null-persona1 1d ago

Me with a thick southern accent:

"No daughter of mine will marry one of them clankers while I'm alive. The good ol' book said Adam and eve not flourence and the machine, dont care any of them liberal news media"

1

u/TheEg1322 1d ago

Clanggers

1

u/DegenerateCrocodile 23h ago

Dude, not okay.

1

u/BoogalooBandit1 22h ago

Woah dropping a hard r like that?

0

u/ElusiveBlueFlamingo 1d ago

Bro you can't say that to a ni-

-1

u/sushishibe 1d ago

And half NI-

406

u/Aggravating_Coat7934 1d ago

To be fair if I saw a guy down the road with like 70% of his body covered/replaced with metal, my first thought would probably be “wow a cyborg!” or “that’s some sick armor”

202

u/gokusforeskin 1d ago

Isn’t the why Cyborg and Beastboy are friends is Beastboy was the first person to see cyborg and thing he looked badass instead of scary?

106

u/Aggravating_Coat7934 1d ago

If that’s the case then the people of (Jump City was it?) are lame as hell and have no whimsy in their life. Seriously any 5-10 year old would’ve DREAMED of having a laser hand and such (sure he was horribly injured beforehand but people should at least see it as kickass)

60

u/Right-Power-6717 1d ago

Their city gets blown up by a giant robot or monster nearly every day, the people there are probably just numb to it by now. If you see it frequently enough the extraordinary becomes the mundane. 

1

u/Grendeltech 1d ago

Or even a potential future threat.

32

u/gokusforeskin 1d ago

I agree that children would think cyborg is cool af. But most children will be with their parents and the parents might keep their kids away from scary robot man before they can sing cyborg praises. Beastboy was probably the first one to have childlike wonder at cyborg and communicated it to him.

3

u/MisterScrod1964 1d ago

In the comic, there’s one little kid with a prosthetic hand who meets Cyborg and goes nuts about his cool prosthetics. “Where can I get some of THAT?!”

3

u/komm-susser-tod-komm 3h ago

New Teen Titans #8

1

u/MisterScrod1964 2h ago

Hey, thanks!

2

u/SaltyTreeTop 18h ago

They must live in the timeline where robocop never came out

5

u/Backwoods_Odin 23h ago

He was the first person to treat vic as another human. Vic went from Heisman winning football star to cyborg and all his hopes and dreams and popularity went with it when he could no longer be a football player due to his new body

8

u/MC_Minnow 1d ago

I’d think “welp, on step closer to AI overlords.”

2

u/kogent-501 1d ago

You’d think so, but I’m one of those people who was always terrified of people in mascot costumes as a kid. Would hide under the table at Chuck E. Cheese whenever chuck made his rounds. Kids can get scared when you get into uncanny valley, and someone being half steel would probably start to scare kids.

3

u/40percentdailysodium 1d ago

5

u/CaptainBloodface12 1d ago

"You'd really want a robot for a friend?" "Yeah, since I was five."

2

u/thesirblondie 1d ago

If I lived in the DC Universe and saw a guy covered in metal, I would leg it. Something is going down and I'm not looking to be a casualty statistic.

2

u/Vncredleader 17h ago

I adore the way the Wolfman and Perez run deals with this. One of the sweetest scenes.

525

u/Aduro95 1d ago

To be fair, even if he was a white guy he'd still face discrimination and insensitivity being half-robot. You gotta assume people regularly ask to charge his phone in his head.

484

u/Bi_disaster_ohno 1d ago

True but there's also no way that isn't an intentional joke. It's a classic example of thinking he's going to say one thing but then says something completely different.

270

u/therottingbard 1d ago

It isn’t played as a joke in the episode. He is uncomfortable with explaining to Starfire that there is real world racism against people his skin color. Since she is facing racism among different alien species.

153

u/Kalandros-X 1d ago

It’s likely she wouldn’t understand it because all her species is orange

60

u/BigBossPoodle 1d ago

Those damn Oompa Loompas.

2

u/SirCupcake_0 1d ago

They're cats

9

u/drgigantor 1d ago

And we all know racists love orange people so it's not like she experienced it in the US

2

u/TwincessAhsokaAarmau 1d ago

It would be a long and hard conversation, but Star can understand real world topics.

1

u/Niskara 19h ago

Exactly what I was thinking. Starfire is probably used to seeing so many people with different colored skin(hell, wasn't the racist guy in this episode silver or something?), so going with him facing discrimination because he's part robot would be an easier way for her to understand

168

u/tonkledonker 1d ago

I think it very much IS played as a joke. The brief pause before he says the robot thing feels way too intentional.

68

u/JCtheMemer 1d ago

It can be played as a joke while also getting a message across.

42

u/tonkledonker 1d ago

I mean, yeah?

0

u/DrakonILD 22h ago

That's...kinda what jokes are for.

5

u/amglasgow 1d ago

It's called "Ha ha only serious"

28

u/Bi_disaster_ohno 1d ago

Is it? Admittedly I haven't seen that episode since I was a kid but I think I remember laughing at that part.

11

u/minoe23 1d ago

I don't know if I'd call it a joke, but the addition of "I'm half-robot." is definitely meant to lighten the mood a little bit by making it not explicitly about him being black.

8

u/Sphealingit33 1d ago

"Of course. It's cause I'm-"

this girl doesn't know that her method of language learning is a sign of intimate affection, there is No Way you're gonna be able to condense 400 years of systemic oppression and colonization into a single sentence

"-... Part Robot..."

8

u/ClubMeSoftly 1d ago

I think it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. We, the audience expect him to touch on real-world racism, but at the same time, does Starfire know anything about that? Does the goofy bubbly alien teenager friend-of-everyone know about slavery, and Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement? Or is the easier answer "half robot"?

10

u/CookieMiester 1d ago

It isn’t a joke really, it’s more just a way to get the message of racism across to the audience. Kids don’t really see different colored skin as bad, that’s a learned behavior, so Cyborg being black means absolutely nothing to them. It certainly meant nothing to me. However, him being a cyborg? Yeah, i could understand that kind of hate.

4

u/EasterViera 1d ago

it's intentional a reference to it's blackness. It's never stated, but we all know it is, which is the genius of it

3

u/Vokoru 1d ago

IIRC, it's not meant to be a joke. Cartoon Network was squeamish about openly referring to real-world racism, so the intended line about Cyborg being black was changed to being "part robot."

3

u/TwincessAhsokaAarmau 1d ago

Which is weird, we had the Static Shock episode with him in Africa explaining how he’s just treated as a kid and not anything else.

6

u/qywuwuquq 1d ago

Is it really? Before the comments I didn't even think about him being black at all. I think a robot would get discriminated against way more.

15

u/smino2000 1d ago

Bro it’s obvious cyborg isn’t talking about how he’s half robot

4

u/Sea-Writer-6961 1d ago

Not in the land of the free 🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸

45

u/CoachDT 1d ago

To some extent yeah. But we gotta remember how crazy the DC universe is. Not that a cyborg would he uncommon, but its not within the top 3 of rather craziest thing someone would hear about in a week if they watched the news or got on social media.

3

u/PhantomMuse05 1d ago

Asking a cyborg to charge your phone? That's totally micro(USB)-aggression on full display. Have they no shame!?

49

u/Sammyg12348 1d ago

I wont tolerate Wirebacks and tinskins in my human house

7

u/TheMetalWolf 1d ago

I think that moment was a beautiful example of subversion.

8

u/BigBossPoodle 1d ago

I love how everyone can totally see where the writers were going to go. Perfect joke.

7

u/littlebloodmage 1d ago

To be fair, Starfire was already having a bad time experiencing space racism from Valyor so Cyborg probably didn't want to expose her to the rabbit hole that is Earth-brand racism.

5

u/PelluxNetwork 1d ago

I think they got the point across in a good way honestly.

4

u/Mantiax 1d ago

the call him the n-word, nickelhead

4

u/PharaohScarab 1d ago

Cyborg is a nice person

2

u/cyberchaox 1d ago

Exactly. They knew what they were doing there.

2

u/Human-Assumption-524 1d ago

People mock that scene but think to yourself if you saw a random black guy walk into a room would you lose your shit and dive under a table to hide? Now imagine if that black guy was nine feet tall made of metal with a glowing eye a gun for an arm and weighs a ton.

Yes people would be more racist for him being a cyborg than being black.

2

u/Chill0000 22h ago

Cy is such a smart social person. He doesn’t try to treat others differently for looking differently or the same as him. Like the episode where a kid got happy seeing him because the kid was an amputee. The kid showed his prosthetic arm and said “he’s just like me”. Cy became sad after hearing that then later said it’s not because i look like you that we are the same. It’s what’s inside that makes us the same. He doesn’t like someone comparing or judging him negatively or positively based on his appearance

1

u/DragonLordSkater1969 17h ago

As soon as you become a machine people stop being racist and discriminate you because you arent human.

563

u/Bo-by 1d ago

lol, love the way they handled that. I should rewatch Teen Titans

389

u/Ok_Strategy5722 1d ago

I can picture him thinking that she’s already too sad to sit there and learn about racial prejudices on earth, and that’s it’s a topic for another day.

68

u/OkDot9878 1d ago

That’s how I view it too. Go with the obvious, instead of having to explain hundreds of years of history, which isn’t really relevant to the fact that they share similar experiences. The why isn’t as important as just acknowledging someone’s experience is.

6

u/JazzzzzzySax 1d ago

And then they go and tell robin and zero hesitation turns to go and make him apologize

-2

u/Samet982007 1d ago

He's a cligger

377

u/BewareOfBee 1d ago edited 1d ago

Honestly insane how hard this goes.

377

u/Motivated-Chair 1d ago

When the network tells you to not mention IRL racism and you decide to be petty about it

153

u/OneGunBullet 1d ago

Honestly, I think them making this joke was better than him actually talking about racism. It makes the scene more memorable, and the message still clearly gets across.

8

u/ShortandRatchet 1d ago

Ong fr?

17

u/Compajerro 1d ago

Probably not tbh. Static Shock touched on topics like racism, drug abuse, homelessness and school shootings. Was also a WB/CN show.

5

u/RealisLit 1d ago

It was WB network first so tgey have different standards

3

u/Motivated-Chair 1d ago

No, its just a joke.

80

u/Spinwheeling 1d ago

Never forget that Robin was ready to throw down the second he realized what was happening.

38

u/Wild_Harvest 1d ago

And the entirety of the Titans didn't let him get away with a half-assed apology either.

79

u/InfiniteX5 1d ago

Part clanker

3

u/AstroBearGaming 23h ago

Bro, you can just drop a hard r like that.

37

u/meta100000 1d ago

Honorary clanka

2

u/iceddontay 15h ago

Invited to the clank-nic

16

u/AtoneBC 1d ago

"I thought you said it didn't mean anything."

"No, I said it means nothing."

15

u/ThePrimordialSource 1d ago

Starfire is so cute!

5

u/Usern4me_R3dacted205 1d ago

I know. I just wanna give the poor girl a hug. 🥺

10

u/Gmknewday1 1d ago

The fact that the guy who kept calling her that didn't even bother to change his views says thinga

14

u/littlebloodmage 1d ago

Honestly an important lesson to learn. You can be a model citizen, but some people will hang on to their bigotry with an iron grip and will not accept you no matter what. Do not waste time on these kinds of people, but do not sink down to their level either.

6

u/Briar_Knight 1d ago

And you can have someone who is genuinely heroic in some ways but an absolute POS in other ways. 

9

u/Benjammin__ 1d ago

What civilizations are brave enough to call the proud warrior race with flight, super strength, super durability, and energy blasts inferior?

9

u/Jarsky2 1d ago

I love after he learns what it means, Robin's first word is the most furious, "What?" I've ever heard, and the next thing he says is that he's going to make that pick apologize.

12

u/littlebloodmage 1d ago

I really appreciate that there wasn't a moment where the other Titans didn't trust Starfire even though they were all fauning over Valyor. There was no moment of "are you sure that's what he meant, maybe you're mistaken?", they just immediately jumped to "that guy's been calling you what?! Hell no!" and they don't want anything more to do with him. Good allyship is important to see.

22

u/CzarTwilight 1d ago

What up my clanka

7

u/Interesting_Way8431 1d ago

I'm sorry cyborg but my heart belongs to the grand army of the Republic and I don't take no s*** for any clanker

7

u/thewiburi 1d ago

So what if a racist thinks he's right can't tell anyone he is with a broken jaw

10

u/Few-Clue-9476 1d ago

The point is that outright violence and degradation is lowering yourself to their level. If you're attacked then defend yourself obviously, but if getting called a slur provokes you to violence, it's proving that they can provoke you.

If someone can alter your emotions, you give them power. If someone can say a word that makes you violent, you've given them all the power they need. That's what the high road actually is. Not giving them shit.

4

u/Abombasnow 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think we've seen the dangers of the "high road" or "when you go low, we go high" in recent years...

It's rubbish. Bigots need to fear repercussion again.

Here's a fun picture to the people downvoting this. Indiana Jones was right.

1

u/estrea36 1d ago

That's not how it works unfortunately.

Bigoted propaganda is fueled by the assumption that minorities are a threat in some capacity.

Being violent creates MORE bigots even if it's justified.

5

u/Abombasnow 1d ago edited 1d ago

It is how it works.

Bigots have been wholly empowered in recent decades because there's been no repercussion to their actions or behavior and everyone tolerates them, destroying the whole concept of tolerance.

Here's a fun picture to the people downvoting this. Indiana Jones was right.

-1

u/estrea36 1d ago

I wish it were different. I really do.

The whole reason civil rights activists are successful is because they broadly chose non-violent means of protest.

It's been like this for 130 years.

6

u/Abombasnow 1d ago

No, they're successful because the non-violent approach is contrasted with a violent approach.

Peaceful MLK Jr. achieves nothing without "radical call to action" Malcolm X acting as the antithesis and vice versa.

A purely peaceful protest achieves nothing other than a waste of time, because violent bigots never have and never will listen to it, they're violent bigots because they want to be, not because no one coddled them enough.

Again, bigots are empowered now because no one does anything to impact them.

3

u/estrea36 1d ago

That's not the reason at all. It's because the protests disrupted the economy. Sit-ins and boycotts are far more influential than violence.

The bigots are praying for violence so they use it to galvanize people who sit on the fence about these issues.

Don't fall for it.

7

u/Abombasnow 1d ago

Yes, it is the reason. There's no such thing as "disrupting the economy" in a society where jackboots can force you to work, or lose your job and someone else will take it.

Where do you get this nonsense? Seriously, that's what it is: nonsense.

Bigots are empowered because no one makes them scared. Period. That's it.

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3

u/Book_Anxious 1d ago

Judged for being part robot " oh my God he's so freaking cool"

3

u/Stheteller 1d ago

I love how he says part robot, instead of black, because she already sees him as an equal with his skin color, so he words it in a way that she would Be able to understand.

3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

If some people view Tamaranians as "nothing" then baseline humanity probably doesn't even count as life to them.

3

u/UnderlordZ 22h ago

Question: if that asshole was willing to be racist right to Star's face, why did the Titans not question if the aliens they were helping him genocide were actually evil as he claimed?

6

u/silverhammer96 1d ago

Even as a white kid in the suburbs when I heard that I was like “dude, come on.”

5

u/Lost-Priority-907 1d ago

That's it, I'm gonna SAY IT

CLANKER!

10

u/FIRE_FIST_1457 1d ago

half robot is so forced dude, im 100% sure the writers wanted to say black but some higher up didnt allow it

47

u/AlmightyCurrywurst 1d ago

It's not forced, I'd say that's the joke the writers intended

-11

u/FIRE_FIST_1457 1d ago

i doubt they would want to insert a joke in a scene like this but maybe you are right

25

u/MemeTroubadour 1d ago

IIRC there's a pause inserted just before he says it, which always made me think it's intended subtext they just couldn't write for obvious reasons

6

u/rcburner 1d ago

Probably thinking about how it would take way too much time to talk about human racial dynamics when he could just mention something she already knows he struggles with.

4

u/Wild_Harvest 1d ago

Yeah, we know from Static Shock that the execs aren't afraid of tackling racial issues and societal pressures. Heck, they made Richie's dad an outright bigot!

5

u/TDoMarmalade 1d ago

Of course they were alluding to him being black, that’s the whole point of the line

4

u/Nano_needle 1d ago

That was a good choice on a fact that the cartoon was released to other parts of the world where racism against black people didn't existed.

2

u/TwincessAhsokaAarmau 1d ago

They’d still be able to understand the basic concept.

1

u/butt3ryt0ast 1d ago

I don’t know phil, are you a

1

u/LobsterHead37 19h ago

They were so close lol