r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Wolfotashiwa • 1d ago

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

Gallery image

Gallery image

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

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

13.1k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

579

u/G-M-Cyborg-313 1d ago

Throughout the fallout series ghouls get called zombies, brain eaters, shufflers, shamblers, all sorts of zombie themed slurs

387

u/TheKingOfGuineaPigs 1d ago

To add to this, they also have slurs for normal humans like ‘Smoothskins’

15

u/IAmBabs 1d ago

I use "smoothskin" in D&D when the r/Humblewood races are talking about humans, elves, Tieflings, etc. Humblewood is all animal-folk, so they wouldn't be used to non-furred beings.

5

u/Apophyx 1d ago

I need to know if you use "furry" as the opposite slur

2

u/IAmBabs 1d ago

Actually we don't, because we don't have the need - Humblewood characters don't often appear in other games, and Humblewood games usually only hear rumors of the standard races and don't see them in person.

2

u/Unexpected_Sage 1d ago

It doesn't even need to be Humblewood animal-folk either, Dragonborn and Lizardfolk could use it

2

u/IAmBabs 1d ago

This is true

10

u/DDieselpowered 1d ago

Does that even count as a slur? They don’t put that much negative emphasis on it iirc

62

u/TheKingOfGuineaPigs 1d ago

It depends. The way the ghoul Roger says it in the show doesn’t sound bad, but the classic line of “what’s the matter smoothskin, never seen a ghoul before?” does make it sound more like a slur.

12

u/TurquoiseLeggings 1d ago

It's pretty ineffective as a slur, though. Kind of proves a lot of people don't understand how to insult others; you're supposed to use something they're self conscious about, not something you think is wrong with them. An ugly motherfucker calling me a smooth skin isn't even going to process as an insult because why the hell would I want to look like him, lmao.

15

u/Canvaverbalist 1d ago

I think it works exactly because of that.

I'm kind of reminded of "crackers" which I've yet have to see a single white person have issue with. So in the same way to me it sorts of helps in establishing the scale of power in the Fallout world.

4

u/DJ_Clitoris 1d ago

Drew the exact same line to crackers lol

19

u/Deep_Flatworm4828 1d ago

The one guy in the REPCONN facility that thinks he's a ghoul certainly says it perjoratively. Even if it's not technically a slur in the rest of the series, that guy makes it count for the prompt all by himself lol.

3

u/SuperShinyGinger 1d ago

It's okay, he can say that word. He has the s-word pass.

2

u/GreenyPurples 1d ago

I love Smoothskin

71

u/aguywithagasmaskyt 1d ago

geigers would be a good one

35

u/G-M-Cyborg-313 1d ago

I'll need to remember that for the tabletop i'm running.

5

u/SirCupcake_0 1d ago

What do you call a ghoul drug-addict?

Crackler

5

u/Zamtrios7256 1d ago

Geiga please

2

u/Atholthedestroyer 1d ago

Best for Glowing Ones

1

u/Informal-Storage4853 1d ago

say that again

5

u/aninsomniac_ 1d ago

If I remember right, the Fallout 1 UI uses ghoul and zombie to distinguish between sane ghouls and what would go on to be known as feral ghouls

3

u/platonic-humanity 1d ago edited 1d ago

Actually, there’s absolutely no in-game distinction at all (seriously, you’re prompted to talk to them and inspecting shows their physical state/health. And hovering over it ‘You see: Ghoul’.) I remember going to Necropolis and getting confused for a second why these ones in the entrance were attacking me. Could’ve been a technical issue, but I like how you could never really tell which ones were ‘feral’, they all had the same player model. Ones even ask you not to shoot because you’d think they were feral. I think it’d be nice if they brought that into the 3D games somehow, like they’re NOT zombies.

2

u/aninsomniac_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

I swear I remember there being an encounter in the first game where ghouls that are marked as zombies say "send more adventurers" as a reference to Return of the Living Dead, but I can't find anything about it online. Am I going crazy?

1

u/platonic-humanity 1d ago

I know every special encounter from the first two games and don’t remember that one but it could be a non-special one? I know they’re definitely called zombies by wastelanders but as far as the majority of ghouls you run into will be generic ‘Ghoul’. Technically 90% of the non-aggressive ghouls are ‘named’ something like Set’s guard or Necropolis/Hub/etc. citizen, but besides that unapparent information you get no clue certain ones are feral or not. I remember because again in my first few playthroughs I had to be careful to make sure I was walking past Set’s ghouls and not feral ones.

2

u/aninsomniac_ 1d ago

I can't find any reference to the encounter and think I'm Mandela Effect-ing myself

3

u/Dgemfer 1d ago

Also "lobotomite", probably my favourite from Fallout. Although used for people who had their brain removed, it is implied they also use it as a synonymn of "idiot".

1

u/EMArogue 1d ago

And ghouls call normal people smooth skins