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Why Are Fantasy World Accents British?
kodiaktau writes "An interesting article from the BBC News Magazine explores the reasons why most fantasy worlds use British as their primary accent. Citing specific examples from recent and upcoming shows and movies like Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and Game of Thrones, the article concludes British accents are 'sufficiently exotic,' 'comprehensible' and have a 'splash of otherness.' It would be odd to think of a fantasy world having a New Jersey accent, or even a Mid-West accent, which tends to be the default for TV and movies in the U.S., but how do UK viewers feel about having British as a default? More specifically, what about the range of UK accents, like Scottish, Welsh, Cockney? The International Dialects of English Archive shows at least nine regional sounds, with dozens of sub-regional pronunciations in England alone. In the U.S., there have always been many regional accents that might be used in interesting ways. Filmmakers should consider looking at speech accents from other areas of the world to create more interesting dialects."
I have to agree with this article, I've always assumed it was just the American preconception of "old worlde". Different enough to be remote but still in the same language.
On the other hand as an Irishman I often find it hard to find escapism in Irish TV and to a lesser extent, film. The familiarity of it all doesn't work as well while on the other hand so much of our media is American that even when I visit the USA there is an element of otherworldliness about the whole experience.
I never get used to these constant resurrections
They sound fancy and smart. Even the dumbest character with a British accent sounds smarter.
Not all fantasy embraces this though. If you look at a show like True Blood, it has a wide mix, and due to its setting, is largely southern United States.
Lots of places have a north.
Mark Anthony Collins
Do we even need to be asking such an obvious question? British is the foreign language that Americans are most likely to understand...
Brits are a bunch of poofters who enjoy giving each others' anuses a good rodgering
I'm glad we kicked them out of our country 200+ years ago. They were really turning the place into a shithole.
For Americans, I would assume it's because we associate fantasy with the Old World because that's where most of our myths and legends originate. And they have castles. And among the Old World, England is our closest tie (as well as speaking the same language). The majority of fantasy settings are basically just medieval-Europe-plus-wizards-and-dragons even if a location isn't given (or it takes place on another world)
Of course the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit use British accents -- they're written by an English author and are fundamentally ABOUT England (a.k.a. the Shire).
It's a question of cultural depth - America is largely a cultural offshoot of the UK. So when you want a voice for a 'centuries old' sort of tale, you go British. Conversely, the American accent has an association with Modern.
Most fantasy settings are based in medieval times, and America didn't have English, let alone feudalism and other aspects common in fantasy novels. British accents just fit the real world time period we associate with fantasy settings.
Any why are Dwarves always Scottish?
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Of course another main reason is that general fantasy is most closely linked with the European medieval period. In that period English speakers were generally going to be speaking with an accent from Great Britain. It would strike us as strange to hear someone in a historical medieval period using a NJ accent for much the same reason that it does in fantasy.
One does not merely walk into Parliament.
However, one can try to merely tunnel under Parliament with a good bit of gunpowder...
Everybody everywhere appears to speak English natively. Stories from far away lands...
Imagine The Lord of the Rings where all the Hobbits had Brooklyn accents.
Other enough to be unusual but still understandable but evoking an entirely different genre (mafia crime drama).
Good SciFi / Fantasy is filmed outside the US - Game of Thrones and Dr. Who in the UK, and LotR in NZ.
Well, I know in Star Wars: The Old Republic, the British accent is to emphasize the Empire part of the Sith Empire. The Rebellion, or Republic, side uses an American accent. That, and the original Star Wars used a whole lot of British actors.
"Fantasy" themes are generally based on mythical creatures and legends that stem from the UK. Hell even today you can't scan through 8hrs of BBC without finding something that is based on Robin Hood, Arthur/Merlin, Druids, or Sherlock Holmes so apparently the UK associates the UK with these themes as well. They even continue to add to it, the latest popular addition being Harry Potter. Again tying sorcery with the UK.
So, they cite two movies based on books by a BRITISH author and a third that is (as far as I can tell from not watching it) set in a variant of medieval England.
The real question they should ask is why not all Robin Hoods can speak with an English accent.
...in American movies set in non-English speaking countries?
This dawned on me while watching "The Reader" -- Kate Winslet speaks her lines in English, with a German accent during the course of the movie.
Either the entire movie should be in German with subtitles, or the actors should all speak their lines in a common accent of English. It makes no sense to have a film set in a "foreign" country have its actors speak their lines in English accented by the locale's native language.
It kind of makes me wonder if a German movie set in America has its actors speak German with an American English accent.
Because Peter Cushing and Chritopher Lee are British. Precedent wins.
It might have something to do with the fact that the fictional country Game of Thrones is set in (at least in the TV show, not very subtly either) is based off of England. The politics and geography bears an extremely striking resemblance.
And Tolkien (British) created the Shire in The Hobbit and LotR based off British countryside. Fantasy, in particular, is almost universally set in a Middle-Age-England-type setting and is often based heavily off of their mythology. It almost wouldn't make sense not to have a British accent. Don't blame the Americans: the British were doing that a long time before Americans were (hell, before America was even a colony). And of course Narnia (by C.S. Lewis, British) is actually set partly in England as is Harry Potter (again, a British writer).
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because there are lots of English actors and it's not that hard to train to sound that way? Imagine trying to teach an entire acting crew to speak a 'new' accent. There'd be no reference, no clear marker for success.
Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
It just brings up the question: Why does british television (and others, like discovery channel) want their programs to sound like fantasy.
In the Netherlands, its commonly accepted to use common dutch on television, even if the talker has another native dialect, about everyone can -and will- speak common dutch. A slight belgian accent will be forgiven, but on the other hand, its usually what it is - an accent, not the dialect.
However, when i watch something british, it seems they have some fetisjism to use the most obscure scottish, welsh or irish dialect they can find, and any narrator is free to use it. High british - the stuff we learned at school, is something rarely heard. And we just sit, pondering, why...
its because most of the good fantasy writing was British... ..
next please
Westeros is transparently (if not particularly faithfully) based on a fantastic reinterpretation of Britain, right down to the the Wall and the . And all the knights and chivalery (and non-chivalery) and so on are clearly Arthurian legend, which is unquestionably British even if it owes a big debt to France — which, speaking of, is of course right across the "narrow sea". Middle Earth is less literal with the geography, but Tolkien has said (were it not already obvious!) that the Shire is rural Britain in spirit, so of course the hobbits speak with the appropriate accent.
I'm an oft requested storyteller at school events because I make up voices for all the characters, and yes, I fall into the trap of giving most characters regional british accents. Bad guys frequently end up with some non-specific eastern european accent, and some more exotic characters get asian or scandinavian tilts.
But I never use american accents... not sure why, I just don't find enough characters that fit.
It's dangerous thinking such as that which lead to the atrocity known as Jar Jar Binks. In all seriousness, look at the accents of Watto, Yoda, the head honchos of the Trade Federation, Emperor Palpatine, Admiral Ackbar, Jango Fett, etc.
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Omg I absolutely adore being told by American women many times a week that I "love your accent". I'm never going back. Clearly no-one here has heard of either the Revolutionary War or watched Star Wars. Heaven.
I'm not an advertising exec, but I bet you there is some study some where that Americans subconsciously associate British accents with greater trustworthiness and/ or authority
As for fantasy worlds: I disagree, the fantasy worlds cited are specifically medieval in quality, which conjures Europeanness, which conjures Britishness, as Americans don't deal well with foreign languages: no Flemish cave trolls or Hungarian dragons, for example (nevermind Cornish, Welsh, or Gaelic).
If we were talking FUTURE fantasy worlds, Avatar or Star Trek, for example, there is no association with Britishness. Although, Australian accents and actors figure heavily in that realm. Which is a whole other subject matter?:
Britain: the past, Australia: the future, from an American perspective.
(sorry Kiwis, Americans tend to group your accent with Australia, I don't want to step on any issues of national pride here)
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Thaht's Easy Peasy, Int it?
England has had English as a language longer and so if the Accent is English you know it is Old and High Mystical. An English accent just doesn't work when you dub a Film in to Spanish or Cantonese though.
... how else can you explain why all dwarves speak with a Scottish accent?
My accent sounds completely different from everyone I live near, although I grew up only a couple of hundred miles away. I drove to a customer site 30 miles away from my workshop, and everyone sounds totally different again. If I drive from my house down to the south of England, I'll pass through about a dozen areas with different regional accents.
Saying "British accent" makes about as much sense as saying "American accent" - people from Texas don't talk like people from Maine, do they?
Why are is the evil scientists always speaking with a German accent?
...Mid-West accent...
Wait, we have an accent?
I mean, there are jokes about California "valley girls" and Brooklyn accents, but those are stereotypes and most people from the coasts don't actually talk like that. So... if the universal average of the English language is the "Mid-West" accent... wouldn't that mean we don't have an accent?
Because there's no better fantasy shared by the common public than to escape to than one of rainy weather, bland food, a stifling bureaucracy, and one of the largest surveillance networks concieved of.
It's obviously a made-up world, with their shillings and their stones - one where cars wear boots... I mean, that's just pure insanity.
I can't wait to hear the answer from our British friends. As an American, I have an odd fascination for the British accent (and Australian accent too) and love hearing it. I even set my GPS to speak British English instead of American English. Seems I am certainly not alone in this, either.
How about it? Do the British (and even Australians) have any similar fascination with hearing American accents?
Anyone ever see that godawful film Alexander starring Colin Farrel as Alex the Great? They gave the Macedonians Irish accents! That was even more distracting than the constant jumping back and forth between three different time periods and creepy chemistry between Farrel and Angelina Jolie who was supposed to be his mom!
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Is it not just because the classic fantasy authors (Tolkien/Carol) are English? Just like American villains are always English due to the English being the baddies during the American civil war?
" Citing specific examples from recent and upcoming shows and movies like Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit and Game of Thrones, the article concludes British accents are 'sufficiently exotic,' 'comprehensible' and have a 'splash of otherness.'"
Or, they could just sound like everyone around you if you live in the UK...
There is no such thing as a "Midwest Accent". What the original poster meant to write was, "without an accent" - i.e. - not mispronouncing vowels. If you pronounce vowels in the standard by-the-book way, you get a Dakota-Nebraska-Iowa-Colorado accent. Or proper speech. Understandable by everyone - which is why literally ALL U.S. newscasters regardless of location or market, strive to speak in this manner.
Right. Jar Jar Binks was a great idea.
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you mean aboot, right?
(I am Canadian so I can get away with this)
Work pretty well in place of British ones in fantasy and sci-fi settings (think Farscape). Same for Irish. The South African accents in District 9 weren't bad either. Any of them impart "otherness" to an American audience.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
I find it interesting to watch Chris Perkins DM for the Penny Arcade guys in the Dungeons & Dragons games they've played. He seems to make an effort to use a variety of accents (and voices) to keep his characters interesting. He even went with Southern-California-Surfer for one character in the 2010 live game at PAX.
PAX 2010 Live D&D Game, Part 1
PAX 2011 Live D&D Game, Part 1
PA / PVP D&D Podcasts
One of my favorite fantasy movies was The Princess Bride. They had generic/American and Spanish accents. They worked really well for me.
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Well some would say that Tolkiens world is adapted from the Nibelungen which is adapted from germanic/norse mythology.
The similarities are uncanny, except the germanic mythology is much older than Tolkiens stories.
"For Americans, I would assume it's because we associate fantasy with the Old World because that's where most of our myths and legends originate."
Yes, but we associate wrong because modern American English actually sounds more like old English than does modern British English.
My assumption on the use of the British style of accent has more to do with the prevalence of English in the viewing audience, and the relative clarity of that particular dialect versus other languages and dialects. Just a guess.
Emma Peel, as played by Diana Rigg is the reason why all of my fantasies involve a British accent.
Oh, wait, did you mean something else?
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"It would be odd to think of a fantasy world having a New Jersey accent" There's already a fantasy world based on that but its not one most people would want to visit or live in...Its called "Jersey Shore".
As a genre, it has European roots, but non-Earthlings speaking English tend to have American accents(Babylon 5 being something of an exception). Even the Hitchhiker's Guide movie.
I'm guessing that's because we have a pretty solid lock on TV, movies, and actual space exploration.
A MORPG based on Grand Theft Auto would be interesting...if not controversial.
Some things, like Game of Thrones on Another Planet are a good focus for the article. Lord of the Rings, however, is not. That series was written to establish British mythology because Tolkien wanted his culture to have stories to tell like Greek culture. Ergo, it is going to be with British accents.
... since the language of the English is, well, English, technically they are the only speakers of English who lack an accent of that language. It's we (everyone else in the English-speaking world) who speak English with accents.
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I'm just trying to imagine a Science Fiction or Fantasy cast using a Newfoundland accent and it's just not clicking in for some reason. "What're ye at wit dat sword, me son?" Nope.
Game of Thrones....isnt that like the knights and during the times where they had all that camelot crap?
I imagine if they called it Shogun's run and had samurai's running around all talking with british accents, that could be a point...
Anyone remember older WWII-themed movies where the French and Germans all spoke with British accents..?
No. Nobody wants that.
That was my immediate response to this. Lord of the Rings is a book written by a British author, inspired by old English (i.e. Celtic/Norse/Germanic) mythology, set in a world that is based on England. Why would you not have English accents? It's not quite as bad as asking, "Why do do the characters in 'Gone With the Wind' seem like they're from the American South?" but it's close.
I'm not as familiar with Game of Thrones, but I assume it's based on similar stuff. Tolkien is the grand-daddy of a lot of this fantasy stuff, so it shouldn't be too weird that it's all vaguely British.
What's a little more interesting is all the other characters that end up being British. Whenever you see depictions of the Roman empire, they tend to be British. In Star Wars, the Empire is generally British while many of the Rebels are vaguely American. Someone else has already pointed out that we (Americans) use British accents in media to signify ancient societies, Empirical rule, and general authority figures.
There seems to be a trend to create entire fictional languages for fantasy films, so why not create fictional accents for fantasy realms?
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You know, I was just thinking that. But it could work, if people didn't have to work too hard to decipher it (a-la Brad Pitt in Snatch).
I offer this: British accents (accounting Welsh, English, Scottish, and Irish variations for discussion sake) are varied enough but understandable to be "exotic" against one another while still being familiar.
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Most good actors already have a British accent down, because they use it in the Shakespeare productions they all have to do as part of learning to act. Why bother learning another one? :P
There is something undeniably very sexy about the female British voice.
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Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are explicitly written as an alternative mythology for England. There are even some other stories in Tolkien's universe (in The Book of Lost Tales, I think) where a sailor travels west from Britain and finds an island full of elves. And in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, which Game of Thrones is based on, the main continent (which is the one where people speak British accents in the TV series) is according to himself based on medieval England, with many of the family names lifted directly or slightly modified from English noble houses. So in all these cases it's not really an active choice by the TV/movie producers, they are just using the accents that are most true to the books.
Lord of the Rings is also inspired by the Third Reich from an English perspective.
Now imagine that the North Sea was actually landmass. So starting from the Shire, Sauron is pretty much where Hitler was from England, you've got this big sea off to the West, the Elves and Dwarves correspond with Scandinavia and Aragorn is exiled in France.
Also, as others said, the West Country English accent is much like the medieval English accent whereas modern American accents didn't exist.
American is more associated with futuristic sci-fi.
They should use Indian accents - way sexier! :)
whilst there is a good analogy between the little British people (hobbits) kicking the stuff out of the evil empire of Sauron (Hitler), the entire world is based around anglo-saxon myths, so technically it includes Britain, and the northern Germanic and Scandinavian countries.
Dwarves come from the north part of Middle Earth, so it's natural they got Scottish accents, but they could so easily have been Norwegian instead.
The shire, BTW, is Warwickshire (that's wa-rick-shire), there's still a 'tolkien trail' around Hall Green in what is now a very-built-up Birmingham, not the green fields of Tolkien's youth, but the dark satanic mills of Saruman's industrial progress.
Hollywood always casts the bad guy to be ethnic of the country the currently hate. Or they default to a Pom (that's Aussie for a Brittish guy}
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Game of Thrones is actually a better example of questioning why they have the accents. It's pretty clearly not based on any real or even pseudo-real Medieval history, and short of a general fantasy feel is about the only excuse. I suppose it could fall under the Alternate History umbrella but it's hard. I generally figure the accents are used to imply something along the lines of it at least being based on European/English medieval technology and such even if the specific setup is nowhere close. That is, swords, shields, chain/plate armor, classic English-style castles, etc etc rather than, say, Samurai and Katanas or machine guns and bullet proof vests.
Quantum of Solice casting Ukranian woman for Haitian Bond Girl part is much of a screw-up an casting decision as Jar Jar Binks
Look at the poster.
http://www.klast.net/bond/quantum.html
Looks like they casted John Boehner's daughter.
...growing up in north-east Scotland, outside of Aberdeen, whenever we played with toys, we always put on American accents. I have no idea why, it just happened automatically.
Maybe it was because we watched so many American TV programmes like the Dukes of Hazard and the Fall Guy, and later the A Team and Knight Rider?
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http://www.weirdworm.com/the-five-most-racist-star-wars-characters/
It has been said before, when Mr. Lucus chose accents of different cultures of Star Wars, that the other accents chosen were racist.
Perhaps it is "safe" to choose a "british" accent because that doesn't associate one with a particular race?
Most often, they are portrayed with either English or Scottish accents
Actually, depending on the which English accent is used, it may well be accurate. The Yorkshire accent is actually very close to Danish which is not too surprising when you realize that this area of the UK was under Viking rule for a period before 1066 and many of the place names have Scandinavian in origin. Certainly as a Yorkshireman I've found some Danish accents to be so similar that I'm not even sure whether the speaker is British or Danish and I know that some Danes have less trouble than Londoners understanding strong Yorkshire accents up in the dales.
Why don't English-language fantasy filmmakers use accents from English-speaking regions other than the British Isles? That's easy.
Three words: Jar Jar Binks .
I had the great fortune to attend a talk + q&a session with Tom Shippey, friend of Tolkien and author of multiple pieces on Tolkien, who would have stated the subject of my response. Although plenty of fantasy has come since, LotR is the acknowledged beginning of fantasy writing. Tolkien himself envisioned his Middle Earth as filling in the missing history of the people of the British Isles. Given that in LotR, the future is projected as the time of Man and the Elves have sailed to the West, the accents of the UK would be the closest accents to those actually spoken in the fantasy times. As LotR was written, and not performed, Tolkien attempted to give his characters regional dialects through their speech. Shippey pointed out that were one well enough versed in the history of the English language it would be obvious to the reader that Smeagol was significantly older than Bilbo through the choices of riddles in the Riddle Game in the Hobbit.
Maybe it's not "fantasy" enough for this discussion but I didn't find Bob Hoskins' accent in Gorki Park all that "exotic". Laugh-inducing was more like it since he was supposed to be a Russian thug and came off sounding like he was doing a bad Michael Caine impersonation. In fact, all the actors seemed to have been picked for their inability to speak in a passable Eastern European accent.
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I agree with the central premise (the default accent for fantasy is British), but they've chosen some bad examples.
Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit was written by a Brit and is, basically, a story about Brits walking through Norse mythological hellscape. Having American accents would simply be insulting to Tolkien.
And A Game of Thrones is a fantasy retelling of the Wars of the Roses, so how could they not have British accents?
...because they're living where the language was spoken during medieval times
I think that's probably the main reason - not just because of the modern association that a US accent brings but because if you want outdoor scenery with real medieval buildings and castles you need to be in Europe and so it is cheaper to hire English actors than American ones. In fact that was one of the problems I had with the Lord of the Rings films. While the scenery was certainly spectacular it was far too pristine and untouched for a land which had supposedly been lived on for thousands of years, Europe would have been a far better a choice but probably a lot harder due to the need to avoid anything modern.
Future fantasies apparently belong to Americans, at least for now, having the lead in space travel, technology, etc (FOR NOW), particularly as targeted for American audiences (Hollywood). Still, there are Spanish future fantasies, Japanese, etc, etc.
Brits, here's a question for you. What do you think of the Olde American accent? The best example I can come up with, ironically, is Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York or There Will be Blood. Kind of a half New York, half English, half I-don't-know-where accent. That, and the little linguistic flourishes that neither one of us has anymore...
Of course, the Hobbits should technically all be Brummie
Why? Tolkien based the shire on Yorkshire so Hobbits ought to have Yorkshire accents. In fact, not to burst your bubble but, according to Wikipedia he apparently based Mordor on the Black Country so really the orcs should be speaking with a Brummie accent!
I don't know, but I think because most fantasy work is based on European myth and legends, it seems appropriate that British accents are used when it's spoken in English. (French or German would work too, but English spoken with a French or German accent just sounds silly and would be a bit racist in a fantasy context).
The TV show "Once Upon A Time" at first seemed a bit odd to me with all these fairy tale characters having American accents, whereas I thought British would be better. But I got used to it, and then they had an episode with a few characters with Australian accents - and this sounded MORE wrong (even though I'm Australian). Aussie accents just don't work in fairy tales, even less so than American ones do.
Then again, a fantasy based in an "Old West" style world would work with American accents, just like a fantasy version of mediaeval Japan or China would need appropriate Asian accents.
Medievalist fantasy was basically invented by the British. Tolkien, who pretty much invented the genre, was British. So was C.S Lewis. If you're really pedantic, perhaps you might prefer to trace it back to Spenser or Malory. But they were British, too. I think it's kind of charming that a video of a modern fantasy by an American author retains this nod to the origins of the genre.
This is a lazy trend that has been happening in Hollywood for a quite a while. For instance, when Legend Of The Seekers came out, for instance, the Midwestern and Californian accents in it drove me NUTS, and I had to stop watching. Had big arguments with friends about it, because they are never bothered by American dialects in this setting. (I wonder if they liked Costner as Robin Hood.)
So many American actors/actresses nowadays, it seems, have had minimal theater training, let alone Shakespeare under their belts, and then are thrown into fantasy environments by Hollywood with very little dialect work, and sound like they might as well be chewing gum and asking if you want bacon with your blueberry pancakes... not learning how to wield a magic sword.
However, intellectually, I know that there's little reason why fantasy dialects can't be non-British. But, it just... sounds wrong. Maybe it really is just those Tolkien/Arthurian roots we Americans look towards when it comes to medieval fantasy stories.
Why in the movie Hugo (which really sucked btw even though most people don't want to admit it) why does everybody have a British accent even though it's set in France? (I mentioned the movie was awful right? I'm glad it lost, choke on it Scorsese)
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In the case of Game of Thrones, there's another reason: money and convenience.
Game of Thrones is mostly being filmed in Belfast due to good facilities, tax breaks and partial funding from Northern Ireland Screen. During casting they specifically looked for local actors. There are a few exceptions such as Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage, but most of the other actors (especially the children) are British. One of the most important reasons is availability: when you're planning a multiple-year series you don't want to engage actors that are likely to drop out due to other jobs. Actors already living in Britain will be far more likely to be available for subsequent seasons than actors based in Hollywood.
"I have a question! Why is it that we all speak in British accents, when we're from outer space where there's no Britain?"
Well, Westeros looks remarkably like the eastern part of the island of Britain, and that it was once made up of a bunch of different kingdoms that were all united by one conqueror, and that there's a wall that defines the border between civilization and the wild tribes beyond. Yeah, aside from that, it could be anywhere.
One of the biggest screwups I've seen was "Seven Years in Tibet" where all the Tibetans were played by Mexicans, presumably because all those foreigners are the same. Hollywood pulled the copy trick yet again - one studio did "Kundun" so another threw a quick and nasty movie about the same person together to compete. Of course the casting wasn't the only thing wrong with it.
Yes, that's what we want. We KNOW in our heads that US and Canadian accents are associated with the 'new world'. It makes no sense to give old world roles those accents.
It's really that simple. Fantasy movies always have British accents because, unlike the US, the Brits actually had kings, castles, knights, princesses, etc. In fact, they still do! You wouldn't expect Gandalf or Frodo to speak with a non-British accent any more than you would expect Prince Charles or Queen Elizabeth II to do so.
In the late 70s-early 80s, everyone who was hip to the music/art scene was faking Brit accents to get laid, seriously.
On the other hand, I'd feel weirded out if Roland Deschain spoke with a British accent...
Imagine if the North Sea was actually landmass... and if you have trouble imagining, use this map.
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One does not merely walk into Parliament.
However, one can try to merely tunnel under Parliament with a good bit of gunpowder...
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Well Star Wars is easy; except for Obi-Wan, all the British are the bad guys while the Americans are the American-speakers. Star Wars can obviously be described as an allegory of the American Revolution. After all, this was made by an American with an American-mentality (Americans vs. British or as Rebels vs. The Empire). Alec Guinness slides just because he's a royal bad-ass and can do what he wants and George was lucky to get that kind of A-list star-power at the time... Best, An American
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I'd just always assumed that it was because pretty much all knights-and-wizards type shows are essentially based in Arthurian-style Britain.
Just like it would be silly to have a Western done up with a British accent ("Westerns" are essentially defined as the American West circa mid-to-late 1800s.)
As for the comparison to the traditional "stereotype" of upper class Europeans.. that can pretty much be discarded as an argument due to the fact that Britain has changed over time. The high fashion upper class people you see in these shows are usually based around the Elizabethian era, give or take a monarch or two. But definitely an entirely different period of history compared to the time of Arthur and the onset of the dark ages.
Now of course there's some language bias involved. The French, Germans, Spanish, etc all had their own upper class during the Elizabethian era, and they all inter-mingled rather frequently at balls and in court and whatnot, and they would have generally spoken the local language of whatever palace they were visiting.
The language barriers do present a problem for something like Spartacus -- even if the producer does the research and knows what languages would have been common in the time and place of setting, none of said languages would have any modern counterparts to even take an accent from. We don't really associate modern Italy with ancient Rome (for whatever reason), and you've got few other choices so may as well just pick an accent that sounds good and go with that. (The Spartacus show in particular did an interesting thing, though its been done before of course -- they used odd turns of phrases and curses that sound suitably grandiose and non-modern rather than a particular accent. How well it worked is up for debate, but not too many people would be confusing it with modern speech.)
It is now convention. So it is an ignorable accent. Something that reminds American audiences of a particular place in the modern world would jar them out the fantasy world. So even it is just appropriate to have some other accent it become hard to ignore. Also there is the potential spectre of racism if characters have an accent and share a negative aspect that matches a given stereotype.
Because a British accent is what we expect.
Bon Temps is a fantasy world set in Louisiana. Shape shifters, faeries, and vampires...
Accent is certainly NOT english...
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I've always figured that since America's only had English speakers for about 400-500 years, that a British accent adds some authenticity to the antiquated placement in time of the story -- be it Lord of the Rings or Rome or Game of Thrones. It would kill the historic atmosphere to use an accent that probably didn't exist in the medieval period like any American ones. I'm no language expert, but I highly doubt that Brooklyn accents (which are heavily influenced by immigrants from non-English speaking countries) would've been spoken pre-1600. It just wouldn't be as believable as an accent from the British Isles.
Remember that the creatures that populate the English-language fantasy world are all from Britain (which in turn I guess derive from the Norse mixed in with some local supernatural creatures, with a few Greek ones thrown in). The creators of the modern fantasy genre, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were British. It's really not surprising that fantasy-genre people speak with British accents. All the people who believed in elves and fairies and wizards a few hundred years ago were British.
These are all essentially Anglo-Saxon folk tales; why shouldn't the people that inhabit these worlds have an Anglo-Saxon manner of speaking?
What I find more strange are Roman emperors of Greek kings speaking with British accents.
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The most significant portions of the fantasy worlds cited (Middle Earth, Westeros) clearly take inspiration from the British Isles. That is why the characters speak with British accents.
When the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire leave Westeros, the indigenous populations speak with other accents. I don't think anyone would confuse Kal Drogo with an English schoolboy.
Well also, before the prequels, Obi-Wan's history was a bit mysterious. His English accent could be taken as a hint that he used to be part of the Empire.
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But God hates fags. Exposing other people to smoke doesn't show the love for one's neighbor that Jesus was always talking about.
That's why.
Odd, I thought the fantasy worlds of Final Fantasy had a distinct Japanese accent. It would be odd to hear cat girls speak with an American accent. British might work, in a maid uniform... French maid... ooooooooh.
Oh wait, the article mentions British fantasy worlds and then wonders why the accents are British... the Shire is rather obviously British, it would be hard to read Lotr and think it was set in Australia. The Mad Max fantasy world however would be hard to imagine without thinking Australia, the complete and utter desolation of a post nuclear world where humanity is but a dying memory. Australia! Right?
There are lots of fantasy worlds set with the distinct flavor of all parts of the world. That you never heard of any but Lotr, that says more about you then the state of fantasy.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
When you hear a sexy woman with a posh British accent saying...
"You have been a very. naughty. boy."
Then, then you understand why.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Most of the cast in that movie spoke with an British accent, except Costner. It was rather awful. His acting was ok, but a single American accent between British accents did a lot to ruin the suspension of disbelief.
It was so strange that the hero spoke with an American accent that in the movie "Men In Tights", Robin Hood says: "unlike other Robin Hoods, I can speak with a British accent".
The British accent brings an aristocratic aura to the speaker. I think that is why it is chosen.
Actually, fans of Peter Jacksons early works such as Bad Taste and Meet The Feebles would probably find that nauseatingly erotic.
JJR Tolkien and his fellow writers were of English or former English colonies (eg. South Africa), and they founded the genre. So all original fantasy literature is written in British English. Most actors in starring in fantasy movies are in fact British. So its hardly a surprise to me. (I'm from the Netherlands myself)
Bach says it all.
Foreign actors simply don't cost as much as American ones with a similar talent and experience level, and UK ones have the added advantage that they're able to speak English.
Fantasy titles are usually set in medieval times so a British accent at least makes more sense than an American one which wouldn't even make sense.
If you really want American accents for everything then play video games and experience the world as it would be if there were zero variety. US gamers appear to be the most intolerant towards other cultures. Not surprising given how much hate gets spewed over XBL.
it's british because fantasy was invented by JRR Tolkein, who was a brit. End of story.
Next story: why do so many spy films have British agents?
than the yankeedoodle!
One time a fantasy film-make used non-British English accents.
The accents were one of the reasons he wound fending off accusations of racism and anti-semitism. So I can imagine other film makers remembering this, and just preferring to avoid the risk of the same thing happening again.
The author has said that he was inspired by the English War of the Roses though.
one where cars wear boots
As opposed to American English, where the back of a car has a proboscis like an elephant's?
OK, Tolkien lived in England, but he wasn't English...
Just add a touch of Mandarin.
I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help thinking of this bit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOi3StWmG7A
My sources inform me that there are still some individuals in England, in certain circles, who actually talk like this.
Skyrim seems to have all kinds of accents, many of them American, and they don't use "old english" tropes like "thee" and "thou". It seems to draw influence from norse mythology as well, although there is still plenty of LotR (I guess you can't escape it). It's refreshing compared to the rest.
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The American accent is a recent thing. It's pretty ridiculous to expect a movie about the ancient Greece or Rome to have American accents. Like it would be silly to have British accents for a movie about a US president.
King Julian... My sackweefice goes in d volcano. Den, d friendly Gods eat up my sackweefice... "Mmm, very nice, thank you for d sackweefice..." "Please have another sackweefice!" "No, I've had enough for today..." Eternally hilarious! Always wondered what his accent is. I imagine it's some stereotype, which would be at well-tried fail considering WE dont really speak like that. Hilarious non the same. Self, that was vague. (shaking perfectly good head)
proper english is not spoken in england? it's a fantasy language. most folks making noises in cockney or scouse
Found this article very interesting. As a french, though I lived in Ireland three years or so ten years ago, it is very difficult for me to make differences between english accents, but I can hear the main ones, which for us frenchs are mainly English, American, some other typical (for movies or series) american ones, like "ghetto", redneck, etc. One thing, seen from here, is interesting : when english-spoken movies are dubbed in french, it is most of the times done by canadian french-speaking teams; but while the quebec accent is very distinct from the french accent, these movies are dubbed in a sort of "international french" accent, except for the english names, which are pronounced quite correctly, and this isn't something that sounds french, lol. We also have some series here in France that are supposed to be set in the south of France, and the same phenoma appears : all the actors have a parisian-like accent, which is very unlikely in these regions of France...
Exhibit A: Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth in which he utters the immortal line, "Yondah likes da castle of my faddah, da Caliph!"
I think the association with British accent and fantasy starts with the Arthur legend. Also, we associate fantasy with the Middle Ages (and earlier), and the only English speakers then were from Britain. Admittedly, the accents back then would probably be incomparable with today's British.
'Stone the bleeding crows, Frodo mate,' cried Samwise. 'These orcs are comin' at us thicker and faster than blue arsed flies in summer!'
'Strewth!' exclaimed Frodo. 'That ones bigger than me Aunt Nelly's britches.'
'Fair dinkum,' replied Samwise. 'Let's nick off down the pub before someone realises we've seen 'em. Some other mug can handle this mess!'
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
It also looks remarkably like a randomly generated Civilization I map ...
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
I am sure Crocodile Dundee wreaked my TV watching ability of the Australian accent, as it always seems comedic to me now (he was that good of an actor perhaps).
So I can only see Fantasy/Science Fiction and Australian accent if the plot somehow involves barbequing shrimp or saving babies from wild dogs...
Also that red guy on Dragonball Z from Space Australia, Awesome.
The nice way to put it is that we are so immersed in them that I, for one, just don't notice whether someone is speaking American or British unless I stop and think about it.
The less polite way is to mutter something about 'why should we be fascinated by the accents of our imperial overlords...'
Yes.
Probably for the very same reason gladiator movies set in Rome use British accents -- no real discernible reason.
Go fuck your mother, moderation troll. :-)
Just make sure you swallow when she cums. I hear she likes that.