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Author Topic: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...  (Read 8778 times)

Offline Hauptgefreiter

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #15 on: May 24, 2012, 07:57:08 PM »
For a US Army ghost soldier, I would call him 'Joe'.

I don't know what I would name the ghost if he were a Marine. But I do like 'Mike.'

Interesting idea, a bit like Gen. Stuart and the Ghost Tank.
Wouldn't that rather be John like in "John Doe"? ;)
per aspera ad astra

Offline mpennock

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2012, 08:33:03 PM »
Quote
Gen. Stuart and the Ghost Tank.

Haunted Tank, actually.  ;)

Back in the nineties I ran a rather silly game involving Hitler and a batch of Gray Aliens conspiring to win World War Two, and one of the units on the board was an M3 light tank. Everywhere that tank went it was followed by the figure of an American Civil War cavalryman....

The funniest part of the whole thing was the number of spectators who stopped and had to ask about the cavalryman. Once told that it was the Ghost of Jeb Stuart, they understood immediately and went on their way without comment, curiosity sated.

Offline TheShadow

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2012, 08:39:08 PM »
gah someone beat me to camouflage !
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"
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Offline Red Orc

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #18 on: May 25, 2012, 12:37:45 AM »
gah someone beat me to camouflage !

I did name-check Camoflage in the original post... obviously, the idea for the character is a sort of mix of Camoflage and Sgt Rock.

But he needs a normal sort of name (which is why I mentioned 'Tommy Atkins' in the original post - he's a kind of archetype, the English version of the generic 'G.I. Joe'). It just doesn't seem terribly likely that some scared soldiers in a foxhole/holed up in a wood/hunkering behind a wall are going to come across a fellow soldier and he'll introduce himself as 'Camoflage'. Joe or Mike (or John) sound more likely. 'Corporal Doe' maybe... "Son, you can call me Corporal Doe, or you can call me Uncle Johnny if y'think it'll help, but I promise you, we're gonna get the job done, and you're going home to Powkipsie to see Eileen, so help me God..."

The point is the troops don't know he isn't a veteran from another unit who are also in the woods, or sent out on a patrol to find them, or whatever; his presence has to seem natural. Extravagant nicknames don't really fit with that.

Thanks for all the suggestions. If anyone has any more, please, do say, especially if they're related to something that already exists (either in the real world, or something similar in fiction).

Offline tnjrp

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2012, 05:00:53 AM »
But he needs a normal sort of name (which is why I mentioned 'Tommy Atkins' in the original post - he's a kind of archetype, the English version of the generic 'G.I. Joe'). It just doesn't seem terribly likely that some scared soldiers in a foxhole/holed up in a wood/hunkering behind a wall are going to come across a fellow soldier and he'll introduce himself as 'Camoflage'
Well, you do have a point there. I mostly just thought that since you've declared your inspiration to be that certain big Marine, why not go all the way...

Anyway. How about Forrest Pine then (add any miliatry rank you think appropriate)? I'll leave it as an exercise to come up with an explanation why I think it would fit with someone who may or may not be a revenant 8)

Offline Steve F

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #20 on: May 25, 2012, 09:11:35 AM »
How about Jim Jackson?

James W Jackson jr was the Confederate who shot and killed federal Colonel Elmer Ellsworth on the day that Virginia seceded from the Union.  He was then shot dead by one of Ellsworth's men.  That makes him the first person to both kill and be killed in the American Civil War, I think.

Possibly too freighted with political overtones (the Confederates regarded him as a martyr), but it's such a common-sounding name that it might fit your purposes, particularly if disguised a bit by dropping the "W" and the "Jr".

Offline Red Orc

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #21 on: May 25, 2012, 09:56:51 AM »
A very interesting suggestion. Perhaps after the Civil War his unquiet spirit returned to earth to attone for what he sees as the war he started (because the previous 2 deaths, of Union soldiers, were somewhat accidental), by helping all American soldiers... and until he's saved more than were killed in the Civil War, he's fated to die before the end of the action and be resurrected in time for the next conflict. So he has to be responsible for the rescue of more than 750,000 American soldiers before he can 'move on'... which might take some time. Certainly I think if that scenario is accepted, he'd have been hard pushed to fulfill his mission before the end of WWII.

On the other hand, he was (according to the wiki about Alexandria, Virginia, at least, though it's not mentioned on the James W Jackson wiki page) a Captain and that might not be right for the idea I'm exploring of him being a veteran, but also a sort of 'regular guy'... I'm kind of groping for a concept here that puts the emphasis on him being the collective creation of the unit's determination to 'get the job done', externalised as a figure that is sort of a combination of all the best qualities of the unit. Even, possibly, the best qualities of all the unit's previous casualties...

Maybe I'm overthinking this! I'm not writing the background for a character in a new graphic novel, I'm trying to find a name and concept for one supersoldier in a skirmish game. I'll take as working models the 'Iron Mike' suggestion Commissarmoody made, SteveF's suggestion of 'Captain James W Jackson', my own fleshing out of Hauptgefreiter's '(Corporal) John Doe' and the notion of just calling him '(G.I.) Joe', and play around with them to see what fits best.

Though maybe I should be thinking 'Ghost Company', where Captain James W Jackson commands a bunch of unquiet spirits and psychic projections called Corporal Doe, Iron Mike, etc ...

Offline carlos marighela

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #22 on: May 25, 2012, 09:44:02 PM »
Pee Wee Herman. American and super fucking weird. 

Michael Jackson, ditto.

For my money I'd go with Don Lane. It's a kinda Hollywood sort of name to start with. The real Don, AKA 'the lanky Yank', was a former American TV presenter on Australian television. Allegedly Don's private tastes ran to glass coffee tables and incontinent prostitutes. Not sure you can get much weirder than that. God Bless America!  lol
« Last Edit: May 25, 2012, 09:45:48 PM by carlos marighela »
Em dezembro de '81
Botou os ingleses na roda
3 a 0 no Liverpool
Ficou marcado na história
E no Rio não tem outro igual
Só o Flamengo é campeão mundial
E agora seu povo
Pede o mundo de novo

Offline marianas_gamer

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #23 on: May 25, 2012, 10:14:33 PM »
Carlos you are a very naughty boy........keep it up  lol lol lol
LB
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Offline Franz_Josef

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #24 on: May 26, 2012, 08:55:54 PM »
Kilroy - he seemed to be both everywhere and nowhere.  Also, in the U.S. Army for years there was the mythical Jodie - who was home with your girlfriend, etc. while you were out on a run, in the field (in the rain), etc.  Be only fair for Jodie to finally get out there and lend a hand!

Offline carlos marighela

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #25 on: May 27, 2012, 02:21:56 AM »
We had one of those, except that his name was Private Sumkunt. He popped up in all kinds of situations, indeed he was the very model of ubiquity and poor soldiering.

'Sumkunt took took my breech block'

'Sumkunt had a UD'

'Sumkunt ate the Mars Bar I left in my pack' etc, etc, etc.

Offline Galland

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #26 on: May 30, 2012, 11:10:09 AM »
"Mega Freedom", "Super Freedom", "Anti Non Freedom", "I R Fr33d0m" or something more simple, like "I saved the World and gave it Freedom" ? :D
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Offline Kalle

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #27 on: May 30, 2012, 11:15:08 AM »
Maybe "Super World Police" is what you are looking for?


What about the mysterious stranger. He carries a revolver and shoots your enemies in the back in the heat of battle. :D

Is that what you want the world to know, that your american hero shoots people in the back?

K
« Last Edit: May 30, 2012, 11:19:27 AM by Kalle »
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Offline Westfalia Chris

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #28 on: May 30, 2012, 11:43:43 AM »
Guys, although it's not (yet) a violation of the forum rules, keep it down with the obscenities, will you? This is the LAF after all, not That Other Forum(TM).  ;)

Offline fastolfrus

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Re: Need help naming an American super-weird-soldier...
« Reply #29 on: May 30, 2012, 12:19:11 PM »
If you're looking towards a WWI  veteran, how about Sergeant York?
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