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PikaCommando

Why was the Pinky officially named 'Demon'?

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I know it was originally named 'Demon Sergeant' and internally referred to as 'Pinky', but why was it given the incredibly generic 'Demon' as its official name even though every monster (excluding zombies) are technically demons? They could have picked anything but 'Demon'.

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PikaCommando said:

They could have picked anything but 'Demon'.


Monster

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I guess "Pinky" was a bit too silly for a monster name at the time; they might have wanted to use something more serious and intimidating, which was probably why Demon was chosen.

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PikaCommando said:

I know it was originally named 'Demon Sergeant' and internally referred to as 'Pinky'

No it's not. Pinky is a fan-given nickname; which amusingly enough was canonized by Doom 3 where they are not pink. But in classic Doom, the demons are internally referred to as "Sarg" (e.g. their attack codepointer is "A_SargAttack", their sprite name is SARG, etc.

Same deal with imps being internally called "Troop" (A_TroopAttack, TROO sprites, etc.).

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My theory is, they never came up with a better name for him than Demon Sergeant, and they left out the word Sergeant on the cast screen either because they thought it was too long or to avoid a connection with Shotgun Guy (also known as "shotgun sergeant").

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Gez said:

No it's not. Pinky is a fan-given nickname; which amusingly enough was canonized by Doom 3 where they are not pink. But in classic Doom, the demons are internally referred to as "Sarg" (e.g. their attack codepointer is "A_SargAttack", their sprite name is SARG, etc.

Same deal with imps being internally called "Troop" (A_TroopAttack, TROO sprites, etc.).


When I meant internally, I meant within the developers and not in the game code.

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Imp > Demon > Cacodemon make a logical progression of names in terms of each one implying an evolution or higher level of power, even though the Demon doesn't really fit comfortably in that progression gameplay-wise (and they all look nothing alike).

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ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Imp > Demon > Cacodemon make a logical progression of names in terms of each one implying an evolution or higher level of power, even though the Demon doesn't really fit comfortably in that progression gameplay-wise (and they all look nothing alike).


Yeah, Imps are the underlings, Pinky/Demon are the bigger beefier versions (which typically win in-fights with Imps unless the Imp has enough distance to spam fireballs), Cacodemon is a flying combination of both of them, and the Baron of Hell is an overall stronger hellspawn than all of them. And then the bosses come in.
This was, of course, before they had the Revenant, Arch-Vile, Arachnotron, and Mancubus, so they didn't really need as unique of names at the time with the smaller roster.

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Guest Unregistered account

If we're to assume that the Demons are the 'base' demons, I.E. the ones found all over Hell and which the more formidable enemies are deviations from, then it makes sense. Another good name, suggested by Chubzdoomer (I believe) is 'Bulldemon'.

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Kapanyo said:

Another good name, suggested by Chubzdoomer (I believe) is 'Bulldemon'.


Barons/Hell Knights and Cyberdemon are more bull-like than the Pinky though. It looks more like some sort of dinosaur to me. The Doom 3 one does look like a bull, if only because I've played too much Serious Sam.

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I think that there's a hidden moral message in all that. Like, "kids, look at how demons are dumb, pathetic and weak, you should laugh at evil, not be afraid of it". Or something like that.
Or they just didn't really care.

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PikaCommando said:

Barons/Hell Knights and Cyberdemon are more bull-like...

I see them more as goat-like. Pinkies might be pig-like (okay, not really, but I sometimes see them called "pigs" anyway).

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Well, they have horns, are more stooped over than Hell nobles and they try to rush you, which is where the bull parallels appear.

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TraceOfSpades said:

I think Brute or Behemoth would have been appropriate.

but Behemoth makes me think of a huge towering monster, not a pink dog that can be killed with 3 shot gun blasts.

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In a parallel universe, where id are known for their attention to detail and thinking all the little things through, it might be because they were among the first hellspawn encountered by human forces. It could be that they (and imps) had gotten their names before bigger, badder demons were encountered, so there could have been just "imps" and "demons" for some time (possessed humans too, but it's not like they needed much of a naming) before people had to invent names like "cacodemon" or "cyberdemon".

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Rathori said:

It could be that they (and imps) had gotten their names before bigger, badder demons were encountered,

This actually makes sense.

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GoatLord said:

I mean there's also an enemy just called "imp." They're familiar and useful names. It works.


Imps are a type of demon, but not all demons are Imps. For example, Hell Knights are a kind of demon and not a kind of imp.

It's like if you have a game where all the enemies are humans and they all have specific names like 'Human Trooper' and 'Human Sergeant' but then there's an enemy just named 'Human'.

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Rathori said:

In a parallel universe, where id are known for their attention to detail and thinking all the little things through, it might be because they were among the first hellspawn encountered by human forces. It could be that they (and imps) had gotten their names before bigger, badder demons were encountered, so there could have been just "imps" and "demons" for some time (possessed humans too, but it's not like they needed much of a naming) before people had to invent names like "cacodemon" or "cyberdemon".

I wonder how they came up with the name "Pain Elemental" in that universe.

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Were the Doom bible demon sergeants supposed to have floor fire attacks? "Floor boiling magic" it's called.

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scifista42 said:

My theory is, they never came up with a better name for him than Demon Sergeant, and they left out the word Sergeant on the cast screen

There was no cast screen in Doom 1. All monsters got their official names in the manual. Only Cyperdemon and Spiderdemon are mentioned specifically in the episode end texts.

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