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OpenMaw

The name of the Doom Marine.

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This is an age old discussion, but there is one facet of it that in all the reading of the various threads that have been started here, as far back as 2001, that I have never understood.

A little backstory for anyone who isn't in the know, though i'm sure most of you do. There are four novels from the 90s. Knee-Deep in the Dead, Hell on Earth, Infernal Sky, and Endgame. The first two of which are based roughly on the first two games. Then they go off and tell some really bizzaro science fiction story that has very little to do with Doom.

I know in these parts the Doom novels are not exactly considered fine art, and in case you're wondering, I only really like the first one. The rest do nothing for me. However, I wanted to get down to one thing that I just don't understand. Mostly, because nobody ever explained themselves in any of the threads I read: What's wrong with Flynn Taggart? The name, not the character.

I honestly have never heard anyone give a legitimate claim as to why that name is somehow a bad one. Not anything beyond "it's dumb" or such and such. I'm assuming it's the stigma of the novels themselves that leaves people wanting to distance that name from ever being de-facto official. (Which he should never have within the context of the games anyway. As Romero fondly said "He's YOU."

So i'm just trying to understand the minutiae of what people find so bad about the name, exactly?

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Agreed. Personally, I like the name Flynn Taggart, myself. I think it's a heck of lot less portentous sounding than John Grimm, John Kane, John Stalvern, and the like. It has more character. Plus, it's somewhat evocative of old-school sensibilities. Flynn makes me think of Errol Flynn, and Taggart makes me think of various westerns, etc. I also like his nickname, Fly. Somehow, it works for me.

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Flynn is an Irish surname and Taggart is a Scottish detective show... I dunno, I guess it's a bit silly but it wouldn't worry me if that's his name.

Slink said:

I also like his nickname, Fly. Somehow, it works for me.


Yeah that does suit him.

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I'm partial to John Stalvern.

Though to tell you the truth, it really should be retconned that he's of the Blaze/Blazkowicz family. William J. Blaze?

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It's because Doom Guy was never officially given a name since he is supposedly you, sure the writer of the novels had to give him a name so he can be refereed to and not confuse everyone but that doesn't make it officially a name of Doom Guy.

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OpenMaw said:

So i'm just trying to understand the minutiae of what people find so bad about the name, exactly?


I really don't dislike any name in particular. It's just that given the virtually insignificant role of the story, I really don't bother seriously with that kind of stuff, though sometimes is fun to just throw in a couple of details in an attempt to build up some sort of "credible" or "logical" plot.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

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Guest

His name is Doom Guy.

Doom to his friends.

Mr. Guy to everyone else.

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I thought that by now John was a Zombie.

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Flynn is an okay name for some folks, I guess, but if we really want to make something of the occasion then we'd best do away with all of that nonsense and simply start afresh. No Flynns. No Doomguys. Really study the face of the man and come up with something fitting.

Only a couple of weeks back me and a crack-shot team of hired investigators ploughed through the history books and tried to do just this... but none of the names we came up with stuck! Marcus, Devlin, Baguley, Terrence, Johno, Elvis, Henry, Henri, Ellsworth, Kirk, Wesley, Ron, Herbert, Randall, William, Jakewell, Maximus, Emmett, Kenny, Douglas, Desmond, Ollie, Fredrik, Marlon (a possibility, at a stretch?), Charlie, Bill, Derrick, Andrew, Selwood, Paul, Benny, Angus, Alex, Bossly, Yosemite (Sam), Expedius Swinburne, Stanley, Percival, Thisby, Guy, Vincent, Myers, Nathan, Dean, Harold, Geoffrey, Red, Zachary, Manuel, Wolfgang, Todd, Cole, Walt, George, Bambi, Buddy, Ernest...

Ernest...

Yes. Yes I think I can see it working. Slightly glazed and vacant expression. Highly alert, though, don't let those eyes fool you. And trustworthy, by God. Here's a man that you could sit with and talk to without fear of repercussion because he's just so grounded in reality - so experienced - and possibly grafted from a unique kind of organic porcelain that renders him above most men with respect to divinity. And how!

I don't know about you, but I'd say we're onto something.

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When I made a parody of him in Sims 2, I named him Doomguy Marine. I will do the same if I ever re-recreate him in Sims 3. Suprised I havent done this yet..

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Flynn sounds strange to me, and makes me think of some wobbly flan...

I call him John Doomguy.

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I typically go with his novel name 'Flynn Taggart'. Having his name be 'John *Whatever*' is too cliche. Pretty much every 80s and 90s acton hero has the name John: Rambo, Matrix, McClane, etc. Flynn Taggart actually sounds more like a character.

If not this though, I'm going with Buddy Dacote from the Doom Bible.

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Slink said:

Personally, I like the name Flynn Taggart, myself. I think it's a heck of lot less portentous sounding than John Grimm, John Kane, John Stalvern, and the like. It has more character. Plus, it's somewhat evocative of old-school sensibilities. Flynn makes me think of Errol Flynn, and Taggart makes me think of various westerns, etc. I also like his nickname, Fly. Somehow, it works for me.


I couldn't agree more. Seriously, who came up with those ridiculous names?

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OpenMaw said:

What's wrong with Flynn Taggart?

What's right with it?

It's just one dude's arbitrary name for a nameless character. Coming from the novelization gives it more exposure, but also less credibility, than other names.

The thing is that I don't see a real need for him to have an actual name. He's the Doomguy. The Space Marine. The lone survivor of the hellish invasions. The one-man-army that you get to play. He's the player's puppet.

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Doomguy the Space Marine, what more would you want? The official games don't give his name away, apparently on purpose, as he is supposed to be you. That's what we know, and that's why I wouldn't refer to him anyhow else.

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Luke Dacote said:

If not this though, I'm going with Buddy Dacote from the Doom Bible.


Personally I think Buddy Dacote makes the most sense since there a lot of similarities between him and the marine that we play as in the final game. (Both characters die at the end of the first episode, were both sent to an isolated military outpost for lashing out at a superior officer, both were assigned the task of being a security advisor on a mission, have brown/blondish hair, have a strong muscular build, are very fast and powerful, etc.) I think Romero may have based the protagonist off that character from the Doom bible, seeing as while it was scrapped, quite a few ideas from it still made it into the final game. Though I like the idea of him being a descendent of the Blazkowicz family as implied in the Doom RPG.

In any case however, it is a canonical fact that the marine does not have a name and is supposed to represent whoever is playing the game. The way I see it, Doomguy is like Link from the Zelda franchise. A character that is intentionally given very little in the way of personality and backstory in order to serve as an avatar for the player to make the game a more immerse experience.

As for the name "Flynn Taggart", I personally don't like it because as someone else mentioned, it really does not fit the Doomguy at all and sounds like the name of a line dancer.

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I'm fine with Flynn Taggart, characters without any given name are odd, but I understand if some doomers like to call him just doomguy

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The Man of Doom. Or Superfly Johnson.

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My wife and I can only seem to agree on girls names for our future kids, but she did once mention she liked Flynn, and that's pretty the only name I didn't object to for doom guys sake. I never actually refer to him as anything other than myself, "the player" or "doomguy"

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Nomad said:

it really should be retconned that he's of the Blaze/Blazkowicz family. William J. Blaze?


Actually id software/zenimax/whatever DID it for the iOS version of Doom 2 RPG; he's from the same family that killed Hitler and a demon summoned from Hell itself, and saved the universe from aliens that ate a 6-year old kid's babysitter

I think they named him Stan Blazkowicz

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