I can critique it for its force-grown interpersonal conflicts. I can slam it for fight choreography that depends way too much on high misses. I can express frustration over how everyone turns to the most nonsensical secret-keeping answer to every difficult situation. I can roll my eyes at the soap opera tropes that would have been right at home on All My Children. I can —
— well, I can forgive it everything except this: that R'as al-Ghul's name is pronounced, not incorrectly, but inconsistently.
[Note: I am halfway through watching S.3. No spoilers, please.]
The name means "Head of the Demon" in Arabic. Properly[] the first part of the name is pronounced "Raysh". And some of the characters do just that.
Others pronounce it "Rass" or "Rahs". Which is incorrect[], but frequently encountered in the general population (and in a lot of media).
But when two people in the same conversation are pronouncing it in two different ways … it just makes me tear my hair out. People don't do that. They'd say, "Oh, is that how you pronounce it?" Or get into an argument or duel over the authoritative way the name of the leader of the Assassin's Guild should be pronounced. Or something. It makes no sense.[**]
Yes, I know, it's a trivial thing to get irked at. But, hey, that's what geekery and nerditude are all about.
[] I believe that "Raysh" is correct. Wikipedia agrees with me. http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/how-to-pronounce-ras-al-ghul-657604/ does not, at least somewhat.
[*] https://www.reddit.com/r/arrow/comments/2r29by/no_spoilers_whats_with_the_inconsistent/ is another good discussion of the question, with some very interesting citations going back to Denny O'Neil, who created the character.
The article mentions that the producers have been asked this question and have stated the dual pronunciation is done intentionally, both in a meta fashion (since fandom disagrees about it) and in an in-story fashion (the people who say "Raysh" are League insiders, the ones who say "Rass" aren't).
That's clever, except (a) Merlyn, a former League member, very clearly says "Rass," and (b) plenty of people are still having those conversations with mixed pronunciations, and someone would say something. That's where my frustration lies.
See also:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO7_cTXSps8
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwx2XFb1fQ
I'm actually going to disagree on the part where two different people in the same conversation will say a word differently and not ask or change. I base this on a woman I work with who says new-cue-lar instead of nu-clear. I make a point of saying it correctly as soon as possible after she does it, and she's yet to pick up on the difference.
I figure she either doesn't realize how she's saying it, or she thinks I've got it wrong and doesn't want to argue about it.
+Bill Dezell A differently pronounced word maybe. A differently pronounced (and foreign) name? I just can't think of a case when I've seen that.
+Dave Hill It's pretty common in astronomy too. Vega for example is usually said VEE-gah by the professional astronomers in our group, while the rest of us say VAY-gah. Many stars, and some constellations, have similar issues.
I'm not saying it shouldn't make your eye twitch, just that it's common enough to me that when I watched the show I chalked it up the same reason no one ever corrected Jack Bauer on "24" when he said nu-ku-lar.
Every. freaking. Time.
+Bill Dezell Well, if I'd been on the show, I'd have told him what-for. He can only torture me to death for it once … 🙂
Though I do give "nukyulur" something of a break (eye twitches aside), given that Jimmy Carter used to say it that way, and he served as part of the navy's nuclear sub program, fergoshsakes.
That’s nothing. In the ’98 Man in the Iron Mask “Athos” is pronounced differently (though consistently) by every actor.