...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
The Dung Ages
- 486 statements
- 92 feature instances
- 133 referencing feature instances
| The Dung Ages | type |
FeatureClass | |
| The Dung Ages | label |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages | page |
TheDungAges | |
| The Dung Ages | comment |
A really crappy time to be alive. Literally. The Dung Ages are the representation of the Medieval Era as a Crapsack World of pustule-faced, cat-beating, dung-caked, mud-farming peasants, the antithesis of Ye Goode Olde Days, made popular by the Monty Python team. This was partially for Rule of Funny — Monty Python's Terry Jones was a historian and knew better — and partially as a reaction against the flowery King Arthur-inspired romances that had shaped popular views of the era up until then. Portrayal of the Dung Ages is not limited to Britain and/or the Dark Ages. It's often seen even in portrayals of cultures where it doesn't belong. Many ancient Romans, for instance, bathed every day: once soapmaking arrived from Gaul, the Roman Patricians who could afford it used soap with abandon, possibly to a greater extent than we do. The core of this idea and portrayal is summed up in the page quote: prior to the widespread adoption of underground sewage infrastructure in the late nineteenth century, human shit and the menagerie of diseases associated with it were everyday sights and smells. This was especially true for armies and towns. Something to keep in mind is that neither The Dung Ages nor Ye Goode Olde Days is "more" accurate than the other. The reality is that while hygiene was not good by modern standards, and living conditions were not what we'd call "comfortable" (what with the lack of air conditioning, flush toilets, and weekly garbage pick-up), neither did most people walk around barefoot, caked in filth, eating rotten food and living in tumble-down huts made of sticks. See the analysis page for more details on the historicity of this trope. More common in literature or live-action works, since animating a lot of dust, dirt and grime is harder than having everything be clean. Strong aversions of The Dung Ages are examples of Ye Goode Olde Days and should be put there. For depictions of history being more socially progressive than truly accurate for the time, see Politically Correct History. The growing Dungeon Punk subgenre blends Dung Ages squalor with Dungeons & Dragons/Sword and Sorcery tropes and modern-day aesthetics. See also Medieval Morons. |
|
| The Dung Ages | fetched |
2023-07-11T21:00:14Z | |
| The Dung Ages | parsed |
2023-07-11T21:00:14Z | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to AgentPeacock: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to AncientRome: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to BattleBrothers: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to CoolClearWater: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to CrapsackWorld: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to CultureClash: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to GorgeousPeriodDress: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to IncrediblyLamePun: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to ItMakesSenseInContext: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to LethalChef: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlanetOfHats: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to Sin2019: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheWitcher: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to TimeTravel: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| The Dung Ages | processingComment |
Dropped link to TruthInTelevision: Not an Item - CAT | |
| The Dung Ages | processingUnknown |
Sin | |
| The Dung Ages | processingUnknown |
TheWitcher | |
| The Dung Ages | processingUnknown |
BattleBrothers | |
| The Dung Ages | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| The Dung Ages / int_12058c99 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_12058c99 | comment |
Mentioned in Hark! A Vagrant where some of the costumes in a film depicting medieval times are not completely appropriate for the era, and the director says "Just rub some dirt on them, I guess. No one's gonna care." | |
| The Dung Ages / int_12058c99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_12058c99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hark! A Vagrant (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_12058c99 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13679a09 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13679a09 | comment |
Defied in Ward/The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim crossover Point Me at the Skyrim. Since she has landed into some kind of quasi-medieval world, Victoria Dallon assumes basic hygiene rules are unknown to her friends. Appalled, Invictus states that OF COURSE they wash their hands before touching their food. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13679a09 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13679a09 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ward | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_13679a09 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13a8a9fe | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13a8a9fe | comment |
Played straight and averted in Scott Meyer's Magic 2.0 series. While there are many smells that Martin isn't used to, life in 12th century England isn't that bad, even for the common folk. However, Martin specifically chose that time period after a quick Google search for the best time to live in Medieval England. As it turns out, this was the intention of Phillip and the other wizards, who keep a certain book in print to get more time travelers to join them. There is one persistent man who keeps bothering Phillip about helping him with his dung-sifting business. Naturally, Phillip is not inclined to get involved. All wizards find ways to be more hygienic than the locals, especially where bathrooms are concerned. Being able to teleport and time travel helps. Tyler is noted as keeping an apartment in his own time specifically to use its bathroom. Phillip's toilet has a perpetual portal that transports the waste to just above Jimmy's statue's head. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_13a8a9fe | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_13a8a9fe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Magic 2.0 | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_13a8a9fe | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1c1be04e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1c1be04e | comment |
In The Lighthouse Duet, the land of Navronne has famine, rain, and copious amounts of mud, and Valen sees the relatively simple food offered by the monks at Gillarine as a luxury, which says a lot about what the food is like elsewhere. In this case, it's justified, as Navronne is mired in a protracted civil war that includes a faction of necromancers and a doomsday cult. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1c1be04e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1c1be04e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Lighthouse Duet | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_1c1be04e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1cbc1a59 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1cbc1a59 | comment |
The village landscapes in Dragonheart are several shades of brown and quite muddy. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1cbc1a59 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1cbc1a59 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dragonheart | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_1cbc1a59 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f29b520 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f29b520 | comment |
The 13th Warrior accurately depicts the Viking method of bathing, as detailed in the Real Life section below. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f29b520 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f29b520 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The 13th Warrior | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_1f29b520 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f630f72 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f630f72 | comment |
The third installment brings this back a few times, most notably The Undead Settlement, the Corvian Settlement is also pretty nasty and there is something clearly wrong with its residents. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f630f72 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_1f630f72 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dark Souls III (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_1f630f72 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_205aa811 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_205aa811 | comment |
Dororo, parts of Phoenix and other Jidaigeki stories by Osamu Tezuka depict Japan's Sengoku period this way, as he was a staunch pacifist who disliked the romanticized view of the age of the samurai prevalent in Japanese media. Expect to see lots of burned down villages and corpses everywhere, either from the constant warfare or good old fashioned famine and disease. It should tell you something that when the setting of the film version of Dororo was moved from the 1500s to the post-apocalyptic future, very little was changed. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_205aa811 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_205aa811 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dororo (Manga) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_205aa811 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_253e45cd | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_253e45cd | comment |
The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell rips Arthurian Legend from the medieval version of Gorgeous Period Dress setting into this one. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_253e45cd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_253e45cd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Warlord Chronicles | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_253e45cd | |
| The Dung Ages / int_2630fe31 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_2630fe31 | comment |
The 1989 version of Hard to Be a God is set on an Earthlike planet where the Renaissance never happened, stranding the population in medieval stasis. It is incredibly filthy, including scenes where residents will step into something, scrape it off their foot, then smell it to ascertain what they stepped in. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_2630fe31 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_2630fe31 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hard to Be a God | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_2630fe31 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_29e77392 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_29e77392 | comment |
Horrible Histories is an extended example; they point out gross things from every area of history, not just the medieval period, including how the Roman baths were only cleaned once a day and how the enlisted men in WWI had to find unusual uses for urine (or, as the advertising voice said, "New! World War 1 Wee-Wee!") | |
| The Dung Ages / int_29e77392 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_29e77392 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Horrible Histories | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_29e77392 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_390e9106 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_390e9106 | comment |
Making History (2017) depicts Colonial America this way. When Chris first arrives there, he immediately throws up, as Dan warns him that the past smells like poo. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_390e9106 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_390e9106 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Making History (2017) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_390e9106 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3ac51861 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3ac51861 | comment |
Cadfael generally averts this. Though the dirt roads and lack of running water are prominent, most of the characters are generally in clean clothes and well-groomed. One notable aversion is when the monks travel to Wales—the town of Gwitheryn and its people are much grubbier than Shrewsbury. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3ac51861 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3ac51861 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Cadfael | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_3ac51861 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3dd80ee | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3dd80ee | comment |
A major theme of History Bites is making use of this trope, from the Neolithic Period to the Old West, for Black Comedy. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3dd80ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3dd80ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| History Bites | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_3dd80ee | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f5987ff | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f5987ff | comment |
A Million Ways to Die in the West takes elements of this trope, transports them into The Wild West, and plays the whole thing for laughs. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f5987ff | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f5987ff | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Million Ways to Die in the West | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_3f5987ff | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f633fb4 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f633fb4 | comment |
Cracked: Debunked in "6 Ridiculous Myths About the Middle Ages Everyone Believes". Parodied in this video, which applies this trope to a Disney musical. There are giant piles of manure, carts full of dead babies, child brides, and even the singing princess coughs up blood and looks forward to dying in childbirth. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_3f633fb4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_3f633fb4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Cracked (Website) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_3f633fb4 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_40438f71 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_40438f71 | comment |
Black Knight (2001) has this as part of the humor. At first, Martin Lawrence's character Jamal thinks he's in a Medieval theme park. Then he needs to go to the bathroom and discovers, to his horror, that Medieval privies are... not exactly hygienic. Earlier, a bum (actually the disgraced Sir Knolte) offers him some food, which is a nasty-looking critter on a stick. The scene with the royal feast also shows the Medieval table manners (e.g. loud farting, no utensils, letting a dog lick your fingers). After his first attempt at riding a horse, Jamal is comforted by Victoria... and some leeches. Even the idea that Jamal is literate seems incredible to the locals. Strangely, No Equal-Opportunity Time Travel is averted (except for Jamal getting tired of people calling him "Moor"), but this can be partly explained by him pretending to be a ducal messenger. His odd mannerisms are attributed to him being perceived as a Norman. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_40438f71 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_40438f71 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Black Knight (2001) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_40438f71 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4139b0e7 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4139b0e7 | comment |
The town of Big Whiskey in Unforgiven is covered in so much mud. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4139b0e7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4139b0e7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Unforgiven | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_4139b0e7 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_468bebb0 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_468bebb0 | comment |
The city of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld is introduced as a generic medieval fantasy city. Much is made of its signature stench, one that even inhabitants of Calcutta would recoil from, and the River Ankh is described as so full of mud, silt, and pollution that anyone, not just holy saints and demigods, can walk on the water. The people are similarly described as strangers to regular bathing and laundry. The city progresses through the books to a state like Victorian London: still grubby, but a bit cleaner. Expanded background works in the canon even reveal it has public baths and bath-houses. How much custom they actually get is a different matter. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_468bebb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Discworld | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_468bebb0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4b83348e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4b83348e | comment |
Ironclad: Almost everybody is covered in grime, and things like wooden buildings and carts appear very ramshackle and shoddy. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4b83348e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4b83348e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Ironclad | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_4b83348e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4e433e78 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4e433e78 | comment |
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Trope Codifier, in which practically everyone runs around bedraggled, shabby and covered in filth, as noted by one character's caustic observation: "He must be a king. He hasn't got shit all over him." In fact, according to backstage reports, the attention of the two Pythons who were directing (Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam) to keeping things "authentic" in this regard note Terry Jones admits on the commentary track that this was exaggerated in comparison to what history research has indicated, mentioning for instance that skeletons from the time can have surprisingly good teeth due to the lack of sugar consumption. eventually began to take on slightly obsessive tones and really began to piss off the other Pythons (and the other cast and crew members, for that matter), who were having to seriously suffer for their art. This eventually made it a pretty difficult shoot at times and also perhaps provided a reminder of why this trope exists in the first place. This said, however, Gilliam at least was willing to go through what he was putting everyone else through; his two main characters are probably the filthiest main characters in the movie. The scene with the "autonomous collective" was supposed to take place on a normal-looking farm. Because they couldn't get access to a real farm on their filming budget, they changed it to a mud farm. You could say they were dirt poor. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_4e433e78 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4e433e78 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Monty Python and the Holy Grail | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_4e433e78 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4f36eb22 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4f36eb22 | comment |
The Italian movie The Incredible Army of Brancaleone. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4f36eb22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4f36eb22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Incredible Army of Brancaleone | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_4f36eb22 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4fb9c0c0 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4fb9c0c0 | comment |
Beka Cooper, set two centuries before the rest of the Tortall Universe books, really goes for this. However, it's mostly because Beka lives and works in the poorest part of the city, where good sanitation is warning people in the street that you're about to dump your chamberpot out the window. Expensive districts are markedly cleaner, and Port Caynn has a decent (for medieval times) sewer system. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4fb9c0c0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_4fb9c0c0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Beka Cooper | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_4fb9c0c0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_53bd0aaf | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_53bd0aaf | comment |
Played straight and subverted in With Strings Attached. The quasi-Victorian city of Focan in Ketafa stinks of dung (and factories) so badly that the four gag when they first smell it and have to breathe through their mouths. The people stink too. Also, when they first meet a native (a farmer who smells like a goat), he sniffs them and is amazed that they "smell different." On the other hand, the quasi-medieval city of Ta'akan in Baravada is kept magically clean, and the citizens bathe regularly, to the point where even crumbling old hotels have their bathrooms maintained. And the Baravadans are very critical of how the four smell when they first arrive from Focan. Some of the Ketafans who live in Baravada aren't too concerned with personal hygiene, but most of them apparently picked up the habit from the Baravadans. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_53bd0aaf | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_53bd0aaf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| With Strings Attached / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_53bd0aaf | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5755b96a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5755b96a | comment |
Appears in The Order of the Stick once, with some dirt-farming peasants. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5755b96a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5755b96a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Order of the Stick (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_5755b96a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5908ee91 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5908ee91 | comment |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim doesn't shy away from how filthy it gets, at least when you're outside of the cities, and even within some of the cities it's run down and disgusting in the right places. In fact, there's even a character creation option to smear your Dragonborn with dirt across their face. Yet they are well aware of hygiene. Every bandit camp has at least one corner with a bucket, and houses have washbasins - which is historically accurate; Norse people bathed at least weekly, had running water, and saunas are as antique as the Norse people. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_5908ee91 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5908ee91 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_5908ee91 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5ce8480e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5ce8480e | comment |
In Evolution a hunter-gatherer arriving in a Proto-Indo-European city (about 6000 BC) is understandably appalled by the hygienic conditions following the rapid population growth. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5ce8480e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5ce8480e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Evolution | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_5ce8480e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5f279304 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5f279304 | comment |
Thief (2014) has technology well beyond The Middle Ages, but it still fits this trope. People make comments like "We still have our lives and most of our teeth!" and there are rats, garbage heaps, and filthy beggars everywhere. Some thugs in Riverside can be overheard discussing a particularly sweet-smelling prostitute who lathers herself in perfume; she apparently has quite a waiting list. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5f279304 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_5f279304 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Thief (2014) (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_5f279304 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_600ba53d | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_600ba53d | comment |
Darkest Dungeon begins this way when you first arrive at the Hamlet. The place is a degenerate and squalid hole of poverty with most city buildings in utter ruin. As time passes and you rebuild the Hamlet, the place becomes cleaner and livelier. However, the dungeons you delve into are almost universally places of squalor, decay, and utter filth. The Warrens in particular are a disgusting series of sewage tunnels riddled with corpses, dung, and the garbage left behind by the Swinefolk. The nauseating sounds of escaping gases from rotting garbage and dung forms part of the constant background ambience of the Warrens. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_600ba53d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_600ba53d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Darkest Dungeon / Videogame | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_600ba53d | |
| The Dung Ages / int_6121bb82 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_6121bb82 | comment |
Yellowbeard starring Graham Chapman could be seen as an extension of the Monty Python motif. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_6121bb82 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_6121bb82 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Yellowbeard | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_6121bb82 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_630755ab | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_630755ab | comment |
Deliberately avoided in the Codex Alera novels, where everyone bathes regularly if they can, including public baths. Of course, this is a setting where everyone has access to at least some degree of Elemental Powers, so hot, fresh water is commonplace thanks to fire and water furies. The injured and wounded are actually the cleanest, as the healing abilities of watercrafting usually require the patient to be submerged in a tub. Bathing for cleanliness is a bit harder to acquire for the Legions when they're in the field, to the point where the camp followers can make a decent income off of providing hot baths for legionaires. The hero, Tavi, has to regularly take baths while in the Legions because he pissed off his immediate superior (a logistics officer) by investigating his corruption and got handed an assignment to precisely measure the depth, length, and width of the latrine trenches to make sure "they were up to standard." Note that the Alerans are descended from Romans displaced into an alternate universe, so the standards of cleanliness are derived from the Roman ones. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_630755ab | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_630755ab | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Codex Alera | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_630755ab | |
| The Dung Ages / int_672b84af | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_672b84af | comment |
The England depicted in Black Death is a filthy, depressing place to live (and probably die). | |
| The Dung Ages / int_672b84af | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_672b84af | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Black Death | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_672b84af | |
| The Dung Ages / int_701f0ece | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_701f0ece | comment |
In the setting of Berserk, while you get occasional pockets of Ye Goode Olde Days in the land, and the nobility and royalty live in shiny splendor, many peasants and poor people suffer from famine, dress in rags, and live in filthy hovels. It gets especially bad during the plague and invasion that create a refugee crisis in Midland, leading to thousands of people huddling in a tent city beneath the Tower of Conviction mired in filth, starvation, and ignorance. In contrast, the magically created city of Falconia is considered to be a fantastic marvel, because unlike everywhere else, it has running water, a modern sewer system, public baths, and flushing toilets! | |
| The Dung Ages / int_701f0ece | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_701f0ece | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Berserk (Manga) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_701f0ece | |
| The Dung Ages / int_765c3f09 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_765c3f09 | comment |
Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove highlights how much this was indeed the case in the late Roman Empire. It's mostly because of ignorance or simply inability to do anything else, however. How do you keep the flies or lice away with no screens or shampoo, for instance? Nonetheless, it's really hard on the protagonist, who's a time traveler from the US in the late '90s. They still do bathe frequently, but it doesn't help much since the grime quickly sets in again, bath water is rarely changed, and sick people go too. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_765c3f09 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_765c3f09 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Household Gods | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_765c3f09 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e22425 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e22425 | comment |
One of the Pinky and the Brain plots is to gain money via Robin Hood methods, and get indoor plumbing to England, which would inspire the people to make them kings. While everything else works, the plan falls flat because the English didn't want to be bathed, believing hot water and soap to be a lethal combination. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e22425 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e22425 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pinky and the Brain | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_77e22425 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e585a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e585a | comment |
Averted in Transcendence. Ichigo assumes that a medieval city like Stormwind would be pretty dirty, but finds himself mildly surprised by how clean the place turns out to be. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e585a | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_77e585a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Transcendence / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_77e585a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_781378c7 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_781378c7 | comment |
Pendragon is this at the earliest points in its timeline, with the player characters being little better than armoured thugs on horses. As the game's metaplot progresses, it moves towards and finally reaches Ye Goode Olde Days with the player characters as Knights in Shining Armour. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_781378c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_781378c7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Pendragon (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_781378c7 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7a909592 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7a909592 | comment |
Another Python offshoot (see a pattern here?) Erik the Viking (directed by Terry Jones) is also filthy dirty. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7a909592 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7a909592 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Erik the Viking | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_7a909592 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7d271ad1 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7d271ad1 | comment |
This was the situation in The Sword in the Stone. England's good king had died and no one could figure out who was rightful heir to the throne. And when no one was able to draw the titular sword, England was left without a king for years. As the narration described "This was a dark age, without law and without order. Men lived in fear of each other, for the strong preyed upon the weak". It got to the point that it was decided that the winner of tournament would become king. Of course, this becomes moot and the dark age ends when young Arthur pulls the sword and becomes king. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7d271ad1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_7d271ad1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Sword in the Stone | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_7d271ad1 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_806c20e5 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_806c20e5 | comment |
Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, both being heavily influenced by Berserk are this. It's most obvious in the Valley of Defilement and Blighttown respectively. These areas are nasty, disgusting, plague-ridden towns built over swamps. The third installment brings this back a few times, most notably The Undead Settlement, the Corvian Settlement is also pretty nasty and there is something clearly wrong with its residents. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_806c20e5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_806c20e5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Demon's Souls (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_806c20e5 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8263f683 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8263f683 | comment |
In Elden Ring, it is implied that the Lands Between were far nicer and cleaner before the Shattering ruined everything, and even modern Leyendell still looks quite nice despite the majority of the population having gone insane or fallen into indolence and half the city's buildings were sealed with corpse-wax. The rest of the Lands Between, especially Limgrave, have fallen into utter disrepair with no intact towns or cities and starving citizens who cannot die left scrabbling in the dirt for food. Note that this is before you get to the parts of the Lands Between where there's open genocides and villages filled with cults of the Frenzied Flame, or regions infected by the Scarlet Rot. Crapsack World doesn't begin to describe how terrible things have become. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8263f683 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8263f683 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Elden Ring (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_8263f683 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86312631 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86312631 | comment |
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: Cities in Fantasyland will usually have heaps of refuse, along with being near hovels. Though a certain amount of this makes sense, Jones notes it never seems to break down. It gets to the point of her inferring that Fantasyland must lack insects, which means it's severely messed up. Abusive nobles and very downtrodden peasants who have a miserable time are also common, though usually country-specific. Lands ruled by The Good King can expect to have happier peasants and nicer nobles. Those of the Aristocratic Feudalists though... not so much. Obviously, in the land of the Dark Lord it's mostly living hell. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86312631 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86312631 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Tough Guide to Fantasyland | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_86312631 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86b0e6b8 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86b0e6b8 | comment |
Gospel of the Lost Gods: King's Landing absolutely reeks and more than one character has something to say about it. The Wards as a whole loathe the lowered standards of cleanliness than they are used too in the modern day. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86b0e6b8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_86b0e6b8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Gospel of the Lost Gods (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_86b0e6b8 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8aa7c509 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8aa7c509 | comment |
In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the regular peasantry of Mewni live in dirty squalor, in contrast to the shining, magic-fuel royal palace. It's one of the first hints that Mewni isn't as great as it seems... Oddly though, this specific aspect is quietly forgotten after the first season or two, after which the common folk are shown with a much higher quality of living. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8aa7c509 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8aa7c509 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Star vs. the Forces of Evil | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_8aa7c509 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8d84363c | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8d84363c | comment |
HBO's Rome has The Dung Ages for the plebs, and Gorgeous Period Dress for the patricians. Which is pretty close to the way it would really have been. And even the plebs aren't that badly off in terms of cleanliness, at least while in the titular city; Rome had plenty of public bathhouses that were cheap or free for citizens (but not slaves). | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8d84363c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_8d84363c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Rome | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_8d84363c | |
| The Dung Ages / int_90c73dda | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_90c73dda | comment |
Invoked in the Animorphs book Elfangor's Secret, which makes a big point of how bad the hygiene and poor health of the general populace was in medieval times. The Animorphs find the time-travelling villain by looking for someone clean and call attention to the fact that even the really important kingy people have giant sores in their faces from smallpox and what have you. When they say "clean", they mean "doesn't have a face full of holes". | |
| The Dung Ages / int_90c73dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_90c73dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Animorphs | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_90c73dda | |
| The Dung Ages / int_95f17d9b | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_95f17d9b | comment |
In Blood Drain, the village of Qe'Lam is smelly, poor, and implied to be covered in poop. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_95f17d9b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_95f17d9b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kingdom's Disdain | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_95f17d9b | |
| The Dung Ages / int_976efc02 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_976efc02 | comment |
Subverted in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "The Magic Sword", where Joel holds a Renaissance fair on the Satellite of Love, and Servo shows up as an indentured serf, making observations of the "real" Dark Ages, taking the fun out of Joel's fair. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_976efc02 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_976efc02 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mystery Science Theater 3000 | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_976efc02 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_982fa89f | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_982fa89f | comment |
The BBC's Robin Hood (2006) includes some elements of The Dung Ages. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_982fa89f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_982fa89f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Robin Hood | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_982fa89f | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d3237c8 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d3237c8 | comment |
On Adam Ruins Everything, Adam explains to Murph and Emily where all those studies that say you have to have children before age 35 OR ELSE got their data from: French farmers in the 1500s. He lets in several people, all of whom are dirty and tracking in straw. Murph opens up a window because they smell. One of the farm girls comments in French, "No dirt, no plague...this must be Heaven!" A researcher on the subject (who herself had all her children relatively late in life) follows and explains that this is a problem because the data comes from an era before fertility treatments (such as IVF), antibiotics, modern medicine, etc. Also, it's only census data, so it doesn't explain why few of those women were having babies after 35. Sure, it could mean that those women were going through menopause or perimenopause sooner than women today do. But it could also reflect that those women were dying early of diseases (such as The Black Death), or dying in childbirth, or that their husbands had gone off to war, or maybe sex after a certain age was considered "unseemly," or many other possible explanations. note And, in case you're wondering, more modern data suggests that a woman's fertility declines, not in her mid 30's, but in her mid 40's. And the risk of a live birth with a birth defect does double: from 0.5% to 1%. So you can have babies later in life than you've been led to believe. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d3237c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d3237c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Adam Ruins Everything | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9d3237c8 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d47a2a2 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d47a2a2 | comment |
A Song of Ice and Fire goes for the duality of Gorgeous Period Dress and The Dung Ages. A lot of the action involves the nobles, but it's made clear that the "smallfolk" are having a pretty shitty time of it, usually paying the price for disputes between lords. The moral aspects of the era are called up, as well — thirteen is seen as a perfectly valid age for marriage, the most popular system of justice is trial by combat, castration's still a legal punishment... Westeros is just not a nice place. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d47a2a2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d47a2a2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Song of Ice and Fire | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9d47a2a2 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c208 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c208 | comment |
Doomsday Book: Subverted. Kivrin takes a while to adjust to the idea that the Middle Ages are neither: both better and worse than she might have expected. The doctor who immunizes Kivrin offers to cauterize her nose because they think the stench will be just that overpowering. However, people are described as smelly and more unwashed than would be realistic at the time. Only after the Plague did the bathing culture fall away. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c208 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c208 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Doomsday Book | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9d8c208 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c6a74 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c6a74 | comment |
Nineteenth century Paris in Les Misérables (2012). | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c6a74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9d8c6a74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Les Misérables (2012) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9d8c6a74 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e3d1858 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e3d1858 | comment |
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is set in medieval Bohemia and averts this quite a bit. The people around have some hygiene standards and will comment to you if you've gone a long while without bathing, especially if you've travelled a lot or been in a fight. People around will regularly wash in public troughs, though it's not the most effective at doing so given that everyone's using it, and public bathhouses are available if you want to be more thorough (and if you want to solicit a washerwoman for sex, which is coincidentally among the reasons the practice falls out of favor). When it comes to shit in the streets, cities have garderobes, latrine closets and such around with gong farmers being paid well to remove all the excrement accumulated in them and villages are surveyed with residents understanding that one has to defecate some distance downstream. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e3d1858 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e3d1858 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9e3d1858 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e876c22 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e876c22 | comment |
The Good Omens fic I shall endure to the end by A.A. Pessimal sees the demon Crowley attending a public execution in Paris in 1314. Crowley would prefer to be somewhere else, ideally somewhere where people have rediscovered soap and regular baths: He returns for another public execution in Paris in 1793. Things have not progressed much. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_9e876c22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9e876c22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Good Omens | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9e876c22 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9fa5fb48 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9fa5fb48 | comment |
Schooled in Magic: Outside of the mage schools, the world is in this, with abusive nobles, brutal serfdom and poor sanitation contrasting the meritocracy and hot running water of Whitehall. To a magician's nose, even the king smells like shit. In Past Tense, everyone in the past is as bad off as peasants of the modern-day Nameless World. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9fa5fb48 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_9fa5fb48 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Schooled in Magic | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_9fa5fb48 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a047471e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a047471e | comment |
Roman-era is portrayed this way in Chelmsford 123. Of course, the Roman characters complain about how much filthier everything is in Britain compared to Rome. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a047471e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a047471e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chelmsford 123 | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_a047471e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a7d57bb8 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a7d57bb8 | comment |
In Home with the Fairies, chapter 3, this is how Maddie perceives the town of Bree. It looks medieval, and it stinks, with "open sewers down the sides of the street" and "the wretched filth lying in the gutters and alleys". It disgusts her, but the locals seem to ignore it. Maddie is yet to learn that she is in the setting of The Lord of the Rings, and dwarves and hobbits are nearby. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a7d57bb8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a7d57bb8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Home with the Fairies (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_a7d57bb8 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a8150af4 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a8150af4 | comment |
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Southlanders are portrayed as this. They live in small, dirty towns made only of a few wooden houses, and most of them never seem to have heard about the concept of bathing, looking dirty and dressed in rags all the time. Waldreg is self conscious of their situation, and joins the Orcs like his ancestors did, hoping they would lift them up from firth and muck. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a8150af4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_a8150af4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_a8150af4 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_aa968673 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_aa968673 | comment |
The BBC Historical Farm Series examines this in detail. The hosts note that while hygiene was more difficult and there were a lot of very mucky tasks, people also weren't blithely going around covered in grime and manure and would clean themselves and their clothes as best as they were able given time and resource constraints. On the other hand, they also go into great detail about the various uses that waste was put to on farms, from the reason manure was an essential component of wattle-and-daub, to the near-limitless chemical applications of human urine. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_aa968673 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_aa968673 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| BBC Historical Farm Series | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_aa968673 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b30ae4db | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b30ae4db | comment |
On Game of Thrones, Westeros under King Joffrey is this, mainly because Joffrey doesn't give a damn about anyone but...well...Joffrey, and doesn't see to it that his subjects have adequate food or infrastructure. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b30ae4db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b30ae4db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Game of Thrones | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_b30ae4db | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b609c90e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b609c90e | comment |
Invoked by Ellie, word for word, in Avalon High. While others may have romantic notions of the Middle Ages, this daughter of Medieval scholars has absolutely zero desire to be one of them. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b609c90e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b609c90e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Avalon High | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_b609c90e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b829b21 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b829b21 | comment |
A source of much humour in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b829b21 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b829b21 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Maid Marian and Her Merry Men | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_b829b21 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b97f910f | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b97f910f | comment |
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The second new era added to the game are the Dark Ages, a time of plague, mistrust and peasants (of which the standard zombie variants are). It's also a pun, as it's the only time set at night, thus reintroducing the use of mushrooms and no sun from the sky. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b97f910f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b97f910f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_b97f910f | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b9c8ae97 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b9c8ae97 | comment |
The narrator of Perfume has this to say about 18th century France: | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b9c8ae97 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_b9c8ae97 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Perfume | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_b9c8ae97 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bb444181 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bb444181 | comment |
Tales of the Questor: Averted by the raccoon-like Rac Cona Daimh, but played pretty straight by the human kingdoms surrounding their hidden villages. Quentyn is horrified to see that the first person he meets outside the racconan villages has fleas, and later on it's mentioned that the reason they hid was humans blaming them for the plague when they didn't catch it (due to washing their hands!) | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bb444181 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bb444181 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Tales of the Questor (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_bb444181 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bc8d1b87 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bc8d1b87 | comment |
In the short-lived cartoon Mad Jack the Pirate, Jack and Snuck visited a very poor village who worshipped an animal and rubbed its droppings on their clothing. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bc8d1b87 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_bc8d1b87 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Mad Jack the Pirate | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_bc8d1b87 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c35714d6 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c35714d6 | comment |
Blackadder II. A couple decide to buy Blackadder's house specifically because it doesn't have an indoor toilet. Baldrick is occasionally mentioned to eat dung in the second and third series. Blackadder Goes Forth has a pretty harsh view of life in the trenches during World War I. Aside from being cold and miserable, food is so scarce that they have to rely on Baldrick's barely edible cooking, and Edmund willingly starves himself just to be spared it on multiple occasions. Just about every meal involves rats, and "coffee" is just hot mud in a cup. It doesn't help that they're overseen by an insane general who has a habit of randomly sending large numbers of people directly into enemy fire and almost certain death. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_c35714d6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c35714d6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Blackadder | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_c35714d6 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c59abec0 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c59abec0 | comment |
Mel Gibson's Braveheart. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c59abec0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c59abec0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Braveheart | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_c59abec0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c70bf81a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c70bf81a | comment |
Catherine Called Birdy (2022): The film is set in the middle ages, and the opening sees noblewoman Catherine playing about in the muck. Her lady's maid mournfully comments that she had just been bathed a fortnight ago. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c70bf81a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c70bf81a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Catherine Called Birdy (2022) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_c70bf81a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c8c37e6f | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c8c37e6f | comment |
The Hour of the Pig: Averted. The characters are shown as largely clean (with some peasants not as much, but that may just be after a hard day's work) and going to a bathhouse. In fact, it may be unrealistic, since by the time the bathing culture had deteriorated after the Plague (bathhouses were a disease vector and often closed). | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c8c37e6f | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c8c37e6f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Hour of the Pig | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_c8c37e6f | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c961cc7e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c961cc7e | comment |
Played straight in El Conquistador. Quetza discovers that, although the Europeans are a fearsome threat, they are dirty and smelly as hell. Even his Love Interest isn't from there, as she is a Japanese maiden. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c961cc7e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_c961cc7e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| El Conquistador | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_c961cc7e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_cacc7427 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_cacc7427 | comment |
Chef and Gwynne's love duet in Galavant invokes every single cliché associated with this trope. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_cacc7427 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_cacc7427 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Galavant | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_cacc7427 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d362c8ec | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d362c8ec | comment |
The English countryside, and the towns and villages apart from the castles in Robin Hood (1991). | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d362c8ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d362c8ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Robin Hood (1991) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_d362c8ec | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d3631a89 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d3631a89 | comment |
Ridley Scott arguably invokes this with his grittier, dung-ier take on Robin Hood. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d3631a89 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d3631a89 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Robin Hood (2010) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_d3631a89 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d482e71f | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d482e71f | comment |
Featured in one of the regular sketches in French and Saunders. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d482e71f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d482e71f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| French and Saunders | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_d482e71f | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d7c4626a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d7c4626a | comment |
The Sandman (1989): Hob Gadling, who is really 600 years old but looks 30, grumpily complains that a Renaissance Fair or SCA event he's dragged to doesn't have enough shit everywhere. But later he complains that the toilets are "bloody disgusting" and gets back a "we strive for realism". A mere hundred years after Gadling's deal with Death, there's an old guy complaining that newfangled inventions like chimneys have replaced brasiers, because the latter would keep the smoke inside, strengthening wood beams and the occupants' health. Hob tells him to shut it. |
|
| The Dung Ages / int_d7c4626a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d7c4626a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Sandman (1989) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_d7c4626a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d8cdd857 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d8cdd857 | comment |
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys had Herc's greedy friend Salmoneous invest in a dung-fertilizer business run by brothers who had become way too desensitized to the substance. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d8cdd857 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_d8cdd857 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_d8cdd857 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_de08a422 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_de08a422 | comment |
A Plague Tale: Innocence has this view of medieval France, just with the dung replaced by rotting corpses and plague rats. Justified as it is set during the Hundred Years' War, The Black Death, and a more fantastical rat-based plague, so there are a lot of bodies around. It doesn't help that the Big Bad is trying to weaponize the rat plague. It's not that anyone doesn't notice or mind the bodies everywhere, but circumstances are keeping the supply high and the Inquisition in charge has little interest in proper disposal. A scene of the characters picking their way across a corpse-strewn battlefield does include soldiers digging mass graves for their fallen countrymen rather than leaving them to fester and be eaten. There's also a note that advances in hygiene have been made as the people start to associate filth with disease, and it's become common for people to wash their hands with soap before eating. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_de08a422 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_de08a422 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Plague Tale: Innocence (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_de08a422 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e4c35b5b | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e4c35b5b | comment |
Terry Gilliam's film Jabberwocky, overall depicting the Middle Ages the same way as Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Even the king's clothes are ragged and dirty. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e4c35b5b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e4c35b5b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Jabberwocky | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_e4c35b5b | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e579908a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e579908a | comment |
Greg and Ella of Relative Disasters describe medieval London in these terms in their episode on the 1091 London tornado. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e579908a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e579908a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Relative Disasters (Podcast) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_e579908a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e592766c | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e592766c | comment |
The country Glordale from the Legatum series is well-known for how abhorrent its hygiene is. A lot of its residents are just fine not bathing for weeks, sometimes months, it's not uncommon for people to empty their chamber pots into the middle of the street, many characters wear basic, tattered clothing, trash litters the streets of certain towns, and some of the grosser residents are just fine urinating or defecating in public—or, in some cases, going right in their trousers. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e592766c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e592766c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Legatum | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_e592766c | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e7e37776 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e7e37776 | comment |
Hygiene is a luxury in the far future of Firefly. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e7e37776 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e7e37776 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Firefly | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_e7e37776 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e9d04d4e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e9d04d4e | comment |
Timeline: Subverted and mocked. The protagonist walks around, expecting horribly disgusting conditions, but is surprised to learn everyone is reasonably well kept. In the afterward, Crichton notes this was mostly an invention of the Renaissance, during which many scholars romanticized the Classical period above their own era. Personal hygiene declined significantly only once the Black Plague became epidemic (which started around the time the book is set) when the public baths that were common in most Medieval towns and cities became disease vectors. This made frequent bathing a hazard, and it was denounced as sinful. Because of this, the post-Black Death cultural attitude towards bathing went too far in the other direction, with monarchs like Isabella I of Spain boasting of only bathing a few times in their entire lives. A servant insists that Chris is not clean enough after he washes himself, to his surprise, and scrubs him quite thoroughly. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e9d04d4e | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_e9d04d4e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Timeline | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_e9d04d4e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ea4f62db | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ea4f62db | comment |
Averted on Family Guy in an early episode showing the Griffins attending a medieval festival featuring Eternal Sexual Freedom, plenty of good food, and a chorus of monks grunting Gary Glitter's "Rock 'N' Roll Part One." (Peter even sarcastically remarks that the characters at the festival act so hoity-toity that they remind him of the TV show Frasier.) This from the same series that regularly portrays The '50s unflatteringly, with iron-toothed racial segregation (even in the North!) and people so grotesquely gluttonous that they literally eat cigarettes. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ea4f62db | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ea4f62db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Family Guy | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_ea4f62db | |
| The Dung Ages / int_eb3f769d | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_eb3f769d | comment |
Averted in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Conditions ashore can often be pretty messy, but much is made throughout the course of the books about the Royal Navy's positive fetish for cleanliness on board ship (and the reasons why such an obsession was, in fact, very sensible indeed), and Jack Aubrey's home, Ashgrove Cottage, is kept shipshape by retired sailors. O'Brien has a great deal of fun playing with the expectations of a bachelor house in the books, to the point of doing a literary Gilligan Cut. Scene 1 — rural English gentlewomen speculating how messy Aubrey's house must be (since he has no proper maid or servants). Scene 2 — a description of how the sailors acting as servants clean the house just like they do the ship — up before dawn, disassemble the entire house, mop, scrub, dry, put the house back together, THEN wake the Captain up. Spend most of the day polishing metal. And paint the whole thing at least once a week. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_eb3f769d | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_eb3f769d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Aubrey-Maturin | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_eb3f769d | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ef976b11 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ef976b11 | comment |
All of the characters in A Field in England spend the whole film covered in dirt and do things like spitting on someone else's hand to "clean" it and taking a shit out in the open. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ef976b11 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_ef976b11 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Field in England | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_ef976b11 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f3f3618e | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f3f3618e | comment |
Halloween Unspectacular: Briefly discussed in "The Curse of the Cursed Curse", a fairytale parody from the ninth edition narrated by Rick and Morty, where it's stated early on that Mabel's job as a peasant is to work on the "poo farms". Morty protests this concept, citing the fact that historians have debunked the idea that Medieval peasants were constantly surrounded by filth, but Rick shuts him up and carries on with the story. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f3f3618e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f3f3618e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Halloween Unspectacular (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_f3f3618e | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f8bac8a5 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f8bac8a5 | comment |
Tony Robinson's Worst Jobs In History confirmed this to be quite literal Truth in Television. A key component of the daub in wattle and daub construction was manure. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f8bac8a5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_f8bac8a5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Worst Jobs In History | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_f8bac8a5 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fa70a76a | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fa70a76a | comment |
During the brief Post-Crisis 'Team-Up' phase of Action Comics, Superman is sent back in time by the Demon Etrigan in order to stop a mystic plot that is killing Metropolis in the present. John Byrne had recently established Superman's costume as not being invulnerable but mostly protected under a skin-tight force field his power generated. As a result, his walk through a medieval mudscape is no bother to him, and two passing peasants say "That one walks as a King." "Why say you this?" "Look! His Robes Are Untouched By Filth." | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fa70a76a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fa70a76a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Action Comics (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_fa70a76a | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fcf43f47 | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fcf43f47 | comment |
Often glossed over in the Fighting Fantasy world, but Blacksand!, the second volume of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series, details just how filthy and stinking the streets of Port Blacksand are. In some parts of the city, there's so much mud and horse crap on the streets, that it can be waist deep for a Dwarf. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fcf43f47 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fcf43f47 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fighting Fantasy | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_fcf43f47 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fd5664bc | type |
The Dung Ages | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fd5664bc | comment |
Of Orcs and Men loves this, particularly in the lower-class human areas. | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fd5664bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| The Dung Ages / int_fd5664bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Of Orcs and Men (Video Game) | hasFeature |
The Dung Ages / int_fd5664bc |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.