British accents = Empire

[xeeki]

it is a kind of generic "posh" (almost but not quite received pronunciation) accent. the contraction of, for example "you will" as "you'll" sounds somewhat forced-if you listen carefully it sounds more like "youwul", rather than the more common "yool" sound, and the lengthened "a" sound (i think it is called "rhotic"-for example, "bath" in my own local accent is pronounced "baff", but in rp/posh/certain southern dialects it is pronounced "barth") is pretty stereotypically an upper crust thing in england.

 

but yeah-you come across all the standard national accents amongst the UK nations-ive encountered a scot, a welshman, one very soft spoken irish and a lot of toffs.

 

not one mancunian mind. just me

 

Thanks, that is probably my favourite English (as in the whole language not just England) accent of all I've heard. I wish I sounded like that TBH. But I am Swedish, our English accents sound so ugly. Personally I've practiced that ugliness away, I sound American enough to fool at least drunk Americans, but other than that I wouldn't know.

Edited January 16, 2012 by xeeki

[BlackLotus]

I'm french Canadian and I rather like the Empire speaking British english, I'm just glad I haven't heard any of that fake french english accent yet. I mean Grand Moff Kilran, Watcher One :3 are my favorite so far and Aristocra <3

[Crito]

I don't speak English natively (though I am very good at it for a teenager that uses it strictly as a second language) so I am asking you Brits, is the male Sith Warrior a real british voice actor, or one of those Americans faking the accent? (Because I like how he sounds)

 

Well, according to IMDB the sith warrior is voiced by Mark Bazeley who is from Oxfordshire, the very place where the English RP originates. I suspect that any apparent 'strain' in his accent is due to him playing up the evilness.

 

EDIT - there is a video of clips of some of his Film and TV work on Youtube

 

 

Hmm the sith warrior is played by the actor who played Alistair Campbell in "The Queen". Type casting?

Edited January 16, 2012 by Crito

[anairien]

i coulda saved myself some effort if i had just done what Crito did

[Chanez]

As a trooper one of your companions was once an imperial and speaks in that accent, your current companion at the time points it out

[RabidDutchman]

As a trooper one of your companions was once an imperial and speaks in that accent, your current companion at the time points it out

 

Garza points out that her (the new companion) accent is "Pure Dromund Kass". Makes sense that imperials would have a distinct accent, considering they've been isolated from the rest of the galaxy for a few thousand years

[Darth_Romana]

I pretty sure there were several British Accents during the movies, at least the OT. Because, you know, British People are evil.

 

Why does Hollywood always cast English actors as villians? Read newspaper article about that here.

 

It's because villains are harder to play, and to be that tallented you have to be British

 

 

If we ever get a third faction maybe they will have an Australlian accent...I would love to listen to that all day

 

Australians and New Zeelanders have often been cast as Mandalorians.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Darth_Romana

[JawaJedi]

Why does Hollywood always cast English actors as villians? Read newspaper article about that here.

 

It's because villains are harder to play, and to be that tallented you have to be British

 

 

 

 

Australians and New Zeelanders have often been cast as Mandalorians.

 

Actually that reminds me..two actors, I forget who...one of them was playing the bad guy, with a British accent. He was an American actor.

Another, a good guy, with an American accent...Britsih actor.

O.o

Edited January 18, 2012 by JawaJedi

[Darth_Romana]

As a British person myself I can tell you that the Imperials in this game speak American English with a British Accent. It's almost as if an American wrote their dialogue for them

 

I know right, it sounds so wrong have a British person pronouncing a word such as 'lieutenant' the american way: 'loo-ten-ant' rather than the British: 'lef-ten-ant'. Their are far better examples than that, but I can't bring them to mind right away.

[Valyxa]

Someone mind telling me what the female Jedi Consular accent is and if it's authentic?

 

I'm German and have a hard time telling american accents apart from english ones. But I did notice that she sounded somewhat strange, at least compared to the flat-out american english of the bounty hunter or the shakespeare in love english of the keeper.

 

Val

[Darth_Romana]

Someone mind telling me what the female Jedi Consular accent is and if it's authentic?

 

I'm German and have a hard time telling american accents apart from english ones. But I did notice that she sounded somewhat strange, at least compared to the flat-out american english of the bounty hunter or the shakespeare in love english of the keeper.

 

Val

 

I'm afraid all I can say is that it's an American accent, can't say which though.

 

I don't speak English natively (though I am very good at it for a teenager that uses it strictly as a second language) so I am asking you Brits, is the male Sith Warrior a real british voice actor, or one of those Americans faking the accent? (Because I like how he sounds)

 

With the exception of the Bounty Hunter, all the Imperial classes, male and female, are voiced by British actors.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Darth_Romana

[KremlinKOA]

That's really not it at all. The game goes into great detail. On Korriban, there's a quest to check the purity of the Overseers. The dialouge changes if you play an alien, and the game makes it clear that they hate you soley because your an alien. You are ineferior BECAUSE you are alien. The game makes it clear Pureblood Sith<Human<Alien. Even if your the same rank as someone else, your lower if your an alien.

Also, the "Pass on the Sith-human hybrid" is inherently speciest.

 

I would note that playing that one through as a pureblood sith you get to cal lthe guy an idiot. It is also clear that he is in a minority and on a personal crusade.

[Exaaar]

The bad guys, or at least the powerful Empire (which is often the bad guys) being British in their accent is sort of a sci-fi trope at this point, whether it originated with Star Wars in 1977 or not. It may have something to do with Britain's Imperial past in the real-world, making the accent seem suitable for such cultures in fiction.

 

An example would be the Sebaceans (Peacekeepers) in Farscape. They look just like humans, but you can tell them apart because they all speak with a British accent. (Good thing there were no actual British humans in the story, huh? )

[Siraco]

You realise what is portrayed as a 'british' accent in american media is spoken by probably less than 5% of the population of the UK?.

 

Im English I should know.

 

Even though its a small island there are dozens of accents which vary in the extreme in how they sound.

 

I would bet you the voice actor who does the accents wasnt even british, probably an american doing their take on the tv british accent.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Siraco

[Kayleah]

I am not sure but I noticed it too...

 

I think it's amazing ... I LOVE it! I can't be British in real life so now one of my toons can be! lol

[Greyshadow]

There's at least one guy that sounds like Simon Pegg doing Scotty.

 

But the fact is, Star Wars was filmed at Elstree Studios in the UK. We like to think that it was to give the movie a sort of "class" about it, but in reality it was so that Lucas could get around the rules of the SAG and so he could use cheaper, non-union labor.

 

Yes the main cast is American because that is who he cast when he was making the movie (a largely unknown cast, again to get around Guild problems), everyone else, bad guys and everything, are extras and window dressing, and iet's see, if you are in the UK, you're likely to find UK talent to play the parts.

 

After that, it just became a "thing" and part of Star Wars lore that the Imperials had English accents.

 

if it was filmed in spain, we'd probably have a lot of Imperials running around with Spanish accents and big moustaches, there's no reason to mess with what is familiar to people.

 

 

Incidentally, This was also the reason Gary Oldman did not play Grevious, because of the non-union troubles.

[Iaius]

The main reason I think Bioware made most of the imp classes have british accents was because in the movies a lot of the officers had british accents like on the death star on a new hope. Not completely sure though I believe that is why.

 

That's exactly why, though it's lazy and lame. In Star Wars, British accents are associated with the wealthy Core Worlds, particularly Coruscant. There's a reason why the Jedi we see in the Prequels, raised in the Temple on Coruscant, all speak with that accent, as do the senators and the like. When the Republic becomes the Empire, the Jedi are killed but everybody else in the prosperous Core pretty much become Imperial citizens--this is why the Imperials in the films sound British.

 

Of course, it's more complicated than that--Corellia and Alderaan are in the Core but have "American" accents (see Han and Leia), but even the Rebel President, Mon Mothma, has the Core Worlds British-style accent.

 

They pulled the same stunt in KOTOR--Revan's troops all sounded British and the Republic troops sounded American. Everyone on Coruscant in TOR sounds American even though that makes no sense.

 

Why did they do this? Well, so that way people would be able to tell the Sith were "evil"--I guess the lightning was a bit too subtle!

[AngusFTW]

 

 

Basically, nothing is more evil then a classically trained brittish actor..

Edited January 19, 2012 by AngusFTW

[Amonette]

Well... we had one!

 

That guys was actually Welsh I loved that one, it was not an accent I was expecting to hear!

[Angel_of_Cain]

You realise what is portrayed as a 'british' accent in american media is spoken by probably less than 5% of the population of the UK?.

 

Im English I should know.

 

Even though its a small island there are dozens of accents which vary in the extreme in how they sound.

 

I would bet you the voice actor who does the accents wasnt even british, probably an american doing their take on the tv british accent.

 

As an American, i do agree with you on this. I wonder why they don't have any Geordie accents for the Empire?

[Nydus]

allo-allo-allo, Darth Britannicus is my name, yes i' is.

 

Ya come to 'a'toine, travel to ma ci'y, and sit downe in ma 'ouse.

 

Look, here's what i'm thinking. I'mma lorde o' da sith, and ya only have a li'tle bi' o' force powa'. Only now, in da end, do yees unders'and, imma thin'n.

 

I actually like the accents. Most games have that rather generic North American English so I'm enjoying hearing something different. They could go farther though.

 

Scottish, Australian, Irish accents .

 

And they should break out the Cannuck accent, eh, you hosers.

 

- Arcada

[Anysao]

Because ALL British people are evil...

 

Kidding. It originated from the movies when they wanted the bad guys to sound foreign, but still understandable. I think it works perfectly with the sith empire.

 

And what's wrong with the prequels?

[Temeluchus]

How the hell did you make the link between needing an accent to be Imperial and then suddenly jumping to they must all be British?!

 

You realize Britain includes Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland?

 

Because I'm yet to see an accent that could be any of them but English.

 

Well, someone necroed this thread. It's been a while since the person posted this, but as an Irishman I felt the need to correct this. The Irish are not British, nor British citizens. Ireland is a republic and in no way part of the UK; Northern Ireland consists of 6 counties that were partitioned from Ireland in 1921 and all though they are self governed,are part of the UK.

 

Huge difference between Ireland and N. Ireland, especially to us Irish and Irish-Americans.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Temeluchus

[Eillack]

OP, re-watch Ep 4-6. A ton of Imperial actors where British, or had the accent. That was why. Simple as that; BW just continued with that flow to make a link between TOR and OT.

[Spinks]

As an American, i do agree with you on this. I wonder why they don't have any Geordie accents for the Empire?

 

Because no one would understand a word of it without subtitles