You have shown you know relatively little about this topic. Just because you can throw together a video, have a few subscribers, and got blessed by the algorithm, does not make your opinions at all interesting. This video was utterly bereft of any serious discussion on why certain accents have become the norm in certain genres and you explained connotations of class around accents in a very innacurate way. Maybe do some proper research and make a part two. Good luck.
@@MikeMigasProduction No worries. If not a serious video, you have to wonder why people would want to watch it at all if most of it is empty and inaccurate - what do they leave with? A short fun video can still be a good opportunity to share information - if that wasn't your aim, then I wonder why you would make it. I understand you aren't publishing an academic paper, but if your channel takes off, then I think some criticism should be expected as it does. This was an interesting topic choice - why do certain customs stick around in certain genres? It isn't spoken about enough, and you could make some good videos on this. Maybe interview some translators. You'll see that it goes beyond language and genre; almost everything people do is tainted by manner. I'll subscribe and look forward to seeing what you do.
Naturalized, most yankinised sounding phrase I can think of? You are a Uk citizen & a subject of his majesty the same as myself but likely not British as Britain from Latin Britannia came from the Celtic Pritanni=land of the painted face tribes. Ethnically you are not Briton Celtic & hence not British=painted face. I could move to India or Uganda but I never be of their even if a citizen. I am tired of imported nippers telling me & my kindred what we are when they know little to nothing of the Isles of Blight! You can have a piece of passport which they give those away & retract them like bog roll but that don't make you British. You do know Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State which was Dutch sort of British colony. Tolkien is really a south African of the former British empire! I find it hilarious as he saw him self as an English midlands men when he was nothing of the sort Tolkien.
Naturalized, most yankinised sounding phrase I can think of? You are a Uk citizen & a subject of his majesty the same as myself. likely not British as Britain from Latin Britannia came from the Celtic Pritanni=land of the painted face tribes. Ethnically you are not Brittonic Celtic & hence not British=painted face. I could move to India or Uganda but I never would be of them even if a hypothetical citizen. I am tired of imported nippers telling me & my kin what we are when they know little to nothing of the Isles of Blight! You do know Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State which was Dutch sort of British colony. Tolkien is really a south African of the former British empire! I find it hilarious as he saw him self as an English midlands men when he was nothing of the sort Tolkien. As for the royalty the speech estuary which only came to be in the late Georgian era among the continental aristocracy. Britain has over 200+ accents & dialectics in English that are native. Being a cockney I am one of the few that can't be understood when I choose to speak in cant yet all others are clear to my lords & pears.
I think it is also relevant to say that British actors are also more largely theatre and Shakespeare trained. Whereas American actors usually learn on the job, on TV. Brits therefore lean towards that dramatic style that gels with fantasy.
American accents are associated simply with geography, while British accents are associated with class and craft. Bristol was an important city for pirates, and as such, the Bristol accent became symbolic of pirates. West country accents are also synonymous with farmers. The cockney accent and the northern accents are associated with low-class soldiery. The Cockney accent is also used to represent thieves and rogues. RP and North London accents represent nobility. The Scottish accent represents rugged, hardy people, and thus became a perfect representation for Dwarvish attitudes. And Irish accents are often used to represent bardic themes, or people of a gentler nature (generally because of the soft aspirations and phonetic qualities of the accent). These tropes have reinforced stereotypes, and even American audiences recognise them at a subconscious level. Hence the accents are not just random. They tell us a great deal of who and what the character is supposed to be.
@@MikeMigasProduction Treasure Island was set in Bristol, this led to an exaggerated version of the accent being used and the default for pirates despite them being from all over the place.
The famous ones may have west country roots, but the wider pool of sailors and privateers may have been drawn from all over the Empire and beyond, it was a surprisingly cosmopolitan occupation. The accent Mummerset (that oddly unspecific west country accent taught to actors) allegedly stuck because Robert Newton used a Dorset accent for a string of pirate roles in the 1950s.
@@clivejungle6999 Yeah I always found it hilarious how working class white brits are always orcs/goblins/ogres/monsters in fantasy. And then you get clueless American academics trying to tell us orcs are black people lol.
Historically based fantasy reflects countries with history. America just can’t compete,however cowboys with an RP or brummie accent would sound daft also.
@@crocsmart5115 But they shouldn’t. They give people in the west, modern American accents. Even though it’s in the 1800’s and they’ve just landed from Europe.
@@rickb.4168 The American accent we know today was already largely cemented by the wild west era. Most people in America during that time would've been born there. Europeans first settled in America in the 1600s and 1700s, not the 1800s.
One big element you don't touch on is the high number of productions now shot outside of the USA, many of which are in the UK/Europe, and the high number of classically theatre trained and versatile dramatic actors from Britain and Ireland.
I worked at Pinewood a few years back, there were loads of huge productions, and it's all due to tax breaks. Which is great for the UK; they still bring some big movies to shoot here.
@@MikeMigasProduction In order to qualify for the tax breaks, I think productions were (and maybe still are) required to hire a proportion of the cast locally, which lends itself to a lot of British English being spoken in smaller roles.
I would go further and mention the Grimm brothers. They were publishing tales of mermaids, princesses, dragons, monsters, knights, etc, already in the early 1800s Germany. Britishs are taking the credit for it most modern form of fantasy as a literary genre
Well as a Swede we got a fairly strong prejudice to mainstream American accent and it feels like at worst as a Western movie and ruins the high fantasy setting to be old times. My personal feeling (biased European) is that "british" sound more classy and cleaner to my ears. American and Aussie has a distinct "twang" that is kinda crude (insert apologies here).
@@user-lh8lk5wk5gDo you, as a fellow brit, also feel a sense of anger and regret at hearing Americans, and a deepening loathing of the French? If it weren't for those onion smugglers...
As a Brit, if I'm watching something where the characters have American accents, and then a British character pops up, I'll often think "oh, that's a lovely accent". Then realise it's the one I speak and hear every day.
@impy2d843 every country in centeral Europe???? France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc Who do you think the English were fighting (once they were united) lol
@impy2d843 China, Japan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, all these places have castles. It's actually odd the usa doesn't, obviously it's due to being a country with very little history. The country with the most castles in the world is Germany with 25k castles, though if you head to the middle east you'd find castles that are far older. Point is, castles are not why fantasy is English. Fantasy doesn't mean castles, real life had plenty of those anyway. But you rarely see historical dramas about countries other than England and France for some of the same reasons fantasy is not set elsewhere. Those places are too foreign for Americans to sympathise with.
It comes and goes in the first film. I wonder if Lucas directed her to do a Mid-Atlantic, but wasn't on the ball enough to notice if she maintained it. It's noticeable that it is most obvious when she is in a scene with Peter Cushing, as if playing off him.
@@richardanderson8696She puts on a British Imperial accent when speaking with Imperials to blend in. That’s it, The Empire is based on the British Empire with elements of Nazism and American nationalism. But Imperial officers are given British accents to show their status and Leia does the same. She has a typical American accent when she is talking to ordinary people.
Darth Vader has an American accent. A lot of Science Fiction, like Star Trek, use people from all over Earth to further emphasise the fact that the human race is now a United people against the rest of the Universe. For Star Wars they wanted the Empire to be a human-centric authoritarian state. They seemed to have a mixture of well-spoken American and British accents and it works very well.
Jaquar made a joke of it in one of their adverts. They had Ben Kingsley, Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston dressed in sharply tailored outfits soliloquizing on why the Brits make the best villains, and how that relates to the classic cad's car, The Jaaaaaag.
@@crinbob “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.” ― Terry Pratchett Ok, modern fantasy.
@@crinbob "Everything that came after is influenced by him" - A bit more than just a mere influence (One of many) he is clearly saying Tolkien is a pivotal or foundational influence. At which point the distinction between influence and invention becomes mere semantics.
@@clivejungle6999Why are you quoting Terry Pratchett? Do you not think it ironic to appeal to authority via Terry Pratchett? I won't pretend to know the man and his ideals, but from what he has written, I'd wager were he capable, he'd enjoy a good chuckle at being used in such a manner. Sadly, he is currently experiencing a degree of mortal challenge so his mirth shall go unheard.
It's mainly because: 1. Britain largely invented much of the fantasy genre, drawing on its own history and legends. That's not to say other European countries don't have similar myths and legends. However, much of Nordic and Germanic mythology has a resonance in Britain too due to the Angle, Saxon and Viking influences. Further, we were also part of the Roman Empire, unlike Germany or Sweden. All of these influences were incorporated into our mythos and intermingled with Brittonic/Celtic legends. Also, because in Victorian Britain the popular novel and the power of the written word became so important, and for a time, globally influential. Then, as the 19th century gave way to the 20th.... cinema arrived.... >>> 2. Since Charlie Chaplain, the British and American film industries have been closely intertwined. Often, that's meant British actors and talent and American production finance - but unlike other countries, the UK has had a direct line into the US industry, which has worked to its advantage. There are two things at the root of this - A) the history, strength, importance and influence of the UK theatre industry (and of Shakespeare) - to this day, British actors are still revered in the US, sometimes irrationally so, and B) the good fortune of sharing a language with the USA, whose massive domestic market meant that it quickly became the world superpower in cinema in the 20th century, a position it continues to hold. 3. Closely related to 2, the British studio industry is a big and continuing success story, and many American financed films are made in Britain. That often means British production talent, and most noticeably - British actors. Even when there are mainly American leads (Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey for example) there will be numerous British or British based actors filling in most of the secondary roles.
The Nordic influence on fantasy mythology mostly comes from the academic study of those works. Tolkien was a linguist who studied Old English, that's why he was familiar with many of those old tales like Beowulf. We don't really have any viking stories in the UK apart from their invasion.
I can't handle American accents in Fantasy. It immediately puts me in mind of things like LARP or DnD. It sounds cheesy to me. I think any European accent sounds good though, not just English accents. It's just that American sounds too modern and lacks that gravitas. In games, American accents are very common in Fantasy and most people dont seem to mind, but for me, it's a deal breaker. As an example, a game like Dark Souls has fantastically dour and melancholic British voice actors that make it feel totally realistic and immersive. Whereas something like Skyrim has chirpy, hammy American actors that make it feel like a theme park attraction. I think it could be to do with a lot of English actors being trained to perform Shakespear as well which gives them a certain historical, gravitas. But I dont really see it a lot in Sci-Fi as you suggest. Even in your example of Star Wars, most accents are American, apart from the members of the cast who were British. (Bear in mind that it was filmed in England too). Even Leia's English accent doesnt survive beyond that scene you showed. She speaks in her native accent mostly.
Let's be honest, the previous title, Oblivion, wouldn't have been so amusing and strangely immersive if it wasn't Americans voicing most characters. Mainly because it's hard to believe Brits could be so intellectually challenged and inbred to the degree of nearly everyone having some semblance of downs syndrome and/or autism. I said believe, not that they aren't. As a brit, I can assure you, many of us are bloody impressive in our stupidity and ability to survive it. With Skyrim, the AI is somewhat improved, and there are far fewer chromosomes among the populace. There also seems to be an attempt to put on generic Nordic accents, and occasionally Austrian. I can't be alone in hearing what sounds like a half decent Arnie impression every couple of minutes. It's iconic though, you know exactly how a Skyrim accent sounds. Oblivion, not really the case.
If I hear American accents in medieval fantasy settings or historical settings in general I just can't watch it. The accents have to be from Europe, Asia or Africa since those continents had huge medieval civilizations and interacted with each other. Americans didn't even exist back then.
Tolkien was brought up largely in Worcestershire, so if you want a site for "The Shire" that's where it is, not in Oxford (which probably is Rivendell, all that learning and deaming spires). West of Worcestershire are the mountains of Wales, where the Elves, sorry, Welsh are always retreating. North east of Worcestershire is Leeds and Yorkshire where JRRT worked for a while after he graduated. There are miners and industry, as there are in Dale and the Lonely Mountain. The idea that Tolkien thought about these places as located by geometry on a European map is just ridiculous anyway.
Tolkein grew up (chiefly his time in England) in Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Serehole where he mainly grew up was in Worcestershire but bordered the city of Birmingham and was annexed soon after. I think Tolkein got alot of influence from nearby Birmingham for Mordor. Birmingham was heavily industrialised and a power house city of the Empire. The "Shire" was predominantly based on rural Worcestershire and Warwickshire pre industrialisation mind you. It's interesting how in real life "the shire" and mordor were at each others doorsteps.
@@lindseykemp7506 Yes Industrialisation was still advancing apace at the beginning of the 20th century, which he could see in Birmingham as everywhere else. His generation in my own family were all farm workers, the next generation worked in mills, factories and mines.
@@Rudolph4444 Nah there is some great native american fantasy. The only good American fantasy i have ever read is The Dresden files, i will say tho it is one of the best but it's urban fantasy not high fantasy.
Were you not aware that the Harry Potter series is set in modern-day Britain? That's why they all have British accents... The students and teachers all come from all over the UK and Ireland, so the actors' accents reflect that.
I wonder if it is partly due to the RP English accent being very clear and easy to understand for other English speakers. Other regional accents tend to take a little while to get used to and if your film is only 2 hours long, you don’t have that time. Also British actors tend to start working on stage where diction is of utmost importance and Shakespeare is king. If you hear someone being referred to as a Shakespearean actor, it doesn't just mean that they have studied and performed Shakespeare, but they are at the top of their profession.
You have to remember that the USA dominates Hollywood and artistry while still speaking English. The majority of them will grow up with British fantasy being the “best” and it’s hard to strive for something different when what you know as fantasy is British
It's probably simply because the major demographic for movies is the English speaking world and American accents in a pseudo Medieval/fantasy context would jerk the audience abruptly into the modern world. When Viggo Mortensen, an American born actor, played Aragorn he deliberately dropped into his familial Danish accent as his native New York accent wouldn't have fitted with the 'Old World' English accents adopted by the other cast members, including the Aussie and Kiwi actors. The adoption of Standard English in fantasy seems to be simply shorthand for pseudo Medieval or pseudo Period settings. Have you SEEN some fantasy movies that employ American accents? They're excruciatingly toe curling and come across as lazy and cheap even if they've had a fortune spent on them!
I think it's not just about prestige but more about the fact that PR is not connected to a specific region and therefore can be used in any setting. It would break immersion if the elf in in fantasy show is obviously from New Jersey.
I would associate RP with southern England, but I do think you make a good point here that in comparison with other accents at the moment it appears more global and timeless (even if it is actually becoming much much less common in England).
It's because most fantasy writers are inspired by real life mediavil Britian. Look at GOT. Totally war of the roses.. And plus, have you heard our Yorkshire accents!? They're amazing haha
> Largely invented by the British (Commercially at least) > America doesn't have history to draw from for a Fantasy setting. > Britain has been around for centuries, leading into the 'old' fantasy of it's people. > Our accents are incredibly diverse, often being differentiated by class, wealth, and location historically. It's easier to convey the type of characters you're portraying to the public through those historically 'poor' or 'rich' dialects. > British Fantasy is just in the Zeitgeist, adding American accents just feels uncanny most of the time. It's like putting a Brit in a cowboy film.
the issue is old/ Middle English would not have sounded anything like what English sounds like today. Other than it being a trend of Hollywood, I think that maybe when we think of historical places, we just imagine the modern day inhabitants to live there, so its hard to imagine you're in that place when there are actors with accents we wouldn't expect in modern times. another thing to note about game of thrones is that I think because there are so many different accents in the uk, its easy to have an rough idea of ones background based on the way they speak. in game of thrones, "low born" tend to have a cockney/ working class Liverpudlian/Newcastle accent and high born speak in Rp. It's an easy way to represent peoples backgrounds without just telling you. I think it would be hard with American accents to achieve the same result, I don't think there's enough of a difference in accents across the country to differentiate between working and high class to great avail. low born in game of thrones having a sort of "hood" accent wouldn't fit
You have the Tolkien influenced stuff that always has a British accent and the more Robert Howard influenced stuff which usually has American and other accents. The Howard based stuff isn't fashionable at present because it's picked up an association with Libertarianism and the less well received Conan remake didn't help matters. Saying that, Solomon Kane, a Howard character was from Cornwall so was portrayed with a South West English accent in the one film made. At least accurate. I think fantasy fans should count their blessings the Howard based stuff is unfashionable so it means it's left alone and not butchered by modern bad writing. With the Tolkien base stuff you have to just hope for the best and a lot of British accents.
@@simontmn*Austrian. Slight difference, very slight, but still. Also, Conan with a Midlands accent would be great. It's a rarely heard accent in media, which is a shame because it's great and I'm totally not biased at all. Just avoid the shittingham accent. Imagine the scene, Conan atop a horse riding into town and seeing a minor commotion, he sees a woman and leans down to her: Conan: "Ay'up duck, wots goin' on 'ere?" Woman: "Ah, nothin' but a load o' shite, duck. Typical Tuesday."
The Witcher continent is based on many different areas of the world. But it is extremely obvious that Redania is based on Medieval/Early Modern Poland. So it would make sense if people from Redania would spoke with Polish accent, people from Temeria perhaps with French and Nilfgaard with Dutch (even though Nilfgaard is based on Roman Empire)
Bear in mind the first three Star Wars films were made in England, they used mostly British actors, but many of the smaller roles were overdubbed with American accents. I recognised many actors I knew were British, but they were dubbed.
There is a lack of Welsh accents, also the RP accent, typically used by ruling characters is actually more modern than an American accent. It didn't exist in the time period a lot of this stuff is meant to be set.
All accents are equally as old as each other, some might be more conservative in certain features, General American retains rhotacism for example, but less so in others, RP retains a "short o" sound in words like hot and lot, which GenAm mostly mergers with the vowel in Father.
GoT and House of the Dragon both have some of the ruling class speaking in RP, or at least the modern equivalent (eg the Lannisters, and Deamon Tagarian in HoTD). I also like how the Starks (at least mostly), speak with a Yorkshire accent. You're right about Welsh accents, it's rarely heard in fantasy, which is a shame because they're really lovely accents. Scottish seems more prevalent for some reason, maybe because it's a bit more familiar to US/non-British people than Welsh. I think they're a couple of Welsh accents in the Witcher video games tho, if I recall correctly. As for the anachronicity of the accents: they're all anachronistic. Contemporary English didn't exist in the middle ages, let alone the accents. British accents are commonly used because they're simply what audiences expect and it sounds weird and distracting when they aren't.
@@shaunw9270 it actually doesn't. RP only really became a thing during the 19th century. An early version of it may have started to develop at the same time the US was established. It's also worth mentioning for others, the American accent was a british accent at one point. It has since morphed and diverged from typical british accents, but likewise, british accents have also changed since then. At the time, a lot of people in the USA would have sounded the same as someone in Britain. The large influx of Irish in the 19th century due to the famine, may have also contributed to the large swing towards a rhotic pronounciation.
Having British accents to representing Roman accents sounds appropriate since both Empires fostered a sense of order and precision, as well as logicistically mastery. English of course also derives from the latin.
You should come to the Lake District or North Lancashire (forest of Bowland). Tolkien visited often when writing the books and it's said to be one of the few places left where the landscape still looks like it did back when he took inspiration for the novel. (North/Central Wales is also very good for this, magical!)
1) most are euther written by brits or are heavily inapired from british writing 2) many fantasy tropes are culturally british, consider the fantasy seaside town, or hamlet places very similar to that are commonplace in britain 3) british isles are the only English speaking European nations, as fantasy is traditionally culturally European, it makes sense that if they speak english its the European way 4) accent variety, americans have this too, the stereotype that the LA accent means your dumb, the southern accent means you love guns and the new york accent means you're violent or smth idk, but britain has FAR more variety and stronget stereotypes to do with accents
spent my whole life in sw & grew up near corfe castle, it is truly a magical place to view, especially with the morning mist. played tons of games and watched many medieval movies growing up as a kid and always questioned why these things came to be --for a small channel, vid was a good watch!
@@MikeMigasProduction You are not from the United Kingdom , your accent gives it away. So I am guessing you moved to the UK at somepoint? also great vidoe
I may be totally wrong on this, but I got the idea that in the 1950s, when a lot of Sci-Fi movies were being churned out cheaply in the States, they could often afford British sounding actors with some name recognition, like James mason or the South African Basil Rathbone. In part, I think non-US actors tended to see acting more as a job than an ART!, and so, were willing to do whatever work paid (see: Michael Caine). For US film makers, it added international "class" and star power. Later, like in the 80s, hiring foreign (but not always British) stars did something similar. Like all the low-budget films that had Max Von Sydow, John Hurt, Klaus Kinski, or Jurgen Prochnow. Though of course, in Hollywood films, they were also often cast as the villain. Especially if they had German or any variety of Eastern European accents.
This is the question I want answered. (Although it's probably to do with Hollywood and companies like Disney pumping out processed, corporate blockbusters to get money so many times each year, thus filling the film industry with largely American creations...)
This is one of the reasons I like Thedas (the Dragon Age setting). It is an entire fantasy Europe with repurposed accents for each of the fantasy analogues (Orleansian is French, etc). They even give the Dwarves American accents. Its not perfect by a longshot, but its a nice remix.
The Witcher games do a bit of this as well. The main setting is still dominated by British accents but people from places like Toussaint (French) and Nilfgaard (German) show up. They even use American accents for the Witchers because it makes them feel out of place in the setting.
Tolkien based The Shire on his early memories of rural Warwickshire, so Oxford's not too far off. However, there's more to LotR than it being part of Tolkien's legendarium. Tolkien gave each character a mode of speech that reflects their background and education. While "the common tongue" is English (translated from Westron if you follow the conceit of the narrator being a hobbit), Tolkien employs different idioms, dialects and word choices for each character. He was also conscious of the age of the words he was using - he was an etymologist. The more educated characters, for example, use more words that came into English from French or Latin; whereas the more rustic ones use more words that derive directly from Old English. This is one of the resasons his prose is such a pleasure to read. Incidentally, while the Sindarin language was based on Welsh, the high-elven language, Quenya, draws much of its sound-lexicon from Finnish. Tolkien was a big fan of reading the Kalevala in the original Finnish (and the Elder Edda in their original Icelandic).
As a Brit from the midlands I find this interesting. I actually live in one of the few places in the UK that most people have heard of Nottinghamshire cause of Robin Hood but that accent isn’t used very often. I was born in Derby (next door to Nottingham geographically) where Ewan Mitchell from Game of Thrones was born but he definitely doesn’t use the accent he was born with in the show 😂.
i think the reason for fantasy characters speaking with british accents is mostly down to british/ shakspearean theatre aswell as Tolkien basically fathering modern day fantasy, aswell as tales such as robin hood and king arthur all being british and in medieval period giving the british accent a sort of first throught when it comes to fantasy languages.
It’s not just that British people invented modern fantasy, it’s that Americans (and more specifically Hollywood) associate the British accent with class and an older way of living like that seen in the medieval period
There are also more, trained, and relatively cheap British actors (because of the way British actors are trained, as opposed to Americans), plus a lot of these series and films are made in the UK or Commonwealth countries (the place where I work is used for filming multiple times every year). As a result extras are much more likely to have British (in practice southern English) accents.
Interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. I think maybe pronounced English might just be the current high waterline for the largest global audience to understand. Most actors have might have practised it in their training so you can assemble a cast that give a story a location and if needed they can fall back on their native English , oz, us, indian dialect of English to give the story a wider story scope
Waiting for any mention on Shakespeare, which is a far more obvious reason. No it isn't (always) fantasy, but regardless of where it is set, it has historically been performed using Received Pronunciation, to the point that many actors used to have to get rid of their regional accents and switch to RP. A great example of this is Yorkshire born Sir Patrick Stewart, the RP accent we all know him for, is nothing like his native Yorkshire one. Only recently have regional accents been "acceptable" in Shakespeare performances With regards to Leia's accent in Star Wars, that was a decision made by Carrie Fisher who thought it suited a princess better than her natural one
i like in game of thrones how they used Northern accents for the north and RP posh accents for the south (kings landing current monarch). They used a mix of northern accents too. :)
One of the factors could be that most of these are produced/directed by americans, for an american audience and an english accent is pretty rare in america, so it lends itself better to their immersion.
Recently had this discussion with a friend and we concluded that: Fantasy or any period peace media where english is (with either american or british accents), intended for an english speaking audience, it can convey alot more about about a world and its characters without any extra exposition. Example:a character with a cockney accent talking to a character with a posh accent. We immediately understand the class distinction. They both have different backgrounds that we subconsciously apply to each character. Vs the same scenario but both characters have greek accents or are speaking greek. To an English audience that same distinction wouldnt be made without further context given about the characters even if they both had different types of greek accents, most would very likely not pick up on it. Greeks would but they are not the intended audience.
Good film makers do all they can to pack as much implied character into their stories with as little exposition as possible. From outfits, to accessories, to colour grade, to music. All of these and much more are very intentional choices and the same can be said about what they filmmaker wishes to convey through accents given to characters
My theory as to why fantasy sounds so British is because the best works of fantasy are first written by Brits and then the film adaptations are made in New Zealand.
It’s simple, fantasy is set in medieval times, other English speaking countries outside of Britain and Ireland didn’t have a medieval period and because we watch in English, we use British accents. If it was in France we would have French accents. I don’t know why he brought Science fiction in to this, it’s different to the fantasy genre, and most people in star wars had American accents
Robert E Howard from America wrote a lot of fantasy also, when Arnold played Conan he used his own Austrian accent which suited the character really well!
I played 2 runs of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, One in english and one in czech. Its interesting that instead of the english version having english speaking czech actors, its just mostly english actors. Both sides did amazing jobs portraying their characters, but it was just funny for a game set in the east to have english voice actors, and yet german characters have german actors that play them and such, but still speak english. Just a thought, great video though.
My sister was actually surprised when she played Dishonoured and heard American accents, considering that the setting seems like a fantasy version of Victorian Britain
The main reason is simple - The majority of good fantasy is anchored by feelings of historical verisimilitude (actually, I would argue that so is all the best science fiction, but that's another conversation entirely). For that verisimilitude to land correctly, to feel right and consistent, the following must hold true about the voices and accents: Firstly, there must not be an "accent", unless the foreign or class-defined nature of the speaker is relevant. Which is to say, if we consider that whatever language the characters are actually speaking has been translated into English, then so too are all their cultural signposts. Those who are foreign, relative to the native/common tongue in the story, will thus speak English with a heavy accent. Those who are "badly spoken" or signposted as being from a lower class, will thus speak English with a regional accent, full of colloquialisms. The neutral, "posh" received pronunciation English accent is used as the neutral and default state, from which all others deviate, because it is the accent that represents English spoken in its truest, most accurate form; it is the accent that correctly conveys the information without any additional rules or deviations from the rules that might confuse the issue. It is also "neutral" because it cannot be traced to any one part of Britain - it is merely the product of speaking "properly". The reason we don't tend to accept American accents in fantasy is similarly simple - America is a new invention. Everyone knows this, and unconsciously hears the American voice as "modern" and, full of its own deviations from English rules, represents a deterioration - just like if someone suddenly talks like a cockney, or as if they're from the west country (the "pirate" accent). We cannot take it seriously, it cannot achieve that same level of verisimilitude, because the moment we hear it, our brains assign significance to it. Incidentally, this is also why Geralt in The Witcher games... actually works well; his American accent conveys that he is a foreigner and outsider to everyone at all times. To put it simply, the neutral "received pronunciation" version of English represents the neutral, signpost-free form of the world's most dominant and effective language. Deviations from this accent immediately convey additional information that, on the whole, has the broadest reach. Fantasy "sounds so British" because this has proven to be the optimal delivery method, and language always leans towards that which is the most effective in the broadest strokes.
@@djinnxx7050 Given that it's an accent that everyone across the planet finds the clearest and easiest to understand, and exists as geographically neutral, meaning there is nothing stopping anyone from speaking that way... I'd say yes, you're more than a little biased.
@@Miggy19779 No, it doesn't in the slightest. This is a common mistake in the modern world, born of the collapsing state of the Western world. It is NOT upper class - it is middle class. The upper class voice is actually a far more pronounced and warped accent, born of the inherent social isolation of that class. Frankly, I'm really tired of this ignorance - heard it all my life. Heard it at university, from people who simply don't understand the class system. RP is neutral, because you cannot actually tie it to a wage bracket, to a lineage, or to a geographical location. You literally cannot get any more neutral than this. Every other accent in Britain directly correlates with one or more of these factors. RP does not. My mother, for example, has pristine received pronunciation. She was born just outside Cardiff, in a council house. Her entire family were Welsh peasants. I speak the way she speaks - my father was Swedish, and we've been poor my whole life. I speak this way because I wish to be understood. I speak this way because I am not an idiot.
Fantasy builds on ancient myth and Tolkein repopularised mythos (at least in the West) in his attempt to create a British creation myth - Lord of the Rings. Although there were a few books before this that could be considered similar to modern fantasy, most of the authors were English and Scottish using British and Irish folk tales. Although a lot of non-British works define the genre now they still use British accents, like the Witcher franchise (Polish) is based on Slavic tradition/myth but the English language versions have various British accents instead of Eastern European. The popularisation and basis came from British and Irish work causing medieval and fantasy to become British by default even though mainland Europe saw more medieval war activity, fairy tales, and would fit everyone's current idea of a medieval fantasy world better than medieval England/Scotland.
i have a possible exception. Most often in media portraying the medieval era, British accents are used, usually regardless of where the events take place. Due to this and the common aesthetics between fantasy media and medieval media, i was at first taken aback when i heard American accents in Kingdom Come Delieverance, an ARPG set in Czechia, 1403. Of course, the introductory characters all have British accents.
Legend of the Seeker, Xena, and Hercules all used American accents. Many of those actors involved were Kiwis or Aussies. I enjoyed all three immensely (is LOTS an accurate adaptation of the books? Not all at. But in the genre of campy adventure shows it’s perfectly fine). So American accents can work in fantasy, however that fantasy is usually very campy and non-serious, and not to everyone’s taste or much modern expectations of what fantasy looks like currently, which reinforces a stereotype that “serious” fantasy will use UK accents
What about the idea of theatre? Many actors in these historical films/series going back from the earliest days in cinema have theatre experience. And English speaking theatre is very well versed in historical plays such as Shakespeare and the Folk tales. Maybe this played a role?
An interesting one to have added would have been the witcher games, a lot of British in there but a few Americans and eastern European accents as well.
Fantasy sounds British because most of the most succesful writers have historically been British,or the source material is generally British history or mythology, or the TV and movie adaptations generally seek out the best trained character actors, who are generally British
For future fantasy or scify, the British accent is mostly deployed whenever nobility or a feudal class is being shown to differentiate them from the working class characters. It is a aesthetic way of indicating high status because of the reputation of the British accent irl. Main characters in these stories will rarely ever have British accent, because an American accent makes them feel more down to earth and familiar to the audience. Accent choices are tools to prime your audiences perception of the character, no matter how arbitrary it is irl.
Honestly surprised you didnt mention the Witcher game series. Most characters have British Accents but the main character and some others have American ones. Just googled it and there was a interesting reason for it, if its true anyway; "Geralt, no less, spoke with an American accent, as did the other Witchers - named in-game as a 'Rivian' accent. The use of Northern American accents and their contrast to the more prominent European ones helped to create a feeling that the Witchers were somehow 'other worldly'." Which honestly sounds like the best to use the American accent in a fantasy setting, probably also helps sell it to Yanks when the cool people sound American and all the peasants sound English.
Val Kilmer in Willow has an American accent, although no one else does. It marks him out as a likeable, honest rogue. Is he the exception that proves the rule?
That maybe because all the movies you just showed are all British authors or legends or had some inspiration from British history, like the first one the Arthurian legend. In the Angloverse (to coin a word) you have all the English speaking world which associates knights and legends with Britain and to be honest they make great movies and because America has shared culture and history it’s also their history as well so they love to make movies about it or loosely based around it. A lot if these books and even American books are based on our shared culture. Take Game Of Thrones which George RR Martin said his principal inspiration for the novels is the English Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) between the houses of Lancaster and York, reflected in Martin's houses of Lannister and Stark. The scheming Cersei Lannister evokes Isabella, the "She-Wolf of France" (1295-1358).
it’s british because it’s the one language that fits in a medieval european setting which americans and brits can actually understand and are comfortable with. Moreover, most of those shows are intended for a mainly american audience and americans associate british with “the old world”, as they call it, more than any other language. And by adhering to that association the shows also reinforce it. So it is a self-reinforcing cycle
I think the perception of American accents as "modern" and British accents as "old" is the main reason why it persists, even though people in the UK speak with accents that are just as modern as those spoken by Americans. No-one in the UK is talking like people did in the Middle Ages.
New World accents are associated with the New World. Australian accents may share a lot of similarities with London and Anglian accents, but are still Australian, so associated with the last 200-or-so years in a specific place. Although some Europeans have a bit on an American twang to their English-speaking accents (thanks to the influence of American TV and the rest of their empire), I think many, especially those used to speaking English, such as the Dutch and Scandis, could get away with being in an English-language production with more-or-less their normal accent.
I mean, what can beat British fantasy? Brits made and wrote Harry Potter which is heavy on British culture, Narnia, Lord of the rings, Alice in Wonderland, Elric of Melnibone (Possibly large inspiration for Geralt of Rivia), etc...
If you are going to produce a fantasy setting using the English language, it is natural to distribute different accents to represent the different fantasy regions. Often it is only representative anyway. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, it is fairly unlikely that they have the phonetic alphabet given the Phoenicians have yet to exist.
Thank you, everyone, for watching and commenting! This is my most successful video so far - all praise the UA-cam algorithm!
You have shown you know relatively little about this topic. Just because you can throw together a video, have a few subscribers, and got blessed by the algorithm, does not make your opinions at all interesting. This video was utterly bereft of any serious discussion on why certain accents have become the norm in certain genres and you explained connotations of class around accents in a very innacurate way. Maybe do some proper research and make a part two. Good luck.
@@samuelmelton8353 It wasn't meant to be a serious video, but point taken. Will do a better job with nuanced research next time.
@@MikeMigasProduction No worries. If not a serious video, you have to wonder why people would want to watch it at all if most of it is empty and inaccurate - what do they leave with? A short fun video can still be a good opportunity to share information - if that wasn't your aim, then I wonder why you would make it.
I understand you aren't publishing an academic paper, but if your channel takes off, then I think some criticism should be expected as it does.
This was an interesting topic choice - why do certain customs stick around in certain genres? It isn't spoken about enough, and you could make some good videos on this. Maybe interview some translators. You'll see that it goes beyond language and genre; almost everything people do is tainted by manner. I'll subscribe and look forward to seeing what you do.
Naturalized, most yankinised sounding phrase I can think of?
You are a Uk citizen & a subject of his majesty the same as myself but likely not British as Britain from Latin Britannia came from the Celtic Pritanni=land of the painted face tribes.
Ethnically you are not Briton Celtic & hence not British=painted face. I could move to India or Uganda but I never be of their even if a citizen.
I am tired of imported nippers telling me & my kindred what we are when they know little to nothing of the Isles of Blight!
You can have a piece of passport which they give those away & retract them like bog roll but that don't make you British.
You do know Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State which was Dutch sort of British colony.
Tolkien is really a south African of the former British empire!
I find it hilarious as he saw him self as an English midlands men when he was nothing of the sort Tolkien.
Naturalized, most yankinised sounding phrase I can think of?
You are a Uk citizen & a subject of his majesty the same as myself.
likely not British as Britain from Latin Britannia came from the Celtic Pritanni=land of the painted face tribes.
Ethnically you are not Brittonic Celtic & hence not British=painted face.
I could move to India or Uganda but I never would be of them even if a hypothetical citizen.
I am tired of imported nippers telling me & my kin what we are when they know little to nothing of the Isles of Blight!
You do know Tolkien was born in the Orange Free State which was Dutch sort of British colony.
Tolkien is really a south African of the former British empire!
I find it hilarious as he saw him self as an English midlands men when he was nothing of the sort Tolkien.
As for the royalty the speech estuary which only came to be in the late Georgian era among the continental aristocracy.
Britain has over 200+ accents & dialectics in English that are native.
Being a cockney I am one of the few that can't be understood when I choose to speak in cant yet all others are clear to my lords & pears.
I think it is also relevant to say that British actors are also more largely theatre and Shakespeare trained. Whereas American actors usually learn on the job, on TV. Brits therefore lean towards that dramatic style that gels with fantasy.
Historically American actors are hired on looks, British on skill.
the US didn't have a medieval period, and that's the basis for a lot of fantasy settings.
@@Norf.F.C.Zoomer All actors are hired predominantly based on connections/nepotism.
@@nevisysbryd7450 that definitely is more and more the case.
@@M2Mil7er To be honest, modern British accents also didn't exist back then.
American accents are associated simply with geography, while British accents are associated with class and craft. Bristol was an important city for pirates, and as such, the Bristol accent became symbolic of pirates. West country accents are also synonymous with farmers. The cockney accent and the northern accents are associated with low-class soldiery. The Cockney accent is also used to represent thieves and rogues. RP and North London accents represent nobility. The Scottish accent represents rugged, hardy people, and thus became a perfect representation for Dwarvish attitudes. And Irish accents are often used to represent bardic themes, or people of a gentler nature (generally because of the soft aspirations and phonetic qualities of the accent).
These tropes have reinforced stereotypes, and even American audiences recognise them at a subconscious level. Hence the accents are not just random. They tell us a great deal of who and what the character is supposed to be.
that makes a lot of sense, I never thought about Bristolian accents = pirates and i live nearby! it sure have the distinctive 'arr'
@@MikeMigasProduction Treasure Island was set in Bristol, this led to an exaggerated version of the accent being used and the default for pirates despite them being from all over the place.
The famous ones may have west country roots, but the wider pool of sailors and privateers may have been drawn from all over the Empire and beyond, it was a surprisingly cosmopolitan occupation. The accent Mummerset (that oddly unspecific west country accent taught to actors) allegedly stuck because Robert Newton used a Dorset accent for a string of pirate roles in the 1950s.
The internationalising of English Classism through American movies and TV is a triumph of prejudice and quite funny. Orcs = Cockneys / Heroes = RP.
@@clivejungle6999 Yeah I always found it hilarious how working class white brits are always orcs/goblins/ogres/monsters in fantasy.
And then you get clueless American academics trying to tell us orcs are black people lol.
Historically based fantasy reflects countries with history. America just can’t compete,however cowboys with an RP or brummie accent would sound daft also.
Scouse cowboys... Oh my god.. my sides..
@@rat_king- Reach for the sky lad
@@crocsmart5115 But they shouldn’t. They give people in the west, modern American accents. Even though it’s in the 1800’s and they’ve just landed from Europe.
@@rickb.4168 The American accent we know today was already largely cemented by the wild west era. Most people in America during that time would've been born there. Europeans first settled in America in the 1600s and 1700s, not the 1800s.
@@TheJonesdude ey oop tonto git away with thee….
Fantasy sounds British because it’s largely a British invention.
Much like every other good thing the world takes for granted
@@ryanparker4996couldn’t have said it better myself
And it’s true English
gr8 b8 m8 ir8 8/8.
@@KnjazNazrath LOL I haven't read that comment in years
One big element you don't touch on is the high number of productions now shot outside of the USA, many of which are in the UK/Europe, and the high number of classically theatre trained and versatile dramatic actors from Britain and Ireland.
I worked at Pinewood a few years back, there were loads of huge productions, and it's all due to tax breaks. Which is great for the UK; they still bring some big movies to shoot here.
@@MikeMigasProduction In order to qualify for the tax breaks, I think productions were (and maybe still are) required to hire a proportion of the cast locally, which lends itself to a lot of British English being spoken in smaller roles.
And also when you hear a US or Canadian accent you don't accociate it with ancient times which fantasies are often set in.
Britain has a great diversity of distinct accents that all tie into a coherent brand rather than sounding foreign against one another.
Other British fantasy authors such as C S Lewis and Micheal Moorcock also helped create the foundation of the fantasy genre.
And George MacDonald, a scot
I think he had a Narnia clip.
I was once told I'd quite enjoy Moorcock. I said no, I think one is gay enough as it is.
CS Lewis self ifentified as Irish.
I would go further and mention the Grimm brothers. They were publishing tales of mermaids, princesses, dragons, monsters, knights, etc, already in the early 1800s Germany. Britishs are taking the credit for it most modern form of fantasy as a literary genre
Well as a Swede we got a fairly strong prejudice to mainstream American accent and it feels like at worst as a Western movie and ruins the high fantasy setting to be old times.
My personal feeling (biased European) is that "british" sound more classy and cleaner to my ears. American and Aussie has a distinct "twang" that is kinda crude (insert apologies here).
Never apologise about disliking Seppos. Good day.
No no my Norse freind, I permit you to cook
I’m British and I wholeheartedly agree, whenever I hear American accents on screen, it just annoys me so strongly
@@user-lh8lk5wk5gDo you, as a fellow brit, also feel a sense of anger and regret at hearing Americans, and a deepening loathing of the French?
If it weren't for those onion smugglers...
As a Brit, if I'm watching something where the characters have American accents, and then a British character pops up, I'll often think "oh, that's a lovely accent". Then realise it's the one I speak and hear every day.
I think it’s because British accents seem so old and there is so many, also we’ve become so accustomed to it
british accents are old...
US: "Why does your characters sound British?"
UK: "Do you have castles?
US: "No?"
UK: "That's why"
Lots of countries have castles
@@titularhero name one
@impy2d843 every country in centeral Europe???? France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc
Who do you think the English were fighting (once they were united) lol
@@titularhero name a country outside of those areas.
@impy2d843 China, Japan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, all these places have castles. It's actually odd the usa doesn't, obviously it's due to being a country with very little history. The country with the most castles in the world is Germany with 25k castles, though if you head to the middle east you'd find castles that are far older. Point is, castles are not why fantasy is English. Fantasy doesn't mean castles, real life had plenty of those anyway. But you rarely see historical dramas about countries other than England and France for some of the same reasons fantasy is not set elsewhere. Those places are too foreign for Americans to sympathise with.
Carrie Fisher's accent in Star Wars to my English ears sounds more like Mid-Atlantic American.
She started out with the accent but they gave up, especially in Empire and Jedi.
I think it's just that scene when she sounds posh
It comes and goes in the first film. I wonder if Lucas directed her to do a Mid-Atlantic, but wasn't on the ball enough to notice if she maintained it. It's noticeable that it is most obvious when she is in a scene with Peter Cushing, as if playing off him.
@@richardanderson8696She puts on a British Imperial accent when speaking with Imperials to blend in. That’s it, The Empire is based on the British Empire with elements of Nazism and American nationalism. But Imperial officers are given British accents to show their status and Leia does the same. She has a typical American accent when she is talking to ordinary people.
Darth Vader has an American accent. A lot of Science Fiction, like Star Trek, use people from all over Earth to further emphasise the fact that the human race is now a United people against the rest of the Universe.
For Star Wars they wanted the Empire to be a human-centric authoritarian state. They seemed to have a mixture of well-spoken American and British accents and it works very well.
In genres where most actors speak in American accents, the baddies always have British accents.
bro the last 2 Spiderman movies were played by brits lol lots of American roles go to brits lately.
Jaquar made a joke of it in one of their adverts. They had Ben Kingsley, Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston dressed in sharply tailored outfits soliloquizing on why the Brits make the best villains, and how that relates to the classic cad's car, The Jaaaaaag.
Dr. Geoff Lindsey did a video here on UA-cam about why villains are often British. I'd recommend it. :)
@@overheatedeskim054 Henry Cavill played as Superman for years too.
Tolkien invented fantasy and England actually had a real Ye Olde Medieval period.
Tolkien 100% did not invent fantasy.
@@crinbob “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
― Terry Pratchett
Ok, modern fantasy.
@@clivejungle6999 that quote isn’t saying he invented it though, is it. It’s saying that everything that came after is influenced by him.
@@crinbob "Everything that came after is influenced by him" - A bit more than just a mere influence (One of many) he is clearly saying Tolkien is a pivotal or foundational influence. At which point the distinction between influence and invention becomes mere semantics.
@@clivejungle6999Why are you quoting Terry Pratchett?
Do you not think it ironic to appeal to authority via Terry Pratchett?
I won't pretend to know the man and his ideals, but from what he has written, I'd wager were he capable, he'd enjoy a good chuckle at being used in such a manner. Sadly, he is currently experiencing a degree of mortal challenge so his mirth shall go unheard.
It's mainly because:
1. Britain largely invented much of the fantasy genre, drawing on its own history and legends. That's not to say other European countries don't have similar myths and legends. However, much of Nordic and Germanic mythology has a resonance in Britain too due to the Angle, Saxon and Viking influences. Further, we were also part of the Roman Empire, unlike Germany or Sweden. All of these influences were incorporated into our mythos and intermingled with Brittonic/Celtic legends. Also, because in Victorian Britain the popular novel and the power of the written word became so important, and for a time, globally influential. Then, as the 19th century gave way to the 20th.... cinema arrived.... >>>
2. Since Charlie Chaplain, the British and American film industries have been closely intertwined. Often, that's meant British actors and talent and American production finance - but unlike other countries, the UK has had a direct line into the US industry, which has worked to its advantage. There are two things at the root of this - A) the history, strength, importance and influence of the UK theatre industry (and of Shakespeare) - to this day, British actors are still revered in the US, sometimes irrationally so, and B) the good fortune of sharing a language with the USA, whose massive domestic market meant that it quickly became the world superpower in cinema in the 20th century, a position it continues to hold.
3. Closely related to 2, the British studio industry is a big and continuing success story, and many American financed films are made in Britain. That often means British production talent, and most noticeably - British actors. Even when there are mainly American leads (Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey for example) there will be numerous British or British based actors filling in most of the secondary roles.
The Nordic influence on fantasy mythology mostly comes from the academic study of those works. Tolkien was a linguist who studied Old English, that's why he was familiar with many of those old tales like Beowulf. We don't really have any viking stories in the UK apart from their invasion.
I can't handle American accents in Fantasy. It immediately puts me in mind of things like LARP or DnD. It sounds cheesy to me. I think any European accent sounds good though, not just English accents. It's just that American sounds too modern and lacks that gravitas.
In games, American accents are very common in Fantasy and most people dont seem to mind, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
As an example, a game like Dark Souls has fantastically dour and melancholic British voice actors that make it feel totally realistic and immersive. Whereas something like Skyrim has chirpy, hammy American actors that make it feel like a theme park attraction.
I think it could be to do with a lot of English actors being trained to perform Shakespear as well which gives them a certain historical, gravitas.
But I dont really see it a lot in Sci-Fi as you suggest. Even in your example of Star Wars, most accents are American, apart from the members of the cast who were British. (Bear in mind that it was filmed in England too). Even Leia's English accent doesnt survive beyond that scene you showed. She speaks in her native accent mostly.
Definitely more prevalent in fantasy, but there is often a British accent in the sci-fi too. But yes, much less so.
I completely agree with you on Skyrim. I remember the first time hearing, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" sounds so off putting.
Let's be honest, the previous title, Oblivion, wouldn't have been so amusing and strangely immersive if it wasn't Americans voicing most characters. Mainly because it's hard to believe Brits could be so intellectually challenged and inbred to the degree of nearly everyone having some semblance of downs syndrome and/or autism.
I said believe, not that they aren't. As a brit, I can assure you, many of us are bloody impressive in our stupidity and ability to survive it.
With Skyrim, the AI is somewhat improved, and there are far fewer chromosomes among the populace. There also seems to be an attempt to put on generic Nordic accents, and occasionally Austrian. I can't be alone in hearing what sounds like a half decent Arnie impression every couple of minutes.
It's iconic though, you know exactly how a Skyrim accent sounds. Oblivion, not really the case.
This is why I can't handle English dubs for fantasy anime. The voice actors are always American, and it just doesn't fit.
If I hear American accents in medieval fantasy settings or historical settings in general I just can't watch it.
The accents have to be from Europe, Asia or Africa since those continents had huge medieval civilizations and interacted with each other. Americans didn't even exist back then.
Native Americans? But I do get what you mean
0:05 lmfao no way its Beckham.
yeh i saw that 'ands on thee ewt stupid' and i was like .. O_O .. wait was that Beckham? xD
I'm afraid it is, in the King Arthur movie.
looking for this comment. Guys pretty down to earth, I wonder what they did to get him in a movie lmao
@@MrAdamske They're typically invited by one of the lead actors/producers/director who's mates with them and ask if they want to cameo
Tolkien was brought up largely in Worcestershire, so if you want a site for "The Shire" that's where it is, not in Oxford (which probably is Rivendell, all that learning and deaming spires). West of Worcestershire are the mountains of Wales, where the Elves, sorry, Welsh are always retreating. North east of Worcestershire is Leeds and Yorkshire where JRRT worked for a while after he graduated. There are miners and industry, as there are in Dale and the Lonely Mountain.
The idea that Tolkien thought about these places as located by geometry on a European map is just ridiculous anyway.
So Mordor is Luton. This makes alot of sense
@@jamesduffy7549 I think that's clinched it. 😂
Tolkein grew up (chiefly his time in England) in Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Serehole where he mainly grew up was in Worcestershire but bordered the city of Birmingham and was annexed soon after. I think Tolkein got alot of influence from nearby Birmingham for Mordor. Birmingham was heavily industrialised and a power house city of the Empire. The "Shire" was predominantly based on rural Worcestershire and Warwickshire pre industrialisation mind you. It's interesting how in real life "the shire" and mordor were at each others doorsteps.
So all the bad guys in Lord of the Rings - and fantasy in general - should have Brummie and Black Country accents.
@@lindseykemp7506 Yes Industrialisation was still advancing apace at the beginning of the 20th century, which he could see in Birmingham as everywhere else. His generation in my own family were all farm workers, the next generation worked in mills, factories and mines.
The reason everyone sounds British is because when fantasy was set America didn’t exist so people just default to British
Yeah america just wasnt there at the time
@@Rudolph4444 Nah there is some great native american fantasy. The only good American fantasy i have ever read is The Dresden files, i will say tho it is one of the best but it's urban fantasy not high fantasy.
Because Fantasy is British. Nobody does it better than us.
Were you not aware that the Harry Potter series is set in modern-day Britain? That's why they all have British accents...
The students and teachers all come from all over the UK and Ireland, so the actors' accents reflect that.
I wonder if it is partly due to the RP English accent being very clear and easy to understand for other English speakers. Other regional accents tend to take a little while to get used to and if your film is only 2 hours long, you don’t have that time.
Also British actors tend to start working on stage where diction is of utmost importance and Shakespeare is king. If you hear someone being referred to as a Shakespearean actor, it doesn't just mean that they have studied and performed Shakespeare, but they are at the top of their profession.
You have to remember that the USA dominates Hollywood and artistry while still speaking English. The majority of them will grow up with British fantasy being the “best” and it’s hard to strive for something different when what you know as fantasy is British
The English accent just sounds more fitting for stoic characters
It's probably simply because the major demographic for movies is the English speaking world and American accents in a pseudo Medieval/fantasy context would jerk the audience abruptly into the modern world. When Viggo Mortensen, an American born actor, played Aragorn he deliberately dropped into his familial Danish accent as his native New York accent wouldn't have fitted with the 'Old World' English accents adopted by the other cast members, including the Aussie and Kiwi actors.
The adoption of Standard English in fantasy seems to be simply shorthand for pseudo Medieval or pseudo Period settings.
Have you SEEN some fantasy movies that employ American accents? They're excruciatingly toe curling and come across as lazy and cheap even if they've had a fortune spent on them!
There are American accent is in Skyrim. It's so weird when you first hear it.
There’s a lot of US accents in The Neverending Story (movie), and as a Brit I actually think it helps make it feel otherworldly
I think it's not just about prestige but more about the fact that PR is not connected to a specific region and therefore can be used in any setting. It would break immersion if the elf in in fantasy show is obviously from New Jersey.
I would associate RP with southern England, but I do think you make a good point here that in comparison with other accents at the moment it appears more global and timeless (even if it is actually becoming much much less common in England).
Re: Tolkein, fwiw, Mordor was supposed to have been based on the Black Country due to the grime and dirt of the area, caused by industry.
It's because most fantasy writers are inspired by real life mediavil Britian. Look at GOT. Totally war of the roses.. And plus, have you heard our Yorkshire accents!? They're amazing haha
The general rule is High Fantasy = RP English accent, Low Fantasy & Sword and Sorcery = mid American accent.
Not really lol. The rule is 'if Americans made it they use their own actors/accents/etc.'
@@chickenmadness1732 nope. They make most stuff with English RP acce nts.
@@simontmn It's a coin toss. And their accents are usually horrible. You can always tell if the actor is american.
Low fantasy is mid American? Have you heard of any of the English accented historical or more historically accurate fantasy?
> Largely invented by the British (Commercially at least)
> America doesn't have history to draw from for a Fantasy setting.
> Britain has been around for centuries, leading into the 'old' fantasy of it's people.
> Our accents are incredibly diverse, often being differentiated by class, wealth, and location historically. It's easier to convey the type of characters you're portraying to the public through those historically 'poor' or 'rich' dialects.
> British Fantasy is just in the Zeitgeist, adding American accents just feels uncanny most of the time. It's like putting a Brit in a cowboy film.
the issue is old/ Middle English would not have sounded anything like what English sounds like today. Other than it being a trend of Hollywood, I think that maybe when we think of historical places, we just imagine the modern day inhabitants to live there, so its hard to imagine you're in that place when there are actors with accents we wouldn't expect in modern times.
another thing to note about game of thrones is that I think because there are so many different accents in the uk, its easy to have an rough idea of ones background based on the way they speak. in game of thrones, "low born" tend to have a cockney/ working class Liverpudlian/Newcastle accent and high born speak in Rp. It's an easy way to represent peoples backgrounds without just telling you. I think it would be hard with American accents to achieve the same result, I don't think there's enough of a difference in accents across the country to differentiate between working and high class to great avail. low born in game of thrones having a sort of "hood" accent wouldn't fit
Cajun is a weird american accent, i'd like to hear more of it in tv and film
Yes but also if they spoke in old/middle English then we wouldn't be able to understand anything they were talking about...
@@OliPeters2003The French and Germans wouldn't need it translated that much though.
@@djinnxx7050 true that
westros is literally the size of england lol.
You have the Tolkien influenced stuff that always has a British accent and the more Robert Howard influenced stuff which usually has American and other accents. The Howard based stuff isn't fashionable at present because it's picked up an association with Libertarianism and the less well received Conan remake didn't help matters. Saying that, Solomon Kane, a Howard character was from Cornwall so was portrayed with a South West English accent in the one film made. At least accurate. I think fantasy fans should count their blessings the Howard based stuff is unfashionable so it means it's left alone and not butchered by modern bad writing. With the Tolkien base stuff you have to just hope for the best and a lot of British accents.
Yes, Conan wouldn't seem right with an RP accent. Although non-Purists were ok with a German accent :D
@@simontmn*Austrian. Slight difference, very slight, but still.
Also, Conan with a Midlands accent would be great. It's a rarely heard accent in media, which is a shame because it's great and I'm totally not biased at all. Just avoid the shittingham accent.
Imagine the scene, Conan atop a horse riding into town and seeing a minor commotion, he sees a woman and leans down to her:
Conan: "Ay'up duck, wots goin' on 'ere?"
Woman: "Ah, nothin' but a load o' shite, duck. Typical Tuesday."
As a British-Polish guy the ending killed me :')
I would enjoy hearing a Slavic accented fantasy, as long as its not produced by Russia. Their more recent films are so bad.
The witcher should definitely be with polish accents
The Witcher continent is based on many different areas of the world. But it is extremely obvious that Redania is based on Medieval/Early Modern Poland. So it would make sense if people from Redania would spoke with Polish accent, people from Temeria perhaps with French and Nilfgaard with Dutch (even though Nilfgaard is based on Roman Empire)
My local pub is older than America
Bear in mind the first three Star Wars films were made in England, they used mostly British actors, but many of the smaller roles were overdubbed with American accents. I recognised many actors I knew were British, but they were dubbed.
There is a lack of Welsh accents, also the RP accent, typically used by ruling characters is actually more modern than an American accent. It didn't exist in the time period a lot of this stuff is meant to be set.
All accents are equally as old as each other, some might be more conservative in certain features, General American retains rhotacism for example, but less so in others, RP retains a "short o" sound in words like hot and lot, which GenAm mostly mergers with the vowel in Father.
GoT and House of the Dragon both have some of the ruling class speaking in RP, or at least the modern equivalent (eg the Lannisters, and Deamon Tagarian in HoTD). I also like how the Starks (at least mostly), speak with a Yorkshire accent. You're right about Welsh accents, it's rarely heard in fantasy, which is a shame because they're really lovely accents. Scottish seems more prevalent for some reason, maybe because it's a bit more familiar to US/non-British people than Welsh. I think they're a couple of Welsh accents in the Witcher video games tho, if I recall correctly.
As for the anachronicity of the accents: they're all anachronistic. Contemporary English didn't exist in the middle ages, let alone the accents. British accents are commonly used because they're simply what audiences expect and it sounds weird and distracting when they aren't.
In elden ring most of the liurnians of raya lucaria seem to have welsh accents
@@minerat27All accents? RP obviously predates the American accent..it predates the USA .
@@shaunw9270 it actually doesn't. RP only really became a thing during the 19th century. An early version of it may have started to develop at the same time the US was established.
It's also worth mentioning for others, the American accent was a british accent at one point. It has since morphed and diverged from typical british accents, but likewise, british accents have also changed since then. At the time, a lot of people in the USA would have sounded the same as someone in Britain. The large influx of Irish in the 19th century due to the famine, may have also contributed to the large swing towards a rhotic pronounciation.
Having British accents to representing Roman accents sounds appropriate since both Empires fostered a sense of order and precision, as well as logicistically mastery. English of course also derives from the latin.
English derives mostly from German
You should come to the Lake District or North Lancashire (forest of Bowland). Tolkien visited often when writing the books and it's said to be one of the few places left where the landscape still looks like it did back when he took inspiration for the novel. (North/Central Wales is also very good for this, magical!)
1) most are euther written by brits or are heavily inapired from british writing
2) many fantasy tropes are culturally british, consider the fantasy seaside town, or hamlet places very similar to that are commonplace in britain
3) british isles are the only English speaking European nations, as fantasy is traditionally culturally European, it makes sense that if they speak english its the European way
4) accent variety, americans have this too, the stereotype that the LA accent means your dumb, the southern accent means you love guns and the new york accent means you're violent or smth idk, but britain has FAR more variety and stronget stereotypes to do with accents
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Why? Most were fantasy writers were or are British
spent my whole life in sw & grew up near corfe castle, it is truly a magical place to view, especially with the morning mist. played tons of games and watched many medieval movies growing up as a kid and always questioned why these things came to be --for a small channel, vid was a good watch!
Love this! The Mormon stories team has been huge with helping me in my journey
What, nobody has pointed out that Star Wars doesn't take place in the future (it's a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away)?
yeah bad phrasing, i meant like sci-fi 'future'
@@MikeMigasProduction You are not from the United Kingdom , your accent gives it away. So I am guessing you moved to the UK at somepoint? also great vidoe
I may be totally wrong on this, but I got the idea that in the 1950s, when a lot of Sci-Fi movies were being churned out cheaply in the States, they could often afford British sounding actors with some name recognition, like James mason or the South African Basil Rathbone. In part, I think non-US actors tended to see acting more as a job than an ART!, and so, were willing to do whatever work paid (see: Michael Caine). For US film makers, it added international "class" and star power.
Later, like in the 80s, hiring foreign (but not always British) stars did something similar. Like all the low-budget films that had Max Von Sydow, John Hurt, Klaus Kinski, or Jurgen Prochnow. Though of course, in Hollywood films, they were also often cast as the villain. Especially if they had German or any variety of Eastern European accents.
It's British because British accents sounds foreign enough to not break immersion for American audiences, but they can still understand it easily.
Why everything except fantasy sounds so American
This is the question I want answered. (Although it's probably to do with Hollywood and companies like Disney pumping out processed, corporate blockbusters to get money so many times each year, thus filling the film industry with largely American creations...)
This is the best thumbnail I have ever seen
This is one of the reasons I like Thedas (the Dragon Age setting). It is an entire fantasy Europe with repurposed accents for each of the fantasy analogues (Orleansian is French, etc). They even give the Dwarves American accents. Its not perfect by a longshot, but its a nice remix.
The Witcher games do a bit of this as well. The main setting is still dominated by British accents but people from places like Toussaint (French) and Nilfgaard (German) show up. They even use American accents for the Witchers because it makes them feel out of place in the setting.
Yeah I thought The Witcher games did it well, DA too (at least the first games...)
Put the video on 1.5x to fix audio issue
America has blockbusters, Britain has legends
Well made video. Great work. 10/10 editing.
Tolkien based The Shire on his early memories of rural Warwickshire, so Oxford's not too far off.
However, there's more to LotR than it being part of Tolkien's legendarium.
Tolkien gave each character a mode of speech that reflects their background and education. While "the common tongue" is English (translated from Westron if you follow the conceit of the narrator being a hobbit), Tolkien employs different idioms, dialects and word choices for each character. He was also conscious of the age of the words he was using - he was an etymologist. The more educated characters, for example, use more words that came into English from French or Latin; whereas the more rustic ones use more words that derive directly from Old English. This is one of the resasons his prose is such a pleasure to read.
Incidentally, while the Sindarin language was based on Welsh, the high-elven language, Quenya, draws much of its sound-lexicon from Finnish. Tolkien was a big fan of reading the Kalevala in the original Finnish (and the Elder Edda in their original Icelandic).
honestly, when you watch speeches from game of thrones or star wars in German it just freaks you out 😂
JK Rowling wrote her books in Edinburgh Scotland and Edinburgh is a fantasy world
As a Brit from the midlands I find this interesting. I actually live in one of the few places in the UK that most people have heard of Nottinghamshire cause of Robin Hood but that accent isn’t used very often. I was born in Derby (next door to Nottingham geographically) where Ewan Mitchell from Game of Thrones was born but he definitely doesn’t use the accent he was born with in the show 😂.
Simple answer, it just sounds better/feels right.
i think the reason for fantasy characters speaking with british accents is mostly down to british/ shakspearean theatre aswell as Tolkien basically fathering modern day fantasy, aswell as tales such as robin hood and king arthur all being british and in medieval period giving the british accent a sort of first throught when it comes to fantasy languages.
It’s not just that British people invented modern fantasy, it’s that Americans (and more specifically Hollywood) associate the British accent with class and an older way of living like that seen in the medieval period
There are also more, trained, and relatively cheap British actors (because of the way British actors are trained, as opposed to Americans), plus a lot of these series and films are made in the UK or Commonwealth countries (the place where I work is used for filming multiple times every year). As a result extras are much more likely to have British (in practice southern English) accents.
Interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. I think maybe pronounced English might just be the current high waterline for the largest global audience to understand. Most actors have might have practised it in their training so you can assemble a cast that give a story a location and if needed they can fall back on their native English , oz, us, indian dialect of English to give the story a wider story scope
Waiting for any mention on Shakespeare, which is a far more obvious reason. No it isn't (always) fantasy, but regardless of where it is set, it has historically been performed using Received Pronunciation, to the point that many actors used to have to get rid of their regional accents and switch to RP. A great example of this is Yorkshire born Sir Patrick Stewart, the RP accent we all know him for, is nothing like his native Yorkshire one. Only recently have regional accents been "acceptable" in Shakespeare performances
With regards to Leia's accent in Star Wars, that was a decision made by Carrie Fisher who thought it suited a princess better than her natural one
i like in game of thrones how they used Northern accents for the north and RP posh accents for the south (kings landing current monarch). They used a mix of northern accents too. :)
This is good work, nice one!
I (from UK) feel that all/most of Europe share in the history of fantasy stories.
That's gotta be one of the best thumbnails
this, we should be allowed to keep, as everything else melts away
The Polish accent idea has something to it.
One of the factors could be that most of these are produced/directed by americans, for an american audience and an english accent is pretty rare in america, so it lends itself better to their immersion.
Recently had this discussion with a friend and we concluded that:
Fantasy or any period peace media where english is (with either american or british accents), intended for an english speaking audience, it can convey alot more about about a world and its characters without any extra exposition.
Example:a character with a cockney accent talking to a character with a posh accent. We immediately understand the class distinction. They both have different backgrounds that we subconsciously apply to each character.
Vs the same scenario but both characters have greek accents or are speaking greek. To an English audience that same distinction wouldnt be made without further context given about the characters even if they both had different types of greek accents, most would very likely not pick up on it. Greeks would but they are not the intended audience.
Good film makers do all they can to pack as much implied character into their stories with as little exposition as possible. From outfits, to accessories, to colour grade, to music. All of these and much more are very intentional choices and the same can be said about what they filmmaker wishes to convey through accents given to characters
Start trek had a French captain with an English accent! Colin Farrel tried an Irish accent in the Alexander the great movie, sounded crap!
My theory as to why fantasy sounds so British is because the best works of fantasy are first written by Brits and then the film adaptations are made in New Zealand.
It’s simple, fantasy is set in medieval times, other English speaking countries outside of Britain and Ireland didn’t have a medieval period and because we watch in English, we use British accents. If it was in France we would have French accents. I don’t know why he brought Science fiction in to this, it’s different to the fantasy genre, and most people in star wars had American accents
Robert E Howard from America wrote a lot of fantasy also, when Arnold played Conan he used his own Austrian accent which suited the character really well!
I played 2 runs of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, One in english and one in czech.
Its interesting that instead of the english version having english speaking czech actors, its just mostly english actors.
Both sides did amazing jobs portraying their characters, but it was just funny for a game set in the east to have english voice actors, and yet german characters have german actors that play them and such, but still speak english.
Just a thought, great video though.
My sister was actually surprised when she played Dishonoured and heard American accents, considering that the setting seems like a fantasy version of Victorian Britain
I'm British but for some reason I think it fits really well in Dishonored, probably because the accent feels out of place, so it's more fantasy like
The main reason is simple - The majority of good fantasy is anchored by feelings of historical verisimilitude (actually, I would argue that so is all the best science fiction, but that's another conversation entirely). For that verisimilitude to land correctly, to feel right and consistent, the following must hold true about the voices and accents:
Firstly, there must not be an "accent", unless the foreign or class-defined nature of the speaker is relevant. Which is to say, if we consider that whatever language the characters are actually speaking has been translated into English, then so too are all their cultural signposts. Those who are foreign, relative to the native/common tongue in the story, will thus speak English with a heavy accent. Those who are "badly spoken" or signposted as being from a lower class, will thus speak English with a regional accent, full of colloquialisms.
The neutral, "posh" received pronunciation English accent is used as the neutral and default state, from which all others deviate, because it is the accent that represents English spoken in its truest, most accurate form; it is the accent that correctly conveys the information without any additional rules or deviations from the rules that might confuse the issue. It is also "neutral" because it cannot be traced to any one part of Britain - it is merely the product of speaking "properly".
The reason we don't tend to accept American accents in fantasy is similarly simple - America is a new invention. Everyone knows this, and unconsciously hears the American voice as "modern" and, full of its own deviations from English rules, represents a deterioration - just like if someone suddenly talks like a cockney, or as if they're from the west country (the "pirate" accent). We cannot take it seriously, it cannot achieve that same level of verisimilitude, because the moment we hear it, our brains assign significance to it. Incidentally, this is also why Geralt in The Witcher games... actually works well; his American accent conveys that he is a foreigner and outsider to everyone at all times.
To put it simply, the neutral "received pronunciation" version of English represents the neutral, signpost-free form of the world's most dominant and effective language. Deviations from this accent immediately convey additional information that, on the whole, has the broadest reach. Fantasy "sounds so British" because this has proven to be the optimal delivery method, and language always leans towards that which is the most effective in the broadest strokes.
RP is an abomination. But I'm a mere peasant from the Midlands, so I'm perhaps biased.
@@djinnxx7050 Given that it's an accent that everyone across the planet finds the clearest and easiest to understand, and exists as geographically neutral, meaning there is nothing stopping anyone from speaking that way... I'd say yes, you're more than a little biased.
RP pronunciation is NOT neutral. It represents upper class - in fantasy it would represent nobility.
@@Miggy19779 No, it doesn't in the slightest. This is a common mistake in the modern world, born of the collapsing state of the Western world.
It is NOT upper class - it is middle class. The upper class voice is actually a far more pronounced and warped accent, born of the inherent social isolation of that class.
Frankly, I'm really tired of this ignorance - heard it all my life. Heard it at university, from people who simply don't understand the class system.
RP is neutral, because you cannot actually tie it to a wage bracket, to a lineage, or to a geographical location. You literally cannot get any more neutral than this. Every other accent in Britain directly correlates with one or more of these factors.
RP does not. My mother, for example, has pristine received pronunciation. She was born just outside Cardiff, in a council house. Her entire family were Welsh peasants. I speak the way she speaks - my father was Swedish, and we've been poor my whole life.
I speak this way because I wish to be understood. I speak this way because I am not an idiot.
@@NicholasBrakespear The Queen, and the rest of that inbred lot, use RP.
Fantasy builds on ancient myth and Tolkein repopularised mythos (at least in the West) in his attempt to create a British creation myth - Lord of the Rings. Although there were a few books before this that could be considered similar to modern fantasy, most of the authors were English and Scottish using British and Irish folk tales. Although a lot of non-British works define the genre now they still use British accents, like the Witcher franchise (Polish) is based on Slavic tradition/myth but the English language versions have various British accents instead of Eastern European. The popularisation and basis came from British and Irish work causing medieval and fantasy to become British by default even though mainland Europe saw more medieval war activity, fairy tales, and would fit everyone's current idea of a medieval fantasy world better than medieval England/Scotland.
i have a possible exception. Most often in media portraying the medieval era, British accents are used, usually regardless of where the events take place. Due to this and the common aesthetics between fantasy media and medieval media, i was at first taken aback when i heard American accents in Kingdom Come Delieverance, an ARPG set in Czechia, 1403. Of course, the introductory characters all have British accents.
Legend of the Seeker, Xena, and Hercules all used American accents. Many of those actors involved were Kiwis or Aussies. I enjoyed all three immensely (is LOTS an accurate adaptation of the books? Not all at. But in the genre of campy adventure shows it’s perfectly fine). So American accents can work in fantasy, however that fantasy is usually very campy and non-serious, and not to everyone’s taste or much modern expectations of what fantasy looks like currently, which reinforces a stereotype that “serious” fantasy will use UK accents
What about the idea of theatre? Many actors in these historical films/series going back from the earliest days in cinema have theatre experience. And English speaking theatre is very well versed in historical plays such as Shakespeare and the Folk tales. Maybe this played a role?
An interesting one to have added would have been the witcher games, a lot of British in there but a few Americans and eastern European accents as well.
Fantasy sounds British because most of the most succesful writers have historically been British,or the source material is generally British history or mythology, or the TV and movie adaptations generally seek out the best trained character actors, who are generally British
For future fantasy or scify, the British accent is mostly deployed whenever nobility or a feudal class is being shown to differentiate them from the working class characters. It is a aesthetic way of indicating high status because of the reputation of the British accent irl. Main characters in these stories will rarely ever have British accent, because an American accent makes them feel more down to earth and familiar to the audience. Accent choices are tools to prime your audiences perception of the character, no matter how arbitrary it is irl.
Honestly surprised you didnt mention the Witcher game series. Most characters have British Accents but the main character and some others have American ones.
Just googled it and there was a interesting reason for it, if its true anyway;
"Geralt, no less, spoke with an American accent, as did the other Witchers - named in-game as a 'Rivian' accent. The use of Northern American accents and their contrast to the more prominent European ones helped to create a feeling that the Witchers were somehow 'other worldly'."
Which honestly sounds like the best to use the American accent in a fantasy setting, probably also helps sell it to Yanks when the cool people sound American and all the peasants sound English.
for scifi i like how they created a completely new accent for the belters in the expance & used other accents to seperate other cultures
7:20 is that Nicholas the II
You did not mention The aruthorian legends... witch is where a lot of these tropes orginated.
Because we made all that is beautiful. I thank you. 😊
Val Kilmer in Willow has an American accent, although no one else does. It marks him out as a likeable, honest rogue. Is he the exception that proves the rule?
That maybe because all the movies you just showed are all British authors or legends or had some inspiration from British history, like the first one the Arthurian legend. In the Angloverse (to coin a word) you have all the English speaking world which associates knights and legends with Britain and to be honest they make great movies and because America has shared culture and history it’s also their history as well so they love to make movies about it or loosely based around it. A lot if these books and even American books are based on our shared culture. Take Game Of Thrones which George RR Martin said his principal inspiration for the novels is the English Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) between the houses of Lancaster and York, reflected in Martin's houses of Lannister and Stark. The scheming Cersei Lannister evokes Isabella, the "She-Wolf of France" (1295-1358).
it’s british because it’s the one language that fits in a medieval european setting which americans and brits can actually understand and are comfortable with.
Moreover, most of those shows are intended for a mainly american audience and americans associate british with “the old world”, as they call it, more than any other language. And by adhering to that association the shows also reinforce it. So it is a self-reinforcing cycle
I think the perception of American accents as "modern" and British accents as "old" is the main reason why it persists, even though people in the UK speak with accents that are just as modern as those spoken by Americans. No-one in the UK is talking like people did in the Middle Ages.
New World accents are associated with the New World.
Australian accents may share a lot of similarities with London and Anglian accents, but are still Australian, so associated with the last 200-or-so years in a specific place.
Although some Europeans have a bit on an American twang to their English-speaking accents (thanks to the influence of American TV and the rest of their empire), I think many, especially those used to speaking English, such as the Dutch and Scandis, could get away with being in an English-language production with more-or-less their normal accent.
I mean, what can beat British fantasy? Brits made and wrote Harry Potter which is heavy on British culture, Narnia, Lord of the rings, Alice in Wonderland, Elric of Melnibone (Possibly large inspiration for Geralt of Rivia), etc...
Australian should be the default fantasy accent: “Mate, yer don’ jus effin’ worrk inna Mordor”. (Half the actors are Aussies anyway)
If you are going to produce a fantasy setting using the English language, it is natural to distribute different accents to represent the different fantasy regions. Often it is only representative anyway. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, it is fairly unlikely that they have the phonetic alphabet given the Phoenicians have yet to exist.
I believe Lord of the Rings has been done in Russian and Finnish. Though not widely known outside Russia and Finland.