You’re watching a movie, and during a scene, a powerful mafia boss punches his own son in the gut for messing with a stranger. The mafia boss explains that the stranger is actually a legendary assassin, the most dangerous man in the world.
The mafia boss wears a solemn expression as he says: “We called him the Hag.”
And you’re sitting there and thinking, That’s not a great name for an assassin. Especially a male assassin.
That was my experience while watching John Wick. I’m a Slav, and in Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga isn’t the bogeyman. She’s a hag. A witch. She’s an old woman with a hunched back and a hooked nose, sometimes adorned with a hairy mole.
Yeah, not the most fitting imagery for Keanu Reeves as an elite assassin.
And that’s not all. In the US, you’d insult an old woman by calling her a hag. In Slavic countries, you’d insult an old woman by calling her “baba” or “baba yaga.”
I know this is a pseudo-issue, but hey, not every article has to discuss 5 steps to save the world. As a Slav, reading or hearing people refer to John Wick as an old woman is a pet peeve of mine. Props to Ryan George for mentioning this error in his Pitch Meeting video on John Wick. If what I just said doesn’t make sense to you, look up his Pitch Meeting videos on Youtube, they’re hilarious.
Now, maybe the screenwriter didn’t bother doing his research, or maybe he thought it would be hilarious if grave-faced badasses called Keanu Reeves an old woman, I don’t know. Either way, a more accurate Slavic equivalent to the Bogeyman is Babay or Babayka–but even with the correct Russian equivalent, the Bogeyman, a child-eating monster, just doesn’t evoke the badassery of an elite assassin.
A much better name, in my opinion, would be Bies (/be-yes/) or Bes, which is a Russian demon.
Just my two kopecks.
All right, that’s it for today. Thank you for reading my little rant. Oh, and do you have ideas for a better nickname for John Wick?
Talk to you soon, and have a wonderful day.