Remove ads

Scaling Up

Reader mode
timuzhti said:
... I mean, all kanji is Chinese. It's even in the name. Kana are derived from kanji too. If Oni Lee is Chinese then there's literally no Japanese that isn't Chinese. Except romaji, I suppose.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That has nothing to do with the fact that Japanese don't use Chinese surnames.

Jacen1 said:
It is also the kanji for "Plum" in Japanese according to the linked reference. I admit, the pronunciation seems to be mixing dialects, but that would have no influence on how the kanji would be translated into English.....
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
A person named 山本 isn't named "Mountain Roots", he's named "Yamamoto"; 山田 is named Yamada, not "Mountain Rice Field"; 太郎 is Tarou rather than "fat son"; בני גנץ is Benny Gantz, not "Benny Fox". Similarly, a Chinese person named "李" is named "Lee", not "Plum".
Or, in other words, you don't translate names.
 
They absolutely do. Maybe not legally since 1946 for hyōgai kanji, but 李 specifically is jinmeiyō kanji.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
Oooor... they were named by Wildbow, who thinks all Asian languages and cultures are identical.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Like I said upthread, Wildbow mixed languages here.
I mean, you can explain it: for example, he's Chinese, so his name is Lee, he's not intelligent enough to get a cape name not connected to his real one, and "Oni" is a moniker given to him by a Japanese person... though, admittedly, that sounds rather convoluted.
 
Desdendelle said:
Like I said upthread, Wildbow mixed languages here.
I mean, you can explain it: for example, he's Chinese, so his name is Lee, he's not intelligent enough to get a cape name not connected to his real one, and "Oni" is a moniker given to him by a Japanese person... though, admittedly, that sounds rather convoluted.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Vain hope that he actually did even a little research on something.
 
Wildbow probably did what I did and fired up Google Translate. Except, back in the early 00's and 10's, the results were somewhat more humorous.

For another story, I translated English text to Russian, and then back into English, as the output from a universal translator after it's initial learning passes.

Jormuungaand said:
So, BRIAN BLESSED with fire breath? :D
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hlal is more along the lines of acid wit. (As in, Copper Dragons breath weapon is a line of acid, or a cloud of Slow gas so they can make that quick getaway...) She prefers a good story, wit, and a good prank. If you decide to use Hlal Express for your divine delivery needs, be warned that your message will be delivered on her schedule, and probably when it would most amusing.
 
Desdendelle said:
Or, in other words, you don't translate names.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You would find, if you took the time to look, that most names have original, obscure meanings; it's the nature of language that words mean things, and the nature of people to create names with meaning.

More importantly, however, Cape Names almost always have meaning, and are intended to carry some significance since they are intended to say things about the one using them, not just be a label. Normally, I would leave it at "Wildbow is an idiot" or at most "let's confuse things by using words from different languages" as an explanation, but in this story, that no longer fits.

It has been mentioned, specifically, that Oni Lee uses Kanji to write out a note, and uses a Kanji that can be translated as "Plum" as the character for "Lee". If he was trying to confuse things, he would have used a mix of writing systems, not pure Kanji. Further, the Author of this story is not an idiot. That just leaves the combination of characters used as having a specific meaning of significance. Otherwise, the translation of that Kanji would not have been offered in the first place.

So, I know any specific creature from folklore in a culture will be the product of that culture and no other, but I have come across several things over the years that equate "Oni" with terms like "Ogre", "Goblin", or "Demon". In First Edition AD&D, Oni was an alternate name given in the appropriate source books for the "Ogre Magi" in the Monster Manual. This is why I went with "Ogre Plum" as a translation.

So, I know what a Panacea is. I understand what the Aegis was. Glory Girl's meaning is rather clear. Kid Win is easy to understand. So, with the knowledge that the Kanji in his name means "Ogre Plum", what is the significance of Oni Lee? What does it mean? Does it have any importance whatsoever, or is the Author just stuck with Wildbow's bad decisions and trying to make the most of it? That is what I would like to know.....

Kryslin said:
Wildbow probably did what I did and fired up Google Translate. Except, back in the early 00's and 10's, the results were somewhat more humorous.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Oh. So, no meaning whatsoever. Well, I feel a bit foolish now.......
 
You could probably go with the fact that Plum is also a purple color, which is very hard to see in the dark. Like many other colors, it fades into a dark grey in low light conditions.

So, "Plum Ogre" makes sense, too. I just went with the name original name, and a common kanji. Interesting to note that the first kanji, for "Oni", is also "Ryou", or Demon.
 
Jacen1 said:
Oh. So, no meaning whatsoever. Well, I feel a bit foolish now.......
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Why? I was in a play-by-post Beyond the Supernatural campaign once, and my character was an occult detective. My character had an extensive occult reference library, and I myself happen to have a decent occult reference library. Nothing super rare or exotic, but basic books that I'd imagine would be a solid foundation for an occult detective's library. One of the reference books I have is on occult symbology. Well, the GM had created a graphic for a summoning circle the badguy had used. So I pulled out my reference books and did some research in preparation for my next in-character post. So when my character comes up with a theory about what was summoned and why after noticing the symbology is all wrong for a demon summoning, the GM quietly started taking notes and changed the planned storyline to account for my findings.

As it turned out, the GM had no deep meaning planned for the summoning circle. It was just something he'd drawn that looked simi-occult. His plan was to basically give a handout pointing to which demon was summoned if anyone researched the summoning circle. My having actual reference materials which I used to analyze the summoning circle? Completely unplanned for. But he decided my conclusions would create a much more interesting adventure then "Gee, a demon lord has been summoned. We should stop it." And you know what? It did.
 
Kryslin said:
"The world your herald and champion are on, called Earth Bet by the locals, has a few dragons scattered across it. No native metallics -- yes, I know Naichi and Crystrani were hatched there -- but then again, your sister's followers believed in doing a thorough job of it. There are a few chromatics, all of whom would rather see Tiamat rot in some oubliette someplace forgotten than serve her. You might remember a few of them. Typhon and Fafnir still both said 'Fuck Off,' whereas ol' Amaru just chuckled a bit. She's starting to have trouble moving around, though that may be because she's starting to outgrow her lair, or rather, its entrance."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Being mostly a very heavy sleeper, I mostly miss a lot of things before I can respond to them. But this I cannot stand for, I'm not that crass!

.....though I was actually a homonuculus admittedly while this one is born a chromatic....

*speech mumbles into offended grumbles*
 
Once again, I was thoroughly, and delightfully, entertained by this latest post.

Though I feel as if those who were debating the "condiment cannon" idea have missed something. The PRT/Protectorate are all about making money where possible so that they can pay normies to stand up to capes.

Instead of wasting budget on a gag weapon, it is far more likely they would encourage a bidding war among too national ketchup brands for the right to produce the official dragon-sized ketchup bottle for all current and future affiliated scaley overlords/ladies.

And there goes my relapse into teenage geekdom.... Those years were over too soon, and we're too long ago. Thank goodness for stories like this.
 
Lycanthromancer said:
Is the Simurgh a cultist?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No, more of the drawing wasn't made with any actual occult symbolism (at least, none planned). It was just suppose to look occultish. The GM's planned results of research was the name of the demon lord that had been summoned. We'd already known it was a demon summoning circle. The actual symbology however pointed towards love, death, divine patronage, and rebirth. Which, knowing it was a demon summoning circle was... odd. The resulting revamped adventure the GM ran based on my findings was far better then what he had originally planned. Instead of a generic "summon demons for Reasons" themed adventure, the warlock we were tracking down turned out to be a man who was trying to find a way to restore his wife to life. His wife, who happened to be a fallen angel.
 
Jacen1 said:
It has been mentioned, specifically, that Oni Lee uses Kanji to write out a note, and uses a Kanji that can be translated as "Plum" as the character for "Lee". If he was trying to confuse things, he would have used a mix of writing systems, not pure Kanji. Further, the Author of this story is not an idiot. That just leaves the combination of characters used as having a specific meaning of significance. Otherwise, the translation of that Kanji would not have been offered in the first place.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Here's my point: Yes, of course names have meanings. If I look at people around me... my mum shares a name with a fabric, my brother has a theophoric name, my girlfriend's named, in a somewhat convoluted way, after the holiday at whose last day she was born, etc. I don't use a different(-sounding) word for my name when speaking English (or Japanese), even though both my first and last names are words that have meaning.
The point is that none of these are used like regular words. I don't want to really have to go dig into my Philosphy of Language notes, but the gist of things that names are rigid designators - somebody pointed at something, announced that that thing is "Oni Lee" and bam, that thing's now Oni Lee. That, of course, is dissimilar to how regular words work.
 
Desdendelle said:
but the gist of things that names are rigid designators - somebody pointed at something, announced that that thing is "Oni Lee" and bam, that thing's now Oni Lee. That, of course, is dissimilar to how regular words work.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It is also dissimilar to how Cape Names work; the vast majority are in some way descriptive in one way or another. Thus, the interest in the meaning of Oni Lee's name.
 
Jacen1 said:
It is also dissimilar to how Cape Names work; the vast majority are in some way descriptive in one way or another. Thus, the interest in the meaning of Oni Lee's name.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The thing is, though, "Lee" is a proper name. Would you also have the same interest in the "Jack" part of "Jack Slash"? The "Gregor" in "Gregor the Snail"? The "Mathers" in "Mama Mathers"?
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top