Some things, both good and bad

[azurite]

Whee, saw Howl's Moving Castle last night. I was just as surprised as Scott to find out there was a Miyazaki film playing at PacTheatres where he works... and even more surprised to find out it's not *really* a Miyazaki film; Miyazaki just wrote the screenplay based on a book that Diana Wynne Jones wrote! Color me shocked! On top of that, we tried playing the "Guess that voice actor!" game, and O_O!! Christian Bale did the voice of Howl! *squeals with delight* His "coolest guy" points have just skyrocketed-- any actor willing to try his hand not just at voice acting but at MIYAZAKI ANIME voice dubbing has my thumbs up! (I noticed that Billy Crystal did the voice of Calcifer, the too-cute and funny ball of fire. I thought it was James Woods the whole time! I mean, he did Hades in the past, and Hades had the whole hair-on-fire thing...)

So yes, in the relationship front I think Scott and I are "okay." He told me that before he left for San Diego, he was "happy" about where things were and where they were (are?) headed-- confident, in a word, I suppose. That made me happy too, because from my perspective, it just seemed like one endless train of Mer doubting everything and everyone. I hate that. So all is well-- mostly, anyway. He hasn't been able to find a permanent place to stay, money's tight, and if his first day of summer classes at Santa Monica was any indication, summer's NOT going to be easy. (Parking, cost of gas, the need to wake up so damn early to avoid traffic...)

And I was supposed to call Southwest Airlines TWO days ago to try and reschedule my tickets up to SF... to try and get to the Fire Festival Dad says is being held at The Crucible (private arts school where Dad's working this summer) from the 12th-17th. I have such lousy timing... ;_; I bet they'll charge me a fortune if I try to reschedule, but what other choice do I have? Maybe I'll call in a little bit... I do have to dogsit for an hour or so before I head to work.

Yesterday I had so much movie food for dinner, I woke up this morning (when Scott left) with a stomachache from hell. I was tempted to call in sick (we're not allowed to actually come IN while sick, but somehow I don't think the stomach flu "counts") but I feel okay now-- besides, I have off the next three days, and I plan on spending that outdoors PAINTING! Yes, painting. I gave in and bought myself a wooden easel yesterday at Continental Art. It was only $20 or so with tax, not too hard to put together (Scott helped. ^_^v)

So here's a question for most people-- how should constructive criticism really be delivered? I mean, I don't like to consider myself some know-it-all in any given area-- even though admittedly, I do know more about Egypt, the Japanese language, and the making of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese than most people. So when I see fanon fodder (e.x. "Akifa") I correct it in the nicest, gentlest way I can-- of course, sometimes I come off as a spastic chicken and you can't interpret it as "nice" at all. One such person blew up in my face and called me an idiot because I said perpetuating fanon fodder was pointless. Bakura is Bakura is Bakura-- end of story.

Another person in another post at another time was asking about the relationship between Akunadin (Priest Seto's father) and Pegasus-- both holders of the Millennium Eye. As we all saw in Battle City, everyone that has a Millennium Item (in the present) had some sort of relationship to a past incarnation... right? Wrong! While the Pharaoh DID have the Puzzle, and thus got incarnated into Yuugi (who coincidentally looks JUST LIKE HIM), Seto in our time never got the Rod-- Malik did. Malik has NO TIES whatsoever to the ancient past, but his sister, Isis, did! She held the Necklace/Torque then, and she does now (in the present) --that is, before she hands it over to Yuugi. Bakura wasn't the first holder of the Millennium Ring, either-- he was the third! Mahaado, the priest that would become the Black Magician, was the second/"original" holder, but he was never reincarnated. Mana, his apprentice, and the girl we know as Black Magician Girl, never had an explicit/clear death scene (aka a reason NOT to be reincarnated), but she never held a Millennium Item, either... (except in the Memory World, which has been established as merely a Memory, not What Really Happened). Plus there are the great unknowns: Kalim (scales), Shada (ankh/key), Shaadi (both of the latter items in the present day) ... in short, maybe there IS no pattern with past and present holders of the Items. Or maybe Takahashi didn't know what he was doing when he started off the Duel Monsters saga-- he probably had no idea it'd be wildly popular.

Anyway, when I posted all this info, I expected to be criticized because of my "corrections" (I always end up "correcting" whenever someone uses the name Seth. Maybe it's just opinion to some, but anyone with the slightest bit of background in religion or etymology will know that SETH is a Hebrew name. And whether you believe the Egyptians used the Hebrews as slaves or not, what it boils down to is THEY DID NOT GET ALONG. Set I can understand. Seto makes even MORE sense. But Seth? NO, NO, and NO! That would only make sense in present day, if someone specifically WANTED to name their kid after a bad Egyptian god!) But instead, someone just said "I love you!" and that made my day. Admittedly, I like it when concrit is backed by a bit of "what IS good" so I don't feel like some absolute failure... but yeesh, isn't there a median? I mean, on one end of the scale, you have the extreme "flame concrit" where it's just criticism or bashing-- maybe with reason, but still, it's not really "helpful" -- and at the other end, you have people that just spout fluff-- maybe they point out one or two things, but again, it's still not HELPFUL!

Oh yeah-- excerpt from Reply #2: I already know that Akifa is a fan-made name considering as I said no one knows his real first name. Which makes your example of calling Yuugi, Jack is void since people know Yuugi's first name.. which is Yuugi.

I'm not giving drama, I'm merely defending myself. I assure you though, I don't loose easily. So either we can continue this bullshit, or you can accept the fact that I put Akifa there for the simple reason that some people call him that.

S/he/it can't even spell "lose" properly. Ergo, YOU LOSE at the INTERNET! -_-; Geez.

Anyway, I better go dogsit.

Comments

[kitesareevil.livejournal.com]

^_^ I friggin' LOVED Hades.

I can't wait to see Howl's Moving Castle...it looks so good!

Can't help it...

[azurite]

Woah, is my hair out?

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

Constructive criticism should be given in such a way so that you never come off as a 'spastic chicken'. It's worded so that people feel as though you are helping them, not criticizing them and talking down to them. While you, me and the rest of the gals know where you're coming from when you give information like this to other people- those who don't know you will most likely sense it coming very strongly from you; aka, you may seem more like a 'spastic chicken' then you know.

Whether they use Seth, Set, Seto, Akifa, etc.; if the story is good and well-written in all other aspects, I would probably ignore them. You can remind them what is the correct way to use it but if they insist on using the name, then let it go. It's just a name...I mean there are countless times when I wonder why there are a surplus of blue eyes and blond hair in a creation that's being done by people who possess black hair and dark brown eyes (basically, your white-anglo-saxon-prostestant person as opposed to someone who possesses the general Asian aesthetics).

I remember getting a review for my second YGO fic ever and the person who wrote it wasn't very helpful. They helped in the fact that they made me recognize the huge timeline difference that had occurred but other than that, they were just downright nasty by telling me to 'crack open a book'; obviously, I've never read before.

It's cool to remind people from time to time what the right kind of name to use in a fic is. However, since most are only doing this for fun and is not actually trying to pursue a career in it, if they don't ask for help, don't bother. You can remind them but beyond that is their own problems, not yours. You've got better things to worry about anyways. ^_~

(On a side note...Fushigi Yuugi- wtf? It's set in ancient China, they speak in mandarin Chinese when they say "I Love You." but yet the entire story plus character names are Japanese? Not one of the characters have black hair and brown eyes, either.)

[azurite]

*nods* It's true I have personality with the pH of Clorox... so yes, a bit of a disclaimer might help-- for the most part though, I try to stick to being polite and helpful, so I don't need the warning that I come off as a bit of a fan. I honestly don't think anything I said in the comments area of that post I mentioned made me come off as a "rabid fan" or "unhealthy" or an "idiot," all of which the person called me.

My view is that if people put something on the web (fics, art), they're asking for concrit. Anyone that whines about "NO FLAMES!!!!!" is just asking for them. Same goes for people whose "summery sux!" or whatever. If something could be so much better with just a bit of help, I will bother reading it and reviewing it-- isn't that what most authors really want, anyway? Sometimes fanfiction can turn into a lucrative career-- screenwriting, novelizations, etc.!

I can't ignore names, because they're such an integral role to the story. Look at Yu-Gi-Oh-- Yuugi is a pun for "game" and Yuugiou is both "King of Games" and "King Yuugi!" Even if you're just doing it for fun, there's no reason NOT to do a simple 5 minute Google search on ancient Egyptian names, Akifa sure as heck isn't one-- besides, as I pointed out in the original thread, they didn't have given names and surnames back then. Bakura is Bakura is Bakura is the end of that story.

Re: Fushigi Yuugi-- well, Viz actually bothered to translate the Japanese kanji according to their Chinese (Mandarin, I think) pronunciation. It definitely added a bit of spice to the whole story, but for someone like me, raised on the Japanese pronunciation, I got confused. X_X; By the way, "Wo ai ni" can also be considered Japanese: "You Love To (From Me)" is the rough translation-- particles like "wo" and "ni" don't really have a direct translation, but if you said that to anyone in Japanese, they'd know what you meant. Also, Tamahome, Mitsukake, and Hotohori all come pretty close to looking somewhat Asian-- compared to people like, say, Yuugi or Bakura.

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that most of the YGO fandom didn't know that and I'm also pretty sure they don't really care for it especially if the story is an alternative universe. Whether they use the correct spelling or whatever, if they are set it, then just leave them to their own devices and conserve your energy for better things.

"Wo Ai Ni" cannot be considered Japanese. It was Chinese, it is Chinese, will be Chinese- end of story. I know both languages so it's very hard to try and convince a native speaker that "Wo ai ni" is Japanese. Here's a translation of the words:

"Wo" = I
"Ai" = Love
"Ni" = You

"Wo heng ai ni." = I love you very much

Therefore, "Wo ai ni" is "I love you". You already know this but "ai" and "suki" are both words associated with love in Japanese. The phrase "wo ai ni" is wholy, mandarin Chinese. The only reason 'ai' is in the Japanese language is because their civilization adapted their language from many of the Chinese characteristics (obviously, there are still large differences).

"Tamahome, Mitsukake, and Hotohori" are all pretty close to being Japanese Asian, not Chinese Asian. My point is that they are Japanese names in a Chinese empire which just doesn't work- especially if it's ancient China where we *also* have different titles to go for each person.

For example: Whereas we just have titles of 'aunts and uncles', in the Chinese culture, you honor the aunts and uncles from your father's side with a title that's different from the title you use for aunts and uncles from you mother's side. Same goes for grandparents, god-parents. For strangers or aquaintances, we don't just have "Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms", there's also different titles to go with them depending on age. In ancient China, there were even more titles.

Eh...

[azurite]

Not that I want to survey the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom in its present state, but I beg to differ-- I think most fans know that Bakura never did and never will equal Akifa, and that's what I was arguing about in the first place. I might call someone something in a fic (e.x. in one fic, Yuugi's mother is 'Sakura') but if so-and-so has a canon name, I better have a damn good reason for changing it-- not something lame like "Er, but Akifa sounds Egyptian and he had no first name!" BS-- they didn't have given names in ancient Egypt! (At least not in the Yu-Gi-Oh-verse)

The only thing I meant by "wo ai ni" being Japanese was that yes, it is Mandarin Chinese, but a Japanese person will know what you mean when you say it. Look at Ranma 1/2-- no one's confused when Shampoo goes screaming "Wo Ai Ni!" at Ranma. Everyone knows what she means. It comes out as "broken" Japanese "You I Love!" rather than what she might say would she speak fluent Japanese, but... still, the meaning is the same. Re: Fushigi Yuugi, it's just a matter of who's reading/watching what. Read the manga and the names will be Chinese, sans Yui and Miaka, who are Japanese, and therefore have Japanese names. The anime is different-- it was targeted toward a Japanese audience, so while they chose to use the same characters as particular Chinese names (the ones that match the constellations of the gods) they pronounce them differently, hence the different sounding names. Only in that respect does having Japanese names in Ancient China make "sense."

Though I don't pretend to be an expert, appearance-wise, how can you really tell who's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.? Sometimes I can tell once they've spoken, but if you're just looking at someone... how will you know? If the standard color of hair is black and eye color is brown... very little aside from the slant of the eyes might give away someone's specific race. So how can you say that Tamahome et. al. look "Japanese Asian," when they weren't intended to look one particular race or another-- they were just meant to look pretty (and 'somewhat appropriate' for the era)? (Hell, what about Nakago? What the heck is he?)

Most manga-ka recognize that when they tackle a historical setting, they're going to have to make some lapses-- Yuu Watase certainly did with FY, esp. regarding formal titles and multiple names. But most manga-ka try to make reading their stories as easy as possible, even if the target audience is of junior high or high school level. Hence, unless it translates quickly and easily across the map, they're not going to use a bunch of titles and honorifics. Any "Americanized" manga shows proof of this-- they reverse the names (implying closeness or intimacy where there is none) or they simplify the honorifics into something that downgrades the meaning! (E.x. sama does not always mean Lord/Lady, etc.)

Re: Eh...

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

My point wasn't to argue with you about the factuals of the YGO fandom. It's to say that basically, people will do with the fandom what they want. And some of these fanfics written are pretty damn good- ie: Sailor Moon fandom.

Japanese person will know what "wo ai ni" means not because it loosely translate to 'you, I love' but simply because it's a very common phrase in that area of the world. Surprisingly enough, where I live, a lot of people (white, indian, african american, etc) know what it means just because it's quickly becoming popularized as a phrase on t-shirts and such. I can't really see using an anime/manga as a very valid exmaple though. Ranma also has the Chinese characteristics- the shirt he/she wears is the traditional male garb like a cheongsam is for a girl.

"Though I don't pretend to be an expert, appearance-wise, how can you really tell who's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.?" Um, don't ever say this to another Asian that doesn't know you. It's highly offensive because those of us who aren't adopted or have been raised by two Asian parents know how to tell the difference (generally speaking- obviously there are exceptions). I'm pretty serious about this; because of what you believe, you may think this isn't very offensive but it *is*.

And I wasn't even talking about their aesthetics- I'm not even sure where it indicates in my speech that allows you to believe so. I said that the name of "Tamahome, (plus the other two)" do not sound Chinese because they are Japanese Asian, Not Chinese Asian. The other argument was that the animes/mangas rarely reflect to us the aesthetics of the traditional black hair and brown eyes of Asians. I'm guessing this is where we got our arguments crossed.

Now since manga-ka recognize that they're gonna have to make some lapses, what I'm saying is that in the fandom with the authors, they're also going to have to make lapses to make their own stories fall together. It's okay if you remind them what the correct thing is but if they're already set on what they're doing, let them do it and leave them to their own devices. Again, I'm sure you have other, more important matters to deal with them.

Re: Eh...

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm curious as to where you got the idea that "wo ai ni' translates to 'you, I love'? I mean I actually speak Chinese fluently. It is my first language; I learned English after. So to tell me that "wo ai ni" is "you, I love" just baffles me when I've told you what it means word by word. But I'd like to know your reasons for believing so- without the use of an anime/manga. Those are not valid sources at all.

In Japanese, they don't use that at all. Characters in an anime or manga may know what it means and maybe more Japanese know what it means than I give credit but that phrase is solely Chinese.

Re: Eh...

[azurite]

...I realize "wo ai ni" is not how you say "I love you" in Japanese, what I was saying is that a Japanese person will understand it, even if they know right off that's it's Chinese. A "broken" Japanese translation would ROUGHLY translate to "you, I love," but not in specific order-- because then we're translating back to English.

But wo is a verb particle in Japanese, indicating a verb, ai is the verb (to love), and ni is (to, in the direction of), and the implied words are "you" and "I," which the Japanese don't like saying outright (e.x. "anata" or "watashi") very often, anyway.

Re: Eh...

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

"But wo is a verb particle in Japanese, indicating a verb, ai is the verb (to love), and ni is (to, in the direction of), and the implied words are "you" and "I," which the Japanese don't like saying outright (e.x. "anata" or "watashi") very often, anyway."

I guess I haven't made myself very clear for this argument.

"Wo ai ni" is *not* a Japanese phrase. It's the romanized version of the Chinese phrase "I love you." If you want to translate each romanized word as a Japanese word, by all means, go ahead. Japanese people do *not* use it for a lack of a more blunt phrasing. Originally, those romanized words came from a *Chinese* phrase. It is a grammatically correct Chinese phrase, not a grammatically correct Japanese phrase. So translating it word by word in relations to the Japanese language, then translating it back into English is not accepted especially for those studying the languages.

In any case, I suppose you can translate many of the romanized Chinese words into Japanese words but that's rather unsophisticated. If we were to have no middle-man, then a Japanese person would basically stare at you with a befuddle expression if you said or wrote that to them. They'd wonder why you aren't using the more culturally accepted phrases like "ishyoni, ishyoni".

Side note: the kanji used for "I" actually does mean I but it's an I in a private sense of a word. It loosely translates to "I/private". And the Japanese rarely use "Anata wa..." in their speech patterns, last time I checked with my teacher.

Re: Eh...

[staplerx.livejournal.com]

"Wo ai ni" is Chinese, not Japanese. Take it from me, I'm Chinese.

[svelterose.livejournal.com]

Another note...the person you argued with sounds like a bonafide asshat. Tell the motherfucker to soak in his/her/it's own stupidity.

[guardian-kysra.livejournal.com]

Constructive criticism - to me - should be blunt, to the point, polite, and helpful. It should also highlight something positive to soften the blow a bit ^_^ (As soon as I saw "Akifa", I was going WTF???? It doesn't even SOUND Egyptian or . . . ANYTHING really >o< and then you explained it was fanon at the bottom and I was like OOOooooooohhhhh)

AND NOW! FOR YOUR HISTORICAL INPUT -- cuz, I rather like to inform people on what I know XD And since, Biblical history is my primary interest (along with women's HAH), well . . . The whole Hebrews (I'll be using Hebrew and Jew interchangably) as Egyptian slaves things is . . . complicated. We DO know that Moses existed -- he was actually alive. There is also evidence that supports the story of him leading the Jews out of Egypt. However, as time goes on evidence no longer supports the Hebrews-as-slaves theory. Most - respected - scholars no longer perpetuate that story. It's much more likely that Egyptian artisans and laborers built the pyramids. By Hebrew accounts, they were impressed (impression does not equal slavery) into building CITIES such as Pi-atum (in the south (I think) and Pi-Ramsses, which would place the Exodus around 1050 BCE . . . so, if you're strictly going with the chronology given in the series, there's no way Seth could be his name (it just doesn't jive with the timeline). HOWEVER, Set is often referred to as Seth in modern times due to the fluid nature of heiroglyphs. The 'h' is silent. Therefore, it's spelled Seth but pronounced Set-h, with the h being a light exhale. (I'm not making this up). And one more thing - it wasn't necessarily that the Hebrews and Egyptians didn't get along, it was that they were too different to assimilate in any real way. From records, there was no mention of any sort of violence . . . indeed, there are signs that -eventually - they learned to tolerate each other rather well and the Egyptians adopted a Hebrew goddess. They really didn't get all too deep in Egypt anyway. Of course, I'm talking about the period of 1100-1000 BCE so . . . all things simple -- it all depends on what time you're looking at. The Hebrews didn't really move into Egypt until that huge systems collapse and population migrations I told you about in an earlier comment XD

I really need to read that book on the historical Exodus I bought XD

=D

[azurite]

See, I like quoting you as reference because you're my official Historical Consultant. (All things aside, I think I was arguing with a tweeny-bopper, anyway.)

I'm used to pronouncing Seth as "Seh-TH" with a very emphatic 'th' sound-- the one where you're practically spitting at people. I can imagine Set-h as in, an emphatic 'h' sound (there's even a heiroglyph for that-- the twisted flax), but I still don't think that a) Yu-Gi-Oh took place during that time, and b) even if it did, Akunadin would have named his son, the guy he hoped to be a Pharaoh, with any sort of Hebrew nomenclature in mind. If anything, I'm more likely to believe the rumor that Takahashi DID indeed base Seto's name off the Egyptian god Set. People argue about the romanization of Arabic/Egyptian just as much as they do about Japanese, so while I can understand the whole "silent h" thing, it doesn't "jive" with me merely because of my Jewish history, where Seth is pronounced one way, and one way only-- and I think most people reading the name on first sight would probably pronounce it the same way I do.

If someone (*pokes*) wanted to write an "accurate" historical take on Egypt post!Atemu and Co., I'd say the Hebrews might move into Egypt right after Atemu and Co. were trapped into the Millennium Items and the Egyptian empire started to crumble (again?)

Once again though, thanks for your input. ^_~

Re: =D

[guardian-kysra.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm helping someone with all of this . . . (mostly) useless information XD

I agree with you -- when a person sees Seth, they're going to immediately think of the one way to pronounce it. Since I don't agree Seto's Egyptian name could be Seto OR Seth, I'm totally with you on the Set deal. I find the whole Set thing strange though. On the whole, Ancient Egyptians . . . particularly before the 1st Intermediate Period believed the gods were there for the GOOD of people. So, Set is sort of a wild card in the grand scheme of a god-set primarily beneficient. Of course, his myth was depopularized with the popularization of Atem so . . . *shrugs* Good-bye God of the Desert! *waves*

*sings* I will eventually -- well, Echoes in Stillness will be half Ancient Egypt so . . . yeah. But it's before they were trapped XD Sorry!

[staplerx.livejournal.com]

You should know better than to feed the trolls. And its the internet, not english class, correcting people's grammar, spelling, etc. usually indicates that you don't have a life. Why waste the effort?

Hmph.

[azurite]

Nah, this "person" is not a troll-- trolls exist merely to annoy other people for their own self-pleasure; this person was on some acid trip thinking they had the right to butcher a comm I'm in with a post of rather ugly (honest!) icons and bad HTML. I corrected some grammar and some fanon fodder, tis all.

As for 'having no life,' I beg to differ-- just because it's the 'Net is no excuse to abandon all reason, logic, and respect for cultures and languages. The effort is worth it if it stops one more idiot from perpetuating lies.

Re: Hmph.

[staplerx.livejournal.com]

Look at what you're writing, you're picking on the guy's icons and and html. Who are you to judge someone else's icons? The art police? And not everyone writes their own html, nor do those who do, do it perfectly. If you have enough time to go around correcting grammar and code on the internet, and its not a job you do, (like being a professional editor or web designer) then you have too much time on your hands. The internet is a place of facades, false identities, anonimity, noone is gonna listen to you unless you have a face, some identifiable feature that says they should give a rat's as about your opinion. Unless you work for the governemnt or some related institution, you aren't even gonna get close to that. And noone takes any of this shit seriously anyway. Its the goddamn internet, the laws of the real world hardly apply here. As anonymous users, we get freedom, freedom to laugh at what normally would be taboo in the real world. So Tsunami owns the Asian continent- we laugh. Psychotic emo takes his sickness out on a cat and we laugh. People mutilate themselves for no apparent reason and we laugh. Suicide, homicide, genocide- we laugh. Racism, sexism, discrimination, xenophobia, and baseless hate- we laugh. We are mindless "me-too"ism; we are irrational preference, we are pointless flamewars, we are the true face of the internet.

Hmm...

[cutieme4u.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine needs a subletter for summer... don't know if it'll be a place Scott would like but it is in Santa Monica so it would make commuting easier for him. It's a 2 bed, 1 bath for $1600. I'll be in Hawaii for the next week, but give me a call if ur interested and I'll see if she still needs somone. Hope that helps!

Re: Hmm...

[azurite]

$1600 is pretty outrageous, unless it's split between two or more people-- and even at $800, I don't think he'd go for it. Like I said though, maybe if there were more people, he'd go for it in a snap, but... well, get back to me with more details if/when you have them.

Have fun in Hawai'i!