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[–] 100 points 8 months ago (3 children)

And their cousin Naga Saki.

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  • [–] 74 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (38 children)

    In the book snowcrash by Neil Stephenson the main character is named "Hiro Protagonist". Yes it's a real book, and one of my favorites, by a real author.

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  • [–] 29 points 8 months ago (18 children)

    I like it, as a person who doesn't really pay attention to most names in fiction, and primarily focuses on the story it's trying to tell.

    Don't make it too obvious like "Busty LoveInterest" and "Villain McMustashface".

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    If you like techno-fantasy I highly recommend snowcrash. For years I've wanted a game of the first chapter, basically a guy is delivering pizza but gas is really expensive so all he has is a skateboard and a harpoon gun with an electromagnet. He basically shoots the harpoon at cars and gave them pull him towards the destination, it sounds like a cool video game like a race but you don't control speed only which car you are connected to.

    Don't worry that didn't spoil anything. The book goes into a totally different direction with technology and science.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    The guy in the car getting harpooned is delivering the pizza, the skateboarder is just hitching a free ride.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    Wait, are you correcting me or giving social commentary? I thought the guy on the skateboard was delivering pizzas but it has been over a decade since I read it so I may be wrong

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    I dont remember who was delivering the pizzas but I remember Hiro was driving the car that got harpooned.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I vaguely remember a skateboarding game from the 90s where the character could grab onto cars. But it was probably on something like Sega Mega and pretty primitive. Might've been one of the Simpsons games.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    That's it! The description sounds pretty fun actually, I might need to fire the game up myself.

    My nagging feeling that it was ‘Road Rash’ with a skateboard or skates didn't deceive me, as apparently the ‘RR’ engine was reused for this game.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I've said that before too, like I would love a novel that's just about the pizza delivery side of things, he crammed so much fascinating backstory into that one chapter, then the book completely changes direction and never looks back. That whole sequence with all the crazy technology and just the tone in general was just so badass.

    Don't get me wrong, the rest of the book is pretty awesome too, but that first chapter is wild just on its own.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The difference is that's trying to be stupid and funny. Rowling is just, I don't know, lazy, or uncreative, or racist. One, or multiple, of those at least.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    The protagonist from one of the mortal Kombat was Shujinko. Which means protagonist.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    I just looked that up and it says Shujinko was fooled by someone named Damashi, which means trick.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Pretty much all anime names are stupid as hell too. Dragon Ball famously names all characters around foods (and sometimes other themes like underwear, for example). In other anime, every character has a name that just so happens to be related to their special ability or personality. Yusuke Urameshi from Yuyuhakusho basically is "Boo Ghost-boy".

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    In Dragon Ball's case, this is because Akira Toriyama would always write before dinner, so he would always have food on the brain. He was kinda quirky like that.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Fantastic book, line a comics but in text.

    He also invented "the metaverse" that moron zuckerberg just stole, poured billions into just to get legs to the avatars.

    BTW The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon are masterpieces too IMO.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I bought this book minutes before reading this comment. The AI-captured advernet is here, and they have played me like a fiddle

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  • [–] 68 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (28 children)

    I mean, this is one where you don't have to make up an example. The only Asian character in the books is named Cho Chang.

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  • [–] 31 points 8 months ago (11 children)

    And the movie portrayal was character assassination implying she was the one who ratted out Dumbledore’s Army.

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  • [–] 22 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    Fuck I forgot about that. Those movies kinda suck ass past the first two.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Order of the Phoenix is brutal but I think Half Blood Prince from a cinematography perspective is the best in the series. Prisoner of Azkaban was also really well done.

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  • Oh yeah Prisoner was great.

    Going to have to disagree with you on HBP. I went through a huge Potterhead phase as a teen and I fell asleep during that movie every time I tried to watch it.

    At the time, the only other movie I had ever fallen asleep during while trying to watch was After Earth. So, admittedly, I kinda wrote the HBP movie off for that reason. But I've tried to go back and revisit it, and I just can't keep my eyes open!

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (4 children)

    Are you kidding? The first two films were shot in the most boring way possible, which is a bit odd considering the director Chris Columbus had previously made the two ‘Home Alones’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’. I still regret that I didn't know of VLC's playback speed adjustment when I watched ‘HP’.

    Then they got proper good director Alfonso Cuarón, who shown how a fantasy film could actually look and feel. After which of course he wasn't hired again, and instead in one more iteration they found David Yates, who churned out the remaining four films like it was a factory job for him.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Nope, not kidding. Clearly we disagree. It seems Mr. Cuarón's look for a good fantasy film was a washed-out blue.

    That said, I still think PoA is still the best non-Columbus movie - I just enjoy the coziness of the first two. It's what Hogwarts felt like to me when reading the books, so I naturally like seeing that brought to screen.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    I mean, the themes of ‘PoA’ are somewhat more mature, so the noirish look was warranted. And from what I remember, it wasn't just a blue-and-orange palette, like in many modern films, but a pretty colorful one inside that noir feel.

    Cuarón also doesn't do such palettes everywhere. ‘Y tu mamá también’ is very colorful, while the dystopian ‘Children of Men’ is accordingly subdued. So it was a choice appropriate to the events in the film, just like the installments later in the ‘HP’ series also get darker.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (15 children)
  • [–] 22 points 8 months ago* (14 children)

    The joke is that JK Rowling names her characters offensively.

    I've seen this done before with multiple non-existent examples.

    This one also uses a Japanese example.

    My point is that JK Rowling already named an Asian character offensively. She also has an Irish kid named Seamus that loves blowing stuff up, and a black man named Shacklebolt.

    All I'm saying is the joke is now distracting from the source, because there is a real example of using her naming conventions on Asian characters. I'll also say that we don't actually know Cho's nationality, yet I don't have faith in JK Rowling to distinguish between non-European nationalities.

    Of course, the longer I talk about it the less funny everything becomes.

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  • [+] 12 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago*

    Some fantasy is heightened by that, though.

    I think CS Lewis employed a similar strategy, and Narnia is all the more fantastical for it. I mean what the fuck is going on in The Horse and His Boy and The Silver Chair?

    JK Rowling's strategy of adding lore via halfassed Twitter replies may have a bit less thought involved, though.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I am normally used to high fantasy where the worldbuilding makes sense, but harry potter just flows like she thought of what could come next, and that’s it.

    Just a quick reminder that she designed Quidditch specifically in a way that would infuriate any person even remotely familiar with how sports games work, because she wanted to "bet back at" a guy who dumped her.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Rowling is a diverse writer who can make multiple offensive asian characters. Yes she has a generic asian character but get ready for hiro and their friends Walla Greataru (China), pungeen Pitt (vietnam), and Ima Eatdog (Korea) who will be diversifying the bigotry in fun new ways along with their rivals Rege Sheepfucker (Wales), Maple Beaverlodge (Canada), and Gitmo Castro (Colombia)

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Anthony Goldstein Can someone explain this one?

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Just kinda fits with the stereotypical naming convention. Like John White for an American.

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  • [–] 20 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago

    Implying she'd even attempt to resist.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    She just butthurt for her own name

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago

    Hiro Protagonist is much better.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago

    Ian Fleming 👀

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago

    I cast Fissio Infernus!

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