Grrl Power #322 – Accent grave mistake
Come on Sydney, you skate on one kinda racist thing, and your next sentence is “Since you’re not white…” She sort of has a point though. In my experience, white people’s name generally don’t mean anything. My name is David, and if you look up David on baby naming sites, they’ll tell you David means king or beloved, but it doesn’t really. There was just a David of note who happened to be a king. No one speaking English stands on the bow of a ship and yells “I’m the David of the world!” In Japanese, Hana means flower. It’s also a common girls name, that or Hanako, which means Flower Child. Aki means Autumn. It’s also a woman’s name, as is Akiko. (Autumn Child) “Ko” means child if you weren’t picking up on that. Akira is a boy’s name that also means “A seminal work that anyone into anime should see if for no other reason as to round out their literacy of the genre. Also it has an amazing soundtrack, and a space scene that has no sound at all cause it’s space and that’s awesome.”
That’s not to say there aren’t any white people with names that actually mean something, (Summer, May, June, Sky(e), etc) but generally they just mean that their parents like that name. Maybe other cultures are the same way, but I get the impression that outside of white American culture, names tend to have a bit more meaning, unless of course your is also that of a famous person from a religious text or literature. That may just be my own Amero-centric perspective. It’s certainly Sydney’s anyway.
Edit: I meant to add this along with the post but I forgot. I gave Xochitl a side cut on a whim because I’ve recently decided it’s basically my favorite hairstyle on a gal. I tend to go for that Suicide Girl look anyway for some reason. It was only after I drew her that it occurred to me that it makes her look a bit Mohican (or at least the Hollywood representation thereof) so at the last minute I decided to add the mini comic to address it. Really, the flexible Uniform Dress Code going on around Arc-SWAT pretty much deserves it’s own full page, so I may yet do that, but in the meantime I didn’t want people to think Xochitl’s appearance was based on my idea of what Aztecs are supposed to look like.
If you’re not familiar with the Boston area accent, Xochitl sounds a lot like Nancy from 30 Rock.
I’m a fan of 4th wall humor, as long as it’s not abused. I think the last time Sydney did it was way back on page 54, so I’m comfortable I’m not overdoing it. I recently started watching Magnum P.I. on Netflix (along with this rewatch podcast) Every episode someone mugs to the camera. Then again, Abed from Community is basically 4th wall incarnate, and I dig that show, so I guess I’m down as long as it’s handled with care.
Today’s page again colored by Keith.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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May want to fix the color in panel five, Dave. The bottom next to her speech bubble is colored like her arm would be, but textured like her shirt. n_n;
She seems an amicable character so far. I look forward to seeing what her power is. :)
Dave is so used to drawing women in crop-tops that he must have done that out of habit.
Unless her power is that every time she says her own name a part of her clothing turns invisible.
I thought that was her arm. :p
Same here: she has moved her left arm across her stomach
She’s crossing her arms tight against her front to emphasize “not shaking hands yet” Keith thought it was part of her shirt too, so I changed the color but it still looks a bit wrinkly I guess.
Doesn’t look wrinkly to me, no more than her arms in other panels
Ah! My apologies, then – didn’t catch that from her posture on the first read. :)
This could be interesting.
Maybe it’s just growing up in a really Christian home, but I’m white as sheet, and the actual name meanings were pretty important.
Well of course, with you True Whites ™ yer names tell everyone that yer better than they are.
I’d snark a response at that, but just about all of my attention is taken up hoping that she’s one of the handful of Aztec goddesses whose cult wasn’t…well…cannibals. I mean, I’m sorry, but when the locals decide better the evil they don’t know (also known as Cortes) than the evil they do, that’s pretty stinking bad.
Yeah, okay, so they Aztec and Mayan gods are fun to draw. Their cults were also pretty stinking evil, and weren’t above killing and eating people when the crops started to falter.
Is that actual fact or just church propaganda? I’m asking because the Vatican was always big on demonizing their competition, so much so that it’s often difficult to separate facts from fabrication.
It’s really not propaganda, but what’s probably weirder is that people were relaxed about it culturally and it was really hard to convince them it was evil. A lot of sacrifices were volunteers.
Also no there isn’t a picture of a Mayan on a spaceship in hieroglyphs and the calendar didn’t end a few years ago, just to cover a couple urban myths.
“A lot of sacrifices were volunteers.”
Not “evil” thus. Not more than Jack sacrificing himself for Rose.
The not voluntary ones are other matter.
“…there isn’t a picture of a Mayan on a spaceship in hieroglyphs”
Ha, I concur :) still the Pakal’s carved sarcophagus is an intriguing image that have not scholar unanimous interpretation yet.
Who could resist to play? :P
Ooh ooh, my turn to play sceptic!
Equally there may not be a consensus on the meaning of Damien Hirst’s work. But it is still likely that the guy just gets high on formaldehyde.
Just in case I would like to clarify that with that sentence I was referring to the real science based kind of mysteries. The next one was just a joke :)
“But it is still likely that the guy just gets high on formaldehyde”
A personal wealth valued at over $300m!?
I will need to rethink my drug of choice.
Ahh, but that is why I chose him. A lot of people ‘buy in’ to modern art. And are willing to back that with money. But, equally a lot of people consider it to be junk.
When I look at the top 10 most valuable bits of junk (in various categories) I honestly would not give $10 for any of them, for purposes of displaying them in my own home.
Of course, if I knew it to be a genuine, highly valuable work, I would be willing to invest the money. And would promptly sell it, to the highest bidder, as soon as possible.
While most of the written accounts are from the invading Spanish, there is archaeological evidence that supports those accounts.
The locals didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter, and Cortes and his bunch turned around and decimated the ones who did help anyway once the only real threat to the Spanish greed was destroyed
Evil is a difficult matter.
Just to pick a good know example, Christ is fun to draw too. No so much the Christian Inquisition practices.
Wow… prejudiced much?
I read all the archives, and I’m enjoying this comic, one thing though… PLEASE have Sydney push up her glasses, real people who wear glasses don’t wear them like that, only pornstars with fake glasses do.
lurk moar, lurker.
Sydney’s glasses are constantly sliding down her nose throughout the comic, and then eventually we’ll have a panel where she’s pushing them back up. She’s distracted.
If you look at her glasses, you will see that, even if they were pushed right up, they would still look like that: the side bits are positioned low on the rims, and the nose piece is higher than usual
I think that Lurker refers to that nobody would wear glasses like those in that way.
I met a couple persons that wore glasses below the sightline like Sydney does. They were glasses to read only so the person usually look above them, they were just used to wore them all the time. But then those glasses were a lot smaller.
I concur that IRL glasses so big, used in that way would be pointless and/or uncomfortable.
But this isn’t RL, is it? :)
They are every much a part of Sydney’s distinctive image as her anime eyes.
Besides which, knowing her, they are probably not even prescription, and part of her cos-play kit. She just found that she looked a lot cuter with them on.
She surely does :) but I like to think that the high tech soap bubble like membrane she has in those monomolecular carbon tube wire frames totally accomplish it’s function :P
BTW, if you like nice girls with nice glasses you could want to check Frivolesque :)
https://frivolesque.com/archives/comic/guest-8
That scene with Shadow Boxer? Just faking it to fool him. ;-)
“Girl Power stuff”
COMIC NAME DROP. WE’RE DONE HERE.
*ding*
Roll credits.
Repeating a joke that was the 2nd thing posted on page 1.
*ding*
Something about Aztec looks off. Just terrible really compared to other characters in the comic, and no, it’s not the hairstyle, I too like the hairstyle.
Also, I’m pretty sure that style of hair is okayed in the military, though would likely need to roll/pin it up in the back. The feather not as likely, but like Halo said, they likely have different standards, which I would think in a real world setting there would be a big difference between what they would allow and the military.
They’re going to want to attract supers, and not want them to go into other services that would allow them to look how they want while still using their powers however they want…super powered bounty hunters for instance. Blackwater style companies. Bodyguards.
ARC would likely need to match those in pay, which they may beable to do with the toy sales. :p
Personally I am quite happy with her looks. It is a bit complicated by the change in shading for today’s comic mind. But if you are ok with Sydney’s look on this page, and it is just Xochitl’s looks that are bothering you, then it is worth trying to put you finger on what is bothering you. Even if you cannot offer a solution, you would need to provide something to go on, in order for it to be constructive.
You might want to compare this page to the earlier one, where we first got to see her, and see if that help pin-point whatever is eluding you?
I agree with you about the hair styles, as regards the need for Archon to be both flexible and competitive. Supers are in short supply, but will doubtless be in high demand. Rather like movie stars, they can pick where they want to go. So having a relaxed dress code is one way to make a military career more palatable, to a wider range of people.
Plus you never know when you’ll get someone whose super-power is a prehensile beard or who subscribes to the Sampson schools of heroic vulnerability.
I think the style of art on her looks different from the rest of the comic. Almost like some bad cgi style art comic. That said, I don’t see why one’s comments on anything needs to be constructive when many of the comments are not constructive.
They let Harem use the codename Harem, so I’m not sure they’re as strict as Arianna wishes they were or wants to believe they are, but I’m sure she might try to pressure some into being how she wants them to be.
This is likely what allows Harem to get away with some of her comments. ARC going “Join us” doesn’t work when there’s plenty of legal companies one could join and do all those things ARC wants to try and keep for themselves.
Just simple Good Samaritan laws will allow supers to get away with helping stop a giant alien attacking the city for instance but also some of those jobs I mentioned before. Harem being Harem, I would think she would make that public knowledge, maybe even Dabbler, both who seem to like to mess with authority.
Oh, I only said that because your comment was constructive in tone, but just lacking in any specifics, which would actually help the artist and colourist identify what the issue was. So I was not having a go at you at all, given that you sounded like you wanted to help.
This page has attracted various comments on the look, but whilst much of it has been negative (including from myself), it has also been constructive, by identifying what the perceived problem was. Which you have very kindly done too, by means of your reply.
It is an eternal bane, for artists, if there is a change in style, that fans, who are used to the old style, will grumble. On one paw that can inhibit creativity and is doubtless very disheartening. But, on the other paw, getting immediate feedback allows them to assess the criticism and decide whether it is justified. Sometimes it will not be. Both the quantity and quality of the feedback help in that process.
Oh! Well Halo looks like Halo to me. She looks terrible in the first panel, but she’s looked like that before.
That might be due to the closeness of the Orbitals in the first two panels, if you note when Sydney backs off a little the lighting isn’t so ‘harsh’
Aztec’s teeth look really “off” in panels 2 & 3. Heck in panel 3 it looks like she has bloody, chipped teeth.
Can see what you mean in panel four (she is not in panel three :P), but what you are seeing is not chipped teeth, but the curve of her teeth and the roof of her mouth (the ‘gap’ in her teeth is actually the roof of her mouth)
How would Sydney react to a person speaking pidgin English or outdated ethnic, broken English?
I should imagine in much the same way, or at least a variant on the theme. If you cannot understand somebody, you first have to establish why. And using humour in such situations is not inappropriate. It is a useful way of breaking the ice.
As with any use of humour it does run a risk though. If somebody has a speech impediment, for example, you would not want to make them feel uncomfortable about it. But if they turn out not to be a native English speaker, or as in your examples, does not speak (or, one assumes understand) conventional English, then that is best established sooner rather than later.
Feigning comprehension, out of politeness, is only likely to lead to misunderstandings. Whereas narrowing down the exact communication difficulty can help you adapt. For instance using simpler words and, if they are still having difficulty, slowing down your speech. Or asking them to do the same, to help you pick out what terms you can understand.
But, if you employ such techniques ill-advisedly, assuming that they have difficulty understanding you, when it is just you who are lacking in comprehension, then that is a different matter.
Being a speaker of very halting Bulgarian, with little grasp of grammar, that is something that I have to be very aware of, in my day-to-day life. But from the other side of the fence.
Same way, I imagine. Sydney can be a bit of a jerk, particularly to those she doesn’t fear. If Xochitl had been a big deal some one would have mentioned her. Why not crack wise on her name?
Given the Aztecs proclivity for human sacrifice, blood rituals and heart stabbing I’m guessing it has to do with either-stealing life of those who touch her, or stealing powers, as she seemed wary of Halo’s touch. either that or if it has something to do with her name….. something to do with pregnancy/ lust? but we have dabbler already, and that girly already has lust and sex powers cornered.
Eh, Spanish exaggeration (not that there wasn’t human sacrifice), but the mysterious ancestors of the Aztecs who built the pyramids they moved into were clearly HUGE on the practice by comparison.
Flower…fertility…hmm…maybe a copy-morph? Taking on the temporary appearance of someone she touches…or a hybrid copy-morph who takes on the appearance of the person they touch mixed with their own appearance…like a potential child of the two.
That or Hallucinogenic Touch. *inducing a drug like state in those one has physical contact with* similar to the pheromone powers but a lot less range.
ect..
there are some potentials here, can’t wait to see how it goes.
So you’re third theory is a tactile based toxin like Poison Ivy’s kiss?
Similar, but instead of a Poison Skin, Poison Sweat, or similar effect it would be more LSD, hallucinogenic effect. Which could be useful, not fatal, but able to temporary disable an opponent by putting them into a drug like daze of many colors.
Yea, that was one of the first things to spring to mind for me too. And I still consider it to be a strong contender.
If able to induce hallucinations, we must assume that she has some degree of control over them. Or else she would not be able to casually test it. Which means she would likely have scope over how to flavour them.
As such she could choose flower or plant themes, or Aztec ones, to play on her heritage. But it would also give scope for full-blown hallucinations of a totally immersive sort. In which case, the gloves can come off and Dave will be able to bring any ‘what if’ scenario to life.
So the former oozes flavour and character, but the latter give huge scope for stories.
Psst that was probably where the Aliens used to fight Predators, and the human slaves were just collateral damage in their matches. Y’all need to pay attention to the documentaries Hollywood makes!
English is a “bastard” language; in a very literal sense. The result of so many cross-overed languages that its not even funny (and not in the normal language/cultural drift sense either). It happens on purpose. Adopting terms and names from cultures that have popularity *due to religion or ideas at the time of cultural exoticness and the names stay: we are starting to see more Asian names among American babies for example.*
One of the sadder ones is the latin/French bit, like “equestrian” eques would be Horse, but not in English of course. In the “old days” AKA Middle-English days, the upper class would speak French mixed with latin to sound (SMARTER) AKA separate themselves from the English speaking lower class.
and thus a stigma was born, adhering these foreign language words to sounding smarter. So while in Japanese something horse related would be “horse like” in their language, using the same term for both…we instead use a French based word and place an ignorance label on the English equivalent.
In fact it is burned into YOUR MINDS, since childhood like this.
If two people came up to you and said these lines, which would you consider the more educated? Given they look exactly alike and are dressed well.
That was very equestrian.
That was very horsey,
Depending on what was actually seen, probably the second
The thing is, ‘English’ cuts and adapts words to make new ones, and those new words have new meanings that oftimes don’t mean the same as the original words used to make them (everyone knows what a ‘pedestrian’ is, but if you told them what the words were that were used to make it would think you were a nutter)
‘Equestrian’ may relate to horses, but it has a very specific usage, and doesn’t relate to all things equine
In other words, the smarter phrase would have been “That was very equine.”
;)
Very Quadrupedal? =P
Compared to ‘equestrian’? Certainly
I meant equine, despite the time stamp on this site it was very late for me where I am when I was typing.
English, well, American English at least, doesn’t so much adapt words from other languages, as follow them down a dark street, club them on the head, and riffle through their pockets for loose vocabulary.
That’s English period.
According to the British, we Americans don’t speak English, we speak American. You might find a similar attitude among the Spaniards about how much Mexicans aren’t speaking Spanish.
It’s just depending on who’s point of reference you use…
Specially seeing how Mexicans refer to themselves as ‘Latinos’ o_O
You’ve been hanging out with Mark Twain too much.
and that’s a bad thing?
Hanging around with the dead does have some drawbacks.
Forget altering and adapting words, we can’t even maintain the same meaning of a word over time. A fag used to be a chord or bundle of wood. Now in America it’s a derogatory word for gay while in England it’s a term for both gay and a cigarette (not at the same time of course, that would be weird :-). Idiot was originally a latin word for someone who doesn’t vote but in modern English has just come to mean someone stupid.
On top of that the English language has been increasing in size massively since the invention of computers. It used to be around 400,000 words at the beginning of last century. In the last decade or so we passed the 1,000,000 word point.
Your grasp of history is a wee bit lacking when phrasing it the way you have. It was not a pretension. They actually were French! The Normans invaded Britain in 1066, and conquered the Saxons. The Normans were French speakers. Their subjects were Saxons (amongst others).
Hence why English has different terms for food, compared to animals. The Normans called the thing that the serfs brought to them on their plate one name, but the peasants were the ones who had to work the fields and herd the animals, so carried on using their language to refer to them. Pig versus pork. Sheep versus mutton. And so on.
Of course you are perfectly correct that such pretensions can occur, in addition to that, but it certainly does not account for the majority of the introductions. Which have occurred for a huge variety of reasons.
And do not forget that the bible used to be only available in Latin. And was spoken in many circles within European courts. Leaving the legacy we still see today of it’s influence in law, medicine and various branches of science. Which did make it essential to courtiers and those seeking careers in high-status professions.
So, whilst the pretentious do use it in the way you say, they do so because learned folk, in a number of respected fields, need to know it, in order to do their jobs. Use of such terms advisedly, when discussing appropriate subjects, can help if your audience is familiar with the buzz-words. If not, it can cause resentment.
But English has a vast vocabulary. So big that it is impossible to actually count. It can only be estimated. And a big part of that is that every profession and trade has it’s own buzz words and jargon. Not all of them drawn from pretentious sources.
However anybody using such terms, to a wider audience who does not understand them, is putting themselves at equal risk of alienating their listeners/readers. In which case the complaints may be about ‘techno-babble’ or ‘Americanisms’. As examples.
Whilst most of these can come across as just being ‘terms folks have not heard before’ a few of them would very much be perceived as being used for pretentious or conceited purposes.
Mind you, I always bear in mind the saying.
England and English speakers (worldwide) are fragmented into many groups. Some of which will intrinsically dislike other factions, to a greater or lesser degree. And I doubt that there is any one faction which is beloved universally.
Therefore, as soon as you speak you will be marking yourself out to those who do not like your accent, perceived social status or just your turn of phrase.
Personally I love the richness and variety that comes from such diversity. :-D
There were later periods, in early Modern English I think, when Romance words were added to English from the continent, though. What Rhuen described actually happened. It may have been less about pretension than about maintaining cognates with French so the scholarly classes in both countries were able to communicate better.
And it has been a controversy at times, inasmuch as it meant replacing a perfectly serviceable English word with a newfangled word that’s mostly French.
The evolution of English, and it’s many influences, is a huge subject, that can take a long time to even summarise. One of the most passionate speakers on the subject is Melvyn Bragg. He has made various BBC tv and radio series covering the subject. And, if you check out his bibliography in that link, he has written a number of works on the subject too.
For anyone who has even an idle curiosity about such things, he can draw you in to sharing his enthusiasm for the subject. Being a trading nation, England has always had a cosmopolitan nature, and the British Empire simply expanded the scope. But there are many surprising sources of English words, and Melvin is adept at showing how they found their way in.
There are many oddities about English that I do not like. Such as the use of non-phonetic spelling. And the tendency to Anglicise place names, which I find a lazy practice, that should not be conducted. But accepting of words from any useful source, including other languages and nations, that I am fine with.
And it works the other way too. I find many English words are part of the Bulgarian language, especially for technology and anything computer related.
Anglicising ‘local place names has tended to stop in the last 20 something years (look at the cities in India for example, Bombay has returned to Mumbai), some landmarks retain or use both names depending on how long the English name has been in use
Yea, a very reasonable point. So it is more of a niggle than a burning issue.
Still there is a big legacy that we are still helping to perpetuate. Take Venice as an example. You can find it on Google Earth under that name. And the Italian tourist board is not helping by promoting it that way too. But simply because they know they will not get as many tourists if they use their local name.
However the signs on the ground are all for Venezia.
Grumble grumble.
Mind you I blame Shakespeare. Worse than Hollywood for not fact checking stuff!
Merchant of Venezia mate, not Venice!
Shakespeare was a fraud anyway!
“That was very horsey,” sounds very like something an upper-class English speaker would say, just not about horsemanship.
“That was very equestrian,” sounds a bit like you’re talking about an ancient Roman social class? But I guess it could refer to horsemanship as well.
Anyway, “equestrian” doesn’t usually mean “horsey”–as mentioned above, that’s “equine.” It means “horseman.”
Yep. Equine is in reference to an actual horse, whereas equestrian is better represented by a Centaur.
:P
In response to your comment…I would assume both of them are equally poorly educated.
English is…honestly, there’s a reason why learning to speak it fluently is a cast-iron bitch, and it’s not just the vocabulary or the idioms. To start with, English is an incredibly precise language, one whose rules, be they related to spelling, grammar, or syntax, simply cannot be ignored…and which are massively complex enough to require a lifetime to fully understand.
Let’s take an example: knight, versus night, versus nite.
The word “knight” is actually from Old English, and was originally spelled without the letter “g”. However, the pronunciation shifted over the years to include a very soft “ch” sound, which was represented by the “gh” when English spelling finally began to formalize around the sixteenth and the seventeenth century. At some point, it, along with virtually every other word with the “igh” grouping of letters came to be pronounced with a long vowel sound (I do not know why). Technically speaking, if you want to be precise, all three of the above words are spelled phonetically–they just use different character groupings to indicate the same sound. Again, I do not know why–linguistic history is not my forte.
However, I DO know why we Anglicize place names and many foreign words we adopt: believe it or not, the letter clusters we use for pronunciation are very precise and exact, and there are only a handful of languages in which those sound patterns transfer cleanly. Using the place names as, say, a Bulgarian might write them frequently leads to the place names be mispronounced…while using them as a Bulgarian SAYS them leads to them being misspelled. There’s not really a good way to solve the problem, I’m afraid–Bulgarian is just flat-out spelled differently than English. Your options are to learn Bulgarian, which is sort of stupid if you’re just trying to pronounce a town’s name, or to Anglicize it. Most people elect to Anglicize it, just like most Bulgarians will Bulgaricize the English words they adopt…which is why they’re never pronounced quite the same you and I would pronounce them.
The thing is that Bulgarian is very consistent in it’s approach. And you make it sound like English is too, but just using different priorities. Trouble is that is not the case. There is a huge legacy of weird, non-phonetic spellings which have no justification.
Bulgaria had an exercise, within living memory, where they chopped out all of the junk that was not needed. In their case it was having a far bigger alphabet than they actually needed. So, even though it impacted a huge number of words, they were following simple principles in resolving the issue.
We could do something similar though, in English. State the principles that we should adhere to (whilst keeping the priorities as you state, to avoid making too many changes) then correct all words which break the rules for no good reason, other than historic legacy.
It would be a huge exercise, granted. And a pain in the bum for those of us having to re-learn things. But any changes would follow simple rules. Yet we would be making learning English easier for billions of people, for generations to come.
And words shifting over time could simply apply those rules.
Japanese has borrowed a vast amount of words from China, along with their entire writing system. The native Japanese word for “dragon” is “tatsu,” but you’ll just as often hear it said “ryu,” derived from Chinese “long.”
…That said, I have no idea whether or not there’s any social basis for picking one over the other.
Might depend on the type of dragon they are talking about or referring to
I expect they have internalized rules that wouldn’t make sense to a non-native speaker/reader. The confusion applies to names as well (speaking of meaningful names).
I had a Japanese co-worker named Akiko–when I asked the meaning of her name, she told me (I vaguely recall something about leaves–it was over a decade ago), but pointed out that the meaning depends on the kanji used and showed two or three different meanings, including that of Princess Akiko’s name. I see on the Wikipedia that there are many more.
With that kind of linguistic variation, no wonder wordplay is such an artform.
“English is a “bastard” language; in a very literal sense. The result of so many cross-overed languages…”
Every language is more or less that way.
Honestly, neither of them. The first would seem like the person learned a fancy word he doesn’t understand and wanted to sound smart. That or they are talking about something MLP related. Use of a word like equestrian just does not happen in your average conversation, let alone being used by a random stranger that just walked up to you.
Horsey is slightly better given said person may just be using it as a shortcut to ‘looks or acts like a horse’ and more practical than using a word like equine where the listener may not be as familiar with the term.
In either case, there is a very small range of situations where using these words would be practical and understood fully given that the subject would have to seem horse related, but not actually being a horse.
Isn’t Xeph a chinese guy with no accent?
I always hear him with an English accent myself. But only because, in my mind, he is this story’s equivalent of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Mind you his wild-imaginings do not seem to be drawn from oriental sources. So it is plausible (as opposed to probable) that he may well have been an English adventurer, before he settled down in America.
Bam, title drop.
Western names have a meaning, we just forgot them over the centuries.
https://www.behindthename.com/
David, for example, is Hebrew for beloved. My first and last name translates as “Justice from the Sea”, first half being Latin and second half Scottish Gaelic.
So my full name is effectively “Rich Guard of the Luciano Valley Priest”
So mine would be God is my judge, Yahweh is gracious, and I am the keeper of his temple.
Wow! I always considered TheCrimsonF*cker to be a name more diabolic than divine.
Will wonders never cease?…
Old name would be “The desire to protect the brown crooked nose”
New name has no matches or meanings whatsoever
I thought your name meant “The Red Fornicator”
Actual name. TheCrimsonF*cker is a reference to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged by Team Four Star. It’s on youtube. I highly recommend it. In etymology it could be equated to “one who hunts virgins”. :-P
So YOU’RE the dragon in those stories where the virgin princesses are sacrificed!
You don’t have that secret anymore!
:D
We haven’t forgotten the meaning of names, we just have a lot more on our plate. Of course, we have to look up the meaning of many names unlike the old timers who only had to know a few, some of which were quite obvious, but parents still agonize and argue over what to name the brat.
Still, could be worse. Did you know the communist party in china has forced nearly the entire population to change their family names to one of a list of approved names? There are over 300 million people with the family names Li, Wang, and Zhang alone.
Not going to lie, my first thought upon seeing Xochitl was “cross my heart and hope you’re bi”.
Also she has my ideal haircut
*applies Yorp seal of approval to the sentiments*
“Cross my heart and hope you’re bi.” I love that now.
My thoughts about two seconds after reading that: “Wonder if people are going to start shipping her and Peggy now…”
….Shit. I ship it.
I am (currently) thinking the Xo-Xo power will be codename Vibrant:
When she touches, she enhances something in the contact person. Kind of healer, booster, buffer thing. She can use it on herself but it has lesser effect (diminishing returns) and may not work the same way in a row. Strength once, heals next time, defense etc etc. Each kind of use has a color associated hence the rainbow. She can guide if not control the first hit but then goes a bit random. She is second string because her upper limit is roygbiv (seven unique active doses).
I am thinking that buffing is quite likely. And the randomness might well account for her describing it as ‘dramatic’ especially if bright coloured effects are involved.
Running with the thought though, what about if the colours were simply making the recipient’s aura visible? And that, as such, the power bestowed was based upon their personality. Some of which could result in spectacular results!
So Xochitil would be just as interested as Sydney, to find out what will happen when she touches her!
I’m guessing it’s a chakra point thing. She empowers one of your seven (color identified!) chakra to make you better at thinking, communicating, etc.
So does she buff Sydney or buff her balls? (snirk)
Seriously, if she a power amplifier she has to amplify the source of the power, not just the director of the power. Also perhaps she can access and even interpret Sydney’s skill tree.
Okay, how about you offer to buff Sydney’s balls, and we will watch, from another universe :P
I’ll get the polish & a shammy…
“booster, buffer thing”
So when she activates her power she just stands there and repeats “buffering, buffering, buffering…” while a little symbol swirls over her head.
When I read Aztec’s speed bubbles, I am imagining her voice like this in my head.
https://www.waaf.com/blogs/danielles-blog/monday-11-3-14-recap-37356
Local radio station in Boston has a segment called Masshole Theatre, take a scene from a movie, change it to Boston slang, and find someone with a killer Boston accent to read it. This is probably one of the best examples of it. Fast forward to 1:50 to get right to it.
And just once, Aztec has to say “irregardless”.
Heh, that’s great! Thanks for linking that.
I think the problem here with the hole “white people and name meaning thing,” is that White people generally ether don’t bother to look up what there names mean, or don’t care. Name meanings are generally something that the parents give there child to ether inspire them or work as something as a charm. But white people or other people as well and not just white people don’t give that much thought anymore in there child’s names. It’s not like “I shall name him David and he shall grow up to be a king and or well loved!” Don’t think people generally put that much thought into giving there kids names anymore.
A great deal of thought still goes in to it, but the archaic meaning of the name isn’t high on the list of priorities. Personal meaning and aural aesthetics are generally more valued by middle class, American, white parents. There is also a fair amount of consideration for the long term effects of a name. A common (but not too common) eurocentric name doesn’t carry much in the way of negative connotations but a creatively spelled name, or a strongly ethnic name, or a “stripper” name can have serious long term effects on a child’s future job prospects. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/34063244/ns/business-careers/t/it-or-not-name-can-impact-your-career/#.VWjeyM9VhBc
So she is pointing to panel 3 because she can rewind time? “Rewind” sounds like a good hero name, LOL
If it’s not what was intended, it’s TOO COOL not to change it to that. I can’t seem to read the comic any other way.
Heh, I guess if Halo can look through the 4th wall, Xochitil can punch a hole in it, climb out, walk back a few panels and mess things around a little.
And, yea, that would be dramatic. Especially if Sydney could go on the trip with her!
Wouldn’t it be more “Sho-chi-ket-sel” than “Sho-ki-ket-zel,” if the ch is like Spanish?
I thought this website would help:
https://www.mythome.org/aztecnames.html
But, for a guide for English language speakers that says
They then do something particularly stupid. By saying.
I do not speak Spanish. If they wanted to address their guide to Spanish speakers, they would have been better off writing their article in Spanish. Or they could at least say at the top, “don’t bother reading this if you are not bilingual in English and Spanish”
It’s not that bad. It’s just, Spanish uses chi for /tʃi/ (like the first three letters in “China”) and qui or ki for /ki/ (as in “quinoa” and “kilo” respectively).
But your link also makes “Xochiquetzal” out to be “shok i KAY tsal” (or /ʃok iˈketsal/) whereas both Wikipedia and Mexicolore are saying it’s more like /ʃoːtʃiˈketsaɬ/ (and WP spells it “Xōchiquetzal”).
I’m puzzled.
Wait, I meant “China” with a Spanish pronunciation. Use instead the first three letters in “Chico” or “chinos.”
(I don’t know the /ɬ/ sound, sorry. It’s not from any language I’ve studied. WP says its a voiceless alveolar fricative, which sounds kind of like a Castilian z to me, although I know it’s a little different.)
You thought you knew. So secure in your belief that it is not until now that you have had reason to question it.
Everything you thought you knew about this comic is wrong. You have only now, after 322 pages, been introduced to the TRUE main character! The sings were there and we did not see them! Lo, a new page as opened our eyes to the truth! The name of the true hero is known to us!
BEHOLD! We shall on the next page see what this true GRRL POWER is!
;)
BOM BOM BOMMMM!
I was thinking this was the first discernible accent in the entire strip, but then I checked and realized the very first line on the very first panel had a heavy German accent. Though he turned out to be fictional within this universe…
If we find her name hard to pronounce can we make like Bambi?
Oh lord not another insufferable Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins fan I hope!
Another? Didn’t know there already was one in this comic
I was going over your cast page and found that you only have one Enlisted rank, Corporal. So I checked a bit more.
Maxima O-5
Anvil 0-2
Harem E-4
Peggy 0-2
Heatwave E-4
Mr. Amorphous 0-1
Achilles E-4
Hiro 0-4
Stalwart E-4
Only Hiro, Anvil, and Peggy have close to realistic officer rankings and you only seem to know two enlisted ranks. Maxima is the worst offender, especially since she started enlisted in the “air force.” The enlisted air force are pampered and overpaid. Also a college degree is required to be officer. There are great differences between officer and enlisted, one being that we enlisted are owned by the government, Officers are hired. When an enlisted’s contract is up, they are free. Officers are only allowed to retire if the military says they can and they can be called back at any time.
A bit. My father served 20 years in the Navy and retired. He had to wait (I believe it was 7 years) some years before he was actually free of being recalled if they really desired to recall him. It was after that time was up, that he finally considered him free of the military.
As for the comic, I figure there’s going to be mistakes. Or possibly things that are now considered to have played out different. Would Maxima have been allowed into the SF trainings that are male only?
She seems to have been trained as such, but currently much of that is not allowed in today’s military (in the US anways). She would need college at some point, if she’s an officer though, but her background doesn’t mention it, and says she enlisted right out of high school.
Still, she’d need a Bachelor’s degree regardless, being enlisted right away, need an officer’s approval (possible she got that), though I wonder if she’d pass the selection board, her current personality imo would seem to be a no, but hey, that could go either way, but she seems to have problems with authority (which makes sense when she’s the strongest person in the room).
ARC might also be following a slightly different ranking system than modern military, because it’s new. Also, I can’t imagine many supers who would be useful in that line of work wanting to stay at Enlisted Rank Pay.
Can you imagine Harem really being willing to work for less than 2k a month? At just 40 hours a week (160 hours a month) that puts her at less than 12.5 an hour. That’s if they don’t work her more than 40 hours a week, which is unlikely.
Then there’s Heatwave (Corporal) with Mr Amorphous (Lieutenant) being a couple, but they were dating before ARC so likely get a pass, but it wouldn’t be looked upon all that great by other officers and they wouldn’t work together.
Peggy likely wouldn’t be an officer, if she’s still a sniper.
Peggy is a pilot. Only officers can be pilots.
When I reach prototype, it will be available for females to go to subs. Also, there’s no special forces in the air force that would do what Maxima does. I could see her as a Seabee though.
Is she Air Force? I got the impression she was Army. Which as a Helicopter Pilot, is warrant officer rank, but there’s other problems with Peggy, like she may have had sniper training, she never would’ve been allowed to use the training in the military.
She also doesn’t have the super powers to fall under the realm of special circumstance, which Maxima might.
I know there’s a branch of SF in the Air Force, but I couldn’t say what they did. :(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Combat_Control_Team
Tough enough to be Special Forces, smart enough to be Air Traffic Controllers. Parachute in, locate clear terrain, use demo to set up landing zones, fight off local forces, and guide aircraft in for landing. Plus a long list of other operations.
Wow, must be the only members of the Air Force that works. I am shocked and amazed.
Sounds like the ideal role for a super. No need to strap a bulldozer on your back, when parachuting in.
Mind you the whole idea of parachuting an air traffic controller in, behind enemy lines, to build an airfield, does sound like a plotline hatched by a super genre writer, in the first place. Probably in a drunken competition.
(hic) … sho you shink hericopter pirot and shniper ish not challenging enough? howsh about we gets her to build her hericopter from junkyard scrap? No no better… a whole airport…. with a control tower. I knows she can be the air traffic controller too!
*instantly sobers up*
Man I need to type this all out whilst it is still fresh in my head!
Still appears to be male only and seeing as how Obama is president, that means it’s not to different from the modern times.
With the exception that Army helicopter pilots are usually Warrant Officers (therefore non-commissioned), as opposed to Air Force pilots. Just thought I’d point that out.
(Though you can argue that both are officers; it’s just that one’s commissioned, the other’s not.)
To me the most important aspect about the ranks, for Archon, is their need for cross-service co-operation. More than any other unit in history they might be called upon to serve alongside just about any police or military unit. Potentially anywhere in the world.
Given that Archon will be getting special-forces level of training, and more, plus each member can have capabilities, on their own, that are more useful than a whole unit of regular troops, they need to have ranks to reflect that.
In a crisis situation, with an allied NATO unit, if there is a difference of opinion, the Archon super needs to be able to point at their shoulder, and say “we are under orders to co-operate with each other, and although we are not in the same chain of command I outrank you.”
Whilst that will not always be enough, on it’s own, if the rank goes the other way, then you can guarantee that the super will have a lot harder time assuming command. Despite the fact that, if it is a super-powered incident, they are the experts. And they may often have to deploy in small teams (see the special op to the bank which just had Achilles and Mr Amorphous assigned).
That it makes Arc-SWAT chief heavy really does not really matter. They are still able to determine that ‘this person is senior to that person’. And, in terms of power, the ranks probably do actually match the other services. If you only command three individuals, but one of those has more fire-power than a tank battalion, then you should have a rank to match!
But even the lowest ranked Archon member should be able to, in an emergency, commandeer the services of any private, or police officer, who happens to be in the vicinity. If they need to have hostages escorted, for example, they need the rank to order that done. And, doubtless, police services and military units nationwide will be briefed that Archon should be co-operated with.
Arianna will be sure to, discreetly, publicise any who, ill-advisedly, fail to do as requested. Provided they have fates which are not too gruesome to put on TV.
The military cannot interfere with normal police. That is against federal law. Balance of powers to prevent a tyrant.
Rank and authority are partly separate. If I am a watchstander for a machine, I have absolute authority on that machine while I am on that watch.
There is also the sacredness of rank 0-5 and above. These are not normal people for most part, unless they are staff officers (Doctors, etc). These people have to knowledge of everything they are in charge of. ie: a commander/captain of an aircraft carrier has to have been an aviation officer (so they know aircraft) and they have to NNPTC to be train in nuclear power. So ungodly knowledgeable and intelligent people.
Also Officers are primarily bureaucrats. The exceptions are pilots, nuke officers, and marine officers. As the rank goes up, the hands on stuff goes away and the paperwork takes over. So a mostly enlisted would be a more realistic group of supers.
Not in the Grrl Power universe. The press conference has a whole section devoted to this. And there is no intrinsic reason for the USA to cling to that principle. If, for example, you compare it to France you will see that it is reasonable. They too had a revolution against their monarch and passed the power to the people (in principle anyhow). But they have no problem with a gendarme force existing alongside their police force. There is no suggestion that the gendarmes present any threat of imposing tyranny.
So, whilst it may sit poorly with present day American psychology, if posed with a clear and present danger of having super villains seizing power, it is perfectly reasonable that the senate and congress would realise that their days were numbered, if they did not have an effective counter to that.
Further, they simply did not have the numbers of supers to separate the roles of super police from super army. I think DaveB has created a highly credible solution to that situation, in the form of Archon.
To counter your other arguments, the range of capabilities available within Archon gives them a vast array of tactics that are impossible for regular forces to use. And it would be totally impractical to train all military officers, in all services, in the possible ways to take advantage of all these.
So for the circumstances where irregular forces have to be formed, possibly with little or no notice, composed of supers and regular forces, it is vital that the supers have sufficient rank to back their judgement calls. They know far better what is likely to work in any given super crisis, and there may not be time to explain or argue the toss.
All the more important if one of those bureaucratic officers happens to be in charge of a strategically important unit. It will be much easier to convince them to accept the commands of an officer, if the necessary tactics require that conventional forces be used as a part of a super-strategy.
The super would not be acting as purely a specialist at their own power. They would also be trained to act as command officers, specifically for such situations. You can train Harem to command troops. You cannot train a normal lieutenant to teleport and telepathically communicate.
An E-4 is sufficient (and minimum) rank to operate a multi-billion dollar platform called the nuclear reactor with authority. More specifically we are called Navy safe and trusted nuclear operators. We have to the authority and judgement to tell an officer “No I will not do that,” to protect our equipment => the plant. We have over 60 years of safe operation and the nuclear navy is the highest authority on nuclear power safety in the world. Mostly composed of Enlisted. There is about 6 enlisted for every officer at NNPTC and 1/2 aren’t there to become nuke officers, but rather aircraft carrier and sub officers. And a quarter of the Nuke Officers are former Nuke enlisted.
You seem to be misinformed on what is needed to get the job done in the military. Plus Enlisted listen to higher enlisted more than they would an officer, because they hardly see officer on a day to day basis. Officers are not needed for tactics.
Also minor detail that annoyed me, but I’m not added it to my point. It would be American mentality, not psychology.
Actually I have every respect for the position. And, if you choose to search through the comments here you can find me singing the praises specialists in general, and warrant officers in particular (whilst appreciating that they are not the same rank).
Even going so far as to mention a friend who, as a warrant officer, had command of a nuclear armed unit. And a direct line to number 10, in order to obtain launch authority. He literally could bypass the entire chain of command between him and the prime minister!
So, in his case, being a not too dissimilar to the role to the one you are describing.Albeit lying in the middle ground between enlisted and officer ranks. And he too emphasised that he could override the orders of officers, if necessary.
So I am very aware that NCOs and WOs can have nuclear power at their fingertips. Which is a very close analogy to super powers. So accept your points very happily.
I note however, that your reply failed to address the politics side of things.
If a super needs to assume command of a UN unit, of some random nationality, let us say within one of the African armies, for example, are you seriously arguing that having an officers uniform on would not make the job easier?
If only to avoid them being offended at the thought of surrendering command to someone well below their rank. Should the officer be obstructive, those troops will not be available to command. Regardless of whether they would be willing to obey an E4 or not.
Finally your earlier post indicated a respect for air-force officers, as pilots, likewise marine officers and nuke officers. Surely you would be willing to class combat supers as being in the same category as those, rather than the paper pushing officers? Especially given that they are akin to are a combination of pilot and combat aircraft in one body!
I see fully armed, uniformed National Guardsmen in Penn Station and Grand Central quite often, usually chatting with NYPD that are also patrolling those train stations. When the potential threat is percieved as large enough, police and military do mix here in the US of A.
I think we should assume the military here is being surprisingly flexible. They have decided these people are needed, and their assigned ranks reflect what is needed to attract and keep them rather than what regulations might say.
There would also be a number of complications. From what we have seen, the general probably has court martial papers on every member of the unit already written up for whenever any escapade gets too far out of hand, and most of the unit has likely been broken and regained rank so often they have lost count. Halo especially would be broken so often that nobody in the unit would be sure of her current rank and they would just call her corporal out of habit.
While Maxima likely gets much of her rank from being the most powerful super, it is reasonable she is also a very good field officer for the supers, and as we can at least pretend in the recent battle, of even more importance as a leader than as muscle. So she gets top rank, again without worry about what the requirements on paper actually are. And the others would get lesser ranks with the same disregard for normal normal military procedure.
There is no special promotion for officers. A 16 year chief who gets officer pickup starts as ensign. No exceptions. Can go from O-1 to O-3 by breathing for four years. Not going to get to O-5 until around 15+ years at least, O-6 around 18+ at least.
If Maxima was an officer pickup (Assuming a rate that is high in Officer pickup: ie Nuke) she would enter academy at 19 ish, finish academy at 22, and would be at her 12 year point.
an easier solution, in my mind, is field promotion: as a super, she would have been sent on exceptional assignments, and considering the respect with which she is treated by her superiors, even given her attitude, some sort of exceptional event in her past isn’t impossible.
that would move her from enlisted to lt. – or maybe even captain- without time needed for the degree.
Actually, King Fatass, in the U.S.A.F., officers get promoted automatically every four years, up to O-5 – and higher, if there’s a position open. There are limits to the maximum number of active O-6 thru O-10 officers at any one time. You get taken off of flight duty once you get to O-6, because you’re too important to be allowed to risk your life in combat.
This is due to the U.S. Military’s “up or out” policy (the 1980 Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, actually). If you get passed over for promotion twice, you’re discharged from the military. Which is really stupid, if you ask me. What happens if you’re an O-5, but all 208 O-6 positions are full for the next eight years? You’re screwed, that’s what.
(It has been criticized as “arbitrary and bad management” that forces out “many fit, experienced officers…because there were only so many slots into which they could be promoted”. Many veterans would like to scrap the archaic ‘up or out’ military promotion system. I totally agree that it should be abolished. The British military has an equivalent, called “manning control”.)
Anyway, the Air Force’s response was to simply promote everyone, every four years, as long as the slots for the next higher rank are not full. This also ensures that you can “put in your 20” (years), even if you start as an O-2 by completing an ROTC program.
Perhaps Maxima was promoted to NCO when it became apparent that she was a pilot of an exceptionally versatile, nuclear capable VTOL know as: “Maxima can fly at mach 1+”
All pilots are officers AFAIK.
Flyer does not mean pilot. Also, officer still requires college, there’s no getting around that. Since she enlisted right after HS, she likely didn’t get any college in.
She’s currently 34. So, it’s possible she got some college in during her 16 years in the military, but she wouldn’t likely be her rank.
Now, they may have moved her from Air Force to ARC and different rules apply, but that goes back to wondering, are they really paying some of these supers so little?
Harem…a corporal? Everything about her personality says she wouldn’t be happy with less than 2k a month :p Even if she can hold down 5 jobs at once.
Then there are the other supers. Ranks here don’t make sense.
Hi. My name is Xuncu. =3
P.S.: I am Zapotec.
Coolness. Please do not hesitate to speak up and correct any misapprehensions we might spout on about, culturally or otherwise! I am sure that many of us have a fascination with the various Mesoamerican and South American civilisations and ethnic groups. Which doubtless exceeds our knowledge. But that has never stopped us from talking on any subject. :-D
Personally I love learning about other cultures, and having Xochitl in the cast is an invitation that allows you to always be talking on topic, should you wish to share your insights.
*wags tail*
7 year late reply– sadly, NOT my record.
But yeh; all good, fam. *”we cool” purr*
Heh, I hadn’t needed the yellow box to read her name correctly: I learned *to* speak surrounded by those kinds of phonetics.
Apparently, I’m great at pronunciation in *any* language; Polish, Japanese, Latin-based languages of course, gotten compliments at that… Unfortunately, I suck at vocab… -_-
This gives me an idea. I think Machina Industries needs a new Central American subdivision ‘Zap-o-Tech’ that makes combat lasers for ARC.
I just thought about it, should the uniform not be the same as in the beginning, since the time that Sidney was entering the building and you see Maxima in the “Old uniform”.
Link to the commic: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/60
Sydney and the folks on this page are sporting the recruit uniform. Possibly the same as the enlisted uniform. The page you reference shows Maxima and Anvil (officers) and maybe some folks in support roles in the background.
OR. All the uniforms are made of a material that can change between color sets like a palette shift. The default is “urban” cameo. When they get the training they can “set” it to the green…
Look ! Squirrel..!
*whisper whisper*
Don’t tell Dave, but I suspect that page (and possibly the one before it), might get remade in the new style, when the first chapter is turned into a paper book. *shhh* Keep your voice down! Dave has already said that he won’t be doing that, you see. However that was before these new uniforms, so possibly he might change his mind. But I would not want to upset him, in the event that he still wants to keep it as originally drawn, for purposes of artistic integrity.
Hope not, don’t like it when artists go back and change the original style. Fix Maxi’s rank insignia or changing Sydney’s rank is okay, but not the art. POO of course
Maxima is wearing a dress uniform. You don’t wear your crawling around in the dirt grubby uniform (like Sidney & the others here) when you’re in a teleconference with heads of state. There’s also an “office uniform” that the guard outside the door is wearing when you’re doing non-grubby stuff. Different branches have different names for that.
My experience is that names in Japan are just names as well, meanings are mostly a curiosity. They’re just a bit easier to remember the old meanings because of the kanji retaining the old meanings.
That has been my experience too. However, the problem with Halo’s comment also, is that it isn’t a white thing, it’s an American/Western thing. :p
Many people don’t pick a name and expect one to be what the name means. American’s may be less inclined to know/car what the name means as well.
The advertising industry has the habit of just making up new names that don’t mean anything but they think just make the product sound cool or important. Nissan has a car called ‘Maxima’. What kind of a name is that anyway?
Well, Chevy had to rename their NOVA when selling it in Mexico, because the lacked sales due to the name being NO VA (No Go) in Spanish.
I think they just try to name it something that can either get people going Ooooo or trademark.
There is this car in Japan…that add looks way too creepy 70s when added to that name:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LFDqy-EyHI
Brand X, I had to call you on this one. The whole “Chevy Nova” thing has been utterly debunked.
First of all, Nova is one word with the emphasis on the first syllable: NOva. The phrase “no va” (literally, “doesn’t go”) is two words with the emphasis on the second word: no VA. A Spanish speaker would not see the word “Nova” and assume it meant “doesn’t go”. If they did, it would be like an English speaker refusing to buy a dinette set called the “Notable”, because nobody wants a dinette set with NO TABLE.
Secondly, a Spanish speaker referring to a broken-down car is FAR more likely to say “no marcha” (doesn’t start), “no functiona” (doesn’t function), or “no camina” (doesn’t move).
Thirdly, Pemex (the Mexican government-owned oil monopoly) sells gasoline in Mexico under the name “Nova.” If Mexicans had no compunctions about filling the tanks of their cars with a type of gasoline whose name advertised that it “didn’t go,” why would they reject a similarly-named automobile?
Finally, for the tale to be true, you’d have to assume that a handful of General Motors executives launched a car into a foreign market and remained in blissful ignorance about a possible adverse translation of its name. Even if nobody in Detroit knew enough rudimentary Spanish to notice the coincidence, the Nova could not have been brought to market in Mexico and/or South America without the involvement of numerous Spanish speakers to translate user manuals, prepare advertising and promotional materials, communicate with the network of Chevrolet dealers in the target countries, etc. In fact, GM was aware of the translation and opted to retain the model name “Nova” in Spanish-speaking markets anyway, because they felt that it was unimportant. They were correct: It sold quite well in both Mexico and Venezuela (and, in fact, actually exceeded sales expectations in Venezuela).
(Deliberately split this off into a second post)
However, I don’t want to discount the risk of translating a product name or a slogan into another language without at least asking a native speaker! Some examples:
Pepsi’s slogan “Come alive with Pepsi” was improperly translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese.
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-ke-ken-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, “ko-kou-ko-le,” Chinese characters for Coca-cola which can be loosely translated as “happiness in the mouth.”
The slogan of KFC, “Finger lickin’ good” was translated as “Eat your fingers off” (Chinese again).
HSBC’s promotional slogan, “Assume nothing”, got translated into “Do nothing”. They had to spend $10 million to redesign their promotional campaign.
Braniff International Airways had a slogan, “Fly in leather”, referring to their leather seats. They translated it into Spanish as “vuela en cuero” (fly naked).
Coors slogan “Turn it loose” was translated into “suffer from diarrhea” in Spanish.
In 1988, the General Electric Company (GEC) and Plessey combined to create a new telecommunications giant. A brand name was desired that evoked technology and innovation. The winning proposal was GPT for GEC-Plessey Telecommunications… which was not as innovative as they thought, because in French, it’s pronounced “j’ai pete” (I’ve farted).
Waterpik has to use a different name in Denmark. “Pik” is the common Danish word for male genitals. Most Danes can easily translate “water” to the danish word “vand”. So “vandpik” is a term for a morning erection. (“And you put that thing in your mouth?”)
Latte means milk in Italy. In English, Latte is a coffee-drink. Many folks like to head to Starbucks or other coffee shops to take early morning latte breaks… In Germany, Latte is a word for an erection. So, “morning latte” is a morning erection! The word “break” means “destroy”, so taking that “morning latte break” is destroying that erection. I’ll leave the details to your imagination, as well as all the puns on how you take your steaming hot drink.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” However, the Spanish word “embarazar” was used by mistake to mean embarrass. The ads actually said: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
Perdue Chicken’s slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption that explained “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”
There are plenty of other examples, but those are some of the funniest.
Not exactly the same, but close ….
As an Aussie, I recall the story some friends of mine brought back from a visit to the UK – discovering a hamburger chain there called ‘Wimpy’ (along with slogans such as ‘Start Your Day The Wimpy Way’).
The REALLY funny aspect was that, as they were standing in the street laughing about it, along came a group of Americans who, when this was pointed out to them, found the sign and slogan equally funny.
(“Wimp” being used in Aussie and American slang for a feeble, cowardly and/or ineffectual person, and “wimpy” denoting someone / something with those characteristics).
… Which might (refer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimpy_%28restaurant%29 ) explain why the ‘Wimpy’ chain has become established in many countries – but NEVER in the USA or Australia.
Heh, it is best to read through before linking. It did originally have 25 outlets in the USA.
Note that wimpy has exactly the same usage in the UK as elsewhere. And you will hear the occasional word play made by us on it. But when you get used to seeing it in the high-street, it is just a sign in the background. As such comedians do not use it often, as it is well-worn. Rather like jokes about Iceland, the super-market chain.
But the most ironic twist is that the name… that is American! Given that it was inspired by a character from Popeye.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Wellington_Wimpy
And the inspiration for that character’s name? Two individuals, both of whom were working in America, and I thereby imagine were Americans. Presumably wimpy Americans.
Actually, no, it was INSPIRED by a company / tm set up by a person of that name in the US.
… And I am certain that,. if pretty much anyone in the US or Australia was asked to define ‘wimpy’ these days, 95+% would go with “someone / something with the characteristics of a wimp”, not “Popeye’s friend” or “a fast good chain”.
It was a name created by an American, inspired by a character from an American cartoon, (who was originally based on two Americans) in the process of naming an American company.
So pretty much an American name, by any means you choose to define it. Regardless of the fact that the right to use that name was subsequently bought by a UK company.
Whilst most Americans and Australians, would define the word wimpy that way, so would most Brits. The only difference being that in the UK they might ask “are you talking about the word or the restaurant?”
As a point of cultural interest, you will likely find that most Brits (the older ones at the very least) consider it to be an American chain. Even though it is run by a UK company. Mainly because it uses the American fast-food format, which did not exist over here, until McDonalds, KFC and rivals opened up.
And the impression is not mistaken. It was originally started in the USA, which then licensed the UK firm, to use the brand.
Another one: Mitsubishi has a rather well-selling model of off-road vehicle that is called the “Mitsubishi Pajero” in non-Spanish speaking countries, and the “Mitsubishi Montero” in Spanish-speaking countries. Why? Because “Pajero”, in several dialects of Spanish, can be understood to mean “compulsive masturbator”.
LOL.
Well guys do like to drive phallus symbols, so I guess it would be appropriate.
She is a lot friendlier than what her earlier glare suggested she would be.
Who else thought she was meant to be a New Zealander when they read ‘cah pahk’?
Mmm, I would have more readily made that association if she said “Hobbit hole”.
Wait, what? Not even our backward cousins across The Ditch sound like that!
This has already been brought up, but I feel it bears repeating: almost all names have meaning (as in they are a version of a word from a spoken or dead language). The only exceptions would be “made-up” names as when parents combine parts of their names to give their children names or just pick sounds that seem nice together. Someone has already posted it, but https://behindthename.com is an excellent site for learning about what given names mean. My name, like yours, is from Hebrew and means beloved. Sydney might come from Old English and mean wide island or might come from Saint Denis. The thing is, names in English often come from other languages (like David from Hebrew) due to the Bible, other languages encountered (Welsh, German, Dutch, Latin, Greek, etc.), or from an English so far remote from us that we no longer use the words that led to the names. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that a name is bereft of meaning just because we no longer use that word, any more than a person named a word we still use (Apple, Summer, Autumn, Joy, Grace, Hope, etc.) is an instance of that word being used in any way other than a name. When speaking to Apple the person you wouldn’t confuse them for a fruit that grows on trees and can be turned into pie, cider, juice, etc.
Yeah it is Boston Brahmin so she sounds like a Kennedy good to know. At least people can understand her until she says words with R in them. They tend to roll the R sound with an H or at least thats what it sounds like to my ear.
Love a name with extraneous X’s in it! ;) With the fertility-goddess aspect of Xo-Xo’s name, one can’t help but wonder if (per the usual hero trope) her powers will reflect that. Now, we have an actual succubus already, so her abilities would have to go in another direction. Maybe, say, causing people to feel the pain of childbirth? Nahhhhh, that’d never work…
This is not the League of Superheroes, or Xanth, where you can only have one type of power user on the team
*slashes wrists because he will have to translate/adapt this into Spanish, like, right now*
Arrrgggghhhhh, the pain of being a translator…! Why do you do this to me, Dave…! *weeps*
He he. I feel for you. Puns are bad enough, but accent gags are an all new challenge for you.
At least translators are afforded a broad latitude in how to handle such. Even if it does create a headache resolving it.
Keep up the good work!
I will take this opportunity to congratulate you for your dedication :)
Also to remind DaveB that the link in the sidebar still says “Las chicas son Guerras” while the right name is “Las chicas son Guerreras”.
One thing about military ranks is that they reflect the feudal noble-and-peasant structures they evolved from, with commissioned officers in the noble role. The other thing is that you have to have large numbers of “peasants” to be so led. This is where the ArcSWAT usage of enlisted ranks starts to break down.
All the characters we’ve seen in total would amount to maybe a single infantry platoon. Meaning, aside from a handful of sergeants, there would be precisely one commissioned officer, an LT! Which is the starting point of officer ranks!
Okay, maybe treat them like tank platoons, one super == one tank, the force multiplication effect is similar. In that model, three or four supers equals a platoon; I’ll go with four. Each hero is, at minimum, a sergeant-grade “Tank Commander” of themselves, in effect if not fact. They would have a platoon sergeant (or as Marines would say, a “gunny”) directing them, and an LT (if we keep the claasic dual structure). So, we have a “platoon” in training, and maybe two or three more “platoons” already active, meaning the local ArcSWAT branch in total maybe rises to the level of an Company, one that will be slightly but not unbearably overstrength when Halo’s class is done training.
Meaning the Commanding Officer should be an (Army) Captain [O-3]. Having a Major stuck in a Captain’s slot is a bit of an insult! Unless Maxima’s “wearing two hats” and leading the local branch personally while otherwise responsible for an entire cohort of ArcSWAT? Which, given the high-level briefings Max attends, is plausible.
My friends and I did a militarily-oriented superhero team in tabletop RPG back in the 80’s and 90’s (V&V rulesystem), so this is something I’ve had a looooong time to meditate on.
I think the possibility you pose there is likely, but only the tip of the iceberg. Search for my post above, containing “cross-service”, plus my further reply in that thread, for my opinion.
Arc-SWAT is providing internal super protection across the entire U.S.A., in their police role. However they are also tasked with responding to external threats of any extraordinary sort. Ie potentially being the backbone of the U.S.A.’s response in a super-war.
Think of them as the tier above the nuclear deterrent and you get a more realistic feel for their importance. And Maxima has shown that she is in that league, on her own. Let alone factoring in teleporting and more exotic options.
And precedent exists in an existing service, for units comprising mostly officers. Namely the US Air-force. When talking about the units in combat, rather than the entirety of the organisation needed to field them.
I was in the Headquarters Company for the Nevada Army National Guard for years. Almost all of the time, the lowest ranking person in the entire company was an E-5. We had to take turns being squad leaders & platoon leaders, because there were so many E-6s and E-7s. For officers, Majors & Captains were the most popular ranks. That’s because the personnel there were tasked with supporting and directing all the other units, not with going out there and shooting stuff ourselves.
For a “line company” like you’re talking about there’s a bottom heavy rank structure. For an HQ unit or other special task unit there can be whatever it takes.
“Girl Power” Roll Credits
Take three (or is this the fourth?)
I love how everyone’s assuming that her power is related to her namesake goddess, even though it’s her last name, inherited most likely from her father, and could be completely, totally unrelated. Watch her have the power to eat metal and shit lasers.
Better that than the other way around :P
Ok, about Xochitl’s powers.
They obviously are whole or partially:
– Contact based.
– Automatic, as in she can’t avoid to activate them.
– Harmless to the subject.
– A little dramatic, whatever that means.
– Have an external manifestation, or she could not demonstrate them.
An example is Mudge from Magellan. He automatically “reads” the memories of whoever he touch and display them as floating images that everybody can see. This is phisically harmless to the person but could be traumatic. For him it’s painful.
Xochitl also shows some bare skin, so accidental contact seems not to be a problem. Possibilities:
– Her “activate zone” is restricted to her palms (like Sydney)
– The contact need to be intentional by her part (seems odd)
– She doesn’t care, “if you touch me is your problem” :P
Finally she is in Arc-Swat (and not Arc-Light for instance) so her powers need to have a combat capability (this cross out Mudge).
Maybe she absorbs/copy powers as Rogue (X-Men) without the harm part, but how could that be “dramatic” or even work in Sydney?
Maybe she can alter the person somehow while touches them (like many X-Men) or for an amount of time. Things like make them invisible or stronger or to paralyze them comes to mind, but I don’t feel it fits. (*)
Thinking from a different point of view, the comic don’t have a Mystique yet, and shape-shifters (**) are always funny to have around, they are a bottomless source of comic situations :) This makes sense with the rainbow choke, and she fits the trope that shape-shifters looks exotic.
So maybe she can adopt the aspect of whoever she previously touched (***) Similar to Chameleon (Legion of Super-Heroes) she automatically “scans” the person a first time, this she accomplish by touching them. The dramatic part is that she automatically morphs into the person she is scanning (touching).
I will go for that, seems a bit forced but is the best I can do :)
* I found that Scottostanek already suggested something similar
** I found that Anvildude already suggested this.
*** I found that Rhuen already suggested something similar
Mudge is clearly inspired by ‘The Furies’, a SF novelette from Robert Zelazny, in which the character of Benedick Benedict sees everything of anyone or anything he holds or touches ; he unwilling cries while telling everything he’s ‘seeing’…Zelazny really was a great writer, I strongly recommand him to those who wouldn’t know him by now! (and yes, I know, recommandations from unknown strangers on the Web are not-necessary-to-be-relied-on but hey, have a look…
You’re right about Zelazny. Great stories. Memorable characters. Worth a look, for sure.
While I am familiar with at least some of Zelazny’s work I have little exposure to anything outside the Chronicles of Amber. Given how much I enjoy those I shall take your advice and look into reading more of his stuff.
The Furies was a short story. May I suggest Coils? Several characters with cool powahs in that one. : )
“Mudge is clearly inspired by ‘The Furies’”
Could be, why not? I didn’t read “The Furies” so I can’t give an informed opinion. Just to be fair we must recognize that in a topic as crowded as superpowers likely you will always find a precedent specially if you dig half a century back.
“Zelazny really was a great writer, I strongly recommand him ”
I totally backup your recommendation. While not one of my favourites Zelazny’s originality and storytelling are exceptional without a doubt.
So now, in addition to the succubus, there’s a scion of a fertility goddess.
The line from the Scion RPG “mind-whammied by Aphrodite’s magic boobs” comes to mind. It already sort of did with Dabbler, but then we added goddess to the mix…..
Just because her family name is that of a goddess doesn’t mean she has anything to do with said goddess. I can, without trying, think of three people I know with names derived from Christ, one of them is an atheist and another is pagan.
I bet her powers have nothing to do with touch, she just decided against the handshake first because she figured her “dramatic powers” were more important than the courtesy of proper greeting. How rude.
Rude by whose standards?
Not every culture imposes an obligation to grab and squeeze other people’s extremities as part of a personal greeting. Not even every Westerner necessarily does this, for various reasons that have nothing to do with rudeness.
Such as someone with OCD who is germophobic. This is why Howie Mandel does fist-bumps instead of handshakes.
Why the hell is everybody focusing on the fact that they haven’t shaken hands? Did I miss something? Sydney never OFFERED her hand to Xo, and I’ve never seen anything in-comic suggesting that Xo is DELIBERATELY not shaking hands. It may just have not occurred to her.
… And then I immediately notice the line about it. Lulz. Okay, the yes, I can get where people are thinking her powers are contact-based and involuntary.
xochtl is a actually pronounced
soh-chi-tl
Well, occidental names actually have meanings, they just generally lead to ancient languages…(sorry if this has been pointed out, I still have yet to crawl through the comments…
For example my first name is Nicolas and comes from ancient Greek ‘Nikê’ = Victory and ‘Laos’ = the People ; thus the meaning is ‘victorious people’
David comes from ancient Hebrew ‘דוד’ or DWD, existing in Arab as داود (Dāwūd or Daoud), and means ‘Beloved’.
That’s not marketing babble from silly websites, this comes from the roots of our civilization…and I think it doesn’t hurt to know the meaning and origin of a name when confering it to a child, even if one chooses a first names mostly because it sounds good! anyway, there are no bad names…
Tell that to ‘North West’ and ‘Sunday Roast Kidman’ when they grow up
Heh! those words have a meaning – though ‘Kidman’ I’m not sure ;-b ! Family names are indeed different than personal ones, and probably this one as a first name has a relation to a celeb’…this has a meaning as well, even if a bit more ambiguous…
But I agree that more and more often the signification of the names we give to our kids tend to vanish – if not in the language, at least in the intention of the giver.
That was in response to your claim that there are no bad names :P
Nobody beats Rob Morrow for worst baby name ever, he named his child Tu. As in Tu Morrow.
Ouch! ‘Tu’ as in ‘quoque mi fili’? isn’t a bit ‘tu’ much?
I used to work with a Tony Hall, and said “I bet you are glad that your dad did not call you ‘Albert’?”
“No chance of that, he had to live with his father calling him that.”
His life must have been hell, especially when the Proms season started.
“With a ‘T’ as in Timeo danaos et dona ferentes?” :P
just nerding out, don’t mind
I can think of a few others… for example, my journalism teacher in High School, Mrs. Penny, named her daughter Precious. As in “Precious Penny”.
When we mentioned it to her, she did make a good point, though… she could’ve named her Worthless Penny. (Which they are, really. It costs 1.7 cents to make a penny worth 1 cent, and 8 cents to make a nickel worth 5 cents. The good news is that we’re wasting less money on pennies and nickels. The bad news is that we’re still wasting money on pennies and nickels.)
Some neighbors of mine are major fans of science fiction. At one point they seriously considered naming their daughter “Xev Chiana”. I had to point out, “So… you’re going to name your daughter after a woman sentenced to be a love slave, and a thief/prostitute who has f***ed her way across the galaxy. How tasteful.” (They settled on naming her “Autumn Breeze”, because of her brown hair. Still a very pretentious name, but with much less unfortunate implications.)
Then there’s Zappa family. Moon River, Ahmet, Diva, and Dweezil Zappa. (Dweezil Zappa? Really? What kind of father names his son after his wife’s oddly-curled pinkie toe?) Though to be fair to his late father Frank, the hospital that he was born at refused to register him as Dweezil, so initially he was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa. It was Dweezil’s own idea to use his nickname as his real name.
I could think of many other bad baby names if I really tried…
Oh, I almost forgot. When I was in university, one of my friends (by sheer coincidence her last name was also “Morrow”) was a serious Star Trek fan. So her son and both daughters ended up with middle names taken from Star Trek…
Her son is James Tiberius Morrow. One of her daughters is Amanda T’Pring Morrow. I forget what the other daughter’s middle name was. I wouldn’t put it past her to have used T’Pau, or some other Star Trek name beginning with the letter T.
One wonders how said kids feel about these names. Hoping for their sakes that they have always been perfectly OK with them.
Noting that kids in general can be absolute d##ks to other kids – and names considered “weird” or “funny’ would make it a lot worse. A few years of constant teasing would enough to sour most people. Sometimes think that parents who insist on inflicting “cute” names on their kids should be sentenced to weekly Gibbs-smacks, at least.
I had a close call in this respect. When born, my mother supposedly wanted to name me ‘Seutonius” (Roman Historian). I am forever grateful that my VERY working-class father put his foot down on that one.
Actually, they’re okay with them. They simply don’t volunteer their middle names unless asked. That way, James doesn’t get asked “So you’re named after Captain Kirk?”, and very few people would know that Amanda is named after Spock’s mother and Spock’s bride, respectively. (In fact, she’s slightly embarrassed that her middle name is T’Pring, but she doesn’t mind that her first name is Amanda. Which means “beloved”, by the way.)
It could have been worse, too. The mother also collects Coca-Cola memorabilia. I can only imagine what could have come from that, had she not decided to name her kids after Star Trek characters instead.