(no subject)
This isn't directed at any one specific person, but rather at a section of the Kingdom Hearts fandom, namely the section that writes about Repliku. There aren't many of us, and so we have a much larger ratio of good fic to bad. However, there's this one disturbing trend that's been bugging me for a while...
Now, with Kingdom Hearts being in Japanese originally and translated with a good bit of time between releases, stuff is bound to leak. People hear about something in the Japanese version, or even watch cutscenes themselves, and come to a conclusion.
Now, Repliku ficwriters, I have to tell you: some of you came to the wrong conclusion.
Maybe you watched a cutscene and heard the dialogue. Maybe you read it somewhere else and took it for granted. Maybe you talked to someone who told it to you and believed them. Nevertheless, the Riku replica does not have a name.
No, Nisemono does not count. You wanna know why?
Nisemono means counterfeit, fake. Fake, which is why you hear Riku calling him this. Riku calls him "Fake" in the English version of CoM, but I have yet to come across a fic that uses that as his name.
If you're doing it on purpose, for whatever reason, and know fully well that Nisemono is a derogatory name for him, well, I can't fault you for that. I don't agree with you, but I can't and won't say "don't write your story like that; write it my way." Besides, you might do it cleverly, creatively, and believably. If so, link please. That sounds awesome. If that's the case, everything below this point doesn't apply to you. If not, though?
RESEARCH, please.
If something is said in Japanese in a cutscene, and isn't translated, translate it yourself. Don't just assume that, because something appears to be a name, it is a name. And if someone tells you something is a name, or you read it somewhere, and this is the first you've heard of it? A little research pays off.
Because, really, every time I see a fic where Repliku introduces himself, and is subsequently referred to in the prose and dialogue alike, "Nisemono," I really want to slap the author with my Japanese dictionary. Repliku is hard to write about, I realize, precisely because he has no name; we of the current age aren't used to only using a pronoun for someone. (As a sidenote, it can be done. Read The Red Badge of Courage to get an idea; you seriously have to watch the dialogue to figure out the character's name, because those names? Are NEVER used in the text, pretty much. There might be a few exceptions, but mostly, no. And the author is consistent with those pronouns, which is the key -- the tall soldier is always the tall soldier and is not the loud soldier, but the loud soldier is always the loud soldier.) However, just because he doesn't have a name doesn't mean you can latch onto "Nisemono."
It's pretty much completely incorrect -- fangirl Japanese at best. There is an easy English equivalent -- Fake -- and it's derogatory. Repliku does NOT like being called fake, and would NOT refer to himself as that without some serious motivation (which does happen at two points in the game -- and ONLY two, both of them after he's gone through having his heart literally broken and realizing that the only thing he held dear was fake, that the girl he loved had manipulated him, and that the childhood he thought he had wasn't his at all). So, if Repliku seems mentally and emotionally healthy and is calling himself Nisemono? You're doing it wrong.
Really, I love Repliku fic. I write it, I read it, I want more of it. But I really dislike this fanon trend -- when it gets to the point where someone on my LJ flist comments on a fic post of mine and says that "In the manga, Naminé named Repliku Nisémono," I have to resist the urge to headdesk.
Edit: I apologize for the broad generalizations in this rant. People can use the name without being fanbrats or turning the character OOC. Not everyone does, though, and this rant was directed at those individuals who slap the name on for no reason, without having thought about it, as if it's canon. I'm sorry that I offended some people who thought I was ranting at them -- honestly, I'm not. You folks seem to have done your research and bring up totally valid points and I can see why you're using the name for him.
Now, with Kingdom Hearts being in Japanese originally and translated with a good bit of time between releases, stuff is bound to leak. People hear about something in the Japanese version, or even watch cutscenes themselves, and come to a conclusion.
Now, Repliku ficwriters, I have to tell you: some of you came to the wrong conclusion.
Maybe you watched a cutscene and heard the dialogue. Maybe you read it somewhere else and took it for granted. Maybe you talked to someone who told it to you and believed them. Nevertheless, the Riku replica does not have a name.
No, Nisemono does not count. You wanna know why?
Nisemono means counterfeit, fake. Fake, which is why you hear Riku calling him this. Riku calls him "Fake" in the English version of CoM, but I have yet to come across a fic that uses that as his name.
If you're doing it on purpose, for whatever reason, and know fully well that Nisemono is a derogatory name for him, well, I can't fault you for that. I don't agree with you, but I can't and won't say "don't write your story like that; write it my way." Besides, you might do it cleverly, creatively, and believably. If so, link please. That sounds awesome. If that's the case, everything below this point doesn't apply to you. If not, though?
RESEARCH, please.
If something is said in Japanese in a cutscene, and isn't translated, translate it yourself. Don't just assume that, because something appears to be a name, it is a name. And if someone tells you something is a name, or you read it somewhere, and this is the first you've heard of it? A little research pays off.
Because, really, every time I see a fic where Repliku introduces himself, and is subsequently referred to in the prose and dialogue alike, "Nisemono," I really want to slap the author with my Japanese dictionary. Repliku is hard to write about, I realize, precisely because he has no name; we of the current age aren't used to only using a pronoun for someone. (As a sidenote, it can be done. Read The Red Badge of Courage to get an idea; you seriously have to watch the dialogue to figure out the character's name, because those names? Are NEVER used in the text, pretty much. There might be a few exceptions, but mostly, no. And the author is consistent with those pronouns, which is the key -- the tall soldier is always the tall soldier and is not the loud soldier, but the loud soldier is always the loud soldier.) However, just because he doesn't have a name doesn't mean you can latch onto "Nisemono."
It's pretty much completely incorrect -- fangirl Japanese at best. There is an easy English equivalent -- Fake -- and it's derogatory. Repliku does NOT like being called fake, and would NOT refer to himself as that without some serious motivation (which does happen at two points in the game -- and ONLY two, both of them after he's gone through having his heart literally broken and realizing that the only thing he held dear was fake, that the girl he loved had manipulated him, and that the childhood he thought he had wasn't his at all). So, if Repliku seems mentally and emotionally healthy and is calling himself Nisemono? You're doing it wrong.
Really, I love Repliku fic. I write it, I read it, I want more of it. But I really dislike this fanon trend -- when it gets to the point where someone on my LJ flist comments on a fic post of mine and says that "In the manga, Naminé named Repliku Nisémono," I have to resist the urge to headdesk.
Edit: I apologize for the broad generalizations in this rant. People can use the name without being fanbrats or turning the character OOC. Not everyone does, though, and this rant was directed at those individuals who slap the name on for no reason, without having thought about it, as if it's canon. I'm sorry that I offended some people who thought I was ranting at them -- honestly, I'm not. You folks seem to have done your research and bring up totally valid points and I can see why you're using the name for him.