Exactly the point I wanted to make. Those Japanese can’t resist their word-play… which is why they turned their goddess into a wolf and made a game of it.
Funnily enough I didn’t get the joke at all until I got the Japanese language patch for Dragon’s Dogma. Given how often the Pawns go on about wolves (and the fact that they hunt in packs), it was only a matter of time until I cottoned on.
Anyone who reads any amount of manga, watches anime or plays Japanese games is inevitably going to pick up some of their mythology sooner or later (and possibly even some of their history, though the Samurai Warriors games are probably best for teaching that… loosely).
The cave-dwelling sun-goddess is just one of those things… along with Susanoo of the booze-drinking, orochi-slaying and comb-marrying.
Thing is… I could look this all up to make sure I get it exactly right… but just seeing what I can rip from my goldfish memory is kinda fun.
I bet with Marci’s level of nerd, she said “cosplay as Amaterasu from Okami,” and Chris shortened it either for his own purposes or to simplify it for Sweetheart.
Yesterday was not a good day. Wrote a filk, was running late for work, forgot to post it until I got home. That was then, this is now …
(TUNE: “Margaritaville”, Jimmy Buffet)
Sweetheart can’t stand it!
Chris will demand it,
That you recite in a funny deep voice!
Then Marcie will dress you
As Amaterasu …
Gotta obey, ’cause you don’t have a choice!
Mocked by a Mata Hari who is mechanoid!
She just stands there, and quietly smiles!
Now say it with
The voice of Doc-tor Smith!
What you’ll do …
Just to get back your files!
I can’t help wondering whether Gavotte made everybody’s promotions dependent upon the basement dweller files in mutually exclusive ways, with Bubbles’ task being to prevent anybody else from completing theirs…
Oh, do you think that Bubbles got a task, too? I’d just assumed it/she was voluntarily (service is her only joy!) helping Moustacio with it/his request, which he verbalized in http://skin-horse.com/comic/adorable-2/
And now I notice that M left out quite a bit of details… dun-dun-dun
She’s sentient enough to qualify as a federal employee, she stashed the files who knows where instead of giving them to Moustachio, and she went all poker-faced in panel 2. So while I could be wrong, I like the idea of her being smarter than the limited vocabulary she was programmed with led her coworkers to expect.
Amazing how lack of ability to communicate with sentient beings makes it hard to get them recognized. Given what has happened in our world with Cetaceans, Elephants, and Great Apes I find this entirely realistic.
I always assumed she was sapient, back when she first spoke, and that that was the joke. It was only further confirmed when she and Sweet Daddy… Mack? (Whatever Tigerlily’s Cadillac-spider offspring was named) had their moment.
I actually think this is a very sneaky “team building” exercise cooked up by Gavotte. She knows they will soon need to work together in a way that most civil servants are not accustomed to. I would not be surprised at all if her “dumbness” is just an act.
My suspicion is that her instructions, taken as a whole, interlock beautifully. She set up a Xanatos Gambit to address several issues at once, then timed it so they couldn’t pester her for the best solution (say, talking with each other about their tasks and giving the DoI only the files they need/can process at a time, instead of the whole stake).
In fairness she was also bred to be excessively Canadian, he’s probably banking on being perfectly safe so long as direct orders/duties don’t give her clearance for violence.
So its just coincidence that he happened to decide to acquire them at exactly the same time every single member of Project Skin Horse was individually assigned to acquire them?
Not much of a coincidence, really. Chris or some other DoI researcher has probably been up there every day for months. This is just the first time Moustachio had any reason to help them.
This is the first day that the team is back from a long trip to California. Moustachio can’t get the files and Gavotte wouldn’t stoop to do staff work. Knowing that Chris has been waiting for the files for weeks, Gavotte made them the subject of all the conflicting assignments and let him know what day to show up.
OK, so Babe will sound like Jonathan Harris in my mind from now on.
Hooray!
Now I want to see Sweetheart cosplaying Okami.
Seconded! Me Too! This Needs To Happen!
… And other statements along those lines.
even more?
… Okami Sweetheart? You wanna kill me with cuteness overdose, don’t you?
Don’t you mean Amaterasu?
Because…y’know…Okami’s the name of the game (and a japanese word for wolf, but that’s entirely relevant and not my point), not the character.
“Cosplaying [name of the work]” isn’t an unusual way to say it, though, when the rest follows from context.
Okami also means “great spirit/god”, so it’s a pun that also refers to Amaterasu.
And it’s a pun on the word for “wolf.”
Exactly the point I wanted to make. Those Japanese can’t resist their word-play… which is why they turned their goddess into a wolf and made a game of it.
Funnily enough I didn’t get the joke at all until I got the Japanese language patch for Dragon’s Dogma. Given how often the Pawns go on about wolves (and the fact that they hunt in packs), it was only a matter of time until I cottoned on.
Japanese puns rarely translate
People are more likely to remember “Okami” instead of “Amaterasu”
Anyone who reads any amount of manga, watches anime or plays Japanese games is inevitably going to pick up some of their mythology sooner or later (and possibly even some of their history, though the Samurai Warriors games are probably best for teaching that… loosely).
The cave-dwelling sun-goddess is just one of those things… along with Susanoo of the booze-drinking, orochi-slaying and comb-marrying.
Thing is… I could look this all up to make sure I get it exactly right… but just seeing what I can rip from my goldfish memory is kinda fun.
I bet with Marci’s level of nerd, she said “cosplay as Amaterasu from Okami,” and Chris shortened it either for his own purposes or to simplify it for Sweetheart.
I noticed that and hoped Marcie meant “Tell her to cosplay as the box art, including the PS2 logo and back panels, from Okami.”
Yesterday was not a good day. Wrote a filk, was running late for work, forgot to post it until I got home. That was then, this is now …
(TUNE: “Margaritaville”, Jimmy Buffet)
Sweetheart can’t stand it!
Chris will demand it,
That you recite in a funny deep voice!
Then Marcie will dress you
As Amaterasu …
Gotta obey, ’cause you don’t have a choice!
Mocked by a Mata Hari who is mechanoid!
She just stands there, and quietly smiles!
Now say it with
The voice of Doc-tor Smith!
What you’ll do …
Just to get back your files!
Mata Hari was a spy, not a saboteur. Though “mechanoid Mata Hari” definitely rolls of the tongue better than “mechanoid Violette Szabo.”
I’m gonna join the throng of people who say they want an Okami-ized Sweetheart.
Heck, I’d be willing to pay for it.
Would you settle for fan art?
…yes. Yes I would.
I can’t help wondering whether Gavotte made everybody’s promotions dependent upon the basement dweller files in mutually exclusive ways, with Bubbles’ task being to prevent anybody else from completing theirs…
Oh, do you think that Bubbles got a task, too? I’d just assumed it/she was voluntarily (service is her only joy!) helping Moustacio with it/his request, which he verbalized in http://skin-horse.com/comic/adorable-2/
And now I notice that M left out quite a bit of details… dun-dun-dun
She’s sentient enough to qualify as a federal employee, she stashed the files who knows where instead of giving them to Moustachio, and she went all poker-faced in panel 2. So while I could be wrong, I like the idea of her being smarter than the limited vocabulary she was programmed with led her coworkers to expect.
Funny how nobody said anything about her sentience/sapience until she acquired a humanoid shape.
Amazing how lack of ability to communicate with sentient beings makes it hard to get them recognized. Given what has happened in our world with Cetaceans, Elephants, and Great Apes I find this entirely realistic.
I always assumed she was sapient, back when she first spoke, and that that was the joke. It was only further confirmed when she and Sweet Daddy… Mack? (Whatever Tigerlily’s Cadillac-spider offspring was named) had their moment.
But we have Word of God that she doesn’t get paid, so she can’t be an official staff member.
I actually think this is a very sneaky “team building” exercise cooked up by Gavotte. She knows they will soon need to work together in a way that most civil servants are not accustomed to. I would not be surprised at all if her “dumbness” is just an act.
Or knowing that the dumbness was coming and set the lesson up to run while she was down.
My suspicion is that her instructions, taken as a whole, interlock beautifully. She set up a Xanatos Gambit to address several issues at once, then timed it so they couldn’t pester her for the best solution (say, talking with each other about their tasks and giving the DoI only the files they need/can process at a time, instead of the whole stake).
Chris does realize Sweetheart was created as a super-attack dog, right? One shouldn’t scrape too deeply beneath the bureaucratic exterior.
In fairness she was also bred to be excessively Canadian, he’s probably banking on being perfectly safe so long as direct orders/duties don’t give her clearance for violence.
Yep. She might knock over his coffee.
No, seriously, how can Gavotte give assignments to Chris? He doesn’t work for her department.
She doesn’t need to give him orders. The DoI has apparently been after the files for a bit.
So its just coincidence that he happened to decide to acquire them at exactly the same time every single member of Project Skin Horse was individually assigned to acquire them?
Not much of a coincidence, really. Chris or some other DoI researcher has probably been up there every day for months. This is just the first time Moustachio had any reason to help them.
This is the first day that the team is back from a long trip to California. Moustachio can’t get the files and Gavotte wouldn’t stoop to do staff work. Knowing that Chris has been waiting for the files for weeks, Gavotte made them the subject of all the conflicting assignments and let him know what day to show up.
Ah well, it was a fun theory while it lasted.