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@backagain88 it would be interesting to see the alternate universe where zelda stuck with the christian iconography throughout the series, and instead of Hylia we got God Almighty.
@xianc78 @backagain88 yeah i think that's just trying desperately to try to tie things together haha xD christian iconography was just big in japanese media back then. maybe not even just christian but other religions too a little bit, i mean there are maps shaped like 卐 in zelda 1 too.
even in relatively modern JRPGs, sometimes the churches will just randomly have crosses to signify that it's a church, even if there's no christian religion in the game.
@beardalaxy @backagain88 The first Phantasy Star game had Catholic style churches in it and that game is set in a star system that clearly has no connection with Earth. (spoiler alert: Earth does exist in the Phantasy Star universe but this was before that happens) The Japanese version even mentions God when you visit the Church but this was changed to Gods (plural) in the international versions. The fourth game eventually created their own mythos, saying that the Algo system was created by a cosmic entity to seal the Profound Darkness.
How can this be? Japanese doesn't have singular and plural, I thought.
@Hyolobrika @beardalaxy @backagain88 There is a fan translation of the game that is more of a literal translation of the original Japanese version. That translation just mentions God.
我的朋友 (my friend/friends)
我的朋友都 (all of my friends).
@beardalaxy @xianc78 @backagain88
But still, without the "tachi", I'm pretty sure it's ambiguous.
@beardalaxy @xianc78 @backagain88 @ryo
For example, you can say 友達 as a single friend or a circle of friends.
You can refer to a group of people, but you only know the name of one of those people, you can say something like 山田達, which would translate to "Yamada and co.".
But you can't really say 神達 to refer to multiple gods.
Not only because attaching 達 to 神 is very awkward to say the least, translating 神 to "God" is really a terrible translation.
Basically like how you would translate "Allah" to "God" from an Arab anime.
Because in Shintoism, 神様 (kami-sama) isn't that man with a beard in between some clouds like what's the case with a God in Christianity, but rather anything that's natural is a kami-sama.
Or if you take Buddhism, there is no equivalent to God, or well there technically is, but nobody cares.
The manji is a Japanese symbol.
I don't think it has anything to do with Christianity.
@Hyolobrika @xianc78 @backagain88 didn't say it did, just said it could potentially be other religious stuff in there. it is used in a lot of religions, and has a historical precedence for christianity too.
Why though?
A very small number of Japanese people are Christians. https://www.statista.com/statistics/237609/religions-in-japan/
@Hyolobrika @beardalaxy @backagain88 Christianity seems to have a big influence on Japanese culture even though most Japanese aren't Christian. I think they do celebrate Christmas and have Christian style weddings. It seems like most Japanese practice a mixture of religions for whatever reason. I think @ryo could explain it.
@Hyolobrika @beardalaxy @backagain88 @ryo Also, one interesting effect that Christianity had on Japan was that crucifixion became a popular form of capital punishment in the country for a brief time. At least that's what I've heard.
Christmas is certainly a thing over here, except it's nothing like how it's done in the west.
Basically just a strawberry short cake and Kentucky chicken, and if you happen to have a GF (or BF), it's closer to western Valentine's Day.
But that's pretty much it.
As for Christian style weddings, they're a thing and popular too, especially among women who gained quite a lot of influence from Hollyweird movies.
But never experienced a wedding myself in any way, so I can't really comment on that one as much.
It's mostly a holiday for couples, so that means "national suicide day", basically. Especially in Japan. Though actually, even in the west, I think Christmas is the day of the year with the most suicides. It's the day to realize that you are completely alone in the world, and that no one has ever loved you or ever will, and that you will die alone full of nothing but regrets and having accomplished nothing. And that, is what Christmas is all about, it's "try not to shoot yourself day". Isn't life wonderful?
@beardalaxy @backagain88 It's been theorized that Hyrule became a Christian nation during the downfall timeline because everyone lost faith in the Goddesses after the defeat of the Hero of Time.
But this doesn't explain why Christianity exists in a fantasy world unless Hyrule exist in an alternate universe Earth.