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Thread: The Random Transformers Thoughts Thread

  1. #981
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy View Post
    I did see heaps of people queuing to buy Christmas toys in the shops
    Wait a second, I thought Japan didn't celebrate Christmas? Has Gok miss informed me?

    Since Japan has only a 2% Christian population I'm guessing they don't celebrate it to honour the birth of Jesus but rather another reason. Kinda like how I celebrate Christmas as a bit of fun gift giving and a day off work and not associated with any religion.

  2. #982
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    Well, its not celebrated as such, but that doesn't mean that people don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on stuff at a time of year that happens to coincide with Christmas.

    Japan currently also has a growing "celebration" around Halloween as well. Essentially anything that can make money, will have some company promote it to drive that wheel

    In the last two years, Disney and Universal studios Japan have been pushing Easter.

    Most Japanese people have no idea what's behind Easter in any form. Just cute bunnies and chocolate eggs.

  3. #983
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy View Post
    Well, its not celebrated as such, but that doesn't mean that people don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on stuff at a time of year that happens to coincide with Christmas.

    Japan currently also has a growing "celebration" around Halloween as well. Essentially anything that can make money, will have some company promote it to drive that wheel

    In the last two years, Disney and Universal studios Japan have been pushing Easter.

    Most Japanese people have no idea what's behind Easter in any form. Just cute bunnies and chocolate eggs.
    Corporations trying to make money out of a religious holiday, I never heard of such a thing!

  4. #984
    Jellico is offline Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
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    The way a tour guide explained it to me is they switch between Shinto, Buddhism, and Christianity as needed to get through whatever life is throwing at them that day. Christianity mainly serves as an excuse for presents while the other two do the heavy emotional lifting.

  5. #985
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    Christmas is totally a thing in Japan. It's much like it is over here - by and large an excuse for buying stuff and/or getting drunk.
    It's also a pretty big hook-up/romantic occasion for those who aren't already married-or-equivalent.

  6. #986
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    Christmas in Japan is like Halloween here. Both are actually religious holidays but where the vast majority of the population don't care (or don't even know) about the religious meaning of these holidays and just use it as an excuse to spend money. Yay commercialism!

    Actually Christmas itself isn't originally a Christian holiday either. It was several Pagan Holidays (i.e. Sol Invictus, Saturnalia and the Yule Tide (mid-winter solstice)) lumped together and rebadged as Christmas. Before Christianity spread to Pagan lands early Christians honestly did not know when Christ was born and frankly didn't care about it as it's an unimportant date for them. The more important date in the Christian calendar is Easter because that's when they believe that Christ gave his life for the salvation of mankind. Simply being born wasn't considered as an achievement at all... he literally hadn't done anything yet (other than crying and pooing as babies do ). The Bible itself doesn't state when Christ was born at all. December 25 was set because it was the date of the aforementioned Pagan holidays.

    So much of what people associate with Xmas - candles, carols, tinsel, gift giving, trees etc. - all come from Pagans. The Vikings^Norse actually believed that during this time of year, Santa Claus^Odin would fly around the world on his 8 reindeer^legged horse known as Sleipnir and distribute presents to all good children.

    Jellico: Remember that Buddhism and Shinto are not exclusive religions like the Abrahamic faiths. Abrahamic religions expressly forbid intermingling with other religions. This is why some churches still refuse to erect Xmas trees, tinsel, Xmas lights etc. and generally just ignore Christmas, because it's technically all Paganism. The Vatican actually resisted erecting a Xmas tree for a really long time until they eventually caved in to public pressure. This is why you'll often see Shinto shrines right next to Buddhist temples. The two religions aren't mutually exclusive -- it's okay to practice both Shinto and Buddhist rites as the same time. And this mentality has spread to Christianity, where a lot of Japanese people have chosen to cherry-pick certain Christian rites without necessarily even becoming Christians. But technically this is frowned upon by Christianity as it is supposed to be an exclusive religion. The First Commandment states, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
    "Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. This is what the Lord says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold;"
    - Jeremiah 10

    But yeah, even in Western countries like Australia we still have religious days that nobody gives a hoot about, like Halloween, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day etc.

  7. #987
    Jellico is offline Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
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    Of course.

    My first thought went to the pagan Romans and their approach to religions. A wide pantheon offers an fascinating freedom to pick and choose. Of course is Buddhism even a religion? All fun and games.

  8. #988
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    The Greeks were actually quite religiously tolerant and inclusive.
    e.g. when Egypt was absorbed into the Greek (Macedonian) Empire, Egyptian gods were added as Greek gods. Serapis (Σέραπις) is a Greek god who's a combination of the Egyptian gods Osiris and Apis. Soon even native Greeks were praying to this amalgamated Egyptian deity. The Greeks even built temples for these Grecocised gods, some of which became secular centres for higher learning (essentially like a university). This of course was an important tactical decision for Alexander the Great because Alexandria (the one in Egypt) was a very important city for his Empire and he couldn't risk social discord by having religious conflicts. Consequently he simply allowed the Egyptian religion to be included with the Greek religion. The Romans consequently inherited these absorbed gods. The Romans even adopted Serapis without changing his name (which does sometimes happen, e.g. Mars, Apollo etc.).

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, back to Transformers...

    This week my daughter's been watching Super God Masterforce. In the scene where Minerva debuts - where she's aboard a jumbo jet with her parents - she asked me why the passenger seats on the plane didn't have individual TV screens like on real planes. I explained to her that this show was made in 1988 and back then we didn't have individual screens! This blew her mind.

    But then again... Masterforce is set in the future. Season 3 of the G1 cartoon is set in the year 2010 in Japanese continuity, hence why it's called "Transformers 2010." Now let's say that The Headmasters happens in 2011, meaning that Masterforce would happen in at least 2012. We definitely had individual TV screens on planes in 2012! So technically she was right. That plane should have had little TVs.

    Just one of those funny things about how scifi writers try to predict the future and what they get right or wrong. They still use CRT monitors instead of flatscreens too. Another really weird thing... hardly anyone wears helmets! Motorcyclists? No helmets! When Buster and Hydra are flying their Transtectors without their armour on -- no helmets! In fact, the only time I've seen anyone wear a helmet that wasn't part of their suit of armour was when the Autobot Headmaster Juniors went hang gliding!

    She also asked me if I had Minerva. I don't, but I showed her Nightbeat. She said that she doesn't care what the name or character is, she's calling it Minerva. Although so far she's only using the Japanese pronunciation, ミネルバ (Mineruba). I did briefly mention to her the different pronunciations of the name...
    * Latin = mi-ner-wa
    * English = mi-nuh-va

    Haven't told her about the Greek name yet and of course the various ways to pronounce "Athena" across different languages. Actually, what is the correct Greek pronunciation of Athena? Looking at how it's written in Greek (Ἀθηνᾶ) I would read it as "ah-theh-na," but I'm not entirely sure if I'm correct. Obviously in English we say "ah-thee-na," and in Japanese it's アテナ ("Atena"), which is also Athens.

  9. #989
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    Has anyone else already started clearing shelf space for Power of the Primes?

  10. #990
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    Has anyone else already started clearing shelf space for Power of the Primes?
    Starting to make shelves more like it
    WANTED BOTS: G1: Horri-bull, Snarler, Mainframe, Chop Shop, Ransack CHUG: Spin Out, Cordon, Brotropolis Rescue MASTERPIECE: Acid Storm
    ENERGON: Six Shot

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