Valarin could be based on Hebrew

Valarin is arguably the most mysterious of the languages that help define the world of Tolkien’s Legendarium. We don’t know nearly as much about it as we do the main Elvish Languages.  And the first question often is was some real world Language the inspiration? Quenya’s starting point was Finnish, Sindarin’s was Welsh and the Language of the Rohirrim is meant to be imaginable as an ancestor of Old English.  With Valarin however no one is certain which, if any, real world language we should look to.

Valarin is the native tongue of the Ainur, a group further subdivided between Valar and Maiar, beings that are essentially what Abrahamic religions call Angels.  Angel comes from the Greek Angelos used to translate the Hebrew Malak both words mean Messenger because serving as God’s messengers to humans is the function they are usually serving when they show up in The Bible but it's perhaps not what these beings would call themselves, nor is it the only term they’re ever called in The Bible.  Likewise Vala and Maia are Quenya names given to these beings by the Elves.

The assumption has long existed among many theologians that the Language of the Angels would have to be Hebrew or something very similar, after all the only two named Angels in Scripture have Hebrew names even when mentioned in the Greek New Testament books.  Today it may mainly be certain fringe sects of American Evangelical Fundamentalism most likely to make a big deal out of if that is the case or not, but it is historically not unique to them.  John Dee devised Enochian as a hypothetical Angelic Language basing it on Hebrew.  And I’m sure there have been Catholics (Tolkien’s denomination) who have agreed.

What little we know about Valarin in Tolkien’s Legendarium is in-universe filtered through the perspective of the Elves.  I imagine that even in Valinor communication between the Elves and Ainur usually involved the Ainur speaking Elvish rather than the other way around.  Nonetheless the Elves were exposed to some Valarin words and some Quenya words are said to be Valarin loan words.  However I really think we should not rule out that the Elves may have often misheard, mispronounced and misunderstood the meanings of the Valarin words that entered their vocabulary.  Plus some of it comes in-universe from people no longer in Valinor speculating ages later.

Consider how the known real world history of Hebrew names being transliterated into European languages by Christians includes such end results as Moshe becoming Moses, Slomoh becoming Solomon, Yeshua became Jesus and the four letter name YHWH having such varied interpretations as Yahweh and Jehovah (I personally view Yahuah as the correct form).

The first Valarin word I want to discuss is the name of Orome’s horse Nahar, now the Roman spelling of the Valarin original form is presented as Næχærra (the apparent X there is actually Chi a symbol for the -ch sound) but presenting the casual form as Nahar makes a possible Hebrew basis obvious.  Nahar resembles two Hebrew words due to there being two Hebrew letters that can become an H in English.  One is the Hebrew word for River but the other the KJV translated "Nostrils": or "Snorting" and in it the letter used for H is the letter that is also the Hebrew letter for -ch, and in both Job 39:19-20 and Jeremiah 8:16 it is associated with the sound a Horse makes.

The next Valarin word I want to discuss is machanaz (machanumaz being the plural) which is said to mean Authorities and is the root of a term for the Aratar the Eight highest ranked of the Valar.  The Hebrew word I think this could come from is machaneh which means company or camp or host and is used in Genesis 32:2 to refer to “God’s host”.  Also look at the -um being added to make it plural, that could come from Elves mishearing -im which is the most common Hebrew suffix to convey plurality.

Aman the Blessed Land the name of the Continent on which Valinor resides is a name Tolkien originally presented as coming from a Quenya name meaning Good but he later decided it was Valarin in origin.  Aman is also a Hebrew word that in the KJV is translated things like Assurance, Believed, Faithful, Nursed, Steadfast, Trusted and Trusty.

Ainu comes from the Valarin word Ayanuz. As a Quenya word Ainu means Holy One but that could be a meaning the Elves gave the name because they viewed the Aniur as Holy, or they named the concept of Holiness after these semi divine beings they interacted with.  Ayanuz could come from the Hebrew word Ayin meaning Eye (and it’s the name of the Hebrew letter this word begins with) or ayam which means Mighty and began with the same letter.   There is a good real world Proto Indo-European etymology for Aina the Quenya word for Holy, it might be the Elves connected this name to a phonetically similar word.

Honeyed Wine is the meaning of mirubhoze.  One Hebrew word for Wine is tiryowsh and the Hebrew word for Honey is dbash. Now this is more of a stretch then my prior examples but I still consider it plausible, perhaps as a Mondogreen form listening to a Valarin song.

Even the name of Arda is said to be Valarin in origin.  That name is related to many Germanic words for Earth including Earth itself but the Afrikaans Aarde is the closest.  But plenty of Semitic words for Earth happen to seem phonetically similar like the Hebrew Erets and the Arabic ‘ard.  However the stated Valarin name for Arda is Aþāraphelūn which is supposed to mean “appointed dwelling”.  Palon/Pelon is a Hebrew word from the root Palah meaning separate.  The Athara part could come from atar/atarah which means compass or crown conveying the idea of a circle.

Before I discuss any more confirmed Valarin words or names, I want to speculate on a few names designated Quenya but that could have involved Valarin loanwords that Tolkien never explicitly told us were.

Melkor is the name that is often referred to as the original name of the Legendarium’s Satan figure before he was given the obviously derogatory name Morgoth.  But Melkor is presented as a Quenya name that even it may not have been his original name, Melkor is said to mean “he who rises in might”.  In some Tolkien YouTube videos I’ve noticed when people quote older abandoned versions of the tales Melkor is often more simply Melko.  On Tolkien Gateway other early forms of the name are listed as Belcha, Melegor and Meleko and the meaning is simply “The Mighty One”. 

I can’t help but see a connection to the Hebrew word for King which is Melek and how the first King in The Bible is Nimrod the Mighty Hunter.  Examples in real world history of named derived in whole or in part from this word include Melchi and Melchior. 

The word Melek is associated with Satan first and foremost in Ezekiel 29 starting in verse 11 where the Melek of Tyre is a Cherub in contrast to the mere human Nagyim of Tyre in the prior verses.  I believe this passage is in part identifying Satan with Melqart/Melkart the Patron deity of Tyre who’s name is interpreted as meaning “King of the City”.  He’s also the “King of Babylon” in Isaiah 14 who desires to place his throne above the Most High, to “Rise in Might”. 

However the deity name Moloch is also just Melek with different vowel indicators and some scholars think those different vowel indicators came later and originally every reference to Moloch/Milcom was just the Hebrew word for King/Kings.  Moloch references include most of the Human Sacrifices documented in the Hebrew Bible which is why he’s sometimes viewed as the most Evil pagan god The Scripture references even more so than Baal.  But it’s also possible if Moloch was a distinct deity name at all it was just the Ammonite name for Hadad who the Canaanites called Baal and the Moabites called Chemosh.

The conception of Satan that Morgoth is based on isn’t actually Biblical, it’s founded upon layers of Extra-Biblical Fan Fiction culminating in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.  Now many today don’t know this but John Milton was actually a political radical of his time who argued in his nonfiction writings that the very concept of having a King other than God Himself is Idolatry.  Satan in Paradise Lost is a manifestation of that idea, the first and ultimate False King.  So a post Milton depiction of Satan being basically named King kind of fits.

The characterization of Melkor/Morgoth in the various First Age stories is that he begins mostly motivated by a desire to Dominate to Control to Rule.  In other words to be the God-King of Arda.

Of the two main names used for The Monotheistic God of Tolkien’s Legendarium, Iluvatar is the most straightforward having its real world etymology firmly in Quenya’s Finnish roots.  Eru however is very mysterious and I was indeed shocked to learn it’s NOT one of the names officially confirmed to be Valarin, it sure doesn’t seem even close to Finnish, Yksi is the Finnish word for One.  Speaking of Eru meaning The One, I personally want that to actually be an Elvish mistake.  In my opinion it is bad form for a Trinitarian to give God a name that mean The One and flat out heretical to name Him “He that is Alone”, calling your theological First Principal by such titles is an influence of Pythagoreanism and Platonism calling it The Monad.  The New Testament and Early Christians preferred Eis Theos and Mia Theos to Mono Theos.  Eis and Mias like the Hebrew Eched means one as in United or Unified not an Absolute Only One.

The phenomena of the sound represented by the letter L being mispronounced as an R is NOT in fact unique to Japanese or other East Asian Languages.  Back in my youth long before I got into any of the Weeb stuff I’m into now I always misheard the L in the middle of the word Colonel as an R, consistently no matter who said it, at first I was unable to recognize it in print because I’d heard it that way so consistently. [Update: Name Explain now has a video on Colonel.]

I’m bringing this up because coincidentally El the Hebrew word for God is one of a few Gaijin words that the Japanese tend to pronounce Eru, others include the Spanish definite article and the English name of the letter L.  Most times I’ve seen or heard Eru in Japanese media it’s been the Spanish reference like the title of the Anime El Cazador de la Bruja (The Hunter of The Witch) the first part of which gets pronounced Eru Kazado.  However there is a Visual Novel called You and Me and Her: A Love Story where a Cat is named Eru and the credits say Eru has the same voice actor as God.

So what I’m getting at is maybe Eru came from some Elf mishearing or mispronouncing El under the right circumstances.  Or a shortening of a mishearing or mispronouncing of Elah or Eloah or Elohim.

Yavanna seems to be the first of the Valar (going through them in Valaquenta order) whose name isn’t said to be Valarin in origin.  Yet I can’t help but notice how much it looks like a feminine form of Yavan, the Hebrew name for Greece.  The Strongs says the name is related to Yayin, another Hebrew word for Wine which fits the Fruit connection of Yavanna’s name.  I’m trying to think of reasons that it would culturally or religiously make sense to fan theorize that Primitive Greece descended from particular followers of Yavanna, I suppose the standard practices of Interpretatio graeca would identify Yavanna with Gaia, Cybele or Magna Mater, but even that feels like a bit of a stretch. [Update February 9th: I've looked into some theories about Dione and Dodona and now think she may work.]

There are other names that look instantly Hebrew when I look at them even though I can’t imagine how the name could in universe be Valarin in origin, like how Gilgalad reminds me of Gilgal and Beor is the name of the father of the first King of the Edomites in Genesis 36.  Any other writer of European style Fantasy I’d just chalk it up to how Biblical Names entered our vocabulary and this writer didn’t think about where they came from.  But Tolkien was specifically a Linguist first and foremost.  If he knowingly put Hebrew names in there he did so for a reason.

I’m going to cover some more confirmed Valarin in origin words now, but I’m growing less certain how to make them fit my Valarin=Hebrew hypothesis, everything above is the foundation of it.

The name of Varda comes from the Quenya root Barada which means Subline, Exalted or Lofty and is said to be a Valarin loan word.  Baalath is a Hebrew name derived from Baalah meaning Mistress or Lady.

Manawenuz is the Valarin name of Manwe and I can’t help but jump to connecting it to Manehem a Hebrew name that means Comforter and thus possibly the Hebrew concept behind the Paraclete of John and 1 John and is also a name a number of Jewish traditions have given to Messiah Ben David.  Now fully identifying Manwe with either Jesus or The Holy Spirit would be a type of Arianism which I don’t believe Tolkien was going for, the Finrod ap Andreth established that Eru himself will incarnate as a Human to bring about the final healing of Arda.  But you can still argue Manwe is typologically stewarding the Seat of Authority destined for the future Incarnate Eru.

Ulluboz as the proposed root of Ulmo I speculate could come from Alluwph a Hebrew word that is sometimes translated Captain.

Aule’s name is said to come from Valarin Aȝūlēz.  Ayal is a Hebrew word meaning strength.  

Nessa’s name is suggested to be Valarin according to Pengolodh.  There are two Hebrew words I considered since Hebrew has two letters for S.  The shin one would be Nasa which means to carry or bear something, and the Samek one would be Nacah which means Adventure, Prove or Try.

Aromez as the origin of Orome could be related to Arumah a Hebrew name derived from the root rumah which means height.  Or from ‘orem which means craftiness.

Atharaigas as a name for The Sun could have its roots first in again atar/atarah meaning compass/crown/circle and Ygiya meaning Labor or Work. 

Osse’s name could be related to Hosea, a Hebrew name that means deliverer.

Ezellochar could come from Ezel meaning departure and achar meaning next.  How that’s a fitting name for the location of the two trees I’m unsure.

Machananaskad likely begins with machaneh again since it is a name for the meeting place of the Aratar. The next part could be nashaq which means armed. 

Jobless Reincarnation not Mushoku Tensei is the Anime I started liking.

Or rather Mushoku Tensei is an Anime I only like Dubbed.

I was late to trying this show in the first place, when I finally watched it even the second cour of season 1 had already been Dubbed for awhile though season 2 was still in the future.  What turned me off from watching for so long even though I actually like Isekai being an overplayed trend right now is the way it was talked about by many of it's fans.  How it was painted as almost a "Deconstruction" of the Isekai genre know it all Anitubers were getting tired of, (or "Unbuilt Trope" for those selling that "Grandfather of Isekai" narrative).  That it was about how Rudy is a bad person because he's a degenerate Otaku and the show is about his redemption arc.

When I finally watched it however I concluded it was another show that the Anti-Otaku types were trying to impose that moralizing narrative on.  That whatever criticisms the show does have of Rudeus's character none of it is because he was an Otaku.  And a large part of what lead me to that conclusion is in Episode 5 in the kidnapping incident after thinking in his head about the lessons he learned from Dating Sims accidently says out loud "Money can't buy Waifus".  And that moment instantly assured me this wasn't an Anti-Otaku show,, it was an Otaku affirming show.

Thing is recently as I watched a Mushoku Tensei youtuber talking about a very different issue she said something about the Kidnapping Incident that made me start to think there was a fundamental change in meaning in the Dub of this scene.  So I went to Hulu found the subbed version of this scene and indeed it's different.

1. The Inner Monologue talks instead about how he regretted wasting so much of his old life playing VNs and video games.

2. The key line is instead "Money can't buy Dere".

Number 2 is a difference that doesn't matter, Western Otaku don't use "Dere" on it's own like that so it's a Dub decision I'd defend but wouldn't see as an improvement inherently.

Number 1 is the issue.  Leaning about number one makes me fear the show is what I feared it was all along.  No it's still not blaming VNs/Dating Sims themselves for anything per se, but I want more then that from my Otaku Hero's Journeys, I want Otaku values and Otaku Media to be explicitly affirmed not merely tolerated at best.  I want them to be the reason for our protagonists' virtues not in any way related to their vices.

And this isn't the only Dub vs Sub difference along these lines.  As I learned from Explanation's Point's horrible video on the show after Rudeus's first almsot night with Eris, in the Sub the ideas he learned from Dating Sims are blamed for what happened while in the Dub he blames himself for failing to learn from them.  And so I start wondering how many other times the Dub changes are being more approving of Otakudom?

Now if this Blog has any Normie readers you're probably baffled at the prospect of saying a show should teach the Dating Sims/VNs are a good place to learn about how to treat women.  Well they may not be the absolute best place, but the thing is there are plenty of good thoughtful Dating Sims that are trying to educate their male players on exactly the gender issues these cynical Anti-Otaku think the medium as whole merely uncritically reproduces.  Especially among the classic 90s Bishojo Games that the 16bit Sensation was appealing to nostalgia for.  Amilee Doree is a YouTuber who's a woman who's talked about those kinds of VNs fighting to give them the credit they deserve.  

But this is also a localization change worth talking about for how it's the opposite of what most of these modern Anti-Dub reactionary Anime fans think is driving the makers of modern Funimation/Crunchyroll Dubs.  They think these Texans are hyper Woke scolds trying to appeal to the Noralities types even though it's them who made the Ghost Stories Dub.  A Dub that is explicitly more Pro-Otaku then the Sub should absolutely destroy their entire world view, but instead no one's talking about it.

Now there are a lot of good reasons to mock Explanation Points in his bad Rudeus video, but the fact that he said he was unsure which was more accurate to the Japanese is not one, Subs can make translations mistakes as well. There is good reason many assume they'd be smaller and that a reinterpretation of the text that virtually reverses the meaning could only be made by a Dub.  But as someone constantly going back and editing really embarrassing typos on this very Blog I know full well how easily forgetting to include one word can completely reverse the meaning of what I meant to say.  The fact is the simple fact that the Sub was made day of broadcast while the Dub had at least a couple weeks means it had for better or for worse more thought put into it.

Now that LN readers seem to affirm the accuracy of the Sub here is the main reason I think the Sub is probably accurate.  They of course are reading those LNs via translations and this Anime has not always been faithful to the LNs  But still I will concede that in all likelyhood the Sub is what's accurate.

But I don't actually care about Accuracy, the Dub versions of these two scenes is what I prefer for ideological reasons that don't even relate to why I generally watch Dubs in the first place.

Nintendo was right to stick with Cartridges for the Fifth Generation

So many YouTube videos on gaming history still repeat the old conventional wisdom that Nintendo’s refusal to jump to CDs right away was one of the greatest blunders of all time.  And I’m tired of it.

No one denies that Nintendo 64 Games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were the key groundbreaking developments of true fully 3D Gaming.  The original PlayStation and Sega Saturn never made a fully 3D game like those.  And what is more well known to non industry insiders now than it used to be is that if Nintendo had jumped to CDs that console Generation they would not have been able to make those games for it.  So many 3rd Parties wanted the CDs because they wanted FMVs and less limited audio options, but there was a trade off for that which fans and journalists didn’t understand at the time.  Nintendo then like now prioritized actual innovation in how Games are played over flashy cosmetic things that look cool in a trailer.  

And the thing about Final Fantasy VII is that the FMVs are exactly the part of the game that visually hasn’t aged well.  Most of the time I find these failed attempts at “cinematic” animation ugly and would much rather have watched those scenes play out with the charming 32 bit models.  The only one that works is the opening Cinematic, but it’s so minimalist compared to the others that when I look at CutScenes in N64 Games like Jet Force Gemini and Majora’s Mask I see no reason the same scene couldn’t have been done on it.

And another thing, the Sony PlayStation launched in 1994, it was on North American store shelves in September of 95.  Yet the great Iconic PlayStation games didn't start coming out till 1997.  It took seeing Nintendo break 3D ground in the spring of 96 for them to even start tapping their own inferior console’s full potential.

Yet still so many of those 97 PlayStation Games do nothing in the actual game play that couldn’t be done on the N64, in fact I see little that couldn’t be done on the SNES.

And it’s not like only Nintendo themselves could make great games for the N64.  Rare had a slew of Classics.  And then look at what Star Wars did on the Console, Shadows of The Empire, Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer.  George Lucas had a similar innovation over superficiality spirit to Nintendo so it makes sense his IPs were among the few licensed games on the N64.

The FFVII we got was a great game, but it could have been so much better on the N64.

By the next gen things had advanced enough so using CDs wouldn't hold Nintendo back mechanically anymore. 

Environmentalist Allegories in Sci-Fi and Fantasy have a common recurring problem

From Final Fantasy VII in 1997 to Darling in The Franxx in 2018, but also in between many interpretations of how and why Krypton blew up.  The common tactic is to allegorize it so it’s that Humanity or the Evil Corporations are killing the Earth via what they take out of it, essentially being Parasites who are Vampirizing The Earth.  

That is a problem because the actual issue with real life Climate Change is the opposite, the Fossil Fuels themselves are just Ancient Prehistoric Garbage in and of itself removing them from the earth isn’t a problem.  The problem is how the Atmosphere is poisoned by the byproduct of burning those fuels.  The primary issue is what we’re putting in, not what we're taking out.

Now I don’t think a good Allegory needs to be a perfect 1 to 1 allegory, my opinion on allegory in general is similar to Tolkien’s.  For example in a JRPG type setting having the energy source also be a source of Magic makes perfect sense.

So you may wonder what the problem even is?  The problem is getting the nature of how we are harming the planet reversed makes it a lot harder to propose any useful solutions, since both scenarios also have it so we need to do more than just stop, we also need to fix the damage already done somehow.

The truth is something like The Lifestream to me would make a better allegory for the renewable energies we want to encourage. On a Metaphysical level I have trouble believing something like that could ever be depleted.

It’s not a coincidence that this mistake is made so many times however.  It’s a product of the desire to tie environmentalism to mysticism, making The Earth itself a Deity we are taking from and not giving back to.  But also way back in the day the issue of CO2 emissions caused by Fossil Fuels wasn’t even the original main concern of the Environmentalist movement, it first grew out of Conservationism, concerns about things like Deforestation.  The thing is as bad as Deforestation can be, it's not the irreversible damage that CO2 emissions are becoming, it does make that problem worse, but it isn't the main source.  [Update:  I do believe Reforestation is a vital part of combating Climate Change which is why it really annoys me when Anti-Zionists try to paint Israel Reforestation of land Deforested by the Roman, Muslim and Ottoman Empire.]

The Irony about how these tropes pop up even in Japanese media is that I feel it would actually fit Japanese Mysticism more.to make it a matter of poisoning the Life Force of The Planet rather than Vampirising it.  Shinto mysticism includes a concept called Kagere, direct references to which in Anime often get translated as "Sullied".  The concept of a spiritual pollution tied to immoral or even merely taboo acts or sometimes just negative emotions.  Plenty of Anime and Video Games have concepts that definitely feel to me like a fantastical adaptation of that concept given a new name, Miasma gets used a lot, the recent Zelda Games have Malice/Gloom, Tales of Zestiria has Maleficence, Fate/Stay Night has it's Grail Mud.  Now I consider this concept an unhealthy and toxic way to look at morality, but as a Fantastical allegory for CO2 emissions I think it would be much better.  Make it the source of your Dark Magic and the Planet’s Life Force the source of the regular Magic.

Another thing both FFVII and Franxx have in common is that in the backstory actual Fossil Fuels had been the dominant form of energy production before the villains of the story succeeded in imposing their system on the world.   And that is where the concerns I’m talking about here are parallel to the main point of my blog post titled Dystopian Science Fiction only Reinforces the Real World Status Quo.  Making your allegory for fossil fuels something that replaced what it's an allegory for makes it so many won’t see it as an allegory for that at all.  Fears that what we might replace Fossil Fuels with could turn out to be worse have long been a vital tactic of how Fossil Fuel Energy companies suppress alternatives, Nuclear Energy never took off in the United States because shows like The Simpsons present it as cartoonishly toxic and dangerous.

I imagine critics of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII who come at it from a Leftist perspective see all the stuff about rebuilding the Fossil Fuel Industry in stories set after the original game as Recuperation, but that an Oil Industry being suppressed by ShinRa helped cause the crisis was part of the Lore already in the original game, that wasn’t something added later.

Both these stories I actually like overall, I defended the later part of Franxx in 2018 when doing so was not very popular, and FFVII’s lore intrigues me for how it can intentionally or not be read as Stoic and how I think it’s thematically more like Tolkien then any Medieval setting JRPG.  This is just one critique I felt had to be made.

Popeye and Betty Boop are among the next icons to enter the Public Domain

I think it ironically shows the victory of Copyright Holders that the characters we keep talking about looking forward to entering the Public Domain soon every January are the ones who are currently being constantly milked by their IP holders.

Popeye The Sailor and Buck Rogers from 1929 should enter the Public Domain next year (though some of their core supporting cast will take a few more years with Bluto not appearing till 1932), and then in 2026 Betty Boop and Bimbo from 1930 as well as Pulp Hero The Shadow, and then in 2027 Dick Tracey from 1931.  

These are characters who are just as important to the Early History of Comics and Animation as any Disney and WB owned characters and at the time just a much household names.  But because the owners of their Copyrights have been for various reasons unable or unwilling to do much of anything with them for several decades their Stars have diminished.

Popeye, Betty Boop and Bimbo should be important to Otaku like me because they were the initial main stars of Fleischer Studios.  Anime as I've said before has it's origins in various ways in how Japan was westernized during the Early to Mid 20th Centuries.  And part of what set dominant animation trends in Japan apart from what could have been was how people like Osamu Tezuka were more inspired by the work of Fliescher Studios then Disney or Warner.  If Tezuka is the Grandfather of Anime then they are Great Grandparents.

Anime is a diverse industry with countless distinct styles within it.  But when you break down the timeline and observe how indeed most of the dominant ones evolved at least in part from the style of Osamu Tezuka, you can also go back further and equally see his debt to the Flieschers, and see how in a lot of ways Betty Boop is the first Anime Girl (even an Idol given how she's often specifically a musical entertainer) and Popeye the first Battle Shonen.

Once the ability to use these characters is no longer limited I would really like to see Anime Fans and Creators on both sides of the Pacific take advantage of the opportunity.  I want to see a Mahou Shoujo Betty Boop with Bimbo as her animal mascot.  And I wanna see Popeye entered into some Tournament Arcs.

Thing is the falling into obscurity caused by what I've talked about above causes a lack of awareness that prevents their Public Domain Status from being taken advantage of as rapidly and speedily as we saw these last few weeks with Steamboat Willy.  Another character Fliescher Studios used a lot was Koko The Clown from 1919 and I haven't seen anything done with him yet.

Likewise Charlie Chan from 1925 should be in the Public Domain now.  Charlie Chan is a prominent example on the "Mexicans love Speedy Gonzales" TVTropes page making him a complicated relic of 20as and 30s American Pop Culture.  But in my view he could easily be fully reclaimed if it was Asian Americans themselves who reimagined the character for the 21st Century.  I would also hope there is an Asian Trans Woman among them to help prevent them from repeating the common Transphobic mistakes of the Detective Genre.

So let's start thinking about these important yet semi-obscure characters more when we think about taking advantage of the Public Domain.

Rudeus Greyrat is not a Bad Person

Rudeus is not a bad Person, and the kind of people who think he is are who I actually consider bad people. Rudeus is flawed, chiefly he is way more perverted then Americans are used to tolerating from a Protagonist. 

But he is absolutely at his Core a Good Person and very likable. In one episode specifically we see how incredibly disturbed he is anytime someone dies, even a non-human he just met who was being an @$$hole to him. He has a strict opposition to killing people, even bad people, exactly what everyone on the post 2016 Internet has been wanting Batman and Superman to be written like again. This is a way of thinking this show only the American Audience could have. 

I call these American Values Puritan not because I intend a direct comparison to the morality of 17th Century English Dissenters but because of the basic etymology of what Puritan means. Because it's a very Idealist Understanding of Morality to think someone is a Bad Person simply because they've committed some specific moral offenses (whether or not it's right to view as immoral) that they haven't specifically atoned for. 

Oh I guess there is some Japanese precedent for thinking of Morality that way, the Kagere concept. But Otaku Media has a long history of being critical of that Purity fixation. And I believe that includes this very show. 

Rudeus is a net positive influence on the world he is currently living in, that's what a good Materialist Understanding of Morality should care about. 

Some people even throw their being disgusted by Cousincest into their condemnations of Rudeus, the fact is disgust at Incest is a social construct and the alleged genetic risks caused by it are nothing when it's merely first cousins. So I cannot take seriously anyone who treats that as an objective moral standard.  Cousins relationships being Taboo is also completely alien to Japan, it's legal to this day and was historically often downright encouraged.  So this more then anything else is absolute a modern western value being imposed onto this show by western viewers that no one in Japan would care about.

Rudeus has no interest in Brother-Sister incest having explicitly rejected his half sister's mother's intentions to make her daughter his lover in the future.

I also notice all this moral judgment or condemning of Rudeus has a lot to do with refusing to acknowledge that he is a child because of their simplistic understanding of how this kind of Reincarnation works. There is more to maturity than how many memories you have in your brain. Rudeus all through season 1 is still under even this world's age of consent which is itself younger than ours being 15. He still does not truly have Adult Maturity which his behavior shows constantly.   It is a scientific fact that the Brain isn't fully developed till 25, no amount excess memories change that.

If the show wanted us to look at Rudeus as an adult it would be different since it is all supposed to be done by Magic,, but contrary to casual assumptions it does not.

The only counter arguments one could make is how often his internal Monologue says he thinks of himself as 40ish. But children often want to think of themselves as more mature than they actually are, Rudeus simply has an excuse to do so. And that isn't even the only way his internal Monologue is an Unreliable Narrator. Often it's more what Rudeus is trying to convince himself of, not his actual true feelings. I don't know whether a Freudian would call that his Ego or Superego or Id but it's something along those lines. 

And on the subject of his emotional age, the tells that show us he is fundamentally still a child despite all his desire to pretend is not are abundant.

I didn't even develop this position on Physical Age vs "Accumulated Life Experience" for defending this Anime, it started with my takes on Vampire Fiction.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2022/10/teenage-vampires-can-never-be-guilty-of.html

And all that is leaving aside how this 30ish Adult Japanese Man was an emotionally stunted NEET who'd basically stopped Maturing in High School. The whole point of his Reincarnation is to be a do over of growing up, that's the sense in which it is a Second Chance not a Moral One. Yet all these Westerners who love any excuse to call an Otaku protagonist a Pedophile ignore that and treat him as an Adult even though the Text clearly does not want us to. 

And no I'm not making this point just to defend his Sexual Attraction to girls older than his physical age. When the narrative gets to his confrontation with Paul in the second cour I've seen people argue they are equally at fault when that is absurd. The show entirely frames this as Paul being a shitty Dad for expecting his 10 year old son to intuitively know what he thinks he should have done. The only character in the story who ever concludes Rudeus is also at fault is Rudeus himself in the end which just shows how forgiving and responsibility minded he is.

In terms of number of year Roxy is older then Rudeus no matter which of his potential birthdates you start with.  Because Roxy is a species that ages different the audience has no trouble seeing her as still a Teenager.  If amount of time doesn't trump biology for her then it can't for Rudeus either.

ExplanationPoint's main attempt to refute this whole line of reasoning is to say "you know who can't take advantage of children, a child", but that's a self defeating augment here because Rudeus never does succeed in making any progress with Eris when he tried to be aggressive.  If Rudeus actually had an adult sexual predator's ablity to manipulate children, and was willing to use it, he would have handled those situations very differently.

Compare those first half of season 1 scenes to how season 1 ends.  When Eris sleeps with Rudeus while she is an Adult by this world's legal definition but he still is not, she withholds from him the fact that she's planning to leave right after and that is the source of his season 2 trauma.  The only character in the show actually harmed by sexual contact with an older person is Rudeus.

Fandom Wiki Network sucks

I'm definitely a supporter of the growing Anti-Fandom movement in the Fan Wiki Community. 

mossbag and Connorsseur both have YouTube videos on the subject I highly recommend.

Some of the franchises I often need to use wikis for don't have their Fandom alternative even as the second option to come up on a search, partly because of their not so straight forward names.  So I want to share some here real quick.

DetectiveConanWorld.Com has a Wiki that is a great resource for Case Closed.

TolkienGateway.Net is great for Arda Lore.

WikiMoon.Org is a non Fandom Sailor Moon Wiki.

FinalFantasyWiki.Com, Dragon-Quest.Org and SaGaWiki.Org don't seem to be as comprehensive as they need to be to compete with Fandom yet, but they can be made better simply with the help of new contributors.

I was also already a user of some of the more well known ones mentioned in those YT videos like Bulbapedia and the Mario Wiki.

However there are some I'm still frustrated to see have no Fanodm alternative, at least not one I've found searching.  Wookipedia is still the only option for Star Wars, DC Database is still the best option for DC and the others are also on Fandom.  PDSH is also a Wiki I like to use and wish would migrate.

And getting back to my Weeb stuff, ToAru, and the Nasuverse and Code Geass and Overflow still only have their Fandom options.  For Overflow there's a lot of information on the broader School Days Universe only available in English on that wiki, I wish that would change.

I also have occasional interest in the DereTypes Wiki so wish it would migrate, as well as the Dubbing Wiki and Audio Drama Wiki.

Update February 1st: I felt like mentioning this Megaman Wiki I stumbled upon.

https://megaman.miraheze.org/wiki/Mega_Man_Knowledge_Base

Here's a page where Miraheze attempts to comprehensively list their Wikis.

https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Gazetteer_of_wikis

Update February 19th: There is a non Fandom Song of Ice and Fire Wiki.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Main_Page

Update July 2024: A non Fandom Star Wars Wiki now exists.  

https://starwars.archivum.wiki/

Update September 5th 2024: Now I've found a non Fandom Madoka Wiki.

https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Main_Page

Update April 30th 2025: I recently learned on BSKY that for Wikis without an alternative you can add "anti" before "fandom" in the URL to create a more useable alternative.  A truly independent Wiki is the ideal, but this will prove helpful especially for my continued dependence on the Overflow Wiki.

Update June 1st 2025: I've learned there is a Non Fandom Touhou Wiki.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki

Update August 2026: I just learned about this interesting Wiki.

https://evilbabes.miraheze.org/wiki/EvilBabes_Wiki