Could have used Son Wukong (aka Goku lol) and had it been a twist reveal early on. Boom, you’ve got your fusion of history and fantasy. Just like the Greek and Egypt games you know it’s just gunna include a series of random boss fights against mythical monsters, would have atleast made some kind of sense at that point. At least, more than “we wuz buddhist immortals” or whatever they end up going with
I thought that character was Chinese, though. Obviously it's spread beyond China and is in Japanese pop culture as well—Goku, as you point out, and others I'm sure—but I don't think it would be appropriate as a semi-historical thing specifically confined to Japan. It would be better to use Susanoo for something like that, wouldn't it?
You’re totally right that the story was first written down in China, but I would say a few things to justify using the character/story
-one can readily understand it more as a taoist or buddhist story, and not explicitly a “Chinese story”
-when does appropriation become adoption? Let’s assume the concept of cultural appropriation is even valid (I don’t think so but in a way your point includes that assumption). Hasn’t, like Lady Liberty (from France’s Liberté, or the “common ancestor” of both, Rome’s LIBERTAS), the Monkey King successfully bridged the gap between two (or more) nations?
-I think that, when considering their common origin (Chinese and Japanese that is, and Asians more broadly)cultural overlap ceases to be problematic in any way, though I obviously only speak for myself with that, retarded misdirections of Nationalism seem to be part and parcel with Asia
It would be better to use Susanoo for something like that, wouldn't it?
-Who? (Just kidding [not really, that’s actually my point with this bit])
It's a very Chinese story cause of the element of the heavens in it. It's pretty much Chinese heaven, including the weird inclusion of Buddha
But if anyone doesn't know, wukong goes up to serve the jade emperor which is distinctively a Chinese belief and serve as horse guard. He also steals the empress peaches which again is another Chinese element and iirc the reason for his immortality as the peaches are for the celestial. He also fights er lang shen a Chinese deity
You can talk all you want about cross cultural ideas and relative genetic closeness and such, but I assure you, the Japanese and the Chinese are distinct and do see each other as distinct. To put it in a different analogy, I wouldn’t expect a story set in the Norman invasion of 1066 to star D’artagnan, and if it did—without a huge part of the plot being devoted to why and how—I’d assume someone fucked up.
They could have just had a random dude
Could have used Son Wukong (aka Goku lol) and had it been a twist reveal early on. Boom, you’ve got your fusion of history and fantasy. Just like the Greek and Egypt games you know it’s just gunna include a series of random boss fights against mythical monsters, would have atleast made some kind of sense at that point. At least, more than “we wuz buddhist immortals” or whatever they end up going with
I thought that character was Chinese, though. Obviously it's spread beyond China and is in Japanese pop culture as well—Goku, as you point out, and others I'm sure—but I don't think it would be appropriate as a semi-historical thing specifically confined to Japan. It would be better to use Susanoo for something like that, wouldn't it?
You’re totally right that the story was first written down in China, but I would say a few things to justify using the character/story
-one can readily understand it more as a taoist or buddhist story, and not explicitly a “Chinese story”
-when does appropriation become adoption? Let’s assume the concept of cultural appropriation is even valid (I don’t think so but in a way your point includes that assumption). Hasn’t, like Lady Liberty (from France’s Liberté, or the “common ancestor” of both, Rome’s LIBERTAS), the Monkey King successfully bridged the gap between two (or more) nations?
-I think that, when considering their common origin (Chinese and Japanese that is, and Asians more broadly)cultural overlap ceases to be problematic in any way, though I obviously only speak for myself with that, retarded misdirections of Nationalism seem to be part and parcel with Asia
-Who? (Just kidding [not really, that’s actually my point with this bit])
It's a very Chinese story cause of the element of the heavens in it. It's pretty much Chinese heaven, including the weird inclusion of Buddha
But if anyone doesn't know, wukong goes up to serve the jade emperor which is distinctively a Chinese belief and serve as horse guard. He also steals the empress peaches which again is another Chinese element and iirc the reason for his immortality as the peaches are for the celestial. He also fights er lang shen a Chinese deity
You can talk all you want about cross cultural ideas and relative genetic closeness and such, but I assure you, the Japanese and the Chinese are distinct and do see each other as distinct. To put it in a different analogy, I wouldn’t expect a story set in the Norman invasion of 1066 to star D’artagnan, and if it did—without a huge part of the plot being devoted to why and how—I’d assume someone fucked up.
That’d have been epic.