1. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    Why do some fictional worlds 'censor' themselves?

    Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by naruzeldamaster, May 26, 2021.

    I mean, in regards to games but also to other stuff.
    In Yugi Oh they changed hell to the 'shadow realm' when they could have chosen 'purgatory' which would have fit far better for what it actually represents. Shadow Realm sounds cool, but it lacks the...how can I put it? The 'punch' of something like Hell or Purgatory. (Yami was also the 'king of GAMES' in the japanese version, but that's a whole other discussion entirely)

    And yeah, you can mention ratings and stuff and that Hell might scare younger kids, but I think most kids old enough to watch Yugi Oh were at least familiar with the concept of Hell and why it's bad to go there.

    Another one that comes up often is using Daemon instead of a straight Demon, like come on you even say it the same way. Weirdly games and other media are perfectly fine with using Angel.

    Granted if it's a purely fictional world, I get having words that replace the actual phrase while the location is obviously the same thing in concept. Still, it's confusing sometimes. In Tales of Zestiria they call the monsters you fight Helleons which makes sense in that context, it's a fictional world that doesn't really have a 'hell' dimension.
     
  2. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    I would guess the primary concern was not kids but their parents, at least in the Anglo market. The 80's-90's satanic panics saw parents and teachers attacking pretty much anything that smelled of magic, the occult, etc. It wasn't just D&D and Slayer. I remember having a middle school teacher actually ban The Hobbit from her classroom because she thought it was satanic. Anything cool ran a serious risk of angry phone calls and letters from concerned adults, getting banned from schools, etc. (And people complain about "cancel culture" now, bah!) I believe similar attempts were made against Harry Potter when that started to get big but they seemed to have been significantly weaker, so I guess the thing has lost steam. Nonetheless if you're trying to market material for kids, why cause yourself unnecessary headaches?

    Daemon/demon, that's kind of interesting- yeah it's like, why bother, you're not fooling anyone adding an extra letter there. It might just be an attempt to get away from straightforward Christian mythology. Daemon in Hellenic religion had a very different connotation, more like a tutelary or guardian spirit, similar to the Roman belief in genius (or the Christian guardian angel). Its identification with fallen angels was probably part of the Christian campaign to, erm, demonize the competing deities.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2021
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  3. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    As Le Panda noted above, daemon and demon refer to different types of entities. I also like faerie as opposed to fairy since the latter brings to mind Walt Disney's Tinkerbell and other sweet little creatures with gauzy wings as opposed to the distinctly non-human races that occupy fields, forests, and dark waterways. Purgatory is a Catholic concept; Shadow Realms feels distinctly non-Judeo-Christian. Hell is just a town in Norway. ;)
     
  4. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    Yup on both counts, I think parents cared too much about protecting their precious little angels (I mean when Ocarina of Time was changed, it had the parents complaining rather than the kids. And don't get me started on the OG fire temple theme).

    I never did get the big deal against pokemon though, like I buy the dog fighting comparison (that's essentially what it is, hah) but satanic? Nah. I can understand the misunderstanding of DND, I mean with a title like 'dungeons' and 'dragons' it must be evil right?
    I can understand wanting to avoid negative press and the like. But if you're unsure about your content being suitable for children, simply raise the rating and be done with it. It's why most of my content I rate for Teen if I'm on the fence and M if I'm on the fence about Teen.

    I mean in my project that I'm currently hammering out the kinks for, I have supernatural beings, there's three 'classes' of Fae, Angels, Elves, and Demons. Angels are called as such because they're the closest to the 'gods' (later revealed to be ancient humans with advanced technology), Elves are closer to humans but still clearly supernatural, and Demons are closest to monsters. They're called demons because of how they look to non demons, and not all of them are outright evil. They're closer to the Japanese Yokai monsters than the standard Christian demon. I guess I could call them Yokai instead if I wanted to.

    God forbid Hell's Kitchen came out during satanic panic era, parents would have a field day with that one :p

    Were Daemon's closer to japanese Yokai? I'm honestly on the fence about using either Demon or Yokai for my project, since not all of those 'monster humans' are explicitly evil. (hell, one of them actually winds up being a good guy)
     
  5. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    Daemons are more like guardian angels or spirits of a given place. The Angel of the Bethesda pool in the gospel of John would be a daemon in Greek religion.Their closest East Asian analogue would be the earth and city gods of Chinese religion (I imagine Japan has these too but I don’t know).
     

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