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hopeswriting · 4 years ago

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Canon-compliant PoC!Arcobaleno and where they could be from

So I really want to add diversity in my stories, but if like me whenever you have too much to choose from you just can't choose anything at all, this is the post for you!

Because we got so little on the Arco, we could make them be from anywhere, you know? So I thought I'd look into the little we got on them to give me some ideas.

Note: Inspired by this post.

Note 2: Of course some countries I end up with, like, let's say France, maybe don't instantly make you think of PoC, but friendly reminder PoC exist everywhere.

A good starter in that case is to look into the country's diaspora and/or its immigration, which I didn't add in this post because it's already too long as it is lol, and it's easy to do by yourself.

Note 3: Yes we're going full fake deep, like pretending the Arco's names aren't most likely nicknames/pseudonyms, whatever.

FON |

What we know:

He’s Chinese, and the Mandarin romanization of his name is Fēng.

He’s a master of Kenpō, and knows 107 martial arts.

He has a Chinese dragon tattoo.

He’s related to Hibari, who’s Japanese.

He has a red-faced white monkey as a pet.

(Source), (Source)

What I found:

Fēng is actually a surname?? I did not know that lmao.

It’s found the most in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, the US, and Canada.

It’s a Chinese surname of Fuxi, a cultural hero in Chinese legend and mythology.

Fuxi (and his twin sister turned wife Nüwa) lived on the mythological Kunlun Mountain (today’s Huashan, a mountain located near the city of Huayin in Shaanxi Province.)

Fuxi died at a place called Chen (modern Huaiyang—a district in the prefecture-level city of Zhoukou in the east of Henan province—a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country).

(Source), (Source), (Source)

Chinese martial arts refer to several hundreds fighting styles. These fighting styles are classified according to different common trait, among which their geographical association (Northern and Southern).

Northern styles “feature deeply extended postures—such as the horse, bow, drop, and dragon stances—connected by quick fluid transitions, able to quickly change the direction in which force is issued.”

“In general, the training characteristics of northern styles put more focus on legwork, kicking and acrobatics.”

Southern styles “feature low stable stances and short powerful movements that combine both attack and defense. In practice, Nanquan focus more on the use of the arm and full body techniques than high kicks or acrobatics moves.”

(That said Fon knows 107 martial arts, so it doesn’t matter much lol.)

(Source)

[ID: A map of China, with a highlighted blue line that separates Northern China from Southern China. /END ID]

The divide between Northern and Southern China.

(Source)

[ID: A colored map of China, with each color indicating which languages are spoken across China. /END ID]

Languages spoken across China.

(Source)

[ID: A colored map of China, with the colors indicating the different regions of the country. END ID]

China’s regions.

(Source) (The answer by Akom Seni, because yes this is a Quora answer, bleh, it’s good enough for me lol.)

Though tattoos in mainstream Chinese don’t come with a strong sense of tradition as of today, it still is the case for some Chinese Ethnic Group.

Among them the Dai people, who see (men) tattoos as a sign of strength and virility. They tattoo their men as a rite of passage into adulthood around the age of 14 or 15 years old, most commonly with a ferocious beast such as a dragon or a tiger, in a way to accentuate/draw attention to their muscles.

Though of course, Chinese dragon tattoos in general and in all its variant are very common and worn both by men and women.

(Source), (Source)

The red-faced white monkey (known as the bald uakari), is part of the New World monkey, which are “the five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central and South America”.

The bald uakari specifically “is restricted to wooded habitats near water in the western Amazon of Brazil and Peru”.

(Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

Chinese!Fon, no surprise here.

Half Chinese!Half Japanese!Fon, who more likely would have been born in China than in Japan.

Half Chinese!Half Mexican!Fon.

Half Chinese!Half Central or South American!Fon.

LUCE | ARIA | UNI/YUNI |

What we know:

They’re part alien so from there all bets are off lmao.

Their ancestor is named Sepira, who founded the Giglio Nero famiglia, an Italian mafia.

They’re Donne of the Giglio Nero famiglia.

Giglio Nero means “black lily” in italian.

They’re shaman/miko/seeress (all three of these words are used to describe Luce/them).

Luce has a pet squirrel.

(Source)

What I found:

If you want some consistency with the name Sepira:

Sepira is a name found in Indonesia, India, and Turkey.

The names Luce, Aria, and Uni can also be found in these countries, though Yuni appears only in Indonesia and India.

If they were Indonesian names, Sepi would mean something along the terms of quiet/dull, or lonely, or deserted. I didn’t find anything for Sepira.

Yuni could mean June, a girls’ name given to girls born in June.

Alya (yes written like that) would mean "sky, heaven, loftiness" in Arabic.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

If they were Indian names, Arya (yes written like that) means “Aryan, noble” from an old Indo-Iranian root.

Yuni could mean "Young, youthful, healthy, excellent".

Yuni could also mean "connection, union" or "young woman" in Sanskrit.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

Otherwise:

The name Luce is found of course in Italy, but also France, Canada, the United States, Brazil and various countries of Africa the most.

It’s a pet-form of Lucy and its variants, like Lucia and Lucy. It means “light” in Italian.

(Source), (Source)

The name Aria is found in the United States, Brazil, Spain, Iran, and Russia the most.

It’s a Latin name that means “a solo melody”. It literally means “air” in Italian, but otherwise also means “song, melody”. It’s not actually a common name in Italy either.

It also means 'treasure' or 'gold', 'of high value' in Albanian and "Lioness" in Hebrew.

Aria is also considered a diminutive form of the Greek name Ariana/Arianna, which has the meaning “very holy”.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

The name Uni is found in the United States, Egypt, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea the most.

“People having the name Uni are in general originating from Norway.” It means in this case “a Dane”.

The origin of Uni is English and Latin. It’s a contracted form of the name Uniqua. It’s also a variant form of the English Unity.

It could mean “dream”, or be of Korean origin and mean “sea urchin”, or mean "Short for Universe, meaning area of stars".

Uni could also refer to the ancient goddess of marriage, fertility, family, and women in Etruscan (civilization of ancient Italy) religion and myth, and the patron goddess of Perugia (an Italian capital city).

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

Yuni is found in the United States, Venezuela, DR Congo, Saudi Arabia, and Japan the most.

It’s a girl’s Japanese name.

And that’s all I found about the name lol.

(Source), (Source)

Giglio Nero together isn’t an actual Italian family name (I didn’t find anything on it anyway).

Giglio is of course an Italian surname, but can also be found in the US, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, France, and Australia the most. It means “dweller where lilies grew; dweller on the peak”, or simply “lily”.

Nero is found in Italy too, and in the US, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, and Sweden the most. It’s from the descendant of Neri, and refers to the dark-complexioned or black haired man.

Neri “was supposedly a noble family from Tuscany who were believed to be descendants of Roman Emperor Nero.”

(Source), (Source), (Source)

The range of lilies in the Old World extends across much of Europe, across most of Asia to Japan, south to India, and east to Indochina and the Philippines.

In the New World they extend from southern Canada through much of the United States.

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Lilies portray love, ardor, and affection for your loved ones.

They’re also the flowers most commonly used at funerals, where they symbolically signify that the soul of the deceased has been restored to the state of innocence.

They also have been associated with the Virgin Mary since at least the Medieval Era.

In heraldry, it’s associated primarily with French royalty.

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Orange lilies are widely distributed in much of Europe from Spain to Finland and Ukraine, and grow in mountain meadows and on hillsides.

They stand for happiness, love, and warmth.

In culture, the orange lily has long been recognized as a symbol of the Orange Order (an international Protestant fraternal order) in Northern Ireland.

It also has lodges in England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as throughout the British Commonwealth (a political association of 54 member states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire.) and the United States.

(I always thought their tattoo was an orange lily for some reason lol, so I looked into it.)

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Black calla are native to the Levant and other parts of the Mediterranean Basin, but have pretty much been naturalized everywhere else lol.

They’re perhaps best known for itheir long history in the Middle East as food and for it use in traditional Middle Eastern medicine, for example among Arabs in Palestine.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

Shamanism is a religious practice where the shaman interacts with spirits through various state of consciousness.

Etymologically speaking, it originated from indigenous people in Eastern Siberia.

It’s a system of religious practice often associated with indigenous and tribal societies.

The term quickly devolved to be used as an umbrella term, that refers to unrelated magico-religious practices found in various ethnic religions across the world. (Which might be why we also got the term “Miko” and "Seeress”.)

Note also that the term is subject to critics, namely involving the notion of cultural appropriation.

(Source)

[ID: A map of the world, with the different indigenous people/cultures practicing shamanism written on it. END ID]

Shamanism across the world.

(Source)

In Shinto (a religion originated in Japan), a Miko is a shrine maiden or supplementary priestess once likely seen as a shaman.

They once performed spirits possession, whereby they were the medium through which a god or spirit communicated their message. That communication could also happen during their dreams.

Though working in shrines originally, they started working independently in secular societies.

Besides communicating with the divine, they “performed a variety of religious and political functions".

“The position of a shaman passed from generation to generation, but sometimes someone not directly descended from a shaman went voluntary into training or was appointed by the village chieftains.”

Today Miko “are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily shrine life, trained to perform tasks, ranging from sacred cleansing to performing the sacred Kagura dance.”

(Source)

Seeress in German religion and mythology is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future occurrences.

The term is also tied to divination, a practice widespread across the world and religions, and namely to oracles, who practice a form of divination.

Amano could also have used seeress in place of prophetess, “an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being”.

“Claims of prophethood have [also] existed in many cultures throughout history.”

I didn’t look further into the terms because of how many things it can mean lol, but you can click on my sources if you want to read more on the subject.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

So, I have of course no way to know what species Luce’s squirrel is, but if you look at her colored art works, it could be a red squirrel. So I looked into them.

The Eurasian red squirrel is common throughout Eurasia. “Their range extends from the UK, Ireland, and Western Europe to Russia, Mongolia, and northwest China.”

As of today their numbers decreased in Great Britain, Ireland and Italy because of the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel, but stabilized in Scotland due to conservation efforts.

The American red squirrel is widely distributed across North America, except on the Pacific coast.

It’s also “not found on most of the Great Plains or in the southeastern United States, as conifer trees are not common in those areas."

(Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

I threw a lot of countries around, so have fun with that if you want lol.

If you want to include Sepira, it looks like the Donne would have Indonesian/Indian(/Turkish) roots.

Otherwise Italian! or Japanese! (or both) Donne could pretty much be canon.

Personally I really like the idea of French!Sky Arco or from Western Asia/Mediterranean Basin!Sky Arco.

Indigenous!Sky Arco is also a possibility.

REBORN |

What we know:

He goes by the name Reborn.

He wears a fedora (I know this is utterly random zdsfgh, but it feels to me like a particular enough piece of fashion to try to look into it).

His usual gun is the CZ75 1ST.

He has a pet chameleon.

(Source)

What I found:

Reborn (English) is found in Russia, South Africa, China, Philippines, Nigeria, and Zambia the most.

Renato (Italian) is found in Italy, Portugal, the US, Mexico, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and Philippines the most.

René (French) is found in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Danemark, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and Madagascar the most.

Renatus (Latin) is found in Indonesia, Tanzania, India, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, DR Congo, and Namibia the most.

They’re all derived from the Latin name “Renatus”, which means “born again”.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname, Reborn is only found in Papua New Guinea, and in Uganda.

(Source)

Fedora hats first appeared in France in 1882 as a female hat, and only became a male hat after 1924 thanks to Prince Edward of Britain wearing it.

They were adopted by Orthodox Jews beginning 20th century, who still wear them today as part of their daily wear.

Fedora hats are also often associated with Prohibition and gangsters because of the height of their popularity and many classics noir films who popularized them.

(I equally both love Jewish!Reborn, and Reborn just being one huge fanboy and trying to look more like his mafia idols aefhjku.)

Also fun fact, fedora hats are apparently a very iconic piece of fashion that refuse to go out of style. I’m saying this because there’s sometimes this running gag in fics of mocking Reborn’s fedora, when he’s in fact just being very stylish lol.

(Source)

The CZ 75 is a Czech semi-automatic pistol first introduced in 1975.

It’s used by the Czech Armed Forces and the Czech police forces (and various other countries of course).

It doesn’t appear to be used in Italy.

(Source), (Source)

Chameleons live in warm habitats that range from rain forest to desert conditions, with various species occurring in Africa, Madagascar, southern Europe, and across southern Asia as far as Sri Lanka.

They also have been introduced to Hawaii, California, and Florida, and often are kept as household pets.

Although nearly half of all chameleon species today live in Madagascar, it has recently been shown that chameleons most likely originated in mainland Africa.

(Source)

Also fun fact and totally unrelated, but you know how the KHR Wiki says Reborn’s a member of the Italian bird society? Well, bird societies are an actual thing people can be part of.

What we end up with:

Italian!Reborn, though it’s actually never said in canon lol, but I think we can all agree on this one.

Otherwise French! or British! or Czech! (and in general European!) Reborn sounds really fun.

But personally I love most African!Reborn, like omg, I need to write about him.

VERDE |

What we know:

He goes by the name Verde.

He’s said to be Da Vinci’s reincarnation.

He was/is a member of Geppetto Lorenzini’s secret scientist society.

He has a pet alligator called Cayman.

(Source), (Source)

What I found:

The name Verde is most found in Italy, Turkey, the US, Congo, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon.

Verde is also most commonly a girl’s name, that could refer to Vindis (or Verde) Visconti, an Italian noblewoman, Duchess and Countess consort.

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In Italian etymology, it means green, or pale, or unripe. It can also mean verdure, greenery, or (heraldry) vert (green in french).

In Spanish etymology, it means green, the color, when used with the verb ser, while the verb estar is used with figurative meanings, like inexperienced, naive; or risqué, naughty; or dirty, coarse; or unwell, sick; or green, as in eco-friendly.

In Galician (Spain) and Portuguese etymology, it means green, the color, or green, as in unripe. It’s derived from Cabo Verde, an archipelago and country in Africa, or a municipality of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

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In English etymology, it’s based on the geography of Cape Verde. And according to the 2010 United States Census, Verde is most commonly a surname, most common among Hispanic/Latino and White individuals.

In Esperento (the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language) etymology, it means green, greenly.

In Romanian etymology, it means green, or (slang) marijuana.

In Dutch etymology, it’s an obsolete form of verre (glass in french).

In Corsican (a french island) etymology, it means green, the color, or refers to the mineral smaragdite.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname, Verde is most found in Italy, Spain, Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, the US, Brazil, and Argentina.

It could also be short for Valverde, a Spanish surname.

(Source), (Source)

(I know we all know who Leonardo Da Vinci is lol, but for the sake of this post I’m gonna spell it out anyway.)

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian polymath (an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects), born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in Florence.

He’s considered one of the greatest painters of all time, and revered for his technological ingenuity,

He also became known for his knowledge on various subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology (the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch).

(Source)

Geppetto Lorenzini is a purely fictional character, whose name is inspired from the famous fairy tale The Adventures of Pinocchio‘s character, Mister Geppetto, and Carlo Lorenzini, the Italian author of the novel.

I didn’t found anything on any secret scientist society that could fit, but fun fact, secret societies are banned in Italy and are anti-constitutional.

(Source), (Source)

Cayman's name references caiman, one of the two primary crocodilian alligatorid subfamilies.

Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and northern South America from marshes and swamps to mangrove rivers and lakes.

They are relatively small-sized crocodilians, with the smallest species being the Cuvier's dwarf caiman.

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Cuvier's dwarf caiman is a small crocodilian in the alligator family native to northern and central South America.

It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French, Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela.

It lives in riverine forests, flooded forests near lakes, and near fast-flowing rivers and streams, and is present in the drainages of the Orinoco River, the São Francisco River, and the Amazon River, and the upper reaches of the Paraná River and the Paraguay River.

The range of this species is rather larger than that of the sympatric smooth-fronted caiman, as it extends into Paraguay and includes a larger area of Brazil.

It is sometimes kept in captivity as a pet and may be referred to as the wedge-head caiman by the pet trade.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up wih:

Italian!Verde, which is funny because for all Reborn is fanonically made to be Mister Italian Man, Amano seems to have had Verde in mind for that purpose lol.

Spanish!, Portuguese!, or otherwise European!Verde.

Mexcian! or South American!Verde.

African!Verde could also be a possibility.

LAL MIRCH |

What we know:

She goes by the name Lal Mirch (लाल मिर्च), which is the Hindi name for chili pepper, or Capsicum annuum.

She’s a former member of COMSUBIN.

(And I think that’s it?? Damn.)

(Source)

What I found:

Lal Mirch is the Hindi name for red chilli pepper, used to spice meals and give them a red color; and very common in Indian cuisine. It’s possibly also written as Laal Mirch.

Chilli peppers originated in Mexico. They were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.

After the Columbian Exchange they spread across the world, and are used for both food and traditional medicine. This resulted into variety of varieties and cultivars, and those grown in North America and Europe are believed to all derive from Capsicum annuum, and have white, yellow, red or purple to black fruits.

Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus Capsicum native to southern North America and northern South America.

Hot peppers are used in traditional medicine as well as food in Africa.

They’re also used in Ayurveda, an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

The name Lal is most commonly a boys’ name, and found the most in Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran; as well as in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, England, Canada, and the US.

It’s an Indo-Iranian surname and given name, which means 'darling', 'precious', or 'beloved', from the Sanskrit lala ('cajoling').

It also means 'garnet' or 'ruby' in Persian, 'ruby' in Pashto, and 'red' in Hindustani and Bengali.

Lal can also mean "boy" in Hindi, derived from Sanskrit लल (lala) meaning "playing, caressing".

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As a surname it’s related to the honorific title Lal, and is found among various social groups and castes. The surname is also common in the Indian diaspora.

Also as a surname, Lal is a term of endearment for a child in several modern Indian languages, and is also an epithet of the god Krishna.

It occurs more commonly as the final element of a compound personal name, as in Brajlal (Braj being the name of the place where the god Krishna is supposed to have lived as a child) and Motilal (Hindi moti ‘pearl’).

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

Mirch is a surname most found in the US, in Pakistan, in Ireland, in Russia, in Iran, in Argentina, and in India.

(Source)

COMSUBIN is the Italian Navy’s Special Forces.

To enroll in the Italian Armed Forces, you must be at least 18, and be an Italian citizen.

Though fun fact, female volunteers was only made possible by a 1999 law, and the Italian Navy’s site says that “ in the Italian Navy, due to logistic conditions, female personnel are not employed on board submarines and in Special Forces. The existing ships and shore facilities have undergone major refits to accommodate women.”

(Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

Italian!Lal, at least nationality-wise.

Middle Eastern! or South Asian!Lal, namely Indian!Lal.

American! or African! Lal is also a possibility.

Russian!Lal sounds fun too.

COLONNELLO |

What we know:

He goes by the name Colonnello, which is italian for “colonel”.

He was part of COMSUBIN.

He has a pet hawk.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Colonnello is found only in Italy and the US.

It might come from the American forename Colonel, given to children as an attempt by parents to give their child a higher status.

Colonel is also an American surname (from occupation), from a French word for a military rank of an officer who led a column of regimental soldiers.

It could also be a nickname for someone with a military bearing or demeanor.

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As a surname Colonnello is found the most in Italy, the US, Argentina, France, South Africa, Canada, and in Venezuela.

Colonel is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. Modern usage varies greatly, and in some cases, the term is used as an honorific title that may have no direct relationship to military service.

Though it was presumably first used by Italian city states, the first use of colonel as a rank in a national army was in the French National Legions (Légions nationales).

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

COMSUBIN is the Italian Navy’s Special Forces.

To enroll in the Italian Armed Forces, you must be at least 18, and be an Italian citizen.

(Source), (Source)

Hawks are a group of medium-sized diurnal birds of prey. They’re widely distributed and vary greatly in size.

Hawks usually like to live in places like deserts and fields, likely as it is easier to find prey. As they are able to live anywhere, they can be found in mountainous plains and tropical, moist areas.

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Symbolically speaking, hawks represents knowledge and wisdom thanks to the preservation skills they’ve developed.

In Europe and thanks to Germanic traditions and symbolism, hawks are associated with war. It surrounds the image of the hawk, as a sign of strength and courage.

Thanks to their acute vision and how fast they move, a hawk is also a metaphor of being a visionary, and of seeing things that other people can’t see.

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As I understand it, depending on the species and countries, birds of prey, including hawks, aren’t always legal to have as a pet. (But I unfortunately couldn’t find a convenient list of this.)

In the US for example, you can’t have any native North American bird (including hawk) as a pet, or even have a single feather unless you are a Native American, as they’re covered by federal law, with the only exceptions being licensed falconers.

Also apparently hawks are one hell of a pet to have, that are extremely demanding and inconvenient lol.

(Source), (Source), (Source) (The answer by Mercedes R. Lackey, who explains how hard it is to have a pet hawk if you’re interested.)

Not listed in the “What we know” section, but according to TV Tropes Colonnello’s appearance might be a case of the Phenotype Stereotype trope.

It’s when an individual is made to display all the stereotypical features of their ethnicity as a shortcut to show where they’re from.

“In Japan, the stereotype of someone from the U.S. is usually a blond and blue-eyed person. Because of this, if foreign characters in anime are white, in most cases they will be blond, blue-eyed and tall Americans unless there's a plot reason for them to be from another country or have another look.”

(The trope’s page explains it in more details if you’re curious about it.)

(Source)

What we end up with:

Italian!Colonnello, at least nationality-wise.

(Native?) American!Colonnello seems very likely too.

And for some reason French!Colonnello sounds very fun to me too lol.

SKULL |

What we know:

He goes by the name Skull.

(Whelp, that’s it azsdfgh.)

(Source)

What I found:

The name Skull is found the most in Russia, the US, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, and in Australia.

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As a surname Skull is found the most in England, the US, Canada, Australia, India, Italy, Cambodia, South Africa, and in Brazil.

It’s derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Scowle'. It can also fetch its name from Old Norse skule, signifying a protector.

Skull can also derive from the Middle English "sc(h)ulle", skull, a term thought to be of Scandinavian origin, and used here as a nickname for someone who was thought to have a cadaverous appearance, or for a bald-headed man.

It can also be spelled Scull, Scule, Skule, etc.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

Not listed in the “What we know’” section, but just for the fun of it I thought I might as well look into skull symbolism.

The most common symbolic use of the skull is as a representation of death, mortality and the unachievable nature of immortality.

As in most depiction of Death a skeleton is used, skulls also symbolize divine wisdom and general intelligence.

This comes from the fact a lot of cultures across the world consider Death as a deity with the ability to know one’s death, and imply that they are knowledgeable about one’s passing from life to death and what that is like.

Skulls also have the dual symbolism of warning and protection, for example when they decorate the palisade of a city and such.

In the spiritual realm, a skull can help you keep away from things that can cause you peril.

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Skulls’ symbolism as a celebration of life is known mostly as part of Mexican culture, where the living celebrates those who lived before them on the Day of the Dead or Día de Los Muertos.

In India, skulls played a particularly important role in religious depictions, and often adorn ancient gods and goddess. To the Hindu, this is a natural progression of life; life and death are to be embraced – not resisted.

In Buddhism, skulls are generally depicted as a necklace around a deity. They represent emptiness, the concept that what we experience has no inherent nature by itself, and instead we give meaning to them ourselves.

In Celtic traditions, they viewed the head or skull to be the seat of power. Some texts point to the skull as the house of the soul.

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When tattooed on the forearm its apotropaic (a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye) power can for example help an outlaw biker cheat death.

On a pirate’s ship’s flag, it symbolizes the pirates' ruthlessness and despair. Their usage of death imagery might also be paralleled with their occupation challenging the natural order of things.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

Russian!Skull, which I know is popular in fanon.

Otherwise English! or Scandinavian!Skull.

Though American! or African!Skull seem to also be a possibility.

VIPER/MAMMON |

What we know:

They go by the name Viper, then Mammon.

They have a pet frog/snake, who takes the form of an ouroboros.

(Source), (Source)

What I found:

The name Viper is most found in Russia, DR Congo, the US, Kazakhstan, India, and in Philippines.

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As a surname Viper is most found in Egypt, Russia, India, the US, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sweden, and in Belarus.

It may be a corruption of Vibert, the Wibert of the Yorkshire Domesday, and the Anglo-Saxon name Uibert.

Its usage is Arabic (Egyptian).

It could be of English origin, and means "Gift of god".

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Vipers are a subfamily of vipers endemic to Europe, Asia and Africa, but not in Madagascar. Like all vipers, they are venomous.

In French language, it can also mean “a dangerous, treacherous, or malignant person”.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

The name Mammon is found the most in Saudi Arabia, India, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and in Russia.

It means riches, and could be the name of a Syrian god, or wealth (as trusted in).

In its Biblical, Judeo-Christian Legend, it also means "wealth, riches". In the New Testament, this was material wealth or greed, which was often personified as a deity.

------

As a surname Mammon is found the most in the US, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, England, Belgium, Estonia, and in Pakistan the most.

In the New Testament of the Bible, it’s commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or any entity that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain.

During the Middle Ages, Mammon was commonly personified as the demon of wealth and greed.

------

Mammon in Hebrew (ממון) means "money". The word was adopted to modern Hebrew to mean wealth.

"Mamona" (sometimes "Mamuna") is a synonym for mammon among Slavs.

The word "mammona" is quite often used in the Finnish and Estonian languages as a synonym of material wealth.

In German, the word "Mammon" is a colloquial and contemptuous term for "money".

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.

It was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism (collection of religious ideas and systems among Jewish and early Christian sects), Hermeticism (a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus), and most notably in alchemy (an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition).

It’s often interpreted as a symbol for eternal cyclic renewal or a cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

In ancient Egypt, it represents the beginning and the end of time, and the cyclical nature of the year.

In Gnosticism, a serpent biting its tail symbolized eternity and the soul of the world, and it may perhaps represent a Gnostic duality of existence.

(Source)

So obviously there isn’t a real life animal that is both frog and snake lol, but the fact the snake takes the form of an ouroboros might refer to the armadillo lizard otherwise known as an Ouroborus cataphractus.

It takes this other name from its defensive posture: curling into a ball and holding its own tail in its mouth.

It’s a species of lizard, endemic to desert areas along the western coast of South Africa, namely to the Succulent Karoo biome in the Northern and the Western Cape provinces, where it occurs from the southern Richtersveld to the Piketberg Mountains and the southern Tankwa Karoo.

(Source)

What we end up with:

African!, namely Egyptian! or South African!Viper seem likely.

Otherwise Middle Eastern! or Asian!Viper.

I really like French!Viper too, for that french meaning of viper even if it’s not really their personality lol.

BONUS: THE VINDICE

BERMUDA VON VECKENSCHTEIN |

What we know:

His name’s Bermuda von Veckenschtein.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Bermuda is found in the US, Philippines, and in England the most.

In its English usage, it might come from the surname Bermudez, from the name of Juan de Bermudez, the Spanish explorer who discovered the islands in 1515.

Bermudez is a Spanish surname (from a given name), and means son of Bermudo.

It’s also a German and Latin name.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

Bermuda’s surname seems entirely made up as I found nothing on it, but it led me to the surname Beckenstein.

It’s found only in the US, Canada, Egypt, and South Africa.

(Source)

What we end up with:

German!Bermuda, which is the most popular in fanon I think.

But Spanish!Bermuda seems to also be a possibility.

American! or African!Bermuda could also work.

JAEGER |

What we know:

His name’s Jaeger.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Jaeger is found the most in the US, Iraq, Philippines, England, Belgium, Australia, and Brazil.

In its English usage, it’s an anglicized spelling of the German surname Jäger, itself from the Middle High German jeger(e) meaning "hunter".

As a surname Jaeger is found the most in the US, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, and in Australia.

It means hunter in German, one who hunted for game, a huntsman.

As a Jewish surname, it is mainly ornamental, derived from German Jäger.

The surname is also established in Scandinavia (Swedish Jäger; Danish and Norwegian Jæger) and has been Latinized as Venator.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

German!Jaeger.

American! French! or British!Jaeger could work too.

Brazilian!Jaeger too maybe?

JACK |

What we know:

His name’s Jack.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Jack is found the most in the US, Canada, England, Central African Republic, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Netherlands, China, Papua New Guinea, and in Australia.

It’s a male name, and the commonest pet-name for John, though it is sometimes bestowed independently.

In its English usage, it’s a medieval diminutive of John, and could have some early influence from the unrelated French name Jacques. During the Middle Ages it became a slang word meaning "man", and It was frequently used in fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

It can also be used as a diminutive for: Jacob, Jason, Jonathan, Jan, Johann, Johannes, Joachim, from its French form Jacques, from the Latin Jacobus.

There is also a theory that it is Celtic in origin, meaning "healthy, strong, full of vital energy" (compare the Welsh word iach, "health"), from a putative Ancient British Yakkios.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname Jack is found the most in the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Nigeria, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, and in Australia.

It’s derived from the name of an ancestor, 'the son of John'.

Now considered a variant of John, but more correctly of James, from French Jacques, pronounced 'zhak’.

In Scottish, it means descendant of Jack, a pet form of John (gracious gift of Jehovah).

Also in Scottish, it means a corruption of John, which signifies God's grace.

In its English and Scottish usage, it’s from the given name Jack.

In French, it’s from the ancient and noble French family names, "Jacq", "Jacques", or "James", which are believed to originate from the Middle Ages.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

British!Jack, namely Scottish!Jash.

Otherwise French! or African!Jack.

ALEJANDRO |

What we know:

His name’s Alejandro.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Alejandro is found the most in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Spain, and in Philippines.

It means “defending men”.

In its Spanish usage, it’s the Spanish form of Alexander.

In Australian, it could mean "love ,trust, faithfulness and goodlooking".

(Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname Alejandro is found the most in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and in Philippines.

It means defender of men in Greek, and is of Italian origin before coming to Spain.

In its Spanish usage, it’s from the personal name Alejandro, the Spanish form of Alexander.

(Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

American! or South American!Alejandro.

Spanish!Alejandro.

(SMALL) GIA |

What we know:

He goes by the name (Small) Gia.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Gia is found the most in the US, Ecuador, Georgia, China, Vietnam, Philippines, and in Indonesia.

It can be an Italian feminine name, and be the diminutive of Gianna.

It’s a most likely English female name, used as short for the Italian name Gianna (English Jane), Giada (English Jade) or Georgia.

(Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname Gia is found the most in the US, Ecuador, Nigeria, DR Congo, Italy, Iran, India, Philippines, Indonesia and in Papua New Guinea.

(Source)

In Italian and American, Gia means “God is gracious”.

In Hebrew, it means “God is merciful”.

In Hindu, it means “heart, love”.

In Vietnamese, it means “family”.

(Source)

What we end up with:

Italian!Gia, even if it’s meant to be a feminine name.

South Asian!Gia.

(BIG) PINO |

What we know:

He goes by the name (Big) Pino.

(Source)

What I found:

The name Pino is found the most in Mexico, the US, Canada, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, Belgium, India, and in Australia.

It’s a masculine Italian name, and is the short form of names ending in pino.

As an Italian name, Pino is also a nickname for Giuseppe, itself the Italian form of the given name Joseph.

It’s a feminine Spanish name that means “pine”, is taken from the Spanish title of the Virgin Mary Nuestra Virgen del Pino, who appeared among some pine trees.

(Source), (Source), (Source), (Source)

As a surname Pino is found the most in the US, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Italy, and in Philippines.

It means “dweller near a pine tree”.

It’s an ancient surname found in Santander and in Catalonia, and also a name of several villages near Mondonedo, Oviedo, Coria, Lugo, Burgos, Zamora, Palencia, and Salamanca.

It’s a Riojano name.

It derived from latin "pineta" - the common pine tree/comes from the latin "pinus" meaning pine tree.

Pino comes from the Spanish word for 'pine'.

------

In Galician and Spanish, it’s a habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Pino, from pino ‘pine’, or topographic name for somebody who lived by a remarkable pine tree.

In Italian, it’s a habitational name from Pino d’Asti in Asti province, Pino Torinese in Torino, or Pino Solitario in Taranto, all named with pino ‘pine’

Also in Italian, it’s from the personal name Pino, a short form Giuseppino (from Giuseppe), Filippino (from Filippo), Jacopino (from Jacopo), or some other pet name formed with this suffix.

(Source), (Source)

What we end up with:

Italian! or Spanish!Pino.

South American!Pino

Mabe South Asian!Pino too.

Bonus:

Unrelated, but you know how the Vindice wear top hats? Well, it of course didn’t help at all here lol, but in terms of narrowing down the timeline, apparently the top hat emerged in Western fashion by the end of 18th century,

And although it declined by the time of the counterculture of the 1960s, it remains a formal fashion accessory.

(Source)

Holy shit I finished it. I love you so much if you made it until here omg azsfdghj, thank you so much for reading!!

I had this in my drafts since 5 months ago, but also I procrastinated over it a lot lmao, so it’s not really surprising.

Anyway if you guys have names but no countries (or cities, because you can narrow it down to cities too), I really can’t recommend the site forebears enough.

It’s literally so useful, and comes in other languages than English, and gives you the meaning of the names if they have it!

Also you’re more than welcome to add to this post, and if I spread misinformation and/or was insensitive/offensive at any point, please let me know about it.

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teffiiiiii · 3 years ago

Photo

In January 2018, Gray's participation in the 2018 'Binibining Pilipinas' national pageant was officially confirmed. The costume round in the competition required her to wear a princess’s attire native to the Mindanao region. She bagged the award in the category. Catriona Elisa Magnayon Gray’s Biography

𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

Catriona Gray is a Filipina model, singer, and philanthropist who was born in Australia. She is the fourth Filipina to be named 'Miss Universe,' having earned the title in 2018. Gray grew up in Australia, where she won her first beauty contest at the age of five. Minor modeling assignments followed. Gray was already on her path to become a supermodel by the time she graduated high school. After relocating to the Philippines, she began her profession. She appeared in various television ads and finally grew in popularity in the fashion world. When her modeling opportunities dried up, she shifted her focus to charities.

This is a biography of Catriona Elisa Magnayon Gray. She was born on the 6th of January 1994 in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Gray was named after her paternal grandmother, Catherine Gray (née Ross), a Scottish immigrant to Western Australia in 1952, and her maternal grandmother, Elsa Magnayon (née Ragas) from Oas, Albay, Philippines. Her mother, Normita Ragas Magnayon a Filipina, and his father Ian Gray, is of Scottish descent from Australia.

𝕮𝖍𝖎𝖑𝖉𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖉

Gray attended Trinity Anglican School in Cairns, where she served as a house captain and sang in the school choir. Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts awarded her a graduate certificate in classical music.

Catriona was the main singer of her high school's jazz band and had also appeared in a local theater rendition of 'Miss Saigon.'

Gray, at five years old, was crowned 'Little Miss Philippines' in Sydney in 1999. After graduating from high school, she began her modeling career. Gray participated in a few small-scale modeling jobs in Australia.

Gray's family relocated from Cairns to the Philippines when she finished high school. She went on to work as a commercial model in Manila.

She has a master's degree in music theory from the Boston-based 'Berklee College of Music.' Gray also has an outdoor recreation diploma and a black belt in Choi Kwang-Do (martial arts). She studied martial arts from the age of eight to twelve.

𝕮𝖆𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖗

She was 18 when she moved to the Philippines, using her savings.

She received offers for TV productions, commercials, and runway modeling in the Philippines. Gray rose to prominence in the advertising sector after a few years. Her most well-known advertisement was for 'Pantene #WhipIt,' which was praised for its social message against gender norms.

Gray has worked as a runway and fashion model, walking in a number of fashion events and associated shows. Unfortunately, the modeling opportunities began to dwindle later on. Gray then shifted his focus to charitable activities.

In Tondo, Manila, she began working with a few non-profit groups. Valerie Weigmann, 'Miss World Philippines 2014,' advised that she compete in beauty pageants to raise funds for her philanthropic endeavors.

She took the advice and went on to win the 'Miss World Philippines' pageant on October 2, 2016. She also took home a number of other awards in the competition, including "Best in Swimsuit," "Best in Evening Gown," "Best in Fashion Runway," and "Best in Talent."

Gray was also awarded 'Miss FIG Image Gateway,' 'Miss Folded and Hung,' 'Miss Hannah Beach Resort,' 'Miss Figlia,' 'Miss Manila Hotel,' and 'Miss Organique.'

She then competed in 'Miss World 2016' in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and finished in the top five. She also received a slew of sub-category accolades, including the 'Multimedia Award' and the 'Talent Award' (second place), and was named one of the top five in the 'Beauty with a Purpose' project.

𝕸𝖎𝖘𝖘 𝖀𝖓𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖊

On March 18, 2018, Rachel Peters, Miss Universe Philippines 2017, handed up the crown to Gray. Gray won many sub-category honors in the pageant, including "Best in Evening Gown," "Best in Swimsuit," the 'Miss Jag Denim Queen Award' (endorsement), and the 'Miss Ever Bilena Cosmetics Award' (endorsement).

She has collaborated with the organization 'Love Yourself PH,' which conducts HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and educates people about the disease in order to eliminate the stigma associated with it.

Gray enjoys drawing and painting in addition to singing. She frequently posts her drawings on her 'Instagram' site, which has over 2 million followers. She has also auctioned off some of her paintings to benefit local charity and the 'Paraiso Project.'

Gray is currently in a relationship to Filipino–American actor Sam Milby.

On May 23, 2020, their relationship was made public via a social media post.

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coreeda-coreeda · 3 years ago

Text

You can break our bones and kill us

Bring us to our knees

Take away our children

Against a mother's pleas

But you stop the Dreaming never

The Dreamtime is eternal, forever

What is Coreeda?

As much as it is a fun sporting activity, Coreeda also sends out a spiritual message that as you read this I hope you are receptive to. The human heritage of Australia is ancient and it is often said we have the oldest continuous living cultures on the planet. This is as true for our martial arts as it is for our song and dance forms or even our storylines and folklore, therefore describing customs as 30, 40 or even 50,000 years old is a valid scientific claim. At the Coreeda Association we believe we are reviving a sporting tradition with an antiquity that stretches back to the beginning of a human presence on the Australian continent but also we are actively building links with indigenous cultures from across the world through the universal activity of traditional wrestling. If you are proud to call yourself an Australian and can accept that as a people our heritage extends back further than 1788 then we invite you to join us in this journey. Together we can change perceptions and break down the barriers that presently divide us. As the Buddhist saying goes, "if you want to know your past, look into your present conditions, if you want to know your future, look into your present actions" and the best way to understand the current status of Australian wrestling is to know its history. You can do this by reading the first ever book written about the Australian wrestling tradition "From the Dreaming to the Dreamers" which covers the history of the sporting genre from the most ancient times to the present day. With chapters dedicated to the pre-colonial and colonial periods, as well as the history of Professional Wrestling, Olympic Wrestling, Judo and the wide array of traditional wrestling styles that have been played in Australia, it is available online at Sid Harta Publishers;

http://sidharta.com/books/index.jsp;jsessionsid=4661FE2FEE062C33175E26F44DE8442?uid=66

Or if you contact us directly at this site an autographed copy can posted to you for the low price of $30 plus P & H but please hurry because it is a limited edition and stocks are now low.Coreeda is an exciting sporting development that is bringing awareness of the traditional martial arts of Australia. Initially we are doing this through a sport that combines Aboriginal dance with a unique wrestling game, similar to the sports that were played in pre-colonial times. Eventually we will be introducing weapons use into the curriculum under the guidance of experienced traditional practitioners but for now we are focusing only on unarmed combat training. We consider coreeda to be the traditional form of wrestling of Australia, much as sumo functions in Japan, schwingen in Switzerland, ssireum in Korea, glima in Iceland, bukh in Mongolia or any of the traditional cultural combat sports from around the world and we are wanting to grow the sport around the whole continent of Australia. The Coreeda Association also intends to act as a pivot to encourage the people involved in the multiple styles of grappling combat sports in Australia to work together for mutual support and become a kind of "Community of Wrestlers" in which a greater degree of communication can be achieved between the organising associations, federations and unions. Coreeda as a sporting activity is divided into two equally important components, coreeda dance and coreeda combat. The dance component, which is mostly based on traditional kangaroo dance steps, is the intitial warm up ritual and gives competitors an opportunity to display their abilities in strength, speed and agility. Divided into three one minute segments the idea is that the competitors can only touch the ground with their hands & feet and must stay within the boundary of a 4.5m diameter yellow 'sun' circle. The first segment continues unless one of the competitors falls, crosses the line of the circle or they cease maintaining continuous motion. The second segment allows competitors to try and trip, sweep or bump into their opponent again while maintaining a continuous one minute motion and has been likened in appearence to the Brazilian combat dance of capoeira. The third segment is more like a sumo match in which competitors try to push each other outside the circle or make the other touch the ground with any part of their body other than their hands or feet. The dance is important for detirmining which position the competitors will take in the combat component. Coreeda combat is divided into four rounds or quarters, each lasting a maximum of two minutes. The winner of the dance component can choose which position they will start with, inside the circle, known as the defender, or outside the circle, known as the attacker. The role of the attacker is to try and force the defender outside the boundary of the sun circle by means of pushing, throwing or rolling them, all within a time limit of twenty seconds. Naturally the role of the defender is to restrain the attacker within the sun circle for longer than the twenty second time count. Such a victory, known as a decider, ends the quarter but a point score is collected during competition which is accumulated for the two minutes in case no decider is scored. Competitors swap positions each quarter and the point score is maintained until the end of the match. One other thing that differentiates coreeda from most other styles of wrestling is that it is a team sport and competitors add to the total team score with the points they have achieved in their match ups. Teams are made of six competitors representing each of the weight divisions, which are named after a species of macropod; pademelons <60kg, potoroos <70kg, wallabies <80kg, greys <90kg, reds <100kg and boomers in the open weight division. Teams are further divided into two moeties, black and red, which are the colours on the Aboriginal flag and the uniforms signify this. Coreeda is a fast and effective combat sport that not only builds reflexes to prepare the body for potential conflict but is also great fun to play. In April 2012 the SBS TV Aboriginal Affairs Program "Living Black" produced a story about Coreeda that gives a good indication of the activity, which you can watch via this link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjuZ-DLDnPI

This Vimeo production by Michael Copp also gives a good basis for coreeda and you can watch it via this link;

http://vimeo.com/18814133

Some of the boys that attended a Coreeda Seminar in 2012 put this video together and I think it captures the spirit of the sport well;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nMjKh66xCM

Also a great friend of the Coreeda Association, the photographer and ethnographer Christopher Samuels put together this wonderful presentation in 2013; christophersamuel.com.au/the-way-coreeda-australia/

In January 2014 we travelled to Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria to introduce the sport to the kids up there and a film crew from NITV follow us for this story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejOOj4bOqJ0

In March 2014 the International TV Sports Journal Trans World Sport did this story on us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXquEqXu1LM

In September 2014 a man on an international martial arts quest Sascha Wagener included us in his documentary series, No Journeys End

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oInhDv2LC1k

Are you interested?

To find out more about coreeda explore this website, learn about the genuine history of Australian martial arts, discover where you can watch performances or even enrol in a class. For any Australian who is interested in reconnecting with their own cultural identity, an identity that extends back before British colonisation, coreeda is the perfect way of doing this. At the same time you get fit, learn to defend yourself and make new friends in an absolute win win situation.

#archive #coreeda #australian martial arts #martial arts #wrestling #aborigional australia

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eaglema · 4 years ago

Text

Eagle Martial Arts

Address:

6/35 Dunlop Road,

Mulgrave, Victoria, 3170 Australia

Phone:

03 9802 2772

Business Email:

[email protected]

Website:

https://eaglema.com.au

Keywords:

Martial Arts, Self Defence, Self Defense, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, BJJ, Hapkido, Korean Martial Arts, GHA, Global Hapkido Association, Kids Martial Arts, Karate, Jiu Jistu, Wrestling, Kids Self Defence, Women's Self Defence

Description:

At Eagle Martial Arts (EMA) we believe that martial arts is more than just punching and kicking. Any student that trains at EMA learns awareness and defensive skills to cover a large range of situations. But just as importantly, we believe in helping the student to reach their full potential in fitness, confidence, and a positive outlook. EMA Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, focusses on self defence based BJJ but also includes training for BJJ competitions. EMA Hapkido was developed to address some of the gaps between traditional martial arts and modern self-defence scenarios. Based on, and still encompassing all values and techniques of traditional Korean Hapkido, EMA Hapkido has been expanded with aspects from BJJ, Kickboxing and more.

Hours:

MON: 5PM - 9PM

WED: 7PM - 9PM

THURS: 5PM - 9PM

SAT: 9AM - 2:30PM

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atarahderek · 5 years ago

Photo

The Gaang - Africa and Europe

For some reason, DeviantArt is really not working on my desktop, so I’ll just be uploading here for a while.

Anyway, Someone else’s fan art inspired me to experiment with a reinterpretation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. What if the creators had drawn the bulk of their inspiration from Africa/Austronesia or from Europe? This is the start of what I came up with (I also have Suki in the works and may include the Order of the White Lotus at a later time).

I kept the characters’ associated colors and identifying features as much as I could, for familiarity’s sake.

Aang

The inspiration for African Aang is drawn from the Malagasy people–specifically from the Merina and Betsileo peoples of the highlands of Madagascar. His outfit is inspired by a folk band that represented the closest thing I could find to 19th century Malagasy semi-formal dress. The Malagasies originated in Austronesia, sharing a genetic and linguistic ancestry with the peoples of Indonesia, Australia and Melanesia. Since the Austronesian peoples were historically nomadic to varying degrees (island hopping, after all), I thought it would be appropriate to make Aang Malagasy. Madagascar is also strongly influenced by bloodlines from both India and mainland Africa. Actually, they have a disproportionate number of beautiful people, imo, with some of the most contagious smiles in the world.

Somewhat similar is the European version of Aang, whom I have made Romani. The Roma are originally descended from people groups of northern India, and are traditionally nomadic. Their connection to India–the Himalayan region in particular–and nomadic roots made the Roma the perfect inspiration for a European version of Aang. Like the Air Nomads, the Roma were subject to genocides that attempted to eradicate them. Today, they are still one of the most discriminated against ethnic groups in Europe. They also suffer subtle but notable discrimination in the US.

Sokka and Katara

I drew my inspiration for these two from Melanesia–especially the Solomon Islands–and Australia. Because Sokka couldn’t be without his boomerang. Melanesia is tucked right up in between Micronesia, Indonesia and Polynesia. The Pacific Islands in general were influential on the worldbuilding for the Water Tribes, so Melanesia was a natural choice for recreating waterbenders in this re-imagining. Sokka does not always wear Aboriginal body paint. I just wanted to show what it looks like when he does put it on.

European Sokka and Katara are inspired by the Sami people of northern Scandinavia and Russia–the same people who inspired both Kristoff and the Northuldra people of the Frozen franchise. There is some Norse influence as well, particularly in Sokka’s choice of weapons. If I draw Pakku at a later date, he will be more heavily influenced by Norse culture. Of this set, I am least satisfied with Sami Katara. Her eye got screwed up in the inking process, so I attempted to fix it in Photoshop, with mixed results. It still bugs me.

Toph

For Toph and Zuko’s African designs, I drew inspiration from some of the wealthiest areas in Africa in the 19th century. For Toph I chose Ethiopia, which by that point was very heavily influenced by both Middle Eastern and European fashion. Toph’s travel and fighting outfit therefore didn’t go through an extensive redesign.

European Toph comes from a traditional Austrian-style family. She probably borrowed the dress from a servant’s daughter, and keeps it hitched up for freedom of movement. Out of all these characters, I think Austrian Toph looks the most anime. More anime, ironically, than she does when I draw her in her original Asian design.

Zuko

For African Zuko, I chose Mali to inspire his redesign. Mali was once the most powerful empire in sub-Saharan Africa, and was an extremely valuable trade partner for Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. In the 19th century, military attire was influenced partially by Arab fashion and partly by standard African fashion of that region. I chose to draw Book 1 Zuko and Book 3 Zuko to get the broadest representation I could without drawing him half a dozen times–which I could easily do, as he goes through the most physical changes in the series. Tried to make the phoenix plume work; I couldn’t.

European Zuko had to be British. The British empire was at its height during the Victorian era. I referenced historical European martial arts (HEMA) for Zuko’s weapons. HEMA does not use dual swords. Instead, dual wielding is done with a rapier and a knife or dagger.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Gaang #Aang #Zuko #Sokka #Katara #Toph #redesign #re-imagined #Africa #Europe

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samuraikarate · 1 year ago

Text

Karate Clubs Near Me for Children

Karate Clubs Near Me for Children As a part of Samurai Karate for kids, teens, and adults based in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Tasmania, you will experience a traditional Japanese karate style known as Karate Shukokai. Additionally, we are an international organization and pride ourselves as the premier karate school in Australia, with karate clubs spanning across Japan, England, Germany, and New Zealand. Through our comprehensive development system, you will acquire essential life skills for success.

At the foundational level, karate is instrumental in building confidence, self-esteem, concentration, self-discipline, self-defense, weapons training, and more, all within a fun, challenging, and rewarding environment. We also offer Personal Training in Karate & Martial Arts, based in Melbourne.

Samurai Karate International was established in 1980. Our association is closely affiliated with Japan, boasting a lineage dating back to the inception of Japanese Karate through the teachings of Sensei’s Kawata, Tani, and Mabuni. With Samurai Karate, you will immerse yourself in the traditional Japanese karate style known as Shukokai – a dynamic, explosive, and potent martial art suitable for men, women, and children of all ages. Our mission revolves around transforming lives by helping individuals conquer challenges and obstacles, achieved through lasting development of confidence, self-discipline, and self-defense abilities, all within a fun and dynamic environment.

Karate Clubs Near Me for Children are enjoy lesson popularity for various reasons, encompassing socialization, sport, fitness, and hobbies. While these lessons provide enjoyment and excellent fitness opportunities, it is crucial to select a self-defense class that aligns with your requirements and goals. If your primary objective involves learning how to protect yourself in severe physical assaults, certain Martial Arts in Australia might prove more suitable than others. While disciplines like kickboxing can aid in repelling attackers, they should provide a comprehensive education in personal safety.

The various techniques and activities involved naturally lead to a healthier body composition. Through learning to appreciate their bodies from an early age, children readily embrace nutritious eating habits and regular exercise, fostering a lifelong commitment to well-being .For more information visit https://samuraikarate.com/benefit-of-practicing-martial-arts/

0 notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

Inside the Mortal Kombat Movie’s Bloody Love Letter to Martial Arts

https://ift.tt/3sPd50L

About 10 hours into a November 2019 flight to Australia and the set of Warner Bros. Mortal Kombat reboot, I started to ask myself whether this was all worth it. I loved the original Mortal Kombat movie about as much as anyone unironically can, but the fact remains that the history of live-action video game film adaptations is paved with disappointment. Even the best movies in that field have earned their reputation largely by exceeding low expectations.

After nearly 30 years of failed attempts, it’s hard to even picture what a good live-action video game movie might look like. What is it about the transition from sprites to screen that makes this process so difficult? Is this a pursuit that is, in some ways, doomed to be dictated by those who see such films as another piece of merchandise? What will it take to finally break the curse? Those questions raced through my jetlagged brain as I finally made it to Adelaide and prepared to see what awaited me on the other side of the world.

Shortly into my visit, I was taken off my feet by a line that hit me like an MK player mercilessly spamming a leg sweep. It came in the form of this line from producer Todd Garner that reshaped my expectations and set the tone for what proved to be something that was very much worth the trip and perhaps worthy of your own wait:

“I think it’s great that there are a lot of characters, a lot of lore, and let’s do it all well. But really, people want to fuck each other up.”

Gore and Lore

Garner was, of course, mostly joking. Yet, there is a truth in many jokes, and the truth in this one seemed to be that managing what the Mortal Kombat canon has become can be a daunting task. It’s certainly not made any easier by the fact that there haven’t been many undisputedly great video game movies for the team to work with and use as precedent.

In lieu of notable live-action video game adaptations that made good on their ambition, the film’s production team turned to a source that most would agree has.

“It’s like the Marvel Universe…it’s endless,” says Garner of the Mortal Kombat game franchise. “So we started from the premise ‘What would Marvel do?’”

It’s a useful question that the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie answers in fascinating ways. For instance, as Garner noted, the MCU didn’t start with The Avengers; it started with Iron Man. That film allowed Marvel Studios to ease viewers into a project that was, in its own ways, also somewhat unprecedented. Similarly, the Mortal Kombat movie uses the character of Cole Young as a kind of audience surrogate. He’s a new face in this universe who is also trying to figure all of this out.

It’s all part of a delicate balancing act that requires the cast and crew to constantly ask themselves how this movie looks to a diehard fan and how it will look to someone who is just coming into this.

“There are five million people that play this game religiously, but there are 100s of millions of people in the world,” Garner says. “We didn’t want the other 95 million people to go, ‘What the fuck is this. What is this tone, what the fuck is happening?’”

It’s easy to understand how fans could quickly become overwhelmed. If you haven’t played the more recent Mortal Kombat games, you may be surprised to learn that they’ve adopted a complex serial storytelling narrative that combines years of mythology as well as the events of the most recent games. If you tried jumping into Mortal Kombat 11’s interdimensional, time-jumping story, without at least an explainer of what came before, you’d probably think it was madness. Amusing madness, perhaps, but madness nonetheless.

As it turns out, even Mortal Kombat director Simon McQuoid had a lot of catching up to do.

“I feel like I went to Mortal Kombat university,” says McQuoid regarding the experience of learning the intricacies of the franchise. “I also surrounded myself with a lot of people who know a lot more about this than me.”

In the same way that 1995’s Mortal Kombat benefited from director Paul W.S. Anderson seeking and utilizing fan and crew feedback, McQuoid’s own desire to surround himself with lifelong MK fans is just one of the ways that the crew is determined to ensure they don’t make the mistake others have before them by straying too far from the desires of those who helped make the Mortal Kombat franchise worthy of adaptation in the first place. His efforts ultimately come down to honoring an important word.

“The word I use a lot is ‘respect,’” says McQuoid. “Respect for the fans, respect for the characters, and respect for the canon. The execution ultimately takes that into consideration from the absolute bedrock of listening to and understanding the fans.”

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Of course, as Garner previously eloquently noted, what many Mortal Kombat fans are looking for is over-the-top violence executed with flair. That is a big part of what made the original Mortal Kombat stand out in a crowded arcade scene, and it is certainly one of the qualities that have stayed with the series as it has evolved into this surprising vehicle for complex narratives and diverse characters.

Fatality!

Of course, you can’t talk about Mortal Kombat violence without coming around to fatalities. What began as now strangely humble decapitations and spine extractions has evolved into a bloody ballet of highly choreographed violent ends that account for the lore and ability of every character. It’s something that was largely missing from the 1995 adaptation, and it’s something that Garner admits can be tricky to get right.

“There’s crazy shit you can do in the game,” Garner says. “The problem with the fatalities, in general, is…I’m under the restrictions of the Motion Picture Association of America so I have to live inside those rules.”

In case you haven’t seen the recently released trailer, let me assure you now that the MPAA has not scared the team away from incorporating fatalities and MK’s other, bloodiest elements. In fact, McQuoid is practically at sea with the amount of blood on set.

“I don’t know the gallon number, but I’ve seen drums of blood sitting around,” McQuoid informs his audience of gorehounds with a smile.

So yes, there will be blood and lots of it in the Mortal Kombat reboot, but the team isn’t relying on the presence of blood alone to fulfill their equally important mission of telling a Mortal Kombat story as compelling as the ones featured in the games. Actually, they recognize that there are times when extreme amounts of violence can work against the dark tones that help make the franchise’s universe so compelling.

“When I wanted a serious moment I didn’t want it to get comedic because we’re swashing blood,” McQuoid says. “It’s a tonal thing…you really need to feel it all instead of having people say ‘Oh, that’s funny.’”

Besides, there are other ways to convey the series’ violent nature and brutal style that doesn’t necessarily require a drum of blood. From the first game in the franchise, Mortal Kombat has nodded to at least the cinematic history of martial arts. Whereas that series initially struggled to convey the fluidity and complexity of the best martial arts fights, though, the MK movie team has set a high bar for themselves.

“The first thing I said to [stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner] was “Okay, Kyle, you have to make the best fights that have ever been on film,” reveals McQuoid.

To anyone with a passing familiarity with the best fight scenes in film history, that idea has to come across as an absurd bit of hype. However, it starts to make a lot more sense when you look at the cast they’ve assembled.

Choose Your Fighter

For a generation of fans raised on ‘80s action films and many major Hollywood genre productions that came after, it’s become somewhat easy to buy into the idea that untrained or largely untrained actors, bodybuilders, and models are the biggest badasses on the big screen. There’s a degree to which that’s what actors are supposed to do, but anyone who grew up on Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee or later found films such as The Raid and Ong-Bak can tell you that there’s nothing quite like watching uniquely talented martial artists push the boundaries of fight scenes by translating their real-world talents into cinematic splendor. In fact, the original Mortal Kombat arcade game was partially inspired by a desire to make a game that felt worthy of a John Claude Van Damme action film.

When it comes to getting Mortal Kombat right, then, there’s little doubt that the only way to go was to cast an all-star collection of martial artists and trained fighters rather than teach a cast of movie stars to look like they can do the things these guys can. However, I can’t emphasize enough just how crazy it was to watch even just snippets of what this essential superteam of martial artists push themselves to do when you put them in a room. Even those who have spent a considerable amount of time around the cast still express awe at what they’ve seen.

“I’ve never made a movie like this before with this much fighting in it,” says Garner. “I don’t know what’s going on half the time, but they really are the best in the business…It’s so fast and even the camera is like, ‘Guys, can you slow down a little bit?’”

In some ways, the heart of this assembly feels like Sub-Zero actor Joe Taslim. As a renowned martial artist who many of us first saw in The Raid: Redemption, many action fans know that Taslim is the real deal. What you may not know is that Taslim is something of a Mortal Kombat superfan. His name was even tossed around a few times on the shortlist of best MK players on-set, as well as by some who suggested that Taslim helped set the pace (and raise the bar) for the speed of the action sequences.

Then you have Tadanobu Asano as Raiden. As a legend of the Japanese film scene who has garnered more international acclaim in recent years by virtue of his work in 47 Ronin, Battleship, and the Thor films, Asano feels uniquely capable of playing the thunder god whose abilities sometimes set the standard in a universe of powerful fighters. He embodies the character so clearly that he’s already got his eye on the out of universe competition

“Yeah, I can fight [Chris Hemsworth],” suggested Asano with a smile at the prospect of a Thor vs. Raiden film.

There also Max Huang who portrays Kung Lao: a beloved fan character who was sadly missing from the previous live-action adaptations. For him, the chance to finally bring that character to life echoes his own desire to further his transition from a celebrated stunt coordinator to a bonafide action hero.

“People like Bruce Lee were my heroes,” says Huang. “The ultimate goal was to become an actor, but there were few chances. A lot of times, it would just be a one-liner and that was it. These last few years I figured ‘you only have one life,’ so I just went for it.”

Few people are more qualified to speak on that subject than Liu Kang actor, Ludi Lin. As an advocate for representation in Hollywood, Lin has previously said how a lack of representation or even the wrong kind of representation can lead to feelings of shame and even isolation. For Lin, working with this many talented martial artists on a major Western production isn’t just a chance to showcase his own abilities; it’s a chance to help millions feel like they’re being seen.

“Look, 60% of the world is Asian. A quarter of the world is Chinese,” says Lin. “I just don’t understand why there can only be one [in Hollywood films].”

Increased representation is always important, but at a time when violence against Asian Americans is on the rise, it stands to reason that the portrayal and prominence of Asian actors on film may be on more minds than ever before. So far as that goes, Mortal Kombat is uniquely positioned to not only showcase Asian heroes but pay respect to the clear Asian influences on the Mortal Kombat series in a way that the MK titles (especially the older installments) didn’t necessarily do before.

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“From my experience working with Simon [McQuoid], I’ve never worked with someone that’s so serious about being that authentic for another culture,” says Lin. “Just walking on set…on this film, there are so many different types of people of different ethnicities, different origins, and different backgrounds. It really represents the world.”

I could go on. Legendary Japanese action star Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, the beloved Chin Han as Shang Tsung, rising star Mehcad Brooks as Jax…even non-action stars or martial artists like Kano actor Josh Lawson have found how they fit into this legendary assembly of cast and characters.

“I was just saying to Asano-san, ‘Kano, he’s only funny because he’s balancing you guys,’” notes Lawson. “On his own, it’s nothing. But as a see-saw, the more seriously these guys take the mysticism and the power, the less seriously I can take it. That’s where the comedy exists. He can walk in and tell them, ‘Fucking hell.’”

Who is Lewis Tan?

With so much of the fun for fans coming from watching their favorite MK fighters come to life and battle on the big screen, it’s hardly a surprise that it’s one of the new characters, Lewis Tan as Cole Young, who has attracted so much early attention. How will he fit into a roster of such established characters? It’s a question that Tan is relieved to finally be able to answer.

“It’s just nice to even be able to talk about the character because there was so much speculation and hype up until this point about which character I’m playing,” Tan says with noted relief. “I wear Ray Bans a lot so people were like, ‘Oh, he’s Johnny Cage. [laughs]’”

He may not be Johnny Cage, even if Tan’s effortless charm and movie star looks make him a prime candidate for the role, but it’s incredible how easily the Cole character seems to fit into this universe of iconic characters. Along those same lines, Tan seems to have quickly established himself among a roster of top-tier martial arts and action actors. In some ways, his vocal enthusiasm for the project best captures the set’s general vibe.

“I don’t want to jinx it either but I can truthfully tell you, I felt magic when I got here and it’s been crazy ever since then,” says Tan of his experience until that point. “It’s crazy because I’m really hard on myself and I’m really hard on the work that I do. Sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, this wasn’t it.’ And then I’ll see a little of a rough cut of what Simon was doing and then I’m like, ‘Oh. It’s amazing.’ There’s some stuff that I wasn’t on set for and then I saw that stuff and I’m like, ‘That’s the best thing I’ve ever seen.’”

Of course, it’s hard to talk about bringing Mortal Kombat to life without the people who quite literally help do just that.

Exploding Heads and Blown Minds

At one point during my set visit, I found myself standing on a stunning recreation of the bridge that crosses the chasm on the iconic Mortal Kombat stage known as The Pit. It was a massive construction impressively built to serve as both a showcase piece and an actual set practically designed as the stage for one of the film’s fight scenes.

The team informed us that the general philosophy was to ensure that (almost) anything that could be done practically was done practically. A green screen was used sparingly to solve otherwise impossible problems. It’s an approach that appeases the old-school movie fans among us while honoring the raw nature of the older Mortal Kombat games which typically emphasized visceral visuals over more refined sensibilities.

The Mortal Kombat movie actually finds a fascinating middle ground between those concepts. For instance, the film’s costumes showcase the kind of wear and tear that you’d expect to see in outfits worn by warriors locked in an eternal battle, but they’re also designed to not only honor cultural concepts but the idea that some of this armor was designed to be somewhat ornamental at one point in time. They’re refined but appropriately ugly.

The film’s weapons are really on another level. Weapons have become increasingly important to the Mortal Kombat fighting styles over the years, and this film honors that concept through an arsenal of carefully constructed instruments of death that somehow treat even the most seemingly impractical of weapons with a logic that has perhaps only previously been dwelled on by the series’ biggest fans.

No detail was overlooked in pursuit of making sure every character had a weapon that the actor could hold in their hand and feel the power of. From ornate katanas to swords made of ice, the props team clearly fell in love with the opportunity to make even the absurd a reality. We even saw a garden gnome suspiciously snuck into the small arsenal they had crafted.

Again, though, what stood out most is the prop team’s insistence that many of these weapons didn’t just need to look good on-screen. Many of them needed to be balanced and practical enough to be used in battle simply because many of them were actually going to be used in the film’s fight scenes. I don’t know how the weapon designs will come across in the final film, but my gut feeling is that the fight scenes that they allow for will immediately be appreciated.

One other area where those efforts will almost certainly be immediately appreciated by everyone watching the movie is the makeup and practical effects. The makeup trailer I stepped in was loaded with masks, body parts, and the carnage of many early morning marathon makeup sessions. It looked closer to a horror movie than an action film or video game adaptation. That should be music to the ears of any fans that recognize that one of the things that helped the Mortal Kombat series stand out over the years are the horror tones that were used to help craft characters, stages, and most certainly the fatalities.

While we weren’t treated to a fatality viewing while on-set, the team was good enough to describe an exploding head that they were working on for an upcoming shoot. Where that exploding head will rank among the best of all-time (a list that includes films like Scanners, Maniac, and The Prowler) remains to be seen, but their approach sounded fascinating. By utilizing a silicone glass head filled with blood and guts and triggered by an air cannon, the scene figures to pay homage to the techniques of the best such effects of old while utilizing modern advancements designed out of necessity and perhaps a desire to help raise the bar.

It wasn’t long into my trip that the cast and crew emphasized the number of practical effects being utilized, and I certainly understand why. They not only look great, but the fact that so much effort went into ensuring these design elements offer something so much more than good looks seems to perfectly capture the spirit of the movie’s mission to make something that is so much more than it has to be.

Flawless Victory?

If the biggest “advantage” of low expectations is the idea that even lesser efforts can somehow exceed them, then the biggest disadvantage of the expectations set by many live-action video game movies to date is getting people to genuinely feel excited. There’s a big difference between crafting something that makes you think “That could have been worse,” and making a movie that inspires the genuine belief that this isn’t just going to be something different; this is going to be something special.

The highest compliment I can pay to Mortal Kombat is that the genuine excitement expressed by everyone on-set went well beyond a cast and crew that were just happy to be there or felt that what they were doing was good enough. From those who couldn’t wait to play some of their favorite characters to those who were eager to finally showcase what they do best via a production that’s scale equaled the scope of their talents, there was a smile on everyone’s face as they told you what they were working on with the full knowledge that what they were about to say was something so far beyond what you expected.

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I don’t know if Mortal Kombat will “break the curse.” I don’t even know if it will satisfy a legion of MK fans who have had their expectations forever raised by the recent games’ own increasingly cinematic efforts. What I can tell you is that it’s ok to feel excited about Mortal Kombat. Actually, you probably should be excited about Mortal Kombat. I can assure you that everyone working on the film very much is. That, in and of itself, is a victory.

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IN-DEPTH: How The God of High School Revealed the True, Weird History of Taekwondo

If, like me, you found yourself yearning for some physical activity and breaks from the tedium of schoolwork as a kid, you might have found yourself wanting to learn some martial arts. Watching action stars like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, as well as anime, playing fighting games and more, left me with an interest in learning a martial art myself. I found myself at the door of a local Taekwondo school and was instantly hooked. Sadly, like many things, time and obligations got in the way and I had to give up my pursuit of martial arts, but I always found the subject interesting. When I started reading The God of High School, I was instantly hooked by the idea that Jin Mori used Taekwondo, but suddenly, I found myself questioning things: What did they mean, that there were multiple types of Taekwondo? Wasn’t all Taekwondo the same? What was “Renewal Taekwondo” and was it a real thing? The answer to that question is... sort of. Also: There are some light spoilers here! Be warned!

In The God of High School, the revelation that Jin practices “Renewal Taekwondo” serves as a shock to the cast, particularly the Judges and Park Mujin, as it reveals the fact that Jin’s grandfather, Jin Taejin, was not only still alive, but that he had passed on the incredibly powerful skills of Renewal Taekwondo to someone else. At this point in the anime, the reveal has played out far differently, although there’s no telling whether this might change as the anime progresses. We do know that Jin uses Renewal Taekwondo, but we don’t get the same backstory and discussion revolving around Jin’s grandfather, and the past regarding Taekwondo itself. In the WEBTOON series, Park Mujin reveals that “Renewal Taekwondo” was created by South Korean leaders following a defeat at the hands of North Korean “ITF” Taekwondo. And, suddenly, my childhood came back to me: I had learned “WT” Taekwondo, so what was “ITF?” Was it just something the web comic made up, like “Renewal Taekwondo?” As it turns out, this particular rabbit hole went a whole lot deeper, and weirder, than I ever imagined.

Perhaps the first, and most shocking, fact regarding Taekwondo is that it is less than 100 years old. Many historians agree there is some fluidity to a solid date, but as 4th Dan David Lo notes, Taekwondo likely began formally in 1955, when General Choi Hong-Hi named it after developing the first basic forms of the martial art. While many other popular martial arts, such as Karate, Tai Chi, or Kung-Fu often discuss their proud, long lineages, Taekwondo is often mistakenly assumed to be ancient; in fact, it is only perhaps somewhat related to Taekkyeon, which was nearly wiped out during Japanese occupation. After World War II, the Japanese occupation of Korea came to an end. During the occupation, Japan was particularly cruel to Koreans, suppressing their language, culture, and identity — extending this treatment to martial arts practitioners were forced to quit or go into hiding while Japanese Karate was taught instead. Taekwondo would come from the confluence of various martial arts, having more in common with Karate, mostly due to the violent banning of Korean culture.

Combining their knowledge with new techniques in Shotokan karate, Kung-Fu, and others, would begin to create schools, or “Kwans,” which would give rise to what we today recognize as Taekwondo. Scott Shaw, one of the eminent English authors and students of Taekwondo, explains the genealogy of the first 5, and subsequent 4, Kwans; these Kwans were fairly diverse, with nine divergent approaches and teachers developing their own takes on martial arts. In many cases, historians consider Song Moo Kwan the Kwan most responsible for eventual Taekwondo, with Byung Jik Ro called by some as the “father” of “modern” Taekwondo (more on that later) the original five Kwans — Song Moo Kwan, Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and Chang Moo Kwan — were the birthplace of Taekwondo, but it would take another war, and social and cultural upheaval for Taekwondo to really emerge.

Song Moo Kwan and Chung Do Kwan were founded in 1944, with the other 5 founding Kwans appearing in the following 2 years. If we start Taekwondo’s timeline there, that means Taekwondo is only 76 years old (meaning��there’s a good chance your grandparents might actually be older than Taekwondo!), but the “real” birth of Taekwondo would come a fair bit after these Kwans were founded. For that to happen, Korea would be forced into another protracted battle that would decide the course of its modern fate, and the dispersal of Taekwondo to the rest of the world: The Korean War.

Separating the country along the 38th parallel into what are today known as North Korea and South Korea, this civil war shaped Korea’s modern history in cataclysmic ways, separating family members, friends, and cultural identity. Like many aspects of Korean life, Taekwondo found itself straddling an uncomfortable and unclear line: The original Kwans were spread out across the Korean peninsula, with Song Moo Kwan being in what would now be North Korea. Following the Korean war, this would lead perhaps the most controversial figure in Taekwondo history to emerge: General Choi Hong Hi, the true “father” of Taekwondo.

Alex Gillis' A Killing Art reveals the life, warts and all, of General Choi. Born in 1918 in Hwa Dae (located in now North Korea), General Choi Hong Hi was sent to Japan by his father to study, ending up in the tutelage of Han Il Dong, a master of Taekkyeon, one of Korea’s oldest martial arts. Forced into military service by the Japanese, Choi would eventually find himself continuing to serve in the Korean military following the end of World War II and Japanese occupation, earning the title of major general in 1954 (and thus earning him both his title and nickname, “The general”).

Choi’s mastery of Taekkyeon and Shotokan karate led him to develop what he titled “Taekwon-Do,” or “foot, fist, art.” Choi is, as far as historians can tell, the first person to use the word “Taekwondo,” and rightfully seems to deserve the title. The controversy, however, comes from the disagreements between Choi (who, some authors note, was somewhat disagreeable and even deceptive) and other Kwan leaders and Taekwondo practitioners. This would lead to the eventual creation, and split, of Taekwondo into ITF and WT schools, among many other offshoots.

Whether Choi was or wasn’t a deceptive and deceitful person seems to be based on who you ask, and the most common perception of him was that he was complicated (as are we all). What authors and historians such as Lo, Gillis, Shaw, and others agree on is that without General Choi, there would be no Taekwondo, and the subsequent power struggle nearly destroyed, as Lo calls it, the “family” of Taekwondo. While it is perhaps more palatable to consider martial arts as monastic and scholarly, the reality is that they are practiced, created, and influenced by people, and Taekwondo’s somewhat ugly and public schism is a great reminder of this. Choi originally founded the ITF, or International Taekwon-Do Federation, in 1966; however, Choi’s attempts to control all aspects of Taekwon-Do, and the South Korean government’s insistence on “owning” Taekwondo, would create the split that saw Choi flee from Korea to Canada and South Korea creating the KTA (Korean Taekwondo Association), which would eventually give way to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, now known as WT), under the governing body of the Kukkiwon.

In the ITF version of this story, Choi simply decided to go “on tour” in 1959, before eventually creating the ITF in 1966. The WT version of the story is just as revisionist, claiming that Taekwondo has roots that supposedly go back 2000 years and that the WT was created in 1973 as the first governing body of Taekwondo. No mention of Choi or the ITF exists in the WT version of Taekwondo. Udo Moening, author of numerous papers about Taekwondo’s cultural and social significance, helps explain the disparity between these two stories by noting that Taekwondo is as much an object of political importance to the identity of Korea as it is a form of martial skill and discipline. Simply put, Moening argues, Taekwondo became a piece of the struggle for identity between South Korea and North Korea, and the eventual race to Olympic recognition would become a major victory in this battle for the WT and South Korea.

The schism in Taekwondo (or Taekwon-Do, in ITF’s usage) is perhaps even more interesting in the sense that one did not immediately replace the other; instead of the WT supplanting the ITF, the two schools of Taekwondo went about their own paths. Yet, Kukkiwon managed to obtain a significant victory over Choi and ITF Taekwondo: inclusion in the Olympics. In 1982, Kukkiwon was able to arrange a demonstration of Taekwondo for the IOC in 1988 and became an official event during the Asian Games in 1986. In 1994, Kukkiwon “won” the competition for Taekwondo legitimacy by being selected by the IOC as an official sport of the Olympics, joining Judo as the only other Asian martial art in the Olympic games, and debuting in the 2000 games in Australia.

Choi, however, had won in another way: his ITF Taekwondo spread across the world, and his somewhat ingenious method of sending Taekwondo “acolytes” to various places to form their own schools helped make Taekwondo popular and profitable. There are other forms of Taekwondo out there, including ATA (American Taekwondo Association), Jhoon Rhee Style, and the GTF (Global Taekwondo Federation), a split from ITF. Chuck Norris, during the height of his popularity in the '90s, even formed his own school that blended Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo called Chun Kuk Do!

While Choi was successful in spreading Taekwondo around the globe, and South Korea was able to claim “ownership” of the sport through political engineering and historical revision, Taekwondo in the United States would owe much of its growth and popularity to a different individual: Jhoon Rhee. Rhee, learning Taekwondo at the Chung Do Kwan in his childhood, came to America in the '60s to study engineering. Needing some extra money, Rhee began teaching Taekwondo, and through luck and hard work, launched the popularity of the martial art in the United States via television and Hollywood. Like all good and weird success stories, Rhee gained fame from his “viral” '70s commercial jingle, written by Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band!

Rhee’s unconventional approach to success worked, taking his Taekwondo to both of America’s hearts: Hollywood and Washington DC. Rhee would go on to teach and demonstrate Taekwondo to various celebrities including Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee — even writing a book, Bruce Lee and I, in 2011. He also met with President Reagan and famously demonstrated Taekwondo to the United States Congress in 1965. There was even a sparring match between Republicans and Democrats!

But what do all of these different types of Taekwondo actually mean? When I was practicing, did I learn “the wrong” type? Well, the answer is… no! The major difference in schools seems to come down to forms, ranks, and some other small administrative differences — such as who can spar, and why, or what types of focus there is in learning Taekwondo in general. Perhaps due to the odd nature of Taekwondo’s spread outside of Korea, the sport is also highly “commercial;” the ATA and Jhoon Rhee schools, for example, were founded on the idea of both teaching the sport and also establishing chain schools that would funnel profits back to the original founders, essentially creating a business instead of the somewhat monastic idea of a martial art like the Kung-Fu or Karate that appear in movies and media.

As noted by Doug Cook, the forms, of Poomsae, are constantly changing, due in part to the various types and hybrids of Taekwondo, but also due to the somewhat infant nature of the sport compared to other forms. It would be hard, as many authors point out, to find a “true” strain of Taekwondo these days. Instead, the various approaches, forms, and inherent teachings all help create different, unique ideas of the original created by Choi in the '50s — itself a hybrid of various types of martial arts.

It's fairly common in martial arts stories to hear epic tales of the history and longevity of a martial art, but Taekwondo provides us with the unique and interesting experience of seeing that historical mythology evolve in real time. From the controversial Choi to the roots of the Korean search for identity following Japanese occupation and later civil war, Taekwondo serves as a mirror for Korea’s own evolution. While Taekwondo may not be an “ancient” form of martial arts, it is a uniquely Korean one, and one that has a complex history and personality, and thanks to The God of High School, I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of its story. “Reclamation” Taekwondo may not actually exist, but in many ways, Taekwondo was a form of reclamation for Korea: an attempt to create something new and unique in the face of years of brutal occupational rule and civil strife.

Did you know about the history of Taekwondo? What's your favorite style to practice? Let us know, and while you're at it, tell us your current fave WEBTOON series in the comments!

➡️ Watch The God of High School today! ⬅️

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