this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Are there any cases of authors/writers that have intentionally stolen a character name from another work?

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[–] derekabutton@lemmy.world 35 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Marvel's Deadpool (Wade Wilson) was initially a parody of DC's Deathstroke (Slade Wilson).

JoJos Bizarre Adventure has a sizable chunk of characters whose names are 80s bands or musicians.

Quite a few stories have biblical names or classical god names for their characters when not depicting the original, but that's even more of a stretch than my other examples.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Noooo, JoJo of all places? What do you mean there is a band named Aisidisi

[–] derekabutton@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Can't tell if you are kidding. Yeah, AC/DC lol

Edge of Tomorrow, the movie where tom cruise is put in a weaponized time loop to stop an alien invasion, stars a female lead named Rita that the male lead pines and tries to earn the love of. This is a reference to Groundhog Day's female lead named Rita.

I kinda wished that they had named the male and female leads named Phil Connors and Rita Hanson, so that it could be interpreted as the weirdest AU fan-work of Groundhog Day ever.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Generally called an "homage".

Stephen King named a character "Pickman" in "It" as a reference to H.P. Lovecraft. The whole book is an homage to Lovecraftian themes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickman's_Model

@jordanlund@lemmy.world He also wrote Cthulhu mythos stories, including Jerusalem's Lot, which he adapted into 'Salem's Lot.

@ryujin470@fedia.io

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 12 points 6 days ago (2 children)

They let Larry Niven write some episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, so now the K'zinti (cat people Niven originally introduced in his Ringworld stories) are canon in the Star Trek Universe. The producer (or maybe director, I don't really remember) of those cartoons was color blind and as a result, those cat like aliens became cannonicaly purple.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Aww jeez, that's got to suck. Not the crossover part, that's awesome, but the fact someone who is colorblind and might not know it would be put on the spot like that. As an artist, I notice a lot of people from the colorblind community pop up and need help with creative feats that come normally to other people, and I don't have the heart to expect anything in response.

@shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee Don't worry so much, the director, Hal Sutherland did very well for himself.

@ryujin470@fedia.io @Wolf314159@startrek.website

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

@Wolf314159@startrek.website No, the Kzin themselves are still brown, even with their bat-ears. It's their uniforms that got made day-glo purple.

@ryujin470@fedia.io

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There's also an orange-brown Kzinti on Lower Decks, one of the newer shows.

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Bastard. Lots of heavy metal references. Bon Jovina is the head knight of Meta-llicana. There is a Megadeath spell. Osbourne attacks the kingdom. Lots of others I don't remember.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 9 points 6 days ago
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 8 points 6 days ago

Sometimes entire characters get integrated, especially ones in the public domain. Like Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood.

I've seen Sherlock in Batman stories and Robin Hood is in The Last Unicorn.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 6 points 5 days ago
[–] CliveRosfield@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Goku is a loose interpretation of Sun Wukong. Don’t know if I’d call it stolen though.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Zelda Williams was named after Zelda from the Legend of Zelda.

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

and Zelda from LoZ was named after the wife of F Scott Fitzgerald.

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago

now we must find out who Zelda Fitzgerald is named after..

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen basically all the characters. Captian Nemo, Mina Harker, Allan Quatermain, etc.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

I wouldn't count that one. It's not just the names, the characters themselves have been borrowed for a crossover plot.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Galadriel Hopkins comes to mind. Her mother is a Tolkien fan.

A very different example would be the character Alfred Bester from Babylon 5. B5's Bester is the main "Psi Cop" in the show — a strong telepath who enforces the strict laws on other telepaths. He is named for the science-fiction author Alfred Bester, whose novel The Demolished Man established several of the telepathy tropes that are used in B5, including the existence of a formal organization that manages telepaths and telepath/mundane relations: in the novel it's called the Esper Guild, in B5, it's the Psi Corps.

@fubo@lemmy.world And Bester was played by Walter Koenig, aka Pavel Chekov.

@ryujin470@fedia.io

[–] Denjin@lemmings.world 3 points 5 days ago

Not quite what you're asking for but in Douglas Addams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe, there's a side character called Hotblack Desiato which is the name of the estate agent in Islington that Addams walked past to get to his office each day and he liked the name so much he created the character around it.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 4 points 6 days ago