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CLASSIC_NAMES

                                                     March  9, 2010

When I was a young teenager I was
working on a story (but of course,
did not complete it) about a space
ship named the Argos.

I felt a little leery of this,
because I was conscious of the fact
that I'd actually read very little
about the mythical Jason, and wasn't
too clear on the meaning of "Argos",          (Actually, the name of
and I really had no idea what                 a city in Greece)
classical references I might be
invoking accidentally.

    I just liked the sound of it.
                                           This is a syndrome I associate
                                           with juvenile intellectuals--
                                           e.g. a while back one of my
                                           nephews was working on a story
                                           about a character named Isis,
                                           and we thought it was a little
                                           odd that he didn't even seem
                                           very clear on whether it was a
                                           male or female name.


In the Macross universe:
                                         MACROSS_TRANSFORMS
The name Macross itself is some
sort of mutation of Macbeth and
a pun on megaload/megaroad (no
doubt, making fun of the famous
Japanese difficulty with the
r/l distinction)...

    Why Macbeth?  Well one of
    the people involved was a
    Shakespere fan.

    So he wanted to name the
    spaceship after the famous
    pussy-whipped regicide?



Then, later in the Macross series
there's this line of "variable
fighters" (or VFs) that they call
"Valkyries".

    Now, Valkyries were certainly human
    figures that flew around...  but in
    Norse myth they're "the choosers of
    the slain": they bring fallen
    warriors to Valhallah-- essentially
    they're angels that take you to
    heaven.

    This doesn't make a huge amount of sense
    as a name for a fighter craft.  Something
    like "Harpy" or "Fury" would be a better fit.


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