Golden Axe, or silver axe?

[tenshi_a]

Hiya,

Oh I disappeared off for a while and... played other video games... ^_^

In Harvest Moon, there is a scene, where you throw your axe into a pond and a goddess comes out with two axes; a gold one and your one. She asks which of the two is yours, and you have to be honest. (And then she upgrades your axe to the golden one!)

I remember the funniest scene in .hack//SIGN (to me, anyway), was near the start of the series, when Tsukasa was asked the same thing and just whacked her with his staff.

What's that saying "if you meet god, kill god"? ^_^

Anyway. Because Harvest Moon came a few years before .hack, I thought it was some comedy based on Harvest Moon. And since .hack has a lot of RPG parody in it, it seemed to be the case.

However, I just got Puyo Pop Fever last week, and the end boss on the Waku Waku stage comes along and asks you "did you drop this golden axe? Or was it this silver axe?" (as a throwaway thing, for no reason)

At which point, I realised it must actually come from some ancient Japanese legend or something.

Anyone heard of such a story?

[I think I mistook Harvest Moon for an ancient Japanese legend.. that's kind of embarrassing...]

[rax]

Hmm I never played those RPGs, but I think its more when 3 games who are by different developers contain such similarities...

I always thought the ponds in .hack were quite funny, anyway :)

[tenshi_a]

Hiya,

I found the old story. It's not Japanese after all.

http://www.duboislc.net/read/Aesop/ThothWoodcutter.html

It seems to come from an Aesop's fable. Which borrows an Egyptian god (Thoth).

So there so go. That's my educational moment for today! ^_^

[The-One]

Tenshi_a...errr....do you speak japanese? cuz you mention it before to that you wanted the 9 volume hack//sign instead of the usa 6 volumes.

Apropos the axe and Aesop fables...well after seeing a lot of animes I know that japanese animes got a lot of mythology, mysteries, religious symbols and other kinds of stuff. Most of it comes outside of Japan; I'm talking about north mytology in matentai Loki (the mystery detective Loki) and greek in Saint Saya (I think that was the name) and Evangelion got christian symbols all over the place. I not saying that animes doesn't have japanese religion and mythology in some animes but most of them got stuff from all the world outside Japan.

The-One notices that sharing this info with the ppl in The World made a lot of ppl go a level up some got 2 level up.^^

[tenshi_a]

Yeah, I know they use a lot of non-Japanese mythology and legends in Japanese pop-culture. Maybe more than anywhere else. They don't dumb down stuff for TV there like they do here or in the US. And I really respect that.

I can think of.. the Final Fantasy summons; Leviathan, Bahamut, Gilgamesh, Shiva, Ifrit etc - that's everything from everywhere. And sometimes they use Chinese stories like Saiyuki (Xi Yu Chi : the Journey to the West). Or the Romance Of the Three Kingdoms. Basically, any good story from anywhere.

But they *do* use Japanese mythology and legends too, like the Kappa (little imp-like water fairies that really like cucumbers) or Kaguya-hime (the princess in the moon) - those stories reoccur in anime a lot. Mako in Final Fantasy 7 is a lot like the Shinto religion. So I kind of assumed that the golden axe legend might be Japanese. Plus I hadn't heard the story before... it's a bad assumption on my part, sorry for that! ^_^

BTW I don't understand much Japanese, just what I picked up from anime. ^_^ If you told me a giant battleship was coming and I should fight to the death, to save everyone, I might understand what you were saying. If you asked me directions to the railway station, I probably wouldn't... ^_^;;;;

[rax]

I also remember that they quoted some lines from Nathan the Wise in episode 22. I was reading that book in Highschool while i was watching the fansubs of SIGN. What a coincidence^^

[The-One]

oh yeah just wanted to say that hack is full of those symbols cuz that how they made it^^ and many kind of symbols from all over the world! It's just a matter of noticing it^^..errr...those

[Demonite]

Golden Axe or Silver Axe?

Neither, I get a golden axe AND a silver axe AND my item back!
or
I get an item miles better in return!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Izzy]

My mum does'nt seem to know about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms...my mates told me about it..the Chinese names for Cao Cao, Guan Yu etc sound similar kool eh? Wot about the Four creatures in Japan, was'nt it suppose to connect to North East South West in some place?