The author asked for private responses due to being set vacation mode, but
I felt that what I have to say is important and crucial to all concerned,
so...

WHY must you guys insist on including greco-roman gods, or casting

kami-sama

as the judeo-christian god, or any number of other things? no dieties
outside the norse pantheon are accounted for in the series itself. the

norns

appear, i'm fairly close to sure that heimdall appears, i think that at

some

point either thor or loki are mentioned, NO-ONE OUTSIDE THE NORSE PANTHEON
IS MENTIONED!

I'll address the rant itself in a moment. First, though, I want to quote
something from the FAQ, and explain how it applies to this.

** Not allowed, postbanning may result for repeated offenses:

******Controversial off-topic arguments******

Despite the fact that the rant was talking about the casting of deities in
Aa! Megami-sama fanfiction, any discussion dealing with religion,
especially when begun in the tone of the above rant, is invariably going to
lead to a spam thread with the potential to degenerate into a religious
flamewar.

** Discouraged, postbanning may result for excessive amounts:

******Off-topic discussions******

I'm sorry, but this rant is really off-topic. It doesn't portain to a
specific fanfic, and can be taken as a flame of many Aa! Megami-sama
fanfics.

Which is another reason, by the way, it should never have been posted.
Speaking as someone who has made--and paid--for this mistake before,
posting an angry, inflamed rant about something that pisses you off in
fanfics is not going to win you any popularity contests, or really cause
anyone to start thinking. It's just going to spark a flamewar; hopefully a
private one, but nevertheless, you shouldn't invite trouble upon yourself
unless you have a *really* good reason. Being pissed at authors for using
non-Norse deities in Aa! Megami-sama fanfiction is *not* a good reason.
That's just pointless, rampant nitpicking.

Now, on to my take on the rant itself:

What WAS the point of this? Other deities were not mentioned in the series
mainly because the author was attempting to draw mainly off of Norse
religion. However, I would like to point out the following:

-Belldandy does consort with Shinto deities. It would be the kami, spirits
of the earth, a Shinto belief, that restored the temple in which they all
live, as it is a Shinto temple.

-The very fact that they refer to Kami-sama *AS* Kami-sama possibly implies
God, or Buddha, or some representation of the Father. Mythology shows that
in pantheons with multiple gods and goddesses, no deity is ever referred to
as God or Supreme Being by any other deity. If indeed the intent is to
restrict the story strictly to the Norse pantheon, then they would have
called him 'Father', 'Odin', or 'Odin-sama'.

-At any rate, what does it matter if people bring in gods and goddesses
from other pantheons? Many people find this kind of interaction between
mythologies and religion to make for good material. If you don't like it,
don't read it. It's that simple.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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You could learn a lot from a dog. Pee on a tree today for a greener
tomorrow.
(--actual ad campaign for a forest preservation group)


The Eternal Lost Lurker
SeeD Rank 8
(developing a horizontal rotation anal confection insertion fixation...)
lurkerdrome@megami.net
http://lurkerdrome.megami.net

The way to a man's heart is through his shorts.