Characters and People Who Inspired Suikoden

Ask questions about the personality and backstory of the multitude of characters in the Suikoden series.
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sticky-runes
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Re: Characters and People Who Inspired Suikoden

Post by sticky-runes »

Hikaru wrote:
sticky-runes wrote:Grace O'Malley was a ballsy Irish pirate queen who fought off a lot of pirates and invaders. I reckon she could be the inspiration for some of the ladies in Suikoden 4.
Hmm, that would make sense since...at least as far as I know, there weren't many famous female pirates. Did you notice anything in particular with any character that resembles this O'Malley more closely?
Well, superficial comparisons, really. Grace wanted to be a sailor like her dad but, but wasn't allowed because she was a girl, so she dressed in boy's clothes to be allowed on board and ended up becoming a successful seafarer. Makes me think of Flare, although Flare didn't dress like a man or face those kinds of prejudices, some of the characters are shocked by the idea of a princess putting herself at risk. Both women were known for kicking a lot of pirate asses.
I also read that Grace O'Malley drove off a bunch of pirates just a day after she had given birth to her son on board her ship. This sort of makes me think of the Queen of Obel defeating the pirates that attacked the royal vessel. Suikoden 4 may or may not have taken inspiration from the stories, but it's nice to know there was a historical figure with that kind of courage.
Antimatzist
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Re: Characters and People Who Inspired Suikoden

Post by Antimatzist »

Very well remembered. There is also an Alhazred in "The Lamp of Alhazred", by Lovecraft's friend August Derleth. Do you know if that is the same Alhazred? Anyway, added to the main list!
Yeah, it's from the same mythology, but Lovecraft was afaik the first to use it.
Wolkendrache
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Re: Characters and People Who Inspired Suikoden

Post by Wolkendrache »

Hikaru wrote:Interesting... How certain are you about Lü and Wang? I didn't know them before, so I can't really tell. Lucretia really seems to resemble Zhuge Liang. Actually, I'd say the same about Shu in terms of behaviour...
Actually all Suikoden strategists are Zhuge Liang somehow. As for Lü and Wang: If Murayama had a historic prototype in mind, then perhaps yes, but I don’t know…

I think there are different ways to make a character:
1a) “suitably named after”: create a character -> find a suitable name from history/literature
1b) “mostly original”: create a character -> create or just find a good name
2a) “official replica”: think of a character from history/literature -> create a similar character -> retain the name
2b) “secret replica”: think of a character from history/literature -> create a similar character -> change the name

Now try to distribute the Suikoden characters among the categories. For example…
1a) Crowley, Mazus, Levi, Babbage, Bob (named after a legendary rastafari musician), maybe even the ninja, etc.
1b) Gengen, Sheena, Hilda, etc.
2a) Sancho, Bors, Percival, etc.
2b) Maximillian, Neclord, etc.
I believe characters from 2a) and 2b) are very rare.

The problem is that it’s all speculation, but we can’t get rid of this problem anyway. The reason for it is to make clear what you’re talking about: the name, or the personality, or the class/background? You’ve mentioned Pesmerga twice in your OP, because he’s a black knight by the name of a Kurdish rebel army. Another method for this kind of characters would be to specify both name inspiration and background inspiration, for example…
Pesmerga: name – Kurdish Peshmerga rebels; background – black knight from diverse novels
Barbarossa: name - Frederick I (Barbarossa); background – Emperor Huizong (leaving most policies to his corrupt ministers, he didn’t know what was going on in his realm)

One more comparison: Commander Kraze reminds me of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
"Within the four seas, all men are brothers" Shuihu Zhuan
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