OOC: Out-of character. You know, it's like when a usually stoic, strict character is portrayed in fan works, adaptations or other depictions as a flamboyant cuckoo. Or something like that.

Because Hollyweird likes their movies Hijacked By Jesus
I usually find book-writers to be generally more sane, except for those Suethors who write out Hades as some kind of this uber-sexy hot dude and have their Mary Sues boink him. Then I get angry *coughPCCAstcough*

@d_a: PCCAst? I don't recognize it. Which book series is it so I can avoid it.

With the whole "God = Heaven, Satan = Hell", it's unfortunate "Zeus = Sky, Hades = Underworld" are very superficially alike.

Especially since the Greeks themselves, though they don't outright state Hades as evil, fears him because they fear death. Death = scary, scary = bad. The rest is history

@KTC: Just... avoid any book written by PC Cast Half of her books are annoying Mary Sue stories.

Ohh PC cast is the author. Got it.

Ugh, mary sues =_=

Bringing up something that's been boggling me for the longest time: How did the Green Dragon of the East turn blue?

Quick note for those who don't get it, it's the Chinese myth of four guardian beasts of the four directions. Featured in great many anime and manga and other stuff. The dragon of the east, the tiger of the west, the bird of the south, and the tortoise of the north. In Japanese known as Seiryu, Suzaku, Byakko, and Genbu.

Anyways, the tiger is white, the bird is red, the tortoise is black... those are correct.

But there's some confusion with the dragon. Western sources call the dragon "Azure Dragon of the East". Azure is blue. Thing is, in its original Chinese name the dragon is green! 東方青龍 Dōng Fāng Qīng Lóng means Green Dragon of the East. I have NEVER seen 青 meaning anything other than green in Chinese. So how did "green" become "azure/blue"?

The only explanation I could think of is because at some point the Japanese decided that "青" (Qing/Ao) should mean blue instead of green, and for some reason everyone just went with it. Doesn't explain why Ao Guang the Dragon King of the East are sometimes painted blue in CHINESE temples, though.

*pulls at hair* It's so frustrating. I'm sure if I start making the East Dragon green I'll get people yelling at me how I'm wrong and how it's AZURE dragon so it should be blue and crud like that.

By the way, I find it interesting that in Chinese myth the black tortoise is just black tortoise, while Genbu is black tortoise-and-snake. Or sometimes protrayed as some kind of snake-tortoise fusion creature. In the Chinese version, the snake is YELLOW and its dominion is in the "centre".

Also, anybody knows if there's really a myth about the Chinese dragon that breathes fire? I came across this article that the Chinese Fireball from Harry Potter IS based off a real dragon in the Chinese myth, but I have never come across anything like that before. I know the rain-and-water long/lung dragons, the Earth dragon, the human-faced dragon-thing, and the four dragon kings, but never heard of this fire-breathing Fireball dragons.

Well I did find this link,not sure how trustworthy it is though.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/artic ... nese-fireball-dragon/1733

Other than this link I couldnt find much more, despite its "popularity"

if you google for "liondragon" you find the chimera, which is of course a greek mythological creature

THAT was the article I was talking about and it sounds very much suspicious to me Imma go ask my family when I go home. Maybe someone knows more.