Kwannon Appreciation 2024

[marhawkman]

Id rather they create a new one than to retcon her from being Japanese to Korean decades later. After all the controversy surrounding her race for the bulk of her history, I think Marvel should leave her ethnicity alone now

An asian woman living in Japan who speaks Japanese? The only aspect that feels Korean is the way she spelled Kwannon. Korea has "kw" in words, Japan doesn't. Japanese just renders it as k. While we have little other info to work on.... It's interesting food for thought.

It IS true that there is a small subset of Japanese society that are people descended from Koreans. Most of them are relatively poor too. So, it does make sense for an organization like the Hand to use them as agents. We don't have a lot to go on though. Yes, she was romantically involved with one or more Japanese men, but... that's not really saying much. there's quite a few mixed heritage people in Japan. Some of them might not even know since mixed korean/Japanese... isn't very interesting looking. Sure there's differences, but very subtle ones.

[Havok83]

An asian woman living in Japan who speaks Japanese? The only aspect that feels Korean is the way she spelled Kwannon. Korea has "kw" in words, Japan doesn't. Japanese just renders it as k. While we have little other info to work on.... It's interesting food for thought.

It IS true that there is a small subset of Japanese society that are people descended from Koreans. Most of them are relatively poor too. So, it does make sense for an organization like the Hand to use them as agents. We don't have a lot to go on though. Yes, she was romantically involved with one or more Japanese men, but... that's not really saying much. there's quite a few mixed heritage people in Japan. Some of them might not even know since mixed korean/Japanese... isn't very interesting looking. Sure there's differences, but very subtle ones.

Devil's advocate....have we ever actaully seen her spell her name? People calling her that in dialgoue boxes doesnt really count as that is a Western writer's possible misspelling of the name. It could be a case of what was done with Karma recently where her name was revised to match how it actually would be spelled in Vietnamese

[marhawkman]

Devil's advocate....have we ever actaully seen her spell her name? People calling her that in dialgoue boxes doesnt really count as that is a Western writer's possible misspelling of the name. It could be a case of what was done with Karma recently where her name was revisted to match how it actually would be spelled in Vietnamese

Actually, given the context of the word balloons it seems more likely that the "kw" is simply the way she chooses to pronounce it.

Or it could be intentional subterfuge on the part of the Hand to make people less sure who she was. Like I said... it's.... rather ephemeral and not concrete. which is part of why I would like to see it explained... there's several possibilities and we really don't know which is right.

also.... it's possible the Hand raised her from a young enough age that she DOES actually use Kwannon as a personal name... since.. the Hand were raising her to be an assassin first, everything else second.

[Kwannon]

This is such an interesting discussion. A lot of you have made some really good points.

[Wiccan]

They could easily just fix the spelling of her name. I guess it's not something as egregious as Karma though, since japanese words have to be romanized and when not spelled in japanese they're kind of an "adaptation" anyway? Or maybe Marvel just hasn't noticed.

Im not trying to bring up the Psylocke debacle but way back when the Fallen Angels writer said that it wasnt her real name I was like oh this is a good work around and to just give her Kwannon as a code name because a ninja named after the goddess of mercy is pretty bad ass.

But she's locked in as Psylocke now.

I think the intention was actually the opposite, he established Kwannon wasn't her real name either to explain why she wanted to just be called "Psylocke" (and probably as a way to tell readers to do the same, though it didn't work especially with other books using Kwannon lol).

[Hakka84]

Im not trying to bring up the Psylocke debacle but way back when the Fallen Angels writer said that it wasnt her real name I was like oh this is a good work around and to just give her Kwannon as a code name because a ninja named after the goddess of mercy is pretty bad ass.

My mind is blown. °_° Can't forget this. I need this.

[Thirteen]

I've been remiss in not giving some time to the CBR article on Kwannon's history . Including all things names, butterflies and Matsu'o (dead or alive? Did Logan stop collecting a piece of him every year to avenge the death of Mariko?)...

[CGAR]

That Matsuo story beat was handled I the Chris Yost Psylocke mini

[marhawkman]

I do have to wonder... who is the father of Kwannon's child? Was it Matsu'o?

[Hakka84]

I do have to wonder... who is the father of Kwannon's child? Was it Matsu'o?

No. The father of the baby was killed.

[Hypestyle]

what is her history before being body swapped with Psylocke?

[marhawkman]

what is her history before being body swapped with Psylocke?

We don't know much. Mostly that she was raised for most of her life to be a Hand assassin.

[Hakka84]

I also think that 99% of what we know about her pre-bodyswap past, is told in Fallen Angels?
Pre-Krakoa, I think we only knew about her romantic life and who was her master.

[marhawkman]

I also think that 99% of what we know about her pre-bodyswap past, is told in Fallen Angels?
Pre-Krakoa, I think we only knew about her romantic life and who was her master.

And... everything in Fallen Angels is... not the OG creator's ideas.

[Havok83]

And... everything in Fallen Angels is... not the OG creator's ideas.

That series was trash and I wish it could be retconned out of existence. Kwannon didnt come into her own until Hellions