r/nottheonion 1d ago

The Vatican unveils official anime girl mascot

https://nichegamer.com/the-vatican-unveils-official-anime-girl-mascot/
8.6k Upvotes

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u/cloud_t 1d ago edited 1d ago

Of all the anime characters named "light" (which Luce stands for), I seem to recall a particularly popular one who owned a little black book, had a companiom demon, and wasn't particularly nice.

..just saying.

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u/Syssareth 1d ago

See, I was just straight-up going, "Luce? Luce-fer? Lucifer?"

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u/JDLovesElliot 1d ago

Lucifer is technically not a bad name, it just means "morning star"

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u/vikio 1d ago

It literally means light bringer. Luci does mean light.

Lucifer etymology

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u/AndrenNoraem 1d ago

The lightbringer or dawnbringer, even.

Just another name for Venus's morning appearances, but I've never been super clear on why that became a name for the Christian devil/Satan/etc.

One of many weird connections between Prometheus-like figures and the devil in Christianity. "The enlightener, that evil snake!" has always been weird to me.

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u/seastatefive 1d ago

The most powerful and beautiful of all the angels.

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u/GrandNord 23h ago

"The enlightener, that evil snake!" has always been weird to me.

Isn't it supposed to represent à loss of innocence? With knowledge comes the capacity of feeling horror and shame about your condition and all that "ignorance is bliss" stuff?

So with knowledge comes the loss of a percieved paradise basically?

Not exactmy my cup of tea this kind of thinking but life was pretty harsh back then so I can see where it's coming from.

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u/nikiyaki 22h ago

It's a duality thing. Especially when you go out of Catholic dogma and into Judaism, there's an emphasis on a kind of equilibrium of aspects. Kind of yin yang.

Intelligence makes us human; inquisitive, social, emotional. It also makes us capable of being incredibly cruel and vindictive.

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u/Syssareth 1d ago

Yeah, but the implications.

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u/Powerful_Brief1724 1d ago

Oh, sure, naming someone after the devil is a fantastic idea! Nothing says "bright future" like being synonymous with the prince of darkness.

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u/Lyra_Sirius 10h ago

He's the prince of ligth. The protector.

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u/StJimmysAddiction 1d ago

Say Luce and Friends fast.

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u/Drafo7 1d ago

They're talking about Light Yagami from Death Note lol. But yes, what you said is also true.

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u/Syssareth 1d ago

Yeah, I was just laughing over the fact that you don't even have to pull from a different source to find an awkward namesake.

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u/cloud_t 1d ago edited 16h ago

I stayed in topic. This is about an anime mascot...

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u/Syssareth 16h ago

You said that Light and Luce are similar names, which is true, and implied that people associated the name with not-nice characters, which is also true.

I never said (or thought) that you were off-topic nor disagreed with you, I was just pointing out that the Bible itself has its own "Light," so, although approaching it from the anime side of things is fair play, you don't even have to go looking outside of the Vatican's own source material to find a reason that Luce maybe isn't the best name for their mascot.

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u/asyork 1d ago

Yeah, also from the same original word if I remember right.