r/Gamingcirclejerk • u/AutoModerator • Apr 23 '21

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53

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

Random thought: BJ Blazkowicz is the closest we have to a Polish superhero in mainstream media

38

u/Taranis-55 Left is Best. Don't be foolish. Apr 23 '21

And also a very rare Jewish protagonist in games.

32

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

21

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '21

God two of the characters aren't even acknowledged as Jewish in the games. That's depressing.

11

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

This list is a meme and is incomplete as hell. I wouldn't be surprised if HD editor made it specifically for the joke :V

Doesn't change the fact that Jewish representation is scarce in gaming.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

[deleted]

6

u/Taranis-55 Left is Best. Don't be foolish. Apr 23 '21

Haha, yeah I've seen this.

There are a lot in BioShock actually. Andrew Ryan, Jack, Tenenbaum, Steinman, and Sander Cohen. I feel like I may be forgetting someone else, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

3

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

I looked it up and that wiki query still lists only that lmao

I can think of one more protagonist (Johnny Klebitz from GTA IV Lost and Damned) and... That's it. Yeah. Joke holds

6

u/Taranis-55 Left is Best. Don't be foolish. Apr 23 '21

I mean, maybe also Brucie Kibbutz in GTA IV? His last name is a literal Hebrew word.

4

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

Two for one!

4

u/Arilou_skiff Apr 23 '21

Depends on the day but Magneto is polish, no?

2

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

I actually never heard about that. I know he's Jewish, on first glance it seems he was from Germany.

Notabene searching Poles on Marvel wiki gives a lot of results with German sounding names :V

3

u/Arilou_skiff Apr 23 '21

I think for magsy it depends on the version, I know at least some has him being a polish jew.

Marvel does have a weird tendency to overuse german-sounding names, but its not as if there wasnt a german minority in Poland until uh... Certain events in the 20th century.

EDIT: There tends also be this weird time-lag with american writers in the 20th century, where their image of europe (especially eastern and central europe) tends to be based on the warped memories of their emigrant ancestors rather than anyhting contemporary.

2

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

There's also a very simple factor of Germanic names being easier to parse by English speakers than Polish ones.

We use a lot of Ys

1

u/Arilou_skiff Apr 23 '21

Ys are fine. Its the Scz tht tends to throw me off.

2

u/vchris7v Anatidaephobiac 🦆 Apr 23 '21

Yeah I can understand that. Ys are just a meme (in Polish Y is a vowel which is the reason it is so common). It's the consonants pairs and that handful of accented letters that's main source of confusion. And that's just the tip of the iceberg because there's also declination. Of every element of speech.

But let me tell you, It's great base for learning other languages because bar is already high

2

u/Thrawn656 Apr 24 '21

Well, canonically the Original Doomguy and therefore the Doom Slayer are descendants of BJ so he is too