Cultural Thievery

2xDouble

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To be fair... Star Wars kinda was taken from samurai stories... and mixed with Westerns.
 

jmarquiso

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Nov 21, 2009
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There's a lot of truth to it, I'm sure that Giger was inspired by a lot of different cultural art, and Picasso openly admitted ripping off African artists.

Star Wars was pretty openly a sci-fi remake of The Hidden Fortress.
 

INeedAName

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Feb 16, 2011
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As some have already said, Star Wars was heavily influenced from old oriental (mostly Japanese) cinema (among other things).

Thor is obviously inspired by North mythology. I'm pretty sure America can claim full credit of Captain America however, for all it's worth.
 

Basement Cat

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Jul 26, 2012
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Lot's of details in the pictures for folks to pick out.

I hadn't thought much about intellectual thievery on such a scale before. The old "we thought of it first" attitude is common and has always been common. And so has sheer thievery.

History has taught us that just as Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz separately developed Calculus around the same times "the 100th monkey" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect#The_effect_discredited] effect influences our creative abilities on science and engineering. It happens with artistic endeavors all the time.

It's called Convergent Evolution when Mother Nature does it rather than plagiarisn: Emus and Ostriches, anyone?
 

Imp_Emissary

Mages Rule, and Dragons Fly!
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May 2, 2011
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Well, I'd say it doesn't really change anything. "There's nothing new under the sun", as they say.

So long as we all recognize that our culture does have roots in other areas of the world, I see no problem.

It is kind of cool though. To see that something ancient come back and become something again in the world that we all know about. Makes you wonder if there is anything else we have yet to rediscover.

Edit: Hmmm....Seems the art isn't that old actually. Still would like to find out for sure if it's real or not. Also the painting is still cool.
 

Siege_TF

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May 9, 2010
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Reminds me of what a damn shame it was that you couldn't give Darth Vader's mask or lightsaber to Yoshimitsu in SC 4 (or give Vader Yoshi's wodden arm).
 

Piorn

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That's like saying Egyptians invented Stargate, because all the symbols and things were used in pyramids first.
Also, I find it hard to believe there was some sort of feudal lord in ancient china, writing about chestbursters.

Nice art though, reminds me of the ancient chinese Pokemon.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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I wonder if Gieger had ever actually seen that painting and this is all a major coincidence. ...or a hoax.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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2xDouble said:
To be fair... Star Wars kinda was taken from samurai stories... and mixed with Westerns.
And had a very Japanese aesthetic at points....AND Lucas was very, very open about it.
 

Eternal_Lament

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Sep 23, 2010
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While I'm not doubting that Giger may have gotten inspiration from other cultures, the painting they show seems rather suspect. It looks more like the Xenomorphs as they're portrayed now as opposed to Giger's original design. It would seem weird if he looked at the painting, did his rendition of it, and then when the movies come out decide to go back to the inspiration. I guess I'll wait too see what's the deal with it.
 

Pebkio

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Nov 9, 2009
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I actually went and read the article they linked. Apparently it's a Chinese blogger making the claim... someone named Zhao. Basically, they found a painting of the Xenomorphs in a flea market and seems to think it's the art of one Qi Baishi, an artist who died in 1957.

I don't think there's proof, nor has the painting even been taken to a specialist to be analyzed... I don't think the picture is even signed by Qi Bashi. However, I don't know anything about Qi Bashi, or this Zhao person. Is Zhao someone with an art doctorate and a way to test the age of the paint? Is this the kind of art of which Qi Bashi has other examples?

It's very clearly a picture of Xenomorphs... suspiciously just like them. That, honestly, makes me a bit skeptical about their authenticity. But as I said, I don't know enough.

...
>.>
IT'S A FAKE! THPPPPPT!

Also, I have never watched Aliens.
 

Sejborg

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Jun 7, 2010
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This wasn't even remotely funny. If it was supposed to be funny, then that alone almost makes it funny though. But that would be a sad kind of funny.
 

KarmaTheAlligator

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And the Kanji on the Vader pic actually say (from right to left) Young something Samurai (I think), next one is Light Blade. And I can't work out the others. The left most Katakana mentions robots. Well done, sirs.
 

PunkRex

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Stormtrooper: Lord Vader, are troops are being driven back by Ewoks!
Vader: *Cooor'keeer* Shamefur disray!
 

Farther than stars

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jmarquiso said:
There's a lot of truth to it, I'm sure that Giger was inspired by a lot of different cultural art, and Picasso openly admitted ripping off African artists.

Star Wars was pretty openly a sci-fi remake of The Hidden Fortress.
And Picasso's not the only artist. Ayn Rand's Objectivism actually suggests that all art is based on natural observations.