Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, Taz the Tasmanian Tiger, Porky Pig, Peppa Pig, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna etc etc.
From the example above it is a common practice, with VERY rare exceptions, that animal characters are always named after their own species, which always bugged me because a name is not just a name, it's your identity. So are you telling me that Bugs being a bunny is all we need to know about him? Or that he is related to Lola Bunny and all other bunny characters named Bunny? What about Porky and Peppa, are they related?
I ask this because, for one I figure that we do this to make it easier for kids to identify what animal these characters are (which didn't help me as a Danish kid since Echidna was kept in English in Sonic X so I had no idea wtf an echidna even was). Secondly... we don't do the same with human characters? They often either just have first names or when they DO have last names they aren't just called Chris Human or Chris the Human. Is that because kids know what a human is so that is redundant but they can't see that Bugs is a bunny or that Sonic is a hedgehog?
All I'm saying is that if this is the reason, then for one we don't give kids enough credit. Second, I think we should start treating animal characters with the same respect we do human characters. So no more of this "your species is your name"-bs, NO, from now on we should start giving them proper last names. I mean they did it with Miles Prower and Amy Rose, so why not Sonic Windchest, Knuckles Ironhaust, and Shadow Nightshade or some sh*t like that?
From the example above it is a common practice, with VERY rare exceptions, that animal characters are always named after their own species, which always bugged me because a name is not just a name, it's your identity. So are you telling me that Bugs being a bunny is all we need to know about him? Or that he is related to Lola Bunny and all other bunny characters named Bunny? What about Porky and Peppa, are they related?
I ask this because, for one I figure that we do this to make it easier for kids to identify what animal these characters are (which didn't help me as a Danish kid since Echidna was kept in English in Sonic X so I had no idea wtf an echidna even was). Secondly... we don't do the same with human characters? They often either just have first names or when they DO have last names they aren't just called Chris Human or Chris the Human. Is that because kids know what a human is so that is redundant but they can't see that Bugs is a bunny or that Sonic is a hedgehog?
All I'm saying is that if this is the reason, then for one we don't give kids enough credit. Second, I think we should start treating animal characters with the same respect we do human characters. So no more of this "your species is your name"-bs, NO, from now on we should start giving them proper last names. I mean they did it with Miles Prower and Amy Rose, so why not Sonic Windchest, Knuckles Ironhaust, and Shadow Nightshade or some sh*t like that?