Everybody’s a product of their cultural environment. No such thing as an original idea, merely unique repurposing of ideas you’ve already been exposed to. Sometimes this is obvious, other times not.
For instance, when I needed a name for a black woman running a shadowy government agency allegedly on the side of good but with questionable ethics, I pulled “Amanda Walker,” because it was a pretty cool sounding name with strength and resolve behind it.
Except… what I didn’t recall until today is that DC comics beat me to that, with Amanda Waller, a black woman running a shadowy government agency allegedly on the side of good but with questionable ethics. Um. Whoops. It’s not exactly identical but it’s too close for comfort and with the publication of vol//002 approaching now is the time to change it.
So, from now on, she’s Miranda Walker. Close enough that it should be readily recognizable by long term fans, and hey, it’s got the added pun value of “one who walks the line between justice and vigilantism.” I’ll be updating the site accordingly soon.
Ah. Now I wished I’d actually made my comment about the name sooner; Amanda Waller is one of my husband’s favorite DC characters, so I had heard of her before. I thought your Amanda was in there as an homage to the DC character, but good point about the publication. No need to get a little too close for comfort, and I like the unintentional Miranda pun. ;)
She’s definitely an homage; I’ve always liked a hard-as-nails female character in a position of enforcing power. There’s an innate strength and no small amount of menace with a subtle undercurrent of compassion in that archetype which works perfectly. See also Commissioner Barbara in the AstroGal stories. (Who was also an homage to Barbara Gordon.)
Just realized that you get the faint hint of “Miranda warning” in there as well. Aheh.
I’m not sure if we can handle this level of wordplay. Our minds are easily blown.
I feel like “Miranda” means “watching” in Spanish, too, which as DoS is a fair aptonym.
(“Feel like” in this case meaning I haven’t verified it.)
… yeah, whoops. Good call. o_o;;
Oh well. It’s probably a hangover from the trope-tastic Anachronauts.
Very likely. Anachronauts dug deep in the cultural well and pulled up a lot of common archetypes, and heroic names to assign to them.