Filipino Tropers, UNITE!

I'm not Filipino, but I have a question for you.

How many of you grew up with Eto Rangers? Because this was the only country it was ever exported to, and I don't want to miss out on any details important to the original fandom while I'm working on my Woolseyized Fan Sub for it.

edited 7th Aug '15 8:22:29 AM by BaffleBlend

I didn't grow up over local shows, except when Pokemon weren't dubbed. How is your work fansubbing going? If there's something you need help translating, I can do it for you.

Pretty well. The actual translating was done by another group years ago, but never got around to editing. So I'm just picking up where they left off.

I'm subbing the Japanese version and not the Tagalog dub, but I just wanted to take steps and make sure I don't tick off any existing fans.

Pangkat malansang isda ako dati haha. Pero like pagdating ng high school, halos lahat nagtatagalog, so yun. Di ko sinasabi na magaling ako, pero mas fun gamitin? Gets? Pero yeah, puro taglish nga lang minsan. Kung tinodo ko yung Filipino, medy weird pakinggan kung wala yung kabastusan haha. PI, etc.

I used to be a "malansang isda" before haha. But around highschool everyone started speaking it so yeah. Not saying I'm an expert by any means but it's more fun to use IMO. Yeah, it's taglish sometimes. But using pure Filipino is kinda weird to hear sometimes unless you're really crass with it which makes it seem fine.

Lots of Philippine jokes I find hilarious but have limited use for outside of IRL stuff. Eh di wow, pabebe girls, etc.

Unfortunately few people even understand full Tagalog anymore, let alone speak it. Suffice it to say that the country's de facto national language is Taglish (at least in the capital and surrounding areas, when it isn't English).

That said, I'd be willing to bet that in the provinces, all the other languages (Cebuano, Ilocano, Ilonggo, Kapampangan &c.) probably mix up a lot with English in everyday use as well—not to mention the code-switching. It'd be a noble goal to someday learn the various Philippine languages, but the pure languages themselves are simply not considered practical anymore, much as I'd love to learn and use them.

Hi. From Metro Manila, and I have this to ask about Baybayin/Alibata: For "mesa (table)" and "misa [(Holy) Mass (derived from Spanish)]," how to differentiate the two, since they both use the same symbol in here?

edited 11th Aug '15 2:29:18 AM by HallowHawk

I guess you would simply have to write them the same way. Your readers would have to guess from context what you mean, similar to Japanese. The site you linked to makes a good example for bignay being written as bi-na.

The problem there is that both mesa and misa have hispanic origins, and work in their writing system. We would have developed different words without Spanish influence (in fact, I believe there is one for mesa that I do not remember).

edited 11th Aug '15 7:12:33 AM by Thanatologist

One Crowning Moment Of Awesome for the Filipino troops in the Korean War, where 1,400 Filipinos fought against 40,000 Chinese. AND WON.

edited 15th Aug '15 2:12:13 AM by judasmartel

Irate Caller Goes Super Saiyan / Beast Mode

Lots of Black Speech abound. You Have Been Warned.

i sound dumb

edited 15th Aug '15 6:57:57 PM by TheTomatoFairy

BEAST MODE ON, BITCH.

Just happened to stop by.

I was wondering what would you guys think about a Game of Thrones-style teleserye—but set in the modern Philippines, or a very Filipino-like fictional country, since satirising real Filipino leaders can be dangerous to your health.

I'd say it's more relevant with the elections coming up and all.

edited 28th Sep '15 7:22:43 AM by mirisu92

Not happening, with AlDub and Pastillas around.

Well, Heneral Luna is also around, so your argument is at most semi-valid. That said, that and AlDub and Pastillas Girl combined … well, most of the public won't have room for more pop culture at the moment.

But I wasn't under any illusions that a Pinoy-style GoT would be doable before the elections anyway. Just a thought experiment—if it were for real, the show would get better traction after 2016, when public attention towards the political process wanes back to "normal" years.

I was doing some worldbuilding though: a fictional West Pacific island nation, smaller than the real Philippines, but with a similar Spanish/American colonial history. Independence comes in the 1950s or 1960s after another Asian nation attacks it (not Japan). A dictatorship happens later on, so it's very similar to Philippine history, but with some major differences (say, heightened racism (^note  perhaps there'd be an apartheid parallel against the Lumad/indigenous equivalents), or the presence of local minority religions instead of Islam).

The show could begin right after the end of a dictatorship in the 2010s, when the country's trying to pull itself back together.

edited 30th Sep '15 7:46:39 AM by mirisu92

Looking forward to it.

Anyways, let us pray for our national basketball team Gilas Pilipinas, that may God guide them to the gold medal in FIBA Asia and a trip to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Epic trolling a racist snob by a call center agent is epic.

I fondly remember how people used to say some Americans want immigrants and tourists to speak English when in America, when in fact the English language isn't really American in origin, and American English is only a dialect of British English.

edited 23rd Dec '15 2:05:55 AM by judasmartel

According to sources, a remake of the 2005 Philippine Series Encantandia is currently underway.

Rhian Ramos and Glaiza de Castro have been revealed to play the roles of Magic Knight fairy princesses Amihan and Pirena, previously played in the original series by Iza Calzado and Sunshine Dizon, respectively.

-> *insert epic opening theme here*

Encantadia is a 2005 Filipino fantasy series (locally known as telefantasya) produced by GMA Network. It was dubbed as the grandest, most ambitious, and most expensive production for Philippine television during its time of release.

The setting takes place in the Magical Land of Encantandia, inhabited by different mythical entities residing in the four nations of Adamya, Sapiro, Lireo, and Hathoria. Each nation holds one of the four elemental crystals of Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire. All four of these brilliantes holds the balance to the world of Encantadia.

Enter the Sang'gres Amihan, Alena, Danaya, and Pirena - four Diwata Princesses of Lireo tasked with keeping the brilliantes safe. Their fighting skills and magical powers as a result of bearing Diwata Royal Blood are what made Lireo the most powerful among the four kingdoms.

All was well and good, until Pirena, the oldest of the Sang'gres, went Green-Eyed Monster on her immediate younger sister Amihan who bested her in a contest for the Lirean crown, and then the two younger sisters sided with Amihan. As we all know, this will NOT end well.

The pilot episode aired on May 2, 2005 and its last episode aired on December 9 to give way to its prequel Etheria, which aired its pilot episode on December 12, and its last episode on February 18, 2006. The third and latest installment of the Encantadia saga, entitled Encantadia: Pag-ibig Hanggang Wakas (literally means Encantadia: Love Until The End), aired its pilot on February 20, 2006 and ended on April 28, 2006.

The series garnered both popular and critical recognition at home and abroad, including winning the 2005 Teleserye (Television Series) of the Year at the Los Angeles-based Gawad Amerika Awards.

It has also gained popular acclaim in other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

The entire Encantadia saga is currently aired on FOX Filipino.

Additional reading from The Other Wiki here.

—

Some of the tropes associated with Encantadia are as follows:

• Captain Ersatz: Amihan and Lira should remind viewers of Saber. Although the Fate/stay night visual novel was released a year before Encantandia, the anime was released in the same year as the show. Not that a lot of people know about this at the time, though.
• Elemental Powers: Each of the Sang'gres have their respective powers which fit their personalities as well.
  • Amihan is Sang'gre of Wind. She is the most skilled fighter of the sisters and has the ability to fly.
  • Pirena is the Sang'gre of Fire. Also a Voluntary Shapeshifter.
  • Alena is the Sang'gre of Water. Also wields Magic Music.
  • Danaya is the Sang'gre of Earth. Also a Combat Medic.
• Magic Knight: All the four Sang'gres are this, but Amihan is the closest to the RPG archetype.
• Weapon Of Choice
  • Amihan wields the Saber-style sword-and-shield combo.
  • Pirena dual wields daggers.
  • Alena wields a spear.
  • Danaya wields Dual Tonfas.

If anyone is interested in helping out creating trope pages for Encantandia, please let me know.

edited 6th Jan '16 3:50:08 AM by judasmartel

No problem! I don't know much about the show myself, but I could definitely start up a page.

For the Fil-American tropers around, is anyone dealing with problems about finding pre-colonial history?

Not just the literal problems of "written/Internet records are very rare, and most of those were originally by the Spaniards who slip in TONS of racism while making said accounts," but the social problems of how a lot of modern Filipinos just don't like the tribal Filipinos?

Like, I found out about traditional Filipino tattoos and I think it's awesome because it looks like Maori tattooing, but I can't talk about it to my family. Mom thinks tattoos in general are low-class and she really didn't like when my brother eventually got sleeves on his arm. Then she used to tell me stories about making fun of the tribal Filipinos whenever she and her siblings encountered them, so now I REALLY can't talk about traditional tattoos or all my pre-colonial Filipino research with my family.

I feel like the closest social equivalent is how most urban/mainstream Americans make fun of the Southern USA states for being inbred and gun-crazy.

Mom's side of the family is from just outside Manila (Dad's side is American), so they're probably really conservative.

edited 6th Jan '16 5:16:56 PM by Sharysa

The Spaniards used a Divide and Conquer strategy to subjugate the Filipinos for more than 300 years. They pitted the tribes against each other.

It got so bad the other tribes fled to the mountains to avoid Spanish persecution. Some however, particularly the Muslims in Mindanao, fought valiantly and WON against the Spanish forces.

That is the reason there is such hatred among the Filipino tribes.

As for the tattoos, a study shows that among the first to settle in the Philippine Islands are the Polynesians and the aboriginal Taiwanese (not to be confused with the modern Chinese-born Taiwanese). So I don't really see the hate for tribal tattoos, so it's more like three things:

• Some of the tribal people have gone down from the mountains because their natural environment hasn't been giving them enough to live on, but the problem is they don't have enough education (I really don't say skills, because that's what pretty much education can give you, the tribal peoples have skills the schooled don't) to get a job that pays enough for their families to survive;
• The discrimination factor against the tribal peoples because, really, you can see some of them lying around with dingy appearance begging in the streets. So there's the perception that the tribal peoples are dirty and uneducated and therefore should not be dealt with.
• Tattooed Crooks and Activist-Fundamentalist Antics are probably why your family doesn't approve of tribal tattoos.
  • One, they think "Tattoos = Evil" (even if they're not)
  • Two, tattoos are bad according to the Bible, never mind there isn't anything in the Bible that explicitly says that tattoos are bad. What St. Peter says in 1 Peter 3:3-4 is that your beauty should not be defined by your outward appearance, but by your inward spirit and character.

edited 6th Jan '16 11:44:26 PM by judasmartel

January 9th, 2015. Black Nazarene procession.

The Children of God (TM) are at it again. Criticizing Catholics left and right for supposedly "worshipping lifeless images".

Oh well.

Mom doesn't hate tribal tattoos, she doesn't like tattoos in general because to her, they're "low class." Then she is VERY prejudiced against the tribes (the stories of her siblings mocking the tribesmen, plus how she occasionally she tells me that I shouldn't do something because "that's what tribe/country girls do"), so it's a pretty small stretch that I shouldn't tell her anything about my search for indigenous tribal information, including indigenous tattoos.

And a lot of other Filipinos have similar mentalities since apparently the education system TEACHES CHILDREN that the Spaniards helped us. Like, REALLY? Slaughtering entire villages just for being pagan?

One of my stories was originally set in an alternate version of the Philippines where the tribes were a lot better off (no political power anymore, but they at least kept parts of their land and they were definitely much less discriminated against). But I made the story take place in a neighboring fictional archipelago instead. I wanted to take some creative liberties, sure, but I also have a 80% certainty that people will call me a tribe-worshiping American girl or something if I leave the story set in the Philippines.

On a lighter note, I went to a reading of Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn yesterday. It's set in the Philippines and listening to the cast was like being at a family meetup. It even works that I didn't know most of them, because I don't know a crapton of my family members. Lol.

edited 9th Jan '16 11:09:12 AM by Sharysa

Mighty Whitey indeed.

Yes, the education system claims Spain did a good job of making the Philippines the only Catholic nation in Asia until East Timor got its independence, because apparently, paganism is uncivilized, and Islam is bad.

Never mind the pagans already had a civilization with an even higher level of culture than the Europeans during the 1500s. Case in point: when the Europeans still use wooden plates for eating, the pagans already use PORCELAIN plates.

Never mind that Christians killed innocent Muslim AND Christian civilians during the Crusades, lived off the hard-earned money of their own sheep as if donations from the rich anxious to easily get into heaven after they die aren't enough alteady, raped children, and did other not-so-good things.

Speaking of Mighty Whiteys, you guys interested in helping me write the trope page for Amigo? There isn't one and I just thought it'd be great to make one. The full film's here on YT: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Gl7uoU7hc) and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQMDBdstlVo). It's great but apparently whoever recorded it left their Skype on, so you'll hear the notification "bubble pops", but otherwise it's good.

Also, it is a damn shame, this whole colonial business. At least the British and the Dutch weren't interested in brainwashing their subjects, they were merely content with controlling them.^note bar some noises the British made towards the White Man's Burden as well, but still. Sad thing is, of all empires, we Filipinos had to get the two who were most obsessed with brainwashing. Hell, we still have their symbols on our coat-of-arms. OUR coat-of-arms!

Although it makes you think: if the Spanish hadn't come first, would we be more Asian even after American rule? I mean, if they ruled like the British then we'd still get to keep quite a bit of Asian culture.

edited 15th Jan '16 8:16:14 PM by mirisu92

Hi. Art-loving Filipino Troper here hailing from Aklan. And I'd like to ask something.

@Judasmartel: Mind if I turn Encantadia into a YKKTW? Please and thank you.

30 Years since EDSA.