Legend of Galactic Girls Concordance
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References about Fenspace itself are not detailed here. Please consult the remainder of this wiki for obscure details about the setting.
Knowledgable readers may have noticed the chapter naming convention used for this story: all of the titles are variations of anime titles. The overall title, Legend of Galactic Girls, plays off of the old series Legend of Galactic Heroes
Contents
Prologue - Sangnoir of the Universe
- Sangnoir of the Universe
- A play off of Stellvia of the Universe, the translated full name of the anime Stellvia.
- "Don't tell me you've heard of me?"
- "We've heard of you."
- "I asked you not to tell me that."
- This is a variation of one of the stock exchanges from the 1960s-era spy spoof Get Smart.
- "... when one of our universe's authors combined the concept with quantum mechanics' lack of a privileged frame of reference, he realized that everyone is fictional in some other reality somewhere."
- Specifically Robert A. Heinlein, in his novel The Number of the Beast. (Or, at least, that's where Rob first saw the concept.)
- Oh, wonderful – not again.
- See Drunkard's Walk X for the first instance of Doug learning he's a character in a story.
- the International Strike Teams
- According to Bob's website, this is the original name of the International Super Teams from GURPS I.S.T. (You learned it here first: Noah's a gamer geek.) Noah's checking to make sure Doug really is Doug, and not some other cross-world traveler pretending to be The Loon – or, worse yet, the evil-reflection "Prateorian Doug," metahuman enforcer for his homeworld's Music And Film Industry Associations of America, that may or may not exist somewhere out there.
- Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said, "Huh?"
- "Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing." – attributed to Robert Benchley
- When I regained consciousness,
- This is a recurring bit from Dave Broadfoot's stories of his character Sgt. Renfrew of the RCMP, as told irregularly on the Royal Canadian Air Farce radio show in Canada in the 1980s.
- Mr. Broadfoot told the Renfrew stories as first-person-viewpoint tales. Often, but no more than once per story, "Renfrew" would recount doing something unbelievably stupid and completely avoidable (like jumping out a window in order to land on his horse without checking that the horse was still there, or reading a waitress' nametag and asking what the other one's called.) The very next line of the story always began "When I regained consciousness, ..."
- As for how Doug learned about Sgt. Renfrew, perhaps one of his quiet untold stops was in an analogue of 1980s Canada?
- That's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question
- A pulp-culture reference that's become mainstream, The $64,000 Question was a television quiz show in the 1950s.
- I thought of Maggie for a moment, and smiled. "When I'm away, I write home every day."
- "And the next line," added Noah.
"... And when I'm away,
I'll write home every day,
And I'll send all my loving to you."
- From All My Loving, by The Beatles, written by Lennon/McCartney, copyright © 1963 Northern Songs.
Chapter One - Fenspace Explorers
- Fenspace Explorers
- A play off of Ruin Explorers.
- "What's a DQS?"
- It's a "Douglas Quincy Sangnoir," or some other trans-dimensional visitor, of course.
- a pop-instrumental version of The Girl from Ipanema
- Specifically, the version that was playing in the Cook County Assessment Office elevator near the end of The Blues Brothers. Noah went to some expense to get that version just because he wanted that particular cover for Stellvias "hold" signal.
- "Anybody want some watermelon?"
- Why did Peggy choose watermelon? She's been traveling with a number of Japanese people, and has at least noticed one of their habits – when you visit somebody, you bring food, and watermelon is one of the more expensive (and thus impressive) gifts you can bring.
- Why did the BBIs roll their eyes? To quote Buckaroo Banzai, I'll tell you later ... 8-)
Chapter Two - Senshi's Moving Castle
- Senshi's Moving Castle
- A play off of Howl's Moving Castle.
- "I bet no other avatars of my overself have problems with self-aware robots."
- Sorry, Skuld, you lose that bet – the canonical Skuld has even worse problems with Banpei and Sigel, two robots she built herself. They don't appear in the Oh My Brother universe because Paradox and his ... "bookends" ... fill their places in the storyline.
- "Oh, my apologies, Ms. Vanette. You and Ms. Skuld sound remarkably alike."
- And Kaolla thinks they both sound something like her big sister, Amalla... It's because they share the same voice actress, Aya Hisakawa. (Just be glad Sailor Mercury didn't join the Girls when they passed through the Sailor Moon Step.)
- Naoko Sato
- A conflation of the names of two people heavily involved in Sailor Moon – story creator Naoko Takeuchi and first season director Junichi Sato. Rob thinks it seems like an appropriate name for an important Senshi.
- Maico Tange
- A homage to Android Announcer Maico 2010 – Maico (who has no family name) was played by Sakura Tange (best-known in North America as Sakura in Card Captor Sakura and Kozue in Infinite Ryvius).
- Rob recommends this 24-episode series to anyone who enjoys workplace comedy/drama anime, assuming it's ever licenced and professionally translated.
- "Allez inventer!"
- Referencing, of course, the line "Allez cuisine!" from Iron Chef
- Miyu had jostled Ryoko's arm just as she was serving a special bowl of soup to the Professor, which made her drop the bowl, but that was the only mishap during the meal.
- According to their writeups, Miyu and Ryoko both want to see the Professor dead, but always interfere with each other's plans. Anyone care to guess what was in the "special bowl of soup"? 8-)
- "Bloody hell! You're turning me into a Woollie?"
- Most Borribles have a distinctly unfriendly relationship with police officers, which is why Chalotte objects to becoming one even temporarily.
Chapter Three - Fist of the Morning Star
- Fist of the Morning Star
- A play off of Fist of the North Star. Rob thanks Jenn Flack for suggesting the title.
- "Nice pompom round,"
- Not to be confused with a pom-pom round -- handwavium and explosives don't mix well.
- "Heckler and Koch MP5K short 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun, with the optional attache case with a trigger built into the handle."
- Yes, it really exists.
- "You know, if you tried to not-stare at us any harder, you'd likely end up blindfolding yourself."
- This line and the 14 paragraphs following it were written by Griever. Thanks again for the assist!
- As she returned to the workshop, she pulled a pair of glasses out of her pocket.
- Yes, these (and the other two pairs that appear later in the chapter) are functionally indentical to Skuld's glasses from chapter 32 of Oh My Goddess! Sora, Yayoi, and Kohran get a major power-up here.
- Crystal 109
- A homage to Shibuya 109, a women's-fashion department store located in a cylindrical building that's become iconic of the Shibuya ward in Tokyo... or, at least, it has in anime. Considering that Machida 109, Kohrinbo 109, and Shizuoka 109 also exist, it's not unreasonable to assume they'd have a physical presence in the Japanese-influenced parts of Fenspace.
- Li-ér
- Kohran is (based on) a Chinese girl; of course Makoto is going to use a Chinese honorific when referring to her.
- chlorine trifluoride
- Dangerous stuff. Very dangerous stuff. And Kaolla liked playing with it... If Dee was a chemist, she'd worry about her travelling companion..
- Operation Spanish Inquisition
- Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch isn't as well-known as many of their other routines, but it's still worth watching at least once. Preferably while seated in a Comfy Chair.
- "Nice boat."
- When the anime School Days first aired in Japan, a violent event in the final episode was uncomfortably similiar to an event that took place in real life the day before that episode was to be aired. As a result, most if not all of the Japanese television stations that had been airing the series replaced that episode with a nature show or a travelogue. The most famous of these shows included a scene of a ferry with an overlaid title "Nice Boat". (There's a screenshot of it on Kurogane’s Anime Blog.)
- Since then, "nice boat" has been a code phrase in many Internet circles for "they cut the violence"...
- "Thunder's just a noise, boys, lightning does the work."
- From Lightning Does The Work, by Chad Brock, copyright © 1999 Warner Bros. Records. See the Sailor Moon Step of the Walk for why Makoto thinks it's appropriate.
- "It's like a cross between H.R. Giger and H.R. Pufnstuf in here."
- H.R. Giger is a Swiss surrealist artist, best known in North America for his design work for the movie Alien and its sequels. H.R. Pufnstuf was an early children's show from Sid and Marty Kroft, who would go on to work on such gems as Land of the Lost and Pink Lady and Jeff. (See the Concordance for Chapter Six of Drunkard's Walk II for more on the latter show.) Crossing the two H.R.s produces a Crossover That Should Not Be, which is why Noah's whispering ... in fear.
- Important safety tip.
- 'Most every story associated with the Drunkard's Walk needs at least one Ghostbusters reference.
- "Some days, you just can't get rid of a blonde."
- Riffing off of a famous line from Batman (1966): "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb."
- "I got better,"
- Noah is of course quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail, an especially appropriate line considering that he's recently had a spell cast on him.
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