Free Association Theater

[trinityvixen]

I am going to give you a word. I would like you to tell me the first thing that pops into your head when I give it to you. Your response can be another word, it can be a phrase, or a picture if that's what you immediately think of. Don't think about it, just give me the first thing that comes to you.

All clear on what you're supposed to do? All right then. Clear your mind and here we go.












Your word is Raiden.

Comments

[lucky241.livejournal.com]

first thought that comes to mind is that I need to find a dictionary, lol

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I doubt you'll find it in there, but that's as much as I'm willing to give away right now.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Kano! Sonya Blade! MORTAAAAAL KOMBAAAAT!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ah, I expect you're not alone in this.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Huh?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I assume you have no word associations with "Raiden," then?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

You assume correctly. Also, lj is being stingy with comment notifications. I just got this.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

No worries. You may actually be a good outlier for my analysis. Which I'll get to eventually, I'm sure.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was the word that came up in my mind, too.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

So you've no associations with it at all?

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is I have no instant associations. I had to think, "what was Raiden again?"

After a bit I remembered that Raiden was the Japanese thunder god, so my association would be "thunder."

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Well done, sirrah, for going to the source of the pop-culture thing most people cited instead :)

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

Liu Kang!

(I don't know if that's the one that comes next on the actual song, but apparently it's the one that comes next on the version of the song in my head)

Simultaneous images were the thought of "lightning" and the image of his cool hat.

(All Mortal Kombat associations, clearly.)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one who thinks of that first. I confess my own first association was with that character. I'm interested in seeing how prevalent this is. I'm pretty sure it's a generational thing, though. I doubt people not even that much younger than us would make that same association. But I am curious.

Thanks for your input!

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Fatality ^_^

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your input. I think this should be a most interesting data collection day.

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

radon. Although I imagine that is only a temporary phenomenon on my part. The next thing was this, which makes sense, since I put *far* more quarters into this than MK growing up.

And I have it on the Jaguar...I should go hook that up later.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Mortal Kombat was your second impression? Unexpected! Although truthfully, I didn't know you were into that series at all. Most folks I know who like fighting games (and they are a rare species in our crowd) like either obscure-ish titles (Guilty Gear, etc.) or cutesy things like the Smash Bros. series.

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

Eh? No, radon was my first impression (yay, near-homonyms), then the scrolling shooter game Raiden was second.

Maybe then MK...although I much preferred SF2 and Darkstalkers, MK was pretty pervasive growing up. I mean, if Michelle says to me, "Get over here!" I invariably respond with, "Unghhhh!" as though I've been hit in the chest with a harpoon.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

LOL. I am not a huge fan of MK either, but I also revert to being thirteen when I saw the movie when I hear "GET OVER HERE!"

[equustel.livejournal.com]

Metal Gear Solid, lulz.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ah! Someone else knows that. I mean, I know that some of my friends do, but no one else mentioned it even as a 2nd or 3rd thought.

I never played MGS, but my roommate in college did. I remember spit-taking when he got to that point where Raiden ran around for a level or so with his hand over his junk.

[kokoinai.livejournal.com]

Another entry in the MK crowd.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't wanted to bias folk, I would have used MK as a prompt. As is, doesn't look like I needed to.

[slothshaman.livejournal.com]

SMARMY

Sorry, Lambert ruined the character for me.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh, Christopher Lambert. He did look pretty amazing for a, like, French guy pretending to be some Asian (Thai? Chinese?) God.

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

I EAT MARMALADE!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You're going to have to explain that one!

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

Okay, you know the move Raiden does where he flies across the screen, right? Now in MK and MK II the sound wasn't that advanced and the only sense of it I could make was something that vaguely sounded like "I EAT MARMALAaAaDE"

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

lol, well, I guess I count you in with the MK folk then!

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

Also, the Shoot 'em up Raiden DX.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Vikings! ...oh wait, that's Raider.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hee, cute. Of course, you jumped to Raider, and for some reason, from there, I jumped to LOTR...Strider!

[shell524.livejournal.com]

I actually thought of a guy I used to know who used the handle "Raiden" online. And then "that's a video game character of some kind...." Then I shrugged and almost didn't comment. :p

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I find the null-set associations most interesting, for reasons I will divulge later. It's most interesting to me that your information, however second-hand it is, is still in line with the association of most of the people commenting so far on this. Veeeeeeery interestink.

[sparticleman.livejournal.com]

FF3 Esper, and, in particular, the scene in which the queen's tear drop turns Odin into Raiden.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yet another videogame reference and yet a different one! Thanks.

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

I wanted to think of something unique at first, but to honest, the first thing that comes to mind is the Mortal Kombat character, whether in game or movie (played by Christopher Lambert).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yep, another one falls to pop-culture's long arm. Nothing to be ashamed of. I can't tell you how many things have been taken over, forever, by The Simpsons.

[jlc.livejournal.com]

I have an LJ friend who regularly uses a userpic of naked MGS2 Raiden doing cartwheels. I thought of that, then her, because life on the internet ruined my mind.

(Also, minor nitpick, raiden in Japanese literally means thunder and lightning, not necessarily a kami thereof. If you were try to find a Japanese analogue of other cultures' lightning and storm gods, you'd do better to look at Susanoo or Raijin)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

As I understand, "Raiden" is a bastardization of "Raijin" in the same vein as Godzilla is Gojira.

That's two MGS references so far.

[jlc.livejournal.com]

Nope. Raijin is 雷神 which is literally "thunder god." Raiden is 雷電 and is literally "thunder and lightning." The confusion comes from one of Raijin's honorific titles, 雷電様 (raiden-sama) which is "Lord of Thunder and Lightning." But that's not particularly useful as his name, as it's one of many titles he's got. (I have a feeling the raiden-as-name bit started because in some cases the -様 is more usually attached to the kami's name. For example, お稲荷様 or お稲荷さん (o-inari-sama or o-inari-san) for 稲荷神 (inari-kami). But it's not a rule that holds in most cases.)

[jlc.livejournal.com]

TL;DR of the above: raiden is another Japanese word, not a Westernization of one.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hee, I was gonna say, "I'd love to decipher that, but LJ is eating half of your characters!" But point taken, thanks.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I didn't see this when it was new, but my first association was actually Gwen Raiden from Angel. She was the electric girl, & also the same actress who played Kyra in Chronicles of Riddick.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, I know that chick! (Uh, from Chronicles, obviously not from Angel.)