They could have just made her mixed race. The only other mixed race character as far as im aware is Dan (chinese dad japanese mom?). All they had to say is her moms from Ethiopia and Dads from Vietnam or vice versa. Problem solved. In fact more likely daddys from Ethiopia and moms from viet. Mommy gave her the name but shes ethiopian by nationality.
I mean how hard is it to just do some basic research over at Capcom? I mean they managed to bring up Aprile had a brother which I thought had been long forgotten, but then they fail at the most basic things
Yes, if she’s not Vietnamese, why give her a Vietnamese name in the first place? I can perfectly imagine Capcom trying to explain “Santamu” is AMHARIC, OROMO or another one of 88 Ethiopian languages: after all, who will EVER verify?
Too bad some of their fans are linguists… 
It’s easier if they give her a mixed nationality, and frankly it’s their only way out at this point.
I don’t have a problem with her being Ethiopian (it actually makes sense given her design, that and I always thought she was supposed to represent someone from African descent), it’s just now her name doesn’t make sense in relation to all the other Dolls and ruins the theme they all have going. Her name should be something that represents the month of August in Ethiopian culture, not some mucked up mistranslation of August in Vietnamese.
They could’ve, but the tweet from Nakayama just confirms she’s strictly from Ethiopia and the Vietnam thing was but a rumor, even though this was her origin in several source materials.
Oh I definitely agree with it not making sense (just was being silly hah). When it came to her I was always confused because of her elements I wondered why she had a Vietnamese name:
-I know nothing about Vietnamese culture, but was thrown off by the spear
-Her hair in past art always looked African to me and I know East Asian peoples can come in all sorts of colours, but she was always drawn rather dark
I would really be curious to figure out why and how this happened since it seems rather complicated. Ddi Capcom originally want to do Vietnam as a rep, only to decide for whatever reason to diversify the Doll selection pool? I’m really stumped.
I believe Ken has a mixed origin also. His mom was japanese. I read this somewhere.
It’s good her being ethiopian, fit more her design and archetype
If anything a bad nation change was Carlos from Argentine (0 reps) to Brazil (already some characters from there)
Good call. Ken is 3/4 japanese if I recall properly. Then of course you have the Matsudas.
Rolento maaayy be Italian american, guy might be japanese american etc. Maki is 100% japanese tho I think.
In anycase an even easier solution to this problem would be to say she was born in Vietnam to parents of Ethiopian expats/businessman who lived there long enough to name thier kid something local. Bit of a stretch but at least its plausible.
Judging by his name, Carlos was always intended to be Brazilian. I didn’t even know he was listed as Argentine before.
I don’t have a problem with her being Ethiopian either, it’s just that now her name doesn’t make sense.
I mean, I’m gonna try and figure this out with Google but…
The official language of Ethiopia is Amharic.
The Amharic word for the month that overlaps with August is ነሐሴ.
ነሐሴ is pronounced nähäse.
So, it’s, like, Nah-hah-say.
I am good with her being Ethiopian though think a lot of the little cries of racism will be worst now. But they kind of went half way with her changes should of changed her name too if she is from Africa. Now they have to come up with some backstory to explain the Vietnam name or simply ignore it. lol
Rolento full name is Rolento F. Schugerg, so probably German as origin, born in america
Next week: Ryu is actually from sweden and his real name is Ludwig.
Speaking of mistranslated names. Rolento is technically Lawrence. The “O” sound technically be silent.
Schugerg huh? Would be interesting if they made him a jew as metro city is basically manhatten/new york.
Carlos is both a spanish and portugese name, can go well on either countries
Ironically is the japanese surname to give a lil more chances to brazil, since capcom seem to have a boner for japan-brazil mix (we have already the matsudas and Oro being a japanese that live there)
Btw as design he was a tribute to the protagonist of the early 90s tv show Renegade, who was part argentine origin
This is not a “boner for japan-brazil mix”. It’s quite accurate. Brazil holds the largest japanese community in Latin America. And yeah, I said that because “Carlos” is a very popular name for boys in Brazil but as you said, “Miyamoto” is an even bigger give away than his first name.
Yup, Ken is 3/4 Japanese, Rolento is American, but with German ancestry, not sure about Guy, but Maki is pure Japanese but bleaches her hair (it goes with how she was a delinquent/ gang member in her youth if I recall correctly).
With boner i mean repetition, they could get a country still not covered with Argentina (like they did in the first profile) but opted to make him the third jap-brazilian of SF
Also i edited after you replied, but Argentine kinda make sense for him being a Lamas/Renegade character tribute
Seem just a missed chance of get a argentine rep in SF universe
Btw whatever, no big deal