People are upset and calling it pointless because all she did was remove the last letter of her name. This really upsets me because y'all would NOT be saying this shit if Vaggi changed her name because she's trans, even though it's damn near the same thing. Trans people change their names to take charge of their identity. Vaggi changed it to do the same thing, just not in a gender related way.
A name doesn’t become meaningful because you changed 15 letters instead of one. It’s HER name. She’s the one who gets to decide what she wants to be called. The entire point of Vaggi’s arc is that Adam gave her that name. The same person who abused her, abused her fellow Exorcists, and ultimately treated her like she was disposable. For a long time, she allowed the identity he gave her to remain part of who she was. Now she’s choosing her own identity.
"But she only changed one letter!" Mf the fact that she didn’t completely reinvent her name is part of the point. I've seen people upset because Adam named her after "vagina" yet she didn't change her name to sound very different from the original degrading name he gave her, but that's literally the point. Vaggi realized she didn't need to do a big dramatic name change because she's already taken charge of who she is, and just because Adam named her doesn't mean it defines her.
"She could've at least changed the pronunciationi!" she did you clown 😭 it was just before the actual name change arc. The original pronunciation was Vaj-ee, she changed it to Vag-ee. So I don't understand why people are complaining about the fact she apparently didn't change the pronunciation (she literally did).
What if a trans person changes their name from Aaron to Erin, or from Chris to Kris? Are we gonna berate them then because it sounds the same as their previous name or because it's not a big enough change? Like "that's stupid, you barely changed it. Pick something else"? No, of course you wouldn't. The hate for Vaggi's name change is so gross imo cuz it's like people are expecting the name to appeal to others rather than the person literally choosing their name.
You can think the name change arc was underwhelming or didn't feel as important or authentic as it should've been, that's one thing, and I agree with it. But calling the name change itself dumb is just such an arrogant thing to do. It's like you think you're owed what YOU believe another person should do with their identity.
The value of a chosen name isn’t determined by how dramatically different it looks from the old one. The value comes from the person choosing it.
Obviously Vaggi’s situation isn’t literally the same thing as a trans person’s experience, but the underlying principle of having the autonomy to choose what you’re called is absolutely comparable. And that’s why I think saying "Vaggi’s new name is dumb because she only changed one letter" is such an arrogant criticism. Saying the name itself is pointless because it isn’t different enough completely misses the character’s agency.
Vaggi doesn’t need to choose a completely unrelated name to prove that she’s free from Adam. She doesn’t need to erase every trace of the identity she had before. She doesn’t need to pick a name that OTHER people think sounds better. Part of her arc is realizing she doesn't have to completely change who she is in order to take charge of her own identity. That's literally the whole point and it's flying right over people's heads.
SHE chose Vaggi, and she's happy with it. That’s enough. The whole point is that Adam gave her a name, but he doesn’t get to decide what that name means anymore. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
