Name change in a story.

Warning, if you haven't read a Watchful Shadow, there are some minor spoilers.

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It's nothing new to me to change a name of a character. Sometimes I just get unhappy with the old name, and actually think up something I think suits better. Sometimes though, I realize at a later date that the name might have some unfortunate connections, I wasn't previously aware of.

So as it happens, I have recently been a little addicted to the webpage ranker.com, Just enjoying their various lists and articles. Then I came across this list here: https://www.ranker.com/list/racist-comic-book-moments/ranker-comics?ref=collections_btm&l=2816515&collectionId=1708

Scroll down to the second entry on this list and you will see a name, that might look familiar to you who have read A Watchful Shadow. To say that I was quite a bit unnerved is an understatement. Now I will say that I am not actually that familiar with Will Eisner's body of work, the most I knew is that he drew a comic strip about an opossum named Pogo and that was about the limit of my knowledge of him. I'm not an American, I'm Icelandic so a lot of things US people are blatantly aware of, I am just not.

Now for A Watchful Shadow, I did need a name that so clearly screamed "this is totally Sombra." It was Sombra himself mocking everybody for not realizing this was so totally him. So looking for synonyms for dark I stumbled upon Ebony and figured adding White to it, was a nice way of showing Sombra thinking he was being funny. Together it came out as a decent pony name.

Then I read the above list. And suddenly, it didn't sound as funny anymore. And I hate to think some people thought I had specifically chosen that name due to the character mentioned in that ranker list. Rest assured it was not, I had no idea they even existed, had I known beforehand, I would definitely not had Sombra use that name.

So after this uncomfortable reveal, I quickly went and changed the name in A Watchful Shadow. This time I went for synonyms for shadow, found Gloom, and replaced White with Silver, then I switched it so it came out as Silver Gloom. I think the change actually is better, the Gloom still kind of hints that this is so totally Sombra, but by using Silver more, it still disguises that it is him.

I have also changed the name when it briefly appears at the end of Rage.

I still want to apologize if I made anyone uncomfortable with the choice of name. My goal is only to write stories to entertain.