Naming Your Character Gabriel Is A Bad Idea

I feel like I’m using Irina too much as an infinite source of ideas at this point. To be fair to myself, that’s her fault for having such interesting topics that kickstart my brain.

I stole got inspired by her post ” What’s in a name (Anime Edition), where she talks about the significance of names. I thought,” that’s really cool”, then thought about my own real name. With horror, I realized almost every single fictional character with the same name as I do are terrible people. Well, I don’t know why I’m surprised because I am also a self-professed terrible person, but that’s too much of a coincidence for me to ignore.

Let me introduce myself first. My real name is Gabriel, and today, we’ll be talking about why characters named after me all fail as decent people. Oh, also, I’m changing my blogging alias to my real name now.

Anime

Gabriel – Gabriel DropOut

Our resident loli NEET waste of space. I love Gabriel DropOut and her character, but she IS a genuinely awful person 90% of the time. Skips school, mooches off of friends, rude and foul-mouthed, and irresponsible to hilarious degrees.

So basically me in high school in a nutshell.

Gabriel – The Devil Is A Part Timer

He appears in the manga and LN, but not in the first season of the anime. Gabriel, without spoiling anything, is there to kidnap a certain someone important to both Emi and Maou. He’s also an arrogant narcissist, and is falsely polite to people he won’t hesitate to be violent against if they go against his goals.

Jibril – No Game No Life Zero

Fun fact, the Indonesian and Iranian way to spell and pronounce Gabriel is Jibril, so this still counts. I don’t wanna spoil WHY Jibril is a terrible person in this movie, but for those of you who HAVE watched it-

You know exactly why.

I’m not cherrypicking villains here. I literally searched high and low for characters named Gabriel in anime, and about 90% of them are, if not villains, just jerks.

I found one female character named Gabriel who is apparently the virtue of chastity, so maybe she-

Right-o, let’s move on from that.

Video Games

Gabriel Reyes – Overwatch

This is the real name of our resident edgelord, Reaper. A terrorist and traitor, plus a really abrasive guy all-around to be with. Of course, constantly being in a state of regeneration because your body’s cells are so unstable from a horrific experiment is probably excruciatingly painful, but a negative attitude won’t make the pain go away, buddy.

Gabriel Angelos – Blood Ravens (Warhammer 40k)

Well, this guy’s not really a villain, but what he is part of is the Imperium of Man, a fanatical dictatorship run by a dying Emperor who powers himself by feeding on the souls of a thousand innocent psykers per day.

Not exactly a cause you can get behind.

So in Video Game land, I get to be a bloodthirsty military man, huzzah!

Gabriel Belmont – Lords of Shadow

Well that, or just thirsty for blood literally.

Live-Action

Gabriel Gray (Sylar) – Heroes

Yes, our resident superhero serial killer. Driven by a hunger to be “special”, he kills other superheroes by lobotomizing them and stealing their powers. I only watched the first season of Heroes (which I was told is the only good one), and Sylar has to be one of the most interesting villains I’ve watched, so I’m actually not too upset to be sharing a name with such an interesting character.

Here’s hoping I never meet him, though.

Gabriel – Supernatural

A hedonistic, candy-guzzling, sorry excuse of an Archangel who decides to spend his free time messing with humans because he’s afraid of his celestial family. Also tends to kill and torture people for funsies.

He IS hilarious though, so I’ll give him that.

Comic Books

Gabriel Summers (Vulcan) – X-men

The Summers siblings consist of Scott Summers (Cyclops), Alex Summers (Havok) and who turns out to be the villain?

The youngest one named Gabriel, of course. He just so happens to be a test tube alien baby from the DNA of his mutant brothers’ parents, and is a megalomaniac who wants to be called Emperor Vulcan. Not a nice guy.

Gabriel Stokes – The Walking Dead

The self-righteous priest who judges Rick and his group’s brutal actions towards their enemies. Did I mention he locked out his entire congregation from his church and let them die to save his own skin?

Man of God, my ass.

Conclusion

So, why exactly is Gabriel always used for terrible people?

Simple. It’s ironic humor. Out of all the archangels, Gabriel is definitely the most famous one. His name, in Greek, translates to “God is my strength”. He is always the one who sends important messages to humanity in the Bible, such as foretelling the birth of Jesus, up until the eventual Rapture, when he blows his horn to signal the end of times.

So, why don’t we name these terrible people after one of the most famous and virtuous angels?

I like my name, it has a lot of biblical meaning behind it, and as a Christian, I am all about that. It’s just so surprising to me that people are so eager to use MY name instead of the dozen other angel names like Michael, Azrel, Jophiel, or Jimmy. Come on, give me someone who I can root for who isn’t from a Hollywood B-movie.

Gabriel Van Helsing

Do you know any characters in fiction who have the same name as you do? What are they like?

Also, could anybody PLEASE give me a Gabriel in fiction who isn’t awful?!

That’s it for today, see ya’ll next time!