Talk:Penny Polendina/@comment-174.19.244.54-20140706211331/@comment-3146930-20140707002030

Or if I were to flip that around a bit, Neptune himself may be based on a Korean Pop Band, but his name still alludes to a classic story. Aside from his name and the tridents on his shoes, there is nothing really about Neptune that can be traced back to the god Neptune. Maybe if he had a trident-gun then that would be something, but he has a gun-gun (still awesome). Most people say that Penny is based on Pinocchio, but I still argue that just the name is and she is more based on Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.

All this really boils down to is that inspiration from a character can come from any source, modern or classic. This could include anything from their appearance, their name, their weapon(s), or maybe just their personality.