how not to forget dreamwidth exists, step 3

[ourtinymoments]

I've been making a little bit of progress in my FFX replay - pretty much just the stuff in Kilika - and I'm not sure I have that much to say about it I apparently have more to say about it than I thought and some of the translation differences are interesting.

• Lulu, while still blunt, comes across a lot less harsh in German than she does in English, which has always baffled me. English Lulu seems a lot more perpetually annoyed.


• The summoning/Sending dichotomy doesn't work in German so the Sending becomes "the ritual of benediction/blessing" (or something very close to it since the exact word used doesn't exist outside of the game but this is what it's closest to), which makes this one of the few instances where the German translation goes for more religious flavour than the English version.
• Similarly, the Unsent are called the bodyless (using an old-fashioned word for body that you're most likely only going to hear either in the odd medical terminology or in religious (specifically catholic) contexts


• Whohooo I actually beat the ochu this time! \o/ I know I've done it before at some point but I also remember at least one playthrough where I had trouble and didn't bother with it. I think I got kind of lucky here though because it only fell asleep one time so I could impress the crusaders and get a ton of AP for everyone at the same time


• Yuna "cheating" in the race up the steps to the temple when she's supposed to say "ready, set, go" is just so adorable. I love how she determinedly finds these little moments along the journey where she can make herself and her companions smile


• For "sinspawn," the German translation goes down a different rout and calls them sinscales (like fish scales) - more just body parts that fall off of the main body than little creatures of its own that Sin, well, spawns. (Spawn arguably fits them better but I also like the body part association. Sin itself, by the way, remains Sin (as in, the English word sin), rather than becoming Sünde or some other literal translation.


• Our Sports Anime Rivals remind Tidus of Jecht, and his narration muses that "just thinking about my old man got me angry. But maybe that was just my way of keeping him... nah." It does in English, at least. That second line is just missing completely from the German version. (And also starts a small trend where the English version spells out things very cleanly for the audience while the German translation still gives you the same basic info but expects you to figure some of the.. subtext...? out for yourself.)


• The encounter with Donna and Barthello is largely similar, with a few differences. One that I've always found amusing is that when she says "And all these people are your guardians? My, what a rabble." the subtitles go "Are all these people your guards? Is this supposed to be a mass migration?" (What's most amusing to me right now is that I had to a word up in the dictionary, which was very helpful at first and suggested that the English word for "Völkerwanderung" is... völkerwanderung. What would languages be if they didn't liberally borrow other languages' vocabulary.)


• "To have so many guardians," Yuna replies after saying that she trusts each of them with her life, "is a joy and an honour. Even more so than being my father's daughter." Her German equivalent diverges in the second half of that statement and her words always kind of floor me. I don't even know what to say about it, but I just... I really love Yuna. "Because of that [because she knows she can "consign her life to each of their care"] I'm happy to be surrounded by so many. I think I'm happier than my father was." (She also uses a word here in the last line that means both "happy" and "fortunate" in equal measure.) Yuna.

Comments

[walkthegale]

Oh no, I've been feeling particularly nostalgic about FFX recently and reading this has not helped at all - I might well have to start another replay soon! ;D

This is so interesting about the differences between the German and English versions!

[ourtinymoments]

I will happily take responsibility for more FFX replays. :D And I'm glad you're finding the translation differences interesting too; I could talk about that stuff for way too long.

[parumey]

so i've been replaying it myself, (while waiting for FF7 to be remade), and I'm near Zanarkand now. I really wish we could get a sequel or prequel to it (outside of the drama CD's and X-2). I don't think I've ever heard it dubbed in anything but English and Japanese, that's pretty interesting though!

[ourtinymoments]

I'm pretty sure the reason you've never heard it dubbed in anything other than Japanese or English is because afaik, there is no other dub out there. There definitely isn't a German one; that translation is text-only.

I've never listened to the drama CDs and from a description, they don't sound terribly appealing, and I say that as someone who's got a big soft spot for X-2. Meanwhile, I keep dreaming about a really solid short story collection set in Spira, but at least there's fanfic! :D

[lassarina]

....the sinscales thing is fascinating since in the English version, the enemies are literally named "Sinscales" at the beginning! I like it tying back to the aquatic theme of Sin, honestly.

Yuna omg

This game breaks my heart so badly all the time ;;

[ourtinymoments]

Oooh, I didn't know that, that's really neat!

Right?? Yuna. On second thought, maybe I do have something to say about that changed line. Part of the reason why I find it so appealing is because it's one of the rare glimpses we get (possibly) of how Yuna related to her father as a person instead of this saintly figure of hope that he's become during his Calm. She's proud to be the High Sumoner's daughter, yeah, ok, we know that, that's shown in previous dialogue already, but here's this moment of her speculating about Braska-the-human-being when she states that maybe she's happier than he was. And that doesn't mean that (she thinks) he was unhappy, but it opens up that possibility, and that's so rare. (esp with how the people of Spira as a whole tend to see Summoners as Saints and vessels to project their hopes onto more than as people) It makes me think of a very young Yuna (and of present day Yuna barely remembering these moments) seeing her father happy, and seeing her father sad, and just seeing him as her father and a human being. And, occasionally, remembering him that way.

[lassarina]

Yuna's humanity is so very rare and precious, and honestly she's such a good protagonist for it. But then, I'm critically weak against that type of character.

You make a good point about summoners-as-saints; I think in a way they have to be inhuman to the people of Spira because otherwise, everyday Spirans would have to actually confront the fact that they're sending these people off to die for them. It's a degree of depersonalization that you see in, like, military training--summoners can't be real people with real hopes and fears, because if they were, people might reconsider the fact that they journey. Because Sin always comes back. and, sure, maybe this time it won't...but is that worth all those lives? Summoners and guardians both? Is it really?

[ourtinymoments]

Exactly. Especially when you add up just how many Summoners there are on a pilgramage any time Sin is out and about - Yuna meets Isaru and Donna, there's Belgemine, Lulu guarded a Summoner before too, and there must be so many more, especially over a period of a thousand years. And how many of those actually succeeded in their goal (even temporarily)? Four? One every 250 years or so, and so many more who just die anyway.

[lassarina]

SO many who die along the way, and so many who must stop--Auron specifies that Yuna can do whatever she wants "as long as she journeys," which makes me wonder what happens when, like Father Zuke in the Calm Lands (whom Lulu and Wakka also guarded), you stop. What if you did something cruel while journeying? Is it locked within the journey? Do people judge you for not finishing? Lulu and Wakka certainly didn't seem to, but I wonder about others.

[ourtinymoments]

Oh wow, I did not remember Zuke at all, or that Waka had been a Guardian before Yuna left on her journey. :o

[lassarina]

It's one of those weird hidden things! He apparently got to the Calm Lands and decided, nah, he was just gonna be a priest, thanks.

[sleepyquail]

GODDAMN just reading that last bit set me off. I LOVE YUNA MY BABYGIRL. I'm like, I didn't finish my replays of the remasters, kinda annoyed I sold them off now! Need to get them again I think.

[ourtinymoments]

I bet they'll go on quite a significant sale during the holidays again. ^.~

I just love Yuna so, so much.

[(Anonymous)]

Yuna is the literal best. I love her so much.

[hibiscustea]

OMG wow I feel sheepish; that was me. I got logged out and didn't realize it. Oops!

[ourtinymoments]

Accidental anonymous comments - what a nostalgic problem to have! :D

[hibiscustea]

Ha! Isn't it though?