Thirty(?) Days of Fire Emblem, Days "10, 16, 27"

[mark_asphodel]

 #10: Something you want to change in any of the games:

I'll narrow it down to a couple of things.  In FE8, I would've liked to see more differentiation between the routes-- have Glen and Selena each recruitable on one route, perhaps.  Have different "destinies" for the twins, with Eirika actually becoming a ruling queen after her route and Ephraim accepting his own responsibilities after his route.  Go for broke and make them two truly separate timelines instead of a sort of muddle. Also, some, ah, conversations or explanations or something with the bonus dead characters would've been interesting.  

As for FE11-- I like that game, really I do.  But if they were going to do FE12 as a "reboot" instead of a remake and throw all kinds of weird new material into the mix, then IS probably should've gone further and deeper with tarting up FE11... which might have made the fanbase more satisfied with FE11, and maybemaybemaybe encouraged NoE/NoA to release FE12.  Maybe.  Anyway, the juxtaposition of "remake" and "reboot" is very strange, and the presentation could've been more coherent.

Then again, if they'd tarted up FE11 with moe bullshit, I might not have liked it.  

By the same token, FE7 could really have been better integrated with FE6.

-x-

#16: Least Favorite Character

Ah, that's too broad of a question.  A character I despise because they fail me in gameplay?  An intentionally unlikable villain that I don't like?  An allegedly "cute" or "funny" character that gets under my skin?  

How about Roro from FE12?  WTF, man.  Just go away.  I mean, I'm not pleased with Aine and Kleine and the rest of Eremiya's Orphanage Kill Squad, but Roro is too WTF for words.   

Also really disliked Sylvia but I now believe that to be the fault of a skewed translation and should not reflect upon the actual character.

-x-

#27: Scene/moment that made you go RAEGQUIT

My explosion upon finding out Michalis was recruitable in FE12 is well-documented, as is a slightly more even-handed analysis that followed the RAEG.  But that threw me, yes it did.  Made me hate the entire reboot endeavor for a time.

And, reflecting back to #10, if I could change one thing about FE12, it'd be Michalis.  Have him die and stay dead, or have him live and actually be able to fulfill his self-proclaimed goal of rescuing Maria.  Not this half-assed fanservice bullcrap.

Comments

[raphiael]

I feel like some acknowledgement of the zombies/morphs/hallucinations/whatever the heck those things are in FE8 would have been good. I've seen some people around Tumblr wish they had full supports or something, and that. . . kind of doesn't do it for me, not with the whole resurrection=bad thing Magvel has going on. But even just something from somewhere would have made the whole post-game sidequest thing more fun, I think.

Fic dealing with it is fun, though. Which reminds me I should finish the anon one I started. Oops. :B

[amielleon]

I'm curious. What did you hate about Sylvia?

[mark_asphodel]

Everything, really. I found her an irritating "look how adorable I am?" flake. When I purchased figurines of Sigurd, Levin, Fury, and Eltoshan, I made sure to leave her out because she irritated me so greatly.

But Hitomi said that one of the FE4 script translations did Sylvia a very bad turn, so that might be the problem.

[amielleon]

I'm pretty sure "look how adorable I am?" is just part of her character...
(JP | From the most popular patch)

【シルヴィア】
きゃー、シグルド様だわ！！
Sylvia:
Kyaaa!! It's Lord Sigurd!

【シグルド】
あれ？　きみは踊り子？
ここは戦場だぞ、
危険だから城に戻りなさい▼
Sigurd:
Huh? You're a dancer?
This is a battlefield.
It's dangerous, so return to the castle.

【シルヴィア】
シグルド様、あたしのこと知らないの？
あたしシルヴィアでーす
シルヴィって呼んでもいいよ
Sylvia:
Lord Sigurd, don't you know about me?
I'm Sylvia~!
You can call me Sylvie.

【シグルド】
･･･すまないが
子供の相手をしているヒマはないんだ
いい子だから帰りなさい▼
Sigurd:
... I apologize, but
I don't have the time to look after children.
You're a good child, so go back.

【シルヴィア】
ムッ･･･
このセクシーなあたしを (Bolded: literally, "sexy".)
子供だと思ってる▼

シグルド様ったら意外に
つまんない男かもしんない･･･
Sylvia:
Mmf...
You think that my sexy self is a child.

Oh, Lord Sigurd, you might be an unexpectedly dull man...

【シグルド】
おいおい、きこえてるよ▼
Sigurd:
Oi, oi, I can hear you.

【シルヴィア】
まあいいわ
あたしは戦場に咲いた花だもの
散るときはパアーっと散ってあげる
Sylvia:
Well! That's okay.
Because I am a blooming flower on this battlefield,
(so at the time I fall, I will raise to you my death with a "paaaah!") [Really unsure about this]

【シグルド】
まいったな、この子は･･･▼
Sigurd:
... I give up on this kid.

(That's without translating how strongly her speech reeks of adorable girliness.)

[raphiael]

. . .so that's where Lalam comes from 8|

[amielleon]

y helo thar FE dancer stereotypes.

[mark_asphodel]

Yeah... no. I pity Sigurd in that exchange.

Thanks for the translation!

[shimizu_hitomi]

Haha yeah, ngl, the phony cutesieness is definitely part of her character. The problematic translation I'm thinking of was in one or two of her later exchanges, which exaggerate that aspect to an extreme. I'm thinking in particular of her Barhara exchange with one of her possible lovers -- I think it was Levin -- in which the whole conversation deliberately turned her into a shallow ditz when in the original she's actually at the most vulnerable and serious we ever see her throughout the entire game. And that single conversation completely changed my mind about her.

Rather than Lalam, she strikes me as a less naive Melissa (in that it gets pretty clear the flirtiness is a front or deliberate survival mechanism).

(Btw I think that last line is possibly innuendo. Offering a strip tease essentially? Heh.)

[amielleon]

Aha, so drawing off a "to scatter" interpretation of that verb. And when I 'scatter', with a "boom!" I'll scatter [my clothes] for you! Something like that?

Out of curiosity, I found that one, and wow, yes, I agree with you on that count. I was expecting it to be overbearingly sappy and "LOOK SHE'S DEEP TOO!!" but I think it handles it very nicely.

Okay, once more, for Mark!

Character	Patch	Japanese	My Rough Translation
Sylvia	Hey, Levin!	ねぇ、レヴィン･･･	Say, Levin...
Levin	Hey, Sylvia. What's up?	うん？　どうしたシルヴィア▼	Hm? What is it, Sylvia?
Sylvia	You still like me?	レヴィンさ、あたしのこと好き？	Levin, do you like me?
Levin	C'mon. Give me a break, will you?	なんだよ急に！？▼	What? Why this all of a sudden?!
Sylvia	Well, do ya?	ねぇ、どうなのよ	Hey... do you?
Levin	Yeah, I like you. That's why we hooked up.	好きだよ、だから一緒になったんだろ▼	I like you. It's why we got together, don't you agree?
Sylvia	Good! That's all I wanted to hear! 'cause I looooooove you! You are the only one... for me... Da-la-laa... la-la-laa!	そう･･･よかった▼ あたしもレヴィンのこと、 大好きだからね･･･ ずっと忘れないからね･･･	I see... I'm glad. Umm, I also like you a lot, Levin... because this whole time, you haven't forgotten about me, right?
Levin	Sylvia! You mind bringin' it down a notch?	シルヴィア･･･おまえ･･･▼	Sylvia... you...

The more I look at the FE4 patch the more I'm convinced that someone in that project was building up their resume for 4Kids.

[shimizu_hitomi]

Yeah, that's how I'm reading it! Generally when there's mention of flowers around 散る it has to do with scattering, so that seems the best interpretation what with the "Pah!"

The more I look at the FE4 patch the more I'm convinced that someone in that project was building up their resume for 4Kids.

What's particularly hilarious to me is that a lot of the old FE4 wank (Beowulf/Lachesis, Sylvia vs. Fury...) probably wouldn't have existed at all if it weren't for this translation. -_- Or at least, it wouldn't have gotten quite so ridiculous.

[amielleon]

What's particularly hilarious to me was that there was a lot of official translation wank in fandom at the time FE4 was vogue in LJ circles. (omg feminization of エイリク!)　And I don't remember people complaining about the FE4 patch. :|

By the way, can you think of a better way to phrase "ずっと忘れない"? "You haven't forgotten about me" sounds strangely ... retrospective, in English, and "you aren't forgetting me" just sounds weird. I almost wanted to put "You've been keeping me in mind all this time" but it makes it more about thoughtfulness than abandonment. There must be a better way to put that while maintaining the sense of abandonment with forget.

[shimizu_hitomi]

Maybe something like "Because you won't ever forget me, right?" I think the tense may be ambiguous here, though granted, Japanese verb tenses are one of my biggest weaknesses, so I don't want to say for sure...

[amielleon]

... Oh. Right. Yeah, that one's probably habitual.

Tenses haaaaaa. I still have no idea how writers of Japanese prose decide which tense to use in narrative.

All I know is that when they write English fanfic as ESL, they choose tenses in English in a befuddling way. :P

[mark_asphodel]

the more I'm convinced that someone in that project was building up their resume for 4Kids.

LOL.

"Yeah, I like you. That's why we hooked up."-- that sure made me giggle, though.

[samuraiter]

Then again, if they'd tarted up FE11 with moe bullshit, I might not have liked it.

*insert joke about Record Of Agarest War*

[shimizu_hitomi]

Y'know, if Michalis had been allowed to recruit Maria, that would have solved pretty much all my problems about that particular change on the spot. Well, not all of them, as I still think he should've just stayed dead. But... after all that talk about saving Maria, and they don't even bother giving him any interaction with her at all? WTF. It's not like it would have a difficult addition.

[shimizu_hitomi]

*would have been

[mark_asphodel]

WTF. It's not like it would have a difficult addition.

Maybe he's actually a ghost and only Minerva and MyUnit can see him. ;P

It's just ridiculous. And if the point is that he's a big talker with no follow-through, why that ending scenario? GAH.