Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2009-09-05 03:53 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2009-09-05 03:53 pm
Entry tags:
And All The Roads Lead Me Back To My Home.
THERE IS A ZOMBIE DRAW POINT IN THE TRABIA GRAVEYARD.
HORRIFYING.
Also, Squall thinks (I didn't turn out okay at all) when he's flashing back to little-kid Squall saying 'I'll be okay without you, Sis,' and I just want to hug him. He would probably just stand there awkwardly and give me a strange look, but I want to hug him anyway.
Really, it's amazing that Squall ever manages to improve his behaviour at all, with the way everyone says 'GASP, SQUALL, THAT'S NOT LIKE YOU' whenever he tries to say something comforting. I can feel Squall's frustration whenever he makes an effort and everyone says 'MY GOODNESS, SQUALL IS ACTING AS IF HE CARES ABOUT SOMETHING, THE WORLD MUST BE ENDING.'
I love all the characters! I do! But making a huge deal out of it whenever Squall takes a tiny step in the right direction isn't going to help him, guys. When Squall is teased, he closes himself off. You should know this. Take this scene:
Squall: (Man, she's really down.) Come on. I'm sure you can still do something.
Selphie: Squall... being sensitive? That's weird. You're the last person I expected to cheer me up. I must really look depressed.
Squall: (What's so weird? I care just like everybody else. It's just that there are too many things that can't be helped. So why bother talking about everything?)
Selphie: Uh-oh! There you go again into your own little world. And you're not gonna share anything, huh?
Squall: ...Yeah, whatever... (Why is she teasing me? I was just trying to help.)
I know Selphie's just poking fun, as she is when she responds to Squall's saying she's been a great help with a laugh and a 'That's not like Squall at all!', but what she's saying is that being closed-off and self-absorbed is 'Squall' and caring about others is 'not-Squall'. The implication - not intended by her, but there to be inferred by Squall - is that Squall is always going to be Squall and therefore incapable of openness or caring, so why make the effort?
Possibly I am becoming a little too worked up over a group of fictional characters' treatment of another fictional character, but I've fought with social-interaction problems myself, and I can tell you that 'good Lord, you're actually speaking to someone?' is rarely a helpful comment.
I swear it cannot be healthy to identify this much with Squall Leonhart.
On a less 'help help I cannot differentiate myself from a fictional character' note, here is a rather delightful description of a bazaar good from Final Fantasy XII:
Contains one (1) firearm and one (1) pouch of shot, made from hardened mud. The intent, of course, being to cover one's foes in mud, rendering them blind. And muddy.
My goodness, I love the Final Fantasy XII translation.
HORRIFYING.
Also, Squall thinks (I didn't turn out okay at all) when he's flashing back to little-kid Squall saying 'I'll be okay without you, Sis,' and I just want to hug him. He would probably just stand there awkwardly and give me a strange look, but I want to hug him anyway.
Really, it's amazing that Squall ever manages to improve his behaviour at all, with the way everyone says 'GASP, SQUALL, THAT'S NOT LIKE YOU' whenever he tries to say something comforting. I can feel Squall's frustration whenever he makes an effort and everyone says 'MY GOODNESS, SQUALL IS ACTING AS IF HE CARES ABOUT SOMETHING, THE WORLD MUST BE ENDING.'
I love all the characters! I do! But making a huge deal out of it whenever Squall takes a tiny step in the right direction isn't going to help him, guys. When Squall is teased, he closes himself off. You should know this. Take this scene:
Squall: (Man, she's really down.) Come on. I'm sure you can still do something.
Selphie: Squall... being sensitive? That's weird. You're the last person I expected to cheer me up. I must really look depressed.
Squall: (What's so weird? I care just like everybody else. It's just that there are too many things that can't be helped. So why bother talking about everything?)
Selphie: Uh-oh! There you go again into your own little world. And you're not gonna share anything, huh?
Squall: ...Yeah, whatever... (Why is she teasing me? I was just trying to help.)
I know Selphie's just poking fun, as she is when she responds to Squall's saying she's been a great help with a laugh and a 'That's not like Squall at all!', but what she's saying is that being closed-off and self-absorbed is 'Squall' and caring about others is 'not-Squall'. The implication - not intended by her, but there to be inferred by Squall - is that Squall is always going to be Squall and therefore incapable of openness or caring, so why make the effort?
Possibly I am becoming a little too worked up over a group of fictional characters' treatment of another fictional character, but I've fought with social-interaction problems myself, and I can tell you that 'good Lord, you're actually speaking to someone?' is rarely a helpful comment.
I swear it cannot be healthy to identify this much with Squall Leonhart.
On a less 'help help I cannot differentiate myself from a fictional character' note, here is a rather delightful description of a bazaar good from Final Fantasy XII:
Contains one (1) firearm and one (1) pouch of shot, made from hardened mud. The intent, of course, being to cover one's foes in mud, rendering them blind. And muddy.
My goodness, I love the Final Fantasy XII translation.
no subject
From the Final Fantasy Wiki article on Rinoa:
One development point that did not make the Japanese-to-English translation was Rinoa's habit of forming cutesy words (much like Selphie). One such word was oHARO~ ("ohayo" (good morning) and "HELLO" put together).
So I'm not sure the slight childishness was just a translation issue.
Yes, the bit where all the other characters are going 'Oh, no, Rinoa is hanging off the edge of the Garden! OBVIOUSLY THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO MATCHMAKE. SQUALL, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO MUST SAVE HER' perplexed me a little as well. There's generally not quite as much connection as I'd like between Rinoa and the characters who aren't Squall, I feel. (Apart from Zell's rather adorable possibly-a-crush on her. I sort of want to write some Squall/Rinoa/Zell, but I have no idea how I'd go about it.)
I didn't really want Squall to change either, because, as I've said, I really, really identified with him and I didn't want him to become a character I couldn't connect with quite as closely. But the change wasn't too drastic, if I remember correctly. He learnt that he could rely on others (AND THEN TIME KOMPRESSION RIPPED HIM AWAY FROM THEM AND LEFT HIM ALONE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, WAY TO MESS WITH SQUALL'S ALREADY FRAGILE MIND), but he's still quite quiet and serious and not entirely open even at the end of the game.
I may be misremembering. I suppose I'll find out during this replay.
I DON'T KNOW. WORST PLACE FOR A ZOMBIE DRAW POINT EVER.
no subject
And Rinoa and Zell would make a totally fantastic couple. They would be completely unstoppable. Also I think they would throw incredible parties.
no subject
The connotations for that kind of speech pattern in Japan are a little different from how we'd interpret them here. It's more acceptable, even expected of heroine figures to behave in this way, as girlish naïvete is seen as a sign of feminine virtue, where in the west, it's looked on as silly and stupid. It appears to me that the translators tried to strike a balance between translating the text correctly and tweaking it a bit into something more palatable to an English-speaking audience. Unfortunately, in some cases ("MEANY!" might truthfully have made more sense if they'd just had her say "HYPOCRITE!") it falls a little short on both sides of the equation.