#tldr i need to read more translations and compare to the original i need to study localization under a microscope

[spock-adoodledoo]

going back to this, that game is honestly kind of helpful for thinking about how i want to translate stuff because their translation doesn't do it with any regard to the original sometimes, like the goal of the the translation is to create a certain characterization, not to stay faithful to the original. and it works tbh, they're all pretty rounded characters that are unique in their speech patterns and personalities, even though some characters give off different vibes in english. sometimes i struggle with localization and determining how much creative liberty you're supposed to give to a character when making them talk in a different language. also i feel like fan translations often struggle with staying so close to the original that some sentences feel stilted or awkward simply because the translation didn't zoom out to evaluate the english sentence by itself, not whether it conveys everything the original does.

there could always be speech patterns im not picking up etc and I could always be misreading something (lol skull emoji) but i guess it's a nice reference to keep in mind, I don't always have to agonize over whether the original language *actually* meant something to get it right

must say im very impressed with star rail's translators/localizers

the amount of puns they had to suffer through and figure out how to localize in 2.6's continuance quest with banana this and banana that all the goddamn time

edit: nvm i take it back this bit is overstaying its welcome

[bluemooniegif]

what can Atsushi's outfit tell us about his role, not only in the ADA, but the entire story?

(I'm slowly starting to cross-post everything from my tiktok analyses to tumblr and twitter. I'll link all of the original videos at the end of each post!)

let's first talk about what I think of as the Central Theme™️, something echoed throughout all aspects of BSD: the balance of light and dark. I have an entire tumblr post talking about it which you can read here, but for those of us who need a tldr: every character, organisation and even action is sorted into the category of "dark" (evil; yin; black) or "light" (good; yang; white). the PM is considered the "ruler of darkness," and the ADA the "guardian of the twilight."

when we first meet Atsushi, he is dressed in clothes that are ill-fitting and look very uncomfortable. we very quickly learn that his biggest internal conflict surrounds his lack of self-confidence- he thinks of himself as a nobody who belongs nowhere... and this is echoed in his outfit. in a city divided into black and white, he wears grey. his clothing does not only give us an insight into how we are supposed to see him, but also into how he sees himself!

this is where I want to bring up a point Asagiri sensei mentioned in an interview once- he chose Atsushi to be his main character because he felt that he could easily change the course of Atsushi's life. the RL Atsushi Nakaijima was not as well-known as the others, leading Asagiri sensei to feel as though he was more malleable than the others.

(translation via Popopretty1)

anyway, back to the costume design.

some people know this, but others have never heard: the outfit gifted to Atsushi in episode 2 (chapter 2) is comprised of items donated by each member of the Agency.

(I'm sorry for the Tanizakis but this image is just too helpful)

this outfit indicates a hugely important shift for Atsushi; the difference between being a nobody and becoming a somebody.

he became someone, because the Agency believed in him, far before he believed in himself.

the best part about all of this, to me, is that Atsushi still has a very long way to go! his character development so far has been so incredible, though, and comparing the Atsushi we know now to episode 1 Atsushi genuinely makes me tear up 🥺🥺

I hope this makes sense!! here's the original video link ~

[fixing-bad-comic-art]

usually i dont like 'fixing art' but honestly i have to make an exception for you bc alot of this shit is just that (as a hijabi seeing that sexualization burqa killed the rest of my cognitive abilities)

like yeah, this is weirdly something ive been thinking about for the last few days. so you're going to have to put up with me rambling for a bit

for some context that most of you probably just dont have bc the last time i talke about it would probably be from over a year ago at this point, when i named this blog it was obviously based on Bad-comic-art's blog. and when i chose the url for this one i didn't think about how it would read to others. because like, the word "fix" never meant "make better" to me? it just meant "change". i think this is bc i grew up around a lot of people who spoke English as their second/third/fourth language, who were all trying very hard to make sure english was my first. so a lot of words that had wierd or imprecise translations got jumbled up in that mess, and fix was just one of them. that combined with my aphasia just made for the perfect time bomb of a url.

At first i just picked at which ever ones felt especially awkward to me, and then i started noticing trends that got me grinding my teeth. especially after a lot of people came forward to talk about how they felt better about themselves after the impossibility of the og arts proportions was pointed out. Because like, a lot of western comic art is meant to look fairly realistic, stylized, but still realistic, and that means that its a lot easier for our brains to internalize the proportions and ideals of theses styles as like, correct? as something that its worth comparing real skin and bone too without really realizing your doing it.

beyond that, ive always tried to focus more on things that were sexist. pieces where making sure a ladys tits and ass were center stage was more important than not snapping her back to do so. on sorta shining a light on how Weird a lot of these male comic artists were depicting women because them being sexy was more important than telling a story where they were characters.

and later once i had more context for some of the characters, and with a lot of help from my followers, i started being able to spot which ones were being whitewashed, and did a few of those edits too.

the dust one was very obviously an Issue that i didn't need explained but that one is still like, if i had to pick one piece to define what id want this blog to be, it would be that one. because it perfectly encompasses all my issues with a lot of comic art. Her being sexy was more important to that artist than her being a character with a specific religious background that wore a specific for of modesty garb bc thats what she wanted to wear.

and like mild tangent- this is why i try so hard to match the original as closely as possible. these styles arnt Bad usually. a lot of times they're just rushed, and doing edits to show what the artist could have done if they'd had the tims to do it always just felt like giving the original a second chance to shine? but some of the ways women and minorities especially are depicted, is just gross, and shows a clear sorta mindset. I want to match the originals in these cases to prove that the og artist, within their own style, could have depicted these characters with respect, but just chose not to.

beyond the edits i do that fall in the former categories, sometimes i just want to make people laugh so i do goofy things to art they dont like very much. thats always felt like sharpying a mustache on one historical figure or a other in a friends text book. just something harmless and fun to share in the back of the class room.

like i guess my tldr on this is this: bigotry is bad and i just want to make people happy by posting little edits on the internet.

[jasontoddiefor]

Retranslation of the Sith Code from a Linguistic Perspective

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun. Through passion, I gain strength. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk. Through strength, I gain power. Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Through power, I gain victory. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. Through victory, my chains are broken. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. The Force shall free me. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.

Star Wars has a couple conlangs – from Huttese to Ryl, many cultures in a galaxy far, far away have their own words. The, admittedly, most famous conlang is Mando’a, the language of the Mandalorians. It has recently gained even more popularity due to The Mandalorian and the many headcanons about the clones and their culture floating around in fandom. While Mando’a is undoubtedly the conlang with the most extensive vocabulary, it is not the soundest Star Wars conlang from a linguistic perspective. That honor belongs to the version of the Sith conlang that was later amended and developed by Ben Grossblatt.

The Sith Code, as we know it, was developed by David Gaider in 2003 for the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Grossblatt’s conlang was created seven years later in 2010.

When you consider this, Grossblatt had two options when creating his conlang and translation of the Code. He could translate the Code from English into Sith, or he could pretend the English (or “Basic”) version of the Code resulted from a translation from Sith.

Why does this matter?

[AO3]

This question is easily answered when you think about the various meanings of the words. As every bilingual person knows, translating a text from one language to another isn’t easy because there are no two languages whose vocabulary matches completely. Let’s take an example from the Code:

“asha” (noun) is translated as “victory”.

This translation, however, does not explain what kind of victory “asha” refers to. While English may have only one term for victory, a Sith could differentiate between “victory you achieved on your own” and “victory by decimating your enemies”. Or “victory” might only be one translation of the word and others could be “dominance, control, superiority”. All these words lean into the direction of “victory” through the worldview of the Sith.

Basically, Grossblatt had to decide whether the English version should be the end result or the starting point of his version of the Code in Sith.

In this essay, I intend to treat the English version of the Code as the translation of the original Sith language. This is important because it means that this deconstruction of the Sith Code will be influenced by my own interpretation of the various other meanings as possible Sith word could have, which are not necessarily Canon/Legends based. I will be translating this Code line by line and, in the end, create a new version of the Code which will deviate from the Canon one but hopefully picks up the grammatical cues from the Sith version that the current one is lacking.

TLDR: I don’t want to just explain the grammar, I want to analyze it.

Now, a brief look at the in-universe history of the Code of the Sith to shed some light on the perspective I’ll take into consideration while translating.

The Code itself was allegedly created by the Fallen Jedi Sorzus Syn. It was meant to be a pendant and an update of the Jedi Code simultaneously. While this is technically speaking fine, we do run into some troubles from a historical perspective.

The Code was first authored on the planet Korriban in 6900 BBY. The Jedi Exiles didn’t speak the language of the Sith species, which were enslaved by the Jedi Exiles. They used translation talismans, which granted them the ability to speak and read Sith as if it were their mother tongue.

…

Yeah, that’s stupid. I know. But it’s space fairy tale science fiction, so we’ll accept it and move on.

If you are bilingual, you might notice that you are more capable of speaking about a given topic in one language than in the other. Therefore, it would make sense if it were easier for the Jedi Exiles to talk about the Dark side in Sith, which was uniquely suited to speak about it. However, when the Code only exists as a differentiating point to the Jedi, they were bound to slip into a rhetoric that would be more along the lines of that they’d used as Jedi. That could explain why the Sith Code in Basic/English seems to parallel the Jedi Code so much. My working hypothesis is that the Sith Code – given that it is supposed to reflect Sith philosophy – can stand on its own with its own meaning. Otherwise, the Sith would only ever see themselves in contrast to the Jedi, which, given their superiority complex, is a rather strange view. Therefore, my translation will focus on staying as close to the original Sith language as possible.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun.

Now tackling that first line of the Code. The interesting part here is that Basic translates the two sentences as one. The first sentence – Nwûl tash – consists of two nouns: “peace” and “lie”. The present tense copula (the “to be”) is dropped, leaving the two nouns. When comparing this to the following sentence, we immediately see the first issue. The verb dzwol refers to “to be”. We also know it can be translated as “to exist”, “to abide”. The question that arises at this point is whether the first sentence drops dzwol or another verb referring to “to be” that we don’t know. What becomes clear, however, is that different emphasis is put on the two sentences. Many languages drop the tense copula. When the copula is dropped, the relation between the other constituents (components of the sentence) is understood. So reading the first sentence, you gain the impression that the statement “Peace is a lie” is a fact of life. “Peace = Lie” would be a mathematical way of writing it down.

Another critical thing to mention here is that Sith, as far as we know, doesn’t make use of determiners (a/the), and as such, the statement could possibly also be read as “The peace is the lie” or “A peace is the lie” and so on. But given that we do not have any information on the grammar in that aspect, I will not elaborate any further.

Now, let’s take a look at the second sentence by comparison. Here we have an explicit present tense dzwol. Unlike the rest of the Code, this sentence follows the VSO word order. Given that the rest of the Code uses topicalization, we can conclude that the verb dzwol is the focus of this sentence. Given that we are also given the translations “to exist, to abide”, perhaps it would be a more appropriate choice to use one of these words when translating to properly show the difference between the omitted present tense copula and the explicit one here.

Following this, we have to deal with shâsot and -kun. -kun refers to the adjective “only” and modifies the noun. shâsot is interesting because we are given the translation “passion” in the Code. The vocabulary list, however, translates it as “struggle”. While both have overlapping meanings, I would argue in favor of the “struggle” translation.

“Passion” stems from the Latin “passio” meaning “suffering, enduring”. Nowadays, it is used­ in Christianity to describe the suffering of Christ, but also, citing Merriam-Websters here, “the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces”, as well as being motivated/moved by intense emotions. However, “struggle”, is defined as “to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition” and “to proceed with difficulty or with great effort”. Given that the first sentence of the Code refers to the idea that peace doesn’t exist, I believe an emphasis on the aspect of fighting, which we find in “struggle”, would be appropriate.

Personally, I’d prefer “to exist” over “abide” for the verb as well. “abide” may imply that only the struggle has to be endured. I’d favor a reading that instead emphasizes the contrast that the absence of peace means the presence of nothing but struggle. My translation of the first line of the Sith Code would therefore be:

Peace is a lie. Only struggle exists. Nwûl tash. Dzwol shâsotkun.

Now we can consider the next line: Through passion, I gain strength. Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk.

Before we can tackle the translation, we have to consider three grammatical construction.

Sith is typically VSO (Verb Subject Object).

Sith has instrumental case, which is marked on the noun with -jontû. Generally, this is translated as “by” or “with” or “using”.

Sith has alethic verb mood, which is marked on the verb with -atul. Alethic mood refers to “the truth in the world” as opposed to epistemic mood, which is “the truth in an individual's mind” (epistemic). While this differentiation is not without criticism, given that all truths in the world are filtered through our perceptions of the world, it is interesting to note that Sith apparently does make this difference.

Now that we have considered these, I will break down the second sentence. The first thing I have to mention is that this sentence and the following ones are topicalized. Shâsotjontû is the word shâsot in instrumental case. As before, I prefer the “struggle” translation. The instrumental case itself is translated as “through” which is an interesting choice as that is not a standard translation. I’d instead go with the “using” translation as it further highlights that a Sith utilizes whatever tools they deem necessary and needed. Objects and people are measured against what value they have for a given person, how useful they are if you want to spell it out. Furthermore, it highlights that the Sith, at one point, actually discussed the Code and the “best” way to use the Dark side.

The verb châtsatul is in alethic mood and translates to “gain”. This, again, also fits well with the “using” translation of the instrumental case. The subject of this sentence is nu the first person pronoun “I”. tyûk translates to “strength”. Here we run into the previously elaborated victory problem as well. The Code gives us no explanation of what kind of strength is meant here. The idea that it’s only physical strength is, of course, ridiculous. It could also cover mental strength and strength in the Force, as well as the words “might”, “courage”, “durability” and so on. This issue concerning the lack of vocabulary will continue to follow us through the complete translation of this text. As I have now elaborated on it twice, I will only make references to it in the future, with perhaps here and there a suggestion for a more appropriate translation.

My translation of the second line, taking -atul into consideration, would therefore be as follows:

Shâsotjontû châtsatul nu tyûk. Using struggle, I necessarily gain strength.

Now we can turn to the third line: Through strength, I gain power. Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan.

The only new word here is midwan, which is translated as “power”. Again, the definition of power in this context isn’t clear. The translation of this line would be:

Tyûkjontû châtsatul nu midwan. Using strength, I necessarily gain power.

We can now turn to the next line: Through power, I gain victory. Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha.

I already elaborated at length on the various possible definitions of “victory”. I, personally, prefer a reading that equals “victory” to “dominance”. What I also thought was interesting here is that the morpheme “asha” appears to be very common in Star Wars across cultures and languages. There are multiple people named with variations of that morpheme. And then, of course, there is also the planet Ashas Ree, which is deep in the territory of the former Sith Empire and had a Jedi Temple built on top of a Sith Temple. Ashas Ree could be the Basic version of a Sith term. While we do not have the word “Ree”, phonologically, it would be pronounced /riː/, and Sith has the consonant /r/ and the vowel /i:/.

A side note about Sith phonology: Sometime between the Jedi Exiles taking over and the Prequels era, the Sith lost the vowel /e/ or /ɛ/ as the Sith of that time still had words like “jen” meaning “shadow”, “dark”, and “hidden”. As this word, and others making use of it, are apparently still in use today, their vowel probably changed to /i/, /æ/, or /aɪ/. Or maybe the word “jen” is pronounced as it once was as English/Basic does have these vowels, and people can therefore say “jen”.

Returning to our translation, we can read:

Midwanjontû châtsatul nu asha. Using power, I necessarily gain victory.

And now we’re going to look at a line that made me cry:

Through victory, my chains are broken. Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak.

Once more, before we can actually look at the translation, we have to look at the grammar. This is the breakdown Ben Grossblatt made of that sentence:

Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Victory+INSTR break+ERG+LG INAM OBJ chain my+PL. Through victory, my chains break.

INSTR refers to instrumental case I already elaborated on.

ERG refers to Ergative. The interfix -win- is added to a transitive verb to indicate ergativity, meaning that the grammatical subject of that verb is its semantic object, while the true semantic agent remains unexpressed.

LG INAM OBJ means “large inanimate object”. This refers to the fact that the verb kots is part of a group of verbs called “handling verbs”. These verbs mark what kind of object is affected by them. -ot is the marker for “large inanimate object”. When searching for languages that use these “handling verbs”, Navajo was one of the first results.

Sith plurals appear to be marked on the articles or, given the lack of such, on the possessive markers: nuyak is therefore “my” and “the object I possess is plural”.

Now that we have tackled the grammar, I will elaborate on how it applies to this sentence. The ashajontû construction should be well-understood by now, so I will not linger on it.

Interesting is here that the possessive marker nuyak also indicates the number of the possessed object. In a way, this enhances the claim on the object as it is more intrinsically connected to it. The possessed object here is itsu, the “chain”, which only gains its plural through the possessive. It would be interesting here to know what the other verb markers are as “chains”, in this context, are categorized as physical objects. At the same time, their meaning is obviously meant to be metaphorical. Knowing whether Sith can make the difference and might choose to do so here would be beneficial when analyzing this line. However, evoking the image of physical chains here, which are broken, makes the act seem more striking.

And now we’ll tackle the verb. The root kots gets inflicted twice by the ergative marker and the object marker. According to Grossblatt, it can be read as “completely shatter” or “completely break”. As the purpose of the object marker -ot has already been elaborated on, I will now focus on the ergative marker.

Ergativity is one possible way of hiding the concrete agent of action without passivizing the sentence. Consider “The window broke” vs. “The window was broken” vs. “I broke the window”.

This makes the overall translation of the sentence rather interesting. The original translation reads “Through victory, my chains are broken” which is passive and not ergative. Therefore, it would be more correct to follow Grossblatt’s reading of “my chains break completely”. Still, the fact that we do not have an overt agent here makes this sentence quite interesting. While the method – ashajontû – is known, the agent could be either the speaker themself, or another person doing it for them. Given that the adverb “completely” is added to the verb, perhaps this sentence suggests that on your own, you can come quite far breaking your chains but not reach that finalized step. For that, you need victory.

Furthermore, this offers an interesting perspective on the Sith and their teachings, especially on the Banite Sith, if you read “victory” as something closer to “dominance”. In this case, the sentence almost seems to imply that by becoming stronger and surpassing another person, perhaps your Master, you manage to break your chains completely. An even deeper reading might allude to how the Sith conceptualize the chains that keep them. They appear to put their own freedom and thirst for power above everything else. Perhaps that is already too much interpretation for one line, but it was worth noting. In any case, my translation of that sentence is:

Ashajontû kotswinot itsu nuyak. Using victory, my chains break completely.

After this heavy sentence, we only have one left!

The Force shall free me. Wonoksh Qyâsik nun.

This sentence is relatively uncomplicated. nun is the accusative pronoun “me” and Qyâsik is the Sith word for Force. wonoksh is the word for “to free” in future tense. The future tense is marked by -oksh and this is the part where we get to the slightly complicated/annoying part of the sentence.

Again, we don’t know if this is the only future tense Sith has or what its exact purpose is. As opposed to English, which technically speaking only has the tenses “past” and “not-past”, Sith marks a definite future. However, this future could also have undertones such as an imperative mood. Sadly, we don’t know anything about it. Now for the future tense. As inquires across the globe have told me, “shall” is pretty outdated. In a modern translation of the Code, you’d probably say:

Wonoksh Qyâsik nun. The Force will free me.

But that detail is relatively minor. Now that I have broken down every line of the Code, let’s put it back together.

Peace is a lie. Only struggle exists. Using struggle, I necessarily gain strength. Using strength, I necessarily gain power. Using power, I necessarily gain victory. Using victory, my chains break completely. The Force will free me.

Does this Code sound better than the original work? Probably not. I have to say, I do prefer the “struggle” translation and I like the first line more in my version, but otherwise, this Code doesn’t sound particularly great. However, it was also not meant to sound good. The purpose was to create a translation closer to the Sith language version, to reverse-engineer it if you want. I do think that this endeavor was worthwhile as, for me, it has shed some more light on the thinking of the Sith.

And also this:

Sources

Star Wars: The Sith

Sith Language

Speak like a Sith article

Sith Code

Ben Grossblatt’s breakdown of his translation

Sorzus Syn, author of the Sith Code

History of the Sith Dynasties

Wookiepedia Search of asha

Translation talisman

Ashas Ree

Temple of Ashas Ree

Grammar

Zero copula

Merriam-Webster on passion

Merriam-Webster on struggle

Alethic modality

Navajo Handling Verbs

Navajo Classificatory Verbs

Ergativity

Instrumental case

Color Coded Version of this Essay

[fmdjoosungarchive]

sung vs talent growth

word count: 1725

tldr; back in the olden times of 2018 sung was created with the taemin talent growth model in mind. so i wanna talk about sung’s growth so far, but the tldr is he’s grown a lot n will continue to grow a bit more. i also go over the details of these skills like i did for andy just bc it’s nice to have tgt

sung started at a more solid place of talent when it came to dance and vocals from debut than previous sungs

but in every category, sung has grown exponentially. a common theme amongst the main three skills i’ll talk about here is hyuk, and that’s because he’s shown the most change, and has the longest career for me to base change off of. quantum’s second oldest group is ateez who are still babies and hongjoong and wooyoung haven’t had major growth. and oneus are even more babies, and there i’ve only seen the hyuk-print in xion

i’ll start with the less noticeable changes and ramp up

dancing

when i originally made sung, i kind of crafted his own skillset to something as equivalent as i could to bm, because bm’s focus is on street dance, and sung’s def isn’t

and the influences from back then have stuck. bits and pieces from hakyeon(catch me having almost switched sung to that position a few weeks ago bc i luv he sm), jongin, and taemin have made up sung’s dance style

something i think they all have in common is their fluidity. they can be like noodles, and fluidity is the foundation of how sung likes to dance. however, that’s not against details and precision, as sung’s favorite genre of dance is ballet, like jongin. and like hakyeon, sung has trained for a countless amount of styles. i personally hc that’s why he was good on dancing with the the stars. and sung only started training different styles after becoming a trainee at fourteen, which is very much not the ideal age to start dancing if you want to be truly good. ballet is arguably the most difficult in this realm, as it’s incredibly strict. sung wasn’t considered Good by any ballet teacher he ever had, but it didn’t stop him. it only made him want to work harder in order to live up to his teachers’ expectations. that part is most inspired by taemin who is open about how even as a thirteen year idol, he continues to want to push himself, learn new things, better his craft, the like. also taemin’s level of strictness with himself that the angle of the distance between his fingers needs to be the same every single time, that’s v sung, born of the ballet love

sung isn’t considered a good dancer in any specific field as compared to other dancers, however, he is versatile, determined, and extremely passionate. he’s a good idol dancer tho

how this translates to sung’s position equivalents is,, difficult

while hyuk may be a dancer, what he brings to vixx isn’t dance, hongbin is only a dancer because starlights call everyone but the main vocals dance positions, hongjoong isn’t a dancer he’s a performer, leedo reads like a lead dancer so at least that’s something but it’s similar to vixx where hwanwoong is very clearly The dancer, and xion idt is dancer, while wooyoung is the only one that i think is a Dancer and reads like one

if you incorporate all quantum choreo i think sung reads like a Dancer, so for what makes sense for me i think of wooyoung first, and incorporate bits of the others in

so i’ve seen atiny refer to wooyoung as the ‘sexy’ focus dancer, but i don’t know if i necessarily agree. many ateez members rely on sexiness or facial expressions over technical skill, while with wooyoung i think it’s that he has solid technique and a good emotional connection to dance. his technical skill isn’t as good as yunho (which i think across the board the other main dancer is more technically solid than sung) but he puts his whole ass into a performance. he may personally like being sexy in dance, tho, and in sung’s case that would be more of those ‘suggestions’ from the company to play up that side of himself

anyway wooyoung has great control over his body and i think that’s something sung would have due to his love of ballet. he’s extremely strict with himself. i think at times his biggest downfall is that he can get too into the performance side of dance and technical skill can fall by the wayside because of that. that’s something hongjoong suffers from too, even tho his technical skill is way lower

the other part of his downfall is that he’s not as consistent as he wants to be, because sometimes performance wins out, and other times, his need for perfection wins out and he loses out on fluidity n groove. i’d also say his footwork isn’t the cleanest, but he has really strong hips to torso. balance and core strength is Up

overall sung isn’t Bad at anything he does. what he doesnt do, he isn’t into it for a reason

the way he’s grown over the last five years (we’ll say since joining dms) is that his consistency has gotten better, has had some minor technical growth, and he’s continued to try to expand his repertoire of ideas and genres and styles

rapping

so in gs, sung only trained for rap as much as any non skilled addition might. he was accepted for visuals, kept around for personality, dance, and passable in growth re: vocals (thank u duri), but when he was injured, he was too much of a liability vs talent potential and cut

when he was practicing on his own in the military, he wasn’t doing much rap work then either, just the minimum

it was when he joined dimensions that he was officially put on the line as a rapper, and that was mostly because it’s,, well u can dance but u need to do something else, and we have vocalists that are far superior, so we’ll just call you a rapper. you can pull off a deep voice, right?

i’m sorry to any atiny reading this but i’m gonna have to dumb down hongjoong’s rap skills

i think it’s only fair after having upped the dance skill, and fits my character/narrative better

to make the closest comparison, i would say hongbin, tho i’d rank skill a touch higher bc with leedo too, i don’t wanna stray Too far away

looking at all the equivalents together, ateez is the only model where sung might seem closer to a second rapper than a member who raps at times, since in both oneus and vixx, he’d often sing more than rap, and that can happen at times in ateez too, esp since hongjoong sing-talks many lines

and it’s fitting, even at his least talented, because sung has never and will never refer to himself as A Rapper. he’s an idol rapper thru and thru

i have less to say about this bc sung does, but in general he put more effort into it when joining dms bc he was afraid of pulling the group down, so his best moments are reflected in that. his sense of rhythm is his best trait, writing proper raps is his worst. this is the category that another five years on will probably have the least change from now til then

vocals

now this is the big boi

sung when joining gold star was,, like those american idol auditions from way back when, when they’d air an audition because it’s just That bad

his ability to recognize and mimic tone was really really shit

but since rap wasn’t for him, and he adored the idea of singing, he knew he needed to get better. so he put a fuckton of focus into finding his weaknesses and working on them. focusing so much on music theory is part of why he acclimated to songwriting p easily. but part of the difficulty was knowing what to do, and not being able to consistently do that

at a certain point he met titan’s duri, and he was gracious enough to train sung in his free time on top of what he got in gold star. the training ceased when sung was kicked out of gs, but it took him a long way forward in consistently utilizing techniques he’d learned

in the military, sung didn’t grow much, as he was only working on his own, but because he was working at all, he didn’t fall too far behind where he was when he left gs

joining dms, he still wasn’t good enough to live up to the other vocalists, but he had a decent starting point, somewhere around where the average person may start. but again, sung didn’t want to pull the other members down, so he continued working

i made this whole post because of this section, bc it’s the biggest change that can be noticed from debut, while the others tend to be changes from training to now

i mentioned earlier that i think xion is on the path to potentially having a strong diff from debut, but oneus is only two years old, while quantum is almost five years old. so i’m going to base it around hyuk’s difference five years in, which means weak inconsistent bad technique 1 line ass to [x] (fun fact this is the first vixx video i ever watched and i thought damn how are they all good vocalists. n when i fell for hakyeon n ken’s lovely voices yummy yummy) hongbin has grown too but it’s like hyuk was a worse singer at debut and then surpassed him quite a bit further so skjdks

but the technique is so much stronger, and in sung’s timeline, it would be like finding his voice, finding his tone (hyuk’s tone at times reminds me of jinki which u kno this lil shawol is weak for) and being able to stand on his own as a decent vocalist. is he the best? absolutely not. but he doesn’t feel like he’s dragging the group down anymore. he wants to get better and be able to live up to their main vocalists one day

and this five years mark i’m putting a bit further, i’d say that level would be showcased in march’s cb. rather than big jumps, it would have been a slow progression as sung has continued to have outside vocal lessons, probably 2018 and on. and while when busy they may become more infrequent, he’s not going to stop until he feels fully satisfied with his progress

[boleynns]

“For the Throne” Album - potential clues to S8

I somehow just noticed that the entire “Inspired by Game of Thrones” album was released (they had only release the first 3 songs when I checked about 2 weeks ago), and I listened to the entire thing while taking notes. TLDR take-away: strong evidence that artists were given plot-points for S8, strong evidence of a betrayal for love, lots of fire, and (I think) major arrows towards Danni’s journey for the rest of the show.

Disclaimer: confirmation bias exists, and I love the idea of Danni burning down King’s Landing, so I can’t help but read into that. If the idea of that plot point bothers you, this might not be the lyric analysis you want to read!

Kingdom of One by Maren Morris

This was one of the ones released after (I think…) ep. 1, though it does have some hints to future events.

“First light, sacrifice” (Melisandre dying)

“Bird’s eye, saw the signs” (Bran)

“All you can give, all you can bear, all that you longed for, nothing compares, but nothing is sacred, no one is safe, so you wanna play God? Is that all you got? Would you sell your soul, burn it all, everything that you love, finally become second to none in a kingdom of one?” If this chorus is in-line with the rest of this song, this to me screams: Danni lost nearly everything in the Battle of Winterfell - Jon (parentage reveal), potentially Rhaegal (not that he died, just that he’s kinda Jon’s dragon now), the Dothraki, most of the Unsullied, and her most trusted advisor and friend in Jorah, and now there’s no point in not just burning everything down.

If I squint, the chorus could be about Cersei (everything she’s loved before doesn’t matter next to power, she burnt down the Sept and once Jaime left effectively became a “kingdom of one”), but overall it doesn’t seem to emotionally fit her as well, and Cersei has no involvement with the other Winterfell characters alluded to - nor any involvement in the battle. Also the song ends with even more fire (“burn it all”, “ash to ash, dust to dust”).

Power is Power by The Weekend

I know this song has had a lyric video, but I think it’s still worth examining. “Power is Power” (those words, not the song itself) is obviously a Cersei line, but the first verse seems very Night-King-oriented (“I was born in the ice and snow, with the winter wolves, in the dark alone”)

The chorus though then goes into something that could fit Cersei or (probably) Danni as well (“A knife in my heart couldn’t slow me down, cuz power is power, now watch me burn it down”). There are many, many, many “burn it all” references through this album, and while Cersei did use wildfyre on the Sept, Danni’s whole thing is “Fire and Blood” so it just seems inevitable that it’s her burning the Red Keep/King’s Landing.

“I die looking up at your face…Only love could kill me, God bless” Could again fit Cersei (with the theory that Jaime kills her) or Danni (betrayal for Love)

“Heavy is the crown, but never for a queen” Again, both Cersei and Danni, but again the song ends with “Now watch me burn it down”.

Nightshade by The Lumineers

Pretty much about the collective group in the S7 excursion beyond the wall. The second verse is interesting and very specific — about a single rider who saw the Army’s footprints, who swore an oath and with their life would pay, and also mentions “80 miles from home”. Seems like it’s about Benjen who was a rider, a Night’s Watch member, and a Stark from Winterfell (not exactly 80 miles, but I’m assuming that number was more chosen for rhyming purposes).

The 3rd Verse (“We were surrounded and the ending was near, all of the sudden, a ranger arrived, a savior appeared - made it to safety, but the devil was here”) again about Benjen (ranger) arriving to the S7 fight beyond the wall.

Originally I thought the chorus wasn’t really thematically relevant to the rest of the song (each chorus ends with “It was all for the throne”), and it seemed more like a general allusion to the marketing for the season, but also could be that the whole Beyond the Wall excursion was literally only to gain Danni a temporary truce in her perusal of the throne.

Hollow Crown by Ellie Goulding

The song overall is about a House of Cards (“paper castle”, “hollow crown”, all things that are flimsy and won’t last) and again mentions “burn it down”. And again pretty clearly seems like a Cersei & Daenerys song about the other being the fake queen and how it’ll end with Dany burning the Red Keep.

The first verse is all about paranoia (“Is there anyone you trust ‘round here”, “Keep a knife under your pillow”, “You got everyone against you somehow”, “It’s become an obsession, look at your refection, look who you’re becoming right now”): while this could still fit either of them, the “look at who you’re becoming” seems more Danni-relevant as Cersei has always been this way.

Baptize Me by X Ambassadors and Jacob Banks

Perhaps about Theon? A lot of water imagery, mentions of redemption and praying for a savior, but overall of all the songs on the album this one is the most vague and generic country-rock. Maybe I’m being stupid for not getting who this song is about, as it doesn’t even completely fit Theon completely, and just doesn’t sound like any character we know specifically. I’m really not into this song, and ends up just sounding like a guy in our world singing about God instead of a Game of Thrones character.

Too Many Gods by A$AP Rocky & Joey Bada$$

Overall about a lot of wars, a lot of gods, etc. Good song! Definitely specifics about the show (thrones, ravens, etc.) that could be about Jon, but kind of mainly about the futility of war and all the pain it brings. Some interesting single lines:

“It’s just too many laws” - reminds me of Jaime’s “They make you swear and swear” speech.

“Strange screams down the corridors” — Arya running through Winterfell’s halls

“I had a dream I woke up a king in a peasant body” — Jon post-parentage feelings, not feeling like he should be a king?

“Still and silent, writing papers, flying ravens with a message about me” — Anytime I read/see S8 stuff mentioning raven scrolls all I can think of is Sophie Turner saying she was given a raven scroll from S8 as a souvenir, and I want to know what it means. So that is all I can think of with this line.

Turn On Me by The National

Musically, this is my favorite song on the album. Great lyrics, great atmosphere. The lyrics seem to point to the song being about Jon from Danni’s perspective. Starts off about the rhythm of the ocean under the moon (boat!bang), and specifically mentions “And your mother’s angst the day you were born, the day you cut her down” (Lyanna dying in childbirth). For a bit I thought it could be about Tyrion, but the rest of the song is dealing with the betrayal of an intimate relationship which doesn’t really fit with him.

The second verse is a total mystery to me that may be solved in retrospect, but its very poetic (“Do leaves fall in perfect sentences? Do maggots crawl your name?”).

“Do mirrors laugh at you behind your back?” — this is the second reference to mirrors, after the line in “Hollow Crown”

“Does your family think you’re too far gone, do you wonder if they’re right? Are you different than you used to be? Are you alone somewhere tonight?” — Danni & Jon post-parentage. The Starks clearly not interested in Jon taking on a Targaryen identity.

“I’ve gone too high, I’m way too far, I’ve no idea where you are. Will I see you when you turn, when you turn on me? When I turn around will you be there, at the center of the world like you promised to be? Will you suddenly seem like a stranger? I can’t tell anymore what you want from me.” — Again, whatever Jon and Danni had in Dannie’s eyes has been ruined by the reveal, and her worry is that he’ll turn on her.

From the Grave by James Arthur

“crown of roses in your hair”, potentially about Rhaeger and Lyanna? A lot of “I’m far away, but I miss you and want to come back”. Not to mention it’s called “From the Grave” and they’re both dead, and within the song it sounds like the singer is speaking from the grave. Another vague song.

Me Traicionaste (“You Betrayed Me”) by Rosalia

It’s in Spanish so I had to google translate the lyrics, but the sound is very haunting and it’s literally called “You Betrayed Me” HELLO.

“I came to meet you even though I knew, Oh, you designed it, Bye, you betrayed me, Oh, love you do not see it”- Which is straight-up Political!Jon in one stanza. You can squint and see Tyrion or Varys betraying her, but she’s not in love with either of them so seems much less likely.

When I Lie by Lil Peep

“Stick that needle in my eye, just lost my peace of mind, I’m not evil be design, but I feel dead at times”.

“All my friends are really dead, still hear their voices in my head”.

This one is hard to pin down, as the lyrics are very specific but somehow vague at the same time. I’m wondering if “needle” is Arya’s Needle, and potentially this is about Cersei? Or someone else that Arya will kill with Needle? The song uses “lie” as both “not telling the truth” and “laying down”.

Love Can Kill by Lennon Stella

“I wasn’t thinking when I told you to stay, it was just too hard to push you away, you don’t know that you’re in over your head, I’m afraid I’ll push you over the edge” — Another mystery song! The rest of the song is about this relationship that needs to be let go of even though they don’t want to, and how one of them is not safe because of it. 

I thought about it being Danni & Jon, but I don’t think it makes sense. 

The only thing that has already happened in the show that fits the lyrics is actually Tyrion and Shae - him saying he needs her to leave even though he doesn’t want to, her being in danger, the consequence being life or death...but that relationship was a long time ago and doesn’t really feel important enough to merit a song, so who knows.

Wolf at Your Door by Chloe and Halle

Just from the title I immediately though of Jon at Dany’s door on the boat, but this song actually encompasses all of the remaining Starks (though mostly focuses on Arya).

“A wolf creeps softly in the snow, a knife between her teeth she roams, for she is now a stranger” - Arya using her faceless man skills to sneak into the Godswood with the Catspaw Dagger.

“Chasing a fairytale, chasin’ a lie, but everything changes, and everything dies. You preyed on my innocence, tried to bury my name, but now there’ ice in my veins” — Sansa wanting to be a princess in a fairytale that wasn’t real, her family dying, being used by everyone as a pawn, but coming out the other side.

“There’s a wolf at your door, there’s a hound at your heels, there’s a snake in your bed, tell me how does it feel?” — Maybe about Jon — the wolf at your door, and he’s sleeping (or was sleeping) with a “dragon” (might be a stretch to snake, but whatever). Or he’s the snake in someone’s bed?

“When you let the wolves in, you let the wolves in. When you think that it’s over, I swear, we’ll be there” - A Time for Wolves bitches!

“Up from the ashes, run through the fire, Down by the blade that bled us the same” — clearly about the Catspaw Dagger being used against the Starks and then Arya using it to protect them. 

I’m lit by this song’s lyrics.

Pray by Matt Bellamy

This song uses direct clips of Melisandre’s words while bringing Jon back to life in S6, but then the English says “Pray with me, we can bring her back” which…is someone (Dany? Sansa?) else going to die and then be brought back to life? A woman hasn’t been brought back before in the show (as far as I remember) so it’d need to be talking about in future episodes. Color me curious.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

oh! I'm surprised (mainly 'cause Yusuke and Futaba are two of my favs) but ye a post explaining it would be nice. Could it be under a read more if that's alright though?

(Sorry for taking so long had to rewrite 2 of them ;w;)

*inhales* Ok, Ipromised myself I wouldn’t say anything unless someone asked me. So here we go.;w; Don’t worry I was gonna put it under a cut anyways. XD Beware, it’s gonnaget a bit negative and there will be endgame spoilers so yeah. 8U (alluding to this post btw) (note: I rewrote this and the endgame spoilers are only in the Goro section, the rest are about beginning tomidgame spoilers and I tried to keep the vague)

(also you don’t have to agree with me, and I’m not being negative just to be negative, someone asked my opinion and I’m just being truthful. So please don’t send hate)

Ok so like…..it’s not that I hate thesecharacters (hopefully I won’t, but I can’t fully say till the english version),but…..I actually just don’t care about them…. I’m very, VERY apathetic tothem. But I should note that out of all my least favs Yusuke and Futabalook like they could possibly go up when the english version is released (stillwill be ranked under Haru but better than where they are now). I feel like someof these might be because of the fandom or because I really am not happy withhow the game is paced/how it flows….. Also it took so long cause I had torewrite Makoto’s and Goro’s cause it go too heated and negative (probably cause I’ve been bottling this up for months) sooooolkdasnfafnlak;ndfk;a I’mm keep it short and simple

Yusuke: I dunno…..maybe itwas when he was first announced people compared him to Jun. I dunno if it’scause I don’t like Jun or that I don’t like how it felt like they weren’tletting him stand by himself as his own character…. So maybe it’s that Idon’t like his design? (I really do think they should’ve went with thebrowner-haired and long haired version we see in his concept art.) Maybe it’scause I didn’t trust him? Judging by the concept art (when it was more roughsof him) he seemed a bit shady…..maybe he was originally going to be thetraitor? Maybe it’s just that I don’t like how the fandom views him… Maybeit’s all these things…I can admit I didn’t like him when he was firstannounced. When I got the game tho? I did like his arc, not as much as thefirst arc (no really that arc really leaves an impression) but it was a goodfollow up and is like maybe my 2nd fav in the game (and cause of hisarc I feel like I do have the potential to like him more). And then…I dunnowhat happened…it’s like he dropped off the face of the earth! When they weretalking in-game during the plot related things after the 2nd dungeonI would catch myself thinking “Oh yeah he exists! I forgot!” I legitforgot this kid existed. I don’t really recall him doing anything worthwhileeither (maybe what he contributed in the discussions was big? I dunno, it feltlike everyone else was talking a lot and contributing and not him as much? thisis something that the english ver will clear up for me tho so my opinion willprobably change, this isn’t a reason why I don’t like him…I just….didn’tnotice).  I know what you’re thinking “Well what about his CoOp? How couldyou forget he existed if he had a CoOp!” Well……I… didn’t…..do it….. 8UCause he wasn’t a character I cared about still, and I was focusing on eithermy stats or CoOps that I deemed more important (like best in-game benefits andwho I actually liked) or could do. So yeah…..Though, all this being said, Ireally do like his interactions with Futaba tho, maybe it’s cause he’s probablythe closest in age to her,or maybe it’s cause they’re both odd. I kinda ship them. 8U He’s really theonly one I do ship her with. >.>  This is a good segue into…

Futaba: I dunno, she alsorubbed me the wrong way when she was first announced (actually her and Haru andMakoto all did….). I dunno she was very “waifu bait-y” when I first sawher. And…..now…..she still kinda does, but more on the “littlesister-siscon kinda bait.” She really does feel like a little sister toeveryone except Yusuke and Makoto (Makoto is more like her mom tbh). And so herromance really……feels almost like I’m romancing Nanako tbh, and the factyou can view how she falls for you asa way of “tricking her” (not my words, just repeating what I heard someoneelse say), so that doesn’t really sit right with me either….And the fact thatshe’s been listening in on you for months…..is……yeah…… I think weshould’ve had a CoOp  with her at thestart of the game that was similar to the Hermit in P3 (it hits a roadblock atsome point of course and opens up again after plot stuff happens), we insteadare her online friend and she gets close to use that way. Maybe she does hackto find out location but she doesn’t….you know….bug our place. I dunno someof the things just doesn’t sit right with me. But her backstory does seeminteresting, so that might have me like her in the englishversion….. “So did you do her CoOp?” Didn’t do anything past rank 1 tbh(ok maybe rank 2 or 3, I had some free time before the game ended)…. Statusreasons was the main reason, but again….like Yusuke….didn’t really care(tho I got farther in Yusuke’s CoOp I think).

Makoto: Let’s be honest, shedoesn’t even need to be here. She’s only here cause of her sister Sae, and tbhI’d rather have Sae be on the team. We know the MC was originally going to livewith or next to Sae in the early versions, I bet Makoto wasn’t even conceived backthen. It’s only when they moved the MC they decided that Makoto might beneeded, and even then they could’ve gotten around her and still go stuff done.Nothing Makoto does is that important that another character could’ve done. “Butshe found Haru! That’s what the wiki says” (might have changed) No…..She didn’t,Anne found Haru in the book. Makoto just accompanied the MC to confront Haru….whichyou didn’t really need anyone could’ve done that. “Oh but she’s the strategist ofthe group!”  So? Tbh why is she the strategist?What gives her the authority to be that? Cause she’s smart? Guess who else issmart? Hifumi. And guess what, she’s more of a strategist than Makoto. The gameshe’s a pro at is more is grounded in strategy. And guess what, she wasoriginally going to be on the team too. It would’ve made more sense to haveHifumi on the team than Makoto.

Tldr; She’s unnecessary/doesn’tneed to be there, her role could be removed completely or just filled by anyoneelse. 

Goro: Sigh…..short andsweet….short and sweet. I don’t care about him and his struggles. 1)  we don’t see it, it’s only alluded too (P5’sshow don’t just tell thing was so strong with the first two dungeons and Futaba’swas decent too, and Haru’s problems with her fiancé was shown and you felt forher too despite her being thrown in last second). They already did this withSho and Adachi (Adachi was kinda lost in translation, and Sho was just not toldtoo well but still they’re retreading). Like I have to rely on what I saw withthe other kids to feel for Goro instead of Goro himself. And speaking of that2) he has more in common with other characters than the MC (like Yusuke, and/orAnne/Ryuji)…..which really sucks considering he’s supposed to be the duality tothe MC (like Adachi-MC, Sho to Adachi/MC, Ryoji to MC, Takaya to MC ect), yesit’s not uncommon for other teammates to have duality with the antagonist(Adachi-Yosuke/Naoto, heck the Adachi-Yosuke really parallels Goro-Yusuke)….but…..whatabout MC-Goro????? They really don’t have much in compare and contrast going onimo. 3) He doesn’t even feel like one who fulfills a detective role in aPhantom Thief thing (ex Batman to Catwoman, Carmalita Fox to Sly Cooper, ToshioUtsumi to Hitomi and her sisters, Ganimard/Zenigata toLupin/Lupin the 3rd, etc you get the point), if anything Sae is the one who fulfillsthat role more (bonus points she’s pretty much Naoto in this game, who alsofulfills this role). 4) I never felt like the team felt connected to him….likethey knew he was a snitch and they never really treated him well imo, so himbeing like “I’ll help you out and sacrifice myself” doesn’t really make a wholelot of sense. I mean if he had been on your team longer that would’ve made alittle more sense, but they didn’t like him before or after joining the teamtbh…. So why should I feel connected when the rest of the team doesn’t reallyeither (heck the fact you can be so freaking mean to him as the MC AND STILLrank up really doesn’t make sense). :/

Tldr; He’s not reallywell written compared to everyone else (as well as other past antagonists), and he doesn’t make sense.