#i don't know many popular things

[molekel]

Amphibiuary Day 15: Popular

Froggy Chair :3

[hellofeternity]

ORV transcends language | how ORV is kind to readers (1.1k words)

the difficulties in analyzing text are already numerous without a language barrier, the way one word can mean 5 things and when you put it in a sentence suddenly it can mean 50 things and put that sentence in a paragraph? go further and put that paragraph in a page? construct a whole world around it, weave it into the fabric, and suddenly you are painting with words.

ORV is a daunting text, it calls and references so many mythos world wide, greek, roman, indian, chinese, japanese, it plays with meaning and intent and uses gaps in our knowledge like weapons, making us extrapolate our own meaning between the sentences, it is a tome of knowledge when it comes to histories and philosophies it feels at times like I will never understand all these things inside it.

One of the difficulties of reading a translated text is that when we analyze a text the authorial intent weighs very heavily in our minds, sure we can immerse ourselves in the world but once we start picking apart at the threads we hit a wall pretty soon when we start asking ourselves "what did the author mean by this?" however in a translated text there is an obvious gap, a game of telephone, did the translator actually capture the authors intent? or are we just reading the translators perception? sadly I don't know korean, and I cant say I have the drive to learn it, as such I know there will forever be a side of ORV that I will never be privy to - however I am bilingual and had the pleasure of reading two translated versions of ORV, an English translation and an Arabic translation, I didn't finish reading the said Arabic translation but a couple things stood out to me when I briefly did ORV is very kind to readers, following along in other stories can seem confusing at times, the pacing might be too fast and you might miss some details in a characters actions, the wording might be too vague and ah damn 20 pages later you realize you don't actually know why the characters are doing what they are doing. A big writing adage that you will see a lot is "show dont tell" and it holds merit, but ORV doesn't subscribe to it, because ORV shows AND tells. ORV built a world around readers and reading, and it makes sure that there is clarity every step of the way on what is happening, first by starting out as a homage to the isekai genre, and not deviating too much at the start, making the readers feel at home in a worldview they are familiar with, systems, leveling, videos games etc, and when it starts deviating it explains things with clarity that no matter how bad the translation is you understand the general intent, and secondly by being VERY blatant about the names of things and having a built in "story" system that is built on common story tropes and names the themes for you! take for example "unbroken faith" and "Blade of faith" both of these are two translated versions of dokja's sword. I will never know which one is closer to the original authorial intent, but I can tell you something, dokja's sword is symbolism to the faith he is wielding. (CH386 vague spoilers) or the entirety of "the great war of saints and demons" being about the concept of good and evil fighting and how kimcom aren't just above being good and evil, they are both. By using story tropes that we are familiar with to explain the complexity of situations in a simple forms you no longer have to worry about losing you readers understandings through language barriers. Every story in the world in every language knows what good vs evil is, every language has the words to explain them. and therein lies the beauty of ORV. But of course this isn't to say translations don't matter, it does speak to the strength of an original texts clarity when it accounts for the big things by making them simplified, but when we get down to the nitty gritty it starts to lose form take for example

"Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I ever get to meet you again?"

this person here has a great write up explaining the translators thoughts behind this specific line

but it has spawned a lot of debate in the English speaking fandom, as to the strength of its translation, I remember when I first saw someone claiming that its a mistranslation and "you fool" isn't part of the original, my first thought was "and so?" I do not mean to be dismissive to the original text, but I do not exist in a space where I can appreciate it in the original korean, I do not exist in a worldview where I can understand the historical implications of a lot of the characters, and even when I try to research it in English sadly the resources do not exist yet and its even more laughable to think of finding these things in Arabic. (Goryeos first sword doesn't have an English wikipedia page as a clear example) a lot of people have issues with the most popular English fantranslation of ORV - and I can understand why, being bilingual I have a lot of opinions on how a lot of things SHOULD be translated most of the time, and have done my own translation work but as I sit and think about this popular translation I cant help but just feel love for it, it might be lacking to some, it might be inaccurate at times to others, but its just enough for me to paint the gaps in the text with my perceptions, the words used are tied to my affections the Arabic translation of ORV is clunky, it is messy, it doesn't have as much grace as the English translation of ORV does, the words barely string together cohesively, but it has enough clarity, enough intent, and enough love for its readers, to catch their hearts, their attention and their energy

and so I want this to be the first post on this blog because, the author is dead here, not because I buried them, but because the tower of babel fell down a long time ago, and all we have is rubble and each other. a lot of the analysis on this blog will try to be respectful to the korean original wherever it can, however my words will be coming from an anglosphere perspective, and build on other English reader's perceptions of a text translation that a decent amount of people don't think is adequate, but just like ORV is kind to us, we can be kind back, I will quote the most popular version because its what connects us together, and while the authors intent might be lost, we can share our own meanings with each other, and build our own intent from the rubble.

[teddybasmanov]

I hate the 'you work so hard' type of comfort audios. I don't work 'so hard', I definitely don't work hard - I barely work at all.

[rotisseries]

inspired by elli's poll lol cause this seems fun actually but if you guys have bad answers I'll kill myself on your doorstep or smth

[rants-about-opm]

I feel like people don't stan characters as hard when they're well written. It's like coloring pages, when they aren't started/finished, there's fun to be had filling in the pieces. I notice it everywhere, but especially with myself. Characters I write for the most are characters I "saved" from canon stories I disliked. Rock Lee from Naruto, Jason Todd from Batman, Yomiel from Ghost Trick, these are character I write entire AUs for, redesigning their backstories and relationships with other characters.

I love that I can't do that with OPM.

Im genuinely in love with the story I'm being told by ONE and Murata, these characters and their stories intruige me and I want to know where they go and what they do next. When I write for them, it's to play off the little tidbits of characterization they are already packed full of. I don't have to make the effort to write a story worth hearing. I think we lose sight of that, the difference between writing for a story because we love it, and writing for it because we love what it and it's characters could be.

[immediatebreakfast]

Victor's perspective of the wedding, and his marriage with Elizabeth took a really terrifying turn after everything that happened so far. Like, I was waiting for him to do something drastic at some point, but it seems that Victor knows well enough that he can't show his grief in public.

It's how the wheels on Victor's head were turning the more he read Elizabeth's letter. The way he reached to that horrible conclusion, and how the marriage went from "a duty that I must do for the happiness of my family" to "the tool that I will use to finally die".

"On that night he had determined to consummate his crimes by my death. Well, be it so; a deadly struggle would then assuredly take place, in which if he was victorious, I should be at peace, and his power over me be at an end."

I could literally vision the kind of smile that Victor could have painted on his face a he said this. A smile of pure despair on a young man who has reached the limit of his own mind. And with that mind Victor wrote that letter to Elizabeth, and followed through all of the preparations for the wedding.

Of course he admits later on that he was really blinded by his own misery, and he did not consider Adam's actual words. But to see Victor so joyous over his possible death while Elizabeth tries, and tries to cheer herself up for the only thing that was expected of her feels like a void where neither can climb out of.

[nateriverswife]

google how do you delete your tumblr account without actually deleting your tumblr account

[grey-lark]

Not gonna lie, there is an non-insignificant part of me that thinks it would be hilarious to make Jackrabbit a Steve/Tommy/Carol fic at the last minute and just end with ‘Congrats, you unknowingly read over 200,000 of crack ship!’

[capricioussun]

Will probably delete later but genuinely WHY do so many ppl hate uf papyrus. "He’s horrible and a bad brother and abusive >:(((" my guy. YOU made him that way

[reactionimagesdaily]

I’ve been trying to collect sobbing/deranged stick figure memes would you happen to have any?

Got some! (and found some more on google images lmao)

(bit of a long post ahead lmao)

[ottiliere]

I love crawling out of the depths, opening up tumblr, and seeing your art. I love it.

it is quite interesting how social media can fall to the wayside, and people on the internet can just disappear forever if they really wanted to! I admit I struggle to keep up with "public accounts", they are uniquely stressful and I solute your hibernating tenacity. always lovely to see you resurface regardless, thank you very much for the lovely compliment...

I will say in case any of my dear followers were wondering where i've gone for the past month and a half, for weeks i've been pondering how to even broach the enormity of the topic that is: I made the mistake of thinking about my most favorite character for more than 2 minutes in one sitting. I intentionally go out of my way to avoid this and have many strategies to evade this occurring because every time I do enter a sort of hermetically sealed mental chamber where it's just me and him and his life and I begin to ignore all points of previously established social contact and also my health indefinitely. It's difficult to convey the emotional experience of this or its psychic magnitude. and it's hard to say "guys i really love this character!" because that's just words. you can't see it. the 10 years of obsessively thinking about some guy so intensely on&off cyclically until you've made 20 different worlds he's living in... how does one convey the depth of these without artistically depicting them as you see them to be...? i am trying to figure it out. currently planning a longform comic for my favorite and several smaller comics for others, but logically an individual can understand this takes a while... he and I have had multiple rendezvous over the past decade and I wish I had more "historical" art to show but for many of these years I have been a bit too physically disabled to draw, the past several weeks have been spent attempting to recreate his ideal form as he exists in my head. he is starting to come around!

I typed up three separate disquisitions last month to try and explain my feelings on him and none of them felt like the proper vessel to communicate this concept. which is likely for the best. the obvious answer is "just draw him". fine with this being the case, difficult when I have so many drawing ideas I'm now sitting on 100+ works in progress and they just keep accumulating since my brain generates these like an old laptop you leave in the corner of your room to mine bitcoin. in a way I'm content with this being a very "personal" experience thus far, shared with me and those in my inner social circle (really cannot emphasize to my readers enough how fandom can poison your constitution without self-checked moderation). however... I yearn to meet others who are as passionately involved with him as I am, because I think we could coalesce our ideas, and passion, into something beautiful...

^dio brando

[kibibarel]

the way that i should have learned at least a small bit of something via fandom space osmosis about Genshin Impact, considering how popular it is, and yet somehow i haven’t...i don’t even know if that shit has a plot at all 🤔

[imminent-danger-came]

On god just found the worst review of Lego Monkie Kid season 2. And I quote, “There are things from season one that are established for sure and referenced and capitalized on—but I feel like there’s just a little bit too much of that going on if that makes sense. I couldn’t help but feel like this was kind of a continuation to season one as opposed to its own storyline and it’s own season.”

Girl???? You mean it has an overarching plot????????????????

[party-lemon]

i haven't brought myself to watch ofmd yet, but i had planned to, and i just gotta say, i am very pissed for you all

[hel-phoenyx]

Wattpad just deleted a story that, yes, was heavily disturbing and marked Mature for pedophile antagonist in full control reasons but was in no way supposed to glorify or be fully explicit (no sex scenes, the most hardcore one is a makeover scene where everyone had to get in underwear and recieve body care by a person that is not even the antagonist and is trying to keep that quick and not humiliating) so I am this close to leave that godforsaken site behind

Which is a shame because it was the most social-potential publishing site existing with the ability to comment on paragraphs of the story, the reading and writing site I'm the most used to and how I got all of my polycule

I may change my mind when anger calms down but if the appeal doesn't work one thing I know for sure is that I'm emigrating all my LPM work on Ao3

Luckily I had a backup but FUUUUUUCK

[cakemoney]

finding out that kaito and shinichi have been revealed to be cousins is like finding out there was a huge earthquake in the country you used to live in