So, why do some people who love Crimson Flower always go on about how the English translation is pure evil? Because they always say that "oh, Treehouse hated Edelgard," but they never do a side-by-side comparison of why the English translaton is significantly more pro-Dimitri and anti-Edelgard (notice who they leave out in that) than the Japanese script.
From what I've seen, it seems to come from early fandom interpretations of 3H saying that it was "mistranslated to make Edelgard look worse" that came from people who, uh. Primarily didn't actually speak Japanese, or otherwise had a fairly severe misunderstanding of it.
You'll see this with pretty much every big-name event that is claimed to have been "mistranslated" in general. The AM parley, the Continue To Kill no u, Faerghus Toxic Masculinity, and "the Dream Interview calls her an antagonist not a villain" are the Big 4 of this thing happening, and all four of them have been thoroughly debunked as nonsense by people who actually speak and understand Japanese. That's probably why the actual MAJORITY of events that get the "this was mistranslated to make Edelgard look worse" card don't actually have that side-by-side comparison you mention (since there's WAY more smaller things that they say this about, for example Dimitri was TOTALLY JOKING with Edelgard during Gronder 1 and TOTALLY WASN'T freaked the fuck out at her "jokes"), because the people who claim this are 0-4 on being correct about this for four of the most important examples of this supposedly happening.
So they'll kinda just say anything is Totally A Mistranslation in the hopes that the English-speaking fandom who for the most part don't speak Japanese will believe them, and through that believe them on what the game is "actually" trying to say. With that being, of course, that Edelgard was completely and utterly right about literally actually factually every single thing she has ever said in the game ever and literally actually factually every single other person who disagrees with her is completely and utterly wrong (unless what they're saying is, of course, in alignment with what Edelgard is saying).
And if anyone who actually knows what they're talking about comes in and corrects them - even nicely! - they'll either go on about how everyone is coming after them (read: people who understand Japanese are correcting someone who doesn't understand Japanese about something that exclusively revolves around understanding Japanese), or they'll accuse that person of being a liar/sexist/homophobic POS who just wants the poor little gay bean that is Edelgard to be pure and utter evil since they totally view all gay women to be pure and utter evil.
All this, from what I can gather, is mostly to serve as a justification as to why they like Edelgard since they view liking her as a villain to be a genuine mark of bad character, for some reason. They want to believe that she's the progressive figure who does everything for the little guy for one reason or another, and so grab for any excuse they can give her they can think of to make their interpretation of her not seem so unfounded against all of the evidence Edelgard provides the player that she really is just an imperialist who doesn't really give a shit about her people if doing so gives even the slightest bump to her goal of forceful unification. All because daring to like villains is just soooo baaaaad lmao
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I JUST HAD THE BEST SHOWER THOUGHT EVER
Okay. So this is a little story my mind wrote:
The land of Twitter was a prosperous place. Many different peoples with different interests could find themselves at home there. Artisans flourished as they could always find people to appreciate what they made. Now, not everyone got along, there were often feuds between groups and resentment of others, but that was to be expected in a place so large. Those in charge of Twitter were not known well to the public, but most did not care, as they kept peace. Not afraid to throw people out if they threatened the greater peace of the land. Even one time a popular man who often stayed in the great city, was exiled for his extreme discrimination. Some defended him, but it was for the overall good of Twitter and most understood this.
One day tragedy struck. The benevolent leaders and policiers of Twitter announced that they would no longer be in charge, for someone had bought them out and they had no choice. The capitalist known as The Musk (no one knew if it was for his putrid smell or if it was simply his name, but it was what the populous referred to him as) had used his wealth and influence to turn twitter from a safe haven, to a capitalist landscape. At first he promised free expression, but slowly more and more that became less true. The many of Twitter who opposed the Musk had nowhere to turn, or at least, they thought they did.
Tumblr was a city, smaller than what it used to be, but many still resided there. Some thought it to be abandoned and the citizens found it to be better this way. It was known to be the place of jests and fools. A safe haven for comedy and free expression. It was similar to twitter, but people took things less seriously. The artisans flourished, the poets wrote silly short tales of characters from stories passed down and people just came there to have a good unique time. It used to be a much larger and bustling city, however.
Tumblr started as a young man's home. He chose to settle there and once he opened his borders, the people slowly trickling in became a flood. In no time Tumblr was a bustling city, not unlike Twitter, with many communities. There were those similar to the fools and jesters of today, they heard stories passed down of fictional adventures and listened to songs of passing bards and would have their artisans create amazing paintings of the characters and bards and write wonderful stories continuing the narrative in ways the authors and life itself never would. It was a wonderful place of self expression. There were also artisans and models who became popular for coining and showing off certain looks. After time these people would blend together slightly, people would make looks based off of bards and characters, and many more things. It prospered and while the two sides resented each other, despite the overlap. However, the place still prospered.
Prosperity couldn't last forever. Like Twitter, Tumblr was bought, not by a man this time- if you could call The Musk one- but by a company. They did the same policing and capitalizing that caused people to flee. Then the company realized they were no longer prospering from the nearly dead city and sold it for little money. Slowly and surely the fools returned, creating a thriving community off of the ruins it once was.
Now knocking on the walls of Tumblr are those fleeing from Twitter. A lot of Tumblr citizens are fine and continuing on their everyday life, but not everyone. Some of those from Tumblr are trying to scare of the people of Twitter who will not accept their unique sense of humor and customs. Twitter and Tumblr are very different places.
Will the people get along?
Will those of Twitter get driven away?
Will Tumblr no longer be the safe haven for fools and jests the way it once was?
This is for you, dear reader to decide. You are the future of Tumblr and Twitterkind. How will you take your next steps?
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tramway coaches i guess
i meant to reply to @sudrian-railways-enthusiast about these tags in the comments but somehow my response spiralled into a full-blown post on HCs for minor coach characters
"the old ones with nothing to lose... and Henrietta"
So, I hesitated on how to word that section! Because my first thought had been that the coaches that were more reckless and "awkward" were very likely to be elderly coaches relegated to workmen's services, as that seems to basically be the last leg of the life journey for them... assuming they get that far. In other words, IRL some of those coaches are janky but since they're usually quite old that's not much surprise. In sentient vehicle world, I like to think they're cranky, they've come down a long way in the world (unwashed laborers! eurgh!!), they probably have some Emotions, and what they don't have left are any fucks to give.
But I also knew Henrietta had definitely done some Unauthorized Creeping About, so I had been planning to make a special mention of her all along. But when it came down to writing that sentence, it was awkward. She's a special case! Because she does seem to literally fit the profile I wrote above... but she's not that type. For one thing, she has far from "nothing" to lose! She may primarily transport workers to and from the quarry but for her it's not a last lonely stopgap before the scrapyard; she has a home, friends; she's loved; she does all sorts of special jobs; she and Toby are multi-generational local celebs and they are in no disgrace or danger.
Hannah... hahaha(nnah)... I admit, I wrote that post not wanting to touch her. She gives me a fair bit of trouble in headcanons because you would think that if Henrietta still had a sister after all this time there would be a lot of explanation and backstory and probably angst to unpack? Like what?? Where did she come from??? I agree, just looking at TVS the best explanation is that Hannah was scrounged up and refurbished largely as a backup for Henrietta (and omg, the ISSUES with that dynamic???? this hasty hot-blooded creature as the frustrated understudy? but they both survived the scrapper's torch, so that makes it... okay? but also, not? hmmm...)
If we try to combine TVS and RWS, though (as I do!), I feel we need to do something else with Hannah. Because there is no way to reconcile Victoria's existence if Sodor owns Hannah? Like I'm not one to think that everything on this disaster-gay-energy of a railway has to be matchy-matchy but it's almost cruel for them to have been like, "Ahhhh, yes. Henrietta needs some help. Where shall we get it? ... *crickets* ... Well, we'll kick that can down the road and see what comes up." Completely ignoring Henrietta's underused and clearly bored SISTER just chilling on a seldom-used siding.
Even as I type this, I realize we could just say that Hannah's disposition is Too Much to handle that gig full-time—Toby seems stressed out whenever he has to go near her for even a day or two. But for my money, I like to ID Hannah as the Upwell and Wisbech coach No. 8, the one who appeared in Titfield Thunderbolt! It definitely seems consistent with her "hasty" and adrenaline-seeking character! Also, remember that canonically Toby and Henrietta (and Elsie! I am categorically against Elsie Erasure 😤) are from an Upwell-and-Wisbech-esque line but explicitly NOT from that one. In other words, it facilitates the two sisters having always worked separately back on the mainland, which seems to fit the rather distant relationship they have in the show.
This also facilitates, in this timeline, Hannah being preserved but not owned by the North Western. That helps me a lot so far as her coexistence with Victoria. In this headcanon I'd say that the North Western put off the issue of Toby's overloaded train for as long as possible because they were trying to buy Hannah. Finally they could put it off no longer and, anyway, it was clear that Hannah's railway (I haven't decided which heritage line she works, but it's one of them) wasn't going to part with her. This makes more sense to me than the explanation in the book that? the North Western? couldn't afford a single new coach no matter how pressing the need?? but they could afford to restore a converted garden house into running condition (not really any cheaper I reckon)??? And then at the end FC3 is showing off the train like it's an attraction??? I dunno, I don't buy any of it, the NWR is doing plenty well enough to get any coach they want. That they put it off because they wanted Hannah works for me. And Victoria wasn't some convenient random find; she was probably on FC3's radar for a while and was the Next Best Option for some local vintage flavor.
That said, you can still rescue the Hannah episodes, too, by saying sometimes she is loaned to the NWR. And since she only works about 25 days a year and never breaks 10 mph otherwise, you'd better believe she makes the most of her spells on Sodor! Yee-haw! C'mon, Jim-boy, is this really as fast as you can go?????????
Bonus: If Hannah had been preserved after Titfield Thunderbolt as planned... perhaps she's appeared in some movies since?... she's a career actress. Throw in a little diva-with-a-heart-of-gold energy and just, honestly, I'm loving this.
As for Victoria... okay, so it seems to me that, immediately prior to being withdrawn from service on the Ffarquhar, she DOES fit my profile for "unhappy, ornery coach, disgusted at how far she's fallen in the world, who might act out." Think about it—she had been sent away from Albert and Helena (that had already been her first "demotion," mind you—but she seems to have been very happy with her little found family in that era), sent over to the No-Where Railway, is in exile now on the most godforsaken western line on this barbarous island? She doesn't know how Albert and Helena are, the early N.W.R. is a mess, there's no tourism, she's reduced to having 'Coffee Pots' play pass-the-parcel with her as smelly miners and masons and construction workers grind dirt and ash into her upholstery and make a ruin of her floors, and with each new bit of grime it seems any hope she has of ever being wanted back home grows dimmer—
So, maybe she acted out? I mean yes, she seems very sweet, and I'm sure by nature she is, but these are also the exact sort of circumstances I'd predict "truck-like behavior."
She had to have been withdrawn before 1925, or else Thomas should have recognized her, so that was relatively early, and maybe she was one of the first picks to be replaced once the railway started getting their grubby paws on a few better coaches—because she had gotten into the habit of being a bit of a pill.
I know, I know that when Chris Awdry had Edward say "Don't I know you from somewhere?" that he meant to imply the answer was "yes, from their mutual Furness days." But the F.R. timeline actually works out such that these two probably never worked the same line. So I, guilt-free, prefer to interpret it as Edward vaguely recognizes her, and it takes him another minute or two for him to realize that it's from their early Sodor days.
So then he keeps his mouth shut and never brings it up again. Because it would be a very Edward thing, to a) remember that she had gotten a bad reputation on the island, and to b) realize that he's probably the only other living thing that would know this, and c) to reckon that after 75 years off the rails, she has more than paid the price for any difficulty she once gave, and that she deserves the chance to make a fresh start.
Which, obviously, Victoria grabbed onto it with all six wheels and never let go. She is clearly a homebody by nature so, now that she knows that this is the only home she has, it makes sense to me that any brief "I'm going to make my problems everyone's problem" phase is long over.
Still... imagine how pleased Henrietta and Elsie were, after containing their Creeping About tendencies for a while, feeling that this pleasant newcomer would crimp their style, to discover... haha no worries. She is perfectly prepared to keep their secrets. She may even chip in a trick or two of her own...
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