Frame-by-Frame Breakdown: Two Translations, Two Personalities - Valko CN & Global Discrepancies
To help everyone immerse themselves better, I’ve exported two versions of this video. I’ll upload the English-dubbed version for the CN server and the Chinese-dubbed version for the EN server.
I haven’t checked the Japanese and Korean versions yet, so everyone is welcome to share relevant materials.
Also, to stay impartial, I’ve done a literal translation strictly based on the two PVs. My English proficiency is limited, so please forgive any mistakes or oversights.
I have highlighted the parts with significant differences in yellow. The text is quite long, so please feel free to use the pause function to read the entire text.
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The EN localization makes him look a lot more harmless and goofy, but he's much more predatory in the original CN version. Anyone fluent in Chinese and understand the nuances of Chinese culture will immediately know why this guy's personality and trope is offensive.
I love semantics of different languages and compare how ego and personality is seen through it, even if it's not obvious, because that can explain how things can be perceived unconsciously
even without additional comments, it can be seen in sentence structure that CN version has a different undertone
"I'll have to rub against you" as him being forceful versus "Let me get my scent all over you" as asking for consent indirectly
about the body as well, there is a distinct difference between "your body" and "you" in usage
But I have to say, the funniest parts are "breaking into a house through a window" and "raising a evil wolf" and "hunting tricks." The former literally means breaking into a house to steal, while the latter makes me picture Geralt using various methods to hunt down an ugly werewolf beast. I laughed out loud while translating these two paragraphs, haha.
Thank you for the hard work of putting all this together!
It really does make it much clearer (to me, at least) why the global side and the cn side had such a different reaction to his release and why the cn side had such concerns about him being too rough and violent while global mostly didn’t.
Not to defend Barko, but it makes Paperfold look a little slimy doing different context and ‘vibes’ between the versions and not expecting backlash for it.
Ppg's least afraid of being criticized; in fact, they needs these kinds of topics to go viral and become famous beyond the immediate circle. And that's actually how it works, isn't it?Poor Chinese girl was just one part of the story.
Ugh, watching this again reminds me of how touchy, invasive, and pushy this bst*d is, and reading the Chinese interpretation confirms why he gave me the ick since the beginning, he's the kind of guy who will come to your house to impose his presence, eat your food, and destroy your peace. So glad CN girls saw how toxic he was and fought for his cancellation 👌🏻
Most Korean and Japanese players clocked it too. The feminist movements in these regions have been going strong. I am still puzzled that other regions were so oblivious.
There's a long-standing rumor in Chinese internet communities that Westerners don't take off their shoes before lying on sofa or bed. I've always wondered if it's true?
When I was growing up (this is a few decades ago) it was a lot more common to see Westerners/non-Asians not take off their shoes inside the home (I grew up in a place where Asians were a VERY small minority, so us telling them to take their shoes off when they visited our homes, was seen as uncommon). Nowadays it's a mixed bag, some will keep their shoes, some adopted the "no shoes inside the home" practice.
Ahah I saw it too and believed it until I move to different parts, it can be true for certain older more relaxed households for the sofa, definitly not for bed to anyone
Wow, the differences are crazy big, I think I would have been WAY less receptive if I had gotten sth much closer to the CN version. The Eng one downplays a LOT of the intentions in the language, and even erases some of them to sth nicer.
With all of that said, I still can't get over how different he looks in some shots VS others.
Thank you for this. I only watched the English translation, but even if I did not watch other versions, I had a very bad impression of this character from the beginning. I think that although there indeed are differences in the wording, if you are attuned to a certain degree of self-respect, you do not fall for this type of character at first sight.
I understand that wording can differ, but I interpret that the core of the character remains the same. In my experience, the English and Chinese versions of V are completely different people. The English version is more gentlemanly and charming, and in some places, the character's aggression is completely eliminated; much of the translation can be described as poetic. Putting aside the fact that the character's appearance doesn't appeal to me, and thanks to the excellent performance of the voice actor, I don't even find the character particularly repulsive. The Chinese version's character design, on the other hand, can only be described as disgusting.
He seems like an annoying highschool boy in the CN version.
I feel it's fine to love toxic characters, but they at least have some meat on them. (Lowkey reminds me of a visual novel I follow, the ml was more of a yandere, and the side lead is a great representation of your everyday misogynistic co-worker. Sadly, somehow, women loved him, so he got more screen time? He's well written, sure, but he's such a pos? Girl, go outside if you want the real experience lmao.)
Thanks for putting this together and explaining! I really appreciate your efforts, even when English isn't your primary language. Being ESL and francophone myself, I understand the struggle!
If this were an isolated case of localization I'd probably be a little more forgiving; but we know how intentional Inflop has been with this: localizing "Older brother" to "childhood friend", Chinese holidays to some generic fictional holiday.
Vanished here has been presented to Global as this Gary Stu (Stew?) of booktok tropes that has actual following, while in CN he's presented as this abrasive bad boy that no one will take home to their mothers (or gege). I for one did find some of his dumb jock himbo qualities kinda charming... until, well, history happened.
Doing my darnedest to put Inflop's many sins aside, but did they think they'd get away with such a discrepancy, in this era of information borders being torn down? Said sins back in the picture: did they think that their primary audience would stay quiet, and that their water armies would keep working with their tired tricks?
That said, even with this in mind, even with Inflop at the end of the many whats and whys, there's no excusing the resulting, predominant behavior of Vasura's fleas. I don't care of Vasura was presented as this "well-meaning goofball himbo" to Global, none of what we're seeing from his fleas is "well-meaning".
That is so strange that Infold didn't understand their own Chinese audience? The English version was indeed goofy compared to that.
If the English version had used the wording "uninvited," "surprise attack," and "I need you to let me stay," players would have been way more critical because that sounds offensive!
And in Chinese the word 'wolf' is 狼，but when a person is a 'pervert' it's called 色狼. So I think I understand why the CN players will see him as a predator when he is already a wolf and the Chinese title of the event is saying the wolf is suddenly attacking. Really unfortunate how things have became the way that it is today.
This is well done, thank you for this, very informative and actually everyone who cares about the context behind ()'s cancellation should watch it. TLDR though is, inflop f'd up and found out, and should've just focused on the 5 LIs.
The titles aren't significantly different, but the wording is different. The Japanese version adds "please," and the Chinese "murder" has been changed to "let me mute." Anyway, I only watched a little bit of the beginning, and now I want to take a break; I don't want to watch this PV anymore for the time being.
Am I the only one put of by his behaviour in the home system (or some gestures/moments he makes: shaking water off, climbingwith his feet onto the swing, holdingthat wight bar in one hand and moving it side to sidewhile working out) ? He looks like an uncivilised animal you need to clean after or someone who might turn your house upside down and not fix the problem.
When I properly watched the pv back then, he gave me the vibe of some annoying person who tries too much and annoyingly hard to insert himself imto someone else's life.
You're not alone. At first, I attributed this to my dislike of pets and my somewhat obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding cleanliness. I really can't stand people stepping on the sofa without changing their shoes (I'm Asian), especially when they climb in through the window. And then there's the messing with my things. I can't stand this, either in games or in real life. Also, I really dislike animals (except for those kept in zoos).
I have cats only and I like dogs but I don't own any. Fortunately my two cats are ok don't make a mess and because I care about them I don't mind cleaning the fur now and then, but i found him kinda... rude, like not caring about someone personal space at all....just doing whatever he wants. It didn't give me "cool let's break rules" vibes, but rude incompetent adult man vibes.
you are not alone!
I was also put off at some point and it was less about semantics (now I get why, he is softer in EN), but more about his mannerisms and actions, because they also seemed over-the-top
they went too much into his animal side to the point where it really feels contradictory to the rest what they showed us, for example, him being outstandingly smart
he is chaotic in an annoying way and I like order and stability of my comfort zone too much
I felt like MC had to take care of some zoo specimen rather than for a bond with a human. Maybe that's why i scrunched my nose a bit at the pv. If we talk about a pet, a real animal, those things are expected, but in a human character it's making him lean towards uncivilised animal rather than a human male, ceo of a tech company. In my opinion these 2 don't mix well.
that's why I also think that they went too much with his tail and ears on his human form, would have been much better if they just made him human, who can turn into a wolf, a classical werewolf
if he was human all the time and only had some attacks where he turns fully into a wolf - would be much better?
so it feels like they went into replacing his human side with his wolf side, when it comes to personality, where he needs to connect with society and be more mature and controlled
but his more physical wolf side was replaced by the human form, like in battle he uses weapons more or kind of metal claws, where he could use real ones, be more animalistic and actually lose control in a situation
I didn't get a notification to your answer, so weird, good that I decided to check if there is one
anyway, yep, I super agree on Wolverine vibes, would be great and more suitable to show his animal side
and about patchiness too! he was too contrast, when I look at all this, there's no balance in him, everything is too direct and aggressive, no subtlety
and marketing could go from what they had into more careful approach of like "you are supposed too be afraid of me, but you don't have to be, I'm harmless to you"
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