Translating "old hag" as Karen?

[William Shakesman]

Oh for pity's sake there's no way this is the correct translation for what Stella said

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790079945

[RolandOfGilead]

Yeah, that's weird.

[William Shakesman]

I'm sure we're going to have Asagi and Fuuma agree that a suspected Nomad operative is "sus" here soon. Come on.

[PURE MALICE]

",,,,,,I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask to talk to your manager"

nope, no mistake

[Spermlord Millionaire]

That's a little corny but given that it's pretty much what Karens are its not that bad.

Originally posted by William Shakesman:

I'm sure we're going to have Asagi and Fuuma agree that a suspected Nomad operative is "sus" here soon. Come on.

Looking forward to among us themed costumes for all the taimamin as well!

[William Shakesman]

Thats the problem though. Karen isn't anything. Its a meme. It is something that exists only in the minds and jpgs produced by terminally online reddit/twitter addicts, and being a meme, means precisely whatever they want when they want to slur someone. It is both an extremely vague term and a very specific term. There is no reason to make everyone in your story talk like online weirdoes except if you dont have the life experience to write in other voices. (You can see this in FGO's awful translation where they make all the angry tough girls sound like catty drag queens because the translator's life experience doesnt extend beyond reddit.)

I get this is a porn game franchise but I dont get having so little pride in your work that you cannot translate without adding dumb memes to the product. Yes even the comedy event where the tier 2 big midboss of the series shows up because we are chasing a stupid comedy oni. Nobody would have even thought to make a Taimanin game without porn if people didnt believe in the writing.

[ばかみたい]

I enjoyed it after such a somewhat serious story, certainly gave me a smirk knowing Oboro's appearance and demeanor. Karen is a meme in 2022 sure, but the trope has been in movies and more pre "memeage" and certainly have been instances of Karens in history. I would say that if this was voiced by Stella & Oboro "Old Hag" certainly would've had more impact but reading Karen is a more descriptive word than Old Hag which is simply just old woman & this being a waifu sim I would say describing a woman old could perhaps lessen the Oboro fans experience. idk either way I dont think this is such a big deal.

[William Shakesman]

I like the goofy story. I would just prefer it be translated accurately and not treated as something the translator can throw memes into because he thinks the Japanese text was too boring.

[ばかみたい]

changing a read/book with more descriptive or even ambiguous words can be enhancing to the reader, of course it can be done poorly or maliciously which I dont think this was done in such a manner.

[William Shakesman]

That's not translation though. People don't just punch up Marukami books when they bring them over to English.

And adding Karen doesn't enhance anything. That's the whole point of the thread.

[ばかみたい]

well there are many words that can describe the same thing so which one would you pick describing Oboro? Old? Hag? Crone? As Stella wanted to say something for comedic relief best hitting her the hardest emotionally. I would say calling someone old has very little impact & since Oboro wore that outfit I would assume her appearance matters to her so appearance probably is the key for an insult. Taking context into translation can also enhance the reader.

[ナルゴ]

Yeah, I'd prefer they use real words over twitter colloquialism. Meme words die out and get forgotten. Which would make it meaningless for future players, or players who don't subscribe to such language at all.

[kknd]

Originally posted by Argon:

Yeah, I'd prefer they use real words over twitter colloquialism. Meme words die out and get forgotten. Which would make it meaningless for future players, or players who don't subscribe to such language at all.

Second on this. Using colloquialism's often ends up being a problem in the long term.

[William Shakesman]

I stand corrected on the novel translations.

To be honest almost every person on the "liberal" side of the translation argument says "there can never be a literal translation and it would sound awful anyway so thats why you have to accept reddit memes, personality rewrites, and cuts." It is so constant that I can set my watch by it. They never use it to defend the anodyne or entertaining changes because complaints about those are so rare to begin with. The issue is that there is no limiting principle on the liberal side of the argument that you can get anyone to agree to so it feels like I either have to accept Karen or I have to accept translating Japa puns or 2ch memes literally (Literally the evolution of FGO translations. Either literal memes from Blackbeard or... er... the other kind of literal memes from Goredolf.), and in that choice the latter is at least honest if awful to read.

For that reason I generally enjoy the AT translation in general. It is a foreign work, so it sounds weird to me to not see some weird Japanese turns of phrase like "... is what I'd like to say, but..." It is to the point where if all that gets sanded off and smoothed out I usually can expect to see a character make a far too spot on out of place political reference.

[Sinkitsune]

I thought it was funny.

[Deathraven13]

Originally posted by Sinkitsune:

I thought it was funny.

I agree, it's the same spirit as with "please don't toy with me nagatoro" where she says "sus", it could have been far worse like with "Miss Kobayashi-san" where some translation was about clothes and talked about patriarchy.............