#i'm curious to see what the subtitles say about the dialogue on this

[nothingenoughao3]

hai i'm curious about what twin peaks is, can you explain it to me (preferably without spoilers) /nf

Oh, is it my birthday?! Yes I can do that!

I will say that I generally do not consider things that happen in the pilot or first episode of a TV series to be "spoilers" so much as "premise". So anything I say here that's direct plot-stuff will only come from the pilot. All right? Let's dig in!

CAPSULE SUMMARY

Twin Peaks is a surreal/magical realism/police procedural/drama/horror/soap opera produced by David Lynch and Mark Frost. It had two seasons of 30 episodes total, a film (Fire Walk With Me), and a third season that came out 25 years later in 2017.

In the pilot episode, a teenaged young woman who everyone in town knows, Laura Palmer, is found murdered. The town reels to cope with her demise and the investigation. A second young woman is found alive and wandering--and she crossed state lines as she wandered. The police call in the FBI, since it's now a multi-state case, and in walks Special Agent Dale Cooper.

As Cooper begins his investigation, he discovers that there's far, far more going on in Twin Peaks than he'd first anticipated.

[NOTE HERE that Twin Peaks covers a LOT of extremely tough and triggering topics over the course of its run. DoesTheDogDie should have a list of all triggers, although those will come with spoilers. The main one to be aware of is that sexual assault, domestic abuse, and rape are discussed. The aftermath of these crimes is depicted. It's 1990, so it's not graphic as in Law & Order: SVU, but it is very much present. Please take care of yourself first!]

NOT-SPOILER REASONS TO WATCH IT

It is a vital historical work of art. Twin Peaks revived the police procedural, popularized soap operas as an art form, launched and relaunched multiple acting careers, introduced surrealism to multiple generations of TV watchers, taught basics of Buddhism, helped spread awareness of the Free Tibet movement, and inspired countless references and imitators. When you watch Twin Peaks, you'll feel like you've seen it before... because you've almost certainly seen something which only exists because of Twin Peaks.

David Lynch is Autism Patient Zero who does not compromise his writing or his vision for NT audiences. He writes dialogue and directs actors in a way that can only be described as "everybody's got the autism accent", and it is a DELIGHT to experience.

The visuals are, often, so strong that you will forget how to breathe. Many of the sets and locations are treated like characters in and of themselves.

The title, Twin Peaks, ties into the show's central themes about identity, which is one of my favorite themes in fiction. What makes you who you are? If there was someone who looked a lot like you, would that compromise who you are? What if they have the same name as you? Are you no longer who you are if you can't remember your past? Is it sometimes a good thing to change your identity? What if everybody thinks you did something unforgivable, but you don't remember it? Does society require all of us to have public faces and private faces? Does anyone really know another person's private face?

When I first watched it, nobody shipped Trucoop (Cooper with the local police sheriff, Harry S. Truman). Now it seems like everybody does and I am not alone, yaaay.

Features one of the very few trans characters in media at the time who was unambiguously positive!

Watch an episode, then pull up the IMDB and see who everyone is. I guarantee that you'll almost always find SOMEone who was famous for other stuff. If you like Star Trek, you'll find that half the damn cast was either on TNG or DS9. It is honestly astounding to me that Jeff Combs wasn't on the series (because, I assume, he was shooting Bride of Re-Animator and other stuff).

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR

The subtitling in some versions of the show (on DVD specifically) is really bad and unreliable. I found that the Netflix subtitles were OK. If you don't know about OpenSubtitle, I recommend using them to find better subtitles in case you need them.

As stated above, the show gets into really dark themes, and it does not shy away from them when necessary. I feel that these things are addressed in a sensitive way and frequently related to plot, but it hits everyone different.

The music... eh. I like the electro/late 80s theme and the instrumentals that back most of the scenes. But every time someone sings, I get the cringe. I've never been able to get on board with what Lynch thinks good music sounds like. But a lot of people do, so that could just be me.

It takes a lot of work to watch this show. Since so much of it is visual, it is absolutely a show you have to watch with no distractions. I found it to be worth it--past a certain point, I didn't want any distractions. But I get where it's a sacrifice of time and concentration.

If you watch it and enjoy it, you will probably end up with Lynchian Syndrome, where you are compelled to watch every other thing David Lynch has ever made and develop elaborate hypotheses on how they're all in the same universe and suchlike.

So yeah! I hope this gives you an spoiler-free idea of why this show is so special, and if you had any other questions about it, let me know!

[uta-makura]

The other day I was rewatching Chishiya's last scene at the hospital, and being the translation nerd that I am, I started focusing on the dialogue choices the Netflix subtitles took. I was a little baffled because some decisions felt a little out of place to me. Now, I only studied Japanese for about three or four years (which is very little when you've got an ideogram-built language in your hands), but I still felt like taking a look at the entire original dialogue. and boy was it interesting.

So I ended up writing an analysis on Chishiya and Niragi's last conversation, comparing the source text (in Japanese) and the Netflix subtitles' target text (in English). I watched using the subtitles without closed captions, so those are what I'm going to be referencing. I then ended up writing my own personal translation of their conversation. Please take note that I'm not an English native and that while fluent in English I might've lost some nuances.

If you're interested in some details of Chishiya's (and/or Niragi's) psychology that I believe got a little lost in the target text, bear with me and let's have a look at their conversation! In the first part I'm going write down both the source text and Netflix's target text (without cc), and in the second part I'm going to examine what those word choices mean and suggest my own personal translation when I feel it necessary. So - here we go!

韮木 / Niragi: 何か / Can I help you? (1)

苣屋 / Chishiya: あなたも心肺停止を体験されたらしいですね / Apparently, your heart stopped as well. (2)

韮木 / Niragi: よく知ってますね / How do you know that? (3)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 俺もだ / It happened to me too. (4)

韮木 / Niragi: 奇遇だな / What a coincidence. (5)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 死にかけたことで、何か変わりました? / Since you almost died, did anything change with you? (6)

韮木 / Niragi: どうかな。まあ、見た目が派手になったくれえだな。そっちは? / I don't know. Well, I guess I look flashier than before. What about you? (7)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 随分とダメな生き方をしてきたから、これからはもう少しマジな生き方ができそうな気がする。そんなところかな / Since I've wasted my life until now, I think I'll be able to live a more useful life from now on. That's about all. (8)

韮木 / Niragi: ろくでもねえ野郎だった��か、お前も / So you were a good-for-nothing jerk too, huh? (9)

苣屋 / Chishiya: まあね / Yeah. (10)

(1) [Lit. Something?] Here we see Niragi initiating a conversation with a stranger using directly the informal speech (known as ため口 tameguchi). It is very uncommon in japanese culture to approach an unknown person without using formal speech, thus this immediately frames his real-world character as someone who's direct and on the defensive. In my opinion, it is better translated with "Need something?", because I'd say it's a bit more aggressive and fits the character portrayal better.

(2) [Lit. Apparently, you happened to experience a cardiopulmonar arrest as well.] The first line coming from real-world Chishiya tells us two very important things about him. The first thing we notice is that he uses very technical, surgical words that definitely come from his medical knowledge: 心肺停止 shinpaiteishi is a complex word, not very much used in informal conversations. I believe that using a simple "your heart stopped" in the target text undermines Chishiya's portrayal as someone who's pretty knowledgeable about medical terms. So what I would do is write directly in the target text "cardiopulmonar arrest". The second thing we notice is the fact that, unlike Niragi, he approaches him using formal speech (known as 丁寧語 teineigo). This kind of talk is the most common and polite way to speak with an unknown person. He even uses the most respectful second-person pronoun, あなた anata, which comes out as quite detached as well.

(3) [Lit. You know that well?] Niragi's line is a direct response to Chishiya's display of medical knowledge. The most curious thing about this line, though, is the fact that Niragi appears to correct himself and use teineigo as well!This seems to be pretty unprecedented for his character, who's previously always been showed as aggressive and as direct as possible. Instead, here he falls in line with his interlocutor's formal speech use and acts polite as well. He's baffled by his vocabulary, sure, but he also replies in an equally respectful way.

(4) [Lit. Me, too.] It's funny, because what we see is a back-and-forth between tameguchi and teineigo: here Chishiya is the one using informal speech. Unfortunately European languages make this type of transition almost impossible to convey, but I think it is curious that after Niragi has adapted to the polite form common between strangers, Chishiya feels that no, perhaps informal speech is what feels more right. It's almost like he seems to acknowledge an unconscious feeling of already knowing that other person in some way.

(5) [Lit. What a fortuitous meeting.] Chishiya's switch seems to have made Niragi subtly more comfortable because he goes back to using tameguchi. Also, while I think "coincidence" is a pretty good translation, it fails to 100% convey the fact that 奇遇 kig�� points at the coincidence of meeting someone. It's not simply "what a coincidence we both had a cardiac arrest"; its meaning is more along the lines of "what a coincidence that we both ended up sharing this hospital room". So once again the dialogue implicitly suggests that the two characters have some sort of connection.

(6) [Lit. Since you came close to death, did anything change?] The back-and-forth continues because Chishiya now returns to teineigo. He seems to keep the stranger at arm's length and to feel confused about whether he knows this person or not. Also, Chishiya doesn't ask whether anything changed with Niragi, because what he says is "did anything change at all?". His question is broad, referencing what could a personality trait, a new worldview, or something else entirely.

(7) [Lit. Who knows. Well, my appeareance has probably become more flamboyant. And you?] Some things to notice here as well. First of all, Niragi keeps using tameguchi; his speech pattern is pretty brash, considering the other person is officially a complete stranger who's settled on teineigo. He even uses そっち socchi as a second-person pronoun, which is not aggressive, but definitely feels colloquial. Another word choice I wanted to look at was the term 派手 hade. Now, this made me raise my eyebrows, because according to Weblio's Japanese-to-English dictionary, some of the meanings of this word are "flamboyant", "gay", "showy", "gaudy", "loud". Niragi is essentially comparing himself at the flashy way queer people are known to dress in (especially in Japan, where gay men in particular are still subject to stereotyping as funny and colorful people).

(8) [Lit. Since my way of living has been without purpose until now, I have a feeling that my way of living will be able to be a little more useful from now on. That's about it.] I'll give you three seconds to guess what Chishiya does in this line. Ready? 3, 2, 1... yes, of course he switches to tameguchi again. Once again his instinct must be telling he's got some sort of previous knowledge of this other person, and so he drops teineigo definitely. Moving on, a change that I think is important to apply to the target text is the translation of 気がする ki ga suru. It does not mean "I think" (which is a conscious action we make) and instead conveys the idea of "I have a feeling that", "I feel like" (which portrays a subconscious feeling we can't always explain). Borderland Chishiya had experiences that brought him to a conscious change of heart, but of course Real-life Chishiya doesn't know that, so what he references is a simple sensation he gets.

(9) [Lit. So you too were a worthless asshole.] Tameguchi remains the speech manner through which the conversation is carried. Niragi makes it even more personal because he uses the second-person pronoun お前 omae, which is specifically masculine in use and extremely forward, often used to directly confront the interlocutor. The word 野郎 yarō is one of the few Japanese strong insults and covers a variety of English epithets like "bastard", "son of a bitch", "asshole". Now the nuance may very but I think "jerk" is a little too mild for both the term used and Niragi's usual speech. We also see the use of the adjective ろくでもない rokudemonai, which can mean "good-for-nothing", but also "worthless", "insignificant", "up to no good", "without purpose". Once again, the nuance used here may vary.

(10) [Lit. Well.] Chishiya concludes their conversation with one of the colloquial expressions we see him using during the series, which is non-committal and generic. You could also translate it as "I suppose", "Yeah", "You could say so".

It was very interesting for me to observe how in the space of a few lines the two characters went from using polite speech and respectful pronouns to a way more informal and direct way of speaking, in just a matter of minutes. I also enjoyed seeing Chishiya's medical background making an appeareance in the source text, and his hesitance towards using an informal speech pattern with someone he doesn't remember meeting, but feels like knowing. I think there's a lot here that gets expressed in an implicit manner and in the source text only!

I definitely had a lot of fun writing this analysis, so since I'm kind of in an Alice in Borderland brainrot I may in the future consider observing the translation process of other (more important) scenes. But this was a fun approach to begin with. Thank you for reading if you've come this far!

[smilingperformer]

Not sure if I'm late to the discussion but Liko refers to Nemona as "Miss" which would mean she's both older than her and Roy. I'd say Nemona is a senior (or almost one/is close to graduating.) Because kids don't go around calling other kids "Miss" (even sir/mister for that matter) in a formal manner. So my guess is that Liko and Roy are middle school aged (12-16) while Nemona is older than them by several years and is likely old enough to be attending high school. (16-19.) And before anyone says anything. Middle schools and high schools do merge sometimes. 😭 I used to go to one of them myself.

Does player character in SV have a confirmed age? I don't see Nemona being several years older than player, she feels more one or two years older, and Liko and Roy MIGHT be younger than Paldea PC, depending on what the confirmed age is. I do think that Orange Academy is a school open for all ages, so in a sense the age group can range from toddlers to granpeople. Or... maybe 10 is the youngest age, I don't remember if we see any really small kids in the Academy lol.

But more on the "Miss": The Miss is more on the subtitles rather than the actual dialogue: Liko says "Nemo-san". Which is extremely common in Japan to address as when they don't know each other well. Or, something like that. Every time Liko's dropped -san from someone's name (being Ann, Friede and Nemo), it's been because she's been told to drop it with kind intentions. And she's always been shown to be shy about it. So really, she's just been polite with Nemo. Clearly admires her as well, considering how she realised who she is and how shy she became at shaking her hand :D

So no, I wouldn't focus on the fan subtitles to imply one's age. Current fansub team tends to translate -san, -kun etc as more english terms, like Miss, Mister, lil', big, etc etc etc. Nemona is def older than Roy and Liko, but I wouldn't put it past say, 13 or 14 (15 miiight be pushing it). Liko and Roy look like 10-11 to me. Because their design's heights ARE similar to Satoshi and Gou. Confirmed 10-year-olds.

I'm actually kinda curious about how Pokémon tends to keep ages of the characters really vague instead of giving exact years. Makes me wonder if they ever thought of exact ages for them and just decided to keep them vague for whatever reason.

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Managed to catch the live airing of Episode 91 of Go Rush

Despite the lag (which to my knowledge, was happening to everyone, at least on this website, and was no fault of anyone) and knowing next to no Japanese, I do feel like I've gotten the basic gist of the episode?

I'm obviously not going to review it until it's subtitled but I can say what I did get from the episode.

Also, no, I'm probably not going to keep up with the live airings from now on, at least not every time. I only did it this week (and probably next week) because I wasn't sure when I would next be able to see the episode. For normal episodes like this, I do prefer to just wait for it to be subtitled so I can fully know what's going on.

SPOILERS BELOW

-The others know the Velgearians are fated to die now (guessing Yudias told them what Kuaidul said).

-Yuhi especially is extremely adamant about finding a way to help them. Poor kid. He and the others also called Yudias their "nakama" or "best friend" at one point which I thought was really sweet.

-Even fortunetellers can't see the Velgearians' future (I recognised the word 'mirai' as future being brought up repeatedly in these conversations so I'm guessing this is what was asked/said)

-Dudi Nishaw's people are dying and he doesn't know why. Given the reactions of the characters, Kuaidul's dying message (which was also brought up multiple times), and the animation of this part:

I'm pretty certain that's what they were saying, even if I don't have a key word to confirm it like I did with the 'future' thing.

The ending conversation I am very confused on admittedly but if I had to guess from my Yugioh knowledge, and the repeated mention of rush duels, my guess is they're saying something like "There's always a way to come back in a rush duel so the same must be true for the Velgearians." or "You're connected to rush duels so rush duels must have the solution." or... something like that. I don't know, I'll admit the frequent mention of rush duels out of nowhere after such a serious conversation about many Velgearians mysteriously dying confused me quite a bit.

I'm also not going to guess what's going on with Rovian. I... just can't remember anything that happened in the second arc that this is clearly calling back to. That should change soon as I rewatch it but for all I know, Rovian and the hat had a conversation ranging anywhere from "I had a nice cup of tea today" to "I'm going to fucking betray everyone."

This episode overall, based on the tone and animation and what little I got or guessed from the dialogue, did not feel like a shitpost episode, as some of the other arc starters did. This felt pretty serious despite the weird parts, which I am grateful for. I mentioned in my post about this episodes' synopsis that it would have serious tonal issues but that doesn't seem to be the case. I like that they're instantly trying to solve this. I like that it's the focus of this next arc and am curious to see where it goes.

So... yes. I am keeping up with Go Rush again. I said after Kuaidul's death it would be too painful for me to continue (that happened on Christmas Eve in my defence, all sorts of emotions were running high) but I think the double week break between episode airings, as well as the fact that Entame is taking a break as well, gave me enough time to recover and regain my love for Go Rush. Well... my love of things in Go Rush that weren't my love for Kuaidul. That never faltered.

I'll give this episode a more proper review in a couple weeks or so when it's subtitled as knowing the 'gist' of an episode isn't enough to critique it. From what little I did gather though, I liked it and it made me want to see more, which is all it needed to do.

[piracytheorist]

Episode 8 German dub!

In the spoken dialogue, the Handler speaks to Twilight with informal "you". Twilight hasn't yet used any "you"s in his dialogue with her, so I'm curious to see which one he uses because, as we have formal and informal "you" in Greek as well, those can say a lot about the relationship between the two speakers. Since in Japanese they don't use honorifics for each other's code names (and yes some characters do use honorifics for Tasogare), it's interesting to see how they translate their relationship in other languages.

The blond lieutenant guy said "Still waters run deep" when describing Yuri.

I'd argue it doesn't take long to realize just how deep that water runs XD

Right before Yuri comes to the Forger house, Twilight thinks to himself "Now that the family situation is going so well, I shall not allow myself any mistakes." The English subtitles of the original only say "I cannot lose this family that I worked so hard to create" (and I wonder if the original actually offers the subtle double meaning that this phrase does in English; to Twilight it's for the mission, but there will be a point that he won't want to lose the family, not for the mission, but for himself). Anyway, the German dub just added a little more to his perfectionism, as he's like yo can't afford any mistakes better look out.

"Who would eat your food?!" (derogatory)

As I mentioned in the notes for the third dubbed episode, here the word used is Fraß, which literally means animal food, and can be used metaphorically to insult a human person's food. Funny that Yuri grew up eating and praising the worst possible cooking known to mankind yet he thinks he's one to judge someone's cooking XD

When Yuri believed Yor's hilariously flimsy excuse, Loid's reaction was savage af.

He literally thought "Is he stupid?!" about Yuri.

I love how it went straight to the point with it, though. Loid is so used to using logic in dealing and interacting with other people for his missions, and now he has to deal with a five-year-old girl who unbeknownst to him can read everyone's minds, a woman with a 20 wisdom stat and a 7 intelligence stat, and that woman's brother who loses all sense of logic when it comes to her. Must be fun.

When Yuri started interrogating Loid and Yor about what nicknames they use for each other, Loid said he calls her "Schatz". This one is a very common term of endearment in German, and it literally means "treasure". Knowing how common it is I shouldn't find it that cute but knowing what it means it's super cute. Too bad it's fake. Oh well. Maybe in some 84 years when twiyor will become canon.

I was wrong to have so many reservations starting this dub. It's actually pretty fun to go down the episodes and notice as much as I can and train my German at the same time XD

[anxious-burrito-babe]

an incredibly unnecessary linguistic analysis of like twenty seconds of dialogue in prey (2022)

I was really surprised to see this movie explore themes of gender, siblinghood, and power. there's a scene where Naru and Taabe are really grappling with this as she tries to convince him to help her hunt the predator:

NARU: We need to go back out. Far, beyond the ridgeline. TAABE: No. NARU: Kay well I’ll hunt alone if I have to TAABE: You can’t. NARU: Do I need your permission, war chief? TAABE: It’s not about permission. You can’t. I had to carry you back.

here, Naru is clearly mocking Taabe and the authority he apparently assumes over her. Taabe doesn't deny the "chief" comment, but instead attempts to explain that, based on the previous scene, she lacks the ability to follow through on her goals. in his eyes, she is putting herself in harm's way.

what really struck me here (because I'm a huge nerd) is the word "can't" here. for a native English speaker, permission and ability are tangled up in this word. through the economy of this exchange, the audience easily understands that Naru is not simply struggling against traditional gender roles, but a similarly frustrating underestimation of her ability. this scene is a brilliant set-up for later moments in the movie where Naru ultimately takes advantage of how she is continuously underestimated.

but my question (again, being a massive nerd) is: what happens to this scene in the Comanchee dub? how does that version engage with the question of permission and ability?

it's difficult to tell from the subs alone, which are a (in my opinion) messy gloss toward the English dialogue. to my eternal outrage, there are no subtitles in Comanche. if I wanted to find out exactly what the actors were saying, well, I'd have to transcribe as best I could as a non-native speaker and make do with online Comanche language resources. for the curious, I'm including an incredibly shitty and lazy transcript of the dialogue that I used to work out what was going on. if by any chance any Comanche see this post, I would love to hear any corrections (otherwise do not at me bc as a linguist about to start my phd kI’m already ashamed of the transcript LMAO). anyway, here's what I managed to cobble together after listening to ten second segments of dialogue fifty billion times, with the subtitles written in parentheses:

NARU: u:k pitsaku. u:nitu mirak (We need to return there, going that way) TAABE: oi (No) NARU: megu nana patakh mia (Well I’ll hunt alone) TAABE: ke aan (You can’t) NARU: na se para eala xaya kui? (Do I need your permission, Chief?) this line of dialogue was rough for me rip TAABE: ke ama kuit. ke aan. na se ama kutsahajt (It’s not about permission. You can’t. I saved you)

and here are some relevant words I pulled from an online Comanche Dictionary :

• pitsa miʔarʉ (return, go back, move away from)

• miarʉ / miarʉ̠ (go, walk)

• kee (no)

• nanihtʉbinitʉask (ask permission)

• tsahkwitsoʔai (save someone's life)

I haven't yet been able to find information about modals in Comanche to figure out how "ke aan" relates to "can." but besides making it painfully apparent that my transcript is fucked up beyond belief, comparing the vocabulary to the dialogue revealed a few things. one, Naru is talking about going by herself, and talk of hunting seems not to enter the picture. two, while the English dialogue has Taabe discussing permission, in the Comanche he apparently rejects the label of Chief. to me, this is a more humble treatment of Taabe's character. he doesn't believe he has earned that title and makes clear that he just wants to protect his little sister.

is the difference as striking as I thought? no, but that doesn't make it any less interesting (remember, huge nerd here). i wish we had true Comanche subtitles so it was eaiser to appreciate the subtext more. even better, I'm mourning the missed opportunity for full Comanche dialogue as the original script intended, with both Comanche and English subs. there are even jucier scenes I'm planning to look into more to catch other subtleties. either way, I'm delighted we got to see a powerful Comanche woman kick predator ass and hear her talk about it in Comanche too

[lokiondisneyplus]

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Loki episode 5.

The penultimate episode of Loki introduced several new variations on its titular mischief-maker — including Jack Veal's Kid Loki, Deobia Oparei's Boastful Loki, and Tom Hiddleston's ill-fated President Loki. But of all these new faces, perhaps the most memorable was Richard E. Grant's aptly-named Classic Loki — an older, world-weary version of the Asgardian god we know and love.

Decked out in the familiar green-and-yellow suit from the comics, Grant's Loki is older and perhaps a bit wiser than his younger counterparts. Years of isolation have left him disillusioned and lonely, missing his brother Thor, but that spark of mischief is still buried deep underneath — and he ultimately sacrifices himself to help Loki (Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) escape the Void.

It's a delightful showcase for the 64-year-old Grant, who says he's thrilled to be able to carve out his own chaotic corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ahead of the series finale this week, EW caught up with Grant to break down his big sacrifice — as well as his newfound friendship with Owen Wilson and his pitch for a Loki spin-off series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To start, I have to ask about your costar: How was working with Alligator Loki?

RICHARD E. GRANT: Alligator Loki was fantastic because in reality, he was three stuffed sofa cushions that had been sewn roughly together to react to. [Laughs] The fact that I was the only person that could understand what he was saying was just fantastic. I think it's the perfect segue into having Classic Old Loki and Alligator Loki as a sub-series to go to next.

So it's safe to say that you would be willing to reprise this character down the line?

If I had a muscle suit, most certainly. I was denied that. I saw the costume design, and I was very familiar with Jack Kirby's original illustrations from the '60s, so I thought, "Ah, this guy's got muscles!" As I had been born without any, I was finally going to get in a muscle suit. I got to Atlanta [to begin filming], and they said, "There's no muscle suit! You're just wearing this!" I said, "But I look like Kermit the Frog!" They said, "Nope, you're not having a muscle suit." So I was very, very upset about that. [Laughs] Short-changed!

I was going to ask about your first impression when you first put on the costume!

That's what I asked: Where are the muscles? Where are the Stallone/Schwarzeneggers here? Because they're missing! This is what people will expect! This was in the costume drawing, and they're not here, and I don't have them! I was very upset.

When they first asked you to join the show, what was that initial pitch like?

I had known Tom Hiddleston socially for some years, and we'd always joked that we could feasibly play father and son because of our vague physical similarities and hairlines, certainly. So when I got this offer at the beginning of last year, before COVID, I thought, "Alright, this is that moment that I had hoped would come at some point." I thought I would play his father, but I'm playing a variant of him. So that's how that came about. I was thrilled.

Tom has been playing his version of Loki for a decade now. Did you get any guidance from him, or have any conversations with him that you found particularly helpful?

He is a walking Loki-pedia, so he was very, very informative about the whole etymology and the history of the Norse gods and Loki. He's also brilliant at imitating people. He goes on chat shows and imitates famous actors absolutely to the letter. I don't have that talent. So when I read the script of episode 5 that I was offered, I saw that [this older version of Loki] described himself in his backstory of being the god of outcasts — rather than the god of mischief, which is so absolutely embedded in Tom's interpretation of the role. So I thought, well, [if he's] the god of outcasts and is somebody who's been isolated for years and living on these planets and is willing to betray himself by going back and being arrested by the TVA and making the ultimate sacrifice, offering himself up to Asgard, I thought, well, this is somebody who is more in the twilight zone of his life, as am I. As opposed to a young man, who's full of mischief still.

So, I thought that was a way into interpreting this character, rather than trying to do — and something I couldn't possibly succeed at doing — a pale imitation of Tom Hiddleston.

I'd imagine that would be tricky, but it would also be a fun challenge: You're basically sharing scenes with all these different versions of the same character.

Exactly right. And I love the fact that he was the one person who could communicate with the alligator. I love that.

So would you now consider yourself fluent in alligator?

Indeed. I am the Doctor Dolittle of the Marvel universe when it comes to speaking to alligators. I speak alligator fluently. Put that in the contract of when I'm doing a series as Classic Old Loki, with muscles and the alligator. It'll have subtitles, so the audience can hear what the alligator is saying, and everyone else is saying, "What is he saying? What is he talking about?" That'll be the way.

I also wanted to ask about your big finale, where we see your Loki conjure Asgard. What do you remember most about filming that final moment?

Huge wind machines, blue screen in every direction, and following a camera on a crane that was maneuvering around the ceiling of the studio, and then swooping down. I was having to shout at it, and then finally laugh in the face of my own immolation. So it was a great thing to do, with these huge air turbine wind machines that were blowing four tons of air at me from every direction. It was exhilarating.

Did you have any practical elements around you at all, or did you have to imagine and conjure it all yourself?

Most of it you had to imagine. The actual landscape that you walked on was real grass and this sort of rocky landscape, but all the other elements — all the ships and all that stuff — was put in afterwards. We didn't see any of that.

The Loki palace that looked like a sort of bowling alley, that was all for real. Everything that you see in that scene was actually built and practical.

Was it chaotic to film in the bowling alley with all those different versions of Loki, bickering and bantering?

Because there was so much action involved, it was paint-dryingly slow, because action takes much longer to do than five pages of dialogue. I prefer talking, as I'm not exactly an action man, as you can see. [Laughs]

Was there anything about joining the Marvel universe that you weren't expecting or that really surprised you?

I didn't expect to find true love with Owen Wilson. We're having a surrogate baby together in October.

Oh, congratulations!

He was just so hilarious to work with. He's just one of the greatest characters I've ever met. He is so open and curious and amenable, with this sort of dry sense of humor. There seemed to be no divide between Owen Wilson acting his part and then just being Owen Wilson. I don't know if he was scamming me, but he was an absolute delight. I loved him.

Was there a particularly memorable day on set with him?

Yes, when we conceived our twins. [Laughs] No, my daughter encouraged me to post this thing on Twitter and Instagram, where he said, "Richard, I'm going to give you some acting advice. Put your camera on." I said, "Yes, okay!" I owe him for that because it got like 640,000 views already in a few days, which on my Instagram feed is off the chart. It's nothing for Beyoncé, but for mine, I'm pretty gobsmacked.

[bengiyo]

War of Y Ep 10 Stray Thoughts

Let's finish off Frigay with the soap opera drama. I'll be relieved when this managers fighting is over, and I'm not sure I'll be continuing next week.

Last time we were here, we learned that Bew is likely not just a victim in all of this, and either has become or always was a player as well.

I'm going to miss these shorts once we're done with this pair.

I am glad Sprite gets to be in this show and have fun.

I do like the dramatic posing and framing. Curious how this payoff will blow up.

Glad to see Gus and Bew not qualifying their queerness as a couple and being direct about it, and contributing to the call for marriage equality. Super refreshing.

Ah, Sprite's character is talking to Toon. Small industry.

Oh, are we going to fuck on the counter? Pran would be proud.

Oh, Bew was the one who didn't want a formal contract? How long has be been plotting to bail on Toon?

It's time for the drama! Stefano is back and ready to swap some babies!

Yes, dramatic rain and lightning. Give us ambience!

Honestly, I'm tired of accounting for all the provocations and escalations. It's all too much.

(For a variety of reasons, I had to pause the episode here on Friday. We are resuming now on Sunday morning.)

Bew is definitely still an actor. Pla is not playing anymore and snatched that phone back.

Damn, now Gus has the moral high ground?

Okay, we need to talk about music translation and where we place this in our shows. It baffles me that we still haven't figured out how to let music subtitles appear elsewhere in the video with the uploaded subtitle files these services use. I like knowing what the singers of songs used in dramas are saying, but squeezing it between dialogue is so frustrating.

"I want to end all the rumors." Me, too, Toon. I'm ready for this entire plotline to end.

Oh no. Can we not script people touching their chests when we literally have mics strapped to them???

An airport goodbye in the age of security theater? It's more likely than you think.

I feel like I need to read some deep dives into FC culture.

Why is Bew taking this picture in portrait mode??

I'm enjoying this tentative reconciliation.

Love that BL and other dramas have made me emotional about a head pat.

I do like that both parts have ended on a hopeful romantic note. That's encouraging.

Next week looks kinda fascinating in that they're doing a reality competition show. Can't guarantee I'll continue. I didn't like these guys in the little we've seen, and I'm not sure I have enough Days of Our Lives jokes to make it through ten more weeks.

[innerchorus]

Hello! Does anyone know of the existence of the script of 1991 OVA? I saw a blog post saying that according to this script Farangis was supposed to marry Arislan? (Some details can be found in the first post of my blog)

Wow, uh. No, I don't know anything about that. It's been along time since I last watched the OVA version. I have watched both sub and dub, but like I said, it's been years. However, I don't recall anything being mentioned about a marriage between Farangis and Arslan. I've just had a look at that blog post (will reblog your post on it soon) and I think the author is just referring to the Japanese dialogue/narration. Assuming they understand Japanese, it could be that they picked up on something that wasn't translated in the subtitles. The subs don't seem to be the closest translation of what's actually being said at times.

I'm really curious so I'll probably rewatch to see if I can pick anything out at some point, but in the meantime, if anyone knows anything or knows which part of the OVAs this detail is supposedly mentioned in, please let me know.

[pega-chan]

anyway TIL that Ejen Ali is streaming on Disney+ Hostar Indonesia—just the two seasons, but not the MOVIE, like i was hoping for, even though all the AniMy movies are available on Disney+ Malaysia—simply while i was browsing the platform bc they didn't actually advertise it anywhere on their social media. to rub salt in the wound, the only available dubs for streaming there are the Disney English dub and the Indonesian dub, both of which i mildly despise. weirdly enough, there are Malay subtitles but they couldn't provide for the orginal Malay dub? anyway here are some of my thoughts on them:

English Dub

i've actually heard this one before on disney channel, but i skipped ahead to season 2 bc i was deathly curious about the young agents' voices

Jet: rich boy voice, it suits him ig

Roza: yeah her voice is deep but at first i didn't think it suited her that much, but in later episodes she actually sounds pretty good

Mika: 0/10. her voice is too high and nasally; bro it's supposed to be androgynous. at least they knew she's a girl and casted accordingly but i hate her english voice hhh

Chris: as the token White Character, he does sound like a white boy, and that's good enough for me. it suits him, but it sounds vaguely british. all the white characters in Ejen Ali sound british but Chris is like, the least british even though he's like a slice of white bread amongst all his malaysian classmates lmao

Iman: her voice suits her! i like it

Bulat: PERFECT. flawless as always. i love my son

Khai: love Khai's voice, it's nice

Moon: she sounds adorable. love it

Rudy: i heard from foreign fans who watched EA on disney channel that his voice was attractive, and they were right. holy shit. what a great day to remember i'm bi

Leon: for some reason he has a british accent JFBSJDBJ???? i thought he was malay, did the casting director think he's white? was he actually white and i just didn't notice???

Geetha: not...soft and motherly enough, but it's tolerable.

Bakar: i like it enough, he's jovial enough to fit the part

Karya: he's pretty good too! he's as suave as his malay counterpart

many of the OG malay VAs were brought in to reprise their roles in the english dub so of course the voices fit, i'm just reviewing the voices i haven't heard before

Aaron/Nueve: FULL ON BRITISH ACCENT, and he sounds great! grade A casting

Sies and Siete: they do sound sleazy, i give them that. they're a meh for me.

Sinco: 8/10, i don't have much to say except his voice fits.

Also they translated "teras" as "core" JFNJD i'm DYING, the official translation from Wau staff is "pillar". IT'S PILLAR GODDAMMIT

Indonesian Dub

Ali: he sounds adorable. i think he's voiced by the same VA who did Indonesian Naruto, he sounds a lot like him

Alicia: her voice is okay tbh but her acting needs a little work. she's too expressive for Alicia, who always sounds controlled and menacing. also the indonesian VAs pronounce her name as "Ah-lee-see-ya", which throws me off

Bakar: his VA nailed it! he's fantastic

Rama: to his credit he has the gruff general tone down pat. what REALLY bothers me is how the script writers decide to tamper with his quote, even though it's literally the same in Indonesian and Malay. in this dub, they switched it around and made him say "segera bertindak", it sounds so off

Uno: i think he fits, almost like the OG VA, 9/10

Jenny: this one was surprising. Her voice isn't as high-pitched as Meirysha's, but still fits Jenny. however, Meirysha was directed to voice Jenny so she sounded cold and flat no matter how friendly she was, and this didn't translate into the indonesian dub. 8/10

Rizwan: very similar to Azman?! wow. also the acting is good (good enough for the dialogue, which is stilted and formal). 10/10

Jet: HE SOUNDS LIKE A JAKARTAN AJDBJDNF okay but legit expected him to break out into english the way rich jakartan kids do, he sounds like a radio personality to some extent jxjfjf

Roza: her voice isn't deep enough, and doesn't suit her

Mika: OKAY THIS ONE IS FUNNY SJBF they first thought Mika was a boy so they casted her with this really manly voice in her first appearance. they rectified this in the later episodes, where, like in the Malay dub, she had an androgynous voice that was MARVELOUS, but i was still distraught hearing a teen boy's voice come out of her mouth. congrats

Chris: i was half-hoping they would give him a Minang accent but he sounds just as city-boy rich as Jet.

Iman: she has the opposite problem to Roza's; her voice is TOO deep. i feel like their VAs should've been switched and it would've sounded better, though neither of them suit their characters that much

Bulat: they got his voice down nicely. see? my son sounds great in any dub. he shines regardless of the circumstances

Khai: he sounds exactly like Khairul holy crap, 10/10

Moon: this is the opposite to Alicia's problem; her acting isn't expressive enough, but her voice sounds cute.

Rudy: it's meh. he really could've been better, he doesn't sound sullen enough either.

Geetha: now THIS is good casting. actually sounds motherly and i like her acting

Leon: he doesn't sound gruff enough :(

Karya: love this guy's voice, i think Karya's character shines through with his acting

Dos: it's like. adjacent to Dos' malay voice. it's good enough

Tres: Tres is easy to cast for, since he sounds so typical, so of course he sounds identical to the OG voice

Aaron: he has the same tone as the OG Aaron, god bless his VA. 10/10

Sies and Siete: they sound like the guys who degraded me in middle school, eugh. in other words, perfect casting

Sinco: i like how he sounds, and i think his acting is okay

[drakonovisny]

Okay so listen, your blog is quite literally my favorite ever since I came back to Tumblr.

Also, I'm curious to know how/why you got into Solavellan because I feel like there's such a range on why people like him? Like some people like that he's a super nerd and other people are obsessed with the whole Fen'Harel aspect of him and I just want to know what your thoughts are?

AHHHHHHH I'M SO TOUCHED!!! IT TRULY MEANS A LOT TO ME THAT YOU ENJOY MY BLOG AND I REALLY HOPE THAT IT MAKES YOUR DAYS EVEN A LITTLE BETTER 🥺💗💖

As for the question... *starts vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass* yes I love Solas the normal amount haha. It's kind of a long story so I'll hide it under the cut.

You see after playing da2 I was obsessed with Fenris and his relationship with Hawke. So when I started playing dai I wasn't planning to getting attached to any other character. In the prologue Solas just kinda gave me weird vibes but the first time he started speaking made me 😳

I continued playing but I didn't really like the gameplay itself and almost dropped the game, the only thing that stopped me was my resolve to get to the portion of the game where Hawke appears and makes a comment about his relationship with Fenris (I looked it up on some forum beforehand I think?)

I didn't know who you can or can't romance so I looked up a no-spoiler guide on dai romances and Solas' entry really intrigued me. It said something about drama and only being available to fem Lavellans which immediately made me curious because it was exactly the character I made 👀 But I was also still considering Josephine, Sera, Blackwall and Cullen, because honestly his appearance was slightly off-putting to me at first. My doubts were gone the moment I went to talk to him at Haven.

You see I have this adhd habit of quickly reading the subtitles and skipping the dialogue immediately, which isn't the best for immersing yourself in charactes. I had no urge to do this when I was going through his dialogues! His voice, his accent, the rythm of his speech completely entranced me. I was listening closely to everything he was saying. I loved that you could ask him so many questions about the Fade and how passionate he was answering them (and all the approval points!). What really sealed the deal for me was the "indomitable focus" flirt line...

I continued playing the game taking him with me everywhere, falling more and more in love with him for his little remarks and approval points for doing small acts of kindness. The Fade kiss scene completely swooped me off my feet cause it was so intense???? and passionate??????? but also him being like "no, we shouldn't" made me more intrigued. Some stories he tells about his journeys made me really emotional, so did his personal quest. Seeing Wisdom die was honestly heartbreaking, his reaction was even more painful ;-;

The balcony scene at first ngl was cringe until they kissed and he called her something pretty in elven and suddenly left??? I was confused until I looked up what he said and he SAID THAT HE LOVED HER AND CALLED HER HIS HEART??????? AND HE KEEPS CALLING HER VHENAN EVERY TIME???????????? ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽

The dance in Halamshiral was pretty dreamy (I didn't really noticed what he said about the ball in the beginning because I was so anxious about everything there lol). His banter with other followers also showed me his sassy smartass side which I also loved. I kept returning to him after every mission hoping to hear more dialogue and stories, but even just "hello" and "vhenan" melted my heart 🥺

So anyways THE BREAK UP FUCKING DESTROYED ME!!!!!! I DIDN'T SEE IT COMING AND IT HIT ME LIKE THAT BUS HIT REGINA GEORGE 😭 Of course I went looking if it was somehow preventable and I accidentally spoiled myself about who he is... THIS WAS SUCH AN EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER I HAD TO TAKE A PAUSE FROM PLAYING THIS GAME FOR A FEW DAYS ಥ‿ಥ

In retrospect a lot of the things that he said before made a lot more sense. And the detail that really stood out to me was that he barely lied for some called a "god of deception", which made me think that there's more to this than it seems.

I was really sad finishing the main game, him leaving and the after credit scene broke my heart... I immediately started playing Trespasser and of course the last dialogue completely obliterated my heart.

The more I thought about it, the more it struck me how much of a well-rounded, dynamic and tragic character he is. Joining the fandom and reading lots of meta made me adore him even more. I can ramble for hours which specific characteristics I love the most in him, but to cut it short and get closer to initial question: I love both the cunning tragic "fallen hero" Fen'Harel aspect and the passionate curious nerd aspect. But to be fully honest I'm a little more into the later, I love soft Solas (づ｡♡‿‿♡｡)づ

[askagamedev]

I have hearing issues so I always play with subtitles (when they're even available!) and I notice a LOT of games don't do a very good job of subtitling the flavor dialogue (for the lack of a better term?) that goes on around and in the background of scenes and environments. It's rarely vital to the story but I genuinely enjoy that sort of thing in games when I can actually hear it. I'm just curious what goes into the decision of what is captioned and what isn't?

Humans have a finite amount of attention that they can spend on things at any given time. When it comes to incoming stimulus, we tend to break that down into [information channels] via the senses - information via what you see, hear, smell, feel, etc. The most common information channels devs use for video games are visual (sight) and aural (sound), but we will also occasionally use tactile (touch) to impart information - controller rumble and such - to convey information. Developers have to decide how the information that gets conveyed is prioritized, because we can’t always take in all of that data at once without getting overwhelmed.

When it comes to figuring out what players need to hear, background chatter/ambient conversations are generally ranked much lower on the priority scale. Usually gameplay concerns like enemies attacking, players activating their abilities, narrative details, etc. are usually much more important for a player to hear than ambient sounds like birds chirping, grass rustling, or NPCs chatting about irrelevant events in the background. Visuals follow a similar priority system - some things are more important for players to see than others, so they usually take more visual priority.

The problem comes from when you try to merge information from two separate channels together into one. We normally have some amount of information arriving visually at a time which is generally under the “visual information cap” so that it feels comfortable. If we cram too much information into one channel (e.g. we decide to cram all of the sound information in visually as well), we run the very real risk of overwhelming the player with too much sensory data. When that happens, information starts falling out - players miss stuff that they should be aware of because there’s just too much to handle at once.

This is generally why stuff like subtitles for ambient conversations usually isn’t included. There are just too many visual elements already on the screen that take priority over displaying subtitles for background chatter, like a story-relevant character suddenly deciding to say something plot-relevant to the player. It really sucks that such design constraints sacrifice the experience for players who don’t have all of those information channels available for some reason or other. Someday I really hope we can figure out a better way to convey and prioritize all that information.

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Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[jae-ha]

I know it's still taking a while until you'll upload the Satsuten Yankee Academy drama CDs because your friends is sick, so can I ask for the synopsis of the whole story? I'm so curious of what's happening! XD

Hey there, Anon~

I’ve been wanting to let you (and everyone who’s been waiting on the drama CD) know what’s going on, so I’ll take the opportunity to do so here. I’ll include the synopsis that you asked for in a spoiler tag below in case you want to skip my little ramble~ 

For everyone who’s still waiting on the second SatsuTen CD, I’m incredibly sorry for the delay. I’ve done everything I can possibly do on my end to have the video completed as fast as possible. (I created the video, set up the subtitling time stamps, and translated as much as I could nearly a month ago. I’ve even created and laid ALL the groundwork for the upcoming Café drama CD so that as soon as I get the translation, I can have it done pronto. Believe me, guys, if I could, this video would’ve been completed the same week the Blu-rays came out because I’m an obsessed loser).

As for the translation, I don’t know Carley (the translator I commissioned) personally, so I can’t confidently tell you everything that’s happening. At first she was sick which was the reason for the delay; and, according to her twitter/main blog she has a job as well. She’s been active on her main social media accounts, but I haven’t been contacted since last week, so I’m unsure what’s happening. As a result, I’ve turned to @apriumjam for help with the translations. We’re both going to do our best to have it up as soon as possible! Thank you all for your patience! 

And now, on with the synopsis. I won’t go into extensive detail (because it takes all the excitement out of listening to the CD itself), but I can honestly say I had a blast listening to this CD. There are a lot of throwbacks to the series itself, and a lot of the anime’s OST is used which allows for a nice sense of nostalgia. IMO, it’s much much better than the first drama CD (not that the first one was bad), and if you’re a Zack fan (as, like, 99.9% of us are) this CD pretty much spotlights him. If you don’t want any SPOILERS, avoid reading below the cut!

(And for some reason, my blog’s current theme isn’t putting the synopsis UNDER the cut, so I’m just going say now that THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD).

The story starts with little delinquent Eddie picking a fight with Zack. The two clash— Eddie with his shovel and Zack with his baseball bat since scythes just aren’t school friendly. Eddie seems to be the instigator of most of their fights, and Zack seems to just regard them (and Eddie himself) as one big annoyance. Their fight is a throwback to episode 3 and even uses some of the same dialogue. Eddie makes fun of Zack for breaking (or not knowing how to use?) the academy card key. Zack gets mad and delivers Eddie a hard smack, which sends the boy on his way shouting, “I’ll remember this!!” as is custom in those cliché anime fight scenes, lol.

Zack leaves, but it starts raining heavily. He walks through the rain towards the school and hears something whimpering. It’s a dog, which he approaches. Upon picking it up, he notices its body is covered with injuries. He asks if it’s okay. The dog takes a liking to him (and this scene is super cute trust me). 

Rachel arrives, bids Zack good morning, and notices the injuries on the dog appear to be burns. She asks to take a look, but when she does, I think she starts to… hallucinate? This part is a little weird, but I can only assume it’s meant to be a throwback to the bad experiences she’s had with puppies (e.g.: the one she sewed up to make “her own” when she was younger and the one she killed in the orphanage). Zack literally smacks her (because Zack hits everyone in this CD) to snap her out of it. The two decide to go to class. 

Danny’s teaching, and once they arrive, he begins chiding them for being late/interrupting class/not following school rules, etc. Eventually Danny becomes… himself and descends into his infatuation with Rachel. The dog barks, grabbing his attention, and when Danny compliments its eyes, Zack goes into ‘protective mode’ and calls Danny-se-n-se-i out on his creepiness (it’s the best thing ever).

Rachel and Zack leave with the pupper in tow and discuss finding its owner. They run into Eddie again. Just as before, Eddie picks a fight with Zack, but stops immediately and goes full chill when Rachel bids him good morning (Eddie is super precious). Rachel explains the situation with the puppy, and Eddie the animal-lover, tries to pet the pup. Zack begins gloating because the dog likes him more, and we get to hear his legendary cackle.

Zack’s gloating pisses Eddie off and the two fight again, but this time, Rachel and the pup get caught in the middle. Rachel throws herself between them (we stan a queen) and gets injured protecting the pup. Both Zack and Eddie stop immediately, and Rachel drags “scolds” the two of them. Eddie mentions, once again, that Zack is useless, which earns him another hard smack. And just like before, Eddie runs off shouting, “I’ll remember this!!!” Zack mentions that Rachel’s hit her head and takes her to the nurse’s office. Enter Cathy!

Cathy seems happy to see him since he’s such a delightful sinner delinquent, always so violent and brutish. He says that Rachel’s the one who’s injured, not him. Rachel has a sit-down with Nurse Cathy and asks her to look at the puppy’s burns. Cathy sees the dog and falls in love since it’s so cute. There’s another throwback to episode 5 here (remember Cathy’s “vitamins”? she makes mention to them in this scene). 

I think Cathy says she’ll at least train the dog, and in a meantime, Rachel decides to sleep (throwbacks all over the place) since her head aches. Zack says he’ll wait for her to wake up. When she does awaken, Zack and Cathy have the dog show her the tricks it knows (they are both so proud of it). Cathy bids them goodbye (and it’s hilarious for reasons you guys will hear later).

The rain has finally stopped. Neither of them know what to do about the dog, and as they try to decide what to do, Principal Gray arrives. He drops some wisdom (because what else would Papa Gray do) and says that he’ll take care of the pup. Rachel thanks him.

The next day, Zack and Rachel meet up and see the doggo again. It appears to be in good spirits. Rachel is relieved at this. Once again, Eddie appears and is very happy to see Rachel (as for Zack, Eddie’s stopped calling him by his name and now refers to him as ‘brute’, which serves to infuriate Zack). Eddie was tasked by Gray to bring over some dog food so they could all feed the pup together. Zack, now eager to feed it, tries to give it some soda, but Rachel immediately intervenes, telling him dogs can’t drink cola and he should at least give it milk. The CD ends with the dog barking happily. 

[smilingperformer]

I think her using a knife is supposed to represent a slight, growing arc that's going on with Amajo. (She lived with Mallow for most of her life, but only recently evolved into a Steenee. In the restaurant, she wasn't shown doing much cooking in general herself. There are a few scenes like helping to kneed dough, but she tended to be a waitress. Shortly after she evolved, Mallow mentioned she was 'acting/looking like an adult', and thus is learning things like knife/prepwork.)

Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhh! Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right! Amajo’s growing into a fine cook!

[corseque]

Corseque, my meta tends to be wild guesswork and based 99% on intuition, but I was wondering what you thought about both Rey and Kylo saying "you're the one who turns"? Because to my absolutely incomplete knowledge, the force has never lied. I don't think there's ever been a case where someone has said "the Force said this!" and then it turns out they were absolutely wrong. But, what I'm getting at here (and I've just gotten ohtze's Kill the King meta up to read, so bear with me if I'm (1/2)

saying the same thing, but the movie presents their reactions to the Force vision as 'only one of them is definitely right,' whereas, if the force never lies, then they're BOTH right, and they both turn. Which I think would be most fitting, considering the emphasis on balance that TLJ gave us; having them both turn away from their original path and going gray is basically my lifelong wish now. Sorry if I'm just saying stuff you've already heard, but I was curious about what you thought. (2/2)

Ok, I was putting off answering questions about this because I have a different take on this than other (really good) meta writers in the SW fandom, so I've been sitting on my opinion to make sure it's the one I want to go with. And it hasn't changed in two weeks, so here we go.

My take on the Force Visions in this movie is this:

Ben and Rey did not see the same vision; Rey is interpreting hers wrong

their Force Visions only apply to the throne scene of Last Jedi

Note that other meta writers think the exact opposite, that

Ben and Rey saw the same Force Vision;they're interpreting it differently

their Force Visions apply to the events of the next movie as well

And though I really like that view, and I wouldn't be unhappy at all if that were the case, I don't think that it's held up by the specific wording of the visions as described by Rey and Ben. I think that Rian was using their visions as a plot device for this specific point in this specific movie to give Rey the impetus to go to where Ben was, and to provide character ambiguity during the confrontation with Snoke (and the scene afterward), and these visions probably won't be mentioned again because their narrative work is complete.

So how exactly are these visions worded? Luckily, I have a subtitle leak of the movie, so I can look up exactly what they said.  

Rey describes her vision twice - once to Luke, and once to Ben. Ben describes his vision once to Rey.

(CONFRONTATION WITH LUKE) 

Rey: "You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't. There's still conflict in him. If he were turned from the dark side, that could shift the tide. This could be how we win."

Luke: "This is not going to go the way you think."

Rey: "It is. Just now when we touched hands, I saw his future. As solid as I'm seeing you. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn."

(ELEVATOR SCENE)

Rey: "You don't have to do this. I feel the conflict in you. It's tearing you apart. Ben, when we touched hands, I saw your future. Just the shape of it, but solid and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You'll turn. (WHISPERING) I'll help you. I saw it."

Ben: "I saw something, too. Because of what I saw, I know when the moment comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me. Rey, I saw who your parents are."

So what exactly do they say?

Rey says, "You will not bow before Snoke. You'll turn. I'll help you."

Ben says, "Rey, I saw who your parents are."

That's all he says he saw. He saw who her parents are. From the dialogue in the movie, there's 0 indication that he saw the future. Meanwhile, Rey sees the future, a VERY SOLID picture of Ben standing up to Snoke, and herself fighting alongside him. Which is something that happens in the very next scene.

To me, these sound like they have to be completely different visions. Rey is also told by Luke that what she sees in the vision, that is, thinking Ben is going to turn because of what she saw (Ben fighting Snoke alongside her), is "not going to go the way [she] thinks" because that's the way that visions of the future work in mythological fairy tales.  It never goes the way you think. Rey just assumed that the only way that they would be standing together and fighting together against Snoke as such a powerful unit is because he had turned.

Meanwhile, Ben's vision is very interesting to me, and also heartbreaking. Because going into this confrontation with his abuser, leading the only person he's connected to in years into the belly of the beast, he isn't given a strong, clear vision of himself destroying Snoke, or fighting alongside Rey. (Which, I love, because it made his actions less of a Helpless Fulfillment of Prophecy and instead a deliberate thing that he chose on his own.)

Instead, he's only given a vision of Rey's parents. And simply that knowledge, that Rey has been flung away by her family, that she's been clinging to the past just like Ben had, that she's been yearning for a hope of family, that they both have the same abandonment issues - that was enough to buoy Ben into assuming what he does. That Rey will turn to join him because she has no one, she's been thrown away, just like him, and only Ben can truly understand her. Of course, this means they can be each other's family, they’re meant to be together. He believes this so clearly and simply, it’s breathtaking.

So, Ben does more assuming than Rey with less concrete prophecy information, but he wasn't entirely wrong, just like Rey wasn't entirely wrong.  The only thing they were both wrong about is that they would turn to meet each other at that point in the story. They both can't picture turning toward the other side of the Force SO STRONGLY that they just assume the other will do the bending.

[why-cant-i-be-careless]

S, I'm curious... I haven't watched s7 (have to wait for the translated subtitled version) but has Jon actually pledged THE NORTH to Daenerys, or just 1. implied he'd bend the knee if he wasn't half-dead from hypothermia and 2. pledged HIMSELF to her? Because if it's just the former, what's stopping him from just abdicating in Sansa's favor when they get to Winterfell (it's not like he WANTED to be king from the beginning anyway)?

Wow, great question, dear nonny! You really made me think about it. Assuming you don’t mind *SPOILERS* I’d say it’s the second option. Sorry about the long answer but as a science girl I really need to support my opinion on facts and bibliography, i.e., the show’s actual dialogue.

First of all, at the end of ep 6 Jon calls D@ny “D@ny” and then she implies she doesn’t like it and he offers “my queen” instead. Again, his queen. And then he adds he’d “bend the knee but” and when asked about his people Jon just says “they’ll all come to see you for what you are.” Pretty vague answer, if you ask me. What D@ny is, really? A woman with a good heart? A tyrant? A mad queen? The woman he loves? Hmm…

Now I’m a little nauseous because I’m reading season finale subtitles (and I truly don’t like that ep, not just because what I ship or anything, but that is something we can discuss some other time). On that scene on the Dragon Pit with Cersei, he says that he “cannot serve two queens” and that he has already pledged himself to to Queen D@enerysof House Targaryen. (Sorry about all this @ here, pretty tired of non-civil J0n€rys shippers, with the polite ones I’m quite fine but you can never be too safe, can you?). And then D@ny says she is grateful for Jon’s loyalty, and Tyrion says Jon he’s "pleased you bent the knee to our queen”. Even Cersei asks Tyrion if he hoped to “make Jon Snow submit to” his queen.

Anyway, then there’s this scene with LF and my baby Sansa where LF says “I can’t believe he’d surrender the Northern crown without consulting you”. Again, Jon surrendering the crown to whom? D@ny? One of his sisters? Not the same thing to me… But then Sansa says “He pledged to fight for Daenerys Targaryen. He’s bent the knee.” Again, no reference about the North itself doing anything or being lost. Just something Jon did. Individually.

Maybe I’m seeing more than I really should or maybe it’s just my hopeful heart seeing what it wants to see. I don’t know. I couldn’t find a reference about the North actually being pledged to D@ny or the Starks to house T@rgaryen. Just Jon himself, and not actually reference by his title, only his name or pronoun.

So yes, in my opinion you are more than right. I really hope you are. Jon is Jon, and he keeps his word. He will keep his word here too. He has pledged himself to fight for D@ny, and I think in the end he will. He will fight the NK alongside his queen. He has surrendered his crown. So yes, nothing really stops him for arriving at Winterfell and saying “Whoopsie, I kinda f-up here and bent the knee but you guys totally don’t need to. Here you have not one, not two, but three (I’m counting Bran because he is Ned Stark’s son, I don’t care what he says, but he is there and he has the possibility to rule; if he doesn’t want to that’s another matter entirely) true-born Starks that can rule instead of me if you don’t agree with me. Oh, you don’t? Too bad, D@ny, my people first so I guess it means I’ll just have to abdicate in favour of one of my siblings. What a bummer. But I can totes fight for you, my queen!” And then my girl Sansa would be like:

Tah-dah! Fixed it!  I really hope the scene goes exactly like this

Anyways, I hope this answers your question. Feel free to message anytime! Big hug