mwuuh

[mwuuh]

Me and my personality disorder.

[mwuuh]

sits on my own blog like it’s the edge of a lake wistfully

[mwuuh]

So like an hour ago I just lear🪨︵︵ned that— what the fuck was that. Someone just skipped a rock across my post did you see that

[mwuuh]

Regarding Thistle's Pronouns

This is in response to a post by someone reading the official translation of Dungeon Meshi in English and asking about Thistle's pronouns. I hope you won't mind me making this into a post; I like keeping my translation stuff searchable for myself, and I wanted to use screenshots.

The OP pointed out that in the official translation of the manga, Thistle was referred to (by Laios and others) with she/her pronouns, until chapter 47 where Yaad refers to him with he/him pronouns, after which Laios conspicuously corrects himself:

Laios: Actually, we'd like to talk to her- uh, him. Where can we meet him?

Yaad: Talk!?

OP suspected this was the official translator having chosen to gender Thistle female prior to official confirmation, and then correcting themself once he was officially confirmed male. I would like to say that there is definitely gendered language in Japanese in many important ways (the way you address people, the way people talk, etc.) but it is true that Japanese doesn't like pronouns, and so in Japanese, if you can get away with not using pronouns, generally you do. This is why many learners say there isn't gendered language (also, there did only use to be one third person pronoun in Japanese, but I digress). It's common to refer to someone in the third person without ever using a pronoun, just using their name, and if their name is not obviously gendered, then their gender is ambiguous to those not familiar with them.

This presents a problem for people translating Japanese into languages that do not allow pro-dropping, i.e. English. In many ways, I would say English has less obviously gendered language than Japanese (like there aren't really certain verb forms, first/second person pronouns, or individual words that are associated with one gender or another. Though we do still have gendered language, but again...), but English does require pronouns to be used when talking to or about someone, and we have the two most common which are gendered, and then the gender neutral "they" which is fortunately starting to become more common in translations.

So English translators must try to determine based on a character's appearance, how they speak, and how others treat/refer to them (besides pronouns) what a character's gender is, and in manga and anime this can be hard because many characters are ambiguous on purpose.

Back to Dungeon Meshi. In the Japanese version, the same panel looks like this:

Laios: jitsu wa kare to hanashi ga shite mitai nda ga. doko ni ikeba aeru darou ka

You may notice that there's no part of this sentence where he seems to correct himself. This line is quite straightforward, and even helpfully includes a third person pronoun: 彼 (kare), the masculine third person pronoun, or "he/him."

Laios is just saying "Actually, [I'd/we'd] like to try talking to him. Where can [I/we] go to meet [him]?"

So he doesn't correct himself from "her" to "him," making it seem like that was indeed an error of the translator being put into Laios's mouth. Just to confirm, I looked at an earlier scene with where characters are talking about Thistle to compare the original vs the official translation. Here's the English version, for reference:

And the same scene in Japanese:

Chilchuck: ......na naa oretachi erufu no majutsushi ni kougeki sareta nda. aitsu no koto nanika shiranai ka?

"...He- hey, we were attacked by an elf magician. Do you know anything about them/that?"

Leed: yatsu ni dekuwashita no ka!?

"You ran into that guy/person/thing!?"

Out of curiosity, I checked the fan translation, because I thought I remembered them struggling with Mithrun's pronouns back when it was ambiguous. I'm not sure if they've gone back and edited their translations, or if this is how it's always been, but here's the same page in the fan translation:

Those are the first lines of the page. Chilchuck calls him あいつ (aitsu) and Leed calls him 奴 (yatsu). Both are non-formal ways of referring to someone and are gender neutral. Aitsu indicates proximity, that is, aitsu is something that isn't you (or close to you) or the person you're speaking to (or close to them). It's a third person or thing. Yatsu is just an informal way to refer to a person/thing and depending on your familiarity can either indicate your closeness with that person or your lack of respect.

Throughout the rest of this page, Leed refers to Thistle as yatsu, never using kare or kanojo (she/her). So it does indeed seem that the reason Thistle is called she/her in the beginning of the English translation is not because canonically characters were confused about his gender, but because the translator guessed wrong and then had to correct themself when a character finally used a gendered pronoun on him.

They choose to use gender neutral language for Thistle. Subsequently, they don't run into the problem of having to correct themselves later on:

(Although I don't like how they translate Yaad as saying a full sentence here since he only says a fragment of a word in the original, but that's another thing entirely.)

TL;DR: In the Japanese version, Thistle is not referred to with gendered pronouns until chapter 41 (I was corrected by a reply; apparently the first one to refer to him with gendered language is Marcille in chapter 41, but the English translator waited a bit to make the correction seem more natural) when he is referred to as 彼/kare/he. The official English translation assumed he was female and had been having characters call him "she/her" up until that point when they had Laios correct himself mid-sentence in an attempt to smooth the change into canon without having to issue a formal correction (at least they didn't stubbornly insist on continuing to use she/her despite official confirmation like they do with calling him "Sissel" lol).

[mwuuh]

I've reached a point in the manga where the magician is referred to as "he" now. Aside from Laios saying "I need to speak with her... um, him." there were no explanations as to why he was referred to as "she" before.

Near the end of each book there are some notes on cultural and translation things that the average reader might not understand, but the "he/she" thing didn't show up there.

I still think it was a translation error.

It's interesting. In the anime adaptation of Delicious in Dungeon, the mysterious magician is referred to as "he", but in the manga it's "she".

I know that gendered language isn't really a thing in Japanese, so I wonder if the person who translated the manga thought that the magician was a woman, but that it was revealed in later issues that the magician is a man, and they made sure to correct it from the start in the anime.

I only have the six first volumes, and I just finished the fifth, so I'm effectively just reading what I've already watched at this point. I look forward to going past what I've already watched.

Ps, please don't tell me the magician's gender. I want to find out myself.

[mwuuh]

HYPERDRAMA // Justice

My fan animation inspired by Justice and illustrator Thomas Jumin! Enjoy the video through the link :) it's better with the music!

[mwuuh]

It's much more fun to lift weights and gaining muscle than it is to cycle on the stationary bicycle (which I've learned is called "cardio").

Not only because it feels nice when my muscles are straining (in a good way), but also because there's so much to think about (counting reps, remembering how to stand, remembering not to lock my knees, remembering not to lift my shoulders, remembering the breathe) that my brain doesn't have any room left to do its usual overthinking and seething it always does.

It's like getting a brief break from the neverending churning that goes on in my head at all times.

[mwuuh]

I'm trying to sell some very simple shoes online, and I got a message from somone who need them by Thursday. They sent me this message at 8:30pm, and I replied immediately, saying, "yes, click 'purchase' and go from there". No response, and I went to bed at 10:30pm, dead asleep within the hour.

I awoke just now, seeing they had replied, at 11:50pm, while I was sleeping. "Thanks, you'll have to send them tomorrow."

Three minutes later, "Can you send them tonight??"

Ma'am, I am unconscious. You didn't even click "purchase". Go click "purchase" and I will send you your shoes as soon as possible, which will not be tonight because it's midnight and I'm practically in a coma.

[mwuuh]

Democrats are literally doing everything they can to stop Trump or throw wrenches into his madness to slow down

[mwuuh]

[mwuuh]

It's both my phone background and my desktop background now.

I woke up today and checked Discord and I had a message request from someone whO HAD COMMISSIONED THEIR FRIEND TO DRAW MY LATE CAT WHISKEY WHAT IS THISSSS

[mwuuh]

[mwuuh]

I need to move out. I need a home where I don't have neighbours sharing a wall with me. I need a small house, or an apartment in an apartment complex where the fucking rule is "if your neighbour can hear your music, it's too loud". I need permission to murder my neighbours in cold blood. I need these people to die and I need them to die knowing why they died.

[mwuuh]

I was given permission to post the picture! Look at her!!!

And here is Arahabaki's bluesky post!

I woke up today and checked Discord and I had a message request from someone whO HAD COMMISSIONED THEIR FRIEND TO DRAW MY LATE CAT WHISKEY WHAT IS THISSSS

[mwuuh]

Nah, this is fine. Lifting weights and having to count the reps as well as remember to not lock my knees, how to stand, and to breathe, is keeping my mind preoccupied.

Going to the gym while seething over something, barely managing to not spiral.

This could either be my most efficient session ever or it will end in disaster.

[mwuuh]

Going to the gym while seething over something, barely managing to not spiral.

This could either be my most efficient session ever or it will end in disaster.

[mwuuh]

Reblog daily for health and prosperity