#nora gjestvang

[voiceemporium]

Deadlock in Valorant voiced by Nora Gjestvang

[norvgchar]

Deadlock from Valorant is a Norwegian character, whose real name is Iselin, a typical Norwegian name that was popular through 1990 to 2010.

Iselin is voiced by voice actress is Nora Gjestvang, a Norwegian voice actress who appears to be from the Norwegian district Romerike. Gjestvang speaks in a typical eastern Norwegian or capital-adjacent dialect, which is carried over to the character. Gjestvang has previously been the Norwegian voices for characters like Moana/Vaiana (from Disney’s Moana/Vaiana) and Tulip Olsen (from Infinity Train). Compared to other Norwegian media, her type of voice, way of speaking and dialect are very commonly seen in television series and movies aimed at a younger audience.

In the introductory cinematic for Iselin, as well as in-game, there is Norwegian dialogue. The cinematic’s Norwegian lines are grammatically correct, but they remain stiff, unnatural and unexpected. It is clear, however, that the voice actors hired are Norwegian speakers. Examples of these weird lines are such as “Du blir tilintetgjort!”, roughly translating to “You are being annihilated!”, when Deadlock attacks a polar bear on Svalbard.

In-game, the voice lines remain short and leave little room for cringe, though they are full of swears. In one of the voice lines, she says her own name, “Iselin”, in a weird fashion. Otherwise, there seems to be voice lines that randomly insert Norwegian in an unnatural fashion, but they’re there none-the-less. Some of the lines seem to be pieced together or like an off-take. The voice actress, Gjestvang, seems to have an issue with the word “smørøyet” (”the butter eye”, a term used here as “in the middle”/”bullseye”), which she pronounces “smørje”. Spoken Norwegian is not standardized the same way as written Norwegian, and this might be a weird eastern European dialect thing. Her accent in English is pretty on-point, and is offensively apparent or German.

There is not a lot of lore available for Iselin. She is or was part of a fictional group called Ståljeger (”steel hunter”), and doesn’t seem to be fond of talking to strangers.

Verdict: Her ass IS Norwegian.

Fun fact: While Norwegian voice actors are often omitted when it comes to portraying Norwegian characters, Valorant has a Swedish character, Breach, voiced by Norwegian-American David Menkin from Moss, Norway. This makes Nora Gjestvang the second Norwegian voice actor for player characters in Valorant, which is two more than video games usually have!