#there will be no agent lang slander in his presence

[fraeuleintaka]

My favourite thing about this series retrospect apart from that one shot of sparkly Miles is how, out of all the rivals, Phoenix starts specifically insulting Shi-Long for no reason (His hair? Seriously?) and Miles instantly defends him. Phoenix suddenly being so aggressive out of nowhere? Miles immediately jumping in to defend his boyfriend? Somebody's jealous.

[fraeuleintaka]

I just realized that there's also a German version of the series retrospect video! It's not dubbed (sad but expected), only subbed but I'm still gonna treat it as the official German version fitting to the German translation of the games. It's interesting what changed in translation.

First of all, the name for the rivals "weirdo" got changed to "Schurke" which is closer to "scoundrel" in meaning. I guess they could've gone with "Spinner" to translate it more accurately but I also like "Schurke" since the rivals all fill an antagonistic role for the majority of their screentime. It definitely makes for a nice title!

I was most interested in how this little dialogue about Shi-Long would be translated so here are the German lines (translated back into English):

Phoenix: "Shi-Long Lang is an investigator from Interpol who hates prosecutors. He looks just like a werewolf."

WTF Phoenix, where do you live where Shi-Long would look "exactly" like a werewolf?? How would you even know what a werewolf looks like?

Miles: "Shi-Long Lang is absolutely adored/idolized by his pack. Be careful with your choice of words!"

Oh wow, I don't think Miles has ever joined in on Shi-Long's wolf metaphors out loud before (in a way that isn't deliberately sarcastic or poetic) so I kinda love that he does here completely unprompted! It feels a little like a pointed remark against Phoenix' insult? Like making clear that he's completely on board with the wolf thing and takes it seriously no matter what Phoenix or others think of it. That's so cute! "Vergöttert" is also a lot stronger than "admired" (basically being looked up to like a god) which definitely fits the way Shi-Long's subordinates see him but I like that Miles stresses it this much. For some reason he also uses his full name here instead of "Agent Lang"?

Phoenix: "What are you gonna (do you want to) do about it?"

Okay, his English voice has a very petulant tone with this line but the German expression sounds more aggressively like a challenge (though you could totally say it in the same petulant way so it's difficult to judge). I like that Phoenix directly asks Miles what he's gonna do about him insulting Shi-Long which makes it sound even more like Phoenix is directly antagonizing him. Like, Miles tried to switch focus by saying Shi-Long's pack would mind Phoenix talking about him like this but in actuality it's Miles himself who hates it. Somebody is a lot more protective over a certain Interpol agent than they're willing to admit... Aww, that's so cute!