#translator Dlique

[injustice-of-toren]

I read Translation State a while ago and the Ancillary trilogy a while before, but I've been thinking: was I supposed to know when Zeiat showed up after Dlique's death that they were the same person?

I feel like knowing that would have made the whole Zeiat getting a commemorative funeral medal with Dlique's name on it a lot funnier.

So here's a poll:

[rjalker]

Translator Dlique/Zeiat, her jaw unhinged.

Laios, jealous, impressed, and fascinated.

Data somewhere out of frame intrigued and waiting to tell them about all of the species he knows of that can unhinge their jaws

[ID: A very simple black and white digital drawing with an uneven black border, showing Laois from Dungeon Meshi in the background standing with mouth agape and starry eyed, his hands on his face, staring towards the foreground, where, mostly offscreen, we can see Translator Dlique/Zeiat's unhinged lower jaw as she prepares to eat a large fish she holds above her. End ID.]

when I actually read Dungeon Meshi I'll write fun 3-way crossover fics. Data and Laios deserve better friends and I think they'd like Translator Dlique/Zeiat

[living400lbs]

Translator Dlique threw up her incongruously gray-gloved hands, a gesture, I thought, of exasperation. "Say exactly what we told you to and nothing will go wrong, they said. Well, it all went wrong anyway. And they didn’t say anything about this. You’d think they might have, they said lots of other things. Sit up straight, Dlique. Don’t dismember your sister, Dlique, it isn’t nice. Internal organs belong inside your body, Dlique.” She scowled a moment, as though that last one particularly rankled.

- from Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

[awkward-underscore-butterfly]

Fish-shaped cakes. Translator Zeiat would be delighted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyaki

(Someone has probably made this connection before but I was trawling wikipedia for unrelated research and immediately though of Zeiat)

(also I mixed up Dlique and Zeiat and had to edit this. Clearly it’s time to reread the books again)

[therearenolimitsonthehams]

have i read the imperial radch trilogy as well as provenance and translation state? yes. do i have any FUCKING idea what is up with the presger translators? no i do not

[elexuscal]

original trilogy: haha wow both Dlique and Zieat were so weird... Constantly getting into trouble, going places they shouldn't, eating random shit, hating boredom... I guess that's what all Presger Translators are like

Translation State: well yes. but some of that was just Dlique-Zieat.

[syeniites]

What’s that you say? I’m actually Translator Zeiat, not Translator Dlique? Now, I’m fairly positive that is incorrect, but it’s an interesting notion, so I’ll roll with it. On an entirely unrelated note, that ‘Dlique’ person is a huge liar who’d say anything if they thought it might be funny. They might even lie about their name…

[crispinkiss]

i just finished my reread of ancillary mercy and i hadn't noticed this the first time

[astercrash]

(via @zeiat)

Look it's very simple.

Brnine is the crew parent. Phrygian is the other parent. Figure is the guy who's been living on their couch for six months despite paying rent in another city. Cori is a baby they bought at a church bake sale. And Thisbe is Brnine's 2003 Honda Civic that doesn't love them anymore!!

[a-side-character]

Imperial Radch as Things in my Phone pt. 8

Pt. 1 , Pt. 2 , Pt. 3 , Pt. 4 , Pt. 5 , Pt. 6 , Pt. 7

Seivarden:

Annander Mianaai and Athoek Station Security:

Breq:

Captain Hetnys:

Reet (technically Translation State but ssshhh):

Annander Mianaai:

Seivarden, after losing The Gun:

Not sure who's saying it, but this is about Breq:

Zeiat-Dlique:

Bonus: Sphene's response to the pasta question

Other people may be tired of this series, but as long as I am not it will continue

Join me next time as I slowly descend into Imperial Radch Brainrot madness 😎👍

[demani-dusk]

I don't know anything about Translation State yet and yes I am reblogging every Imperial Radch post I can as preparation for reading it, but I'm very excited because I love Translator Zeiat a lot and a thing I might sort have picked up is that we'll be getting more to do with her whole deal.

I love Translator Zeiat less as I love as character and more as a narrative device, sorry Zeiat, although I do find her hysterical. I love how she underlines themes around identity and categorization by breaking down the way we talk about these things into absurdities.

The most obvious part of the book where she's doing this is when she's explaining about cakes and how if she separates the cakes with fruits from the cake without fruit they're different, but if she mixes them together then they're all the same again. She can add a counter and call it cake and then it's cake too! At this point, it's fairly apparent she's talking about people and how there are different kinds of humans. And in this case, that's what she means to talk about. Or rather, she is talking about how words work in general and it's very apparent this insight is most helpful when talking about categorizing people.

But like, what else has she got going on? She accepts Breq deciding that she's Zeiat and not Dlique. By the end of Ancillary Mercy we don't really know how translators work or how correct Breq may have been, but it works out because Zeiat is so very happy she's Zeiat and not Dlique. This is very Gender to me, the way arbitrarily being called something different causes Zeiat to behave differently and she's so Happy about it. She talks about how if she were to go home everyone would call her Dlique and she wouldn't like it. It's also a fun scifi way to raise the question to the reader, what does it mean to be one thing and not another? By forcing the reader to try to figure out what is going on with the translators' identities, we have to just, think about how identity works. And it's a theme for the series. Sick!

Fish sauce is a condiment, not a drink. That fish is for looking at, not for eating. Have you noticed that these fish cakes are entirely the same on the inside but the other fish have very complicated insides? All I'm saying is, what's the difference between a citizen and a noncitizen? One of them is Civilized and the other isn't.

And my favorite is Zeiat finding Breq in the infirmary and re-introducing herself and saying she'll miss the old fleet captain. This must be a new fleet captain, because the old fleet captain had two legs! All of these scenes are so so funny to me, but this is very interesting to say to Breq imo, the last ancillary of a dead troop carrier. How different is it for Zeiat to call her a new person than for people who know her history to think of her as "Breq," and not "Justice of Toren?" I guess I also love this because I similarly love the way Breq's story in Ancillary Justice plays with mathematical identity in a fun scifi way while the whole series plays with gender identity in a different kind of fun scifi way, and both of these are part of a commentary on identity and empire in the real world. It's good scifi! !!!

[itrvahn]

The first imperial radch book I read was Translation State and while I like Qven, the Presger Translators as portrayed as these awful, terrible big baddies. Competent evil. Now, reading the trilogy, to know most people's first experiences with the translators were Dlique and Zeiat. *Points at them* Sir, these are the comic relief characters.

[venndaai]

my favorite thing about getting to know more Translators is the revelation that Dlique and Zeiat are genuinely weirdos even by Translator standards, who maintain their pre-Match identities to some degree, sneak classified information to their secret AI “friend”, and pretty much completely ignore the wishes of their superiors.

For real though, let’s talk about Dlique and Zeiat and Sphene and Spheiat (and take a vote on if we need a new smushname?)

[ostentenacity]

so like

now that Presger translators can be legally declared human

what do we think are the odds on Dlique/Zeiat declaring themself to be an AI

[rjalker]

Laios can hang out with Translator Zeiat/Dlique.

They just need at least one chaperone to stop them from eating actual poison / uncooked meet that is likely to have parasites.

...actually, Data from Star Trek would probably be a good chaperone for them because he should just be able to tell them what they can and cannot eat, and then he and Laios can hang out with someone else who isn't horrible to them at all times for the crime of being autistic.

[clonerightsagenda]

Reading Translation State and

I finally understand what Dlique and Zeiat's deal was

Sphene!!!!!

The ships are investigating vegan ancillaries... fascinating. (Also want to know what the deal with the volunteers for ancillaryhood is and why they've all been rejected so far)