#002 The Seeker of Power

Aaand we're back. Updated script is up so go ahead and download to read along. I was able to cover from Blackmoon Forest to Fei's first encounter with Graf (or Grahf but read on for why I changed it) in the desert following Dazil. Quite a bit of interesting stuff here and I'd love to hear the internet's thoughts on it.

So to begin with, the introduction to Elly in Blackmoon Forest is mostly uneventful. Many of the changes I've made to the original script are for the sake of sounding like a natural conversation since not all of it is as smooth as it could be. Getting rid of or changing the lines of dialogue for things like aizuchi, active listening where the listener frequently repeats lines they're told to indicate they're listening, is a big part of making the conversations flow more naturally. Since it's such a huge part of not only Japanese conversation, but also Japanese game script writing, I don't think I need to go over every single instance of this otherwise we'd be here forever and it wouldn't be interesting. I mean..."Metal Gear!?"

In any case, the first interesting moment comes during Citan's conversation with Elly after the attack in Blackmoon. Citan is aware Elly is a part of the Gebler unit that landed in Lahan, but is curious why she's showing emotion to Mr. Fong Wong the surface dweller. The line itself reads: "The sheperds, -Abel-, control the surface dwellers -Lambs-, possessing the right to give life or death unto them as they see fit..."

I've kept this identical to the original Honeywood translation since I think it's great. More than the translation though, I wanted to address the context in which the references to Abel, Lambs, and later Cain are made. If you're not familiar with the story of Cain and Abel, in the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament, the shepherd Abel offers his first born flock of lambs up to God as a gift. God accepted his offering, but not his brother Cain's offering of fruit. Cain then goes on to kill Abel out of jealousy. This is the first recorded murder in the Bible and also the origin of the saying "I am not my brother's keeper." The references to Cain, Abel, lambs, and the connections to God in the context of Xenogears get deeper as the story reveals more about Solaris' origins and motives, and also Fei's original identity. That said, to refrain from writing an essay about why lambs being sacrificed to God, etc. etc., is meaningful at the very start of the game, I'll hold off until more of the relationships become clear. Mostly just wanted to plant the seed for religious allusions to come.

Shortly after this came a line that still has me a bit stumped to be honest. Citan tells Elly to return home to her family while talking by the campfire. Noticing her worried face, he remarks 'It's natural to worry. "I was once that way too."' The reason for my confusion is that I'm not quite sure why the "I was once that way too." line is in English quotes even in the Japanese text. The Japanese reads 「悩むのは当然です。"私も以前はそうでした"。」 which the original Honeywood script translates as 'Even I used to worry once too, you know!?" My assumption is that Citan is quoting something that was said to him in the past, but I'm not certain. I did some research to try and find a possible reference to something but came up empty-handed since it's such a general line of dialogue. I'm also unsure of the reason for the usage of English quotation marks in the Japanese as it's not something you see too often. Japanese has its own sets of quotation marks 「」and 『』. If anyone has any idea here, please let me know.

The meat of today's post comes mostly in Fei's encounter with Graf. And yes, I've changed his name to Graf. The reason for this is that I believe the original translation of Grahf to be a mistranslation, though it admittedly does look cool. Graf is German for "lord" or "count," a term used to denote nobility, and I am pretty sure this is the inspiration for his name. As I noted in the script notes., according to the Xenogears online study guide, the name is also a possible reference to Karlfried Graf Durckheim who was a German diplomat, psychotherapist, and Zen master who worked with the Nazis and underwent a spiritual rebirth while imprisoned in Japan following WWII. The support for this claim supposedly is that Graf similarly works with Solaris and his character undergoes a similar awakening (though in this case, the context and outcome is rather different). Personally, I believe this is kind of a stretch since there's not much other clear evidence, but I can't rule it out.

Another note on Graf, but if you've looked at the script I've made a personal decision to make his language sound a bit more archaic to reflect the older sounding Japanese and keep it in line with his character being literally from an earlier period of the game's history. I'm not going to go over the top with it though. In another huge plot twist, I've also chosen to use "we" for his pronoun regarding how he refers to himself rather than "I" to reflect the incompleteness of his identity and character. He is the personification of Lacan's will and continues to live by possessing the wills of others until his mission to merge with the reincarnation of the Contact and complete himself is fulfilled. Long story short, I've made him refer to himself as "we" because lore.

BIG NEWS: The infamous "My father? You mean my dad!?" line has been changed. This one was always pretty hilarious to me. The original English translation does reflect the Japanese accurately by having Fei use two different names for his dad of differing politeness. But why it wasn't made more natural in the English version, I have no idea. Who else would he mean by "your father?" Maybe his mother? Who knows?

And while we're on the issue of clunky dialogue, a few lines later there's this: "Your power is still beneath that needed for my purposes." I get what the intent is here but it would sound much more natural if it read: "Your power is still beneath that which is needed for my purposes." By removing the "which is" really makes it awkward and almost on some "All your base are belong to us" level of clunkiness. I went ahead and changed it to "The power within you has yet to be capable of serving our purpose." to better reflect the Japanese dialogue 「お前のその力、未だ我の目的に能わず。能わぬものは適うまで試練を与えるのが道理。」 And to keep it consistent with his referring to himself as "we," it becomes "our purpose" rather than "my purpose." Get it?

Sweet. Thanks always and more coming soon.

-Nino