#but yeap

1. the fandoms’ (not just mdzs/cql; in general) need for translations is more about “faster” than “better”; i understand it, obviously people want to know about things asap, but... a translation you worked on comfortably will always be better than one you churn out on max speed, whether because you “just want to” or because you want to be faster than the others. except the fastest translations usually reach the most people, because everyone shares them in the initial excitement. you understand the risk when hastily done translation is mass-circulated, don’t ya

2. the fandoms’... willingness to accept translations that simply don’t make sense, or are clumsy. i’m not saying to bash translators, i am in fact saying the opposite of it because fan translators are angels without wings, but. i’ve noticed a lot of cases where translations that circulate in fandoms, even those done much later after the release of the THING, are just... well. average at most, in worse cases barely understandable and/or translating idioms word for word. but since there is a translation, no one else feels the need to translate it again, properly. and so, if you try, you could understand it, but the goal should be to make it understandable immediately. and so we move onto the

3. “sanctity of the source text” thing. i’ve noticed that a lot of fan translators stick veeeery closely to the original text, to the point of overlooking clear loan translations, copying sentence structures (”even though i (did this)...!”, or something i even noticed in polish subs for cql, the FLOOD of didn’t i? wouldn’t it? isn’t it? questions). not to mention the eternal wank about “this translation makes character X swear too much, he would never!” when said character just peppers their speech with てめぇ！くそヤロー！ぶっ殺すぞ！ like there’s no tomorrow, but fuck? no, that’s too far!

another example is translators insisting every second word/construction is “something that can’t be easily translated into english”. which, alright, but you gotta. that’s kinda the job you took for yourself. and so we end up with main text that leaves moshi moshi (annotation: this is how japanese people pick up the phone) or there are bugs who eat knotweeds (example made up, but annotation: a japanese idiom that means roughly “to each their own”) when you could have, you know? used hello, or to each their own, and only mentioned the knotweeds in translator’s notes IF YOU’RE REALLY that horny about them

4. the problem when wrong translation influences how we interpret the characters. the examples i remember atm are the jiang family motto (achieve the impossible, or do nothing before you achieve something, MY FAVOURITE) when in fact it’s got several interpretations, and one is approximately know where the line is drawn-adjacent, which is TOTALLY different from “fuck the rules do crazy shit” the first translation suggests. the other is jiggy’s famous “restrain your grief” line in fj, something that angered a lot of people and made them hate him because how dare he tell nhs to stop grieving his brother! the one he just murdered! turns out it’s an ehhh translation of classic condolences.