#translatingflame

it’s sending me

‼️ minor 3.5 spoilers ‼️

what i love a lot about Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae aka 丹恒·腾荒 aka Da Homie Forever: his name. symbolically it suits him a lot considering his core character development, backstory and current state of the story.

EDIT: PLEASE REFER TO THIS POST FOR BETTER INTERPRETATION

my interpretation:

恒 (héng) as in to last a long time, to persevere

腾 (téng) as in to run, jump, ascend (physically)

荒 (huāng) as in barren, vast

腾荒 as in to traverse (or rise up from) the vast or barren lands — contextually an indication of thriving despite the harsh conditions

our Dan Heng’s been through so much in the past. the fact he still stands here despite everything, the way he treasures his loved ones past & present (HCQ as DF, astral express crew as DH), the choice he made to forge his own path and refuses to be defined by his past (eventually reconciling with it); that’s his unwavering strong will (恒心).

after DH became a chrysos heir, his long wait for TB implies DH had more or less travelled Amphoreus on his own for a while (traversing vast lands). moreover it’s likely DH’s will that allowed him to stay sane all that time (perseverance). DHPT drip marketing also established that DHPT is connected to the permanence (ie never changing).

if the writers haven’t been planning all this since the beginning, i’d be pretty surprised.

first of all, THE CN TITLE & CAPTION ‼️

localised as “coronal radiance” (likely for stylistic reasons; perfectly valid), the CN title “日冕” translates to “solar corona”

日 (rì): sun

冕 (miǎn): crown (royalty’s)

the EN caption, however, seems to left out the sun references altogether. there was a mention of corona, but less specifically the solar corona. some facts about coronas: source 1; source 2; source 3

stellar corona: the outermost layer of a star’s atmosphere—the sun’s corona is the solar corona

the corona is made up of plasma (hot ionised gas); the temperature is around 2 million kelvins

the solar corona is only visible to the naked eye during solar eclipses or through coronagraphs (a type of specialised telescope)

also notice that pronoun change in the 3rd line: 它/it → 他/he

它 (tā): pronoun for objects and non-humans (excluding deities)

他 (tā): masculine & general pronoun for humans

implications

the pronoun change confirms the sun is a metaphor for Phainon; the corona is probably a reference to Phainon’s halo in his ult form. the “pitch darkness” could refer to the fallen dark Okhema/Amphoreus and Phainon’s crashout (sinking into darkness). moreover, Phainon’s ult animation has a darkened sky.

since Phainon is the sun, Flame Reaver is likely the moon. and guess what’s involved in a solar eclipse? in other words, FR shall have to get in Phainon’s way (solar eclipse) for Phainon to awaken his ult form. based on the trailer, my guess is FR will clash with Phainon and they will merge in the process, and Phainon will absorb/obtain FR’s power. this results in Phainon transforming to ult form, where his solar corona (halo) will now be visible in the darkness.

so Phainon’s basically getting crowned in sun/darkness. one upping Mydei in getting crowned in blood huh? /j

second, Anaxa’s question to Phainon:

CN: 理想 (lǐ xiǎng) = JP: 理想 (りそう risou) = EN: dream

both CN and JP used a word “理想” that more commonly translates to “aspiration” or “ideal” (noun), while EN chose “dream”. contextually, “dream” is a valid translation, but the pragmatics across the languages are making me think hard.

in EN, “dream” often carries a connotation of hopeful or wistful thinking of wanting something that’s unlikely to happen or impossible. in CN and JP, the more common word that carries the aforementioned sentiment is 梦想 (mèng xiǎng) or 夢 (ゆめ yume). however:

梦想 is technically synonymous with 理想 (context dependent) but most of the time, they aren’t used interchangeably

理想 tends to be rooted more in reality / realistic considerations than 梦想

similar for 夢 and 理想 [JP]

implications

honestly, i can’t tell the reason why they chose “dream” for EN. the messages come across slightly different but they certainly work.

with the prefacing of “dream” in the EN trailer, it gave me the impression of a more melancholic and emotional progression: Phainon yearns for a better life with his friends in a better world, but painfully acknowledges it’s impossible.

on the other hand, the prefacing of “ideal” or “aspiration” in CN and JP made the trailers come off more neutral or logical in tone. Phainon visualising Anaxa asking him the question, acknowledging he (Phainon) indeed dreams of a better life in a better world, but accepting of the fact that those ideals may not be fulfilled in the cycle he’s in.

tldr: EN-onlys rejoice! Phainon is NOT dying…YET (i think) though chances are he may be crashing out big time

CN title: 因为太阳将要毁伤 = because the sun is about to (be) damaged/destroyed

basically, the CN title didn’t use the word for die (死亡) or fall (as in that of a deity) (陨落). instead they used 毁伤 which means “to injure/be injured” or “to damage/be damaged”

毁伤 can be used to describe both physical damage (ayo?) and abstract damage (eg to a structure/system, one’s reputation, etc)

to break down the characters for 毁伤 further,

毁 comes from 损毁 (verb meaning to damage or destroy; usually refers to objects) or 毁灭 (can be a verb or noun depending on use; both uses imply large-scale, irreversible destruction or annihilation) — and guess what, the CN text for path of destruction is 毁灭命途

伤 = to injure; can refer to literal flesh injury or abstract injury (eg. to the mind)

JP: 破滅へ向かう太陽 = the sun that heads towards destruction

JP localisation takes a different approach to the “because ___” structure seen in CN and EN, instead opting for a description of the subject (sun).

the word choice 破滅 (which 毁伤 was translated to) also carries similar meaning, as in to damage or destroy (usually objects)

interestingly JP also didn’t use the localised word for path of destruction (壊滅の運命), which refers to complete destruction, ruin or annihilation

references bc my JP is broken but please correct me if i made a mistake:

edit: in other words, if the sun in question refers to Phainon, fear not, bc he isn’t dying yet (probably)…! he’s just getting something worse than death (the path of destruction- *whacked*)

final thoughts

i strongly suspect there may be some intention of not wanting to totally give away Phainon’s connection to the path of destruction, that’s why the writers seem to be avoiding the “destruction” word across most of the scripts (i can’t read KR so someone will have to verify this).

however, going by this logic makes the EN localisation choice a little strange — even if it’s “die” as in “die out”, it still implies that things are so over when the CN and JP texts do not contain connotations of irreversible ruin.

Possibly hinted at since 3.1 but things got lost in translation

a/n: 3 months after this idea occurred to me, i am finally writing it down lol

in the 3.1 story, when Phainon talks to Anaxa about Flame Reaver, Phainon specifically refers to FR as a “盗火者” (lit. flame stealer). EN localisation used a descriptive phrase “it’s plundering the flames” for this line instead.

in Chinese, the story of Prometheus is stealing fire from the gods is known as 普罗米修斯盗火 (= Prometheus steals fire)

普罗米修斯 = Prometheus

盗火 = to steal fire

者 = lit. “subject” as in person, object, event, etc.

with this context, 盗火者 is usually understood as a reference to Prometheus [the one who stole fire].

connection to Phainon

what was another thing Prometheus did in the legends? create Phaenon. Prometheus’ perfect creation. Phainon’s namesake. Phainon has perfect memory.

(insert spiderman pointing meme)

there we have it. — “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” (Anaxagoras, 4931)

in other words, Phainon could be a creation or byproduct of FR, and/or Phainon & FR could have the same origin (ie original entity).

there also in-game evidences post-3.1 that support this theory. linking some twitter threads i read that explain things much better than i can:

God-Phainon, Prometheus and Pandora’s box

Prometheus might be a 13th titan?

FR in the role of Sisyphus from the golden scapegoat

extra: another interesting localisation choice

in the same scene in 3.1, after Phainon’s “盗火者/plundering the flames” line, Anaxa suggests referring to the flame stealer as “盗火行者” or “Flame Reaver”

行者 = lit. person on a journey

the translation is close enough contextually, since FR is chasing down coreflames. i’m personally more curious why a distinction was made with 盗火者 and 盗火行者 and my guesses are:

writers’ artistic choice

an attempt to “trivialise” the covert context of the phrase 盗火者 at that point in time (ver 3.1)

alternatively, the crack reason:

incorrect Prof Anaxa: “shut up, Phainon, it’s too early to spoil your own plot for the audience (though i’ve already figured that out long before my onscreen debut)”