If a Tree Falls in the Forest

There's common sense and nonsense.

[katurdayss]

If trying to watch a show with my mom has taught me anything, it’s that audiences can miss things easily (or interpret them very differently if we’re being grown up about it)

The Vampire Lestat is the perfect example. My mom read the books back in the 90s because she saw the movie and LOVED Brad Pitt as Louis. She has had a hard time watching AMC’s IWTV because Jacob Anderson is not Brad Pitt and she also thinks changing the race of a character destroys the book (note here for internet judgey people, my mother is not racist but is very things are a set way and that’s what you should work with. She can change her opinion but it takes a LOT of discussion and reference points).

I asked her to watch the first episode of The Vampire Lestat with me anyway because she was never happy with Tom Cruise as Lestat and I was hoping she’d enjoy it without the hurdle of a movie comparison. Good News, she said Sam Reid is Lestat. Full Stop. Bad News, she missed like everything else. She didn’t understand the plot structure, telling a story after events have happened. She didn’t understand that TVL is Lestats perspective and story. She didn’t remember the details of the books that Rolin has set as his foundations. She only made it halfway through before she was like eh. There is more but I am still reeling. I am not optimistic.

I do however, now understand how people can make some of the crazy ass takes I have seen floating around on the internet. Of this show and others.

So next time you’re absolutely appalled by someone’s take on something, remember my mother, take a breath, and maybe slow your roll.

[zhanglinghez]

The Princess Royal episode 19, 2024.

[katurdayss]

Straight up laughed so hard I cried at this scene. Man was full on like ‘I gotta look cute af. Lingerie, show off the cleavage, bat the eyelashes. Check, check, check. Okay favorite foods on table, check. I got this on lock, she gonna totally drool all over me.’

Only to be totally ignored for the food. Man can scheme/play 3D chess with the best of them but can’t seduce his own wife. I love him.

[katurdayss]

Okay, I've watched 2 C-dramas. You have GOT to know what you're going into it for before you start. Example, Pursuit of Jade/Chasing Jade was said to be visually stunning. They were correct.

Someone said The Princess Royal was excellent if you like palace intrigue. VERY CORRECT.

Did Zhang Linghe win me over in both shows? Yes (btw he's really good at disappearing into a character) but I didn't watch either just for him or romance. If I had, I would definitely have been disappointed in both.

So yeah, choose your c-drama's wisely.

[katurdayss]

Dived into a cdrama because I wanted to avoid The Vampire Lestat spoilers online and still caught a stray bullet.

Normally I don’t care but this time I’m really pissed. This show has historically had a lot of layers that can be missed or misconstrued and I don’t want any influence on my first watch. Which means I’m gonna have to avoid the fun side of the internet for the entire season.

Jesus Christ y’all there is a spoiler tag for a damn reason.

[katurdayss]

Y'all I started watching The Princess Royal because of Zhang Linghe, and I have another complaint about the translation. It's better this time, not as obviously off BUT they keep using 'kowtow' instead of 'bow' or 'genuflect' and its making my eye twitch. 'Kowtow' has a negative connotation in English, it signals a cowardly subservience lacking any respect or adoration.

Genuflect is a legitimate English word that is used to describe EXACTLY what they want when they use 'kowtow'. Sure, its one knee instead of two, but English speakers will get the idea! And that's IF the translator found 'bow' too common. 'Bow' would also work extremely well in the same circumstance.

I understand wanting content Netflix but where the hell is Quality Assurance? Especially in this economy. If I'm going to be spending my hard earned dollars that lack the buying power of just four years ago you better believe I'm spending it on quality items instead of junk. I've already had one suggestion to buy a sub to iQiyi VIP because their translations are better and I've only watched 1 other cdrama. Not a good start

[katurdayss]

Man, Pursuit of Jade/Chasing Jade REALLY like its sexy bath tub scenes eh?

Whats even funnier is that normally you are buttass naked in the tub but these mofos all got robs on minus Qi Min. Visually? Absolutely stunning. Practical for both cleansing and sexy tub shenanigans? Not in the least.

[xiakeponz]

I am not sure how the english subtitles are translating 姐夫 (jiefu), but I did see @renewedmotionforjudgment mention that it is not being translated well!

"Jiefu" is made up of two parts, "jie"" (姐) meaning "elder sister", and "fu"(夫) which can mean "husband" or "man" depending on context, but in this case (and in most cases), it means "husband". So together, "jiefu" means "sister's husband", as opposed to the western way of denoting this relationship as "brother-in-law", which does not specify if the sibling of the speaker is older or younger, or male or female.

Chinese culture is not the only culture with such specific titles attributed to familial relationships on a family tree, but compared to the way it is used in English, it is very specific, and the way it is used is different. "Jiefu" is not a passing description, like "oh X? that's my brother-in-law". It is akin to a name, how a person, as the younger sibling, would call out to the husband of their older sister, every time.

This is why Changning is always calling Xie Zheng "jiefu", just like how she calls Changyu "a-jie". For Changning to call Xie Zheng by his name would be insane and pretty much unthinkable.

It really drives the point home that Chang yu and Xie Zheng are married. If you heard someone call another person "jiefu", that gives you a lot of information - who the speaker is relative to that person, the fact that the speaker has an elder sibling who is female, the fact that such sibling is married to the person they are calling "jiefu" etc - even if it is called out in the most casual, unassuming way.

(see my list of other "lost in translation" things for Pursuit of Jade here)

[xiakeponz]

I swear to god I turn on english subtitles (iqiyi) to ragebait myself sometimes???? this subtitle has the whole thing backwards!!

Xie Zheng says, "who could know, that when the northern geese fly south, the land is so crowded by pheonixes there is nary a place to land?" (焉知，北雁南飞，遍地凤凰难下足 / yan zhi, bei yan nan fei, bian di feng huang nan xia zu)

He is basically saying in an extremely wanker literati way (the way this scene was intended to be portrayed in the book), by citing oblique literary references, that Song Yan is the geese, who (in English metaphorical terms) thinks he's a big fish, but he's in a small pond - that Song Yan doesn't even know that when he arrives at a land filled with pheonixes, he won't even have somewhere to set foot, because he is a common goose. lol.

[xiakeponz]

Terms that have been Lost in Translation in Pursuit of Jade:

Jiefu （姐夫）- Changning calls Xie Zheng this, she would never call him by his name - see my explanation here

Sunsun (隼隼) - a nickname for the Falcon, because Xie Zheng's white falcon is a Gryfalcon - a "mao sun" (矛隼), and Changning gives the falcon a nickname derived from that, "Sunsun". Kind of like if you called a cat a "kitty" or something. "Sun" by itself just means falcon, generally.

a-jie (阿姐)- Changning calls Changyu "a-jie", which means "older sister"

Zheng'er (征儿) - dilf Wei Yan refers to his nephew Xie Zheng as "Zheng Er", the "Zheng" being his name, and the "er" being a diminuitive, often used for children / someone a generation below you.

Ben Hou (本侯) - this is the personal pronoun Xie Zheng uses to refer to himself, we can see it when he spoke with Li Huai'an in episode 11. It roughly translates to "I, the marquis", and really emphasises his title. He is kind of pulling rank on Li Huai'an here, heh.

Gongsun Yin （公孙鄞）- Gongsun Yin, not sure if this counts but Gongsun is the surname fyi, his name is one word, "Yin". He has one of those double-character surnames.

(i recommend everyone check out the reblogs to see additions from our community)

[katurdayss]

From the reblogs, it seems I’m not the only one who found the English subtitles subpar and thank god for that. Really proud I was able to figure out how much context has been lost without knowing shit about Mandarin (probably helps that I’m learning Italian and even with that the translations can be wonky).

[katurdayss]

Y'all as much as Pursuit of Jade has snagged me (not done yet pls no spoilers), I do have one complaint and that is the translation in English for subtitles. IDK who they got to do it (and if it was Netflix or someone else) but dear lord, please get someone else next time. There are times when they even translate a sentence 2 different ways (in an episode and then in the recap at the beginning of the next) and the 2nd translation is like OH! That makes more sense. And yes, I know translation isn't a 1:1, its much more of an art than science but holy crap there have got to be people fluent in both Mandarin and English that could have been like 'nope, no native English speaker is gonna understand wtf is going here'. Don't even get me started on 'live-in husband'. I finally googled it because I was like '...all husbands live-in? like they literally live together...in the same house...so this has to be translated incorrectly'

they mean Prince Phillip. Prince Philip was a live-in husband to Queen Elizabeth. She was the head of the household and he wasn't and so she had greater authority. Let me tell you, the pieces of the puzzle that started to fit together after that...yeesh.

Still working with like half the pieces missing though.

[katurdayss]

Okay, no, you know what, Off Campus is delightful. Are there flaws, sure but I’m over it. The bro talk in the gym? Won me the fuck over.

I’m on episode 4 but ready for more.

[katurdayss]

Decided to watch Off Campus because hockey romance is a thing now apparently, but um I'm on episode 1 and I got two issues so far

Briar U looks to be a sizable university. I don't know about you but I knew fuck all about other Schools/Colleges (they are not called departments) and knew even less about who played on the sports teams. Granted my sports teams sucked, but I only knew about a rugby guy because a friend of a friend introduced me. Knew nothing about the Football, soccer, tennis, etc. This is not high school unless your college is small, and by small I mean like 2000 students max.

You would not loose your scholarship in the academic year unless your grades were shit or you got in serious trouble. All that crap is figured out BEFORE the semester starts because shocker, they actually want their students to be able to pay the highway robbery tuition and the student aid office knows loans take time. Oh but how do you know? Because I had a 5,000 grant yanked away from me summer before my second year. I was PISSED. I went to art school, the architecture students in the school made the tuition hella expensive.

Edit: Okay third thing to add. There is a LOT of just free-boobing out in the open for a Prime show.

[katurdayss]

Do I own a record player? No. Has my ass already been googling if AMC is going to release a the Vampire Lestat record? Hell yes.

I don’t care, I’ll play it at my parents house if I have too, I’m buying that damn album. If I can only do digital, fine but I won’t be happy. I want to feel the album in my damn hands.

[katurdayss]

am I excited for TVL? Yes, yes I am.

am I also fucking apprehensive? Hell yes, not because of the content though. Rolin has done a damn fine adaptation so far (minus a few flaws but no one is perfect so).

what makes me apprenhesive is that it's becoming increasingly clear that a LOT of people who are now fans haven't read The Vampire Lestat. Which, fair, I hadn't until last year either but that also means things like Lestat kissing his mom is shocking to people.

First off, we live in Post GOT, been there done that, y'all simp for that shit now. BUT furthermore, Lestat kissing Gabrielle has a core storyline of Vampire nature vs human nature element and TVL just takes Lestat puts him in a blender and hits frappe. It is...not pretty to but it kindly. And I'm talking as someone who lived through the "dark and edgy" entertainment times of the early 00's when studio and TV execs just threw traumatic shit at you like it was candy on Halloween and said 'yeah this is normal life you are soft if you can't handle it'.

If Lestat kissing Gabrielle has you all shocked pikachu face, well you better buckle up buttercup because I am worried at what you'll find come June 7th.

[katurdayss]

Real question, would anyone on this site be interested in how voting in elections in a state in the U.S works from an actual sitting Election Judge? (I have legally mandated training and everything)

Cuz thats me, and let me tell you the SAVE Act is stupid for a variety of reasons, least of which YOU ALREADY HAVE TO PROVE YOUR ID TO VOTE. And no I'm not talking about showing your physical ID every time you go to the polls.

If something is even a hint, a whiff, off with you when you go to vote they make you vote provisional, which is my little area of expertise. I have a whole list of codes of why this person may be hinky and how the Board of Elections needs to verify them. The 2 most common codes are 1)This is not your polling place (cuz everyone ignores their reminder cards that are mailed out) and 2) The address/ name/ etc you told us (verbally only) doesn't match our records and you have to update the information and then we have to verify it independently.

I'm serious y'all. Last general election I have 170+ people voting provisionally AND one guy tried to vote from a different state (cuz he moved) and I had to bring my Chief Judge over to explain to him AGAIN that no, he could not vote in this state because he was no longer a resident in this state. I swear to god, I can not think of a way that someone would be able to get through the plethora of hurdles that voting ALREADY HAS to commit voter fraud.

Also I really hate when people suggest I'm bad at my job. Fuck you I'm amazing.

[katurdayss]

Can we just acknowledge that a beautiful thing about Tumblr is that the powers that be made a stupid decision and the users organized and resisted in record time and that Tumblr LISTENED.

Another other social site would have and has told users to go suck on egg. I had a rough couple of days and could not handle writing feedback at the time but y’all handled it. THAT is true community and it’s one of the reasons Tumblr is my favorite social site.

[katurdayss]

You can't root for a team that's not close to you, is the dumbest take I've ever heard. 🙄 sounds like you just don't like pwhl . Lots of states don't have nhl teams an we do just fine cheering for teams.

….someone woke up on the wrong side of bed. Well random internet stranger who knows as much about me as I know about hockey (the established big fat goose egg), you know what they say when you assume.

I said it’s harder for me to root for non-local teams. Cuz I’m the type to research each team I might root for. I mean god forbid I root for the NHL equivalent of the Commanders *shudders*. But seeing as how I’m in my 30s, researching sports teams is right at the bottom of all the life admin that exists in my life. Tar and feather me for my crimes.

By your comment you also had to see that I’ve watched PWHL games. A few of them have been Sirens games. Maybe I’ll root for them, idk yet because again I have a life that needs tending.

I used to ignore all you cranky pants commenters on the internet but then common decency went down the drain because the anonymous nature of the internet made people forget that a person is on the other end of the connection. Your comment is exactly the type of thing that might alienate other newbies from hockey, men’s or women’s, in the future but your unlucky stars, it’s me who you sent an ask to. Stop being an ass, it ain’t cute or edgy.