my favorite thing about Alex is how she's had to go from being bunso with no responsibilities to ate, responsible for two of the most reckless and idiotic demigods-- can you imagine how many heart attacks she must have had while crispin and basilio were throwing themselves around. it's canon that one time, while playing luksong tinik with none of their powers, basilio nearly broke all his bones. as an ate myself, just hearing about it gives me hives.
the reason why she's so deadpan when dealing the the kambals' antics is because she spent all her fucks in her teenaged years. she is freshly out of fucks.
nothing to see here, just Trese Tagalog dub superiority
On a more serious note, I'm writing about some of the language differences between the Tagalog and English dubs which make the Tagalog dub better for me.
Yes, the komiks were published in English, but it's set in the Philippines. Why wouldn't you want to watch the show with the Tagalog dub? Have you never seen a dubbed cartoon, anime, or film before? Dubbing makes foreign media such as movies and anime more accessible to Filipinos!
Apparently some people are saying that for the English dub, the Filipino accents sounded more Latinx? Or that the Filipino accent was unnecessary? Come on over to the Tagalog dub! But seriously, this is unfair for the Tagalog/Filipino speakers working on the show, particularly the English VAs. They expressed that it was great, not having to hide their accent or being Filipino.
The Tagalog VAs deserve more love, and by love I mean appreciation from viewers and more opportunities and compensation in the industry. Voice acting isn't sisiw next to live (?) acting, but voice actors are so underrated in the Philippines.
The Kambal say "hoy" instead of "hey" and I love to hear it.
The cursing is A+ (and A++ in Tagalog). Curse words/phrases in your first language are always sharper than in English (it's okay, native English speakers).
Friendly reminder that Tagalog-Maynila isn't the only dialect of Tagalog! There are regional and generational variations in languages. These variations (how formal or how deep a character's Tagalog is) give nuance to the characters, particularly their age, species (human or supernatural), and place of origin (in or outside Manila).
For example, Alexandra's more formal Tagalog makes sense because (1) she grew up in the province of Laguna, so there's a regional difference and (2) she deals with high-ranking and/or ancient supernatural characters who also speak more formally.
Meanwhile, Hannah, Ammie, Basilio, and Crispin are wonderfully conyo in the Tagalog dub! Nothing beats "Kapit ka na sa bangs mo" and "Pa'no ba 'to mag-work?" [God bless Simon dela Cruz.]
More under the cut + minor spoilers:
This is pedantic/prescriptive, but: "Pakibuksan ang pintuan" is both confusing and interesting. Translation: "(Please) Open the doorway." Pintuan means doorway, or the space (given the suffix -an), and not the door (pinto), so it might confuse some Tagalog speakers. The prefix paki- makes the verb buksan (open) polite, which is interesting, as the scene makes Alexandra come off as respectfully making a request and builds up to the cool, cordial interaction between Alexandra and the Emissary of Ibu.
In general, the incantations just sound better in Tagalog because, you know, the VAs are native Tagalog speakers who don't need to spend extra time working on diction and accent.
The Tagalog "nanlaban [siya]" hits closer to home than the English "[he] fought back," in the context of extrajudicial killings, the failed war on drugs, and police brutality in the Philippines. Cops play the flimsy "they fought back" card to justify the countless people they've shot and killed, and they're enabled by the current President.
Raul's English lines would've been more natural and nuanced if "quota" was used instead of "statistics" (although this also goes for the Tagalog dub). Cpt. Guerrero already used "quota" earlier in the episode and it would've been great if Raul also got to say it. The word refers to the police's system of making a certain number of arrests per day/week, and this hasn't gotten better under the current regime's failed war on drugs.
(P.S. Trese does the good cop / nacab narrative and I'm saving that for another post)
"Harbinger of creation and destruction" and "this is how it was, this is how it will always be" (non-verbatim) sound pretty cliché and meant for a Western audience. Also, the use of "magic" sounds better in English but more awkward in Tagalog as "mahika" because there's a different concept of magic in the Philippines. (Salamangka is cooler but loaned from Spanish, and kulam refers more to curses or black magic. I think there are more words/terms in other Filipino languages.)
(The whole scene is more telling of the show's problems with pacing and buildup to the revelation and confrontation in the final episode, but I'll save that for another post.)
God, it would be so cool to get dubs in other Filipino languages like Bisaya, Cebuano, Waray, Kapampangan, Ilokano, Tausug, Hiligaynon, Chavacano, etc.
Bonus - here's what I really liked about the English dub VAs:
Dante Basco as Bagyon Kulimlim, lightning-made-flesh. That's it. I wish he hadn't gotten a one-off character, but I'm just living for the irony in casting the guy who voiced Prince Zuko. Bagyon Kulimlim's just gloating "there's no one who can protect you now" and indiscriminately hurling lightning bolts; Princess Azula would, at the very least, do a double-take.
But also when Bagyon Kulimlim screamed... THAT'S ALSO ZUKO YELLING IN "Zuko Alone" and it gave me life
God bless Dante Basco
Also, s/o to Jon Jon Briones! I've only seen him in Miss Saigon and AHS but he's a great theater/musical actor. He's wonderful as Hank Sparrow! Hank is an absolute tito.
Also God bless Manny Jacinto, who voiced the tikbalang prince Maliksi. He doesn't play the himbo in this show (s/o to Crispin and Basilio!), but I don't love him any less!
I think my favorite thing about The Old Guard is that, as weird as it sounds, all the immortals have human limits. Like, yeah, they can’t die and they heal hella fast, but the writers didn’t inexplicably translate that into them having superhuman speed or strength or agility like I’ve seen in many other superhero media.
They get tired. I’ve honestly never seen so much sleeping in an action movie.
And they can be restrained with zip ties and buckles and held down by normal-ass dudes and get the shit beat out of them because of course they can.
When they’re injured, they act like it. Even if its just for a few seconds. They moan and groan and limp and wince and never try to pull any of that dumb macho “I’m used to it” bullshit. Pain fucking hurts no matter how many times you experience it and this movie expresses that beautifully. Immortal doesn’t mean invincible.
You know what else I strangely enjoyed? No six pack abs. No bulging biceps.
Everyone was bad ass and in charge and totally capable, but no one had a ‘perfect aesthetic’ type body (okay Charlize does…). They’re immortals who have off the charts battle skills but no one looks like Thor - they just look like people: fit, but not too far from the average people.
I’m gonna write another post about how much I enjoyed that they all had fit but basically normal-looking bodies, but…yes to that.
The Old Guard made me think a lot about how often I’d seen fast healing paired with super strength or other kinds of physical invulnerability, and how interesting things get when it isn’t. They can still get hurt in a fight, and a serious wound won’t kill them like it would a regular human but it can temporarily stop them in their tracks. They heal fast but not instantaneously. Booker can’t just instantly jump up after getting hit with a grenade; he has to wait, in a high-stakes situation, for his guts to heal up enough that he can start moving around. They can get captured. They can get overwhelmed. It makes their fight scenes feel extremely real and physical in a way most standard superhero action sequences don’t.
Their human limitations mean they behave not at all like superheroes and much more like normal humans who have spent time in combat or other dangerous, unpredictable situations. You sleep whenever you fucking can, because high-stakes environments are exhausting, and you never know when you’ll have to be awake and alert for thirty-six hours straight, or so wired with adrenaline that you can’t sleep. You eat when you get the chance, and you make sure everyone else remembers to eat too. You think about things like having a change of clothes with you, because who knows when you’ll be able to get back to wherever the rest of your stuff is, and walking around covered in your own blood and viscera is not a way to blend in, plus it’s gross and it stinks after a while. You have to take care of yourself and those around you when you have down time, because who knows when you’ll get the next chance. They can’t just go indefinitely without food, sleep, and a moment now and then to decompress.
My fave part of Naruto is when Lee shows up with his bowl haircut and kicks Sasuke’s ass dirty in front of his only two friends and then kicks Gaara’s ass Infront of a whole stadium and his family.
as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.
on taking a night walk during the dust bowl: see dinner party conversations on appropriately spaced patio furniture, gilded with interior sitting room chandeliers. nocturnal garden parties glowing in the gloaming, canvas tents fretted with fairy lights. every yard littered with fireflies. striped mustang with dominos delivery sign. distant howls of summertime ecstasy, accompanied by corresponding pops of pyrotechnics like exclamation marks
Post canon Toph who doesn’t want to go back to her shitty parents so she just decides to stay in the Fire Nation and bum off Zuko’s hospitality.
Zuko’s like no, yeah, I totally get it, and just makes her one of his advisors. At first it’s just so she has a good excuse to stay but after the first meeting Toph storms out shouting about how EVERYONE was lying why would you even need to lie about what kind of tea you want??
Zuko: I mean they’re politicians…..but also who, and when, and in what way
They make a subtle Morse code system so Toph can warn him when someone is lying to him without tipping anyone off that she can sense lies.
Zuko gets a reputation for somehow being both extremely socially inept and yet somehow disgustingly perceptive?? You can’t get ANYTHING by him???
#my lord what EXACTLY is ms Beifongs role in these meetings #a nervous nobleman asks after the third time she interrupts them with stupid commentary #zuko with perfect deadpan: she’s my scribe
I've just been rereading some of your wonderful longfic and you write such good action i'm so envious, especially Don't Wait Up for Me. Someone said it was cinematic and I think thats a good description. Whenever I try to write action I just can't or it doesn't seem very good, and I wonder if you have any advice as a writer and editor about how to write action scenes, or just any writing advice in general.
First, I have to apologize for taking so long to respond; it’s been hard to get back in the swing of things after surgery. Second, thank you so much for the lovely compliment, and I’m so glad you liked Don’t Wait Up for Me, because that’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done.
To your question: I sometimes feel like I could write a book, just based on the sheer volume of crap I read for my job and the way all these things pile up for me, but there are hundreds of writing advice books out there, and some of them are even actually good so no one needs another one. :-D But I think there are some specifics to writing action, and in particular action within fanfiction, that are fairly unique and not always addressed in tutorials.
When I’m copyediting fiction especially, I often find my attention wanders or my eyes glaze over because of flabby or weak writing, and that’s just death for a scene where people are supposed to be doing stuff and hooking the reader. The same mistakes kind of pile up and up, and this is pro published stuff. Fan readers are pretty forgiving mostly, but a lot of these issues have an unconscious effect on us, we forget fics that could be memorable because we skimmed over stuff that should engage us.
Years ago at Slate, I copyedited a book review that made me laugh, because it was a lot of these problems in a nutshell:
His writing is riddled with clichés that are daily struck down by conscientious high-school teachers. The characters always think “for a moment,” as if a sustained thought is impossible in the Wagnerian world. “Silence” plagues the pages, and it often “follows” speech. The thunder claps “Whrromp!” Every glance is recorded, for no discernable reason—everyone is “looking” or “focusing” all the time. The faces repeatedly “light up.” People don’t smile—they “start to smile"—and they do things “a little,” even if much happens “all of a sudden.” Here is a typical passage: “Liz started to smile, then started to say something, then thought better of it. Her smile faded for a moment, while she seemed to concentrate on a thought.”
That’s the kind of writing that can just utterly kill action scenes. So what would I tell you to avoid that kind of stuff? :
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