Misleading English translation of a major story element in the 7.4 MSQ (Big Spoilers)

[Lord_Umbra]

I dunno, I'm starting to play in French and there are a lot of wacky choices and quality differences made in the English version that are wholly unique to it that I never understood it because I never tried this experiment.

Suddenly the players that constantly harp on the English localization don't seem nuts after replaying my favorite scenes in another Western translation and it being both faithful but also way less loaded with "purple prose" on a level I was not prepared for.

Well cause French & German tend to be more literal 1 to 1 translations of the Japanese whilst the English has always been Localised instead of just being 1 for 1 the Japanese script which makes some sense as a lot of wouldn't land as well for an English audience like Hauchefaunt is easy example that Horny Hauch would not constantly oogling the player would not go over well with non-Japan audience change they even keep in the GE/FR versions that only get Horny scenes if using JP language.

Or Jokes a lot of Japanese is extremely straight forward you don't get cool names you get actual descriptors of what it is so you wouldn't have Achievement names & stuff if they went with Japan lot of those meme stuff is only English as JP is a very straight forward culture why so many Games/Animes etc have horrible names because they're literal in describing what's it is which isn't every thing but for every unique name get 100 just saying what it is.

[Underscore]

I just think the OP is dumb for basing their entire argument machine translation, which lacks nuance, and focusing on WHETHER OR NOT A PROPER NOUN IS PLOT RELEVANT BASED ON A MACHINE TRANSLATION out of the multitude of changes that they probably were not aware of and probably even liked in previous expansions.

I didn't base my entire argument on machine translation. Like I told you before, I checked the relevant terms to verify that my understanding was correct - and 厳しい冬 does not mean "great withering" no matter how you spin it.

I am indeed aware of the numerous issues the English localization has had throughout other expansions. The reason I'm posting about this one right now because it's the current patch, and it's frustrating seeing people unknowingly speculating over what may amount to misinformation. Had I been playing the game and aware of the differences back when they first called Elidibus "the emissary" or claimed that "the echo" was a gift from Hydaelyn, I would've complained about those things too.

[Daralii]

Or Jokes a lot of Japanese is extremely straight forward you don't get cool names you get actual descriptors of what it is so you wouldn't have Achievement names & stuff if they went with Japan lot of those meme stuff is only English as JP is a very straight forward culture why so many Games/Animes etc have horrible names because they're literal in describing what's it is which isn't every thing but for every unique name get 100 just saying what it is.

That's a publisher/marketing thing. There are thousands of LNs at this point, so making the title a summary of the premise is what they think might keep people from just passing over it.

[Astronis]

wait that was a plot point on the EN side only?

It's not a plot point in English. It's a misunderstanding (though a completely natural misunderstanding--I made it myself) of the English. That part about Y'shtola's aether sight was just localized poorly and in a way that caused confusion, it didn't introduce any new plot.

Essentially, Matoya is saying, 'Y'shtola is going to get herself killed some day if she doesn't slow down', not 'Y'shtola's spending her life-force'. But the way they phrased it made it sound very much more like the latter.

I didn't base my entire argument on machine translation. Like I told you before, I checked the relevant terms to verify that my understanding was correct - and 厳しい冬 does not mean "great withering" no matter how you spin it.

For what it's worth, you're being called out on not knowing Japanese well enough to rely on your own understanding. If you actually knew both English and Japanese well enough to be making these criticisms, you wouldn't need to check with a machine translator. I'm going to believe shadowofchao on this one, that "great withering" is an acceptable localization for what the Japanese is getting at, that is, it's not referring to weather.

[Airget]

This seems like a negligible change. Stuff has a tendency to wither around winter.

From a game point of view though, a withering sounds more like a shard is going to rejoin with the source because it is "withering" away due to the excess lightning slowly eroding it. However a "wintering" in the context of the milala gives off the vibe that potentially a race from the origin of a shard in this case the "ice" aspected one is followed between shards, so because these milala ina way "final destination" their way out of the ice calamity, it is still destined to "Destroy" them.

In that respect the word does change a lot because seeing wintering instead could lean more towards a follow through of the ice calamity and that it potentially followed the Milala and will finally eliminate them all but a withering sounds like like the star is decaying in a natural rejoining.

And honestly, I would be intrigued if "wintering" was something that first specifically targeted lalafell of milala origin because then there would be huge stakes given Krile is originally a milala herself and would most likely be susceptible to whatever happens to her people.

[Daralii]

From a game point of view though, a withering sounds more like a shard is going to rejoin with the source because it is "withering" away due to the excess lightning slowly eroding it. However a "wintering" in the context of the milala gives off the vibe that potentially a race from the origin of a shard in this case the "ice" aspected one is followed between shards, so because these milala ina way "final destination" their way out of the ice calamity, it is still destined to "Destroy" them.

In that respect the word does change a lot because seeing wintering instead could lean more towards a follow through of the ice calamity and that it potentially followed the Milala and will finally eliminate them all but a withering sounds like like the star is decaying in a natural rejoining.

And honestly, I would be intrigued if "wintering" was something that first specifically targeted lalafell of milala origin because then there would be huge stakes given Krile is originally a milala herself and would most likely be susceptible to whatever happens to her people.

As a verb, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with ice, cold, or anything else related to the season. Some nebulous cataclysm is going to hit the Source and shards, so the Winterers are going somewhere else that's safe, and that's what it will be to winter it.

[RedLolly]

"Wither" pretty explicitly explains what the future calamity is going to entail while the other languages keep it completely vague. And we're pushed to take that specific context as Halmarut states it, the Ascian of all plant life.

At best, it's a spoiler. At worst, it's the localizer injecting their own ideas.

[Astronis]

As a verb, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with ice, cold, or anything else related to the season. Some nebulous cataclysm is going to hit the Source and shards, so the Winterers are going somewhere else that's safe, and that's what it will be to winter it.

Yeah, people are being a bit literal about what it means "to winter". It doesn't even necessarily mean going somewhere else. It could be hibernating. It could be creating some sort of protection that keeps the danger at bay while the core survives. Or migrating. Or...I guess...turning people into computerized ghosts. People and things overwinter in all kinds of ways.

[lievaordiea]

I'm going to believe shadowofchao on this one, that "great withering" is an acceptable localization for what the Japanese is getting at, that is, it's not referring to weather.

well from a personal point of view it really does matter. was not the miliala on the 9th because they were running from the frost calamity on the source?
the same calamity now heading to the 9th (or wherever - she was vague they made it seem like the 9th though) makes it an interesting idea considering its a lighting aspect place. if it was an abundance of good deeds (similar to what occurred to the first) then darkness would be a more likely thing to occur there due to it being the opposite of lightning. WOD rides again :P (I googled. i'm not Urianger. i remember the stuff barely)

Withering means nothing other than 'to wither and die' but a freeze? that could mean something other than death. and changes the potential of the storyline immensly

[Astronis]

well from a personal point of view it really does matter. was not the miliala on the 9th because they were running from the frost calamity on the source?
the same calamity now heading to the 9th (or wherever - she was vague they made it seem like the 9th though) makes it an interesting idea considering its a lighting aspect place. if it was an abundance of good deeds (similar to what occurred to the first) then darkness would be a more likely thing to occur there due to it being the opposite of lightning. WOD rides again :P (I googled. i'm not Urianger. i remember the stuff barely)

Withering means nothing other than 'to wither and die' but a freeze? that could mean something other than death. and changes the potential of the storyline immensly

We'll see then, in the future, as the story plays out, whether or not your mother tongue's translation mislead you or if mine mislead me.