[Dawntrail] Swarthy Sailor

[YianKutku]

Obvious issue: the man is not "swarthy". He's a bit sun-touched red, but definitely not "dark-skinned", as "swarthy" means.

The Japanese nameplate for this NPC is 威勢のいい船員, which translates roughly to "Sailor with much vigour". I've also seen it translated as "Dashing sailor", while I'd personally translate it to "Jolly sailor".

My speculation is the English localization team assumed "swarthy" meant something like "rough and ready", without actually looking up what "swarthy" means, or why "swarthy" as an adjective is often associated with "rough" and other descriptors of lower class.

[Iscah]

He also sounds like he was supposed to be a Roegadyn and not a Midlander.

But yeah, I also initially assumed from various contexts that "swarthy" meant kind of rough and sturdy, rather than its actual meaning.

[Turnintino]

That stuck out to me too. And as Iscah says, his voice as well, once we heard it come out of that mouth lol. If I had to guess, the actor created the voiced based on that name (I've seen interviews where the actors admitted they don't get to see their characters during recording), and the directors probably thought it was too funny to correct (if they knew yet what the character would look like at that point themselves).

[Palladiamors]

Swarthy means weathered or rough. I didn't even know about the dark skinned definition until now.

[YianKutku]

Swarthy means weathered or rough. I didn't even know about the dark skinned definition until now.

"Swarthy" being used to mean "weathered" or "rough" is kind of a new, non-standard idea, though. And it's almost entirely due to people reading the original uses of "swarthy" meaning "dark-skinned" (or "dark complexioned", I suppose), seeing the context of it as "swarthy hordes" or "swarthy primitives", and then assuming "swarthy" meant "rough".

The word itself is fairly old, and has always meant "dark-skinned" or "dark" (or some such colour, eg "grey" or "dusky"), but I speculate most people nowadays first read it or heard of it in the context of classic sword-and-sorcery stories like Conan The Barbarian. I'm not sure if the Conan stories themselves use "swarthy" as a descriptor for "primitive enemy hordes", but a lot of stories inspired by that style do. (As an example, some descriptions in the Lone Wolf gamebooks are hilariously racially problematic, in extolling the "fair-haired, fair-skinned" protagonist over the "swarthy minions".)

I am aware the localization team generally works under tight deadlines and whatever we see in the end product is likely the first thing that comes to mind, but it does get a bit weird when the localization not only does not directly match the other languages, it's not even the correct word. It's as misplaced as calling that NPC "Bald Sailor"; the reaction is "but he's... not bald?"

[Iscah]

"Swarthy" being used to mean "weathered" or "rough" is kind of a new, non-standard idea, though. And it's almost entirely due to people reading the original uses of "swarthy" meaning "dark-skinned" (or "dark complexioned", I suppose), seeing the context of it as "swarthy hordes" or "swarthy primitives", and then assuming "swarthy" meant "rough".

It's in a difficult middle state where enough people know the "wrong" definition that there is every chance the writer will use it that way and the reader will understand it that way, and even if the reader does know the actual meaning they'll assume the writer was probably using it the "wrong" way and will get the message, so it's not a failure of communication even if incorrect.

It's probably just the unfortunate implications aspect that's stopping it from being adopted as the new meaning altogether.