Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Altair: A Record of Battles
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Chocoreto
Posts: 105 |
|
|||||
Actually, how about NO. The bad old days of gay stereotypes would have come back if Balaban was a ridiculous, ugly and muscled clown, acting feminine for the lulz. (i.e. like in Drifters). Balaban is a charming, strong, smart (yes they didn't show any signs of this in the anime just yet, I know), and pompous freaking Sultan, aka a person who gets what he wants and does anything he wants, that just happens to have a taste for pretty boys. He's not "aggresively homosexual", he's an aggressive person in general. Like a gay Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. (A thousand thumbs up for that!) |
||||||
|
||||||
Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
|
|||||
This. I'm sure Rebecca meant well, but if Mahmut was a girl, i doubt she would have called Balaban "aggressively heterosexual"...if anything, he's a stereotypical power-hungry leader who's used to taking what he wants. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
|
|||||
Thank you for not doubting my intentions. (I really mean that.) I probably would have gone with "sexually aggressive," which would have been the better move here. He just...left a bad taste in my mouth, and he certainly lined up with some of the bad old (non-anime) stereotypes I've seen in my reading lately. In any event, it was a statement about how I didn't like the show rather than the character, and I have no doubt that the manga handles him differently. In any event, I'm sorry if anyone was offended. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
|
Another episode, another Turkish lesson, and this one is particularly loaded with them. This one has some rather...unique things going on with the naming schemes.
Balta: Balta means ax or hatchet. I find this rather amusing since this is saying Fatma is the leader of a vassal state called the Ax/Hatchet Sultanate, and you know the saying about burying the hatchet. XD Tesisat-Kapi: This one is quite incorrect on all counts. Tesisat means installation and kapi means door or gate (its secondary definition can also mean employment or place of employment). Put together, it makes no sense as a title whatsoever. It's saying that he's a door/gate installer or installation employee, which is hilarious. I don't think a pasha would stoop to that level of manual labor, so this one is simply a case of incorrect word usage. Beyolu: This again is written as it's said, but it should be written as beyoğlu (the ğ is silent). Now, this one can be easily confused for the place named Beyoğlu, which is an old neighborhood in Istanbul. However, since we're talking about a person, it means the son of the royal family as saying oğlu means son. An additional note too: Mahmut is referred to as Mahmut Bey when he is addressed by others; Bey isn't his last name, as bey literally means gentleman and you say it after a person's name out of respect when addressing them (basically the same way Japanese folks use the san honorific). Bey can also mean master or ruler. The same applies to the title of pasha, but as we know Mahmut was stripped of that title. Prenses: You probably already guessed this one, but it's simply the English word princess said with a Turkish pronunciation as we don't really have a word for it in Turkish. Armut: This one kind of made me laugh since armut means pear, and it reminded me of Princess Peach. I'm guessing this might be another naming error. Yenicheri: This is written the way you'd say it, but it's supposed to be yeniçeri (it combines "yeni" which means new or modern and çeri which is army). I'm assuming they don't have a ç for their subtitle typesetting. Yeniçeri translates to janissary in English. In any case, this word historically refers to a Christian infantry soldier from the former elite guard of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, that definition is outdated as the elite guard was disbanded back in 1826. These days it refers to a Turkish soldier in general. Torqye: I know this has gone for a while with this anime, but I just wanted to point this one out. Turkey in our mother tongue is written as Türkiye. Since the Japanese don't have a "ü" in their alphabet, they likely went with what sounds closest to them, but it's not even an "o" sound to begin with, so it comes across as bizarre. I think the author of this series or the subbing group needs to do a better job with their research because this is getting a bit laughable. As for the episode itself, it's obvious political tensions are building and Mahmut is once again getting himself swept up in some dangerous situations. He's got some damn good luck and allies to help him through, but this latest incident has quite the repercussions thanks to Zehir Zaganos. Last edited by belvadeer on Mon Sep 11, 2017 3:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
|
|||||
|
Thank you again! So the "ç" is pronounced with like "ch" in English? I've been reading it like the French "sh", so that's good to know. Out of curiosity, is there no word in Turkish for "princess" because the title doesn't exist, or is there simply a single term for the children of a ruler? (Also, that spelling of the country had been irritating me since they changed it for no reason.)
If nothing else, this show is making me want to learn Turkish! |
||||||
|
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
My pleasure. Correct, the accent tail makes it a "ch" sound. Without it, the letter c makes a "j" sound like the way you pronounce "gem". Strangely, no. Princess and rocket are two examples of words where we simply say it with a Turkish pronunciation. Turkey borrowed a bit from the French over the years, which is why some sounds seem similar between them. The closest word would be beyoğlu for prince. Unfortunately, there never was a term for princess and you can probably guess why. Me too. It looks and sounds bizarre. I guess I can't totally blame Japan since they don't have anything like the umlauted u, but the way they say it sounds really ear-grating. |
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
|
Episode 10 has quite a bit to parse through as far as Turkish language lessons go. : )
Buchak: Again, this is a case of the subtitles reading it like you'd say the word, but the word in Turkish is written as bıçak (our "i" sounds depend on whether or not there's a dot above the "i" and it's a bit more distinct in how you say it). Bıçak means knife. Kuluch: This would be written as kılıç in Turkish. This means sword. The Japanese VAs aren't pronouncing it correctly either since, again, our "i" sound is distinct (they keep saying koolooch, which is wrong). Muzrak: This would be mızrak in Turkish, which means spear, lance, or javelin. It's obvious at this point the sultanates were given a weapon-based naming scheme to tie them all together, with balta having been ax/hatchet previously. Prens: And of course, a different word for prince that simply uses the Turkish pronunciation of the English word. Uzun: I'm assuming they put this guy's name in because it sounds Turkish, but uzun means long, as in length. I'm thinking that since he's the sultan of the Knife Sultanate, it might be a bit of word association on "long knife". Shark Yay: Yay means bow, which I suppose is one way of interpreting a rifle if you're seeing one for the first time. As for şark, this isn't Turkish actually. It's old Arabic, and it refers to the Far East; in other words, Ismail is literally exclaiming the rifle is a "Far East bow", implying the era when the Japanese got their hands on matchlocks (though it's odd since the Ottoman Empire had been using them since 1440 while Japan started using them about hundred years later). He could also mean they were brought over from there. As for the episode itself, Ayşe is proving she is not a helpless or meek princess, that's for sure. She was pretty damn awesome when the spotlight came down on her. Last edited by belvadeer on Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:29 pm; edited 2 times in total |
||||||
|
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
|
|||||
|
Okay, so I wasn't crazy when I thought I'd heard the word "mizrak" (or rather, seen it in a collection of folklore) and wondered if "muzrak" was related.
So is the name Ayşe the Turkish form of the name Aisha? She's an interesting character in Islamic lore, and I'm wondering if there are meant to be parallels between the historic figure and this one. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
Ayşe and Aisha are two different names. The former is Turkish and the latter is Arabic. |
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
|
Time for the Turkish lesson of the week!
Buyuk: This should be büyük, which means great, large, big, important, major, serious, etc. It can also mean older, elder or eldest. In this case, they use it to refer to the pasha with the most authority in the show, who clearly wears the biggest turban. And yes, before anyone says his giant turban is hilarious, the grand or eldest pasha to whom everyone deferred to in the Ottoman Empire's time did indeed wear a more elaborate turban than the others, and they were often embellished with a precious gem (and sometimes entirely made of mink). Often it was an indicator of their wealth as well as their status. Acayip: Acayip (remember, the "c" is pronounced like a "j" without the tail) means strange, curious, or queer. With that being as a name for a place, you'd be introducing it as "Welcome to Strange, the capital of the Sword Sultanate" to someone. The Japanese VAs are not pronouncing it correctly. Beyazit: His name has been bothering me for a while, but I should point out beyaz means white or fair-skinned. There's no such word as beyazit in Turkish. Maybe they were trying to call him Fair-Skinned because of his lighter complexion. Nilufer: This should be written as nilüfer and it's a fairly standard yet beautiful name for Turkish women. It means water lily. Tesisatu-Kapu: I must again point out the title that they're using for Saluja is still wrong. The subbing group changed it to Tesisatu-Kapu from when it was Tesisat-Kapi previously, but it still doesn't make sense put together, and kapu isn't even a Turkish word. I get the feeling the original writer or writers for the anime (or possibly the original creator) just slapped two random Turkish words together because they thought it sounded cool when you say it out loud; doesn't mean it works though. Hot damn, this episode got dramatic toward the end. It did a good job at building the tension in the beginning and middle, and then gave us a bit of a twist at the end. |
||||||
|
Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2606 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
|
|||||
|
That's interesting with Beyazit's name, especially since in literary history terms that would place him with Guinevere - her name is the Anglicization of a Welsh name meaning "fair (skinned) one" that eventually became the name Jennifer.
I had suspected that the most important member of the Divan would wear the more elaborate turban. I do wish the show had gone a slightly different route to show that, because the exaggerated size doesn't necessarily read "imposing" if you don't know. That whole putting words that sound cool together thing is an ongoing problem in YA fiction. I see it happen most frequently in western works with, amusingly enough in context, Japanese, so I guess turn about is fair play?  (Still annoying, though.)
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
That's certainly an interesting point.
This is true. It should be more decorated. I guess they went with the "biggest size, biggest authority" mindset, which is fine with me personally, but it might be a bit too old-fashioned for some people.
Good point, as certain kinds of Westerners have a tendency to ignorantly use Japanese without knowing what the words' meanings are. At least the current Ninja Turtles show does its research very thoroughly as their Japanese has been absolutely on point each time they utilize the language (especially when they did the Usagi Yojimbo arc, which was obviously loaded with Japanese language and speaking everywhere). Stan Sakai must have been proud of how they pulled that off. |
||||||
|
Squidslinger
Posts: 76 |
|
|||||
|
Unexpected? That was entirely expected.
Saw it coming a mile away. There was no way he was going to allow Aishe to be killed. He's too passionate a character. The revelation of love between the relatives, and him finding out about it, was totally tacked on. The scene felt artificial and did not provide enough reason to suspect he'd go all vader and have her killed. The moment Selim decided to save his own neck was the moment you knew the son was going to kill him. |
||||||
|
||||||
MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5307 |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
belvadeer
|
|
|||||
|
And now we come to this week's lesson. Mostly just some color-coding. ; D
Ak Alay: Mahmut shouted this out during the battle. Ak means white and alay means regiment or procession or troops in line, which of course is obvious from the fact they wear white armor. Mavi Alay: Blue regiment/troops for this one. This episode was pretty spectacular as far as a big war segment goes. spoiler[Mahmut came up with a great list of tactics to beat down Balaban's yeniçeri (I knew right off the bat what the tree branches were going to be used for) and Beyazit's gun squad cleaned up in the end, with Beyazit delivering the final blow to the brother he genuinely loved, but knew long ago wasn't fit to be sultan]. Last edited by belvadeer on Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group