The Full FE6/7 Character Poll + JPN Fan Comment Translations

[Kirokan]

Hi everyone!

Remember that character poll for FE6 and FE7 ? The same ones that were also in the Character Book?

While we had the poll results themselves and have known them for a long time, I present them all in one place with every single Japanese fan comment translated. I thought it would be a fun way to see how Japanese fans thought of these characters back then as part of my long-term goal of getting the two fandoms to be closer together.

Other things include comparing their placements in their games on this poll to their Fire Emblem Heroes Choose Your Legend (first one, specifically) ranking in their respective games and such.

That, and some of them were pretty amusing, anyway. It took several weeks and 49 pages in MS Word, but I hope you all enjoy the fruits of this labor and that it serves as a helpful resource for future references.

All the poll results and fan comments can be seen here!

[Dragoncat]

Neat stuff! I didn't read it all but the thing about Nino's name being on a shop door in velcro was amusing. Might read more later.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Interesting results. For Blazing:

• Ninian ranked only 17, below Rath and just above Wil, that is very unexpected. Now where are Rath and Wil- especially Rath? I need him in Heroes yesterday! Anything but being stuck with Brave Lyn and Seasonals/Legendaries for Bow Cav.
• Lyn just barely failed to make the top 5 owing to Matthew and Raven. 
• Also why is Isadora dead last among PCs?
• Sonia and Nergal doing so poorly- near dead last, yet Ursula getting a surprising 22nd, certainly explains Heroes, a lot of this poll does. Brendan, did better than these two! And Brendan gets next to nothing in screentime and development, the original Black Fang leader is sadly almost a nonentity. Also says seduction doesn't always win out. This said, that Ursula was 5-1 male-female in vote composition makes it clear seduction played a role. Well better than saying people were into her actual character since there isn't much to it.
• Lucius and Canas did great, but Pent did more poorly than I would've liked. 2-4 men-women on the ratings for him indicates he is something of a DILF. Nils got in below Roland and Bramimond, two characters with hardly any screen-time who did unexpectedly well, and while I loves Brammy, Nils did not deserve this! And Roland comes off as just being another pretty boy lord like Eliwood and Marth and Alm and Seliph and Roy (which is also true of Baldur), Brammy is very different at least.

 

 

As for Binding Blade:

• Rutger got second, but isn't in Heroes? He lost only to Roy and isn't in yet despite the game loving to add infantry swords. What happened here? Although a 4-2 male-female percentage ratio indicates its gameplay and not studliness (although maybe character/backstory) which got him where he is.
• Banana Mage Lugh got 7th, Wolt 8th, and Dieck 9th. None of these are in FEH yet while the rest of the top 10 is. Wolt is higher than I expected. 
• Speaking of no. 11, it is Hugh! Wow, the poll loved Anima magic, since every Mage is within the top 11. I for some strange reason like Hugh despite not having played FE6, so I like this.
• On gender, Sophia got 5-1 m-f for the voting ratio thingy, and Raigh was 2-4. Says sex appeal in the former for me, and the ladies like cuteness in Raigh (and so in Chad?)- but Lugh is 3-3. Zeiss is 2-4, so a case of sex appeal for hetero females here perhaps.
• Melady is 27th, losing to every non-Juno flier, even Gale! Thea is the most liked non-Shanna flier and Zeiss outdoes her too. This doesn't seem right to her. And Gwendolyn ranked right below her, and yet she is in. Both also had male-slanted voting, 5-1 for Gwendolyn
• Sue is in the top 20 (#19), another good thing, c'mon natural Bow Cav! She was also perhaps unexpectedly 3-3 in gender ratings. Chad is 20th, a bit strange I guess.
• Perceval and Gale ranked one and two above Cecilia each, they stand fair shots of coming in I guess.
• Why did Igrene do so awful? I can understand the other PCs who did, but Igrene seems just unfortunate. Klein was also ranked rather poorly but is in Heroes. And staying on Igrene, Astolfo, her implied former beloved, is dead last among PCs.

 

So thank you Kirokan as always! I appreciate every translation effort of yours.

 

...By the way, could I ask for your opinion on a little Tellius translation I noticed yesterday after asking Ice Dragon about it? To be precise:

Spoiler

I'm so glad that I have the Tellius Memorial Books to look this stuff up instead of having to scour the interwebs for transcripts.

The Steadfast Riders of Daein are called "不動の四駿" (fudou no shishun) in Japanese, which translates roughly as "steadfast four horses". The 駿 (shun) actually just means a "good horse", presumably metaphorically pulling the chariot that is Daein.

So not a shitenno instance, well that makes it less generic in Japan.

This makes it apparent to me that the localizing of "horse" to "rider", if not an outright error, was done to make things less awkward I think. Calling a group of humans the "Four Steadfast Horses of Daein" sounds really bizarre in English, and I'm not quite even sure how to joke about Gawain being a horse. [Not helped by animal-shifting Laguz existing in Tellius I would like to add now. When Tibarn the Hawk King exists, Gawain the Steadfast Horse is hit with an unfortunate connotation.]

"Rider" is an okay localization, but only okay, for several reasons. The first owing to the fact Cavalry classes exist in FE, and as I stated before, very few of the Riders ride horses. There is the second issue of the greater metaphor you point out being lost, since a rider does not necessarily drive a chariot.

If we tried something more accurate to reflect on the greater metaphor, we could call them the "Four Steadfast Drivers of Daein", since they drive the chariot that is the kingdom. The problem here is that in modern parlance, "driver" automatically means driver of a car, and not even TMS featured cars! Suddenly, I can imagine the Black Knight putting the petal to the metal of his ebon armored BMW and sticking the Alondite out the driver side window and lopping someone's head off- ridiculous. Still, if I absolutely need someone drunk to drive me somewhere, Tauroneo, I think I'll trust my finite life with you.

We could therefore make it clearer and localize it as "Four Steadfast Chariot Drivers of Daein", this makes the metaphor almost perfectly understood. But there are new issues. One, FE doesn't have chariots almost anywhere really, which is a little strange if suddenly we're calling people them. This is five titular words, all but one with multiple syllables, and an "of" tossed in, which is a little too long for me. A good title has to balance description with conciseness, which this choice lacks.

I honestly don't know if there is a perfectly good way to handle the Japanese in English here. Direct translation I don't like, and the obvious localization choices are just as flawed.

All I'm really asking is what you think NoA's best option would have been for the term in question, and whether there was a single perfect or near perfect option at all? 

[Kirokan]

@Interdimensional Observer

Thanks for the write up on things about the poll!

When it comes to FE9's localization, I often think of this article on the matter. The communication between NoA and NoJ to express intent across properly means they probably reached an agreement on the title that became "The Four Riders." At the same time they did leave a lot to the localization.

Really, I would've just abandoned the image of steadfast horses entirely and gone with something more boring like "The Four Knights of Daein" or "Four Pillars of Daein"  (or some variants thereof) and such. : ) Or to get more culturally relevant, would've tried to relate them to something like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Edited July 8, 2018 by Kirokan

[Kubson]

On 8.07.2018 at 3:45 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Interesting results. For Blazing:

• Ninian ranked only 17, below Rath and just above Wil, that is very unexpected. Now where are Rath and Wil- especially Rath? I need him in Heroes yesterday! Anything but being stuck with Brave Lyn and Seasonals/Legendaries for Bow Cav.
• Lyn just barely failed to make the top 5 owing to Matthew and Raven. 
• Also why is Isadora dead last among PCs?
• Sonia and Nergal doing so poorly- near dead last, yet Ursula getting a surprising 22nd, certainly explains Heroes, a lot of this poll does. Brendan, did better than these two! And Brendan gets next to nothing in screentime and development, the original Black Fang leader is sadly almost a nonentity. Also says seduction doesn't always win out. This said, that Ursula was 5-1 male-female in vote composition makes it clear seduction played a role. Well better than saying people were into her actual character since there isn't much to it.
• Lucius and Canas did great, but Pent did more poorly than I would've liked. 2-4 men-women on the ratings for him indicates he is something of a DILF. Nils got in below Roland and Bramimond, two characters with hardly any screen-time who did unexpectedly well, and while I loves Brammy, Nils did not deserve this! And Roland comes off as just being another pretty boy lord like Eliwood and Marth and Alm and Seliph and Roy (which is also true of Baldur), Brammy is very different at least.

 

 

As for Binding Blade:

• Rutger got second, but isn't in Heroes? He lost only to Roy and isn't in yet despite the game loving to add infantry swords. What happened here? Although a 4-2 male-female percentage ratio indicates its gameplay and not studliness (although maybe character/backstory) which got him where he is.
• Banana Mage Lugh got 7th, Wolt 8th, and Dieck 9th. None of these are in FEH yet while the rest of the top 10 is. Wolt is higher than I expected. 
• Speaking of no. 11, it is Hugh! Wow, the poll loved Anima magic, since every Mage is within the top 11. I for some strange reason like Hugh despite not having played FE6, so I like this.
• On gender, Sophia got 5-1 m-f for the voting ratio thingy, and Raigh was 2-4. Says sex appeal in the former for me, and the ladies like cuteness in Raigh (and so in Chad?)- but Lugh is 3-3. Zeiss is 2-4, so a case of sex appeal for hetero females here perhaps.
• Melady is 27th, losing to every non-Juno flier, even Gale! Thea is the most liked non-Shanna flier and Zeiss outdoes her too. This doesn't seem right to her. And Gwendolyn ranked right below her, and yet she is in. Both also had male-slanted voting, 5-1 for Gwendolyn
• Sue is in the top 20 (#19), another good thing, c'mon natural Bow Cav! She was also perhaps unexpectedly 3-3 in gender ratings. Chad is 20th, a bit strange I guess.
• Perceval and Gale ranked one and two above Cecilia each, they stand fair shots of coming in I guess.
• Why did Igrene do so awful? I can understand the other PCs who did, but Igrene seems just unfortunate. Klein was also ranked rather poorly but is in Heroes. And staying on Igrene, Astolfo, her implied former beloved, is dead last among PCs.

 

So thank you Kirokan as always! I appreciate every translation effort of yours.

 

...By the way, could I ask for your opinion on a little Tellius translation I noticed yesterday after asking Ice Dragon about it? To be precise:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm so glad that I have the Tellius Memorial Books to look this stuff up instead of having to scour the interwebs for transcripts.

The Steadfast Riders of Daein are called "不動の四駿" (fudou no shishun) in Japanese, which translates roughly as "steadfast four horses". The 駿 (shun) actually just means a "good horse", presumably metaphorically pulling the chariot that is Daein.

So not a shitenno instance, well that makes it less generic in Japan.

This makes it apparent to me that the localizing of "horse" to "rider", if not an outright error, was done to make things less awkward I think. Calling a group of humans the "Four Steadfast Horses of Daein" sounds really bizarre in English, and I'm not quite even sure how to joke about Gawain being a horse. [Not helped by animal-shifting Laguz existing in Tellius I would like to add now. When Tibarn the Hawk King exists, Gawain the Steadfast Horse is hit with an unfortunate connotation.]

"Rider" is an okay localization, but only okay, for several reasons. The first owing to the fact Cavalry classes exist in FE, and as I stated before, very few of the Riders ride horses. There is the second issue of the greater metaphor you point out being lost, since a rider does not necessarily drive a chariot.

If we tried something more accurate to reflect on the greater metaphor, we could call them the "Four Steadfast Drivers of Daein", since they drive the chariot that is the kingdom. The problem here is that in modern parlance, "driver" automatically means driver of a car, and not even TMS featured cars! Suddenly, I can imagine the Black Knight putting the petal to the metal of his ebon armored BMW and sticking the Alondite out the driver side window and lopping someone's head off- ridiculous. Still, if I absolutely need someone drunk to drive me somewhere, Tauroneo, I think I'll trust my finite life with you.

We could therefore make it clearer and localize it as "Four Steadfast Chariot Drivers of Daein", this makes the metaphor almost perfectly understood. But there are new issues. One, FE doesn't have chariots almost anywhere really, which is a little strange if suddenly we're calling people them. This is five titular words, all but one with multiple syllables, and an "of" tossed in, which is a little too long for me. A good title has to balance description with conciseness, which this choice lacks.

I honestly don't know if there is a perfectly good way to handle the Japanese in English here. Direct translation I don't like, and the obvious localization choices are just as flawed.

All I'm really asking is what you think NoA's best option would have been for the term in question, and whether there was a single perfect or near perfect option at all? 

Sadly I can't see Wil and Rath being added anytime soon :( It's weird how low on the list Linus is, yet he's in FEH.

I'm honestly surprised that Nino is #1, I expected Lyn or Hector to be #1. I never found Nino to be THAT interesting, sure she has a sad back story, she tries her hardest to impress cold-hearted Sonia, has good potential if you train her up and she's cute, but I wouldn't put her anywhere near the top 10. Also Eliwood above Hector, yet every time I check a FE forum/video, everyone says how awesome Hector is and most of the time people talk shit about Eliwood. Also Nergal being close to bottom and Ursula being near the top 20? Really?