TheFoxsCloak

Originally Posted by Petrikow

Originally Posted by Petrikow

Pruning and translations

It's time for a sequel:

Partially the reason I started looking into this was the term we discussed first: 濾過異聞史現象 (NA; Felling Theoretical Phenomenon).
After some deliberation (mostly out of respect of the translators), I've decided to talk a little about why I feel this term has received possibly the most confusing translation they could have possibly gone for.

I'll break this down into 4 points:

1. It is unclear:
I can only imagine as an English reader of F/GO that this term confused the hell out of people when it first appeared. What is 'felling' referring to? What does Theoretical do in there? At least phenomenon is quite straight forward.
On the other hand, reading it in Japanese, it's entirely clear what its referring to, almost immediately (aside from maybe 濾過 (Percolated)). 異聞史 has just recently been introduced in ways of 異聞帯 (Lostbelt) which in and of itself does not tell a lot. Still its clear what the premise is: things that are 異聞 ('Lost') are from branches of history that have been pruned (see: Pruned Events) so 異聞史 is basically just that: "Losthistory"; clear and to the point and reflects the same thing as "Lostbelt".
Altogether, this becomes: a phenomenon where 'losthistory' has percolated/filtered onto the planet. And once you think about it like that, it's not all that odd of a term, really; despite how long it is. It just a term used to describe the process of how Lostbelts appear.

2. It is inelegant:
This really is more of a point where your mileage may vary, but I do not like the sound of "Felling Theoretical Phenomenon" in the slightest. You have to use it with 'the', in English, of course: The Felling Theoretical Phenomenon. But even then it sounds stilted and odd and it just feels like it tries to force this comparison to their other (mistranslated) terms in Pruning/Chronicle Theoretical Phenomenon that isn't there. Had it been "Theoretical Felling Phenomenon" it actually would've sounded a little better and flowed more naturally in English, but once again, they had to force the comparison, and so it sounds bad.

3. It is inaccurate:
No matter how you splice it, the words just don't fit.
Felling is... what exactly? 異聞史? 濾過? What the hell does it mean? Does it have something to do with the 伐採 that happens during Compiling of Quantum Timelocks? Who knows!
Theoretical, from where? And why? To force the comparison to Pruning/Chronicle? Why?
Phenomenon is at least entirely accurate but runs into a self-made problem they have where it overlaps with the Pruning Theoretical Phenomenon, but I feel like I've covered that enough.

4. It is misleading:
We return to what started this whole conversation: No, the theoretical in this term has nothing to do with 編纂・剪定事象 (Compiled/Pruned Events).
In fact, it seems the entire reason why this translation is the way it is, is because of this extremely misled attempt at tying these terms together.
Yes: Pruned Events are tied to the Lostbelt concept, but there was never any reason to force these terms into sounding the same.

I don't know their thought process behind coming up with them, sadly.
But in this case, I really don't think it matters; the results have already shown themselves:
The translations of these terms have only ever caused confusion.

"Ok, but do you have a suggestion for an alternative then?"

Sure: Percolated Losthistory Phenomenon.