#you will get a multiparagraph analysis

[thecagedsong]

Okay, I’ve been planning this for a while, but I want to talk about the translator notes in Yona of the Dawn (the personal ones where the translator comments on the story, on the translations I’m reading) because they are absolutely fascinating. The next chapter is coming out soon, and the majority of the notes I’m going to talk about are chapters 180-229, so spoilers below the cut.

So first off, I want to say I love her little notes and the work she’s done on this translation. I feel like I’m reading it with a friend, and the words she uses do so much to convey the original story. This analysis is not meant to disparage the translator at all. I would have been making the same comments about five years ago, I’m sure. This disclaimer is that this post is meant to do nothing more than add some additional considerations that came to me after I read them. Here goes.

For some background, her notes are usually small, and usually comment on the Yona fandom more than anything else. Not verbatim, her comments are things like “all those people saying Il was a creepy cultist gonna eat those words” and “maybe this will knock Soo Won off people’s pedestal”. Nothing you wouldn’t find on tumblr.

But one of her comments put the rest of the comments into perspective for me. The chapter easily with the most translator comments was when Guen-Tae was monitoring the disputed lands that were reclaimed by some of Soo Won’s past exploits and he gets shot with arrows protecting a little boy we had met earlier in the story. Her comment goes something like: 

“As if this sacrifice makes up for him being a colonizer in the first place, but this is a shojo and everyone needs to have white hats and black hats. We’re just supposed to forget that he’s basically a warmonger who was literally enabling Soo Won’s plans for world domination just a few chapters ago. Nope handsome good guy, right here!”.

And this comment is so fascinating, because it literally contradicts itself! More than any other media I’ve encountered, Yona of the Dawn does not let anyone aside from our band of seven comfortably wear a ‘good guy’ badge. Every recurring character is incredibly complex and you cannot be comfortable labeling them good or evil as much as you want to. AND YOU REALLY WANT TO.

Seriously, come into my inbox and I will talk about any character in this series, their good and bad actions, and the flaws preventing them from achieving their goals. I might have to make a Soo Won post because I hate his guts and he is one of the most incredibly complex antagonists I have ever come across.

Which is why it is so fascinating that the translator is absolutely ready to put people in boxes and gets frustrated when the author doesn’t let her without realizing that’s exactly what is happening. I want to talk with her, because the author is doing the opposite of white and black hats, and better than anyone I’ve ever seen. 

The framing and action of Guen-Tae sacrificing himself when enemy soldiers aimed for the child is meant to be sympathetic, but you aren’t supposed to forget his other actions. He is the earth tribe general who spends most of his time, as far as the manga shows, sitting around complaining about not being able to go to war and kill people. He grew up a warrior that was expecting to be able to win the fame and glory of battle under Yu-Hon’s reign. He did fight in a couple of battles before Il stopped that, and gained some glory and the love of his people. 

But what’s a soldier supposed to do in a time of peace? He doesn’t question the murder of King Il because he wants to go to war. When Soo Won shows that during his reign wants to help the earth tribe and wants to go to war, (and some skill in battle tactics) Guen-Taw gives Soo Won his loyalty. 

This loyalty is tested against his idea of an honorable fight when he is put in the exhibition match against the dragon warriors that he was supposed to lose. You see it irritates him, he’s starting to chafe under being a puppet for Soo Won, but he bows head and you’re supposed to dislike that.  

His people adore him and his abilities as a warrior. 

His idea of war is a very honorable fight for glory/land/power/resources where you fight for your people (shown by refusing to reset when Soo Won offered during war game festival). 

His idea of war is in direct conflict to Yona’s experience, where people are tired of the same battles for the same blood-soaked ghost-filled land. 

You are supposed to be conflicted about him. 

Because he also cares deeply about the people that love him. He’s shown organizing rescues and resources for his miners. He absolutely loves his adorable pregnant wife and believes she’s capable of anything. He’s the only one left to tease Soo Won and the Sky General JooDoh about getting a girlfriend/wife. Lili loves him because she’s a derp attracted to older wild men. 

His wife just gave birth, and he’s taking time to talk to this small child that thinks he’s cool and is glad Kouka took back his village. It is absolutely in character for this guy to instinctively save a child from arrows. Interpersonally, he has a lot of charisma and care for the people immediately around him and believes in an honorable fight. 

The author wants you to be conflicted about him. Do you like him, even though he can be a pansy for Soo Won? Do you hate him, even though he sacrifices himself without hesitation for children? This is the opposite of black and white hats. 

You’re not supposed to forget his flaws. You’re supposed to further develop your own ideas of good and evil through him and every other character in this amazing story. 

The author makes other comments along the same vein. At one point she comments that she “wished Yona had confirmed with proof the government was the one who authorized the nadia selling, Kouka was still clearly the aggressor here and I’m really tired of the author calling this war justified.” 

Again, that’s the point! My goodness, the author got the translator because the translator engaged with the question “when is war justified?” and came up with a very nuanced answer.

But the translator missed the fact that the story does not in any way condone the war, just because our good guys are fighting in it. Our band of seven are prisoners here. South Kai delegates went to peace negotiations over the disputed land and intentionally poisoned one of the members with the intent of justifying a war. Soo Won wants to control the whole continent, believing that the only way to stabilize Kouka for a long time after he’s dead. You know it’s foolish to believe that Soo Won, even if he had the health to conquer the continent, believes that the region ALREADY embroiled in a civil war will be incorporated into their tiny neighbor. 

The author purposefully highlights the complex cultures, leadership personalities, economic resources, the awfulness of battle, and the beauty of courage and loyalty to fight for people you believe in. War here makes sense. It’s not justified, but you understand why it happened even when it isn’t justified. I could go on and probably will at some point, but I’ll end my thoughts addressing the translator comments here. This story refuses to let you sort people into “good people” and “bad people” and simultaneously makes you really, really want to. And that’s really what it means to grow up.

Pretty good for a shojo manga supposedly aimed at young women.

#Yona of the Dawn #akatsuki no yona #Yona: the girl standing at the blush of dawn #General Lee Guen-Tae #Soo Won #Yona #meta #seriously ask me about any of the characters in this manga #you will get a multiparagraph analysis #because if you can name them they are probably complex enough to warrant it.

[comicaurora]

How did you get into Tumblr? It's a weird place that not many people use.

And how/why is Blue not here yet, he'd fit right in with the nerds having niche discussions about topics no one else cares about (/s)

tumblr has hundreds of millions of users, it only feels sparsely populated because the dash is entirely self-curated and most of us don't talk to each other except to dunk on the imaginary strawmen we extrapolate are behind each other's keyboards that conveniently hold a beautifully arranged cornucopia of all the opinions we dislike

Anyway I use tumblr because it's extremely curatable and pretty good at letting me post super-enormous comic pages without compressing them out the ass or charging me for a premium hosting service, sometimes when I think too hard about a story I like to immerse myself in a nice hot bath of five million fanart and multiparagraph analysis posts, I like the askbox system as an extremely manageable way of handling fan interactions, and seeing you guys panic in the tags sustains me more than food or water.

Blue, however, is not on tumblr, because we've discussed this and concluded that he would get way too mad. People assume that, of the two of us, Blue is level-headed and polite while I am the firebrand, when in actuality I am at a constant simmer of about 10-25% Maximum Riled-ness while Blue can spike up from a comfortable 0% to a full 100% just by seeing a display of poor reading comprehension. I've been microdosing on rage my whole life so I've built up a tolerance for even the most egregious of bullshit, but Blue has Normal Person levels of "wait, that's stupid!" and reacts accordingly. Poor guy doesn't have the constitution for this place.

#asks #behind the curtain

[sexhaver]

i know im like the tenth person to make this post but watching people get genuinely, unironically mad about Goncharovposting is so much funnier than the memes and edits themselves could ever be. at least people are putting effort into their gay shipping fanart and multiparagraph literary analysis text posts instead of just shitting up the dash with "do you love the color of the sky?" edits. kids these days don't know how good they have it

[possuminabathtub]

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

🦷 - personal wisdom? I don’t think I have much, I’m not a very functional human being. Sleep. Sleep is so important, and the only constant in my life. I am absolutely adamant about getting enough sleep or I become a roid raging bitch from hell (more than usual).

As for life hacks, divide up large daunting tasks into little pieces to trick the executive dysfunction, it’s not three homework assignments due by the end of the week for one class, it’s half an assignment every night, much more achievable and you get the quick dopamine (this also works for time consuming but largely mindless tasks, like lectures or meetings. It’s not 30 more minutes, it’s six sets of five minutes, or 3 sets of ten if you’re feeling spicy, (this has gotten me through so many swim practices and boring lectures, works like a charm))

🏜️ - favorite type of comment are the multi paragraph comments, especially with a quote or analysis of parts of the fic? Oh my god they’re beautiful things to receive, feed your authors yall, we’re hungry for validation and affection. (This is actually how I became really good friends with my beta reader and writer bestie, she left several multiparagraph quote referencing comments and I fell in love with her on the spot) (I will love any comment you give me though)

🍦 - I genuinely don’t know if I can think of a character I hate? Feel free to remind me or give me suggestions and I’ll list the three things but I genuinely could not tell you a character I hate off the top of my head (that’s memory issues for ya)

🌸 - I do have pets!! And I love them with my whole heart! Prepare for a comprehensive list of images of my darlings

Two of our many chickens, Red and I think the other one is Cuckoo. Our Labradoodle, Rooby Doo. The horse with the stripe down his face is Prince (Common Name: Jackass), and the darker one with only the star marking is Lizip (Common Name: Zip or Zippers).

The lab mix is Radar. Gray cat curled up is Kentucky Blue, and the tan one in the box is Mama (we’re so creative). We actually have a third cat, called Boy (Legal name: Jerry) but he looks just like Kentucky Blue so you’ve basically seen him (we did think they were the same cat for a while). (Ive just realized we have all three genders of cat: Male, Female, & Homeless and just showed up here one day).

You also get bonus pictures of last years batch of calves bc they’re cute. I couldn’t find any good photos of our ducks, but they’re not the most personable (imagine if a beige almond mom designed a duck, I love them I swear but they’re not exactly stylin).

#ask game #thank you for the ask!! #I literally love rambling about my animals #And also the other questions #adhd tips #adhd life hack #That adhd life hack is getting me through school rn

[cavehags]

it’s not necessary to write up a multiparagraph analysis of What Exactly Happened every time something sad and confusing takes place in the public eye. seriously. when you get to the point of guessing at the mental health and motivations of internet strangers, it’s best to curb that impulse. you don’t know what the motivations were. your “analysis” is just speculation in disguise that further confuses the issue. it’s enough to say the situation is sad and move on. 

#obviously donotreblog