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Lyssie translates, to arrive at a conclusion the rest of fandom probably got years ago
So I was going to kh-vids to fact check on some Hollow Bastion stuff for the Doomy Death AU, and ended up watching Riku and Sora's reunion at Traverse Town. And then, since their KH1 clips are from Final Mix and thus have the Japanese subtitles, I found myself translating.
... That scene never really made sense to me before, for two main reasons: I'd (somehow) never really picked up on Riku's tendency towards insecurity until KH2 made it clear to me, and Sora seemed to be pretty blatant about really wanting Riku to come with them then and there.
Watching it again now that I know Riku is an insecure little ball of neurosis, and reading the decidedly more ambiguous Japanese text, it all became totally clear.
Really, even understanding Riku's personality, the scene in English is still a little baffling to me because, dude, is it not clear enough for you that Sora wants you around and missed youand wants to make out with you in the back of the gummi ship? Does he have to put up a neon sign saying RIKU I MISSED YOU TRAVEL WITH ME PLZ? But seeing how the conversation went in the original language, wow. They're just... having a complete and total communication BREAKDOWN. Where Sora probably thinks he's made himself clear, Riku misinterprets like everything he says because they're not working on the same assumptions. They are not having the same conversation.
The first trouble spot is after Sora cuts down the random Shadow with the Keyblade. (Of course, knowing Riku better now than I did when I first saw this scene, I comprehend how his jealousy also kind of ramped way up at that, which does not help his general outlook in this conversation.)
Sora: 俺だってリクとカイリを探してたんだ このふたりといっしょに。
("I've been looking for you and Kairi, with these two.")
Riku: いっしょにー
("With them...")
In the English, I got a sense of greater detachment from Donald and Goofy - "I've been looking for you, and Kairi too, with their help". It implies more clearly that Riku and Kairi were his first priority. But in the Japanese that doesn't come through as strongly.
You can see Riku's totally misinterpreting it, too - he's latching on to the "with those guys" part, like that holds more significance. Of course Sora's looking for him and Kairi, that's just a given - but he found other people to do it with. I mean, that much shows in the English too, but I see it more clearly here.
The tense Sora's using on 'sagasu' can also be misread. Sora's saying "I was searching for you (and now I've found you!)", but Riku could be hearing "I was searching for you (but I stopped)".
Also, when Sora says in English "We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you!" that's a LOT more obvious than what he says in Japanese.
Sora: ３人でいるんな世界をまわってるんだ あちこち
("Us three have been to so many worlds, all over the place...")
Ouch. Sora almost certainly assumes that the "looking for you" is understood, but I can see how that comes through to Riku simply as "Dude, I've been having so many awesome adventures with these guys!" with him excluded.
Then there's talk of the Keyblade, obvious cause of jealousy for Riku, and then we get to where Sora's asking him to come along.
Sora: そうだリク おまえもいっしょに来いよ！
("Oh, hey, Riku! Come with us!")
Sora: 俺たち すっげえ船に乗ってるんだ
("We're riding on this awesome boat!") (Yes, I know it's probably more like "ship" than "boat", but I find it unutterably adorable that he refers to the gummi ship as a 'fune'.)
Sora: 特別に乗せてやるって
(tokubetsu ni nosete yarutte)
That last one gives me the most trouble to translate, but I think I get the gist - he's saying they can let Riku ride on it too, but it'll be a special circumstance. (He also appears to be rather excessively informal with the "let you ride" bit - yarutte? really, Sora?)
And it's just. If I understand this correctly, with the tone of the conversation and Riku's insecurity and the doubts Maleficent planted in his head before this, you can just see Sora going full speed down one conversational track while Riku veers to the left.
Sora's implication: "Riku, you're special, you can come with us no matter what."
Riku's interpretation: "You can come aboard too, Riku, but it'll be a special exception."
This is where it just goes down in flames. Sora's saying "it's no trouble at all, come with us, now, faster, let's go!" But Riku's hearing that they have to go out of their way to accomodate him. It's troublesome to accomodate him. He is troublesome to a group that includes Sora. It really doesn't help that Donald's followup is to accuse Sora of being selfish, and Sora's response is "It'd be okay, right?" (いいだろ?)
I mean, really. I read this scene at first as Riku just being an emotard, but it makes so much more sense to me now. I can really see how he heard all the wrong things and jumped to all the wrong conclusions.
I am of course aware that I'm probably the ONLY one for whom it took so long to understand that exchange fully, but hey. I got a little Japanese practice and I understand Riku a little more now. That was time well spent. XD
... That scene never really made sense to me before, for two main reasons: I'd (somehow) never really picked up on Riku's tendency towards insecurity until KH2 made it clear to me, and Sora seemed to be pretty blatant about really wanting Riku to come with them then and there.
Watching it again now that I know Riku is an insecure little ball of neurosis, and reading the decidedly more ambiguous Japanese text, it all became totally clear.
Really, even understanding Riku's personality, the scene in English is still a little baffling to me because, dude, is it not clear enough for you that Sora wants you around and missed you
The first trouble spot is after Sora cuts down the random Shadow with the Keyblade. (Of course, knowing Riku better now than I did when I first saw this scene, I comprehend how his jealousy also kind of ramped way up at that, which does not help his general outlook in this conversation.)
Sora: 俺だってリクとカイリを探してたんだ このふたりといっしょに。
("I've been looking for you and Kairi, with these two.")
Riku: いっしょにー
("With them...")
In the English, I got a sense of greater detachment from Donald and Goofy - "I've been looking for you, and Kairi too, with their help". It implies more clearly that Riku and Kairi were his first priority. But in the Japanese that doesn't come through as strongly.
You can see Riku's totally misinterpreting it, too - he's latching on to the "with those guys" part, like that holds more significance. Of course Sora's looking for him and Kairi, that's just a given - but he found other people to do it with. I mean, that much shows in the English too, but I see it more clearly here.
The tense Sora's using on 'sagasu' can also be misread. Sora's saying "I was searching for you (and now I've found you!)", but Riku could be hearing "I was searching for you (but I stopped)".
Also, when Sora says in English "We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you!" that's a LOT more obvious than what he says in Japanese.
Sora: ３人でいるんな世界をまわってるんだ あちこち
("Us three have been to so many worlds, all over the place...")
Ouch. Sora almost certainly assumes that the "looking for you" is understood, but I can see how that comes through to Riku simply as "Dude, I've been having so many awesome adventures with these guys!" with him excluded.
Then there's talk of the Keyblade, obvious cause of jealousy for Riku, and then we get to where Sora's asking him to come along.
Sora: そうだリク おまえもいっしょに来いよ！
("Oh, hey, Riku! Come with us!")
Sora: 俺たち すっげえ船に乗ってるんだ
("We're riding on this awesome boat!") (Yes, I know it's probably more like "ship" than "boat", but I find it unutterably adorable that he refers to the gummi ship as a 'fune'.)
Sora: 特別に乗せてやるって
(tokubetsu ni nosete yarutte)
That last one gives me the most trouble to translate, but I think I get the gist - he's saying they can let Riku ride on it too, but it'll be a special circumstance. (He also appears to be rather excessively informal with the "let you ride" bit - yarutte? really, Sora?)
And it's just. If I understand this correctly, with the tone of the conversation and Riku's insecurity and the doubts Maleficent planted in his head before this, you can just see Sora going full speed down one conversational track while Riku veers to the left.
Sora's implication: "Riku, you're special, you can come with us no matter what."
Riku's interpretation: "You can come aboard too, Riku, but it'll be a special exception."
This is where it just goes down in flames. Sora's saying "it's no trouble at all, come with us, now, faster, let's go!" But Riku's hearing that they have to go out of their way to accomodate him. It's troublesome to accomodate him. He is troublesome to a group that includes Sora. It really doesn't help that Donald's followup is to accuse Sora of being selfish, and Sora's response is "It'd be okay, right?" (いいだろ?)
I mean, really. I read this scene at first as Riku just being an emotard, but it makes so much more sense to me now. I can really see how he heard all the wrong things and jumped to all the wrong conclusions.
I am of course aware that I'm probably the ONLY one for whom it took so long to understand that exchange fully, but hey. I got a little Japanese practice and I understand Riku a little more now. That was time well spent. XD
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I'm at work, so the Japanese characters aren't displaying properly, but literally I would translate "tokubetsu ni nosete yarutte" as "we'll give you a [free] ride" -- i.e., it's REALLY COOL and you can ride it FOR FREE (special) because YOU ARE COOL TOO :D :D :D -- only Riku's not getting that.
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But I did get the general implications of the tokubetsu line right, yes?