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Translating Commission

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Counter-review

Moshi-moshi, minna-tachi!

This is just a rant, because, seriously, people who attack other reviewer in a review box deserve something like this. Feel free to ignore it.

So, I was reading the review box of this fic and why, there are a lot of positive responses. Not that I can blame them. It's quite canon and well-written. What disgusts me is that when Aqua-sama includes the correct canon facts in his review, there's this another reviewer who seems not pleased with it.

Here's the copy of the review:

*glances at that tl;dr "review" down below hers* Oi, aquagon, while you may have awesome translation skills, your reading comprehension leaves something to be desired: This fic is plainly marked AU. Even if you missed that, I should think Ayatane and Lyner being paired together should be a good indicator that this is NOT CANON. And the canon disservices itself, really, given AT3... stripping for power? With no explanation or real reason other than for the graphics guys to show off? Really now, writers?

And now for the actual review, which I'm sure our lovely hostess cares more about. D-did they just synchronicity chain the Ar Tonelico spell? Yeah, Flipsphere? Aurica and Misha called, they just said you are now their bitch. Kind of wondering how much of the Silver Horn is going to be left after that magic drops.

Ignore the second paragraph. Look at the first paragraph. Look at how he seems (to me) disrespect Aqua-sama's kindness in correcting the fics' "holes".

Wow, I sure sounds like some kind of devout followers of Aqua-sama. It's not completely wrong. I do respect and admire him and his vast knowledge about Ar tonelico. The amount of this respect is the same as the ones that I have for Lazy, Deciare, wizzard, etcetera. Those mods and senior members of ARM forum.

And now, it's time to counter-review.

1. I should think Ayatane and Lyner being paired together should be a good indicator that this is NOT CANON

LOL being paired as in what, exactly? Please be more specific. They do get being paired in canon. Not romantically, yes, but more to partnership. But, hey, at least they are being paired together in the canon game.

But it's not an excuse. The author of the fic said that s/he will accept corrections as long as they don't contradict the major game plot. Well, the fact that Aurica is NOT Mir's daughter or descendant or whatever doesn't contradict the major game plot, does it? There's a good reason as to why she has the same Hymn Code as Mir. Aurica's route can still exist, according to that fact.

So, why the author doesn't use this canon to correct his/her mistake? Beats me. It's not like it's going to change the whole plot or something. Just deleting the part where Ayatane stated that Aurica is her sister of some sort. What harm can it done?

2. Stripping for power? With no explanation or real reason other than for the graphics guys to show off?

Please read the Settei Book or Toukousphere article. I recall that there is a reason as to why Purging can increase their power. Something about the clothes contains things that block waves, and getting rid of them can make their body receive that wave which makes them stronger... or something.

I'm not quite fond of reading the Technical Center, so yes, the statement above might be different from what's stated by... Saki? Tilia?

Please don't claim things before you know it. It'll be good if you say that you're sorry for not knowing about it after you read this.

Aqua-sama's review might have been receiving a direct response from the author, but I doubt it, because I see that the author continues with his/her own headcanon and not correcting the first chapter, where the mistakes that Aqua-sama pointed out located.

As for my own response to the fic... well, I'm just reading the first chapter, but, feel free to blame me for being so easily affected, I lost my interest after reading Aqua-sama's review. I'm not really fond of a fic that doesn't contain canon stuffs despite not stating that the fic is not canon / an AU / might be OOC, stuffs like that.

I do love the author's theory about a Male Reyvateil can exist and its relation with Platina's people lineage and the Reyvateil and the Guardian's myth, but... well, if the fic really messes around with canon facts, I flat out refuse to read the rest of the chapters.

1 comment:

  1. While I don't know if you're still around to read this, I can only I'm very glad to have seen that you shared my position and that you also agreed with the idea of that fic being a mess.

    Indeed, I got a reply afterwards, but after a couple of messages, the author simply blocked me and deleted all further comments I made because I went on unraveling the little dystopia they made Ar Ciel into with that fic. In fact, this cemented my position of "if a fic author disparages the intentions of the original author and only mocks the worldbuilding they made, their fic only deserves to go to the trash bin regardless of how well-written it was".

    And that's just the tip of the iceberg: the author also included two characters that have no reason at all to be there (Jade from Tales of the Abyss and Unohana from Bleach) if it's supposed to be a retelling of AT1, missed completely the point of Suspend by thinking that it fully shuts down the Tower instead of placing it into sleep mode; saying that Shurelia not being aware of Sol Marta's existence and that the Second Tower being dependent on the First are meaningless and impossible; that Reyvateils shouldn't be alive because the human gestation period clashes with the Reyvateils' average life span; and even making Nenesha and Infel appear after the final battle with Mir when they have no reason at all to be there and it should be impossible before Hibernation was sung. But well, crazies are crazies in the end, I guess.

    In any case, thanks for the support. By the way, I've seen you've also started translating yourself. That makes me quite glad, and I can only wish you success on your endeavor, as well as advise you to never stop studying and learning. I know how difficult translating from Japanese can get! xD

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