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*furtively looks around* *in a whisper* The traditional Chinese outfits in these things are kinda samey and boring.
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Mar 22, 2018 10:53
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Megazver posted:*furtively looks around* agreed in fact it's pretty damned annoying how, once someone ascends in stories like that, it turns out not just the starting planet but literally the entire universe (and eventually multiverse) are basically the same damned culture
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Mar 22, 2018 11:09
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Chinese machine translation tends to be a hell of a lot nicer to read than Japanese in the first place and sentences are generally structured a lot closer to English sentences. So you can polish up Chinese into something semi-readable with much less effort than a Japanese MTL which pretty much involves reading a sentence, guessing what the gently caress it meant and working around all the blobs that didn't get translated and then rewriting the entire sentence as your best guess. Which is probably why you have the site lnmtl only does chinese stories it scrapes of qidian etc. Although vastly inferior to an actual translation, the MTL + crowd-sourced dictionary/vocabulary for each story system it uses can spit out some pretty readable text. Regardless, Chinese stories, even with good translations still have a very distinct writing style, just as Japanese stories normally do. Translators really have to go the extra mile to make it sound natural in English (which is one reason why dubs can sound weird/wrong - people often just don't speak or phrase things like that). Shanakin fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 13:08
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Shanakin posted:
It can't be helped.
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Mar 22, 2018 15:11
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Are you talking about "that" person?
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Mar 22, 2018 15:29
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SerSpook posted:agreed hey, sometimes there are barbarians, which are treated like a different, non-human species despite being slightly less chinese humans.
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Mar 22, 2018 18:23
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also i got caught up with 40k of cultivation and i like how the mc hooked up with the swole musclehead woman with whom he got along well and shared many interests with instead of a generic fairy type. i still don't think it's very good overall, but it has a lot of good points.
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Mar 22, 2018 18:26
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For Bookworm/Honzuki readers, I got bored and made a playlist showing the how-tos for everything Maine's invented or encountered up to where I've read (currently 158). A lot of these are videos that helped me understand what the hell she was trying to accomplish, but for completion's sake I also included stuff like pancakes. If I missed anything, please remind me. I couldn't find videos for clay tablets and I can't be assed to find a video for how to make loving chopsticks. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOclVqhowNnUz-03DQRlinpp9G8RX-2Z7 Very annoyingly, I spent 10 minutes typing up annotations for where each video applies, only to find out said notes are visible only to myself. 
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Mar 22, 2018 18:49
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SerSpook posted:I feel completely the opposite when it comes to translations. I've read a lot of both (something I am sad to admit) and it really feels like most of the translations of Chinese novels are far better as far as readability goes. Japanese fan translations I've read often feels like something that has been run through a machine translation or done by somebody with a poor grasp of English. I'm definitely biased in terms of Japanese because I know a considerable amount (probably could be considered "semi-fluent" in terms of grammar/vocabulary even though my kanji is pretty garbage), and this makes poor/overly literal Japanese translations easier for me to deal with because I can sort of infer what's going on in the source material (and certain commonly said things, like the aforementioned "it can't be helped," probably feel less goofy as a result). But this doesn't really explain why I have an easier time with translated Korean stuff, since I don't know any Korean. I think part of it might not be a translation thing so much as something related to the general "tempo" of conversations/prose, if that makes sense. A good example might be this portion of a passage quoted on the last page of this thread: quote:"Which model do you want, mister?" I can't help but imagine everything like some goofy low budget movie with hammy acting. And that isn't always a bad thing - I feel like the humor in My Disciple Died Yet Again works really well because it's sorta self-aware of the goofiness of everything and the protagonist perceives things in that light, but it's hard for me to read really long cultivation stories that play things straight (not necessarily the one I quoted, but I've seen similar things when I tried to read other popular cultivation stories).
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Mar 22, 2018 20:07
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Yeah its the sentence structure being really abrupt with no flow that seems a hallmark of chinese -> english translation, even in the better translated stuff. Especially character interactions. Info-dumps can be alright, like some of the earlier chapters of 40K.
lurksion fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 21:50
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SerSpook posted:agreed don't forget all cultivators looking exactly the same and not in a racist way, i mean they literally all look exactly the same and just have different brands of long black hair
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Mar 22, 2018 22:39
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Yinlock posted:don't forget all cultivators looking exactly the same hey, sometimes the mc has a fat guy named fatty as his lackey. note: every fat guy named fatty is the exact same character.
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Mar 22, 2018 23:48
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is there a meta-story about the fatty and his inter-dimensional shenanigans yet
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Mar 22, 2018 23:57
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Ytlaya posted:I'm definitely biased in terms of Japanese because I know a considerable amount (probably could be considered "semi-fluent" in terms of grammar/vocabulary even though my kanji is pretty garbage), and this makes poor/overly literal Japanese translations easier for me to deal with because I can sort of infer what's going on in the source material (and certain commonly said things, like the aforementioned "it can't be helped," probably feel less goofy as a result). But this doesn't really explain why I have an easier time with translated Korean stuff, since I don't know any Korean. I mean, I also think Korean stories tend to have far better translations, fan ones at least, than Japanese ones. But yeah, Chinese stuff often has a tone that can be akin to an old lovely martial arts movie which is part of why I like it.
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Mar 23, 2018 04:40
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I'd been avoiding The Death Mage Doesn't Want a Fourth Time for a long time because the premise sounded a bit messy, but once I got into it I couldn't stop for a good two weeks. It's nice to see one of these generic fantasyland novels actually have some worldbuilding in it, and it's gone in some directions I didn't really anticipate.
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Mar 23, 2018 11:28
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Yeah that one was actually pretty interesting. It still falls into a lot of the same tropes of the genre but its taken the story in a fairly different direction and it was kind of neat how he was slowly becoming a necromantic Cthulhoid elder god.
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Mar 23, 2018 12:31
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I love how the horror elements of that story are always described in the most basic, nonchalant way. There are some chapters that might as well be from a slice of life anime set in some ancient nightmare. The contrast is pretty funny.
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Mar 23, 2018 13:38
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Enjoying something because libs got triggered (or conservatives in this case, but it seems like conservatives are the ones reveling in it so much that 'lib triggering' is my go to phrase) is a dark path that ends with you humiliating yourself by wearing diapers on a college campus.
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Mar 23, 2018 21:16
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Meme Emulator posted:Enjoying something because libs got triggered (or conservatives in this case, but it seems like conservatives are the ones reveling in it so much that 'lib triggering' is my go to phrase) is a dark path that ends with you humiliating yourself by wearing diapers on a college campus. uh, wrong thread i think?
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Mar 23, 2018 21:30
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My triggered lib ended up in another world with cheat powers
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Mar 23, 2018 21:34
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the libs were so triggered that blood sprayed from their seven apertures and they fell like puppets with cut strings.
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Mar 23, 2018 21:36
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i have finally mastered the grand dao of triggering libs
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Mar 23, 2018 21:47
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i snorted and slapped my bag of holding, and a magical treasure flew out of it to trigger libs
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Mar 23, 2018 21:59
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something something daoistgate
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Mar 23, 2018 22:13
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Meme Emulator posted:Enjoying something because libs got triggered (or conservatives in this case, but it seems like conservatives are the ones reveling in it so much that 'lib triggering' is my go to phrase) is a dark path that ends with you humiliating yourself by wearing diapers on a college campus. 
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Mar 23, 2018 22:18
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SerSpook posted:agreed I like how the Cradle books avoid this. The enormous continent where most of the story takes places is mostly East Asian culturally, and of course all focused on strength and so forth, but not only do other continents with other cultures and ethnicities exist, the world is part of a multiverse full of other fantasy worlds that are neither xianxia nor medieval-European.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:26
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what is a cultivator
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Mar 24, 2018 02:42
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Stairmaster posted:what is a cultivator kung-fu wizard trying to become immortal, 99% sociopathic assholes
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Mar 24, 2018 02:48
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Stairmaster posted:what is a cultivator From the last time I explained what Xianxia was Piell posted:Meditate/eat magic pills to level up your chi and learn magic powers and become stronger/more immortal. Has very defined levels and ranks. Everyone is impossibly arrogant and an rear end in a top hat towards the PC who is generally just as much as an rear end in a top hat who is presented as nevertheless in the right to murder them all over the place. The protagonist has some cheat item or ability that makes them level much faster and stomps all the people who were jerks to them in the past, then this continues every time they level up. Fights are incredibly boring descriptions of how they wave their hands to summon mountains to crush the other guy who is knocked back a dozen paces and coughs up a mouthful of blood, then the second guy waves their hands to summon the Immortal Binding Golden Sky Tyrant Dragon Strike to throw lightning at the first guy. Meanwhile whatever one of the non-entity future harem members is around exclaims how amazing the protagonist is.
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Mar 24, 2018 02:50
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Piell posted:From the last time I explained what Xianxia was the PC is generally more of an rear end in a top hat and just annihilates thousands of people for getting dirt on his shoes this is portrayed as impressive and heroic, naturally
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Mar 24, 2018 05:52
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I think the best part is how the path of cultivation is about breaking the limits of the world and surmounting mortality, and yet every single loving person we meet will be completely shocked that all conflict isn't a math equation that perfectly works out every single time. How can this person that hasn't even completed Core Formation defeat this Nascent Soul cultivator? I don't know jackass, maybe he used magic powers? Did you consider that? Maybe he's like one of the 15 other chosen you've probably mentioned up to this point and he has some ridiculous magic power and that's how he's handing you your rear end. No, this is impossible, because in the path to overcoming the limits of the human body nobody can actually overcome the limits of the human body because caste system. And also we have no sense of time or memory, so when this character spends the next 500 years doing nothing but beating people stronger than him I will be completely shocked when it's my turn to taste the curb. Because the thing he's been doing for half the length of my life is completely impossible and never happens, except for all the times I've been told to my face it's happening.
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Mar 24, 2018 07:38
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Mulva posted:I think the best part is how the path of cultivation is about breaking the limits of the world and surmounting mortality, and yet every single loving person we meet will be completely shocked that all conflict isn't a math equation that perfectly works out every single time. How can this person that hasn't even completed Core Formation defeat this Nascent Soul cultivator? I don't know jackass, maybe he used magic powers? Did you consider that? Maybe he's like one of the 15 other chosen you've probably mentioned up to this point and he has some ridiculous magic power and that's how he's handing you your rear end. Cultivation Chat Group plays with this as the protagonist has a couple decent one-use items and bluffs his rear end off with them, making his opponents think he's actually a mysterious genius expert and not a mid-tier dude just starting out and sometimes people recognize how weak he is but also note that he probably has a reason to be confident so they become cautious man ccg is good e: though i'd love a xianxia novel that had the same tone as that post "what's that rear end in a top hat from the blood fang sect doing" "i dunno he's probably casting some stupid magic spell or whatever, who knows with this loving place" Yinlock fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Mar 24, 2018 |
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Mar 24, 2018 07:53
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Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao is a transmigration novel about a woman forced to act as a puppet emperor, involving court intrigue, romance, and the occasional dumb superpower. At least that's what you might think, but it's actually about a woman relentlessly bullying her evil grandfather, and fully leverages the power structure of imperial authority for comedy. It beautifully captures the absolute shamelessness that makes the leads of AWE and ISSTH funny. Tickles my funny bone very well but is popcorn at best otherwise.
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Mar 24, 2018 11:40
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let me guess, the love interest is royalty, impossibly pretty and disturbingly possessive and controlling?
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Mar 24, 2018 16:23
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:let me guess, the love interest is royalty, impossibly pretty and disturbingly possessive and controlling? how did he know the core of my millennia old legacy technique?!
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Mar 24, 2018 18:13
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:let me guess, the love interest is royalty, impossibly pretty and disturbingly possessive and controlling? no, just a little, no on that last point it loving weirds me out sometimes how far that can go with the readers/characters still being totally cool with it
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Mar 24, 2018 18:34
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Herbotron posted:no, just a little, no cool, i'll have to check it out then. i'm not opposed to reading trashy wn's about some cool lady who reincarnates and starts kicking rear end, but those creepy loving love interests are ubiquitous in the genre. i guess that's the romantic ideal for the target audience?
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Mar 24, 2018 18:40
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:cool, i'll have to check it out then. i'm not opposed to reading trashy wn's about some cool lady who reincarnates and starts kicking rear end, but those creepy loving love interests are ubiquitous in the genre. i guess that's the romantic ideal for the target audience? whats especially hosed up is how out-and-out abusive relationships are ubiquitous in a genre that is supposedly a female power fantasy. I understand in theory that it's a sign of how "madly in love" the male lead is but it often goes way too far and is never depicted as a bad thing.
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Mar 24, 2018 19:45
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Herbotron posted:whats especially hosed up is how out-and-out abusive relationships are ubiquitous in a genre that is supposedly a female power fantasy. I understand in theory that it's a sign of how "madly in love" the male lead is but it often goes way too far and is never depicted as a bad thing. I think it's just a fetish sorta thing, sorta like how some people have a "rape fetish" but obviously don't actually want to be raped.
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Mar 24, 2018 20:01
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Ytlaya posted:I think it's just a fetish sorta thing, sorta like how some people have a "rape fetish" but obviously don't actually want to be raped. That's probably true at least sometimes but I can't overstate just how common it is in this genre, any other relationship dynamic is the exception to the rule. There is certainly a wide range in severity, at least. I actually think there is a lot that can be said here about societies depiction of abusive/toxic relationships and how even women perpetuate/romanticize that stuff but I'm far from being an expert so all I can say is it squicks me out.
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Mar 24, 2018 20:38
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