Hoâdor. Hoâdor. Hoâdor. Hoâdor. Hodor.
( ; _ ; )
Public Service announcement: If youâre writing a hugely successful story and youâre planning a big reveal about the origin of a name, tell your translators.
The German version can be made to work (Halt das Tor!), but not quite as smoothly as the English one.
I have no idea how to make it work in French. For Japanese and Chinese translators, the job is impossible.
Alternatively if youâre writing a hugely successful story and youâre trying to keep a big secret about the origin of a name, donât tell your translators.
It would have been pretty easy to figure out if his name was changed into a contraction of a particular phrase in each language.
What an awful episode. So, the girl is trudging along into the blizzard pulling Bran on a sled, Mr Mumbles holds the door for like, what, I dunno, 1 minute? 2 minutes? as heâs inevitably torn to shreds by incredibly fast-paced zombie white walkers, and weâre supposed to believe these guys donât easily catch up with and overrun Bran and whatever that girlâs name is. What a dull moment.
I was quite enjoying the podcast but found myself rather taken aback by the rather unexpected remarks against the uncircumcised.
I happen to be in the part of the Austrian audience that prefers the original to the dub, but I just canât bring myself to accept your priorities.
Keeping the big reveal about one characterâs name secret is more important than making it accessible at all to anyone outside your language group?
I actually doubt that. The person figuring it out would need to have near-native command of several of those languages. The phrase would need to be translated literally, and not by using the phrase that best matches the situation in that final scene. If youâre still afraid, have translators make meaningless changes to various other names. The German dub of GoT is a mess anyway as far as the names are concerned.
Interesting thought, but I agree with others below that the big reveal is worth more than the simplifying the translators job. For the Japanese they will just phonetically type the English âhorudo za doaâ in katakana in backets after the Japanese and everyone will get it. Fortunately thereâs not a lot of other dialogue to scrunch it in around.
Why are you assuming subtitles?
There is such a thing as dubbing, and what do you think they do with books?
Subtitles can use explanations instead of translations. Real translations, however, need to work without reference to the original language.
But of course youâre right. The English-speaking audience is the only one that counts, and the rest of the world had better learn English.
Literature would be very boring and simplified if the author would be forced to use only expressions that are translatable into any language without loss of meaning. Imagine the work of Thomas Bernhard without wordplays and metaphors. *shudder*
Of course. All Iâm saying is, if youâre alive and in a position to work with your translators, work with them!
No, theyâd just need access to Google Translate.
No. Just no.
First, someone needs to have the idea that itâs a contraction of a certain phrase and then type that phrase into Google Translate.
Google Translate mostly fails at translating the phrase âhold the doorâ into different languages. Sometimes its the usual Google Translate Gibberish, in German it politely asks you to hold the door open for someone. Think, âHodor, would you please hold the door open for these undead gentlemen?â.
And unless you know the language, you donât have a chance to judge what it contracts to or not.
I said near-native command because the phrase âhold the doorâ wonât be translated literally. Instead, a different phrase that is appropriate to the scene would be used. To guess, youâd need to come up with several of those phrases in different languages and realize that they all fit in the same situation (that you know nothing about), and that they each contract to the name of one of several characters whose names have been changed between different translations.
Of course, once someone had the idea that the name is a contraction of a certain phrase, speakers of different languages can collaborate to verify the theory. But even if that rumor was around, do you really know anything? Is there anything that is really spoiled?
Bran is awful.
In fact, now that theyâve added time travel, might as well go all in or go home, right?
New Theory: Bran is responsible for every bad thing thatâs ever happened. Next he goes back in time and drives Aegon crazy (Luckily Jamie killed him before his repeated âBurn them Allâ resulted in him being âMad King Ballâ).
But thatâs just the beginning. Game of Thrones is taking place on the ruins of the forest moon of Endor in the present day. The children of the forest are Ewoks/Muder-Bears. Branâs also responsible for the destruction of that galaxy because he kept meddling like an idiot.
Also: Bran is Snoke.
That has been a theory for quite a while.
I really hope GRRM doesnât overuse the time travel. To borrow a simile from the books, time travel is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to write it.
Prediction: This will be the point in the show when the book character âColdhandsâ (who is strongly hinted to be a benevolent, undead Benjen Stark) finally shows up to the rescue and whisks them to safety just in time.
ETA: CALLED IT.
Regarding your spoiler: GRRM specifically ruled that one out when asked by his editor. Of course we might still meet either of those characters separately.
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