skyward sonnet

My winter break is almost over, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching, reading, and playing a lot of stuff! I've taken the chance to start things I've been meaning to start for a while now, and I figured I could write an entry talking about all of them. Aside from The Breakfast Club, which I talked about in my previous entry, here's a log of everything!

Videogames

Undertale

It's been a dream of mine to play this game almost ever since it came out. I watched a gameplay years ago, but it'd been so long that I didn't remember anything. I bought Undertale some time ago when it was on sale, and I finally started it! I wish I'd been able to finish it before having to study for my upcoming finals, but I'm at the final boss fight right now, so at least I know I'm near the end of my first Undertale experience. I've really enjoyed everything so far, and even though my only knowledge of the game were some BGM tracks, hearing them in-game has made me feel like it was my first time listening to them. My only complaint is that the fights are too hard and that you can't re-start the fight at whichever point you died when you get a Game Over, which is probably the standard for games like these, but I haven't played that many games that weren't VNs before, so it was a big deal at first. I think I'm getting the hang of it now, though! I can't wait to see how it ends. Everyone I know has told me the ending made them cry, so I'm scared but excited at the same time.

1bitHeart (Chapters 1&2)

Much like Undertale, I've known about 1bitHeart for a long time, but I never got the chance to play it. Recently, though, I saw it was on sale for 1 euro, and I wasn't planning on getting it immediately, but my partner saw it and told me to get it instead of waiting LOL. I really like what I've played so far, though it seems a bit more simple than what I originally expected. That being said, I'm having a lot of fun making friends around town (though the horror mini-game in Misato's event creeped me out). It makes me a bit sad to like some NPCs so much, since I don't think they'll be too relevant later on, but that's fine by me. I like the logic aspect, too, as it reminds me of Ace Attorney. I've been playing very casually, so I have no idea when I'll finish it, but since the storyline isn't too complex, I trust I can play it during finals season still.

Animanga

Kieta Hatsukoi

A manga I've started many times before in the past. It was about time I finally read it! It was shorter than I expected, but it was very sweet and not too fast-paced, which is a blessing to me, since many romance manga tend to be too fast for me. I like that the characters took their time to know each other properly! Overall, very nice manga and very easy to read. I loved Ida's character the most; I don't think it was intentional, but he definitely read as arospec to me and I love that, since it's not often that you get to see a character like that in a BL (this is why I like Hirano from Hirano and Kagiura so much).

The Apothecary Diaries: Season 2

I finished Season 1 a while ago, but I hadn't had the chance to watch S2 properly until now. At first, I thought it was a bit lacking, since some episodes would bring up really interesting stuff/hint at possible future plots, only for that to be abandoned with the following episode. However, the last half of the season absolutely blew my mind. Shisui became my favourite immediately after I finished watching, I can't even begin to explain how much I loved her story. There are so many other details that I'm sure will be explored next, too, and I don't know if I'll be able to wait until October for the third season to air. I might read the manga or the novels before then, though with how much stuff is releasing this year, I might not be able to, lol. Either way, it's definitely become one of my favourites now.

Other media projects

Fragaria Memories: Lost Kitty Arc

The first part of the Lost Kitty arc is almost over, huh... Today's episode made me think a lot. I'm glad Sanah is finally back (or so I hope, though with how much Rimicha cried, it'd be cruel to make him go back to his Seeds-inflicted state again), but I have so many questions still... We still don't know which Lords from the Noir Continent were part of the original legendary bouquet, though my bet is on Hangyodon because Hangyon's definitely hiding something, and maybe Pochacco as well, since we haven't seen much of Chaco's true nature just yet. Puruth at the end of this very episode was very suspicious, too. What does he know that we don't!?

I'm really enjoying Fragaria Memories as a whole, honestly, but I am a little concerned about how they're treating Noir Bouquet. I hope they can move on from just being comic relief sometime soon. In general, I think the story's a bit unbalanced so far and is way too focused on Red Bouquet and Cielo/Will/Kurode. I thought the twins were going to get some more focus at the start of this arc, but it's been several episodes without them... To be fair, though, it is a very new project, so hopefully they'll balance it out sooner than later. I'm also curious to see what they'll do for the mobile game. People were discussing whether or not it'll be a gacha game, but personally, I'm more curious about whether or not the game's story will follow the audio drama's or if it'll be a completely new thing. Time shall tell!

Twisted Wonderland (Books 1&2)

Okay, technically, I didn't read Book 1, I watched the anime adaptation, which is an adaptation of the manga, but from what people have told me, the manga is pretty faithful to the original story. I loved Riddle, even if I already knew most of his story. Savanaclaw wasn't as interesting to me, though, since the character that stood out to me the most was Jack and not Leona, the dorm leader and obviously the focus for Book 2. I'm now about a third into Book 3, and I like it so far. I like Azul. I haven't been reading these past few days, but hopefully I won't abandon it again and at least finish the Main Story now that it's all finished... or so I think? I've known about this project for a while, but they're very slow in releasing the story, so I'm not entirely sure.

...And that's it for now! I want to watch some other anime next, since all the anime on my watchlist hasn't released yet. I had my eye on Paradise Kiss, but I think I should ask around and see if it's a good adaptation of the manga. If it's not, I'll go back to some of the many anime I've started but abandoned over the years and simply watch them from the very beginning again. I'll probably start with Houseki no Kuni if I do this, since I watched half of it in one sitting in 2018 and just... never continued, for some reason?

It sure has been a while now!!

Hello again, everyone! I'm not sure of how active everyone is these days, but I do miss writing here a lot, even if I never wrote a lot in the first place... I had plans to talk about my first year of university by the time I was done with finals, but despite how well my exams went, I completely forgot to keep writing it, and it's been sitting on my drafts ever since then. I did want to come back eventually though, and I've just managed to find something to talk about!

As both a Classics student and a theatre fan, I've known about Epic: The Musical for a while. I think it's pretty popular by now, but to give a brief explanation of what it's about, it's a concept musical (that's to say, there's no stage production of it; the musical consists of several music albums alone) based on the Odyssey. As surprising as it might be, I hadn't listened to it until recently... but I finally did! And I have to say it's really, really good. As a musical, specifically, I think it's stellar. I love the leitmotifs and the callbacks to previous songs, and I think the voice actors all did amazing. 

However, I worry what the general public's idea of it might be. Not because I don't think anyone should criticise it (it has its weak points too), but because I fear people will take it as a direct adaptation of the Odyssey and end up blorbofying the characters, which... well, no. If you want to get to know the Odyssey, your best bet's to read it yourself, not listen to a musical. On the other hand, I've seen classicists criticise it way too harshly, and I think referring to it as “a TikTok musical” is going too far and kind of rude to the insane work that must've gone behind its production. It's not an equivalent of the poem itself, and that's... fine. People are allowed to make things that are based on other things, and the Odyssey in particular is so well-known and old that I feel like it's just a direct consequence of its existence, lol. 

I do think it's sad how it skipped certain plot points that are fundamental to the story (Nausicaa's not even there, how!?), and I don't like the interpretation of some characters/points (like the lotus eaters, for example; I feel like they're treated as these silly creatures when they're really not?), but on the other hand it brings some stuff to the table that I really like. So it's just a matter of preferences in the end, really, and my conclusion is that people should do whatever they want as long as they think twice about what they're listening to. When you listen to Epic, you have to keep in mind that it's a modern musical based on an epic poem from ages ago, and that of course there are limitations to the musical format. It has 40 songs in total, but even then there's some stuff you have to prioritise or skip, and I understand that.

Unfortunately, I'm sure there are people who've listened to it and taken it as “Well, I've basically read the Odyssey now!”, which is sad, but ultimately inevitable, I fear. I've been in fandom for so long that when I see people like that, I just move on. I do have to say though, IDK how comprehensible the entire thing is to someone who doesn't at least know the basic idea of the original poem, because I've known about it for so long that I just assume some things are common knowledge, lol.  Musically though, it's great!! I think everyone who likes musicals and mythology should give it a listen, even if it's just for the tunes. Just know that it's not a direct adaptation of the original thing, and you're fine, I think.

Past the musical thing, I have been reading the Odyssey myself. I'd read a few adapted versions in middle school, but now I'm reading a more direct translation rather than a short version of it. And I'm not just reading it, I'm also translating it for class! We worked on the Iliad for a few weeks too, but I think I'm enjoying translating the Odyssey more. I feel like I have to clarify that I'm not translating the entire thing, we're working on some specific sections! It's really fun though, and Homer (...whoever that was, if he even existed at all, lol. The Homeric Question is a topic for another day, and I could genuinely make an entire post about it one day, but I fear it'd sound way too academic!) has a way of explaining things that's really beautiful. Working on the original text makes reading a translation all the more worth it, because I can tell what the original text says and how poetic it all is. I jokingly complain about this to my friends a lot, but I love how many words he uses to refer to the sea. 

Overall, I'm really enjoying this chapter of my academic life where half of my classes are just... the Iliad and the Odyssey, lol. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes, that's true; but man, I understand why everyone's so crazy about Homer now. I've also been working on the Aeneid, but I fear I'm not going to enjoy the current part we're translating right now as much; so far it's just been Dido and her love for Aeneas, and I'm not a fan of reading about romance, much less translating it, but I'll live, haha. 

...On the topic of romantic love, though, that's what I've been meaning to talk about as well, so maybe I'll finally lock in and write a long post about my aromanticism soon, which is something I've wanted to do for a while now. Hopefully that will be actually soon and not in another five months. Also, I've added yet another HSR icon to my roster even though I still don't play the story nor know what goes on in there; I DO know that Amphoreus is basically Ancient Greece though, and I think it's funny as hell that this guy's name is just. Anaxagoras. So I made him my icon accordingly, because what better way to return to my blog than to be a nerd in every way possible?

Until next time!

I didn't want April to end without me making a post about this, but I ended up forgetting about it... Either way, April's Autism Awareness Month, and one thing about me is I am very much autistic, and not ashamed of it. I've known for a few years now, and even if it took me a bit to accept it, projecting onto my favourite characters was something that helped me a lot with coming to terms with it. Being autistic is just part of who I am, and even if it brings me some real headaches sometimes, I wouldn't want to be any other way.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen anything about the month at all. I'm not the most active person in social media, I mostly use it to keep up with friends and whatever franchises I like as well as look at fanart, but it was still shocking. Thus, in (late) celebration of this month, I wanted to highlight a few characters out of the many that I personally view as autistic!

Hina Hikawa - BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!

Hina is a character I met a long time ago. I started playing Bandori when I was really young, and I think knowing Hina genuinely helped me understand a part of myself very closely related to my autism, and she was also the first character I remember seeing someone HC as autistic. I remember Hina was one of the characters I immediately liked - I was just naturally drawn to her personality and views on the world! She resonated with me heavily from day one. It was my first time seeing a ''genius'' type character with her personality.

For those unfamiliar with Bandori, Hina is a carefree girl with a natural talent for almost everything, as well as an impeccable memory. There's one thing she's not talented at, though; and that's understanding others' emotions. This combined with her cheerful personality causes her to be unintentionally rude to others sometimes, even though she's just being honest. This kind of honesty and natural genius really spoke to me. It's not something I like to think about too much, but much like Hina, I am also considered a ''genius'' and I'm not great at understanding people's emotions, either (though I like to think I've been learning lately). Hina's story arc is also very much about being yourself, even if that means no one else gets you. Because, well, what does it matter if not everyone understands you, as long as you're happy?

The entirety of the Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku cast

I know that sounds like a joke, but bear with me! MahoYaku is set in a world where humans and wizards are fundamentally different, and wizards are hated for simply being wizards. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for many different things. Some of my friends have compared it to being in the LGBT+ community, and as someone who's part of it, I agree - but to me, it's always been more of an autistic metaphor.

Obviously, as the cast is made up of 21 characters, there are some I relate to more than others. For example, the Central Wizards' stubborn nature; Shino's blunt to a fault behaviour; Chloe's love for his favourite activity... And I could go on. I could even make one post just about them! But at the end of the day, one thing is clear: every wizard is different from each other, but they still have something in common. To me, this is comparable to the Autism Spectrum. Every autistic person is different, but that doesn't make any of us less autistic. I think MahoYaku always does a great job at showing what a group of seemingly unrelated people can have in common no matter how you read it, though.

MahoYaku also played a crucial part in my autism acceptance journey. I don't think I would be where I am now in regards to accepting that side of me if I hadn't known them.

Rui Kamishiro - Project Sekai

I think, by now, one can easily notice a pattern here. Rui is another character who's deemed a genius, much like Hina - but there's something in which he deviates from her, and it's his attitude towards the world seeing him as weird. Most of his conflict comes from not being sure if his friends will accept him, as he's been left behind before in the past just for being himself. He's been very misunderstood, and even though he embraces his oddball personality because it's simply who he is, the way he was treated before still comes back to haunt him at times. I believe that's a realistic part of being autistic, too. I am someone who doesn't really care what others think, but even then it doesn't mean it doesn't suck when I remember that some people have rejected me just because I like things very strongly or talk a certain way.

But at the end of the day it's their loss and not mine. This is something Rui's story helps me remember, and to quote his own mother (who I'm sure is also autistic, as well as his dad, but that's a conversation for another day LOL): ''People are people, and you are you''. This quote means a lot to me even now.

Tamaki Yotsuba - IDOLiSH7

I could choose many more characters, but I decided to include up to 4 characters, since I didn't want to say the same thing for everyone, LOL. Unlike Hina or Rui, Tamaki is generally seen more as an ''idiot'', but he's actually really emotionally intelligent. The one thing he struggles with the most is understanding others, too, but he has more of a temper than the other characters I mentioned before. Tamaki is shown to get frustrated when people don't mean what they say, and oh man, do I understand that.

This is the main source of conflict with his teammate Sougo, who honestly I think is autistic too, but very different from Tamaki. Sougo tends to hide what he really feels and avoids doing what he likes, as he's been looked down on for that before, but he also thinks things through a lot more than Tamaki does. Their development is very dear to me and I love seeing how much they've grown thanks to the other.

Also, Tamaki definitely has a special interest: King Pudding, the mascot for his favourite pudding, which is also definitely his comfort food. He is one of those characters I just can't see as anything but definitely on the spectrum!

There are so many more characters I could talk about, from many Genshin characters (Alhaitham, Cyno, Tighnari, and more come to mind, but I'd have to sit down and make a complete list because the cast is so big!) to characters from books I used to read as a kid. These are just a few of the many that have helped me further understand myself and those around me. Being autistic really impacts how I see the world and myself, but that's fine! I really wouldn't have it any other way. I hope every autistic person can truly love themselves as they are, no matter what those around them might say.

Hello everyone, it's been a while! I got busy with finals and then I simply didn't know what to post about... I'm still working out that one Wanderer and Ei post in my mind. Unfortunately I have classes again as well as some other stuff to do, so I haven't been playing that much Genshin.

That being said, I did play through the whole Lantern Rite! And finished the story about 2 hours before the event ended. Thankfully, I had half of it already done so I didn't have to rush it, and oh man I have a lot of thoughts about it. This was my first Lantern Rite, so obviously I was very excited to see everything - the characters in the overworld, the minigames, the story itself... I had a lot of fun overall! I bought myself some Lanterns as well. They're very pretty.

But obviously, what I have the most to say about is the event story quest. I've always liked Hu Tao, but I have to admit I haven't played her mission or anything so... it's not like I stopped liking her, but she kind of ''fell off my list'' in favour of other characters. However, this event definitely resparked my interest in her character. I'm glad I chose to finish the story, I think it really shows what kind of person she is and well, it's exactly my type of character LOL. Maybe not completely, but it's safe to say she's shot up in my character favourites list. Not so far as to consider her my Pyro fave though, that spot is reserved for Lyney!

Aside from that I thought the story was nice, but there was one thing I wish they'd done more with, and that's Lan Yan's character. I know that what sells, sells; money talks and whatnot, but I was so ready for Lan Yan to be behind some kind of conspiracy or... not necessarily evil thing, just not completely good? With all the figurines scattered around I was so sure that was the route they were going to take, and even though I liked her I was hoping for her to have some sort of twist like that. Not really a nitpick, just something I would've enjoyed more. I understand that making ''evil'' characters can be a dangerous move taking money into account, but idk man, I like variety.

Anyway! Overall it was a cool event, and as I said earlier this was my first Lantern Rite so I was very excited to see what it was all about. I finally got Xingqiu's C1 because he simply refuses to pull up to my account normally. I loved the minigames too, including the battle one which is surprising because I usually get my ass beat at those, but I actually thrived in this one!? My favourite one was the Electrocharged stage.

And speaking of Electro... I reached my first 100k damage with Raiden a few days ago! It's so, so cool to have finally reached that number, even if it was with my friend's supports' help. I'm very happy about it, can't wait to reach that number again!!

There's one thing I also can't wait for, and it's VENTI'S RERUN. In my entry last month I mentioned I still had to look at the 5.4 banners to see who I wanted, and I think it's safe to say I'm skipping this version too, lol. I haven't really pulled since Nahida in October, aside from one 10-pull on Hu Tao's banner and like, two wishes for Shenhe. I almost have enough for a guaranteed Venti, too (and that's not taking my pity count into account! If we combine both that and my wishes, I definitely have him guaranteed already). I don't mind not pulling because, well, I only pull for characters I like (that's the point of the game!), but I want to have him already.

And that's it for now, I think! Hopefully I'll be back to posting regularly. Life has been very good to me lately, but I've been so busy (with good things, thankfully!) that I almost completely forgot I had a blog. Now I'm getting busy with uni again, but I trust I'll still have some time to write every now and then. There's so much I want to write about.

Until next time!

So! Today I finally read more Project Sekai event stories!! It's a game I've been into since way before its Japanese release, but sadly I haven't read that many stories. At first it was because the only translation available was in video format, and I'm a very fast reader with an atrocious attention span so I had to set the videos in x2 speed when I actually wanted to read anything, which was just very annoying (and as bad as my ADHD might get, I don't like watching videos at a higher speed than normal). Then the English release of the game happened and after some time I finally downloaded it, but then I got too lazy to read aaaand yeah, I'm SUPER behind when it comes to this game. That being said, it's still one of my favourite mobile games, specially in terms of writing. I've never had any major issues with its writing or handling of themes, characters, etc; which is surprising because I've been disappointed by similar games way too often in one aspect or another.

Anyways, even though I only read two event stories, I enjoyed both of them a lot and I'm very glad I spent my time reading them. The first one was Carnation Recollection (Kanade's first focus event); I read Mesmerized by Mermaids (Nene's second focus event) afterwards. They once again reminded me of how good the writing is in this game while still being quite accessible to anyone. You don't need to analyse every single dialogue to understand the characters, even if you don't relate to their experience that much. This was the case with Kanade in her event for me; she's not a character I relate to, but the way she was written in this event made it really easy to comprehend what was going on and why she felt that way. 

Hopefully I'll be able to keep reading stories so I can catch up soon. I'm years behind the event stories, but Project Sekai is a game that I know never disappoints me. There's also some other stuff I want to read though, so here's to hoping I'll be able to balance everything!

I've played a lot of Genshin today since I finally decided to enter Enkanomiya, and man, it's been really fun so far. The puzzles during the quest at Watatsumi were surprisingly normal considering it's an Inazuma quest, and so far Enkanomiya has been the same.

I'm really enjoying the ominous atmopshere, but what I'm most interested in is, obviously, the lore. There's definitely something going on down there and I'm determined to find out what it is, lol. Also I know one of the Enkanomiya soundtracks is called ''something something Lethe'' (I found it by accident one day while studying a few months ago) and that's... concerning, to say the least! But that only makes it all the more interesting. I also really like the music, though I've only heard two tracks so far, one being the battle theme (or one of them? I assume there might be more in the future, idk) which is so good. I keep fighting random Hilichurls just to hear it again and again.

Regarding the quest, I have to say that I do not trust this Enjou guy at all! Where did he come from and why is he expecting me to do all the work for him if it's that important, huh? Something about him is off but I don't know what it is exactly. I have a feeling he's more than a scholar. After the Escher revelation I don't trust anyone in this game lol.

I'm super excited to keep playing the quest and I was going to play more (even though I definitely shouldn't have anyway because, like I said, I already played a lot today), but unfortunately my game crashed in the middle of some Enjou dialogue. It's not the first time that it's happened and I know that my laptop isn't the best for graphics-heavy games like Genshin, but man, I don't even have shadows, how is this lagging... I enjoyed my time there though, hopefully I'll be back there soon.

Enkanomiya aside I also ascended Furina today, but I couldn't get her to level 90 because I don't have enough EXP books yet. I also got to either 119 or 120 wishes, so that's great! I'll definitely have 180 by the time Venti reruns.

Last but not least, I wanted to post this picture I took of Ei standing before the Sangonomiya Shrine as I was playing this morning. I thought it was really pretty so I figured I'd share it!

This is a post I've been wanting to make for some time now and that I will most likely come back to in the future. The more I see, the more I feel the need to talk about... Genshin's use of Latin.

I am well aware that using Latin (and sometimes Ancient Greek too) really adds to a fantasy setting to the public eye. It's recognisable enough that people know something is in Latin, but not well-known to an extent most people will understand what it's saying at first glance because, well, who even speaks Latin? (And as a quick disclaimer, I do not speak Latin per se, but I do know enough to be like... well, that's not how this language works.) As beautiful as it is, it's not something many people study.

And that's how you end up with cases like Genshin's, where you get things that sound really cool until you read them twice, which is exactly what happened to me some time ago and why I wanted to talk about this topic. I'll be mostly focusing on the constellations but I'll also mention a few other things I noticed. This isn't meant as a big ''actually, none of you people have any idea about this''; I just want to explain what things are wrong and why. I understand that game developers aren't going to study Latin for years just to write one or two words about a character that not many people will pay attention to because, really, it's not like the constellation names are relevant in any way to the gameplay experience. Unless you're me lol.



On Constellations

To begin with, I have to say that although I've had my eye on this topic for a while now, I hadn't thought about the constellations names possibly being different in Chinese. I don't know Chinese, so I had to take the translations available in the Genshin Wiki as reference, but it really shocks me how much they changed some of them (and it's not just the English version that did this! I'll elaborate on this later.). For example, some of the constellations that refer to specific species of animals are completely different depending on the language. Take Mualani, whose constellation in Latin refers to a species of seal that isn't the same as the one in Chinese. I genuinely do not understand how this happened; if there's a logical explanation for this, someone please enlighten me in the comments.

There's also some cases where I think the adaptation is cool, but definitely gets lost in... not translation, but lost in ignorance, maybe? In the sense that they make sense, but are referencing things that probably aren't common knowledge and it makes me sad how most people will probably miss the reference. Such is the case with Alhaitham's constellation, Vultur Volans, which literally means ''Flying Vulture'', but was the name the Romans used to refer to Aquila, a real constellation in the night sky. Aquila means ''Eagle'', and the CN name for Alhaitham's constellation is, according to the wiki, ''Sky Falcon''. So it's clear what they were trying to convey there. It's such a cool detail, but sadly it's not something most people will catch. I do have to say that this specific case is explained in the Wiki page for his constellation, but still.

Then there are instances that are just like... that's not even Latin lol. Mona's constellation, Astrolabos, is Ancient Greek for ''astrolabe''; Eula's Aphros Delos is also in Greek; and some of them mix both Latin and Ancient Greek which is something that kind of bothers me but that's because I'm a nerd. Take Furina's Animula Choragi, which the Wiki translates as ''Little Soul of the Choregos'', a choregos being a term used to refer to someone who, put simply, leads a choir. This is something the Russian version of Genshin simplified as ''Kapellmeister'', a German word that I feel is much more explanatory than Animula Choragi.

Despite how complicated this name might sound, at least they used the Latin word derived from the Greek one, and taking declension into account, Animula Choragi perfectly translates to ''Little Soul of the Choregos'' — Animula is in Nominative and Choragi is in Genitive. As they should be. I'm not going to explain declension in detail right now but, well, that means they definitely kept this in mind with every constellation, right? ...Right?

Yeah, no, it's been months and I'm STILL confused about why Beidou's constellation is Victor Mare when it should be Victor Maris if they wanted it to mean ''Conqueror of the Sea'', like the Wiki suggests. Like yeah, Mare can be Ablative but WHY would you use Ablative when you can use Genitive. What were they trying to do there. It doesn't even have anything to do with her constellation's Chinese name so I have NO idea of what they were trying to say there. To me it just sounds like ''Conqueror Sea''. I could accept ''Conqueror in the Sea'' but like... why? Why would you make it sound like that?? What the hell is going on???

Not to mention the sudden changes between languages. I mentioned the case with the Russian TL of Furina's constellation earlier, but it's not just that. Mika's constellation Palumbus refers to a wood pigeon and is kept as Wood Pigeon in most languages, and then Italian decides to change it to Columba Silvae, which is Latin for ''Dove of the Woods'', but woods as in... a forest. Well, it can still mean wood, but why change it in the first place? Or Indonesian suddenly naming Wanderer's constellation Errabundus instead of Peregrinus, which is an ADJECTIVE that means wandering. Which is actually more accurate to Wanderer's name, because peregrinus is more like... a pilgrim, someone who's wandering but has a set destination — a beautiful detail, yes, but it's not true to Wanderer's name or story or anything and I just. I'm so confused. Who is naming these. The original Chinese means Vagrant according to the Wiki. What's happening here.

Other Inconsistencies

I also want to highlight their inconsistency with some words. I don't understand why Childe's constellation is Monoceros Caeli, ''caeli'' coming from ''caelum'' (''sky'' but specifically ''heaven''), and then the sudden switch in the soundtrack Polumnia Omnia where they say ''coelica'', derived from ''coelum'', which means the same but is in a more recent spelling instead of the Classical one. So I guess it's not... wrong, per se, but it's weird and confusing and I don't understand how they ended up doing that.

Edit 29/12/24: I can't believe I forgot to mention another inconsistency between translations! This one's about the use of singular and plural forms, most notably with "Fatui". You might've noticed the word "Fatuus" coming up sometimes instead of the other one; this is the singular of the word fatui. This is also the case of Gnosis (singular) vs. Gnoses (plural). Interestingly enough, the Spanish version of the game does not make a difference between these and always uses the plural form Fatui + the singular form Gnosis. I can't speak for any other Genshin versions as I've only played in those two languages, so unfortunately I don't know if this is an exception or if it happens more often.


I think I'm going to wrap up this post now, but as I mentioned at the beginning I will probably come back to this in the future to edit it. If there's anything I got wrong please do tell me in the comments! I'm really just very passionate about Latin and Ancient Greek and I had to type out my thoughts about everything because I have so much to say.

Also, I understand that this might come across as quite the technical post — I tried not to go too much into details, but I understand that I might have unintentionally done that so please let me know if I should explain anything.

Thank you so much for reading until the end, and see you next time!

I've been thinking about getting into HSR for a while now, but the gameplay doesn't appeal to me for a couple of reasons and I can't really play the game anyway... so I figured I could just read the story! Or, well, watch it. Yesterday I finally had some free time and dived right into it. So far I'm mostly extremely confused and I have no idea what's going on at all, but I'm having fun and I'm really excited to see what happens next! There's a few characters I already like even if I don't know much about them (Ratio, Robin, Sunday... and some others, but those three really speak to me lol), and so far I really like the cast too. Also Kafka is so pretty.

Some other stuff also caught my eyes, like the whole Aeons thing and the... sudden primum mobile mention? What was that about lol. I get it but it's also so surprising to see stuff I've studied in the games I play (or, well, read? my point stands either way). But then again that's also part of why I'm so interested in Ratio. He's a nerd down to the bathtub detail and I am also a nerd. I think it's funny how his name is literally just "Doctor Truth Reason", too.

Aside from that I've actually been playing a lot of Genshin! Well, I've played a lot these last few days at least. I've been mostly focusing on exploring when playing on my own and getting a lot of wishes, while also farming for my characters in co-op with my friend. I've been having terrible artifact luck but today I got two cool pieces so that's something at least! 

I've also been thinking a lot about Ei in general lately. I mentioned this in my most recent post but I have so much to say about her, she's one of my favourite characters and I wish she was more talked about. Maybe people did talk about her when she came out, but I wasn't there to see it and I really want to put my own analysis of her out there too. Specifically as someone who's a Wanderer main I see a lot of Ei hate which... I get where it comes from, but I really cannot agree. Deep down they have a lot of similarities that I want to explore, but that'll have to wait a little.

Gaming aside, I haven't done much today. I studied for my final tomorrow and that's about it. I wanted to draw or write too, but I've been stupidly art blocked, on top of the fact that I've barely had the time to do anything when I wasn't... Still, I want to see if I can finish something before the year ends. Hopefully next time I'll have better luck.

Long time no see! I had more free time today, so I decided to do a Genshin Ask Meme I just saw on another blog. Since it's quite long (32 questions!), I'll hide my answers under the cut so I don't clog my page. Here's a link to the questions!
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