So recently someone came into the Discord asking if they could translate a series into Spanish.
Some talking happened, and that got me thinking about editing and whatnot.
You see, a lot of choices are made when translating, and while editing (which is the main difference between it and proofreading).
Every westernization, TL note, etc. is a choice made by someone who is not the original author.
These choices can add up to something very different from what was originally intended. The easiest more modern example would be Dragon Ball’s Goku, I suppose. See, in the Japanese version, he’s more of a country bumpkin who likes fighting, while in the dub he’s more akin to Superman, fighting for justice.
Editorial choice is also why there are so many different versions of Shakespeare’s plays. We don’t actually know what he wrote, we just have many different recordings of the plays, made by different people (including some knockoff street performances made for the masses). Some of the recordings don’t even come from people who saw the play, but were in the background of it. It doesn’t help that Shakespeare probably also edited his own plays over the years too.

Click here to start reading:
» Chapter 2-24 «