Cheating Men Must Die - Vol. 16 Ch. 358 - In the Realm of Gods, There’s None Who Compares to You - The Final Battle

Fed-Kun's army
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The translation is better but the names suck.
I never understand why translation groups can't just stick to translated names. It's already hard enough trying to keep side character names in mind.
It's one of the most jarring things to change and expect people to jump onto your translation.
Rattie and Sealie have no emotion or character behind them.
 
Group Leader
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May 3, 2023
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The translation is better but the names suck.
I never understand why translation groups can't just stick to translated names. It's already hard enough trying to keep side character names in mind.
It's one of the most jarring things to change and expect people to jump onto your translation.
Rattie and Sealie have no emotion or character behind them.
I don't blame you since we made this change really late into the series, I can see why it'd be quite jarring to read all of a sudden. It's partially why we decided to attach a separate PNG dedicated to pointing out the name changes.

When we first decided to pick up this series over a month ago, we did contemplate between ourselves whether to stick to the original TLed names or to swap to a more accurate version. On one hand, sticking to the previous TLed names would make it easier for the readers, but it wouldn't exactly be "loyal" to what the RAWs wanted to convey. While on the other hand, swapping the terms would be "loyal" to the original writing, but it would make it very confusing for you all who've been here from the start and are used to reading the same terms.

There's a proverb in Chinese that means something like "a change in appearance but its core remains the same" (改头换面, lit. "change head swap face", usually used with a negative connotation). We started out as a primarily TLPR group (me + Rikko are both TLs, with me doing PR) so you can kinda see our insistence on wanting it to be as accurate as possible without it sounding too literal.

It's a pity you find "Rattie" and "Sealie" to sound too stiff, we've racked our brains for a nice-sounding nickname that didn't sound weird in an English context(?) and ultimately settled on that.

I'll bring you through some of the reasons why we decided to swap the names:
1) Cheating Men Must Die -> Phoenix Rising Above Evil:
Mostly because we found the original TLed title to be a bit sexist (there was no implied gender in the RAWs), plus, it made it kinda hard to recommend this series to other people(?). The fully TLed name is actually "Rising Above (朝) Ten Thousand (万) Scums (渣) as a Pheonix (凤)", but we found that to be too long and opted for a similar shorter naming structure as "Cheating Men Must Die".
2) Bamboo Rat -> Rattie:
The original wording for "Bamboo Rat" is actually an affectionate nickname from SLX to him (鼠鼠, lit. "Rat Rat"). Our choices were to pick between "Ratty" or "Rattie", and "Ratty" was eliminated because it held a negative meaning.
3) Xiao Tian Tian -> Sealie:
This has the same reasoning as "Rattie", in that it's also an affectionate nickname from Rattie to the Heaven and Earth Seal (小天天, lit. "Little Heaven"). We could've went with "Little Heaven" as well since it's not wrong, but it made it really clunky when TSed into the bubbles, hence why we decided to shorten it as "Sealie". "Heavenie" sounds a bit funny ngl, while "Earthie" would be straight up weird.

Either way, thank you for reading our releases and for your criticism! We'll surely take that into note for our names in the future.
 
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Thank you for your support!! We'll be releasing our chapters by batches so you can hope to see our next release in another 2 weeks!
See you in Arc 17: How an Abandoned Wife Became the Female President!!
So are you and the other scan group gonna continue posting then?tiara scans i mean?
 
Fed-Kun's army
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Mar 9, 2023
Messages
109
I don't blame you since we made this change really late into the series, I can see why it'd be quite jarring to read all of a sudden. It's partially why we decided to attach a separate PNG dedicated to pointing out the name changes.

When we first decided to pick up this series over a month ago, we did contemplate between ourselves whether to stick to the original TLed names or to swap to a more accurate version. On one hand, sticking to the previous TLed names would make it easier for the readers, but it wouldn't exactly be "loyal" to what the RAWs wanted to convey. While on the other hand, swapping the terms would be "loyal" to the original writing, but it would make it very confusing for you all who've been here from the start and are used to reading the same terms.

There's a proverb in Chinese that means something like "a change in appearance but its core remains the same" (改头换面, lit. "change head swap face", usually used with a negative connotation). We started out as a primarily TLPR group (me + Rikko are both TLs, with me doing PR) so you can kinda see our insistence on wanting it to be as accurate as possible without it sounding too literal.

It's a pity you find "Rattie" and "Sealie" to sound too stiff, we've racked our brains for a nice-sounding nickname that didn't sound weird in an English context(?) and ultimately settled on that.

I'll bring you through some of the reasons why we decided to swap the names:
1) Cheating Men Must Die -> Phoenix Rising Above Evil:
Mostly because we found the original TLed title to be a bit sexist (there was no implied gender in the RAWs), plus, it made it kinda hard to recommend this series to other people(?). The fully TLed name is actually "Rising Above (朝) Ten Thousand (万) Scums (渣) as a Pheonix (凤)", but we found that to be too long and opted for a similar shorter naming structure as "Cheating Men Must Die".
2) Bamboo Rat -> Rattie:
The original wording for "Bamboo Rat" is actually an affectionate nickname from SLX to him (鼠鼠, lit. "Rat Rat"). Our choices were to pick between "Ratty" or "Rattie", and "Ratty" was eliminated because it held a negative meaning.
3) Xiao Tian Tian -> Sealie:
This has the same reasoning as "Rattie", in that it's also an affectionate nickname from Rattie to the Heaven and Earth Seal (小天天, lit. "Little Heaven"). We could've went with "Little Heaven" as well since it's not wrong, but it made it really clunky when TSed into the bubbles, hence why we decided to shorten it as "Sealie". "Heavenie" sounds a bit funny ngl, while "Earthie" would be straight up weird.

Either way, thank you for reading our releases and for your criticism! We'll surely take that into note for our names in the future.
It's good work, as I said, and I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't the preferable translation. I as far as accuracy goes I can I understand a desire to be as faithful as possible.
Generally for me I don't like a swap between cultural idioms and references just to save time.

Names however have very important meaning. Just changing the spelling of a name in something you read changes the character. It removes familiarity. For a new reader that'll be a non issue, those will be the characters they are familiar with.

I've also seen TL struggle between which form of a name to adopt, as in American vs European spelling.
Title changes are kind of whatever. I think we all kind of accept a bit of weirdness when it comes to that, though it'll always be Cheating Men Must Die in my mind.

Its obvious there was a lot of hard work put into this and it's thanks to groups like yours that these stories can be told to us. Though I may disagree with the changes I appreciate your work, time and effort.
 
Dex-chan lover
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May 5, 2018
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46
It's good work, as I said, and I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't the preferable translation. I as far as accuracy goes I can I understand a desire to be as faithful as possible.
Generally for me I don't like a swap between cultural idioms and references just to save time.

Names however have very important meaning. Just changing the spelling of a name in something you read changes the character. It removes familiarity. For a new reader that'll be a non issue, those will be the characters they are familiar with.

I've also seen TL struggle between which form of a name to adopt, as in American vs European spelling.
Title changes are kind of whatever. I think we all kind of accept a bit of weirdness when it comes to that, though it'll always be Cheating Men Must Die in my mind.

Its obvious there was a lot of hard work put into this and it's thanks to groups like yours that these stories can be told to us. Though I may disagree with the changes I appreciate your work, time and effort.
I'm confused, I don't think PRAE scans did not make any changes in terms of cultural references or idioms. Additionally, isn't it more time-consuming to find the English equivalent rather than directly translating the text?

Upon looking through past translations of Shadow Madness, I noticed that Rattie has consistently been referred to as 'Little Guy,' which is quite different from his original name of Shu Shu (meaning Rat rat). Therefore, Rattie is the closest adaptation that PRAE scans could come up with to maintain the original essence.

While it is disheartening to receive complaints, I still appreciate your recognition and gratitude. =D

-Rikko from PRAE Scans
 
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Jun 25, 2023
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Thank you so much for all your hard work!

Tbh, even though this has been an arc I didn't really enjoy, it is so good to see it finished to the end.

To pitch in on the translations:
There are two general schools of thought I see when it comes to translations. Do you prioritize the feeling and intent, or do you prioritize directness/accuracy? Every translation is a balance of these two.

While I personally really heavily lean towards feelings, and making it feel more natural in the second language, that doesn't make it the 'right' way to do things. It's just what I like.

That said, I think Lil Rat could be cute, perhaps :3
 
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May 27, 2023
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Ah so the team changed, no wonder the translation suddenly felt different (in a good way, hahaha). I understand it better because of the correct grammar and choice of vocabulary.
 

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