Translations of Tails Gets Trolled
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"ok everyone! do you guys see this paper? well theres nothing on it yet but there will be" |
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"yea theres even trolls talking about it on myspace" |
Being a popular webcomic series, Tails Gets Trolled has been translated in a variety of different languages. The many translations of Tails Gets Trolled are available the comic's official website.
List of translations
Brazilian Portuguese
The Brazilian Portuguese translation of Tails Gets Trolled was first revealed on April 4th, 2020. It was the original translation project, headed by Jingo, with one chapter and four pages being released in this format.
Russian
The Russian translation project was originally formed on May 26th, 2020, where the script was initially translated into Russian by George_the_crab and Immortal_gamer. The script would then be put into the actual comic on September 8th, 2020 with assistance from CC and eventually, COOM_MALICE for the other chapters.
Localization changes and notable details
General Differences
- Various trolls include different generations of Internet slang in their speech, specifically 2CH (high hierarchy trolls) and 2010s MOBA slang (low hierarchy trolls).
- Some mentions of social media now changed to their Russian analogue (Facebook and MySpace replaced with VK and Odnoklassniki respectively).
- Some character names are variously altered due to regional differences.
- New additions to currently existing text for localization and characterization purposes (like Underbite visually showing speech impediment on text or characters saying outright new things within character).
- Troll King's speech is in Times New Roman.
References
- Chapter 3, Page 9: Shadow mistakes Daffy with a character from a cable TV network show called Queer Duck.
- Translator's commentary: Not an explicit reference, in Russian it sounds like "blue duck" and that's a really vague description, but if you Google the show by Голубой Утенок you'll probably be greeted by that atrocity. It was something that I kept in mind at the time of translation with a nudge at something usually packaged with other adult media garbage for sell to kids in the DVD era of Russian piracy, it's also funny how Shadow would mistake a star character like Daffy for a no-name, the idea of Shadow being a fan of cable TV is quite amusing and works with his character.
- Chapter 3, Page 19: When Troll King is explaining how he has planned an attack on the city, he states: "так оно и было (так мы и сделали)" which translates to "And so it happened (and so we did)" which is a reference to Eduard Uspensky's "Book of Scary Stories".
- Translator's commentary: It was a collection of short stories created based on mail sent to Uspensky from USSR pioneer children, more specifically a reference on the "black spot" story from the book, this short story is about a witch who asked an imp to choke her daughter and so it happened (and so he did).
- Chapter 4, Page 8: When Garry is kicking Vector he calls him a "Crocodile Gena looking abortion", which is another, more direct reference to Uspensky's work, called Gena the Crocodile.
- Translator's commentary: Crocodile Gena is a very famous Russian character, both the book and the cartoon under the name "Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka" (alternative name - Cheburashka and his friends) were adapted in many different languages, including Japanese and Finnish, in which it was well known during the reign of the Soviet Union. In his final days, Uspensky was fighting for copyright with Soyuzmultfilm against modernizations of his works, in a battle of "brand against the creator" which is a somewhat of a meta theme of TGT.
- Chapter 5, Page 15: Leap Frog's character name was altered due to its franchise never existing in Russia in the first place, the name was changed to Frog Traveler referencing the Russian folk-tale "Frog Went-A-Traveling".
- Translator's commentary: Disregard how absurd the translation is and think positively. It's an alternative for such a minor character I doubt we'll ever see again (Until Lazerbot remembers and gives them extra screen time by making them an important character or something) but due to how coincidentally fitting it is, you can even visualize their background based on the tale they're coming from. This frog tried to shit talk them trolls back, any inconveniences of why this character is so highly ranked is out of the question now.
- Chapter 6, Page 3: Panel where Silver is just entering the city shows him singing the lyrics of "Городок" (meaning "smaller town") song by Yurij Varum which was sang by his daughter, Anzhelika Varum.
- Translator's commentary: It's a song about nostalgia, which is fitting for something like TGT, used in a Russian TV dark-comedy show under the same name as the song. Which is also fitting for TGT.
- Chapter 6, Page 5: Underbite calls Silver a Писикак, which is a character of a cable TV program that goes by the same name.
- Translator's commentary: Despite it being a literal translation from "Dickbutt", it's an actual character that aired on a cable channel called 2X2 which has a history of airing really obscure animation programs from all around the world, thus introducing some Russians to shows from Cartoon Network and such, it was during the era of "cultural melting pot". "Писикак" would air between them, showing him standing there, doing nothing. Such was the premise of it. It's funny how all of the dialogue during the Troll Off got altered in different ways, but Dickbutt still got preserved in its twisted form.
- Chapter 6, Page 7: When Elmer is trying his pick-up lines on Blaze, he quotes a song from a Soviet romantic-drama movie called "A Cruel Romance", called "The Gipsy's Trail".
- Translator's commentary: It's a song lyrics of which are often cut for quotes portraying blatant sexual innuendos. Nikita Mikhalkov is singing it in that scene, if you google him in his role for the movie "Жмурки" you might find him doing a Trollface of his own.
- Chapter 7, Page 8: During Mario's pathetic attempt at harming him, Troll King utters "одна попытка - минус", which is a quote of Hugo, character from the international Hugo franchise.
- Translator's commentary: It's based off the games, infamous for making Russian children angry at losing, at which point Hugo would look at the camera with his 1000 yard stare and state the following "One try - minus". What a badass. Also he looks like Troll King.
German
A German translation of Tails Gets Trolled began on November 14th, 2020. The project was translated and edited by Levi.enton, Tecumseh, and Larry.
Localization changes and notable details
The cover of the first chapter is edited from the original. It features Shadow holding a German dictionary and a German pretzel and beer are seen obscuring Mario's face. The German flag with the text "German edition" is also seen on the right side of the cover.
Polish
Chapter 1 one the Polish translation was first released on March 8th, 2021. Translated by NieOrginalny.
French
The French translation of Tails Gets Trolled was first released on March 8th, 2021, translated by CyberRobotnix.
Localization changes and notable details
The cover of Chapter 1 features a baguette replacing the line separating Alex and Pori. Tails is also drawn with a beret and a mustache.
Spanish (Spain)
The very first chapter of the Tails Gets Trolled Spanish translation was first released on October 31st, 2021 by Giru子, with new chapters being released at a monthly pace when possible.
History
The Spanish translation started being worked on October 10th, 2020. Its translator would spend one month testing different translation styles due to difficulties on properly conveying the webcomic's unique writing.
Localization changes and notable details
The translator took note of multiple key elements, such as being respectful to the original intention of the early chapters but also people's reception in order to recreate the same reaction for newcomers; in other words, the translation writing would reflect Lazerbot's deliberated humorous tone as clear as possible without sacrificing quality, while paying special attention to the many celebrated lines of the series and even bringing a genuine sense of unintended humour corresponding to the many ways the English fan community perceived these lines. People has also pointed out characters in the webcomic sometimes talk in a very realistic way, just like real-life people, which has been reflected on the translation when true.
On the other hand, instead of perfectly replicating every single minor typo one by one, common Spanish typos would be used instead, replicating the same level of English proficiency in Spanish but also avoid going too far with typos in order to avoid writing what the translator considered "typos so bad not even early TGT would do". Unique typos require specific solutions and are handled case-by-case, always trying to replicate the same meaning and impact.
The Spanish language addresses insults in a different manner compared to English. This language tends to be more aggressive and ruthless, to the point direct translations for "fuck you" don't cut it; instead, every "fuck you" is translated in different ways such as "Get fucked by fish" or Shadow's "fuck you" line for "You can eat my balls, you asshole trolls", a common hostile line in Spanish and a bit of a translation liberty to cause the same impact of the original line while staying in-character.
Lastly, attention to detail was seen of extreme importance, as every single line had to be as in-character and in-universe as possible, not just to avoid contradictions but also indirectly imply new titbits of lore or not following the "internal logic" of characters and the series. For example, when Tails gets trolled in the very first page, Butter Tits and the Dick Taker would accuse Tails of "retrasado" (retarded). While other word choices could be considered of better quality, this one was seen as fitting for both trolls: "retrasado" is the obvious, too direct translation for "retarded" that "Spanish speaker trolls of low intelligence would use after spending so much time on the internet they would copy insults from English websites then using the closest word in Spanish even if much better alternatives exist". Other troll characters perceived as of low intelligence would also follow this rule.