Talk:Legend of Galactic Heroes Volume 1: Dawn

From Gineipaedia, the Legend of Galactic Heroes wiki

Character appearances

Regarding the character appearances, like the OVA the novels seem to go off on these small flashbacks and tangents. In the OVA this would be counted as an appearance since they are on screen. Should this be the same case with the novels? If so, should I tag these people with "flashback" where applicable? Zepwich 15:00, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I think it will make things clearer if you distinguish between characters who appeared only in flashbacks and the rest. Glacierfairy 01:24, 9 November 2014 (UTC)

That makes sense to me. See Policy:Sections#Appearances for details on how to annotate appearances. (Replace any references to 'animated media' or 'episodes' as appropriate.)  ♥ kine @ 08:55, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

English release: pre-order, cover art, translations

Pre-order link

High-resolution cover art

I guess according to our canon policy the English cover art should take precedence over the Japanese version.

Description on Amazon:

“The Golden Brat” Reinhard von Lohengramm, a military prodigy and admiral of the Galactic Empire, has ambitions beyond protecting the borders or even defeating the Empire’s enemies. He seeks to overthrow the old order and become a truly absolute—yet benevolent—dictator. His rival, the humble Yang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance, wishes to preserve democracy even if he must sacrifice his political ideals to defeat the Empire. Their political and military battles play out over a galactic chessboard in an epic saga fifteen centuries in the making!

This little description is actually a pretty big deal, i don't think these names have ever before appeared in English in an official/licensed capacity. There's not much to it but it's nice to know at least that all of their names and spellings line up with ours so far.

By the way, it looks like we've not yet removed our novel translations from the site. We need to do that ASAP. I don't know who has a stake in this, but i don't want to be sued over it. Fair warning: If someone else doesn't do it by next week, i am going to perma-delete all novel translations from the wiki. Please archive accordingly.  ♥ kine @ 07:59, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

And pre-ordered. Vympel 09:09, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Gave it a week, translations have been removed. Please contact me directly if you have any issues.  ♥ kine @ 08:03, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

I just hope the official translations do their research (since many names are historically and geographically based) and don't just grind out some name based purely guesswork or the sound. Ba‘alat not Ballat for example. Amritsar not Amlitzer, and so on. 12:03, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

I read that the writers and actors on Enterprise and the Star Trek reboot films all used Memory Alpha as a resource. We're definitely not on that level, but we are in the top five results for almost any LOGH search on Google (including many of the Japanese names), and i have to believe that translators want to save time on research, so maybe we'll see that kind of thing here  ♥ kine @ 00:22, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Read the introduction and first chapter last night. Wow, Rudolf really created a psychopathic murder state. The drop in population from 300 billion to 40 billion in the show is straight from the book - chalk it up to years of 'chaos'. Given Rudolf enacted barbarous policies that saw 1.6% of the population killed almost straight out of the gate, that Rudolf and many of his successors presided over even more mass murder is probably not surprising, though still shocking. Vympel 03:21, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Rudolf and Sigismund probably were the most active in actually pushing those policies. I would not be surprised if the government bureaucracy just kept grinding on afterwards, quietly disappearing people, while the emperors kept busy with their politics, intrigues, and pleasures. The nobles over time gathered more power to themselves and the Empire became ever more inefficient. Perhaps some of those population losses were as much from economic neglect as active persecution. The novel says the Bureau became less zealous and diligent over three centuries. However the Inferior Genes Exclusion Act was never formally repealed to my knowledge by the Goldenbaum Dynasty, even if it no longer became actively enforced. I think that may stem from the whole reverence for the dynasty founder angle, which we see in Chinese dynasties as well. The founder becomes a sacrosanct figure so their dictates and laws never get formally overturned since that would be considered disrespecting them, though they may be quietly ignored.

On an entirely different minor topic, I note that they used Ottfried instead of our Otfried and Raap to Laap, so we have quite a few pages to change if we plan to match names. A different name is also used for Rudolf's genetic act. I guess that feeds back into the whole canon issue. Iracundus 07:00, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

I think we should wait for the official OVA subs. I mean ... Wittenfeld. I can *hear* people say Bittenfeld. With my own ears. Vympel 08:08, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

Another issue and a bigger one is where there is outright background differences. Where there is nothing mentioned in the OVA, the novels can fill in background (like giving the founding year of Fezzan), but at other times they contradict the OVA. For example, the novel mentions Terneuzen as a neighboring world to Heinessen, whereas in the OVA it is another city on the same planet. Iracundus 10:49, 16 March 2016 (UTC)

I must admit I am a bit miffed at some sloppy translations and continuity checking in the novel. For example, it keeps referring to Reinhard's admirals as leading regiments. The rank 上級大将 is translated as Senior Admiral instead of our High Admiral, which is a difference I don't really mind. However the novel then keeps referring to Senior Admiral Dwight Greenhill, even though his rank is 大将 and therfore Admiral. Then in the same translation later it says two deceased vice admirals are promoted posthumously 2 ranks to Marshal (its translation of the rank 元帥) and says the Alliance has no Senior Admiral rank! Iracundus 10:03, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

That is really sloppy indeed! Granted, the original Japanese can be ambiguous at time, but that still does not excuse mixing up naval and army terminologies. It makes me wonder whether or not the translator has someone to check for consistency in the first place. Glacierfairy 17:19, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

I think if the novel contradicts the OVA, the OVA must take precedence. Speaking of sloppy, I saw armada spelled 'srmada' on one page. Frustrating. Seperately, its interesting that the Alliance ships all get flagship names but none of the Imperial ones do except for Brünhild. I hope this changes. Vympel 06:29, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

I don't care as much about typo errors. That's sloppy editing but it is a separate issue to sloppy translation. I think we should stick to OVA as primary canon. Details in the novels can fill out gaps in character backgrounds and details about society where the OVA is silent, but where there is direct contradiction, I think we should stick to OVA, and maybe note the difference from the novel in a separate section. Iracundus 08:31, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. Also, did you notice the crew number for an Alliance battleship - 660 - is identical to that set out in the FFC booklet?Vympel 09:53, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Yes I did. The novel came first so the FFC booklet people were clearly doing their fact checking. I notice the novel translation for some names seems to be drawing upon those in the LOGH Encyclopedia. Not all though so it isn't a systematic inclusion. I think the translation is using bits and pieces from all over, maybe even Gineipaedia. Iracundus 11:13, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Apparently there's something like a series bible, but who knows where it came from. One thing to consider about the problems with the novel translation is that, for the digital copy at least, it's very easy (and common) for changes and corrections to be made post-publication. Canary 21:46, 21 March 2016 (UTC)