I've finally been rewatching the last three episodes of XV with YameteTomete subs and the difference from the official and Commie is night and day

I might do some comparison posts at some point, but this exercise is helping me feel a little better about XV.

YT >>>>>>>>>> Commie 98 percent of the time

I still maintain the stance that the season struggles with the size of its cast and giving the characters enough screentime to do what they do/give their perspective on what's happening.

*and CR

But there's not as much missing as I previously thought.

The worst offenses that YT resolves are the word choices for some of Miku and Shem-ha's dialogue.

It's subtle but they imply a confidence in their assertions that's just not present at all in their expressions

I'll just provide one quick example:

In the sole scene we get of Miku under Shem-ha's influence, she's bound by black ribbons.

Shem-ha asks her why she resists her, and Miku says its because she still needs to talk to Hibiki.

Then this exchange: https://twitter.com/_pedroreis/status/1276622629294739457

People I know have used this to suggest that Miku was forced against her will to go submit to Shem-ha and be her vessel.

But when she answers that question, she sounds way too certain of her answer to me. Her facial expressions imply something else.

So YameteTomete managed to bless me with an interpretation in their translation that I far prefer.

She can't answer that question. She can't deny that her subconscious desire which allowed her to accept Shem-ha into her body and soul is what the goddess is trying to fulfill.

This uncertain, unable to retort effectively and convincingly...THAT'S the Miku I know.

Shem-ha may have twisted/distorted her desires for her own ambitions (as is the nature of Shenshoujing), but that uncertainty is her exact justification for unifying humanity by force.

I don't feel like this was conveyed in the translation that was most readily available to us because the word choices implied something completely different.

ALL of the characters in Symphogear are insecure, even the antagonists. And they continue to be that way.

They cannot continue to assert their ideals if they do not acknowledge that they have doubts. That they keep trying in spite of those doubts.

Shem-ha is offering an escape from the struggle to create understanding and harmony, but even she isn't sure if her plan will work.

If she was, why would she acknowledge the heroes efforts to stop her as if they're something she doesn't understand?

Left is Commie, right is YameteTomete.

It's little differences like this that get me to value how often the intent of a narrative can be lost in translation with subs that don't sync up with how the characters feel when they speak. Their emotions tend to betray their thoughts.

YameteTomete's translation of Hibiki's line here asserts that the ONLY way that Hibiki will save humanity and Miku is to tell her what she had intended to tell her way back in episode 5 (the very thing "she hopes Miku is going to tell her" as expressed in the epilogue).

Commie's take to me, implies that she does not know exactly what her words will be. When her expression IMO, does not fit that interpretation even slightly. This is the moment that she finally decides to be selfish, and this is expressed by her before and after this exchange.

And dare I neglect to mention what this is a reply to:

(Once again, top left and right are Commie, bottom two are YT)

The difference is slight, but it MATTERS to me.

It is only YAMETETOMETE's translation of Shem-ha's diatribe that feels like Symphogear to me.

vs. a TL I won't call unfaithful, yet at times given how the words written do not link up with the emotions I see expressed, feels like a different interpretation of the final battle in the show I fell in love with.

The follow-up after Hibiki's reply drives that home for me:

Commie's take has Shem-ha ask a rhetorical question, but it is so impersonal that it clearly isn't even about Hibiki and Miku yet humanity as a whole. And she says those words don't even allow the slightest MUTUAL understanding.

But then why does she cry when she says that???

"...she accepted me, even for an instant".

Because whether or not this is actually Miku or Shem-ha talking is besides the point. She/they are crying out to Hibiki in this scene.

She wants her to understand why she's doing this, why she believes this is right.

How she's come so far, too far to stop now. She cannot accept failure, she knows she won't have another chance. She knows the Custodians will do far worse to humanity than she is planning.

We've seen that plea many times in Symphogear.

And what is Hibiki's answer?

She asks a rhetorical question of her own, confirming that she finally understands that while Miku's body may be under the control of God, her feelings are what is driving all of this.

Like Fine, like Ver, like Carol, Adam and the Alchemists before them.

She finally, truly respects and understands that her adversary is fighting hard and putting her own life and happiness on the line for a future they want so desperately to create.

And once again, for the LAST time, she has to fight just as hard as them.

So she replies:

Carol responds to the answer she's been given with the same vigor she knows that Hibiki is trying to stir up in the eleventh hour, thinking that the words being expressed are meant for Miku and not her.

Yet Hibiki worries still about her desires destroying everything.

And as always, she has none of it.

The final lines of their conversation are the last great push she gives Hibiki to go "take Miku back", and fulfill the universal harmony she has finally succeeded in creating as her song briefly acted as the seventh note in the scale.

Without the long-awaited dialogue btw them on the same terms, and the conclusions they come to....

The God-slayer's victory could not have been assured.

(the difference between escape and block is major, because once again Commie frames Shem-ha's question as rhetorical...)

when she is clearly wondering aloud HOW Gungnir/Hibiki "jammed" the connection of her network made up of the human biological terminals the world over.

I couldn't make out the Japanese verb she used here, but "escape" feels and sounds completely incorrect in this context)

Also worth noting that Commie had for the bottom two frames: "My hopes and dreams, my feelings for Miku...who says they're no match for two thousand years of curses?"

That just plain changes the meaning, because this isn't and NEVER was about her hopes and dreams.

YT's rendition makes it far more clear that she's finally asserting her love for Miku is worth more than THE 2000 year old curse and EVEN SO (Datoshitemo), if it somehow isn't then she'll MAKE that be the case.

This declaration is the miracle that reawakens humanity.

But I neglected to mention that beyond that one piece of dialogue, Commie and YT's translation are actually mostly the same.

And in fact (out of sequence here but I'll fix that in a bit) I do actually prefer Commie's take on THIS line:

(though I'll admit "one can be changed into the other" fits better because it asserts the whole alchemical principles being applied to the philosophies expressed here)