Spoilers for the Stormblood enlargement of Ultimate Fantasy XIV
Have you ever heard about critically acclaimed MMORPG Ultimate Fantasy XIV with a free trial as much as stage 70 with no restrictions on playtime together with the award-winning enlargement Heavensward? It additionally contains bereft of awards and extremely polarizing enlargement Stormblood, so clearly that’s the one I’m going to speak about.
Stormblood is a narrative about revolutionary conflict. The international locations of Ala Mhigo (fantasy Center East) and Doma (fantasy Japan) have suffered for properly over a decade underneath the rule of the Garlean Empire, and the participant character’s plan to beat the superior navy would possibly of the Empire is to stage a simultaneous revolt in each east and west and unfold the Garlean forces skinny sufficient to make victory attainable. Consequently the enlargement is basically cut up into two halves, with every half having their very own antagonist to cope with. These antagonists are two ladies, Fordola in Ala Mhigo and Yotsuyu in Doma. The 2 of them have comparable histories of struggling underneath occupation and ultimately becoming a member of the oppressor, and each are additionally given an try at a redemption arc for his or her quite a few conflict crimes after their defeat. Nonetheless, their remedy and supreme destiny within the story are starkly completely different, and on this approach they clearly expose underlying gendered biases in how their writers take into consideration Evil Girls(TM) and who “deserves” redemption in narratives about trauma and conflict.
On high of that, FFXIV has some quite infamous translation variations between its localizations (inflicting confusion as early as 2015), and consequently the best way every translation workforce determined to painting these ladies exhibits their opinion on the matter too. The worldwide consumer of the sport accommodates Japanese, English, German, and French language choices. I’ve personally learn by Stormblood in each English and German, whereas for Japanese and French I enlisted assist to check particular scenes.
Fordola, the soldier
Fordola is the chief of a particular imperial navy unit of Ala Mhigan voluntary conscripts, in different phrases, violent bootlickers who extort the native populace to look good in entrance of the empire, claiming that that is the one technique to safe a future the place Ala Mhigans can dwell safely underneath occupation. She is a part of the raid that crushes the preliminary resistance motion, however suffers her personal embarrassing navy defeat and takes increasingly excessive actions as she is pushed deeper right into a nook and begins working additional time on the sunk price manufacturing facility. This contains present process experimental surgical procedure to acquire a synthetic recreation of the participant character’s magic empathy energy (the Echo), and ordering pleasant hearth that kills a number of of her comrades proper as they’d accepted a ceasefire provide, simply to attain a navy victory over the resistance. She is lastly captured within the battle to liberate the capital of Ala Mhigo and imprisoned to await trial.
As soon as the rapid post-war tumult has died down, a lot of the Ala Mhigan populace need Fordola lynched within the streets for her crimes. Nonetheless, the enlargement’s feminine lead Lyse refuses to let her be killed with out truthful trial and substitute one reign of terror with one other. When the participant and Lyse go to Fordola in her cell, the participant’s Echo offers them a imaginative and prescient of her previous: her mother and father had efficiently labored themselves into the nice graces of the native imperial officers and obtained Garlean citizenship, satisfied that this was one of the best ways to safe a future underneath occupation. When various discontent Ala Mhigans attacked and killed her father within the streets, although, not one of the imperial guards current bothered to carry a finger at the same time as her mom begged them to. Thus disillusioned with the worth of citizenship alone, Fordola decides to hitch the navy and turn into sturdy sufficient that no person can ever take a look at her flawed for being both Ala Mhigan or Garlean once more.
Within the current, Fordola is deeply suicidal with guilt and hopes to get executed and take the Ala Mhigans’ resentment down together with her, however Lyse as an alternative creates alternatives for her to really contribute to the way forward for her nation. Fordola continues the gradual and gruelling course of of constructing amends realizing the general public she’s preventing for have each proper to hate her, and we see a few of her haters change their opinion within the face of her sustained efforts throughout expansions. Whereas launched as an antagonist, Fordola is granted advanced motivations and finally allowed a redemption arc—the participant comes away with the impression that she’s a nuanced, unlikable however attention-grabbing character in her personal proper.
Yotsuyu, the informant
Yotsuyu is launched by hushed whispers of the appearing Viceroy’s cruelty, and we study she was promoted to this place after feeding the empire info that allowed them to squash the Doman rise up 10 years in the past. Her most vocal opponent is Gosetsu, an previous samurai who was a part of that failed rise up. When the participant corners Yotsuyu, the pacing briefly screeches to a halt to have her ship her backstory: Yotsuyu’s direct household died through the imperial invasion and he or she was adopted by her aunt and uncle, who handled her like rubbish whereas their very own son made a profession within the Garlean navy. She was offered as a bride, then offered once more to a brothel after her abusive husband died. Her first style of independence got here from incomes a wage as an imperial spy, spurred on by her hatred of Doma for the best way individuals in energy repeatedly appeared away from her struggling whereas talking of justice and honor.
As soon as she’s accomplished speaking, she makes an attempt to explode the constructing to take everybody down together with her, however Gosetsu sacrifices himself to permit the remaining to flee. The 2 of them end up to have miraculously survived after the conflict is over, although Yotsuyu now suffers from amnesia that reverts her to an harmless and childlike character and clings to Gosetsu like he’s her grandfather. At Gosetsu’s insistence she is taken into custody whereas the brand new king, Hien, figures out methods to choose her conflict crimes on this scenario.
In the meantime, Yotsuyu’s adoptive brother Asahi exhibits up claiming to be an imperial peace envoy and enters talks with Hien. Yotsuyu recovers her reminiscence not lengthy after and is overcome with guilt over her best enemies exhibiting her the consideration they’ve. She sneaks away and tries to take her personal life earlier than she causes extra hassle, however Asahi organized for her mother and father to identify her earlier than she will be able to accomplish that, and so they promptly blame her for all the pieces flawed of their lives and talk about making an attempt to promote her once more. Thus doubly disillusioned, she kills her mother and father and joins Asahi in his plan to restart the Garlemald-Doma conflict.
The small print of this plan are convoluted and poorly thought out, however they do contain Yotsuyu fusing with a goddess to show right into a kickass bossfight. Midway by the battle she begins actively re-traumatizing herself to be able to stoke the hatred that fuels her transformation, and to attempt to drown out the glimmer of hope that had taken root in her coronary heart after Gosetsu repeatedly stood up for her regardless of her torturing and nearly killing him. After her defeat the participant is pressured to observe Asahi, supposedly protected by a diplomatic immunity that he already broke, bodily and verbally abuse a mortally wounded Yotsuyu till she makes use of the final of her energy to kill him tremendous useless, tells him he was the primary individual she hated for trying away, and dies with a smile at having accomplished her vengeance. The participant character is allowed to mourn her dying, however to not intervene in any of the largely preventable circumstances that led to it.
“Liberty or dying”
The similarities in Fordola and Yotsuyu’s roles are apparent. Betrayed and scorned by their fellow oppressed, they turned to the empire for the ability to enact retribution. They’re reminders that successful the conflict is just step one in the direction of a greater future, as a result of the issues of the previous that formed them into the conflict criminals they’re in the present day didn’t magically disappear with one victory. Their crimes are comparable, their kill counts roughly the identical, and their personalities about equally caustic. Each are wracked with guilt and try to kill themselves after the conflict is over, and each have a former enemy vouch for his or her proper to dwell regardless of their previous crimes—however one among them will get to dwell and battle to really turn into a greater individual, whereas the opposite will get subjected to contrived amnesia and poorly thought out politics earlier than she’s “mercifully” killed. They’ve the identical writers, so the place does this distinction come from?
One rapid distinction is that Yotsuyu is much extra outwardly female and constructed on tropes usually related to feminine characters than Fordola. Her tragic previous leans way more strongly on her being a lady—the violence she suffered as organized bride and involuntary intercourse employee is strongly gendered in comparison with Fordola getting rocks thrown at her for her mother and father’ politics. For many all the pieces that occurs to Fordola you possibly can assume roughly the identical factor would have occurred had been she a person as an alternative; the few exceptions embrace a scene the place some Garlean officers gossip inside earshot that the savage should have slept her approach up the ranks of the navy, and the very fact she’s strolling round in her panties whereas the remainder of her squad will get to put on pants (a design selection that has little bearing on her characterization, and which is rectified after Stormblood).
Yotsuyu can be overtly prideful about overcoming this previous in a approach that Fordola isn’t. Whereas Fordola claims her actions are for the way forward for Ala Mhigo, and solely admits that she simply needs the ability to make those that wronged her remorse it when she’s pushed right into a nook, Yotsuyu makes it very clear from the beginning that she suffered immensely, she did no matter it took to outlive, and now she’s going to make her enemies pay. She even makes use of this reality to taunt Gosetsu when she tortures him for info: Gosetsu ended the earlier rise up as prisoner of conflict and had joined the Garlean navy to battle his approach again to freedom, a previous disgrace that weighs heavy on him, however Yotsuyu praises him as a fellow survivor.
Fordola’s path to energy is thru submitting to navy authority and obediently licking boots to get right into a place the place she will be able to begin kicking down, a path she takes largely due to her useless father’s reminiscence. Yotsuyu, in distinction, defected to the empire explicitly to interrupt away from the lads that beforehand managed her life, and he or she marks lastly incomes her personal cash because the turning level of her life. She lacks martial prowess herself, as an alternative working as an informant, and is determined by underlings to do most of her violence for her.
Yotsuyu is prideful, impartial however not bodily highly effective, and has a historical past of intercourse work— in different phrases, she is An Evil Scheming Whore subsequent to the comparatively extra obedient Fordola. Consequently, the strategy the writers selected to make their viewers imagine in her deserving a second likelihood was to revert her to an harmless younger lady that adheres to a person. Fordola in the meantime will get to maintain her wits and horrible perspective about her even after an extended interval of self enchancment. She by no means stops being impolite to everybody, together with the participant character, which makes her one among only a few allied characters who don’t suck as much as the participant in a roundabout way ultimately. Paradoxically, conserving her head down in a method (by being beholden to males) does in actual fact give her extra freedom in one other (to stay an enormous bitch together with her personal distinct character and motivations).
Fordola additionally will get to retain narrative relevance, with the writing checking in on her (and her character improvement) all through future expansions, whereas the story largely forgets Yotsuyu existed and doesn’t refer again to her even when it could be thematically related to take action. In Endwalker, two expansions after their debut, Fordola is pulled again from the brink of despair and inspired to dwell by individuals who used to hate her, and Yotsuyu is offhandedly talked about as the rationale issues are nonetheless going flawed in Doma, whereas her brother will get to have his corpse recycled for Endwalker’s most important antagonist regardless of Yotsuyu having much more thematic overlap with this character.
Though Yotsuyu is extra strongly outlined by Being A Lady than Fordola, no different ladies attain out to Yotsuyu the best way they do for Fordola. Lyse is there in Doma, however any time the participant encounters Yotsuyu, Lyse is coincidentally some other place. Alisaie, Stormblood‘s different feminine lead, has a fancy about enjoying second fiddle to her twin brother and continues to be processing the dying of her grandfather who sacrificed himself to avoid wasting a land marred with injustice, however none of that is used to attach her to Yotsuyu both pre or put up amnesia. Solely male characters resolve the price of Yotsuyu’s life, to the extent the place a few of these males’s personal motivations are retroactively twisted and stripped of nuance to suit round her being a lady. After Yotsuyu’s dying, Hien posits that Gosetsu should have cared a lot about her as a result of she reminded him of his useless daughter, who was by no means talked about earlier than this level. Gosetsu’s similarities to Yotsuyu as fellow traitors and survivors, and his eventual acceptance that his finest efforts to die honorably have failed and he’s allowed to dwell disgracefully, are tossed apart on the final second. Any significant thematic parallels between these characters are deserted in favor of essentially the most twee interpretation of their relationship, with Yotsuyu lowered to a tragic reminder of one other useless, unnamed lady.
Translation variations
The English translation inserts virulent misogyny that isn’t current within the Japanese all all through Yotsuyu’s questline (and the remainder of the sport, however that’s for one more article). It has Hien exit of his technique to pardon the intercourse trafficker whose brothel Yotsuyu was offered to, which isn’t in some other language’s model of that line. Characters in different localizations insult her cruelty and treachery, the place in English they insult her historical past of intercourse work. English downplays the function Doma’s failures play in her motivations and emphasizes her sadism, and removes point out of Yotsuyu’s circumstances as motivation for Hien and Gosetsu to create a greater Doma that she might have had a peaceable life in. In distinction, the German translation really provides extra sympathy in the direction of Yotsuyu than the opposite languages at some factors, in a approach that reinforces that she ought to have had a spot in Doma, and that she didn’t is a failure that might be rectified sooner or later.
The standard of the storytelling actively suffers due to the misogynistic angle the English translation takes: for instance, within the English translation particularly, Hien is much extra hostile in the direction of the amnesiac Yotsuyu than in different languages, and consequently he’s incompetent and ugly in comparison with his counterparts in different localizations. Yotsuyu is now in a position to sneak out of the palace she’s being saved in a number of occasions as a result of Hien is a blustering fool who can’t even correctly guard one amnesiac enemy of the state he gained’t shut up about desirous to execute, quite than as a result of he’s a sympathetic chief treating her as an harmless citizen.
Fordola will get off comparatively frivolously concerning English localization adjustments, however there was nonetheless little care to protect vital particulars of her story that make her character attainable to grasp in any respect, an issue rooted in the identical unwillingness to increase sympathy to ladies. The English translation leaves out that her face tattoo, which she received shortly earlier than becoming a member of the navy, is a standard Ala Mhigan design, that means she had meant from the begin to rise the imperial ranks as undeniably Ala Mhigan. With out this context, it appears she was making an attempt to disclaim being Ala Mhigan whereas claiming to torture Ala Mhigans for the sake of Ala Mhigo’s future, making her much less sympathetic and likewise simply sort of silly, actually.
It additionally leaves out the implication that her faux Echo made her personally expertise her comrades’ deaths when she gave the order to fireside. When Fordola will get an Echo imaginative and prescient of the protagonist’s personal historical past, in languages aside from English, she asks the protagonist how the hell they’ll keep sane whereas realizing a lot about different individuals’s ache. In English she as an alternative responds with indignant awe at how sturdy the participant character is for getting by the earlier expansions’ occasions. Fordola reckoning with how she was so caught up in her personal ache that she induced numerous different individuals to undergo is glossed over in favor of telling the participant how particular they’re.
Even with these irritating translation decisions, one main writing choice stays clear throughout the enlargement: Fordola will get to dwell and finally work in the direction of redemption, with full possession of her selections as a fancy character who’s sympathetic regardless of her crimes; in the meantime Yotsuyu is stripped of her company, offered as sympathetic solely after that company has been stripped, subjected to misogyny, and killed off. It stands out that the character whose trauma and evils are extra tightly intertwined with gendered tropes is handled because the one who’s finally irredeemable, and likewise the one who’s robbed of her sense of self through infantilizing amnesia.
Placing all of it collectively, the road between life and dying for an Evil Lady(TM) is how a lot of a lady she is about it. The script waxes poetic about how Yotsuyu deserved higher, however when it’s time to really create a chance for this character to develop, change, and redeem herself, she has crossed some arbitrary line and her dying is handled as an inevitable tragedy—a tragedy that’s nonetheless averted on Fordola’s facet of issues, and which required pushing varied contrivances to even occur the best way it does. The parallels between these characters, and the best way their remedy wildly diverges, expose the gendered assumptions and biases behind Stormblood’s storytelling and, at many factors, its translations.
