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Chapter names and their meanings


Paper Jam
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I thought I'd go through each chapter's title and explain it to the best of my knowledge. Most of the names are self-explanatory, but I think enough of them aren't...

Lyn's tale:

* Girl from the Plains: Lyn.

* Footsteps of Fate: Unclear; perhaps it means the footsteps of Kent and Sain, or of the brigands who traveled from Caelin to Bulgar.

* Sword of Spirits: The Mani Katti.

* Band of Mercenaries: With the addition of Florina and Wil, this is what Lyn's companions become.

* In Occupation's Shadow: The area is occupied by brigands, and the chapter takes place at sunset, when the shadows get longer.

* Beyond the Borders: Lyn's goal in this chapter is to get beyond the borders of Bern.

* Blood of Pride: Lyn's pride in her Sacaean heritage gets her into trouble with the marquess of Araphen.

* Siblings Abroad: Nils and Ninian. At this point in the story, it isn't clear exactly how far "abroad" they are...

* The Black Shadow: The enemy in this chapter is the Black Fang, which has cast a shadow over Lycia already.

* Vortex of Strategy: Unclear. Maybe the presence of a ballista makes the gameplay strategy more relevant in this chapter, or maybe it has to do with how Lundgren's rumors of Lyn's illegitimacy have thrown a wrench in her plans.

* A Grim Reunion: Kent and Sain's reunion with Eagler. The Japanese title is more accurately translated "Sad Reunion."

* The Distant Plains: The map itself is mostly woods and mountains; Lyn has traveled a long way from the plains of Sacae to get where she is now.

Eliwood's and Hector's tales:

* Taking Leave: Eliwood's departure from Castle Pherae.

* Another Journey: Hector's departure from Castle Ostia. "Another" is in contrast to either Lyn's journey last year or Eliwood's journey at the same time.

* Birds of a Feather: Eliwood and Hector flock together in this chapter.

* In Search of Truth: Why Eliwood decided to travel to Santaruz in the first place.

* The Peddler Merlinus: The goal of the chapter is to keep him alive.

* False Friends: Erik and his men, to Eliwood and his men.

* Talons Alight: Unclear. Maybe it's referring to how quickly Eubans' mercenaries attacked Castle Laus.

* Noble Lady of Caelin: Lyn.

* Whereabouts Unknown: As of the beginning of this chapter, Eliwood still doesn't know his father's whereabouts; he only learns of them at the end of the chapter.

* The Port of Badon: Where the chapter takes place.

* Pirate Ship: Where the chapter takes place.

* The Dread Isle: Where the chapter takes place.

* Imprisoner of Magic: Kishuna. Though "Prisoner of Magic" in Hector's tale is a mistranslation, it could refer to Aion.

* A Glimpse in Time: The player gets a flashback in this chapter, and apparently so do Ninian and Nergal. One might argue that the eerie painting that the lords see at the end of the chapter counts too.

* Dragon's Gate: Where the chapter takes place. (I'm starting to see a pattern here...)

* New Resolve: What the group (especially Eliwood, after his father's death) gains during this chapter.

* Kinship's Bond: Hector's and Uther's.

* Living Legend: What (or rather, whom) Uther told the group to seek out.

* Genesis: A flashback to Kishuna's creation.

* Four-Fanged Offense: The group's first encounter with one of the Four Fangs.

* Crazed Beast: Pascal.

* Unfulfilled Heart: It takes place near the capital of Bern (or the "heart" of Bern, you might say), and the plot revolves around King Desmond's unfulfilled wishes. A full translation of the Japanese title ("Unfulfilled hand, unfulfilled heart") is less clear.

* Pale Flower of Darkness: This was unclear until Fire Emblem Heroes referred to Nino as a "pale flower"; it did not occur to me until then that the name of this chapter could refer to the fact that this is the first time that the lords see Nino.

* Battle Before Dawn: Exactly what happens.

* Night of Farewells: The chapter takes place at night, and Nino says farewell to Sonia, Brendan, and Jan.

* Cog of Destiny: This is the chapter when Bramimond releases the seals on the Divine Weapons, which has a massive impact on the destiny of Elibe. I'm not sure why Bramimond, or what he did, would be considered a "cog" though.

* Valorous Roland: The Divine General with whom Eliwood must negotiate.

* The Berserker: The Divine General with whom Hector must negotiate.

* Sands of Time: This is when Athos tells the lords about Arcadia, which has withstood the sands of Nabata for a long time. Alternatively, it could refer to the fact that time continues to pass while Nergal continues to gain power on the Dread Isle.

* Battle Preparations: Exactly what happens.

* Victory or Death: The only two possible outcomes: either they make their way to the Dragon's Gate and stop Nergal, or everyone dies when Nergal triumphs.

* The Value of Life: The question posed in this chapter: How valuable is Kishuna's life?

* Light: Unclear. Neither of the high-level Light magic spells you get here (Aureola and Luce) seem particularly important here.

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On 1/9/2022 at 4:50 PM, Paper Jam said:

* Light: Unclear. Neither of the high-level Light magic spells you get here (Aureola and Luce) seem particularly important here.

This one seems pretty obvious to me. Nergal's entire thing represents how steep in darkness he is. His leitmotif is literally "Everything into the Dark" He is a representation of what happens when one goes too deep into DARK magic. Showing why elder magic got so heavily stigmitized. It makes people lose part of themselves. People who were loving parents and inquisitive yet harmless scholars. Into soulless manipulators seeking only self gratification through every increasing power.

Nergal isn't some clever manipulator like Gharnef or Manfroy. Nor is he a nihilistic pessimist suffering depression like Sephiran. Nergal is genuinely mentally ill. With forgotten memories of who he was. Eliwood pities him for a reason.

Nergal is the darkness. And not only is the final chapter of FE7 about illuminating that darkness. It is also foretold that it will be done so. An illuminated path to the future. Nergal's defeat is pre-ordained in both a literal way (Athos see's the future right afterwards.) and through a meta-narrative.

The final chapter is named "Light" Because it is about stopping somebody so settled into a swamp of shadows, he knows not how to climb out, only drag others to join him.

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On 1/9/2022 at 3:50 PM, Paper Jam said:

* Imprisoner of Magic: Kishuna. Though "Prisoner of Magic" in Hector's tale is a mistranslation, it could refer to Aion.

Hm? It's not a mistranslation (it basically has to be a conscious choice by the localizers, if that's where it was introduced), and both refer to Kishuna. On Hector's path, you start to learn more of the truth of Kishuna, i.e. that he is a prisoner of the magic that created morphs. On Eliwood's path you don't learn this, so the title refers to his superficial gameplay role.

As much as I'm not the biggest fan of the Kishuna plotline I always thought that chapter title change was extremely clever.

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33 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Hm? It's not a mistranslation (it basically has to be a conscious choice by the localizers, if that's where it was introduced), and both refer to Kishuna. On Hector's path, you start to learn more of the truth of Kishuna, i.e. that he is a prisoner of the magic that created morphs. On Eliwood's path you don't learn this, so the title refers to his superficial gameplay role.

As much as I'm not the biggest fan of the Kishuna plotline I always thought that chapter title change was extremely clever.

Is there an official statement confirming it as not a mistranslation?

HHM has a lot more shoddy translation errors compared to the vanilla game in general. Most infamously replacing an instance of "Aenir" with Quintessence. As well as generally treating Aenir as a place rather than a person.
(The fact Nergal has a dragon wife is kinda important...)

It seems plenty feasible they successfully translated the chapter name the first time for Eliwood's story. Then when they were later doing Hector's translation. Slipped up and made an honest mistake.

 

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7 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Is there an official statement confirming it as not a mistranslation?

Is there an official statement confirming it as a mistranslation?

The odds seem incredibly poor to me that they translated the chapters the same in all other cases but this one, and in this case, the "mistranslation" just happens to be in line not only with the story but the differences between the story on the two routes.

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4 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Is there an official statement confirming it as a mistranslation?

Oh right. It is true that both statements are equally statements made without official confirmation.

 

Quote

The odds seem incredibly poor to me that they translated the chapters the same in all other cases but this one, and in this case, the "mistranslation" just happens to be in line not only with the story but the differences between the story on the two routes.

They did mistranslate other sections of the story. Primarily ones concerning HHM.

I'd also like to cautiously point out that IS is not Square. Them changing a chapter's name for "story" reasons is highly uncharacteristic. Especially since Maeda was the scenario director and his writing style is literally "Railroad to the next emotional scene! No time for anything else!"

I would personally postulate that given IS being IS. That we are both wrong and something else is the reason why for the difference in change in chapter names. What it is I dunno, but if its not a mistranslation. I don't think its very likely to be an uncharacteristic attempt at being subtle or complicated with story telling.

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The original Japanese title for both chapter 18x of Eliwood's tale and 19x of Hector's tale is "Ma Fuuji no Mono" and literally means "magic sealing person."

Even if both "Imprisoner of Magic" and "Prisoner of Magic" are valid interpretations of "Ma Fuuji no Mono" (and I would argue that the latter isn't), we have no official explanation as to why it was translated differently in Eliwood's and Hector's tales.

So I would argue that the most likely explanation is mistranslation.

Edited by Paper Jam
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10 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

The odds seem incredibly poor to me that they translated the chapters the same in all other cases but this one, and in this case, the "mistranslation" just happens to be in line not only with the story but the differences between the story on the two routes.

Seriously. Every other chapter has an identical name, right? If they were translating the chapter titles separately by route you'd expect minor translation differences to crop up: "Four-Fanged Offence" vs "Attack of the Four Fangs" or something like that. That didn't happen, so clearly they were making an effort to make the titles the same. And yet the one place the titles are different does so in a place which services the story? If it is a coincidence (which seems unlikely) it's a happy one.

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36 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Seriously. Every other chapter has an identical name, right? If they were translating the chapter titles separately by route you'd expect minor translation differences to crop up: "Four-Fanged Offence" vs "Attack of the Four Fangs" or something like that. That didn't happen, so clearly they were making an effort to make the titles the same. And yet the one place the titles are different does so in a place which services the story? If it is a coincidence (which seems unlikely) it's a happy one.

I really felt like I had no way to respectfully state my counterarguement. So let me pre-phase it by saying I do not mean to disrespect IS as a brand nor its employees.

And I mean what I say in what is a very blunt and dry way.

But IS has consistently proven itself to be an expert at questionable, near borderline idiotic decisions.

Especially when it comes to storytelling.

(I do feel like there was a better way to say that. But I have yet to learn how to phrase 'I think a group makes less than good decisions' in a concise yet polite manner)

So I'd suggest that if the chapter names are NOT mistranslated. Which is a genuine possibility. (I mostly believe the mistranslation hypothesis because of it being the simplest explanation for changed chapter names.)

That the change in chapter names is done for story telling and gameplay to be just as implausible for IS the company to perform. Especially since Maeda, the scenario director and overall writer of FE7. Is rather shallow and his stories generally devolve into "Railroad straight to the next emotional scene with no time for context or world building!"
(Admittedly. I think he's underrated at exactly that. His writing style is... Lazy, but its execution I'd declare as rather competent. Especially when tempered by others. I'd say Lyn mode is still one of FE's better stories and its also directed by Maeda.)

I admit that I'm not completely certain what the real reason is. The closest thing I have to a new hypothesis is that there was chapter renaming at the end of the translation process for the English version. And somebody made an honest mistake and forgot to update HHM's version.

Its a bit more complicated than just "mistranslation" so I'd still lean towards it as being "most likely" without official statements.

But its certainly more likely than IS to be completely uncharacteristic in trying to do something never done before then forget about it eternally after. A company that mostly retreads the same story with a new cast or rarely a new theme. (That they then usually screw up badly because again. IS just doesn't do story telling super well.)

If you can find official statements supporting your suggestion. I am happy to withdraw my argument. And I'd like to state again that I don't mean disrespect. I love fire emblem and I'm glad IS was able to recover and make FE far more popular. I greatly disagree with their exact actions and think they can do much better.  But I think its observable fact that they aren't as capable of story telling as Squaresoft. (Even if I prefer FE to FF. I don't think its a hot take to say FF usually tells its stories better. And FF suffers from its own issues.)

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On 1/9/2022 at 6:50 PM, Paper Jam said:

* Talons Alight: Unclear. Maybe it's referring to how quickly Eubans' mercenaries attacked Castle Laus.

Eubans was supposed to have been nicknamed "the Eagle", per the Japanese version. Instead, he gets "the Hurricane" moniker... which also belongs to Legault.

On 1/9/2022 at 6:50 PM, Paper Jam said:

Footsteps of Fate: Unclear; perhaps it means the footsteps of Kent and Sain, or of the brigands who traveled from Caelin to Bulgar.

I'd assume it's the "footsteps" that lead Lyn to meet Kent and Sain, thus enabling her journey to Caelin.

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On 1/20/2022 at 6:43 PM, Paper Jam said:

If there's a story-based reason for the chapter to have two different names in the English version of FE7, why didn't it have two different names in the Japanese version?

At best it's a liberty taken by the localization team.

Oh, certainly. At this point I suspect we mostly agree and just have differing opinions on whether a "liberty taken by the localization team" is a good or a bad thing (which is fine, to be clear).

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