Yikes. Page 13 and I FINALLY got to the main cast. When I was starting the story, I really didn’t think it would take this long to get to Roka and company, but I just had a lot of other ground to cover first with the new Rogue crew and the Tylo check-in. But I hope it was worth the wait to see Ril immediately being his usual jerk self.
Ril got a VERY last minute line revision in panel 4, where his second balloon was originally, “Also, baby assassinations!” For me, the idea of sending an assassin after a baby was ridiculous enough to be funny, but long after completing the page, I wondered if some could interpret the line as referring to abortions. Ack. And I worried that if there’s an international translation of the series, that same thing could happen, which would be very unfortunate.
I had a surprisingly hard time coming up with a replacement line that was ridiculous, awful enough for Ril to expect a reaction without being overly grotesque, but also not a crime that’s problematic or possible in real life. And I just couldn’t come up with anything as funny as “baby assassination.” Ultimately, I just added “time travel” to the line to make it more of a play on the sci-fi idea of taking out an infant Hitler or John Conner. At least I hope it clearly comes across as that sort of thing and not the other thing.
Hey, now. To be fair, he said ROKA was cautious. Never said anything about Ril ;D
And, speaking of!! So happy to see my favorite boy again!! I remember reading this little snipit in the script in the Kickstarter video and laughing so much 8’D
I suppose I can’t speak for anything on the translation issues side, but as far as the English side goes, that definitely just reads as some kind of over the top joke akin to the wacky stuff you can get up to in Crusader Kings (Throw the baby in the oubliette!), then any sort of abortion allegory of any kind.
‘Suppose it could have been tweaked to “Toddler” assassinations, to raise the age out of abortion range, or “Puppy” assassinations if you wanted to be just as shockingly out there, but steer out of infanticide all together, but honestly this feels like one of those situations where if someone WANTED to find something to be offended at, they’ll go out of their way to grasp for those tiny straws to do it, no matter how you try to patch it (-Shrugs-)
Still an absolute golden sequence, no matter the version~
Yup, I figured it should come across as just a ridiculously silly and over-the-top “crime” to be advertising that couldn’t be taken the wrong way. But yes, there are plenty of people who I feel are LOOKING to take things the wrong way so they can be upset about something that was never intended. Ugh. I think if someone had issue with the joke in English, I could handle it as someone just taking it the wrong way. But if it somehow got officially translated wrong in another language and actually appeared in print that way, that would be much harder to deal with.
BTW, I did consider “puppy assassination,” which I thought would be funny as well. But I know in sci-fi, sometimes the use of a word like “puppy” can lead to questions about whether dogs exist in this universe, if baby dogs are referred to as “puppies,” or if there would be some other alien word for baby animals, but then some random alien word wouldn’t come through in the joke, etc. I know that’s overthinking it, but once your brain starts to entertain those questions, it’s hard to stop!
Haha! Fair, fair!
Though I do feel like “puppy” could be a fairly safe one for any future use, seeing as we’ve already seen dog-like animals be referred to as “Hounds” and “Watchdogs” in the previous chapter~
So far the only non sci-fi term I’ve seen used that gave me any pause was Cember’s use of the word “Demon” when talking about the yak, but even then it was the fun kind of pause, as trying to imagine how space religion/folklore must have evolved in this world is a blast, Haha!
Depending on the translation I don’t know if “baby assassination” would be taken the same as “abortion” (I’m pro-life myself) except by the most extreme point of view and I’d like to think they’d still understand the gag. Still, throwing in time travel makes it funnier so it works out in the end.
I think ‘time travel’ gives it the right amount of absurd. The whole scene is humerous. Ril might be a jerk, but he can be funny.