[Repost] Demiurge's Title, Localization, and the Japanese Struggle

 @Shangyan#1471 ```s the term often translated from Japanese as "Emperor," not referring to the Japanese Emperor, also correctly translated as "Great King"? I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```

That depends. There are multiple kanji that could apply to those titles in a general translation context. Off the top, the two traditional Emperor ttiles are reserved in the fan translation for Jircniv and Tsa's father.  Given how Maruyama calls knights from Jircniv's nation as "Imperial Knights" and JIrcniv has the "Emperor" class it does suggest that this kanji should be read as Emperor/Empire/Imperial and so on.

Demiurge's title is not so distinct, paralleling how King or Ou can in fact vary in nuance given it's roots in Chinese dynasties in the past as req was pointing out. For context, the Re Estize Kingdom uses Ou and is a feudal monarchy of a sort. Yet demihuman lords also are called King or Lord in the same way but their societal organization isn't as formalized as we would think of a proper Kingdom. But King or Lord does get across this powerful person is in charge and is a person of status.

If you want to be literal, clearly he shouldn't be called King or Emperor if you want to preserve nuance. But then, what can you call him?

If you look at the terms that share it, like for example the term, foreign emperors, "Imperial Heir" (male or female),  or how the modern Japanese title is no longer the Emperor used for the other two, it's not wrong to still call Jaldaboath an Emperor of a sort. This title however predates the other one in fact.

So you could see Maruyama using the obsolete one as a subtle form of respect (Japan is very weird in how you talk about the Emperor with living and deceased forms of address etc).

====

``` I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```

``` I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```

I guess you could interpret it as "Great King" not literally of course but as in Emperor > King which is echoed somewhat in the history of the term. Still, if it was literal, the title should've been something else and not what he choose. A nuance this adds however is just Great or High King implies superiority to regular Kings, Demiurge using it instead of the other one could be seen as implying the others are obsolete as well or retroactively going to become things of the past. If you interpret kanji choice that liberally....

If we try to understand Maruyama's logic, I believe you could argue that this version of Emperor could be considered a Great King. The logic he might have used was Demiurge was already in control of many Lords or Kings. The Empire is distinct because it's not an Emperor above various Kings but his own subjects. This line of reasoning falls apart with how the Dragon Emperor ruled over Dragon Lords however. Still, the logic used for JIrcniv's empire may not hav ebeen the same used for the Dragon Empire's name (or it's a vestige of Web Novel naming so Maruyama just named them the same at the time).

From my perspective, at least the difference between Kingdom and Emperor seems clear. What remains is how to include an alternate reading for Emperor in the midst. Pondering how to localize it seems to be the main problem. Looking at the history of 'Emperor' in English it's clear to draw a line from figures like Caesar and the original Latin literal meaning. 

===

Maybe because Demiurge is the defense commander and led his demihumans in battle as Jaldaboath on several occasions perhaps you could echo the parallels? LIke call Jaldaboath the "Demon Imperator" or "Evil Imperator" since I believe the official romanization was Evil not Devil or Demon in Volume 12's chapter page? But I could be misremembering that detail. Anyway right now at least distinguishing between the two Emperor names with Emperor and Imperator seems like a decent localization attempt at least.

[Repost]Rambling about Anime

 Popular peception doesn't equate to much given what I know of Japanese companies. It depends on who was doing the planning and the arbitrary goals they wanted from the product. For example, say both make a profit, wlel if that profit wasn't exactly up to the expectation, the product could still be deemed a failure in the eyes of the bureacracy at large irregardless of the consumers.

There's a whole slew of issues with this of course since private vs public companies, culture, etc affect the expectation. Given the Overlord Light Novels always had respectable sales could just as easily made someone eager to produce a back to back season expect to get say a certain percentage increase in novel sales only to not reach this target deem the whole thing  a failure on the executive side. Even if a profit was made on all fronts. This is how the world works, especially if they sunk more cost into the project than anticipated.

In regards to CG I've seen complaints from all degrees on the Japanese side as well. Westerner do tend to be whinier and more entitled to things being exactly a certain way however. then again Japanese fans can be far more critical of voice actor work or casting choices at times. Less people tend to be on hate trains at least since that's just the culture though. Even online there is more restraint. Well they also have more 'you didn't support the product so you don't have a right to complain either' mentality too. Extremes considered, the two different communities never felt too different even if subsets within their wholes can be vastly different in focus or appreciatoin or scope fo discourse.

From what i remember, second season tended to be held in lower regard than the third season beyond people who just didn't like Lizard and Carne arcs in general. That's more evident if you consider there were some staffing issues on the Overlord II production. If you rewatch it there are some clear pacing issues imo at least.

====

From a fan perspective we may judge things differently from a less invested fans perspective however. Many people are fine with anime adaptations as their entry into a media franchise compared to source material fans. Anime will always be more accessible for a variety a reasons from the percentage of people who just don't like reading vs favoring performance media to the various aspects of anime that appeal to others like sound design/voice acting to art ascetic.

Now a series gaining or losing in popularity depends on several factors. Typically just like many corporations expect growth, they expect because of investment and product salience to naturally increase consumption of whatever product is in question. For an anime that is future seasons would have higher viewrs if the product built up fans over a span of years overtime as the anime was syndicated on platforms after it's initial run. This depends on the media however. Sometimes sequels diminish in viewership and sales too depending on the perception of it. "I can't just get into the third one before the others right?" or so on.

All I can say for sure about the sales were both anime seasons did contribute to improved light novel sales and the anime itself sold decently to well in regards to it's peers at least all things considered from the numbers I've seen. the primary issue is decent may not have been what was planned for in either regard. Like a double booking could of been in hopes of a far higher growth in both lines of media. That's how committees view these things. usually studios don't make that call evne if it did better than they expected. These committees are usually publishers, the channel airing it, Sony, etc which can play a role in casting or production.
====
In Overlord's case the studio was part of the committee so it doing well season 1 probably was a factor in them getting to go for two more seasons, the PPP  and isekai quartet spin offs, and so forth along with Kadokawa's approval. The problem tends to be anime's don't finish adapting things because the publishers pull out seeing the bump being sustainable for a while and or not projected to be worth more seasons. the committees can try to convince for more seasons but it still comes down to these nebulous ideas of expectations and projectoins.  

That sounds like bullshit but market expectations differ based on time, staffing etc. Like now adays anime's aren't pulling in as many units of sales for anime releases post airing. This can likely be attributed to the decreased physical media demand with the rise of new platforms and service models of anime consumption in addition to sequel fatigue in the market. Animes tend to have that issue at least especially as their market is more fickle than say light novel consumers. Like how entitled they feel or how they will boycott an anime for dumb reasons at the most extreme.

Anyway, i won't argue that more people were invested into the next Overlord seasons but the profitability does not always correlate with this. I still stand by the difference in how they marketed the discs as telling of worries. The confounding variable is whether if it's just due to the market or a combination of that and Kadokawa possibly doubling down on projections and expectations.  
====
If this sounds contrived, for a case example, when Nintendo was working with Intelligent Systems or whatever their stipulations or expectations for Fire Emblem were basically the newer installments had to perform at or around the same level as the remake or they were going to pull the plug on it. This was far more reasonable than some other companies expecting that something will perform at the AAA level with a little bit of meddling. These are cherry picked but hopefully you get the sentiment how people in the entertainment industry over can think.

Tangent aside, the light Novels themselves at least have demonstrated increased performance thanks in part due to the anime adaptations looking at correlation. Although the book sales are strong that can't necessarily imply further seasons if the committee situation doesn't work out based on things not going good on their end.

If we look at things cynically, isekai quartet and the PPP push could of been 'tests' of a fashion for the committee one to try for cross market appeal and possibly help fund things on the anime end if someone over estimated the performance of Overlord II and III after Overlord I.
====
The problem on the Kadokawa end is actually an issue of riches. In terms of light novel performance, they are pretty much at the plateau already in terms of success. They are at the 200k pinnacle already now after all the anime advertising and so on. Like you could try to go for another season but they are not likely to see the explosive amount of sales they got from the other two in any shape or form based on pure percentages. They're already one of the top brands now.

If you consider the direction things are going into subject matter and how easy it would be to adapt to anime factors in as well. Volume's 12 and beyond get into subject matter a bit harder to get approval to broadcast for example. Certainly most anime don't need to worry about that due to their time slots etc. But when you start getting into concentration camps and what can be seen likened to genocide that's far cry from just someone wiping out soldiers en masse on a battlefield. Japan doesn't tend to be as squeamish about this but if some corporation reads or gets a brief on these events they can still pull out because of their concerns or lines being crossed.

Looking at quality, Q U A L I T Y, popularity, LN sales, Disc sales, the committee arrangement, the market share potential for growth, or the comparitive performance in isolation can't paint a clear picture of how things may go. I don't think there is a way to say for certain this or that will get adapted or marketed as it will. Shit like Jojo or Parasyte can get adaptations out of nowhere decades after their original runs, while years pass between seasons of a series before thely continue. 

[Repost] Incoherent Rambling - REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

@WJohnston#2820 

 

 ```the whole thing with overlord is like being thrown into a real-life fantasy world where momonga is the evil overlord villain, with a strong focus on character interactions  i just do not see overlord as being tied to game mechanics at all on a narrative or thematic level it has no need to hold onto those things ther than a crutch for writing.``` I agree with you that from a narrative stand point there is a strong foundation of tropes being played with where characters we see like Momonga fulfill roles that are common in fantasy in general but we see these people contour and deviate from tropes in their interactions. However I cannot agree with you on your other points. First, when creating any writing, you need a foundation for how things work - from physics to what have you. Instead of real life models, Maruyama chose to base his world's physical aspects on hard game design and other series. This affects the logic of the world itself, from potential technology to standards of living. At it's core that is one facet that will shape society as do how things like classes affect people's stations in life. Overlord isn't holding onto these ideas, it was built with them in mind. ```Notbeingabletotelloutcomesyoupreferbecauseyouareboundbysettingsisprobably Overlord’s shortcoming. That’s synonymous with Overlord however(being constrained by settings and RPG rules). This weakness is the kind ofdetail Maruyama wanted to use as a stepping stone to use to write a story!```[V14AT] It's not a crutch. Rather it's like trying to walk with giant spikes in your feet. It forces you to write with verisimilitude in mind as both you and your audience pick up on rules of the world and this creates depth but also burdens you with adhering to internal consistency. Secondly, Overlord's references are intertwined with it's narrative and themes. Sadly most people don't see it due to how niche the message is. There is an entire essay you can write on the conflict between tier and wild magic. 

Overlord has to hold onto these things because Overlord relies on inter textuality to paint its many broader meta textual ideas. It can stand on it's own merits by virtue of it's characters given it's broad appeal, but thematically, you need these game mechanics to better understand why history and conflicts turned out as they did in Overlord in the grand scheme of things. The further you dig, the more you connect, you'll start to see the real reason behind all sorts of events in the setting that come off as contrived. People bitch about Ainz always being at the right place at the right time for instance. From a writing stand point,m yeah you want to show the interesting stuff or have some purpose in midn. But in universe there is actually a reason as well. Now beyond that, there is broad meta commentary on 'game logic' in Overlord as well, even if it is vestigial. This ties in with the broader themes of aspects of the series. There is the plot reason why stuff happens. The game design behind it. The meta narrative why. And then the lesson of these ideas spring up from intertexuality outside the setting driving the interaction and resolution of the component pieces. For example, Nazarick steam rolls the New World or Players stomp Dragon Lords into genocide. We get the plot reason why (dragons lazy and didn't play toxic mmos, etc), the game reason whys (level lower, out geared, cash shop is hax, world class items, etc), the meta narrative (these are homages to the age of dragons being a now bygone era ushering in a new era more reminiscient of fantasy stories or settings or games) and finally the intertextual reason (you can infer what you will from what you think inspired Overlord). This isn't an exhaustive list by the way, but one of the facets of Overlord is far too niche to explain. If you can understand what the corruption of the New World really is then you might start to understand....   

I can understand why you might see Overlord the way you do. But I just can't sit back and let you trivialize Overlord as you did. There is a reason why Overlord takes so long to come out. Speaking as someone who has tried to emulate Maruyama's style exactly it is pure suffering. And then the majority of your audience will not even be aware of all the nuance and just latch onto what's visible on the surface. Is it vital to the core plot? Most people would say no, as they didnt' notice but got what was 'going on'. The broad strokes. But if you can't grasp the finer strokes, can you say you really understood the painting completely? In our modern culture people enjoy binging things, watching at 1.5 speed on their phones various media, watching videos on content they consume, etc. All of this comes at a price as people miss minutia, inadvertently affect their own interpretation of the content (eg film makers sometimes have shots linger or have silence in dialogue for a reason it's not something to just skip to get through it faster), and consuming summaries or another person's interpretation puts up a degree of separation from the true essence of the series. Just because you might not value the components of the piece doesn't mean the piece itself and it's artist were wrong to include them as part of the sum total of it's existence. Art is a composite of many things from homages, sampling, inspiration, exploration of ideas, commentary on many aspects, or evne direct rebuttals or responses to other art. When you just axe part of something you felt detracted from one element you value, you are censoring and belittling the other elements and the feelings that went into including them. It's akin to making light of all the cultural, linguistic, intellectual factors that led to the creation of various creation myths, of folklore told among the people of the past. Things are the sum total of their parts. Sometimes they may seem lesser but in others they are greater. 

[Repost] CSA and Kingdom Connection?

 

Well the problem with lingustic divergence in Overlord is auto translate really fucks things up. People just understand each other verbally, but any ethnic groups will retain their cultural identty with folk songs and shit. So Baharuth could of just been a language isolate in the giant mega ultra collective nation and only after literacy started to spread did it start to become an issue with the others. Roble for instance has some clearer issues with this being a relatively disconnected nation and culture for whatever reason. So even if people migrate, the regions bards can travel in will be subject to these quasi ethno-spheres. Now if we apprach things in terms of anthropology, yes we can't say for sure how big or broad in scope the mega human nation really was. I've seen arguments in favor of the CSA and the two Kingdom and Empire being parts of it before it's collapse. The main evidence was something about the port names and Re-Estize's name bearing some similarities to how Kista and her grandfather had a shared name of Ri and Kaberia. The naming pattern of territories in Re Estize doesn't quite follow the CSA pattern however, if we drop titled names, there is some similarities in how CSA is SHARED Personal SHARED meanwhile Re-Estize is PERSONAL PERSONAL TITLE FAMILY or PERSONAL PERSONAL PERSONAL Title FAMILY for Royals. The strange aspect of their culture is why the nation is run by the Vaiself family but the nation's name doesn't follow the pattern of all the other noble holdings unless there was some sort of royal family name change or usurpation, coup etc. Also strange is why their titles are just Slaine baptismal names, suggesting some religous influence/movements especially given their relative autonomy compared to the more isolated Roble which church and state are more closely connected but nto as much as the Theocracy.

[10:10 AM] Ziggy = オーバーヘッポコで『NINE』:

That's ultimately conjecture still given even in Bebad the two Ri X Kaberia's don't actually bear the name of the their territory. So this could of been a development in Re Estize after the fact to name territories afte rthe noble in charge. Whatis suspect is the main logistical cities of the ports on the North and West as well as the mining city have Ri's in their names just like the territory as a whole. So reconstructing it I do believe Re Estize could of started off as a human expansion project from the CSA based on the etymology of these names bear similarity to CSA human names of at least one ruling family of 'mayors'. Rampossa's suggestion for Renner and Zanac to flee to the CSA also suggested there might be some cultural ties as well since he didn't suggest to go to Slaine which would arguably be safer as a Divine magic based nation but it could of been for religious or political reasons (Slaine not willing to chastise the Sorcerer Kingdom but then again they didn't verbally approve the declaration of war) so we can't really rely on that. Given how other races are not accepted as easily in Re Estize as well, it's strange since Slaine is both closer and human centric but the CSA is a mixed culture like Aggrande.

[10:11 AM] Ziggy = オーバーヘッポコで『NINE』:

Not everyone is as accepting of linguistic reconstructions however. I personally believe that it is of relevance in Overlord at least based on several clear and definitive examples where this does shed light on the origins of things in setting. But I do see it as less concrete than other evidence.

[Repost][Unposted] Scope of Power A Comment I Didn't Post due to too many caveats, length, and being incomplete

 A Comment I Didn't Post due to too many caveats, length, and being incomplete, being overly pedantic, and never going to be broadly applicable based on different definitions. 

 

 ```How many levels do you need to be to become 

 Town buster
City buster
Mountain buster
Country buster
Continent buster
World buster
Universe buster
Multiverse buster
Outerverse level```

 

:thinking: Well depends on what context you mean buster in addition to what the others said. Like do you mean just being able to rofl stomp X population on your average scale? Or being able to wipe out areas of said scale base don pure AoE potential? For example, Gazef would be a town buster under the first but not the second way of thinking.  Narrowing things down under the second,  nothing is remotely close to Universe scale or beyond in Overlord as far as we know. At least in terms of World buster, not even Players can accomplish that realitically barring some Ouroborus Dragonball logic of borrowing something else's power. The only caveat for World buster in Overlord then is only a potential one in the Dragon Emperor since if you can realistically transport things to displace matter on your world with stuff from elsewhere (real or not) theoretically you could summon X amount of solar matter and potentially do world devastation levels of damage if you run that to it's natural conclusion based on just gravity, temperatures, etc in the natural biome in sufficient amounts. Same thing if it was just Nazarick sized glaciers popping up over the centuries slowly raising the water levels and or lowering temperatures. The potential exists but it's not framed that way so it remains purely theoretical one. Basically anyone else is lower in scope. If we look at the scales in universe at least, Olasird'arc and even Soul Eaters at Level 40 can devastate a city in terms of casualties or destruction and evne Death Knights due to being a Zombie Apocalypse vector can potentially do it as well with the Squire to Infinite zombie exploit. What you are mainly missing in your criteria is that between Country and Continent you need a new unit or category. We have one confirmed native at that scope at least, with Cure Elim taking out several countries worth

 We also need to define city since that is going to get a bit iffy given you have metropolitan cities vs say City States like in the CSA with populations in the 100,000 range vs what nations like my nation list as the minimum size for a city being like only a 1,000 with certain conditions. A city state could also be based on a mountain too for instance. Based on your ordering, I'll assume you're going on the implicity idea that normally a nation will consist of a surface area of a few cities, towns, and or mountains etc. Basically the idea of a City State having a sufficiently large sphere of influence of a few dozen kilometers or so on. IIRC Athens and Sparta were only a few hundred miles/kilometers away at least so we'll go with that relative distance before we get into all sorts of tangents. 

With conditions like that, Gazef could be a city buster if we low ball cities with different standards than with our post industrialization globalization biases for instance. Also we have to factor in that if Gazef murders all the decent people those remaining will be far less of an issue than if they all attacked at once with plans and shit. Equipment dependencies matter too. Given Adamantites and Gazef who ranks higher than the weaker ones at least can take on several hundred of humans or beyond beings like undead at least in terms of raw strength we do have some basis to normalize.

This exact issue crops up with Mountains as Mountains can vary wildly in size. Also if we use the population buster impression, do you mean wiping out a surface area worth of people or surface area + hollowed out caverns and tunnels as well? If you've studied surface area vs say surface area plus this added dimension it can escalate quickly.

 Now I'll take for granted we're using some semblance of design here instead of 'lol Haruhi instant wins' 'Saitama punches really hard'  "Reinhard OTP"unfounded story devices instead of characters based on actual game logic.

Also factoring in build this doesn't mean a Level 100 farmer will be able to do this. Rather it's a vague sense of power scale instead for combat builds to begin with. So no Ordinary/Average/Normal  classes. Secondly we're ignoring builds like say a MP heavy Ulbert who can run out of MP if not pace or outfitted right for the situation despite his strength affecting his strength or the general level of the people or population getting stomped. Basically, we'll use the norm of the Continent of most nations have most people below Level 20, a few above 20, and a select few in the 30-40  category and are never present in numbers beyond a certain amount (Slaine or Corpus being on the higher end  of raw power level mobilizable forces in that category) . We can't discount say a nation of stronger races however too since some did exist in the past but based on Satoru's musings, realistically nations of people beyond levle 40 is very unlikely. 

Given how little we know about the Dragon Empire tha tis also an exception since we do know at least this world was under the threat of Zy'tl level monsters but the Dragonlords supposedly handled it depite what seems like disorganization from the accounts and surviving members testimonies. Like a village of just one chad dragon lord with a harem of dragons could of existed and through out the sense of scale completely. Olasird'arc is good example of a low level version of this exact situation if you discount the Quagoa and factor in the size of his palace.

 1s Vast majority of certain races, weake rmonsters, wild life, etc

10s Upper limit for most of the normal races; armies of humanoids are mostly in this range at best

20s  typical limit for people; few make it past even the mid twenties, some demihumans can reach this

30s Range form a few to a modest amount based on breeding, race, nation etc. Certain strong/apex monsters. Never in large numbers even in the best situations for the vast majority of natives. Exceptional demihumans normally only reach this far rarely.

40s A handful of the world's most strongest monsters, people, Night liches, or modern dragons

50s Freaks, legendary beings, abnormal shit from a series of unlikely events (Evileye )

60s+ Basically unheard of natively beyond Dragonlords, Godkin, or monsters summoned by unknown means like Zy'tl that may or may not be from YGGDRASIL

Population Stomper 

Village buster - mid to high teens eg Imperial Knights vs Re Estize's levies Zenberu's claim of taking on several dozen low level undead (Platinum rankers maybe)

 Town buster - High Teens to Low Twenties eg the Worker's general power level in Volume 7, the Four Knights be comparable to a few hundred soldiers (Mithril to Orichalcum)
City buster - Mid to high Twenties eg Gagarin and Gazef feeling able to take on closer to a thousand foes (Adamantite and beyond)
Mountain buster - Depends on the mountain size. Maybe certain heroes or ritual casters causing a ritual to go haywire? eg Remedios thought she could take 10000 people and the Quagoa felt Pe Riyuro may of been able to take his entire race (realm of heroes)
Country buster -  Death Knights, Soul Eaters, Night liches? (Mid 30s to 40s), Behemoths, random legendary monster attacks (as noted in history on occasion aka things like the Lava Angler Fish or the sidestory nation destruction norm)

Multi-nation buster -  Cure Elim (Level 95); Super Tier magic users Level 70+ YGGDRASIL Player  Casters (eg Biblical Locust Swarm), something like Wrath or Zy'tl in the 80s just walking around
 

Continent buster - None confirmed but repeated use of Multi-nation class abilities could devastate the continent if no one can stop it's abuse. Players or Dragonlords could do this if they don't encounter some fatal flaw or new ability to stop them ()
World buster - Players or the Dragon Emperor relying on external means to manifest abilities, theoretically that could cascade into the world's demise based on environmental factors, infinite summonings of something, the biome being altered catastrophically etc.
Universe buster - out of Scope in Overlord
Multiverse buster - ""
Outerverse level - ""

In terms of the scale of destruction individually (predominantly monsters and Magic Casters)

Village: Anyone hero rank could probably do it due to raw strength or using spells.

Town:

City: Souleater and monsters with abilities of that nature. A few rituals to wipe out a city. Large sized monsters stomping.

Mountain: Most Players at best? eg Maybe Mare, Guren etc. Some Super Tier.

Country:  A few exceptional abilities from Super Tier magic?

Multnational: Dragonlords confirmed.

Continent: Maybe Dragonlords or a few select abilities from YGGDRASIL with unrestricted AoEs?

World: Pretty much no one on their own merits.

Bullshit etc: None

Hitori's Translator Note Volume 14

 

“In addition, building a nation implies that we will be defending morepeople. Turning countries into graveyards will only damage the name of AinzOoal Gown. Now, has anyone noticed anything?”

[V9 Nigel]

“Making a country willmean we have more to protect. There isn’t anyone to praise the name Ainz Ooal Gown in ruined countries. Now, is there anyone else who thought of something?

[V9 Yen Press]

“There is the question of being able to govern such a kingdom. Ruling over a ruined country would bring shame to the name of Ainz Ooal Gown.” - WN Frostfire

The original context is that it's hard to manage a nation, but the scenes are framed a bit differently between LN and WN despite the scene at large being composed similarly.

The exact Japanese in the WN appears to be what the anime used for reference (as members of the anime staff read the WN and included WN elements [ confirmed in some interviews], in scenes into the anime at various points such as the Season 3 Jircniv reaction scene or Ainz's voice actor using a different voice based on how the drama cd was directed).

"A nation we're in control becoming ruined would be unworthy of the name Ainz Ooal Gown. "

Put More simply: "If the country goes to shit while we're in charge it'll hurt our rep"

Ziggy - WN Literal

Ainz-sama once said that ‘to rule over a ruined nation would be bad for our reputation.’

Volume 14 Hitori

Given how Volume 14(2020) came out after Season 3 of the anime (2018) and Volume 13(2018) most likely that was actually meant to represent Maruyama reacting to WN dialogue popping up in the anime instead of the LN dialogue leading him to be confused as he hasn't worked on it at the time for many years.

Your mileage will probably vary but based on the chronology, the other translator note referring to a scene between Demiurge and Fluder only in the web novel, the existence of WN content in the anime, and all the various translations of these lines, this doesn't strike me as a bad translator note as if someone had originally only known one translation they may have suggested the translation was referring to something but was done poorly when in fact it is referring to previous content that wasn't translated as good originally. Nigel had notes explaining how the orcs are closer to Japanese orcs for example in Volume 12 for context as well to address confusion over why the Orcs didn't look like what people thought they would.

Trying to reconstruct why Hitori included this: Hitori probably read Nigel's translation but then was confused at this line, not recalling these events like most fans probably would, and found the web novel version offered an origin for why this dialogue may exist.

I understand not everyone agrees on the purpose of translator notes (see reaction TNs in manga projects, vs etymology notes, alternate reading notes etc). Ultimately they should at least explain some nuance lost in translation that the translator notices but can't possibly convey perfectly due to the nature of translations. Sometimes the translator needs to tell the audience things because you can't convey every nuance of the author in a new language or due to previous translations clouding self referential content translated by somebody else later.

[Repost] Wild Magic Corruption

Q:

 

Was the corruption of wild magic due to soul magic existing in Yggdrasil?

The game had known soul lore magic like Soul-Bought Miracle.

What are your thoughts on there being other things involving souls(xp) like soul bind, soul gems for crafting or mitigating xp cost?

 

 A:

 

The closest equivalent to soul magic in YGGDRASIL is Level and EXP draining abilities, magic or otherwise. Examples include Ainz's Undead Lieutenant, Wish Upon a Star, and Raise Dead, all magic consuming EXP. The reason is New Worlder's call Raise DEad 'consuming lifeforce' even though it's not draining HP like Negative Energy when it drains lifeforce. Regular New Worlder's are not the best authorities on this however, as Fluder a famed magic researcher still admits wild magic is beyond the understanding of those who dabble in tier magic.

So if we turn to the Dragon Lords we're left with some answers but also some mysteries. Namely, the Elder Coffin Dragon Lord did not appear to cast wild magic from his own HP bar or MP bar, while Riku Agneia(the Platinum armor) is troublesome as it's not a bona fide dragon lord but a puppet of sorts. Satoru in the sidestory never mentioned BDL using wild magic by HP either as he wasn't looking for HP drain from Cure Elim. What we can conclude is that HP drain may not necessarily be life force or souls either. There is already precedence however that what animates a body can count as HP even if it is not the same power. Namely positive and negative energy both count as HP fo rliving and undea drespectively so we can't say what Riku Agneia was draining was actually lifeforce as in positive energy or negative energy, espeicaly as Pandora's Actor's tests did not seem to drain it's HP from negative energy or heal it.

In that regard, EXP drain still seems the most likely candidate for overwriting native wild magic, but it doesn't explain how True Dragon Lords are never described getting weaker while casting in those cases. For example, why do undead Dragon Lords retain the classes but lose the ability to cast? This would suggest its got to be related to HP as in positive only. But we find a contradictiion with Tsa's puppet being powered by something other than positive energy.

Using yoru example, if we suppose SBM is running on wild magic rules, then it didnt' cost hp or MP to use as far as we understand it. Also XP doesn't seem to fit either. Because Wild Magic cost isn't reflected universally and we hav eyet to see a living dragon lord use it in the flesh, we might not be able to reach a conclusion on what soul cost should normally be right now.

Now what the corruption of wild magic really is will depend on which school of thought if we ignore Souls being some new bar or Soul Points etc, you come from as we are basically just conjecturing or using hypotheses based on limited data (still no on screen living ie normal dragon lord casting it yet).

1.) Dragon Lords Breaking the Law

2.)Mana Pollution Corruption (literal filth theory; Old Mana vs Mana)

3.) Martial Arts stole Focus from wild magic; Lifeforce used to be Focus but now must be HP

4.) Auto Translate Corrupted Wild Magic as it is cast differnetly

1.) Based on Inter Textuality (going to the sources that inspired Overlord's mechanics) some say Wild Magic's corruption is the result of them using a system that should no longer exist. Just as Brain began to die and bleed from breaking the rules of this world, dragon lords, this theory holds, now suffer HP damage for using Wild magic as they are ignoring the 8 Greed King patch, where magic should be powered by MP and tier magic classes now. The support for this is if we look at native only 'magic' such as Talents and Martial Arts, they do not draw from HP or MP at all, yet can achieve power just as well and mimic aspects of tier magic for instance. Drawing from Intertexuality, there is evidence of a series where the arts of the dragons were damned by "Gods" after a war with the dragons led by a Platinum Dragon leading to any usage of dragon abiltieis causing damage.

Not a concerete argument, but I hope you get the relative idea of "it's weird wild magic only sometimes drains HP even if it's uncommon for NW abilities". So we can explain why Cure Elim didn't seem to lose HP but Riku did as he was no longer a dragon lord and had a tier magic lcass so was allowed to 'wield magic' as he was now following the new rules.

1. The Wild Magic corruption is connected to a rule change as you suggest. Basically whatever souls used to be now cannot be used so HP or something else is used instead. The idea is something like 'mana' used to be souls or life force but now it has to be tie rmagic mana. Think of it as Lifeforce or Souls are "Old Mana" and this new substance "Mana" is the actual pollution or filth of this world. Just as things naturally absorb mana now, this Mana is Pollution hypothesis claims the reason dragon lords no longe rare very active is because they are literally poisoned by the new mana of the world and thus why living dragon lords cannot use tier magic and also why Cure Eim would bother becoming undead: he can actually leave mountains or underground refuges now unlike the others. Basically mana is toxic radiation to them now. The exact reasoning is vague, as we are drawing on some circumstance evidence, but it's clear that since healing spells can harm the undead, and vice versa, it's not impossible for a substance that animates one creature to harm another even if its not damaging to other races.

Some supporting ideas for this is how Arcane casters are actually spewing out auras of mana somehow as seen by Arche and Fluder's talent. Also, undead casters form from the bodies of regular casters, supposedly.

3.) Another school of thought is Wild Magic used to draw on what Martial Arts draw on - Focus. But for whatever reason, Warriors now learn and use it. Effectively, this school assumes the Greed Kings actually made a request of some sort to spread YGGDRASIL abilities in general and not just tier magic. As people of this world don't learn active skills like YGGDRASIL warriors, this school claims that Wild Magic was retroactively stolen by the Warrior job classes. Evidence includes how many 'low level' martial arts resemble low level wild magic in scope and power, like physical augmentation, or very broad coatings on weapons or the body.

Ultimately this theory becomes 1 but it justifies the rule violation as a mechanics switch, and thus Dragon lords are only able to use wild magic now using wild magic classes by rule breaking like Brain did.

4.) A less common theory is because Cure Elim's dragon lord title was bugging out, and Tsa for some reason couldn't use his own title as Riku Agneia (why is up for debate), a few people believe that auto translate or something else fucked up wild magic accidentally. That is, wild magic was not damaged by a rules change to the mechanics but actually whatever caused auto translate. Evidence includes the fact wild magic actually does not [Cast] or <Cast> but it's invoked just by normal speech (wild magic spells don't use grammar marks at all to be cast unlike martial arts or tier magic or skills).

It sounds like bullshit I know, but because Wild Magic is purposely denoted different from all other abilities, it's not implausible auto translate would affect it if was not operating on the rules of YGGDRASIl abilities. Detractors say Wild Magic is denoted differently because it is proof it is no longer magic or operating as it used too. As you can tell, there are many counter arguments to this as there are many explanations for auto translate, some citing it was always normal in this world base don XXXXXXX etc. There is more to this theory but it's the least popular one so I'll leave it at that.

Those are some of the ideas that get thrown around from the various places I frequent.