Category Archives: Mandalorian to English

Didn’t We Just Leave This Party?

This week, let’s take another look at the two Mandalorian posters that were introduced in the Spirits of Vengeance flashpoint and can also be found by players as stronghold decorations. In the most recent Game Update, the posters were revised and now no longer translate into English but into Mando’a, Star Wars‘ Mandalorian spoken language.

It seems that I may be inadvertently to blame for this change because of the translations of the posters I made earlier this year, something I learned to my surprise when I tweeted about the update a month ago.

I confess I had some complex reactions to this discovery. First, it’s honestly a very cool feeling to know that I got to have even a small effect on the game, but I was also somewhat abashed when I realized that my little blog led to extra work for someone on the art team at Bioware. For what it’s worth, that also meant that I also had to revise my recreations as well, so what goes around comes around. It’s like poetry, I guess; it rhymes.

If you compare the updated posters to their original versions, you can see that there were some additional changes made, especially to the banner from the Ash’ad ship, the Seeker’s Vigil. The revised graphic now features deeper and richer hues of the traditional Mandalorian red and green colors. While I can’t say if it’s intentional or not, this particular color palette specifically recalls to me the fresh coat of paint Boba Fett applied to his armor late in season two of The Mandalorian.

Despite a large number of weird alien texts seen in SWTOR and across Star Wars lore, Star Wars does not have a full Constructed Language or “conlang” like J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish, Star Trek’s Klingon or Game of Thrones’ Dothraki to call its own. The origins of the Mando’a language stretch back to The Knights of the Old Republic, but it’s been used frequently in both SWTOR. as any Torian stan can attest, and in many recent animated and live action Star Wars adventures.

For now, Mando’a vocabulary is mostly limited to the kind of things we can imagine Mandos most care about: honor, glory, battle, that sort of thing. It’s not yet at the point where you can have a conversation about the weather, your favorite Grav-Ball team, or how much better Hamlet is in the original Mando’a. It’s not unreasonable to think the language might be further fleshed out in future seasons of The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch.

The use of Mando’a, however, does present something of a dilemma for this humble translator. My recreations thus far have all been direct, letter for letter copies of the originals, even when they are not meant to have any actual meaning in English. However, in the future I may be tasked with not only transliterating Mandalorian letters in to English letters, but also translating Manda’o into English.

I’m wondering how far I should go. My goal for this project has always been to present SWTOR’s alien writing in a way that makes it feel as familiar to players as to their characters, but Mando’a is likely as unfamiliar to most folks as Aurebesh, and since Mando’a grammar is different from English, any full translations I make may lean towards my interpretation of the text rather than direct translation. This is a dilemma faced by any translator, of course, but I must admit learning to speak Mandalorian is not a skill I thought I would need when I started this blog!

For now, however, in regards to these two posters, we know exactly how they are meant to be translated thanks to their original iterations, but in the weeks to come, we might just get to find out how clever an alien linguist I am! Wish me jate’kara!

 

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That Which Does Not Kill Us

With SWTOR‘s next game update “Dark Descent” arriving in just a few days, I figure it was high time to finally translate the third of three Mandalorian themed banners introduced late last year in the Spirits of Vengeance flashpoint.

While it was the last one I recreated, this will be the first one players encounter on their journey through the flashpoint on board the Clan Varad crewed starship, Champion’s Glory.

The sign is gold with purple and black accents and features a fitting slogan for the Clan. Described as “restless” by a Dark Lord of the Sith and bloodthirsty by most everyone else, Clan Varad served as the antagonists of the flashpoint Mandalorian Raiders and are likely already familiar to many players of the game.

The slogan is vague enough to appeal to the single-minded goals of Clan Varad, but it does beg the question: “Strongest at what?” I doubt Mandalorians who align with Varad have much interest in self-reflection so the question seems likely answered by whichever beskar-pot dictator shows up with the biggest blasters that day. Millennia later, these would go on to be the last words of the Deathwatch’s Pre Vizsla, so the slogan remains fittingly ironic.

When Is A Skull Not A Skull?

All three of the posters featured in the Spirit of Vengeance flashpoint feature unique and truly very cool takes on the famous skull icon made famous by Boba Fett. Of the three new symbols, the skull on the Clan Varad banner is most similar to the classic Mythosaur skull, but this version has a hand-printed texture rather than a stamped one, suggesting that if nothing else, Varad is far more hands-on than most Mandalorian clans.

Next up, the Darmanda logo from the Fortune’s Folly is quite similar in shape to the skull, but more closely evokes the contours of the equally if not more famous T-shaped visor of the Mandalorian helmet, but with a sleek, futuristic flair.

I alluded to this in the post in which I translated the banner from Heta Kol’s ship, the Seeker’s Vigil, but I might as well put my tin-foil hat theory on the record sooner rather than later. I suspect that symbol is not a skull at all, but the hilt of a weapon. But what weapon? Now, the Darksaber as seen on the shows The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian was created well after the events of Star Wars: The Old Republic, but what if Heta Kol is looking to create or acquire a proto-Darksaber? While other weapons inspired by modern Star Wars lore have found their way into SWTOR, this distinct take on the lightsaber feels conspicuous by its absence. This addition could also firmly connect Shae Vizla to Clan Vizsla, which has also played a significant role in Star Wars stories recently.

Or maybe I’m overthinking it, and it’s just a fancy skull. Hopefully we’ll find out before too long!

 

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Filed under General Star Wars, Mandalorian to English, Onslaught

Cherish the Past

This week let’s take a look at the second of three Mandalorian posters found in the new flashpoint Spirit of Vengeance. Beware! My comments on this poster, found on the Ash’ad ship, the Seeker’s Vigil, could be considered spoilers for the flashpoint’s story, so definitely check that out first.  Although the Mando’a spoken language has been frequently used in SWTOR, the Mandalorian font makes its SWTOR debut, I believe, in Spirit of Vengeance.

The poster is available as a Stronghold decoration that can drop from bosses in the flashpoint, although it seems to have been mislabeled as propaganda from the Dar’manda ship, Fortune’s Glory.

At first glance, the most prominent image on the poster seems to be the familiar Mandalorian skull symbol, but I don’t believe this is meant to depict the Mythosaur at all. The poster’s color scheme and design most closely recalls the flashpoint’s final boss, Heta Kol whose helmet shares a similar arrangement of horns and prominent dorsal fin. Whether it is meant to be an image of a specific creature, I cannot say. I’d actually suggest that the icon better evokes the shape of a dagger or sword or saber hilt.

If that is the case, then the visual design appears to be at odds with the written message of the poster which implies that whoever created it clearly does not believe that the pen is mightier than the sword.

The mystery of Heta Kol has become a hot topic of conversation since the release of the flashpoint, and the text might be a reference to Canderous Ordo, otherwise known as Mandalore the Preserver. Should we take this as a clue that she has ties to the brothers Jekiah and Ras Ordo, whose sister is presumed to be dead? Maybe!

Overall I like how the poster immediately evokes in its color and design classic Mandalorian imagery, but gives it an unexpected twist or two.

Sell the Sizzle

While it’s not unusual for news from SWTOR to dry up this time of year, Bioware has put the next game update on the PTS unexpectedly early. But the most dramatic news this week came from starwars.com which announced that future Star Wars games would now share the official identity of “Lucasfilm Games.” To mark the announcement, they showed off a “sizzle real” of clips from numerous Star Wars games including, The Old Republic! The news has already triggered announcements of more Lucasfilm property games from publishers other than EA. SWTOR has very often been relegated to the roll of the forgotten middle child struggling for attention whenever newer, hotter games come out. Nevertheless, SWTOR has remained a stalwart over the years, and it’s always nice to see it get some love from Mom and Dad at the official website as the game celebrates its tenth anniversary.

Fingers crossed that there is more excitement to come!

 

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Filed under General SWTOR, Mandalorian to English, Onslaught