Why "Homicidal Nature" is NOT a Mistranslation (Genshin Impact)



Despite what some have been led to believe, “Homicidal Nature” seems to be an accurate representation of Shenhe’s character.

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Intro: 0:00
Translation by my Chinese Grandma: 0:17
Homicidal is Accurate: 0:54
Why There is a Misconception: 2:05
#Genshin #GenshinImpact #Shenhe

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29 thoughts on “Why "Homicidal Nature" is NOT a Mistranslation (Genshin Impact)”

  1. Hmm, I always thought Shen He resorted to killing as first means of solving problems if it means getting rid of her problems, where normal humans try to talk it out. We just didn't get to see that in the quest cause the traveller and paimon discouraged her when she suggested killing everyone in the jade chamber contest.

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  2. The thing about the Destiny of Strife in Asian media is that the destiny does not make you murder happy (though the holder can be, or is accustomed to killing), it just makes the holder's path in life filled with conflict and strife (often involving blood shed), this destiny will also affect the people involved with and around the holder (It basically acts like an AoE Debuff around the holder that loweres the life expectancy of everyone in it).

    This Destiny is often paired with another trait that makes it so that the holder will obsorb the life force/luck/fortune of those they slain, who's destiny the holder cuts short. This makes it so that the holder becomes more able to survive their destiny, but at the same time with every death they cause, the Destiny of Strife to become stronger resulting in more conflict and death. In short the holder is basically on a crash course to becoming a Demon lord of some sort

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  3. It's not necessarily a mistranslation, I do think it could have been translated better. For example, they could say she has a cold heart, or is indifferent to humanity etc. There are lots of other better ways to get across the idea without using the hamfisted "homicidal" wording, which no one speaking English would use to describe themselves with. In the context of that specific line where she is talking about herself it'd be much better to use "bloodthirst"; "to control my bloodthirst" is so much better than "to control my homicidal urges", or even the simple "to control my anger".

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  4. The one thing that bothers me is apparently
    Her wanting to be with the traveler diminishes her character to which I say why?
    It's not gonna make her helpless in a fight
    It's not gonna ruin her characterization
    And it's not gonna cure her urges
    It's just gonna make her feel better and give her someone to turn to for advice

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  5. It’s upsetting people don’t hold translators in high regard and don’t trust their translations. I don’t think people understand just how difficult it is to translate something accurately from another language, and especially to make it sound right in english, as direct translations can often sound kinda off and broken.

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  6. Such things seem to be in a short word actually mean a long, translated into modern languages according to divination, the fate of the loneliness of her relatives and friends will be luckily, such people often meet with disaster, lead to behavior, will eventually hurt yourself and others. The extreme behavior, here is her leave hand is too much in combat. Bannett has a similar fate. Bannett is just a simple personal misfortune, but Shenhe's disaster level, ranging from directly meeting robbers to meeting demons

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  7. Yeah the concept is so complicated that as a Chinese I can't fully grasp it. I guess you have to dig to the Taoist religion to get a precise meaning. But I think a very simple and straightforward understanding is that she's very very violent by nature and as explained during the main quest the adepti had to seal her power and violence with the red strings to suppress these negative emotions. Think of the Joker from Batman. It's basically like that. Yeah it's your Joker waifu lol

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  8. The truth of her "extremely high impulse to kill" makes her transformation even more impressive.
    She is a good person, the negative side is part of her fate and she had already conquered it (well most of it).

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  9. This, while not exact, is the closest thing I have seen so far to what my initial assessment of her character was when I read her description.
    Shenhe's back story doesn't seem to be that of a wanton murderer, rather one belonging to someone who has led an unimaginably difficult, and often times strange, life marked by harsh choices, which has left her preoccupied with her traumatic past and is thus prone to confusion, anger, and introverted self-harm. This is also alluded to by, amongst other things, her character design, with the Red Ropes giving multiple and multi-cultural references to being solitary by necessity for much of her life, prone or born into unlucky relationships, and bound to her fate by history and forces beyond her control, while simultaneously indicating that those lasting relationships she does form throughout her life, though less frequent than most, are sure to be steadfast and of high quality. The Red Ropes, also act as a reminder to her to cherish all forms of life, even those which would do her harm, and to live her life in the here and now; they also state rather plainly, that her true inclination is to master the animal instincts the course of her survival has left her with, rather than be mastered by them. To me Shenhe most resembles the 'old tiger woman', being originally gentile and kind in nature, she was born into an unlucky time and place for that sort of spirit to be, and thus has led a divergent life path and developed a reputation for disaster.
    It is refreshing to see that you took the time to ask an elder for their interpretation of this lonely and often times misunderstood archetype, many thanks to your grandmother for her wisdom.

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  10. To be fair based on the description you provided that doesn't soundbite homicidal nature. Just sociopathy or apathy with self loathing. Homicidal can work but it is very weird because it isn't used to describe a personality trait. It's that Google translate vibe of using technically correct words but used so awkwardly it sounds unnatural

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