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

[@RedFlaim]

Translation, localization, and nuances got me messed up man

[@akita4914]

Poggers

[@AdrianAire]

They can be annoying and misplaced

[@famousdamus927]

@RedFlaim same I still do not know what the gender of the dendro archon is from Ganyu’s voiceline

[@nou-wu6ww]

@@famousdamus927 It's pretty much confirmed that the dendro archon is female. This is revealed when we talk to yae at the end of inazuma's archon quest where she reveals some clues for sumeru.

[@danmcginnis7391]

Lack of the knowledge of right and wrong we call amoral, not homicidal. All are born that way. Homicidal requires at least the inclination to kill, not indifference to it.

[@debunkintheories922]

She literally said in the quest to these two guys that she could deal with them by slamming their heads repeatedly on the ground. Sounds pretty homicidal.

[@neatguy5442]

Yeah and the fact that she is strong enough to lift that huge piece of phospherite on her own without issue shows that those guys would have died the moment she slammed their heads into the ground lmaooo!

[@debunkintheories922]

@@neatguy5442 Exactly. If she can lift that then she would’ve easily killed those two guys.

[@nguyenlightduy7020]

@@neatguy5442 i think she use magic to move that rock But yeah she strong enough to slammed those head easy

[@ratatouilledrinksclorax9897]

Yeah at that point of the quest im more like "yeah shes a menace, if she dies its for the safty of everyone else lol", still i like her character buuut im not opposed to the thought, she aint just a normal human on supressants she could probably, no definitely uplift everything on Liyue and turn it on its head...soooo fkin spiderman's a menace type shit lmao

[@yharnamiyhill787]

At the end she suggest to a drunk that if he doesn't remove himself, he'd be pouring his liquor into an "orifices of your choice." (She was going to impale him many times...)

[@kimarimoi]

Maybe too obvious, but Shenhe is the yin to Chongyun's yang. All cryo characters have some element of irony/paradox; Chongyun is an exorcist who's never actually seen a demon or spirit, Shenhe is a generally-good person with evil/violent impulses. Her "Something to Share" line talks about how she can easily drive off evil spirits, but can't purge her own inner demons.

[@28crane]

Yeah, mhy must be design her as a complement of Chongyun. Completing the Yin and Yang.

[@acegardianarocrat]

@@28crane and also completing the last part of his line "...world be saved."

[@JohnJillky]

Never thought about that. Eula vengeance talk sounds a lot worse that it is, quite the opposite really. Rosaria being a "nun"

[@frozenocarina]

@@JohnJillky kaeya is a cavalry captain without any horses

[@JohnJillky]

@@frozenocarina of fucking course lmao

[@shining.sacrilege]

Shenhe needs a shirt that says "World's Best Aunty"

[@leelee0505]

theres a fanart of chongyun giving shenhe a drawing of them together, and shenhe sticking it infront of a turtlesweater and wearing it. i think its close enough lol

[@shining.sacrilege]

@@leelee0505 bestie what is your pfp and channel banner 😭🤚

[@chewsstar]

@@shining.sacrilege why did you have to point that out man 🙂

[@mavisseafoam]

World’s Most Homicidal Aunty

[@godsentthearbitor]

And force Chongjin to wear it

[@Yona0Yona]

As someone who’s Chinese I can actually attest to this translation as well! It really do genuinely refer to a instinct within one to cause harm and specifically to kill. And actually Shenhe’s situation is very close to my experience with psychosis (making her a special character to me along with Xiao since I also have auditory hallucinations that can take the form of distant screams) with mine causing a distinct urge and indifference to causing harm/killing once I have been provoked as paranoia and delusions will take over. I also found the red ropes to be a very good symbol for medication, down to the point where she briefly tried to ‘take’ less of it thinking she can still get by, which happened to me recently and was quite unpleasant. However my antipsychotic doesn’t actually make me experience less emotions like those ropes. It’s interesting to me how they show that these homocidal urges doesn’t just make her want to beat up anyone she sees, but instead results in her going to the extremes once in contact with provocation or as a instinctual solution to a problem with other more viable options since that is how it is with me. Not to mention her being so willing was due to her lack of societal knowledge with her holding herself back as she learned more. I also appreciate how they don’t portray her as a bad person despite this, showing that with her ropes and the right mindset with the right people, she can even overcome this which is really inspiring to little ol’ me :) Edit: literal translation is “kill” and “heart” btw, it’s apparently a thing found in Wuxia media a lot but I’m unable to add to that as I actually don’t really consume it

[@myxxlight]

im also chinese and i was initially a bit confused as to why people thought it was a mistranslation haha. but i do agree with all of ur other points as well, although i have no personal experience, im glad they didnt just make shenhe seem crazy.

[@jooa926]

im chinese as well and just to add on to your last part about this being in wuxia, indeed sometimes in wuxia dramas and novels stuff like that if a character is prone to get into fights easily they are described to have a “killing heart” which is pretty accurate for shenhe’s way of handling conflict

[@foxloaf8843]

glad to see i'm not the only one who saw a parallel between the red ropes & heavier types of psych meds

[@Floridamangaming729]

Yea i have bipolar disorder and i saw alot of myself in shenhe. and the red ropes function pretty much exactly like real world medications. it does seem like magic but it really isnt.

[@Sheevlord]

I think that the red ropes she wears are a metaphor for psychiatric medications. They keep her anger in check but also have a side effect of making her unemotional.

[@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383]

Actually, the Cloud Retainer did mention that they literally suppress her violent urges in a magical way. The red ropes worked so well that it suppressed Shenhe's other emotions, which is why she has a hard time expressing herself (but still knows how one should emotionally feel towards a certain thing she senses). It doesn't stop her, however, from being provoked and annoyed at certain situations such the two men that tried extortion on her and another man when he apporached her while drunk.

[@ratatouilledrinksclorax9897]

@@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383 yeah its still just magical suppressant drugs though, pretty obvious especially why she was stiff to others lol Well hey for the safty of others, its half the point of those drugs anyway other half is to help those with issues to get through them in a healthy manner, thanks to that Bird i want to kill, she had someone who wouldn't through her away due to her issues I want to kill the adeptus, specifically those 3 animal ones, liyue is for hoomans, kill them all but Yanfei shes best girl

[@isabelhuang_1]

So many people are gonna relate to her because of this

[@rvpairofdicethewanderer2383]

@@ratatouilledrinksclorax9897 That said, I wouldn't think it is ever a good idea to ever take those ropes off of her at any point in time. I always have this in mind everytime I see Shenhe R34. XD

[@rossalbertdelacruz6751]

Thought it was a literal red rope that is magically enchanted by the adepti and bound it inside her body to bind her soul

[@trvllngMdnss]

It's a shame that the translators have a bad reputation. Translating is a hard job and in a game with that much text, mistakes are bound to happen. Thank you for this video ! I had seen people complain about the "Homicidal Nature" and it's interesting to see a different point of view about this.

[@cybercery5271]

Ikr

[@sevenji1638]

inevitably, when it becomes a pattern and creates great inaccuracies and misunderstandings with the lore, I think it becomes a bit much ^^;;

[@jazztronic10]

As someone who worked in translation professionally and not just as a hobby "mistakes are bound to happen" isn't really acceptable. When it comes to things like localizations (which is what we're dealing with here - transforming a culturally specific reference into something more easily understandable by the target audience) we make choices. We follow rules determined by the conventions of our target language or sometimes specific guidelines set by our employer. You can totally agree or disagree with these choices (the onigiri vs. Rice Ball vs. Jelly donut case from pokémon is a very easy way to illustrate this!) but going "Eh, there's a lot of text, of course they're going to make mistakes" is something you accept from fan translators who are doing this as a hobby, not from a team of people working at a company. The text in genshin isn't handled by a single overworked translator or even by a skeleton crew. It's handled by a whole team of translators who follow company guidelines and people are right in criticizing those when the result is misleading or misrepresents the source material.

[@ChonchI64]

the english translators just make it more edgy, that is not a mistake, it's what they want or at least what the director wants

[@jazztronic10]

@@ChonchI64 definitely what the directors want. I think it was Thoma's VA who said on a stream they pronounced the words the way they were told to pronounce them too when someone mentioned the region names and Chongyun's name? Even if things are inaccurate or misleading, translators and actors don't have much of a choice if that's what the directors want. Lisa is flat out not the same character in the original dub and in the other languages.

[@icarus7198]

Take off Shenhe’s ropes and give Chongyun some chili peppers and watch them demolish the Tsaritsa and Celestia immediately

[@iknowyoursearchhistory]

You sir are messing with forces that will demolish the universe

[@apinamestari5766]

The tsaritsa is against celestia tho

[@Azatora]

After playing the archon quest everyone should've known that homicidal is not a mistranslation

[@lisaop2782]

As someone who isn't Chinese nor speaks Chinese it didn't occur to me that it could've been a mistranslation, immediately from the start when she wanted to bash those people's skulls I knew that she had homocidal urges.

[@errisland5408]

When I saw people think that it’s a mistranslation, it got me confused, I’m native Chinese and homicidal nature looks just right for the translation. And then I realized, it’s because the culture background is different, you probably don’t remember, but in the 2.4 livestream, she was described as a character whose design is very much inspired from “Wuxia”, I’m not gonna explain the concept of it here because it’s complicated, but the personality trait ” homicidal nature” is really common in the world of “Wuxia” , we see it all the time in novels, tv shows, games. Hence I think it’s not the translation that misled you, it’s because us(Chinese) process this word differently.

[@tiramisu7544]

as someone who doesnt watch much of the 武侠 genre and is really bad at mandarin, i can’t say for certain whether it’s a mistranslation or not, but when you do the story quest, it’s very clear that Shenhe didn’t CHOOSE to accept becoming a killing machine, which is mostly why people are complaining about the “homicidal nature” translation, because apparently it makes Shenhe seem intentionally bloodthirsty.

[@CombativeMedic]

I took the homicidal nature translation as a means of expression for how deep her trauma is. Not to say she came out of it looking to harm others, but because of her traumatic experience she is prone to reacting with deadly force if pushed -which makes sense when you learn she had to fight off a evil God for three days and nights without falter, as a 6 year old child. Had her father not succumbed to his grief and lost sight of his wife's wish for him to take care of her, Shenhe could've had a normal life. I hope we see her again in the future, getting to know Chongyun (her nephew) properly.

[@TIPipdraws]

Ok out of shenhe your grandma sounds like such a awesome person!

[@dinosaursaurus4137]

Honestly, I get really irked when people just draw the bottom line of "Genshin translation bad" because translation is such a complicated process and I don't think people understand that enough. When you are translating, you are effectively re-writing the source-text. The material is the same as the source but how that material is handled is up to the translator. That's only true in theory, however. Apart of linguistic limitations and discrepancies, which always arise when going from language to the other, there is pressure to 1) have what you are re-writing be suited for the target audience, 2) to meet a time schedule and 3) to satisfy a customer (it's highly doubt-able that miHoYo has a team of in-house translators who they pay regular salaries to, instead of having affiliates from outside the company that they just pay for the amount of text they are translating). That's something that goes on in general. Now let's specifically talk about Genshin. Think of how much text gets added in every update Genshin has. Now think of how frequently the game gets updated. All that absurd amount of text has to be translated on a tight schedule and all the work needs to be approved by the people at miHoYo and if anything gets disapproved it has to go back to the translators to work on. So what choice do these people have other than to simply go with the most simple interpretation possible when so many things can go wrong? Translators are usually native speakers of the source language or at least have a level close to that of a native speaker and trust me that they fully know well when something is not 100% accurate or the nuance is missing, but it's more probable than not in those cases their hands are tied. It's a real tragedy that the richness and nuance of the source text can get lost, but sadly with so much at stake here it's a necessary evil. I can understand frustration over those things and they should be pointed out, but it should be done in a way that is constructive and creates discussions that let people in on these nuances and differences instead of resorting to snap judgements

[@ploomp6593]

I think it is also like they are trying to localize it instead of directly translating it so it is easier for the local players who are not familiar to chinese culture at all to understand. For example, they have the ascension crystals that are named after hindu deities, but the one for cryo is not "accurate" but because we do not have a god of ice they really just chose the closest on. I would disagree that it isn't accurate but at the same time i understand that they had no choice, that was the closest one. It really feels like that the people complaining that it is inaccurate are the people who don't understand how hard translating anything to someone local is.

[@PopstarCharles]

every single video we’re learning more about RedFlaim’s clan of powerful exorcists 🔥 thanks for the translation, it’s so cool how you bring in so many different personal sources for your videos!

[@mittenvonscrufflears7233]

I think this makes more sense, though. When the Traveler tells Shenhe that he/she is competing with other contenders to get the materials for the new Jade Chamber, her first suggestion is killing all of the competitors. So that right there shows that she is willing to kill people so long as she has a reason to, even if the reason is minor.

[@anyaaa2801]

"To survive hardship you must prepare for hardship" is a huge mistranslation on the other hand. It "harms" kokomi's character.

[@leegunring]

I think the term "violent tendencies" might be more appropriate. Such people are not serial murderers who usually take the initiative to find objects, but the term "homicidal" seems to emphasize more on taking the lives of other parties, which is easy to cause misunderstanding. The word "杀性" is rarely used, probably only by novelists and fortune tellers. They use the term to describe a person's habit of dealing with immediate trouble with disproportionate violence. This kind of person's interpersonal relationships are often not active(so miHoYo does not use this term to describe Childe, because he values his family and is good at socializing) , not a party animal. So some minor conflicts can also trigger excessive defense, which, in modern medical science this may be diagnosed as BPD (borderline personality disorder).

[@AyakoHideko]

Oh. Interesting suggestion! :) Thank you for the read!

[@tnnyff]

This really needs more upvotes since people tend to forget words hold various emphasis to its meaning (comment section really felt like an echo chamber)

[@RoseScar]

Eh I think people are just being alittle to sensitive and making it a bigger deal then it really is

[@cookiemoon7441]

@@RoseScar to you, sure. But people who suffer from psychosis and other conditions almost always get villainized by media all over the globe, which has caused intense stigma around their condition. Representation almost never happens to any part of the neurodivergent community, and if it does it's never positive, so this is a huge deal for them and having it flagged off as a "mistranslation" is potentially quite harmful to people.

[@yel6921]

I like how you show your grandma as madame ping.

[@Azatora]

Why people at first thinking "homicidal nature" is a mistranslation? Because this is the first time we get playable chara who specifically has this negative trait being "promoted" directly. Even Childe who is our first playable antagonist didn't get this treatment. So maybe some people think that "homicidal nature" is "really bad" of a trait for her and could be mistranslation. And yes, there has been a lot of mistranlation that slander character's personality so the reasoning is understandable

[@demonking-zm3rs]

Example? Because this feels more like a overreaction by the Western Audience especially the crowd who throw around the word "Censorship" without any of the nuisances and I don't mean the small Him instead of Her in dialogue I mean actual mistranslations that hurt a characters portrayal

[@Azatora]

@@demonking-zm3rs best example is the early translation of Childe during Archon Quest. If you missed 1.1 patch, one part he said "I despise working with the weak" making him more like arrogant jerk. Another example is Qiqi's voicelines about Hu Tao where she straight up said that "I want Hu Tao dead" (now it's been changed)

[@ririchi6062]

tbh i only assumed it as a mistranslation only because Miyoho tends to waifu-fied their female characters if you know what I mean. So in my defense my bar for mihoyo was quite low in terms of diversity (personality wise) in the genshin female cast.

[@nou-wu6ww]

People take it as a mistranslation because rarely any characters are connoted or depicted in a negative light, even raiden (who I enjoy playing), her actions have directly and indirectly affected the lives and deaths of many inazumans gets a free pass and her actions forgiven without taking full accountability. The mindset that a 'flawed' character is not marketable just permeates a lot of the cast, especially the girls so Shenhe's 'homicidal nature' was a genuine surprise and a welcomed one imo. (Tho I wish they did more with it).

[@Azatora]

@@nou-wu6ww That's a better explanation than mine

[@camisalinas1890]

As a translation student it really bothers me how easy is to found "chinese language purists" (how I like to call them) on genshin fandom. What I mean? This is not the first case (and it wouldn't be the last) that people says that an english translation is completely wrong because is not exactly what it means on chinese. But they are a forgetting that, because chinese is one of the oldest culture, it language is pretty hard to translate because old sayings and grammar structure, unlike english. Moreover, because genshin impact also has english dub, translators have to be sure to translate on a way that things sounds NATURAL FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS. Translating chinese literally not only could sound awkward, but also needs to include a lot of explanation that cannot be added on genshin because it's a game, not a dictionary neither an enciclopedia so you can't add translators notes, there's not place for it. That's why many translation on genshin are actually adaptations. They have to use any english expression that already exists that is close to what the chinese sentence means on their translation. But hey, is easier to say that something is a mistranslation because I don't have the exactly meaning as the original expression, forgetting cultural aspects. TL;DR: Adaptation is a translation technique, not mistranslation.

[@L16htW4rr10r]

Thank you!

[@yaynaymaroon651]

Mhmm if it all was a perfect direct translation, it has the danger of subduing the atmosphere of the written text

[@livanbard]

This all started with traditional anime weebs, but now both the avarage consumer and professionals have pretty good grasp on anime slang and general banter to make adaptations that sound natural and nobody question them. With chinese genshin is a first to many professionals and consumers alike.

[@elknolasshrineofraja3966]

🌸😹It could be uttered some people have far too much time upon their hands😹🌸

[@silverhawkscape2677]

It would be cool if we got more "Homicidal" Characters like Childe and Shenhe so that we can make "Team Homicide". So far we have: 1) Shenhe 2) Childe 3) Rosaria

[@heistingcrusader_ad3223]

We might have a chance with Scaramouch

[@yujibell]

Hu Tao is just there for potential clients :3

[@hypershock0storm479]

Time to burry some bodies.

[@drfudgecookie5800]

Raiden as well

[@silverhawkscape2677]

@@drfudgecookie5800 No really. Homicidal means they will suggest killing to solve even the most mundane of problems like Shenhe. Raiden doesn't. She only suggest it on something as grevious as straight up lying to her. After her story quest, she isn't as murder happy as others.

[@dall7020]

Cloud retainer: Shenhe is just at that special age where girls can only think of one thing....boys Shenhe: Homicide

[@KudaGeatsune3821]

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

[@hypershock0storm479]

I guess some people think that her joining the traveler would make her "another generic waifu" or some shit.

[@KudaGeatsune3821]

@@hypershock0storm479 I call bullshit on that She's not another generic waifu she's something special

[@emanatingauras4017]

As a translator, I appreciate this video! Translation is hard, and the Genshin translators have messed up (pretty seriously) in a lot of areas, but it's usually due to a lack of information- i firmly believe that translators aren't given the full context of the story (the different translations of Tianli/Heavenly Principles, Gold and Kusanali's pronouns, Decarabian Archon) which makes life a gazillion times more difficult. Appreciating their work while still acknowledging their mistakes and striving to patch them up is the way to go.

[@kun6497]

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).

[@Xendrick]

I think she's a rather interesting character, though not necessarily on the level of Albedo, but has good potential on where to take her next in the future. Just like what Redflaim said, she's one of the few characters in the Genshin universe to have her negative trait be the main focus of her character rather than just a side detail like Diluc, Tartaglia, etc. She's a lot like Xiao, which makes sense because she's raised by the adeptus, but unlike him, she's human. Xiao is just different because he is technically a God who had a different view from the start, while Shenhe was legitimately traumatized by her forced confrontation to an evil God's remains as a child for several days and nights, resulting in her not hesitating in murder as a reaction when provoked. Her indifference in killing as a valid option rather than a morally questionable action in most situations is such a good character trait cause it ties in to her having to suppress her emotions via the red rope and her own self doubt thinking she isn't a hero or doesn't deserve praise because she's aware of this flaw. There is enough reason to justify this trait and the Archon Quest allows her to develop as a character upon meeting the Traveler and Yun Jin, but she's also got a long way to go and I'm excited for how her story progresses.

[@rosypoppy1213]

U know he's legit when he gets his grandma involved

[@jiyi180]

translating a whole game like this is hard, especially bc there are just some words/phrases that never exist in the other

[@lanchensqn]

🤣Homicidal nature is just the closest explanation, but still out of context as said in the video since there's no such words for description in english. Another term that's close in Chinese would be 杀伐果断, which meaning never hesitating to kill or use violence when necessary. I think it really does describe her well as in the story quest she often wanted to use violence to solve problems.

[@icantbelieveyoudonethis4059]

So would it be more accurate to call her very violent

[@MaiDay01]

@@icantbelieveyoudonethis4059 why tone it down. If her instinct is violent and possibly homicidal then its just that.

[@WangGanChang]

@@icantbelieveyoudonethis4059 not just violent, these is another word for that. The different here is once provoked and someone with this character get into a fight, he/she will not be satisfied unless there is a pool of blood and a dead body. while most violent people tend to be satisfied with just a beating. The closest western character I could think of is Gabriel Feraud from the movie The Duelist. He is not a particularly murderous person per se, at least outside of dueling , but once he get started in a duel, he does not stop unless someone is dead. (and he loves to duel as well...)

[@leegunring]

I know the word "果斷"(decisive), but I haven't heard 杀伐果断. Is it a Chinese online novel term?

[@blackjackal8770]

@@icantbelieveyoudonethis4059 she literally mentioned killing people more than once. she's not just very violent, she's in fact homicidal lmao

[@n7sArchive]

im so glad this channel exists. thank you!

[@jeronicashaynemangalus7530]

Thank you so much for the great content as always. And special thanks to your grandma also.

[@t29hotrod75]

Shenhe deadass was about to 1v1 an ancient God

[@SpiritaeliaWolf]

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.

[@batchest7377]

As a mandarin speaker, I have to say this is a very classic and common setting in any Wuxia works.

[@laisy961]

The earliest example of the "mistranslation" I can recall was a twitter thread saying the word "homicidal" is missing the nuance from the original Chinese text. I guess people just read the first tweet and went "haha mihoyo stupid"

[@adlinreese]

You learn something new every day, thanks for that

[@rossalbertdelacruz6751]

Literally, she wanted to smash those 2 guys' heads for harassing her. Wanting to get rid the competitors by hurting them with no remorse, and her killing intent at the drunkard at the end of the interlude

[@annaairahala9462]

I've seen this sort of misconception get out of hand before, so when I initially heard the idea that it was mistranslated I immediately knew what the situation was. Unfortunately this sort of thing is common when playing games that have a language barrier, if not more common than actual translation mistakes

[@thebooknerd5223]

It’d be interesting for her to meet Bennett, someone who is also cursed to bring misfortune but deals with it so well.

[@goldenleaf9059]

Your grandma has such a calming voice! Even as an adult i would like to listen to bedtime stories from her❤️

[@goldhm1394]

YASSSS YOU GO GIRL CEREAL KILLERR💅

[@Mrandyol]

In some parts of the video, especially the beginning, your voice sounds like IslandXD on KZbin. Great videos!

[@grahamcramer491]

This also happens to reaffirm my theory that the adepti and everybody closely associated with them need a hug. Except Yanfei, though she'd probably take the hug anyway.

[@enthusiastofcute]

Yanfei gives the hugs, if only the other adepti would accept those hugs

[@the7observer]

"peace was never an option" **honks**

[@ItzaMystri]

Good video. I read that thread on twt and was curious if it really was a mistranslation... Then i played the archon quest and knew it wasn't lol This sort of character is very interesting

[@yuuzelthyc9683]

Omg everyone in your family is CHAD!! Even granma is a big chad! Thanks for sharing this. Specially for people like me who doesn't have access or understand what the original CN text means

[@buinguyencaominh5936]

Let me share a bit language for the “Homicidal Nature” here. In Vietnamese translate, the word use is “Sát niệm”, in this word “Sát” mean killing but not saying who kill who but only kill, “niệm” is another word that have many mean but when pair with “sát” it will mean the nature of a human being. “Sát niệm” for Shenhe in this context is mean she have the urge of killing and she only thing killing is the only solution.

[@CuddleCuttlefish]

I feel like the take about her feeling 'indifferent about killing' kind of ignores the fact that she feels indifferent about everything right now, because of the red string the adepti put on her. Something they did specifically because of her homicidal urges

[@carlamariecadizon9101]

I swore when I heard your honorable Grandmother speak, I hear Madam Ping explaining things.

[@testxxxx123]

杀性 might not necessarily purely homicidal. More of a trait that is aggressive and eager to attack of that sort. But homicidal nature is indeed pretty close, I can't think of a better translation myself

[@heistingcrusader_ad3223]

Slamming people's head on the ground and shoving wine into whatever orifice of choice. Yeah pretty sure she very homicidal

[@Wayfinder137]

@@heistingcrusader_ad3223 homicidal would mean that she wants to straight up kill. In those scenes, she was threatening violence not straight up death. The first scene was her wanting to beat up the guys that were bothering her. The second scene, orifice of choice refers to any hole the guy has. It’s equivalent to saying I’ll shove the wine up your asshole

[@KexanR]

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".

[@thebooknerd5223]

I’m pretty sure she’s cursed w/ misfortune and the urge to kill but her red ropes hold the curses back so she’s merely indifferent to murder at the moment(plus her own self-control). But that’s just what I think.

[@madmalkavian3857]

Fans: this has to be a mistranslation Shenhe: If the birds keep waking you in the morning I could silence them for you.

[@nyltiac169]

Madame ping as your grandma 💀

[@shinkikomori7386]

Special thanks to ur grandma who helped 🙏🙏

[@Floridamangaming729]

Yea from what ive seen in the quest line its pretty accurate. i have bipolar disorder and I related alot to shenhe. Like when i get really angry i get the urge to hurt said person who made me angry or something in the area like a table or something. It gets really difficult when said person gives me alot of good reasons to have no remorse against them. It actually scares me what i think about sometimes. And the red ropes function the same as real world medicine. From my understanding my brain chemistry is messed up so the medication is supposed to balance out the chemical imbalances. Which is why it seems like your emotionless. id like to say im a good person but deep down im really not and im only acting like a good person. If i really wanted to i could just not give a damn anymore and cause alot of damage. But yea I really really liked shenhe's story because i really relate to it alot and i feel like there arent many stories like her's out there. also i forgot but the irony of people thinking she's some sorta hero for vanquishing a demon when she was little and roaming around battling other monsters and in the process saving people only to disappear before the victim can thank her is a hint at her reclusive nature i think. which is definitely something i have. So i can definitely say none of it was mistranslated and i think people are just not understanding her as a character. Which ironically enough is usually the case irl too.

[@sailorrinn6134]

im bipolar too, i would say that, no matter what instincts you may have, what you consciously chose to do with them is what dictates what kind of person you are. Like, if you're Shenhe and you have to instinctual urge to end inconvenience with the 'quickest' option (extreme force), but chose consciously to wear your red ropes, take precautions, and understand yourself, you're making the choice to be the better, bigger person, thereby cementing your place *as* the bigger, better person. does that make sense? :)

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Well, there goes my Cryo Bennett.

[@lloydalvarez2819]

Well, now I know what the 3 flavors of homicide mean, along with knowing better about Shenhe, thank you

[@phyrexian_dude4645]

Not sure on the english translation but in spanish it worked just fine, not a 1 to 1 translation but it went smoothly... Also i still cant get over the fact that there Beidou is still tranlated as some from Spain.

[@SirCastic17]

I think the translation we need answers for is "gain 1 stack of consummation" for her weapon

[@sairenjiharuna3372]

As usual global twitter comunity just being toxic , judging something from leaks . Plus chinese word are more complex and beautiful than english(there alot no direct meaning from chinese to english) So missunderstood or misstranslation is inevitable

[@mfwiseesomeonet-posing7395]

oh yeah it can be translated to killing intent like that trope in cultivation novels

[@princesspeachgaming4162]

THE MADAME PING ICON ABSJSBSJBD

[@ryanw531]

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

[@GoldKoi18]

Your grandma's voice is so cute

[@gil.8674]

Your grandma voice sound so wise

[@HighLevelPlayer]

If Shenhe hadn't been found Cloud Retainer, I'm sure Pierro would have recruited her into the harbingers.

[@purboyoananda]

so she is basically Haze from anonymous agony. ok maybe not that far.

[@colodesu8546]

grandma mvp!

[@jclvde]

Sworn Brothers and Adoptive Brothers. ≠

[@chocolatteforest3474]

Yes

[@amochikaay]

We need an actual video clearing this up

[@jinxinliu2497]

As a native speaker, I can confirm that it’s NOT a mistranslation. 杀性 literately means “homicidal nature”. It’s not a good word in Chinese as well. Any people who possess 杀性 is not good.

[@vantasethatsit9903]

people should she her way of thinking more to Ganyu, kinda beetwen human and myth. her mythical side tell her that killing is fine as long it was justified, but it will make her feared by human in the long run wich will make her human side sad.

[@sebastianadellQ]

So like a wendigo? A beast who have urges to kill and eat?

[@adriepram]

Ella Musk could help with translation but she's busy making poems for hilichurls 😮‍💨

[@no.notfromRDR]

The best way to say is that she's a kuudere

[@muhazreen]

other arguing about mistranslation While im here with "Wow, Ara Ara Ganyu" mindset

[@mariacancino95]

why do all cryo characters have some form of life changing trauma when obtaining their vision?

[@RKNancy]

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.

[@leonardsutanto7984]

Thanks for the explanation. But, I still have one more question. Where does her homicidal nature came from ? Theres no direct link between her past and her homicidal nature. Thanks

[@werh227]

Wasn't there a thread that spoke about her EN title, Lonesome Transcendence, being a bit a lacking in context with how Chinese Astrology worked. I remember reading thread about it, I can't seem to remember what it said exactly, but that's what convinced me.

[@zizi921]

Shenhe actually killed me the other day, so I think the translation is accurate.

[@antonioferrari5884]

1:15 "Ughhh..... I cannot believe this is happening again... It's absurd. I just can't.... Why do I keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result? Isn't that the definition of insanity? Am I mad?... You know, one day the last one of you will ask me, "why did you work with the Adepti to enslave all the people of Liyue," and do you know what I'll say? IT'S because you're all so fucking rude"

[@stellacepttekai]

oh thank goodness isn't consider mistranslation then, onward for fan art then

[@_PhamTuanCuong]

I mean, I could've translate it to "urges to commit war crimes"

[@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777]

Shenhe is canonically the strongest human in Liyue (Beidou being the close second now)

[@howtogitgud]

No kidding, carrying a huge fucking rock with that body is already impressive. Beidou is nothing compared to that strength, but it is commendable that she killed a literal sea monster without vision.

[@jamesdavis160]

Very much yin and Yang energyy

[@wildfire_]

the real question is her weapon's translation

[@esaualfaro3447]

I mean during the competitition to rebuild the Jade Chamber, Shenhe proposed killing all the competition in order to win, as if she was talking about bugs lmao. Also, I think context is important. In some parts of the world today, killing other people is basically a day to day thing. Tribes kill members of other tribes to steal their cows, water and food. And Shenhe´s day to day is basically killing. Monsters, evil spirits, and more, so for her killing is basically like eating bread for you and me.

[@WangGanChang]

This fate / character trait is called 天煞孤星, which is not uncommon characterization in Chinese mythology, Wuxia, Xianxia and particularly modern Chinese RPGs. For example the main character in Gujian 1, Baili Tusu 百里屠苏 have this fate / character (spoiler warning: caused by the a sword spirt that has fused with him when his entire clan was a massacred during his childhood_ and it needs to be constantly suppressed on jade piece given to him by his sifu which him very stoic. Sounds familiar? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GuJian I personally liked Gujian 1 story out of the entire series, unfortunately unlike Gujian 3, it was never translated into english.

[@juliagoad1539]

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.

[@mulduls]

I mean, with Kusenali going from he to she, you can never fully trust translation teams (and keep in mind some of it also has to be localized) so you never know unless you really do speak Chinese. But I don’t, so I’ll trust you.

[@MrTigracho]

Shenhe is the Genshin Equivalent of Zero from Drakengard, but without the Crackhead personality

[@pokefan69420]

You're grandmother sure sounds sweet

[@murdochakgae2459]

Either way I'd still pull for Shenhe even if she has an urge to kill or indifference to killing makes her character a lot more interesting

[@exoticcats6119]

Yeah it seems like the translators make characters more aggressive/mean/harsh than intended in the original version.

[@creeperizak8971]

Well, I didn't think it was a mistranslation to begin with, since what cloud retainer said about her restraints makes sense.

[@Lin-ij9vk]

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

[@LightSpectris]

I hate how people think Shenhe’s a homicidal maniac or a serial killer, if she was such a violent monster, there wouldn’t be a freaking legend about her, nor people looking up to her in reverence and calling her an adeptus when she saves others In the quest, I only saw Shenhe’s “urges to kill” as a severe overreaction to negative stimuli, which shows how socially inept and maladjusted she is. we even see the travelller and Paimon shut her down immediately how wrong that is and Shēnhè goes along with it. Cos shes always happy to correct herself on her behaviour and will always ask so she can understand why. We never see her actually kill civilians, nor is it in the lore. So her urges are always spoken not acted for the sake of black comedy. Shenhe’s bloodlust was justified was when those two guys in the beginning tried to mug her and at the end of her quest when a drunk guy sits down at her table without her consent. If I was in her situation, I would be pissed off too. There’s nothing wrong with using violence when someone’s being a dick to you. The phrase “homicidal urges” isn’t a mistranslation, it’s a shit choice of words to describe a character who’s clearly social maladjusted and a poor measured response to negative stimuli. Traveller and Paimon never referred to her as “homicidal” Homicidal maniacs don’t save their city from a sea dragon and freezing a tsunami, nor do they have newfound friends they care about and want to protect. Shenhe always struck me as a character who clearly has pent up aggression at the world (which makes perfect sense as she had an abusive childhood) and has frightening levels of power but wants to fit into human society and to be happy. She’s spent so many years of loneliness and apart from her bird mum, she never had a friend in her life and her powers definitely don’t help. The fact that Shēnhè tries her best to deal with her stoic state and keep her powers under control but still learn some social graces and learn to trust others again is very powerful. Shenhe is a wonderfully nuanced character and I love her with all my heart. Homicidal urges, my ass

[@kevingame3198]

Compared to Il dottore who is the most evil character in genshin lore period but also the most scariest character in a non horror game

[@yqisq6966]

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