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A discussion on character names
posted by liteignitedSTAFFMOD on April 16, 2018 at 2:47 PM
Hey folks,
Felt it was about time to address this, as there's been an ongoing battle in the episode descriptions regarding some character naming choices. One in particular has been going on for close to the whole season, whilst the other has just recently started.
The first is Blood Stalk. I'm aware TV-Nihon is subbing the name as Blood Stark, however every piece of officially released media, and all other sub groups, are using the Blood Stalk. I'd prefer if we could use the name that has been offically stated, rather than a poor translation here.
The other is Vernage. Or Bernage, again as TV-Nihon is apparently referring to her. Whilst there is no official translation here yet, the preferred choice again seems to be Vernage - currently used by Over-Time, the Kamen Rider Wikia, Tokusatsu Network and a few others.
As stated, I'd prefer if we could use the more widely accepted translations for character names, rather than jumping on poor translations that only one sub-group is using.
Cheers!
Reply by Jenn
on April 26, 2018 at 7:22 PM
Regarding Blood Stark/Stalk, the only official English romanization I have seen is from Bandai, not Toei, and their "Gord Drive" from Drive and "Condol" from OOO are well documented. I have also seen multiple people point out that the katakana spelling leans more towards a traditional -rk sound rather than a -lk sound. In addition to the fact that the definition of "Stark" seems like a better fit than "Stalk".
As far as Bernage/Vernage, I haven't really seen anything supporting one or the other. Her name is spelled in katakana as ベルナージュ (be-ru-naa-ju), but ベル is also the proper spelling of the English word "bell" in Japanese. Now, this might be me reaching a bit, but could her name be a play on "decibel" and "carnage"?
Reply by liteignited
on May 8, 2018 at 4:42 AM
Hmm yeah, just had a dig around the Build site and nothing referring to Stalk/Stark in English. I do like that Google Translate renders his name as "Brad Stark" however, so I think we should keep it as that. xD What definition of Stark are you thinking? I would have thought Stalk fits better, given its definition of "stalking/hunting", which very much fits his character.
Couldn't comment on the Bernage/Vernage name theory, as I've fallen a bit behind! Kamen Rider Wiki does have the following listed on their character page:
I wonder if it's better to use the same names as the Wiki? Just as its the more widely accepted/used spelling and such.
Reply by Jenn
on May 11, 2018 at 6:36 PM
One definition of "stark" is "bare in appearance", which makes makes sense in the fact that he is not an actual Rider like the others, but it can also mean "stiff" or "strong". Which also makes sense since consistently he wipes the floor with everyone.
After these last few episodes, I'm leading even more into the Bernage is (deci)bel + carnage theory since Evolt is very clearly evolution + volt and (deci)bel and volt are both scientific measurements (particularly electrical measurements), which fits with the theme of the show.