I didn't think I'd get a response. Anyways, before I respond I would like to say that if you intend on responding to this messege or you want this conversation to continue, that you either send your response to me via a PM, or you make your response to this post the last response on this matter (as that is what I am doing).
I think it's more important to keep this thread on topic than to have an extended conversation that has little to do with it. Thanks.
🙂 With that said...
That has nothing to do with how a character is currently canonized. Ed could have began as a mutant space crab, but that's not what she is now, nor does it reflect her current design.
Agreed, if she were a mutant space crab it wouldn't matter, but thats not a good enough analogy or comparision to the fact that Ed's original design (pre canon and official canon) did not change at all, or did so very little. The only difference is gender, and her current design IS based on the previous designs, and does reflect them, especially in the sense that she was meant to appear androgynous regardless of whether she was male or female in the end. It was more akin to a snap decision of balance that changed the gender, not a complete rewrite of the character, which may have then necessitated it. This is in keeping with the canon itself, since she was not drastically changed in order to keep her the way she is. You're right though, since it wouldn't have mattered. Its well worth noting why or how things changed, though. I only ever brought this fact up as it was relevant to my pointing out that she is a female and that it was one more instance of that being proven than the Faye situation that you refer to as being the only one. When you hear it from an official source, in this case the character designer, it's a done deal and no conjecture can undo it.
AgentSugar said:
Too bad the movie came out after the series was completed. Moreover, many Bebop fans haven't even seen the movie.
Dialogue is changed and altered between translation.
It doesn't matter, unfortunately, whether the movie came out before the series ended or not, since it takes place before the series ends. Its up to individual fans to decide whether they wish to acknowledge the movie as existing in the canon or in continuity, but technically it does (and therefore it's all that matters), since a timeline is established in that it was put between several of the last episodes. Fans don't decide whether it happened (since it obviously did, its a movie that we watched that was said to take place somwhere in the series), but they can choose to ignore it if they like or pretend that it didn't happen. That doesn't change what it is, though. In fact, because "many Bebop fans" haven't even seen the movie means they'd have no opinion on this or reason to refute what I'm saying until they've seen it themselves, so your bringing them up is moot, since we're not talking about "many fans" we're talking about you and I and you're speaking as if you've seen the movie, so I am treating it as though you have. Please correct me if you haven't seen it.
Yes, when transliterated and translated some original dialogue can be compromised, but with all the other signs and evidence (outside of the movie and during the series duration) pointing and proving to her being a female, and her line in the movie being so strong and key that it would be made sure to be accurate lest it be called a crappy sub/dub job (by the majority, excluding nazi fan snobs who can be expected to complain about everything), your point about dialogue doesn't hold water in this instance other than things like that can happen. However, it is tremendously unlikely in this case and over a key, lead character and with ADV doing the job. Even if there was a small chance that the dialogue in that scene was so butchered when translated that her gender was switched in error, it wouldn't matter, since the other evidence preceded this and would have prevented this mistake from ever happening to begin with.
AgentSugar said:
Uhhhh, being androgynous is a type of ambiguity. Ambiguity is "being open to or having several possible meanings", which is directly related to the concept of being androgynous. Don't be so nit-picky about words that are so similar. "Her hair isn't purple, it's magenta." So pointless.
Agreed, it is a type of ambiguity and I obviously knew that already since this whole conversation started because of how Ed's gender is a mystery at first. I just prefered to be more technical about it, since androgyny, by definition, is broader than ambiguity and covers things in such a way that using ambiguity in it's place would come across as more presumptious and/or lacking when applied to this situation. It's fine for you to use that word however, you're not wrong to use it and I wasn't faulting you for it. On the same token, my choosing androgynous over something like ambiguity isn't wrong, either, nor is it nit-picky in the context I've been using it.
Thank you for the post, though. I would want someone to challenge or question my observations of this anime if they felt they needed to be corrected or clarified in some way, especially if they would have been incorrect.
🙂
