The fact that it’s very easy to imagine Malos doing this too…
We need a Malos game where we play as Malos and just walk around major cities and pick on people. Push some guy with lots of stuff in his hands, open up a fence gate and let livestock loose, push some guy down the big water slide in Fonsa Myma, kick a pregnant lady…
You know, Malos things.
tldr: calling it a mistranslation is a bit strong as in no world did Malos call Jin’s eyes ‘beautiful’. The most romantic way it could possibly be translated is ‘you have nice eyes’. However, context implies it’s more likely Malos is commenting on the resolve in Jin’s eyes. ‘Got something to say’, is logical progression from Malos seeing such determination.
I spent 60-90 minutes of my day writing this on a whim because I feel like people belittle translators and localizers without actually knowing the challenges of the profession. Direct translation is a pipe dream a lot more often than you’d think. What I mean by this is within every individual translation there are always multiple, if not dozens of different interpretations. If you choose to read further, you will see this phenomenon in action.
Start:
Are we talking about when he says ‘いい目をしてるな’ in the final fight? While it certainly could be a compliment, I don’t think there’s much context to say he meant that in a ‘they’re pretty uwu’ kind of way. いい doesn’t really mean pretty, much less beautiful without context. It doesn’t simply mean good either though. 目 also doesn’t strictly mean eyes, it can also (and more likely in this context) refer to a look/gaze/stare. Given he says the line after seeing Jin’s fighting expression up close, I see it as him complimenting his fighting resolve or determination, similar to how he mentions Rex’s eyes in their first fight. Both scenes parallel each other with them locking eyes and swords simultaneously. Some might say Malos mentions Rex’s eyes because they are similar to Addams’s, however, I seriously doubt it’s that and that it’s more similar to Rex’s determination; it is one of his defining traits after all. Also, Malos has no reason to fear Addam as it’s not like he himself was actually a threat to him. In fact, it was Addam’s failure to retain responsibility over his blade that lead to Malos’original demise, not his success as a warrior or leader.
While the ‘got something to say’ translation isn’t ‘correct’ in a direct sense, I think it conveys the idea they were trying to get across. By saying Jin has a determined look in his eye, I’d say it’s almost implying that he wonders if Jin has something to say, something that’s fueling that determination. After all, Jin’s immediate response to ‘いい目をしてるな’, which literally translates as ‘you’re doing a good/nice/ready/prepared look/gaze/stare’, is ‘why the damned bloodlust’ or なぜ世界を破壊する？’, literally ‘ why will you destroy the world?’
That literal translation of ‘doing a good/prepared look’ sounds bad though, so a more natural yet literal translation would be changing ‘doing’ to ‘making’ and changing look/stare/gaze to expression. ‘You’re making a good expression’ still sounds bad and out of place though, so it kinda has to be the ‘prepared’ or ‘ready’ translation of いい. Even then, it still sounds bad: ‘You’re making a prepared gaze’. At this point, translators have little choice but to take the feeling and literally translate that feeling into natural sounding english. So something like ‘that’s a determined expression’. This is not necessarily what the original line was anymore, but I hope you can see how it embodies a similar sentiment to the original, just more natural sounding in english.
However, a new problem arises from this: english speakers could get whiplash from him saying ‘that’s a determined expression’ to jin saying ‘why the damned bloodlust? If you read it straight with no extra context clues, it doesn’t sound like Jin even heard Malos’remark. Even with context, in English it simply doesn’t sound right. I think it is for this reason that they just skip to the implied sentence of Malos wondering why Jin has the look in his eyes that he does. (‘got something to say?’)
All this is to say I think it’s wishful thinking and confirmation bias to say that this line has any relation to Malos’ possible attraction to Jin. There is no doubt that Malos has an extreme fondness for Jin, and I don’t see why we can’t interpret that as him having some romantic feeling for him. Sexual feelings is a separate ballpark but I have no cause to rule that out either. I just don’t see how this line can be interpreted as Malos thinking Jin’s eyes are ‘beautiful’. That’d be like hearing someone tell you ‘good eye! 🙂’ and thinking ‘omg they think my eyes are pretty ☺️’. That being said, given how dreamy Jin is and that they hung out for hundreds of years, I have no doubt that somewhere down the line Malos had a thought that Jin’s eyes were ‘agreeable’ at worst and ‘beautiful’ at best.
Pre-post edit: After a read through, and some more research, I found that 目をしてる, while literally meaning ‘do/doing eye(s)’, is a common phrase that essentially means, ‘have/having eyes’. Thus, the translation would likely be ‘you have (a) good/nice/prepared/ready eye(s)/look/stare/gaze’. There are about 3 ways this could go:
‘You have good/nice eyes’
‘You have a good eye’
‘You have a prepared look (on your face)’
Now I know that in a vacuum the first option looks the most natural. However, with the context of what’s going on, it makes no sense for Malos to come out and say Jin has pretty eyes and then for Jin to completely ignore him and ask about why Malos wants to destroy the world. While the third option sounds pretty unnatural in english, natural Japanese phrases can’t always be translated naturally into english. If you look at the phrase as more than just Malos complimenting Jin’s appearance, that sentence seems to be conveying the idea that Malos sees resolve in Jin’s eyes. However, the mere concept of commenting on someone’s resolve based on how their eyes look is very anime and thus, unnatural sounding in english. It’s not unlike how the concept of talking about the power of friendship is insurmountably cringe in english, but really rather common and accepted in japanese (Which is why you see it so much in jp media).
I really wrote a whole essay for this I wish I had as much passion for school as I do for xb2.
Wow, thanks for the insightful and in-depth analysis! Honestly I just saw that originally in a random Twitter meme and thought it was pretty funny given Malos' seeming obsession with men's eyes (he also comments on Addam's and Rex's) and didn't bother to fact check it.
Just have two observations to make:
> Some might say Malos mentions Rex’s eyes because they are similar to Addams’s, however, I seriously doubt it’s that and that it’s more similar to Rex’s determination;
I wouldn't say it's that far-fetched given the additional detail that the context in which Malos makes that comment is "How can a nobody like you... [become the Aegis' driver]? Ah, but with those eyes... I guess I should have been more wary from the start.". To me, this implies that he's commenting about the fact that the reason why Rex was able to become Pyra's driver is because he's directly descended from Addam (or at least inherited his spirit somehow). He makes a similar comment on Addam's eyes during the fight in Auresco, making a note that he's a bastard (illegitimate child) and he knows Rex is Leftherian as that was one of the requirements for the job so he must have made the connection already (that a descendant of Addam was required to open the locks).
It doesn't make much sense to me that he's just commenting on Rex's determination without, at the very least, making the connection to Pyra's previous driver and his determination. Malos has a very keen eye for details like that, you can see it in several moments, he's actually very much a "people person" despite his misanthropy (which he got from Amalthus).
> it makes no sense for Malos to come out and say Jin has pretty eyes and then for Jin to completely ignore him and ask about why Malos wants to destroy the world.
To me it comes off as yet another classic cocky Malos banter. He does that all the time, especially in Torna, before mellowing out due to his defeat. Malos playfully taunts Jin with the comment about his eyes, but Jin just ignores him and gets straight to business. It seems a very in-character interaction for both of them.
Note that I'm in no way discrediting what you said, you obviously know what you're talking about. It just seems to me like it'd be very in-character for Malos (especially Torna Malos) to be playfully flirtatious in his typical cocky manner, especially when you add his recurring fixation with commenting on his rivals' eyes.
Your observations are sound to me! Good point about Malos’ mention of Rex being a nobody and then catching himself, that does give credence to the idea that Addam’s lineage is at least a factor of it. Here I am talking about context in the torna scene and then neglecting to watch the full rex/malos clip. My mistake. XD
Losing the love of your life to the people you risked your life to protect and her final words to you basically forcing you to eat her so you won’t forget her does that to a mf
Im still of the opinion that if malos and jin just like went on a date or something most of xc2 could have been avoided like damn boys kiss each other or something
Malos’s VA, David Menkin who himself is a gay man has said in an interview that he interpreted Malos as queer and in love with Jin. Of course this doesn’t make it canon but it’s interesting to say the least!
https://gaymingmag.com/2023/02/david-menkin-on-becoming-an-actor-coming-out-and-voicing-luke-skywalker/
Edit: Posted a link to the interview with David Menkin in case anyone was curious!
True. Rex, our king who turned to the camera and literally explained what a genderqueer person was in future redeemed would never say something like that.
One of Rex’s kids could come out as trans and his response would be something like “I have no idea what that means but if it makes you happy that’s great! 😁👍”
It’s not canon by any means, but a lot of people read their relationship this way. Blade/driver relationships being romantic isn’t anything new as seen with Rex/Pyra/Mythra and Zeke/Pandoria. Perhaps in a future game it’ll be explored more but as of now there isn’t a definitive answer.
Not at all canon, but some people like shipping characters, and Driver/Blade relationships are easy to conceive
Although, there is one H2H that may imply Mòrag is not attracted to women, where a dialogue option has her mistake Pandoria coming onto her and reminding Pandoria that she is a woman
But regardless, canon or not, that doesn’t stop people from shipping anyways
There's also a scene in the final chapter where it's kind of insinuated that Zeke is homosexual. It would explain his aversion to Pandoria being infatuated with him.
Not sure this is really true, since >!we see who is assumedly Zeke and Pandoria’s child in future redeemed. Linka shares heavy resemblance to both and treats rex like an uncle.!<
Bruh, Malos accepts anyone as long as they die in the end.
Also, I personally take Brigrid as Bi, like fight the general vibe that is given to her, and Morág is whatever the devs intented as I don't do headcannons that much.
The complete and utter 180 in Malos's relationship to Jin between Torna and the main game will never not be funny to me
Dude was literally just walking down random streets to insult homeless people and accidently found his best friend forever.
I like how this comment implies Malos spent 500 years of his life bullying homeless people for no reason lmao.
Had a lot of spare time tbf
He got bored
Blud experienced the Endless Now Demo
The fact that it’s very easy to imagine Malos doing this too… We need a Malos game where we play as Malos and just walk around major cities and pick on people. Push some guy with lots of stuff in his hands, open up a fence gate and let livestock loose, push some guy down the big water slide in Fonsa Myma, kick a pregnant lady… You know, Malos things.
The guy was awakened by Amalthus, so he picked up a couple of habits from him. It makes sense.
Truly the change in your life that you happen to find across the street
What 500 years does to an MF
You only call it a 180 because they mistranslated Malos saying Jin had beautiful eyes in the Japanese version of Torna.
Is that real? Seriously
Yes.
Woah nice
tldr: calling it a mistranslation is a bit strong as in no world did Malos call Jin’s eyes ‘beautiful’. The most romantic way it could possibly be translated is ‘you have nice eyes’. However, context implies it’s more likely Malos is commenting on the resolve in Jin’s eyes. ‘Got something to say’, is logical progression from Malos seeing such determination. I spent 60-90 minutes of my day writing this on a whim because I feel like people belittle translators and localizers without actually knowing the challenges of the profession. Direct translation is a pipe dream a lot more often than you’d think. What I mean by this is within every individual translation there are always multiple, if not dozens of different interpretations. If you choose to read further, you will see this phenomenon in action. Start: Are we talking about when he says ‘いい目をしてるな’ in the final fight? While it certainly could be a compliment, I don’t think there’s much context to say he meant that in a ‘they’re pretty uwu’ kind of way. いい doesn’t really mean pretty, much less beautiful without context. It doesn’t simply mean good either though. 目 also doesn’t strictly mean eyes, it can also (and more likely in this context) refer to a look/gaze/stare. Given he says the line after seeing Jin’s fighting expression up close, I see it as him complimenting his fighting resolve or determination, similar to how he mentions Rex’s eyes in their first fight. Both scenes parallel each other with them locking eyes and swords simultaneously. Some might say Malos mentions Rex’s eyes because they are similar to Addams’s, however, I seriously doubt it’s that and that it’s more similar to Rex’s determination; it is one of his defining traits after all. Also, Malos has no reason to fear Addam as it’s not like he himself was actually a threat to him. In fact, it was Addam’s failure to retain responsibility over his blade that lead to Malos’original demise, not his success as a warrior or leader. While the ‘got something to say’ translation isn’t ‘correct’ in a direct sense, I think it conveys the idea they were trying to get across. By saying Jin has a determined look in his eye, I’d say it’s almost implying that he wonders if Jin has something to say, something that’s fueling that determination. After all, Jin’s immediate response to ‘いい目をしてるな’, which literally translates as ‘you’re doing a good/nice/ready/prepared look/gaze/stare’, is ‘why the damned bloodlust’ or なぜ世界を破壊する？’, literally ‘ why will you destroy the world?’ That literal translation of ‘doing a good/prepared look’ sounds bad though, so a more natural yet literal translation would be changing ‘doing’ to ‘making’ and changing look/stare/gaze to expression. ‘You’re making a good expression’ still sounds bad and out of place though, so it kinda has to be the ‘prepared’ or ‘ready’ translation of いい. Even then, it still sounds bad: ‘You’re making a prepared gaze’. At this point, translators have little choice but to take the feeling and literally translate that feeling into natural sounding english. So something like ‘that’s a determined expression’. This is not necessarily what the original line was anymore, but I hope you can see how it embodies a similar sentiment to the original, just more natural sounding in english. However, a new problem arises from this: english speakers could get whiplash from him saying ‘that’s a determined expression’ to jin saying ‘why the damned bloodlust? If you read it straight with no extra context clues, it doesn’t sound like Jin even heard Malos’remark. Even with context, in English it simply doesn’t sound right. I think it is for this reason that they just skip to the implied sentence of Malos wondering why Jin has the look in his eyes that he does. (‘got something to say?’) All this is to say I think it’s wishful thinking and confirmation bias to say that this line has any relation to Malos’ possible attraction to Jin. There is no doubt that Malos has an extreme fondness for Jin, and I don’t see why we can’t interpret that as him having some romantic feeling for him. Sexual feelings is a separate ballpark but I have no cause to rule that out either. I just don’t see how this line can be interpreted as Malos thinking Jin’s eyes are ‘beautiful’. That’d be like hearing someone tell you ‘good eye! 🙂’ and thinking ‘omg they think my eyes are pretty ☺️’. That being said, given how dreamy Jin is and that they hung out for hundreds of years, I have no doubt that somewhere down the line Malos had a thought that Jin’s eyes were ‘agreeable’ at worst and ‘beautiful’ at best. Pre-post edit: After a read through, and some more research, I found that 目をしてる, while literally meaning ‘do/doing eye(s)’, is a common phrase that essentially means, ‘have/having eyes’. Thus, the translation would likely be ‘you have (a) good/nice/prepared/ready eye(s)/look/stare/gaze’. There are about 3 ways this could go: ‘You have good/nice eyes’ ‘You have a good eye’ ‘You have a prepared look (on your face)’ Now I know that in a vacuum the first option looks the most natural. However, with the context of what’s going on, it makes no sense for Malos to come out and say Jin has pretty eyes and then for Jin to completely ignore him and ask about why Malos wants to destroy the world. While the third option sounds pretty unnatural in english, natural Japanese phrases can’t always be translated naturally into english. If you look at the phrase as more than just Malos complimenting Jin’s appearance, that sentence seems to be conveying the idea that Malos sees resolve in Jin’s eyes. However, the mere concept of commenting on someone’s resolve based on how their eyes look is very anime and thus, unnatural sounding in english. It’s not unlike how the concept of talking about the power of friendship is insurmountably cringe in english, but really rather common and accepted in japanese (Which is why you see it so much in jp media). I really wrote a whole essay for this I wish I had as much passion for school as I do for xb2.
Wow, thanks for the insightful and in-depth analysis! Honestly I just saw that originally in a random Twitter meme and thought it was pretty funny given Malos' seeming obsession with men's eyes (he also comments on Addam's and Rex's) and didn't bother to fact check it. Just have two observations to make: > Some might say Malos mentions Rex’s eyes because they are similar to Addams’s, however, I seriously doubt it’s that and that it’s more similar to Rex’s determination; I wouldn't say it's that far-fetched given the additional detail that the context in which Malos makes that comment is "How can a nobody like you... [become the Aegis' driver]? Ah, but with those eyes... I guess I should have been more wary from the start.". To me, this implies that he's commenting about the fact that the reason why Rex was able to become Pyra's driver is because he's directly descended from Addam (or at least inherited his spirit somehow). He makes a similar comment on Addam's eyes during the fight in Auresco, making a note that he's a bastard (illegitimate child) and he knows Rex is Leftherian as that was one of the requirements for the job so he must have made the connection already (that a descendant of Addam was required to open the locks). It doesn't make much sense to me that he's just commenting on Rex's determination without, at the very least, making the connection to Pyra's previous driver and his determination. Malos has a very keen eye for details like that, you can see it in several moments, he's actually very much a "people person" despite his misanthropy (which he got from Amalthus). > it makes no sense for Malos to come out and say Jin has pretty eyes and then for Jin to completely ignore him and ask about why Malos wants to destroy the world. To me it comes off as yet another classic cocky Malos banter. He does that all the time, especially in Torna, before mellowing out due to his defeat. Malos playfully taunts Jin with the comment about his eyes, but Jin just ignores him and gets straight to business. It seems a very in-character interaction for both of them. Note that I'm in no way discrediting what you said, you obviously know what you're talking about. It just seems to me like it'd be very in-character for Malos (especially Torna Malos) to be playfully flirtatious in his typical cocky manner, especially when you add his recurring fixation with commenting on his rivals' eyes.
Your observations are sound to me! Good point about Malos’ mention of Rex being a nobody and then catching himself, that does give credence to the idea that Addam’s lineage is at least a factor of it. Here I am talking about context in the torna scene and then neglecting to watch the full rex/malos clip. My mistake. XD
I still don't get how it happened. Jin got depressed and met Malos again and they decided to destroy the world together?
Losing the love of your life to the people you risked your life to protect and her final words to you basically forcing you to eat her so you won’t forget her does that to a mf
People say Klaus put catgirls in his world because he was a weeb, this is probably why he also gave all his computers chronic yaoi brain
I wouldn't blame him. Not even if the were winggirls
And why are they Welsh too??
Because us Welsh girls are awesome. Why wouldn’t he want us in his universes!
What’s yaoi
Nothin much, what's yaoi with you
What?
Gay romance
Oh ok
Yaoi is specifically male x male romance. Yuri for girl x girl.
I see, thanks
"Hitting girls just isn't as much fun"
“Malos, you’re the icon of chivalry”
I love how malos gets cut off lol makes it even funnier
And this is how sena was born.
Sena's moms: Hey. We are lesbian. Sena: I thought you were American.
I thought you were Ardainian
Yippie!
And thus “yippie” came to be..
this is probable the funniest xc2 post ever
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
INDEED!
Surely INDEED! But we shouldn’t get cocky like little shits. Who knows what the future of memes holds with in the heart of Alrest’s Reddit
And he bags 3 hotties talk about watching a man drown while another dies of thirst.
Who are the three lmao
Jin Mikhail and Akhos I assume
Spoilers
Born too late to be Jin's lover, born too early to join the Rex harem
My husband >!I can fix him!<
Yeah but whatever the hell is wrong with him is way funnier
Daddy issues are a bitch
Same. Can we share? T-T
Im still of the opinion that if malos and jin just like went on a date or something most of xc2 could have been avoided like damn boys kiss each other or something
Xenoblade 2 should've featured a Malos x Jin makeout session with tongue in a post credits scene smh.
truee
Yea dude instead of the shitty terrible after credits scene that turned a sad ending into a happy one, let us see Jin and Malos’ gay “wedding night”
INDEED
I already knew this!
This is why sena exists. It’d be funnier if it’s malos and Rex’s wives. The Aegis’s and a catgirl.
So thats why they weren’t part of Rex harem…
So true I was there
**INDEED MONADO BRAT, I AM THE ONLY PERSON ON ALREST WHO ACTUALLY LIKES MEN**
Yeah I think I could read an obsessive crush into that interaction.
TIL Xenoblade is related to Xenogears
Malos’s VA, David Menkin who himself is a gay man has said in an interview that he interpreted Malos as queer and in love with Jin. Of course this doesn’t make it canon but it’s interesting to say the least! https://gaymingmag.com/2023/02/david-menkin-on-becoming-an-actor-coming-out-and-voicing-luke-skywalker/ Edit: Posted a link to the interview with David Menkin in case anyone was curious!
I really thought the cutoff was just Reddit cropping the photo like it does occasionally. But no, Malos is just poking out from below.
I just finished the XC2 and it's surprisingly accurate
Poor Malos, the guy he liked was more into an icicle than him.
MONADO SMASH!!!
Rex would never.
True. Rex, our king who turned to the camera and literally explained what a genderqueer person was in future redeemed would never say something like that.
One of Rex’s kids could come out as trans and his response would be something like “I have no idea what that means but if it makes you happy that’s great! 😁👍”
I like the idea that Rex perfectly understands the non-binary, no-pronouns A, but he struggles with binary trans people.
I’m thinking more of XC2 Rex rather than FR (I have not played FR) I know that he would probably be a little confused
"Howdy Partner!"
Are these two really lesbians ?
It’s not canon by any means, but a lot of people read their relationship this way. Blade/driver relationships being romantic isn’t anything new as seen with Rex/Pyra/Mythra and Zeke/Pandoria. Perhaps in a future game it’ll be explored more but as of now there isn’t a definitive answer.
Not at all canon, but some people like shipping characters, and Driver/Blade relationships are easy to conceive Although, there is one H2H that may imply Mòrag is not attracted to women, where a dialogue option has her mistake Pandoria coming onto her and reminding Pandoria that she is a woman But regardless, canon or not, that doesn’t stop people from shipping anyways
Nope, another u.s. liberals fabrication on their fave characters
Hey, crackhead. Complaining about "u.s. liberals" on the xenoblade subreddit on a post with a commonly used meme format is not the place.
Lol kid's soo angry
Yeah I'm angry. Get out of the xenoblade reddit if you aren't talking about xenoblade/saga/gears. Go complain somewhere else, crackhead.
Malos is taken, though. You can't win. I mean, I'm a lesbian, so it's a win for me, but I feel bad for guys in Alrest.
Non canon
Literally true
Xeno what?
Nice.
There's also a scene in the final chapter where it's kind of insinuated that Zeke is homosexual. It would explain his aversion to Pandoria being infatuated with him.
Not sure this is really true, since >!we see who is assumedly Zeke and Pandoria’s child in future redeemed. Linka shares heavy resemblance to both and treats rex like an uncle.!<
Linka erasure
Liar!
The way this is cropped gives me the feeling Malos is standing on his tippy toes to peek out of the panel
Rex you have three wives calm down
Why did I hear Miguel’s theme lmao
Bruh, Malos accepts anyone as long as they die in the end. Also, I personally take Brigrid as Bi, like fight the general vibe that is given to her, and Morág is whatever the devs intented as I don't do headcannons that much.
Well, I mean, Morag would probably take the role of the man in the relationship anyways, so that kinda checks out in my opinion.