Two chapters to go first season of The House of the Dragon comes to an end and fans around the world are already in the millions. This is what comes from inheriting the magic of Game of Thrones and, of course, knowing how to masterfully combine all the elements to repeat a formula that is quite a success on the HBO Max platform. Among the many followers of fiction, there is, obviously, a Spanish audience, and within them a large number of people who watch the series dubbed into Spanish. That is generally not a problem -we have some fantastic voice actors with Spain-, but from time to time it is an impediment to catch the double meaning of some expression or conversation, just what happened in the last chapter 8…
The word game with Strong
Let’s put ourselves in situation: last Supper (pun intended) of the entire Targaryen family in King’s Landing. Viserys I has just left the chambers tired of him and after giving a speech in which he asks for everyone’s unity and for the fighting to stop. Obviously, the speech has not had an effect among his descendants and as soon as he disappeared through the door, aemond, who has wanted his nephew Lucerys ever since he gouged out his eye, raises a glass with the intention of making a very special toast. This is how the dialogue takes place as seen in the version dubbed into Spanish:
Aemond: One last tribute. To the health of my nephews: Jace, Luke and Joffrey. All handsome and strong as… a Strong.
Alicent: Aemond…
Aemond: Come on, please. Let’s raise our glasses to these three bearded vultures.
Jacaerys: Repeat it if you dare.
Aemond: Why? It’s just a compliment. Aren’t you as strong as a Strong?
The Targaryen alludes in a completely clear and brazen way to the open secret that everyone knows: that the true father of Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey, the children of Rhaenyra, is Harwin Strong (and not Laenor Velaryon).
Nevertheless, in English Aemond’s words are much wittier:
Aemond: Final tribute. To the health of my nephews: Jace, Luke and Joffrey. Each of them handsome, wise… strong.
Alicent: Aemond…
Aemond: Come… let us drain our cups to these three strong boys.
Jacaerys: I dare you to say that again.
Aemond: Why? ‘Twas only a compliment. Do you not think yourself strong?
Aemond plays with him double meaning in this case you have the word “strong”: as a characteristic of strong and as a surname of Harwin Strong.
Whether you see it in Spanish or in English, you will have stayed with the same essence of the scene: that Aemond provokes his nephews by calling them Strong and alluding to his bastardy, but in the case of English in a much more sarcastic and disguised way. than in the first, where it is too obvious.
The (bad) move of dubbing
It is not the first time that we have to talk about the dubbing of a series, and in fact, without going any further, during the broadcast of Game of Thrones We had something similar. The most remembered, possibly, is that of the famous sicansíosalthough on that occasion the reasons for its dissemination were different.
As you probably remember, in that case the issue It was a completely wrong dubbing, the result of the rush and pressure of work that a series like game of Thrones. In this way, the dubbing managers did not even see the scene they were dubbing (due to HBO’s secrecy), a complete cancellation of the context that, together with a quick and bad listening, caused “She can’t see us” to become in «sicansíos» in Spanish -the scene was when Daenerys fails to see Ser Davos’ torchlight signals from the walls of Winterfell, «she can’t see us», «she can’t see us».
Adrian J Rom 🏳️🌈
@adrianjrom
Seriously now, SICANSIOS is a perfect opportunity to vindicate the shitty conditions that dubbing actors have to endure, not to use it to throw shit at dubbing, do me a favor. https://t.co/r9ECd2agpN
May 01, 2019 • 16:00
Rivers of ink ran (especially on Twitter) about this, showing that, in addition to the fact that people are Don Perfecta and not a mistake happens -Ahem-, consuming series dubbed in Spanish is still the order of the day. And very well that it is this way, if that is how you enjoy them better. More would be missing.
