The Kushan Oracle

[TheItCrOw]

Throughout the Kushan invasion, Silat and other kushan generals mention an oracle, which presumably predicted the incarnation of Femto (Silat, Episode 174: "[...] just as the oracle proclaimed, something has happened in this pagan land").

I've never given it much more thought, but who or what exactly is the oracle?

Especially strange when looking at episode 375, where Daiba seems the one to "predict the future" (finding the Seahorse) which begs the question whether Daiba was/is the oracle.

 

[Aazealh]

There is some confusion due to Dark Horse's choice of words. The term that is used in Japanese (神託) means a revelation. A divine message. It could be something as simple as a prophetic dream, like the one we're told everyone in Midland experienced. "Oracle" can mean that in English (in fact it's the original meaning of the word) as well as describing the person delivering the revelation. But in the translation, when combined with the verb "proclaimed" and given the modern understanding of the term, it sounds like it refers to someone.

So to answer your question: this line doesn't refer to Daiba, and the term used to describe his "fortune-telling" in episode 375 is different. Besides, remember that as an apostle, Ganishka would have known of Femto's advent without needing anybody's help.

 

[TheItCrOw]

"Oracle" can mean that in English (in fact it's the original meaning of the word) as well as describing the person delivering the revelation. But in the translation, when combined with the verb "proclaimed" and given the modern understanding of the term, it sounds like it refers to someone.

That explains it...

I always wonder: Is it so hard for professionals to translate japanese? I get that japanese is hard and probably totally different from english let's say, but Dark Horse will probably employ professionals for their translations, don't they? Then how come that the translations are often so convoluted?

 

[Aazealh]

I always wonder: Is it so hard for professionals to translate japanese? I get that japanese is hard and probably totally different from english let's say, but Dark Horse will probably employ professionals for their translations, don't they? Then how come that the translations are often so convoluted?

All you need to know is that translating well is inherently hard and yet does not pay well. A translator cannot making a living on translating one or two volumes of a manga per month. And they are usually given tight deadlines too. That's all there is to it. As with all things, you get what you pay for.

Then there's the editor's role. I can't say that Dark Horse's translation is plain wrong in this case. It's not. "Oracle" is a correct translation. But when looking at the big picture, the sentence can (and does) confuse the reader. An editor's role should be to catch things like that and then ask for a modification to make it less likely for the meaning to be misinterpreted. But Dark Horse's editors don't speak Japanese and probably don't have time to go that deep on details. In fact they could even make changes that worsen things at times because of this. So it's the same thing as above, really: you get what you pay for.

Now if you went to Dark Horse's boss with these complaints, you know what he'd tell you? That it's industry norms and as an independent company, they can't do better or they'd have to sell individual volumes for $30.

 

[Walter]

To simplify the question and answer about whether it was relayed by Daiba or someone else, I think the meaning is clear: the message/oracle was a version of the mass dream that many people and apostles experienced.

Now, I don't think it would have required an intercessor, but that does seem to be what happened. Using the Dark Horse translation from Vol 22's scene with Silat and the Kushan General, Silat says the oracle/revelation came from a "high priest." Why would that revelation have required an intercessor though, and not just from Ganishka himself? Well, perhaps Miura used this unnamed "high priest" because at this point neither Daiba nor Ganishka had been introduced yet. Whatever the case, the effect would be the same: The dream caused Ganishka to invade Midland to seize the Falcon of Light.

I do think you raise an interesting question though: Did Daiba ever have any oracular powers beyond relaying the mass dream (if it was indeed him, and which really didn't need to be relayed, right?)? I don't see any evidence of it. So how did Daiba receive his prophecy as told to us in Ep 375? No idea.

My initial idea about how the Kushans knew where the Sea Horse would be was that we had seen rats in the hold where Guts was kept, and we know that Daiba can control rats. So maybe they served as his eyes and ears abroad? Sounds outlandish, but it's not a crazy notion, given that he had previously used Ganishka's fog as a means to see distant things. Now he uses rats, big deal? But then we were given an actual prophecy. So... I've got no idea!

 

[Aazealh]

Now, I don't think it would have required an intercessor, but that does seem to be what happened. Using the Dark Horse translation from Vol 22's scene with Silat and the Kushan General, Silat says the oracle/revelation came from a "high priest." Why would that revelation have required an intercessor though, and not just from Ganishka himself? Well, perhaps Miura used this unnamed "high priest" because at this point neither Daiba nor Ganishka had been introduced yet. Whatever the case, the effect would be the same: The dream caused Ganishka to invade Midland to seize the Falcon of Light.

Oh, good point! While "oracle" definitely refers to the revelation and not a person, Silat does mention someone in that scene in Shet. I'd forgotten about that. As for who it might be... The word he uses (大神官様) means something like a "hierarch" from a religious order. It's very different both from how Silat refers to Ganishka and from how he refers to Daiba (妖術使い in episode 341), so my guess would be that it's someone else entirely.

If I had to speculate, I'd say it was a medium, like Sonia, the "lady medium of cherry blossoms", or Benedikte (from the light novel). As for whether there was really a need for one... Since the Kushan army reached Wyndham shortly after the dream of the Falcon of Light occurred, it seems likely they had set out for conquest weeks or months before. So that supports it. I guess it's also possible that, given the key role he had to play, Ganishka received the dream long before anyone else and then used a religious figure as a proxy or pretext to set out for war. Silat's phrasing (and the general's response) could support that idea. Still, it would make sense that the Kushan empire had mediums just like Midland, and we've seen that there are different kinds too, like the old woman from volume 12.

I do think you raise an interesting question though: Did Daiba ever have any oracular powers beyond relaying the mass dream (if it was indeed him, and which really didn't need to be relayed, right?)? I don't see any evidence of it. So how did Daiba receive his prophecy as told to us in Ep 375? No idea.

Indeed, there was no evidence of it until that point, and the way it's described doesn't fit with previous instances of revelations in the series. They also don't use the same terms. In fact, even the way Silat refers to Daiba in the continuation (仙将) is different from what he called him before. The team just reused the title of episode 270 ("Wizard General").