Tag Archives: grimm

A watchful Halloween

Well, it’s been a while since my last post and I’m not entirely sure why I couldn’t get myself to write anything here, I just didn’t feel like it…
But I did get a few things done – or semi-done at least.

  • I drafted my Advent Calendar and am in the process of typing it.
  • I sketched a special story for a friend and finished the first nine chapters of it.
  • I concluded my participation for fruehstuecksflocke’s #Projekt24
  • I translated and edited two old stories (including The Quest for Ore – reading at own risk as I haven’t included the edits on the Blog yet. ;)) for another project I’ll announce when it’s time.
  • I also finished my entry for Bücherstadtkuriers‘ Literary Advent Calendar. Let’s see if they like it. 😉 (If not, you can read it on the 25th of December).
  • I also was at two conventions (on the same weekend >_<) and at another HGWAnime-Event.
  • And I finished and caught up with a few more series, though I didn’t feel like writing another WWW.

Anyway!
Back to the topic at hand:

Halloween

Just as I did the last couple of years, did I want to write something for this years Halloween.
So far you got: (Childhood) Halloween Memories and some spooky local legends.
This time it’ll be a recommendation of spooky Specials of TV Series or Movies. So have fun checking them out and maybe you want to add your own favourites to the list. 🙂 (Note: I know there is a full list on Wikipedia, but I prefer recommending stuff, that I’ve seen before 😉 ).

Halloweentown I-IV

Movie Poster for the first Halloweentown movie

One of the must-haves for me. It’s quirky it’s funny, not that scary, but scary enough to make little children cringe and most of all: Full of fantastical creatures.
The stories might not be the most innovative – and it still bugs me that they changed Marnie’s actress for part four, as I like Kimberly J. Brown since I first saw her in Rose Red – but they’re a lot of fun and definitely one of those things that just fit the newer sense of the holiday by combining the partying attitude with the old legends and creating something unique. 🙂

Castle – Vampire Weekend

Screenshot from the episode with everyone in costumes

I recently started watching Castle, because of reasons, and this Episode is filled with all kinds of nods and references to stuff the actors (Nathan Fillion, especially) did before.
You have a joke about Firefly, a mentioning of Buffy (which brings an entirely different angle to the table: If Buffy is fiction in Castle, is Caleb then played by Castle in this version? 😀 – and I finally know why Stana Katic looks so familiar; she played the female lead in The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice…) and all of the classic stuff like Dracula, the Wolfman and so much more that makes this episode fun and enjoyable. There is another Halloween Special, but I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t tell you if it’s good. 😉

Psych – This Episode Sucks

Screenshot from the episode with Shawn and Gus dressed up as Lestat and Blacula respectively.

Full of Vampire references this one might not be a Halloween Episode per se, but still fun enough to add to this list. And who doesn’t enjoy childish grown ups dressing up as fancy vampires that are unable to talk through their fake teeth? 😀
For some reason I also want to add 100 Clues to this list, that is even less of an Halloween-Episode, but it still has the flair of old mystery flicks.

Grimm – La Llorona

Screenshot of the episode of Monrow in a skelleton costume fully woged.

One of the creepiest episodes of Grimm I’ve seen so far – and I’m still missing a huge chunk of the later Seasons…
With Grimm you basically have a set number of things something could be: Human or Wesen, but with La Llorona they add something entirely different. A real ghost? A special Wesen? No one knows and at the end of a terrifying hunt, she’s gone.
Besides: Monroe’s love for Halloween and the fact that Wesen take a break on this day is also quite fascinating.

Honourable Mentions

There are a lot more Halloween themed Episodes or Movies, but I want to leave it at that, you still need some time to go Trick-or-Treating, right? 😉

But if you still haven’t gotten enough spooky stuff do try the original Sleepy Hollow movie or even Nightmare Before Christmas.
Buffy and Supernatural themselves pretty much are constantly Halloween-themed, but there are episodes that are considered Specials like Hush or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester. And not to forget the twenty-something Special Halloween Episodes of The Simpsons. 😉
Then of course there are all the horror classics, but everyone knows which those are, so I’m now leaving you with this:

Stay save in this spirit filled night and have Happy Halloween – or Samhain! 🙂

Photo of a selfcarved pumpkin with a small and a large eye and a grin with two canine teeth
Have a pumpkin for the way

PoiSonPaiNter

(c) The pictures (except the pumpkin, that ones mine) were taken from the Wikia or IMDB pages of the episodes/movies linked within them. All rights for them belong to their respective owners.

Lost in Translation: The Wesen of Grimm #2

Even though I am still not caught up with the show – again -, I’ll continue with looking at the different names for their Wesen in terms of what they really mean and what they should have been called to turn the names/terms into proper/actual German.

This is of course not meant to offend anyone involved in the show, but as a German native that really likes the German language, this just bugs me whenever I watch the show and they use it.

But let’s have a look at the different words, so you can form your own opinion.

Jägerbar

Another frustrating thing about Wesen-names in Grimm are the missing dots (Umlaut), as the German bear is still a Bär after all.
But even with the Umlaut the word doesn’t make more sense.
Though, first let’s have a look at the actual term before we get into that.

Jägerbar consist of the words Jäger and Bar, while the first is the German term for hunter the second – without the Umlaut – is the word we use for bars/pubs, turning the name of a creature in the name of a pub for hunters. If you go a step further and use the Jager-version (Jagerbar) that I’ve seen on a picture, you get an even more alcoholic meaning (Jagertee is an alcoholic beverage created by hunters) …
Other meanings of Jager also include the name of a certain sail or the offspring of a Jaguar and a Tiger. 😉
Still, I don’t think either of these were the intended meaning.

So let’s add the Umlaute and make it Jägerbär (as they are named in the German version).
Here we now have Jäger and Bär, the Hunterbear, which feels a bit redundant as bears – from what I know – are natural hunters anyway …

In addition to the double meaning there is also the Roh-Hatz, the initiation ceremony of the Jägerbars, but before I get to that I feel the need to digress into the plural of bear …

One bear is a Bär, two bears are Bären, to create plurals we barely add an -s at the end of a word, we are more friends of the -e/en (incidentally the German plural of Bar is Bars too, but I guess that’s because we took that word from English), therefore the actual plural would be Jägerbären, which sounds even more ridiculous.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the raw-Coursing, which is the literal translation of Roh-Hatz. Just like saying the bear is a hunter the creators of these words felt the need to accentuate that what you are hunting/coursing is raw (meat). I would never have guessed that.
For clarification a Hatz (Coursing) is/was a kind of hunting (alternative translation Raw-Hunt), where three or more dogs chase after a certain prey to catch/kill it – much what the Jägerbars do with their human prey – but it is mostly forbidden to do that any more.
Still, it’s a fitting name for the ritual – at least the Hatz part.
I’m still certain that if you only used variations of  Bär and Hatz you’d have basically the same things.

Ziegevolk

This is one of the names that miss a letter to make it understandable for a German native, as the grammatical correct way to write Ziegevolk would be Ziegenvolk, meaning a population (Volk) of goats (Ziegen) or goat-like things (similar to what I told you about the German name of the Hässlichen last time – alternative meaning of Volk: nation).
Speaking of German names; in my initial Grimm Review I wrote a bit about the Ziegevolk:

The “Ziegevolk” […] became the “Ziegendämon” (Goat Demon”), while still portrayed as the original version in the Grimm Diaries

I do believe the demon sounds a bit more fitting, yet I don’t really see them as demon’s either. Still, Ziegenvolk for me sounds like a herd of these Wesen and not an individual.
Interestingly the plural of Ziegevolk seems to be Ziegevolk as well even though the plural of Volk is Völker (nations -> Ziegenvölker), which strengthens my association with the word being used for a herd.
As I’ve already mentioned the Grimm Diaries, let’s have a look what their entry actually (frustratingly) reads:

Die Ziegevolk, die manchmal auch als Bluebeards, sind eine Ziege-wie geschopf, das sah ich mit meinen eigenen Augen in München im winter 1805. Scheinen sie nicht gewalttatig. Die Gefahr kommt aus ihre instinktive Notwendigkeit der Rasse und scheinen sich nicht zu kummern. Menge uber die Qualitat.

Sie haben kurze Hörner wie eine Ziege.

Why frustratingly?
I’m literally covering my eyes at this monstrosity over here, as it sounds like a translation run through Google translate … – I only understood part of it through thinking the English-way and reading the translation provided on the Wiki itself (Ziege-wie? o.O ZIEGE-WIE???!! Seriously?! o.O ).

Well, this is how it should read:

Version 1 (changes in [ ] -brackets):

Die Ziege[n]volk, die manchmal auch als Bluebeards [(Blaubärte) bezeichnet werden], sind eine [ziegenähnliche G]esch[ö]pf[e], d[ie] sah ich mit meinen eigenen Augen in München im [W]inter 1805 [gesehen habe]. S[ie s]cheinen sie nicht gewaltt[ä]tig [zu sein]. Die Gefahr kommt aus [der] instinktive[n] Notwendigkeit der Rasse [sich fortzupflanzen(?), es scheint sie nicht zu stören] und scheinen sich nicht zu kummern. Menge [ü]ber die Qualit[ä]t.

Sie haben kurze Hörner wie eine Ziege. (<- The only correct sentence…)

Version 2 (easier readable version):

Die Ziegenvolk, die manchmal auch als Bluebeards (Blaubärte) bezeichnet werden, sind ziegenähnliche Geschöpfe, die ich mit meinen eigenen Augen in München im Winter 1805 gesehen habe. Sie scheinen nicht gewalttätig zu sein. Die Gefahr kommt aus der instinktiven Notwendigkeit der Rasse sich fortzupflanzen, es scheint sie nicht zu stören. Menge über die Qualität.

Sie haben kurze Hörner wie eine Ziege.

English:

The Ziege[n]volk, sometimes referred to as [Blaubärte (Bluebeards)], are goat-like creatures as I saw with my own eyes in Munich in Winter 1805. They do not seem to be violent. The danger comes from the necessity of the race [to repopulate, which does not seem to matter to them]. Quantity over the Quality.

They have short horns like a goat.

I still do not know what they mean by „necessity of the race“ I do believe there are a few words missing like „to reproduce“, „to repopulate“ or something similar to it that’s why I added the „fortpflanzen„, which is the German term for it, but the last few sentences of that paragraph are lacking any kind of information anyway, so it’s all a bit of hit and miss here (with more miss than hit to be honest).

So, yeah: Missing letter, completely wrong description, right now I feel like they don’t even care about being anywhere near correct usage of the language …

Not to mention the absurdity that is their Geruck gland, which would actually be the Geruchsdrüse (smell gland, the s being a letter indicating that it is a gland for smell). I’m aware that the English pronunciation of the German ch sounds like a ck, but spelling it out does not improve this.

Though, I do have to say that I like the Bluebeard connection as that is quite an interesting Tale (if your German is good enough) in itself.

Reinigen

Where Hässlich was based on an adjective Reinigen is based on a verb, which makes as much sense – or not. Anyway etwas reinigen means to clean something and as Reinigen are based on rats, it seems to be quite a far stretch as rats usually aren’t really associated with being clean, even though they are in fact quite cleanly (reinlich). Still, Reinigen to me feels like someone has to clean something up (Grimms cleansing the world of Reinigen perhaps?) and not like the name for a species – or whatever exactly a Wesen is.

In German they tried a different approach by calling them Nagerstein. It makes just as much sense.
Nager or Nagetiere is the German term for all kinds of rodents (including rats, mice, guinea pigs,…), as for the Stein (stone): No idea how that happened. I know Stein is occasionally used as reference to places, but I do not see any reason why this would be in the name for this Wesen. Besides: Nagerstein either sounds like a weird village or something for rodents to chew on.

For some reason the word „Ratigan“ is stuck in my head when I think about these Wesen, I know it’s the name of a Disney villain, but well, it does seem more fitting than Reinigen …

Interestingly enough the Reinigen have two other terms associated with them: Reini-bashing and Riesen-Ratte. The first is basically a word play on Reinigen-bashing, so not much to do there.
The Riesen-Ratte is a strange „spelling“ of Riesenratte or riesige Ratte (basically meaning giant/large rat, the first being actual animals). The term is used for several Reinigen merging together into a giant entity to attack a foe. An alternative name for this is Rattenkönig (rat king), which in folklore and real life is basically a bundle of rats whose tails are intertwined, so they didn’t do that much wrong with this one at least.

Eisbiber

There is not that much I can say about Eisbibers, accept that it feels like another redundant name and the plural being wrong, again.

While beavers (Biber) aren’t that much known to live in ice (Eis) water and are more common in rivers, one can argue that the water in the river is indeed quite icy, so you’d at least have some reasoning for the name (and actual beavers mate during winter when their dams are frozen over). Still, as with the German version of Hässlich (Rattentroll) you could also argue that it sounds that there are more kinds of Bibers (Flussbiber/Riverbeaver or Tropenbiber/Tropicalbeaver, perhaps?).
Then again, we don’t really know the ancestral family tree of Wesen, so who knows?

Like I said before is the German plural rarely formed with an -s and in case of the Biber it even remains the same word.
Incidentally – and on an entirely different note – do I remember a trip from primary school where we took a river tour and one of my classmates asked whether we’d see „Bibers, Adlers“ and others using the wrong plural for either of them. I do believe Beaverers and Eaglerers would be a sufficient way of showing what Bibers and the like feel like to a German native.

Bauerschwein

Another missing letter here with the Bauerschwein as the grammatically correct usage of Bauer (farmer) would be Bauern- (as in Bauerntöpel/farm idiot or bumpkin), making it Bauernschwein, the farmer pig – or peasant pig as it’s officially translated. You could use this word to describe them, but you don’t have to. It sounds like it’s describing an animal on a farm and not a creature walking around outside of them, but that seems to be a basic issue with these names.

And just like I said before: It also implies there are different kinds of pigs (Schweine).
Which might be the case as there is the mention of a Wild Schwein (actually Wildschwein, meaning wild boar), but no one is entirely sure if Monroe simply used a different name or is actually referring to a different Wesen …

Though there could be an entirely different take on the word Bauernschwein as well, as Schwein in German – just as pig/swine in English – doesn’t only stand for pig but also for nasty person and thus making the name refer to a nasty farmer or even farmer bastard (farming bastard? bastard farmer?). Not entirely sure, but this seem to be a more fitting usage to their character, even though it’s basically an insult.

References and Notes

Well, that’s it already.
I hope you enjoyed this little excursion into the usage of my native language in this particular television show.

My major source for names and appearances of the different Wesen is this  Grimm Wikipedia and obviously my experience with the show itself. (Did I ever mention that I really like Wikipedias? Oh, yes, I did.)

As you can see from the title is this post part of the Lost in Translation-series. If you’re interested check out what other shows toy with the German language or culture. If you watch/ed a series or movie where German was/is involved, let me know and I will check out if they have done it justice.

Do you have a Wesen or phrase you want covered? Let me know and I’ll make sure to add them in one of the next parts.
Otherwise I’ll just keep going through the episodes adding the new Wesen to the list.

PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #8

I actually wanted to write a review for Felicia Day’s „You’re never weird on the internet (almost)„, but then I noticed it’s Wednesday and I haven’t done this thing in a while. So I present to you the eighth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, which again obviously covers more than one week.

WWWWhat is this about?

Every other Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week(s) while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – different episodes (Watch Date: 24./31.08. – earlier last week?)

Wren again inspired me to watch at least one of the following episodes. So thanks, I guess? >_<
I started these random re-watchs with It’s a terrible life. It’s an interesting what-if episode, but as  someone working in IT and fan of the IT Crowd my personal highlight was Sam sitting in IT support and asking the caller: „Have you tried turning it off and on again?“ I grinned like an idiot at that. This episode was also the introduction of Zachariah whom I had previously – knowingly – only seen as coroner Woody in Psych. I have to say: He does a great job at playing the creepy angel. 😀 I also liked that they turned their names from „Winchester“ to „Smith“ and „Wesson“ and of course the inclusion of the Ghostfacers. Another episode that I watched after I’ve noticed that I messed up their appearances in my Season 3 summary. Through this I finally remembered to check out why Ed (AJ Buckley) looked so freaking familiar to me: He played a minor role in one of the movies that influenced me quite a lot in my teens (see movie part). Oh, and it was quite confusing to find out what he looks like by now, though I’m still trying to figure out what the movie is called where he looks/dresses like the singer from Korpiklaani
Anyway, in another sitting I checked out As Time Goes By as a reminder for the whole Henry Winchester/Men of Letters story line. I kind of enjoyed this episode and I really like the Bunker. So as they hadn’t opened it I had to watch Everybody Hates Hitler again as well. The general story line of the episode is interesting and it is generally quite fun. I like the rabbi and the golem and would have liked more information on them, but I’m just generally quite tired of movies/series restoring to use Nazi-themes for their narration… (We had an off topic discussion about this on wren’s side; starting about here)
Well, as I already watched a time-travel episode, I decided to take another look at The Song remains the same and even though my earlier question about this episode cleared up by now (it was revealed that Cain had offspring) there is now a new one. At one point Michael discusses Lucifer and mentions that he „practically raised him„. Soo… were (Arch)angeles created as babies or is he talking about the time after they imprisoned The Darkness and were starting to form their own personalities after simply following orders? I hope its the latter, as otherwise this would be another case of forgotten continuity…
I actually wanted to watch a different episode but ended up watching Pac-Man Fever. It was a Charlie episode and I liked it, except the ending, I’m not that good with mums currently… So, I needed something good and positive to cheer me up and took another look at Hibbing 911. I just really like Donna and Jody and I’d be more than thrilled if the Fandom plans to make a spin-off with them would become a reality.
For some reason did I want to check out the Metatron and Kevin episodes so The Great Escapist and Reading is Fundamental were next on my list. With them the tablets were introduced as well and I think those are quite an interesting concept. In a twisted kind of way do I like Metatron’s appearances, I can’t really explain it…maybe I just enjoy his conflict of – I don’t want to get involved in this – I want everyone to do as I say or maybe his snark, I don’t know. I liked Kevin, too, though I felt sorry for him a lot of times. And I think it’s a pity that they didn’t explore on the whole prophet thing more…
At some point I wanted to watch one of the Benny-episodes again, so I picked Citizen Fang. A very mean episode, with a quite creepy Jon Gries as Martin. I like Benny…
The last one on this list was a very strange watch for me, as Unmei and I watched Changing Channels in German the other day (It’s by the way called „Wie im Himmel, so auf Erden“, a shortened quote of Gabriel’s line: „As it is in Heaven, so it must be on Earth“).
It was really weird… I mean, I started watching the show in German back when it first aired, but I did not remember it like that…
I especially did not remember that Sam was voiced by the voice actor of Dragonball Z’s Krillin – which caused me to randomly exclaim „Krillin!“ at some point during the episode, yes, I do stuff like that, when I remember from where I know an actor or voice… – and Dean by Tenshinhan (or Tien Shinhan in the English dub), that I suspected before checking out. Castiel had too few lines to let me recognize, that his voice usually is heard with Jude Law, though it did sound extremely familiar. Interestingly his voice actor also voiced Curtis Armstrong (Metatron) in a different role, just like Gabriel’s voice actor, who also happens to be the father of Germany’s (possibly) most used, all-round voice actor David Nathan (Armstrong was also voiced by Spongebob Squarepants‚ for two roles). Okay, I’ll stop now… It might be apparent that I enjoy talking about voice actors… (Charlie’s does a lot of Anime stuff, by the way)
Aside from that is this episode one of my most-watched ones. I just really like the humour and the big reveal and stuff. Simply one of my favourites. 😀
Though Gabriel probably didn’t get that good of a face-change if Cas still recognized him…maybe it’s the soul he can’t change or something like that…
Oh, and one more thing: To get the quote right I looked at the transcript and discovered this funny comment from the transcriber:

The fire goes out; apparently in this world water extinguishes grease fires instead of spreading them. – 5.08. Changing Channels Transcript

Grimm – Season 4, Episode 15 -20 (Watch Date: 16./17.09.)

After quite some time did I take another try at watching Double Date to catch up with Grimm. I still don’t like the sub-plot with Adalind, with the episodes so far the one with Juliet looked better, but I unfortunately knew about the final outcome of that one. 🙁
So knowing the remaining episodes now there are a few things that bugged me about their strange narration.
Juliet’s turn from good to bad is way too fast and too weird. The characters that are usually so open to new things, that accepted supposedly bad Wesen into their group (Blutbad/Fuchsbau), now, when Juliet needs them most, despise her and want to change her. They don’t even give her a chance to adapt or help her in any way. All they want to do is make her go back to the way she was. I can totally understand why that frustrates her, still don’t get much of her choices, but still. It could have been good. It could have been so much more than that. Instead they turn Adalind into a semi-human again, she is still pregnant and for some reason everyone jumps on the bandwagon to help HER. I really don’t get it…
They also could have done more with the new royal – instead of letting him kill Kelly and then killing him off. He was fun…
With Juliet and Kelly dead, I kind of feel bad for Nick, though part of me wants to tell him that the whole thing is his fault, for not helping the woman he said he loved…
And what was up with the Jack the Ripper-Ghost hijacking and the devilish arms? That didn’t make a lick of sense. Why did he kill Wesen? Why did he kill Henrietta? Why was this story involved anyway? o.O

Doctor Who – Season 9, Episode 1-3 – (Watch Date: 19./30.09./3.10.)

Season Nine has started!
I was curious what this Season would bring as it would mostly consist of two-parters, but I kind of like the pacing. It reminds me of the few old episodes that I’ve seen by now. It’s really something different and takes a little getting used to, but still enjoyable.
In The Magician’s Apprentice The Doctor has one of his most epic entries: Riding a tank into a medieval axe-fight, while playing an electric guitar. That really reminded me of the guys from Sabaton and their stage decoration. 😀
I also enjoyed the Davros-dilemma of the episode – Note to self: Finally watch the one with the Fourth – and of course Missy was quite fun again. The first part had an interesting cliff hanger, but I didn’t fear for Missy and Clara. The Witch’s Familiar then finally explained how Missy escaped, which is quite a neat trick she has there. For a short moment I really pitied Davros and wanted to believe him, while something in the back of my mind screamed: They wont kill him like that! Well, that voice was right and I enjoyed the solution to the dilemma that seemingly created the Daleks ability to beg for mercy. Still, a lot seems to be left unexplained and that’s just unfortunate… (How did Davros survive? Is he even the Davros from Stolen Earth/Journey’s End? How did all these different Daleks come together? And why do they just dump the old ones into the sewers? What’s with the other planet from Asylum of the Daleks? What’s Missy’s plan with the Daleks? What did Missy want to gain by making the Doctor kill Clara?)
Under the Lake had a weird start, as I really didn’t understand Clara’s enthusiasm and was right there with the Doctor when he asked her to get a new boyfriend. She’s using these trips to distract herself from mourning and in the long run that’s not a good thing…
I liked that they included a deaf character/actress in the cast and the story so far seems interesting, even though I hope the theme of everything being a life and death situation will cease soon. It’s kind of annoying as you know there are still a couple of more episodes to go and they won’t kill of the main character before that – besides there aren’t any news on Capaldi already being replaced – so the shock factor is way off in those episodes.
Oh, and I kind of like the Sonic Sunglasses, miss the Screwdriver a bit, but they look cool. 😀 And I really like the Doctors new dressing style, I like the hoodie/jacket…

The Musketeers – Season 2, Episode 8: The Accused (Watch Date: 22.09.)

I’m confused…the break was too long.
Mark Warren is creepy…no comparison to his role in Doctor Who.
I liked Porthos and was annoyed by Aramis.
And why did I expect Rochefort to still be in the room and make a snarky comment when Athos and Milady left the hidden cupboard? o.O

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season 3, Episode 1: Laws of Nature (Watch Date: 30.09.)

Confusing yet somehow satisfying start into the new Season. They showed Jemma! And Fitz was amazing. And I’m really curious how this Season will continue…

Deadbeat – Season 1/2, Episode 1-6 (Watch Date: 4.-6.10.)

Like Undateable I am not entirely sure what to make of this show. I saw the add for the German version, checked out the English one – as it stars Tyler Labin from Reaper – and half into the second Season, I still think this is a very weird series. It’s still fun, though. And Lucy DeVito is soo cute… Still, twenty minutes an episode are far too short to get some actual grip on the characters and the world. It got better by now, but it’s still quite lacking and very random…

Different movies

I felt in the mood to watch Midnight in Paris again. The first time I saw it, I went to the cinema in Uetersen with Janzy for special English screening, I gave her as a birthday gift. We both like movies and with Tom Hiddleston as one of the side roles and the story sounding interesting and the whole setting in Paris with all the old writers, we quite enjoyed it. Though watching it again I realized that I seemed to have known Woody/Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) before I saw him in his TV roles. 😀 I really like the atmosphere and narration of the movie. It’s not just some story that focuses on one thing only, no it takes you on a ride through Paris, it introduces you all these talented people (I probably would enjoy this part even more, if I actually recognized them), it shows the struggle of an aspiring artist, the downsides of a relationship with someone very different from yourself and it gives you something to think about, regarding everyone’s „Golden Age“. Just a wonderful movie.
As I’ve seen a lot of positive comments regarding Jensen Ackles in Ten Inch Hero I thought I might as well check it out. It was a fun watch and explored some unusual topics. Half way into the movie I recognized Adair Tishler (Molly from Heroes) and she was just as cute a kid, as she is in the series. Still, there were a few weird choices: Last time I briefly discussed the whole changing yourself for someone else thing. In this movie it wasn’t the girl who got the change, but the boy. All throughout the movie he ran around confident in his appearance with mowhawks in different colours (I’m not entirely sure what the pace of the movie was, so it seemed, like he changed them daily…) and styles, piercings and everything. But to get his love interest he cut his hair short and took out the piercings and put on some „proper“ clothes. It’s just so frustrating. If she loves him, she loves him with the hairdo and piercings and everything, not because he somehow discovers to dress „decently“. He looks so uncomfortable…
They also had a sex-scene that let to a brutal boyfriend-theme, but I think it would have been enough to show less of that part and still get the story across.
And what’s up with the naked wedding?
As I wrote earlier did I discover in which movie I saw AJ Buckley before: The Forsaken (the German title also includes „Die Nacht ist gierig“/“The Night is Voracious“). It’s an old vampire hunter road movie thing, that isn’t even well done, but it’s still special to me. I do believe this is one of the first movies I’ve ever watched in the „horror“ genre and I think I was still about fourteen when watching this PG 16 movie late at night, hoping that my parents/my mum wouldn’t come in and ask me what I’m watching. In a way it shaped my interests quite a bit. Besides Buffy it took part in creating my interest in vampires (and other creatures) and their different backgrounds. The characters I liked most can somehow be found again in later favourite characters (Pen and Nick if anyone is interested >_<) and the title even became a reference for the family name of a branch of characters from Michael’s story. When I watched it again, I feared I wouldn’t like it as much as I did back then, but I still did. It’s fun in a weird kind of way. Pretty trashy, with lots of weird camera movements, but still great in a way.
Towards the end I had this memory that one of the characters would start singing „Enter Sandman“ by Metallica any moment now and put it aside, but then he ascended the stairs and the scene actually happened and I was happy that I remembered that correctly. So the soundtrack is also part of why I like this one so much. 😀

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

As I also found out that the actress of Becky from Supernatural played Brigitte in the Ginger Snaps-franchise I decided to re-watch those movies again – or finally watch the third part, that’s been lying around for ages…
Well, we’ll see when I’ll get around to do that and write another one of these…
PoiSonPaiNter

Lost in Translation: The Wesen of Grimm

It’s been a while since I started watching NBC’s Grimm, and as you can see from the lack of comments for it in the What’cha Watching Wednesday do I still have a lot of catching up to do regarding the last few episodes. Still, the more I watched, the more I was inclined to ramble about their usage of German terms and names for all the supernatural going ons in the series. (And as I am currently a bit stuck when it comes to write new stuff I felt like finally finishing this draft from last year.) As I mentioned in my Grimm-Review do they use quite weird and often grammatically incorrect names for their Wesen and I’d like to talk a bit about what the names really mean and what they should have been called to turn the names/terms into proper/actual German.

This is of course not meant to offend anyone involved in the show, but as a German native that really likes the German language, this just bugs me whenever I watch the show and they use it.

In my review I already talked about the fact that if the actual Brother’s Grimm had anything to do with the naming of the Wesen, their works would not have become literary classics. In fact I do even believe they would turn over in their graves, if they knew about some of them; especially Jacob who worked on the first German dictionary until his death. I know hearing/reading some of them made my skin crawl …

But let’s have a look at the different words, so you can form your own opinion.

Wesen

While this most used term is grammatically correct it is totally mispronounced.

No German-native would understand it. It took me a while to do so at least and I had to read it at some point before it made sense to me.
The way the cast pronounces it, the word means “whose” not “creature”.
They add an extra “s” to it and make it a (possessive) question [wessen], rather than a noun …

[From the Review]

The word sounds quite different in German as the focus is on the E and not the S and the S in turn is one of those buzzing S’s instead of the sharp ones (In German we learn the different pronunciation of them by comparing them to bees – summen/buzzing and snakes – zischeln/hissing).
So, in a way it is actually pronounced more like you would start to pronounce WEst and SENse, just with a much shorter and less melodic first E and a buzzing S.

And if you are now totally confused by this explanation: Feel free to check Leo.org for a computer reading or contact me to personally tell you the difference. 🙂

By the way: The German term not only means creature, but also refers to the nature of things, like if you say someone is kind/nice/lovely (in nature), you could say that s/he has a liebenswürdiges Wesen. So regardless of the verbal usage does the term fit perfectly for creatures whose true nature can only be seen by certain people.

Now that we cleared that one up, let’s have a look at the actual Wesen used in the pilot.

Blutbad

The name of the most prominent Wesen makes little sense, especially in regards to the plural.

Blutbad is the German term for bloodbath.
Blutbaden however doesn’t really exist …
The Blut would still be blood but the baden … well it does suggest that it is the action of bathing in blood, making the translation bathing, but that does not really make sense.
So basically [for them] the plural of a bloodbath is the action of bathing in [blood].

[From the Review]

Well, the actual plural of Blutbad is Blutbäder, but they don’t really like those silly dots above the A either, but I will get to that in a later guide.
But the German version doesn’t really make more sense either – they changed most of the names to turn them into proper German, but it doesn’t work all the time:

[Blutbad and its plural] Blutbaden became [both] Blutbader (Which would more or less translate to Bloodbather – someone who is bathing in blood. Trying to find a translation for bader I discovered that there was a medieval profession by that name, someone that had some kind of medic role for the poor people[, but it is highly likely that they did not mean this]. Look for “Barber Surgeon” for more information.)

[From the Review]

So we now have these three version – I skip the other languages, as I’m not the right person to cover them – that all have to do with blood and bathing, but even though they cause bloodbaths and they need blood as nutrition, I still think there would be a more fitting name, probably something with wolf (Wolf) …

Hexenbiest/Zauberbiest

While the name for this second (or third?) most used Wesen in the show is technically correct it does sound a bit weird.
Hexe (Witch) itself is already occasionally used as an insult beside the obvious usage to describe magical women, but Biest (Beast) also refers to something ferocious (when used for humans it usually refers to females, where Biest means something like a minx – if I’m not mistaken) and/or monstrous, so it is a bit doppelt gemoppelt (the same thing said through different words – you might remember a case of this from the famous „Assbutt“ used in Supernatural).

Zauberbiest on the other hand doesn’t make sense. It’s one of those halfway through names that seem to lack some letters. Zauber can refer to a (certain) spell or enchantment, while Zauberer means Sorcerer. To make this one the male counterpart for Hexenbiest it therefore should have been Zaubererbiest. Well, actually Hexerbiest would be the male version as Hexer is the version of Wizard/Warlock that has as negative a connotation as Hexe. The original name also sounds more like a magic creature than a magic user, even more so in English: Spellbeast.

Either way are their official plurals wrong, as the plural of Biest is Biester not Biests and using the English plural (beasts) doesn’t really fit – even though Hexenbiester sounds pretty fun and like a really mean clique of girls …

Well, both sound ridiculous and they probably would have fared better to simply call them Tote Hexe (Dead Witch)/Toter Hexer (Dead Wizard/Warlock) because of their looks …

Hässlich

This is another thing that bugs me: They aren’t consistent in naming the creatures.
While the majority derives from nouns some get a more or less descriptive adjective as a name.
In case of the Hässlich its name literally translates to ugly – which they are, but well who would want to call themselves that? (It is by the way interesting to see that the Wesen accepted and use the names given to them by the Grimms – maybe some of them told the Grimm the name they came up with for themselves, but we haven’t really heard about the creation of the names – at least not to my knowledge)

As hässlich is an adjective creating a plural is difficult, so how do we call more than one Hässlich?
We call them Hässlichen.
You know as in: Die Geschichte vom hässlichen Entlein (The Fairy Tale of the ugly duckling).
It’s a declination, yet without a noun it doesn’t make sense to a German native. Technically, hässlich doesn’t either, but you can point at something and say it’s ugly without saying the things name, but usually we use hässlich in combination with Viech (critter) or other derogatory terms (hässliches Viech – again declined).

In German they are, by the way, called Rattentroll, a combination of rat(s) and troll. Technically this is a specification of what kind of troll it is, as in Gebirgstroll would be the mountain troll, making the rat(s) (Ratten is the plural of Ratte, but it is also used to say things are rat-like – rattenhaft) the descriptive element of the name. Though while this sounds a bit nicer I don’t think they have a lot in common with rats or are otherwise affiliated with them. It also implies that there are other races of trolls, but that does not seem to be the case.
So: Nice try, but still not really fitting.

Depending on when this thing was named – in-universe – they might have just called it a Troll.

Skalengeck

Like Wesen the pronunciation of this name gets an additional letter, here it is an L, at least that’s what it sounds like to me. Other than that is this name a mistranslation.

A Skale is in English a scale, yet not the one you can see on the Skalengecks skin – or on other reptiles for that matter – but the one used for measuring things. The word one would be looking for in German would be Schuppe.

Geck on the other hand is a bit more difficult. On the one hand it is an old word used for fashion-interested people (fop/dandy), on the other hand it might be a shortened version of Gecko the name of the little reptiles/lizards. The latter makes more sense, as Skalengecks don’t seem to be that fashionable.

So correctly translated they might have been called: Schuppengecko(s).

In German they call them Natterngecko(s) that refers to their reptilian like appearance by combining the German names for Colubrids (Nattern) and Geckos. It does fit quite well, though I’m not entirely sure that they are capable of clinging onto walls like their little reptilian namesakes and their snake-like features end with the tongue …

References and Notes

Well, that’s it already.
I hope you enjoyed this little excursion into the usage of my native language in this particular television show.

My major source for names and appearances of the different Wesen is this  Grimm Wikipedia and obviously my experience with the show itself. (Did I ever mention that I really like Wikipedias? Oh, yes, I did.)

As you can see from the title is this post part of the Lost in Translation-series. If you’re interested check out what other shows toy with the German language or culture. If you watch/ed a series or movie where German was/is involved, let me know and I will check out if they have done it justice.

Do you have a Wesen or phrase you want covered? Let me know and I’ll make sure to add them in one of the next parts.
Otherwise I’ll just keep going through the episodes adding the new Wesen (Wesen is by the way both the singular and the plural for creature) to the list.

PoiSonPaiNter

Part 2

Lost in Translation

For a couple of years now I watch series primarily in English. At first it was Anime with English subtitles, later there were many different shows that I wanted to check out.
Though I do believe I decided that I should watch more in English because I utterly failed at understanding Sherlock in A Study in Pink. He just talked way too fast for me.
Now several series later, I can understand him quite well and my next goal is Vicky Pollard from Little Britain. >_<
Anyway, what I discovered is that some shows like to include German elements into their plots – be it names, characters or other things – and as a German native that really likes the German language I consider these moments to be quite interesting.
Though in most cases they are also quite frustrating.

Let’s add some German things!

We Germans are fully aware of our past and as I mentioned in the post linked above, is it often still shoved into our faces, even though we are three or four generations after those who fought in the war. So it is not surprising that the most characters with German backgrounds that are included in shows and movies are Nazis or somehow involved with them.

Personally I think this is really annoying and whenever a show had this plot point I considered turning it off and lost a little respect for it. I mean in shows that cover historic elements it is good – and necessary – that they also deal with that part of the worlds history as it should not be forgotten, but in shows that focus more on entertainment than on, well, teaching, it just subtracts from its credibility if they have to use Nazis to fill episodes.

If that wasn’t enough are the actors portraying the supposed German people rarely even native speakers.
Whenever I notice that the language spoken isn’t English and sounds remotely like German, I listen again to understand it better. On the one hand is it difficult to switch between the languages, on the other hand is the pronunciation often really weird and hard to understand. Especially if they simply choose native English speaking actors, give them some German words to learn and let them play a German character.

So far – if I remember correctly – I only came across three (!) German native speakers that portrayed characters with German background (all Nazis, but, well, I can’t be that picky …): Thomas Kretschmann  in Dracula (the series) and Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ludger Pistor and Wilfried Hochholdinger in X-Men: First Class. With Daniel Brühl there will be a forth when Captain America: Civil War airs (Basically: Marvel does a good job at casting the right people).

Still, not all English native speakers are bad at portraying a German accent.
Reed Diamond’s German accent as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Daniel Whitehall, for example, was so well done that I had to look him up, to check if he was German and I’m still highly impressed by it – and I don’t give this complement often.
But even if they do it well, what is said does not always need to be correct …

They don’t talk like we do?

Apparently, beside not wanting to cast actual German native speakers are those responsible for the dialogues fans of literal translations and don’t really care about using actual German grammar for the things the characters have to say.
Though you don’t really hear complains about this from the actors or people involved.
But after having to order someone to

Schieß dem Fenster! (grammatically totally wrong: Shoot the window)

in Die Hard and being informed about its wrongness afterwards, Alan Rickman, for example, decided to never again take up a role of someone speaking German.

It is way easier to translate things word by word and not use the actual meaning of it – and we German’s aren’t spared from that as most people’s English is not the yellow from the egg – but I believe that in a show/movie viewed by thousands of people there would be time and effort put into properly translating phrases in a different language.

Besides German; Spanish and Russian – just as Japanese and Chinese – are used as foreign languages, but my Russian has become too bad for me to notice mistakes and my Japanese was never that good to begin with and I never learned the other two, so I can not say how well/bad they are doing with those languages.

(If anyone is interested: Mr. Rickman should have ordered the other guy to „Schieß auf’s Fenster“ to make it understandable)

It is also interesting how English native speakers seem to think German’s talk. I for one can’t watch a certain scene in Sherlock’s The Blind Banker without getting utterly annoyed and being really disappointed in the show …

Still, this gives me stuff to rant about.

Lost in Translation

For a long time I have contemplated how and if I should do this, but I have decided that I just want to get this out of my mind. I really like the German language, so it pains me if it is used poorly.
Starting with this one I will publish posts about the portrayal of the German language or culture in series and movies. I’m not sure how entertaining this will be for English native speakers, but I do believe those of you that want to learn a bit German (culture) might find it an interesting view on what writers actually throw at their audiences.

Definitely covered in this post-series will be:

  • The Wesen of Grimm and other words that are barely German
  • The infuriating tourist from The Blind Banker
  • The court scene from Sherlock’s Many Happy Returns
  • The repeated appearance of a certain historic figure (e.g. Doctor Who – Let’s kill Hitler; Grimm – The Three Coins)
  • The polite Daleks in Doctor Who’s Stolen Earth (thanks to hexenadia for reminding me of this one!)

If you watch/ed a series or movie where German was/is involved, let me know and I will check out if they have done it justice.

PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #3

Due to my long absence from Blogging this is only the third instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, but also one that will span more than one week.

What is this about?

Each Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Grimm – Season Two, Episode 14: Bad Luck (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

When I felt a bit better I tried to regain some normalcy by catching up with the shows I watch. Grimm was one of them. Some time back I already talked a bit about the show (still have to re-write that post) and I also mentioned that I want to make another series about the weird usage of German words in it, but so far I didn’t get around to talk more about it.
What I also didn’t manage to do is catch up further.
I’m still a few episodes behind and this one is the last I saw (I tried watching Double Date, but stopped after ten minutes or so, because I didn’t feel like watching more).
Anyway, the episode put an interesting twist on the „Lucky Rabbits Foot“ myth, but took a weird turn on the actual story line.
I’m still not sure about the whole Juliet-turned-into-a-Hexenbiest plot, but I do believe this could turn out interesting, as they so far usually portrayed them as the evil/bad guys and with one of the good guys becoming this kind of Wesen they could gain some redeeming features – like they did from the get go with Monroe and Rosalee as good Blutbad/Fuchsbau. I know Renard is technically a Half-Zauberbiest, but he is still not as good as the other two in my book.
What I do not get is the new plot with Adalind. She is such an annoying character and now she is pregnant from the Grimm thanks to a One Night Stand under a spell? Yes, awesome plot. [/sarcasm]
Seriously, when has a weird-ass pregnancy ever been a good plot-devise?
I mean she isn’t even a good mother to the child she designed to have as insurance/bargaining chip and she gets a second child right away?
As harsh as it may sound, do I hope – for plots and everyone’s sake – that she loses the child.
As interesting as a Wesen-Grimm baby would be is this predicament something I do not need explored while they are dealing with other more interesting things.

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season Two, Episode 12/13: Who You Really Are/One of Us (Watch Date:~21.03.)

Skye struggles with her new powers, Bobbie and Mack reveal to Hunter who they really work for and Skye’s dad teams up with quite destructive forces.
Or simply put: This show gets more and more interesting and I just don’t feel like watching, as much as I want to. >_<
As for these two episodes: The glimpse at Mays back story with the appearance of her ex-husband was nice and gave her a little more depth. Though Skyes character development throughout the Seasons is by far the most explored. She now has people she sees as family and therefore rather harms herself than accidentally hurting them. It is not the healthiest of traits, but a good one to have.
Her path is understandable, what I didn’t understand was why Mack kidnapped Hunter to reveal that they are secretly working for the real S.H.I.E.L.D. He kind of lost credibility and sympathy points for that …
It just didn’t really make sense to me, but I guess it will be explained in the episodes I haven’t watched yet.
I really want to know how the Inhumans and the second S.H.I.E.L.D. story line come along, while trying to stay away from Spoilers, but I just can’t bring myself to watch the next episodes…

The Musketeers – Season Two, Episode 18: The Prodigal Father (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

Another series I probably haven’t mentioned yet.
I initially started watching this one because I wanted to see Peter Capaldi in a different role than the strange rival Doctor from Fortysomething and to see him in action before he became The Doctor.
The show is fun and interesting and the actors are great.
This episode focused a bit on Porthos, who soon became one of my favourites (in fact I’m even considering to change this guys‚ origins just so we could use him when Warlords get’s a screen adaptation one day >_< – though I’m afraid Howard Charles is a tad bit too short…).
It’s great to see a bit of his back story and have him show his wits for once. I mean, it is one thing to trust a newly found father, but it is a totally different thing to pretend to trust him, while still being loyal to the people, who became his family. I think this whole situation was handled quite well and as audience I did wonder were Porthos‘ loyalties lay, but I really liked the conclusion.
Rochfort on the other hand was the weird, creepy guy from the start and he now has his signature eye-patch and a plot to plan against the queen. As I haven’t seen the last two episodes of the Season I don’t know yet how it concludes, but I guess it will be interesting.
And just for the record: It was so weird when I heard the English pronunciation of the names the first time – especially d’Atagnon. Not that I’m doing any better at using the French way of their names – I can’t say Richelieu without nearly breaking my tongue – but it’s still weird…

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 15-17: The things they carried/Paint it Black/Inside Man (Watch Date: ~21.03./~Easter)

Logging on to Tumblr and not being spoilered for Supernatural is quite impossible, so I did manage/was forced to get up to date with this one.
I don’t really know what to think about the current story line. I never really felt connected to Sam and his character becomes more and more ruthless and dislikeable by the Seasons. Dean is supposed to be the Knight of Hell, that is coping rather well considering the circumstances, but Sam is human and that makes this an even more terrifying development.
After 10 Season they also have not learned that doing stuff behind the other ones back isn’t the best of ideas – though I liked seeing Bobby again and the whole plan they thought up was quite fun/interesting.
Though I still don’t really get the relevance of Cole. Sure he has a history with Dean and seeks/sought revenge and kind of reflects how many Hunters came into their world from a different perspective, but it is still kind of annoying…
By the way: My Review for the Second Season of Supernatural was recently published over at Extremis Reviews.

Once Upon a Time – Season Four, Episodes 14-16: Darkness on the Edge of Town/Unforgiven/Enter the Dragon (Watch Date: ~23.03)

As I mentioned before (another re-write worthy post) did I get hooked onto this series quite fast. Now it’s into its fourth Season and many things have happened since then.
Though a few things remained unchanged for me: Regina is still my favourite character and I still don’t like the Charmings. If any of the enormous cast deserves a Happy Ending it’s the (no longer) Evil Queen. Yes, she did some really bad things, but throughout the Seasons she has done a lot to redeem herself and we’ve seen that a lot of what she did was due to a twisted sense of vengeance.
Unlike the Frozen storyline do I enjoy the current turn to the search for the author and focus on the bad guys. Rumpelstiltskin got quite dull throughout the Seasons and is now finally getting back to his former glory, even though his actions are quite cowardly, which is his theme anyway.
We also got some new villains trying to get their turn at a Happy Ending. I really like their portrayal and back story so far. It really makes the actual story line more and more interesting again. The only things I wonder is who would date a Dragon (And why does everyone need to be related in some way? o.O)? And how much time has passed since Rumpel was exiled, that Belle is already seeing someone else? (Another subtraction from the sympathy points)
Still, I couldn’t get myself to continue watching as well…

The Pretender – Season One-Four + Movies (Watch Date: March/April)

Well….the only thing I currently seem to be able to watch is this old show…
When I was a teenager I caught some episodes on television and really liked what I saw. For quite some time now I wanted to watch the whole series and now as I didn’t want to tarnish the other series I’m following by watching them with a heavy heart I decided to catch up with this one. (I also tried Parks and Recreations to get my mind off of things, but I got kind of bored after the first Season)
I do believe there will be a separate post about it one day, but let me tell you this: It is surprisingly helpful when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. The series deals a lot with these kind of things and portrays some great life values.
It’s also quite funny and has many interesting characters, just the main story line gets weirder and weirder by the Season/episode…I mean, like, really weird, Adalinds-baby-is-normal-in-comparison-weird…
I still started to re-watch it now in German with Unmei and occasionally re-watch one of the English episodes, as this is still the only thing I feel like watching at the moment…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I hope I can get back to watching stuff like I used to, but right now I have this enormous watching-block (just like writer’s block only with shows – only that I’m also having a writer’s block right now when it comes to stories…) whenever I think about starting an episode. I really hope this gets better, but I’m not sure if there will be another instalment next week.
PoiSonPaiNter

Grimm

What else to do while waiting for Once Upon A Time to continue than to watch another Fairytale-related series?
Well, basically a lot of stuff, but I was still curious if OUAT really was a rip-off of that show as a bunch of people claimed.
And as you can see in the title: I am talking about NBC’s Grimm.
Grimm is a crime show about Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective that has a certain ability. He is a Grimm. He can see the real nature of creatures called „Wesen“ that are able to pass as normal humans otherwise. The show shows how Nick is more and more able to cope with this and what obstacles he has to overcome along the way.
First of all, I’d like to say that I watched the series both in English and in German, so I’ll even be able to show you some of the differences between them.
The series has a small circle of main characters.
Alongside Nick we have his partner Hank Griffin, Captain Sean Renard and Sergeant Wu in the Portland Police Department and at home his girlfriend Juliet.
In his first case after discovering his ability he meets the Wesen Monroe, a „Blutbad“ that he accuses of having kidnapped a little girl. After their first differences he becomes Nicks friend and very own „Grimm-o-Pedia“. 😀
Later on a „Fuchsbau“ called Rosalee and a „Hexenbiest“ named Adalind Schade join the cast.
As I said Grimms are people with the ability to see the real nature of Wesen.
But what exactly Grimms are has not yet been told.
What we know so far is that they collect data on Wesen and are successors of seven families that  all have the same „gift“.
As some of the words mentioned above suggest, this series uses quite a bunch of German words.
This is due to the fact that among the most famous – and openly known – „Grimms“ where the Brother’s Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm; the German Fairytale collectors.
Or so we think.
In the world of Grimm, just as in OUAT, these Fairy Tales are real.
They are the way of telling the people what they aren’t aware of.
They tell them the stories of the Wesen.
And of course warn the humans about them.
For example the „Blutbaden“ (official plural of Blutbad) are what later became the Big Bad Wolf in the brother’s Children and Houshold Tales. (Funny side note: There is a Wesen-version of these tales called: „Albträume für Wesen Kinder“ [original title; English: „Nightmares for Wesen children“])
Regardless of the fact that it is pretty cool to have different languages in a show (not all Grimms were English or German, some wrote their notes in Latin, Japanese or Spanish) I do occasionally struggle with the grammar they chose…
For example „Blutbad“ is the German term for „bloodbath“.
„Blutbaden“ however doesn’t really exist…
The „Blut“ would still be „blood“ but the „baden“…well it does suggest that it is the action of bathing in blood, making the translation „bathing“, but that does not really make sense.
So basically the plural of a blood bath is the action of bathing in it. Obvious isn’t it?
Or the „Rumplestiltskin“-dude from the episode „Nameless“ in Season 2.
He is a „Fuchsteufelwild“. That is no German word either.
Well, „fuchsteufelswild“ would be, but that would be an adjective meaning „mad as hell“ or „hopping mad“.
So they either took somewhat fitting German nouns or adjectives and stitched them together.
Let’s just say: If the actual brothers would have really given the creatures their German names, their works would have never been able to become a literary classic….
But „worse“ than the grammar – though more funny – is the pronunciation of the words.
I know it is not easy for an American native to pronounce German words, as our language is quite „harder“ (in means of sound) as English, but they could a least try a tiny bit more…
I mean, the most used term „Wesen“ is totally mispronounced.
No German-native would understand it. It took me a while to do so at least and I had to read it at some point before it made sense to me.
The way the cast pronounces it, the word means „whose“ not „creature“.
They add an extra „s“ to it and make it a (possessive) question, rather than a noun…
Anyway, I still think it is great that they even try.
If you watch the German version of the show one thing becomes clear: They do not like the grammar either.
They bluntly change the names to something that would – in their opinion – make more sense in German. E.g. Blutbaden became „Blutbader“ (Which would more or less translate to „Bloodbather“ – someone who is bathing in blood. Trying to find a translation for „bader“ I discovered that there was a medieval profession by that name, someone that had some kind of medic role for the poor people. Look for „Barber Surgeon“ for more information.) and the „Ziegevolk“ (proper German: Ziegenvolk) became the „Ziegendämon“ (Goat Demon“), while still portrayed as the original version in the Grimm Diaries (notebooks of the Grimms about the Wesen and mostly how they killed them) that Nick inherited from his aunt Marie at the beginning of the series.
Makes just as much sense.
A bit more sense makes translating some of the things said in German in the original into Mandarin.
Yes, Mandarin.
The „Woge“ – the transformation from humanoid to Wesen, gets a Madarin term.
The German saying „Alles hat eine Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei.“ that Monroe – whose quite adept at several languages and especially at German thanks to his ancestors – uses in the Episode „Big Feet“ was translated into that as Nick asks what it meant „because it sounded nice“ and that question wouldn’t make sense if it was said in German…
So apart from language mutilation what does this series have?
Well, it’s a crime show that shows you a new Wesen each episode, just as we are used to from old Buffy times, with a whiff of Supernatural.
The character development is in my opinion quite slow.
While we have an awesome character with a certain depth to him with Monroe (being a Wieder Blutbad he is the vegan among wolves) right from the start, Nicks progress drags on into the second season with baby steps.
In the first season the story mostly centers around the crimes committed by various Wesen, the greater scheme is only slowly revealed. It is kind of like the viewer learns new things in the same pace as Nick does. Which is a good thing, but drags the story on without really having to. But this changes with the second season, where the story turns its focus onto the Grimm instead of the criminal Wesen.
At first I nearly gave up on the series, but the more it advanced the more colours it gained.
You had Nicks struggle of not being able to tell anyone and all the other problems he was faced with. But you also had different approach at how to treat Wesen.
In the finale of Season 1 you see a second Grimm, that doesn’t believe in Nicks way of befriending them – the good ones at least – and that sticks to the old ways of simply killing them off. So you do not have this general black and white thinking here. Which is really nice.
So by now I am quite curious where Nick’s journey will lead him and his affiliates.
Also the characters become better – especially Monroe and Rosalee.
Though Monroe was one of my favourite characters from the get go. His humor’s just great. Unfortunately they aren’t really able to completely capture it in the German version.
Well, and as I said he speaks German and can at least translate it just by reading through it.
But I also already mentioned that you can’t see this that good in the German version (hence the Mandarin).
And to show what else is different have some trivia regarding the different versions and bits I consider funny.
Throughout the two season there are several scenes in bars, some of them even in German bars. The music that is played there is quite disturbing for a Metalhead like me, but one song in particular caught my attention.
In Episode 14 in Season 2 „Natural Born Wesen“ Monroe walks into a Wesen bar and what is played? „Bück dich“ by Rammstein. One of the most contrary bands in Germany. (A band I’ll be seeing live in a week from now at the Wacken Open Air 😉 ) Though in my opinion their song „Mutter“ would have been more fitting in regards to the episodes title.
Apart from their musical choices I like the way the creators treat finale cliffhangers, when after the last scene the message: „To be continued“ writes itself and after a moment „You knew this was coming.“ is added. 😀 They at least know how to make things funny for their audience.
And as we already are with writings: As interesting as the intro texts are, as awesome is it that the German voice actor Thomas Fritsch is reading them, while in English they are only shown and faded out again. He has just the right voice for a storyteller and he already has some experience with that. 😀

Another thing that is again typically German – beside strange translations: Censorship.
In the second Episode („Bears will be Bears“) Monroe keeps an eye on Nicks aunt.
In the original you can see how he rips of the arm of one of pursuers and later see the same guy in a sickbed with a red spot at shoulder height being wheeled past him when Monroe calls Nick in panic and claims that he might have overdone it.
In the German version they skip right from the fight to the bed-scene, so you can not really make the connection to the bloodstain.
I might have looked away at that moment, but I think I remember that there was another scene where he was holding the arm and looking at it in horror before he fled the scene that wasn’t shown either.
Additionally to that:
German television magazines often named Monroe „Eddie“, as they had picked up somewhere that that would be his first name. By now it is even on some other (English) sites, but officially it was never said whether „Monroe“ is the first or the last name and what the other is. (Eddie was a draft name if I remember correctly, though.)
Anyway, to conclude all this:
I think Grimm is a rather good series.
It is a bit slow when it comes to character development and has this monster-of-the-week flair from Buffy, but it still has potential to grow.
And it is interesting to see how it will continue, especially with the characters and how the writers will manage to continue to build in new Wesen and stories/fairytales – even though this faded quite strongly into the background by now.
It is always interesting to see how the supernatural cumulates at a place as soon as you have to do with it. 😀
In my opinion the rumor that OUAT is a ripp-off of Grimm is far-fetched. The sole thing they have in common, is that they integrate the Grimm’s Fairytales…but they portray it completely different. (OUAT does a better job at that I’d like to add. Besides I am kind of inclined to write a continuation for my post about them, not sure if I’ll actually do it.)
However, this concludes the post for July.
Last year I did not manage to write one for August so I at least managed to not do the same with this month…
And as I am off to another Journey around Germany I wont be able to write anything more until the middle of August.
So, stay tuned for my travel log and some festival reports in the following months. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter