Cait Sith Character Profile p. 60-63

[The Twilight Mexican]

Forum member Quexinos has very kindly provided TheLifestream.net — and you, our fellow fans of Final Fantasy VII and its related compositions — with the missing link in our coverage of translations from the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania: Cait Sith’s profile.

Sure, we had Reeve Tuesti’s profile, but not that of his beloved feline avatar. Thanks to Que being less lazy than the rest of us, however, we can at last offer you the only main character profile we had overlooked.

We here at TLS are very proud of Que, and it warms my heart to unveil her first frontpage translation effort.

<HR> Cait Sith
Compilation of FFVII: FFVII – AC – BC

Character Profile

Sex: ?
Height: 100cm
Blood Type: ?
Date of Birth: ?
Birthplace: ?
Weapon: Megaphone (when riding the moogle)
First Person Pronoun: ボク [Boku]
Voice Actor: AC, DC — Hideo Ishikawa


<HR>A remote controlled stuffed cat. Reeve, head of the Shinra Company’s Urban Development Department, manufactured him for such purposes as scouting out intelligence and spying. Because Reeve is the one operating him, he speaks with the unique accent of Reeve’s original Kansai dialect. He’s powerless and limited when alone, so he often rides on the fat, stuffed toy moogle during times of action.

<HR>Read the rest of this entry »

 

[Dashell]

I don't feel good just because you complimented me


I just have one thing to say to all this


I AM YOUR GOD NOW, BRING ME YOUR VIRGINS!

 

[Octo]

How come I never saw that picture before? I must have had my head under a rock. Now Cait/Red is canon in my head.

Spoiler: Dogs and Cats living together...MASS HYSTERIA!

 

[ForceStealer]

It's one of the 10th Anniversary Renders, have you seen them? They're pretty good. I love the

Spoiler: Barret and Marlene

one myself.

Spoiler: ...and Tifa's good too

Spoiler: and Shinra

Anyway good work Quex , kinda funny that we missed Cait Sith. "Just kidding guys, no one likes you"

 

[Octo]

I did see the renders, I just never saw the Red and Cait one before for some raisin.

 

[ForceStealer]

Okay, just checkin'

 

[Shademp]

"Just kidding guys, no one likes you"

I could NOT avoid doing the PrintScrnSysRq in honor of that awesome reference:

Spoiler

 

[ForceStealer]

I appreciate it

 

[e.suna]

Awww, that render is so cute! I'd never seen it before, either.

After reading the entry (btw, nice work, Quex), I find myself wondering why Cait has a country bumpkin dialect in the game. Was his dialogue supposed to have been translated differently, or did the Scottish thing just start with AC?

*waits for someone to put their nerd hat on and explain*

 

[Octo]

Its because Cait Sith is meant to be inspired by Gaelic mythology, the name translates roughly as 'fairy cat'.

As for why it was only AC that had his accent reflect this I don't know, cos as far as I remember even in the Jap version of the OG he just had an informal countryfied manner of speech, where there was nothing to suggest he was Scottish or anything.

I kind of wish they hadn't bothered with the Scottish accent, its not like they meet him in some sort of heather covered mountain region. He's a toy cat who works in a friggin theme park, he has no ancestry so it doesn't matter.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

They could have simply given him a Canadian accent!

I was going to say that it speaks volumes for the Japanese perception of the English-speaking world that they thought a Scottish accent would be a good parallel for the Kansai dialect... but then I realised the choice to make him Scottish was probably made by native English speakers, probably because of the magic Gaelic cat thing. The moogle is the ugliest moogle in the history of moogles.

 

[ForceStealer]

If it doesn't matter...why does it matter? lol. He wouldn't be the first character/mascot thing to have an accent. And his hick accent in the game was wildly inconsistent anyway. It only showed up sometimes, other times he just sounded normal.

But yes, in AC onward he's Scottish because Cait sith, cat sidhe, all the other ways you can spell that is from Scottish mythology. I rather like the reference. besides, normally everyone's complaining that characters always have American accents. Now someone doesn't and we still don't like it?
He's annoying I guess but he's always been annoying.

 

[Octo]

Well what I mean is it wasn't important to give him a Scottish accent because nobody gave a shit that he didn't have one in the first place Pretty much everyone saw him as a 'comic relief' character but it still stuck in a lot of craws that he all of a sudden had this weird accent.

As for his speech being inconsistent in the OG, I'm putting that down in part to the glitchy translation, and also the difference between Reeve having direct control or not.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

If it doesn't matter...why does it matter? lol. He wouldn't be the first character/mascot thing to have an accent. And his hick accent in the game was wildly inconsistent anyway. It only showed up sometimes, other times he just sounded normal.

But yes, in AC onward he's Scottish because Cait sith, cat sidhe, all the other ways you can spell that is from Scottish mythology. I rather like the reference. besides, normally everyone's complaining that characters always have American accents. Now someone doesn't and we still don't like it?
He's annoying I guess but he's always been annoying.

My reasons are entirely selfish, eh? His accent is annoying because I can't write Scots, eh, and therefore can't puddim inna fanfic. If he hadda C'najun accent iddud be easy, eh?

 

[Masamune]

Why doesn't Sephiroth talk like a Jew, then?

 

[ForceStealer]

Pretty much everyone saw him as a 'comic relief' character but it it still stuck in a lot of craws that he all of a sudden had this weird accent.

Sound like some mighty oversensitive craws to me.

And funny, Masa, but considering Sephiroth merely takes his name from the Kabbalah and is not an actual representation of it, I'm not sure it's comparable. And yes, I know cat sidhe don't look like that but that's what the FF version looks like.

 

[Octo]

Sound like some mighty oversensitive craws to me.

What can I say? I'm a delicate flower

Seriously though, at the time of AC's release I do remember a lot of people reacting negatively. It was quite a WTF moment, nobody was really expecting it. I think we all expected him to have some sort of annoying cartoon cat type voice (like Meowth for example) but to be confronted with a Scottish accent that wasn't even present before.... people found it annoying.

The thing is they we're never really going to please everyone with the voice acting. To give voices to a bunch of characters that every player had invested so much in - we all had our own internal ideas of how they would sound. However with Cait it was like they didn't even try to approximate fan expectations.

Maybe on it's own it wouldn't have been such a big deal, but it wasn't the only thing about AC that pissed people off.

 

[Lex]

I'm almost certain if they had had half decent translators for the original game he would have been Scottish. After all, they put Scottish accents in FFIX (Conde Petie).

The point in him having a different accent in the OG was that Reeve was supposed to be putting it on. That's why, when Midgar is destroyed and he's evacuating the slums, he slips up when talking to Heidegger and Scarlet by using his "Cait Sith" accent, then Scarlet says something along the lines of "You're talking funny".

Because the accent wasn't that different in the OG from the other characters (in English), the moment is lost.

Sad bunny times.

 

[ForceStealer]

The thing is they we're never really going to please everyone with the voice acting. To give voices to a bunch of characters that every player had invested so much in - we all had our own internal ideas of how they would sound. However with Cait it was like they didn't even try to approximate fan expectations.

But then you have someone like Cid, who had a pretty hickish accent in the original game (although that was also inconsistent). Saying things like "tarnation" and "hold onto yer britches and don't piss in'em" and "Give her a lickin'." They gave him exactly that in AC and everyone flipped shit about that too.

Of course you can't please everyone...but there's an unwillingness to be pleased on the other end sometimes.

 

[Octo]

I thought he said 'drawers' not 'britches' not that makes much difference.

True though, I never really got the Cid thing that much, maybe its because I'm not american and therefore don't appreciate the finer subtleties of the different accents but I always thought Cid was going to be quite a gruff sounding southern type. The only thing that stuck out for me was that he seemed a little too cheerful in AC. I didn't think he sounded that bad though.

 

[ForceStealer]

You may be right about drawers, but same difference

But at least we agree about one thing
And, for the record, I wouldn't go so far as to say I like the way Cait Sith sounds, it's just that he was always annoying so I figure that did the job all right.

@Lex, you're right. I kinda feel like accent in English are harder to write than in Japanese but I could be wrong. Whenever someone tries I usually have a have hard time figuring out what it's even supposed to say. That's one that would be easier to reflect with voice acting, at least.

And "Inspire" is still bullshit but we can't even blame the compilation for that one...

 

[Octo]

@Lex, you're right. I kinda feel like accent in English are harder to write than in Japanese but I could be wrong. Whenever someone tries I usually have a have hard time figuring out what it's even supposed to say. That's one that would be easier to reflect with voice acting, at least.

I don't know if any of you have tried to read Trainspotting, but its entirely written in a Scottish accent, a thick one at that. Took me a few goes to figure out what the hell was going on, but it did come in handy when I got to Conde Petie. Those guys don't seem to be as big on heroin though

 

[ForceStealer]

Live and Let Die has a lot of ...I don't even know. Whatever accent the bad guys speak with in that novel. Could be an African one or Jamaican, all I know is I couldn't understand anything they said. You could say that was the point but I kinda doubt that.

 

[Masamune]

Cid's voice is, and forever shall be, terrible. I feel like syringing my ears every time I hear it. And it's not the Southern accent, per se, it's the choice of voice-actor. Maaaan this guy is weak. He doesn't sound like the no-shit takin' badass Cid Highwind truly is. It just sounds like someone trying to fake a gruffy redneck accent. Then I hear the voice-actor IRL and KNOW it's someone trying to fake a gruffy redneck accent.

ARRRGH STFU.

 

[ForceStealer]

That's fine but that's not what most people say. Most people complain about the accent, hence my point.