Fire Emblem Fates: Luna to Selena (Names Comparison)

Today is a very brief post on a Fire Emblem Fates localization development. The game has been sent out for review copies I assume, and many streams and the like are popping up online. According to serenesforest, Luna has been named Selena.

I talked about how Syalla had been changed to Rhajat, and Matoi to Caeldori… so now let’s take a look at this one. A lot of this post may reflect the same things from the last post, mostly for people who had not read the other post. Excuse the redundancies that may come about as a result.

Note: Spoilers for some things from the game may follow. Though, nothing about the main plot beyond very indirect references will be spoiled, but just in case, please proceed with caution. There is one paragraph I made in black text with spoiler warnings to help people avoid it at the end of the post.

So the character Luna is named Selena in the localization.

Below is a quick introduction using her character page from the Character Book:

So, next, for those who played Awakening. Remember Severa? Her name was Serena (セレナ) in the Japanese version. In this game, her name was made Luna (ルナ).

With the above in mind, the two characters are meant to be very alike. Down to their design and character both, though that is no secret.

So in Japanese, from Awakening to Fates, they changed from Serena to Luna. In English, they changed from Severa to Selena.

Now here’s the interesting part, Serena can also be read as Selena in Japanese due to the lack of “l” sound, and so “r” is often made to “l” (Lilina, for instance, is リリナ, which is read Ririna). This means the English name change is actually to her original Japanese name. But it goes a bit deeper:

Selena is a name that means “moon goddess.” Luna, the Japanese name that is being localized, is also a name that means “moon goddess.” So they got the meaning across while changing the name (for some reason). But it is cool they gave her the Japanese name she used in Awakening as a sort of throwback while going forward at the same time.The odd part about this is the Japanese books would refer to her with the official spelling as “Serena” with the “R” “emphasis… yet chose Luna, a reference to the same moon, in Fates, perhaps implying they really did mean Selena with the “L”? Something to ponder!

Unfortunately, the same does not seem to apply to “Laslow” (Lazward) and “Odin (who kept his Japanese name…)” So I am not quite sure what was going on with these three Awakening expies compared to the three anagram child expies. I’ll have to look into just what the heck is going on over there some other time!

There was a Selena in Sacred Stones as well, which is rather rare for a localization to use the exact same name twice. But they did so here. Interesting!

There is one final strange part to ponder here for the localization, and unfortunately, I cannot put spoiler tags here, so spoiler warning! Please skip the next paragraph if being spoiler wary (I put it in black text so it is harder to read, please highlight to read if interested):

If she chose to hide her name when going to assist Anankos/Hydra/people in Fates, isn’t going from Severa to Selena rather…ridiculously obvious? Selena/Severa to Luna is a difference, even if the meaning is the same, but…the above is just strange…but I guess we’ll see!

Spoilers end here!

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Feel free to share your own thoughts on the names and what they can become. Remember, this post is just something to think about, and not some absolute “my way is the only way” sort of thing. : )

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