Smash Bros. Byleth’s Reveal Trailer: Did the joke in the female Byleth reveal part change from the JP version?

Byleth recently joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the latest DLC fighter. They had a reveal trailer in the style of Three Houses‘s cutscenes, featuring Sothis.

Multiple readers have reached out to me regarding said reveal trailer, often asking about one joke in it. An example question from one reader:

I saw comments on youtube and gamefaqs talking about that part where male Byleth comes back in the english trailer being different than japanese, or that a joke was removed or something. But I can’t find anyone clearly providing a source. Can you look into what the joke was that changed?

They provided some links to people discussing it, such as to a thread on gamefaqs. I could not find anyone clearly talking about the joke itself beyond hearsay, either, so decided to make this post to service as possible reference in case it is discussed in the future.

The short answer: Yes the joke plays out slightly differently in Japanese! But they both retain similarities in their double meanings and intent as well. I don’t think the joke was changed or removed entirely as one may say, but it was indeed slightly altered.

Let’s take a deeper look!

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A deeper look (EN):

For context, please watch the English reveal trailer first. The scene in question begins at 2:01. (Also embedded below):

We see male Byleth get beat specifically by other male sword fighters, and he comes back to Sothis beaten up, where she says the following:

So you return, and sooner than expected.
I see. Too many swordsmen, are there?
And you… You wield the sword as well? What will you do?
<Reveals Female Byleth>
Huh. So that is how you plan to win the day?
So be it. I reward your cleverness this time.

Sothis proceeds to grant the legendary bow, axe, and lance to her and sends her on the way.

Some readers wonder whether the plan to win the day was Byleth’s female form (poking at the gender-specific “swordsmen” and thus female Byleth now standing out compared to male), or the idea to use weapons other than the sword (as implied by Sothis providing the other weapons afterward).

Thanks to Sothis’s use of “that”, one can read it as both –which is probably where the intended humor comes in. Let’s look at the JP version more before coming back to discuss more of the EN version.

A deeper look (JP):

So with the above context, let’s take a look at the same dialogue from the Japanese version. (Embedded version in reference section at the bottom). It’s at roughly 2:03.

Note that none of the visual contexts changed, just the dialogue. Sothis says the following:

お早いお帰りじゃったのう…。何？剣士は沢山おるからもうよいじゃろうと？泣き言とは畏れ入るわ。それでも男か！？
<Reveals Female Byleth>
あー、そういう手で来おったか。なるほどうのうーまあよい。今回は大サービスじゃ

<Flowing Translation>:

Back so quickly? …What? You’re saying there’s so many sword fighters already? You should be ashamed of making such excuses! Aren’t you a man?!
<Reveals Female Byleth>
Ah, so that’s what you’ll do?… yes, I see… Well alright. I’ll do you a big service…

<Super Literal Translation (for reference)>:

So quickly have come back…? What? “There’s so many sword fighters already?” [These] complaints are embarrassing. And yet you [call yourself] a man?!
<Reveals Female Byleth>
Ah, that’s what you will bring [to the table]? I see… well okay. This time [I will do you] a big service.

So the main difference we can immediately see is the part about making excuses and the “aren’t you a man?!” jab. Female Byleth appears immediately to contrast it. Sothis then says “that” is one way to go about it.

Also, note that the Japanese word 剣士 (kenshi) is gender neutral for a sword fighter (indeed, it is used for “myrmidon” in past FE games). Compare this to the more obvious use of “swordsmen” that Sothis uses in English. Though, we can see from context (of male Byleth getting beat up by all male sword fighters such as Link, Hero, and Cloud) that it’s likely jabbing at the gender too. But the English makes this more clear in its use of the word “swordsmen” specifically.

Like we saw in the English version, the joke in Japanese is two-pronged. The vague “that” can apply to Byleth’s (implied) idea to use the legendary weapons and not the immediate visual change to female Byleth. It thus becomes a good response to both “aren’t you a man?!” but also a way around the “too many sword fighters” excuse brought up earlier. We get a visual joke of the female Byleth in response to the “man” comment and a jab at (sticking out from other) “sword fighters” by use of new types of weapons in a single “that.”

English opts to put the gender reference in “swordsmen” and thus skips out on the excuses and “aren’t you a man?” part. However, the use of “what will you do?” leading to a show of female Byleth and Sothis’s reply of “that is how you plan to win the day?” and comment on cleverness leads back to it applying to both the change to female Byleth but also the request for the weapons.

With that said, I would say the English carried over that intent rather well.

So why the change?

As usual, we can only speculate.

My first thought is perhaps they wanted to opt to not put any possible references to gender norms and the like in. Sothis saying something like “stop making excuses, aren’t you a man?” may come down to her basically saying to “man up” (and thus that men should act one way). Localization may want to avoid possible offense entirely and take the safer option. By having the “swordsmen” reference, they already got the gender set up in there without putting emphasis on the implied gender role.

As a result, readers may lean more toward the dialogue inferring the weapons being the “that” of what Sothis is referring to, rather than the change to female Byleth. But I do not think it eliminates reading it as the change to female Byleth entirely. But this may be anecdotal to me seeing it both ways, so I would like to hear what people thought.

Conclusion/In short:

The English version did not exclude the original joke entirely. The joke revolves around Sothis’s vague use of “that” in both languages. Visually, one can take it as the change to female Byleth. Contextually, one can take it as providing Byleth the non-sword weapons. Both languages accomplish this intent. However, English opts to put the gender reference in “swordsmen,” while Japanese puts it in the “aren’t you a man?!” comment. The main difference is the English’s omission of the latter, changing it to “what will you do?” This opts to set up for the same vague two-pronged “that” while possibly avoiding reference to a comment that may cause offense. I thought the intent was carried over rather well, personally! It may be false to claim that the joke was removed entirely, but it was definitely changed slightly.

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Other quick but unrelated tidbits:

In English, Sothis says she will rewards Byleth’s cleverness. But in JP, Sothis uses the word サービス (saabisu, lit: service) to describe the assistance she will give in handing the legendary weapons over. However, the above word is also used in contexts of say, freebies that are offered with your food or some sort of bonus for an order. In the meta context, it could be seen as her providing players with the female Byleth as well (considering the DLC pack). Both are here! And not just a sword character! She is talking to you, the audience.

Lastly, it shows a separate splash screen for female Byleth. The English splash screen says:

I point this out only as it this confused at least one reader in wondering if male Byleth had recruited female Byleth to send in (with those other weapons) as their ideal solution to the swordsmen problem rather than being the same person. As if they both exist at the same time, or something along those lines.

I felt this could just be attributed to the fact Byleth has two slightly different names in Japanese (depending on the gender chosen), so they had to do something fun with the English one. But I can see why it comes off that way!

Anything fun on the JP side?

When researching this, I came across a post on a Japanese Pixiv Blog that asks, “Did they just pull off that joke a second time?”

Their “that” links to the “big brother is now big sister!” line from Corrin’s own reveal trailer for the Smash Bros series. That was more of a fun quip than a two pronged joke though, but still fun to see how both the JP/EN fandoms draw comparisons to that reveal.

References:

Summary Infographic:

Side-by-side:

Japanese	Translation	Official Localization
お早いお帰りじゃったのう…。何？剣士は沢山おるからもうよいじゃろうと？ 泣き言とは畏れ入るわ。それでも男か！？ <Reveals Female Byleth> あー、そういう手で来おったか。なるほどうのうー まあよい。今回は大サービスじゃ	Back so quickly? …What? You’re saying there’s so many sword fighters already?  You should be ashamed of making such excuses! Aren’t you a man?! <Reveals Female Byleth> Ah, so that’s what you’ll do?… yes, I see… Well alright. I’ll do you a big service…	So you return, and sooner than expected. I see. Too many swordsmen, are there? And you… You wield the sword as well? What will you do? <Reveals Female Byleth> Huh. So that is how you plan to win the day? So be it. I reward your cleverness this time.

Super Literal Translation:

For reference, here is a super literal translation. Inferred quotes are in brackets.

So quickly have come back…? What? “There’s so many sword fighters already?” [These] complaints are embarrassing. And yet you [call yourself] a man?!

<Reveals Female Byleth>

Ah, that’s what you will bring [to the table]? I see… well okay. This time [I will do you] a big service.

Japanese Pixiv Blog Post

The above link talks about the Sothis quote wondering if it is related to the Corrin joke from prior (i.e. “Big brother has become big sister!”)

Reveal Trailers (English and Japanese)

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What do you think? Did you take the English dialogue for both its meanings? Or did you only read it one way or the other? Do you like the Japanese one with Sothis’s teasing more? Let me know!