Army meets Imperial? I'm the one who won't let you down.
Base sum pursuit other cross Bank of the river
Escape possible! Star Forge search, group Freedom
Hey, you!
A new secret? Based on a faraway world
You two... What is it?
I'm sorry. What's going on?
Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait.
The faraway air...
Star War: The Fifth Gathers: The Counterattack Collection is the second full dub released as part of The Star War Gatherings. Like its predecessor, it's a Gag Dub of a Star Wars movie (specifically, The Empire Strikes Back) based on a deliberately inaccurate translation made by KnifeofPi2, now joined by Rivercast. It is part of the same universe the infamous Backstroke of the West dub was retroactively included in.
The shooting script can be read here.
For the original blog post, go here.
A trailer was released on July 19, 2020. The complete dub was released on December 25 the same year. That video was removed but re-uploaded in parts here.
Note: Only tropes about this particular translation should be put here. Anything on the proper translation should go on the proper page.
Character page here.
Our falcon-type ultra-sensitive tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Blow The Skin refers to Thoreau as "Mr. President" when offering to aid him in prepping the Falcon for launch during Echo Base's evacuation. Harrison Ford has actually portrayed a president who personally jumps into the action.
- Adaptational Heroism: The West Emperor now wants to destroy the Death Star.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It's hinted that the probe droid Thoreau blew up was actually made by the Rebels, but turned against them due to having "complete self-determination."
- Alliterative Title: The Counterattack Collection.
- Ambiguous Situation: General Veers reports that "the fifth planetary defense system" is powerful enough to stop everyone from getting bombs. When executing Admiral Ozzel a moment later, Bader announces that "the ship was deployed, so the system didn't work." It's unclear whether "the system" was being used by the Empire or the Rebels, or who was trying to obtain bombs.
- America Saves the Day: Inverted. The United States is apparently on the side of the Empire, and even has its own Star Destroyer!
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Gospel confronting Lord Bader over what happened to his father.You killed him! You smelled him!
- Artistic License – Military: When promoting Piett, Lord Bader states, "You're the Commander, Admiral." Either he's promoting him to two ranks at once, or a Commander actually outranks an Admiral in the Empire's ranks.
- BFG: Vanquish Is refers to Gospel's blaster as "Fat weapons."
- Bilingual Bonus: Leah asks Thoreau, "Isn't the best way to finish Naka?" The long, intimate gaze the two share afterwards takes on a new shade of meaning if you know "naka" is Japanese for "inside".
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: The West Emperor tells Reach the West/Lord Bader, " I need a new man" and Bader replies, "Why are you doing this?" Indicating a breakup. But Bader convinces the West Emperor Gospel aka Peter will be a strong and big ally and their ending conversation doesn't indicate a break up.
- Broken Record: A Running Gag. The occasional Department of Redundancy Department of the previous dubs seem to have grown into this. It even makes it into the Opening Scroll.
- Busman's Holiday: Poor Mr. Thoreau. The Empire of the First Choice just has to invade Hose during his vacation.
- Call-Back:
- Just like in Reply is Minus, the United States military is once again on the side of the Empire.
- Dada's "Do he was fucking" echoes Ratio Tile's "R2, do you is fucking?" from Backstroke of the West.
- Captain Obvious: Lord Bader feels the need to remind Gospel that "I'm not you".
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- The opening crawl is styled like this, going on random tangents every other sentence, questioning its own narrative, and applying weird phrases as it sees fit.
- In general, the Translation Train Wreck for this Star War Gathering runs on its own bizarre logic, with the new lines often having zero correspondence with the equivalent lines from the original. For example, "There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon" somehow turns into "The term 'Don' was in the hippie decade." The frequent use of Broken Record is also a big example of this.
- Combat Medic: Admiral Piett is referred to as "the head of the medical group."
- Continuity Nod: The line "Star Forge search, group Freedom Hey, you!" in the opening crawl could possibly be interpreted as referencing the search for the maps to the Star Forge, which is the main plot of Knights of the Old Republic, though the game was released 23 years after the original film.
- Cool Boat: The rebels have their base built inside of a massive boat hidden deep within the icy caverns of Hose.
- Department of Redundancy Department:
- Thoreau to Leah, "Ord Mantell is the idea that Ord Mantell was awarded."
- Blow the Skin to Reach the Man, "You have to be alone if you can not be alone, R2."
- Princess Leah explains, "Once the heavy transport ship is released, it is released."
- Dada asking Gospel, "What is the difference between a person who starts a person and a person who finishes a person?"
- Lang California recalls that "When I was a special person Jabba Kazuna, I was that person."
- Dirty Coward: Lord Bader claims that "the Rebels are on their knees" despite having enough power to stop everyone from getting bombs.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Lord Bader apparently had a vision of Gospel destroying the Emperor, and wants his own opinion about whether it could happen. He later shows his vision to Gospel telepathically.
- Edible Theme Naming: One of Reach the West's captains is named Apple. note
- The Empire: In addition to the Empire of the First Choice, there's also apparently an "Empire of Love", which was given to Lang California.
- Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: The subtitles have trouble understanding the Opening Scroll, finally just giving up halfway through.I'm sorry. What's going on? Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait, Wait. (the scroll just keeps rolling; in exasperation the subtitles just mention the story's setting then stop) The faraway air.
- Eye Scream: Defied. Gospel tells Vanquish Is that he can't do this to him.
- Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Reach The West (and perhaps the rest of the Hopeless Situation Presbyterian Church) believe in a Quaternity."The Father, the Driver, and the Wild Goose with the Son."
- Genius Loci: The entire Hose system might be one, as the Empire of the First Choice are expecting it to "become human form".
- Gratuitous Latin: The phrase "et al" is dropped into a couple of conversations.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite being in charge of an "Empire of Love", Lang California claims he's merely the manager of a factory.
- Hey, You!: Seems to be a standard parting phrase on Hose. It also appears in the Opening Scroll, as it seems to address the audience directly.
- Innocently Insensitive: Blow the Skin laughs when the Boat shield doors are closed, thus trapping Gospel and Thoreau outside. Granted, it's to help assure R2 that Gospel will be fine, but he could take the situation a little more seriously...
- The dub treats this less as Blow the Skin being a Jerkass and more as him trying in vain to keep his own spirits up.
- Living Ship: Gospel makes an offhand mention of a living space cruiser early in the film.
- Mile-Long Ship: The living space cruiser pretty much has to be this, given that there's apparently not enough ice on Hose to fill it up. (Why Gospel of Luke wants to fill it with ice is unclear.)
- Mind Screw: This gem from Reach the West, when he captures Mr. Thoreau and Bong Day:"If you are us, we will be honored."
- The Mole: The Rebels' Seisetsu 630 Mizodori probe droid turns against them and becomes an Empire investigator.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Blow the Skin is suddenly a professor named Xu. He tells R2 that they have to find Leah "Between the time we are in the city and the approval time of the university president."
- Non Sequitur: Happens repeatedly in the bizarre opening crawl.
- The Nose Knows:
- Gospel, needing rescue in the final act of the film, relies on Leah to "sniff it". She manages to smell that he's in trouble and go save him. This shows significant development from the previous film, where she couldn't even recognize a bad smell without an entire board of directors.
- Gospel also accuses Lord Bader of smelling his father, considering it such a grave infraction that he mentions it after accusing him of his father's death, implying that an enhanced sense of smell can be used as a weapon in this universe.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Vanquish Is urges Gospel to "destroy all" in order to bring the fighting to an end.
- The Pornomancer:
- Gospel's snowspeeder co-pilot (Dak Ralter) says he wants to do the whole empire himself before they take off.
- Likely Lang California, as he mentions being in charge of an 'Empire of Love'.
- Vanquish Is/Dada's description of Gospel's father - "Do he was fucking!"
- Possible: Ghost of Ratio Tile says "I was deceived by the power of the body-wedge."
- Precision F-Strike: Vanquish Is/Dada swears a bit in this episode, particularly the F-Word. Most likely learnt it from the ghost of Ratio Tile.
- President Evil: Admiral Piett is implied to be the President of the United States.
- Product Placement: In-universe, an Imperial officer talks to Reach The West about an incident which was the last time the Falcon Milliennium appeared in the Empire's product range.
- Repetitive Name: Blow the Skin refers to Gospel as "Master Gospel Gospel" at one point.
- Sacred Hospitality: Apparently unappreciated by the bounty hunters, who seize the opportunity to dump their garbage in Reach the West's Star Destroyer.
- Satan: Is apparently a resident of Dagobah, if Vanquish Is is to be believed.
- Shaped Like Itself: Leah's observation that "This is a very competent area of competence."
- Shout-Out: While on the ice planet Hose, Blow the Skin makes a Disney reference.
- Reach The West tells Gospel "No resistance futile." when insisting that he has to "beat."
- The opening crawl tells the viewer that it's "the one who won't let you down".
- Lord Bader more-or-less quotes Fight Club to explain fatherhood."When you become a father, Peter, one, you don't talk about it."
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: This award goes to Vanquish Is/Dada, who drops two of the episode's three F-bombs (Leah gets the other one).
- Skewed Priorities:
- Mr. Thoreau is wrapped up taking a vacation when the Rebel Alliance is in the middle of a heated war with the Empire. And when he finds Gospel freezing in the Hose wasteland, the first thing he does is ask for his signature!
- When the Imperial Navy sets their course for Hose to fight the Rebels, Admiral Ozzel decides to screw around and take the Imperial Navy on a time travel joyride. Reach the West isn't amused and promptly kills him.
- When Reach the West's fleet is searching the asteroid field, one of his captains is discussing the subject of product range with him while the fleet is being pummeled by asteroids (one of which just destroyed a nearby Star Destroyer).
- The Falcon Millennium's hyperdrive is disabled and the crew is being chased, and all Blow the Skin cares to ask Reach the Man is, "Are you sure you have completed the electricity bill in the central city?"
- The Rebels have lost a base and fled, Thoreau is frozen in carbonite, but all Gospel of Luke radioes to Lang California is, "I'll see you a the tattoo collection points," while Lang decides to take a vacation to South Korea.
- The '60s: Lord Bader makes a passing reference to "the hippie decade", presumably meaning this (or a similar era in this story's universe/timeline).
- The Sleepless: Implied with Boba Fett. Reach the West makes a point of singling him out, saying "No, you can not collapse."
- Straw Nihilist: In the opening, Luke says that he doesn't choose any of the measured values of life.
- Time Travel: Reach the West rants to General Veers about how Admiral Ozzel took the Imperial Navy for a joyride by going through time via Faster-Than-Light Travel. At the boat, a rebel finds out about the situation and calls it "bull."
- Too Dumb to Live: Granted, Admiral Ozzel wasn't the brightest bulb on the Life Day tree in the first place, but it takes a special kind of insanity to take the entire Imperial Navy on a time travel joyride while they're supposed to be hunting the Rebels. He was just asking for Reach the West to kill him.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Mr. Thoreau is completely indifferent to the rebels' cause, preferring to take a vacation instead of helping them with the war effort. He also acts disgusted by Bong Day and taunts her in the hallway. On board the Falcon, he also threatens to have Blow the Skin terminated if he doesn't shut up. He even calls himself a villain to Bong Day when they're on the Falcon.
- Turn to Religion: Lord Bader seems to consider doing this at one point, making a sudden announcement that "I can be holy and pure." West Emperor seems to encourage him in this direction in the next scene, urging him to "find the feeling, now the Lord."
- Unicorn: Admiral Ozzel suspects that Gospel has one.
- Unusual Euphemism: Apparently in this universe, when you want to say that a man was frozen in carbonite, you say that "they left him in Cape Town."
- Worthy Opponent: Lord Bader tells Gospel that he has learned a lot from him.
- You see that you are bringing tropes and will bring something.
