History Main / InconsistentDub

* The Hungarian ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' dub, which apart from the problems listed below is one of the best dubs currently running on TV, has an annoying habit of changing around the voices of many second or third tier characters, only keeping the more prominent voices consistent. What's also strange is that although they often manage to get the original voice actors of various {{Cameo}} guests from different shows (including actors you rarely hear on TV nowadays), they often fail to do the same for in-universe characters from ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' or ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', whenever they have a {{Crossover}}. An explanation for this might be the fact that ''AD'''s dub is handled by a different studio, and the people dubbing ''FG'' simply don't recognize its characters, and so don't check whether they already have actors attached to them or not. Thanks to some fanmail, the ''FG'' dubbing team has promised to use the correct ''AD'' voices in the future. ''American Dad'''s dub on the other hand still assigns new voices to every crossover character.

** In both the French and Italian versions of the original ''Star Wars'' movies, most characters and vehicles received a DubNameChange. However, in translations of the prequels and later Expanded Universe material, most of these changes were reverted. The "reverted" names are treated as the official ones, despite the original trilogy not getting an extensive redub in those languages for consistency; in Darth Vader's case (see below), while he's one of the few characters to keep his DubNameChange in France, even ''he'' had his name reverted for French-Canadian translations from ''The Phantom Menace'' onwards.
*** In the case of French, [[TheDragon Darth Vader]] is a unique case; both France and Canada share one dub of the original movies, made in France, in which Vader's name (the only "Darth" character at that point) is changed to "[[GratuitousEnglish Dark]] Vador". Although later translations in France kept this change and carried it over to new characters ("Dark Maul", etc.), the French-Canadian versions of the new movies, series and packaging blurbs on merchandise not only kept "Darth", but also used Vader's original English name. This actually happens a lot in French Canada when new entries to old movie and TV series are dubbed. Before the 1990's, most French translations were done in France. Nowadays, most of them get a local dub in Quebec; series that got early instalments dubbed in France can have later ones dubbed in Quebec (''Franchise/IndianaJones'', ''Franchise/TheLionKing'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' come to mind). And if that wasn't inconsistent enought, from ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and onward, they return to his name being Dark Vador like in France meaning that going from the original trilogy, then the prequels and then the sequels, we go from Dark Vador, to Darth Vader, back to Dark Vador again.

** The Spain dub of the original trilogy can't decide whether to pronounce the I in Jedi as in English or in Spanish (more or less like "jeddy"). Since in the prequels it's always pronounced as in English, you might think this is an artifact of the scenes dubbed later for the special editions, but the inconsistency shows up much more often than that.

* In Spain, for ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Doc Brown's "1.21 jiggawatts" mispronunciation was kept as "Gigovatios" on the first film, but the third one used the correct "gigavatios". Inversely, the first move calls the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Flux Capacitor]] "Condensador de Fluzo", with "fluzo" being a made-up word. The third movie properly translates it as "flujo", but PopculturalOsmosis only uses "fluzo", probably because it's more associated with the film.

*** In Spain, Dragon Knights (AKA "Dragoons") seem to change name depending of the game: "Dragon Knight" on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and its sequel, "Dragontino" ("Draconesque", and no, it wasn't "Dragonesque Knight") on ''III'' and ''V'', "Draconarius" in ''II'' and "Draconius" on ''IV'' (The ''FF'' translator loves GratuitousLatin). Curaja can't keep its own name consistent either; the previous spells are always "Cura", "Cura+", and "Cura++", but in ''IV'' it's "[[RankInflation Cura+++]]", in ''I'' "Cura++2" And the crowner, ''III'' changes the entire system to be "Cura, Omnicura, Cura+, Omnicura+" for the hell of it. Thanks for making this simple, Square. Thanks. And we won't even get on how ''VII'' had completely different translations from later games, though that might be forgiven since ''VII'' was a BlindIdiotTranslation from the English version and the others are translated from the Japanese versions.

* The first episodes of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' in Spain translated Snot's nickname, but after 10 episodes or so they kept in on English for no reason.

** All Creator/ValveSoftware (and by default, UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}) games uses the European dialect. The main problem, at least with UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, is all the on-screen text is an unholy mixup of both Latin American and European dialects in the menus. This was finally averted at October 2018, when Steam included support for Latin American Spanish, leaving the European one as a separated option for Spaniard users.
** The Spanish translations of both ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' and ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' also mixes European and Latin American dialects, and the translations does not use ''voseo''.[[note]]The pronouns used mainly in Spain and Argentina.[[/note]] In the case of ''Spelunky'', this was finally averted in the sequel, when there's a option for choosing both Latin American and European dialects separately, instead of mixing them.

** The earlier versions of ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' were translated with a mix of European and Latin American dialects. Starting with the Season 1 pass, however, all the translations are now done in Latin American Spanish exclusively, despite, at least in UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, the game says the game was exclusively translated in the European dialect. This is vjustified in this case, as the game was developed in the U.S., a country with a big Latino population.

** Galbalan, the BigBad of ''Wanderers From Ys'', is renamed Demanicus in both the Turbo CD and Genesis localizations, but retains his original name in the SNES version as well as all versions of [[VideoGame/YsTheOathInFelghana the remake]].

* The [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the original ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs]]'' game, ''Wild [=ARMs=]: Alter Code F'', despite being developed eight years after the original, still infamously had a poor translation. Perhaps the best example of this is [[WhiteMagicianGirl Cecilia's]] middle name; she is referred to, at various points throughout the game, as Cecilia Lynne Adlehyde, Cecilia Raynne Adlehyde, and Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde. It's very jarring.
** More jarring example: Alhazad's gender, which is referred to both as "she" and "fellow". Why is this jarring? Because, not only is Alhazad referred to as a male in both the original's translation and the Japanese version of the remake, but he also constantly makes creepy advances towards a certain female even in his first appearance, which should have been a huge tip-off on his gender from the start.

* Capcom seems to ''like'' being inconsistent about terms in ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' and its sequel, ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce''. The most notable ones are the ByThePowerOfGreyskull quotes: in the first ''Battle Network'' game, the sentence was "Jack In! [=MegaMan.EXE=], Transmit!". In later games, it became "Jack In! Mega Man, Execute!".
** Doesn't help the fact that the first quote became "Jack In! Mega Man, Power Up" in the anime version.
** Also, are those viruses Mettools or Mettaurs?

*** The Italian dub of the series, known as ''Digimon Fusion Battles'', is filled with issues when it comes to naming Digimon. Some of them keep their western names like in the earlier series (Puppetmon, Frigimon), others have their western names except pronounced differently than in the older series (Beelzemon pronounced BELL-zemon rather than BEEL-zemon, Deputymon pronounced De-POO-timon rather than DE-putymon), other keep their Japanese names even when they used the western names in earlier series (Vamdemon, Dukemon). And the ones who always kept the Japanese names? We have again some pronounce changes (Cyberdramon is Cy-BEAR-dramon rather than Cyber-DRA-mon, Submarimon is Subma-REE-mon rather than SOOB-marimon) or even get [[SpellMyNameWithAnS misspelled from the original Japanese]] (Lilithmon is now Rirismon, Baalmon is now Barmon)

* The Icelandic translations of Disney comics, while keeping the names of major characters consistent, regularly change the names of all minor characters who only pop up here and there, the different translators seemingly not bothering to check if this character's name has been translated before. This happens now and then in Swedish editions too.
** When [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carl_Barks_Collection The Carl Barks Collection]] were published in Sweden, exisiting translations were used wherever possible, but the editors did go back and make sure that things like Scrooge's money bin and Number one dime had consistent names throughout.

** The Brazilian dub is [[UpToEleven even more inconsistent]]. Not only OWCA's name inconsitency also applies to this dub (it was first translated as OSUSB [[note]] Organização Sem Uma Sigla Bacana[[/note]], but it had multiple other names before returning to OSUSB for the rest of the series), but many things such as Doofenshmirtz's Inators or quotes get retranslated pretty often, specially in flashbacks. Part of the inconsistencies is because Phineas [[TheOtherDarrin changed voice actors]] during season 2, so they couldn't just reuse season 1 clips with his old voice [[note]] that didn't stop them to redubbing some season 1 episodes with Phineas' [[FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin new voice]], such as S'winter, and none of his lines have changed.[[/note]], but for other characters that retained their voices through the show (such as Candace and Doofenshmirtz), it made no sense at all.

** More from the Italian translation of ''Brawl'': for some reason, the translators made up [[DubNameChange new Italian names]] for the characters from ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'' and ''VideoGame/DrillDozer'' (which [[NoExportForYou were never released in Europe]]) in the sticker list. The odd part comes when you get the Lip sticker and she is renamed "Fiorella"... yet Lip's Stick is still called "Bacchetta di Lip" and not "Bacchetta di Fiorella"!

** Birdo from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2''. The English manual describes Birdo as a transgender female. Nintendo kept on swaying between her being trans or cis for years, though over time they've described Birdo in a [[AmbiguousGender more neutral]] manner. Curiously, the American and European versions of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioParty'' (which are otherwise identical) split the difference and refer to Birdo with female pronouns in the former and male in the latter.

* For a lengthy period of time between 2008-ish and 2016, most Creator/{{Nintendo}} games released had DuelingDubs, one American localization for the North American market, and one British localization shared with Europe and Oceania. Because one hand wasn't talking to the other, several terms and concepts ended up with different names between versions, such as the game show in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' or almost every proper noun in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks''. In late 2016, this eventually seemed to prove more trouble than it was worth, and Nintendo of Europe took over localization duties in full...except they ''also'' started using the North American English terms for everything, so the return of the aforementioned game show in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' calls it "Snifit or Whiffit" instead of "Hit It or Snifit", the Splatfest ranks in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' use the snappier American names instead of their more literally translated European counterparts, and so on. On the flip side, this resulted in oddities like the Hammerhead Bros. in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' and Marie in ''Splatoon 2'' suddenly using British slang and speech patterns in the American versions for no in-game reason.

* ''Animation/TayoTheLittleBus'': The South Korean show's English dub prounounces characters' names differently from season to season. Examples: Lani is pronounced "Laney" and Citu is pronounced "Cito." It can be very jarring, especially due to the large cast.

* Season 1 of the Polish dub of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' had the five characters called by nicknames (something that was scrapped from the English version after the previews, but persisted here) rather than their real names, however it starts to use the real names from Season 2 onwards perhaps due to them being more and more relevant to the story. This is also the case for the Brazilian Portuguese dub, although these nicknames were only used in promtional material (such as the "Cartoon Zaun" crossver brand) rather than the series proper.
** Speaking of the latter dub, they can't seem to decide if Numbuh 5's family name should be "Lincoln" like in the original or be replaced by "Oliveira". Nubmuh 3's first name also was switched between "Kuki" and "Ukibi".

* Season 1 of the Polish dub of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' had the five characters called by nicknames (something that was scrapped from the English version after the previews, but persisted here) rather than their real names, however it starts to use the real names from Season 2 onwards perhaps due to them being more and more relevant to the story.
** Similarly, in the Brazilian Portuguese dub, these nicknames also received transaltions on the Cartoon Network Official Website[labelnote:Translations]]Numbuh 1 became "O Maioral" ("The Greatest"), Numbuh 2 is "O Baloofus" ("The fat one"), Numbuh 3 is " A Sushigata" ("gata", in this context, is the slang for an attractive female), Numbuh 4 is "O Encrenca" (something akin to "The Troublemaker"), and Numbuh 5 became "A Mímica" (possibly a mistranslation of her actual title, "The Quiet One")[[/labelnote]], but were never used in the show, instead being used in promotional material (such as the "CartoonZaun" crossover brand) ''instead of their actual names/codenames''. The site also featured different DubNameChanges from the language, such as Numbuh 1/Nigel Uno becoming "Bruno Moors" instead of his actual dubbed name, "Nico Uno".

** Again in the Italian dub, the homemade tabletop game seen in early episodes, Dodge or Dare, was translated as "Scappa o Sfida" ("Escape or Challenge") in Season 1, but when it got its own episode in Season 2 it became "Tira o Rischia" ("Roll or Risk"). The Brazilian Portuguese dub had a similar case, with the game becoming "Desvie ou Enfrente" ("Dodge it or Face it") in Season 1, and becoming "Drible ou Desafie" (which is more or less a more faithful translation) in season 2. However, considering how the game's name was [[Retcon retconned]] to be spelled as "Dodj or Daar" in season 2, this might've played a part on the confusion in the dubs.

** Again in the Italian dub, the homemade tabletop game seen in early episodes, Dodge or Dare, was translated as "Scappa o Sfida" ("Escape or Challenge") in Season 1, but when it got its own episode in Season 2 it became "Tira o Rischia" ("Roll or Risk")

** The English dub initially rendered Naruto's "dattebayo" verbal tic as "believe it," but [[AbandonedCatchprase it was dropped]] after a few arcs because everyone agreed it got annoying real fast. This became a problem in ''Shippuden'', when it was revealed that Naruto unwittingly inherited the catchphrase from his mother, whose sometimes ended her sentences with "dattebane." The English dub rendered it as "you know?", and then had Naruto use the verbal tic sparingly afterwards to maintain consistency.

* The English translation of ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' consistently uses the traditional East Asian name format of Family Name first, then Given Name. ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' instead consistently used the Given Name, Family Name format more common in the West. Since they each used it consistently, this wasn't too much of a problem... until ''VideoGame/WarriorsOrochi'', where you now get characters who are inconsistently named using one format or the other, depending on the source game. It should be noted that the English localization team of ''Samurai Warriors'' actually breached convention when they decided to use Given Name, Family Name for characters, because you're not supposed to do that for Japanese figures born before the Meiji Restoration. (Rival series''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' still keeps the names in the original order, as their translators apparently got the memo.)

* The English translation of ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' consistently uses the traditional East Asian name format of Family Name first, then Given Name. ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' instead consistently used the Given Name, Family Name format more common in the West. Since they each used it consistently, this wasn't too much of a problem... until ''Warriors Orochi'', where you now get characters who are inconsistently named using one format or the other, depending on the source game.

** The name of the Crown of Horns keeps changing between "Couronne de Cornes" (Crown of Horns), "Couronne d'Épines" (Crown of Thorns) and "Couronne d'aiguille" (Crown of Needles) in each book.
** The name of the Locust is translated as "Seigneur des Criquets" ("Lord of Locust" albeit with a specific term for locust very different to the English one) for most of the story, but it the last book, they inexplicably calls him "Locuste", a more literal translation of his original name.

*** The Elements of Harmony are either called "Éléments d'Harmonie", which is a literal translation, or "Éléments d'Équilibre", which means "Elements of Balance". Sometime, the names alternate in the same episode.
*** The Everfree Forest was originally changed to "la Forêt Désenchantée" (the Un-enchanted Forest), but starting from the middle of the season 2, they decided to keep the original "Everfree" name.
*** Owlowiscious is meant to keep his original name, but in "May the Best Pet Win!", he's called "Chouette délicieuse", meaning "Delicious owl". Doubles as a BlindIdiotTranslation because Owlowiscious's name is meant to be a mix between "owl" and "Aloysius", not "owl" and "delicious".

*** Ponyville keeps alternating between keeping it's original name or being literally translated to Poneyville sometime in the same episode.
*** The Everfree Forest was originally changed to "la Forêt Désenchantée" (the Un-enchanted forest) but in the middle of the season 2 they keeps the original "Everfree" name.
*** Owlowiscious is meant to keep his original name but in an episode of the season 2, he's suddenly called "Chouette délicieuse" meaning "Delicious owl", it's also a BlindIdiotTranslation because this is not even the meaning of his PunnyName.
*** The Wonderbolts go untranslated in all but one episode. In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E3TheTicketMaster The Ticket Master]]" they're called "Les Flèches de l'Air" (lit. "The Arrows of the Air/Sky").

** Some number of episodes into the dub of ''Brotherhood'', the characters abruptly start referring to the Gate (as it had been called not only up to that point in the show, but throughout the entire [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime series]]) as "the Portal" for no adequately explained reason.