Basic Trope: A work's translation deliberately deviates from the original version in order to better represent the translator's views.
- Straight: The English version of The Adventures of Bob adds a few references to characters' political views. The heroes happen to have the same views as the translator, while the villain happens to have opposing views.
- Exaggerated: The Adventures of Bob is translated from a completely non-political children's novel into a full-blown Author Tract with a completely different story.
- Downplayed: The translator is against smoking, and slightly tones down some Smoking Is Cool scenes in the translation without fully eliminating the trope.
- Justified: The story getting translated is decades or even centuries old, takes place in a completely fictional world anyway, and the translator wants their version to avoid characters being Unintentionally Unsympathetic (or its flipside) to the modern reader.
- Inverted: An Author Tract is translated into a completely non-political work.
- Subverted: There was a deviation in tone, and the translator did not get the implications of how they had phrased the translation (due to inexperience or otherwise). After brushing up the translator does a more faithful version.
- Double Subverted: The translator lied about not having understood the implications of their translation, and/or the second version retained some mistranslations in the end because the target audience of the translation actually liked those mistranslations more than the original.
- Parodied:
- The Big Bad is changed from a generic fantasy evil emperor into a modern-day real-life politician without changing anything else about the story's setting. Many gags are made about how unfitting the character is in a fantasy world.
- The translation reads like a topical Gag Dub or Abriged version of the original.
- Zig Zagged: The translation sometimes seems to have an agenda, but sometimes seems accurate, and sometimes even seems to undermine its own agenda.
- Averted: The translation is kept intact whenever possible, even at the cost of needing to include note boxes to explain major Values Dissonance.
- Enforced: The funder demanded a more favorable translation, implicitly or otherwise.
- Lampshaded: "Wait — since when did we talk about politics?"
- Invoked: The original author suggests translators can add new political interpretations.
- Exploited: The translated version is used as leverage in a debate (successfully or not).
- Defied: The author makes sure all the translations are accurate or that only the small details like puns are swapped out, even if they squirm at the scenarios they have to describe.
- Discussed: A character prone to Tactful Translation in-universe is accused of this and has to deal with the repercussions.
- Conversed: Two fans - one who read the original, one who read the translation - meet up to discuss the series and how differently the villain acted in one version compared to the other.
Back to Translation with an Agenda
