You might recall me making a thread for this one years ago. Unfortunately, it was back when the cap was 100 rather than 50, so it went unnoticed and ended up clocking out. Here I go again, now that the TRS scene is different.

Lucky Translation is supposed to be for when something that would normally be difficult to translate without taking creative liberties (such as puns, wordplay, acronyms) can be translated literally (or at least very closely) while keeping the joke intact. Yet, as shown by this wick check, a large majority of the wicks are misuse, whether because they are other tropes (such as Woolseyism or Accidental Pun), add examples that cite translations as improvements, or just ignore altogether the part where the work is translated literally. I'll also note it took me a long time to complete the wick check because the examples could be so difficult to parse sometimes that it can honestly be hard to tell what is misuse.

I need more opinions because I'm not sure how we could go about fixing this one (or if it's even worth keeping in the first place).

1. Fun with Homophones: In Galaxy Quest, the similar-sounding words "minor" and "miner" lead to a confusion:
   Alex: Could they be the miners?
   Fred: Sure, they're like, three years old.
   Alex: Miners, not minors!
   By Lucky Translation, it works even better in the French version, where the two words ("mineur") are identical. Correct
2. Anime.Kirby Right Back At Ya: In one episode of the original, Tokkori says "sono tokkori da", a pun on the phrase "sono toori da" (that's right). The fansubbers were lucky enough to make this "Exact-tokko-ly". Correct
3. Characters.Princess Connect Re Dive Gourmet Guild: Meaningful Name: Or in this case, Meaningful Nickname since it's not her real name; Pecorine is derived from the Japanese onomatopoeia "pekopeko," meaning "hungry" or "starving". They manage to carry this over to the English translation, where she is described as "peckish". Correct
4. Film.Fall: One element of the movie that does not translate well is the code "1-4-3" meaning "I love you", where each digit represents the number of letters in each word. The Ukrainian dub managed to make it make sense by making the code stand for "я тебе теж", meaning "I [love] you too". Correct
5. Film.Shin Godzilla: The "god" meaning of "Gojira" for this version of Godzilla translates easily to English, since "God" is already part of its name. Sounds correct
6. Trivia.Yokai Watch: I Knew It!: A lot of people correctly predicted that Netaballerina's English name would be Spoilerina. Makes sense, as the wordplay works well in both languages. Sounds correct
7. VideoGame.Gitaroo Man: Punny Name: Scattered throughout the game. U-1 would be read as Yuichi in Japanese or rather like Ewan in English, both being boys' names; Ben-K, the robotic shark, is probably a reference to this guy, church Gitaroo wielder Gregorio III brings to mind a Gregorian chant, and Kirah is a pun on "killer", hinting at her Tyke Bomb nature. Correct

1. What Did You Expect When You Named It ____?: There's a Soviet book about one Captain Vrungel (mix of Wrangel and vrun "liar"). He named his boat Pobeda, "Victory", because "it will sail according to how you name it. You can name your boat 'Trough' or 'Sieve"', but don't expect it to not to sink at its first sailing." Ironically, at Pobedas first sailing, two letters fell off and the ship became called Beda: "Trouble" (the pun is "Courage" and "Rage"' in the English translation). The four letters remaining are the only part of the ship to complete the journey.
2. Characters.Fire Emblem Three Houses Black Eagles: When she introduces herself to Byleth, she mixes up the Japanese phrase "太っ腹" (generous) with "腹太い" (fat stomach). In English, she says that Byleth has "a gut" when she meant to say that they "have guts". It is through sheer coincidence that an English word exists that can be used to either compliment someone's character or to call them fat.
3. Film.Inspector Gadget 1999: As lame as Gadget's "You should've quit while you were ahead" pun is, its Polish translation, taking advantage of a well-known if somewhat rarely used phrase that can be roughly rendered as "Dreams of a severed head" (meaning aspirations expressed long past deadline), is arguably pretty funny.
4. Film.Shazam 2019: The "your phone is charged" scene is even funnier with the Cantonese captions, because in Cantonese to fully charge a phone can be expressed as, literally, charging till it explodes, making it look like Billy is carelessly Tempting Fate until it blows up in his face.
5. Funny.Back To The Future: The scene where Marty and Doc arrive to the school in 1955.
   Marty: Whoa. They really cleaned this place up! Looks brand-new.^note In 1985, there will be graffiti around the entrance doors
   Doc: Now, remember. According to my theory, you interfered with your parents' first meeting. If they don't meet, they won't fall in love, they won't get married, and they won't have kids. That's why your older brother's disappearing from that photograph. Your sister will follow, and unless you repair the damage, you'll be next!
   Marty: Sounds pretty heavy.
   Doc: [baffled] Weight has nothing to do with it!
   • A Lucky Translation greatly improves this line in French. Marty's "heavy" is translated with an expression ("C'est pas le pied") which literally means "this ain't the foot", leading to the predictable retort:
   Doc: No, the head goes first, I tell you!
6. Literature.Sorcery: While the Hebrew translations of most Fighting Fantasy books were bad to the point of sometimes rendering them unplayable, the Sorcery! series made the transition incredibly well (perhaps not incidentally, the Hebrew title of the entire series is "Sorcery!", with the other FF books being presented as sequels of the "first" four). Of particular note is the Grimoire of Analand: in English, the three-letter codewords which stand for each spell often sound goofy or awkward. Hebrew, however, has its entire grammar based around three-letter root words which can be read in a number of ways, many of them with connotations to the bible and Kabbalah mysticism. The Hebrew version of the spellbook, therefore, is an absolute treat: ZAP, for example, became ברק ("Barak" – "Lightning"), FOF became מגן ("Magen" – "Shield"), RAZ became חוד ("Hod" – "Edge") and the ominous, godlike ZED spell became סוד ("Sod" – "Divine Mystery"). As a bonus, whereas the English language doesn't have the right letters to accurately transcribe the names of several of the creatures, persons and locations of the exotic Kakhabad (inspired by Nepalese and Tibetan), Hebrew just so happens to do!
7. Manga.Rinne:
   • When Tsubasa tries to refresh Sakura's memory of him, she calls him "Oreda-kun" in response to his "ore da." Fortunately, "Itsumi" ("It's me") works too, even though it's a girl's name.
   • This may not be the case in other languages, however. The Indonesian translation gives his name as Akulo, from "Aku, lo" ("It's me")... which may make sense if he's some kind of corny Evil Overlord.
8. Series.The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody: The Chinese version of the title accommodates the pun by translating suite life as first class or first rate (the word means the top-notch or best or even highest level) life rather than using the word suite.
9. VideoGame.Dragon Quest VIII: This one's easy to miss unless you know Basic English AND Basic Japanese. At one point, Yangus mentions he noticed something while he was picking his nose... picking some flowers. It works both way, as "Hana" is both the Japanese word for "Nose" and "Flower" and in English, picking is something you can do to both one's nose and to flowers. [The pun translates into both languages. Though the pun used is different, the joke is the same.]
10. Theatre.Cyrano De Bergerac: Cyrano says Valvert's name only has three letters: s-o-t, spelling sot, French for fool. Both the Hooker and Burgess translations manage it with three letters too: a-s-s.
11. WesternAnimation.Chicken Run: When Mr Tweedy picks up Ginger and tells her "I've got a score to settle with you." the Norwegian dub decided to use the phrase "I've got a hen to pick with you" (the Norwegian version of "I've got a bone to pick with you"), making it a perfect Pun.
12. Woolseyism.Comic Books: Asterix: Of course, who could forget the Italian translation of the catch phrase "Those Romans are crazy!" ("Ils sont fous ces romains!"), which came out as "Sono pazzi questi Romani." Gloriously, the initial letters of this literal translation just happen to form the abbreviation that was used for the Roman government, SPQR, for Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome").
13. YMMV.Avenue Q: Woolseyism: Also a bit of Lucky Translation in the Hungarian production: Trekkie Monster is renamed Kuki Mumus. "Kuki" is a slang word for "penis", perfectly fitting his perverted personality, and it sounds exactly like "Cookie".

1. Anime.Space Dandy: The CORE and ALE robots lose their kore and are pun theme naming, but instead almost sound like alcohol based names (CORE for Coors and ALE for ale) in the English version. This doesn't sound intentional
2. Manga.We Never Learn: The Kirisu sisters' old pet dog was named as Pero in the original Japanese (which referred to the Japanese onomatopoeia for 'licking'). The Viz translation of Chapter 46 kept the same general word as its name, but added in an extra R, making it into Perro. Thus, while in the original, it references the fact that dogs lick a lot; the Viz version's extra R then changing it into Perro - (which can mean 'dog' or 'doggy' in Spanish) - thereby still retains the simple dog-related naming theme (not unlike Spot or Fido in English). I guess this fits here?
3. Recap.Better Call Saul S 1 E 9 Pimento: While the name "Pimento" comes from Mike's sandwich, "Pimento" also means "dark place" in Finnish, where the most common usage of the word is "Pitää pimennossa", which in turn translates into "to keep (someone) in the dark", which is exactly what Chuck has been doing.
4. Recap.How I Met Your Mother S 3 E 01 Wait For It: "Gael" sounds much like the German word "geil", which can mean "awesome" or "sexy" but also "horny" (making it easier for the other characters to make fun of him).
5. Recap.The Simpsons S 9 E 14 Das Bus: The episode ends with the kids stranded on a desert island. The narrator says that they were saved by "Oh...Let's say Moe", clearly making it up on the moment. In the Italian translation, Moe is called "Boe", which is homophone with the expression boh (meaning roughly "I dunno"). This adds an extra layer of wordplay to the narrator's clear lack of interest. Added joke

1. Our Wyverns Are Different: Mystery of the Emblem features feral wyverns as enemies, which have both a high Speed stat and the highest movement speed of any unit in the series (12 squares where the normal maximum is 8). It's also revealed that these wyverns once were sapient dragons, being one of the tribes who failed to escape degeneration; there's even a hidden shop which sells a wyvern Dragonstone, allowing a playable manakete to transform into a wyvern. In Japan, this is one of the only times that the english word wyvern is actually used, being mentioned as the proper name for the species of dragon. With this in mind, the translation of Dragon Knight as Wyvern Rider was a Lucky Translation. I don't get it
2. She's a Man in Japan: In the 2006 Hebrew Translation of Good Omens, Pestilence (the white Horseman of the Apocalypse before Pollution took over) is referred to as female rather than male. This is because the Hebrew noun for Pestilence ('Magefah') is gendered as female, and all the other Horsemen already have their gender correspond to the grammatical gender of the concept they embody. This sounds like misuse
3. Anime.Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Kamina has several, all of which border on being Arc Words: "Who the hell do you think I am!?" The Mouth Flaps actually match fairly well from Japanese to English, so WTHDYTIA didn't have to be altered at all. Just so you know, in Japanese it's 俺を誰だと思ってやがる "Ore wo dare da to omotte yagaru?!") This is definitely not this trope
4. Characters.F Zero AXGX: "Shinar" appears to an engrish-y version of "Chinul", which was likely intended to be the name of both the species and planet. However, this never becomes an issue because the planet is only mentioned in the profile and the species is only mentioned in the interviews. Misuse
5. Characters.Himitsu Sentai Goranger: Alliterative Name: Masked Monsters. Their Japanese name, "Kamen Kaijin, works too. Misuse, as the name had to be changed (Kaijin means "mysterious person", not "monster")
6. Characters.Hololive Japan Generation Four: On Hololive's official talent listing page, Coco's name has an "OG" designation next to it. Some guessed it either stood for "Officially Graduated" or "Old Girl" (often used in Japanese schools to denote female alumni), but most like to think it stands for "Original Gangster", especially since Coco fits both the figurative/slang definition (she was an absolute trailblazer, constantly pushing the limits and inspiring untold numbers of people) and the literal definition (as part of the Yakuza, she is quite literally a gangster). Sounds like Acronym Confusion to me
7. Characters.Pokemon Red And Blue: As it turns out? Erika actually is a western name, while English speakers are more familiar with Erica with a C. I don't get how this is an example?
8. Recap.Pokemon S 1 E 52 Princess Vs Princess: The holiday of this episode takes place on March 3, originally known as the Peach Festival, and referred to in the dub as the "Princess Festival". Turns out, Princess Peach of Super Mario fame happens to be named after this very tradition. Gaijin Goomba elaborates here. Doesn't sound like an example
9. Recap.Pokemon S 19 E 22 Battling At Full Volume: The conversation surrounding Ash's Non Sequitur, *Thud* retains the wordplay of the japanese version in the English dub, just with "I love you/Iron Tail" as opposed to "Aishiteru/Iron Tail". They were very lucky that the way to say 'I love you' in both languages starts with an 'I' sound, otherwise they would have had to change what move he said in the end, if it even worked at all. Doesn't sound like an example
10. VideoGame.Golden Sun The Lost Age: Briggs's gesture upon [[spoiler:escaping from jail on the ship]] is more along the line of flipping someone off in Japan; outside it, it's just silly. Luckily for the scene it's noted how pathetic "payback" it is and adds to Briggs's childishness. I don't know what this is, but it's definitely not this trope
11. WesternAnimation.The Comic Strip: It's really lucky that the planet covered in water is called Water-O by its residents who call themselves Waterians. But then we're Earthlings from a planet whose name means "dirt", so who are we to judge? I think this is meant to be some kind of in-universe example? Not explained well
12. WesternAnimation.Tom And Jerry The Movie: In the Polish version, aunt Figg calling Robin an orphan fits even better as the word is often used as an insult similar in meaning to "loser". "Joke is better in international version"

1. Epunymous Title: The German TV series Stocker und Stein (related to "sticks and stones"). Pothole
2. Reading Foreign Signs Out Loud: Thanks to Lucky Translation, this made a Running Gag in Sheep in the Big City (a little guy who likes to read, so whenever a sign appears on-screen he pops up and reads it out loud) many times funnier. Zero-context example
3. Analysis.Stealth Pun: Here's the question to take home with you, do you think that the Japanese phrase for 'pining for each other' in any way involves trees? (it does) Do you think that matters?
   • I'm pretty sure it does... Pothole
4. Characters.Sonic The Hedgehog Recurring Characters: Punny Name: Some versions of Advance 3 spell Gemerl's name as "G-Mel", the strictly literal translation of Jiimeru, which due to Lucky Translation is also a pun on gemel, twin. Pothole
5. Manga.Rainbow Nisha Rokubou No Shichinin: Mario is metaphorically indebted to the others, but there's no time limit to pay them back—they have "bonds for life." Partial context example
6. Music.Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung: The Fundamentalist Zero-context example
   don't you dare to scratch our fundament!
7. Recap.Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound E 2 Sympathy For The Devil: The Doctor introduces himself in Chinese as "Hu" (the lion), "Hu" (the fox) and "Hu" (he who heals the sick). Partial context example
8. Series.Power Rangers Dino Force Brave: Through sheer coincidence, the Japanese version of the ending theme is able to have exactly the same meaning as the original Korean lyrics despite the vastly different pronunciations. Entry doesn't explain it well, so I'll label this as a partial-context example
9. Woolseyism.Anime And Manga: When Dotto! Koni-chan was brought to Latin America, the local Japanese jokes and double entendre were replaced by allusions to local culture and fads as well as Mexican slang. Combine this with a very enthusiastic cast that was clearly having lots of fun with this, and the fact that the popularity of anime in Latin America made several jokes very easy to localize, and it works really well. Part of what makes this so notable is the fact in Japan this show was So Okay, It's Average at best. During the peak of Anime popularity in Latin America, many B-list series were imported because they were much cheaper than massively popular ones, so when they imported this mostly forgotten (by the Japanese) show they used clever dubbing to transform this series into a Sleeper Hit with cult status among Latin American otakus. Pothole
10. WebVideo.Friendship Is Witchcraft (first example): Although the Russian translation sadly loses some of the glorious puns that this show has, the joke about Twilight (not) speaking Applenese (по-яблонски) is made even better than in the original. Not explained well

1. Artistic License – Linguistics: Conveniently Precise Translation: A perfect 1:1 translation achieved between disparate languages far more often than should be possible (but see Lucky Translation for legitimate, real-life examples.) See also
2. Name-Meaning Change: When something's title becomes outdated, it may be renamed, but often the original name sticks because of familiarity or because it would be difficult to change. Sometimes, however, the creators deal with this by changing not the name, but the meaning of the name. This can happen in different ways, such as changing the meaning of an acronym, or using wordplay that conveniently fits the original name. Description
3. LaconicTropeDistinctions.A To C: Conveniently Precise Translation: an unrealistically accurate translation...
   • Lucky Translation: ...in real life. Laconic page