Hell House

[Kriss]

Yeah, he coposed the music for AoS

[Doubar]

Maw, cool. Thanx for the info, honey. *hugs*

[Kriss]

You're welcome

[Firouz]

**Nods** Yep! That's his work! Wonderful piece, huh?

[Doubar]

@firouz: Definitely. I love it!

[Fireland]

Hey guys ! Need your help with understanding a sentence that puzzles me ;D But first, I watched Hell House and it had been almost 10 years I hadn't seen it. I remembered the general events of the episode, but it was great watching it again so long after, but this time understanding the dialogues (when I was a teen I was still learning english). Oh and I LOVE Scratch, what a great character !

But here's my question

When Mala asks Sinbad who Maeve is, she asks ''your wife ?''. Sinbad answers ''Hardly'', then explains that they ''care a lot about each other'' and is being equivocal about the nature of their relationship.

What does HARDLY means, in this context ? We know they're not married of course. But the meaning of the word is not really clear to me. I looked through some dictionaries, and it can mean :

1. Barely; just. In that case, they're not married as we know, but it could mean he somehow *hoped* they would one day or was intending to before she was taken away

2. To almost no degree; almost not I don't think this would fit in the logic of the dialogue. Almost not ? It's not ''not'', but it's not almost : what kind of a relationship would that be ? So I guess it cannot be used in the context of this question to mean ''almost not''.

3. Probably or almost surely not: I guess that's what he meant. But then, right after, he says they care a lot about each other and explains she is now in hiding because of dark forces, and that he wants to make sure she's really ok. In that context, does ''hardly'' mean that there's just no way that they can have a romantic relationship whatsoever, or does it mean that they could ''hardly'' be married because she is now in hiding ?(which brings us back to definition number 1).

How did you interpret this quote ?

[Guest]

Well, I think that depends on how you're interpreting in.
In Australia (I don't know if this includes anyone else's country, correct me if so), when we say "hardly" we use it as basically saying "not so" unless it's a sentence like "we hardly use that" which in that context mean "barely"

Sinbad's usage of "Hardly" seems to mean, "not even close to that", basically saying they weren't in any sort of relationship, but goes on that they cared about each other, confirming that they shared feelings for each other, just hadn't acted upon them or given their relationship a label.

That's just my interpretation though.

[Doubar]

I'd interpret it the same way as Thea. In the German dubbing, in that moment Sinbad just laughs this little emotional laugh and says "No" which I think fits the meaning of "hardly" in that context quite well. I really think he was just expressing that, no, they were not married not even in a real relationship. However, the way he says it and considering what he says right after tells me that he still has strong feelings for her - of whatever nature they are (as a shipper of course I'd say it's love, but that depends on what you want the two to be ;D ).

[Fireland]

Ok, thank you. It's not a word I've encountered very often in conversations, and since season 2 was never dubbed in french (there too, I could have known what they chose to express by the word they would have chosen to dubb it).

What was puzzling me is the reaction before (laughing) and after (what he says), to me it really contradicted the ''hardly'' meaning ''not even close'', even though we all could see from season 1 that of course, they never got to be a real couple. But the end of season 1 also showed us they could have been, if Maeve had stayed. So to me, it sounded like he was saying there could have been a possibility, but since she was in hiding ... (like, she was taken away too soon, they didn't had the chance to get to the point where they could have been a couple / married). I don't know if I'm clear *lol*

[Rongar]

To me, it was him saying, "No, we aren't/weren't in a relationship, but I care/d deeply for her and want to make sure she's okay."

I interpreted it from his voice and body language to him saying it had been a wish, but it was never realized.

[Fireland]

Thanks for your answers. I guess we pretty much understood it the same way, thanks to the body language mainly *lol* Oh and that laugh, that wasn't the same as in, for example, Double Trouble (s1) when Caipra says they act like an old married couple.

I watched only a few eps in english. When I bought the DVDs, I started watching them with a friend who doesn't understand english well, so we chose the french translation. Fine for me, I remembered some of the dialogues by heart. Only, I'm amazed how the french translation doesn't do justice to what is actually said in english. I was shocked today when I watched the Village Vanishes in english, to hear Sinbad tell Maeve after he kissed Cassandra that he had had better kisses... ''recently, I might add''. In french, they translated by something that litteraly means ''i just added one to my list''. I always thought it was not very gentleman to say that. Then Maeve says she's thinking about ''how nice it felt ... when we thought we found Dim Dim''. In french, forget the innuendo about how nice it felt, it became ''how happy they were''.

Now that I watch it in english, it doesn't mean the same, at all. I guess that's why I'm so interested in the meaning of words, because it sometimes changes how I initially understood the story. i mean, I could guess of course, but words have purpose, juste like when you read a good novel. If you're not careful enough, you might modify or lose something with the translation, something that has a lot of meaning in itself, and this Village Vanishes quote is an excellent example.

OK I'm pretty much off topic now *lol* sorry !!

[Doubar]

@fire: Aw, don't worry about getting off-topic. It's actually rather interesting to read about the different dubbings! I guess the German one was pretty good in that regard. I hardly found any differences there, really. Only one thing I found to be striking: when in Sacrifice at the end we see that blue orb in the English version the voice coming from it sounds rather contored if you know what I mean, whereas in the German dubbing it was definitely DimDim's voice. I only noticed because I wondered where all those stories came from that suspected the orb having been a trick. There was no evidence for that in our version, yet when I watched the original I understood.

The differences between the original and the French version are remarkable though, Fire! They add a whole new meaning to the scenes!

[Fireland]

We definitely lost some of the flirtatious dialogues between Maeve and Sinbad in french, and humorous lines as well !

[Doubar]

That's such a pity!

[Rongar]

Indeed, a pity there Fire!