Since its release in 2018, many have lauded Red Dead Redemption 2 as one of the best games of the entire last console generation. Due to its massive popularity and huge scope, fans are still discovering new details about the game. Yesterday a fan noticed that in the Chinese translation of the game, Arthur Morgan's "Deadeye" ability is called "Eye of Thanatos" or "Eye of the God of the Dead."
Discovered by Reddit user u/RubyNico and posted to r/RedDeadRedemption, the translation is an interesting interpretation of Arthur's quickdraw ability. Because of the nature of language translation and the interpretation that often goes into it, the direct translation of the ability as written in the Chinese characters is "Eye of the God of the Dead." However, using some language interpretation skills, u/RubyNico substitutes Thanatos for the somewhat lengthy "God of the Dead" in their translation of it.
RELATED: Small Red Dead Redemption 2 Detail Could've Prevented RDR1 From Ever Happening
Thanatos is death incarnate in Greek mythology and is often referred to as the God of the Dead. It makes sense then to translate Arthur Morgan's Deadeye ability to "Eye of Thanatos" for languages that have no direct and easy translation for the word. The comparisons between Morgan and Thanatos are fitting as by the time that Red Dead Redemption 2's roughly 50-hour long story comes to a close, Arthur Morgan has taken plenty of souls himself.
While this detail may not be groundbreaking for those playing the game in Chinese, it still serves as a nice detail. Red Dead Redemption 2's translators have clearly helped convey the game's tone and themes to non-English speakers despite not always being able to work with the same linguistic tools from language to language. Many words mean different things or carry different connotations when translating so, in the case of the word "Deadeye," the Chinese translators for the game needed to interpret the phrase to carry a similar meaning.
It's likely that there are plenty of other interesting translations for abilities and names across the 13 different languages that Red Dead 2 is available in. While it takes about 50 hours to complete the main story, there are hundreds of hours worth of content included in the game so localization and translation teams likely needed to do a whole lot more interpreting than just changing the name of the Deadeye ability. As players are still discovering new details about Red Dead 2, it seems like there are more interestingtranslation facts about the game coming in the near future.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
MORE: Red Dead Redemption 2's Details Make the Little Moments Compelling
