Bean Is NOT A Duck

[Multikaris]

Someone on Sonic Retro has been translating Japanese profiles pertaining to non-Sonic Team characters from the olden days, and has made some starting discoveries:

* Fang/Nack is half-jerboa, not half-weasel. The "weasel" part is all cultural translation for a Japanese metaphor by SoA that American audiences wouldn't get. He was originally described as being metaphorically a rat with his thieving nature. 

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=37058&pid=904739&st=0&#entry904739

 

* Bean is a WOODPECKER! He is not a duck! And yet a duck (Michael Bin from Dynamite Dux) is his father.

* Bark is from North Island and has a gentle and loving heart.

 

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=37061&pid=904809&st=0&#entry904809

 

EDIT: An observation I had made; Skweel from MBM is actually a female robot. The feminine eyelashes and the way her eyelids emote are evidence of this. This detail was kept in the 8-bit versions.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

Hmm, one of Bean's basic attack animations is actually a rapid multi-pecking strike combo. His grab attack is also an all out woodpecker-esc pecking assault. In combination with the sharp beak design, The wood pecker motive actually doesn't sound that far out of left field.

I'm actually surprised I never questioned it before.

[Teoskaven]

1 minute ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Hmm, one of Bean's basic attack animations is actually a rapid multi-pecking strike combo. His grab attack is also an all out woodpecker-esc pecking assault. In combination with the sharp beak design, The wood pecker motive actually doesn't sound that far out of left field.

I'm actually surprised I never questioned it before.

Same. Honestly, the shape of the beak was pretty much a given to me. People has seriously confused his species so far?

[Sega DogTagz]

1 minute ago, Teoskaven said:

Same. Honestly, the shape of the beak was pretty much a given to me. People has seriously confused his species so far?

Well, he was based off a game literally called "Dynamite Dux". A game featuring, well ducks.

Green is a very duck-ish color (whoo Mallards!) and considering the source material there was no real reason not to make the logical jump from "Bean the Dynamite" to "Bean the Dynamite Duck".

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

HOW DOES A DUCK BIRTH A WOODPECKER

 

This is not good for the series

[Multikaris]

1 minute ago, Shaddy the guy said:

HOW DOES A DUCK BIRTH A WOODPECKER

 

This is not good for the series

I assume he was adopted, actually. Or maybe he's only half-Woodpecker, but this is never stated. Also, thoughts on Skweel having the honor of being Baldy's first fembot?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think all of women have just been insulted, honestly

[Sega DogTagz]

Well Nack is a hybrid. And if you wanna bring Archie into it, so is Sally. So if we want to call Bean a hybrid its not the end of the world.

Although then we'd be waiting for the other shoe to fall for Bark. If 2 out of the 3 are hybrids, then Barks gotta be mixed with something too.

 

lol

[FlameStream]

Well, he could still be a full woodpecker. You could develop this as some kind of egg mix-ups.

[Tyranno]

Honestly, the shape of Nack's muzzle, his long tail, and buck teeth make a lot more sense now that I know he's not a weasel and instead one half wolf, one half weird rodent.

[Your Vest Friend]

Doing some very crude language stuff here because I have zero language translating skills.

-Düx is pretty much a non-term, the only thing that came up in terms of not-names was being a contraction of Dusseldorf. Because that's so relevant. 

-The Kanji/Katakana for Düx's Japanese title use (ダックス) does not correspond to the Kanji/Katakana used for duck (アヒル). Like, they're not even close. Some translations come out as ducks phonetically when ran through Google translate, but most often the animal that cropped up was...Dachshund. Which is kind of weird considering the most common enemy type in Dynamite Dux IS the dog. 

The problem with getting translations for Dynamite Dux to see whether they are supposed to be ducks is that it was only in arcade in Japan, so you can't really look in their manual for it. The best way to judge whether Bean being a Woodpecker is taken from his forerunners is probably through this arcade flyer.

[Multikaris]

39 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Well Nack is a hybrid. And if you wanna bring Archie into it, so is Sally. So if we want to call Bean a hybrid its not the end of the world.

Although then we'd be waiting for the other shoe to fall for Bark. If 2 out of the 3 are hybrids, then Barks gotta be mixed with something too.

 

lol

No. Bean is a pure woodpecker, not even adopted, as proven below.

44 minutes ago, Shaddy the guy said:

I think all of women have just been insulted, honestly

Was Skweel the first female character in the series? No. I think Amy came before her. And yet I found that line hilarious. Skweel is even worse than Zeena. 

4 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Doing some very crude language stuff here because I have zero language translating skills.

-Düx is pretty much a non-term, the only thing that came up in terms of not-names was being a contraction of Dusseldorf. Because that's so relevant. 

-The Kanji/Katakana for Düx's Japanese title use (ダックス) does not correspond to the Kanji/Katakana used for duck (アヒル). Like, they're not even close. Some translations come out as ducks when ran through Google translate, but most often the animal that cropped up was...Dachshund. Which is kind of weird considering the most common enemy type in Dynamite Dux IS the dog. 

The problem with getting translations for Dynamite Dux to see whether they are supposed to be ducks is that it was only in arcade in Japan, so you can't really look in their manual for it. The best way to judge whether Bean being a Woodpecker is taken from his forerunners is probably through this arcade flyer.

VEDJ-F, the word "Dux" means "General" in Latin. Maybe that's where they got it from instead? The head crest and tail of Bin do evoke "Woodpecker" more than anything on that flyer. The verdict is in: Bean is 100% a woodpecker.

[Celestia]

2 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Hmm, one of Bean's basic attack animations is actually a rapid multi-pecking strike combo. His grab attack is also an all out woodpecker-esc pecking assault.

I-I always just chalked it up to him being a very silly duck.

This raises so many questions. How much Sonic #lore was never translated correctly? How much do we think we understand but is actually very untrue? What if Knuckles really IS a mole? IS SONIC FAST OR DOES HE JUST MOVE THE WORLD AROUND HIM?

[Your Vest Friend]

I'd say the latin thing was kinda irrelevant too, given that in context it makes zero sense, and doesn't seem to be common latin to begin with.

On the look...actually, that's not such a bad point. 

Whether the feather flip is forward like this or slicked back, Bin and Pin do remind me of Woody Woodpecker in ways.

I still say translating the thing as a safety net would be the best way forward to check though. 

[Multikaris]

1 hour ago, Celestia said:

I-I always just chalked it up to him being a very silly duck.

This raises so many questions. How much Sonic #lore was never translated correctly? How much do we think we understand but is actually very untrue? What if Knuckles really IS a mole? IS SONIC FAST OR DOES HE JUST MOVE THE WORLD AROUND HIM?

Soon, we may find that Rouge is half-human! Or the Master Emerald is evil! What a world!  This is more fascinating than the unused dragon boss!

[Pawn]

The Bean stuff is interesting, but I have to ask... why did they bother to make Nack/Fang a hybrid? What about him is wolf-like? The jerboa makes enough sense on its own:

[Your Vest Friend]

Well, the furry muzzle and the fact he has the fang doesn't really match up with design conventions of other similar characters, so I guess that was their way of explaining it. 

[Mr Loopone]

Out of curiousity, I've decided to check this fact out considering that I am a fan of the game and wanted to know myself. It's inconclusive but probably a duck. In the actual game, Bin and Pin (the two characters that Bean were based off) were only referred to as Lucy's pets. The Spanish translation of the instructions refer to Lucy's friends. The advert for the home computer versions by Activision (yes, that same Activision) and Core Design do not reference what animal they are. This applied to some versions of the game but... The ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and the Amstrad CPC versions call the only character Bin the Duck due to that they only supported single player.

I would have have gone for some divine intervention however Activision also published the Wonder Boy in Monster Land arcade ports and the game dialogue was based off the unreleased English translation of the game rather than the poorly translated bootlegs that there kicking around that time. It took until the Monster World Collection on the PS3/360 and the Wii Virtual Console release for that official English translation of the arcade to be released. So it means that Activision must have had access to some internal Sega stuff.

That Michael Bin story was only on the Master System version where he was Lucy's lover who turned into that by Achacha, don't know why it was changed. Speaking of that version, the box art of the European release call him a duck that to point out was only released in PAL countries and Brazil plus its JP release was scrapped (due to the unused FM music) so no Sega of America localisation changes. As for the Woodpecker part, it could be just a reference that the characters were based off Woody Woodpecker that were noticed by some reviewers, others though called them ducks and compared them to Daffy.

[KoDaiko]

16 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Doing some very crude language stuff here because I have zero language translating skills.

-Düx is pretty much a non-term, the only thing that came up in terms of not-names was being a contraction of Dusseldorf. Because that's so relevant. 

-The Kanji/Katakana for Düx's Japanese title use (ダックス) does not correspond to the Kanji/Katakana used for duck (アヒル). Like, they're not even close. Some translations come out as ducks phonetically when ran through Google translate, but most often the animal that cropped up was...Dachshund. Which is kind of weird considering the most common enemy type in Dynamite Dux IS the dog. 

Japan commonly use English term to sound cool, so it isn't weird if they used "Ducks" instead of "Ahiru" in the title. Given "Duck" is a very common and simple word, I suppose they chose "Dux" on purpose. Maybe it was a joke on "Ducks" and "Dux" pronounced and spelled the same (because hey latin is awesome), or they didn't want to put "Ducks" and misspelled it to look cool.  Either way that could mean they were originally ducks to avoid creating a ripoff of Woody, then changed their mind and made Bean into a woodpecker. 

[Red Hot Jack]

I thought Bean was a Dynamite, according to Fighters.

[MainJP]

On 8/19/2017 at 5:30 PM, Sega DogTagz said:

Well Nack is a hybrid. And if you wanna bring Archie into it, so is Sally. So if we want to call Bean a hybrid its not the end of the world.

Although then we'd be waiting for the other shoe to fall for Bark. If 2 out of the 3 are hybrids, then Barks gotta be mixed with something too.

 

lol

Makes you wonder if any of the other characters have mixed ancestry, Knuckles could have some mole in him and maybe Sonic isn't a full hedgehog.

[Cuz]

On 8/20/2017 at 6:18 AM, Pawn said:

The Bean stuff is interesting, but I have to ask... why did they bother to make Nack/Fang a hybrid? What about him is wolf-like? The jerboa makes enough sense on its own:

Yeah, the half-wolf part never felt right to me. Always preferred to think of him as a full blooded weasel, but jerboa? That explains his springy tail perfectly.

2 hours ago, MainJP said:

Makes you wonder if any of the other characters have mixed ancestry, Knuckles could have some mole in him and maybe Sonic isn't a full hedgehog.

You're tell me the last living echidna isn't even full-blood echidna? That's actually interesting; it could be that prier to knuckles birth his echidna parent was also the last one.

Also Bark's gentle and loving heart appears to be out the door with Archie,

Spoiler

and now Mania

popularizing him as a rouge hooligan. ^^;

[Your Vest Friend]

Okay, so this video exists. 

It's pretty much the only guide to Sonic the Fighters that exists that's visible to the West.

Checking Bean's so far. 

Bean's pecking attacks have the characters "きつつき", which is the Hiragana version of "キツツキ", which was used in the FIghters Megamix guide. Both mean woodpecker. 

I don't think it shows or says anything about Fang's species. 

Amy's attack has "ピコピコ", which translates to Piko Piko. 

[SuaveKnux]

bean the Dynamite Woodpecker doesnt sound as cool

[Multikaris]

Another wonderful find from Retro, this time concerning an early name for Mighty (possibly his real name?)

 

 

Mighty is called "Nat" in this alpha screenshot. Leftover of a seventh Chaotix? His real name? 

 

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=37085&pid=905916&st=0&#entry905916