Mistranslation of Dottore's line (Act 7)
In Nod-Krai AQ Act 7, Dottore says this:
>After all, what value do perfection and purity really have? They are fragile and feeble things. Utterly tedious.
>**I say, better to be governed by a flawed humanity than a Gnosis.** The true seeker of knowledge is the villain who undergoes countless tribulations in pursuit of their goal.
In Chinese version, he says 还不如用满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心呢(It would be better to exchange a personality full of flaws for a Gnosis). This refers to the event in Sumeru where he deleted all his segments to get the Electro Gnosis, not "flawed humanity is better."
>After all, what value do perfection and purity really have? They are fragile and feeble things. Utterly tedious.
>**I say, better to be governed by a flawed humanity than a Gnosis.** The true seeker of knowledge is the villain who undergoes countless tribulations in pursuit of their goal.
In Chinese version, he says 还不如用满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心呢(It would be better to exchange a personality full of flaws for a Gnosis). This refers to the event in Sumeru where he deleted all his segments to get the Electro Gnosis, not "flawed humanity is better."
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Also if you think about it, now Nahida is fully powered by her own heart, and her humanity, rather than relying on any power from the gnosis. Same can be said for all the archons. In that sense, the English line is actually echoing what the Chinese says in a different way.
OP said the OG said gnosis > flawed humanity
He's speaking from Archons'/our perspective in an attempt to sway us. So he's not saying to get a gnosis in exchange is better, but rather(for us) losing it, is ..just mocking us at this point
So in both languages he's saying flawed humanity > Gnosis. Chinese is pretty hard
>I say, better to be governed by a flawed humanity than a Gnosis
If I understand this correctly, he said he would rather be governed by humans, who are flawed in nature, than be ruled by a Gnosis.
>还不如用满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心呢
This, I am sure I understand correctly, he said he would rather trade in personalities that are filled with flaws by nature for a Gnosis.
So one said flawed humanity is better, one said gnosis is better, it made no sense...
but yeah its rather vague without more context
you can interpret that sentence with both the personality and the gnosis as the subject depending on the context, e.g. 我有个苹果，但我比较喜欢香蕉，不如拿香蕉来交换苹果
The difference being what the target is and the action you are performing.
>满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心
Means that he is offering those flawed personalities to change for the gnosis. If we change it to swap, it would be:
>将神之心替换成满是瑕疵的人格
When I exchange something with you, the focus is on me. When I swap your stuff with something else, the focus is on you.
交換不等於替換與取代
In Chinese, okay, this is in Chinese, so leave your English explanation out for a second here, he said, literally, in the Chinese words he used, that he will offer all the flawed personalities in exchange for a gnosis. This is something you agreed on, right? It's not swapping, it's an exchange for.
This means that he has the desire and wish for the Gnosis.
Now let's switch over to the English side of what he said.
>better to be governed by a flawed humanity than a Gnosis
So now, he's saying he would rather be governed by humanity than the Gnosis. So my confusion still stands, one said flawed humanity is better, one said gnosis is better, it made no sense...
the full context makes it clear that he favours a flawed personality over the the gnosis, and kinda phrasing it like （与其拥有神之心)还不如用满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心呢
yes, normally you would put the item you are exchanging first, but it can be interpreted the other way as well depending on the context
the 交换 alone doesnt specifically imply which item is the thing that one already possesses
>完美洁白的事物，其价值何在？易碎，而且苍白得无聊透顶。
Is he talking specifically about the Gnosis in this line?
Or is he just talking about an ideal in general?
dottore is basically bullshitting us trying to justify himself smh
Original text for context. So this dude is blabbering on about his worldview on perfect and flawless things being boring, mediocre, and insignificant, and is basically self glazing and advertising the pros of being the villain that he is.
Now try reading it this way: 你这么乖有意思么？你好无趣哦，又累又受罪。你所向往的一切美好***还不如***(我)***用***(我那些)***满是瑕疵的人格交换神之心***(的作为有价值和意义)***呢***。我是真的好坏哈哈哈，但就是比你有内涵。
For my English speaking friends wondering, I basically paraphrased it in a very colloquial way like you'd argue with your partner 😂 and that made everything so clear for some reason
為什麼做這個交易叫做「壞」呢？我覺得他跳過太多台詞了... 這麼抽象搞的好複雜...
He still wanted the gnosis in the end with this sentence, right? So does he actually likes it or not?
I didn't mean that he thinks he's bad for that gnosis exchange act, 我是真的好坏哈哈哈 isn't part of that phrase, but rather the next sentence. He's admitting he's bad for all that he is inherently and capitalizes on it.
In Chinese he basically says he rather has flawed personality over a gnosis and in English he says flawed humanity over a gnosis if we compare context and what the intent of the line was both would be the same