The audience strikes back: Agency and accountability in audiovisual translation and distribution
ChiaraBucaria
University of Bologna
Abstract
Newer distribution models and delivery mechanisms for audiovisual content have, over the years, contributed to the
emergence of different dynamics between the consumers (or end-users) of these audiovisual texts and their providers on a global
scale. Fans and casual viewers alike have now become more vocal in expressing their dissatisfaction with subtitled or dubbed
content that is not up to their standards. In this article, I take a macro-level approach to audience studies in audiovisual
translation (AVT) by reflecting on if and how viewers’ perspectives are being incorporated into streaming platforms’ policies and
sense of accountability towards their subscribers. By analysing a recent case study from Netflix Italia – the Japanese anime
Neon Genesis Evangelion (Netflix 2019–2020) – I consider the ways in which the streaming platform took on board the subscribers’
complaints about the quality of the Italian adaptation and modified its offering accordingly. This new dynamic seems to suggest
that distributors who are more sensitive to their subscribers’ needs may foster a process of co-creation and meaning-making of the
localized content that concretely acknowledges the consumers’ point of view. At the same time it raises issues concerning the
impact that the opinions of viewers who are mostly untrained in the standards and practices of AVT might ultimately have in
localization and distribution choices.
When the hugely popular TV series Game of Thrones came to an end in May 2019 after an eight-season run
(HBO 2011–2019), fans worldwide did not hesitate to express their disappointment and
outright displeasure at how the series’ creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, had ended the show, particularly when it came to some
of the main characters’ development. The outcry was such that a petition was started on the website www.change.org to “Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers” (Dylan 2019). The brief motivation for the petition did not mince words: “David Benioff and
D. B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e., the books) to fall back
on. This series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!” (ibid.). While HBO
reportedly did not give any serious consideration to the possibility of reshooting the final season (Caulfield 2019), the fact that, at the time of writing, over 1 850 000 people have signed the petition speaks
to a new kind of consumer agency and entitlement that audiences have begun expressing in the last few years about audiovisual
products, particularly – but not limited to – high-profile, high-visibility productions. Viewers everywhere have been claiming the
right to have a say in decision-making processes or at least to express their feedback a posteriori. In the case of
Game of Thrones, this also became apparent with the Italian adaptation, with fans criticizing the adaptation
choice for the famous line “Hold the door!” in episode 5 of the show’s sixth season entitled “The Door” (Bender 2016). As it remains almost impossible to describe the substantial challenge that this pivotal scene
posed to audiovisual translators worldwide without incurring spoilers, suffice it to say that the translated line needed to have a
rhyming affinity with the name of one of the characters, Hodor. The solution found by Matteo Amandola, the Italian dialogue adapter,
was Trova un modo! ‘Find a way!’, which, albeit semantically different from the English version, pragmatically
checked all the boxes for a successful adaptation in this case. As Amandola noted in an interview in 2016 (Grossi 2016), while the attention that this incident gained is a sign that the show’s viewers are passionate
and enthusiastic, the increased scrutiny that AVT professionals undergo because of the opinions shared online about their work
undoubtedly “put us under further pressure, which if, on the one hand, pushes us to give it our all, on the other hand adds to the
stress of meeting deadlines and to performance anxiety in the dubbing studio.”
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