What is the most horrible translated German episode title (season 2)?

[Agent Earle]

Most of them are just 'fine'. Not good titles, not interesting. Just labels. Something like 'The Condemned Woman', it's fine, I guess the episode contains what it says on the tin. Something like Variations on Relations is just meaningless, but, whatever.

But May the Giant Be With You is atrocious, and so .. just tonally not right. It's a dumb, stupid reference to Star Wars (which I love .. but separately!)

Mind you, I also cringe whenever Machlachlan (and Frost as well, I think) says "May the forest be with you".

Why do you cringe?

[Rudagger]

Most of them are just 'fine'. Not good titles, not interesting. Just labels. Something like 'The Condemned Woman', it's fine, I guess the episode contains what it says on the tin. Something like Variations on Relations is just meaningless, but, whatever.

But May the Giant Be With You is atrocious, and so .. just tonally not right. It's a dumb, stupid reference to Star Wars (which I love .. but separately!)

Mind you, I also cringe whenever Machlachlan (and Frost as well, I think) says "May the forest be with you".

Why do you cringe?

Because if you're going to sign off an interview with a Twin Peaks reference, don't make it a weird half baked Star Wars one? It doesn't even make sense. Say 'I'll see you in the trees', or some such if you have to get a wood related reference in there.

[Agent Earle]

Most of them are just 'fine'. Not good titles, not interesting. Just labels. Something like 'The Condemned Woman', it's fine, I guess the episode contains what it says on the tin. Something like Variations on Relations is just meaningless, but, whatever.

But May the Giant Be With You is atrocious, and so .. just tonally not right. It's a dumb, stupid reference to Star Wars (which I love .. but separately!)

Mind you, I also cringe whenever Machlachlan (and Frost as well, I think) says "May the forest be with you".

Why do you cringe?

Because if you're going to sign off an interview with a Twin Peaks reference, don't make it a weird half baked Star Wars one? It doesn't even make sense. Say 'I'll see you in the trees', or some such if you have to get a wood related reference in there.

Ah, okay. I myself always took it as a harmless word play.

[Gabriel]

I can't choose any of them: they're all perfectly dreadful and have no connection with my original viewing of the show at the start of the 1990s. The only 'episode title' I have any respect for is 'Fire Walk With Me!!' I actually wish the movie had simply been called that and Twin Peaks hadn't been mentioned at all. It's a terrific Lynch movie even if you don't know the TV show. Certainly, I wish iTunes would ditch the titles and simply say 'Episode 1' or whatever.

[Rainwater]

I actually wish the movie had simply been called that and Twin Peaks hadn't been mentioned at all.

I agree, mostly because I hate sub-titles in general. In this case, it's the "main" title that should've been dropped.

[Mr. Reindeer]

"May the Giant Be with You" is terrible and doesn't need my help to stay in the lead. I voted for "Slaves and Masters" because I just realized this is the title of the episode where Ben/Gen. Lee wins the Civil War. I'm assuming that's not a coincidence, and given the series' glib treatment of that plotline, this title seems particularly ill-advised.

[Dalai Cooper]

Ugh, I never thought of that - I assumed it was to do with the Josie being coerced into servitude plotline (which is already dodgy as hell).

"Checkmate" is underrated here, it seems pretty generic at first but is actually really dumb when you think about it - the first piece being taken is not what "checkmate" means, dummkopf! (Although arguably this fits quite well with the tossed-off stupidity of the whole chess plotline)

[Rudagger]

I have to say, upon reflecting, Lonely Souls I think is actually a great title, even though it's unofficial. It ties into the plot, obviously, but, just something about the look of the words, and the vibe they give off, really evoke the episode well for me (I get a pretty crushing sense of loneliness when Coop is seemingly the only one to witness the giant, while Bobby sits by himself at the bar, and while Maddy is alone with Leland/Bob).

[Rainwater]

Agreed on Lonely Souls, and I genuinely like Arbitrary Law as well.

[laughingpinecone]

I was about to say the same. Arbitrary Law works both for the events as they unfold on screen and for the behind the scenes meddling that led to said events.

And the plural in "lonely souls" really works for me in tying these characters together.

[raltenbach]

My first reaction was to vote "May The Giant Be With You", but then again "On The Wings of Love" really bugs me.

Actually, now that some time has passed, I'm voting for "The Full Blossom of the Evening".

[tmurry]

I went with The Night of the Decision due to it's odd choice of articles. The two "the"s are off (I focused on the word "translation " in the poll question). Should have been "A Night of Decision" or "Night of the Decision." Somehow the awkwardness of The Man Behind Glass works.

Everyone seems to hate these, but I always find them pleasantly off, either by being cliché in defiance of the material (On the Wings of Love), overheated/pulpy (The Orchid's Curse), or so tin eared that they are endearing (May the Giant be with You). They are often asynchronous in a tasty way. I love Arbitrary Law, for instance... I think that's a great title. Maybe I'm just softer on this because I am old enough to remember when shows didn't have episode titles and the odd charge of hearing them for the first time (it was like overhearing a secret). This was still happening the first season of the X-Files when you'd hear titles "leak" and felt like it was special knowledge.

[Mr. Reindeer]

Maybe I'm just softer on this because I am old enough to remember when shows didn't have episode titles and the odd charge of hearing them for the first time (it was like overhearing a secret). This was still happening the first season of the X-Files when you'd hear titles "leak" and felt like it was special knowledge.

TV series have always had episode titles from the earliest days of television; they just weren't generally published outside of episode guides and were mainly used internally, as you note (this always struck me as odd). In the era of the Internet, they're become much more widely publicized.

I definitely get what you're saying: every once in awhile the local affiliate would air a few seconds of a screen listing the episode info for one show or another, presumably starting the broadcast a few seconds early, and I would eagerly freeze-frame to see the title. It was definitely annoying trying to label VHS recordings without episode titles -- a whole lot of "The Simpsons episode where Bart does X" (a convention Friends played with in its own official titles). I love titles, and I'm certainly glad that they're commonly released now, although as you note, it does take away a bit of the sexiness of knowing a secret.

But Frost and DKL made a conscious decision to not have ANY official titles (an uncommon choice even in that era; I can't think of many other examples), just as they're calling the new installments "Parts." Given that, these titles have absolutely no value to me except as a weird, silly sidebar in TP fandom.

[tmurry]

TV series have always had episode titles from the earliest days of television

Apologies. What I meant was I'm old enough to have watched a lot of TV when there was no way to be aware of episode titles on many shows unless the shows hailed from the "teleplay" era or were legacy from that - Star Trek or Ironsides or 80s shows from older production teams. It had seemed to be out of favor when the 90's brought us so many "obsession" shows and, until a certain type of internet site finally made these things knowable, learning an ep title on your favorite shows was a little neat surprise. I wrote the above post too fast.

[AXX°N N.]

My first reaction was to vote "May The Giant Be With You", but then again "On The Wings of Love" really bugs me.

Actually, now that some time has passed, I'm voting for "The Full Blossom of the Evening".