I am Your Father And Hence I Can Say It Like I Want

Last night, I commented on Facebook that I was watching Return of the Jedi dubbed in French.

My cousin, bless him, replied, "Luke, je suis votre père."

Unfortunately Chris, that's not exactly what Darth Vader said. He actually says, "Luke, je suis ton père." And this little difference has me wondering...

What on earth gives that man, who left his children so he could go off and act like a complete asshole, the right to tutoyer another man (granted his son) who he's never really met? If I did that in village, I'd be considered rude and horribly obnoxious since you only tutoie people you know really, really well.

Sure, Darth Vader was his dad and hence, could say anything he wanted to Luke, but still! In French, it's a question of good manners and to tutoyer somebody without being properly introduced, well that's just not on. It's a fine balancing act who you vouvoies and who you tutoies. Old Darthy should have known better.

Though, perhaps he was taking the easy route, like I do. I just tutoyer everyone and hope they'll forgive this quirky foreigner since in her language there's just "you" and not this distinction between "oh, you" and "oh, YOU."

Plus, Darthy had that old Death Star on his side and I'm not sure Luke really would've have wanted to argue about good grammar when the sake of the universe was in question. I imagine it'll be something they discuss in more detail over a few beers at the next Ewok barbecue.

French grammar, semantics, beer, and furry creatures.

Sounds like a night chez nous.