Forums: War Room → Bender categories and infobox listing

A couple questions regarding how bending is indicated in a character's article:

1. I see that in Lightning Bolt Zolt's and Ozai's articles, they do not have the firebender icon, and thus are not listed under the firebender category. However, if one reads the description of Category:Firebenders, it says it's for "all characters so far that are known to practice firebending". That creates a contradiction. I know Ozai and Zolt have had their bending removed, but they're still known firebenders, even if former firebenders. I believe the wiki is written with the "current" timeline in mind, and thus Zolt and Ozai are no longer firebenders, but they used to be. Jeong Jeong abandoned the Fire Nation army, but he's still listed in the soldier category. Is that due to his membership of the OWL? Because I don't think being part of that really makes one a soldier. Considering more characters will probably lose their bending during the series, this is something which needs to be addressed. Ozai and Bolt don't bend any more, but that doesn't mean that firebending and fire were removed from fighting style and weapon of choice in the infoboxes.
2. I see that a sort of discrepancy was created in how bending abilities are listed in infoboxes. For example, I see Toph, Lin, and Saikhan all have earthbending and metalbending under fighting style, though only Toph has earth and metal under weapon of choice, Lin and Saikhan have nothing listed there (not the main point of this, but something I noticed nonetheless, something similar happens with Tenzin and his children, only he and Meelo have air as weapon of choice). However, I don't see lightning listed as a weapon of choice in the infobox of those who are capable of lightning generation, despite lightning generation being considered a specialized technique, much like metalbending. I understand that Katara isn't listed as a bloodbender because she hardly used the technique, but that's not quite the case with the ones who use lightning generation.

Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 22:01, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

1. There are some categories that are meant to list also all past people to have the position, like Fire Lord or Avatar categories. But some are meant to list accordin to their current status, like bending categories. And this difference is only due to the category purpose. Then, Ozai would be under Fire Lords category, but not under Firebenders category. So, imo, you're right, Jeong Jeong shouldn't have the Soldiers category as he abandonded the army. For this, some categories descriptions may need to be adjusted to be more specific about the articles they must comprise.
2. All infoboxes should follow the same logic for fighting style parameter than your example of Katara. Of course if we have confirmation of that, for example, we don't know if Mako uses lightning generation while fighting. Dcasawang1 • wall 23:21, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

If there are enough characters with their bending removed, I think that it would be useful to have a "former bender" category or something along those lines. It would reflect in their categories that they were benders once. Regarding number two, that means we should list lightning as a weapon for Ozai, Azula, Iroh, and Zolt right? They have used it against someone in a fight. And regarding soldiers and similar categories, would the exclusion criteria be like retirement or would all sort of quitting the army be considered? Omnibender - Talk - Contributions 23:32, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

We'll see if the category is needed, we can't know for now. Yes, lightning could be added (with "formerly" if needed of course). And yes, that would be the exclusion criteria. Dcasawang1 • wall 00:55, April 23, 2012 (UTC)