Forums: War Room → Short title for "Legend of Korra"

I, Hasdi Bravo, propose the page for the upcoming series to be named with the short title Legend of Korra (LoK), instead of Avatar: Legend of Korra (A:LoK) or Avatar: The Legend of Korra (A:TLoK) or The Legend of Korra) (TLA:LoK).

As I have commented in Azulazulazula's blog, fan-made video or otherwise, the video was improperly released to the public from Nick's private network AND I have yet to see any confirmed sightings of the same video on any Nick broadcast channels or websites. From the unfinished storyboard images and other old videos for the other shows, I suspect the promotional video is an unreleased work-in-progress (WIP) commercial for last year.

Even then, if Nickelodeon were to change the name back, they would not include "THE" in "Avatar: THE Legend of Korra", as the allowed trademark is for "Nickelodeon Avatar: Legend of Korra" (NA:LoK) ^[1]. Please also note a similar mis-spelling in the video, an omission of "S", in Kung Fu Panda: LegendS of Awesomeness. So, we should not assume any apparent mis-spelling to be intentional.

We could change it back to its last officially stated name, TLA:LoK. However, both NA:LoK and TLA:LoK has been allowed for TV shows by USPTO, so there is still a possibility it could go back to A:LoK (but not A:TLoK), up to the date the first episode is aired, when VIACOM has to file a "Statement of Use" to USPTO and have one of the trademarks finally registered. Rather than switch names back and forth, temporarily have lost of comments in the process AND confuse the fans, I humbly propose that we simply use the short title, "Legend of Korra". We can state the long title on that page, if it changes, we can simply edit the page rather than rename it.

Mike and Bryan is already referring to the show using the short title in the most recent interview by Dark Horse Comics (01/11/2012) ^[2]. Which brings up a strong point for LoK: what is the best way to refer to the show in a sentence for other pages? It is more convenient and consise to use [[Legend of Korra]] as opposed to [[The Legend of Korra]] or [[Nickelodeon Avatar: Legend of Korra]]. Note that, the full legal trademark for the original series is "Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender" ^[3], not the shorter "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Since the context is known in normal conversations and on this wiki, the "Nickelodeon" can be dropped without loss of ambiguity.

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Discussion

I am against this, but would only consider it if it were to be 'temporary' before we have a solid answer as for what the title is. The reason for this is; in the end, we should for certain properly document what the proper name of this series is, not simply "abbreviate" it as "Legend of Korra." We are an encyclopedia, not a fansite, we document the facts, not the simple answers. Vulmen (talk • EoK) 17:05, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

I honestly don't have an opinion on this. I'm okay with either one. However, until we get an official name I think we should stick to the the one that's already confirmed. --Iam1awsom1 (talk • contribs) 17:41, January 16, 2012 (UTC) 1am1awsom1

In light of a recent development on the blog, along with very strong evidence that the video is official, I oppose to this. While LoK would settle disputes, as of yet, the official name is A:LOK. Frankly, that just means extra work for KFAJ when we get confirmation of the name.深层蓝消防怪物 18:07, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

I oppose to this as well. I will not say anything about the video being official or not, I'm not sticking my nose in that debate, but if it is deemed not-official by others, the title would have to revert to the last official one we have, which would be "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra".

Random note, but Azulazulazula, if the video is indeed official, the official name would be "A:TLoK" not "A:LoK" ^^". Lady Lostris (talk • HotN) 19:28, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

Do you want to rename Avatar: The Last Airbender to The Last Airbender as well? I'm also pretty sure that the ATLA trademark is Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender but that doesn't make the show NA:TLA. We should use whatever excuse we can to flaunt the name Avatar instead of The Last Airbender 22:01, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

Actually, a shorter title for NA:TLA would be "Avatar" not "The Last Airbender". That is what staff members and old fans has been using to refer to the show until James Cameron along... Moving on, a short title is acceptable as a primary name for page for encyclopedic purposes, including wikipedia. My favorite example is the Patriot Act, which is a somewhat "informal" but widely accepted as the short title for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001". Staff members has been referring to show simply as "Legend of Korra". Even on its own page, its content refer to the show as "Legend of Korra" instead of "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra". The key is in its non-ambiguity --- that is the shortest name that would uniquely identify the show, even beyond this wiki. We have to wait until the airing of the first episode to know what the final name will be.

— Hasdi Bravo • 22:25, January 16, 2012 (UTC)

I think this is pretty simple – we're an encyclopedia, we'll use whatever title official material (promotional, press releases, in-show) and reliable, verifiable sources (newspapers, well-known magazines) gives us. We're after verifiability, not common usage or "truth". We don't use "Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender" because it's a trademark, not the marketing name. We don't use "Avatar" because it's a colloquial usage, and official material refers to it as "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The 888th Avatar (talk) 02:15, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

I did a bit more digging. :-( When the show was first officially announced (2011/07/21) in a Viacom press release^[4] and in the WSJ exclusive^[5], the working title was "The Legend of Korra" (TLoK). Except for fansites, I have not found any official uses for "Avatar: Legend of Korra", so it makes me wonder if that was just a reasonable conjecture by fans (with the trademark applications underway at the time). The full title "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra" was announced on another WSJ exclusive^[6] on (2011/03/08) and has been used since then. The short title "Legend of Korra" is used in that recent Bryke interview by Dark Horse AND also in Dark Horse's page for The Promise Part 1^[7] AND that Dutch MTV press release^[8] (albeit with a minor typo "LegendS of Korra"). Then we have that video from Kimiko126 which seems more and more like an unreleased and outdated commercial video to me. I am not too keen with marketing name, e.g. M:I-3 is a marketing name for Mission: Impossible III but not very "enclyopedic" to me. Also, check out the title artworks:

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For A:TLA, "Avatar" is prominently displayed in the title but "Nickelodeon" is more subtle. For TLA:LoK, "Legend of Korra" is prominently displayed and "The Last Airbender" is subtle instead. IMO, this may be intentional; "Legend of Korra" is the main title for the show and the rest is just for formality and for a sense of continuity. Even if Nick changes the title to "Nickelodeon Avatar: Legend of Korra", the artwork for "Avatar" will likely be just as small, not as prominent as "Legend of Korra". On the official Nick site, the only video for Korra^[9] has the incorrect title "The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra" (TLA:TLoK). Hmm... this is confusing
— Hasdi Bravo • 14:47, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

I know we are not allowed to post spoilers on the wiki but, if you would allow it for just the title this issue would be resolved because in the leaked opening it shows what the true title is.--Saphira1001 (talk • contribs) 15:15, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

As the opening is leaked and not official, we will not use any information from it until it is officially released. – Natsu11 · (wall • Avatar Answers) 15:33, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it won't. Let's say, hypothetically, that the leaked opening states "Nickelodeon Avatar: Legend of Korra", Nickelodeon could still change that to "The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra" on the airing date of the first episode (which is also the only date USPTO cares about for trademarking purposes). It may also mean that Nick had the first episode mostly completed prior to the name change in March 2011, and has been sitting their butts on it since then...

— Hasdi Bravo • 15:32, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

I just noticed that the Viacom press release^[10] refers to the original show both as "Avatar" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender". o.0 So, "Avatar" is not just used colloquially to refer to the show. Also, "The Legend of Korra" (working title) was also referred as to as a new "Avatar" series, but not explicitly as "Avatar: The Legend of Korra".
— Hasdi Bravo • 18:10, January 17, 2012 (UTC)

I still don't understand why we would WANT it to be anything but Avatar: The Legend of Korra. We get this one break to plead ignorance and use it... and its the closest to the original show - with the "the." 01:51, January 18, 2012 (UTC)

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