The Ba Sing Se Times, Issue 19: 19 March

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Taking part in managing a wiki is not simple. No matter the size of the project, there are always difficulties that require resolution. On a relatively larger wiki such as this, a particularly difficult problem to overcome is a slight on the reputation of the project. Several days ago, a lengthy blog post was published to defend the reputation of Avatar Wiki against claims regarded as unfair.

While a defence is certainly necessary, it does not resolve the problem entirely. It has not attacked the root of the issue. What has occurred is that Avatar Wiki has failed to clearly articulate its central purposes and its structure. A good first impression is vital in encouraging readers to become regular contributors; without this articulation, our first impression among some will be damaged.

The Avatar Wiki community should reflect on the best possible course of action to reduce this kind of misunderstanding. Success depends on the influx of new contributors.

Shipping
Vulmen

If you're like me, you came into A:TLA after the fact, once the series was over and all the episodes/character choices were shown. That being the case, we missed seeing the full effects of the War of the Shippers. From what I have seen and heard, it was quite eventful, with all sides declaring their way was the accurate way and explaining why their pairing was going to be canon.

This has always boggled me. Why should characters be argued to be paired together, rather than waiting to see what actions and/or events shape the characters into the choices they really desire for themselves? I like to see the reality (pun intended...) of what happened, rather than push ideals on a character that would alter who they were in order to achieve it.

But guess what; it's that time again. The embers are glowing as the flames are slowly finding wood/ships to burn. Legend of Korra is around the corner, and people already are coming up with ideas for whom to ship Korra with, or Tenzin, Asari, etc.... It will be a brand new season of ships. Tenzin/Korra has already sunk prior to the start; however, due to a large age difference between the characters that is presumed (and due to ages of their voice actors).

Now; I'm usually one to be avid to say I hate shipping wars, and would much rather just see what really happens on screen. But, y'know what? So long as it is not done in a way that is derogatory or degrading to other viewers, it's actually a way to open up deep discussions that otherwise would never be had. As such; shipping 'wars' can be healthy to participate in...if participated with a level-headed mind, rather than a strong-headed effort to 'win over' as being correct. After all; don't look the fool who argued his/her case to the bitter end - that "it will happen! You will see and you will be sorry!" ...only to find out, it didn't.

So...flame on! But remember: I'll be watching...

Team Avatar on Wikia
Dcasawang1

Edits

Hello 888. I’m Aang (the real one). I want to ask you why you reverted my edits here and here. I lived those moments and I know what happened. AangtheAvatar (talk)

Aang, we also know what happened; we have watched the entire series. I think our information is accurate. :) The 888th Avatar (talk)

Btw, have you seen this image? Good, isn’t it? Jealous? AangtheAvatar (talk)

Not really. By the way, how old are you? The 888th Avatar (talk)

I’m 12. You? AangtheAvatar (talk)

Blocked. The 888th Avatar (talk)

Block

Hello wjxhuang. I’m Katara. I’m tired of some users making comments about me. They are making gossip all the time. Please block them. MightyKatara (talk)

WHOOOOO! Katara is here!! Vulmen (talk)

See? This is annoying. :S MightyKatara (talk)

Hi Katara. Welcome to the wiki. I can see what you mean, but they're only making positive comments, which is acceptable. :) The 888th Avatar (talk)

Ok :( Nvm. Also, I’ve also read this page and I demand to be deleted. It is even worse than "look myself up on Google", I mean, Katara and a rock? Please. MightyKatara (talk)

Don’t read it if you don’t want to. The article is intended to be humourous, but it may not be for everyone. The 888th Avatar (talk)

Okay, this site is nasty. I’ll never come back. Goodbye. MightyKatara (talk)

That's entirely up to you. Good luck. :) The 888th Avatar (talk)

Wiki

Hi, this is Toph. I just want to say this wiki is awesome. You have articles for everything. That’s why I just created more: “Toph’s Earth Rumble VI Belt”, “Toph’s Wanted Poster”, “Toph’s Clothes” and “Toph’s Earthbending”. TophMetalBender (talk)

Hi Toph. I’m glad you appreciate the wiki. Thanks for your contributions, but we don’t need articles for small details like those you created articles for. I've just deleted them. I have also deleted your blog post “Why The Last Airbender sucks” as it contains inappropriate language. The 888th Avatar (talk)

Why are you deleting everything I do here?!! TophMetalBender (talk)

You may want to read our Policy and our Manual of Style. You can’t create articles for everything and blogs with inappropriate language. The 888th Avatar (talk)

You have too many rules here. Nobody tells me what to do. You’re not my mother and I do what I want. I’ll keep creating the blog if you delete it. TophMetalBender (talk)

If you continue to disregard our policies, further sanctions will be taken against you. The 888th Avatar (talk)

I don’t care. TophMetalBender (talk)

Please do not remove content from articles. The 888th Avatar (talk)

You can’t stop me. TophMetalBender (talk)

Blocked. The 888th Avatar (talk)

Chapter preview
The 888th Avatar

Two nights in a row now Iroh had not slept, but his weariness was trivial compared to the troubles swirling in his mind. Iroh ventured out from his tent, drew his cloak around him and quickly lit a campfire several feet from his tent. It was cold, but the wind had stopped again. Iroh supposed that this was the eye of the storm. It would start again, with a change in direction, later. Relief from his dark thoughts came in the form of his son, who came bearing more tea. It didn't smell like Jasmine. Iroh looked up.

"White Dragon," Lu Ten said as he poured his father a cup. "It's a rare Earth Kingdom tea. A bit sweeter than Jasmine. More fragrant. Made from a whiteish flower with some red-pink colouration."

Iroh took the cup and felt his heart skip a beat. It was the dragons again, and now that Iroh was more tired, it was easier to imagine that one of them was red than it was the day before yesterday, when he had imagined the exact same thing. He took a sip. It was some of the best tea that he had ever tasted. Who knew that there was tea more delectable and more fragrant than Jasmine!

"It is good, isn't it? Sometimes, I think that if we hadn't been born into the royal family, we'd be running a tea shop," Lu Ten laughed.

Iroh laughed as well. "What would we call it?"

"I have no idea. The Jasmine Dragon, perhaps?"

Iroh fidgeted with his cup. He had gone beyond simply imagining a red dragon with the blue. Now they were coiling around each other, even breathing fire... Fire of many colours.

"What's wrong with the cup, father?"

"It's nothing... I'm imagining things."

"I had never tasted this tea before... perhaps it has hallucinogetic properties?"

"No, it's not the tea. The tea is delicious." Iroh paused. "Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname 'the Dragon of the West'?

"Everyone knows how. You killed the last dragon. The title was bestowed on you by my grandfather."

"No, Lu Ten. Let me tell you what actually happened."

Excerpt from the the next chapter of The Six Hundredth Day.

Undiscovered fanons and more
Rassilon of Old

This issue's featured new fanon is The Ultimate Waterbender's When Air Nomads Walked the Earth. The brilliant story is set before the War, and features the Air Nomads like they have never been seen before. Interestingly enough, and to my great suprise, the series also features the twelve year old Siro, from the Fire Nation. I don't want to give too much away, but Siro's father is in fact a ranking Fire Nation soldier, who is in on the latest Fire Nation news. Including the news of wiping out the Air Nomads, news which Siro hears.

And then triggers the adventures of the two characters. Although I have only read two of the chapters so far, I have been greatly impressed by the beautiful writing and descriptions of the characters and their surroundings. The amazing episode plots easily draw the reader in, and entices them to read on! So far, four chapters and a prologue have been released, and they have all been extremely succesful amongst the readers. The Ultimate Waterbender should be commended on her highly skilled writing techniques.

8/10 - My highest rating yet!

The Return of the Avatar Wiki Fanon Awards!

For those of you who are unaware, once upon a time lived a fanon admin, who was called The avatar, and this fanon admin had the splendid idea of creating a system to recognize the hard work of fanon authors, and thus the Fanon Awards were born. After two successful ceremonies, The avatar was sent to deliver cookies to his grandmother and was never seen on the wiki again.

So the awards have been inactive ever since, until the persistent badgering of Thebiguglyalien finally proved a point, and a lengthy discussion took place, deciding to bring them back! A new council has been formed, and the first ceremony is to begin soon! The current Award Council is as follows, Carloso, The Bos, Dragon of The West, Millennia2 and myself, Rassilon of Old. We are yet to have an indepth discussion on the categories for the awards, but so far they are;

Outstanding Drama Series
Outstanding Comedy Series
Outstanding New Series
Outstanding Expansion Series
Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Editing in a Fanon Series
Best Main Character (Male)
Best Main Character (Female)
Best Supporting Character (Male)
Best Supporting Character (Female)
Best Villain
Single Achievement Award - Outstanding Author
Single Achievement Award - Outstanding New Author
Single Achievement Award - Outstanding Guest Author/Editor

We have already discussed some nominees, but you as the public get to nominate your own preferred choices for who should be nominated for each category, and who will win. For readers, get your favorite fanon chapters, characters and authors in the back of your head, and for writers, now is the time to go all out to win. And remember, there are no friends in love, war or the Avatar Wiki Fanon Awards!

Avatar in Spanish
InspiredbyKaizuh

Hello senoritas and dudes! I decided to talk about what I feel made the English and the Spanish versions of Avatar feel vastly distinct, but at the same time, quite the same. And how, consequently, this affects the personalities of the characters.

I saw the Spanish version first (for obvious reasons) and I had firmly established myself with those voices. When I saw the English version once I eventually learned English, I saw pretty huge differences; here is my take on said differences. (I do not include Katara and Sokka in this mainly because they sound rather similar, so any differences noted would be too subtle to make it worthwhile. Also, I am talking about the Latin Spanish version, not the one from Spain itself.)

Aang — He sounds perhaps the most different of all the characters, except maybe for Toph. In the Spanish version, he is 12 as well; however, he sounds very mature in this version. When he speaks, he has authority in his voice and speaks in a very wise-like way. I felt that really, he is the Avatar. In the English version, Aang sounds completely different. He sounds like a little kid (which he is, but I already explained that) and sounds at times unsure of himself. I felt that the voices at first sounded childish, but I guess I got used to them. All in all, I grew to accept this version, but I was never completely satisfied.
Azula — My main lady, the big cheese, the model, the badass. Yes, Azula sounds great in both versions. In the Spanish version, she sounds very authoritarian, very sure of herself, and talks in a monotone. This monotone I had grown to accept because it made it that much more obvious to the untrained ear that she had zero emotion and was in complete control of the situation. Very cold and calculative sounding. In other words, a badass. In the English version, I felt she retained all of the same qualities, except for the monotony. In this version, she sounds flustered at times, insane (obviously at the end) and sounds much more like a 14 year old. Her emotions fly out at you, ranging from just cruel to unsure. She is much more expressive and can manage much more feeling than in the Spanish version. I actually liked this version of Azula better than the Spanish version.
Toph — In the English version, she sounds just like you expect her to be, tough, rugged, in your face, and indifferent as to how you feel. She really emanated a presence in her voice that she was more than capable enough to be the Avatar’s teacher. In the Spanish version, she has a very particular voice that again, sounded more mature and yet for all her retained toughness, during the "Tales of Ba Sing Se" episode, it sounded as though she opened up that much more, you could seriously feel the weak side of Toph. That kind of voice acting rarely comes along, and it was satisfying.
Zuko — Last but not least, Zuko, my second favorite character, who would be my favorite if it not were the heavenly presence of Azula. Zuko is such a great character that he would sound great in any voice. In the English and Spanish version, you know that the pain, sorrow, and regret are in his voice, the character that wants to prove to everybody who he is. The same trials and tribulations are there; in the English version, he often sounds poetic and hurt and in the Spanish version, he sounds annoyed, confused, and strangely enough very sure of himself. Of course, there is nothing less to be expected of Zuko.

So there you have it. This is just a taste of the differences there are. To get the full message, listen to it in Spanish; it is pretty easy, in the DVDs just go to preferences or languages or whatever and change it. It is interesting.

Everyone's inactive!
Toph Lover

You have probably noticed lately that everyone is inactive, in many cases because of school. I am one of those people. Last year I found it a lot easier to work because I didn't know about Wikia. But now that I do... I can't concentrate! You probably will be finding me on at the most strangest times (even school hours). And perhaps other people are having the same problem.

Another problem I've noticed is that in the last issue of the BSST there were only five different people contributing! Usually there is way more than that! It's worried me. So I am trying to still balance out school work and the BSST but I will probably fail sadly. If you are reading this and you don't know what I am on about this is about how we will cope with so many people inactive (even if it is for only a bit). We probably will cope just fine but it my be sad not seeing so many familliar faces that we usually do.

Special mentions

DesertDog, for painstakingly creating articles every day — and taking on board suggestions as they come
Olórin The White, for the brilliant suggestion of a table layout for our transcripts
Vulmen, for his help in maintaining a volume of content in recent releases of this newsletter

Suggest users for this to the editor! This section is for users who have made some significant and creative improvement, have acted as a voice of reason or even have simply been kind to others.

User of the month

Vote for the next user of the month. Current user of the month:

Renatabls

Comment rage: Automobiles
The 888th Avatar

The great thing about wikis is that since communication is not in real time, you can compose yourself from a fit of rage before posting your comment. This feature is about those common comments that result in the condition known as comment rage, when a normally cucumber cool user suddenly cannot contain it any further. Or at least to my sane (or merely unimaginative?) mind.

Many have expressed their disapproval of automobiles in the upcoming Korra series. Oh come on. If I were to see no technological advancement in the new series after 70 years, I'd be concerned about Nickelodeon and the creators insulting our intelligence. One of the true achievements of the original show was that audiences outside the kid's demographic were enthusiastic about it. Mature viewers with knowledge of "how the world works" would suddenly be asking, "If there were already tanks and trucks in the original series, why did nothing happen in the last 70 years? Was everyone just too stupid to invent anything?"

People should stop worrying about these minor universe details and worry about the important problems: is the storyline engaging? Is the plot sufficiently complex to interest mature viewers? Better use of time? I think so.

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