She's a character from Fullmetal Alchemist 3: The Girl Who Surpasses God.Hikaruyami-having fun* 20:35, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
Sofy/Sofi/Sophie[]
So, someone changed this to "Sofy"? Is that the official spelling? Honestly it looks on par with Viz's "Foo" (rather than "Fuu") to me; meaning, not good. At least "Sofi" is an actual name; I've never seen anything like "Sofy"; that looks like what someone who doesn't know how to spell's guess on how to spell either "Sophie" or "Sofi" Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 23:09, March 4, 2013 (UTC)
- I was skeptical as well, but that's how it's stored in the game's data. (Screenshot from the game data.) Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 00:27, March 5, 2013 (UTC)
How's it spelled in the actual game though? There's got to be subtitles and text bubbles, all that. How something's spelled in game data's not really the best way to go by it in my opinion. I've seen countless data things that are just abbreviations and/or misspellings, because no one past who designed them is supposed to see them. I think we should go on how it's spelled in the actual game. Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 01:23, March 5, 2013 (UTC)
- The game was only published in Japanese, so all we have are the katakana/kanji to go by: ソフィ・ベルクマン. There's no canon English translation, only the Japanese romanization (Sofi Berukuman). Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 16:35, March 5, 2013 (UTC)
Still, even with that being said, that's just the romaji of it. Like with this character: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Heathcliff_Erbe
The romaji of this (before we knew better) was Heiss Cliff Arbor, but it's "Heathcliff". It may be "Sofi" or "Sophie", but I can safely say it's definitely not "Sofy". I liked "Sophie" the best, personally. Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 16:27, March 6, 2013 (UTC)
It makes absolutely no sense to make up names just for the sake of "staying true" to spelling of Oriental alphabets when the name was clearly made to be ocidental. ¬¬' That's "anime puritanism" and just plain dumb. Sorry to state it like that, but I've gotten really tired of these silliness over the years. Turdaewen (talk) 18:26, March 6, 2013 (UTC)
- I personally prefer "Sophie" as well. It just makes sense to use the closest thing to an official source we have. I'd be okay "voting" on this, though, or whatever. "Sophie Bergmann" sounds like the intended name to me; Wikipedia and online translators seem to agree. Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 03:40, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
...I didn't think something as simple as a name spelling change would get such backlash... I don't think Sofy's name was a misspelling like Tommy-Vercetti suggests, since Elma and Havoc's names in the same data file are spelled the same way as they were supposed to be. But I suppose nobody can be sure how it was truly meant to be spelled until some English dub of the game is released. The Aracuan Bird (talk) 10:18, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
Well, actually, not even "English dubs" are mistake-proof, to be quite honest. They "guess it" just as much as we do. The only difference is that they have professionals who are fluent in Japanese, but, then, again, so do we!
Here in Brazil, for example, the official translation of "State Alchemist" is "Federal Alchemist", but all "specialists" in FMA know Amestris is not a Federation, but a Unitary State and, therefore, there cannot be a "Federal Alchemist". And, still, that's the official translation! With a HUGE mistake! But the thing is that there's not "right way to translate it" because there's no direct translation between katakanas/hiiraganas and our own alphabet. It's all about reading and trying to 'figure it out' what they meant by that spelling in Katakana. My name, Raquel, is spelled "Rakeru" in katakana, but anyone who's not japanese would figure it out that they actually mean "Raquel" and that my name is not "Rakeru". That happens with all languages that have a different alphabet! So, when we read "Sopy" is safe to assume they meant Sophie and spelling for us as Sopy would be the same as calling a character called "Raquel", "Rakeru" just because it was "written like that". - In other words, when translating from Japanese, you just need to use your common sense.
And I'm sorry if I sounded rude, but it's just that I had years discussing these sort of thing with anime fans, especially about Riza's name and, after a while, it just gets tiresome, especially when some of them are so prude as to think we should do everything "the japanese way" with no inteligence or adaptation whatsoever. And it doesn't help that most of those don't even speak Japanese to begin with. Turdaewen (talk) 15:39, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
- I think there should definitely be a consensus on this matter.
- Maybe "Sofy" is what they were going for; it's not entirely implausible for the FMA uninverse, like "Winry" is a real name either, but, no matter how I look at it, "Sofy" just looks like an atrocious misspelling. I think we were more on target with "Sophie".Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 16:12, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
- I tend to agree. It seems like something that someone learning the language would write when sounding it out. We do need a consensus, yes. Let's see if we can reach an agreement. I've added a table below that seems to be the easiest and most democratic way to gather opinions from various members. To add a vote, place a line containing #~~~ in the appropriate section below. Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 22:15, March 8, 2013 (UTC)
| Sofi Berukuman (Japanese romanization) | Sofy Bergmann (Transliteration in game code) | Sophie Bergmann (Anglicized version) | Don't care |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
And, welll, we never really decided the duration of this poll too. Like, how long do we wait? I doubt many more beside the 4 of us is going to add anything more. How about a week?Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 15:04, March 11, 2013 (UTC)
- I had figured a week would be sufficient, yeah. Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 21:39, March 11, 2013 (UTC)
Hmm, notice how all the irregular n00bs seem to be in favor for "Sofy"? In my opinion, that's just more reason NOT to use it.
In fact, I'd say it's downright astounding how I've never heard of 2 of these, and clicking on their profiles leads to one "globally disabled by wikia" and all three of them with the ONLY edit being this one page.
Hmm... I have a sneaking feeling, several of these are merely sock-puppets to increase numbers. --Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 17:08, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
Oh, really, Tommy? I thought I was the only one who had noticed that. XD Well, even if they did have any other edits in other wikias, I don't think we should count as valid votes those who don't have a login and/or are not regulars to FMA wikia... It makes no sense that people who're not familiar with FMA or this wikia would make a conscient decision. --Turdaewen (talk) 17:44, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
I don't think post count here should matter either... but I think it's incredibly suspicious that 2/3 of them don't post anywhere else here, but yet 'care' enough about this one page (that's hard enough for a regular to have noticed) to make it their first page. Honestly, I think they're sock-puppets from the one guy who genuinely wanted "Sofy". The fact that they all appeared together around the same time too makes it even more obvious. --Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 18:24, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
The "SereneSeaWaves" account was just created yesterday, and the two votes were added within 11 minutes of each other. The IP has never posted here, nor on any other Wiki. (And it really seems odd to me that someone would register an account because they feel so strongly about the name "Sofy". Why not post from the IP? Oh, right, because it's the same.) I think the sockpuppet theory is accurate... So we can just go ahead and discount those votes. Soxxeh [TALK] ~ Knives and Shadows 18:43, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
I think I'll go ahead and remove the two fakes then. --Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 19:22, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
I second that. ^_^ --Turdaewen (talk) 20:12, March 13, 2013 (UTC)
Sorry, they were a friend and sister of mine who wanted to vote after I had told them about this... I warned them that this might happen though. I hope you didn't think I created the accounts just to cheat a tiny poll. :\ I know I'm not some major Wiki user, but I'm not a cheater. 24.4.110.209 01:54, March 14, 2013 (UTC) (My username is currently being changed, but this is The Aracuan Bird)
I actually am not a fake. I am a friend of The Aracuan Bird who has been on this wiki a lot, but never created an account. My friend (The Aracuan Bird) was telling me a couple of weeks ago how in the game script the name is spelled Sofy and I encouraged her to change the wiki page to be the correct spelling, and once this poll got put up I created an account, wanting to help this page be corrected with the name in the script instead of a name that people just like the spelling of better. And the person who signed with their IP actually was her sister, I'm friends with both of them and they both are avid fans of FMA. I'm going to go ahead and put my signature back in now. SereneSeaWaves (talk) 02:21, March 14, 2013 (UTC)
Sorry, but it still doesn't count. IF you are not a fake - which a simple "I'm not a fake" message won't do -, you two have never edited ANYTHING in this wikia previously, which means you probably are doing this out of friendship and not real interest in this Wikia. IF you two desire to be an active member and actually contribute to the wikia, well, than, in the future, you'll have a vote in such cases, but, as of now, you're not regulars and, therefore, cannot have a say in this, since it wouldn't be fair to those who actually give up their time to built a good quality Wikia and are constantly discussing such matters. --Turdaewen (talk) 13:23, March 14, 2013 (UTC)
^Agreed 100%. This isn't a popularity contest; it's a question about the integrity of this wiki.
In any case, let me show you one other thing further with my next post. --Tommy-Vercetti (talk) 17:39, March 14, 2013 (UTC)
I'm definitely NOT Tommy-Vercetti, by the way, but rather a totally unique, different person.174.28.93.21 17:40, March 14, 2013 (UTC)