How We Corrected a Char Aznable Quote
A worked correction of Char’s Earth line: changed wording, preserved history, and the difference between an editorial witness and a licensed track.
On October 10, 2026, we corrected the wording of Char Aznable's Earth line to match the editorial source we could read. The correction established what that source prints; it did not identify a licensed English dub or subtitle track.
The words that changed
The current quotation and its history note distinguish our previous wording from the replacement. The older entry used “who remain on Earth”; the CBR article uses “left on Earth.” Its sentence also has no comma before the causal clause. A fresh body-text check on October 12 confirms those features of the article.
The point is not that the shorter expression is a better translation. We have not established that comparison. The point is that a quotation attributed to a particular witness must reproduce that witness's words. Choosing the more familiar variant would make the citation describe a sentence it does not actually supply.
Punctuation needs an explicit decision
CBR places a trailing comma inside the quotation marks before continuing its own sentence. Our displayed excerpt omits that final comma and adds no terminal punctuation. The source note says so. That small disclosure prevents an editorial choice about an excerpt from looking like punctuation observed in an unidentified film release.
A correction can be accurate without pretending that the source is stronger than it is. Here the witness is an editorial article quoting a line in its body. It is not a film transcript with an identified track, and its presence does not show that every English release agrees.
Why the old version remains in the note
The earlier Wikiquote citation survives as history, not as a second witness for the corrected text. Otherwise a reader could mistake two links for two sources printing the same sentence. Keeping the earlier wording and the correction date makes the change inspectable while leaving one clear version in the main quotation.
That distinction also affects presentation. The corrected entry is no longer featured on the basis of multiple qualifying sources. Its quote cards and the two roundups that repeated the old text were synchronized with the correction. A change to the main entry would have been incomplete if the old wording remained promoted elsewhere on this site.
A correction report that can be checked
A useful report can follow this blank form: page address; current disputed text; proposed replacement; source address and edition; page or timestamp; a short explanation of the mismatch; and any uncertainty about the speaker or English track. Include the surrounding exchange in paraphrase when it affects attribution. A correction can concern the citation or interpretation even when the displayed words stay the same.
If the source itself changes, preserve the dates of the earlier and revised checks and identify the exact difference. Then list dependent claims separately: displayed excerpt, source note, commentary, cards and roundups. For each, record whether the new evidence requires a change and why. An altered source sentence need not invalidate every conclusion drawn from the article, but leaving that question unexamined can spread the original error.
A source-note repair can leave the quotation unchanged
A separate example is Zoro’s entry 48. Before the October 20 sourcing audit, its source note said only “Episode 2.” The revised note retains that locator and adds that the English wording was checked against Wikiquote’s third-party transcription on October 20, 2026. It explicitly says the licensed English edition or audio/subtitle track was not established by that check.
The quotation itself did not change in this revision. What changed was the account of how it had been checked. An episode number helps locate a scene; it does not identify the English witness. The repair gives the reader both the check actually performed and the question it leaves open.
The older wording is still in circulation
The previous wording has not disappeared from its source. On October 29, 2026, Wikiquote's Char's Counterattack page still printed "who remain on Earth," with a comma before "because," under its Film heading and inside an exchange with Amuro. The passage carries no reference, and the page has a film-cleanup template dated November 21, 2011. That is why the old text stays in our note as history rather than as a second source: the page records a transcription without saying which release it transcribes. Readers comparing versions will still meet it, so the note explains the difference instead of hiding it.
What would establish more?
An identified licensed English release could answer a different question: what that dub or subtitle actually says. Such a comparison would need the release, the relevant scene and the words present there. It could reveal agreement or another variant. Neither outcome should be filled in from memory.
The lesson of this correction is practical: match the claim to the witness, preserve the reason for the change, and follow the old text into dependent displays. The verification policy explains the general standard. This example shows why replacing a few words can require more work than editing one sentence.