Wikipedia:Deletion policy/Minor characters
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Sometimes, a group of similar or related articles is nominated for deletion over a short period of time. In cases like this, it seems prudent to have one centralized discussion about the entire group, rather than repeating arguments over each member thereof. This is an attempt to forum consensus on one such groups of articles.
Conclusion[edit]
- Major characters (and places, concepts, etc) in a work of fiction should be covered within the article on that work of fiction. If the article on the work itself becomes long, then giving major characters an article of their own is good practice.
- Minor characters (and places, concepts, etc) in a work of fiction should be listed with short descriptions in a "List of minor characters." This list should reside in the article relating to the work itself, unless either becomes long, in which case a separate article for the list is good practice.
- Fictional characters which are cultural icons transcending their appearance in a particular work of fiction, or who cannot be neatly tied to a particular work of fiction or fictional universe deserve articles of their own, regardless of other circumstances.
- It would be useful to add redirects to the article page or list of minor characters, from anything that's listed in there.
- This has been summarized at WP:FICT for easy reference.
Description[edit]
Characters from books, TV series, movies and/or computer games are often nominated for deletion as 'fancruft', and reader reactions vary between keep, delete and merge.
A possible distinction (taken from WP:WIWO) would be the following.
- Major characters from major works deserve their own article (e.g. Harry Potter).
- Minor characters from major works should be merged into a list for easy accessibility, and because there isn't that much to say about them (e.g. Lionel Hutz).
- Trivial characters from major works should be deleted as unencyclopedic (e.g. that guy that appears in scene seventeen for twenty seconds, then dies).
- Major characters from minor works should be merged into the main article for the book for easy accessibility (e.g. Dua from The Gods Themselves).