Talk:Boss-Cat

I didn't know where to put this, so I figured here was as good a place as any.

I love the new appearances sections, though I tend to agree with the impulse to LIST ALL episodes (preferably w/columns), as opposed to summarizing. But that's easy for me to say, as I sure as hell have no intention of doing it myself. (Waves sheepishly to GXB & especially MATT. VOOTIE, guys!)

Anyway, looking over the new section, something occurred to me that's been nagging at me for awhile...

You'll notice that there isn't an "Appearances" list for Boss-Cat. And why should there be? It's just a nickname for Talon.

But I'm wondering... should there be FULL entries on both Derek and Talon? Or should the Derek entry only be more-or-less as brief as the Boss-Cat entry and otherwise pointing forward to Talon for a FULL BIOGRAPHY, as opposed to splitting the bio between them.

This would also apply to Janine/Fox, Maggie Reed/the Cat, Othello/Coldstone, etc.

I'm just raising this for discussion, mind you. I've been hesitant to weigh in on things like this as ... well, frankly, I really do NOT want my opinion to carry extra weight on how the wiki is managed. (As opposed to the notion that my opinion SHOULD carry extra weight on matters of garg "fact".) -gdw

Interesting idea. I'd be more willing to merge Janine/Fox and Maggie Reed/the Cat. But Derek/Talon really marks two different identities, not just two different names. Probably they aren't as separate as, say, Puck and Owen. If they are merged, what would we call the new page: Derek Maza or Talon? I'm heavily in favour of using the name most used for a character, but in this case... well, it's tricky.

What we could do, as a sort of compromise, is merge the Appearances sections and leave the rest of the article separate. So, for example, Talon would have a full Appearances section, including appearances by Derek before his change. Derek would have a link to Talon#Appearances, with an explanation that the full Appearances section can be found at the target. Then we should probably specify for each appearance whether the character is appearing as Derek or Talon.

This would work just as well for Maggie, but Janine... well, Janine and Fox are two different names for the same identity, so I don't think we need bother. (Actually, Maggie the Cat and Maggie Reed are pretty much the same identity, despite the outward changes. Discussion for another time.) Othello/Coldstone is more complicated (as is Iago/Coldsteel and Desdemona/Coldfire). Not sure how best to deal with them. -- Supermorff 08:51, 1 January 2008 (CST)

Yeah, when I got to characters like that it became very tricky. For a character like Janine/Fox or Harry Monmouth/Dingo I think that should remain one page and one Appearances section since a name change or alias doesn't qualify in my mind as enough. So their appearances would also include any stories they were in before they took the names Fox and Dingo. An issue only showing Harry as a little boy running around Down Under and not even mentioning the Dingo name would still be under the Dingo entry.

With characters like the Mutates, we take it a step further. In many ways these are new individuals... and in many ways they are the same. Maybe a page divided into two sections with two appearances section will work. Or maybe one page containg both Derek and Talon but with an Appearances Section that clearly shows where the change occurred, like a split Appearances Section. That way a person can look at the page and it is clear Derek and Talon are the same person who (in their history) went through a major physical (and emotional) change. Yeah, the more I think about, the Mutates should be merged back together. It gets too onfusing when you have Maggie the Cat, Elisa and Beth Maza all calling Talon Derek, Derek calling himself Talon, etc. It'd look nicer and be simpler and it'll avoid some of these Appearances Section problems...

Finally, we get to Othello and Desdemona and Iago and Coldstone and Coldsteel and Coldfire. I had no idea how to work with these guys yesterday. Lets take a story like "Reunion". Out of the six above mentioned characters, who appeared, who was mentioned and who gets no reference at all? Well, Coldstone and Coldsteel were clearly in it, and Coldfire was clearly not in it. But the other three names are all debateable. Othello was in control of the body and we saw him through Coldstone's minds eye, so it seems easy, but was he in the story or only mentioned? Desdemona showed up in the mind's eye as well, and her soul is still present in the Coldstone shell, so she's there but is that an appearance or a mention or what? Iago was at least mentioned, but his soul was seen in the mind's eye and was in control of Coldsteel in the end, so is that an appearance or not?

Frankly for the Coldtrio, I have no idea how to work that out. This is why you shouldn't ressurrect the dead, everything is too complicated. I see good reason to both seperate them and keep them together on pages. I dunno, I guess it is really where the soul/mind is that matters. A dormant soul probably shouldn't be counted as an appearance, should it? Something to think about.

Meanwhile, I think Maggie the Cat/Maggie Reed can be re-merged and so can Derek Maza/Talon as long as their History Section is subdivided to show the major life change. The appearances section can probably remain as one list for simplicity.

Oh yeah, and speaking of those appearances lists, I tend to agree with Greg W about columns looking better than the condensed summary list for the main characters, I believe Supermorff is working on getting those columns to look and work right, but once we've figured it out, I'd like to change it also. -- Matt 11:09, 1 January 2008 (CST)