Talk:List of Staffs and Ankhs

Just to note that there is some contention throughout the internet as to whether "Staffs" should be "staves" based on the rules of plurals; One can actually have one staff, two staffs while another can have one stave, two staves. The Wiktionary definitions for staff and stave pretty much state that staffs are more associated with walking sticks while staves are more associated with ladder components. Therefore, it seems more etymologically accurate to keep the page's title as "List of Staffs". Just thought I should clear that up for future reference. :) Erik Jensen ^{(Appreciate me here!)} 21:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

That, and if it were "staves," I'd have to do a bit more coding on Template:S, which was a pain in the neck to do in the first place! :) —Hinoa talk 22:01, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Uh, regardless of whichever is correct, I think the games use "Staffs" for the plural. It could be the other way around, though; Fire Emblem uses "Staff" for one and "Staves" for multiples.

So, yeah, I'm clueless :P --Rellin 16:21, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I realize this is really late to the game, but I'd like to point out that a staff and a stave are different, but both can be "staves" when plural. I found the following (unattributed) quote on wikipedia:

"The plural form of staff was originally staves (compare wolf, wolves and knife, knives), and in British and International English this is still preferred. In American English the usual plural form has become staffs, except in fantasy literature."

I'm leaning towards "staves" being the more correct term (especially since I'm not sold on "staffs" being the "American" term for it as opposed to a regional variation since I've never once used the word in that context), but it's really not worth fixing. I can't find anywhere in any of the three games where it is plural, so I don't think that's much help. spweasel 13:20, 10 March 2011 (CST)

I don't think it has anything to do with "American" spellings. All I know is that Firefox says that Staves is spelled wrong, but Staffs isn't. Thus, I use Staffs. As for that fantasy literature thing... isn't that the other way around? It's Dwarves and Elves, except in literature, where it's Dwarfs and Elfs for some stupid reason. I see Staffs in it too, so one would assume...75.60.182.188 23:56, 22 March 2011 (CDT)

Variations

I just noticed something. The Blessed Ankh, possibly the angelic one too, have different battle sprite appearances than other staffs. This may be true elsewhere as well. Tzion 05:26, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

It goes one step further in DD: Only Rief and Himi can equip "Ankh"-type staffs/staves, and they have different battle menu icons as well. Now, there aren't enough Ankhs to justify splitting them, but we should definitely mention this in the article (assuming it isn't in there already) The World's Hungriest Paperweight 17:27, 10 March 2011 (CST)

Separation?

I like how claws and knuckles were separated on their page. Perhaps we could do something similar for this page? I'm aware there's only two or three total Ankhs, but it would definitely dissolve any confusion people may have as to what the item is.

Done. Well, sort of. There's no real reason to make the distinction for the GBA games, but I replaced the Trivia section with a DD section that collects all the Ankhs in one place.

Which reminds me: Why is it we don't list returning weapons under the DD sections? I can understand for TLA, since all GS weapons are coded into TLA. For DD, however... The World's Hungriest Paperweight 09:49, 24 March 2011 (CDT)