Template talk:Characters

Supporting character section

This edit, of course, brings up questions about what exactly the character template's content should feature. When I made the template, the idea I had was that it was listing characters within sections indicating in which game were they first given a genuinely noteworthy story role, whether or not they had a less major appearance in a previous game or make a return appearance in a later game. It's because I think duplicated names is something that should be avoided.

By what I was thinking, Briggs and Kraden being featured in the GBA supporting character section because they were important supporting characters in the GBA games "covers" how they also make just as major story-relevant appearances in Dark Dawn. When players of Dark Dawn see these characters and look them up, that they are listed in the character template as having been introduced in their first important role in the series back in the GBA games should be enough.

For the issue of Tret and Laurel on the other hand, it's debatable whether their role in the GBA games was even the least bit "major"; from a story analysis perspective, in the first Golden Sun they're really just guest characters for a sidequest that happens to be mandatory in order for the party to be allowed to start proceed back onto the core plot. Whereas in Dark Dawn, they give important information to both you and Ryu Kou that ends up triggering an enormous event that ties in directly with the game's title and dictates the course of the last third of the entire game. Therefore, even though the Waelda were introduced through a pretty big but still incidental sidequest, it's not until Dark Dawn when their first truly story-relevant role transpires, which is why I had put their names in the Dark Dawn section and not the GBA section. All-in-all, I would personally revert this edit based on these points... Erik the Appreciator 03:21, 18 December 2010 (CST)

I agree. The Sea Shines Golden 11:11, 18 December 2010 (CST)

Now that the antagonist section is gone...

There are a lot of NPCs, so I was wondering if we should have a separate section for NPCs that you fight in battle (in addition to meeting in the overworld, of course). I'm not too sure about the idea myself, so I thought I'd bounce it off everyone else.

Let's see, so far we have: Saturos, Menardi, Agatio, Karst, Blados, Chalis, Tret, Briggs, Moapa, and maybe Volechek (although that would be stretching things a bit). The World's Hungriest Paperweight 21:52, 25 February 2011 (CST)

Hello, I'm not sure whether there should be categories for people the player fights, because that might take some of the air of mystery out of it, as it were. I would just leave it as is, but I'm not about to argue or anything. Either way would be fine, really.

I've got a quick suggestion, however. Arcanus has quotes around his name, and when they are moused over, the thingie reads "Alex." I'm guessing that's to prevent spoilers, but the first thing I did when I saw the quotes was wonder why they were there and mouse over it. So I would just leave the quotes out, because that they exist at all tells unspoiled readers that there's something fishy about his identity... The Sea Shines Golden 22:56, 25 February 2011 (CST)

How it's organized...

I'm not sure that the GBA/DS split makes much sense. For starters, while I do understand why GS and TLA are combined, I'm a bit on the fence about it. The little vertical line separating the protagonists of the two games has felt just a little unintuitive to me. But beyond that, I don't think it makes sense to categorize it as GBA vs DS given the Virtual Console releases, and any future re-releases. I think it makes sense to include the game titles here instead of the original consoles. Any disagreements? ~ dkpat (talk) 20:50, 11 September 2023 (CDT)

At the time, it was an attempt to divide the listed characters by "era" primarily because of the Non-Player Characters section underneath, because having the NPCs divided between "Golden Sun" and "The Lost Age" rows would result in a much smaller "The Lost Age" row sandwiched between two much larger "Golden Sun" and "Dark Dawn" rows. All the names in the GBA list would be divided between:

Alex, Babi, Dodonpa, Dora, Feizhi, Hama, Hammet, Kraden, Kyle, Menardi, Saturos, The Wise One, Tret

Agatio, Briggs, Hydros, Karst, Moapa, Puelle, Susa

Also, for the protagonists, that layout was chosen to try to convey that, while the latter four playable characters are their own separate party, they eventually get the first four added to them, in contrast with how Dark Dawn's party steadily adds its party members in the listed order. Though it's not like this current layout is set in stone, either... Maybe differently laid out drafts could be posted here or on a sandbox page? Erik the Appreciator (talk) 21:46, 11 September 2023 (CDT)

Admittedly, I am truly on the fence in splitting up GS and TLA. I was really thinking that at the minimum, we should just replace "GBA" with "GS & TLA" (perhaps with links or using the little tt syntax used elsewhere on the wiki). But I think it is fair to explore what other layout options we might have. ~ dkpat (talk) 22:13, 11 September 2023 (CDT)

Main characters in the Golden Sun series
Playable Characters
Golden Sun	Isaac   Garet   Ivan   Mia
The Lost Age	Felix   Jenna   Sheba   Piers
Dark Dawn	Matthew   Karis   Tyrell   Rief Amiti   Sveta   Eoleo   Himi
Non-Player Characters
Golden Sun & The Lost Age	Agatio   Alex   Babi   Briggs   Dodonpa Dora   Feizhi   Hama   Hammet   Hydros Karst   Kraden   Kyle   Menardi   Moapa Puelle   Saturos   Susa   The Wise One   Tret
Dark Dawn	Arcanus   Baghi   Blados   Bogho   Chalis High Empyror   Hou Zan   King Wo   Laurel   Nowell Paithos   Ryu Kou   Unan   Vande   Volechek

Here's a draft... Erik the Appreciator (talk) 22:30, 11 September 2023 (CDT)

I think that looks really great! Visually it really presents nicely. My only small callout is I would caution against having manual line breaks in the lists. I haven't checked, but I think that might end up being weird on mobile devices. (although the manual width of the whole thing probably does that too... I should really try to tackle that.) Actually maybe just leave them for a more comprehensive mobile friendly refactor. ~ dkpat (talk) 23:05, 11 September 2023 (CDT)