Equestripedia:Manual of style/Characters
Character articles, also known as biographies are the most prominent articles on Equestripedia and thus, have the largest degree of standardization across the site. As such, this article should serve as a guide on how to create a proper article.
Pre-article
Naming
Characters are typically named by whatever name they are referred to the most. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, for example, are named such instead of Celestia and Luna, which are technically their proper names, because most of the time, characters refer to them as a Princess. Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor, on the other hand, are not often referred to as a princess or prince respectively and are named by their given names.
If a character has a birth name they no longer identify as, use the name they identify as later in life. For example, we call Tempest Shadow as such, and not her birth name. Referring to birthnames as real names can be seen as rude or insensitive, so please list names as birth names and not real names.
For nameless characters, we often use the names granted to them by fan consensus or descriptors granted to them by Gameloft. For example, Alizarin Bubblegum and Said Thunderbolt are completely unnamed characters, but were named by fans.
Discriminator
A discriminator is a tag that helps make a character distinct from another. It's most often used for characters who appear in multiple continuities. The main discriminators are:
- (My Little Pony): Characters who appeared in the G1 cartoon show, comics or toyline. Example: Megan Williams (My Little Pony)
- Pending changed to (My Little Pony 'n Friends).
- (Tales): Characters who appeared in the other G1 cartoon show, comics or toyline. Example: Teddy (Tales)
- (Generation 2): Characters who appeared in the brief G2 media. Currently no examples
- (Generation 3): Characters who appeared in the G3 media franchise or toyline. Example: Spike (Generation 3)
- (Friendship is Magic): Characters who appeared in the G4 cartoon, comics, toyline or other media. Example: Maud Pie (Friendship is Magic)
- (Equestria Girls): Characters who appeared in the Equestria Girls cartoon, comics, toyline or other media. Example: Scootaloo (Equestria Girls)
Other discriminators exist for minor continuities, such as alternate timelines (ex: Sombraverse) though unless a character portrayed a major role in such continuity, their information will often just be merged with the main article.
Always use {{disambig|NAME}} on characters with multiple versions for this reason. For exmaple:
| The name or term "Photo Finish" refers to more than one subject. For a list of other meanings, see Photo Finish (disambiguation). |
Image
For characters who appear in films or TV shows primarily, we tend to prioritize uncropped (if possible) screenshots of the characters face or upper body, with full body shots or renders used for Design and nomenclature sections.
- Crops are of course allowed if the character has unsatisfactory images otherwise. In those cases, we tend to prefer clean cropped squares or 1:2 aspect ratio if the character is a human/humanoid to better show off their body type.
For comic characters, much the same policies apply, a clean crop of a panel or cover that depicts their face is preferred. If no such image exists, then feel free to use concept art.
For characters who only appear in toylines, usually a photograph of the toy works. HOWEVER, only upload these if:
- You took the photograph and are okay with donating the picture to our CC-BY-SA license
- The photograph is licensed under a free-to-use license, the author is okay with re-use, or you received permission.
- The photograph is an official product image.
Gallery of good images
- Maud Pie's image. Very clean image, taken from a high-quality source, depicts the character in neutral lighting and helps convey her muted-but-caring nature.
- Photo Finish's story. Dynamic pose, depicting the character in her natural element. Also captures an important scene in the franchise and her final appearance, which makes it a nice touch.
Gallery of bad images
