Dramatis Personae: Difference between revisions

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* Many manga volumes begin with the names and images of major (but usually not all) characters in the series/volume/story arc.
* [[Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi]] takes this to the next level by showing a box with the name of any character who is showing up for the first time ''and'' any character who hasn't been seen in a while. Often with a brief description.
* The Dramatis Personae of [[Suehiro Maruo]]'s ''[[Mr. Arashis Amazing Freak Show (Manga)|Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show]]'' contains two real-life people who have no part in the story: Ikki Kita, a Japanese politician who was contemporary to when the story takes place; and Hibari Misora, a singer who rose to fame after World War II.
* [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] essentially starts off with one in the form of the class roster, introducing all of the girls in Negi's class. As the manga goes on, it also has brief character introductions at the beginning of each chapter.
* Every volume of [[Battle Royale]] opens with a page showing the full class roster, with the faces of the dead marked off. The list of names not greyed out gets very short, very quickly. This is largely necessary due to the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]], it can be hard to keep up.
* ''[[Durarara]]'' and ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]]'' both throw a list of the characters over the opening. {{spoiler|They also play around with this a bit - certain important characters are shown, but the names are withheld.}} Baccano {{spoiler|gives [[Axe Crazy|Claire]] [[Crazy Awesome|Stanfield]] [[Badass Nickname|aka]] [[Heroic Sociopath|The]] [[Shrouded in Myth|Rail]] [[The Dreaded|Tracer]] [[I Have Many Names|aka]] [[Psycho for Hire|Vino]] [[Two Aliases One Character|aka]] [[Sacrificial Lamb|The]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|Young Conductor]] the same amount of screen time as every other character, but withholds his name and successfully tricks the audience into assuming he's just an extra.}} Something similar is true for ''Durarara'''s first opening, which {{spoiler|withholds the name of another character, but this time it clearly shows that the character will be important - it does the same freeze frame that the other characters get, but leaves out the name. This is promptly subject to [[Fridge Brilliance]] followed by a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]]: At first we think her name isn't listed because it's already been shown for another character, then we realize that isn't actually true. The second opening shows her actual name.}}
 
 
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** Modern Marvel comics tend to open with a page giving a brief text recap of the comic's premise and the story to this point, along with portraits of the major characters involved.
* The [[Justice League of America]] and [[Justice Society of America]] have also had Roll Calls, similar to the Legion version. In the Silver Age, the League was more likely to have each character's title appear next to them after they'd separated into two-person teams (which they did a lot). At least one book during the Ligntning Saga (a JLA/JSA crossover which reintroduced the pre-Zero Hour Legion) gave all three teams a separate roll call.
* The Archie-published [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]] comics generally do a quick list of all the characters who feature in each particular issue.
* After finishing a story, the Belgian/Dutch daily newspaper comic [[Suske Enen Wiske]] announces the following story with a short strip mentioning the main characters - which always includes the famous five (Suske, Wiske, Aunt Sidonia, Lambik and Jerom), and occasionally includes a few more important extras, though that is not always so. It also gives a short indication about the story to come, though it omits any twists and turns.
 
 
== Fan Works ==
* ''[[With Strings Attached (Fanfic)|With Strings Attached]]'' has a four-page character list at the end.
 
 
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, which explicitly parodies the [[Shakespeare|Shakespearean]] ''dramatis personae''.
** Also ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'', in-story, with its parody of ''[[Macbeth]]''.
* Most of the ''[[Asterix]]'' books have a brief description of "A Few of the Gauls" on page 4, with the actual comic starting on page 5. ''Mansion of the Gods'' omits this page so that a 2-page spread later on (pages 28 & 29) doesn't have to be broken.
* Most [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novels from the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series onwards. Pretty helpful when they bring back a pre-existing but recently unused character and even fans could use reminder of his/her species and most recent occupation.
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** ''The Gripping Hand''
** ''Oath of Fealty''
** ''[[Footfall (Literature)|Footfall]]''
** ''Lucifer's Hammer''
* The Pevear/Volokhonsky translations of ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', ''[[Crime and Punishment (Literature)|Crime and Punishment]]'', and ''[[War and Peace]]''.
* Some novels by [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]], e.g. ''[[Murder Onon the Orient Express]]''.
* Her more theatrically minded contemporary Ngaio Marsh did this with ''every'' novel.
* Novels by Erle Stanley Gardner (aka A. A. Fair).
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* Most of [[Tamora Pierce]]'s books include a list of characters, though they mostly are at the end of the book along with glossaries and other miscellaneous information.
* The ''[[American Girl]]'' books all begin with a two-page "photo album" of the heroine's family and friends.
* The ''[[KushielsKushiel's Legacy]]'' novels by Jacqueline Carey have [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and therefore have a dramatis personae that can go on for pages and pages.
* When the number of characters grew very large, the ''[[Left Behind]]'' novels began inserting a dramatis personae, divided handily into [[Designated Hero|Good]], Undecided, and [[Designated Villain|Bad]], at the beginning of each book.
* K.P. Bath's ''Escape From Castle Cant'' has this at the beginning, most likely because it's a sequel with ''lots'' of backstory.
* ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' and its related side stories by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont each open with a Dramatis Personae (explicitly labelled as such). In the later books of the series, [[Loads and Loads of Characters|these can stretch over many pages]].
* Given the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in George RR Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', the epic Dramatis Personae at the end of each volume is very helpful.
* [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory, SorrowandSorrow, and Thorn]]'' has this for all its many, many characters from main protagonist to minor support who's been mentioned in two sentences.
* [[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]] books 2 and 3 begin with a list of main characters, handily divided into Magicians, Commoners and Spirits
* ''[[Stravaganza]]'' by Mary Hoffman
* ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'' by Erin Hunter lists all the clan cats, and some cats outside the clans at the beginning of each book.
** Sometimes including characters that never appear. Ever.
** The character list is also a common source of small continuity errors. The greatest victims of these errors are the unfortunate extras that appear only on the list and thus have their entire lives <s>mangled</s> played out on the list. Some don't age, others live for far too long, others have physical descriptions that change constantly, some go through [[Gender Bender|genderbenders]], dead [[Red Shirts]] mysteriously come back to life...
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* ''[[Dragaera|The Khaavren Romances]]'', due to being a parody of [[Alexandre Dumas]], feature a dramatis personae section before each book.
* [[Raptor Red]] has a dramatis personae not of the characters, but of the various species that appear, all in scale to each other, with a silhouette of the writer and his dog to show size. Utahraptors are big.
* ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' Saga book 4, ''Breaking Dawn'' has a character sheet at the end (characters are divided according to their vampire covens).
* Rather necessary in David Weber's ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series of books, as his series now has [[Loads and Loads of Characters|more characters than a large country]].
* Something of a necessity in [[The Wheel of Time]] novels, in the back of each book there is a combined glossary/dramatis personae, pointing out and telling you how to pronounce different who's and whats that appeared in the book in question, or in the story overall, as well as provide some extra information that, while nice to know, isn't important enough to have a character mention in the book.
* Early [[Dragonriders of Pern]] novels had this at the end of each book, but later novels either omitted or simply gave only names and a location for a character
* The ''[[Bionicle]]'' novel ''Raid on Vulcanus'' lists the major characters of the book on the first few pages, complete with B&W images of their toys.
* ''[[The Silmarillion (Literature)|The Silmarillion]]'' has the first chapter preceded by the "Valaquenta", a full description of the Valar and associated powerful entities.
 
 
== Live Action TV ==
* In the pilot episode of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'', not only does the [[Narrator]] introduce every main character (except for George Sr and Tobias, who were at first meant not to stay for the entire series) , their first appearance is also accompanied by a subtitle similar to the [[Boss Subtitles]].
* The first episode of ''[[Leverage]]'' also does this, when the team (except Sophie) is first introduced. In seasons two and three, a shortened version appears as the opening credits.
* An edition of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's ''[[The First Circle]]'' that this troper owns has such a list, including real characters such as Stalin and Abakumov. Although Stalin is depicted in the text, Viktor Abakumov is merely referred to in passing.
* ''[[Black AdderBlackadder]]'' season 3 has, true to its Romantic stylistics, credits in form of a period drama Dramatis Personae.
* The TOS ''[[Outer Limits]]'' episode "Counterweight" does this at the ''end'', presumably as [[Filler]].
 
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== Video Games ==
* ''The Colonel's Bequest'', being constructed as a stage play, introduces the characters this way.
* ''[[The Warriors (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Warriors]]'' introduces characters and gangs with a freeze-frame featuring their name.
* A tait of Suda51 is to introduce characters this way. One of the most memorable is ''[[Killer 7]]''.
 
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== Webcomics ==
* You'd think clicking the ''cast'' page in [[Terror Island]] would lead you to a page listing the actual webcomic characters. Instead...
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' compilations after the first. There's also [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/ootscast.html this].
* Most webcomics, including online archives of print comics, will have character description pages; you could make a case that it's a form of [[Dramatis Personae]]. [[Abandoned Info Page|It's often obsolete, though.]]