Talk:Firefly (TV series)/Characters

... with the new-to-this-wiki way of presenting character images used at the top of this page, and nobody's complained. Not even to say it makes them look like the Brady Bunch.

So I'm going to say "why not give it a try on other character pages, too?"

I'd recommend no more than five images on a single line, to accommodate people who read the wiki on their smartphones.

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Never seen Firefly, so I have to recuse.

It doesn't matter whether you've seen Firefly. It's the style of the page that I'm commenting on here, not the content.

I think this style really only works with headshots. That can be fine for live action characters that lack distinctive wardrobe, but less well with animated/video game characters or any live action character with a distinct outfit (Indiana Jones). Especially so for works that give everyone unique silhouettes (Team Fortress 2).

Agreed on the headshots.

Not so sure whether it would or wouldn't work with animated characters...

Huh, I'd forgotten about this.

Honestly? I can't put my finger on precisely what, but something about it bugs me. However, until I can quantify the reason for my reaction sufficiently that it's a useful comment on the proposal, don't take this as a vote against.

I like the idea, but I also think it's redundant since you've got the table of contents just above it which basically serves the same purpose, just without the headshots. I'll give it more time to think things over though, since this is the first time I've seen a character page (or page on a wikia in general) that's organized like this.

I like it. As per suggestions above re headshots/fullbody animated/liveaction, it feels like something that could be fixed on a case-by-case basis, or refined as we see more examples and figure out what does/doesn't work.

That's a nice suggestion and I approve of it. It also helps with showing how many characters on a page.

Now that I've got some experience with character sheets (just started work on When Marnie Was There (film)/Characters), I must say I dislike the idea for the following reasons:

• It requires all portraits to be of the same size and aspect ratio in order to look nice. Otherwise, there will be huge amounts of white in table rows. It can be quite tedious to crop screenshots into the required aspect ratio, as well as resize it into the right size. Furthermore, it limits what parts of a character you can show. A character has iconic clothing or hair accessories? Sorry, we can't show that because we only have enough space to show the face. Alternatively, we show the entire character, but end up with an image that's 70% background.
• The images, in order to fit on the table, have to be quite small, limiting what you can see with a character. When you're new to a series or film, it can be difficult to learn who's who based on the limited amount of detail provided.
• It is redundant, as the portraits are on each character's section, so we end up with duplicate information.
• It can be difficult for new editors to figure out how to arrange characters like that, and even more difficult for them to make it look good.

The character images at the top of a page is useful for letting users navigate around the page, as well as sorting the characters by category, but any well organised headings can do the same thing. With that said, I like the concept, letting audiences glance at who the characters are at once, but dislike the implications and requirements needed to make that work. I think we can let the page stay exactly how it is, and I do support you guys doing this on other character sheets, but I must say I won't be doing this in any sheets I create in the future.

Update: I changed my mind! I just tried out this style on The Borrower Arrietty/Characters, and it looks awesome. There's still some issues to sort out (image sizes), and don't expect me to use this on every character page I launch, but, safe to say, I now fully support using this style across more of the wiki. I particularly like how it spices up a page and adds a quick overview of the characters.

Seven months later, after using this layout on:

• The Borrower Arrietty
• When Marnie Was There
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
• Little Witch Academia 2017
• Suzume
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

I can conclude that this is a wonderful idea and it does work with animated characters. You have to find a screenshot where a character is zoomed out a bit, so you get to see their clothing in addition to their head. Also, the new MediaWiki update early this year means the table of contents is no longer between the character portraits and the character information, when you're in the default skin, so it serves as a nice overview of the characters.