Talk:Prowl (G1)

I am all for having an entry that consists entirely of "OUR MISSILES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", but is the bold really neccessary? It makes it look like a header. --Suki Brits 02:09, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Trivia says: At OTFCC 2004 that there was no Prowl Alternator in the works. I'm assumignt here's suppsoed ot be a "_____ stated" int here someplace. Who stated? Hasbro? Aaron Archer? Hooper-X? (I could see Hooper wanting to disappoint a room full of Transfans.) -Derik 07:05, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I thought the Prowl2 line was just a joke.

Past Tense?

We probably need a policy statement somewhere (or at least somewhere I can find it) as to whether fictional events are described in present tense (as in the Wikipedia), in past tense (as preferred by at least one of our mods), or in whichever the writer prefers. JW 13:34, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Apparently I'm no good at keeping track of tense, so people sometimes chastise me after I've filled in the fiction sections. Of course, I didn't even know we had a policy. --FFN 13:51, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, apparently we do need a summary of what tense to use where, 'cuz I can't find anything like that. But to sum up -- Introductory paragraph in present tense, fiction in past tense. Basically, "This is who the character IS, this is what the character DID." --ItsWalky 15:25, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Do we have a consensus on that, or are you speaking ex moderata? And, how does this apply to non-character pages, like synopses of comics? JW 15:41, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I'd say it's a consensus, as I believe most of the top-contributers write the pages in that way. (For a while, Sunstreaker was our "this is how you do a page" project, though it's likely out of date by now for some new developments...) For non-character pages like episode or comic summaries, I'd suggest present tense. I don't think I've actually read enough summary pages close enough to say if they're being written in mostly one tense or the other... but "present" is my off-the-cuff preference. --ItsWalky 15:45, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Most of what we write is past tense, especially when summarizing fiction. It doesn't matter whether it's a character page or an episode/issue page. -- Steve-o 16:06, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Walky's rationale makes sense to me, and I agree with Steve that it should apply to episode/issue pages. A story summary is a story summary, and summaries are written by definition after something has happened. --Sntint 20:10, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

See, I'd vote for present tense on the comic/episode summary pages, but past tense when summarizing fiction on character/object/location pages. In the case of the latter, that's the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe"-reader in me - it's the character's whole history, as in, what has gone before, so it should be past tense. But when specifically summarizing one, small, condensed piece of fiction, there's that rule of thumb Wikipedia uses that says to use present tense "as this is the way that the story is experienced as it is read or viewed." - Chris McFeely 20:26, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I find the present tense in story summaries to be a laudable goal-- but often difficult to accomplish. The past tense is more friendly to omniscient narration (because you're looking back on things) and I would have found it vexing to summarize, say, The Magnificent Six!. in the present-tense while reflecting the narrative ignorance that's central to its slowly revealed backstory. -Derik 21:49, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

(Resetting the indents...) It's news to me that Wikipedia perfers present tense for summaries. Personally, I think that present tense reporting sounds amateurish. Compare the present Dreamwave text:

Prowl was an Autobot from Praxus. After the death of Sentinel Prime, Grimlock called him, Jazz, and others to the ruins of Praxus, where he declared that if the new Prime was insufficient, they would take control of the Autobot military. Prowl was present at the ceremony when Optronix became Optimus Prime, and was restrained by Grimlock when Prime was attacked.

To a present-tense rewrite:

Prowl is an Autobot from Praxus. After the death of Sentinel Prime, Grimlock calls him, Jazz, and others to the ruins of Praxus, where he declares that if the new Prime is insufficient, they will take control of the Autobot military. Prowl is present at the ceremony when Optronix becomes Optimus Prime, and is restrained by Grimlock when Prime is attacked.

Granted, I could rewrite a little bit to make it more elegant...

The Autobot Prowl calls Praxus his home. Upon the death of Sentinel Prime, Grimlock summons him, Jazz, and others to the ruins of Praxus, and declares that if the new Prime is insufficient, they will take control of the Autobot military. Later, Prowl attends the ceremony in which Optronix becomes Optimus Prime, and is restrained by Grimlock when Prime is attacked.

...but I still think that sounds like it was written by a 12 year old. The past-tense version is more professional and authoritative. --Steve-o 00:16, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

It's news to me that Wikipedia perfers present tense for summaries.

It's specified here: Writing About Fiction, under "Contextual presentation". I disagree about it sounding amateurish. JW 00:39, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Wiki's insistence on present tense is part of it's "do not ever ever write in-universe on pain of fucking death" approach. To write a summary of the life and activities of a real person, you write in past tense - so since we write in-universe here, as though these were "real" characters, past tense is appropriate. But when you're writing a summary of a single episode or comic, on it's own page, where you acknowledge that it's fiction, present tense flows better, I think. It's "coming alive," in the here and now, as it were. I don't know about anyone else, but when I write a summary, I've got the episode or comic in front of me, and go through it. It's actually "happening" in front of me as the summary is created, hence, present tense. - Chris McFeely 08:27, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Earthforce

With Earthforce being in a separate timeline section, should flashbacks from Earthforce that supposedly take place back during the regular UK run (like Prowl's encounter with the Battlechargers) be in the main body of the Marvel timeline or just in the Earthforce section?--Xaaron 03:13, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

That's something I've wrestled with. They could be considered retroactive additions to canon "before" the timeline split off, or... I dunno. I can see it both ways. I just worry that segregating the flashback material from the context in which they happened is unnecessarily confusing. --ItsWalky 05:04, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Reprolabels?

Given the minor edit war here over whether to include mention of the Reprolabels set available for the Alternators toys, should we cut all mention of Reprolabels from the wiki? It's mentioned on five other pages. JW 15:43, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Reprolabels is pretty clearly Not Official. They probably shouldn't be on the Wiki at all. If they are, they should be either on the Fandom page (I could see mentioning a few sample fandom-based businesses like this, Unicron.com, Justitoys, etc.), or listed in a character's trivia as a response to any outstanding fan controversy surrounding a particular toy -- but that's a very slippery slope, and I'm pretty sure other folks around here would just say Not Official is the whole story, fullstop. -- Repowers 16:25, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, especially this particular invocation of Reprolabels is against our policies here. --ItsWalky 16:47, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Universe Prowl Picture?

How come there isn't a piccie for Universe (2008) Prowl? Shouldn't there be an official photograph somewheres? Or is Prowl that much of a prick that he doesn't want a pic of his newest figure to be displayed?

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.