Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wedge-type character

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Jaranda ^{wat's sup} 21:03, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wedge-type character

Title itself appears to be original research, as is the list of examples. Term "unofficially adopted" by whom? Discounting Wikipedia mirrors, I've found one instance of the phrase being used, but I don't think that's enough to sustain an article. --EEMeltonIV 12:30, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Delete If it's an unofficial term of limited notability, then it shouldn't be here. Nicko (Talk•Contribs) 13:39, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Delete, uncited OR. --Eyrian 13:56, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete. I suspect the term hadn't actually been adopted by anyone when the article was created, but I do see some evidence of its usage since then. Not enough to keep the article. However the concept behind the article -- the archetype of a minor character who somehow, against all probability, manages to survive through situations where many of his comrades don't -- is an important one to much literature, and I think a discussion of it should exist here. But I don't know of any sources for that discussion, and this page isn't the right page for it, I don't think. I'll see what I can come up with. JulesH 14:21, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - the more broadly used term is "character shield" -- unfortunately, Wikipedia's entry for that term is in a similarly sorry state. --EEMeltonIV 14:25, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A character shield is slightly different: this is an explanation of why major characters are more likely to survive. What this article is talking about is a minor character who survives, despite not benefiting from a character shield. Such a character is useful to deflect attention away from the character shields your major characters have. JulesH 17:12, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. Simple case of OR here, really. ɑʀкʏɑɴ 15:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete. The idea may be notable, but this article isn't the right place for it. Bart133 ^{(t) (c)} 15:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Comment I don't know about this one. On one hand, it's similar to Redshirt (character), but I'd say it's notability is a small fraction of that of the latter. —Travis ^talk 16:42, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Strong keep - merge into stock character if you must. List of examples can be trimmed. Wl219 21:55, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. I'm not sure what it's called, or whether anyone has written a serious article about it that we could use as a reference, but the phenomenon is well known and often satirized - see my favorite example. Perhaps for now we could merge this to Character shield? I've asked the folks at WikiProject Fictional series if they can help clarify this. Tualha (Talk) 10:00, 19 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Not that I don't get the concept of a minor character who becomes notable because of fan identification, but doing a google search suggests that the author made up the term. Interestingly, "wedge character" is apparently a scientific term used to describe a feature of polymer chemistry and it's also used to describe the ^ symbol (shift and 6 over some keyboards). In one context, its used as a shorthand for pressing CTRL and the key you want (from one site: "The wedge character '^' means pressing the control key. Hence, to "^G: Get Help", we press the control key together with the alphabet letter G". Ironically, "wedge character" might need a disambiguation page that, for the reasons listed above, WOULDN'T include a reference to Wedge Biggins whoever the Wedge-based character is named for by the author. Mandsford 00:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.