List of Dragonball Z primary characters

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Discussion thread for List of Dragonball Z primary characters. If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I added to a few of the character biographies, however they could use some touch ups if anybody is familiar with the original Japanese version and the changes made to the story and characters by the English versions. Also, I changed the spelling of 'Frieza' to 'Freeza' as it is the spelling the subtitles on FUNimation's DVD uses, what Viz's Manga translation uses, and what is used on Japanese merchandize. I also changed 'Krillin' to 'Kuririn' as it's the spelling used both by the DVDs and the English Manga.

[HellCat]

Hmmm...might I suggest having one list for the main cast and another list for major antagonists? The main group of heroes are pretty consistent but the villains don't really stick around beyond their specific arcs.

[GWOtaku]

We could do that. What if we organized them by saga? (Saiyn, Namek, Cell, Buu, etc). Any thoughts about that? If we did it this way, we could talk about characters in the context of each specific saga and readers won't learn any more than they want to about how things turn out.

You could have one section for the core cast, and separate sections for each saga to discuss the villians and other characters exclusive to that arc.

[HellCat]

That sounds like a very good idea. Especially given how many henchmens most of the villains have.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I'm not Wiki whiz, but I'd just assume to give each important character (Son Gokû, Son Gohan, Son Goten, Future Trunks, Vegeta, Present Trunks, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Kuririn...the list goes on) their own article each considering the amount of depth each could contain. Each villain too (including their henchmen) could receive an article (based upon affliation), for example.

Cold Family Empire (article title)

Light description of the empire
Freeza
King Cold
Cooler
Kuriza
Captain Ginyû
Jheese
Reacoom
Butta
Ghurd
Zarbon
Dodoria
Kewie
Appule
Grunts (?)

Etc. etc.

[HellCat]

I dunno. There are some that could support a seperate article, but some would really belong in a list togethor. On other Wikis there are also lists with a brief blurb that have links to larger seperate articles. So you could have a list of the main cast, that links off into seperate articles for Goku, Krillin, etc.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I dunno. There are some that could support a seperate article, but some would really belong in a list togethor. On other Wikis there are also lists with a brief blurb that have links to larger seperate articles. So you could have a list of the main cast, that links off into seperate articles for Goku, Krillin, etc.

Yeah, I'm good with that. So long as one can fill in as much info as possible on the character I think we're good. Considering how it's a martial arts series I wonder how techniques should be listed.

[The Huntsman]

I'm not Wiki whiz, but I'd just assume to give each important character (Son Gokû, Son Gohan, Son Goten, Future Trunks, Vegeta, Present Trunks, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Kuririn...the list goes on) their own article each considering the amount of depth each could contain. Each villain too (including their henchmen) could receive an article (based upon affliation), for example.

Cold Family Empire (article title)

Light description of the empire
Freeza
King Cold
Cooler
Kuriza
Captain Ginyû
Jheese
Reacoom
Butta
Ghurd
Zarbon
Dodoria
Kewie
Appule
Grunts (?)

Etc. etc.

Personally, I believe that such is a fine idea. I respect HellCat’s point about how other wikis do things differently, but I do not believe that we will get anywhere if all that we do is copy other wikis. The way that I see it, we should encourage as many pages as possible as long as they contain enough relevant information to warrant the page in the first place. Naturally, a character or an organization of characters shouldn’t receive their own page if only a few sentences can be written about them, but if one can contribute valid information, I see no harm in allowing them to have their own pages. After all, I contributed a page for Cadpig, an obscure character from an obscure animated program. Therefore, I see no reason why the Cold Family Empire couldn’t have their own page. In fact, one could merge HellCat’s idea with that; an article for the Cold Family Empire with more detailed, specific pages for each of the characters that are detailed enough to warrant such.

[HellCat]

I think there are some accepted Wiki standards that we don't need to change. It just makes more work. Sometimes a good idea exists and you're just best going with that. Not every single character in history deserves a seperate article and some would be better served in a list format.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

When I've time this weekend I'll try to do a full on character biography for Son Gokû...or somebody--maybe--with a little less that needs to be detailed.

Actually, Kame-sen'nin would be a bit easier.

By the way, considering many of these character's have alternate names--whether because FUNimation or Harmony Gold changed them--how will redirecting go about?

[HellCat]

I'd prioritise the official English spelling, with other spellings as redirects and possibly an informed mention in the article if needed.

However, I'd advocate that if a name has been significantly changed in a dub/localisation, the original should be used. But that might be worth discussing. I can see some folks being unhappy having to use 'Mr. Satan' for example.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I just assume to use the names Steven J. Simmons uses for the DVD subtitles that FUNimation use as those are the most well accepted romanizations amongst, I hate to say 'hardcore fans', but rather fan's of the original. FUNi doesn't care much about being faithful to the original with DB. I assume if a dub name is typed it should redirect to the article named appropriately (like Frieza to Freeza or Hercule to Mr. Satan as those appear to the author's intent and a Wiki is about educating people).

[GWOtaku]

Whoa, this got large when I wasn't looking.

On original names...this is a tough call. My general philosophy is that what's adapated for official English prevails--Case Closed, not Detective Conan, and so on, though the original name should *always* be acknowledged up front. To me, this is logically no different from referring to a show by its english translation instead of the Japanese spelling. DBZ, however, is a rather unique case. I propose using English spelling, but using original names as the primary reference. In other words list Mr. Satan instead of Hercule, but use Frieza instead of Freeza. How's this for a compromise?
___________________

Okay, about detail and character articles. I have a lot written about this in the beta version of the Wiki Guide (yes, I have been working on it). I'll take this opportunity to express some of the principles I'm operating on.

Here's the deal, as I see it. This is an open source project, and if somebody wants to write about something specific I'm reticient to get in the way. At the same time, do we need structure? Darn right we do. You need a foundation before you build the house.

Look at this from the point of view of a new reader. Because that's who we ought to serve as priority #1, since this is an online encyclopedia. If I were somebody who knows nothing about DBZ, I'd want to see a ton of information gathered in one place as opposed to having it spread out among tons of individual articles. I'd want an overview, not pages upon pages detailing every character large and small. That's ESPECIALLY true for Dragon Ball, which has an absolutely ridiculous number of characters. And many exist in Dragon Ball, DBZ, *and* DBGT.

Simply put, this would be a truckload of writing. It's too freaking big. Doing this for Dragon Ball and One Piece alone would take an incredibly long time, even with lots of help from people that know what they're doing. It will inevitably turn out incomplete, and then you have folks reading and wondering why some bit characters have articles and others don't. If you develop this as a comprehensive overview, however, it's much more managable. That's MUCH easier to write than a horde of different articles all over the place.

Also, many villians simply have nothing to them. Zarbon? King Cold? Cooler? These guys aren't nearly deep enough to have their own article. Show me a narrow article like that which can't amount to more than one or two small paragraphs, and I'll show you an article that probably could have been part of another one.

In contrast, if you organize by saga as I suggested, each character gets their due, with even red shirts getting a decent paragraph or at least a sentence or two. It also makes it VERY easy for the reader to avoid spoilers by only reading as far into the story as they want to.

Also consider the repetition issue. If you tell Cell's life story or Buu's life story, you've basically described their entire sagas. And those sagas are ideally talked about elsewhere anyway. So why create more work for ourselves when we don't have to? Organization goes a long, long way. One strong article giving an overview is also easier to keep track of than dozens of individual character articles.

As such, I strongly recommend keeping this character guide as a base, and organizing by saga. Down the road, character pages can then be created, and it's a simple matter to create a reference link to that in the guide.

But if character articles do happen, please try limiting it to characters that actually deserve it. Goku is one of the most famous anime characters around and the main character of Dragon Ball, so I'd say that it's not in dispute that he deserves his own article. Beyond that, it'd be best to not be making separate articles for anyone who isn't really important and not a constant presence in Dragon Ball. For now, please mostly focus on making this a complete list. It's less work, it's managable, it's user-friendly, and it gives us time to write about stuff besides Dragon Ball. Shoot, 1 article is better than 100 if only for the sake of my sanity. So if I see second and third stringers getting articles, expect those to be merged into this one.

Complete this guide, and when that and the rest of the Wiki is much better developed maybe we can come back to this. But let's build that foundation first.

The floor's open for feedback, but that's my take as it currently stands.

-GWO

[Jacob T. Paschal]

The thing on naming is that both Japan, the DVD subs, and Viz's comic adaptation use Freeza as his name is a pun on a freezer. I think it's best to have 'Frieza' redirect to 'Freeza' so as to educate. While it's not exactly a huge thing I think it's worth taking as the official spelling.

With Majin Boo/Buu, it gets tricky. Both are accurate, however Boo follows the pun of Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Boo. I was reluctant to use 'Boo' due to what backlash I'd get, but alas.

[GWOtaku]

My bottom line is that fine, write the characters, But keep it focused and consolidated, instead of splitting off. It's possible to give Dragon Ball's considerable cast their due without making this a really tough thing to handle. I see this is a main character guide right now. At most, I can see three reasonable categories for Dragon Ball characters: Main Characters, Villains, and a list of all the secondary and trietary characters with maybe a sentence or two to their credit if that.

But the moment you split it off, it just becomes so hard to handle. And if there isn't much to say, why not just keep the info within the main article? This can be a very comprehensive and reasonably informative list without an amazing amount of work.

The thing on naming is that both Japan, the DVD subs, and Viz's comic adaptation use Freeza as his name is a pun on a freezer. I think it's best to have 'Frieza' redirect to 'Freeza' so as to educate. While it's not exactly a huge thing I think it's worth taking as the official spelling.

With Majin Boo/Buu, it gets tricky. Both are accurate, however Boo follows the pun of Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Boo. I was reluctant to use 'Boo' due to what backlash I'd get, but alas.

Maybe, though we could also acknowledge that kind of stuff in the article anyway. I guess the issue is whether we respect Funi's translation or Viz's more. I'm not sure that I have an easy, immediate answer to that one.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Like I said, I'll do my best to get in a good write up of a 'main' character this weekend for prototype's sake so we can see if it's worth expansion into a full on article. I know the series quite well and own most of the comic to be able to fill in gaps in my on-brain information.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

My bottom line is that fine, write the characters, But keep it focused and consolidated, instead of splitting off. It's possible to give Dragon Ball's considerable cast their due without making this a really tough thing to handle. I see this is a main character guide right now. At most, I can see three reasonable categories for Dragon Ball characters: Main Characters, Villains, and a list of all the secondary and trietary characters with maybe a sentence or two to their credit if that.

But the moment you split it off, it just becomes so hard to handle. And if there isn't much to say, why not just keep the info within the main article? This can be a very comprehensive and reasonably informative list without an amazing amount of work.



Maybe, though we could also acknowledge that kind of stuff in the article anyway. I guess the issue is whether we respect Funi's translation or Viz's more. I'm not sure that I have an easy, immediate answer to that one.

FUNi's dub uses Majin Buu, their subs Majin Boo, and Viz Djinn Boo. I'm a little more inclined to go with the FUNi sub as Viz began to do some weird romanizations with that portion of the series, like renaming Vegetto to Vegerot.

[GWOtaku]

I think I'm leaning toward the Funi dub too. I feel that the Wiki should go by official translations while acknowledging the origins and original names, and if we're going to do it like that then we might as well be consistent across the board. I for one have always thought of Buu as Majin Buu, and all that.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I think I'm leaning toward the Funi dub too. I feel that the Wiki should go by official translations while acknowledging the origins and original names, and if we're going to do it like that then we might as well be consistent across the board. I for one have always thought of Buu as Majin Buu, and all that.

I'm good with Majin Buu as opposed to Boo, however I'm not bound to budge on 'Frieza' as opposed to 'Freeza'. I can absolutely work with mentioning that FUNimation's dub uses the 'Frieza' spelling, as well...it's about content. Worldwide, it's the most commonly known English spelling for the character.

Gokû was, of course called Zero in the Harmony Gold...adaptation, so that should be made mention of if and when we reach the appropriate time.