Board Thread:Shingeki no Kyojin Wiki/@comment-5774380-20150329004214/@comment-24930713-20150330235944

PrelateZeratul wrote: But I do not believe this lack of coherence is as pervasive as you suggest. Hange has I think 3 anime images on their page? They could be changed to manga where it is left up to interpretaton, or the images that depict Hange as overtly female could be removed. We can't make the decision for people about whether Hange is male or female, that is not our role. This wiki must be neutral and aligned with the authors vision, which was to leave Hange ambigious and up to the reader, not for us to present. If we consider the Anime Non-canon, let's just pretend for a moment that it never existed. if that were the case, Hange would have gender neutral pronouns. The decisions of the anime should not have relevance in this case. The purpose or vision of Isayama is the manga, not the anime.

And my comment about not liking the looking of the writing was addressed to Locket, I'm sorry I didn't make that clear >.<

@Jinx I will continue to call and consider the lack of gender pronouns in large peices of text dumb. I didn't go through school, like all most everyone else, only to come out and write like a twelve year old again. Mind you, I'm currently living with a twelve year old. So I have quite the glimpse of what our writing could look like to others if we're not careful. Our message as a wiki is nothing if no one can understand it except us and a select few already knowledgeable on the subject. I want these pages to be coherent, and considering your message to me starts off with a grammatical mistake. I don't feel you should be the one deciding what does and doesn't look right in writing. As this is, at least, the second instance where I feel you didn't reread what you typed before you hit "submit". With both instances going unnoticed by you, and the first instance being slightly reworded by me.

@Prelate If the anime never existed I would still suggest we choose a gender for writing purposes. Whether or not Hange has a gender means absolutely nothing to me. What matters is our ability to coherently display this wiki as a serious source of information about the AoT universe. If we write like we don't understand basic English, which seems to be the first langauge for most of us. Why would anyone believe the information we offer? We are not impeding any of the readers ability to decide Hange's gender, so long as it's clear from the get go that Hange is an ambiguous character. I don't understand this discussion, it is a waste of time now, and it was a waste of time when it first happened. If a person's imagination is so limited that what they read affects it then it's not our fault or our problem to worry about it. Instead they should reflect on why they're so susceptible to outside influences.

You and Jinx are clearly trying to compare apples to oranges. Any manga chapter on it's own has so little content that the need to declare a gender in any sort of way is unnessecary. Animation is a separate medium and as such can't be compared to the manga, despite being based off the manga. The fact the we can actually see the characters onscreen with each other would cause problems. As more people would wonder why two characters who've spent a couple of years together talk to each other like strangers. Or it would instead point towards hidden meanings that they never intended.

I saw one of the previous edits to Hange's page before it was reverted. And for the most part Hange's name was at the start of every sentence, in at least one paragraph, for the sole purpose of avoiding gender pronouns. But at the current writing level it's only confusing to read, especially when it involves more than just Hange. If you weren't trying to make every arc so detailed, we have chapter pages for that, it might not be a problem. As I do think it's possible, but it's something that's better suited to shorter displays of writing. If the arc descriptions were shorter I think the sub section headers would be enough to break up the constant lack of gender pronouns. That would be the only way I would agree to that.

Although I find it weird, my suggestion is pretty much the same idea as One Piece's attempt at stating non canon material. The only difference is mine would be considered for the entire page, as referring to a gender for Hange may happen more than once.

@Manuel I like your template much better. It gets straight to the point, while at the same time being versatile; should we ever need to use it for something else.

Despite everything I've said, I'm not implying that I'm some sort of English grammar guru. But as someone who enjoys literature, it's quite frustrating when I'm suddenly thrown from the story because the person that wrote it isn't very good at telling it. Just because we're a sort of encyclopedia and must have a neutral stance. Doesn't mean our wiki should read like a dictionary.