Forum:CT Archive/Articles on soldier types

Okay, another bold proposal from Mauser here. Browsing articles in the Category:Soldiers leaved me thinking "WTH?", since most of those articles are simply stubs about different variations of soldiers from various Star Wars videogames. I believe than even though those subjects are mostly canonical and not just game mechanics, they do not deserve to have their own articles. The reason being: they are always part of some military organizations, and while specific ranks and specializations of that organization are notable enough to have an article, every single type of a trooper does not. It's simply unencyclopedic.

Example 1: we have an article Imperial Army. We also have articles like Imperial Army trooper and Imperial Army pilot. But should we have Imperial engineer, Imperial missile trooper, Imperial sniper, Imperial scout, AT-ST pilot and such? Obviously no, they should be part of the main articles.

Example 2: Empire at War features a variety of ground tropers for both sides. Stormtroopers are... well stormtroopers; but the Rebellion has units called Rebel soldier, Rebel Missile trooper and Rebel Infiltrator. Fortunately, Star Wars: Empire at War: Prima Official Game Guide establishes them all as the subdivisions of Alliance Special Forces. Just compare that detailed, well-written and informative artile to what could be "Rebel Missile troopers were used by the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. They were armed with missile lauchers that were powerful against Armored vehicles, even such as the AT-AT, but were easily taken down by stormtroopers and TIE maulers." Same could be done for many other game units - describe them from the non-game mechanics POV in the article for their respective organization, not an article under their game name.

So, what exactly do I propose? Get rid of all articles about types of soldiers which can be identified as part of a distinctive organization by merging info in the article about that organization. Let's say Gungan Missile Trooper gets merged with the Gungan Grand Army; Imperial Thermal Detonator Trooper gets merged with the Imperial Army; Zann Consortium Mercenary Assault Squad and Zann Consortium grenadier... well, those two should be just redirected to Zann Consortium 'cause there's nothing to merge. I already one such article at the TC, so if when it passes, it's going to be a precedent for dealing with them in the future. Note, that articles such as Beetle-knight, Mon Calamari Knights or Mandalorian Shocktrooper are already about organizations and would be left untouched. I screwed up with the Gossam Commandos earlier, I won't do the same mistake again: articles about soldier types gets either merged or re-organized into articles about organizations, this is it.

From what I see, Wookieepedia already follows that format with major articles: Emperor's Royal Guard, Imperial Sentinel, Nimbus commando describe the entire organization, not specific soldiers. It's mainly the video game units who would be affected by that change - especially ambigous ones like Imperial worker, Rodian heavy defender and Jedi Sniper. If you have any objections, feel free to post them so we could start a discussion.  Mauser  Comlink 20:49, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

In favor

 * 1)  Mauser  Comlink 20:49, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
 * 2) Golden Monkey 21:09, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Oppose

 * No, that sounds to me too much like merging Padawan, Jedi Knight, and Jedi Master into the Jedi Order article. Sure, you can have brief excerpts on them in the main organization's article, but they can still warrant their own pages. —Xwing328 (Talk) 03:56, 27 April 2009 (UTC)