Talk:List of assassinations in fiction

Criteria?
I do not understand this page. Why are not for example all Agatha Christie novels listed here? What is the definition used to distinguish an "assassination" from a "murder"? Why does the article not contain thousands of titles? Mlewan 06:53, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I was hoping for more as well. Isn't the Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle a big political work right now? What about The Jungle by Upton Sinclair that lead to the formation of the Food and Drug Administration.

Edited Smokin Aces description.
Buddy "Aces" Israel was a Mafia leader, a bounty was placed on him by another Mafia don, which attracted a number of psychopathic killers. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Params7 (talk • contribs).

Spoiler Alert(s)?
Could someone who knows the rules on spoiler alerts please examine this article and determine whether and/or where a spoiler alert (or many) should be placed? This occurred to me specifically at the passages on the television shows The West Wing and 24, if that helps.

Shakespeare??
Really now, what is the criteria where? Nearly every one of Shakespeare's tragedies has an assassination:
 * Titus Andronicus
 * Richard III
 * Richard II
 * King John
 * King Lear


 * If the plays are appropriate as involving true assassinations, please feel free to add them to the list, in chronological order. Nihil novi (talk) 21:30, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Spoiler
Currently there is a notice in the article as follows:


 * Spoilers: This list, in discussing a book or film, will refer to the target of the assassination, or the assassination attempt. This list reveals who is killed in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Be forewarned.

This is against our spoiler guideline (see the link in the section heading). I'll remove it in a couple of days when everybody has had a chance to read and (if necessary) comment. --TS 00:25, 30 April 2009 (UTC)


 * My page doesn't have a heading called Plot to alert the careless reader.


 * I personally think the Spoiler alert is unnecessary; I was merely responding to a valid criticism from a user.


 * Varlaam (talk) 20:58, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Canadian English
The Films section, in particular, uses Canadian English. In certain instances, an early contributor's spelling has been respected and retained untouched.

Project Death?
I guess I see this page as being about history and politics, and the sometimes violent expressions thereof. Never once occurred to me that I was building a Death page.

Varlaam (talk) 03:41, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Linking of dates
The old Wikipedia rules encouraged the linking of any and every date you could find. The new rules want to see all such cases delinked, all minor and trivial cases.

This page deals with the assassinations of world leaders. Such events are typically listed on the corresponding WP pages for the years in which they occur because of the significance of those events.

On this page, if a fictional Mafia leader gets whacked in 1963, then 1963 is not linked. That is a fictional event. But when JFK is assassinated in 1963, that is a major world event and it is linked.

The new Wikipedia rules specifically allow for the linking of dates in the situations that you will find on this page.

Varlaam (talk) 05:22, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

What belongs on this page?
I am one of the Editors of this page.

Do I personally agree with the inclusion of everything that is listed here? No, I don't. Does everything here conform to my personal, totally subjective, definition of the "a" word? No.

But this page intentionally casts a very wide net. It is not expected that every person will agree with everything that appears here. I would expect the vast majority to quibble over this book or that film. Part of the purpose of this page is to allow individuals to clarify their own personal opinions about precise definitions by looking over a very broad assortment of events, both fictional and historical, as they are detailed here.

So, if you, as a reader, don't like that specific film title, please bear in mind that 200+ individuals a day, people like yourself, Wikipedia users, have been looking at that for one year, two years, three years, and not had a problem with it.

Please keep an open mind when reading our page. We hope you discover something new.

Thank you. Varlaam (talk) 05:39, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Bond
I cleaned up the James Bond references in the novels section. For one thing, although the character is described as an assassin, he almost never is depicted as carrying out this aspect of the job (his "licence to kill" is usually applied in self defence situations). The original list also suggested that From Russia with Love was about the Andres Nin assassination, which was an error; it's referenced, but the book has nothing to do with assassination otherwise. Similarly, I'm going to revise references to the Bond films because only in a couple of cases is Bond actually shown on an assassination run (though assassinations by others do occur).68.146.81.123 (talk) 13:05, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

New category
.Vampire. Under Global Commission on Assassinations, the presumption of the fake death is crossed with The Wicca religious tradition. By asserting Mona Simpson's Death, one is de-modernizing art. This new category is an appeal to reality.Julzes (talk) 03:51, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Historical vs. non-historical dates
This list, formerly, made a distinction between genuine historical events and purely fictional ones, by making the date of the historical event a link.

That (subtle) distinction has been eliminated with the general abolition of date links throughout English Wikipedia. (Not all languages of Wikipedia support this particular convention.)

However, for the record, the vast majority of stated dates in the list are historical.

Varlaam (talk) 14:33, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Historical vs. non-historical dates (again)
Wikipedia has now enjoyed a year of eliminating all date links everywhere.

This page had a special use for date links.

This page distinguished fiction based on or inspired by historical events, from purest fiction. It emphasized that distinction between history and invention by linking dates, but only in the former cases. Purely fictional events did not have their dates linked.

I propose to restore a distinction which I think is subtle but useful.

Varlaam (talk) 15:49, 31 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Could you give some examples illustrating how historic events would be linked to their dates? Nihil novi (talk) 17:43, 31 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Nihil,
 * I mean exactly the way we both used to do it.
 * So, Kennedy was killed in 1963 (link), but the new Will Smith movie is set in 1969 (no link).
 * Kennedy, for most people, is an obvious event, of course.
 * But the page, as you well know, has many much less famous historical events mentioned on it.
 * And I think 1963/1969 is a very simple and clear way to distinguish fact/fiction, for people who don't know.
 * Varlaam (talk) 22:31, 4 May 2012 (UTC)
 * English WP does not have a 1963 in history page. I think some other languages of WP do have that??
 * Or 1963 in politics. Or 1963 in crime.
 * But there could be a REDIRECT, so the page could have 1963, and it is really clear what is historical.


 * It doesn't even need to be an active blue link. We don't really need to visit the 1963 page. Of course not.
 * A red link like 1963 would be fine, the colour of blood, perfect for the page.
 * Varlaam (talk)

Too disorderly
Why not arrange the authors' names in alphabetical order? It is difficult to find an author!68.100.116.118 (talk) 02:57, 6 September 2015 (UTC)