Talk:Title character

Title character - contradictory definitions
"The title character in fiction is the fictional character whose name is contained in the title, as in Marjorie Morningstar, by Herman Wouk..."

"The title character need not be directly named in the title, but may be the fictional character that the title refers to, such as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit..."

Which is it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.146.54.88 (talk) 18:05, 20 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Both. 72.200.151.13 (talk) 20:57, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

'Titular Character'
The disambiguation page for Titular states: "Titular character, is often incorrectly used in place of title role." However, the disambiguation page does not state why the phrase "titular character" is incorrect, and this page does not mention the phrase at all. If anyone has a source or even common reason for why "titular character" is incorrect, I believe it should be mentioned on this page. Failing that, the disambiguation page should not make the claim at all. 129.215.5.255 (talk) 17:08, 12 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I have removed the claim from the disambiguation page, citing the oxford dictionary that has a definition that matches this article. Unfortunately some people seem to think their opinions trump sources so I can see an edit war brewing. GimliDotNet ( Speak to me,  Stuff I've done )  06:09, 28 September 2013 (UTC)
 * It seems indeed that someone is waging a grammar crusade here, as the page now has a section for "titular" which implies it is only correctly used with a descriptive noun, and I have now seen edits being made to *other* articles citing this supposed rule; yet none of the included sources make this claim, they simply include examples of this usage, which of course does not negate the validity of "titular character." Walkersam (talk) 10:27, 10 December 2023 (UTC) Walkersam (talk) 10:27, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

Lion King
I can't find any reference that refers to Mafusa as the title character of The Lion King. I know he's a lion and a king, but then An Officer and a Gentleman contains several of each and only one is the title character. Btljs (talk) 21:43, 29 August 2014 (UTC)
 * or even Mufasa Btljs (talk) 07:41, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Imagine a quiz show, and you are asked: "Who is the lion king in The Lion King?"-- &#9790;Loriendrew&#9789;  &#9743;(talk)  13:36, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Scar? Btljs (talk) 17:09, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

References for all examples
My opinion is that subjects like these where there are so many examples available should include sources that use the term for all of them. I'm going through and finding examples that fit all the categories - these examples aren't necessarily better than the ones being replaced, but they are sourced. Btljs (talk) 07:41, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Title role / Title character
It seems to me that the broader topic here is that of the title character (which can appear in any narrative work), with the title role (specific to drama) being a specific case of that. For example, Dracula has been a title character since Bram Stoker put pen to paper, but became a title role only when the story was adapted to film. You can also have a title character and title role created at the same time (e.g. Hamlet). But you can never have a title role which is not also a title character. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 19:10, 20 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Not hearing any objections, I intend to move the article, and refocus it on the topic the most of the article is about. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 14:50, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Done. Page just needs to be moved over redirect now. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 15:32, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Italics
While I understand that we have italics for works, such as Aida, I see no need to also have italics for the characters, better: "Aida in the opera of the same name", unless "in Aida. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:38, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
 * There were two names that were incorrectly italicized like that. I've fixed them. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 15:40, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

Which examples to use
and I'll leave a talkback for 188.143.109.163. I don't have any opinion on this myself but all of you should be discussing here instead of edit-warring, please try to focus on content, thanks. 184.152.68.190 (talk) 15:53, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Should we mention Tartuffe among the other title antagonists? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.143.109.163 (talk) 16:10, 27 November 2023 (UTC)