Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of fictional heroes


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.  

The result was Delete. Cbrown1023 15:53, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

List of fictional heroes

 * — (View AfD)

Delete - a number of similar categories, e.g. Category:Fictional Heroes, were recently deleted on the grounds of POV. The same POV concerns would apply to a list, which also has the added problems of maintainability and impossibility to ever approach completeness. Actually I'm thinking we may need to take a look at all of the lists of fictional characters by profession. Otto4711 15:22, 31 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Hmm. I don't think POV is the issue here, as it seems to be fairly clear in fiction where a character is being presented as a hero. The issue for me is that it's a fairly random list of people from wide areas of fiction. It seems to fall foul of "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information". I would delete although I'm capable of being persuaded differently if there is a good reason. Sam Blacketer 15:25, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Delete broad list that lack sources. "Heroes" is subjective. At least the anti-heroes list is carefully cited, unlike this list. A big problem with this one is that it's too broad, covering so many kinds of heroes from so many different media that the list becomes useless. It will also be painfully incomplete. When fleshed out, it will be too long to be useful. Who will read a list with four million entries? Doczilla 17:52, 31 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Keep "Hero" is synonymous with "protagonist" which is a feature of nearly any literature, and one can place items on this list based on whether secondary-sources consider them heroes. The main problem with this list is that it is incredibly large.  I would recommend trimming the content of the article to include only those characters where we can point to a secondary source that discusses the character in the context of being a protagonist (not simply articles about them as a character). Tarinth 17:58, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Forgive me, but I think you're digging a bigger hole for yourself with the observation that 'hero' is synonymous with 'protagonist'. In many cases, the protagonist of a piece of literature is far from heroic (think Humbert Humbert, for one). Sam Blacketer 18:12, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Right. We cannot maintain a list of all protagonists. That list would have millions of names and be utterly useless to anyone. It wouldn't even be a useful category. Doczilla 21:51, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I see, you are interpreting "hero" to mean, roughly, "a good guy." When I read "hero" in the context of literature, I assume the author is using it as a synonym for protagonist.  In any case, I still think it is not a subjective term because one can refer to secondary sources who define them for us. Tarinth 18:16, 31 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Delete Utterly unmaintainable list, no matter how you define "hero", POV concerns. Resolute 19:25, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Delete the list is much too broad and could be extended to infinity and beyond. TSO1D 00:29, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete this is too broad a list. A list of super-heroes might work.  A list of fantasy heroes, maybe.  Peasant heroes?   I could get behind that.  World-saving heroes?  Maybe.  Destined Heroes?  Again, possible.  Heroes in Greek Mythology?  Sounds great.  This is not focused enough though. FrozenPurpleCube 23:33, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete I agree the list is too broad and generalized, see WP:NOT Wikipedia is not a list of indiscriminate things. Davidpdx 01:04, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep. Discriminate by adding protagonists that meet the definition. -- User:Docu
 * Delete per above. This list is too broad in scope to have much value.--Kubigula (talk) 23:00, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete, of course. How many heroes would there be in all fiction? Millions. This list is totally unmaintainable. Yuser31415 20:00, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete unmaintainable near-infinite and thus indiscriminate list of [WP:NOT]] type. Angus McLellan (Talk) 12:43, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.