A merger

[TTEchidna]

No, not of Bulbapedia into something. But I bet I got your attention.

I'm talking a merger of the Grunt, Executive, and Boss Trainer class articles.

As you may know, before BW, I intend to move all Trainer class articles to X (Trainer class), since we should really have them there anyway. Makes for consistency and not so many switch statements.

The problem is... the evil teams' Trainer classes. Unlike the others, like Hikers and Lasses, who are programmed, for example, in with the class of Hiker and the name of Parry, we've got a class of Rocket and a name of Grunt. The same goes for Aqua, Magma, Galactic, and we can assume Plasma.

Since Grunts have such little characterization in the games, anime, and more or less any other media, why should we have completely separate articles for four (soon five) classes which are exactly the same, and little more than the different games' versions? It'd be like separating Gambler and Gamer, or CoolTrainer and Ace Trainer.

For the Executive class, known for Aqua/Magma as Aqua Admin and Magma Admin, and for Galactic as Commander... they have the same Japanese name, again with the exception of their team name. These characters get a little more characterization, but they each have their own articles for the individuals. So why not merge the classes?

Finally, the bosses. Each boss class (Galactic Boss, Rocket Boss, Magma Leader, Aqua Leader) currently redirects to the person in charge (Cyrus, Giovanni, Maxie, Archie). That I say we do away with anyway, instead redirecting one-off classes to a list of Trainer classes with only one member, or some other multiple-class list, such as Hall Matron (Trainer class) redirecting to Frontier Brain (Trainer class). Combine the four (soon five) Boss classes into one page, and go from there.


So yeah. Combine Grunt, Executive, and Boss pages, or no?

 

[MisterE13]

I was pretty close to choosing the idiot option for the lulz but would rather my voice be heard .

I'm rather partial to redirecting the one-off classes but go right ahead for Grunt and Executive.

 

[TTEchidna]

I mean that the Bosses would be grouped as one, but stuff like MysticalMan would be redirected to the one-off list.

 

[Falconwing]

I'm for combining all of them, since the characters themselves have pages anyways.

 

[MisterE13]

I even prefer linking to the page rather than a list :/

 

[TTEchidna]

For the Boss page, it'd probably end up looking like the Commander pages currently does. For the others, it'd be divided into sections.

 

[MisterE13]

Come to think of it, if Plan B is a list of one-off classes, I'm up for merging as many as we can and keeping them off said list.

 

[Zekurom]

We'd still have the redirects, correct?

(I misunderstood the poll, sosumi :sweat

For the Boss trainer class, I'd say merge the actual trainers into one page and provide links to all five bosses and their individual pages.

So we'd have the page "Boss (trainer class)" and four infoboxes for the current trainers that fall into that class - Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, and Cyrus.

 

[TTEchidna]

Redirects would exist, of course. Rocket Executive, Galactic Commander, etc.

 

[mini-chan]

Dont merge them. THEY ARE DISTINCT...

 

[TTEchidna]

How?

They have nearly the same name in Japanese, and exactly the same role.

 

[mini-chan]

Not really. I mean, Grunts are generic nobodys, Executives are ditinct, important members of the team, and the boss is the head honcho, the big man, the big cheese.....

 

[Zekurom]

Not really. I mean, Grunts are generic nobodys, Executives are ditinct, important members of the team, and the boss is the head honcho, the big man, the big cheese.....

I misunderstood that too. We're not merging the classes by organization, we're merging them by hierarchical level.

That means that we'd have one "Grunt" page for Rocket Grunts, Magma/Aqua Grunts, and Galactic Grunts all in one. Ditto for Executives and Bosses.

 

[TTEchidna]

Well, it's not like they aren't merged by organization... the pages on the teams say basically the same stuff.

 

[mini-chan]

Oh, then I agree with this. However, I think we should keep the execcutive and boss pages...

 

[MisterE13]

Wait, so what do MysticalMan and Thug redirect to in your perfect world TTE?

 

[Blazaking]

So basically... we'd have a page that has like three trainer class pages in one? And then a link to the Boss' and Team's page?

 

[Zekurom]

Wait, so what do MysticalMan and Thug redirect to in your perfect world TTE?

Eusine and Zook, respectively.

 

[MisterE13]

OK good, I thought he was suggesting a page titled List of one-off Trainer classes that the would all redirect to.

 

[Memo326]

Beware: wall of text, but please read =D

I'm not necessarily against merging some of these articles into other pages, but I don't think central pages for Grunts/Executives/Bosses are the best. The information they share (for grunts: they are underlings, unnamed, and weak) is very little compared to what they don't (appearance, Pokémon used, general goal, appearances in animé or manga...) The Team structure similarities (generic, unnamed grunts; separate, named executives*; one boss) could be simply listed in the Villainous teams pages and that would be it.
*As of the latest versions, at least.

Instead, here is what I think should be done with the pages and why:

EXECUTIVES
All executive articles (except the Team Rocket one) are just very small lists of related characters that are otherwise related through, well, their actual Team. Any info on Aqua Admin/Magma Admin/Commander would go over better either on Team ___'s page or the individual character's. Team Rocket's executives are a little bit more complicated, with more and different members across media including generic GSC execs, Sabrina, Surge and Koga, Keane and Charmaine, and the HGSS execs.
SO: Keep "Rocket executives" separate, merge Aqua Admin/Magma Admin/Commander into their respective team's page.

GRUNTS
Grunts are not lists of members unlike execs, they have common characteristics that can be described such as appearance, Pokémon used, or even whatever basic personality they have (such as Galactic Grunts following Cyrus blindly or Rocket Grunts being petty thieves) that can be clearly separated from the team itself. This is pretty similar to other classes
SO: Keep all grunt pages, though expand them more.

BOSSES
"Boss" can refer to any boss, though "Galactic Boss" or "Aqua Leader" only to Cyrus and Archie respectively, for example.
SO: "Boss" becomes a disambig pointing to Giovanni, Cyrus, Archie, and Maxie. All other boss redirects stay as they are.

Somewhat relatedly, I'd like to bring to your attention that we have TWO pages for Rocket execs (Executive (Trainer class) and Team Rocket executives and administrators), Aqua execs (Aqua Admin and Subleaders of the Sea Scheme), AND Magma execs (Magma Admin and FireHeads). We should do something about it while we're at it IMO, whatever we decide at the end.

TL;DR
Do not merge Grunts, Executives, Bosses; keep the individual grunt pages and Rocket Executives; merge the rest of the teams' execs into the respective Team pages. Boss is a disambig to all bosses, while other boss redirects stay as they are.