Talk:List of Dragonriders of Pern characters

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Fictional characters

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[1] See #Menolly hair color (was not old but posted at top instead of bottom).

[2]Personally, I think it best to order these by Pass then profession, rather than simply by profession. Bluap 16:05, 27 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

[3]~~Is Kylara the full-blooded sister or half sister of Lord Larad? The Characters page contradicts Kylara's page.~~Bhamv 03:18, 30 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind, found the answer. Bhamv 07:32, 3 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

[4]There seems to be quite a few of the recent characters missing... From Dragon's Kin and onward. Don't see any of the characters that directly relate to Kindan :'( I'll see what I can do... --Jon Snowe 14:13, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

[5]There is also a short story missing - A Dragon to roast your meat (MZB Darkover Crossover) Dworkin 13 (talk) 13:29, 20 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find any reference to this on Google, so suspect that it's simply fan-fiction. Bluap (talk) 15:43, 20 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

[6]Has anyone observed that L'tol is an ex green rider in the first book which changes to brown in the second? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.234.215.77 (talk) 20:52, 11 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Agenothree

I see the link for "agenothree" leads to the Wiki page for Nitric Acid. Wasn't Agenothree supposed to be silver nitrate, an antibacterial / disinfectant? (That is, AgNO₃) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.36.24.43 (talk) 15:26, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unlikely. Can you find any supporting evidence? Colour, etc. Are there any cases of injuries involving "agenothree"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.251.95.1 (talk) 18:24, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Agenothree" was originally "HNO₃" but was slurred over time (by the end of the first pass, if I recall correctly). Quote from Dragonsdawn - "Tarvi drafted a crew to work round the clock, adapting empty cylinders into flamethrowers and filling them with HNO₃." - This is page 202 in my book (hard cover, First Edition, 1988) Zirenth (talk) 05:49, 14 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Menolly hair color

Menolly's hair is not red as currently stated in the article. There's a supposed link to a source for this, but I just did a search in google books in Dragonsinger for both "red" and "hair" and red never comes up in conjunction with Menolly's hair. There's red eyes, red dresses, the Red Star...no red hair. When I searched for "hair" it says Silvina has dark hair, Robinton has silvered hair, Piemur has curly hair, Beauty hides in Menolly's hair, but it never says what COLOR Menolly's hair is in Dragonsinger. The red hair Menolly is often mistaken to have comes from the interpretation of the cover artist Rowena, from the old US covers for the Harper Hall Trilogy. Book itself doesn't state it.

Rowena "covered" the 1986 Del Rey reissue, first to label them "first of the h h trilogy" and so on.

For red hair see also the earlier cover of The Harper Hall of Pern (1984 omnibus, also US). According to the Pern Museum, that painting is still for sale. -P64

All The Weyrs of Pern however says Menolly's hair is "dark" when I search for it. So I'm removing the color and its incorrect "reference".D. M. Domini (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:33, 26 March 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Reading Dragonholder it seemed clear to me that McCaffrey's model for Menolly has dark hair. Can it be a figment of the black-and-white photograph? I'll try to revisit the text. --P64 (talk) 18:39, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Major characters

See also the fourth comment above ([4], which I have just numbered).

Currently there are 15 so-called major characters from the present Ninth Pass Pern, c. 2500 AL: one artificial intelligence, eight people, three dragons, three more people.

Ninth Pass
         o 1.1.1 AIVAS
         o 1.1.2 F'lar
         o 1.1.3 F'nor
         o 1.1.4 F'lessan
         o 1.1.5 Jaxom
         o 1.1.6 Lessa
         o 1.1.7 Menolly
         o 1.1.8 Piemur
         o 1.1.9 Robinton
         o 1.1.10 Mnementh
         o 1.1.11 Ramoth
         o 1.1.12 Ruth
         o 1.1.13 Readis
         o 1.1.14 Sebell
         o 1.1.15 Sharra

Whose is really a major character? Not the last three, who are less than Brekke. Rather than add Brekke, I would ~~cut~~ F'nor and F'lessan (see figure), leaving ten.

By this standard which earlier characters qualify as major? No dragons yet, although Talenth and Minith may be surpassing all but Ruth as characters. Among the people,

Sixth Pass, ~1500 AL
  Alessan
  Moreta
  Nerilka
Third Pass, ~500 AL
  Fiona
  Kindan
  Lorana
Second Pass, ~250 AL
  none
Landing and soon After Landing (AL)
  none?

Alessan, Moreta, and Nerilka qualify as major characters essentially because Moreta and Nerilka's Story develop their characters more than most Pern books do. (Furthermore, Moreta and her story seem to be an important model for the Todd McCaffrey books: repairing dragons, facing the plague, traveling in time, borrowing a dragon.)

Fiona, Kindan, and Lorana should go without sayin'. --P64 (talk) 17:58, 11 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Organization

The second old comment [2]: "Personally, I think it best to order these by Pass then profession, rather than simply by profession."

I think the names of Lord Holders, Craftmasters, Weyrleaders, and some maybe all Weyrwomen should be presented in a table. At least here in article space. Years ago, fans developed some indexes to characters, which were included in later books. Those may be useful sources of content.

... After starting here I have moved some designs to User Space.

Is there a fan who has maintained a relational database of Pern characters, or even a spreadsheet? --P64 (talk) 19:26, 11 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

One reason this page works poorly compared to some others is that some entries are very long. (Evidently there were 14 presumable Stubs merged in January, as there were previously 14 blue links.) Another is the layout in so many categories.

Some alternatives

genuine articles on some characters —may depend on non-existent critical literature as those stubs were merged for lack of notability (contrast Middle-earth, Narnia, and the Potterverse)
relegate the majority to an alphabetical "List of Pern characters" leaving a manageable number here (example List of The Chronicles of Narnia characters, where the longest entry, now three lines on my screen, is collective "The Gang")
reorganize this one article somehow?

--P64 (talk) 18:58, 30 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Removed entries

I have removed the following, who have mainly only appeared in a single book, with limited impact on the story of that book: Bluap (talk) 10:24, 10 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

9th pass dragonriders

(Note: I haven't removed any Weyrleaders / Chief Weyrwomen)

Celina and gold Lamanth at Benden
C'gan and blue Tagath (both deceased in first threadfall, Ninth pass) – Weyrsinger at Benden Weyr
D'clan and brown Pranith
D'fio and brown Drenth
D'nek and bronze Zagenth at Fort
F'rad and green Telorth, at Benden
G'nag and blue Nelanth, at Southern
G'sel and green Roth, at Southern – Impressed a bronze fire-lizard from the same clutch Grall and Mirrim's three hatched from
H'ages and bronze Kerth, at Telgar – Wingsecond at Telgar
J'ralt and green Palanth at Benden
K'nebel and bronze Firth – Fort Weyrlingmaster
K'net and bronze Piyanth – Benden Wingleader
M'odon and brown Nigarth – Benden rider; oldest rider during the Interval (over 100 Turns), died before the Pass
M'rek and bronze Zigith – Telgar wingsecond; took lead for a short time when R'mart was badly Threadscored
M'ridin and bronze Cortath – The first dragonrider that the young Robinton ever met
S'lel (Sellel) and bronze Tuenth, at Benden

Oldtimers

G'lanar – rider of bronze Lamoth who tried to kill Jaxom but committed suicide when his attempt was unsuccessful. Lamoth died in shame that his rider would attack another rider.