Manual of Style

**The Manual of Style** dictates what should be kept consistent on pages throughout the wiki.

## Manual of Style

### Use of Fan-made Information

First and foremost, only **canon information** may be added to this wiki. Absolutely no fan interpretations, headcanons, etc. are permitted, no matter how humorous or universally accepted among fans.

**Canon information** denotes that which is readily apparent in the source material such as an episode or comic issue. That said, **this wiki is unofficial** and fan-run; any information read should be taken with a grain of salt and **this wiki should never be regarded as an uncontested official source, nor seen as something that seeks to invalidate any interpretation nor any headcanon**, but rather a source of information that strives to be trustworthy and of a certain quality standard.

All edits should adhere to the guidelines set in Community Conduct.

### Writing

#### Perspective

* Articles detailing characters and events should be written in **third-person present-tense American English**.

* **Past-tense** is used when referring to events **prior to Shiro's return to Earth**.

* **Phrases such as "In Episode 1"** or "In The Rise of Voltron" should be avoided.

* **All articles should be written from a neutral perspective** and not contain any bias for or against a character, relationship, or other aspect of the series.

* **Contractions** such as "isn't", "can't", and "it's" should be written out as "is not", "cannot", and "it is" except when being quoted.

#### Capitalization

The following should always be capitalized:

* Names of characters, locations, planets, factions, spacecrafts, races, and titles.
* Bayard(s)
* Paladin(s)
* Lion(s)
* Sentry/Sentries when referring to robotic Galra guards.
* Altean(s), Galran(s), Balmeran(s).

* Empire is capitalized if referring to the *specific* Galra Empire in phrases such as "**the** Empire", and not being used in possessive cases like "He ruled over **his** empire".

#### Galra vs. Galran

The exact nature of what aliens make up the Galra Empire is currently unknown.

* **Galra** is used to indicate something or someone belonging to the Galra Empire.

* **Galran** is used to indicate an alien of purple fur/skin and yellow eyes since it is currently unknown if they are truly a "single" race heavily bred with others to have varying features, or a mixed collective.

#### Use of Names

* **Characters should be referred to as the name they are most often called in canon**, and may be referred to with or without their titles such as *Emperor Zarkon* for Zarkon.

* **Full names are written in Western naming format** of Given Name, Family Name. Hence, Shiro's name is written as "Takashi Shirogane" where "Takashi" is his given name and "Shirogane" is his family name.

* **Character pages should be named their most known name**, but not include titles such as *King* or *Commander*.

* **The Voltron Lions** should be referred to as "the Blue Lion", "the Yellow Lion", etc. and not as if the colors are their names, i.e. "Lance and Blue went off to search".

* **The series titles** of *Voltron: Legendary Defender* and all past series titles should be rendered in ''italics''.

#### Use of Links

* **Factions, locations, space crafts, lore articles, and planets should be always linked** if they have a page, except on their own pages.

* **Plurals of links** should be rendered as a link with the descriptor as the plural form, i.e. "Paladins" would be [[Paladin]]s. (But Paladins does not have to be linked, unlike Paladin.)

* **Possessive links** should render the possessive outside the link, i.e. "Paladin's" would be [[Paladin]]'s and not [[Paladin|Paladin's]].

* **All character names should be linked** except on the character's own page to allow readers quick access to character pages at any time when reading an article.

* **Characters that have titles should only have their names linked**, not the titles. So linking to Allura's page when writing "Princess Allura" should be rendered as Princess [[Allura]].

* **The specific colored Paladin should be linked** in that [[Black Paladin]], [[Red Paladin]], [[Green Paladin]], [[Blue Paladin]], and [[Yellow Paladin]] all redirect to [[Paladin]]. Do not use "Black [[Paladin]]".

* **The Voltron Lions** should have their respective pages linked whenever specifically mentioned, i.e. The [[Blue Lion]]. As a group, they should be linked via [[Voltron Lions]].

* **When referring to one as "the Lion"**, there is no need for a link. However, it may be acceptable to include a link as [[Blue Lion|Lion]] if it has been awhile since the Lion was specifically named and linked, but better to rewrite the sentence to mention the Lion by linked name specifically.

* **Mentions of a race should only be linked to their specific planet page** if the planet is not also mentioned in the sentence either before or after, *and* if there is a need to remind the reader of what race is being mentioned and from which planet. Hence, describing Allura as "the princess of planet [[Altea]], daughter of King [[Alfor]], and one of the last remaining of the Altean race". Whereas a sentence in an article may read "It has been revealed that *Character Name* is an [[Altea|Altean]]", but otherwise not every case of "Altean", "Galra", and "Galran" need be linked.

^--- Under construction whoops.

* **When used as an adjective**, words like "Garrison", "Altean", "Galra" used in phrases like "Garrison military" or "Galra technology" need not be linked.

* **Phrases like "the Garrison" or "the Empire"'** need not be linked *unless* there is a need to remind the reader of the faction, such as in a quote. Links of these phrases should exclude "the", i.e. "the [[Garrison]]" or "the [[Empire]]". Outside of quotes, it's better to rewrite the phrase to include the actual page names of [[Galaxy Garrison]] and [[Galra Empire]] if a link is deemed needed.

#### Use of References

* **References should be included throughout the article** and the {{reflist}} template must be included at the bottom of the page for references to render properly.

* **When referring to an episode or comic, use the Ref template.** It is coded to automate reference tags so that {{Ref|S1Ep1}} will render <ref name="S1Ep1">'''[[Season One]]''': Episode 1, "[[The Rise of Voltron]]"</ref> or **Season One**: Episode 1, "The Rise of Voltron".

* **All other references such as news articles, etc.** should use the basic format of <ref name="SOMENAME">[http://url.com URL Description]</ref> for external links and <ref name="SOMENAME">[[WikiaLink|URL Description]]</ref> for VLD Wiki links.

* **The use of reference "names" i.e. "<ref name="SOMENAME">"** allows multiple instances of the same reference to be used on an article without having to include the full URL code each time. This can be done with simply with a / such as <ref name="Netflix"/> after the full coded reference tag has already been placed somewhere on the page.

* **Avoid putting reference tags after commas**. Place them at the end of a sentence period or semicolon with all relevant reference tags for that sentence included.

* **Put reference tags outside of parentheses**. It looks better.

### Character Pages

#### Basic Format

The breakdown of character pages are as follows:

* **Quote**: A notable quote exemplifying the core aspect of the character.

* **Infobox**: The core part of the page is the {{Character}} infobox. Images in the infobox should be at least 500px width if not an official character render, but must be an official image. The default dimensions used are 500px width by 705px height.

* **Summary**: A *brief* summary introducing the character, their main roles, and maybe a bit of their origins.

* **Appearance**: A description of the character's general appearance.

* **Personality**: A summary of the character's personality, with avoidance of too many plot details, although examples of personality traits can be noted. A quote from canon material describing or exemplifying the character's personality can be added to the top of the summary. For the Paladins, the quote describing their Lions is used.

* **Abilities**: A summary of the character's combat and non-combat skills. A quote from canon material describing or exemplifying the character's skills can be added to the top of the summary. The {{Stats}} infobox may be used for characters with official stats.

* **Trivia**: Any miscellaneous notes may be added **provided they are canon or actually noteworthy**. This is a big area to include reference links to the source of the information.

* **References**: References should be included throughout the article and the {{reflist}} template must be included at the bottom of the page for references to render properly.

#### Character Subpages

Subpages are designated by "Character/Subpage" and should include the following information:

* **Character/History**: A chronological summary of the character's specific role during the plot. Plot details regarding the character taking place prior to Shiro's return to Earth should be collected under the **first** header named "History", regardless if the plot details are revealed as flashbacks at any point in time. Next, plot should be collected under a header named Season One and detail its plot regarding the character per that season, etc.

* **Character/Gallery**: Official images of the character. The first header is official art. The second header is screenshots, where screencaps may be added if they are showing something specific to the character's appearance or abilities, and the galleries should not be overfilled with unnecessary screencaps. The third header is "Other" for images that are neither really art nor screenshots, but are official and related to the character somehow. (See Lance's Top 5 Icebreakers.) The last header is for videos, such as the vlogs. Videos and images should not be in the same gallery as videos will be automatically hidden.

#### Character Gender

* **Gender** is treated as what the characters are depicted to viewers as in canon until the characters or series staff give official statements. That is, Shiro is depicted as a male character, and described as "he" and with "his" inside and outside of canon, so he is considered a male.

* **Male/Female** are used only because they are the most formal, and this usage does not mean to equate any gender to a specific body type.

* **Pidge, at the time of this writing, has made it clear she identifies as female** by stating "I'm a girl" and will be referred to as such with "she/her" pronouns on this wiki.
	+ The series staff has further cemented this truth with their constant description of how important it was to change the gender of a main Lion pilot to include more female characters in media and fill the space a male character would normally be without changing the story. They used no pronouns or "him/his" prior to the series' debut in order not to spoil that Pidge was a girl.
	+ In the comics, an alien comments "Kinda scrawny, ain't they?" in reference to the group of new Paladins as a whole, since he is familiar with the Paladins 10,000 years prior and is drawing a comparison. "They" is being used as a collective, and not referring to Pidge specifically. She is featured in the panel because she is the shortest of the group and it is meant to be a joke about her height in comparison to the alien's. Pidge has been referred to with "she/her" in later issues of the comics.

* Fans are free to interpret a character however they wish regardless, but are asked to keep their interpretations off of this wiki and to their own fanworks.

### Images

Images are important for the wiki, but should adhere to these rules:

* All images must be **official**. Official art denotes that which is publicly released by an official social media account or in merchandise, or that is created by a Studio Mir or DreamWorks staff member with permission to host on the wiki. No "fan art" is permitted to be hosted anywhere on this wiki outside of user icons.

* No images should contain a site watermark.

* Images must be categorized at least as Gallery Files or Design Files depending on their intended usage.

* Image file names must be named something related to their content. Usually there is already a standard naming format that can be checked by looking at images already uploaded.

* Images must be png format to retain quality when used on articles; only a few design images are allowed to be jpeg to shorten page loading time.

* Images must be of high quality. Low quality images will be deleted.

* Unused images will be deleted.

### Staff Art

*Voltron: Legendary Defender* staff that have given permission to rehost their *Voltron*-related art here include:

* Kihyun Ryu
* Steve Ahn

Each uploaded staff art must credit the artist in the file's description by linking to their wiki page and also must include the {{permission}} template.