Category talk:A Song of Ice and Fire

Merge proposal

I feel that this category could be merged with Category:Game of Thrones. There is precedent in how Fire & Blood falls under the umbrella of Category:House of the Dragon rather than having a separate category. Most of the sub-categories already follow the format of "ASOIAF/Game of Thrones [subject]." I recognize that there are segments of the fandoms of ASoIaF and GOT that don't overlap. Some fans only like the books and vice versa. But I feel that both fandoms can be treated as a single consolidated fandom for the purpose of reducing redundancy in the categorization system. Night Rain (talk) 14:15, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

I think there is merit in keeping both categories as distinct and separate, as they are essentially different fandoms. ASOIAF is the category for the book series fandom, and Game of Thrones is a subcategory for the TV show fandom. I think the issue here is that there is quite a bit of overlap between the categories, which is to be expected as some communities and theories predate the TV show but were also part of the TV show fandom. It might be better to make that clearer with an introduction at the top of each category, outlining the type of pages that belong there, and also highlighting the existance of the other category. --Auntags (talk) 19:54, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

I feel that maintaining fine-grained distinctions may not always be beneficial if it comes at the detriment of other considerations. The purpose of a categorization system is essentially to serve as a telephone directory (showing my age here 😅) that helps readers find articles. Fanlore already seems to favour treating ASoIaF/GOT as a single consolidated fandom on an organizational/structural level. Four out of five sub-categories follow the "ASOIAF/Game of Thrones" naming format (e.g. Category:ASOIAF/Game of Thrones Characters). There's also one article for Daenerys, Tyrion, Brienne, etc., although these characters vary considerably between the books and show. A decade ago it seems a collective decision was made to split coverage of TOS from the reboot franchise (e.g. Spock vs. Spock (AOS)). It's probably too late to surgically separate coverage of ASoIaF vs. GOT fandom in a similar fashion. Thus, the presence of two semi-redundant fandom categories ("Category:A Song of Ice and Fire" and "Category:Game of Thrones") probably isn't going to be understood by most readers as an intentional delineation between book vs. show fandom. It's going to seem like an odd oversight or inconsistency. I support streamlining the categories for greater clarity and easy-of-use. The distinction between the book vs. show fandoms seems like it would be better explained in articles than through the categorization system. Night Rain (talk) 22:34, 27 November 2023 (UTC)