Puzzle and Dragons creatures seem to be tagged somewhat inconsistently when it comes to being tagged as a character or a species.

This: https://e621.net/post/show/533322

And this: https://e621.net/post/show/425619

Are examples of what I mean. Both seem to be the same class of creature, but one is tagged as a character, and one as a species. There seems to be a general trend towards tagging them as "characters", but this seems a bit odd for a couple reasons.

First, some "names" sound more like species names (Red Sky Fruit Strawberry Dragon, for instance)

Others are ambiguous (Firon, for instance)

Others sound like character names (Fire Samurai Dragon Shingen, for instance)

Finally, it is worth noting that for other games of this sort - Like Pokemon, and Monster Hunter - the characters are standardized as "species" - even in cases where it is arguable that in-universe, only one such individual exists (Mewtwo, Arceus).

Should Puzzle And Dragons characters be treated in a standardized way (either as species or characters)? Should it be on a case by case basis?

ok...i know the rule here is usually tag what you see but these seem to be monsters from that game (and BOY is there a LOT of them including the evolved forms.). you can find them all listed here, pad.wikia.com/wiki/Gallery_Book not sure if they should be counted as species like with pokemon or as characters though.

I don't know much about Puzzle and Dragons, but I'll take one of your examples.

To me, strawberry dragon and red sky fruit strawberry dragon seem analogous to pikachu and raichu (or possibly charizard to mega_charizard). They are treated like different types (breeds?) of the same species but also as a different species, and neither of them seem to fit well enough to be a character tag.

If this is true, then it looks like we have a couple options:

• 1) Alias one to the other OR treat them like separate species
• There aren't many of them, but it doesn't make sense to me to alias one to the other if they are sufficiently different (which it looks like they are).
• 2) Tag tree them
• puzzle_and_dragons
• strawberry_dragon
• red_sky_fruit_strawberry_dragon
• Benefits: Most flexibility
• Drawbacks: Treated slightly differently than we would pokémon, might want to consider implying directly -> puzzle_and_dragons. They aren't as popular here, but it looks like there are actually more species as there are pokémon o.O

It would be fine to tag them with things like dragon or carbuncle if they fit within that tag as well, but direct implications should probably be treated the same as with pokémon (i.e., none) because their coloring and style can define the species almost more than the original shape. For example, you could probably imagine a pony that might be taggable as strawberry dragon, but doesn't actually look like a dragon.

If anyone is aware of some P&D species that are being used as tags on here, it would be really helpful to mention them now. :)

Disclaimer: I could be wrong about them being more like species than characters, but it looks that way to me on the surface.

Yeah, I'd say it depends on the creature. Some should be tagged as species, and some as characters.

The latter are obvious in case of characters based on mythology (Osiris, Anubis, etc), and I'd put the named dragons (holy skydragon shangri-la) and such in the same group. Those are kind of deity-figures on the game, definitely not a species.

Basically, if it has a name, it's a character. If not, a species.

Red sky fruit strawberry dragon seems to be a strawberry dragon named 'Red Sky Fruit'. So that'd make it a character. The current way of tagging them seems fine.

Genjar said:
Red sky fruit strawberry dragon seems to be a strawberry dragon named 'Red Sky Fruit'. So that'd make it a character. The current way of tagging them seems fine.

My understanding of Puzzle and Dragons is that the Red Sky Fruit Strawberry Dragon is similar to the "evolved" form of the regular Strawberry Dragon (as Parasprite mentioned). To me, "Red Sky Fruit" is similar to the modifier "Mega" in "Mega Lucario". But I don't know, perhaps I'm totally off.

Clawdragons said:
My understanding of Puzzle and Dragons is that the Red Sky Fruit Strawberry Dragon is similar to the "evolved" form of the regular Strawberry Dragon (as Parasprite mentioned). To me, "Red Sky Fruit" is similar to the modifier "Mega" in "Mega Lucario". But I don't know, perhaps I'm totally off.

I agree with this, personally. Red Sky Fruit is more of a sub-breed (See Parasprite's post), while something like Holy Skydragon Shangri-La is a character--Holy Skydragon is the species, and Shangri-La the name, though I think we should use the full name, species bit included, as though we're talking about Sonic characters.

Those are shown as names on the profiles, though. Both in English and Japanese.

'Red Sky Fruit, Strawberry Dragon' (Name, species).

Edit: But maybe I'm wrong about that. Most characters are listed the other way around. Species or title first, then name: 'Orange Flower Dragon, Helianthus', 'Stormwing Dragon Emperor, Threedia', 'Marvelous Red Dragon Caller, Sonia', etc.