Thread:Uskok/@comment-24669364-20190311191329

(C+P from https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:258576)

Hi Uskok. There's something I'd like to clarify, and it's just something I've been kind of wanting to get off my chest for a bit. I consulted this with Shabook about a month ago, but I haven't gotten a response from him yet (idk if he retired or is taking a sabbatical, but I feel this needs to be addressed).

There have been a lot of "Assassination" pages. The definition of "assassination" (taken from Wikipedia) is "the killing of a prominent person for either political or religious reasons or for payment". Now, while many articles on here do fit that criteria, other articles are labelled with the "assassination" title but as per the actual event, some of the events that occur in said "assassinations" feels so abrupt and unplanned. It makes people like me wonder why it's even classified as such.

For example, let's compare two articles on this wikia. The Assassination of Abraham Erskine and the Assassination of Billy Johnson. Both events are tonally different. One was planned and executed by a Neo-Nazi operative, while one was an accidental killing in a crossfire shootout. And let's look at the victims of said "assassinations". For one, you have a scientist who has made breakthroughs for their time, and has garnered quite the reputation and authority. And for the other, you have - as far as the common eye can see, if you remove any context about the Cloak and Dagger plot - a simple teenager who was accidentally shot at by a cop.

As you may have perceived, nothing about the latter examples scream "assassination". When a person is killed accidentally, nobody would use the terminology "assassination" in a conversation. You may as well say "he was killed" or "he was murdered", but nobody would casually say "oh, he was assassinated last night". Now, allow us to look at another article; the Assassination of Howard and Maria Stark. Now this fits the criteria of "assassination" perfectly. Two well-known persons of prominence and status were killed by a HYDRA assassin. That suits the article well.

So why am I telling you all of this? I would like to make a proposal, and add one small change towards the Event section of the Naming Policy that I think can better clarify the content of the event and can just help the wikia for the better: '''Add "Murder" as a title. '''

And how would we differentiate the two? It's simple. If you recall the definition for assassination, it contains two things: The killing must be pre-arranged and planned ahead of time, and the specific victim/targeted group has to be of some prominence on a grand scale - they have to be well-known (like the HYDRA leaders, or the Genetic Council). Again, look at the Assassination of Billy Johnson for a minute. A victim in a crossfire is not an assassination. That's an accidental murder. Murders can be classified as unlawful killings that lack premeditation and justification.

Now, there may be some abnormalities to this rule. Say, look at the Assassination of Ben Urich. Yes, it was planned to some degree, and he was of some prominence. Granted, it fits the criteria, but per the situation, it doesn't feel necessarily correct to classify it as an assassination, because the killing was deliberate and unjust. For those reasons, it should be classified as a murder.

Now, here is an example of another article which could benefit from a name change: the Assassination of Eliza Schultz. It even says in the article that it "was an unplanned murder". That is a direct contradiction to the definition of assassination. Do you see the logic gap here? If you're still not convinced, let's take a look-see at some real-life examples. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. John Lennon was murdered. I don't have to explain those two events, as you probably know about them and what occurred in those events speak for themselves.

As I said to Shabook, if this all comes off as me trying to tell you how to do your job, that is not my intention. I see you run a tight ship here, and I respect that. It's a simple suggestion I'd think would benefit this wikia. Thank you for reading. 