Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Aloy/archive1

Vacant0

I have already reviewed this article as a GA and at PR. Nevertheless, I'll go through the article again and see if I missed something. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 22:43, 1 July 2026 (UTC)

I gave another look at the article. No issues with the prose (besides what Phlsph7 mentioned). I have one question though. Gamepur is listed as a "situational source", therefore what does it make reliable in this case? Other sources appear to be reliable and of high quality. Support on prose. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 13:20, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

@Vacant0 In this case it is covering something non controversial and there aren't many other options. There is an IGN ref that I can use, but I wasn't sure if it was better since to confirm the info, you have to scroll through a gallery instead of just scrolling the page/ctrl+f on the Gamepur article. -- ZooBlazer 15:49, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Okay, good to know. Hopefully the source reviewer won't mind this. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 18:20, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

Image Review - RandomEdits

Hi ZB, I'll look at the images later today.

As an aside, one thing I noticed in a drive by read; you have a lot of 3/4-length ref bombs in the Critical Response. I'm generally fine with 3 sequential refs but I imagine the 4 refs is going to be an issue in your source review, and they could do with either being bundled up in a note or seeing if any of the less important ones could be removed. RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk)

Thanks for bringing that up. I have dropped redundant refs from those bundles. -- ZooBlazer 16:20, 2 July 2026 (UTC)

Great :)

• Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn).png - Justification is fine, but very minimal and not up to what's usually required for FA. I've added some stronger wording if you're happy with the changes.

More importantly, I don't see this image on https://www.playstation.com/en-us/horizon/community/ anywhere.

• Ashly Burch (14703225936).jpg - Original source is dead, but luckily there was an archive for this and tagged correctly wit CC 2.0.
• Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores kiss.jpg - Justification is fine for this and I think the picture warrants inclusion based on the text that accompanies it.
• E3 2018 (27900182017).jpg - All good, marked with CC 2.0 correctly

So it's just Aloy's main pic needing a source clarification.

One thing I wondered, had you considered adding another image between Ashly.jpg and kiss.jpg? There's approximately 2500 words of fairly dense paragraphs between the two images, so more of a visual break might help readers out. Including Joris de Man's picture in "Musical Theme" was the main idea that came to mind, but I'll leave that to you.

RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk) 11:01, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

@RandomEditsForWhenIRemember Huh, pretty sure it was in one of the cosplay guides and someone just made it a transparent background. All the guides I see are from the second game and not the first one, which is what the image was from. Would it work to update the source to this archive? It is what I remember seeing as the the original image of the file. -- ZooBlazer 16:58, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

I also added the image for Joris de Man. -- ZooBlazer 17:06, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Great :)

I've done some digging and it looks like the original image came from Dan Calvert's artstation, which would be a better source than the fandom wiki.

https://dc_gg.artstation.com/projects/JQErv

(It'd be worth archiving this but web.archive seems to be down for me at the moment). RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk) 19:20, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

@RandomEditsForWhenIRemember Thanks for finding that! I updated the info on the file and managed to get the wayback machine to work long enough to get an archive. -- ZooBlazer 20:24, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Nice - the Joris de Man picture is also completely fine so that's a pass for the image review.

Afraid I can't review the prose currently as I'll be busy for the next few weeks, but later on if you still need another pair of eyes feel free to ping me. Best of luck with your other reviews. RandomEditsForWhenIRemember (talk) 20:36, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Phlsph7

Hi ZooBlazer, happy to review the nomination. I don't know much about the topic itself, so I'll stick to prose comments.

• American actress Ashly Burch voices her. This sentence in the first lead paragraph seems to be disconnected from what comes before and after. I think it would fit better into the 2nd lead paragraph where actress Hannah Hoekstra is discussed.
• centreing replace with "centring"
• and reflected her ongoing struggles replace "reflected" with "reflects"
• Afterward I think British English prefers "Afterwards" per the template "Use British English"
• Dark Horse released 1:9 scale statue add "a" after "released"
• She appears as a minifigure in multiple Lego sets, which includes a 2022 Tallneck build replace "which includes" with "which include" or "including"
• to survive a world that has been reclaimed by nature and overrun by the hostile machines. add "in" after "survive" and remove "the"
• Guerrilla based Aloy's facial likeness was based on Dutch actress remove "was based"
• lacking a mother, a young Aloy is determined remove "a" before "young"
• her initial distant attitude towards those companions replace "initial" with "initially"
• and the 2024 Remastered edition lower case for "Remastered"?
• Sam Loveridge wrote that she reconciles with the legacy I presume "she" refers to "Aloy" and not to "Loveridge"; It might be good to replace the pronoun with the name
• He compared this to real-world adoptive and mother-child relationships. I think "He" is supposed to refer to "Sam Loveridge" (female); replace with "Loveridge" to avoid pronoun confusion
• first engage with her non-traditional role as an outsider ... through virtual photography before her romance with Seyka similar problem for the two pronouns "her", which could refer to "Aloy" or to "Allen"/"Connell"

Phlsph7 (talk) 16:27, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

@Phlsph7 I think everything has been addressed. Thanks! Let me know if there is anything else. -- ZooBlazer 17:49, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

Looks good. A few more:

• was a creative pivot that distanced the studio from the masculine tone of its previous Killzone franchise. maybe more encyclopedic tone: was a creative shift away from the masculine tone of the studio's previous Killzone franchise.
• the type of armour the player equipped. remove "the player" for concision
• specific lines or reactions felt true to Aloy's established personality. maybe better: specific lines and reactions aligned with Aloy's established personality
• Gonzalez explained this early trauma created a deep compassion for others. It drove her curiosity about her origins and her willingness to help people in need, which the developers used as the narrative justification for her willingness to assist non-player characters (NPC) during side quests. sounds a little repetitive. Maybe better: Gonzalez explained this early trauma created a deep compassion for others and drove her curiosity about her origins, providing a narrative justification for her willingness to assist non-player characters (NPC) during side quests.
• Bastien Ramisse explained that taking advantage of the advanced hardware of the PlayStation 5 maybe more concise: Bastien Ramisse explained that the PlayStation 5's advanced hardware
• This allowed for enhanced facial a little repetitive since the previous sentence already uses the verb "allowed"
• This narrative arc culminated in her meeting...This culminates in an optional "Flashpoint" dialogue repeats the verb "culminate"; switches from past tense to present tense
• The instrumentation was kept minimalistic. Sparse arrangements of analogue synthesisers, cellos, and contrabass flutes are meant to evoke Aloy's isolated upbringing as an outcast and her underlying loneliness. Elven was originally recommended to the team by composer Ian Livingstone; de Man asked to "tack on" to their recording session to have Elven sing a short, minute-and-a-half phrase he had written. This approach relied on soloistic performances and improvisations. Elven's vocalisation is Aloy's "musical voice". also tense inconsistencies

Phlsph7 (talk) 09:07, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

@Phlsph7 Thanks for the additional comments. Everything should be fully addressed now. -- ZooBlazer 17:38, 6 July 2026 (UTC)

That addresses all the points that stood out to me. Otherwise, the prose looks good to me, so I support on prose. Phlsph7 (talk) 11:12, 7 July 2026 (UTC)

Comments from Gommeh

I'd be interested in reviewing this, but my schedule at the moment is rather tight. Please ping me if I haven't said anything here in a few days. Gommeh ^{(talk 🎮 sign)} 15:39, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Pamzeis

I will try not to screw anything up!

• "is a fictional character and the main protagonist" — are both needed? I mean, surely a protagonist would be fictional by default, right? And is "main" needed in front of protagonist, 'cuz a protagonist is by default the main character right? And also, does WP:PROTAGONIST apply here? (Sorry, lotta questions)

  Both are needed but I dropped "main" from protagonist. -- ZooBlazer

• I'm not extremely keen on around half of the lead being taken up by a plot summary per MOS:FICTION; also doesn't seem consistent with the body where #Concept and design and #Reception take up a lot more prose compared with #Appearances

  It is organized by the paragraphs in the body. I did a little trim to get rid of some details that weren't needed in the lead. -- ZooBlazer

• "the oversexualised tropes common in the video game industry" — seems like an opinion to me? I'm not entirely sure
• "American actress Ashly Burch voices her" — I find the wording a bit awkward here
• "This was a departure from the masculine tone of the studio's previous Killzone franchise." — Burch voicing her is a departure...? Or something else?
• "scholarly analysis regarding her themes of ecofeminism and" — question: is "her" themes correct here?
• "The concept of Aloy dates back to 2010 when Guerrilla Games art director Jan-Bart van Beek pitched an early concept for a game featuring her as the protagonist in a post-apocalyptic world reclaimed by nature and robotic dinosaurs." — wording feels almost off to me. I'm really sure how to explain it so bear with me here. The "her", to me, implies the final version, if that makes sense? Like she was fully conceptualised at that point? To me, it would make more sense if it was worded like "...pitched an early concept for a game featuring [description of how the character was at that point] as the protagonist..." Sorry, this comment is really long-winded, but I hope it makes sense.

I've not read a lot of the article so far, but I do wanna review this, so ping me if I go a few days without any comments. Pamzeis (talk) 05:02, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

@Pamzeis I have addressed all of these comments so far. Hopefully things have been better clarified as a result. -- ZooBlazer 18:06, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Continuing my review:

• Could the uses of "felt" be reduced a bit? It's used quite a few times, and sometimes, it feels a bit euphemistic.
• "The team aimed to avoid industry trends of overly sexualising female characters" — same as earlier
• "Her red hair and tribal braids were retained to avoid impractical fashion flourishes" — this is really nitpick-y, but I initially read "retained" as meaning retained from an earlier design, rather being retained, I'm assuming, regardless of which armour she's wearing. Could this be worded more clearly?
• "physical and emotional equal who could understand her perspective" — is a bit awkward IMO
• "In Burning Shores (2023), McCaw explained" — what is Burning Shores? It's not mentioned before this
• "Equipping Seyka with a Focus helped cement this dynamic to mirror Aloy's past and ensure she felt like a genuine match" — any reason for why? As someone who's never played the game, I don't have enough knowledge to understand the significance of a Focus (at least, not ATP reading the article so far)
• "latter features a full level based on" — I don't have much expertise on video games—is "full" needed here?
• "critics observing her ability to bring humanity, confidence, and emotional depth to the role" — states an opinion as a fact
• "journalists saw this fixed in Forbidden West" — wording is a bit awkward here
• "the exaggerated, lighter take on her usually serious personality endearing, supported by a more comedic vocal performance from Burch" — I think it's unclear what Burch's performance is meant to be supporting here—the lighter take? The endearing-ness?

For the most part, I find the article very well-written and quite easy to follow. Pamzeis (talk) 07:15, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

@Pamzeis I think I have cleaned up everything from your latest comments. -- ZooBlazer 18:19, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

• I support this nomination. Pamzeis (talk) 05:54, 27 July 2026 (UTC)

Source review

Referencing Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Jill Valentine/archive1 and Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Jill Valentine/archive2 because while they are old they show some of the challenges that FACses on fictional characters can face. Right off the bat I see the games are apparently used to source just the summaries of her plots, which makes me wonder if anything is missing/filtered through secondary sources, which adds a potential for error. Everything else seems reliable but note that I have to rely extensively on WP:VGRS since I don't know most of these sauces. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 11:30, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jo-Jo Eumerus Do I need to added secondary sources for the appearances? This is the first character article I have worked on, and in the past with films and games I contributed to, the plots didn't require other sources but I'm not sure if it is different for characters. -- ZooBlazer 17:12, 22 July 2026 (UTC)

Apologies for the intrusion. I wanted to provide some insight as I have worked on fictional character articles. I have used primary sources for this type of section in my own featured articles (like with Satsu (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Melaka Fray), and I have seen other featured articles do the same (like with Yeti (Doctor Who) and Ice Warrior). That being said, I can understand Jo-Jo Eumerus's comment. It could be helpful to look through secondary sources to see if there is any useful information that could be added to an appearances section.

I have admittedly not read this article, but it could be worthwhile to check and see. Just as an example, I have used secondary sources to more clearly verify and support information implied in the story but not as clearly or explicitly stated. Apologies again if this is not helpful, but I wanted to try and help, as I do have experience with this general topic (fictional characters). I hope that this helps and best of luck with your FAC! Aoba47 (talk) 01:51, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, my issue isn't that you are using the games to source the plots, but that you are using the games to source only the plots and nothing else. One wonders if, for example, details on her appearance that don't come up frequently in secondary sources were thus omitted. I know that folks occasionally handwave to WP:WEIGHT then to assert one needs secondary sources for these too, but that solved neither the second-hand error issue nor does e.g character description require a WEIGHT assessment much of the time. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:46, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jo-Jo Eumerus I feel like the important details about her are pretty well covered in the other sections of the article so that the plot info is able to be more story focused and nothing is intentionally omitted for not being covered by secondary sources. Her physical appearance details for instance are covered in the Characterisation and casting, so it probably wouldn't be needed in the plot. Or am I misinterpreting what you are saying? -- ZooBlazer 08:02, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Yes, you are misinterpreting - the issue isn't where you are putting the information, but whether you are not using the games as sources even for information like details on how she looks. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:16, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

I see. Thank you for the clarification. Apologies again. I just wanted to pop in to try and help with this. Aoba47 (talk) 13:54, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

@Jo-Jo Eumerus Ah, okay. I added the game sources to a few spots in the article including her hair, her clothes, and her augmented reality device. -- ZooBlazer 17:28, 25 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi Jo-Jo, how are things looking now? Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:04, 29 July 2026 (UTC)

OKish, but I can't vouch much for the source usage. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 12:04, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Comments by David Fuchs

Reviewing presently. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 15:39, 4 August 2026 (UTC)

David? Gog the Mild (talk) 19:34, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay, was away from an internet connection. I unfortunately think at present I'm going to have to oppose, primarily on prose concerns.

• "She first appeared in Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and returned in its sequel Horizon Forbidden West (2022)." — I suppose this could go either way, but based on general convention around these things with Wikipedia articles I think this is probably better using literary present tense.
• There's a lot of repetitious word choice and phrasing that comes off as clunky. "Aloy is a skilled huntress of machines who uses tactical intelligence and tribal weaponry to survive in a world that has been reclaimed by nature and overrun by hostile machines." We've got a clunky repetition of machines, and what exactly machines are is introduced in the second half of the sentence so I'm not sure why it's structured the way it is.
  • "The concept of Aloy dates back to 2010 when Guerrilla Games art director Jan-Bart van Beek pitched an early concept for a game featuring a female protagonist in a post-apocalyptic world reclaimed by nature and robotic dinosaurs" concept/concept
• I think a lot of the jargon should be reconsidered if it's essential. For example, "Flashpoint" gets used a couple of times but dialogue choices is already there and just as clear.
  • The characterization section feels like a drinking game would leave one blackout given how often it keeps on hammering "practicality".
• The entire bit about her parents and searching for her identity feels excessive for the lead and could be summarized. Rost doesn't seem important enough to mention here, for example.
• "Aloy has also been adapted for virtual reality and Lego spin-offs, " this feels a bit weird to say--has the character been adapted or have they just appeared in spin-offs?
• "Gonzalez focused on weaving her emotional growth directly into the world's lore, successfully pushing for her to discover her Focus, an ancient augmented reality device, as a child rather than an adult to intertwine her early experiences with the ancient world." I don't really know how her discovering an augmented reality device weaves her emotional growth into the world's lore.
• "Elven was originally recommended to the team by composer Ian Livingstone; de Man asked to "tack on" to their recording session to have Elven sing a short, minute-and-a-half phrase he had written. This approach relied on soloistic performances and improvisations." I believe what is trying to be conveyed is that de Man asked Elven at the end of a recording session to record something he had written, but I'm not sure why that needs a quote and can't be expressed more simply. I also don't know what "this approach" means, since I assume it's not talking specifically about recording some extra stuff at the end of a session.
• "She learns that she is a genetic clone of Sobeck, created by GAIA. GAIA is"... The anadiplosis just feels like clunky writing rather than flowing here.
• In the process of double-checking phrasing to see how wording might be tweaked, I noted a couple potential source-verification issues:
  • Ref 13 is used for "The developers used complex hair physics to make her movements look more dynamic in combat." but I don't think that source covers the physics of her hair.
  • "Aloy's visual design was another focus for reviewers, who appreciated Guerrilla Games' decision to prioritise athletic practicality over sexualised tropes." Is cited to Refs 65 and 66; I don't see where the Game Informer discussion can be used for this.
  • "The team depicted her humanity by implementing a "Flashpoint" dialogue system that allowed the player to shape the nuances of her personality during narrative moments. The player could choose whether she reacts compassionately, insightfully, or confrontationally" is cited to Ref 9; I don't really see how this source has them talking about her humanity being depicted through the choice system, or where it clearly gives an explanation of the different facets so explicitly (it only gives examples of choices you can make in a specific sequence.)
• "Aloy has received largely positive reception across the Horizon franchise" The character has received positive reception from critics, I don't think saying "across the Horizon franchise" here really reads as "in her varied appearances", and I question whether that is needed for a thesis statement, anyhow. Likewise, "As the franchise progressed"... franchises has further installments, but I don't think they can really 'progress' like we're talking about the actual story.
• I don't think File:Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores kiss.jpg really has a strong enough fair use justification. It's a kiss, that doesn't need a photo for readers to be able to grasp it.

I think there's a lot of good here, but it's not being expressed clearly or concisely enough to me to be easily grokked by the lay reader. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 02:27, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedbacks @David Fuchs. I think I have address everything, but if there is anything else, please let me know. -- ZooBlazer 19:28, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, Zoo, but this is just a general list, and I think especially with the source integrity issues further work is better done outside of the FAC process. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 13:22, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

Coord note

This has been open close to six weeks so I'm going to archive it and ask that David's advice be acted on. I know there was a PR before this nom but it didn't attract a lot of commentary so that might be a good avenue before returning to FAC -- or an informal PR on the article talk page, perhaps working with David on the improvements. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 00:43, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

• Closing note: This candidate has been archived, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. Ian Rose (talk) 00:44, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.