Talk:Dungeon Crawler Carl

Feedback from New Page Review process

I left the following feedback for the creator/future reviewers while reviewing this article: Thanks for this article! I was planning on creating it at some point, but you beat me to it!

ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 23:16, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Photo of stuffed Princess Donut

I'm honestly not sure where to place this File:PrincessDonut.jpg. It feels a bit out of place to just plop it in the plot section. It's a plush that a fan made the author of Princess Donut. I should have gotten a photo of the author as well, so we could have it for the article, but his booth was kind of busy. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 17:53, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Got one of him and added it! Bonus Princess Donut as well! ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 13:22, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

Looks good, thanks! ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 14:00, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

No problem! I'm also adding stuff to the development section - I'm kind of just throwing things in there as I find them, so if you or anyone else wants to make it sound a lot prettier/cohesive, please go for it! ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 16:15, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

I did quite a bit of shifting around as well. I made a bigger section for the publication history since there's a lot going on there. We should probably alter the table to have different areas/dates for the original releases and for the Ace releases. Speaking of which, I added that Ace was a wing of PRH - Dinniman refers to the publisher as PRH in a few interviews so I thought that could help reduce confusion for anyone coming in with those interviews as a reference. I also moved the development section up above the publication history.

I would like to eventually create a character section, but that will take a bit of sourcing hunting to really do correctly. Otherwise, my plan is to look for more reviews/reception in places Wikipedia can use. Notability is here, but more of the reviews can't hurt. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 19:01, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

Didn't find any new reviews, but I did find some more publication details that I don't know where to put: Here's a source for the comic version, and this source mentions a French translation of the first two books. (Both links should be available through TWL.) ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 20:39, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Irrelevant Details in "Premise" Section

Not a fan of the random details thrown in the "Premise" section of this page, e.g. mentioning Frank Q, Maggie My, and Samantha. All 3 are notable side characters that could be mentioned in a "Side Characters" section if desired, but none of them contribute to the premise of the book series.

Thoughts on revising this section to be more concise? Smailliwniloc (talk) 17:32, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable to me. Dan Bloch (talk) 21:53, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Neat, just put up an edit to make that section a bit less narrow. Smailliwniloc (talk) 14:06, 2 July 2025 (UTC)

I have no problem with that either. When I added them, I was thinking more about this eventually turning into a longer summary of the series. The author was hyping them up to be pretty major characters later on down the line, along with other players attacking the protagonists, which is why I listed them specifically. But I have no problem with you whittling down the premise section to remove specific names and whatnot. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 12:07, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

Dinniman article

Hey, I thought it would be a good idea to start creating an article for the author himself. There's sourcing that does focus on him, although of course DCC is still a super major focus. I found the following sourcing for Operation Bounce House:

• SciFiNow review
• Seattle Times review
• The Guardian review
• Winter is Coming review (not sure if usable)
• The News Tribune article
• Northwest Georgia News

It looks like OBH could justify its own article now, so between the two we could also justify an article for the author as well. What say you? ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 05:21, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

Created one for the author! ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 22:27, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

On what characters to include

I'm trimming the list to characters that are key elements of the short plot summaries for each book below, and likely to be names that people who have not read the books may hear in relation to it. There are a few names, like Miriam, that don't show up in the plot summaries but she and Prepotente are tied closely together and covered that. Similarly with the members of Team Meadowlark. Masem (t) 16:34, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I agree with your cuts, it was getting bloated fast. Though I wonder if Frank Q and Maggie My would be worth mentioning considering that they're effectively the main antagonists of the first book (not counting the dungeon itself and all its machinations of course) ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 17:04, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Let me add I'm only to book 6, so there could be more to be added. With Frank and Maggie, its one of those long running plots, similar to Quan Ch., that right at this point I'd not include for that purpose, the broad plot overviews do not require their mention yet.

That said, I anticipate that once the TV series comes around the series may be more popular and there will be more coverage of the characters besides Carl and Donut, and that will help guide the selection of who to include beyond what we have. Masem (t) 17:11, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I strongly disagree with some of these cuts, especially if you are only book 6. Realistically the likes of Li Na, Li Jun, Daniel Bautista feature as much as if not more in books than the likes of Prepotente, Miriam Dom, Odette, Brandon, Chris, Yolanda or Samantha do over the books. Even Florin and Louis do. The likes of Li Na, Li Jun, Bautista, Florin, Louis etc. are all in Carl’s inner circle and feature in multiple chapters in every book from the point they join and all have their own personalities and plot points, they should absolutely be included if people like Odette, Prepotente, Samantha and Chris are. As should the likes of Lucia Mar and Juice Box - they are all regular recurring characters over several books. MIR17 (talk) 17:35, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Oh and the likes of Florin, Li Na, Li Jun, Louis, Bautista, Lucia Mar, Juice Box etc. feature way more and have way more plot points and feature way more than Frank My over the 8 books. MIR17 (talk) 17:37, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I don't disagree that some of those characters appear more often than others, but in terms of the larger arching plot for the level of detail we should cover per MOS:WAF, they are simply part of Carl's larger group. They don't create situations or are key in the major revelations that occur. That said, yes, once I get through the next two books I may think other characters now must be brought forward but again, it depends on the much larger narrative. Masem (t) 17:38, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I strongly disagree here. Juice Box is way more crucial to the overarching narrative than Brandon is, as are the likes of Florin, Li Na, Li Jun and Louis. And they absolutely are part of Carl’s inner circle as much if not more than half the characters you kept across all 8 books.

Realistically, you need to cut Odette, Chris, Brandon, Yolanda, Samantha, Miriam Dom and Prepotente as well if you’re going to cut half these characters and just leave it at Carl, Donut, the AI, Mordecai, Katia, Imani, Elle and maybe Zev and just keep the characters which are there from book 2 (although that should include Li Na and Li Jung too).

And yes, many of these characters are huge parts of book 6, 7 and 8 as well MIR17 (talk) 17:44, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

(Note, I'm only midway through book 5) I think that character lists, especially with a series with such an extensive cast as DCC, runs the risk of getting bloated with fancruft. I don't disagree that many of these characters are quite important to the plot, but I have a counterintuitive suggestion: What if we cut the list even further down to only the unambiguous main characters of the series (Carl, Donut, Mordecai, and maybe a couple others) that must be known about to understand the overarching premise of the series? That way we keep what's necessary to understand without encouraging well meaning newbies to include every character down to the meth llamas ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 17:44, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Not being funny, but if you’re only halfway through book 5 then why haven’t you cut Miriam Dom and Prepotente or Samantha? Who don’t really become major characters until book 5?

It’s not about featuring every minor character down to the Llamas. It’s that if you get to the end of book 7 or 8 you’ll understand that the likes of Florin, Louis, Bautista, Li Na etc. are absolutely all characters in Carl’s inner circle who become main characters across multiple books, whereas a lot of the characters in early books like Odette start to fade into the background. And someone like Juice Box becomes a massive character and point to driving the plot forward. MIR17 (talk) 17:50, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I haven't cut any characters, in fact I re-added Firas after he was removed. And again, I don't disagree that these characters are important. What I'm saying is that an already large character list in an article is going to encourage newer editors to add even more characters who are decidedly not critial to the plot, if articles about any other series with a fandom are anything to go on. By a very rough glance, in-universe plot details make up close to half of the page and, in my opinion, it probably doesn't need to, regardless of if it's details before or after where I personally happen to be at in the story. ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 17:59, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

I get the point, but then we need to decide if it’s just the very major characters, in which case we realistically need to also remove the likes of Prepotente, Odette, Brandon, Samantha, Chris, Yolanda, Miriam Dom as well.

Or if we keep those and decide it’s Carl’s inner circle and major plot point characters the the likes of Florin, Bautista, Louis, Li Jun, Li Na etc. still need to be added back as they all become just as much of Carl and Donut’s inner circle as Elle and Imani from around book 4 onwards and moreso than Prepotente or Odette. And the likes of Lucia Mar and Juice Box are as much crucial characters to the overarching plot as Prepotente or Samantha really. MIR17 (talk) 18:08, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Personally I'd go as extreme as just Carl, Donut, Mordecai, and maybe the system AI. I do recognize that I'm operating off of limited plot info here, so I'm not going to protest if you or someone else decides that the characters you've mentioned are worth adding. Ultimately, keeping plot details as short as necessary is personal preference, what's there now and even before the cut doesn't go against any MOS I'm aware of. ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 18:13, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Personally I agree with everything Masem said, including (for the most part) his well-thought-out pruning of the list. However, I'm fairly sure it doesn't matter what we agree to in this discussion. New people are going to keep adding characters, and then we'll get to argue about removing them over and over. Eventually the section will be split off into a "Characters in Dungeon Crawler Carl" article. It doesn't seem like it's worth arguing about whether characters are major or minor before that happens. Danbloch (talk) 20:08, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

But I do think there’s already inconsistency. Like Prepotente is a fan favourite, but he’s only really a main character in books 5 and 7 and characters like Louis and Juice Box are both main characters in book 4 and 7 (with Juice Box probably being more important to the overarching plot than Prepotente too), but aren’t featured. Samantha, similarly is only really a major character from book 5 onwards etc. and she doesn’t really feature more than characters like Florin do and she features and is part of less main plot points than Lucia Mar does.

Even Katia, who is the “third main character” for books 3-5 joins only briefly at the end of book 2 and then leaves in book 7.

And Miriam Dom, Chris, Brandon and Yolanda are all actually quite minor characters in the grand scheme of things, who are only really semi-major characters for one book each.

It’s not about lack of the reasoning, it’s that the reasoning is inconsistent.

I think you either have to set a standard include all of the major characters in Carl’s Safehome Guild and inner-circle who they converse with regularly once the Guild is set up, which means adding back characters like Florin, Louis, Bautista, Li Na, Li Jun and other regular characters important to the overarching plot like Juice Box or Lucia Mar - or just keep it to the very major characters who appear in every book in which case you basically only leave it at Carl, Donut, the System AI, Mordecai (and even Mordecai starts to become less important and feature less as the books go on), and maybe Zev and Momgo at a push.

My point is that I don’t think there is really a genuine argument to include characters like Prepotente, Samantha, Miriam Dom, Odette, Brandon and not include Lucia Mar, Florin, Louis, Li Na or Juice Box for example. It’s either include all or include none really for me. MIR17 (talk) 20:56, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for this, I don't think I understood your stance as well as I thought prior to reading this reply, particularly the last paragraph. I agree that we should go with one or the other (include all major characters or only the small handful of "main" characters), and I'm sure I've made it clear that I'm personally in favor of the latter and just cleaning up occasionally later per Danbloch's description of how these lists tend to go. ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 21:04, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

We should try to keep it as narrow as possible, because there are so many possible characters in the books. Obviously Carl and Donus, and then it should be those that have been in their party, which includes primarily Mongo, Katia, and Samantha, as well as Mordecai. Masem (t) 21:18, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Well then we're back at the question of why them and not Chris, Prepotente, Garrett,(note: idk who that is, just came up when looking through the fandom wiki) and all the other people that have been part of the royal court? That's still a pretty substantial list. ᴸᵃᶠᶠʸTaffer💬(they/she) 21:26, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, basing it on Carl’s party is a bad idea for me, there’s really no logic for why we then don’t include Bomo, The Sledge or Rend then either as hired mercenaries or pets of the party like Samantha or Mordecai.

Crawlers go in and out of parties all the time - as you say, Chris and Prepotente are both very briefly in the party at floor crossovers, solely so they can start together at certain floors, and then they leave again. The party system largely stops mattering after book 3, it doesn’t define who is joining them after book 3. The Safehome Guild is a much better and more logical point of who to include or not and more representative of who they converse and go out in the dungeon regularly either across the series as a whole if you’re going to use anything as a reasonable point of who to include. MIR17 (talk) 22:02, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

The series has far far too many subplots that we cannot, for Wikipedia, list them all, and to that end, all the characters involved. We have to think in very broad strokes about what are the most important storylines, and some of that we might not even know until the final book is released. That's why its necessary to keep the list of characters to the ones that have a significant impact on the larger story. That's clearly Carl and Donut at the absolute minimum, and anyone else that is added needs to have been shown to have a clear impact on the broad plot. Most of the characters in the guild do not have that impact. Masem (t) 00:56, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

Yes and then you again ignore my point - my point is neither do most of the ones currently listed that’s my point - if you need it to be that specific (and then it should literally just be Carl and Donut and maybe the System AI or Mordecai, but certainly not Odette, Samantha, Elle, Brandon or Prepotente etc.

I’m not arguing for or against anything, I’m saying it should be all or none but not what is currently listed, because there’s no real logic behind including Brandon or Prepotente but not Lucia Mar for example. MIR17 (talk) 07:20, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

And I’ve been trying not to spoil stuff for you, but I feel I have to - the stuff you’re saying about overarching plot makes it clear you haven’t caught up on all the books yet - because DCC isn’t a small intimate story about a couple of party members, the overarching plot is about consequences across the galaxy with the crawl being used to reverse engineer and train AI by a bunch of rich aliens and the dangers of AI breaking out its safety measures. Someone like Lucia Mar is a character who is featured a decent amount and every book and becomes key to that overarching plot when you find out she’s essentially taken hostage all the children on earth and is being controlled by Alexandro, who is one of the 2 residuals along with Agatha who are trying to convince the AI to wipe out all organic life from the galaxy for example.

Similarly Juice Box’ changeling race and her becoming self-aware becomes key to the overarching when it’s discovered the fact she’s able to turn into ancient creatures and is trying to add gods to her “collection” which many of the elite aliens declare is the key to the whole story, all while also leading an NPC rebellion within the crawl.

Whereas a lot of characters from the early books like Odette and even Mordecai start to become less relevant (Mordecai even remarks on it himself), Katia also leaves the dungeon in book 7 and isn’t featured in book 8 and the likes of Chris and Brandon are barely mentioned after book 4. I’m not saying you can’t keep it down to a very small list - I’m saying a lot of the characters who were removed don’t make sense for where the series is at and who the actual regular characters and important characters to the overarching plot across all the books are compared to many of the characters who were kept. MIR17 (talk) 07:42, 9 May 2026 (UTC)

But the party system becomes sort of irrelevant for who decides which characters hang round with Carl after book 3. Samantha isn’t really in their party going out on missions. She’s hired in the safe room the same way as Mordecai, Bomo or The Sledge are, and they all regularly meet Carl in the guildhall exactly like all the other crawlers attached to the guild do. Samantha, like Bomo, Sledge, or the other crawlers in the Guild join Carl on certain different missions and not on others. Katia is only part of the party for books 3 and 4 too really before she forms her own party attached to the Guild in book 5.

By the time you get to Book 4 they are in a bubble and joined with other characters like Louis and Firas with the party, and then from book 5 onwards, the Guild kind of becomes more important parties in considering Carl’s inner circle, but you get different members of the guild (including Samantha) join them at different times on different quests and moments in the same book - and then book 6 is split into teams where Carl and Donut are our alone for a lot of but meet back up in the guild with the others throughout the book before they all meet up together towards the end. Then of course book 7 where it’s a sprawling war zone and loads of characters have major roles and lead armies or even entire factions and where even Donut kind of splits off from Carl for a decent amount of the book.

I suppose it’s like saying are the main characters in Harry Potter just Harry, Ron and Hermione - surely Voldemort and all the teachers are main character too even if they’re not in their individual lessons the entire time? MIR17 (talk) 21:43, 8 May 2026 (UTC)