Sci fi and fantasy guns

[Vangelis]

Originally Posted by AdAstra2009

Why would it be built on top of a real gun if it doesn't fire blanks?

Largely because it's quicker to slap together a bunch of existing components and then put your fake parts on top than to make the whole thing from scratch, same reason that the Star Wars Jawa Sandcrawler has running gear from a model Sherman and the Death Star's surface in close-up is made from model kits of real-life warships. Another possibility that would result in a non-firing prop with real parts would be the prop parts not being able to handle the stresses of discharging real ammunition.

Originally Posted by AdAstra2009

Well trivia of that matter is not a big deal as it relates to a film that has real guns in it and is not the focus of the article but just a small piece.

The way I see it, the BFG article is a background piece for the movie; it's much too big to append to the movie page, but gives the background of what the thing is, why it's in the movie, and what it's been in before. If you click it wondering what a BFG is and why it's in the movie, you will be educated as to these things.

I understand where you're coming from with your objections to this, and I'd object to any standard that allowed large numbers of totally made-up weapons to have their own pages, but the present standard for fictional weapon pages makes for pages that just duplicate the information on the movie's own page; there's not much point to most of them even being there. I think it's more useful if they go in more detail about how they're supposed to work, what they're based on, and what legacy they've had; for example, that you can get hold of versions of the M41 pulse rifle and Auto-9 scaled for Lego figures, or that a videogame weapon has a series of real revolvers named after it, or how the Eraser gun compares to real experimental railguns.

I'd see it as a better standard to have a fictional gun article when there's a lot to say about the fictional gun, which would disqualify almost all sci-fi weapons instantly; making it clear that in-fiction background doesn't count as something to say would avoid any of the potential pitfalls, since 'This is the rifle from Halo it is what would happen if the FN F2000 was designed by blind idiots' is hardly going to qualify.