User blog comment:Maki Kuronami/From Freshmen to Sophomores/@comment-8182065-20140219205021

That is a good point to be brought up. I'm sure that if the weapon is being upgraded, it depends on how drastic the upgrade is. For example, if it was a small thing like changing the type of ammo for a gunner, or modifying it slightly that'd be fine as long as the fighting style was the same. However if there were new additions added which changes the fighting style or adds a new one, then that might be the point to put it back in pending.

Then for keeping the characters intact, I think a separate tab for the 2nd year version of a character might be best than making a new page; after all they are still the same character and you could easily switch between the two versions to compare.