[SOLVED] Category not using its template to display subcategory items

I have a couple strange things happening at the moment, but the first is that I have some categories set up like this:
Games
-- Game 1
-- Game 2

Game 1 and Game 2 each have two Items in them; Games has no Items of its own. All three are using the same template, which should display the items in a table format. It works fine on Game 1 and Game 2. However, in Games, when it displays the items from first-level subcategories (those two), it appears to use the blog-type layout. It's using the same custom template as the other two, officially, and it doesn't seem to matter whether it inherits it or has it set specifically.

Weirdly, another set of categories are set up like:
Characters
-- Character 1
-- Character 2

The sub-categories have two items each in them, as well (in fact, the same items as the Game categories, currently), but are the secondary categories for those items. The Characters category page doesn't even show the subcategories, and says "There are no articles in this category. If subcategories display on this page, they may contain articles" ! These pages are using the same template as the Games ones, and it works fine in the subcategories. It's just the parent categories acting oddly, and not even in the same way.

How can I make them behave?

Figured this one out -- it was ignoring what was set on the actual category, and making choices based on the menu item connected to them (which for some reason was assuming other templates).