Alternate Continuity: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Queen Serenity''': Remember Fiore?

'''Sailor Moon''': Yes! Yes I do! And I seem to be the only one who does!

'''Queen Serenity''': Well you see, there's the [[Series Franchise|series]], and then there's the [[Non Serial Movie|movies]] . . . and the movies are a whole other continuity, honey.

'''Queen Serenity''': Well you see, there's the [[Series Franchise|series]], and then there's the [[Non-Serial Movie|movies]] . . . and the movies are a whole other continuity, honey.

'''Sailor Moon''': W-what?! What are you talking about?

'''Queen Serenity''': The movies. The whole thing with the Kissenian Blossom, and Fiore, and your future child? It's all just a whole other continuity. |''[[Sailor Moon Abridged]]''}}

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When a show's writers make the [[Alternate Continuity]] their new "main" Continuity while discarding the old one, it becomes a [[Continuity Reboot]]. If the [[Alternate Continuity]] and the regular one share backstory and diverge from each other at some point, that's generally an [[Alternate Timeline]].

Note that this [[Trope]] is specifically about changes in continuity moving from medium to medium, or after a [[Continuity Reboot]]. See also [[The Movie]], [[Ultimate Universe]] (a [[Sub Trope|sub-trope]] of this), [[Canon Immigrant]] and [[Series Franchise]]. When [[Fanfic]] attempts to weld two or more of these into a single story, it's called a [[Patchwork Fic]].

Note that this [[Trope]] is specifically about changes in continuity moving from medium to medium, or after a [[Continuity Reboot]]. See also [[The Movie]], [[Ultimate Universe]] (a [[Sub-Trope|sub-trope]] of this), [[Canon Immigrant]] and [[Series Franchise]]. When [[Fanfic]] attempts to weld two or more of these into a single story, it's called a [[Patchwork Fic]].

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** 1. A 5-season anime series: The first two are based on the first eight novels, the remaining three are original stories. Tends to heavily contradict itself, especially considering that [[Un Cancelled|the fourth and fifth seasons came eleven years after the third.]]

** 2. The [[Non Serial Movies]], all based on the ''Slayers Special'' novels. While the first four (chronicling the protagonists' early adventures with a [[Goldfish Poop Gang|flaky sorceress]] who just so happens to be the long lost sister of one of her later allies) is a plausible start before the anime, the fifth is problematic, as it involves the four main characters from the tv series set in a way that could be after seasons 2 or 3.

** 3. Most of the manga made are of their ''own'' continuity; ''Super Explosive Demon Story'' is its own interpretation of the first 8 novels/seasons 1 and 2, and there is an alternative manga to the fifth [[Non Serial Movie]] (''Slayers Premium'').

** 3. Most of the manga made are of their ''own'' continuity; ''Super Explosive Demon Story'' is its own interpretation of the first 8 novels/seasons 1 and 2, and there is an alternative manga to the fifth [[Non-Serial Movie]] (''Slayers Premium'').

*** In addition to these, there are wholly different mangas set elsewhere, such as ''Slayers Light Magic'' (set in the future) and ''The Hourglass of Falces'', which is the only manga featuring all six core characters (mainstays Lina and Gourry, Zelgadis and Amelia from the first novel arc, and Luke and Millina from the second novel arc) together.

** 4. Five video games, all their own stories and [[Word of God|officially non-canon.]]

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** The [[Digimon (Franchise)|Digimon]] franchise has five [[Manga|mangas]], and one of them, V-Tamer has [[Crossover]] specials with Adventure 02, Frontier and Ryo of the [[Digimon (Franchise)|Digimon]] [[Video Game|games]]

* ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' has five continuities and counting, with a couple of [[Bat Family Crossover]] movies (''Pretty Cure All Stars DX''). Each one follows the same basic [[Plot]], but changes up a few elements (besides using different characters and settings) each time, in particular the number of heroines and how their powers affect each other, [[Futari wa Pretty Cure|going from two]] [[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star|girls with]] [[Wonder Twin Powers]] [[Yes Pretty Cure 5|to several]] [[Fresh Pretty Cure (Anime)|relying on]] [[The Power of Friendship]] [[Heartcatch Pretty Cure (Anime)|and back to]] two whose powers are mostly not connected and several other, currently inactive Cures.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', consists of the original [[Manga]] continuity which includes a Side Story ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh R]]''; the Toei series continuity; the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' ''Duel Monsters'' and ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX|GX]]'' continuity; and an alternate [[Manga]] retelling of ''GX''. There are also two [[Non Serial Movie|Non Serial Movies]] (one for each [[Anime]]) and the non-[[Canon|canonical]] ''Capsule Monsters'' mini-series. Then there is ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds|5D's]]'', which might be an [[Alternate Universe]].

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'', consists of the original [[Manga]] continuity which includes a Side Story ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh R]]''; the Toei series continuity; the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' ''Duel Monsters'' and ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh GX|GX]]'' continuity; and an alternate [[Manga]] retelling of ''GX''. There are also two [[Non-Serial Movie|Non Serial Movies]] (one for each [[Anime]]) and the non-[[Canon|canonical]] ''Capsule Monsters'' mini-series. Then there is ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds|5D's]]'', which might be an [[Alternate Universe]].

** The Tenth Anniversary special places 5Ds [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] of GX, but the [[Plot]] involves the villain trying to make a Split Timeline, so...

* ''[[X 1999|X/1999]]'' was released first as a movie, then again as a TV series five years later. The movie, for reasons of length and limited information, had an extremely simplified [[Plot|plotline]]. Also, both were finished before the [[Manga]], and all three killed different characters and resolved the [[Plot]] in different ways.

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** Interestingly enough, at the end of Nightmare of Nunnally, Nunnally says that {{spoiler|while touching Heaven's Door as part of Charles' god-killing ritual}}, she saw several different realities. One of these realities is the [[Anime]] continuity, and a montage of {{spoiler|Euphemia killing the Japanese, Suzaku in his standoff with Lelouch at the end of R1, and Lelouch's death}} are shown, none of which happen in Nightmare of Nunnally.

* ''[[Gundam]]'' tends to spawn a lot of these, given how many versions of the same story they have (TV series, movie trilogy, [[Manga]], novel, [[Video Game]]...) in ''addition'' to the seven different [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Universes]] the franchise has created.

* The ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' live-action [[Film|films]] eventually veer away from the [[Plot]] as seen in the [[Manga]] and [[Anime]] versions. Rumor has it that an American live-action Adaptation is in the works with Light Yagami being played by [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Zac_Efron~~ Zac Efron]. [http://www.petitiononline.com/apple88/petition.html There's already a petition against it].

* The ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' live-action [[Film|films]] eventually veer away from the [[Plot]] as seen in the [[Manga]] and [[Anime]] versions. Rumor has it that an American live-action Adaptation is in the works with Light Yagami being played by [[wikipedia:Zac Efron|Zac Efron]]. [http://www.petitiononline.com/apple88/petition.html There's already a petition against it].

* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'''s [[Gainax Ending|last episode]], Shinji has a vision of his life as a typical high school comedy [[Anime]] (except, you know, it still has [[Humongous Mecha]]) during a [[Mind Rape]]. This concept was so popular as to spawn ''several'' [[Dating Sim]] [[Video Game|games]] and the [[Manga]] ''Angelic Days.''

** Another [[Alternate Continuity]] titled ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion Gakuen Datenroku]]'' goes way farther in its differences: NERV is a Catholic boarding school; EVAs are actually unique conventional weapons (i.e., Asuka wields a [[Whip It Good|whip]] while Shinji has a handgun, etc.); Angels are instead disembodied consciousnesses that can kill and take over any body they choose; and the motivation for killing the Angels is to collect their [[Cosmic Keystone|Cores]] so [[The World Tree|Yggdrasil]] won't [[The End of the World As We Know It|collapse, destroying all realities]].

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** You bet. Especially because the only differences among the names are [[Oddly Named Sequel|exclamation and question marks]].

** Six continuities now, as the movie continuation of the [[OVA|OVAs]] is pulling a [[Gecko Ending]].

* ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' adds itself to the list when it went from series to movies, giving us a pair of [[Non Serial Movie|Non Serial Movies]] because it was just too big for one.

* ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' adds itself to the list when it went from series to movies, giving us a pair of [[Non-Serial Movie|Non Serial Movies]] because it was just too big for one.

* ''[[Hanaukyo Maid Tai (Anime)|Hanaukyo Maid Tai]]''. The first and second series cover slightly different ground.

* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' has the 2009 TV special that takes place in a future where man has screwed up the world's ecosystems to the point where people had to make an artificial environment for animals.

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== Live Action TV ==

* When the original ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'' series was taken off the air, the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] continued in the form of comics, and slightly later novels, then audio dramas and [[Web Original]] stories, which variously referenced, featured characters from, and often contradicted, the continuities of the other media. (Except, to confuse things further, when they ''didn't''; individual writers would often refer to their own stories regardless of what medium they were in.) Exactly which, if any, of these the new series takes as [[Canon]] is unknown. The [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novel ''Human Nature'' by Paul Cornell was adapted [[Compressed Adaptation|and simplified]] into a two-part episode with a different Doctor with many of the themes removed, and a vastly reduced body count. The final novel in the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] series, ''The Gallifrey Chronicles'', suggested that the complex events of the Eighth Doctor's lifespan led to the creation of three possible Ninth Doctors, implied to be the Ninth Doctors from the parody ''The Curse of Fatal Death'' ([[Rowan Atkinson]]), the web animation ''Scream of the Shalka'' ([[Richard E Grant]]) and the TV Ninth Doctor ([[Christopher Eccleston]]).

* When the original ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series was taken off the air, the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] continued in the form of comics, and slightly later novels, then audio dramas and [[Web Original]] stories, which variously referenced, featured characters from, and often contradicted, the continuities of the other media. (Except, to confuse things further, when they ''didn't''; individual writers would often refer to their own stories regardless of what medium they were in.) Exactly which, if any, of these the new series takes as [[Canon]] is unknown. The [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novel ''Human Nature'' by Paul Cornell was adapted [[Compressed Adaptation|and simplified]] into a two-part episode with a different Doctor with many of the themes removed, and a vastly reduced body count. The final novel in the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] series, ''The Gallifrey Chronicles'', suggested that the complex events of the Eighth Doctor's lifespan led to the creation of three possible Ninth Doctors, implied to be the Ninth Doctors from the parody ''The Curse of Fatal Death'' ([[Rowan Atkinson]]), the web animation ''Scream of the Shalka'' ([[Richard E Grant]]) and the TV Ninth Doctor ([[Christopher Eccleston]]).

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' continues from ''[[Stargate (Film)|Stargate]]'' the movie, disregarding Devlin and Emmerich's backstory and the five novels based on it. And if the two movie [[Sequel|sequels]] to ''[[Stargate (Film)|Stargate]]'' had been made (not to be confused with the two movie [[Sequel|sequels]] to ''SG-1'', which actually ''were'' made), they would have disregarded both, resulting in yet a third continuity.

* The ''[[Red Dwarf (Literature)|Red Dwarf]]'' novels take place in a different continuity to the TV series, in many cases incorporating concepts from the TV series with a different spin (and vice versa). The first two novels (''Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' (1989) and ''Better Than Life'' (1990)) were written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor under the collective pen name Grant Naylor -- after their writing partnership split, both wrote a ''Red Dwarf'' novel individually (''Last Human'' (1995) by Naylor, and ''Backwards'' (1996) by Grant) which each acted as third novels in the series, effectively splitting the novel series into two [[Alternate Continuity|Alternate Continuities]].

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* The ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series has a few [[Alternate Continuity|alternate continuities]]. There are two alternate [[Sequel|sequels]] to the original [[Video Game|game]]: ''Snake's Revenge'' for NES (which was actually the first [[Sequel]] released, as Hideo Kojima hadn't planned on making one) and ''Ghost Babel'' for [[Game Boy Color]] (simply known as "Metal Gear Solid" outside Japan). ''[[Metal Gear Acid]]'' is an [[Alternate Continuity]] based on ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. All it really has in common is a quasi-real-world setting, and the [[Main Character]], whose personality and [[Backstory]] are both softened slightly. By the second ''Acid'' they'd abandoned all premise of a real-world setting and thrown in lots of cyborgs, [[People Jars]] and all sorts of mayhem. This time {{spoiler|Solid Snake wasn't even the same character from [[Metal Gear Acid|the previous game]] - he looked the part and had the same name but turned out to be a biological machine made in Solid Snake's likeness}}.

* In a partially successful effort to salvage [read:[[Continuity Reboot|reboot]]] the [[Franchise Zombie|zombified]] ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' franchise, ''[[The Legend of Spyro Trilogy]]'' completely discards all continuity from the previous [[Video Game|games]] except the two [[Main Character|main characters]], Spyro and Sparx, who still go through major changes in appearance and personality. The developers have gone as far as calling the first [[Video Game|game]] ''A New Beginning'' to highlight this.

** They're clearly throwing in a lot of [[Shout Out|shout outs]], with Sparx in ''A New Beginning'' eating butterflies, and the appearance of Hunter - originally a character in ''Spyro 2''.

** They're clearly throwing in a lot of [[Shout-Out|shout outs]], with Sparx in ''A New Beginning'' eating butterflies, and the appearance of Hunter - originally a character in ''Spyro 2''.

** Then, ''another'' reboot was attempted with ''[[Skylanders Spyros Adventure]]'', which introduces as many protagonists the players [[Gotta Catch Them All|can manage to get]].

** It can be argued that the post-[[PS 1]] classic era games take place in an AU from the originals, due to several continuity and characterization differences.

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*** Other example: Red from [[Pokémon Red and Blue (Video Game)|the]] [[Pokémon Gold and Silver (Video Game)|games]], [[The Messiah|Ash]] from [[Pokémon (Anime)|the anime]], Ash from ''The Electric Tale of Pikachu'', [[The Hero|Red]] from [[Pokémon Special]]. All with different characterizations, all in different continuities, and all with enough physical similarities to get them confused with each other if you aren't familiar with how the continuities work.

*** Even Gym Leaders are different if you compare the [[Video Game|games]] with [[Pokémon (Anime)|the anime]] with ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. It's shorter to list the similarities than it is to list the differences.

* Giant spoiler warning for [[Ever 17]] to the extent if you know this ahead of time, story is ruined for you. {{spoiler|Subverted. All events of the original four paths actually happen plus some stuff they leave out to avoid ruining the [[Tomato Surprise|climax.]] They're tied together by happening on two different points in the timeline plus an attempted [[Tricked Out Time|fix]] so that the ending would be less bittersweet/downer, depending on the route.}}

* Giant spoiler warning for [[Ever 17]] to the extent if you know this ahead of time, story is ruined for you. {{spoiler|Subverted. All events of the original four paths actually happen plus some stuff they leave out to avoid ruining the [[Tomato Surprise|climax.]] They're tied together by happening on two different points in the timeline plus an attempted [[Tricked-Out Time|fix]] so that the ending would be less bittersweet/downer, depending on the route.}}

* The [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]'' titles are all set in [[Alternate Continuity|alternate continuities]] from the main series.

* ''[[Ghostbusters the Video Game (Video Game)|Ghostbusters the Video Game]]'' considers the two ''[[Ghostbusters (Film)|Ghostbusters]]'' [[Film|films]] as [[Canon]], with several [[Mythology Gag|references even to minor details in those films]]. It does not consider ''[[The Real Ghostbusters (Animation)|The Real Ghostbusters]]'' to be [[Canon|canonical]], as most of the characters are depictions of the actors from the movie that, quite possibly, were specifically designed to look as little like the cartoon as possible while still being the same characters (Egon has dark hair for example). However, it does borrow some ideas from the cartoon, such as the idea that all Ghosts are made of slime/ectoplasm, and they don't keep Slimer as a friend/pet, but they DO keep him in his own cage separate from the main containment facility.

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[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]

[[Category:Alternate Continuity]]

[[Category:Trope]]