Continuity Lock Out: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The writers have let the mythos they have generated get so [[Continuity Snarl|thick and convoluted]] that a new reader/viewer has very little chance of understanding the significance of anything. They are locked out of understanding the story by all the reliance on continuity.

 

 

 

 

 

A [[Compressed Adaptation]] might cause this. In [[Web Comics]], this can be the impetus for an [[Archive Binge]] or a justification for [[Archive Panic]].

 

{{examples}}

** This happened with the [[Mobile Suit Gundam|original UC timeline]], which is one of the main reasons [[Alternate Universe]] series were made. It was also a major driving force behind the creation of ''[[Metal Armor Dragonar]]''; Bandai wanted to bring in fans who might have otherwise been stymied by the existing ''Gundam'' mythos and were ready to switch production to ''Dragonar'' if it outperformed ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|Gundam ZZ]]''. It didn't, but remains a cult favorite.

** Somewhat remedied by the easy-to-follow-if-hard-to-grab-all-the-nuances ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn]]''.

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Same goes for [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime adaptation]], especially if you're watching the [[OVA]] and didn't see the last few episodes.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' is susceptible to this during its arcs.

* As punishment for anybody skipping the [[Filler|Bount Arc]], the producers of ''[[Bleach]]'' left the three mod-souls so people could go "WTF who are these guys" and be forced to see their origins. But then again, they're just there to create ''even more filler'' so no one would blame you for skimming a synopsis or twelve.

** Kariya from the Bount Arc also makes a Cameo appearance during Ichigo's Vizard training, which pretty much makes anyone go "WTF who's that?"

* Given that ''[[One Piece]]'' has been [[Long Runner|running since 1997]], Eiichiro Oda understandably tries to avoid locking out his readers, which can be difficult given the fact that almost [[Chekhov's Gun|everything]] and [[Chekhov's Gunman|everyone]] in the series is of [[Kudzu Plot|some importance]] even if you don't follow the series from the start. Given that collecting every volume of the story released so far will set you back a few hundred dollars, he understandably puts short flash-backs into the story as well as summaries of the various arcs. To offset this, volume 50 is clearly labelled as a good "starting point", complete with recaps, backgrounds and a new direction for the story.

* Recent chapters of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' are heading this way; the later arcs make little or no sense unless you have a very good grip of the earlier ones. This is even more pronounced with the OVAs, which make ''no'' sense whatsoever unless you've read almost the entire manga.

** Of course, the OVAs were only ever released as bonus material for certain Japanese limited edition volumes of the manga, so it's not like casual fans have access to them anyway. Assuming we're talking about the Ala Alba ones and not Spring and Summer, which were primarily [[Fan Service]] episodes.

* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' has its instances of this, with current, important plot points coming from previous-generation chapters.

 

* This is particularly prevalent in comic book series, more so than television or film, because while most TV shows run for a maximum of a few hundred episodes (most of which are easily obtainable one way or another) some comic book series [[Long Runner|run for much longer]]. (Like [[Superman]]: Consistently in print since the ''1930s''). This, and the fact that comic books can be incredibly rare (with the auction prices this entails), ensures that most new readers are just going to either give up or ignore most of the last 70 years of continuity.

* This was the reason given for DC Comics' first [[Cosmic Retcon]], [[Crisis on Infinite Earths]], back in 1985: that things were getting too confusing for the fans (in actuality, it was getting too confusing *for the writers* but they didn't want to admit it.)

* Kurt Busiek actually managed to avoid this with ''Untold Tales of Spider-Man''. Instead of being a retcon or anything similar, it was early stories set 'in-between' the very first Spider-Man stories. If you had read the original issues it made Untold Tales more enjoyable, but if you hadn't then it was still no biggie.

 

** As an example, the plot and tension of ''Order of the Phoenix'' hinges on the fact that the only person who would admit to Voldemort's return is Harry Potter. The problem is that if you saw ''Goblet of Fire'' you know that isn't true. Because the Ministry of Magic ''clearly'' has someone in custody who could tell them (or they could magic it out of his head): Barty Crouch Jr, who was last seen alive and going to be taken into custody at the end of the film. Of course, the book of ''Goblet of Fire'' had him [[A Fate Worse Than Death|kinda-killed off]]. This was not done in the film, and thus you need to read the books in order for the continuous work of films to make sense.

** Speaking of the Crouches, the film changes Junior's back story from "believed to be dead" to "still imprisoned in Azkaban". Which may be very confusing for moviegoers who are now expected to believe he could have escaped with nobody noticing while the plot previous film revolved around another escape that was discovered instantly.

*** Plus, it also means that no explanation at all is given for how Lupin instantly recognizes the Marauder's Map for what it is.

** In ''Order Of The Phoenix'' they left out the entire point of Snape's flashback during Occlumeny, which was {{spoiler|Lily - specifically him calling her mudblood. That was the entire point of it being Snape's Worse Memory, him ostracizing her.}} It was the massive turning point of his character up until then and they cut it out! They were apparently forced to cut it out, but still.

** Because the potion book subplot was so shortened in the sixth film, the reveal that {{spoiler|Snape is the Half-Blood Prince}} makes very little sense. It's clear that this is why the book let Harry be so good at Potions, but even that is minor.

** They also left out what may be the ''single most important'' minor detail in ''Half-Blood Prince.'' Specifically, {{spoiler|the old tiara}} Harry puts on the stone bust of an ugly wizard in the room of requirement. This {{spoiler|turns out to be the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and Voldemort's next-to-last proper Horcrux.}} It's not present at all in the movie, so Harry won't know where to look for the 6th {{spoiler|Horcrux.}} It's possible they might try a workaround with Ginny since she hides the potions book in the movie, but seeing as she's not in on Voldemort's secret in the first place, it's gonna be difficult.

*** No more difficult than leading Harry to the conclusion that {{spoiler|the Diadem of Ravenclaw is a Horcrux in the first place}} will be, considering that they left out the bits where he and Dumbledore {{spoiler|make a list of possible Horcruxes and glean the clues from Voldemort's past than enable them to predict his actions.}}

*** In the end, they just had Harry {{spoiler|see the Diadem on the vision from Voldemort, and ask the Gray Lady where it is.}} Did you really think [[Adaptation Decay|they were going to give Ginny some plot]]?

*** Though it does do right by Bill Weasley, acknowledging that he and Harry have never met before in the films, and throwing in a reference to how he got his scars (a scene cut from the previous film).

** Data's emotion chip is an interesting example. ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' and ''First Contact'' both have Data mulling over whether to use the chip or not. New viewers to these films won't understand much of what Data's talking about unless they've seen the earlier seasons of ''TNG'' (specifically the fourth- and fifth-season episodes regarding Data, Lore and Dr. Soong).

** Insurrection averted this trope. According to Michael Piller's unreleased book, ''Fade In: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection'', at least one plan was to have Picard and his crew look for a Federation traitor (a la Heart of Darkness) against the backdrop of the Dominion War (during the point when the Federation was losing ground against the Jem'Hadar). This plan was scrapped due to concerns that theatregoers wouldn't understand the references (which didn't stop them from referencing the aforementioned Deep Space Nine and "Best of Both Worlds").

* Movies based on comics start with the premise that the movie requires no knowledge of the comic since it's telling its own version of the story. That premise is quickly violated.

** Example: ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine|X Men Origins Wolverine]]'' could have used footnotes to explain the significance of its story elements. Since the Weapon X scene was so brief, it could have said "To learn more, please read ''Weapon X'' by Barry Windsor-Smith." One benefit is that you get to spend more time with your non-comic-savvy friends explaining the plot. Whether they'll care or not is another story...

*** Origins: Wolverine is relatively unfaithful to the comics anyway (Sabretooth and Wolverine suddenly being brothers, mutilation of Deadpool, Gambit being a bumbling Cajun instead of a smooth one), not to mention its horrible continuity within the film franchise.

** The [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] does do a good job of adapting the comics while being accessible to a new audience, but the movies often contain numerous in-jokes and [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] that you won't understand unless you are a fan of the comics. Little things like Nick Fury's reference to the "Avengers Initiative" or the Cosmic Cube at the end of ''Thor'' likely have no real meaning for a large portion of the audience.

** Probably the worst is Hawkeye's appearance in ''Thor''. Non-comic fans are left clueless why the movie spent five minutes bringing in a big name actor to play a random wisecracking guy with a bow and arrow, who never appears in the film again.

* Films set in a historical period tend to [[Hollywood History|leave out a lot of information and twist facts]] to conform to the plot. You might [[Dan Browned|assume the movie's presentation is accurate]] if you don't habitually check Wikipedia after the movie.

* In a bizarre instance where the first sequel has Continuity Lockout, ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]: [[Advent Children]]'' is nearly incomprehensible unless you've played the game.

* The M. Night Shyamalan film ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', based off the TV series ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', takes most of the key plot points of the series and represents them in a movie format. This trope happens because of the compressed timeframe to tell the story. You never really understand how Aang is trapped in an iceberg, why Katara decides to leave with Aang dragging Sokka along and the nature of why Aang "glows up" in stressful moments is never explained (admittedly, the [[Super Mode|Avatar State]] isn't fully explained until the second season, but it happened enough times in the first season to understand its purpose). If you're familiar with the series most everything fits into place.

** In what is something of an irony, the producers and executives were a little wary of applying ''Part II" to the second movie partly because they were concerned that people might get the impression they needed to see the first movie in order to understand the second one, which might turn off new audiences. The second movie, however, is generally more accessible, and in general started a trend for numbered sequels.

* David Lynch's adaptation of ''[[Dune]]'' is nigh-impossible to comprehend without reading the book, particularly its last forty minutes or so which are an incredibly rushed depiction of ''two-thirds'' of the book's length. Especially bad is the scene where Paul decides he needs to ride a sandworm to properly lead his new army, despite the fact that the Fremen ride the worms never having been referenced. In 1984 audiences were even handed ''playbills'' before entering the film to explain the plot they were missing.

** The film does have a (throw away) line about being the brother of Sub-Zero, and being that the first movie showed Scorpion removing his mask to show a ''fire-breathing skull'' him coming back to life isn't sharp leap. Watching the second movie and not the first, however, would still count as a lockout.

 

* In another example of a creator locking himself out of his own continuity, [[John Varley]], in an introduction to one of his ''Eight Worlds'' novels, admits that he's long since lost track of all the background details of the series, and has given up trying to make the later novels fully consistent with the early ones.

* [[The Wheel of Time]] series is a dense example of this. As the series progresses, and both the cast and pagecount swell, individual characters get less and less face time. It's sometimes several hundred pages between a character's appearances, even for ''main characters''. Two of the main characters, Mat and Perrin, have even been left out of an ENTIRE book at one point or another. Worse, the characters have often been active in that time, leaving the reader to infer what happened since they were last seen. Not that we're bitter.

** In fact, it is quite clear that till the 4th book or so, each book provided info from previous books, including character development history and some important pieces of lore. However, by the 5th book, no more "backward compatibility" is provided and the writer assumes that readers have read the previous books.

** Nowadays they take some pains to make the round numbers a good place to start, without too much pre-knowledge. Also, in each issue there is a small glossar explaining plot-relevant background that a new reader might not know (or an old reader might not remember).

* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': It is possible, if not a bit difficult, to start reading the second series without reading the first series. However, by the third series, things apparently get nigh incomprehensible for people who haven't read all of the previous books.

* To keep up with all the various plots and [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in the ''[[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]]'' by [[David Weber]], you not only need to read the mainline titles, but the sub-series and short story collections, which are ''themselves'' not in chronological order. [[wikipedia:Honorverse#Stories listed by internal chronology|Go here for a reading order]]. The books are mostly free, so it won't set you back much.

* Eric Flint's ''[[1632]]''-verse is a "shared universe" open to anyone who wants in. In other words, any fan of the series can write their own contributions to it and have them entered into canon. Flint and his co-writers then tend to take characters introduced in these stories and work them into the main series. Thankfully, the short stories that have the most impact on the main story have been collected into their own "Ring of Fire" anthologies.

* Various ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' works assume the reader has at least basic [[Broad Strokes]] knowledge of important EU events and don't even attempt to make sense otherwise. Amazingly, other works still manage to remain accessible, though the knowledge of the movies is still pretty much required.

 

** Hence why ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' features a new cast in a new setting with few links back to the other series (really only cameos) and a different style: to capture new audiences.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' freely admitted that it was a "novel on television," and no one starts reading a novel in the middle. [[J. Michael Straczynski]] said he dislikes the use of [["Previously On..."]] segments, preferring instead to have characters recap the plot with [[As You Know]] speeches, which is arguably worse.

** It doesn't help that the show's continuity is all over the map. Even hard-core fans of the mythology have a rather hard time keeping up with it. You could make a drinking game out of all the plot holes in the mythology, ''especially'' in the last two seasons. There is a reason it's called [[The Chris Carter Effect]].

** Fans of the show are forever locked into a debate as to which episodes are better, specifically the [[Myth Arc]] verses the [[Monster of the Week]] episodes. They're pretty evenly split between the seasons, with the Arc marketed more to the hardcore fans while the Monsters are marketed to the casual viewer, who is used to not keeping up with the show.

* ''[[Lost]]''. There's dozens of major and minor characters, all of whom have their own unique and complicated backstories. The fact that these backstories often intersect in unlikely (and often downright implausible) ways makes things even more confusing.

** They hang a lampshade on it in Season 5, with [[The Summation|Hurley explaining why the Oceanic Six lied]] to his parents in his [[Crowning Moment of Funny|trademark Buffy Speak]]:

{{quote|'''Hurley:''' Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn't any rescue. And there was a {{spoiler|smoke monster}}, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or... well, I was never really clear on that. But... the Others didn't have anything to do with the hatches. That was {{spoiler|the DHARMA Initiative}}. {{spoiler|The Others}} killed them, and now they're trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with {{spoiler|the Others}} because some worse people were coming on a freighter. {{spoiler|Desmond's girlfriend's father}} sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but {{spoiler|it blew up}}. And we couldn't go back to the island because {{spoiler|it disappeared}}, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were {{spoiler|six}} of us. That part was true. But the rest of the people... who were on the plane? They're still on that island.}}

* ''[[Farscape]]''. The show would have been more successful if this trope hadn't intersected badly with [[Growing the Beard]].

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' is fond of minor subplots that develop from episode to episode (Dr. Mickhead killing his wife, "the world's most giant doctor," Crazy Dr. Hooch and Dr. Kelso's family issues stand out), so that if you come across an episode with one of these b-plots, you'll miss a bit if you haven't seen a specific set of episodes before. The major plot points are fairly simple to follow, however.

* HBO's ''[[The Wire]]''. To the point that the first few episodes of ''each'' season are blisteringly confusing as you try to sort out all the new characters that you will have to know for the subsequent rest of the year. Just try to start even three episodes into the first season, and you won't understand a thing.

* This trope is often blamed as one of the contributing factors to the cancellation of the original series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' - amongst a lot of other issues that the show was facing at the time, the fact that a fairly large portion of the stories broadcast during the 1980s seemed to hinge upon the audience being aware of characters, events and storylines which hadn't been seen for upwards of ten or even twenty years didn't make the show any easier to watch. Matters weren't helped by the fact that this was well before VHS and DVD was prominent enough to allow [[Better on DVD|people to catch up on the old stuff]], ''and'' that a lot of this old stuff had been deleted from the archives anyway, meaning that even if the technology had existed, the original material didn't.

** In the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the later into any given series an episode occurs, the lower the likelihood of a casual viewer having any clue who the characters are or what is going on. The most extreme example is the cliffhanger of "Turn Left": the [[Arc Words]] from ''the first series''. We are then introduced to nearly every Companion or character who had appeared in multiple stories from the past four years, as well as a few of the main characters from the spin-off shows.

** "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" may leave people baffled as to why {{spoiler|why the future Doctor and the girl in New York are glowing some strange light}}, or why the Doctor seems visibly concerned with the word "Silence".

* ''[[Angel]]'', from the end of the first season on, became increasingly arc-driven, to the point that season four required that you be familiar with many of the developments of the past two years to grasp the complexity of [[Big Bad|Jasmine]]'s advance planning. Network execs reacted to this by insisting that season five be much more [[Monster of the Week|typical]], revamping the entire location of the show and substantially modifying the mission of the main characters.

** The "Mirror Universe" episodes in ''DS9'' and ''Enterprise'' assume you have knowledge of the MU episodes from the original series (and, in ''DS9'''s case, the earlier seasons).

** A large reason why the ''Enterprise'' series finale, "These Are The Voyages", was such a polarizing episode was due to the B-plot (which was a concurrent side-story to the ''Next Generation'' seventh-season episode "The Pegasus" - if you've never seen the episode, you're lost as to why Riker is mulling over a decision to tell Picard about his involvement with an illegal Romulan cloaking device).

** Interesting is that this trope functions in-universe too. The Scoobies are a very self-contained group with their own in-jokes and insider information that makes getting close to them very difficult and makes miscommunication practically a given.

** And God help you if you pick up the Season Eight comics after a substantial time away from the show. {{spoiler|Why is Dawn a giant? Why does Xander only have one eye? Why is there an army of Slayers running around? How did they become a paramilitary organization?}}

* ''[[Dollhouse]].'' [[Joss Whedon]] loves this trope. This was particularly true of the s2 episode "The Attic": the concept of the Attic had been mentioned only once since the previous season, and there was no explanation of who Mr Dominic is (and he hadn't been seen or mentioned since season 1, either).

* An early version of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' story "Secrets Of The Stars" would have featured aliens named the Mandragora who had last apppeared on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' in the 70s. This was one of the reasons why they were replaced with the Ancient Lights in the final product, the story would have been relying too much on one from around 30 years ago and thus locked out the young target audience.

** Ditto for Jack's brief cameo in the ''Doctor Who'' special "The End of Time". You would have had to have seen ''Torchwood: Children of Earth'' to understand why he was drinking away his sorrows on a space freighter rather than fighting aliens in Cardiff.

* Hong Kong or Taiwan serials can stretch for hundreds of episodes and rarely pause to recap who's who.

** Take season 4, episode 16: So, the guy torturing that dude who looks like a paedophile is the good guy? And what the hell are the angels stabbing each other over?"

* ''[[Fringe]]'' avoided this problem during seasons one and two, thanks to its heavier focus on self-contained [[Monster of the Week]] plots, with the occasional [[Wham! Episode]] for the longtime fans. According to JJ Abrams and the other [[Fringe]] producers, they specifically wanted to make the show more accessible and avoid the impenetrable-for-newbies style progression that [[Lost]] did. However, by the time season three came around, the plot became too tough for new viewers to follow, so the show's structure became far less episodic. It's understandable though, as the more procedural feel of the first two seasons would have watered down the major plot developments (with many of them reaching [[Mind Screw]] territory) that season three unraveled.

* Around 20-25% of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' is comprised of flashbacks -- not just distant flashbacks to the characters' youth, but flashbacks that occurred during the show's run, during distinct canonical periods of the show's run, and even precise episodes or even ''scenes'' of the show's run -- and is full to the brim with running gags, in-jokes, huge quantities of detailed backstory, and plot elements and assumptions that are rarely if ever lampshaded and utterly inexplicable if you haven't seen the previous (or sometimes, like ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' above, even future) episodes (or flashbacks, or flash''forwards'') that explain them. The only reason the show isn't the most insular and locked-out show ever broadcast is because of Future!Ted's narration, which reminds viewers of events or situations relevant to the episode at hand and often recaps essential plot points with a quick "Kids, remember how I told you about..." so that at least the plots make sense, even if many of the jokes and character reactions will leave new viewers scratching their heads in bewilderment.

 

* Nearly every Newspaper Comic in existence is written under the belief that not everyone gets the newspaper every day, so most of them are of a Gag-a-Day format to avoid this. However...

** Both Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse daily strips and Ward Greene's [[Scamp]] daily strips began as essentially one continuous story, but both eventually shifted to gag a day formats.

** Modern newspaper strips with running plots generally get around this by [[Decompressed Comic|decompressing]] the plot so much that every minor detail happens over at least 3 days. Of course, this also means you have to read several months' worth of strips to get anything meaningful out of it.

* ''[[Fleep]]'' was an [[Ontological Mystery]], so the entire story was progressed through clues slowly gained over the various strips. It was canceled for being too confusing.

* ''[[Candorville]]'' is doing its best to avert this, sometimes filling an entire panel with [[As You Know]] dialogue, but it's been steadily failing ever since it started introducing monsters and prophecies. Now there are at least two factions, maybe three, trying to [[Take Over the World]], and a new reader may not initially realize that ''any'' of them are present.

* ''[[Bloom County]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on the concept [http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1988/05/21/ in this strip].

 

 

* [[Bionicle]] has definitely became an example of this trope, especially after the introduction of the on-line serials. The main story arcs tended to avoid this, but when former main characters that had been cast aside for years got back on stage, even that went messy. The whole storyline basically balanced on a thin line between trying to please the older fans and bring in fresh blood. Probably one of the main reasons [[LEGO]] decided to cancel the line and bring in [[Hero Factory]], which is much lighter on the story.

 

* Some games or companies attempt to keep world bibles in order to allow their development teams to keep track of what is what in a setting. It works... sometimes.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is like this at times. Events happen outside the game's continuity that still affect the game. Why is the king of Stormwind back for Wrath of the Lich King, and where was he? Why is {{spoiler|Cairne}} dead in Cataclysm? Op, better [[Gotta Catch Em All|read the expanded universe material]] to find out!

** To be fair, the games never leave you completely out of the loop, but you might have to dig for those tidbits. And even then it's just the basics, not the complete story.

* [[Star Craft 2]] is also slightly guilty of this. There are summaries on the website, but otherwise you have to read the novels to know anything about Valerian, Tychus, Matt Horner and Nova.

* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series. Starting from any game from ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories|Chain of Memories]]'' and onward will get confusing.

*** Basically, [[Crack is Cheaper]] than playing the entire series.

*** It also doesn't help that the [[Updated Rerelease|Final Mixes]] in the series [[No Export for You|are unavailable outside Japan]], despite containing critical plot points. This makes it difficult to follow the [[Kudzu Plot|already complex plot]] of the series, unless you look up fan translations.

** '''[[Averted Trope|Averted]]''' in ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'', for the first time in the series, thanks to the recap-like [http://kh13.com/forum/topic/30377-memoirs-feature-in-kingdom-hearts-3d-explained/ "Memoirs" feature.]

** In the case of direct sequels (like ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass|The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass]]'' is to ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'', for example), you get a summary of the events from the last game (and even then, the information isn't really needed, as the new adventures always take place somewhere different).

** Said series somehow manages to play this trope straight at the same time, as many character appearances and associated in-jokes will doubtless leave many new players scratching their heads.

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]''. [[Groundhog Day Loop|Theoretically]] you can jump in about once every four or five episodes and understand what's going on immediately, but eventually you're going to have to [[Kudzu Plot|review everything you missed anyway]].

* The ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series is hard enough to follow even if you play them all. If you missed one, you have no chance.

** You'll probably be alright if you miss ''Blood Omen 2''. It gives some back story for the Hylden, but nothing terribly important that can't be gleaned from ''Soul Reaver 2''.

* ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' is well-made enough that the gameplay is easy to enjoy. Try following the story without having already gone through the EU material, though.

* Arguably the entire [[Fighting Game|fighting genre]], not in the story but in game structure. Even most of its fans know that the games can oftentimes get too convoluted for beginners to start playing. This isn't even getting into the terminology, which are hundreds of words and phrases long and many prominent series have adopted.

** Oh, the stories have got their fair share of it, too. You try to get into the ''[[King of Fighters]]'' plot without hours of SNK wikiing about why Iori is so pissed off, why that flamboyant guy with the green fire is such a big deal and what the whole NESTS debacle is about.

** Also, try getting into the plot of [[Mortal Kombat]]. Just try!

** According to [[BioWare]], ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' will subvert this, being "the best jumping-on point" for the series.

* Anyone playing [[Endless Frontier|Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED]] would be left confused if they did not first play [[Super Robot Wars Original Generation|Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden]], as two characters in the playable cast who were supposedly [[Killed Off for Real]] in the [[Super Robot Wars Original Generation|main series]] winds up in the [[Endless Frontier|spin-off series]]. In fact, the developers make it a point you ''have to play the previous games'' occuring in the main continuity to know what's remotely going on if you decide to start somewhere in the middle.

* ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'' is frequently accused of this. While most of the references make sense to a casual fan, the use of this trope pretty much single-handedly turned the Ridley scene into one of the most despised scenes in the series history.

** To give you an idea, this plot point came from an obscure manga that was never released outside of Japan, where Samus has already feared Ridley since he [[You Killed My Father|killed her mother]] and lead a massacre of [[Doomed Hometown|her home planet K2L.]] About the only indication people get is a [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|nonsensical shot of Samus turning into her child self]], rather than actually showing the ravaging of K2L for context.

 

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]''. It's not a very continuity-heavy site really. But there is large reliance on in-jokes and running gags. The toons are sorted in to different categories so you're not even sure where to start. However, it has a wiki that is so helpful and comprehensive... it's a little scary.

** [http://hrwiki.org/wiki/All_Toons This] is basically the only place you'll find a chronological list of the toons and games.

 

* ''[[Megatokyo]]''. If you haven't read it from the beginning, you can forget about understanding the story. This is largely due to its character driven nature. If you haven't witnessed every second of Piro and Kimiko's courtship, or taken notes on each tiny nuance of the Piro/Miho dynamic, you aren't going to have any clue what's going on. Even then you might still have trouble, but that's [[Kudzu Plot|another]] [[Cerebus Syndrome|trope]] [[Webcomic Time|entirely]]

* ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', making the sheer dedication of the [[Hatedom]] all the more puzzling.

* Occasionally there are ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' strips that don't make sense unless you [http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/1338.htm know the running gags] and continuity points. As with many meta-concepts in ''AKOTAS'', [[Lampshaded]] via [http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0985.htm Arthur's webcomic].

 

* Happens in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' a great deal. Sometimes, even starting at the beginning of the ''current'' version/season isn't enough - references will be made to scenes or characters in previous versions. It's often very bewildering for people seeing the RP for the first time.

* Arguable with the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', since it now consists of over a hundred stories, most of them novel or novella length. Every major protagonist has a backstory, and girls of Team Kimba all have [[Backstory]] ''novels''. Diving in with current stories means you may not get the in-jokes, or the references to prior stories, or what's going on with recurring characters, or some of the ongoing plotlines, like Ayla's blackmailer or Jade's quest, or the people who may be after Toni. Not to mention that it's assumed that you already know what the main characters' powers are.

* Also arguable, [[That Guy With The Glasses]], especially with how many multi-video [[Running Gag|running gags]], crossovers, story arcs, and [[Call Back|callbacks]] to past videos they use. Most hardcore fans of the site were lucky to find the [[The Nostalgia Critic]]'s stuff on [[YouTube]] before it grew into an entire critic community, so they have a leg up on knowing each [[Running Gag]]. Watching individual reviews on the site, it seems fairly accessible, but understanding something like ''[[Kickassia]]'' is impossible unless you have a good understanding of the group's dynamic, not to mention the use of past characters.

** ''[[Suburban Knights]]'' was specifically written to avoid this, however. You'll definitely get more out of it if you're a fan of the site (especially regarding the use of Ma-Ti) but the story is perfectly comprehensible to someone coming in cold.

 

* One of the many complaints people had about ''[[Beast Wars]]'' is that when it aired, it had the strongest continuity ever seen in a cartoon on American or Canadian TV. As a result, a new viewer jumping in partway through is going to be quite perplexed by what's all going on. Then its sequel ''[[Beast Machines]]'' one-upped it.

** Ironic with [[Beast Machines]], since they were originally trying to ''avert'' this trope by ignoring most of ''[[Beast Wars]]'', only to end up with a stronger version of the trope in its own series.

{{quote|'''Homer''': {{spoiler|What, I'm not allowed to get one right?}}}}

*** This is Lampshaded when Marge gets amnesia one episode. She finds all the side characters confusing and creepy and is incredibly disturbed when Homer says they're his and Marge's close friends.

* There's at least one episode of ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' that just starts off with the [[Designated Hero|KND]] trying to steal the birthday cake of the [[Designated Villain|Delightful Children From Down The Lane]] with no explanation for a new viewer as to why exactly the DCFDTL are supposed to deserve this.

* ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' is heavy on its [[Heroic Fantasy]] plot, but this makes it fairly difficult to leap in halfway and know what's going on. Some episodes don't really ''end'' as much as they just ''stop'', only to pick up right where they left off the next week, which lends to the show being more accessible [[Better on DVD|in large chunks]].

 

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