Continuity Lock Out: Difference between revisions

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

== Anime & Manga ==

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* ''[[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 (Manga)|Naruto]]'' is susceptible to this during its arcs.

* Given the length of ''[[Jo ~~Jos~~ Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', it's natural that this can happen. However, the author is generally good at keeping new readers up to date, as every volume of the manga has a timeline of the series, and the various relationships outlined. The first (duh), third, fourth, and seventh parts of the series can easily be picked up and read without any previous knowledge about the series. The others require ''some'' background knowledge, but that's it.

* Given the length of ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', it's natural that this can happen. However, the author is generally good at keeping new readers up to date, as every volume of the manga has a timeline of the series, and the various relationships outlined. The first (duh), third, fourth, and seventh parts of the series can easily be picked up and read without any previous knowledge about the series. The others require ''some'' background knowledge, but that's it.

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', mostly due to the [[Gambit Pileup]] nature of the series. It's possible to jump in within the first ten episodes or so, but after Light and L actually meet each other, forget ''that''.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' inverts this, in that you [[Mind Screw|don't understand anything about the overall plot]] [[Gainax Ending|coming OUT of the series]]. Then again, you have a pretty good idea of how fucked up everyone's mind is at least. But do we REALLY need to know what Shinji, Misato, and umm....Gendo do when they're feeling "lonely"?

* As punishment for anybody skipping the [[Filler|Bount Arc]], the producers of ''[[Bleach (Manga)|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?"

* Both averted and played straight in ''[[Ranma ~~One Half~~ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]''; the show regularly makes references to characters, events, or character quirks with very little attempt to explain them to newcomers. On the other hand, if you've seen the first three seasons (or read about the first 10 volumes of the manga) you can pretty much watch the rest of the episodes in any order, and at the very worst you won't recognize a returning minor character.

* Both averted and played straight in ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]''; the show regularly makes references to characters, events, or character quirks with very little attempt to explain them to newcomers. On the other hand, if you've seen the first three seasons (or read about the first 10 volumes of the manga) you can pretty much watch the rest of the episodes in any order, and at the very worst you won't recognize a returning minor character.

* Given that ''[[One Piece (Manga)|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 (Manga)|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.

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** Data's emotion chip is an interesting example. ''[[Star Trek Generations (Film)|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").

** The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Film)|Star Trek]]'' also largely averted this - seeing as it specifically sets itself as an origin story in a clear alternate continuity (if [[Handwaved]] connected to the original through use of the [[Timey Wimey Ball]]). However, the tie-in comic, ''Countdown'', is the canonical last appearance for many of the ''TNG'' characters, as well as the only way you'll get to find out the backstory for Nero and his ship (which, in turn, references past elements of the franchise, all the way back to [[Star Trek ~~the~~ Motion Picture (Film)|V'Ger]]).

** The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Film)|Star Trek]]'' also largely averted this - seeing as it specifically sets itself as an origin story in a clear alternate continuity (if [[Handwaved]] connected to the original through use of the [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]). However, the tie-in comic, ''Countdown'', is the canonical last appearance for many of the ''TNG'' characters, as well as the only way you'll get to find out the backstory for Nero and his ship (which, in turn, references past elements of the franchise, all the way back to [[Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Film)|V'Ger]]).

* 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 (Film)|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...

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* Katherine Kerr's 15-book ''[[Deverry]]'' series is divided into four parts; starting at the beginning of any one of the three latter will cause you to only miss '''half''' of the significance of what's happening... The Dragon Mage (3rd series) is probably the worst offender, since it tells about the end of the civil war, which has been earlier covered in three other books.

* To keep up with all the various plots and [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in the ''[[Honorverse (Literature)|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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 ''[[~~Sixteen Thirty Two|~~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.

* 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.

* The Harry Potter ''books'' partially avoid this trope thanks in large part to the film series, the popularity of Harry Potter in general and some exposition on JK Rowling's part. You can watch the first couple movies, pick up the third book and pretty much get everything. Likewise, if you know the basic story of the first book/movie, you can read the second book without much trouble. After those points, though, it gets kinda muddled.

* 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.

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* ''[[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 (TV)|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.

* It's ''possible'' to watch Seasons 1 & 2 of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' without first seeing ''[[Life On Mars]]'' - which introduces you to [[Noble Bigot With a Badge|Gene]], [[The Ditz|Chris]], and [[Cowboy Cop|Ray]], and tells [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|Sam Tyler's]] story - but if you haven't seen LOM by the time A2A hits Season 3, you're almost completely lost. Sam and what may or may not have happened to him play a huge part in {{spoiler|1=the ongoing battle between Gene, Alex, and [[Big Bad|Jim]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Keats]], and virtually all of 3x05 - the return of DCI [[In Series Nickname|"Bastard"]] Litton - is nigh-incomprehensible if you haven't seen LOM. Fully understanding 3x07 and 3x08, which pull a [[Cosmic Retcon]] on LOM and cause anyone who watched it to immediately start second-guessing everything they know? Forget about it.}}

* It's ''possible'' to watch Seasons 1 & 2 of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' without first seeing ''[[Life On Mars]]'' - which introduces you to [[Noble Bigot With a Badge|Gene]], [[The Ditz|Chris]], and [[Cowboy Cop|Ray]], and tells [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|Sam Tyler's]] story - but if you haven't seen LOM by the time A2A hits Season 3, you're almost completely lost. Sam and what may or may not have happened to him play a huge part in {{spoiler|1=the ongoing battle between Gene, Alex, and [[Big Bad|Jim]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Keats]], and virtually all of 3x05 - the return of DCI [[In-Series Nickname|"Bastard"]] Litton - is nigh-incomprehensible if you haven't seen LOM. Fully understanding 3x07 and 3x08, which pull a [[Cosmic Retcon]] on LOM and cause anyone who watched it to immediately start second-guessing everything they know? Forget about it.}}

* ''[[Weeds]]'' tends to reveal major plot points in the current arc each episode, making it very difficult to get on track if you miss even one episode. And watching an episode in the middle of the season with no previous context will basically make no sense.

* ''[[Smallville]]'', particularly in the final season.

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* [[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 (Video Game)|Chain of Memories]]'' and onward will get confusing.

** And to make things worse, the continuity is spread over multiple handheld systems, including the GBA, DS, PSP, and the 3DS. Note that three out of four of these are Nintendo systems. The [[PS 2]] remake of ''Chain of Memories'' alleviates the confusion slightly for those without Nintendo handhelds, but they'll need to get a 3DS to get [[Kingdom Hearts 3D (Video Game)|Dream Drop Distance]], which will tie together the previous three hand-held installments ([[Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|358/2 Days]], [[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Video Game)|Birth by Sleep]] and [[Kingdom Heartscoded (Video Game)|coded]]) ''and'' the inevitable ''Kingdom Hearts 3''. Likewise, those with Nintendo handhelds, but no [[PS 2]] or PSP... you get the picture.

** And to make things worse, the continuity is spread over multiple handheld systems, including the GBA, DS, PSP, and the 3DS. Note that three out of four of these are Nintendo systems. The [[PS 2]] remake of ''Chain of Memories'' alleviates the confusion slightly for those without Nintendo handhelds, but they'll need to get a 3DS to get [[Kingdom Hearts 3D (Video Game)|Dream Drop Distance]], which will tie together the previous three hand-held installments ([[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|358/2 Days]], [[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep (Video Game)|Birth by Sleep]] and [[Kingdom Heartscoded (Video Game)|coded]]) ''and'' the inevitable ''Kingdom Hearts 3''. Likewise, those with Nintendo handhelds, but no [[PS 2]] or PSP... you get the picture.

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

*** 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.]

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** Of course, there are various characters still around from SGR, too, it's just that their backstory is no longer needed to understand their current role. (Including at least one who logically shouldn't be able to come back.)

* ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'' has so many characters who can be summarized as "[[Mad Scientist]]", many of whom disappeared for several years and then resurfaced, that even after reading the entire archive it's hard to keep track of what's going on now.

** What's going on? [[For Science|SCI]][[Mad Scientist|ENCE!]], that's what's going on.

** What's going on? [[For Science!|SCI]][[Mad Scientist|ENCE!]], that's what's going on.

* Any [[MS Paint Adventures|MSPaint Adventure]], but particularly ''[[Problem Sleuth (Webcomic)|Problem Sleuth]]''. Even people who have read every single page in order occasionally need to sit back and think "Wait, what the hell is going on?" If you have a good grip of the story, even skipping a few pages will mean you won't understand a [[Call Back]] or five.

** Generally, webcomics having [[Call Back|call backs]] isn't so rough because of their archives, but ''MSPA'' is one of the few webcomics (except, perhaps, the [[Walkyverse]]) that requires you to read unrelated webcomics to get all the jokes. Want to understand why Jade is making jokes about pumpkins in ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]''? What's up with Ace Dick's extended sideplot in the ''[[Game Of Life]]''? Well you had better read every badly-drawn, nonsensical corner of ''[[Jailbreak]]''!

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