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Continuity Lock Out: Difference between revisions
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This is one of the main bones of contention between creators and executives. Executives want each episode to potentially bring in new audience. Creators want to entertain the audience they have. In a rare case of this wiki taking the side of the [[Executive Meddling|executive meddlers]], we have to admit that continuity lock-out is never caused by the execs. It has to be written.
The standard answer to this issue is the [["Previously On..."]] segment: many shows on this list open each episode with a short capsule summary of events you should be aware of. Of course, [["Previously On..."|Previously Ons]] have their own drawbacks, such as inadvertently providing [[Spoiler|spoilers]] or flat-out not working. The better answer is [[Better on DVD]]: after all, the best way for anyone to understand ''any'' show is to buy the DVDs and watch it from the beginning, sometimes more than once or with the help of fan annotations.
Why bother with the intense continuity at all? Simple: An intricate series-spanning plot often results in a stronger and more interesting overall show. You may not catch as many fans, but the ones you do get are yours for life. This does mean that you have be sure to rope in as many as possible early on before the Lockout effect takes hold to make the effort worthwhile.
Some [[Long Runner|Long Runners]] and certain mediums (such as novels) are designed to be engaged with in a linear multi-volume fashion over a period of time, and the authors can't reasonably be expected to keep everything entirely accessible to a newcomer if they want to engage in any meaningful plot or [[Character Development]]; if you start reading a seven-volume series at volume five and find yourself hopelessly lost, then you arguably have only yourself (or in some cases [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|the publisher]]) to blame.
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** 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.
* Would you believe a simple [[Fan Service]]-laden [[Unwanted Harem]] show like ''[[To Love Ru]]'' has this? If you only watch the anime, you'll never find out what's the deal with [[Cheerful Child|Celine]], where did she come from, and why she's suddenly living with the main cast. Or, until the second anime season, where did [[Cute Ghost Girl|Oshizu]] get herself a new body. Also, the new manga ''[[To Love Ru]] Darkness'' makes no effort of helping newcomers on telling who's everyone.
* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]''. It is a [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] that requires you to read ''[[xxxHolic]]'' in order to understand what's going on in the background. Even then, you'd probably still be a little lost unless you also happened to have read ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' (which, admittedly, is probably the reason why you're reading ''Tsubasa'' in the first place), [[Running Gag|AND]] ''[[X (manga)|X 1999]]'' [[Overused Running Gag|AND]] ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' by extension.
* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' has its instances of this, with current, important plot points coming from previous-generation chapters.
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** Nobody believes Voldemort is back in the ''[[Order of the Phoenix]]'' movie, because they say Harry's words can't be trusted. Never explained why, because they took out all the instances where Rita Skeeter kept bringing out articles that made Harry sound insane and untrustworthy in the previous movie.
** 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.
*** Though it's not entirely obvious this was the worst bit about his memory {{spoiler|until book seven, where we realise he loved her and alienated her with that comment.}}
** Dobby and Kreacher are MIA in ''Half-Blood Prince''. Apparently Kreacher was to be excised from the ''[[Order of the Phoenix]]'' movie as well, until JK stepped in and said "You might need him later."
** 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.
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** ''Deathly Hallows Part One'' does not waste ''one second'' bringing people up to speed on who the characters are or what they're doing. Movie critics have not let this pass without comment. It's a very similar case to the ''Matrix,'' mentioned below. It also relies heavily on a shard of a magical two-way mirror as a visual and plot device - despite the fact that said mirror has never appeared in the movies before.
*** 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).
*** All of this is mainly because they decided to make the last three films have the most consistent continuity. Deathly Hallows part 1 and 2, plus parts of HBP, were ridiculously confusing for those who hadn't read the books in entirety. Mostly because they mention some events from the books that were not included in the films. So, if newcomers were to watch all of the movies in order, they would have almost no concept of what was going on by the end.
* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' movies (to a large extent) avoided this, save for ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|Star Trek First Contact]]'' (which assumed the viewer had some knowledge of the "Best Of Both Worlds" two-parter and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' for Worf's location during the cube battle). Several other examples are peppered throughout the films:
** 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").
** 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|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|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.
*** Considering that the first is a reference to/foreshadowing for [[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]] and the latter is relevant to [[Captain America: The First Avenger]] they're less [[Continuity Lock Out]] as hints or [[Sequel Hooks]] to tie the various films together.
** 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.
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* 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.
* One of the many reasons why ''[[The Godfather]] Part III'' is polarizing was because of its complete inaccessibility to audience members who had not seen the previous two movies. Wrote Roger Ebert at the time "It is, I suspect, not even possible to understand this film without knowing the first two." However, Ebert still enjoyed the movie and rated it higher than he did for ''Part II''.
** 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.
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== Literature ==
* [[The Elder Scrolls Novels]] are based on the video game series, and if you don't know the continuity and lore then most of the events of the novel will sound like an [[Ass Pull]] when it actually does [[It Makes Sense in Context|Make Sense In Context]].
* 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.
** [[Terry Pratchett]] said much the same in the introduction to the first edition of ''The [[Discworld]] Companion''. Although he does still make the effort; if necessary consulting with [[Big Name Fan|Big Name Fans]] who actually know more about the Discworld than he does, such as the ''Companion'' co-author Stephen Briggs.
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** 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.
* 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 ''[[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.
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** 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?}}
** Lampshaded again in a hilarious, fast-paced exchange between Buffy, Giles, and Principal Wood in season seven while discussing all the things that have happened to Spike.
* ''[[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.
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** 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.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', especially since season four, when the angels started getting involved. Considering the show's high HSQ, watching a newer episode without following the story makes for bizarre and incoherent viewing.
** 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.
* "[[Mad Men]]" suffers from this in spades. The episodes are generally not self-contained, and most of the subtext is built upon episodes from previous seasons. The problem is that this series built on subtext. Viewers must watch from the absolute, [[S 1 E 1]] beginning. The [["Previously On..."]] segments absolutely do not help.
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* ''[[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].
* [[Doonesbury]] is a victim of this. 40 years of strips with close to 100 characters, around 30 or so who appear on a regular basis.
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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|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 [[PlayStation 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|Dream Drop Distance]], which will tie together the previous three hand-held installments ([[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
*** 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.
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* Strangely averted by ''Zelda'', despite having a humongous [[Continuity Snarl]] of a timeline. For example, one can play both ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'' without ever needing the knowledge that they are set in two parallel timelines created by Link's time travel in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'', though both games do have plenty of [[Continuity Nod|Continuity Nods]] to their predecessor. This is all because the sequels are isolated, so it the overarching plot between the games doesn't really matter.
** 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).
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' goes out of its way to avoid this, to the point of characters avoiding references to other games even when it would make sense to do so. See: Miles Edgeworth in ''Investigations'' constantly mentioning that he no longer follows the von Karma way without mentioning the fact that {{spoiler|von Karma murdered his father and raised him that way as revenge for a small courtroom slight.}} You would think that would be a big deal.
** 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.
* Continuity in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games works in a similar way to avert lockout. You don't NEED to know about the Warp in the West to play and enjoy Morrowind--but if you'd LIKE to know how the previous game's multiple endings were resolved, just read the in-game book about it! Of course, business and technical challenges sometimes force some bizarre contortions of continuity, but that's [[Executive Meddling|another trope]].
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** Some found the story very easy to follow and perhaps even ''easier'' if you hadn't read the EU. There's a team of [[Super Soldier|Super Soldiers]], they fight [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]], {{spoiler|a scientist gives them an AI, you deliver it to a ship}}, etc. Anyone who had read the EU had to contend with the game's [[Broad Strokes]] and multiple [[Retcon|retcons]]. IGN in particular praised this, calling it the most accessible ''[[Halo]]'' game yet. ''[[Halo 3]]'' and ''[[Halo 3: ODST|ODST]]'', however, definitely fall into this.
* 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.
** Masahiro Sakurai created the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series in [[Defied Trope|defiance of this]]. However, more dedicated players learned how to exploit the physics of the original and ''Melee'' to make it as complex as other fighting games, and Sakurai responded by reworking the physics in ''Brawl''.
** 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!
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** ''[[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.
* Ostensibly, one of the reasons Rooster Teeth ended ''[[Red vs. Blue]]: The Blood Gulch Chronicles'' at Episode 100 was to prevent [[Continuity Lock Out]]. While they succeeded, the series from that point forth became [[Cerebus Syndrome|much more plot based]], and a good number of the [[Call Back|Call Backs]] still require familiarity with all the older episodes (as opposed to just episodes from the most recent trilogy, ''Recollection'').
* The [[Slender Man Mythos]] is slowly becoming this, particularly [[Everyman HYBRID]] with its [[Alternate Reality Game]] elements and the miscellaneous Core Theory blogs. Aggravated by the occasional [[Dead Link]].
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** Many of ''The Simpsons''' minor characters are completely bizarre without context, yet the show basically takes it for granted that the audience can recognize and appreciate most of them without any sort of perfunctory introduction or explanation. Examples would include Bumblebee Man, Sideshow Mel, Duff Man, the Sea Captain, or Disco Stu, or even Krusty, all of whom are basically long-running continuations of one-off gags from many, many years past.
*** 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.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' might have a bit of this, given how much of its humor relies on [[Continuity Nod|Continuity Nods]] and [[Playing with a Trope|playing with]] their [[Strictly Formula|usual formula]]. Still, this affects plot less than gags.
* 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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