Continuity Snarl: Difference between revisions

However, the whole idea of a [[Shared Universe]] is that different creative teams will eventually take over. Sometimes Writer A of Title A will leave and Writer B will take over, while at other times Writer A's character will guest star or make a [[The Cameo|Cameo]] apearance in Writers B's title. People being people, those different creators will have their own ideas. They'll have different ideas about what the [[The Verse|'verse]] should be, about what has worked and what hasn't, what might work and what doesn't.

 

 

Things that were previously essential may become irrelevant to the new team, and different character traits and events may be emphasized or ignored. They ''change'' things.

Unfortunate, if you have a fan-base which likes everything arranged in a neat, tidy little pattern and isn't shy about voicing their opinion when this isn't the case.

 

 

A Continuity Snarl can result in [[Continuity Lock Out]] for readers, especially newcomers, as it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of what's happening in the 'verse without a Masters Degree in Continuity Studies. Creators often resort to the [[Crisis Crossover]] to try and untangle the snarl they've made for themselves -- unfortunately, this can just as easily become [[Continuity Porn]], which more often than not just makes things ''worse''. Can lead to a plain ol' [[Plot Hole]].

 

 

Every once in a while, the writer may just give up trying to fix everything and say, [[Broad Strokes|"Okay, it happened but not in every detail."]] [[Continuity Drift]] is when a [[Retcon]] sloooowly happens over a period of time.

Eric Burns of Websnark did a rant about it [http://www.websnark.com/archives/2008/01/retconning_just_1.html here].

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* Like ''Digimon'' below, ''[[Slayers]]'' has clearly stated [[Alternate Continuity]], and it's actually a bit milder here--the different continuities begin to form after the stories that compromise the first eight [[Light Novel|books]], or the first two seasons of the anime, both of which are similar enough to avoid too much confusion. It's...still complicated:

** In the novels, Lina actually meets Amelia's father, Prince Phil, and gets involved with his family feud ''before'' the series proper--the story of the first ''Slayers Special'' novel was transferred into the middle of the anime's first season: the same plot occurs, but Lina actually meets Amelia, and it goes from there. Also, the Atlas City story occured right after the very first fight with [[Big Bad|Shabranigdo]], but the anime cuts to the aformentioned family feud, and the Atlas City story occurs during the second season. This makes little sense in context because in both the first book and the first episode, Lina is on her way to the city. Finally, Amelia appears after the battle with [[Beta Baddie|Copy Rezo]] in the novels, appearing in another Saillune royal family plot that was ''also'' implemented in the second anime season. Because she joins Lina earlier in the anime, she is with them during the Copy Rezo fight, and also meets Zelgadis earlier on.

** The remaining seven novels remove Zelgadis and Amelia and replace them with Luke and Millina, and from there comes its own story.

** Before he appears again in the fifth book, Zelgadis actually meets Xellos before the others do, hence why he knows of him when he appears. This is accounted in a side story.

** The radio dramas are also rather bad at this. The worst case is the ''Slayers Premium'' radio drama based on the short [[Non-Serial Movie]]: because of the presence of Gourry's [[Laser Blade|Sword of Light]], it's likely that it takes place after the second season of the anime. However, in the prologue of the drama, Amelia states that it had been ''five years'' since they last met-problematic, since the anime seasons each occur within one year of the other. ''Premium'' also, of course, has its own manga adaptation...

** Finally, there are cases of the dreaded [[Multiple Choice Past]], especially in regards to Zelgadis. It's never mentioned in the anime, but in the novels it's stated that he was a criminal during his time with Rezo after he was initially turned into a chimera, and it gave him a bad reputation. Also, the applications of magic vary heavily to the point of convolution.

** There is a glaring canonical gap of about 800 years between these overlapping stories. The character's apparent immortality is never mentioned.

** It can be generally treated as a blend of a recycled cast of characters, implicit different continuities being treated as obviously different, and it can be a pretty good idea to [[Death Is Cheap|consider nobody dead in any of the series if the body has not been incinerated]].

** The WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon "DNA Digivolving" thing can be explain because in the original Japanese version they were merely fusing to become a more powerful Digimon of the same level. Where Jogress evolution (the evolving method of choice in season 2) was when two Digimon combined together to advance to the next level. The dub made a mistake in referring to WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon becoming Omnimon as digivolving.

*** Then some V-pets do say Omnimon is at a higher level. The easiest thing to say is that Digimon can keep getting stronger after Ultimate/Mega and just ignore whatever the level is called at that point.

*** This is only a problem, if at all, in the ''Adventure'' continuity. In the broader Digimon canon as a whole, it is accepted that '''a)''' Omegamon is the product of a Jogress evolution/DNA Digivolution, '''b)''' "fusion" is [[I Have Many Names|just another term for "jogress"]] and the English version's uniting the two under the same term is a rare case of [[Woolseyism|it simplifying things]], '''c)''' Ultimate/Mega level Digimon can evolve to other Ultimate/Mega Digimon, whether it's through Jogress evolution or otherwise, and '''d)''' Holy Rings like Tailmon's tail ring have absolutely no relevance to the process of Jogress evolution whatsoever and that point in ''Adventure 02'' was the writers not listening. Indeed, Omegamon himself is the subject of such an evolution from one Ultimate to another in the Digimon Mini virtual pet line, evolving from WarGreymon alone. Also, pretty much every [[Super Mode|Mode Change]] ever is an example of this, being little more than ''evolving'' to another Ultimate that happens to be a variation on the prior form.

** At first, we're told in supplementary materials that only [[Our Dragons Are Different|"Dramon" are true dragons]], so [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons|Greymon doesn't count.]] Then we meet ancestor of all dragons, Dracomon, leader of all dragons, Examon and Azulongmon, strongest of the four great dragons.

**** Actually, Ebidramon is related to Dramon digimon in a way. He's a subspecies of the Seadramon family, and at an early point in the series served as the Perfect level for the family before the [[Sequel Escalation|Ultimate level]] was introduced by the Pendulum V-Pet series. That same V-Pet Series also moved Ebidramon and several other digimon up and down the evolution levels, creating even more snarl.

** Shadow Seraphimon wasn't a corrupted Seraphimon, Mercurymon just absorbed his data, the name is really misleading. Not only that, but he (Seraphimon) gave the digidestined fighting Mercurymon a much needed powerup...granted he had been reincarnated and was still an egg.

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' is starting to run into this with two series of manga, ''Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid'' and ''Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force'', running at the same time. They mostly manage to stay separate, but occasionally they contradict one another.

* [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] started off with a prologue involving Simon/Kamina/[[Fan Nickname|Caption Garlocks]] ([[Fan Dumb|fans argue this fact constantly]]) waging war against "All the lights in the sky." This is ''similar'' to battles late in the series, but never really fits any of them. The producers admitted that this was a fluke on their part, that it was meant to be [[Shout-Out]] to Arcadia, and that they never got around to building up to that scene in the main series. This had led fans to suggest that this scene is an [[Wild Mass Guessing|alternate universe, a fantasy of]] [[Team Pet|Boota]], [[Wild Mass Guessing|an alternate timeline in which Kamina leads Dai-Gurren into space/Simon is sent back in time to battle the Anti-Spirals as well as become Kamina's father]].

** Carter Hall, the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] Hawkman, was eventually pulled out of the snarl in the pages of ''[[Justice Society of America|JSA]]''. The Silver Age version is still in limbo. Carter had a few of the Silver Age concepts (most notably a connection to Thanagar) attached to him during the process. He also includes a simplification of one aspect of the Hawkgod; the Hawkgod's previous avatars included several of DC's historical characters with vague connections to hawks, and these have been [[Retcon|retconned]] into Carter's [[Reincarnation|former incarnations]].

** And now Jim Starlin, for reasons known only to himself, has written a ''Hawkman'' special in which a godlike-being points out to Hall that his Egyptian origin doesn't make sense, and insists on calling him by the [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Age]] version's name. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in [[The DCU]]...

** An admirable, if a bit simplified, attempt to explain Hawkman's continuity exists [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/15/hawkman-history-lbfa-comics/ here].

* The whole deal with the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' comics. A lot of it is the [[Kudzu Plot]] started with Claremont, but a lot of it comes from the loads of [[Retcon|Ret Cons]] and counter [[Retcon|Ret Cons]] recently.

** During [[Grant Morrison]]'s run on the book, the X-Men travelled to China where a mutant named Xorn was held prisoner, released Xorn, and took him in as member of the team. Xorn turned out to be Magneto in disguise. The degree to which this made sense is debatable (since when does Magneto speak perfect Chinese? Why didn't Wolverine smell him?) but it was at least easy to follow so far. But then Magneto started doing drugs and herding people into ovens, and when Morrison left the book, the remaining X-Book writers couldn't retcon him as an impostor fast enough. So it was someone pretending to be Magneto pretending to be Xorn. Then it turned out there was ''another'' Xorn, who was the brother of ... the fake Xorn ... or something. There's a reason they don't mention Xorn much these days.

* Stand forward, the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]''. The Websnark rant linked above goes into detail, but it's worth noting that there have been at least three separate reboots of the series, that there have also been a number of smaller [[Cosmic Retcon|Cosmic Retcons]] that involved things like long-standing characters being retroactively replaced with entirely different people, and that [[DC Comics]] at one point featured two vastly different versions of the group. And as if that weren't bad enough, an upcoming Superman storyline will have all the currently existing versions of the Legion team up.

* The ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' mythos has gotten increasingly confused due to [[Time Travel]] and [[Cosmic Retcon|Cosmic Retcons]], but poor Donna Troy is a particularly notorious example. She was ''created'' due to a continuity error -- the writer didn't realize that "Wonder Girl" was just Wonder Woman as a teenager and crossed her over with herself -- and has since been the subject of at least five stories attempting to establish just what her ever-more-complicated origin is. The fact that, following the Crisis, Wonder Woman was retroactively declared not to have been active in the early years of current continuity, while Donna was still supposed to have been a [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titan]] alongside the original Aqualad, Speedy, Robin and Kid Flash certainly didn't help.

** John Byrne introduced a fix, having WW's ''mother'' [[Time Travel]] back to the forties and become the "first" Wonder Woman, which helped... but he also introduced the "Dark Angel" concept, which [[Retcon|retconned]] Donna as a sort of cosmic [[Chew Toy]] repeatedly reincarnated into horrible fates, and sent her straight into [[Continuity Limbo]] for a few years. This all has earned Donna the nickname "Identity Crisis Lass" in some circles. Also "The continuity error who walks like a woman!" It was finally declared in ''52'' that Donna Troy was a symptom of the chaos caused by having multiple realities interacting with each other.

* One word: [[Superboy]]. John Byrne's reboot of Superman caused ''all kinds'' of problems since, for one, his Superman was never Superboy. No Superboy to hang out in the 30th Century with the Legion of Super Heroes. Then you have all of the splintering of Superboy - clone, Superboy Prime, Pocket Universe Superboy... ''make it stop!''

* While not as extreme as some of the examples here, [[Green Arrow]] has had numerous minor, but confusing, problems since Oliver Queen came back from the dead.

** Another problem was the revelation that the whole ''Archer's Quest'' was a ruse and that Ollie had really been trying to recover a photograph which proved that he had been present on the day his illegitimate son Connor Hawke was born and that Ollie, ipso facto, was a dead beat dad. The problem is that this scenario is completely implausible given the circumstances under which Ollie originally found out that Connor (who he had been traveling with for a while before his death) was his son - he had been told by the truth by his best buddy Hal Jordan, who was (at the time) nigh-omnipotent with the power of all The Guardians Of The Univers Minus One. For Meltzer's scenario to make sense, we have to believe that Hal Jordan is capable of being able to see the DNA of a person by looking at them but is unable to tell when his best friend is lying about having no idea he had an illegitimate son.

** [[It Got Worse]] several years down the line when [[Judd Winick]] [[Jossed]] a fan theory that sprang up to explain away the discrepancy. The idea was that Ollie knew about Connor and tried to do the honorable thing by proposing to Connor's mother but that she had (having always been portrayed as an independent, free-spirited hippie) rejected him because she didn't want to marry only because he felt guilty/didn't want to get tied down. Instead, Winick wrote a flashback scene where Connor's mom approached Ollie and was sarcastically wished good luck in trying to prove the baby was his in court. This scene apparently took place BEFORE the shipwrecking incident which inspired Ollie to become Green Arrow, as he tracks her down once he gets back to civilization and is there to have his photo taken with Connor before he has a fight with Sandra and walks out of her life again.

* [[Ultimate Marvel]] has had a few problems with this where its version of [[Iron Man]] is concerned. The ''Ultimate Iron Man'' miniseries by [[Orson Scott Card]], while good on its own, is difficult to fit into continuity with the ''Ultimates'' series. Another origin story featured in an issue of ''Ultimate Marvel Team-Up'' created further problems. Although [[Brian Michael Bendis]], who wrote the latter story, has suggested that some of ''Ultimate Team-Up'' is [[Canon Dis Continuity|dubiously canon]], it remains to be seen how or if the former will be reconciled.

** The ''Ultimate Iron Man'' miniseries has recently been retconned to be a [[Work Within A Work|movie about Tony Stark's life]] that ignores the truth in favour of bizarre sci-fi.

*** This one happens because of a change in plans. Originally, the Fantastic Four we were seeing in Ultimate Spider-Man and the such were going to be adults, while Ultimate Fantastic Four would take place a decade or so in the rest of the line's past, establishing the FF as the first super heroes and cornerstones of heroic society in the Ultimate U. The plan got muddled and changed, but it's very apparent when Sue Storm, 16-ish in UFF, shows up during Ultimate Spider-Man's "Clone Saga" and is clearly in her late 20s/early 30s.

* Busiek also used ''Avengers Forever'' to untangle the very snarled continuity of [[The Vision]]. For decades, the Vision's origin story had him being created from the remains of the [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|original Human Torch]]. But after the writers of West Coast Avengers decided to re-introduce the Torch to modern continuity in the late 80s, the Vision's origin was retconned, invalidating alot of stories and raising alot of questions about where the Vision ''did'' come from. Enter Busiek, who [[Deus Ex Machina|explained everything]] by having Immortus use a time-altering [[MacGuffin]] to change history, so that two contradictory events; the Torch being rebuilt and the Torch not being rebuilt, ''both happened at the same time''. [[Your Head Asplode|Neat, huh?]]

* As the Batman franchise was one of the few properties not completely rebooted during DC's ''[[New 52]]'' initiative, numerous continuity problems have arisen over the bits of Bat-history that were altered. A particular source of contention is how [[Batgirl 2000 (Comic Book)|Cassandra Cain]] and [[Batgirl 2009 (Comic Book)|Stephanie Brown]] could fit into the new, condensed five year timeline given some of the statements made in the new Batgirl title. Though it has been confirmed that Cain will appear in ''[[Grant Morrisons Batman|Batman Inc.]]'' at some point, how her history could be reconciled has not yet been mentioned.

 

 

== Film ==

*** This isn't the only problem with ages; Cyclops is portrayed as a teenager in 1979 during Wolverine, but is portrayed as a man in his mid to late twenties in the original X-Men trilogy, which takes place 20 or so years later. James Marsden was 27 when he portrayed Cyclops in the original X-Men, about ten years too young.

** Also in ''Wolverine'', Sabertooth never had his memory erased and should know his own brother. In X1, which was released first, it seems that Sabertooth does not know Logan, looks completely different, and is near-mute.

** In ''First Class'', it is established that Mystique and Prof. X grew up together. Seems odd that she would be so casual about attempting to kill him in X1 and at no point did Charles express any real knowledge of her outside of being Mangeto's lackey.

** Chewbacca apparently has no respect for Jedi in ''[[A New Hope]]'', despite fighting the Clone Wars alongside Yoda on his home planet in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''.

*** Chewie, unlike Han, is never seen to scoff at Obi-Wan's Jedi teachings, and since he doesn't actually speak in any way the audience can comprehend, we really have no indication what he thinks about Jedi.

** In ''[[A New Hope]]'', the Jedi had been gone for so long that some people (like Han Solo) no longer believe in the Force. When Obi-Wan whipped out a lightsaber, it was very shocking to the patrons in Mos Eisley. The Prequel Trilogy (ostensibly set twenty years before) has scores of Jedi walking around on several planets as a normal part of everyday political negotiations, with people not even batting an eye when witnessing Force powers or lightsabers.

** Obi-Wan and Yoda supposedly left Luke on Tatooine with the purpose of training him later. When that day came, Yoda acted surprised and even argued with Obi-Wan as to whether or not Luke should be trained. This could, however, be interpreted as Yoda just being unsure whether Luke is ''worthy'' of Jedi training, with the justifiable fear that he might end up like his father.

*** Canonically, Obi-Wan died at 57 (only 5 years younger than Alec Guinness during filming). Anakin, on the other hand, was 46 (''26'' years below Sebastian Shaw!).

*** The [[Expanded Universe]] had, prior to the prequel trilogy, assumed that Obi-Wan had met and trained an adult Anakin, as nothing in the original trilogy even hinted at Jedi being brought in for training as young children. Thus, the EU soruces listed him as being only 5 years younger than Obi-Wan.

 

 

*** According to [[Peter David]], Lancelot was "the first Mary Sue." This certainly explains his (or rather his reincarnation's) treatment in Knight Life.

** And Morgan Le Fey went from being a benevolent sorceress who had saved Arthur's life on multiple occasions to a vindictive [[Yandere]] bent on breaking up Arthur/Guinevere to the mother of the [[Big Bad]] to the [[Big Bad]] herself. And even after Mordred was [[Retcon|retconned]] into being her son, he originally wasn't by Arthur. And then the whole [[Brother-Sister Incest]] thing got added in.

** Modern writers who try to keep things relatively sane while using many, many sources for Arthurian myth use this sequence: Gawain was one of Arthur's best friends, probably one of the first Knights of the Round Table, and by far the most [[Badass]] knight in Arthur's court - but he had a ''severe'' problem with losing his temper, and would end up losing to lesser knights in duels because he would get angry and clumsy, so Arthur never chose him to be his Second in Command; Lancelot was the Champion Arthur had been looking for to sit at his left hand, because he was more level-headed than Gawain and nearly as skilled - problem is, the guy was a little too interested in Guinevere, and we all know where that led; Galahad, the son of Lancelot, became Arthur's second and final Champion, who was basically as skilled as Gawain, and as level-headed and cunning as his father, making him the greatest knight to ever live - ''his'' only downside was that he was more loyal to his faith than to his king, and once the Grail showed up he and several other knights packed up and left to find it, though he did return later. Percival is considered the most noble of knights, and lived the code of chivalry to a "t," so only both he and Galahad received the Grail, but wasn't as strong as any of the other three knights, so he was never a "Champion." Mordred was never a "Champion," either; rather, he was a genius both in leadership and in battle, making him Arthur's favorite to succeed him, and so earned the seat at Arthur's right hand at the round table - but Arthur caught wind of Mordred's evil ambitions, and through any number of events (based on the author at the time), a schism formed between them (probably from Arthur's exiling of Mordred), and Arthur chose Sir Constantine to be his successor right before/during/after the Battle of Camlann. Yes, it takes this much space just to clarify 5 peoples' places in modern Arthurian myth. [[Continuity Snarl]] indeed...

** In the very earliest stratum [[One-Man Army|Cai]] was ''easily'' the foremost of Arthur's warband.

 

== Literature ==

** He managed to get a Continuity Snarl with two books. In the first book, the Scarecrow is [[Offered the Crown]] of the Emerald City; Glinda has the flying monkeys carry him back there so he can claim it. In the second book, when the Scarecrow goes back to Glinda for help regaining his crown, she tells him that he's not entitled to it, it's Ozma's.

* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] is so large almost no fans have read even most of it. The lack of clarity on what is and isn't canon doesn't help either.

* An entire cottage industry has sprung up around trying to wrestle the Sherlock Holmes stories into continuity -- not only with each other, but with actual history.

* About halfway through the first ''[[Bionicle]]'' book, ''Tale of the Toa'', the writer starts mentioning the tools of the Toa Nuva, and how the Toa use them. Yet they only turn into Toa Nuva at the end of the second novel. The confusion came about because the author, who wasn't well versed in the story and its characters to begin with, had to churn out the books real fast, all in 2003, which meant that besides that year's story, those of '01 and '02 also had to be written down. She thus accidentally mixed up the original Toa and their tools from the first year with their advanced Nuva forms from the second.

** A lot of scenes also differ in their presentation from the source material, like how the Toa received their Golden Masks, and the entire final battle with the Manas and Makuta, the latter of which ''didn't even occur'' in the book, despite being the [[Grand Finale]] of that year. Tons of scenes are written in a way that makes the book unwarrantable for a [[Compressed Adaptation]] title (as in, the left-out events simply cannot be spliced in between the chapters). These could be forgiven, were the book meant to be a simple adaptation, or a "new take" on the story, but it was supposedly intended to be part of the official timeline.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Countless ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fans learnt to shudder when the topic of what exact decade(s) the UNIT stories were set in is raised, before the new series demonstrated how much worse it could get. Precisely when the UNIT stories were set may be unclear, but at least we know which order they took place in. With the new series and [[Spin-Off|spin offs]], we don't even know that. There are sound arguments that ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures|Revenge of the Slitheen]]'' happened after "Smith and Jones", and equally sound arguments it happened first.

** There's the Cybersnarl created by the incompetent attempts to tie "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S22 E1 Attack of the Cybermen|Attack of the Cybermen]]" in with "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4 E2 The Tenth Planet|The Tenth Planet]]", "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S5 E1 The Tomb of the Cybermen|The Tomb of the Cybermen]]" '''and''' "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S6 E3 The Invasion|The Invasion]]".

** These are by no means the only fraught areas of Doctor Who continuity. In what order did the original series' Dalek stories happen? (In particular, when does ''The Daleks'' take place and why are the Daleks in that story so different from all others seen later?) How many Doctors have there been (watch ''The Brain of Morbius'', although the novelisation clears it up a bit)? What was Atlantis like, and how did it sink? And how many ''times'' did it sink (And yes, this question ''is'' more complicated than it first appears)? How do Time Lord family relationships - in particular, the Doctor's - work? What are the Laws of Time and for that matter, are they laws in the scientific or legal sense? And most of that list arises just from the TV series.

**** Another possible theory which is occasionall kicked around in the fandom is that since we know, due to classic-era episodes like [[Doctor Who/Recap/S7 E4 Inferno|Inferno]] plus the events in various new-era Series 2 episodes, that the TARDIS ''can'' slip "sideways in time" into alternate-history universes, it's entirely possible that the TARDIS has been doing so all along without the Doctor realizing it.

** In the immortal words of a leading who-fan: "Continuity? What continuity?"

** The change in their MO from "The Russians <small>IN SPACE!</small>" to [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] is hinted at in one recently-affected Klingon mentioning having felt fear for the first time since childhood. Apparently they got more underhanded because their personalities were also altered to be more human.

** Furthermore, the tattoos sported by Nero's crew are given an explanation: Romulan tradition states that when a family member passes away, they apply dyes to their skins, and mourn. When the patterns fade, they move on with their lives. Nero's crew tattooed the symbols onto their bodies, so that they would never move on from the loss of Romulus.

* ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'': In the season 1 episode "The Hamburger Prostulate" mentions that Sheldon is allergic to cats, but later episodes mention that he had a cat when he was a kid. "The Plimpton Stimulation" even states that getting a pet was against the "Roommate Agreement" unless it was necessary, like a Seeing Eye Dog.

** Possibly lampshaded in "The Zazzy Substitution" (Season 4, Ep 3) where Sheldon reacts to his breakup with Amy by getting a cat ... then several more. 25 in all.

** A few episodes later in Season 3, Hawkeye says he's been in Korea for two years. If he got there when the war broke out in June of 1950, which doesn't seem likely since he was drafted, that would make it some time in 1952 at the earliest.

* In ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'', Maddie asks London's help to pass gym when she realizes that, despite her [[Rich Bitch|pampered lifestyle]], the rich girl is in great shape. In the sequel show, Suite Life On Deck, London suddenly needs Zack's help to pass gym.

** There is a solution.. possibly. See [[Dan Schneider]] for info. In short, there is a [[Show Within a Show]] that could be what the characters are referring to and ''not'' [[Drake and Josh]]''.

*** That solution is then torn apart by the [[Victorious]] episode ''Who Did It To Trina'', where they explicitly state that [[Drake and Josh]] is a TV show. Even though the episode before it had Helen, one of the main characters ''from'' [[Drake and Josh]] appear and reference characters from [[Drake and Josh]].

* ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'''s [[Early-Bird Cameo|appearance]] in ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'''s movie and their crossover movie Movie War Core has... issues with the TV series continuity. Whilst this would not be a problem for Kamen Rider traditionally (what with each Heisei Rider series being self-contained pre-[[Kamen Rider Decade]]) the fact that Double's canon is very tight creates these problems. Examples include Gotou becoming Birth (his ''not'' getting to be Birth is a major part of his character arc) and OOO's medal count (he switches between forms he never had all the medals for at the same time at any point in the series.)

** And Giru ''existing.'' In the series, Giru is {{spoiler|never active. A complete set of ten Core Medals for a dinosaur Greeed exists, and five wind up in Eiji and five wind up in Maki.}} Also, there were [[Out-of-Character Moment|Out Of Character Moments]] with the OOO crew, as all the details of the series hadn't been finalized when the movie was produced. This results in a movie that is clearly a direct continuation of Double but just as clearly ''can't'' be in continuity for OOO.

** The ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'' team-up "Clash of the Red Rangers" offically shoved ''RPM'' into an [[Alternate Continuity]] by saying ''RPM'' took place in another dimension. However, doing that creates other continuity problems, namely in one episode Tenaya is seen picking up an ''Operation Overdrive'' helmet, which means you would have to shove ''Overdrive'' in with ''RPM,'' which creates other huge problems thanks to "Once a Ranger."

* Frasier Crane famously told his friends at ''Cheers'' that his father was a research scientist and had died years before. This was Handwaved in his [[Spin-Off]] series ''Frasier'' as having been something he said because he was angry at his dad that day, but it was in fact not something that was said once; his characterizations of his father and his identifying himself as an orphan took place consistently over quite some time during his years in Boston.

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

** [[The Undertaker]] himself tends to be mildly rebooted when he gets a gimmick change. Different personas don't often directly reference older ones, but this is a double-edged sword; most glaring is when the American Badass started out with the Undertaker doing a worked shoot to sell the idea that he wasn't supernatural ''in'' character as well as out, so he could come back as a leather-clad biker, only for Kane to ''kill him'' so he could be ''resurrected as undead.''

** Occasionally a reference is made to their childhood home burning down, but which brother is responsible depends on who's Heel and who's Face at the time. If they're both Face, it was <s>an accident</s> [[Paul Bearer]]'s fault.

 

== Video Games ==

** It should be noted that the continuity snarl of Infinity was deliberate. {{spoiler|The player is actually jumping between a series of alternate timelines, attempting to find one in which he can successfully contain said Eldritch Abomination.}}

** Obvious explanation: the games are all [[Alternate Universe|Alternate Universes]] to each other.

*** With the obvious exceptions of ''Door to Phantomile'' and ''Lunatea's Veil'', which take place in the same universe.

*** It's possible the intro to ''Lunatea's Veil'' is an attempt to [[Hand Wave]] this, since {{spoiler|Klonoa's memories of Huepow were all fake anyway, retaining them would be rather pointless.}}

** There are more straight examples of snarls in the actual story, mostly the result of the lead writer shift after ''MK4'' . The two which stand out the most are Scorpion's oath to protect Sub-Zero (started in his ''MK2'' ending, supported in the official comic and ''UMK3'' ending, then ignored completely in ''MK4'', with following games being ambiguous about the whole ordeal, or portraying him as an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|revenge-seeker]]), and Kintaro's fate after ''MK2'' (with 3 different sources, all of debatable canonicity, stating different and contradicting fates for the Shokan).

* Fallout 3's last DLC was Mothership Zeta. Shortly after it's release, anybody who enjoyed the old game fluff immediately shouted BS. The whole DLC is based on an encounter from Fallout 1, one that is widely considered non-canon because of it's humorous tone. And later, it's hinted {{spoiler|the aliens started the great war}}, which completely ignores various other, more serious, explanations for the war. Not to mention the DLC was very linear, which contrasted with the more open environments of Point Lookout and Broken Steel. Aliens were never confirmed canonically. They were hinted at, and used as jokes, but never confirmed. The closest we get is the American supercomputer from before stating it was based on alien technology, and saying it may be lying through it's teeth the very next second.

* ''Skullgirls'' may count, though that the creators said that each ending is canon in some way. Still confusing, though.

* ''[[Myst]]'' created an interesting continuity snarl when it [[Retcon|retconned]] the prison books of ''Myst I'' and ''Riven'' into actual ages. That is, the books themselves were not intrinsically special or different from other linking books. ''Myst IV'' goes into great detail as to what the Red and Blue ages (named Spire and Haven) are like. While this works for ''Myst I'', it violates the events as they unfold in ''Riven''. To beat ''Riven'', you have to trap Ghen in a prison book. This book was presented as a special "one man prison" book, which is a very important plot point. Ghen's no fool; he isn't going to go into any random book some guy brings him. To ensure it's safe, he asks ''you'' to go through the book first. This works out in the end because it is a ''one man'' prison; when he comes through the book after you, you are freed and he is trapped. If that book were a regular linking book, you'd be trapped with a very pissed-off Ghen... who had the sense to bring a gun.

** This can best be resolved if Atrus made the Red and Blue Trap books ''out of'' Linking Books to Spire and Haven, altering their text to trap users in the conduit between worlds. At the end of ''[[Myst]]'', he could've simply ''repaired'' those alterations, shunting his sons onward into their respective Ages for safekeeping. The book that traps Gehn could've been a similar device, with its window adjusted so it wouldn't show the Stranger in the conduit, as the Red and Blue books had shown the brothers. Apart from minor references in the Spire and Haven journals, which could be attributed to deception or simple error by two stir-crazy captives, this resolves everything about the Trap Book/Prison Age quandry.

** [[Word of God|The official version]] is that that the "[[Literary Agent Hypothesis|real]]" Stranger talked his ([[AFGNCAAP|or her]]) way out of it, which the player [[Heroic Mime|can't really do]].

** It isn't the only retcon in the game's canon that poses problems for ''Myst''. When the official rules for linking books were more clearly established, they included the fact that sound doesn't travel through a linking panel. This means that the stranger couldn't have talked to Sirrus and Achenar, regardless of whether they were in prison books or prison ages, nor could he have talked to {{spoiler|Atrus through the linking book to D'ni at the end of Myst}}. This is compounded by the fact that Sirrus, Achenar and {{spoiler|Atrus}} definitely shouldn't have been able to see the stranger, as although the linking panel lets you see an Age, you clearly can't see back through a linking panel even inside Myst ({{spoiler|including the D'ni book, since when you get to D'ni you can't see back into the library, so how did Atrus see the stranger?}}).

* Each installment of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' is made by a different team, and each has a very large amount of information in each game. Later teams have been known to completely overwrite what was established by earlier teams. Every single installment has a portion of the fanbase that declares "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]".

** [[The Elder Scrolls]] series even has an in-universe continuity snarl: the Warp in the West. Somehow, ''all'' of the contradictory endings of ''Daggerfall'' are true.

* ''[[Touhou Project]]'': Did the first five games happen, or are they a separate continuity altogether? Are the PC-98 versions of Reimu and Marisa the same characters as the Windows versions? What exactly is Alice's backstory? [[Demoted to Extra|And where in the world is]] [[Brother Chuck|Mima?]]

** Those specific examples are only a problem if you assume the PC-98 games are still in continuity. Though the Windows games have a number of minor details that appear to contradict each other.

*** It was NEVER stated that the Rush and Sonic 2006 Blazes are alternate universe versions of the character, that was merely a fan theory. Not that this makes things any less confusing.

** Additionally, both Silver and Eggman Nega (characters with prominent ties to Blaze, but connected to her by different games) are drawn into this snarl as well, as the two appear in the ''Rivals'' series--''sans'' Blaze. Here, Silver is still from the future, but Nega (established in ''Rush'' as Eggman's parallel self from the same dimension Blaze is from) is now a ''descendant'' of Eggman, embittered by how Eggman's failures have tarnished the family name in the future and is now an ''enemy'' of Eggman instead of working with him. Later on, Nega reappears in ''Rush Adventure'' and ''Rivals 2'' with the conflicting backstories of his appearances between ''Rush'' and ''Rivals''. It's implied that (due to '''06'' slamming down on the [[Reset Button]] until it ''cracked'') Silver now hails from the ''Rivals'' future and Blaze is from ''Rush'' (with no official word on Nega with his lack of appearances since), but Silver is still the Rival Battle for the Modern era of ''Generations'' (which takes place in Crisis City, no less) and {{spoiler|the ending of ''Generations'' has him and Blaze briefly chatting it up before everyone says their goodbyes to Classic Sonic and Tails.}}

** It's quite easy to make it fit in canon if you ignore the one part where Phoenix says he has not seen him since {{spoiler|Miles' trial}} and just consider that they were really referring to case 5 of the first game rather than case 4 (case 5 actually does somewhat set up Miles' disappearance). This problem was basically made due to bad porting. If they changed the background in Phoenix's little "Haven't seen him since" monologue, this whole problem would have never existed.

** What's really weird is, because of the order the games were released in overseas, the translations had every chance to fix this and write it so that no one would notice the problem, and they... didn't.

* The Halo universe can't make up its mind on whether there was a single "[[Child Soldiers|class]]" of [[Super Soldier|Spartan-IIs]] or more. Summed up at [http://xbox.answers.wikia.com/wiki/Was_there_a_second_class_of_Spartan-IIs this Wikia Wikianswers page]. This relates to the question of [[Writers Cannot Do Math|how many Spartans there were]].

** As the series continues and more extended universe books are printed, this is steadily getting worse, most egregiously with the background of the Flood, the Battle of Reach and the events leading up to it, and Humanity's relation with the Forerunners- is Humanity {{spoiler|the direct descendants and same species as the Forerunner, a completely separate species picked by the Forerunners to pick up where they left off after the Flood, or a separate galactic empire that the Forerunners beat and de-evolved? Depending on the source, [[Mind Screw|Yes.]]}}

** Continuity in Pokemon games is usually thought of as being based on how the Pokémon themselves are traded from game to game, but this can get a bit confusing when you factor in [[Pokémon Colosseum]] and its sequel, ''[[Pokémon Colosseum|Pokémon XD]]''. The later takes place five years after the former, but both games are only compatible with the GBA games, which are assumed to take place at the same time. The DS games (The Sinnoh-based games and Johto-based remakes) take place four years after the GBA games (The Hoenn-based games and Kanto-based remakes).

* The [[Nasuverse]] has an interesting approach to continuity snarls.

** The first comes into place with Kagetsu Tohya, a sequel for [[Tsukihime]]. Kagetsu Tohya takes place in a dream world where the continuity is heavily blended and mutually conflicting events all take place together. For example, whether or not Akiha goes to Shiki's school depends on what he is thinking that morning. However, it should be impossible for this to be possible at all because the story is based around Len, and there is no route in Tsukihime where Shiki meets Len (Arcueid's familiar at the time) while Akiha goes to school with him. The continuity snarl occasionally confuses Shiki as well, but he's prevented from really thinking about it by Len.

 

 

== Webcomics ==

 

 

** A partial answer now exists: You need to be able to gather the energies of Magic in some way to take the courses in Magic (and it's explicitly noted that there are (inefficient) ways a normal human can do so).

*** But that still doesn't really work - in ''There's an Angel in Dickenson Cottage'' Lodgerman explicitly tells Kerry that her brother can't come to Whateley despite his enormous magical potential because Whateley only trains students who can already use magic. Ayla can't do this, but is somehow getting enrolled in a Magic 101 course anyway. Lodgerman may be lying for some reason or another, of course, but it isn't addressed.

** Amusingly, Spoony's explanation for him is "There is no continuity, there is only Insano."

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** The aforementioned series? In Japan, ''Cybertron'' is ''Galaxy Force'', and it appears it's unrelated to its Japanese predecessors, ''Micron Legend'' and ''Superlink.'' The US version tries to tie the two together, but there are still some problems, so a comic was produced that chalked all of this up to a big warp in time and space... even though some minor retcons and a few lines of explanation saying where the older characters might have gone to would have sufficed. Yeah, it wouldn't have been perfect, but come on, was it really necessary... especially since they've already let the original timeline rage out of control?

** Worse, the show itself mentions none of this, and we're left with plot holes big enough for Unicron to fly through. The biggest example is this: when Optimus and Leobreaker first combine, everyone is in total and absolute shock at the impossible - robots combining - happening. ''Guess what the main gimmick of both ''Armada'' and ''Energon'' was?'' (Hint: In Japan, Energon was called Super ''Link.''

** Furthermore, some characters are "multiversal singularities", meaning that every incarnation of a certain character (Like, say, The Fallen) is the same being, instead of just some alternate version. This leads to some headache inducing retcons among other things.

*** This gets worse with Alpha Trion, who was recently retconned into being one of these. After a [[Mirror Universe]] lunatic version of the character was introduced in ''[[Transformers Shattered Glass]].''

*** [[Word of God|Later statements by Hasbro]] have clarified that ''War For Cybertron'', ''Exodus'', and ''Prime'' are part of the same continuity in the same way that the original Transformers cartoon and the Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW comics are all part of the G1 continuity -- IE, they share similarities in aesthetics and characterization, but are not necessarily consistent with one another. The fandom generally uses the term "continuity '''family'''" to refer to such an arrangement, and this difference in terminology is part of the reason some fans continue to grumble about discrepancies in canon between the three works.

** The [[Transformers Fall of Cybertron|upcoming sequel]] to War For Cybertron may just complicate things further.

{{quote| '''Roger:''' My name is Braff Zacklin. I was an international race car driver. One day, a baby carriage rolled out onto the track so I swerved into the retaining wall to avoid it. The car burst into flames, but the baby miraculously survived ... I was that baby.<br />

'''Steve:''' That doesn't make any sense.<br />

'''Roger:''' I'm Braff Zacklin! }}

** It doesn't help that the series itself is retconning a fair amount of older series's, such as many of the ''Republic Commando'' novels.

*** Not to mention killing off a Jedi Master in the middle of the Clone Wars who explicitly was still alive ''after'' the war ended.