Fanon Discontinuity/Film: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"There's a reason so many people don't believe this movie exists. Because quite frankly we don't '''want''' to believe it exists. It's so horrible that we as human beings don't want to believe that we created it."''|[[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]]; [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/5605-titantic-the-legend-goes-on Titanic, the Animated Musical]}}

{{quote|''[''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' fans] need to do what us ''[[Highlander (Franchise)|Highlander]]'' fans and a great majority of ''[[Star Wars]]'' fans do: If you don't like it, get angry over it for a very brief period of time, then go into a severe drinking fit, and then pretend the sequels you don't like don't exist! ... It's called selective amnesia, and it works wonders for nerds.''|[[The Spoony Experiment (Web Video)|Noah Antwiler]] on Trekkie reactions to the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' film}}

Established movie franchises tend to have [[Fanon Discontinuity]] imposed on them, especially whenever [[Sequelitis|crappy sequels]] rear their ugly head.

Note 1: Do not include examples based only in adaptation. [[The Film of the Book|A movie adaptation]] can not be discontinued since it is not part of the continuity of the original. You can discontinue a sequel of the adaptation but not the actual adaptation. To a lesser degree you can discontinue PARTS''parts'' of a movie.

Note 2: Ignoring certain works of a person or company so they're "still good" is also forbidden as that would be ignoring real life events (which we are not doing here).

Note 3: [[Complaining About Movies You Don't Like|Do not post personal examples.]] Examples should only be of groups of fandoms.

* Some fans of the ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Alien]]'' films like to think that everything from the second or third movie onward was just a nightmare that Ripley had in hypersleep. Some say that the series ended with Ripley's death in part 3. Others refuse to acknowledge the existence of even that film. The vast remainder are mostly open-minded enough to accept both ''[[Fan Nickname|Alien Cubed]]'' and ''Resurrection'', but had horrible nightmares in which two ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]'' films were made, the first of which was written and directed by Paul "[[Fun Withwith Acronyms|Worthless Shit]]" Anderson of ''[[Mortal Kombat (Filmfilm)|Mortal Kombat]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil (Filmfilm)|Resident Evil]]'' fame. And some accept only the first AVP, which at least tried to retain the atmosphere of the ''Alien'' and ''Predator'' series, but reject the second for being squicky without actually being scary. And there are others who like AVP-R but ignore the first AVP film for being a safe PG-13 cheese ball kiddie movie.

** [http://xkcd.com/566/ XKCD says "Damn Straight!"] - and provides the page image for [[Fanon Discontinuity]] as a whole.

* A few ''[[Star Wars]]'' fans hate the Ewoks so much that, nearly three decades later, they still disavow ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' as a legitimate episode of the franchise.

** Fans aren't the only ones who want to pretend Ewoks never existed, as you'll discover when you read just about anything Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) has to say about them.

** [[Star Wars]] has ''all kinds'' of [[Fanon Discontinuity]] groups. Some say the Prequels and the Clone Wars movie never happened [[In -Universe]]. Others say that only the movies ever happened, and that the Expanded Universe is non-canon. Still others say that nothing after ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' happened. Then we get into the groups that dis the continuity in regards to certain parts of the Expanded Universe, like the Jedi Prince series, the [[New Jedi Order]] series, [[Star Wars Legacy|the Legacy era]], and so on.

* While we're in [[George Lucas]] productions, fans who [[Hype Backlash|were frustrated]] with ''[[Indiana Jones and Thethe Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Thethe Crystal Skull]]'' (though like the ''Star Wars'' prequels, the expectations were really high after 19 years of waiting) try to ignore its existence.

** There is also the fact that unlike [[Star Wars]], Indy's EU is fairly obscure, so it's no surprise many fans not only don't think of any but the movies as canon... they don't even ''know'' about the novels, comics (specially the ''terrible'' 80s Marvel comics), park rides, tabletop games and videogamesvideo games. Opinion is perhaps more divided about the prequel TV series, the only non-movie installment that gets some references in fan fiction.

* Many fans [http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/011207 declared] that ''[[Rocky V]]'' never happened, even before ''Rocky Balboa'' ([[Broad Strokes|mostly]]) [[Canon Dis ContinuityDiscontinuity|ratified that judgment]]. [[Bill Simmons]] use of the phrase "never happened" might be the [[Trope Codifier]], or, at the very least, one of the more popular uses.

* Many people wish they had never heard of ''Home Alone 3'', due to the absence of Macaulay Culkin, its [[So Okay It's Average|mediocre]] quality, and the lack of genuinely funny villains, or those from ''Home Alone 4'' onwards simply because itthey suckssuck. A few even wish they hadn't heard of ''Home Alone 2'' because it's similar to the first one, just recycled in [[Big Applesauce|some other town.]]

* ''[[Terminator|Terminator 2]]'' featured a positive ending where John Connor not only survives, but manages to prevent the global nuclear apocalypse that would nearly wipe out humanity from ever happening. ''Terminator '''3''''', on the other hand, takes a [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] approach to the previous movie and flat-out states that Judgment Day is inevitable, rendering every action taken in the previous movie a waste of time, including the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of one of the well-intentioned programmers who would have originally brought the apocalypse about. No mention was made that this inevitability renders the entire time traveling kill-your-enemy-before-the-war theme of the series equally pointless. As a result, many fans insist that the series ended after the second movie, or that the more positive ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' TV series is the only follow-up. Never mind that it was hinted at being inevitable the entire time - John sent his own father back in time, which couldn't happen without a [[Stable Time Loop]], and thus a more or less stable timeline..

*** Salvation also gets some discontinuity because it contradicts [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]], most notably through the absence of any reference to Derek Reese. Some fans who otherwise wouldn't have had an issue with it choose to ignore it simply because keeping it would make it tricky to keep the series in canon as well.

* Some in the ''[[Highlander (Franchise)|Highlander]]'' fandom disregards all sequels. It helps that each installment, besides quality problems, ignores events outside the first movie. (The only exceptions: ''[[Highlander Endgame]]'' is a cross between the first movie's and the TV series' continuity, and the [[Direct to Video]] ''[[Highlander: theThe Source (Film)|Highlander the Source]]'' follows the events of ''Endgame''). Those who enjoy most of the movies will still adamantly ignore ''[[Highlander II the Quickening]]'', which has little more than a few names in common with the Highlander universe. Highlander 2 may be the most hated sequel ever made.

** Other Highlander fans decide to ignore ''all'' the films for the sake of a protagonist who KNOWS how to handle a sword - that is, for ''Highlander'' the series.

* All the sequels to ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]'' are disregarded by much of the fandom, in part because of the sharp drop in quality with each entry: the mediocre ''Jaws 2'', the cheap but counterproductive "3D" gimmick in ''Jaws 3D'', and the ridiculous [[Voodoo Shark]] concept and horrific execution in ''Jaws: The Revenge''.

* As far as many fans of the ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' TV series are concerned, whatever [[Mission: Impossible (Filmfilm)||those movies]] were, they certainly did not depict the real IM Force, and that definitely wasn't Jim Phelps. Besides, the films completely ignored the elaborate scams aimed at fooling the bad guys which were the entire ''raison d'etre'' for the original series.

* ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]] III'' is widely perceived to be inferior to the first two movies made during the classic New Hollywood era. With a convoluted plot, a love story featuring [[Kissing Cousins]] (Mary Corleone and Vincent Mancini), a former main character getting [[McLeaned]] (Tom Hagen), and arguably some [[Badass Decay]] (Michael Corleone), this sequel alienated a great deal of fans, many of whom prefer to pretend this never happened. Some viewers point out that it's still a decent movie, just not on par with ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]] I'' and ''II''. Others use [[Brain Bleach]] to forget its existence. In any case, when people refer to the great [[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]] movies, they more often than not mean the first two.

*** An ironic reversal of what happened with Part II. The studio were dead set against simply calling it ''The Godfather Part II'' -- "Boring! More of the same!" -- but—but Coppola dug in, insisting that it was a continuation of the original movie and not a separate story. Fifteen years later he wants to make ''{{spoiler|The Death of Michael Corleone}}'', and -- "You want to call it'' what''? You're insane!'' The Godfather '' is the most acclaimed franchise in cinema, and this is part three!" Cue the crushing disappointment when it turns out to be utterly unlike parts I and II. (Of course, as the original entry points out, there were other problems.)

* Where to begin with ''[[Halloween (Filmfilm)|Halloween]]''? Some ignore films 4-6, skipping the Jamie Lloyd story in favor of Laurie Strode. Some pick the first and second films with ''Halloween: H20'' as kind of trilogy, due to their dislike of ''Halloween Resurrection.'' Almost everyone ignores ''Halloween 3.'' Taking the 2018 ''Halloween'' as the one true sequel to the original is possible, but there are those who won't extend the same courtesy to its follow-ups ''Halloween Kills'' and ''Halloween Ends''.

* The ending of ''[[Pretty in Pink (Film)|Pretty in Pink]]'' outraged many, and it is generally ignored in favor of the ''original'' ending, which was thrown out because Molly Ringwald, the star of the movie, suggested the new ending. [[John Hughes]] was notably displeased with the revised ending.

* Some ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]]'' fans, chose to ignore {{spoiler|[[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Jean's and Scott's deaths]]}} or {{spoiler|[[Badass Decay|Rogue taking the Cure]]}} in the third movie. Other fans tend to disregard the movie as a whole.

** And then there are some that prefer to ignore ''X-Men: Origins: Wolverine'', because it was poorly executed and has a lot of continuity errors with the main series. And it turned out to be right. Follow-up ''The Wolverine'' took a [[Broad Strokes]] approach, and ''[[X-Men: Days of Future Past]]'' downright excluded it from continuity through a [[Cosmic Retcon]].

* More than a few fans (including [[Word of God|Wes Craven himself]]) prefer to think of the original ''[[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street]]'' as ending with the original, more upbeat finale where {{spoiler|Freddy is defeated for good and everyone lives}}

* Invoked in [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] review of ''[[The Neverending Story (Filmfilm)|The Neverending Story]] 2'' in which he says it's a good thing there was never another sequel, even though there actually was, before turning on the theme from the movies to drown out the complaints to that effect. He ended up reviewing the third anyway.

* Many (most?) [[Anne Rice]] fans pretend there was only ever one ''[[Vampire Chronicles]]'' movie made, and it was the one in 1994 starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.

* Many who watched ''[[AIA.I.: Artificial Intelligence]]'' feel that the movie should have ended with David {{spoiler|at the bottom of the sea in front of the statue of the Blue Fairy and wishing he was a real boy}}, rather than the [[Tastes Like Diabetes|overly-sugary]] last 10 minutes of the movie, which feels awkwardly tacked on in any case.

* Most fans of ''[[Dragonheart]]'' agree that there is no sequel.

* Though technically a sequel to [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]], being that it takes place after the prior film and even subtly references it a number of times, most fans would rather consider [[Shock Treatment]] to be a separate entity entirely. Even series creator Richard O'Brien has claimed that the Brad and Janet of that film are not the same characters previously seen in RHPS - which is more or less universally accepted, due to their vastly different physical appearances (Jessica Harper bears absolutely no resemblance to Susan Sarandon) and failure to recognize characters that look *exactly* like the castle inhabitants.

* Quite a few fans like to pretend that ''[[Airplane!]]'' II: The Sequel'' never happened. Not so much for quality reasons as They just prefer to remember ''Airplane'' as a standalone classic and aren't big on the absence of the ZAZ team. Those who do admit its inevitably not on par with the original but is very funny on its own.

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