Series Continuity Error: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
m update links |
Replaced redirects, added example |
||
(14 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"... and yet I also become annoyed whenever the great [[Homer]] nods off."''
|'''Horace''', "Ars Poetica"}}
Certain facts or events are presented in a series that contradict earlier episodes. Bizarrely, this is sometimes done [[Retcon|intentionally]], or [[Negative Continuity|incidentally]]. Can lead to a [[Continuity Snarl]] or [[Continuity Drift]].
A common feature of [[Long Runners]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* In ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', Kittan is shocked by the notion of Kamina's hijacking of a Ganmen, claiming it's impossible. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsmmqH8Fnv0 Parallel Works 9] shows Kittan actually stealing it. The problem? It's set before he meets Kamina, back when the Black Siblings were independent from Dai-Gurren. Note that the majority of Parallel Works videos (though not necessarily this one) are set in parallel universes.
* In the second chapter of ''[[Ice Revolution]],'' [[The Rival]] has clearly seen [[Tomboy]] Masaki in her girl's uniform yet in the next chapter she continues to view Masaki as a boy.
Line 13 ⟶ 14:
* The [[Artifact of Doom]] in the form of an '''eight'''-legged castle in the Nirvana arc of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' could only be destroyed if the crystals at the root of each of its legs were destroyed simultaneously. The protagonists just barely manage to scrape together enough people with the strength left to fight so that they can post someone at all '''six''' crystals.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Pretty Sammy]]'' TV Series when Romio appears as the third candidate who was flung into a [[Trap Door]] in the beginning. Rumiya pulls out the first episode and points out they look ''nothing'' alike.
* Don't try to put ''[[Rave Master]]'' on a timeline. You just can't. Though, if you ''were'' to try, there'd really only be one little flaw in
* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' has quite a number of continuity snarls as the series went on. For example, when Kenshiro's adoptive brothers were first introduced, Kenshiro initially mentions that none of them are actually blood-related. Later it turns out that the eldest two, Raoh and Toki, are blood-related after all and we are shown the ruins of their childhood home along with the graves of the birth parents. This can be handwaved by the fact that Kenshiro wasn't exactly sure himself. However, it later turns out that none of them were even born in Japan at all, but that the three of them were refuges from the Land of Asura and that Raoh and Toki's mother is buried in a swamp. If that wasn't enough confusion, then comes the prequel ''[[Fist of the Blue Sky]]'', which shows that the baby Kenshiro was born in Japan.
* In chapter 48 of ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', Nana's sleeve, which was torn off in the previous chapter, reappears.
* ''[[Bleach]]'' has had a number, and a particular example is Aizen's claim that Kisuke Urahara {{spoiler|was exiled for creating a ''gigai'' that was untraceable, and destroyed the reiatsu of the shinigami using it, both things that Urahara actually did}}. In the "Turn Back the Pendulum" chapters, on the other hand, {{spoiler|Urahara's exile is the result of Aizen framing him for turning Hirako and the others into Hollows, something ''Aizen'' actually did.}} As this comes in the middle of a speech boasting about how evil he is and how he has {{spoiler|fooled and manipulated people for hundreds of years}}, there's no reason why he'd be lying, either. Some, however, shrug the error as {{spoiler|Urahara's doings}} being the ''official'' reason for his exile, it gave Aizen a chance to {{spoiler|not mention his involvement in the matter.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* Matt Olsen of the ''[[W.I.T.C.H.]] '' comic series is one of the worst examples of this. When he first appears, he's a student with a thing for guitars, has a grandfather who owns a pet store and is utterly shocked when his girlfriend, Will Vandom, reveals her secret identity as a Guardian. However, come the second chapter of the New Power storyline and it's revealed that he's actually from Kandrakar, knows magic and already KNEW Will and her friends were Guardians. And there's been nothing to try to fix the previously established backgrounds.
* In one part of ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' Dr. Manhattan is totally unfamiliar with the expression "What's up?" and takes it literally when asked. In another part he asks Janey Slater, "What's up, Janey?" This is a guy who experiences all times as one, and is most probably too [[The Spock|Spock]]-[[Buffy-Speak|y]] to have meant the first instance as a joke.
** While everything above is certainly true, Dr. Manhattan experiences all time simultaneously but is ''nevertheless a slave to sequence''
* In one issue of ''[[Bone]]'', Rocque Ja cuts off Kingdok's tongue, and it's explicitly stated he can't speak with his tongue missing. Then, in a later issue, Kingdok is able to speak without any explanation given.
* In the ''[[Asterix]]'' comics, Obelix's birthday is celebrated in ''Obelix and Co.'', just Obelix's. But in ''Asterix and the Actress'', it is revealed that Asterix and Obelix were born on the same day and they celebrate their birthdays together.
* In ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'', The Maker Reed shows to Falcon how he keeps his intellect always a few steps ahead of The Children by enlongating his brain, that shouldn't be possible or even necessary; to elaborate: in the first run of ''UFF'' Sue ran some tests on Reed and found out that his organism was completely mutated, he became a worm-like being with just a core, no organs other than that, and later Sue's mother remarked that Reed was getting smarter by the minute due his mutation; so in the
* In ''[[The Smurfs]]'', the story ''The Finance Smurf'' introduces the money system and the Smurfs are revealed as not knowing what money is at all. This contradicts earlier stories, such as ''The Egg and the Smurfs'' where a Smurf makes a wish to become "rich"
* ''[[Fables]]''. This is done as a plot point. It used to be 'John of All Fables' but the 'author' made a typo so the universe created the Loveable Rogue Jack of All Fables. Jack meets John later on. Chaos ensues, which it usually does around Jack.
* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'''s resolution famously revolves around a picture taken by a minor character. Unfortunately, said minor character is given the camera long after the event she is supposed to have taken a picture of.
* In a ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage]]''
* [[Doctor Strange]] states near the climax of ''Avengers Disassembled'' that there was no such thing as chaos magic. The good doctor has ''used'' chaos magic before. Using the terms from the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG, his [[Arch Enemy]] has been a chaos magic master for going on forty years now. Kind of impressive for magic which doesn't exist, right?
* In an issue of ''[[Alpha Flight]]'', speedster Northstar is suffering from a disease since Pestilence, that storyarc's bad guy, kissed him. Problem is, said kiss won't happen until the following issue. (Northstar's illness was originally intended to be AIDS, because, you know [[Unfortunate Implications|all gays have AIDS, and you can get it from a kiss on the forehead.]]).
* ''[[Peanuts]]''▼
** A [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1959/06/06 comic strip from 1959] has Snoopy say that he doesn't have any siblings, yet they appear later in the strip's run (and were mentioned in [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1970/03/18 this 1970 strip]). To make matters worse, when he does first meet his siblings in the strip he claims they all speak different languages, which is also later shown to be false. He also started calling Charlie Brown the "round-headed kid" around the late 1960's, even though he called him by his name earlier, although that could be more of [[Characterization Marches On]].▼
** Even though Violet's birthday is apparently June 17th, according to [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1962/06/17 the June 17, 1962 strip], a couple of the 1950's strips hinted her birthday is January 28th: In [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1951/02/22 the February 22, 1951 strip], she said her birthday was last month, and in [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1955/01/29 the January 29, 1955 strip], Charlie Brown said her birthday was yesterday. ▼
== Films -- Animation ==▼
* At the end of the first ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' film, [[Robin Williams|the Genie]] loses his cuffs as a result of him being freed by the title character using his third wish. However, in the sequel, he for some reason started to wear cuffs again. The TV series finally [[Lampshaded]] this in one episode by having Genie say, "The only thing I'm a slave to is to fashion!", implying that he wears his cuffs because they look good on him.
* The Disney [[Direct to Video]] film ''[[The Lion King]] 1½'' (which is essentially a recap of the first film's events, but from Timon and Pumbaa's point of view) actually contradicts the events of the first ''Lion King'' film on so many levels. It also contradicts the animated television series that followed Timon and Pumba. Though, given whose [[Unreliable Narrator|points of view]] it's told from...
Line 49 ⟶ 42:
** Even more jarring, the little girl who hugged Quasimodo at the end of the first movie is present at the start of the second movie, unaged at all even though enough time has passed for Esmerelda and Phoebus to have a young son.
* ''Winnie the Pooh: Piglet's Big Movie'' recounts how Kanga and Roo first came to the 100 Acre Woods. Tigger takes part in the event, even though Pooh and the others first met Tigger in ''Winnie the Pooh & the Blustery Day'', in which they already know Kanga and Roo.
* In ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'', Mia's birthday is stated to be after Genovian Independence Day. In the sequel, her birthday is ''before'' Genovian Independence Day.
== Films -- Live-Action ==▼
▲* In ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'', Mia's birthday is stated to be after Genovian Independence Day. In the sequel, her birthday is ''before'' Genovian Independence Day.
* Two big examples from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films:
** First is the conflicting ages of the Republic given by Obi-Wan and Palpatine. In ''[[A New Hope]]'', Obi-Wan establishes that the Jedi have been protecting the Republic for "a thousand generations" (anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 years depending on how you count a "generation"). In ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'', Palpatine says that he will not let "this Republic which has stood for a thousand years" fall. Even factoring in that Obi-Wan may have been exaggerating (which, according to the [[Expanded Universe]], he wasn't) that's a pretty big difference in ages.
Line 58 ⟶ 48:
** Asajj Ventress is changed from a true Rattatak to a Dathomirian taken to Rattatak and being raised there until her descent to the Dark Side after her mentor is killed by soldiers.
** Darth Maul surviving Obi-Wan Kenobi's attack at the end of ''[[The Phantom Menace]]'' and becoming half-robotic.
* The ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' films:
** At the end of the first movie, Michael is shot by Loomis six times, then falls off a covered balcony at the back of the house; this scene is shown again at the start of the
** Also in ''II'', Loomis says that Michael is 21 years old. Both end credits of the first film and ''II'' lists unmasked Michael's age as 23.
** In the original ''Halloween'', the Myers house is a modest two-story home. By the time we get to ''Halloween 5'', it's a huge, Gothic-style mansion.
* In ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', Khan recognizes Chekov despite the latter being introduced in the second season of ''[[Star Trek: The
* In ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock]]'', Kirk flashes McCoy the Vulcan hand salute in a throw-away joke ("How many fingers am I holding up?"). Unfortunately, it has been established as recently as the end of the previous film that Kirk cannot manage the Vulcan hand salute (as seen in [[Window Love|the infamous sequence]] in ''Wrath of Khan'' where Spock is slowly dying in the radioactive containment until).
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''
** In ''[[
** Also, Harry fails to notice the Thestrals pulling the carriages at the end of ''Goblet of Fire'' only to do so the next book. [[Word of God|J.K. Rowling herself]] says that this is because she didn't want to add the Thestrals at the end of a book, stuffing it. Her [[Justified Trope|in-universe explanation]] is that takes some time to "process" a death and come to terms with it; only after then can you see Thestrals. It is also worth noting that he ''didn't'' see his parents die at all, not even his mother. He was lying in the crib and only saw green light fill the room. Both J.K. Rowling herself and the seventh book confirm this. This explains why he was not able to see the Thestrals from the beginning of the first book. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080823121201/http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=80 Link.]
*** It still creates a major plot hole for [[Harry Potter (film)|the films]]. In the novel, he passes out before he can see Quirrel burn up, but in the movie, he's a first-hand witness to the whole process in all its nightmare-inducing detail. Maybe Quirrel's death wasn't sufficient since he only had a "half-life"?
*** It also creates a plot hole for the movies in that {{spoiler|Harry sees his mother die, or at the very least, Snape holding her body}}, though the explanation that the death needs to be "processed" might explain this.
** In the first book, Voldemort tells Harry that his father "put up a courageous fight" before he died, and had no reason to be lying to Harry at this point. Seven books on, James Potter is killed in flashback without raising so much as a finger against Voldemort, though James did try to hold him off, but was killed quickly, having forgotten his wand. Perhaps, given that he was going against the [[Evil Overlord]] unarmed, instead of begging for mercy, Voldermort would have considered fighting him at all to be brave. He didn't say he was a ''tough'' fighter, just a brave one.
** In ''[[
** The Death Eater called Rookwood has the first name Augustus in the first book he's referred to in, ''Goblet of Fire''. It changes to Algernon in ''Order of the Phoenix'', but reverts afterwards.
** Marcus Flint was said to be a sixth year student in ''Philosopher's Stone'' but was still at Hogwarts in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. [[Shrug of God|Rowling has suggested Flint had to repeat a year.]]
Line 79 ⟶ 68:
* [[Tom Holt]]'s ''Portable Door'' series. The first book stated that using the Door for a journey of more than an hour was almost impossible, and using it for any real length of time was exhausting. By ''The Better Mousetrap'', Frank Carpenter is living his entire life about two decades in his past thanks to the Door, without really experiencing any negative effects whatsoever.
* Dr. John Watson of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' seems to get caught in these rather often.
** Watson served as an Assistant Surgeon of the Army Medical Department (attached to the 66th Foot) in Afghanistan, but was discharged following an injury received in the line of duty during the Battle of Maiwand. In a
** Doyle's
** Both "The Final Problem" and its prequel, ''The Valley of Fear'', involve Watson hearing about Moriarty for the first time. The latter apparently makes Moriarty aware of Holmes' activities against him two years earlier than the former does.
** To add insult to floating injury, Watson's ''first name'' is in question. It's stated as John H. Watson at least once, but in "The Man With the Twisted Lip" his wife calls him ''James''.
* Christopher Paolini, of ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'' fame, gave Murtagh dark brown hair in ''Eragon'', but his [[Adaptation Dye Job]] in the movie seems to have confused the author enough for Murtagh to have a different color by ''Brisingr''
* Earlier [[Andrew Vachss]] ''Burke'' books said that [[Badass]] martial artist Max the Silent was a Mongolian, but the first mention of his nationality in ''Terminal'' has him as Tibetan. It's even more messed up when the next time says he's Mongolian again. Supposedly the Tibetan thing is established in the first book, but as later books never spell it out clearly in full, you can see how this confusion arises.
Line 99 ⟶ 88:
** ''Animorphs'' has quite a few of these in the first book or two, with one of the more obvious being Jake using Thought-speak on Tobias when Tobias is a cat and Jake is still unmorphed. Later books have them discuss the inability to use Thought-speak outside of morph.
* The ''Dirk Pitt'' novels by Clive Cussler all take place in the same continuity, with past events often mentioned. At the end of ''Trojan Oddessy'', Dirk marries congresswoman Loren Smith, his love interest for most of the series. In the preparations for the wedding, it states the Loren's parents flew out to attend. The plot of ''Vixen 03'' revolves around the ''murder'' of Loren's father twenty years previously, and it was stated that he was already a widower when he died.
* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', Aslan tells people on various occasions that "no one is ever told what 'would have happened'". The wording is unequivocal. Then in ''[[The
* In the ''[[Flashman]]'' series, Flashman has an uncle Bindley who works at an office responsible for assigning military commissions, and at a couple of points, Flashman is forced to seek his help getting a commission. Consistent in the books is that Bindley dislikes Flashman, but the reason for this depends on the book. In the original novel, Bindley is from the aristocratic side of the family and doesn't like Flashman because he's from the commoner side. Later books reverse this by having Bindley as the commoner and resenting Flashman, who looks down on him. It's possible that this is a deliberate use of [[Unreliable Narrator]], since the novels are [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|supposedly]] extracts from memoirs Flashman wrote as a very old man.
* The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] seems to have these aplenty. Some biggies:
** Dac or Mon Calamari? [[Retcon
** The Marvels introduced us to "your father, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi". Also, Obi-Wan has black hair. The actual phrasing was "Obi-Wan, Darth Vader and the man who carried Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber", certainly implying Anakin and Vader were two different people. In one of the deftest [[Retcon|RetCons]] in the Expanded Universe, an author was able to use a ''pre-existing'' [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Concordance_of_fealty Jedi ritual] to justify the man carrying the saber as a third, distinct Jedi who had swapped sabers with Anakin at the time.
** Chewie only having one son when [[Word of God]] says Wookiees have multiple births. And six breasts.
Line 113 ⟶ 102:
** The timeframe in which Selenay's first husband and father-in-law die changes continuously. When the series was first written, it was implied that the two died at roughly the same time with the notifications of their deaths crossing en route. In ''By The Sword'', it was stated that learning about Thanel's attempted assassination of Selenay was a contributing factor to his father's decline and death. In ''Exile's Valor'', Thanel's father dies about a year before Thanel himself does.
** The Elemental Masters novel ''The Serpent's Shadow'' cannot make up its mind about the name of Maya's father. He is mentioned by name twice. The first time his name is Nigel, the second time his name is Roger.
** And in ''Unnatural Issue,'' Susanna makes a charm bundle and uses it to create a doppleganger of herself so she can sneak off to practice magic. When she runs away from home she's specifically described as burning the bundle and scattering the ashes, as it could be used against her if it got into her evil father's hands. Yet towards the end of the novel it's said that the bundle could ''not'' be destroyed by mere burning as it was a magical object and Susanna still had it with
* Happens many, many times with the ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' series:<ref>A full list of inconsistencies and typos can be seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20130902193556/http://forum.warriorswish.net/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=17638 here]</ref>
* Happens occasionally in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', usually minor instances, which author [[Jim Butcher]] tends to acknowledge on his website. In ''Proven Guilty'', the narration describe's a family's minivan being crushed flat, with the next chapter mentioning the whole family piling into the same minivan. In ''Ghost Story'', a gunman's weapon changes from a snubnosed revolver to a semiautomatic between chapters.
* There's a few in the [[Discworld]] novels; apart from the characterisation of [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] and the Patrician, there's things like the gates of the Assassins' Guild which in ''[[
* In a clear case of the writer and editor falling asleep, in at least the original hardcover of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''{{'}}s ''A Feast for Crows'', Princess Arianne discusses the implications {{spoiler|of Lord Tywin's death and Cersei coming to rule}}. A scant three pages later, she is first informed about it happening.
* In the ''[[Garrett P.I.]]'' series, Glen Cook once had his sleuth refer to his stable-keeping friend Playmate as "Sweetheart". Cook later justified this, having Garrett mention how he'd once made it a practice to call Playmate by an alias, to divert the attention of some thugs who might make trouble for his friends.
* ''[[The Vampire Chronicles]]'' is riddled with continuity errors, some of which can be written off due to the fact that different books have different narrators. However, it's hard to understand how Lestat's eye-colour, even self-described, keeps shifting.
Line 130 ⟶ 119:
** The story ''Jimmy the Hand'' taking place in Land's End, resulting in virtually all of the nobility of that small region dying, which makes the long-established recurring minor character Squire Locklear of Land's End's backstory nonsensical, especially since his first appearance in the timeline is only about a year later, nowhere near enough time for the new Baron, who had no siblings, to marry, produce an heir, and have that heir grow old enough to be sent as a squire to the Prince's court.
* ''The Book of the Dead'' can't seem to decide what colour Constance's eyes are; at the beginning of the book, they're violet, at the end of the book, they're blue, and in the preview for the next book, they're "dark".
* In the ''[[Mrs. Pollifax (franchise)|Mrs. Pollifax]]'' series, which is composed of fourteen books written over thirty-five years, CIA department head Carstairs is established as having the first name "William". Except for one book in the middle of the series, where he's suddenly "James".
* One of the most famous examples is ''[[The Golden Girls]]''. At some point, they hired a new writing team who simply ignored previous continuity in favor of [[Rule of Funny]]. Some famous examples:
** In one episode, Dorothy mentions that Rose is allergic to cats. However, in a flashback of how Rose and Blanche first meet, Rose mentions that she was thrown out of her apartment because her landlord didn't allow her to keep a cat she found, and was holding at the time. Although, this could be [[Handwaved]] with Rose's caring nature, she might put her personal pain aside to help an animal in need. Or that Rose developed the allergy after that incident.
** The most famous is Dorothy's children. Dorothy and Stan were married for 38 years, and the show began two years after that. Considering Dorothy had a shotgun wedding, one of her children needs to be at 40 for this to make sense. Although both of her kids were played by multiple actors over the years, none of them appear to be over 30.
** Dorothy is also stated to be a grandmother early on in the series, having a grandson named Robby. However, neither of Dorothy's children that make an appearance are shown to have children.
** [[Depending on the Writer]], Blanche can have between
* In the ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' episode "Art Teacher", Mr. Laritate is surprised that his phone gets text messages when a teacher "texted in her resignation." In a later episode, he apparently still doesn't know what a text message is.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has a ridiculous number of examples. They include:
** The original series episode "[[Star Trek: The Original Series/Recap/S1/E22 Space Seed|Space Seed]]" was made during a time when a specific year wasn't yet assigned to the canon, so it references things in blocks of time... but misses the mark by a hundred years when ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Wrath of Khan]]'' came out. Whoops.▼
** In their first appearance, the Ferengi were aggressive, militaristic imperialists. In later appearances, they are portrayed as craven, greedy people with few cultural arts outside peddling and trading. This was an [[Author's Saving Throw]]; they'd planned to make the Ferengi the new [[Big Bad|Big Bad Aliens]] of the franchise, and they didn't realize until the episode was already wrapped and aired that they'd utterly failed at it. So they cut their losses, rewrote the Ferengi (and changed their uniforms to something less silly), and brought back the [[Magnificent Bastard|Romulans]].
▲** The original series episode "Space Seed" was made during a time when a specific year wasn't yet assigned to the canon, so it references things in blocks of time... but misses the mark by a hundred years when ''Wrath of Khan'' came out. Whoops.
** The Borg story has a sketchy chronology. Q set Picard's ''Enterprise'' thousands of light-years to find the Borg for the first time, and eighteen months later they came looking for Earth. Guinan identified the Borg in their introductory episode and it was later revealed that Guinan and her people migrated during Kirk's time. ''Voyager'' introduces Federation scientists (Seven of Nine's parents) studying the Borg long before Picard's first contact. It messed up what was inferred in the original episode, but it does make some sense that Guinan's people could have reported it to the Federation and it just didn't become common knowledge until the official first contact.
*** In the Borg's first appearance in "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S2/E16 Q Who?|Q Who?]]" they're only interested in "consuming" technology, and ignore other lifeforms unless they see them as a threat. When they take Picard in "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S3/E26 S4 E1 The Best of Both Worlds|The Best of Both Worlds]]", he's chosen to be a spokesman, not a drone. It's only after this that we're told assimilating other lifeforms is their standard
*** The vanished outposts in the first season finale, "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation/Recap/S1/E25 The Neutral Zone|The Neutral Zone]]", were meant to be foreshadowing of the Borg (In "Q Who?", they encounter an identical pattern of destruction after Q displaces them), implying that the Borg were probing the edge of Federation space even before Q made formal introductions. This is never mentioned again, and Guinan would later claim that, thanks to Q's intervention, the Borg discovered humanity centuries sooner than they ought to have done.
** Data's cat was repeatedly referred to as male since it was introduced, then suddenly became female in the last season and even had kittens. Some [[Fan Wank]] this as his owning several cats over the years and giving them all the same name, which would seem to be in character.
** There were continual goofs in whether Lieutenant Commanders are referred to as "Lieutenant" or "Commander" formally. They could probably have gotten away with either regardless of real-world behaviors if they had just chosen one and stuck with it.
** In the ''[[Star Trek:
** As pointed out by Phil Farrand in the ''Nitpicker's Guides'', O'Brien is casually treated as an officer (and once referred to as a lieutenant) in ''Next Gen'' but is
* In one episode of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', Sheldon admonishes Leonard for ending a sentence with a preposition. Anyone with even a cursory ability to recognise grammatical structures would remember that Sheldon has never been adverse to this. This may be because the writers [[Viewers are Morons|didn't think anyone would notice]] when they came up with the gag, or because the writers didn't know anything about the "taboo" of ending sentences with prepositions until they wrote that gag and then promptly forgot about it afterwards.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]''
** The show has two different origins for the Loch Ness
** And ''three'' mutually exclusive explanations for [[Atlantis]].
** Also from ''Who'' is the notorious UNIT dating problem. In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S13
** In the revived ''Doctor Who'', the Doctor continually insists that he is 900 years old, which by "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S32
** "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S3
** In general, the show has even come up with an in-universe explanation which can act as a general retcon whenever needed; the Time War has just gone around screwing with the Time-Line! Whole events have literally been wiped out of existence (unless you're a time-traveler, because then you can remember them).
** In the earliest episodes, they talked about the ship. TARDIS was only Susan's nickname for it. However, since other Time Lords {{spoiler|and the TARDIS itself in "The Doctor's Wife"}} refer to the machine in question as such, this more likely either a very early [[Retcon]] or [[Early Installment Weirdness]].
Line 163 ⟶ 152:
** Another episode has Sam endure a Carly makeover to become "girlier" to impress a boy she likes. A few seasons later, Sam is revealed to have been a pageant girl for a long time, and there's no way she would've needed Carly's help to change to be a little girlier.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
** In Season 7, Spike is "tortured" by the Turok-Han by being drowned, despite the show and its spin-off, ''[[Angel]]'', explicitly and repeatedly stating that vampires don't breathe. Apparently the First, the Turok-Han and ''Spike himself'' all forgot that little detail. The apparent [[Word of God]] is that it was supposed to be holy water; they simply forgot to add smoke and sizzling noises.
** Whether or not vampires breathe is handled very inconsistently. Angel couldn't do CPR and survived three months underwater, but he could speak and Spike smoked. Maybe vampires can breathe but don't need to, though that wouldn't explain inability to do CPR.
** Buffy's birthday changed a lot. Hell, it even changed once during the same
** {{spoiler|Warren}}'s presence in the season eight comics caused a continuity error: [[Big Bad|The First]] had impersonated him many times in season seven, but it can only take on the appearance of people who have died. [[Word of God|Joss Whedon]] said that he died briefly but was revived by {{spoiler|Amy}}, but she lied and said he ''never'' died, which [[Watsonian Versus Doylist|really just means]] that the writers all forgot.
* ''[[So Weird]]'': In season 2, Fiona has a pet cat, and has had it for some time. A long-haired cat at that. In season 3, her mother is severely allergic to cats and can't stand to be near one. (Though it ''is'' possible to ''develop'' a cat allergy...)
* ''[[Soap]]'': In the very first episode, Chester claims to be diabetic when Benson brings him coffee with sugar. A season or so later, trying to justify his sex addiction, he tells his wife, "If I had diabetes, you couldn't blame me for not being able to have sugar."
Line 176 ⟶ 165:
* ''[[Full House]]''
** In the first episode, Danny tells his mother to return to his father in such a way that implies that his parents are married. Later episodes tell us that Danny's parents have been divorced since childhood.
** Steve's last name seems to have changed from Peters (when first introduced) to Hale (in the prom episode). Of course, before that, there was
** An early episode shows Jesse attending his high school reunion (with a flashback taking place shortly before graduation). Several seasons later has him say he dropped out of high school (right in the middle of a class, no less) and had been keeping it a secret from everyone else. Even if this did fit continuity, it's questionable how Danny, his long-time brother-in-law, could not have known this.
* ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' gives Ethel several different middle names, and Ricky two different ''first'' names.
Line 183 ⟶ 172:
** Meredith went from having two kids to having one, and from being an accountant to a supplier relations rep.
* American version of ''[[The Office]]'':
** On an episode of the Michael wants to throw a birthday party and asks Pam when the next birthday in the office is. She tells him the next birthday is Meredith's, which is "next month." In another episode, Jim says that it's "birthday month" and that "Kelly's was last week, Creed's is today, Oscar's is next week, and Meredith's is at the end of the month."
** In one episode, Jim says that he's had a crush on Pam since her first day at Dunder-Mifflin. In another, he says he's had a crush on her since she showed him to his desk on his first day. Obviously, that only makes sense if they both started on the same day, but it seems odd that he wouldn't refer to it as "our first day" if that were the case.
** [[Word of God]]
* At the end of a third-season episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', Prentiss is disturbed by the case the team just solved, saying that the killer was the first unsub she worked on who [[Sympathetic Murderer|wasn't a bad guy]]. This means that Prentiss somehow thought that the unsub from the earlier episode "Distress" was a bad guy, she forgot about him, or the writers forgot about him.
** In one episode it is an actual plot point that Garcia had four brothers. In another, she needs an explanation of normal sibling behavior, since she's an only child. Fans [[Hand Wave]] this by pointing out she has a stepfather, so it's possible they're stepbrothers or much younger half-brothers that she didn't grow up with.
** Hotch either married Haley directly out of high school or five years before the series starts, depending on which episode you watch.
** The case that haunted Rossi enough to bring him back to the BAU: originally he tells it that four children watched their parents be beaten to death on Christmas Eve. When the case is actually solved, it was only three children, who found their parents' bodies, after they were killed with an ax in ''March''.
** In the pilot episode Gideon makes it quite clear there is no such thing as a serial killer with multiple personalities, referencing a paper he's written. Well, there weren't until they actually encounter one, and Gideon makes no objection when the possibility is brought up.
* The first ''[[Growing Pains (TV)|Growing Pains]]'' [[Reunion Show]] mentions that the Seavers bought a new house a few blocks from the old one, and has Carol marrying a man with a son. In the second one, Carol and her now differently-surnamed husband are expecting their first child, and the plot revolves around what is supposedly the house from the series, though given the conversion from a stagey sitcom to a realistic TV-movie, you'd be hard pressed to recognize it.
* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' has a few of these mostly because of the high number of [[Flash Back|flashbacks]] they do, often covering very close events in the timeline.
** The most general ones are that the Hickey brothers didn't know Joy until Earl married her and Catalina until after Earl's karmic revelation. All the flashbacks make you wonder a little why they didn't know Joy most of their lives and Catalina during the six years she had immigrated to America, as both seemed to be regulars at the Crab Shack.
Line 205 ⟶ 194:
** He also claims back in season one that he's never been to a wedding before. This seems rather strange when the Flashback shows that he had a perfectly normal childhood in Locksley (though admittedly, not impossible).
* ''[[Charmed]]''
** In the hundredth episode, Paige sees her own grave in an alternate universe, which states her birth as being in 1975. However, in the episode after she was introduced, she states that she last saw the nun she was taken to as a baby on August
** Also, in a season 1 episode, we learn that the girls' mother died shortly after Phoebe was born, MUCH too shortly after to have conceived and borne another child post-Phoebe.
** The girls' Father was named Victor Halliwell in season 1, but later his name was Bennet and Halliwell was a name that had been passed from mother to daughter in defiance of social convention for an unspecified period of time.
* In an early episode of ''[[Friends]]'', Joey asks a woman when her birthday is, hoping to hit on her. When his friends object, he claims he is innocently gathering everyone's birthdays. Ross then says "Mine's December...", before Joey cuts him off, intent on talking to the girl. Several seasons later, Joey fills out a medical form for Ross, who is unable to due to a hand injury, and asks Ross when his birthday is. Ross' reply? "October 18th."
* ''[[Monk]]''
** In one episode, Lieutenant Disher mentions that he doesn't have any uncles. A few seasons later, and episode revolves around him inheriting his uncle's farm.
Line 215 ⟶ 204:
* In an episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'', London is shown to be very competent in physical sports. In an episode of ''The Suite Life on Deck'', she needs Zack's help. Did she leave her muscles in Boston?
* ''[[Frasier]]''
** In the episode with Martin's brother, a backstory about a longstanding family feud is written in to attempt to explain why this character's never even been mentioned
** On a related note, the series avoided another continuity error with a fairly clever [[Retcon]]. In ''Frasier'', Martin is a retired cop, but in an episode of ''[[Cheers]]'' Frasier described him as a scientist... and dead. When [[The Cameo|Sam Mallone]] stops by and notes the discrepancy, Frasier says that he'd made that story up because he and Martin had been fighting at the time.
** In ''Cheers'', Frasier said he had no siblings. The first episode of ''Frasier'' he meets Niles at the coffee shop and they agree to start talking again. [[Fridge Brilliance|Seems like it's just a Crane family tradition]]
* ''Aliens in America'' has an episode about Justin's fear of performing in public - it's a plot point that he's a weak singer who freezes up so badly on stage that he wasn't allowed to sing in a school pageant that offered a role to anyone who showed up. A few episodes later, Justin's been a soloist in the school choir for years.
* ''[[Young Blades]]'': When Jacqueline meets [[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Great D'Artagnan]] in "Secrets of the Father," she excitedly goes on about how she used to swordfight with her brother while pretending to be The Great D'Artagnan. D'Artagnan (his son) clearly hears this and doesn't seem to be surprised or care. But several episodes later, in "Secrets," Jacqueline is suddenly very embarrassed about pretending to be The Great D'Artagnan and doesn't want D'Artagnan to know about it. When he overhears, he teases her about it. Neither of them seem to recall him finding out about it before.
Line 223 ⟶ 212:
* ''[[The X-Files]]'': In Season 1, Mulder describes the abduction of his sister, saying he couldn't see what was happening due to paralysis which prevented him from turning his head. In the season 2 premiere, the abduction is shown in a flashback, and young Fox is looking right at her as she floats out the window.
** Mulder claims to be red-green colorblind in an early episode, yet doesn't seem to have any trouble noticing what's odd about the green blood shed by an alien bounty hunter in a later season.
* ''[[That '70s Show]]''
** In the first episode, we learn that Eric and Donna have lived next door at least since age 4. In a later season, a flashback shows their first meeting, at age 8. Also, Jackie is established in the first season as a sophomore, and the other characters as juniors in 1976. Five years later the characters all graduate at the same time. Three years after that, they all say goodbye to the 70's on New Years Eve, 1979. If not for the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas episodes, you could say that each season represents less than one year of the characters' lives...
** In the second episode, we meet Donna's sister Tina, who is never seen or mentioned again.
* ''[[Wonder Woman (TV series)|Wonder Woman]]'' TV Series: The pilot establishes that Paradise Island, at 1942, is a [[Hidden Elf Village]] of [[Hot Amazon
* ''Sex and the City'' - early in Season 6, Carrie is shopping with Samantha and tells her, "I don't buy furry shoes;" Carrie bought near-identical shoes (maxing out her credit card and allowing a friend to pay for them, no less) in ''Season 1''. It wouldn't have been so painful but for the perfect storm it landed in: beginning of popular internet fandoms, resurgence of popular [[Long Runners]], beginning of DVD box sets in Season 1 - the fandom was livid.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
▲* ''[[Peanuts]]''
▲** A [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1959/06/06 comic strip from 1959] has Snoopy say that he doesn't have any siblings, yet they appear later in the strip's run (and were mentioned in [http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1970/03/18 this 1970 strip]). To make matters worse, when he does first meet his siblings in the strip he claims they all speak different languages, which is also later shown to be false. He also started calling Charlie Brown the "round-headed kid" around the late 1960's, even though he called him by his name earlier, although that could be more of [[Characterization Marches On]].
▲** Even though Violet's birthday is apparently June
* One 1979 ''[[Garfield]]'' strip had Garfield saying that he loved Mondays, because he "didn't have to go to work". You could chalk this up to [[Early Installment Weirdness]]...except that Garfield's hatred of Mondays had already been well-known by this point.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: Myths were bodies of multiple stories by multiple authors, spread out over entire countries, over centuries or millennia. It's no surprise that there were many versions of each story, and that the stories were changed over time by the needs of authors and audiences. ''Every single'' established mythology has multiple versions with a crapload of contradictions. That's what you get from lengthy oral traditions and people living a long way from each other. It's like a huge game of Telephone, splitting and spreading constantly. Only thing that can bring it out are written records and halfway decent communication systems.
* See the origins of gods in [[Greek Mythology]].
Line 236 ⟶ 230:
** Dionysus is both the son of Zeus, and the son of Persephone and Hades.
** One day Zeus had an agonizing headache, and when Hephaestus split his head open to relieve the pain, Athena sprang forth. She went on to become the most important goddess of her generation, and Zeus took great pride in the fact that he'd "fathered" her all by himself. Hera became jealous and gave birth to a child all by herself, to prove Zeus wasn't the only one who could do it. That child? Hephaestus. (Some authors solved this one by having somebody else, like Prometheus or Hermes, split Zeus's head instead, or denied that version of Hephaestus's birth.)
* The [[Canon]] of [[Norse Mythology]] consists of numerous sources which contradict each other on many points. In particular, the important story of Balder's death exists in two very different versions.
* Many myths like these take place in the undefinable time of legends, when the world wasn't quite ready and things like action and consequence didn't necessarily happen in normal order. That's also why legends where someone eats or steals away the Sun explains all the subsequent eclipses, even though it was supposed to happen a long time ago.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
▲== Tabletop Games ==
* The Demon Queen of Spiders, goddess of the drow, is called Lolth. R.A. Salvatore accidentally spelled her name Lloth when she became a ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' character, and the error proliferated to the extent that a rationalization was needed.
** Amusingly, the answer already was [[In-Universe]] before this happened. In ''Azure Bonds'' (one of the first published ''Forgotten Realms'' novels) followers of another Chaotic deity coming from different regions argued whether the name of their patron is correctly spelled "Tempos" or "Tempus", and started a fight over this. He apparently can't be arsed to correct either group of followers - not that it's a big deal, since he's a God of War and his followers ''like'' fighting anyway.
* Juiblex had similar problems, being often misspelled as Ju{{color|red|bi}}lex. Since both are Demon Lords it is quite easy to invoke [[I Have Many Names]] to justify the differences.
== [[Toys]] ==
▲== Toys ==
▲* ''[[Bionicle]]''
** The original intro of the story involves Takua summoning the Toa in their canisters to the island. He got blasted into the sky to witness six metal capsules descending form the "heavens" and landing in the sea, then drifting to the island shores. Later material explained that these canisters had been floating in the ocean for a thousand years before Takua attempted to do this.
** Another example is what the Order of Mata Nui reported about Karzahni. In their book, they write about how he is amassing an army in his own realm to lead them into battle. When Karzahni reappears in the story, he reveals he's been following the Matoran who later became the Toa Inika ever since they had gotten away from him, so he would've had no time to train any army.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* ''[[Ratchet
▲== Video Games ==
▲* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]] [[Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction|Future: Tools of Destruction]]'' reveals Ratchet to be {{spoiler|the last of the Lombaxes}}... but in ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]'', {{spoiler|Angela Cross is one too.}} Whoops. Apparently, [[Word of God]] has said {{spoiler|she's a separate but similar species}}. Regardless, in the prison in Tools of Destruction, they mention {{spoiler|"prisoner's of Lombax descent", so Angela could also be half-Lombax.}} {{spoiler|[[Flip-Flop of God]]. As of ''[[Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time|A Crack in Time]]'' Angela has been confirmed as a Lombax (apparently females don't have tails).}}
* ''[[Pokémon]]''
** Which came first? Mew or Arceus? It is commonly explained that Arceus created Mew, as the legend states that Mew is simply the common ancestor of all Pokémon. Scientifically speaking, it's easy to understand by studying evolutionary lines why humans would never actually trace things back to Arceus, since Arceus was never a part of the evolutionary line. So, to humans, Mew was the first Pokémon until Arceus was discovered much later. More of a Retcon.
Line 259 ⟶ 251:
* In ''[[Street Fighter II]]'', Guile wants revenge on M. Bison for killing his friend Charlie. In ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'', he's insistent that Charlie is still alive because (as established in the ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]]'' prequel series) they [[Never Found the Body]].
== Web Animation ==▼
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': [[Word of God]] says Grif was the Army's sole draftee, and his resentment of it drives him to be the world's biggest slacker. However, in the first episode, he says he "signed on to fight some aliens".
* ''[[Goof Troop]]''
** In spite of the fact that it is established that Goofy hadn't seen Pete or Peg since graduation, and that Max and PJ only met at the age of twelve, after Goofy returned to Spoonerville and moved in next door to the Petes, several episodes make references to Max growing up in Spoonerville. And in the Christmas special, Pete declares that every year Goofy wrecks stuff, although that should technically have been Goofy and Max's first Christmas in Spoonerville.
** Max's first Christmas maybe, but as stated, Goofy lived in Spoonerville. Presumably, that's when he always messed up Christmas. Statements about Max growing up in the town, however, '''do''' appear to be this.
** Then there's the question of whether or not the movie spinoffs, ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'' and its sequel, can even be said to be ''in'' the same continuity. Somehow in the space of a few years Pete seems to have lost his wife, his daughter, his auto dealership, and developed a completely different relationship with his son. And Max has gone from being a popular kid to a loser. And lives in a different house. No mention is made of any of these things.
Line 279 ⟶ 269:
* In her first episode in ''[[The Replacements (animation)|The Replacements]]'', Celebrity Star is arranged as Shelton's girlfriend, because she likes out-of-shape, whiny nerds like him. She proves too clingy and oppressive for him... and finally dumps him when he proves to be a middle-school hunk without his glasses. Her next appearance has her making a movie intended to ruin ''his'' reputation for dumping ''her.''
* ''[[Recess]]''
** The [[Vague Age]] of the cornchip girl. She appears to be in first or second grade, but spends most of her time with the kindergarteners, and during the [[Picture Day]] episode, she's not shown among the crowds having her picture taken.
** Not to mention, Gus being the new kid in school in fourth grade, yet somehow also appearing in Kindergarten. As well as how he appears to be attending school at the time of the Great Jungle Gym standoff (This can be attributed to an animation goof; since he doesn't have any lines). This is addressed in one of the latter episodes. Apparently, he ''did'' spend some time in the same kindergarten as the others, but being little children, they had forgot.
** Also, The Ashleys are shown to be in another class in the ''Can Drive''
* ''[[King of the Hill]]''
** The episode "Life: A Loser's Manuel" is chock full of them. First of all, in the very first episode, Luanne is eighteen years old and she has just moved into the Hill's home after her mom stabbed her father with a fork. In a later episode "Luanne Gets Lucky", she claimed she was sixteen when the event happened and had to miss her prom because of it, and yet in the first episode mentioned her dad said she was just a little girl the last time he seen her and Luanne seems to have no memory of the event despite the previous episode taking place one season earlier. Later on, Hank mentioned that he had never met Peggy's brother despite in earlier episodes he mentions what a great man he was and how he enjoyed his company, and last of all in earlier episodes Hoyt Platter was said to be a small, timid, nerdy man who looked like a male version of Peggy and ran off because his wife Leanne was abusive to him, yet in this episode he is depicted as a morbidly obese man who looks nothing like Peggy, is a total [[Jerkass]], and he mentions that he ran off because of a drug addiction and the possibility that he'll be in jail for the rest of his life if he commits one more crime (which he tries to cover up from Luanne as "working in an oil rig").
** Another episode dealt with Peggy not having spoken to her mother in twenty years and having to save her mother's ranch from being taken down; however, in a much earlier episode, Peggy's mom had a completely different appearance and personality, a fine relationship with her daughter, and not owning a ranch.
*** Even worse than that, early episodes have Peggy and Hank as high school sweethearts from rival schools and implies that Peggy's family lived i Texas for a decent amount of time yet the above mentioned ranch episode says Peggy grew up on the ranch.
** In a season 13 episode, Cotton tells Hank, via audio recording, to flush his cremated ashes down the same bar toilet that General Patton's ashes had been flushed down, the same as the rest of Cotton's dead war buddies, but in a season 4 episode, Cotton fought with Peggy's help to be buried in a Texas government cemetery, and succeeded. Though given Cotton's [[Jerkass]] nature it could just be one more screw you to Peggy.
* [[Word of God|Joe Murray has said]] that any flashback contradicting another flashback on ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' is just the result of people misremembering or exaggerating things, not unlike in [[Real Life]]. Thus, Filbert remembering being in high school with Rocko, in spite of Rocko having just moved to the States recently, is just Filbert misremembering.
* ''[[Duckman]]''
Line 293 ⟶ 283:
** Season 3's "The Girls of Route Canal", however, shows Duckman encountering Cornfed years earlier at an airport while looking for Beatrice. This one was explicitly a subversion played for laughs, as Cornfed attempts to introduce himself and help Duckman, but the mallard is in full [[Jerkass]] mode, so he barely even acknowledges him outside of insults.
** Finally, Season 4's "From Brad to Worst" shows them as long-time friends in high school. The writers may've been aware of the error, but this one was ''not'' played for laughs.
* To list ''all'' of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' series continuity errors would take forever and a day. Because [[
** In the episode "Lisa's Wedding", Maude Flanders is clearly visible at the wedding fifteen years into the future, even though Bart and Lisa are still children when Maude dies in "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly". Probably [[Justified Trope|justified]] that the wedding story was being told by a gypsy reading tarot cards, and so was only making guesses.
** Worth noting said episode depicted college-age Lisa and the rest of the similarly aged Simpson family and supporting cast in the waaaaay distant future of... [[I Want My Jetpack|2010]].
** Also, the street address of the Simpsons' house. From the very first time the address was brought up (the episode "Blood Feud"), it was Evergreen Terrace. However, the house number was 94 rather than 742. Subsequent references are inconsistent on the number, and "Kamp Krusty" even gives the street as Spalding Way. "Marge in Chains" finally establishes the address as 742 Evergreen Terrace, though it briefly went into relapse in "Homer the Vigilante" by giving the house number as 723. Interestingly enough, the address "742 Evergreen Terrace" was originally given to Snake's cattle rustling shack.
** The [[Whole-Episode Flashback]] "And Maggie Makes Three" reveals that Homer had to renounce his dream job at the Bowl-A-Rama and return to his position as safety inspector in Burns's power plant when Maggie was born. This contradicts Season 1 "Homer's Odyssey", where Homer was a technical supervisor before being fired and rehired as a safety inspector (and he already had 3 children, obviously).
** Also in "And Maggie Makes Three," Homer's reactions to Marge being pregnant (yelling "You're pregnant!" and "You're pregnant again!" while ripping his hair out and running screaming from the room) were ''WAY'' different than what was depicted in "I Married Marge" (from season three) and "Lisa's First Word" (from season four). In "I Married Marge," Homer found out Marge was pregnant when she called him from her job as a skating waitress at a diner and Homer squeezed his tube of cookie dough (which he was eating with Barney while the two were watching ''Charlie's Angels'') in shock and when Dr. Hibbert confirmed it with, "Well, Miss Bouvier, I think we found out the reason why you've been throwing up in the morning. Congratulations, Mr. Simpson," Homer yelled, "D'OH!" so loud that a man in traction commented on it. In "Lisa's First Word," Marge told Homer outright that she was going to have another baby (after Homer wrongfully guessed that he and Marge were going to start having sex in the morning) and Homer was
** Aside from that, the above scenes of Homer ripping his hair out take place in the Simpsons' current house, which they didn't move into until Marge was pregnant with Lisa.
** "The War of the Simpsons", a second season episode, has a flashback of Bart as a baby driving the car in front of their current house.
Line 312 ⟶ 302:
** In another episode Muffy was shown in a kindergarten flashback but she moved to Elwood City in the second grade.
* ''[[Futurama]]''
** In season 4; it is established that talking about ''[[Star Trek]]'' is illegal, although numerous references to it were made in the first three seasons, including a fictitious movie that was ''nominated for an Oscar'' for Best Product Placement (and on top of that, [[Leonard Nimoy]] from the original ''Star Trek'' series is in the celebrity head museum
{{quote|"''They never said 'Star Trek,' they said 'Start Wreck!'''"}}
** In the pilot, Bender claims that "I don't need to drink, I can stop anytime I want!" This contradicts the fact that robots in ''Futurama'' are powered by alcohol, established in episode three, "I, Roommate".
** In season 3, the professor specifies that there exist only two parallel universes (the other one seems to be the same as this one except that everyone wears cowboy hats). In season 4, an entire episode revolves around jumping through multiple parallel universes. But perhaps one can argue that the professor's machine had created all of those universes, rather than just a gateway to them. [[Word of God]] [[Hand Wave
** Bender has mentioned being able to remember his own "birth." In season 6, it is revealed that {{spoiler|Hermes}} was the inspector who approved him on the assembly line, but Bender does not remember that event.
** Versions of his Birth are also pending to changes. In the episode where he recounts his birth, it was shown that he was built the way he was at that moment in a robot factory in Mexico. In another episode, where the cast turns into babies, Bender slowly de-upgrades along with everyone else, shrinking with each successive step just like everyone else. On top of that, he mentions he's only 5 years old, yet shrinks with everyone else in the aforementioned episode. If he really was 5 years old, he would have disappeared in the goo and never came out (since everyone gets around half a decade younger almost instantly), much like one of the buds on Zoidberg's body.
** In the season 6 episode "Lethal Inspection", Bender discovers that he was built without a backup unit that would download a copy of his programming (i.e., his "soul") onto another robot body. Yet on the later episode "Ghost in the Machines", Bender dies and becomes a ghost, able to possess any machine.
** Also in "Ghost in the Machines" we meet Robot God. This does not contradict anything in the series but it does contradict several audio-commentaries on past seasons where Matt Groening and the writers repeatedly stated that there is no Robot God.
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* The ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' series has this fairly often.
** One episode, for example, claims that Lindsay has very large feet ([[Informed Attribute|that we never see]]) when she takes off her (apparently very tight) boot. However, we see her barefoot in the TDI Playa des Losers episode, and it's as small as you would expect it to be.
Line 328 ⟶ 318:
** An episode has Patrick being visited by his sister, Sam. The problem with this is that he said back in season 2's "Something Smells" that he did ''not'' have a sister. Then again, [[The Ditz|this is Patrick we're talking about...]]
** The episode where Squidward becomes nice has [[Broken Streak|Squidward actually beating SpongeBob for Employee of the Month at the Krusty Krab]]. The problem with this is that, in ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'' (which is the chronological series finale [[Word of God|according to the creator]]), SpongeBob says he has won that award 374 times in a row.
* In the Disney animated series ''[[Hercules (
* Similar to the ''SpongeBob'' example above, ''[[The Fairly
* Happens a lot on ''[[American Dad]]'', but most can be dismissed with the [[Rule of Funny]].
** In "42-Year-Old Virgin", Stan claims to have never killed anyone, but he broke Jay Leno's neck on "Stan of Arabia, part I", killed his co-worker's double at the beginning of "It's Good to Be Queen", accidentally disintegrated one of his other co-workers in "I Can't Stan You", shot down a hang glider in "An Apocalypse to Remember," and shot a painter in "Con Heir."
** However, the episode "Haylias" ends with Stan suffering from evident selective memory loss following his battle with the [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Hayley, which could explain his assertion that he has never killed anyone as "Haylias" aired on American TV before "The 42-Year-Old Virgin."
** Another possibility is that Stan has never killed anyone he was assigned to kill, since all of the murders he committed were accidental.
** The first season develops Roger's experience with the outside world and learning to use disguise, but later episodes (particularly "Weiner of Our Discontent" and the first Christmas episode in which Stan goes back in time to kill Jane Fonda to rid the world of the wave of political correctness that has ruined Christmas) show that Roger has been disguising himself and living among humans since the 1950s (he protested against the integration of a Southern college in the 1960s by knocking the schoolbooks out of a black girl's hand, popularized disco in the 1970s, auditioned for the role of [[Small Wonder|Vicki the robot]] in 1984, and was the contributing factor to Joseph Hazelwood crashing the ''Exxon Valdez'' and causing that oil spill in 1989, Biggie Smalls getting shot and killed in 1997, and George Lucas introducing the world
** In "Of Ice and Men", Roger doesn't know what happened to Stan's skating partner, though "Roger 'N Me" shows that Roger probed Stan and now has all of his memories. Either the writers forgot about that part or Roger just doesn't care about anyone who's not him (which is par for his character).
** In the pilot episode, Roger (after getting sneezed on) sarcastically says he's supposed to bring pneumonia back to his planet, but in the second episode, Roger claims that his species is immune to all human ailments (except for an unexplained cold sore). On top of that, "Weiner of Our Discontent" reveals that {{spoiler|Roger was the crash test dummy for a new model spaceship and possibly died upon impact, meaning that his planet doesn't want him back}}.
Line 345 ⟶ 335:
* ''[[South Park]]''
** In the episode "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut (2)", Kenny comes back to life by magically reappearing and the characters (at least Kyle) are shown to be aware of this. In the episodes "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" and "Coon Vs. Coon And Friends" Kenny comes back to life by being reborn through his mother and the characters are unaware of him dying. [[Rule of Funny]] doesn't work on this because [[Negative Continuity]] was played ''seriously'' in CVCAF.
** A few episodes mention that Kyle's family moved to South Park when he was about three. In "It's A Jersey Thing," however, it's a plot point that they moved there while Sheila was pregnant with him. (Though Kyle only says that he was born "here," [[Wild Mass Guessing|so maybe he meant somewhere else in Colorado]]?)
** There have been several examples of minor characters' names changing, and even more important secondary characters have inconsistent surnames (Token Williams becomes Token Black, Jimmy Swanson becomes Jimmy Valmer, etc.)
* At the end of the ''[[Cars]]'' short ''[[Pixar Shorts|Tokyo Mater]]'', Kabuto [[Defeat by Modesty|is stripped of his modifications]] as a result of him losing to Mater in a drift race. However in ''Cars 2'', Kabuto somehow got his modifications back! That is, if ''Tokyo Mater'' [[Unreliable Narrator|actually happened]]. And Kabuto could have easily regained them in the multi-year time gap between them.
* ''[[Winx Club]]''
** The worst example: Nabu. He {{spoiler|sacrifices himself to save the Earth Fairies}} in season four, episode 24. Yet, two episodes, he's at the Frutti Music Bar watching the Winx's last performance.
** At the end of season four, the Winx are back in their Enchantix forms. It remains to be seen if that was an error, but in the very least, they're still Believix fairies in ''Magical Adventure''.
** Clarice, the troublemaker from episode one of season four, appears to be a first-year student who has never seen the Winx before. But she and her friends were in season three and ''Secret of the Lost Kingdom''.
Line 357 ⟶ 347:
** The Nickelodeon TV movies summarized seasons one and two and created a few continuity errors because of time constraints.
*** Stella was originally "the fairy of the sun and moon" because of her parents, the sun king Radius and the moon queen Luna. But Nickelodeon redubbed her "the fairy of the shining sun." Yet, in season three, Countess Cassandra tells Chimera she would make "a better princess of the sun and moon" than Stella would.
*** In the original series, Professor Avalon was {{spoiler|impersonated by one of Darkar's minions}}. But "The Shadow Phoenix," he was {{spoiler|[[Composite Character|Darkar]] in disguise}}. This broke continuity with season three, since {{spoiler|the real}} Avalon was teaching at Alfea.
* ''[[Family Guy]]''
** Stewie in the episode "Forget-Me-Not" put Brian and Peter under a simulation to see if the two were truly loyal to each other and it was shown that they are after {{spoiler|Brian takes a bullet for Peter, sacrificing himself}}. However, "New Kidney in Town" revealed that Brian was willing to ''donate a kidney'' to his friend Peter (who needed one after suffering kidney failure from a homemade energy drink). That's pretty loyal, no?
Line 363 ⟶ 353:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:This Index Is Highly Improbable]]
[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]
[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]
[[Category:Consistency]]
|