Have you ever bemoaned a minor error in a novel as the end of Star Wars as we know it? Do clumsy retcons set you raging? Did the prequel’s Jossing of previously established EU elements make you seek therapy? Are you up all hours on TFN or Wookieepedia debating such things? If so, sometimes you scare even me, but it’s our latest poll nonetheless. Vote beneath the cut or on the sidebar.
[poll id=”23″]
I really like it when things flow pretty easily in my comics and novels. I don’t mind bumps along the way (like characters having the wrong hair color or commenting about being somewhere completely different than canon would have placed them) but I do mind things that ripple through the entire storyline, like Artoo having never had a memory-wipe or Sayid from Lost panicking for three episodes about not understanding French but then working at a French restaurant at the end of the season…
I’m quite late comment on this, but hey, I just love writing.
I love retcons. They tend to do one of three things, usually to interesting effect. In the extreme they can make that part of the story crazy-complicated, for better or worse. In the middle ground, they just put a logical, seamless explanation on the discrepancy and that’s great. The most interesting thing a retcon has done, IMO, is make a technology or a person seem less sudden or extraordinary, making the universe just a BIT more believable. The retcon that explained the relationship between A-Wings in RotJ and those before ANH is my favorite example.
As for continuity in general, I think we each have our own personal “Holocron” anyway and accept and reject certain story points arbitrarily. Realizing that and just accepting each story on its own merits, while sometimes making connections between stories that feel great, helps keep me sane about continuity.