What is retroactive continuity?
Q: What is retroactive continuity?
A: Retroactive continuity, or retcon, is when some detail in a fictional story, such as a movie, TV, or book series, is added, changed, or ignored in a later part of the series.
Q: What are the three main types of retcons?
A: The three main types of retcons are addition (a new detail added to give the reader or viewer a new understanding of the story), alteration (a detail that goes against details already given) and subtraction (a detail that gets ignored or forgotten later in a series).
Q: Can you provide an example of an addition retcon?
A: An example of an addition retcon would be George Lucas adding the explanation for why there was an easily spotted and poorly placed weak point on the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. He did this with Rogue One which explained it was done on purpose by character Galen Erso to help the Rebel Alliance destroy it.
Q: Can you provide an example of an alteration retcon?
A: An example of an alteration retcon would be Metal Gear Solid 2 where villain Revolver Ocelot tells Solid Snake that Big Boss was in his late fifties when he gave his genes to make clones but then Metal Gear Solid 3 has Big Boss as its main character set in 1964 yet he's nowhere close to being in his late forties/early fifties.
Q: Can you provide an example of a subtraction retcon?
A: An example of a subtraction retcon would be how X-Men Origins completely ignored Deadpool's story from X-Men Origins after fans were so unhappy with it.
