Do you ignore retcons?

[Nintegageo | 582]

I do. I think there's no takesies backsies with a story, so writers just need to use more caution with their work. And should a new thing not work with the old? Well then, do a new one that isn't related to the other.

Curious other people's opinions with this one.

[twiztor | 855]

i take it case-by-case. retcons have long been a thing in comic books, so i've been around them forever. i've long since given up on worrying about what is "canon" and just enjoy media the way i want.

[Tulpa | 3,539]

In the case of movies video games and whatnot, people keep throwing their money at them, so there's no incentive to stop.

In the case of comic books, those things go on for generations, and the writers change. Before too long, you're overburdened with backstory that you can't help but have retcons happen. What are they going to do, stop publishing Superman?

[Nintegageo | 582]

I don't know that I had any entertainment medium in mind, though it was Castlevania Legends and FF VII remake that had me considering retcons.

[Nintegageo | 582]

I do enjoy the new FF7, just don't consider the new aspect as canon

[Dr. Morbis | 2,092]

I don't mind retcons, but it really irks me when changes are made purely for pc reasons.  So things like gender and race swapping, editing out jokes/content/whatever to fit in with modern sensibilities and the like just rubs me the wrong way.  If a story or character is so far removed from the realm of current pc standards that you're actually afraid of potential backlash, just write a new story or create a new character - don't try and shoehorn the original story or character into the current values of 2022...

[JamesRobot | 5,842]

In general I don't care.  I don't think you really can care of you're a Star Wars fan at all.  Lol.  I won't watch the Special Editions at all but I enjoy all of the supplemental stories. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I think, for me, it depends on how well it's done.  If it's something that doesn't actually contradict what has come before, then I'm not necessarily against it, even if it's something that I don't agree with, think is dumb, etc.  However, once you get to the point where you're making conflicting changes, and usually relatively arbitrary ones at that, I'm done with it.

As much as folks today will relatively suddenly talk crap about the old Star Wars Extended Universe (even though most of it was beloved by actual Star Wars fans as it came out and continued), at least everyone who ever got involved actually did their research, worked together, and didn't suddenly roll back characters, events, etc., from previous works that they weren't necessarily fans of.  There were parts of that whole line of content that I enjoyed, and stuff I didn't, but regardless of my enjoyment, I truly liked how consistent it was.  If someone had trodden certain ground before another author could, the later author would only add details that wouldn't directly conflict with what had already been established.

[Tanooki | 4,954]

I don't keep up, are people that bitchy about the decades of Star Wars material that those trolls at Disney decided to rudely retcon for their own plans?  A lot of that material was seen as nothing short of excellent material that fleshed out characters, filled some obvious holes, and created new material that in places even Lucasfilm picked up on, selectively a little I guess Disney too as I don't think Shadows was axed which bridged ESB and Jedi since the gap was big.

The only SW retcon that ever bugged me was screwing with the old films to inject some overlap with the newer ones which was a bit over the line creatively speaking when Lucas got all snotty saying they were works in progress (which conveniently wasn't the case until he got ripped bad.)

[Tabonga | 2,355]

It depends what they do - I seriously disliked when they jiggered the bar scene in the original Star Wars to  not have Han Solo shoot Greedo first - hey after all he is a rogue and criminal.

I also dislike it when it is just flat out lame - the explanation as to how Chekov recognized  Khan in Wrath of Khan was amazingly pathetic.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Tabonga

[Reed Rothchild | 9,600]

I didn't realize Star Wars retcon'ed until they called Han and Leia's kid "Ben" halfway through Force Awakens.

I think I cared for about 20 seconds.  

[Kguillemette | 1,548]

I like it when it's good. I just pretend it doesn't exist if it's bad.

[OptOut | 8,892]

I'm not really a big plot kinda guy, I really don't care too much about that kinda stuff. I just take each show or each movie or whatever it is basically as it comes.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

18 hours ago, Tabonga said:

It depends what they do - I seriously disliked when they jiggered the bar scene in the original Star Wars to  not have Han Solo shoot Greedo first - hey after all he is a rogue and criminal.

Yeah, Lucas can make whatever excuses he wants, but I really think he was just softening things up for kids moreso than it having anything to do with how he originally intended the scene to go.  They eventually edited the scene twice more, once more to have both characters shoot at basically the same time, and then again to have Greedo shout out "Maclunkey" which was apparently a reference to someone who had worked on the movie who had passed away.  All were basically nonsense.

18 hours ago, Tabonga said:

I also dislike it when it is just flat out lame - the explanation as to how Chekov recognized  Khan in Wrath of Khan was amazingly pathetic.

Aren't you getting that backwards?  It's plausible that all the "amazing" things that happened to/on the Enterprise that a lot of that would filter through all the ranks via gossip, if not being required reading outright.  The explanation of why Khan knew who Chekov was, however, would be the tale to tell, given that he hadn't appeared as a bridge/main character yet, the single time that Khan was onboard before being marooned by Kirk.

[Tabonga | 2,355]

4 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

 

Aren't you getting that backwards?  It's plausible that all the "amazing" things that happened to/on the Enterprise that a lot of that would filter through all the ranks via gossip, if not being required reading outright.  The explanation of why Khan knew who Chekov was, however, would be the tale to tell, given that he hadn't appeared as a bridge/main character yet, the single time that Khan was onboard before being marooned by Kirk.

Kinda surprising how a major character never surfaced until well after Khan had been left to  his fate.  The truth is that someone got the continuity all screwed up  in Wrath of Khan. They should have just ignored it - or have Chekov later say he had reviewed the on ship archives about Khan - that would have made much more sense.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

52 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

Kinda surprising how a major character never surfaced until well after Khan had been left to  his fate.  The truth is that someone got the continuity all screwed up  in Wrath of Khan. They should have just ignored it - or have Chekov later say he had reviewed the on ship archives about Khan - that would have made much more sense.

The problem comes from Khan recognizing Chekov, not the other way around.  If it was just Chekov knowing who Khan was, there are tons of ways around that, like you said above.  However, Khan specifically says he knows him, then calls him out by name, which is impossible due to the character of Chekov not having been created or cast until after "Space Seed" had already been filmed.  Episodes of the original series didn't take place out of order, so there's no opportunity to just say, "Oh, he was off that day and ran into him in the hall," which is basically what apologists about that particular screw up like to say.  Walter Koenig himself realized the error when he read the script, but kept his mouth shut for fear that they'd remove/replace him in the movie.

[Tabonga | 2,355]

2 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

The problem comes from Khan recognizing Chekov, not the other way around.  If it was just Chekov knowing who Khan was, there are tons of ways around that, like you said above.  However, Khan specifically says he knows him, then calls him out by name, which is impossible due to the character of Chekov not having been created or cast until after "Space Seed" had already been filmed.  Episodes of the original series didn't take place out of order, so there's no opportunity to just say, "Oh, he was off that day and ran into him in the hall," which is basically what apologists about that particular screw up like to say.  Walter Koenig himself realized the error when he read the script, but kept his mouth shut for fear that they'd remove/replace him in the movie.

I think they would have been off sticking to the adage "silence is golden".  Covering up for a gaffe is usually worse than either ignoring it or just fessing up.

[TDIRunner | 2,781]

It really depends on the situation.  If you are dealing with floating story lines such as Superman or Batman in comic books, or even with some TV shows that have been around forever such as the Simpsons, it's pretty much impossible to avoid it and I can accept that.  However, if it's just plan lazy writing or done for marketing reasons (such as anything involving Star Wars), then I can't stand it.