Editing Retroactive continuity (section)

{{Short description|Revision of existing facts in succeeding works of fiction}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2013}}

[[File:Sidney Paget - Original illustration of The Death of Sherlock Holmes, 1893.png|right|thumb|''The Death of Sherlock Holmes'': [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] employed retroactive continuity to explain [[Sherlock Holmes]]'s return in ''[[The Adventure of the Empty House]]'' after his death in an earlier story, ''[[The Final Problem]]'', fighting his enemy, [[Professor Moriarty]].<ref name=retgame>{{cite book |last1=Friedenthal |first1=Andrew J. |title=Retcon Game: Retroactive Continuity and the Hyperlinking of America |date=2017 |location=Jackson, MS |isbn=9781496811325 |chapter-url=https://mississippi.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.14325/mississippi/9781496811325.001.0001/upso-9781496811325-chapter-2|publisher= University Press of Mississippi |doi=10.14325/mississippi/9781496811325.003.0010|chapter=A Brief Prehistory of Retroactive Continuity}}</ref>]]
'''Retroactive continuity''', or '''retcon''' for short, is a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events [[diegetic|established through the narrative itself]] are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work that recontextualizes or breaks [[continuity (fiction)|continuity]] with the former.<ref name="Leith">{{cite news|author=Personal View |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638405/One-of-these-comic-heroes-really-is-dead.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638405/One-of-these-comic-heroes-really-is-dead.html |archive-date=2022-01-11 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=One of these comic heroes really is dead |newspaper=Telegraph |date=2007-03-12 |access-date=2014-03-02}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

There are various motivations for applying retroactive continuity, including:
* To accommodate desired aspects of [[sequel]]s or derivative works which would otherwise be ruled out.
* To respond to negative fan reception of previous stories.
* To correct and overcome errors or problems identified in the prior work since its publication.
* To change or clarify how the prior work should be interpreted.
* To match reality, when assumptions or projections of the future are later proven wrong.{{refn|group=Note|For instance, [[Arthur C. Clarke]] stated in his Author's Note to ''[[2061: Odyssey Three]]'': "Just as ''2010: Odyssey Two'' was not a direct sequel to ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', so this book is not a linear sequel to ''2010''. They must all be considered as variations on the same theme, involving many of the same characters and situations, but not necessarily happening in the same [[fictional universe|universe]]. Developments since 1964 make total consistency impossible, as the later stories incorporate discoveries and events that had not even taken place when the earlier books were written."<ref>Clarke, Arthur C. ''2061: Odyssey Three''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. Page ix</ref>}}

Retcons are used by authors to increase their creative freedom, on the assumption that the changes are unimportant to the audience compared to the new story which can be told. Retcons can be [[Diegesis|diegetic]] or nondiegetic. For instance, by using [[Time travel in fiction|time travel]] or [[Parallel universes in fiction|parallel universes]], an author may diegetically reintroduce a popular character they had previously killed off. More subtle and nondiegetic methods would be ignoring or expunging minor plot points to remove narrative elements the author doesn't have interest in writing.

Retcons are common in [[pulp magazine|pulp fiction]], and especially in [[comic book]]s by long-established publishers such as [[DC Comics|DC]] and [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]].<ref name="Booker">{{cite book|last1=Booker|first1=M. Keith|title=Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels [Two Volumes].|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara|isbn=9780313357473|page=510|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbkJ0QJrEZ8C&pg=PA510|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref> The long history of popular titles and the number of writers who contribute stories can often create situations that demand clarification or revision. Retcons also appear in [[manga]], [[soap operas]], [[serial drama]]s, movie sequels, [[cartoons]], [[professional wrestling]] [[Angle (professional wrestling)|angles]], [[video game]]s, radio series, [[Role-playing game|role-playing games]], and other forms of [[serial (radio and television)|serial fiction]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=A Short History of 'Retcon' |encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/retcon-history-and-meaning}}</ref>