Retcon (Retro Continuity)

Retcon is something that occurs sometimes in series and franchises which take place in the same continuity. This happens in a book series or TV series when something is mentioned (or not mentioned) in Book 3, for example, (or Season 3, etc.) that seems to contradict the continuity of an earlier book/episode. For example, in Book 1, a character has two brothers, and they mention only having two brothers, but then in Book 4, a never-before-mentioned third brother appears, and everyone seems to know him.

Sometimes we see the opposite where a sibling (or other character) disappears without an explanation, and it's as if they never existed. This is called the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome named after the forgotten Happy Days brother. Other examples of this include Tiger in The Brady Bunch, Judy in Family Matters and a lot of characters in Doctor Who....

Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome could also be considered a retcon, which is common in television series and sometimes movies, but probably rare in books, since the reason is to replace the child actors with older actors. (Cartoons like The Simpsons and Rugrats could be considered the reverse.)

Another type of retcon can occur not from exact contradictions in continuity, but from introducing an object or character in the franchise that was never mentioned before, where the opportunity could have allowed a mention, but it didn't because the writers probably didn't know about it yet.

A television example of this would be in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Season 2. In the season premiere we're introduced to Lord Zedd, the superior to Rita Repulsa. (He was introduced as a new villain because they were out of Japanese footage and were replacing it with original footage, which explains why Rita was later replaced by a different actress, although her voice was the same.) The reason this feels like a retcon (even to children who saw it like myself) is that not once in all 60 episodes of Season 1 was there ever any mention of Rita having a superior leader (and later we'd introduce more villains that were part of an even larger villain group in the galaxy led by Dark Specter)... Also the fact that Rita was trapped in a dumpster for 10,000 years also adds to the retcons, especially when her brother and father are added in Season 3. (The movie with Ivan Ooze is not considered a retcon, since it took place in a different continuity despite having most of the same cast from the series.)

Once Upon a Time has been pretty good at keeping up with continuity for the most part where little has ever contradicted... despite a number of characters who have shown up having never been mentioned before. Still there have been a number of Chekhov's Gun examples (which is one way to avoid the accusation of retcons...) Many retcon issues have been explained by memory magic, for example, Emma's relation with the Snow Queen or Regina and Zelena's childhood experience. One of the biggest times I felt retcon was in the Season 4 episode where Robin Hood has a history in Oz with Zelena. The reason this feels a little like a retcon is that a year earlier Robin and Regina were having dialogue about what to do with Zelena, and I don't remember him ever saying that he had met the Wicked Witch. Technically I don't think he ever said that he didn't know her, but the fact that he didn't mention it, when there would have been an opportunity is what seems to mess with the continuity.

I'm not even going to go into examples of retcon from Doctor Who, which has existed for so long that it's bound to happen...

(Not necessarily retcon... but Captain Kirk seemed to violate the Prime Directive in the original Star Trek series.)

Now when it comes to books... I haven't experienced this as much with books which take place in the same continuity, although the Oz books come into mind (I know, first Once Upon a Time, and now this, I have a habit of bringing up Oz, and this probably won't be the last.) The Wicked Witch was rarely mentioned in later books... fair enough since she only appeared in one chapter and was only mentioned a few times beyond that... but the Good Witch of the North basically disappeared from the continuity. Without giving away specific spoilers, there were also retcons made involving the Wizard and Ozma.

In my own writing, I have tried to deal with this. If I know that a character has an unseen sibling or a cousin, I don't want to wait too long to mention this. (Although that doesn't mean it has to be a gratuitous mention, but at some point I do need to think about the reasons for why related characters are absent.) This is why it can be a great advantage to think ahead while revising the draft of a novel. The Face of the Pumpkin is written as a standalone book in which all the major plot points are resolved in twelve chapters. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't include information that was both relative to the characters and that story that may have also been a Chekhov's Gun/Boomerang for later stories. (I also may or may not have written most of the first draft of a sequel...)

OUAT: 5 Seasons

In the past I've written posts about one of my most loved TV series, so I thought I would write another article, especially in response to the loose ends and other things mentioned in those articles.

First of all... here was my (totally '90s) thought to the plot reveal
of the Season 5 finale of Once Upon a Time.

If you've never seen The Pagemaster, this is probably not much of a spoiler. Be warned if you don't want spoilers for things that have happened during the first five seasons of Once Upon a Time.

Here is the latest OUAT article I wrote last year.
http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2015/07/once-upon-time-beyond.html

Since then one minor loose end was formed which was a question that has existed since Episode 1x17 (Hat Trick), which was how Regina's father ended up a prisoner in Wonderland. Despite people's head-canons that it could have taken place during Cora's flashbacks in the Season 4 episode "Mother"... it turned out that Cora returned from Wonderland a different time as seen in the flashback for 5x12 "Souls of the Departed" where Regina has drama with both of her parents. We also saw a flashback that (although felt a little like retcon) showed Cora's relation to Zelena, and I'm glad that we saw some of Regina's childhood (although it did not answer the loose end of what happened to King Xavier's kingdom.)

I also enjoyed seeing Camelot in the first half of the season, since there had been hints of it in the past few seasons, for example we saw a sort of prequel to 4x12 "Heroes and Villains" with the gauntlet, and we also saw the return of Lancelot... although I admit I was a bit disappointed how he was written out as well as his situation with Guinevere. I was glad that we got to see Mulan and Ruby again and more of Oz, and I hope we haven't seen the last of them! I also hope we haven't seen the last of Maleficent and Lily, because I feel there were still loose ends on that end as well.

Although it's not likely, I would like to find out (even if it's resolved in a book or something) some explanation to the anomaly of Will Scarlet's appearances as a starring character in Season 4. He was introduced as if we'd find some big reveal with him, but he didn't do much... I think the Sorcerer's Hat had more screen time (and more plot significance) than he did in Season 4. For people who didn't watch the spinoff "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland"... the character must have been a mystery.... for those of us who did watch the spinoff, it's a mystery what happened to Anastasia and why he left Wonderland. Now that the Merry Men have left, we may never know. Also what happened to Rapunzel? lol (A character self-contained in Episode 3x14 "The Tower")

http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/06/questions-on-once-upon-time.html

Above is a list of questions I made after Season 3.... Question 3 did get answered in a major way of course, concerning Zelena and Cora.

Also...

Question 11 - We did find out what happened to Mulan (who had a storyline in DunBroch) 

Question 13 - Answered in 5x12

Question 14 - Not answered lol 

Question 16 - We did get to see what happened to Dorothy and the Silver Slippers! 5x16/5x18

Of course since then a whole lot of other questions have come up...

Also I'm glad we got to see the Dragon again! I wonder what the Evil Queen will do with his heart and what other new characters and dangerous situations involving magic we will see next season!

A Short Story

I'm back from hiatus after 4 months! I will be writing an article about Once Upon a Time soon...
but in the mean time... Here is a short story I wrote!

The Fate of the Fox and the Owl

       The rabbits of Louloudhi Meadow feared two predators. They feared Koukouvaya, the owl, for her fortune of flight; and they feared Alepou, the fox, for her fast, flowing footsteps which foreboded fear of being forever frittered by the fox’s ferocious fangs.

One day a rabbit named Asphalia frolicked through the flowers in the field. She found Alepou, the fox, caught in a nearby farmer’s trap. 

“Please, little bunny,” said the fox, “I beg you. Chew off these ropes for me.” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the rabbit. 

“Oh, please! I promise if you let me go that I’ll never hurt you or the other rabbits again!”

“What will you eat?” 

“Well, I’ve thought about switching to carrots. If the farmer’s dog eats them, maybe they might not be so bad.” 

Asphalia knew the risks, but felt sorry for the fox. She walked away, returning to her home and found a few carrots. She returned to the fox and offered her some of the carrots. 

“Here you go,” said Asphalia. 

“You brought me carrots?” 

“Yes, try some.” 

The fox took a bite and enjoyed the crunch of the carrots. 

“Thank you, little rabbit.” 

“You can call me Asphalia.” 

“And I’m Alepou.” 

“Yes, I know. All the rabbits know about you.” 

“Well, even if you don’t release me, at least you were kind enough to feed me something.” 

“And at least you looked like you really liked the carrots.” 

A few hours later, the fox fell asleep. Asphalia crawled towards the fox and chewed off the ropes, but did not want to wake Alepou, for fear that she might attack. Lucky for her and for all of the rabbits of Louloudhi Meadow, when the fox awoke and found that the rabbit had freed her, she jumped for joy and vowed never to hurt the rabbits again. The rabbits had acquired a friend in the field from the once infamous fox. 

One day, however, Koukouvaya, the owl, caught herself in a trap. A rabbit named Kindhinos passed by her. 

“Hey you!” said the owl.

“Who me?” said Kindhinos. 

“Yeah, you, rabbit. Let me out of this.” 

“Well, maybe.” 

“Well, why not?” asked Koukouvaya. 

“Well, you might eat me.” 

“Hey look, creatures can change. Look at Alepou.” 

“That’s true.” 

“If a fox who is the most untrusting creature of all can change, why not an old wise owl?” 

“You know… I think I shall!” 

Kindhinos freed Koukouvaya, who fluttered her wings and flew forward towards the rabbit. 

“It looks like you made the wrong choice!” said the owl. 

Kindhinos fled as fast as he fretted from the owl, but to no avail. Koukouvaya came closer to Kindhinos and clutched her claws on the critter. Kindhinos cried as he clung to the claws of the quelling Koukouvaya, killing him. The rabbits of the field could never forgive or forget the owl’s falsehood. The owl continued catching rabbits. 

One day, a human hunter preyed on the animals of the field. Both Alepou and Koukouvaya tried to flee. Alepou begged the rabbits for protection and they accepted their friend, but did not have room for anyone else. Koukouvaya tried to ask for the same shelter, but the rabbits refused. The owl fled from the hunter, as she fluttered her feathery wings over the field. The hunter shot. She fell onto the field, and so flew her feathers all over the flowers. 

Being mean and dishonest leads people to scorn you and never trust you.

Being kind and sticking to your word will cause praise and friendship.