CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-sticky-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-toc-available" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Retroactive continuity - Wikipedia</title> <script>(function(){var className="client-js vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-sticky-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-night-mode-enabled skin-theme-clientpref-day vector-toc-available";var cookie=document.cookie.match(/(?:^|; )enwikimwclientpreferences=([^;]+)/);if(cookie){cookie[1].split('%2C').forEach(function(pref){className=className.replace(new RegExp('(^| )'+pref.replace(/-clientpref-\w+$|[^\w-]+/g,'')+'-clientpref-\\w+( |$)'),'$1'+pref+'$2');});}document.documentElement.className=className;}());RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":false,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy", "wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"01019d6c-aaec-4f42-9c16-b7c819a5f02e","wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":false,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"Retroactive_continuity","wgTitle":"Retroactive continuity","wgCurRevisionId":1251239368,"wgRevisionId":1251239368,"wgArticleId":26400,"wgIsArticle":true,"wgIsRedirect":false,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["Articles with short description","Short description is different from Wikidata","Articles needing additional references from August 2013","All articles needing additional references","Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2016","All articles with unsourced statements","Articles with unsourced statements from January 2024","Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata","1973 neologisms","Continuity (fiction)","Narrative techniques"], "wgPageViewLanguage":"en","wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"Retroactive_continuity","wgRelevantArticleId":26400,"wgIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":true,"wgRestrictionEdit":[],"wgRestrictionMove":[],"wgRedirectedFrom":"Retcon","wgNoticeProject":"wikipedia","wgCiteReferencePreviewsActive":false,"wgFlaggedRevsParams":{"tags":{"status":{"levels":1}}},"wgMediaViewerOnClick":true,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":true,"wgPopupsFlags":0,"wgVisualEditor":{"pageLanguageCode":"en","pageLanguageDir":"ltr","pageVariantFallbacks":"en"},"wgMFDisplayWikibaseDescriptions":{"search":true,"watchlist":true,"tagline":false,"nearby":true},"wgWMESchemaEditAttemptStepOversample":false,"wgWMEPageLength":10000,"wgInternalRedirectTargetUrl":"/wiki/Retroactive_continuity","wgRelatedArticlesCompat":[],"wgCentralAuthMobileDomain":false,"wgEditSubmitButtonLabelPublish":true,"wgULSPosition":"interlanguage","wgULSisCompactLinksEnabled":false, "wgVector2022LanguageInHeader":true,"wgULSisLanguageSelectorEmpty":false,"wgWikibaseItemId":"Q517361","wgCheckUserClientHintsHeadersJsApi":["brands","architecture","bitness","fullVersionList","mobile","model","platform","platformVersion"],"GEHomepageSuggestedEditsEnableTopics":true,"wgGETopicsMatchModeEnabled":false,"wgGEStructuredTaskRejectionReasonTextInputEnabled":false,"wgGELevelingUpEnabledForUser":false};RLSTATE={"ext.globalCssJs.user.styles":"ready","site.styles":"ready","user.styles":"ready","ext.globalCssJs.user":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.cite.styles":"ready","skins.vector.search.codex.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles":"ready","skins.vector.icons":"ready","ext.wikimediamessages.styles":"ready","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript":"ready","ext.uls.interlanguage":"ready","wikibase.client.init":"ready","ext.wikimediaBadges":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["mediawiki.action.view.redirect","ext.cite.ux-enhancements","mediawiki.page.media","site", "mediawiki.page.ready","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.js","ext.centralNotice.geoIP","ext.centralNotice.startUp","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips","ext.gadget.switcher","ext.urlShortener.toolbar","ext.centralauth.centralautologin","mmv.bootstrap","ext.popups","ext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.init","ext.visualEditor.targetLoader","ext.echo.centralauth","ext.eventLogging","ext.wikimediaEvents","ext.navigationTiming","ext.uls.interface","ext.cx.eventlogging.campaigns","ext.cx.uls.quick.actions","wikibase.client.vector-2022","ext.checkUser.clientHints","ext.quicksurveys.init","ext.growthExperiments.SuggestedEditSession","wikibase.sidebar.tracking"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.impl(function(){return["user.options@12s5i",function($,jQuery,require,module){mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); }];});});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cext.uls.interlanguage%7Cext.visualEditor.desktopArticleTarget.noscript%7Cext.wikimediaBadges%7Cext.wikimediamessages.styles%7Cskins.vector.icons%2Cstyles%7Cskins.vector.search.codex.styles%7Cwikibase.client.init&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector-2022"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector-2022"> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.44.0-wmf.4"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin"> <meta name="referrer" content="origin-when-cross-origin"> <meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:standard"> <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/1200px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="1200"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1867"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/800px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="800"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1245"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/640px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg"> <meta property="og:image:width" content="640"> <meta property="og:image:height" content="996"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=1120"> <meta property="og:title" content="Retroactive continuity - Wikipedia"> <meta property="og:type" content="website"> <link rel="preconnect" href="//upload.wikimedia.org"> <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit this page" href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png"> <link rel="icon" href="/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/rest.php/v1/search" title="Wikipedia (en)"> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="//en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity"> <link rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Wikipedia Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//meta.wikimedia.org" /> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//login.wikimedia.org"> </head> <body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-Retroactive_continuity rootpage-Retroactive_continuity skin-vector-2022 action-view"><a class="mw-jump-link" href="#bodyContent">Jump to content</a> <div class="vector-header-container"> <header class="vector-header mw-header"> <div class="vector-header-start"> <nav class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-main-menu-dropdown vector-button-flush-left vector-button-flush-right" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-main-menu-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Main menu" > <label id="vector-main-menu-dropdown-label" for="vector-main-menu-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-menu mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-menu"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Main menu</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-main-menu" class="vector-main-menu vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-main-menu-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="main-menu-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-main-menu" data-pinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-main-menu-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Main menu</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-main-menu.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-navigation" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-navigation" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Navigation </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-mainpage-description" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Visit the main page [z]" accesskey="z"><span>Main page</span></a></li><li id="n-contents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents" title="Guides to browsing Wikipedia"><span>Contents</span></a></li><li id="n-currentevents" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events" title="Articles related to current events"><span>Current events</span></a></li><li id="n-randompage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random" title="Visit a randomly selected article [x]" accesskey="x"><span>Random article</span></a></li><li id="n-aboutsite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About" title="Learn about Wikipedia and how it works"><span>About Wikipedia</span></a></li><li id="n-contactpage" class="mw-list-item"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us" title="How to contact Wikipedia"><span>Contact us</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-interaction" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-interaction" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Contribute </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="n-help" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Contents" title="Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia"><span>Help</span></a></li><li id="n-introduction" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" title="Learn how to edit Wikipedia"><span>Learn to edit</span></a></li><li id="n-portal" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal" title="The hub for editors"><span>Community portal</span></a></li><li id="n-recentchanges" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChanges" title="A list of recent changes to Wikipedia [r]" accesskey="r"><span>Recent changes</span></a></li><li id="n-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_upload_wizard" title="Add images or other media for use on Wikipedia"><span>Upload file</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" class="mw-logo"> <img class="mw-logo-icon" src="/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" height="50" width="50"> <span class="mw-logo-container skin-invert"> <img class="mw-logo-wordmark" alt="Wikipedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg" style="width: 7.5em; height: 1.125em;"> <img class="mw-logo-tagline" alt="The Free Encyclopedia" src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg" width="117" height="13" style="width: 7.3125em; height: 0.8125em;"> </span> </a> </div> <div class="vector-header-end"> <div id="p-search" role="search" class="vector-search-box-vue vector-search-box-collapses vector-search-box-show-thumbnail vector-search-box-auto-expand-width vector-search-box"> <a href="/wiki/Special:Search" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only search-toggle" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-search mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-search"></span> <span>Search</span> </a> <div class="vector-typeahead-search-container"> <div class="cdx-typeahead-search cdx-typeahead-search--show-thumbnail cdx-typeahead-search--auto-expand-width"> <form action="/w/index.php" id="searchform" class="cdx-search-input cdx-search-input--has-end-button"> <div id="simpleSearch" class="cdx-search-input__input-wrapper" data-search-loc="header-moved"> <div class="cdx-text-input cdx-text-input--has-start-icon"> <input class="cdx-text-input__input" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f" id="searchInput" > <span class="cdx-text-input__icon cdx-text-input__start-icon"></span> </div> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"> </div> <button class="cdx-button cdx-search-input__end-button">Search</button> </form> </div> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-user-links vector-user-links-wide" aria-label="Personal tools"> <div class="vector-user-links-main"> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-preferences" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-userpage" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown " title="Change the appearance of the page's font size, width, and color" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-appearance-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Appearance" > <label id="vector-appearance-dropdown-label" for="vector-appearance-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-appearance mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-appearance"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Appearance</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-notifications" class="vector-menu mw-portlet emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-vector-user-menu-overflow" class="vector-menu mw-portlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserRedirector?utm_source=donate&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en" class=""><span>Donate</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-createaccount-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Retroactive+continuity" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory" class=""><span>Create account</span></a> </li> <li id="pt-login-2" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item user-links-collapsible-item"><a data-mw="interface" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Retroactive+continuity" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o" class=""><span>Log in</span></a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div id="vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-user-menu vector-button-flush-right vector-user-menu-logged-out" title="Log in and more options" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-user-links-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Personal tools" > <label id="vector-user-links-dropdown-label" for="vector-user-links-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-ellipsis mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-ellipsis"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Personal tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-personal" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-personal user-links-collapsible-item" title="User menu" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-sitesupport" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserRedirector?utm_source=donate&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=C13_en.wikipedia.org&uselang=en"><span>Donate</span></a></li><li id="pt-createaccount" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Retroactive+continuity" title="You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-userAdd mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-userAdd"></span> <span>Create account</span></a></li><li id="pt-login" class="user-links-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Retroactive+continuity" title="You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [o]" accesskey="o"><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-logIn mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-logIn"></span> <span>Log in</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-user-menu-anon-editor" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-user-menu-anon-editor" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Pages for logged out editors <a href="/wiki/Help:Introduction" aria-label="Learn more about editing"><span>learn more</span></a> </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="pt-anoncontribs" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyContributions" title="A list of edits made from this IP address [y]" accesskey="y"><span>Contributions</span></a></li><li id="pt-anontalk" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:MyTalk" title="Discussion about edits from this IP address [n]" accesskey="n"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </header> </div> <div class="mw-page-container"> <div class="mw-page-container-inner"> <div class="vector-sitenotice-container"> <div id="siteNotice"></div> </div> <div class="vector-column-start"> <div class="vector-main-menu-container"> <div id="mw-navigation"> <nav id="mw-panel" class="vector-main-menu-landmark" aria-label="Site"> <div id="vector-main-menu-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav id="mw-panel-toc" aria-label="Contents" data-event-name="ui.sidebar-toc" class="mw-table-of-contents-container vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-toc-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-toc" class="vector-toc vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-toc-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="toc-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-toc" > <h2 class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Contents</h2> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-toc.unpin">hide</button> </div> <ul class="vector-toc-contents" id="mw-panel-toc-list"> <li id="toc-mw-content-text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1"> <a href="#" class="vector-toc-link"> <div class="vector-toc-text">(Top)</div> </a> </li> <li id="toc-Origins" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Origins"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1</span> <span>Origins</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Origins-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Types" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Types"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Types</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Types-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Types subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Types-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Alteration" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Alteration"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.1</span> <span>Alteration</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Alteration-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Subtraction" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Subtraction"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.2</span> <span>Subtraction</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Subtraction-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Related_concepts" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Related_concepts"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Related concepts</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Related_concepts-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Notes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Notes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Notes</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Notes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Retroactive continuity</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox mw-interlanguage-selector" aria-label="Go to an article in another language. Available in 20 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-20" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">20 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocontinu%C3%AFtat" title="Retrocontinuïtat – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Retrocontinuïtat" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCckwirkende_Kontinuit%C3%A4t" title="Rückwirkende Kontinuität – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Rückwirkende Kontinuität" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocontinuidad" title="Retrocontinuidad – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Retrocontinuidad" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuit%C3%A9_r%C3%A9troactive" title="Continuité rétroactive – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Continuité rétroactive" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fy mw-list-item"><a href="https://fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Western Frisian" lang="fy" hreflang="fy" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Frysk" data-language-local-name="Western Frisian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Frysk</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%86%8C%EA%B8%89%EC%A0%81_%EC%97%B0%EC%86%8D%EC%84%B1" title="소급적 연속성 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="소급적 연속성" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hu mw-list-item"><a href="https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Hungarian" lang="hu" hreflang="hu" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Magyar" data-language-local-name="Hungarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Magyar</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ms mw-list-item"><a href="https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesinambungan_retroaktif" title="Kesinambungan retroaktif – Malay" lang="ms" hreflang="ms" data-title="Kesinambungan retroaktif" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Melayu" data-language-local-name="Malay" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Melayu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E4%BB%98%E3%81%91%E8%A8%AD%E5%AE%9A" title="後付け設定 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="後付け設定" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuidade_retroativa" title="Continuidade retroativa – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Continuidade retroativa" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD" title="Реткон – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Реткон" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity" title="Retroactive continuity – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Retroactive continuity" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sh mw-list-item"><a href="https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroaktivni_kontinuitet" title="Retroaktivni kontinuitet – Serbo-Croatian" lang="sh" hreflang="sh" data-title="Retroaktivni kontinuitet" data-language-autonym="Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски" data-language-local-name="Serbo-Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon" title="Retcon – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Retcon" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD" title="Реткон – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Реткон" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%BD%E6%BA%AF%E8%BF%9E%E8%B4%AF%E6%80%A7" title="追溯连贯性 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="追溯连贯性" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>中文</span></a></li> </ul> <div class="after-portlet after-portlet-lang"><span class="wb-langlinks-edit wb-langlinks-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q517361#sitelinks-wikipedia" title="Edit interlanguage links" class="wbc-editpage">Edit links</a></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="vector-page-toolbar"> <div class="vector-page-toolbar-container"> <div id="left-navigation"> <nav aria-label="Namespaces"> <div id="p-associated-pages" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-associated-pages" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-nstab-main" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Retroactive_continuity" title="View the content page [c]" accesskey="c"><span>Article</span></a></li><li id="ca-talk" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Talk:Retroactive_continuity" rel="discussion" title="Discuss improvements to the content page [t]" accesskey="t"><span>Talk</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown emptyPortlet" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-variants-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Change language variant" > <label id="vector-variants-dropdown-label" for="vector-variants-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">English</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="p-variants" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-variants emptyPortlet" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> <div id="right-navigation" class="vector-collapsible"> <nav aria-label="Views"> <div id="p-views" class="vector-menu vector-menu-tabs mw-portlet mw-portlet-views" > <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-view" class="selected vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Retroactive_continuity"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-edit" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-history" class="vector-tab-noicon mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=history" title="Past revisions of this page [h]" accesskey="h"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-tools-dropdown" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-vector-page-tools-dropdown" class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Tools" > <label id="vector-page-tools-dropdown-label" for="vector-page-tools-dropdown-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Tools</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> <div id="vector-page-tools" class="vector-page-tools vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-page-tools-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-unpinned" data-feature-name="page-tools-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-page-tools" data-pinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-page-tools-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Tools</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-page-tools.unpin">hide</button> </div> <div id="p-cactions" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-cactions emptyPortlet vector-has-collapsible-items" title="More options" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Actions </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="ca-more-view" class="selected vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Retroactive_continuity"><span>Read</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-edit" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit" title="Edit this page [e]" accesskey="e"><span>Edit</span></a></li><li id="ca-more-history" class="vector-more-collapsible-item mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=history"><span>View history</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-tb" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-tb" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> General </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-whatlinkshere" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Retroactive_continuity" title="List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [j]" accesskey="j"><span>What links here</span></a></li><li id="t-recentchangeslinked" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/Retroactive_continuity" rel="nofollow" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k"><span>Related changes</span></a></li><li id="t-upload" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u"><span>Upload file</span></a></li><li id="t-specialpages" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages" title="A list of all special pages [q]" accesskey="q"><span>Special pages</span></a></li><li id="t-permalink" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&oldid=1251239368" title="Permanent link to this revision of this page"><span>Permanent link</span></a></li><li id="t-info" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=info" title="More information about this page"><span>Page information</span></a></li><li id="t-cite" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Retroactive_continuity&id=1251239368&wpFormIdentifier=titleform" title="Information on how to cite this page"><span>Cite this page</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UrlShortener&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRetroactive_continuity"><span>Get shortened URL</span></a></li><li id="t-urlshortener-qrcode" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:QrCode&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRetroactive_continuity"><span>Download QR code</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-coll-print_export" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-coll-print_export" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> Print/export </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="coll-download-as-rl" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:DownloadAsPdf&page=Retroactive_continuity&action=show-download-screen" title="Download this page as a PDF file"><span>Download as PDF</span></a></li><li id="t-print" class="mw-list-item"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&printable=yes" title="Printable version of this page [p]" accesskey="p"><span>Printable version</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="p-wikibase-otherprojects" class="vector-menu mw-portlet mw-portlet-wikibase-otherprojects" > <div class="vector-menu-heading"> In other projects </div> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li id="t-wikibase" class="wb-otherproject-link wb-otherproject-wikibase-dataitem mw-list-item"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityPage/Q517361" title="Structured data on this page hosted by Wikidata [g]" accesskey="g"><span>Wikidata item</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-column-end"> <div class="vector-sticky-pinned-container"> <nav class="vector-page-tools-landmark" aria-label="Page tools"> <div id="vector-page-tools-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> </div> </nav> <nav class="vector-appearance-landmark" aria-label="Appearance"> <div id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" class="vector-pinned-container"> <div id="vector-appearance" class="vector-appearance vector-pinnable-element"> <div class="vector-pinnable-header vector-appearance-pinnable-header vector-pinnable-header-pinned" data-feature-name="appearance-pinned" data-pinnable-element-id="vector-appearance" data-pinned-container-id="vector-appearance-pinned-container" data-unpinned-container-id="vector-appearance-unpinned-container" > <div class="vector-pinnable-header-label">Appearance</div> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-pin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.pin">move to sidebar</button> <button class="vector-pinnable-header-toggle-button vector-pinnable-header-unpin-button" data-event-name="pinnable-header.vector-appearance.unpin">hide</button> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container> <div class="vector-body-before-content"> <div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"><span class="mw-redirectedfrom">(Redirected from <a href="/w/index.php?title=Retcon&redirect=no" class="mw-redirect" title="Retcon">Retcon</a>)</span></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Revision of existing facts in succeeding works of fiction</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1251242444">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-More_citations_needed plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This article <b>needs additional citations for <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Retroactive_continuity" title="Special:EditPage/Retroactive continuity">improve this article</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.<br /><small><span class="plainlinks"><i>Find sources:</i> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?as_eq=wikipedia&q=%22Retroactive+continuity%22">"Retroactive continuity"</a> – <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=nws&q=%22Retroactive+continuity%22+-wikipedia&tbs=ar:1">news</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?&q=%22Retroactive+continuity%22&tbs=bkt:s&tbm=bks">newspapers</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&q=%22Retroactive+continuity%22+-wikipedia">books</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Retroactive+continuity%22">scholar</a> <b>·</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=%22Retroactive+continuity%22&acc=on&wc=on">JSTOR</a></span></small></span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">August 2013</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/220px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="342" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/330px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg/440px-Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1234" data-file-height="1920" /></a><figcaption><i>The Death of Sherlock Holmes</i>: <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle" title="Arthur Conan Doyle">Arthur Conan Doyle</a> employed retroactive continuity to explain <a href="/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes" title="Sherlock Holmes">Sherlock Holmes</a>'s return in <i><a href="/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House" title="The Adventure of the Empty House">The Adventure of the Empty House</a></i> after his death in an earlier story, <i><a href="/wiki/The_Final_Problem" title="The Final Problem">The Final Problem</a></i>, fighting his enemy, <a href="/wiki/Professor_Moriarty" title="Professor Moriarty">Professor Moriarty</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-retgame_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-retgame-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p><b>Retroactive continuity</b>, or <b>retcon</b> for short, is a literary device in which facts in the world of a fictional work that have been <a href="/wiki/Diegetic" class="mw-redirect" title="Diegetic">established through the narrative itself</a> are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work that recontextualizes or breaks <a href="/wiki/Continuity_(fiction)" title="Continuity (fiction)">continuity</a> with the former.<sup id="cite_ref-Leith_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Leith-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>There are various motivations for applying retroactive continuity, including: </p> <ul><li>To accommodate desired aspects of <a href="/wiki/Sequel" title="Sequel">sequels</a> or derivative works which would otherwise be ruled out.</li> <li>To respond to negative fan reception of previous stories.</li> <li>To correct and overcome errors or problems identified in the prior work since its publication.</li> <li>To change or clarify how the prior work should be interpreted.</li> <li>To match reality, when assumptions or projections of the future are later proven wrong.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>Note 1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul> <p>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 <a href="/wiki/Diegesis" title="Diegesis">diegetic</a> or nondiegetic. For instance, by using <a href="/wiki/Time_travel_in_fiction" title="Time travel in fiction">time travel</a> or <a href="/wiki/Parallel_universes_in_fiction" title="Parallel universes in fiction">parallel universes</a>, 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. </p><p>Retcons are common in <a href="/wiki/Pulp_magazine" title="Pulp magazine">pulp fiction</a>, and especially in <a href="/wiki/Comic_book" title="Comic book">comic books</a> by long-established publishers such as <a href="/wiki/DC_Comics" title="DC Comics">DC</a> and <a href="/wiki/Marvel_Comics" title="Marvel Comics">Marvel</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Booker_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Booker-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 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 <a href="/wiki/Manga" title="Manga">manga</a>, <a href="/wiki/Soap_operas" class="mw-redirect" title="Soap operas">soap operas</a>, <a href="/wiki/Serial_drama" class="mw-redirect" title="Serial drama">serial dramas</a>, movie sequels, <a href="/wiki/Cartoons" class="mw-redirect" title="Cartoons">cartoons</a>, <a href="/wiki/Professional_wrestling" title="Professional wrestling">professional wrestling</a> <a href="/wiki/Angle_(professional_wrestling)" class="mw-redirect" title="Angle (professional wrestling)">angles</a>, <a href="/wiki/Video_game" title="Video game">video games</a>, radio series, and other forms of <a href="/wiki/Serial_(radio_and_television)" title="Serial (radio and television)">serial fiction</a>. They are used in role-playing games such as <i><a href="/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons" title="Dungeons & Dragons">Dungeons & Dragons</a></i>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Origins">Origins</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Origins"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>An early published use of the phrase "retroactive continuity" is found in theologian E. Frank Tupper's 1973 book <i>The Theology of <a href="/wiki/Wolfhart_Pannenberg" title="Wolfhart Pannenberg">Wolfhart Pannenberg</a></i>: "Pannenberg's conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past, that the future is not basically a product of the past."<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>A printed use of "retroactive continuity" referring to the altering of history in a fictional work is in <i><a href="/wiki/All-Star_Squadron" title="All-Star Squadron">All-Star Squadron</a></i> #18 (February 1983) from <a href="/wiki/DC_Comics" title="DC Comics">DC Comics</a>. The series was set on DC's <a href="/wiki/Earth-Two" title="Earth-Two">Earth-Two</a>, an alternate universe in which <a href="/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Comic_Books" title="Golden Age of Comic Books">Golden Age</a> comic characters age in real time. <i>All-Star Squadron</i> was set during <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a> on Earth-Two; as it was in the past of an alternate universe, all its events had repercussions on the contemporary continuity of the DC multiverse. Each issue changed the history of the fictional world in which it was set. In the <a href="/wiki/Comic_book_letter_column" title="Comic book letter column">letters column</a>, a reader remarked that the comic "must make you [the creators] feel at times as if you're painting yourself into a corner", and, "Your matching of Golden Age comics history with new plotlines has been an artistic (and I hope financial!) success." Writer <a href="/wiki/Roy_Thomas" title="Roy Thomas">Roy Thomas</a> responded, "we like to think that an enthusiastic ALL-STAR booster at one of <a href="/wiki/Adam_Malin" class="mw-redirect" title="Adam Malin">Adam Malin</a>'s <a href="/wiki/Creation_Convention" class="mw-redirect" title="Creation Convention">Creation Conventions</a> in San Diego came up with the best name for it a few months back: 'Retroactive Continuity'. Has kind of a ring to it, don't you think?"<sup id="cite_ref-allstar_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-allstar-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Types">Types</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Types"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Alteration">Alteration</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Alteration"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Retcons sometimes add information that seemingly contradicts previous information. This frequently takes the form of a character who was shown to have died but is later revealed to have somehow survived. This is a common practice in <a href="/wiki/Horror_film" title="Horror film">horror films</a>, which may end with the death of a monster that goes on to appear in one or more sequels. The technique is so common in <a href="/wiki/Superhero" title="Superhero">superhero</a> comics<sup id="cite_ref-Leith_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Leith-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> that the term "<a href="/wiki/Comic_book_death" title="Comic book death">comic book death</a>" has been coined for it. </p><p>An early example of this type of retcon is the return of <a href="/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes" title="Sherlock Holmes">Sherlock Holmes</a>, whom writer <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle" title="Arthur Conan Doyle">Arthur Conan Doyle</a> apparently killed off in "<a href="/wiki/The_Final_Problem" title="The Final Problem">The Final Problem</a>" in 1893,<sup id="cite_ref-retgame_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-retgame-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><span title="This citation requires a reference to the specific page or range of pages in which the material appears. (February 2016)">page needed</span></a></i>]</sup> only to bring him back, in large part because of readers' responses, with "<a href="/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House" title="The Adventure of the Empty House">The Empty House</a>" in 1903. </p><p>The character <a href="/wiki/Zorro" title="Zorro">Zorro</a> was retconned early in his existence. In the original 1919 novel, <i><a href="/wiki/The_Curse_of_Capistrano" title="The Curse of Capistrano">The Curse of Capistrano</a></i>, Zorro ends his adventures by revealing his identity, a plot point that was carried over to the 1920 film adaptation <i><a href="/wiki/The_Mark_of_Zorro_(1920_film)" title="The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)">The Mark of Zorro</a></i>. In order to have further stories starring Zorro, author <a href="/wiki/Johnston_McCulley" title="Johnston McCulley">Johnston McCulley</a> kept all the elements of his original story, but retroactively ignored its ending. </p><p>One notable example is <a href="/wiki/Isaac_Asimov" title="Isaac Asimov">Isaac Asimov</a>’s 1950 <a href="/wiki/Fixup" class="mw-redirect" title="Fixup">fixup</a> novel <i><a href="/wiki/I,_Robot" title="I, Robot">I, Robot</a></i>, a collection of <a href="/wiki/Science_fiction" title="Science fiction">science fiction</a> short stories originally published in <i><a href="/wiki/Super_Science_Stories" title="Super Science Stories">Super Science Stories</a></i> and <i><a href="/wiki/Analog_Science_Fiction_and_Fact" title="Analog Science Fiction and Fact">Astounding Science Fiction</a></i> from 1940 to 1950. Compiled into a single publication by <a href="/wiki/Gnome_Press" title="Gnome Press">Gnome Press</a> in 1950, the collection features a <a href="/wiki/Framing_sequence" class="mw-redirect" title="Framing sequence">framing sequence</a> in which the stories are told to a reporter by Dr. <a href="/wiki/Susan_Calvin" title="Susan Calvin">Susan Calvin</a>, chief <a href="/wiki/Robopsychology" title="Robopsychology">robopsychologist</a> at <a href="/wiki/U.S._Robots_and_Mechanical_Men" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men">U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men</a>, Inc. Changes necessary to fit the new version included the name of the company (originally the Finmark Robot Corporation), new, earlier references to the <a href="/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics" title="Three Laws of Robotics">Three Laws of Robotics</a>, and new interpolated scenes featuring Dr. Calvin herself. </p><p>The TV series <i><a href="/wiki/Dallas_(1978_TV_series)" title="Dallas (1978 TV series)">Dallas</a></i> annulled its entire Season 9 as just the dream of another character, <a href="/wiki/Pam_Ewing" title="Pam Ewing">Pam Ewing</a>. Writers did this to offer a supposedly plausible reason for the major character of <a href="/wiki/Bobby_Ewing" title="Bobby Ewing">Bobby Ewing</a>, who had died onscreen at the end of Season 8, to be still alive when actor <a href="/wiki/Patrick_Duffy" title="Patrick Duffy">Patrick Duffy</a> wanted to return to the series. This season is sometimes referred to as the "Dream Season" and was referred to humorously in later TV series such as <i><a href="/wiki/Family_Guy" title="Family Guy">Family Guy</a></i> as a "gas-leak year". Other series such as <i><a href="/wiki/St._Elsewhere" title="St. Elsewhere">St. Elsewhere</a></i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Newhart" title="Newhart">Newhart</a></i>, and <i><a href="/wiki/Roseanne" title="Roseanne">Roseanne</a></i> would notably employ the same technique.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-austin_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-austin-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Subtraction">Subtraction</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Subtraction"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Unpopular stories are sometimes later ignored by publishers, and effectively erased from a series' continuity. Later stories may contradict the previous ones or explicitly establish that they never happened.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2024)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p><p>A notable example of subtractive retconning is the <a href="/wiki/X-Men_(film_series)" title="X-Men (film series)"><i>X-Men</i> film series</a>. After <i><a href="/wiki/X-Men:_The_Last_Stand" title="X-Men: The Last Stand">X-Men: The Last Stand</a></i> faced criticism for abruptly killing off characters such as <a href="/wiki/Cyclops_in_other_media#Film" title="Cyclops in other media">Cyclops</a> and <a href="/wiki/Jean_Grey_(film_character)" title="Jean Grey (film character)">Jean Grey</a>, its sequel, <i><a href="/wiki/X-Men:_Days_of_Future_Past" title="X-Men: Days of Future Past">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a>,</i> features the character <a href="/wiki/Wolverine_(character)" title="Wolverine (character)">Wolverine</a> traveling back in time to 1973 to prevent an assassination that, if carried out, would lead to mutant extinction. The result of this is a new timeline where Jean and Cyclops never died.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Related_concepts">Related concepts</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Related concepts"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Retroactive continuity is similar to, but not the same as, plot inconsistencies introduced accidentally or through lack of concern for continuity; retconning, by comparison, is done deliberately. For example, the ongoing continuity contradictions on episodic TV series such as <i><a href="/wiki/The_Simpsons" title="The Simpsons">The Simpsons</a></i> (in which the timeline of the family's history must be <a href="/wiki/Floating_timeline" title="Floating timeline">continually shifted forward</a> to explain why they are not getting any older)<sup id="cite_ref-Cross_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Cross-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> reflects intentionally lost continuity, not genuine retcons. However, in series with generally tight continuity, retcons are sometimes created after the fact to explain continuity errors. Such was the case in <i><a href="/wiki/The_Flintstones" title="The Flintstones">The Flintstones</a></i>, where <a href="/wiki/Wilma_Flintstone" title="Wilma Flintstone">Wilma Flintstone</a> was mistakenly given two separate maiden names over the course of the series: "Pebble" and "Slaghoople".<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Though the term "retcon" did not yet exist when <a href="/wiki/George_Orwell" title="George Orwell">George Orwell</a> wrote <i><a href="/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four" title="Nineteen Eighty-Four">Nineteen Eighty-Four</a></i>, the totalitarian regime depicted in that book is involved in a constant, large-scale retconning of past records. For example, when it is suddenly announced that "Oceania was not after all in war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was an ally" (Part Two, Ch. 9), there is an immediate intensive effort to change "all reports and records, newspapers, books, pamphlets, films, sound-tracks and photographs" and make them all record a war with Eastasia rather than one with Eurasia. "Often it was enough to merely substitute one name for another, but any detailed report of events demanded care and imagination. Even the geographical knowledge needed in transferring the war from one part of the world to another was considerable." See <a href="/wiki/Historical_revisionism_(negationism)" class="mw-redirect" title="Historical revisionism (negationism)">historical revisionism (negationism)</a>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239009302">.mw-parser-output .portalbox{padding:0;margin:0.5em 0;display:table;box-sizing:border-box;max-width:175px;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .portalborder{border:1px solid var(--border-color-base,#a2a9b1);padding:0.1em;background:var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#f8f9fa)}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-entry{display:table-row;font-size:85%;line-height:110%;height:1.9em;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-image{display:table-cell;padding:0.2em;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-link{display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .portalleft{clear:left;float:left;margin:0.5em 1em 0.5em 0}.mw-parser-output .portalright{clear:right;float:right;margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em}}</style><ul role="navigation" aria-label="Portals" class="noprint portalbox portalborder portalright"> <li class="portalbox-entry"><span class="portalbox-image"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png/28px-Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png" decoding="async" width="28" height="28" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png/42px-Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png/56px-Nuvola_apps_kmessedwords.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></a></span></span><span class="portalbox-link"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Writing" title="Portal:Writing">Writing portal</a></span></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Revisionism_(fictional)" title="Revisionism (fictional)">Revisionism (fictional)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Historical_revisionism" title="Historical revisionism">Historical revisionism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pseudohistory" title="Pseudohistory">Pseudohistory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Retronym" title="Retronym">Retronym</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Notes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">For instance, <a href="/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke" title="Arthur C. Clarke">Arthur C. Clarke</a> stated in his Author's Note to <i><a href="/wiki/2061:_Odyssey_Three" title="2061: Odyssey Three">2061: Odyssey Three</a></i>: "Just as <i>2010: Odyssey Two</i> was not a direct sequel to <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, so this book is not a linear sequel to <i>2010</i>. 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 <a href="/wiki/Fictional_universe" title="Fictional universe">universe</a>. 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."<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239543626"><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 30em;"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-retgame-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-retgame_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-retgame_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFFriedenthal2017" class="citation book cs1">Friedenthal, Andrew J. (2017). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mississippi.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.14325/mississippi/9781496811325.001.0001/upso-9781496811325-chapter-2">"A Brief Prehistory of Retroactive Continuity"</a>. <i>Retcon Game: Retroactive Continuity and the Hyperlinking of America</i>. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.14325%2Fmississippi%2F9781496811325.003.0010">10.14325/mississippi/9781496811325.003.0010</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781496811325" title="Special:BookSources/9781496811325"><bdi>9781496811325</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=A+Brief+Prehistory+of+Retroactive+Continuity&rft.btitle=Retcon+Game%3A+Retroactive+Continuity+and+the+Hyperlinking+of+America&rft.place=Jackson%2C+MS&rft.pub=University+Press+of+Mississippi&rft.date=2017&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.14325%2Fmississippi%2F9781496811325.003.0010&rft.isbn=9781496811325&rft.aulast=Friedenthal&rft.aufirst=Andrew+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fmississippi.universitypressscholarship.com%2Fview%2F10.14325%2Fmississippi%2F9781496811325.001.0001%2Fupso-9781496811325-chapter-2&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Leith-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Leith_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Leith_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFPersonal_View2007" class="citation news cs1">Personal View (2007-03-12). <span class="id-lock-subscription" title="Paid subscription required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638405/One-of-these-comic-heroes-really-is-dead.html">"One of these comic heroes really is dead"</a></span>. <i>Telegraph</i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3638405/One-of-these-comic-heroes-really-is-dead.html">Archived</a> from the original on 2022-01-11<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2014-03-02</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Telegraph&rft.atitle=One+of+these+comic+heroes+really+is+dead&rft.date=2007-03-12&rft.au=Personal+View&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcomment%2Fpersonal-view%2F3638405%2FOne-of-these-comic-heroes-really-is-dead.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Clarke, Arthur C. <i>2061: Odyssey Three</i>. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. Page ix</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Booker-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Booker_5-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBooker2010" class="citation book cs1">Booker, M. Keith (2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YbkJ0QJrEZ8C&pg=PA510"><i>Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels [Two Volumes]</i></a>. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 510. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780313357473" title="Special:BookSources/9780313357473"><bdi>9780313357473</bdi></a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">16 March</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+Comic+Books+and+Graphic+Novels+%5BTwo+Volumes%5D.&rft.place=Santa+Barbara&rft.pages=510&rft.pub=ABC-CLIO&rft.date=2010&rft.isbn=9780313357473&rft.aulast=Booker&rft.aufirst=M.+Keith&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DYbkJ0QJrEZ8C%26pg%3DPA510&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation encyclopaedia cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/retcon-history-and-meaning">"A Short History of 'Retcon'<span class="cs1-kern-right"></span>"</a>. <i>Merriam-Webster</i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=A+Short+History+of+%27Retcon%27&rft.btitle=Merriam-Webster&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.merriam-webster.com%2Fwordplay%2Fretcon-history-and-meaning&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFTupper1973" class="citation book cs1">Tupper, E. Frank (1973). <span class="id-lock-registration" title="Free registration required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/theologyofwolfha0000tupp"><i>The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg</i></a></span>. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. p. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/theologyofwolfha0000tupp/page/100">100</a>, 221. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780664209735" title="Special:BookSources/9780664209735"><bdi>9780664209735</bdi></a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">16 March</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Theology+of+Wolfhart+Pannenberg&rft.place=Philadelphia&rft.pages=100%2C+221&rft.pub=Westminster+Press&rft.date=1973&rft.isbn=9780664209735&rft.aulast=Tupper&rft.aufirst=E.+Frank&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Ftheologyofwolfha0000tupp&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-allstar-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-allstar_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="/wiki/Roy_Thomas" title="Roy Thomas">Thomas, Roy</a> (<a href="/wiki/Script_(comics)" title="Script (comics)">w</a>), <a href="/wiki/Joe_Kubert" title="Joe Kubert">Kubert, Joe</a> (<a href="/wiki/Penciller" title="Penciller">p</a>), <a href="/wiki/Rick_Hoberg" title="Rick Hoberg">Hoberg, Rick</a> (<a href="/wiki/Inker" title="Inker">i</a>). "Vengeance from Valhalla" <i>All-Star Squadron</i>, vol. 1, no. 18 (February 1983). <a href="/wiki/DC_Comics" title="DC Comics">DC Comics</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDoyleEastman1984" class="citation book cs1">Doyle, Arthur Conan; Eastman, David (1984). <span class="id-lock-registration" title="Free registration required"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/finalproblem00east"><i>The Final Problem</i></a></span>. <a href="/wiki/Caulfield_East,_Victoria" title="Caulfield East, Victoria">Caulfield East, Victoria</a>: Edward Arnold. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/089375613X" title="Special:BookSources/089375613X"><bdi>089375613X</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Final+Problem&rft.place=Caulfield+East%2C+Victoria&rft.pub=Edward+Arnold&rft.date=1984&rft.isbn=089375613X&rft.aulast=Doyle&rft.aufirst=Arthur+Conan&rft.au=Eastman%2C+David&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Ffinalproblem00east&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.today/20120913144744/http://www.tvacres.com/signoffs_finales_elsewhere.htm">"TV ACRES: Quotations > Signoffs > Classic Series Finales > St. Elsewhere"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.tvacres.com/signoffs_finales_elsewhere.htm">the original</a> on September 13, 2012<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">August 9,</span> 2015</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=TV+ACRES%3A+Quotations+%3E+Signoffs+%3E+Classic+Series+Finales+%3E+St.+Elsewhere&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvacres.com%2Fsignoffs_finales_elsewhere.htm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-austin-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-austin_11-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMoser1997" class="citation web cs1">Moser, Margaret (1997-06-05). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A528353">"TV Eye"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/The_Austin_Chronicle" title="The Austin Chronicle">The Austin Chronicle</a></i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2009-03-09</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=The+Austin+Chronicle&rft.atitle=TV+Eye&rft.date=1997-06-05&rft.aulast=Moser&rft.aufirst=Margaret&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.austinchronicle.com%2Fgyrobase%2FIssue%2Fcolumn%3Foid%3Doid%253A528353&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRyan2014" class="citation web cs1">Ryan, Tim (May 22, 2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/news/1930516/critics_consensus_x-men_days_of_future_past_is_certified_fresh/">"Critic Consensus: X-Men: Days of Future Past is Certified Fresh"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Rotten_Tomatoes" title="Rotten Tomatoes">Rotten Tomatoes</a></i>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140525043810/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/news/1930516/critics_consensus_x-men_days_of_future_past_is_certified_fresh/">Archived</a> from the original on May 25, 2014<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">May 26,</span> 2014</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Rotten+Tomatoes&rft.atitle=Critic+Consensus%3A+X-Men%3A+Days+of+Future+Past+is+Certified+Fresh&rft.date=2014-05-22&rft.aulast=Ryan&rft.aufirst=Tim&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rottentomatoes.com%2Fm%2Fx_men_days_of_future_past%2Fnews%2F1930516%2Fcritics_consensus_x-men_days_of_future_past_is_certified_fresh%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Cross-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Cross_13-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFCross2013" class="citation book cs1">Cross, Mary (2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=AVBS79mK7bUC&pg=PA591"><i>100 People who Changed 20th-century America, Volume 1</i></a>. <a href="/wiki/Santa_Barbara,_California" title="Santa Barbara, California">Santa Barbara, California</a>: ABC-CLIO. p. 591. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781610690850" title="Special:BookSources/9781610690850"><bdi>9781610690850</bdi></a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">16 March</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=100+People+who+Changed+20th-century+America%2C+Volume+1&rft.place=Santa+Barbara%2C+California&rft.pages=591&rft.pub=ABC-CLIO&rft.date=2013&rft.isbn=9781610690850&rft.aulast=Cross&rft.aufirst=Mary&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DAVBS79mK7bUC%26pg%3DPA591&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150622033230/http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/story.html?id=400b0b01-ec31-42e1-8421-1cb78f133c7c&k=44564">"Wilma Flintstone: A fox in leopard clothing?"</a>. Canada.com. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/story.html?id=400b0b01-ec31-42e1-8421-1cb78f133c7c&k=44564">the original</a> on 22 June 2015<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">23 August</span> 2015</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Wilma+Flintstone%3A+A+fox+in+leopard+clothing%3F&rft.pub=Canada.com&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.canada.com%2Freginaleaderpost%2Fstory.html%3Fid%3D400b0b01-ec31-42e1-8421-1cb78f133c7c%26k%3D44564&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARetroactive+continuity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1235681985">.mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #aaa;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em;background-color:var(--background-color-interactive-subtle,#f8f9fa);display:flow-root}.mw-parser-output .side-box-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{padding:0.25em 0.9em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-image{padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-imageright{padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .side-box-flex{display:flex;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{flex:1;min-width:0}}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .side-box{width:238px}.mw-parser-output .side-box-right{clear:right;float:right;margin-left:1em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-left{margin-right:1em}}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1250146164">.mw-parser-output .sister-box .side-box-abovebelow{padding:0.75em 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sister-box .side-box-abovebelow>b{display:block}.mw-parser-output .sister-box .side-box-text>ul{border-top:1px solid #aaa;padding:0.75em 0;width:217px;margin:0 auto}.mw-parser-output .sister-box .side-box-text>ul>li{min-height:31px}.mw-parser-output .sister-logo{display:inline-block;width:31px;line-height:31px;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sister-link{display:inline-block;margin-left:4px;width:182px;vertical-align:middle}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox{display:none!important}}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}</style><div role="navigation" aria-labelledby="sister-projects" class="side-box metadata side-box-right sister-box sistersitebox plainlinks"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409">.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}</style> <div class="side-box-abovebelow"> <b>Retroactive continuity</b> at Wikipedia's <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikimedia_sister_projects" title="Wikipedia:Wikimedia sister projects"><span id="sister-projects">sister projects</span></a></div> <div class="side-box-flex"> <div class="side-box-text plainlist"><ul><li><span class="sister-logo"><span class="mw-valign-middle" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/06/Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg/27px-Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="27" height="27" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/06/Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg/41px-Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/06/Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg/54px-Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="391" data-file-height="391" /></span></span></span><span class="sister-link"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/retcon" class="extiw" title="wikt:retcon">Definitions</a> from Wiktionary</span></li><li><span class="sister-logo"><span class="mw-valign-middle" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/27px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="27" height="15" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/41px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/54px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1050" data-file-height="590" /></span></span></span><span class="sister-link"><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q517361" class="extiw" title="d:Q517361">Data</a> from Wikidata</span></li></ul></div></div> </div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&oldid=1251239368">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&oldid=1251239368</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:1973_neologisms" title="Category:1973 neologisms">1973 neologisms</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Continuity_(fiction)" title="Category:Continuity (fiction)">Continuity (fiction)</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Narrative_techniques" title="Category:Narrative techniques">Narrative techniques</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden categories: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_short_description" title="Category:Articles with short description">Articles with short description</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Short_description_is_different_from_Wikidata" title="Category:Short description is different from Wikidata">Short description is different from Wikidata</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_needing_additional_references_from_August_2013" title="Category:Articles needing additional references from August 2013">Articles needing additional references from August 2013</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:All_articles_needing_additional_references" title="Category:All articles needing additional references">All articles needing additional references</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_needing_page_number_citations_from_February_2016" title="Category:Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2016">Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from February 2016</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:All_articles_with_unsourced_statements" title="Category:All articles with unsourced statements">All articles with unsourced statements</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Articles_with_unsourced_statements_from_January_2024" title="Category:Articles with unsourced statements from January 2024">Articles with unsourced statements from January 2024</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pages_using_Sister_project_links_with_hidden_wikidata" title="Category:Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata">Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 15 October 2024, at 03:12<span class="anonymous-show"> (UTC)</span>.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_4.0_International_License" title="Wikipedia:Text of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License</a>; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms_of_Use" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Terms of Use">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy" class="extiw" title="foundation:Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy policy">Privacy Policy</a>. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/">Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.</a>, a non-profit organization.</li> </ul> <ul id="footer-places"> <li id="footer-places-privacy"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy">Privacy policy</a></li> <li id="footer-places-about"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:About">About Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-disclaimers"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer">Disclaimers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-contact"><a href="//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us">Contact Wikipedia</a></li> <li id="footer-places-wm-codeofconduct"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Universal_Code_of_Conduct">Code of Conduct</a></li> <li id="footer-places-developers"><a href="https://developer.wikimedia.org">Developers</a></li> <li id="footer-places-statslink"><a href="https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/en.wikipedia.org">Statistics</a></li> <li id="footer-places-cookiestatement"><a href="https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Cookie_statement">Cookie statement</a></li> <li id="footer-places-mobileview"><a href="//en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Retroactive_continuity&mobileaction=toggle_view_mobile" class="noprint stopMobileRedirectToggle">Mobile view</a></li> </ul> <ul id="footer-icons" class="noprint"> <li id="footer-copyrightico"><a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><img src="/static/images/footer/wikimedia-button.svg" width="84" height="29" alt="Wikimedia Foundation" loading="lazy"></a></li> <li id="footer-poweredbyico"><a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/" class="cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button--enabled"><img src="/w/resources/assets/poweredby_mediawiki.svg" alt="Powered by MediaWiki" width="88" height="31" loading="lazy"></a></li> </ul> </footer> </div> </div> </div> <div class="vector-settings" id="p-dock-bottom"> <ul></ul> </div><script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.config.set({"wgHostname":"mw-web.codfw.main-6df7948d6c-wrkms","wgBackendResponseTime":201,"wgPageParseReport":{"limitreport":{"cputime":"0.409","walltime":"0.515","ppvisitednodes":{"value":1834,"limit":1000000},"postexpandincludesize":{"value":41051,"limit":2097152},"templateargumentsize":{"value":3149,"limit":2097152},"expansiondepth":{"value":17,"limit":100},"expensivefunctioncount":{"value":5,"limit":500},"unstrip-depth":{"value":1,"limit":20},"unstrip-size":{"value":48723,"limit":5000000},"entityaccesscount":{"value":1,"limit":400},"timingprofile":["100.00% 457.532 1 -total"," 42.28% 193.432 2 Template:Reflist"," 25.04% 114.572 5 Template:Cite_book"," 14.78% 67.626 1 Template:Short_description"," 14.31% 65.484 1 Template:More_citations_needed"," 13.29% 60.823 1 Template:Sisterlinks"," 13.29% 60.799 1 Template:Ambox"," 8.20% 37.532 2 Template:Pagetype"," 6.40% 29.271 2 Template:Fix"," 5.74% 26.262 1 Template:Page_needed"]},"scribunto":{"limitreport-timeusage":{"value":"0.245","limit":"10.000"},"limitreport-memusage":{"value":6460208,"limit":52428800}},"cachereport":{"origin":"mw-web.codfw.main-f69cdc8f6-gzd6v","timestamp":"20241122141141","ttl":2592000,"transientcontent":false}}});});</script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","name":"Retroactive continuity","url":"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Retroactive_continuity","sameAs":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q517361","mainEntity":"http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q517361","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.wikimedia.org\/static\/images\/wmf-hor-googpub.png"}},"datePublished":"2001-12-15T07:37:15Z","dateModified":"2024-10-15T03:12:05Z","image":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/8\/82\/Sherlock_Holmes_and_Professor_Moriarty_at_the_Reichenbach_Falls.jpg","headline":"revision of existing facts in fiction by succeeding work"}</script> </body> </html>