This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Ununnilium: Took out:
Despite glaring character inconsistencies, large plot holes,and incongruous omissions, comic book continuities are still the target of massive amounts of Fan Wank as fans try, in whatever contrived ways, to explain away their favorite aspects as consistent with the imaginary cohesive single unifying narrative.
...as being off-point. It doesn't have to do with alternate continuities, but inconsistencies within a single continuity. (And it's also kinda whiny. >>)
- Despite being said to be the sequel, many consider Ben 10 Alien Force to be a different continuity from the original series. This is due to the characters not simply being older but appearing to be entirely different people. It also contradicts many things in the past series.
...Text moved over and collated into Contested Sequel.
Someone deleted a huge debate about how the Shin Megami Tensei continuity works from the page, presumably because it was confusing natter that was totally impenetrable to any but the most dedicated followers of the series. Saving it here for people who want to see it:
- Maybe. Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army seems to say that all of the Shin Megami Tensei games happen in the same continuity.
- Mind telling me where a black sun that turns people to stone fits in with the other games?
- Or how it works out that the world ends in Shin Megami Tensei and possibly ends even worse in Shin Megami Tensei 2, but is just fine for the third End of the World as We Know It in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne? And what about Last Bible? Or Devil Children? Last Bible takes place in a fantasy world, and Devil Children works completely differently from everything else, taking place in a multiversal setting where the only people who can summon demons are children descended from demons.
- Besides, all the Persona games are in the same continuity. Word of God and all that.
- Oh, but it gets worse. The Devil Summoner games all take place in the same continuity as the Persona games as well, and Shin Megami Tensei: IF is hinted to be included in it as well.
- Maybe not. A scene in Persona 4 implies that Raidou Kuzunoha is a fictional character in their world. Of course, the detective agency that Raidou worked for exists in Persona 2...
- On the other hand, Raidou Kuzunoha worked at the Narumi Detective Agency and the one in Persona 2 is called the Kuzunoha Detective Agency.
- The Kuzunoha Detective Agency is from the original Devil Summoner series, not the PS2 prequels.
- Based on the evidence presented in the various games, If... is the point at which a branching point can occur — depending on just how well-known the events of If... become, the events of the firt part of Shin Megami Tensei play out differently — if it's ignored, we get the apocalypse seen in Shin Megami Tensei. If it's recognized, we get the original Devil Summoner series, before the prequels. Persona 1 and 2 may or may not take place in this continuity with Devil Summoner. If Persona 3 and 4 does take place in the same continuity as Persona 1 and 2, they would also be in this indefinite position, but the very way the world works differs so greatly between the first three games and the latter two that it's unlikely they do, Word of God or not.
- Maybe. Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army seems to say that all of the Shin Megami Tensei games happen in the same continuity.
