History ContinuitySnarl / WesternAnimation

** The direct-to-video film ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland'' takes a BroadStrokes approach to the earlier shows and ignores ''13 Ghosts'' outright. It features the gang as young adults after a TimeSkip, pursuing different jobs across the country after retiring from monster-hunting. They reunite to investigate a case that ends up being genuinely supernatural, and it's made clear that this is the first time that's happened in this new continuity.
** The following direct-to-video films would initially respect ''Zombie Island'''s version of events, but that would later change.
** The fifth film,''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheLegendOfTheVampire'' reverted the gang to their original outfits, doing away with the more modern fashion introduced in ''Zombie Island.'' This would begin a trend of generally treating the gang as teenagers again and carrying on from the old cartoons, effectively pretending that the time skip and the events of the first four video films never happened. ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCurseOfThe13thGhost'' brings the events of the original ''13 Ghosts'' cartoon back into the canon (while suggesting that the ghosts maybe weren't actually real), and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooReturnToZombieIsland'' revisits the first ''Zombie Island'' film's setting but thoroughly retcons the events as happening while the gang were still teenagers. This is despite the writers maintaining that ''all'' the direct-to-video films share a single continuity. Confused yet?

* [[ZigzaggedTrope ZigZagged]] in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. This trope is mostly averted in regards to the Canon, as not only did the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' decision render all previous ExpandedUniverse material outside ''The Clone Wars'' and the six theatrical ''Star Wars'' films non-canon and thus leaving it with very little to contradict, almost every work in the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Canon]] has consistently worked with elements that were introduced. However, ''The Clone Wars'' is part of both Canon ''and'' Legends due to the series running before the decision. Regardless, ''The Clone Wars'' is notorious for contradicting a lot of previously written material from the latter continuity and, in some cases, retconning it due to being in the second-highest tier of the Legends continuity (which at the time, was created for installments produced by Lucasfilm, since none of the other planned series got off the ground, ''The Clone Wars'' was the only work designated under this tier). Had ''The Clone Wars'' continued under the same tiered-canon system, many more snarls would have occurred (season seven along with the [[ComicBook/DarthMaulSonOfDathomir other]] [[Literature/DarkDisciple mediums]] are solely confined to the Canon).

* For all that's said about the inconsistencies between the Unicron Trilogy of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchise (''[[Anime/TransformersArmada Armada]], [[Anime/TransformersEnergon Energon]]'' and ''[[Anime/TransformersCybertron Cybertron]]''), the ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' [[http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/1/1d/Continuities.png timeline]] is even worse. It starts out with two distinct main branches, [[Comicbook/TheTransformers the original comic]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the animated series]], but then along comes ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' that uses elements from both series simultaneously. Add that to the splintering off done by the ''Dreamwave'' ongoing series, and you just have to wonder how all of these things could possibly co-exist together.
** The aforementioned series? In Japan, ''Cybertron'' is called ''Galaxy Force'', and it appears it's unrelated to its Japanese predecessors, ''Micron Legend'' and ''Superlink.'' The US version tries to tie the three together, but there are still some problems, so a comic was produced that chalked all of this up to a big warp in time and space... even though some minor retcons and a few lines of explanation saying where the older characters might have gone to would have sufficed. Yeah, it wouldn't have been perfect, but come on, was it really necessary... especially since they've already let the original timeline rage out of control? Also, most people are fine with that comic not being canonized, because the warp in space is caused by the black hole in ''Cybertron,'' which formed when the Super Energon sun created to sustain all the restored planets at the end of ''Energon'' collapsed. Basically, it would have made ''Energon'' the worst ShootTheShaggyDog DownerEnding in the history of fiction... and opened ''new'' holes with the continued existence of Cybertron and Jungle Planet.
** What makes it worse is that it suffers from Xorneto syndrome (see the ''X-Men'' example) in that the right hand seems to not know what the left hand is doing. ''All'' of the Unicron Trilogy's continuity problems could be solved with the "black hole's effect on the multiverse makes Cybertron the ComicBook/PostCrisis version of TheVerse" statement (that comes from the aforementioned comic. Just stop before you get to the part that makes ''Evangelion'' look like HappilyEverAfter by comparison.) That didn't stop ''everyone'' with the ability to create official material from explaining their own pet peeve a different way, explaining some things that didn't need explaining, and making the bigger problems all the more glaring.
** Worse, the show itself mentions none of this, and we're left with plot holes big enough for Unicron to fly through, even a few that would have been changed by a few lines. Starscream's back, not brainwashed into being ultra-loyal and not remembering anything, but also not a NobleDemon, instead more, well, TheStarscream. Jetfire is now Australian. Wing Saber is now a hothead. Sideways is back and has a different origin and final plan and nobody remembers him. Mini-cons have a different origin (including Jolt, who was major in Armada, as Hot Shot's Mini-con partner.) The biggest example is this: when Optimus and Leobreaker first combine, everyone is in total and absolute shock at the impossible - robots combining - happening. ''Guess what the main gimmick of both ''Armada'' and ''Energon'' was?'' (Hint: In Japan, ''Energon'' was called ''Super '''Link.''''') All it would take is a "Hey, Hot Shot, it's been a while!" from Jolt and similar acknowledgements of changes, or ''not'' going on about how combining, which used to happen all the time, is a shocking thing that has never happened before, or ''not'' giving Jetfire a new voice actor and style out of the blue to either completely cure the problem or at least make it fit together much better.
*** Oh, it gets worse: Takara has now decided that ''Galaxy Force'' ''is'' in continuity with ''Micron Legend'' and ''Superlink'', just as ''Cybertron'' is in continuity with ''Armada'' and ''Energon''. It should be noted, however, that many characters in ''Galaxy Force'' do not share names with anyone in ''Micron Legend'' and ''Super Link, ''whereas ''Cybertron,'' in a manner similar to ''Robots in Disguise'', named many characters after familiar ones. This makes the Japanese Continuity Snarl and the American one ''different'' - sharing TheVerse doesn't make single characters out of the ''Micron Legend / Super Link'' characters and whoever in ''Galaxy Force'' they most resemble. (This puts some FridgeLogic in the Japanese version, now full of {{Expy}} characters that coexist. In America, there's one medic named Red Alert. In the old Japanese continuity, ''Micron Legend'''s Ratchet and ''Galaxy Force's'' First Aid don't get in each other's way continuity-wise. In the new version, two guys happen to have highly similar head designs and replacements for their missing left hands by ''dumb luck'' and no one comments on it. Numerous similar examples exist.) The current consensus seems to be that ''Galaxy Force'' takes place in the same "continuity family" as the prior two shows, but not necessarily the same universe.
** ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' was initially created as a ContinuityReboot. Its original form, ''Car Robots'', focused on a bunch of entirely new characters (Fire Convoy, Gigatron, God Magnus, Mach Alert), which the dub changed to more familiar names (Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Prowl), making the reboot even more definitive. Then, years later, it was declared that ''Car Robots'' was actually a part of the G1 cartoon timeline: the cast were time travelers (something brought up in early promo material, but not the show) who showed up on Earth in a brief window when most of the G1 cast was out of commission (which was why they didn't appear). However, ''Robots in Disguise'' is still its own thing, and even has a distinct continuity family (Viron), as opposed to being in G1 (Primax). Basically, Fire Convoy and RID Optimus Prime are completely different people (one is a subcommander of a dimensional patrol group, the other is an incarnation of Optimus) despite being 99% the same character as presented.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers The original cartoon]] didn't need later material to create its own snarls. Most infamously, the Constructicons were given a throwaway origin in their debut of being created by Megatron on Earth in the modern day, then a season later got a spotlight episode that revealed them to have been former good guys brainwashed by Megatron on Cybertron long ago, and then a season after that, a flashback episode suggested that Megatron himself was created by the evil Constructicons. The movie also created a lot of continuity issues: where did the Matrix come from if it wasn't mentioned at all before? What was the later season 2 cast doing? Why does Cybertron have moons now?
** The most infamous of the movie's continuity questions is Cyclonus. In the final cut of the film, the body of the Seeker Thundercracker gets turned into Scourge, while the Insecticons Kickback and Shrapnel get turned into his soldiers, the Sweeps. Then the bodies of the Insecticon Bombshell and the Seeker Skywarp are turned into "Cyclonus and his armada." The "armada" in question is one guy who looks identical to Cyclonus... and in the ''very next shot'', he's no longer around, and Scourge now has three Sweeps instead of two. Outside of [[OffModel animation errors]], the armada would never appear again. So where did Cyclonus's armada go? And who among Bombshell and Skywarp "really" became Cyclonus? The shot composition implies Bombshell, but thematically it makes more sense for Skywarp. Some retcons have claimed Bombshell, others Skywarp. A lot of this is [[WhatCouldHaveBeen down to script rewrites]], which originally intended Cyclonus to have been created from neither character and for the armada to be a large number of minions.
** Furthermore, some characters are "multiversal singularities", meaning that every incarnation of a certain character (like, say, The Fallen) is the same being, instead of just some alternate version. This leads to some headache inducing retcons among other things, and may have been part of the reason why Fun Publications did away with the concept in 2015.
** Sideways's whole ''existence'' is one of these. How bad is it? At [=TFWiki=], many characters have a Disambiguation page (after all, think of how many unrelated incarnations of TF have an Optimus Prime?) Sideways is the only character whose disambig page has a "Fiction" section.
** Out-of-universe, first we have the RID 2001 toy, then the ''Armada'' toy which uses the same bio, reworded to add Minicons. Then the Armada character, an agent and ''offshoot'' of Unicron. Then the ''Cybertron'' character: same name, same gimmick, different revelation about who he is. These are considered to be the same guy, officially. Then the explanation of Cybertron's differences from the connected Armada series -- Unicron exists in all dimensions and as such, all are affected by the black hole -- better known as the ''Unicron Singularity.'' As "multiversal singularities," Primus, Unicron, and their direct creations exist in all dimensions as the same person. This would mean that Sideways can exist in multiple universes and seem to have a complete, differing history in each, but it's always still him and he'll always be Unicron's herald. The ''Animated'' ExpandedUniverse makes Animated Sideways and Movie Sideways maybe the same guy, and colors him like Armada Sideways… ''without'' anything beyond colors to say that he's also that one. Movie Sideways is cut in half and reappears in the next movie (the likes of which is no big feat for Armada Sideways, who can take many forms and whose true form seems to be energy that looks like multicolored television static), and his toy bios treat him as a manipulator like Armada and Cybertron Sideways, suggesting that he is Armada Sideways or at least just like him… but toy bios say a ''lot'' about movie characters that clashes with the movies, and a lot of movie Decepticons have the same or similar body types. And then there's a completely different yellow-and-purple Unicron-connected motorbike guy, Tarantulas, who predates Sideways but has had several references made to further link the two1. Canon as it was understood at the time of the Unicron Trilogy would seem to make Armada Sideways the true identity of all the others, but there just kept not being any sign of that in later appearances - or any acknowledgement of different series existing in TheMultiverse in any television, film, or mainstream comic incarnation. Finally, they embraced the fact that sense cannot be made of it: the "Ask Vector Prime" column, where fans can ask things of the ancient TimeMaster and get in-character tongue-in-cheek answers, has Sideways take over for a little while when the question is asked - ''first'' he reminds us that [[UnreliableNarrator he's a lying liar who lies]], and tells us that all, some, or none of the past ideas of who he is are totally true… or not.
-->'''Sideways:''' Everything you think you know about me was [[ConsummateLiar a lie told by me to confuse someone]], or [[WordOfGod conjecture from someone]] [[GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld who'd be in no position to know]]. So yeah, maybe I'm a [[Anime/TransformersArmada fragment of Unicron]], because maybe [[Anime/TransformersCybertron Planet X]] [[ExpandedUniverse used to]] [[ArcWelding BE Unicron]]. And maybe I'm [[Anime/TransformersArmada his avatar made manifest]] and untethered once he [[Anime/TransformersCybertron collapsed into a giant singularity]]. And maybe I'm from the Cybertronian Empire.[[note]]"Ask Vector Prime" gives a connection between Planet X and the Cybertronian Empire. Assuming you take Ask Vector Prime as canon at all.[[/note]] [[TheMerch And maybe]] [[FlavorText I'm just]] an [[Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise ordinary Autobot who went crazy]] from [[Anime/TransformersArmada Powerlinxing to the wrong Mini-Cons]]. Maybe I'm [[MultipleChoicePast all of those things, or none.]] And you know what the best part is? [[RiddleForTheAges You'll. Never. Know.]]
** Indeed, the entire "multiversal singularities" concept turned into this pretty quick. For instance, the Unicron of the cartoon rather clearly ''isn't'' a multiversal god; he had a canon origin as having been [[AIIsACrapshoot created by a scientist.]] The Fallen, who was always intended to be one rather than retconned into one, ran into this when a version of him appeared in the live-action films as [[AdaptationalWimp a completely incompatible figure.]] Vector Prime straight-up dies in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', yet nobody acknowledges this. WordOfGod on ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is that Primus doesn't exist there, throwing into question how ''Animated'' fits into it. And then when Aligned kicked off, it created a list of the Thirteen that excluded Logos Prime (who is very obviously intended to be one) and added Alpha Trion (who has a long history in multiple continuities that's utterly incompatible with him being in the Thirteen, including a MirrorUniverse doppelganger and having clearly aged), prompting the explanation that the Aligned continuity is somehow separate from the others. Rather than making the Thirteen seem cooler, [[VoodooShark the whole thing ended up just raising hundreds of questions]], so much so that the concept was erased by CosmicRetcon. Good thing, too, because the eventual revelation that the Arisen was Optimus Prime would have handily snapped the entire system in half.
*** The Fallen's application ran into a particular case of this. In the ''Transformers'' multiverse, contradictory stories are explained as the result of the audience looking at a parallel universe -- for instance, a toy bio where a character who is dead is treated as alive means that there's a universe where they survived or came back. This is also the case for multiple adaptations of the same story -- the novelization of an episode's plot takes place in its own universe to the episode. Now combine that with the above information about The Fallen and the massive amount of ancillary material surrounding ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'', and you have the [[FridgeLogic apparent situation]] where the Fallen dies at the end of the movie, somehow survives, travels to the universe of the novelization, lives out his entire long history in the exact same manner and enacts the exact same scheme, dies in the exact same way, travels to the universe of the comic book adaptation, to the read-along storybook, to the video game, to the portable version of the video game, and so on and so forth, failing miserably every single time.
** A simple question: is ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' part of the Marvel comic timeline, or the original cartoon timeline? The series has enough callouts to each that it could be [[BroadStrokes both, either or neither.]] Even the writers seemed to be uncertain, with the Vok having one WordOfGod origin that definitely lands ''Beast Wars'' in the Marvel timeline, and another that could fit anywhere. Not helping matters is the expanded universe, which has seen many an ArmedWithCanon attempt to fix things up. They usually instead add ''more'' snarls.
** The latest incarnation of the Transformers mythos is still neonatal (a couple of months old as of this writing), and it's ''already'' turning into a Continuity Snarl. According to the powers that be, the video game ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', the novel ''[[Literature/TransformersExodus Exodus]]'', and the TV series ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' are all part of the same continuity. The problem is, the plots for ''Exodus'' and ''War for Cybertron'' are so disparate and contradictory as to be completely incompatible. Time will tell whether the ''Prime'' cartoon will make any attempt to address these discrepancies, or whether it will [[ShrugOfGod quietly sweep them under the rug and ignore them]], and [[MST3kMantra encourage the fans to do the same]]. ''War''[='=]s sequel ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'' makes some attempts, though ''Prime''[='=]s sequel, the current ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Robots in Disguise]]'' makes things worse as Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Grimlock don't seem to recognize each other. [[WordOfGod Producer Adam Beechen]] [[https://twitter.com/sonnova/status/606586570980749312%7C later said]] that Grimlock is a common name among Dinobots and that ''[=RiD=]''!Grimlock isn't ''[=FoC=]''!Grimlock, but a different character. Wiki/TFWikiDotNet takes this a step further and presents the Sideswipes, as well as both versions of Kickback as separate characters as well.
*** [[WordOfGod Later statements by Hasbro]] have clarified that ''War For Cybertron'', ''Exodus'', and ''Prime'' are part of the same continuity in the same way that the original Transformers cartoon and the Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW comics are all part of the G1 continuity -- that is, they share similarities in aesthetics and characterization, but are not necessarily consistent with one another. The fandom generally uses the term "continuity '''family'''" to refer to such an arrangement, and this difference in terminology is part of the reason some fans continue to grumble about discrepancies in canon between the three works.
*** Even that doesn't satisfy all, just because ''War for Cybertron'' was ''so'' G1 Prequel-y (its cast is G1 characters and ''only'' G1 characters and their pre-Earth designs were largely based on ''The War Within,'' Dreamwave's G1 prequel.) and had nothing in common with ''Prime.'' However, they're working at fixing the problem via some ArcWelding: ''Prime'' writers ''are'' making references to it, and the second game in the series, ''Fall of Cybertron,'' is also looking more at ''Prime'' than at G1 when it comes to what events it's setting the stage for (though it's still using all G1 characters. Welcome back, Bruticus!) Also, ''Prime'' Shockwave looks very much like ''Fall of Cybertron'' Shockwave (but then again, Shockwaves tend to look like that anyway).
*** The Aligned continuity gained a new one when both ''The Art of Prime'' and ''The Covenant of Primus'' decided to address the dead Prime whose arm Megatron stole for his BadassTransplant in [[Recap/TransformersPrimeS2E21AlphaOmega "Alpha; Omega"]]. According to notes for Megatron's design in ''Art of Prime'', he stole it from Sentinel Zeta Prime, but according to ''The Covenant of Primus'', it came from the Liege Maximo, one of the original Thirteen. For what it's worth, Wiki/TFWikiDotNet has decided to go with the ''The Covenant of Primus'' explanation.
*** Speaking of "Sentinel Zeta Prime," ''he'' is an attempt to clean up a minor one. One source says the Prime before Optimus is Sentinel Prime and one says it's Zeta Prime, so Hasbro decided, "why not make them the same guy?"
*** ''VideoGame/TransformersRiseOfTheDarkSpark'' is a plot that involves both the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' and the ''Aligned'' universe, with the Aligned part being an {{interquel}} between ''War for Cybertron'' and ''Fall of Cybertron'' and the film section taking place roughly around ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction''. Among the problems is that Aligned!Megatron is shown in his rebuilt form from ''[=FoC=]''--despite only getting it that that story, Lockdown having different motivations (being greedy and missing the war in the game, hired by [[spoiler:Quintessa to capture Optimus]] in the movie), Stinger being with Lockdown, the Dinobots already being with the Autobots, and Movie!Optimus and movie!Bumblebee already in the forms they gain in the movie.
** And then there's [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Prowl_II Prowl II]], who is what happens when the ''Beast Wars'' snarl and the ''Binaltech'' snarl make sweet, sweet love while neither side knows what the other is doing. The short version is that he was intended to simply be a future version of G1 Prowl, and by the end, he was an amnesiac future clone of another universe's G1 Prowl with the soul of his universe's Chip Chase, occupying a body that originally held the soul of the Chip from the other universe, while the actual G1 Prowl is dead and the one from another universe is now a lion on the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. And this is considered the "fixed" version.

** Indeed, the entire "multiversal singularities" concept turned into this pretty quick. For instance, the Unicron of the cartoon rather clearly ''isn't'' a multiversal god; he had a canon origin as having been [[AIIsACrapshoot created by a scientist.]] The Fallen, who was always intended to be one rather than retconned into one, ran into this when a version of him appeared in the live-action films as [[AdaptationalWimp a completely incompatible figure.]] Vector Prime straight-up dies in ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'', yet nobody acknowledges this. WordOfGod on ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is that Primus doesn't exist there, throwing into question how ''Animated'' fits into it. And then when Aligned kicked off, it created a list of the Thirteen that excluded Logos Prime (who is very obviously intended to be one) and added Alpha Trion (who has a long history in multiple continuities that's utterly incompatible with him being in the Thirteen, including a MirrorUniverse doppelganger and having clearly aged), prompting the explanation that the Aligned continuity is somehow separate from the others. Rather than making the Thirteen seem cooler, [[VoodooShark the whole thing ended up just raising hundreds of questions]], so much so that the concept was erased by CosmicRetcon.

** A simple question: is ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' part of the Marvel comic timeline, or the original cartoon timeline? The series has enough callouts to each that it could be [[BroadStrokes both, either or neither.]] Even the writers seemed to be uncertain, with the Vok having one WordOfGod origin that definitely lands ''Beast Wars'' in the Marvel timeline, and the other being possible to fit anywhere. Not helping matters is the expanded universe, which has seen many an ArmedWithCanon attempt to fix things up. They usually instead add ''more'' snarls.

** Out-of-universe, first we have the RID 2001 toy, then the ''Armada'' toy which uses the same bio, reworded to add Minicons. Then the Armada character, an agent and ''offshoot'' of Unicron. Then the ''Cybertron'' character: same name, same gimmick, different revelation about who he is. These are considered to be the same guy, officially. Then the explanation of Cybertron's differences from the connected Armada series -- Unicron exists in all dimensions and as such, all are affected by the black hole -- better known as the ''Unicron Singularity.'' As "multiversal singularities," Primus, Unicron, and their direct creations exist in all dimensions as the same person. This would mean that Sideways can exist in multiple universes and seem to have a complete, differing history in each, but it's always still him and he'll always be Unicron's herald. The ''Animated'' ExpandedUniverse makes Animated Sideways and Movie Sideways maybe the same guy, and colors him like Armada Sideways… ''without'' anything beyond colors to say that he's also that one. Movie Sideways is cut in half and reappears in the next movie (the likes of which is no big feat for Armada Sideways, who can take many forms and whose true form seems to be energy that looks like multicolored television static), and his toy bios treat him as a manipulator like Armada and Cybertron Sideways, suggesting that he is Armada Sideways or at least just like him… but toy bios say a ''lot'' about movie characters that clashes with the movies, and a lot of movie Decepticons have the same or similar body types. Canon as it was understood at the time of the Unicron Trilogy would seem to make Armada Sideways the true identity of all the others, but there just kept not being any sign of that in later appearances - or any acknowledgement of different series existing in TheMultiverse in any television, film, or mainstream comic incarnation. Finally, they embraced the fact that sense cannot be made of it: the "Ask Vector Prime" column, where fans can ask things of the ancient TimeMaster and get in-character tongue-in-cheek answers, has Sideways take over for one installment when the question is asked - ''first'' he reminds us that [[UnreliableNarrator he's a lying liar who lies]], and tells us that all, some, or none of the past ideas of who he is are totally true… or not.

** ''Disney/LionKingOneAndAHalf'' retold the events of the original movie from a PerspectiveFlip, showing how Timon and Pumbaa met and how their raised Simba - but it often ignored continuity in favor of RuleOfFunny. The montage of Timon and Pumbaa appearing in every scene of the original movie just straight-up flies in the face of any continuity.

** The most infamous of the movie's continuity questions is Cyclonus. In the final cut of the film, the body of the Seeker Thundercracker gets turned into Scourge, while the Insecticons Kickback and Shrapnel get turned into his soldiers, the Sweeps. Then the bodies of the Insecticon Bombshell and the Seeker Skywarp are turned into "Cyclonus and his armada." The "armada" in question is one guy who looks identical to Cyclonus... and in the ''very next shot'', he's no longer around, and Scourge now has three Sweeps instead of two. Outside of [[OffModel animation errors]], the armada would never appear again. So where did Cyclonus's armada go? And who among Bombshell and Skywarp "really" became Cyclonus? The shot composition implies Bombshell, but thematically it makes more sense for Skywarp. Some retcons have claimed Bombshell, others Skywarp. A lot of this is [[WhatCouldHaveBeen down to script rewrites]], which intended Cyclonus to have been created from neither character and for the armada to be a large number of minions.

** ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' was initially created as a ContinuityReboot. Its original form, ''Car Robots'' focused on a bunch of entirely new characters (Fire Convoy, Gigatron, God Magnus, Mach Alert), which the dub changed to more familiar names (Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Prowl), making the reboot even more definitive. Then, years later, it was declared that ''Car Robots'' was actually a part of the G1 cartoon timeline: the cast were time travelers (something brought up in early promo material, but not the show) who showed up on Earth in a brief window when most of the G1 cast was out of commission (which was why they didn't appear). However, ''Robots in Disguise'' is still its own thing, and even has a distinct continuity family (Viron), as opposed to being in G1 (Primax). Basically, Fire Convoy and RID Optimus Prime are completely different people (one is a subcommander of a dimensional patrol group, the other is an incarnation of Optimus) despite being 99% the same character as presented.
** [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers The original cartoon]] didn't need later material to create its own snarls. Most infamously, the Constructicons were given a throwaway origin in their debut of being created by Megatron on Earth in the modern day, then a season later got a spotlight episode that revealed them to have been former good guys brainwashed by Megatron on Cybertron long ago, and then a season after that, a flashback episode suggested that Megatron himself was created by the evil Constructicons. The movie also created a lot of continuity issues: where did the Matrix come from if it wasn't mentioned at all before? What was the later season 2 cast doing? Why does Cybertron have moons now? Not to mention the many, many problems with Scourge and Cyclonus's origins.

* ZigZagged in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. This trope is mostly averted in regards to the Canon, as not only did the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' decision render all previous ExpandedUniverse material outside ''The Clone Wars'' and the six theatrical ''Star Wars'' films non-canon and thus leaving it with very little to contradict, almost every work in the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Canon]] has consistently worked with elements that were introduced. However, ''The Clone Wars'' is part of both Canon ''and'' Legends due to the series running before the decision. Regardless, ''The Clone Wars'' is notorious for contradicting a lot of previously written material from the latter continuity and, in some cases, retconning it due to being in the second-highest tier of the Legends continuity (which at the time, was created for installments produced by Lucasfilm, since none of the other planned series got off the ground, ''The Clone Wars'' was the only work designated under this tier). Had ''The Clone Wars'' continued under the same tiered-canon system, many more snarls would have occurred (season seven along with the [[ComicBook/DarthMaulSonOfDathomir other]] [[Literature/DarkDisciple mediums]] are solely confined to the Disney Canon).

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' began to run into this during the third season. All of the episodes take place in AnachronicOrder, making their placement already difficult. Some even {{retcon}} the timeline for past episodes. For example, events in one episode took place in between the two prior season finales... and implied the second season finale took place before the first.
** It doesn't help that the series itself is retconning a fair amount of older series, such as many of the ''Literature/{{Republic Commando|Series}}'' novels.
*** Thankfully, the ''Republic Commando'' novels [[AllThereInTheManual have been safely salvaged]].
** Not to mention killing off a Jedi Master in the middle of the Clone Wars who explicitly was still alive ''after'' the war ended.
** It doesn't help that Creator/GeorgeLucas has called the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' a parallel universe, so doesn't feel particularly beholden to upholding it.
** The continuity between episodes has been fixed. The show airs in syndication in a new and chronological order that starts a few weeks after the second life-action film in which Anakin got his scars and became a knight.
** Ultimately, the ContinuityReboot that made the old ExpandedUniverse ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' rendered all of this moot, as ''The Clone Wars'' was the only piece of media besides the Original and Prequel trilogies to stay canon.

** This extends to guest villains as well. When Klaw first showed up in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'', it was in his classic living sound form, complete with his iconic red and purple design. When Klaw subsequently appeared on ''Avengers Assemble'', he was inexplicably portrayed as a human smuggler (in keeping with his depiction in the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]]), and even his trademark sonic cannon was now attached to his left arm rather than his right.
** The same thing happened with Baron Mordo. When Mordo appeared on ''Ultimate Spider-Man'', it was in his classic Caucasian form. Despite ''Avengers Assemble'' retaining several elements of his ''USM'' characterization (such as an affiliation with Comicbook/{{HYDRA}}), Mordo was redesigned to be a [[RaceLift black man]] so that he'd resemble Creator/ChiwetelEjiofor's portrayal of the character in the live-action ''Film/DoctorStrange'' movie.

** How exactly Bruce got his powers and became the Hulk is contradicted on two separate occasions. The incident was first shown in "Planet Doom" as a small gamma bomb that went off in a lab near Bruce, ultimately giving him his powers. In "Dehulked", his origin is closer to the ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' film's take on it, with Bruce ''willingly'' getting the gamma blasted into him by a laser under the supervision of General Ross. On top of all that, if what A-Bomb said in ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'' is supposed to believed, ''Rick himself'' was supposed to be there to be saved by Bruce before he got hit by the gamma radiation, although Rick Jones wasn't in "Dehulked".
** Klaw's appearance in "Thunderbolts Revealed" is ''radically'' different than how was previously-established in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'', which takes place in the same universe: He is human again [[spoiler:(albeit briefly)]], despite the fact that he was a living embodiment of sound prior to this episode; he now resembles his Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse counterpart, as opposed to having his red full-body containment suit, including a different sound generation located on the opposite arm; and, no longer voiced by Creator/MattLanter, "Klaue" now sports a ambiguously foreign accent that is completely distinct from Lanter's gruff bad guy voice.
** Emil Blonsky, who had his Abomination persona forcibly removed in the ''Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.'' episode "Spirit of Vengeance", is a gamma monster again in "Dehulked" with no explanation, though it's possible that this took place before ''Agents of S.M.A.S.H.''
** Egghead begins his villainous career midway through Season 3, despite the fact that he was already a villain Scott Lang sold tech to, according to a line of a dialogue in "Spectrums", a ''Season 2'' episode.
** In Season 3, it was stated that prior to becoming Ant-Man, Scott Lang was a scientist who sold tech to supervillains, and it's implied that this is what landed him in jail. In Season 4, he's now stated to have been a former thief, much like his movie counterpart, but who's to say he hadn't done both?
** Season 4's HalloweenEpisode is a continuity nightmare. For starters, it stars the original six Avengers and features none of the new recruits, even though by this point in the season, the original Avengers had already been scattered across time and space, and wouldn't return for another five episodes. Next, Iron Man is still with the team, even though he'd been trapped in another dimension at the end of the last season, and wasn't rescued alongside the other Avengers in Season 4. Crimson Widow is also still working for HYDRA, even though she betrayed them in Season 3 and was already shown working alone earlier in Season 4. Finally, the episode ends in the training room of Avengers Tower, even though Season 3 ended with the Avengers moving into the Avengers Compound [[spoiler: after the Tower was destroyed]], and the replacement Avengers were operating out of the Wakandan Embassy at that point before the compound was repaired. Timeline-wise, the episode really only makes sense if it's meant to be taking place some time prior to the Season 3 finale. While that is assumed to be the case, it creates yet ''another'' issue; Season 3 already had a Halloween episode, and if the timeline of ''Ultron Revolution'' happened spanned over an entire year, Yelena being with HYDRA still wouldn't make sense since her debut episode was after Season 3's Halloween Episode and during the ''winter season''.
** "New Year's Resolution" raises all sorts of issues about time travel in this series. First of all, time travel can now erase the memories of travelers. Then, Kang explains that if someone is brought to the future, they can only stay there for a short period of time before everything after the point when they left starts to be erased from history. In this episode, Peggy and Howard are in the future for a few hours at most before things start falling apart, while Falcon was trapped in the future for YEARS, and this never seems to happen. Even Baron Heinrich Zemo was in the future for about a few hours and didn't suffer the same problem either. If anything, the TimeyWimeyBall is in effect in this universe, so the rules of time travel are bound to vary. It also has the same continuity problems as the aforementioned Halloween special, since Iron Man is back on the team without explanation, and the Avengers are still operating out of Avengers Tower. However, that this episode is ADayInTheLimelight for Peggy Carter and Howard Stark taking place in the past while involving TimeTravel, [[FridgeBrilliance so the "future" they travel to doesn't necessarily have to be the "present" this episode airs in (which in this case is Season 4).]]
** Much like the Klaw example, Baron Mordo shows up in Season 4, where he is a black man like his [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 movie counterpart]], though retaining his powers, and alignment with Hydra from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}''. This is despite the fact that Mordo previously shown up in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' as a white guy.
** In "Beyond," Black Widow states that the Avengers [[spoiler: had assumed that Iron Man died after the connection to his dimension was cut off. This is despite the fact that in the first episode of the season, when the cut off happened, the Avengers are very clearly determined to bring him back.]]
** Iron Man shows up in "Beyond" [[spoiler: after being trapped in an alternate dimension when Ultron possessed him in the Season 3 finale. He doesn't have his armor with him, so the implication is he left it, and Ultron, behind in the section of Battleworld made up of No Tech Land, and that's why he's not possessed anymore. The only problem is that Ultron possessed him via the Arc Reactor, not the armor, which is why he had to stay behind in the first place. He needs the Arc Reactor to live, and leaving would mean Ultron would take over again when it reactivated. Tony shouldn't have been able to leave No Tech Land at all]].
** Season 5, "Black Panther's Quest" is a continuity nightmare. It's still officially listed as taking place after season 4, "Secret Wars," but several characters are missing without explanation. The crossover with Spider-Man features the Spidey of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan'' and '''not''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' (a change that also carried on into ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'')! The changed character designs are also the same as in Spider-Man 2017. When T'Challa meets with Attuma in Atlantis, he's a completely different character from the tyrant in Red Skull's Cabal in the early seasons. It's like the show just hopped universes between seasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ninjago}} has great continuity... for what happens on-screen. Trying to sort out what happened ''before'' the pilot, on the other hand (not helped by each season feeling compelled to tie into Wu and Garmadon's history, adding to the mythos of the Elemental Masters, etc.).

** The Hands of Time arc brings up several. It had previously been established that Nya "was there for" Kai after their father's disappearance... This arc then establishes that, not only is Nya the younger sibling, she was only ''three'' when their parents went missing, so how is a three-year-old supposed to "be there" for her older brother? The painting of the climactic battle is stated as being "during the Serpentine War" and is repeatedly established to have occurred 40 years before the present day. How exactly were the Serpentine and the Great Devourer supposed to have faded to legend in 40 years?

** This is further complicated in the later seasons of ''Avengers Assemble''. Season 2 featured a guest appearance from Spider-Man, who was the same version as the one from the ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' cartoon (right down to using [[Creator/DrakeBell the same voice actor]] and having Spidey retain his habit of breaking the fourth wall). After ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' was cancelled and replaced with ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan'', all subsequent guest appearances on ''Avengers Assemble'' used the new version of the character, despite the sheer number of continuity errors that raises.

*** Oh, it gets worse: Takara has now decided that ''Galaxy Force'' ''is'' in continuity with ''Micron Legend'' and ''Superlink'', just as ''Cybertron'' is in continuity with ''Armada'' and ''Energon''. It should be noted, however, that many characters in ''Galaxy Force'' do not share names with anyone in ''Micron Legend'' and ''Super Link, ''whereas ''Cybertron,'' in a manner similar to ''Robots in Disguise'', named many characters after familiar ones. This makes the Japanese Continuity Snarl and the American one ''different'' - sharing TheVerse doesn't make single characters out of the ''Micron Legend / Super Link'' characters and whoever in ''Galaxy Force'' they most resemble. (This puts some FridgeLogic in the Japanese version, now full of {{Expy}} characters that coexist. In America, there's one medic named Red Alert. In the old Japanese continuity, ''Micron Legend'''s Ratchet and ''Galaxy Force's'' First Aid don't get in each other's way continuity-wise. In the new version, two guys happen to have highly similar head designs and replacements for their missing left hands by ''dumb luck'' and no one comments on it. Numerous similar examples exist.)
** The [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Japaneseflowchart.jpg Japanese G1 timeline]] also considers [[Film/{{Transformers}} the live-action film series]] and seemingly unconnected series ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise'' as part of the original continuity. Try to make sense of THAT.
*** Oh, yeah, and ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''? That one that took place in the 22nd century, made the Autobots virtual celebrities on Earth, had a completely different style and design aesthetic, included superheroes, genetic experiments GoneHorriblyWrong, and robots being so commonplace that they were used to teach, and [[spoiler:ended with Megatron in chains and Starscream a dead traitor]]? In Japanese continuity, [[LogicBomb it's a prequel to the live-action film.]] [[LyingCreator Except that it isn't.]]

*** Even that doesn't satisfy all, just because ''War for Cybertron'' was ''so'' G1 Prequel-y (its cast is G1 characters and ''only'' G1 characters and their pre-Earth designs were largely based on ''The War Within,'' Dreamwave's G1 prequel.) and had nothing in common with ''Prime.'' However, they're working at fixing the problem via some ArcWelding: ''Prime'' writers ''are'' making references to it, and the second game in the series, ''Fall of Cybertron,'' is also looking more at ''Prime'' than at G1 when it comes to what events it's setting the stage for (though it's still using all G1 characters. Welcome back, Bruticus!) Also, ''Prime'' Shockwave looks very much like ''Fall of Cybertron'' Shockwave.

* Creator/JephLoeb has stated in several interviews that ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' and ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' share the same universe as ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes''. As you can tell by the first episodes of both ''Ultimate'' and ''Assemble'', this would only work in heavy BroadStrokes. The most noticeable contradiction being the apparent age difference between [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]] and ComicBook/{{Luke Cage|HeroForHire}} as seen in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' and ''The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!'' and Comicbook/TheFalcon being a rookie in ''Assemble'' whereas he was already active in ''EMH''.
** Related to ''EMH'', Chris Yost, Craig Kyle, and Josh Fine have said it, ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', and the "Wolverine" short of ''WesternAnimation/HulkVs'' are all set in the same universe--despite the number of things that contradict each other, like Bruce Banner not remembering Wolverine in ''[=WatXM=]'', despite Wolverine's behavior to Banner being the direct cause of both of Banner's main Hulk-outs in the "Wolverine" short.

-->'''Roger:''' My name is Braff Zacklin. I was an international race car driver. One day, a baby carriage rolled out onto the track so I swerved into the retaining wall to avoid it. The car burst into flames, but the baby miraculously survived ... I was that baby.\\

*** ''VideoGame/TransformersRiseOfTheDarkSpark'' is a plot that involves both the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'' and the ''Aligned'' universe, with the Aligned part being an {{interquel}} between ''War for Cybertron'' and ''Fall of Cybertron'' and the film section taking place roughly around ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction''. Among the problems is that Aligned!Megatron is shown in his rebuilt form from ''[=FoC=]''--despite only getting it that that story, Lockdown having different motivations (being greedy and missing the war in the game, hired by [[spoiler:Quintessa to capture Optimus]] in the movie), Stinger being with Lockdown already, the Dinobots already being with the Autobots, and Movie!Optimus and movie!Bumblebee already in the forms they gain in the movie.

* Due to the sheer length of time it's been on the air coupled with its ageless cast and focus on American cultural commentary, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has increasingly severe continuity problems regarding when the characters were born, what generation they belong to, etc. Early episodes, set in the early 1990s, established Marge and Homer as kids of the late 1950s — baby boomers, basically — with Bart and Lisa being kids of the early 1980s. Early episodes flashbacks were completely unambiguous about this — young Homer watching JFK on TV, Lisa's birth overlapping with the 1984 Olympics, and so on. However, the show has survived for so long, it is now impossible to honor this past without absurdity -- Lisa cannot still be eight years old in the late 2010s if she was born in the 1980s, etc. Flashbacks in contemporary episodes now have to occur in some vague, unspecified "past" with decade-identifying details scrubbed, though this is not so easily done for certain characters for whom time-sensitive events are a big part of their identity: for example, Abe being a WWII vet, Seymour having served in Vietnam, Marge, Homer, and Artie Ziff having attended a very 60s prom — to say nothing of Disco Stu! It seems many of these details are being quietly retired for snarl reasons.

** The latest incarnation of the Transformers mythos is still neonatal (a couple of months old as of this writing), and it's ''already'' turning into a Continuity Snarl. According to the powers that be, the video game ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', the novel ''[[Literature/TransformersExodus Exodus]]'', and the TV series ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' are all part of the same continuity. The problem is, the plots for ''Exodus'' and ''War for Cybertron'' are so disparate and contradictory as to be completely incompatible. Time will tell whether the ''Prime'' cartoon will make any attempt to address these discrepancies, or whether it will [[ShrugOfGod quietly sweep them under the rug and ignore them]], and [[MST3kMantra encourage the fans to do the same]]. ''War''[='=]s sequel ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'' makes some attempts, though ''Prime''[='=]s sequel, the current ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Robots in Disguise]]'' makes things worse as Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Grimlock don't seem to recognize each other. [[WordOfGod Producer Adam Beechen]] [[https://twitter.com/sonnova/status/606586570980749312%7C later said]] that Grimlock is a common name among Dinobots and that ''[=RiD=]''!Grimlock isn't ''[=FoC=]''!Grimlock, but a different character. Website/TFWikiDotNet takes this a step further and presents the Sideswipes as separate characters as well.

* The ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'' TV spin-off is branded as a prequel to the two movies with Flint Lockwood in high school. If it is truly a prequel, however, then there are some inconsistencies with the movie's canon. Most noticeably, Sam Sparks is attending the Swallow Falls high school ''with'' Flint despite it never being established in the either of the two movies that Sam had ever been to Swallow Falls before being sent there in the beginning of the first movie. Additionally, Manny (Sam's camera man) is also a Swallow Falls resident (who doesn't add up for the same reason as Sam), and Mayor Shelbourne has an actual son (instead of a metaphorical son) [[CanonImmigrant who never appeared in either of the movies]] that are set after this series.

* The Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse has a couple because of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
** In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode, "Blasts from the Past, Part 1", Lois Lane makes a snarky remark, saying, "Yeah, and I'm Wonder Woman," which suggests that Wonder Woman was already active in the DCAU. In ''JL'', Diana is presented as a rookie and a newbie to Man's World.
** Likewise, the ''S: TAS'' episode "Apokolips... Now, Part 2" features Forager among the New Gods from New Genesis, yet in "Twilght" he's not yet among their numbers until the end of the episode.