History Main / ArmedWithCanon

** Gary Sarli once explained that when contradictions arose (which would be inevitable given the scope of ''Star Wars'' at the time), authors were supposed to do their best to come up with creative explanations that reconciled both sides (George Lucas was not bound by this limitation). Whether the authors could rise to the occasion or fall to the worst aspects of this trope depended on the quality of the writer. However, it would explain why so many authors would address other works instead of ignoring them.

** Curtis Saxton, originally a PromotedFanboy, wrote a lot of data in several technical manuals for ''Legends''. Unfortunately, he has been accused of trying to rewrite ''Franchise/StarWars'' to help the pro-''Star Wars'' side of the ''Star Wars'' vs. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny online debates curbstomp the Trekkies, and as such gave hugely inflated numbers for pretty much everything. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale He and his fans argue that it is simply a consequence of what is shown onscreen.]] The acceleration needed to get to orbit as fast as is shown in ''Star Wars'' requires the ability to produce insane levels of firepower, as well as being consistent with what the Death Star does. Though the problem is that this is wholly inconsistent with what is observed in the rest of canonicity. Troop numbers are particularly problematic. He established that the Separatists have quintillions of droids based on the industrial potential shown by the Death Star. Given that the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' movie novelization, a higher canonical source than Saxton's manuals, implied that the "million more well on the way" was a million clone warriors, he had given the Separatists more than a trillion droids for every clone the other side had--then again, much of the reason Saxton made the argument to begin with was that a million clones being treated as a powerful fighting force in a galaxy where one faction treated "ten thousand star systems" as a minor detail in the same film is pretty ludicrous in itself (though the novelizations also established the Republic had a hundred thousand worlds, tens of thousands of star systems and trillions of commonfolk, so the droid numbers still ran into other issues).

* ''Film/Deadpool2'': [[spoiler:During the end, after Wade uses Cable's time-travel device to give Vanessa's killer a cream cheese spreader in the brain, his other stops include 2009 for the Weapon X Deadpool entrance scene from ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'', that movie's version of the character notorious for not being well-received. A bullet in Weapon X's head cleans up the timeline.]]

* There were at least 46 writers for ''{{Series/Smallville}}''. Apparent lack of coordination made the show seem to have a very split personality, with wildly clashing tones, contradictory characterisation, and horrendous amounts of ContinuitySnarl, and even the writers themselves engaged in their own ShipToShipCombat or promoted their own favourite characters.

** A Riot writer once said they liked the Jarvan IV/Quinn ship, seemingly sinking the fan-preferred Jarvan IV/Shyvana and Quinn/Talon ships. The writers of the ''Lux'' comic not only threw this out the window, but very heavily implied Jarvan IV is in love with Shyvana. Jarvan IV/Shyvana was further teased in the Star Guardian universe, with Senna shipping the two.

** Curtis Saxton, originally a PromotedFanboy, wrote a lot of data in several technical manuals for ''Legends''. Unfortunately, he has been accused of trying to rewrite ''Franchise/StarWars'' to help the pro-''Star Wars'' side of the ''Star Wars'' vs. ''Franchise/StarTrek'' UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny online debates curbstomp the Trekkies, and as such gave hugely inflated numbers for pretty much everything. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale He and his fans argue that it is simply a consequence of what is shown onscreen.]] The acceleration needed to get to orbit as fast as is shown in ''Star Wars'' requires the ability to produce insane levels of firepower, as well as being consistent with what the Death Star does. Though the problem is that this is wholly inconsistent with what is observed in the rest of canonicity. Troop numbers are particularly problematic. He established that the Separatists have quintillions of droids based on the industrial potential shown by the Death Star. Given that the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' movie novelization, a higher canonical source than Saxton's manuals, implied that the "million more well on the way" was a million clone warriors, he had given the Separatists more than a trillion droids for every clone the other side had--then again, much of the reason Saxton made the argument to begin with was that a million clones being treated as a powerful fighting force in a galaxy where one faction treated "ten thousand star systems" as a minor detail in the same film is pretty ludicrous in itself.

* ''Series/{{Community}}'' does this a bunch of times. The reasons for which all center on the removal of the original creator -- Dan Harmon -- in the fourth season. When Harmon later picked up the show again, he was not too pleased with many of the decisions made in the fourth season.

** Templar Studios' web content and the first three DirectToVideo movies occasionally alluded to romances. The Hewkii-Macku ship was pushed by website manager Leah Weston Kaae, while the Jaller-Hahli pairing was also implied in the ''Mask of Light'' movie. Farshtey held onto a NoHuggingNoKissing rule to avoid dealing with implications of robot romance in a children's franchise, dismissing most examples of love as non-canon. Sidorak's engagement to Roodaka in ''Web of Shadows'', which was integral to the plot, was written off as merely a political alliance. Oddly, Matau's affection to Nokama from ''Legends of Metru Nui'' was also referenced in Greg's writings but he denied it was a romance, despite the scriptwriters' intent.

* Shared world anthologies were a big thing in fantasy and science fiction literature from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The longer a particular series lasted, the greater the chance of rival creators in the same series starting taking potshots at each other (Literature/ThievesWorld had plenty of mean-spirited "my character humiliates your character" moments). When Creator/GeorgeRRMartin started Literature/WildCards, he was very aware of the problem, because he and assistant editor Creator/MelindaSnodgrass created an entire ''legal framework'' for their writers to prohibit this sort of unpleasantness. To wit, whenever you want to use another writer's character and concepts in your story, you need that writer express permission and the original writer has veto power over every little detail in how their characters are used. In practice, this encouraged close cooperation instead of competitiviness. With 40+ novels published, Wild Cards is the last man standing in the genre of original shared worlds, and has never suffered from this issue.

* Shared world anthologies were a big thing in fantasy and science fiction literature from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The longer a particular series lasted, the greater the chance of rival creators in the same series starting taking potshots at each other (Literature/ThievesWorld had plenty of mean-spirited "my character humiliates your character" moments). When Creator/GeorgeRRMartin started Literature/WildCards, he was very aware of the problem, because he and assistant editor Creator/MelindaSnodgrass created an entire ''legal framework'' for their writers to prohibit this sort of unpleasantness. To wit, whenever you want to use another writer's character and concepts in your story, you need that writer express permission and the original writer has veto power over every little detail in how their characters are used. In practice, this encouraged close cooperation instead of competitiviness. With 40+ novels published, Wild Cards is the last man standing in the genre of original shared worlds, and has never had this issue.

* Shared world anthologies were a big thing in fantasy and science fiction literature from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The longer a particular series lasted, the greater the chance of rival creators in the same series starting taking potshots at each other (Literature/ThievesWorld had plenty of mean-spirited "my character humiliates your character" moments). When GeorgeRRMartin started Literature/WildCards, he was very aware of the problem, because he and assistant editor MelindaSnodgrass created an entire ''legal framework'' for their writers to prohibit this sort of unpleasantness. To wit, whenever you want to use another writer's character and concepts in your story, you need that writer express permission and the original writer has veto power over every little detail in how their characters are used. In practice, this encouraged close cooperation instead of competitiviness. With 40+ novels published, Wild Cards is the last man standing in the genre of original shared worlds, and has never had this issue.

* Myth/ArthurianLegend is in the public domain, so naturally a lot of authors have published their own takes on it. Even the [[Literature/LeMorteDArthur Thomas Malory adaptation]] that most modern adaptations are based off of had to cut contradictory or irrelevant parts of the source material. That's what happens when you compress ''multiple'' legends into one story and can't just go by one copyrighted canon. When one bard tells the legend as a tragedy and another tells it as ye olde action movie, how do you decide which version to keep?

-->-- '''Creator/AmbroseBierce''' [[note]]from ''The Devil's Dictionary'' definition of "serial"[[/note]]

** It remains a point of debate regarding the Classic Timeline whether Ben's FutureBadass self Ben 10,000 as seen in the eponymous episode is from his own future or an AlternateTimeline thanks to multiple contradictions, such as the episode stating that Grandpa Max's birthday cake [[ForWantOfANail was a major factor in whether that future came to pass]] and Kevin's HeelFaceTurn in later installments being in stark opposition to him being a villain in that episode. The showrunners of ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse Omniverse]]'' insisted that it was Ben's inevitable future, and as such, the series devotes a number of episodes to setup said future, including bringing back a character that hadn't been seen in years [[StrangledByTheRedString as his main love interest]]. However, others have their own takes: Creator/DwayneMcDuffie (showrunner of ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien Ultimate Alien]]'') and Matt Wayne (longtime series writer) believed that the timeline diverged after the events of that original episode; meanwhile, [[Creator/ManOfActionStudios Duncan Rouleau]] (one of the franchise's creators) has [[ShrugOfGod no strong feelings on the matter]]. Due to the logical inconsistencies, the Ben 10 Wiki and the fandom at large side with [=McDuffie=] and Wayne.

* In ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion,'' screenwriter Yoji Enokido argued that [[spoiler:Rei]] should survive the end of the second movie, [[SparedByTheAdaptation despite dying in the source material]]. However, at least one of the films' directors wanted to give their replacement, [[spoiler:[[OpeningACanOfClones another Rei]]]], more CharacterDevelopment in this adaptation, so the third movie reveals that said character died after all. (Well, [[OnlyMostlyDead more or less]].)