IS GENIUS
Absolutely. The page needs some major reworking, as it's incredibly vague. Not sure where to start, however.
Friends forevermore
Basically, a Discontinuity Nod is a reference to something within the greater "work" that is out of continuity, whether Canon Discontinuity or Fanon Discontinuity.
For instance, the listed Big Finish Doctor Who example is correct usage, as it's a nod to a line said within the Doctor Who franchise, and the line in question is generally considered a bluff by both the Big Finish and modern Doctor Who writers. It is Canon Discontinuity because the statement that the Eighth Doctor is half-human is canonically false, which makes the Seventh Doctor's line a genuine Discontinuity Nod. note
Under the rationale that Discontinuity Nod is simply a would-be Continuity Nod to something out of continuity:
Please note that examples on fanfic articles are correct only if it is a nod to a part of the original work that is Fanon Discontinuity to the specific fanfic in question. In the case of extreme AU fics, Mythology Gag may fit better.
- Big Finish Doctor Who 013 The Shadow Of The Scourge: Correct, see above—but the slashed Continuity Nod is misuse.
- Dangerverse: Correct, Dumbledore's sexuality is Fanon Discontinuity to the fanfic in question.
- Doctor Who S29 E12 "The Sound of Drums": Misuse, should be Development Gag. The idea of the Master being the Doctor's brother was planned in the development of the TV Movie, but did not make it into the finished script.
- Doctor Who: Misuse, should be Development Gag.
- Doctor Who Magazine: Correct. The Audio Visuals are a fan work, which by definition makes them out of continuity. It is not a Fandom Nod because Nicholas Briggs cannot give a Fandom Nod to himself, which makes it a Discontinuity Nod by default.
- Fate/Reach Out: Misuse, it's a Call-Back. The fact that it's a crossover fanfic does not disqualify it from being a Call-Back to one of the original works, as its continuity is a de facto continuation of both continuities crossing over.
- Persona 4: Arena: Correct, it's a straight nod to a work out of continuity.
A professional at being ignored.
Hm, well is it just me or does it seem like this trope is actually two? Like, Discontinuity Nod as the opposite of Continuity Nod, where a reference is made that establishes, confirms, or reinforces that something is out of continuity sounds tropeworthy enough to me, and the amount of examples I found that used it correctly that way is good enough. But wouldn't just making a subtle nod to something out of continuity without bringing it into canon or explicitly establishing it as non-canon just fall under Mythology Gag or something like that? It seems like a different trope from the other examples Leaning on the Fourth Wall to say that something officially never happened, and a trope we already have at that.
Regardless, even if you use the broadest possible definition of the trope as it is, there's still plenty of misuse. On the trope page itself the longest entries are a list of instances in Spider-Man comics where it's been mentioned that Spider-Man hates clones (all references to The Clone Saga, but never saying it never happened, in fact the fact that it DID happen is presumably the reason why he hates clones in all those references) and a list of instances in the Metal Gear franchise that make fun of or abuse Raiden, despite the fact that the stuff involving him is very much in canon and all the listed events are Take That, Scrappy! gags with nothing to do with continuity. And then outside the page we have people using this trope as synonymous with Continuity Snarl or claiming that the title of a music album somehow constitutes a Discontinuity Nod.
edited 20th Jul '15 5:28:42 AM by tbarrie
I agree with tbarrie.
Or at least, split it into 2 tropes:
- Discontinuity Nod — references to Canon Discontinuity
- Fanon Discontinuity Nod — references to Fanon Discontinuity
Locking as part of New Years Purge.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
As I was reading the page for this trope, I noticed that MAYBE 10% of the examples on the page used the trope correctly. That misuse was rampant enough for a discussion on its own, but I ran a Wick Check anyway and here's what I found from a random selection:
That's 13 correct uses to 23 incorrect and a bunch more that I can't classify definitively. Still much better than the examples in the article itself, which are almost all terrible - I could examine some of those if you want more proof, since that's really what made me want to start this, but I thought I'd do the standard Wick Check just to be safe.
edited 12th Jun '15 7:33:33 PM by dasuberkaiser