History Main / BroadStrokes

** The second ''[[DeusEx]]'' game, ''Invisible War'', does this in regards to the ending(s) of the first game. There were three possible endings to the game, and rather than pick one as canon, they instead hint throughout the game that all three occurred, to one degree or another.

* ''The Legends of the True Savior'', a series of movies and [=OVAs=] based on ''{{Fist of the North Star}}'', requires a bit of familiarity with the original manga in order to understand certain plot points. On the other hand, it also has several plot differences from the manga, such as the fact that Bat's adoptive mother is still alive and the fact that several characters are omitted (Juza, Ryuga) or added (Reina, Souga), which makes them a bit hard to fully reconcile with the manga's continuity.

** This became somewhat muddled with ''TransformersCybertron'' not originally being intended as a continuation of ''TransformersArmada'' and ''TransformersEnergon.'' Most fans tend to dismiss it with a HandWave involving the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Unicron Singularity.]]
*** Others ignore the weak AllThereInTheManual retcon and treat it as a separate show. Especially since one has to buy a collectors club membership to ''read'' the retcon comic in the first place.

Compare {{Fanon}}, which is about unofficial canon or {{Alternate Character Interpretation}}s. See also AlternateContinuity, ComicBookTime and LiteraryAgentHypothesis.

* {{Rocky}} Balboa did retire from boxing due to a suspected brain injury, but by modern standards he was completely able to fight; he never asked for a second opinion because Adrien didn't want him to fight anymore. Everything else in ''Rocky V'' didn't.

Broad strokes is the idea of accepting the overall story of certain works but not necessarily every specific point or step. This is most often used when parts of the official {{canon}} or even basic {{continuity}} [[ContinuitySnarl cannot be reconciled]] as they stand. An individual has an OutOfCharacterMoment that cannot be HandWaved or the technology is able to do something that is a bit more than TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.

LongRunners that have a progressive, "[[ExpansionPackWorld under-construction]]" UniverseBible may also apply this. It assumes that viewers understand that there are mistakes in basic canon, at least early on when the broad strokes of the canon were still being defined.

This can even happen with a ContinuityReboot.

Usually, there is some element of DisContinuity involved. Fans may not like something that happens during a DorkAge. RecycledTheSeries makes most of TheMovie cast into TheOtherDarrin... yeah, we know they look different but just accept that they are the same people in the movie.

In many cases, expect some WildMassGuessing about how some of these things can be possibly be reconciled.

** The same stance was taken after the CrisisOnInfiniteEarths about most GoldenAge characters apart from the big three of {{Superman}}, {{Batman}} and WonderWoman.
** GrantMorrison is making the whole thing rather complicated, stating (for example) that back during the Dick Grayson as Robin days, Batman underwent a GCPD-approved experiment in sensory deprivation to see if the police could literally make more Batmen out of cops should the original die. During this point, Batman hallucinated all of the weirder SilverAge stuff and eventually wrote it down in a "Black Casebook" (which is being released soon in real life). So it isn't much as that it really happened, but more that it happened but in Batman's psyche (the aliens, planetary travel, etc. coming from his fears while in the Justice League and his deep fear that Robin would die, which eventually happened with Jason Todd).
*** ''Some'' of it was hallucinated, but some of it really happened; the "time travel hypnosis" stories were real, as shown in ''Batman #700''. And the sensory deprivation tank is ''itself'' from a weird SilverAge story ("Robin Dies At Dawn!")

** Marvel's GoldenAge, despite being fixed in time, is also subject to this. The general rule is that anything explicitly referenced from the SilverAge to present day is canon (or at least the ''specific parts'' that were referenced), anything not already referenced is [[CanonDisContinuity considered non-canon]] if it is contradicted without a RetCon, and everything else is up in the air until referenced or contradicted.

* There's the debate whether the {{Konami}} Computer Entertainment Kobe-developed ''{{Castlevania}}'' games (the {{Nintendo 64}} games and ''[[CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon Circle of the Moon]]'') fit into IGA's official timeline. IGA, in a recent interview with ''Nintendo Power'' magazine, considers them [[GaidenGame side stories]] and [[CanonDiscontinuity not part of his timeline]].

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* 2008's ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' was technically a ContinuityReboot, but accepted the broad strokes of the 2003 ''Hulk'' movie. (Banner is irradiated with gamma rays, fights the military who want to experiment on him, and escapes to South America; five years since those events...)

* The CGI ''[[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles TMNT]]'' was shown as a tentative continuation of the Ninja Turtle films but adapted elements of many other sources into its narrative, such as Karai's existence with the Foot Clan and April not being a news reporter. They even had a few {{Continuity Nod}}s that only serve to make things stressful for fans.
* The movie ''[[ThreeHundred 300]]'' embodies this trope through use of an UnreliableNarrator. The movie is so heavily stylized and obscenely violent with troll-things showing up, but in terms of the actual story and how the events unfold it is actually quite accurate.

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''TheForceUnleashed'' has been praised for its involving storyline, but some people are uncertain about Galen being a GodModeSue able to [[BeyondTheImpossible pull down a star destroyer from orbit]] and [[spoiler:almost defeat both Darth Vader and Palpatine in a one-on-one fight.]] Broad strokes can be used to accept the storyline but consider the more outrageous things RefugeInAudacity or RuleOfCool.

** In general, ''Lore'' is the prefered term to "canon" among more mellow WoW fans. Basically, here's simply no way to make the early concepts fit neatly with the later ones. So it's enough to say that, like real history, it's interpreted with different points of view by different sides and cultures.
** The very point of the novels ''TidesOfDarkness'' and ''BeyondTheDarkPortal'' was to rewrite the stories of the BroadStrokes ''Warcraft II'' and its expansion in a way that would fit with later games. The trend with ascribing player achievements to lore characters is there, though: Darion Mograine basically replaced the PC in the ''{{Ashbringer}}'' comic (along with some Argent Dawn {{Red Shirt}}s for the attack on Naxxramas), and Varian Wrynn exposed and killed Onyxia in lore.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Generally, the {{DCAU}} is this in relation to the comics universe, and ''vice versa.'' Often, characters will show up without an origin story, which is generally meant to be the one depicted in comics unless we're told otherwise.

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** Note that the three trilogies published after that first series (Psi Corps, Legions of Fire, and The Passing of the Technomages) are certified canon. However, Legions of Fire places certain events a year later than the television indicates them to be.

** Note that the three trilogies published after that first series (Psi Corps, Legions of Fire, and The Passing of the Technomages) are certified canon.

* This is [[WordOfGod J. Michael Straczynski]]'s view of the canonicity of the first series of [[BabylonFive Babylon 5]] novels, apart from ''To Dream in the City of Sorrows'' which is supposedly 100% canonical.

** As for how the new series treats it, the [=McGann=] Eighth Doctor has been shown along with the other past ones, and WordOfGod is that something ''did'' happen in San Francisco in 1999 involving the Doctor and the Master- and that he ''said'' he was half-human, but that doesn't necessarily make it true. All onscreen evidence in the new series points to the Doctor being fully Time Lord.
** The comic "The Forgotten" has the Eighth Doctor say that the fooled the Master into thinking he was half-human with a half-broken Chameleon Arch, a few words, and a wide-eyed expression. A Chameleon Arch is a piece of AppliedPhlebotinum the Tenth Doctor has used to become human temporarily onscreen.

* ''DoctorWho'' fans accept and respect Paul [=McGann=] as the Eighth Doctor but don't like some of the liberties taken with the mythology, such as the stuff about him being half human and some other things from the movie he appeared in. Fortunately, there's a whole series of Eighth Doctor novels and some audio works, and these are generally considered to have some canonical weight. As for how the new series treats it, the [=McGann=] Eighth Doctor is shown along with the others in three episodes, and WordOfGod is that something ''did'' happen in San Francisco in 1999 involving the Doctor and the Master- and that he at least ''said'' he was half-human...

* The original ''{{Highlander}}'' ended in a way that didn't really allow for sequels. "There can be only one," said the tagline, and the movie ends with only one. The sequels acknowledge everything in the first film except the ending. (Except ''Highlander II'', which got around the first film's ending by bringing in other "ones" from another planet. And something about a dead "one" from the first film comic back to life simply by having his name called. Don't worry, everyone else was confused, too.)

* Since the continuity of Trek novels tightened up (around the year 2001-onward), BroadStrokes has been used quite a bit to keep older works at least partially a part of that continuity. Even within the new shared continuity, not ''every'' little detail adds up, but on the whole it works as one big, shared reality.

** Some of the in game hints and books mention the Hero of Oakvale as having done things that cannot be done in Fable, like kill the Guildmaster. This is mostly RuleOfFunny.

*** He's a frelling Jedi?

** Eh-hem. Actually, in the PC version (The Lost Chapters) you CAN kill the Guildmaster...