History Main / SeriesContinuityError

* At the end of ''Jurassic Park'' by Michael Crichton it is clearly stated that Chaos Mathematician Ian Malcolm dies. Yet, in the second book, ''The Lost World'' he is alive. No explanation is ever given.
** He was OnlyMostlyDead...[[RealLifeWritesThePlot and Spielberg wanted Crichton to write a sequel so he could make another Jurassic Park movie.]]
** Malcolm himself jokes about this in ''The Lost World'', telling people that he was only "mostly dead", and that reports of his death came from inaccurate news stories. That's the given explanation for why he's apparently dead at the end of the first book, but still alive in the second.
** Ah but the epilogue for the first book flat out states that [[spoiler: Grant and the others]] weren't allowed to go back for the bodies of Malcolm and [[spoiler: Hammond]] before the Costa Rican government [[spoiler: started dropping bombs on the island]]. So Malcolm ripped to shreds by raptors crawled around avoiding the [[spoiler: bombs]] AND managed to find a way off the island on is own without getting [[spoiler: getting rounded up and detained like Grant and the others]]?
*** A more plausible explanation is that the ''story of him dying and being left behind in the first place'' was the inaccurate part; he was presumably severely wounded, but survived and was able to escape with the others.

*** It has been suggested that Watson's middle name is 'Hamish' (his initial is 'H' but it's never stated what this stands for) and his wife is using the Anglicised version of this when she calls him 'James'.
** And speaking of Watson's wife, Doyle's stories--which sometimes assigned Watson a wife, sometimes didn't, and sometimes referred to Watson as a widower, never in chronology--hopelessly confused the issue of just how many wives Watson had. W.S. Baring-Gould, author of a well-researched "biography" of Holmes, decided Watson had three wives. Others have suggested numbers up to ''six''.

*** It still creates a major plot hole for the films. In the novel, he passes out before he can see Quirrel burn up, but in the movie, he's a first hand witness to the whole process in all it's nightmare inducing detail. This led some fans to speculate that Quirrel isn't really dead.

** Percy's prefect badge is referred to multiple times as silver, with the word "Prefect" on it (which Fred & George memorably once bewitch so it reads "Pinhead" instead). In ''Order of the Phoenix'', [[spoiler:Ron and Hermione]]'s prefect badges (described as looking exactly like Percy's) are red & gold with the letter "P" on them.
*** That's the Head Boy badge, hence why the "Pinhead" joke works. As for why it's described aslooking like Percy's... no idea.
** [[FanNickname Among some fans, these are called "Flints,"]] after Marcus Flint, who was said to be a sixth year student in ''Philosopher's Stone'' but was still at Hogwarts in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. (Rowling suggested Flint had to repeat a year.)

** Maybe first-level is the highest, and as the numbers go up, the power goes down.
** The magicians are all adopted, presumably the family heirloom and the grandmother would belong to their adoptive family?
** The magicians are adopted by magicians, who were adopted by magicians, and so on. The "grandmother" would have to be the master or wife of the master of Underwood's master for it to make any sense.

* Not that anyone would really expect CareBears to be concerned with continuity, it was immensely confusing watching the movies: the first movie tells of the Care Bears finding the Care Bear Cousins in the Forest of Feelings by accident, while ''Care Bears: A New Generation'', which is essentially an origin story, explicitly shows the Care Bear Cousins being in Care-A-Lot from the very beginning as infants.
** IIRC, in the second movie they first lived in the Kingdom of Caring and then were moved so that the Care Bears lived in Care-A-Lot and the Cousins lived in the Forest of Feelings.
*** And forgot about each other's existence, and the Care Bear Cousins didn't even know they could CareBearStare; and Nobleheart and Trueheart; their founders, were also forgotten. Let's just go with it's a ContinuityReboot.
*** It's two continuities. First there's the two TV specials, followed by the first movie, followed by DiCs TV series. Then we have Nelvana's continuity, which starts with the second movie, continues with the second TV series and includes the Wonderland movie. Of course, there have been [[WMG/CareBears theories]] for how the two could be linked that assume the CareBears are in fact {{Legacy Character}}s and Care-A-Lot is time is a YearInsideHourOutside (which seems to be supported by a throwaway narration in the second movie)...why am I posting all this?
**** Because you care!

** During the TDI special, Chris says that Owen is the youngest of three brothers. In ''World Tour,'' Owen gives anecdotes about his two ''younger'' brothers.

[[AC:FrenchBelgianComicBooks]]
* In the ''{{Asterix}}'' comics, Obelix's birthday is celebrated in ''Obelix and Co.'', just Obelix's. But in ''Asterix and the Actress'', it is revealed that Asterix and Obelix were born on the same day and they celebrate their birthdays together.
* In ''TheSmurfs'', the story ''The Finance Smurf'' introduces the money system and the Smurfs are revealed as not knowing what money is at all. This contradicts earlier stories, such as ''The Egg and the Smurfs'' where a Smurf makes a wish to become "rich" - and ends with jewels and money as a result - and in ''Smurf Stories'' where a Smurf creates a machine that can turn hazelnuts into gold coins and the Smurf tells Papa Smurf he'll use the coins to ''buy'' more hazelnuts.

** ''Animorph'' has quite a few of these in the first book or two, with one of the more obvious being Jake using Thought-speak on Tobias when Tobias is a cat and Jake is still unmorphed. Later books have them discuss the inability to use Though-speak outside of morph.

* Happened towards the end of the ''TeenageWorrier'' books. Among other things, in the first book Hazel's name is Hazel Williams and she attends an exclusive school called St Mary's Academy; in the last, her name is Hazel Appleby and her school is [[WorkingOnTheChainGang St Cheyngangg's]] (with no mention of her changing schools.)

** Pam Beesly of ''TheOffice'' has had her name in various incarnations; Pam Beasley, Pam Beesley, Pamela Jean Beesly, the now-canon Pamela ''Morgan'' Beesly...[[spoiler: and finally, Pam Halpert.]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* Not that anyone would really expect CareBears to be concerned with continuity, it was immensely confusing watching the movies: the first movie tells of the Care Bears finding the Care Bear Cousins in the Forest of Feelings by accident, while ''Care Bears: A New Generation'', which is essentially an origin story, explicitly shows the Care Bear Cousins being in Care-A-Lot from the very beginning as infants.
** IIRC, in the second movie they first lived in the Kingdom of Caring and then were moved so that the Care Bears lived in Care-A-Lot and the Cousins lived in the Forest of Feelings.
*** And forgot about each other's existence, and the Care Bear Cousins didn't even know they could CareBearStare; and Nobleheart and Trueheart; their founders, were also forgotten. Let's just go with it's a ContinuityReboot.
*** It's two continuities. First there's the two TV specials, followed by the first movie, followed by DiCs TV series. Then we have Nelvana's continuity, which starts with the second movie, continues with the second TV series and includes the Wonderland movie. Of course, there have been [[WMG/CareBears theories]] for how the two could be linked that assume the CareBears are in fact {{Legacy Character}}s and Care-A-Lot is time is a YearInsideHourOutside (which seems to be supported by a throwaway narration in the second movie)...why am I posting all this?
**** Because you care!

** Not to mention, Gus being the new kid in school in grade 4, yet somehow also appearing in Kindergarten. As well as how he appears to be attending school at the time of the Great Jungle Gym standoff. (This can be attributed to an animation goof; since he doesn't have any lines)
*** This is addressed in one of the latter episodes. Apparently, he * did* spend some time in the same kindergarden as the others, but being little children, they had forgot.
** Also, The Ashleys are shown to be in another class in the ''Can Drive'' episode - yet several other episodes show them sitting in the ''exact same class'' as the main gang.
* The KingOfTheHill episode "Life a Loser's Manuel" is choked full of them first of all in the very first episode Luann is 18 years old and she has just moved into the Hill's home after her mom stabbed her father with a fork, in a later episode "Luann Gets Lucky" she claimed she was 16 when the event happened and had to miss her prom because of it, and yet in the first episode mentioned her dad said she was just a little girl the last time he seen her and Luann seems to have no memory of the event despite the previous episode taking place one season earlier, later on Hank mentioned that he had never met Peggy's brother despite in earlier episodes he mentions what a great man he was and how he enjoyed his company, and last of all in earlier episodes Hoyt Platter was said to be a small, timid, nerdy man who looked like a male version of Peggy and ran off because his wife Leann was abusive to him yet in this episode he is depicted as a morbidly obese man who looks nothing like Peggy, is a total {{jerkass}}, and he mentions that he ran off because his drug addiction got him into so much trouble so that if he commits one more felony he'll end up in jail.

* in the Princess Diary Mia's birthday is stated to be after Genovian Independence day In The Princess Diary 2 for some reason Mia's birthday is before Genovian Independence day
* Two big examples from the ''StarWars'' films.

* In one issue of {{Bone}}, Rocque Ja cuts off Kingdok's tongue, and it's explicitly stated he can't speak with his tongue missing. Then, in a later issue, Kingdok is able to speak without any explanation given.

* In one issue of {{Bone}}, Roque Ja cuts off Kingdok's tongue, and it's explicitly stated he can't speak with his tongue missing. Then, in a later issue, Kingdok is able to speak without any explanation given.

** Or else he knew exactly what the expression means, but wanted to throw the asker off and demonstrate his unique perspective of the universe.

* In one part of ''{{Watchmen}}'' Dr. Manhattan is totally unfamiliar with the expression "What's up?" and takes it literally when asked. In another part he asks Janey Slater, "What's up, Janey?" This is a guy who experiences all times as one.

** The WholeEpisodeFlashback "And Maggie Makes Three" reveals that Homer had to renounce his dream job at the Bowl-A-Rama and return to his position as security chief in Burns' power plant when Maggie was born. This contradicts Season 1 "Homer's Odissey", where Homer was ascended to security chief (and he already had 3 children, obviously).

** ''DragonBall'' is full of this. When Raditz shows up, he says there are [[LastOfHisKind only 4 Saiyans left]] ([[ThereIsAnother Movies and specials aside]]): Goku (sent to Earth because he was a low-level warrior), Raditz (on a mission), another dude who was with Raditz, and a fourth who was "like Goku" (AKA, a low-level warrior). Except, when the last 2 Saiyans appear, they're both ELITE soldiers (and one was the freaking PRINCE).
** "Like Goku" could simply mean a child, and Vegita was 3 when their home world was destroyed.

** Also, the street address of the Simpsons' house. From the very first time the address was brought up (the episode "Blood Feud"), it was Evergreen Terrace. However, the house number was 94 rather than 742. Subsequent refferences are inconsistent on the number, and "Kamp Krusty" even gives the street as Spalding Way. "Marge in Chains" finally establishes the address as 742 Evergreen Terrace, though it briefly went into relapse in "Homer the Vigilante" by giving the house number as 723.

** ''The War Machines'' has the computer WOTAN actually say "Doctor Who is required". Even the most casual fans know that he isn't called that. The name is only ever used as a joke ("Who is he? Doctor who?"")