http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ContinuityPorn

Primarily used in Comic Book fandom, Continuity Porn is a sometimes derogatory, sometimes affectionate, name for a story overly focused on continuity, to the detriment of the story.

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There are two main types of continuity porn, although they often overlap:

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Drawing the line between good and bad continuity is pretty subjective for either type, though, since fans have different expectations of exactly how much continuity is a good thing for the series. One fan's shameless continuity porn is another's "taking advantage of the rich history" or "cleverly and entertainingly fixing a long-standing problem".

This usually only happens with long-running series, because they're the only ones with enough continuity to support it. Usually the introduction of Continuity Porn is a good sign that the inmates have started Running the Asylum. Continuity Porn is also a form of Pandering to the Base.

Despite being primarily associated with comics, the term seems to have originated in Star Trek fandom. It reached a wider audience when Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga, who read the Trek forums once in a while during his tenure, mentioned in a Cinescape interview that he found it an apt description.

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Compare and contrast Continuity Cavalcade, where instead of the work being driven by continuity concerns, there is simply a single scene loaded with many Continuity Nods.

Compare Continuity Creep, Continuity Snarl and Armed with Canon.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Comic Strips

The Doctor Who Magazine comic strip: "Hunters of the Burning Stone". It's the fiftieth anniversary year, so naturally tying up a Story Arc about psychic metal that's been running since 2011 also involves a Call-Back to an Eighth Doctor strip (the final pre-New Series storyline), the return of Ian and Barbara , the revelation that the titular Hunters are the Tribe of Gum The Seventh Doctor story "Emperor of the Daleks" is a much worse example that doesn't have the excuse of celebrating an anniversary. It's entirely dedicated to trying to explain what happened to Davros between "Revelation of the Daleks" and "Remembrance of the Daleks", and one of the main plot points used for that purpose revolves around a "loose end" from a 1970s Dalek story that hardly anybody actually thought needed tying up. The Sixth Doctor story "The World Shapers", by none other than Grant Morrison, is written solely to explain the Cyberplanner's mysterious reference in "The Invasion" to the Doctor having defeated the Cybermen on "Planet 14". It also incorporates an origin story for the Cybermen, the first attempted in any medium, that ties them to the second ever alien villain race the Doctor encountered, the Voord from "The Keys of Marinus", and has Jamie reappear. Unfortunately, precisely what Morrison did with all these elements was not popular with the fan audience, leading to it being declared Fan Discontinuity... until Steven Moffat decided to imply that it was canon with a throwaway dialogue line in "The Doctor Falls" (more details below in the live-action TV section).



Fan Works

Films  Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Mythology and Religion

Long story short, The Bible is probably the only example on this list which has thousands of essays, hundreds of books, and entire university courses dedicated to analyzing the sheer tidal wave of Call Backs and Continuity Nods and what they all mean. Of course, when the most deeply-held beliefs of millions about the origins and meaning of existence are based in large part on the meanings of those call backs and continuity nods, you can justify that ocean of ink. Here is some further info on the Continuity Porn within the The Bible.



Professional Wrestling

Toys

BIONICLE ventured into this area from time to time, the most noteworthy example being the two-year flashback story of the Metru Nui Saga. Various other Flashbacks had a tendency to become this, though to some, they may have lead to a Continuity Lockout, especially if they referenced minor side-stories.

Web Animation

Slowly but surely Homestar Runner is getting there. And there's DNA evidence to prove it! Witness how an Orphaned Punchline turned into a Call-Back turned into a Running Gag gained a short of its own in just seven episodes. And then there's the cartoon "hremail #7 ". It exists to provide an origin story for the Strong Bad Email shorts and to parody the early years of the Homestar Runner website (the artwork is a pseudo-reversion to their earlier art style, and the jokes reference many abandoned early running gags). However, as the H*R wiki is quick to point out , the cartoon actually contradicts many prior cartoons.

Baman Piderman has frighteningly good continuity.

The "EVERYBODY DO THE FLOP" music video of the ASDF Movie canon features every primary character in the series.

Webcomics

Parodied in Narbonic, with "Continuity Repairs with Rob & Andy".

Happens quite a bit during the "bROKEN" arc from Sluggy Freelance. It seems like practically every strip for months on end has a footnote linking back to the past strips it references, some of which haven't been mentioned for nearly a decade. This was probably because bROKEN's plot was planned to air far earlier than a decade. A similar problem occurs in El Goonish Shive's Sister 2 storyline. It stands to reason that a surprise ending delayed for years is no longer a surprise, but webcomics are written seat-of-your-pants so it's easy to lose control. In the end, it's just as much the author's fault as it would be if they had done it on purpose.

A noteworthy example is Bob and George. So much weird stuff happens all the damn time that it's impossible for everything to work. And it still does. Nothing happens by accident, everything is explained, everything fits. David Anez is a god when it comes to retconning.

The final arc of Casey and Andy has things that wrap up every odd little throwaway gag for years, including odd things about their neighbor Jen, and why a deceased president hates them.

It's Walky! spin-off Shortpacked! intentionally avoided this for much of its run, due to the latter having a much different tone. This let Shortpacked! stand on its own as a comic about a toy store. In later strips, however, David Willis has started including more and more connections, cameos and guest-stars from the parent strip, often having to use his accompanying commentary to explain things to new readers.

Everything in Homestuck is a Call-Back of some sort. No exceptions. As in most of the MS Paint Adventures comics, Problem Sleuth is also extremely confusing unless read from the beginning. Hussie lampshades this in the commentary of the books, saying at one point that he was going to include a Callback Zone but then reasoned even he wouldn't be able to catch all of them, and at another point saying this: Chekhov's Mop Bucket is used later by John in a prank involving Gushers. Also, Chekov's Every Single Story Detail plays a key role in the future as well. Keep an eye out for it.

The "Strip Club of the Damned " story in Something*Positive highlights this. Every one of the strippers is an expy of a woman Davan's had sex with.

Western Animation