A few months ago savethesweu.org posted an article I'd written about continuity. But with the good help of my friend Joe Bongiorno here is the edited version I wasn't able to give them in time. Enjoy!
The
Importance of Continuity
By: Matt Wilkins
What is
continuity?
Let’s look
at the definition: An unbroken and consistent existence or operation of
something over a period of time.
That’s
nice. So what does it mean?
Continuity
in story telling shows a higher effort and concentration of keeping everything
consistent with what has come before. It saves the reader from the confusion
and aggravation of facts being changed or becoming inconsistent with one
another.
We live
with consistency in our everyday live as well. When I step outside, I know
gravity will keep me on the ground. The sun will always rise in the east and
set in the west. That’s plain science, it’s consistent. Knowing one plus one
will always equal two is also consistent because that’s math. Math and science
are a big part of our lives.
We also
have consistency in sports. If a baseball player hits the ball we know he’s
running to first base and not to third. If a batter gets his third strike, he
is out. Those are the rules and they’re consistent wherever the sport is
played.
But say we
were playing baseball and I decided to change the rules. Instead of running to
first base, you must run to the pitcher’s mound, back to home plate and then advance
to first. Would you accept my new rule and play it that way or would you be
upset and refuse to change?
Why can’t
we just change the rule? Can’t you accept it? Forget about how the game’s been
played for a hundred years, it’s my way of playing the game and I can change
the rules however I want. And if you don’t love new rule then you’re not a true
fan of this sport!
Does that analogy
seem fair to you?
Maybe not.
But if Major League Baseball decided to accept such a scenario officially you’d
have to deal with it while other folks mocked and ridiculed the original rules that
were played by. Some won’t even know how it was played in the first place and tell
you that “running to first” was always a rule to begin with.
But let’s
move to the subject of continuity in storytelling. It’s the most popular form of
art in our society today. We all tell stories, whether fictional or true and
everyone loves a good one. But we love consistency in them as well.
A good
joke is delivered the same way so its effect is just as funny when you heard it
the first time. If you don’t deliver the set up or punch line, the joke fails or
misses its mark. The same can be said
with a story. If it doesn’t hold consistency it risks losing its audience and
allure. Yet consistency in story telling is a dying trait, and in comics and
Hollywood, it holds very little value at all anymore.
Hollywood
is all about the reboot. Stories being retold again and again with less behind
it each time. There have been two Spiderman’s on the silver screen in less than
a decade and soon we’ll have a third. Instead of giving us new ideas or
building on the works of their predecessors, Hollywood chooses to hit the
restart button in an attempt to create the same worn-out product, leaving a
tremendous gap in the development of original stories and ideas.
The myth
that “consistency hinders creativity” is not usually the case. Continuity
inspires and challenges you to build upon what came before and make it better.
One of the keys to successful sequels is that they stand on the facts
established in the previous films and therefore can take the story to other levels.
It’s an amazing accomplishment that the audience appreciates.
Take Aliens, for instance. How good would the
movie be if James Cameron had decided to reboot the story and tell it all over
again? He’d have to reintroduce characters and elements to the audience they’ve
already seen before moving his vision forward.
However,
the time it takes setting everything up is half the movie. Reboots contain an
unnecessary redundancy that the audience could do without. The thingmany disliked about Amazing Spiderman was that they had to
sit through yet another origin story
a few years after Sam Raimi had already done one.
In my
opinion, hitting the “reboot” button instead of continuing the story is lazy
and uncreative. If there’s no more story to tell then end it and create
something better. Reboots only make movies look like expensive fan films instead
of something truly inspired.
Consistency
is also a reward to the fans who’ve loyally followed the story and appreciate
ties to the previous films. It’s a way of thanks for their long standing
support.
A prime
example is the Tremors franchise. A
series which started in 1990 has seen 3 sequels and a short-lived TV series. Each
sequel stays in perfect continuity with later installments and even brings
actors back to portray their original characters when necessary. The franchise
pays close attention to detail because they know it’s what the fans want. They
recently announced a new movie coming this October..Tremors 5: Bloodlines will continue the story of our hero Burt
Gummer as he sets out to save the populace from graboids. To see they’re
keeping “5” in the title instead of making a tag line is an indication that the
creators are proud to stand alongside previous works as the fifth installment of
this series.
But let’s move over to the Star
Wars Expanded Universe for a bit. This is a series that spanned over 35 years of
one continuous continuity. Recently,
since the purchase of the Disney corporation, it was decided that everything
but the films and recent Clone Wars animated series should be discarded in
favor of a reboot.
Those who
defend the original continuity are sometimes even mocked by fans of the films
on online forums and message boards, with comments such as, “Get over it” and
“Stop whining,” revealing the ignorance of those who miss the point. The
Expanded Universe gave fans one cohesive story through the eyes of hundreds of
authors who carefully constructed an arc over the many years of its existence.
Others
have stated, “I loved the EU too, but I got over it, why can’t you?”
For many,
the answer is clear. They care about it more.
Some will
accuse such adherents as being elitist.. However, if one claims to care about something,
but isn’t upset it’s gone, then that person may need to reevaluate how much she
“loved” it in the first place.
If one’s
friend passed away and I said to you “I’m sorry about your loss,” ut I came back
weeks later and say “You’re friend’s gone! I miss her too but you don’t see me
whining about it, do you?! Now get over it!” How insensitive would that be?
I don’t
share the same connection you did with your friend. The arrogance of assuming I’m
wiser than you is foolish. The reason some Star Wars fans can’t understand why
the Expanded Universe meant so much is because they didn’t share the same
connections that many did to the story.
Generally
speaking, people don’t like reboots. Reboots generally don’t do well and comics
have lost an enormous amount of readers over the years because of it. So why is
it so casually accepted today?
That’s why
I refer to reboots as lazyThe Star Wars Expanded Universe
raised the bar for story telling as time went on, becoming a more creative and
encompassing force the longer it went on. Unfortunately, continuity is not in
keeping with the corporate bottom-line, and the fans are left to suffer because
of it.
The
upcoming Star Wars novel “Aftermath” will continue the process (following the
new line of comics by Marvel) of bulldozing decades of a historic content that’s
been around, and while some cheer its demise others will see it as reminiscent
of the tragic ending of Revenge of the Sith, which depicted the destruction of the
Grand Republic that had stood for over a thousand generations.
Long live
the Expanded Universe. An extraordinary saga that proved how creativity and
continuity go hand in hand.
