Sea Wasp wrote:
>
> Ian McDowell wrote:
>
>> I'd be interested in seeing how many other writers here share your
>> feeling that one should never contradict the established parameters of
>> one's characters, at least in an ongoing series.
>
> You should NEVER contradict known facts within your universe without
> a damn good reason.
"It will allow us to tell a really cool story" is an excellent reason,
though.
> If the contradiction is one that's likely to jar
> your fans, you'd damn well better provide an explanation better than
> "well, gee, it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time".
>
> Consistency in a fictional world is one of my top criteria to
> measure someone by.
I'm a consistency and internal logic freak, too, actually, but a good
story trumps all other considerations, and the more entertained I am,
the more continuity errors I'm willing to overlook. "Buffy" kept me very
entertained, so things I might have nitpicked in a more boring narrative
(e.g., Babylon 5) just didn't bother me.
One retcon I still marvel at is the one that ended the La Femme Nikita
series, where it was revealed that she'd been working as a double-agent
for Center since the beginning of season two. Continuity-wise it doesn't
withstand scrutiny, but it was such a gutsy move I really wanted it to.
> I go to considerable lengths to make my own material consistent
Me too, but a TV show isn't just one person's material -- it's multiple
writers, directors, and actors working together. In that sort of
collaboration, flexibility is very im****tant too, and you might as well
make a virtue of necessity.
-- M. Ruff
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