User:Gigi/Sandbox/Continuity

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Continuity is a term that refers to the order events of a narrative happens and consistency between them, and usually extends to mean if events are connected to one another or unrelated. This is often also called canon, although canon usually implies that there are canon events and non-canon events, which cannot be said for the Kirby series as a whole, as it has been confirmed that the series has no single timeline, and there are no official statements regarding any single "canon" of the series; HAL Laboratory has explained they do not consider the Kirby series to have one definitive continuity, and that they instead focus on "...providing new surprises while avoiding the establishment of immutable facts and settings that would constrain Kirby," but still retain basic unchanging ideas like Kirby and King Dedede's rivalry to keep the story grounded in familiarity.

Continuity within a title

Games of the Kirby series usually feature various modes, from Story Mode, to sub-games, to Extra Modes, but rarely these modes interact with each other. As such, it's often unclear the order these events happen, or even they even are connected to each other, with some exceptions. In particular, some extra modes do directly acknowledge events of Story Mode, namely Heroes in Another Dimension, Isolated Isles: Forgo Dreams, the Colosseum, and Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler, but even in those cases some connections can be unclear (for example, Magolor Epilogue's opening cutscene shows Magolor Soul, giving the impression that it may be a sequel to Kirby's Return to Dream Land's Extra Mode, not Story Mode, but it's never properly explained). In addition, Meta Knightmare Returns and The True Arena of Kirby: Planet Robobot have been confirmed to be "what-if scenarios", but those of other games that to not have any hints of being directly tied to a Story Mode are left ambiguous as whether they are or not. Moreover, many of the elements that are revealed exclusively in these Extra Modes, such as with Special Pages, like Queen Sectonia being corrupted by the Dimension Mirror, are referenced in subsequent installments. The developers often leave the lines blurry in those cases; in particular, for Merry Magoland, it was directly mentioned in-game that it exists in another time and space, yet Kirby and friends are able to travel freely between it and the main story, demonstrating that the flow of time in the Kirby universe is fluid.

Continuity in games usually relies on a concept referred to as diegesis, which distinguishes elements that exist within the setting the characters inhabit from elements that exist outside of the universe for the audience's benefit. For example, music that exists in the story (such as a song playing on a radio that the characters interact with) is "diegetic" sound, while background music that the audience hears but the characters do not is "non-diegetic" sound. It should be noted, however, that in the context of the Kirby series, the lines for such concept are often blurry or left ambiguous. As an example, while a cutscene in Kirby and the Forgotten Land shows a radio play "Welcome to the New World!" and Kirby even dances to it, implying that it's "diegetic", afterwards he goes much further from the radio and the song continues playing regardless. In the same game, the various background music of the game can be played by the The Deedly Dees, despite the notion that background music of the game is "non-diegetic" and thus not known by the characters.

Continuity between titles

As stated by current series director Shinya Kumazaki, there's no single timeline of events in the Kirby series, but there are loose connections. This is done so that characters and settings don't have to be introduced from the ground-up every game, but at the same time the lack of clear order of events means that new players don't need to play all prior titles to understand the story or setting of a new game. In particular, certain character relationships often carry over from previous titles, such as Magolor's redemption after the end of Kirby's Return to Dream Land, or Kirby and King Dedede consistently recognizing each other. The developers prefer to keep the specific timeline vague; for example, the beginning of Kirby: Triple Deluxe is designed to imply that it could continue from the ending of Kirby Super Star, but does not directly acknowledge that game's events.

Since there is not a single timeline in the Kirby series, while remakes usually contain the same story as the original game, at least in regards to Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, it is seen as a "parallel" (universe) to the original Wii game. Since it is highly unlikely the same story events would happen twice in the same continuity, it is usually understood that remakes are parts of different continuities, at least regarding the narratives they share with the original. The Dream Kingdom has also been stated to be in a "parallel", and Shinya Kumazaki has implied that travel between "parallels" is possible via Another Dimension (as it transcends time and space); this was eventually shown in-game at the end of Magolor Epilogue, when Magolor goes through a dimensional rift and arrives at the Dream Kingdom. Fittingly, the name of the credits theme of said mode is "Crossing into the Parallel with You", directly acknowledging that Magolor is "crossing between parallels".

While references to previous titles do exist plenty in the series, they are often done in ways of cameos, or content that is either complementary or not directly acknowledged by the characters. This is true to the goal of the developers, that is to sometimes not focus too much on the story or continuity of the series, at least not primarily. As an example, when choosing characters to be Dream Friends in Kirby Star Allies, at first the developers found it difficult to include certain characters due to past stories, but ultimately ended up not going with such rigid thinking, and decided that summoning characters through the Dream Rod would allow them to add the ones they wanted regardless of the story implications.

Continuity of adaptations

Usually, each adaptation series is implied to be separate from each other, and separate from the games. For instance, the anime series, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, is considered a different continuity, while the Kirby novel series is another, because they each have content that either directly contradicts the continuity of the games, or that is different from it. For example, in the anime, Escargoon is King Dedede's primary servant, but he has only appeared in the games once as a cameo, and hasn't appeared in other adaptations. As another example, in the novel series, there used to be only one Waddle Dee at first, a fact that was never true in the games, anime, and other adaptations. While there aren't many direct official statements of the games and adaptations being different continuities, Shinya Kumazaki has at least explicitly confirmed that is the case for the anime compared to the games.

Within each adaptation series, the continuity between works varies, usually based on how story-heavy they are. A couple manga series, for instance, are more humor-based, and as such only have basic continuity between works. As the Kirby series has countless different adaptation series, this section will focus on two of the most known ones, the anime series, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, and the Kirby novel series.

Continuity within Kirby: Right Back at Ya!

Kirby: Right Back at Ya! can be said to have at least two main continuities, due to how the episode order in Japan is different than in North America. Generally speaking, the series follows a linear continuity where episodes occur in chronological order; while the series is largely episodic, the story has a definite beginning and ending, and there are cases of story arcs occurring in multiple parts, as well as significant continuity changes — for example, King Dedede establishing a television channel in Un-Reality TV that appears in multiple later episodes, or obtaining the Royal Racecar in The Kirby Derby - Part I to replace his Armored Vehicle.

Furthermore, standalone episodes sometimes directly call back to the events of previous episodes, but usually only in a passing manner — for example, Mabel Turns the Tables references the events of Prediction Predicament - Part II as one of the times where Mabel made a successful prediction, and Tooned Out references the events of Cartoon Buffoon when explaining that King Dedede had previously made a cartoon. That said, the episode order in the anime is overall fluid, as most are self-contained stories that do not build from previous events, and some episodes end with significant continuity changes that are not resolved in the next episode (such as everybody forgetting about Kirby at the end of Escar-Gone).

The anime also appears to be completely disconnected when it comes to events from games, as none are ever implied to have happened in any form. True to that, most characters from the anime are not game characters, and the few that are have often drastic differences to their game counterparts.

Continuity within the Kirby novel series

Most volumes of the novel series are written in a way that implies that previous volumes happened linearly (for example, Waddle Dee obtains a bandana in Kirby's Decisive Battle! Battle Royale!!, and this trait is carried over and sometimes even directly referenced in later volumes). Some volumes, however, are explicitly mentioned to be alternate continuities from the main novels one (such as Kirby and the Search for the Dreamy Gears! and Kirby: Sever Evil with a Slash in a Flash!). One notable exception to both rules is Kirby: Lor Starcutter and a Magician of Falsehood, that is not mentioned to be in a different continuity but contradicts many settings and events from the main continuity. For instance, that novel features Bandana Waddle Dee, despite Kirby's Labyrinth Rescue! referencing the events of Kirby's Return to Dream Land, and Waddle Dee not having his signature bandana in that volume. Since that novel is not considered part of the Tsuabasa Bunko series as well, it likely was written without the main novel continuity in mind.

Unlike the anime, the novel series often implies or references game events, and in particular many volumes are direct adaptation of games. Examples include Kirby already knowing the Squeaks in Kirby Meets the Squeak Squad! (implying that the events of Kirby: Squeak Squad already happened), and Queen Sectonia's arc being mentioned by Taranza in Kirby's Labyrinth Rescue! (implying that the events of Kirby: Triple Deluxe already happened).

Continuity of miscellaneous content

It's often left unclear if miscellaneous content, often called "complementary" or "supplementary" material, is meant to be an extension of the various continuities of the series. This includes, but is not limited to, posts on the Kirby JP Twitter, Kirby Café content, game manuals, promotional videos, and merchandise. This is often due to the fact that said content often does not directly contradict facts present in continuities, but instead are mostly disconnected from it. An example is the story of Kirby Café, that is very isolated and could be either a completely different continuity of the series, or part of one. Sometimes, however, this kind of content does contradict the continuity of the games; for example, the Kirby JP Twitter Valentine's Day illustration from 2017 features various friends and enemies interacting together, and it could be argued that this is unrealistic or even impossible given the stories of some characters featured.

It's important to note that only officially sanctioned content should be considered. This obviously means that fan created content and parodies cannot be considered as part of any official Kirby continuity, as well as references to the series, unless otherwise stated by the developers. In particular, unofficial content can and often conflicts with official content. A known example is a depiction of Kirby with a skeleton, that once circulated on the internet with claims that it came from an official Kirby book, even though various official Kirby make it clear that Kirby has no skeleton. As it turns out, the book wasn't officially sanctioned by HAL or Nintendo, and was simply an author's imagination of what Kirby's anatomy could look like. On a similar vein, cancelled games and beta content cannot be considered either.

Retroactive continuity

In some cases, details that were prominent in earlier entries of the Kirby series do not match up with newer titles, as changes are made either to the main narrative itself, or to details of certain characters, objects, events, and so on. In cases where this happens (referred to as retroactive continuity, or retcon for short), if confirmed by the developers, the newer change is assumed to be applied retroactively to the story as the way it always was.

An example of this is the color of Meta Knight's eyes. In earlier games, his eyes were white under the mask, but since Kirby: Planet Robobot, they have been shown to be yellow, just like when the mask is on. Shinya Kumazaki believes that Meta Knight's eyes were originally white because technical limitations on sprite colors in Kirby's Adventure may have made yellow eyes harder to distinguish. Much later, when modeling an unmasked Meta Knight for Kirby: Planet Robobot, the team felt that giving him white eyes did not look quite right.

“

Now for a question about the main character Meta Knight - specifically, about the color of his eyes. In the moment that Mecha Knight+'s mask cracks, the player gets a glimpse of Meta Knight's eyes, which appear to be yellow. Were they always this way? I was sure they were white before... That's quite a thing to spot. In Kirby's Adventure on the Famicom (NES), Meta Knight's eyes are indeed white. At the time, there was a limit to the number of colors you could use, so I think that white was chosen because it stood out more. They were also white in Kirby Super Star (EU: Kirby's Fun Pak), but when we created the 3D model for this game, giving him white eyes somehow didn't feel right. And besides, his eyes have always shone with a yellow glow from behind his mask. We were worried about how old-school fans might react to this, but for the purposes of the design, we settled on yellow eyes.

”

— Miiverse posts made during Kirby: Planet Robobot Ask-a-thon Round 3 regarding the color of Meta Knight's eyes; exchange between Satoshi Ishida and Shinya Kumazaki

It should be noted, however, that not every change to a certain element in the series is considered a retcon. In particular, King Dedede is redesigned in almost every game he appears, but there is no indication that said redesigns are applied retroactively. Moreover, since there is not a single timeline in the series, many changes are implied to just be the reality of a different continuity, rather than a retcon of an existing one. Unless it's officially confirmed by developers, the lines are often blurry.

Continuity of localizations

Due to changes in localization, often minor, each translation of each media can be considered a different continuity. A big example of how story and events in localization can change is in the story of New Challenge Stages of Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition: in English, Magolor directly acknowledges the events of Kirby's Return to Dream Land and explains he made the theme park to make up for his actions. However, in Japanese, Magolor doesn't mention any past events, and instead simply explains he came to Popstar by chance and wanted to build a theme park in it. Another big example, but not in the games, is the English dub of the anime, which makes drastic changes to many elements of the show's original airing in Japanese, including but not limited to episode order and character dialogue.