User:Gigi/Sandbox/Continuity

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Continuity is a term that refers to the order events of a narrative happens, 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.

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 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 are left ambiguous as whether they are or not.

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. For 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. 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.

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 example, the anime series is considered a different continuity, while the 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.

Within each adaptation series, the continuity between works varies. For example, some episodes of the anime series are directly connected to others, and the series even has a finale, but some episodes have endings that don't appear to carry over to any other episodes. Meanwhile, 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), while some are explicitly mentioned to be alternate continuities from the main novels one (for example, Kirby and the Search for the Dreamy Gears! and Kirby: Sever Evil with a Slash in a Flash!).

Continuity of miscellaneous content

It's often left unclear if miscellaneous content, often called "complementary 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.

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 does drastic changes to many elements of the show's original airing in Japanese.