#retroactive continuity

hello tortured soul, have some lizards

sigh. you ought to be studied.

the scale and quality are all sorts of fucked but i really like these two

Today's Twelve Days of Xmas (not really) 'giveaway' comes with some bonus retroactive continuity:

[Source: @outlander_starz IG account - posted December 20, 2025]

This clip, which is in fact promo for a 26 minute long Walk Down Memory Lane extra, exclusively designed for the US audience - you have to subscribe to *** to watch it, which I think is really, really idiotic marketing. You can watch it here (and I really hope some Good Samaritan will post it): https://www.starz.com/us/en/series/outlander/season-7/bonus/outlander-cast-walk-down-memory-lane/73661?

What about that walk in Hyde Park, when they both vowed to always have eachother's backs? Wasn't that a seminal, founding moment, playfully/nostalgically being remembered by both, regularly, during promo?

You all know what I am talking about:

[Source: S's X page - posted March 22, 2014]

We also know when that walk happened - and it was before the stables moment, with utmost certainty: Sunday, September 15, 2013. Which is four days after the official announcement of C being cast as Claire, on September 11, 2013.

[Source: S's X account - posted September 16, 2013]

Also, this - a moment documented and openly acknowledged by both of them:

[Source: C's X account - posted September 17, 2013]

Now we are supposed to believe the first real and consistent encounter happened at the stables, closely monitored by ***, that made it a Season 1 promo item?

This?

We know filming of Season 1 began on October 7, 2013:

[Source: https://www.outlandishobservations.com/2013/10/first-day-of-filming.html - posted October 7, 2013]

Objective? As S reluctantly says, in the above Walk Down Memory Lane clip, 'yeah, it was a long time ago'. All is but forgotten. Oh, FFS.

The problem is, we still have brains. And memories. If that looked arresting, it's because it was. And because it was in the aftermath of 'a great day' and 'the beginning of this wonderful madness'.

C's words, not mine.

For a very good reason, that still keeps us here.

Wind up

The One-Punch Man manga series has seen several rewrites of chapters and parts of arcs, and several fans have taken to calling the revised chapters 'retcons'. That this isn't correct is something that has been getting on my nerves forever, but I've ignored it for two reasons. One, damn, but I do have more to do in life than carp on terminology in online fandom, and two, I've not minded the irony that One-Punch Man isn't big on retconning. However, in the most recent webcomic chapter, 152, there is a bona fide example of retconning, and so I've got to say something.

First, Let's Define Terms

First thing, what *is* retconning? It's short for 'retroactive continuity': when something that should have been established earlier in the story is written in and explained as if it was always there. If you want more on that, you can waste a few hours on TV Tropes. It's often used as a pejorative, especially with regard to mainstream Western comic book writers, where discontinuities, reboots, and retcons are common as the long-in-the-tooth properties pass from one writer to the next. However, it's rather stupid to use words wrongly as it deprives us of the ability to accurately describe and analyse what we see. It's additionally stupid because retconning is a tool, and it can be used well, even though it's easier to remember examples of poor use.

Specifics

As I've said, ONE hasn't been big on retconning. Notably, he's been happy to let the OPM manga and webcomic develop their own continuities. For example, it would have been easy for him to introduce Suiryu in the webcomic by having him recall having met Saitama and been inspired to become a hero: that would have been a retcon as we never saw the two meet earlier in the webcomic, but no. He started Suiryu as the unreformed guy he started out as and let him develop his own way.

So what's different here? Well, *nowhere* in the webcomic have Ryumon and Metal Bat had any interaction. They were introduced to each other in chapter 125, and that was it. Nowhere in the webcomic do we see Ryumon questioning his role in society, mentioning Metal Bat, or even watching Metal Bat in action from afar. However, in chapter 152, he reveals that he's been an admirer of heroes from childhood, admires Metal Bat, has been talking to Metal Bat, and has changed his MO as well as that of his group. THAT. IS. RETCONNING. 100%.

So, is it BAD? FUCK NO. IT'S A GREAT EXAMPLE. Let us dig into why it's so good. The cure for retconning is rewriting, as happens in the manga. It doesn't always pay to do so: sometimes you can't or won't go back. And you have to consider carefully whether it's worth tearing up a partially-written work to establish a new fact. In this instance, it's definitely not worth it: the FACT that Ryumon is an ally to Metal Bat is much more important than whatever PROCESS he went through to become one.

The story *needs* someone like Ryumon to act as an ally: the way the webcomic is set up, Metal Bat left on his own tod to join the Neo Heroes, so there's no one back at the Hero Association to support him. The other pro-heroes who joined with him are all either too isolated or too miserable to be of use -- yes, the selfishness of the heroes in the wc is coming back to bite them. And with his sister being held hostage, merely breaking out without an ally able to move freely within the Neo Heroes to look out for Zenko's safety would have doomed her. The story needed a 'lucky' break like this, or it'd be hopeless.

Is Ryumon the right character to use? Oh yes indeedy. First, as a stock character, we, the audience, like the idea of a gangster with a heart of gold, someone who may exist outside the law but still has a clear sense of right and wrong and who has standards about who may and may not be targeted. We're prepared to accept Ryumon in a way that we would not have been able to accept Zaedats having a change of heart (well, if he still had a heart to change... poor bastard). Second, Ryumon hasn't kicked any puppies; we haven't seen him do anything horrific. He may not have done much that is good, and it's clear that he'd been happy to regard the eventual culling of pro-heroes as no bad thing, but he doesn't come across as the sort of guy who'd applaud a completely subjugated world. It's right that he rebels.

He may be no devil, but he's no angel either: the pro-heroes being a rival gang whose demise is no bad thing is his view. Note, however, that he does want to be respectable.

His rough speech and his desire for respectability make it believable that he'd get along with Metal Bat, and so we're ready to buy that he'd be influenced by the young hero to actually be heroic rather than just mime being one. Along those lines, ONE established in the wc that as the various Neo Heroes came into contact with the various pro-heroes -- Webigaza with Child Emperor, Raiden with Puri Puri Prisoner -- they have not been able to avoid being impressed and moved by their examples and testimonies.

Given all of these factors (the right character, a process we've accepted for other characters, and a strong in-story need for the character to take action), Ryumon's heel-face turn fits in beautifully, and that's how a retcon is supposed to work.

This is very unlikely to happen in the manga for three reasons. Reason 1 (the most important): ONE knows where he wants to go with the character so he can just get on and write an organic story. It is also the case that many of the pro-heroes we're following into the Neo Heroes are doing so with a plan and are working together, rather than the scattershot individualism of the wc: they have more resources. Reason 2: as a paid-for work, ONE isn't going to expect us to be happy with after-the-fact handwaving. That's why he's willing to spend months rewriting if need be. Reason 3: Ryumon in the manga has much dirtier hands than his webcomic equivalent, having organised hero betting and planning worse. We are going to have to see him change. And with him already butting heads with Metal Bat, there is plenty of scope for just that to happen. Not too easily, I hope! :D

Not only is he no angel, but he's still actively criminal.

We don't need the webcomic to know that this is going to be interesting, but now we can look forward to this being INTERESTING.

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