#sea continuity

I think one of the most quietly effective displays Disney Imagineering has ever done is the "Egyptian Display" in the lower floor of the Artifact Storage/boiler room. The way the mummy bodies are falling out of their coffins, the organ jars knocked over and spilling dust... it really hammers home that Hightower Does. Not. Care. Zero respect whatsoever, even for fellow rich people/royalty. Nope, he plundered the whole tomb, had the walls carved into a check-in desk (which is a horrifying reveal upon re-ride when you see the desk again and make the connection), and then threw the bodies back in the storage room with no regard to preservation or even basic respect. I think that makes it the most egregious thing Hightower stole.

And then there's the line in the newspaper about how his motto is about "liberating art from primitive cultures" and then his hotel being filled with plundered art from literally *everywhere*. Everyone is below him in his mind. Plus the newspaper articles and paintings that make it clear he has no regard for the lives of his assistant and crew, risking them for his sake all the time.

And the other corpse parts in artifact storage, sticking out of random shelves and crates.

He's probably one of the most easily and effectively hate-able characters Disney's ever made.

As for SEA facts/tie-ins: one thing I find both overwhelming and amusing is how INSANE and sprawling the continuity becomes if you bother to track the implications. Like, okay, starting with Hotel Hightower, it's directly, officially, in-ride-observably in the same continuity as Indiana Jones. But then there's the Easter Eggs that imply Hotel Hightower and the Hollywood Tower are also in the same continuity (newspapers in Shanghai, Mystic Manor monkey in Florida Tower), so Hotel Hightower is in the same continuity as The Twilight Zone which by implication is now in the same continuity as Indiana Jones. Then Rock n Roller Coaster with Aerosmith (RIP) had a backstory stating that the band chose G Force Records because it also gave them the opportunity to hang around that cool abandoned hotel next door. So now 1990s Aerosmith is in the same universe as both Indiana Jones and The Twilight Zone. Oh, and then there's some quietly removed Buena Vista Street Lore that suggested that BOTH the DCA style Hollywood Tower and Hollywood Studios style Hollywood Tower existed separately, meaning three Towers of Terror and two Hollywood Towers are also all in on this.

It gets so ridiculous, confusing, and complicated so fast that I find it hilarious, AND it prevents me from ever deep-diving the lore too much, because it feels like that way lies madness. I can barely keep track of what parts relate to Tower as it is!

The most recent, actually-confirmed-by-CMs, actually-in-the-ride reference is this monkey by the photo counter in Florida. It's supposed to be the Mystic Manor monkey, and was added in 2024 (after my most recent visit in 2023), so the photo is by @chunkecheeks

As for other SEA references,

This now-removed newspaper prop contains what I'm fairly certain is a canceled SEA character, Pete Corrigan, manager of the Hollywood Tower. The article muddies the waters on what version of the Hollywood Tower is canon, as the photo shows DCA (and this newspaper was in California Adventure) but the detail about mahjong at the hotel is Florida-exclusive. It also gets other points of lore, like the hotel's opening date, wrong. The transcript of the article (since the photo isn't the easiest to read) is in my post here: https://a-land-of-shadow-and-substance.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-tower-and-buena-vista-street-hidden.html This newspaper was in place until 2018, when I took these pictures. It disappeared about two weeks later.

Then, there's this photo from Shanghai Disneyland (which I haven't personally been to), taken by @laffiteslanding

The main headline and photo clearly shows/references the Temple of the Crystal Skull from DisneySea, although it oddly calls the group the League of Adventurers/LoA rather than the Society of Explorers and Adventurers/SEA. HOWEVER, as can be seen at the left, it has an article about the Hollywood Tower Hotel incident! So Hollywood Tower = same universe as Temple of the Crystal Skull, which is in-ride observably in the same universe as Hotel Hightower! Also interesting is, based on what's readable of the Hollywood Tower article, we have another new set of Tower OCs in play: the elite Herman family, who seem to be the Elevator Five, completely overriding the TV movie names and relationships for those characters as well.

Yes!  Very much so!  Especially with regards to retconning it into existing attractions.

I think a concept like SEA works best when you limit its geographical scope.  I think the ideal situation was giving DisneySea its own overarching mythology and leaving it as its own great self-contained park story.  Or, as you said, limiting it to the Asian parks.  At any rate, just not spreading it across literally every Disney Park around the world.  When it gets sprawled literally across the planet, it really limits the scope of what any individual guest can see and experience of the SEA story.