RETCON????

The JAM · Post by **The JAM** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:36 pm

We're going to see the wedding and/or meeting Ben's family??

BrockthePaine · Post by **BrockthePaine** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:49 pm

No. More retconish than that. There's some title for an Ah-nold Schwarzenegger movie that comes to mind...

MikeVanPelt · Post by **MikeVanPelt** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:56 pm

BrockthePaine wrote:No. More retconish than that. There's some title for an Ah-nold Schwarzenegger movie that comes to mind...

"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". Er, whatever they called. The one with the memory implants, trip to Mars, etc... "Total Recall", that's it.

The only theory that makes sense of that train wreck was that everything from the point Ahnoldt gets into the memory implant chair was all hallucinations. Typical Philp K. Dick plot; spend umpteen pages trying to make some kind of sense of the weirdness going on, get to the end, and oh, it's all been just a hallucination, tra la, tra la, it's not supposed to make sense.

Feh.

That has not been what UTLT->GH has been like, even at its most surreal, and Ralph's story telling is much more to my taste that PKDs. I'd never for a moment think he'd pull a UBIK on his poor, unsuspecting readers. The hallucination, he lets us know right up-front it is a hallucination. Though maybe there's some real stuff being revealed here.

As for "retcon", that usually means that multiple writers have written inconsistent stuff, and the patchwork just isn't coherent any more, so the have to do something to "explain" things, or rewrite or disavow earlier stories.

I don't see anything like that happening. I'm guessing the "retcon" crack was just to set up the "oops, there goes the fourth wall" joke.

But maybe something Ben thinks he knows for certain ... just ain't so.

(Now, a Philip K. Dick twist would be Ben wakes up from a long coma, he's still a janitor at Soul-Sucking Department Store, Lily is still the other employee he has a crush on but has never worked up the nerve to talk to, and he's never had any any surreal roommates in "real life". Ralph would never do something like that.)

LoneWolf23k · Post by **LoneWolf23k** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:46 am

Maybe Ralph is setting up a big reveal about where the Posse really comes from...

Squeaky Bunny · Post by **Squeaky Bunny** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 5:13 am

Maybe the tulpas are real and Ben's the hallucinaton?

Chaser617 · Post by **Chaser617** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:39 am

If so how can Lilly see them?

Granted, Ben's shifted Padgims so many times I'm worried he's finally dropped the clutch out of his subconcious...

BrockthePaine · Post by **BrockthePaine** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:19 am

LoneWolf23k wrote:Maybe Ralph is setting up a big reveal about where the Posse really comes from...

^^^

Squeaky Bunny · Post by **Squeaky Bunny** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:27 am

Chaser617 wrote:If so how can Lilly see them?

Granted, Ben's shifted Padgims so many times I'm worried he's finally dropped the clutch out of his subconcious...

If they are real then Lily would have no problem seeing them, it would be Ben that would be hard to spot.

As for what will happen? We shall see, we shall see.

Maxgoof · Post by **Maxgoof** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:56 am

MikeVanPelt wrote:"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". Er, whatever they called. The one with the memory implants, trip to Mars, etc... "Total Recall", that's it.

The only theory that makes sense of that train wreck was that everything from the point Ahnoldt gets into the memory implant chair was all hallucinations. Typical Philp K. Dick plot; spend umpteen pages trying to make some kind of sense of the weirdness going on, get to the end, and oh, it's all been just a hallucination, tra la, tra la, it's not supposed to make sense.

Use logic. Before he went, there was some warning about people going nuts using RNA vacations.

As he was about to go under, we hear a technician say, "Huh...blue sky on Mars."

Now....if everything he experienced was real...why did the technician know it would end with a blue sky on Mars?

And if everything was RNA induced, why would a company design something where a husband will suspect or even hate his wife afterwards? That's just stupid.

No, the only answer that makes sense is, he went nuts.

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 11:47 am

BrockthePaine wrote:
LoneWolf23k wrote:Maybe Ralph is setting up a big reveal about where the Posse really comes from...
^^^

Krypton?

Narnian · Post by **Narnian** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:03 pm

SolidusRaccoon wrote:
BrockthePaine wrote:
LoneWolf23k wrote:Maybe Ralph is setting up a big reveal about where the Posse really comes from...
^^^
Krypton?

More like Bizzaro World or the fifth dimension from where Mister Mxyztplk comes from?

Jaydub · Post by **Jaydub** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:18 pm

I don't know about where Ben is now but here with all 4 walls gone the roof is coming down.....

Shyal_malkes · Post by **Shyal_malkes** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 8:32 pm

Ralph doesn't break the fourth wall very much does he? some times in GH, and in N&T and NEVER in TOTQ (unless you count all the naration as 4th wall breaking)

Steltek · Post by **Steltek** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:31 pm

Well, since in the classical sense, a "retcon" (retroactive continuity) means either re-interpreting past events in such a way that you substantially alter their fundamental meaning, or writing a time-travelling/universe hopping story in order to change the events within the context of the story itself.

To use a real-life example, you know how modern "historians" are fond of painting the early colonists of America as brutal killers who came here to rape and kill the native inhabitants, and at the same time painting those native inhabitants as peaceful "earth-nurturing" utopians? That's a retcon of the former type.

The second type is not really possible with our current level of science -- for example, travelling back in time and killing Hitler so World War II never takes place would be a retcon of the second type.

Calbeck · Post by **Calbeck** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 12:39 am

I just like the way the rubbaottah went squish against the fourth wall. -:>

EdBecerra · Post by **EdBecerra** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:11 am

Chaser617 wrote:If so how can Lilly see them?

Granted, Ben's shifted Padgims so many times I'm worried he's finally dropped the clutch out of his subconcious...

Ummm.

Would that mean Ben lives in Paradigm City?

(points to whomever gets the joke... and the double {triple?!} meaning)

Squeaky Bunny · Post by **Squeaky Bunny** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 4:37 am

EdBecerra wrote:
Chaser617 wrote:If so how can Lilly see them?

Granted, Ben's shifted Padgims so many times I'm worried he's finally dropped the clutch out of his subconcious...
Ummm.

Would that mean Ben lives in Paradigm City?

(points to whomever gets the joke... and the double {triple?!} meaning)

O O O, I know, I know!

Atarlost · Post by **Atarlost** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 4:39 am

A time travel retcon further requires that the change in timeline not be originally envisaged. What Howard Taylor did with time trave in Schlock Mercenaryl is not a retcon because the entire arc of time that was overwritten was plotted out in advance with the intent that it be overwritten. What Steve Troop did with time travel in Melonpool is a retcon. He had turned causality into spaghetti with time travel and alternate universes and he had to use time travel to fix it.

Chaser617 · Post by **Chaser617** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:30 am

You know, I just realized something, the whole 'retcon' reference might be a red herring to get us thinking in one directionw hile he goes someplace else. Ralph sher is devious (in a good way) to do that....

The JAM · Post by **The JAM** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:30 am

So what happens now? We go back in time and Lily never gets a job at Bullseye so the two never meet?