Now that *everything* is in continuity, what do the characters remember?

[DragonPiece]

They remember whatever the current writer feels like they should remember. In a way they are not even characters any more.

this is the clear answer..and honestly, it applies to even before infinite frontier.

[ducklord]

I was just thinking about GA and this situation. Was his history so divergent that he has four or five different histories rolling around in his head? He's not Superman. He hasn't been rebooted a million times. Would there be that many different histories to remember? He hooked up with BC in most continuities. New 52 and the Earth 2 versions seem to be the only ones who have severely divergent histories. Ditto Batman. Someone like Donna Troy might be problematic. But a street level character who didn't get much of a reboot after all the continuity changes might not have that much to remember. Catwoman might be a problem in that her history has always been somewhat vague and mostly built around working around Year One.

It's true that GA isn't the best example. Aside from little things (how many times has he run for mayor, exactly?) and the really freaky New52 reboot, his history has been fairly consistent.

Bette Kane might be a more interesting example. Was she ever Bat-Girl? If not, does she remember being Bat-Girl?

I love these silly conversations

[ducklord]

I also think it's important to keep a distinction between things that characters remember because they "actually" happened to them (and have been retconned back in), and things characters dimly recall as having happened to an alternate version of themselves, but didn't "actually" happen to them. The former is fairly standard continuity housekeeping. The latter is a little weirder.

I think most of are making that distinction, but I just wanted to reiterate it.

[D.Z]

The current policy towards continuity at DC is that everything from the first story ever published by the company to the present day is part of continuity, which works great for us fans, but what do the actual characters presently remember about their histories? If you're Superman, for example, your life and career unfolded in different and mutually exclusive ways in Pre-COIE, Post-COIE, Pre-FLASHPOINT, Post-FLASHPOINT, and present day continuity. What do your memories actually consist of? What is "real" to you? How do you make sense of it all?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

DC dropped the remember everything part. I already discussed this a billion times.

But yeah most things that can fit all happened.

[Lightning Rider]

Part of me wishes DC would just make one-off specials for each character with a timeline that mixes and matches the best of the character's history in the most coherent way possible.

The Rebirth explanation of "10 stolen years" seemed simple enough to me, maybe they could work off that.

[SanityOrMadness]

Well, clearly not everything happened even if that's the tagline. Look at Cassie Sandmark & Artemis' interactions in Wonder Girl. They're played as complete strangers there, even though Artemis was a mentor for Cassie for a long while in past comics.

It really is "anything the writers want is in, but anything they don't want is fair game to rule out."

Part of me wishes DC would just make one-off specials for each character with a timeline that mixes and matches the best of the character's history in the most coherent way possible.

That would only work if they were actually willing to enforce that. In practice, it would get trampled over the first time, say, Bendis wrote the characters.

[Buried Alien]

Well, clearly not everything happened even if that's the tagline. Look at Cassie Sandmark & Artemis' interactions in Wonder Girl. They're played as complete strangers there, even though Artemis was a mentor for Cassie for a long while in past comics.

It really is "anything the writers want is in, but anything they don't want is fair game to rule out."


That would only work if they were actually willing to enforce that. In practice, it would get trampled over the first time, say, Bendis wrote the characters.

Only someone like 80s Jim Shooter could enforce it, but it's not a comic book world managed by 80s Jim Shooters anymore.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Digifiend]

I was just thinking about GA and this situation. Was his history so divergent that he has four or five different histories rolling around in his head? He's not Superman. He hasn't been rebooted a million times. Would there be that many different histories to remember? He hooked up with BC in most continuities. New 52 and the Earth 2 versions seem to be the only ones who have severely divergent histories. Ditto Batman. Someone like Donna Troy might be problematic. But a street level character who didn't get much of a reboot after all the continuity changes might not have that much to remember. Catwoman might be a problem in that her history has always been somewhat vague and mostly built around working around Year One.

Catwoman's came up in King's Batman run. They argued over where their first meeting was. One version was the golden age one, the other was the New 52 one.

As for Donna, she got explained even before Death Metal, in The Infected: Deathbringer. She mentioned remembering all of her origins, from the original rescued from a house fire by Wonder Woman one, to her New 52 made of clay one. Presumably her second, post-Crisis, origin involving the Titans of myth is the real one, though it could be the first one if either Wonder Woman was active in World War II and didn't just enter Man's World for the first time 15 years ago, or Hippolyta was the WW who saved her.

It's true that GA isn't the best example. Aside from little things (how many times has he run for mayor, exactly?) and the really freaky New52 reboot, his history has been fairly consistent.

Bette Kane might be a more interesting example. Was she ever Bat-Girl? If not, does she remember being Bat-Girl?

I love these silly conversations

Even post-Crisis, she'd always been Flamebird. I'm pretty sure Barbara Gordon is the first Batgirl in continuity.

[ducklord]

Even post-Crisis, she'd always been Flamebird. I'm pretty sure Barbara Gordon is the first Batgirl in continuity.

Yes, but in the Infinite Frontier "I remember everything, even the stuff that didn't happen" version of continuity, does Bette Kane have weird sorta-memories of running around in a Bat-Girl costume?

[Buried Alien]

DC dropped the remember everything part. I already discussed this a billion times.

But yeah most things that can fit all happened.

I've missed every single one of the billion times, but I'm very interested. Can you direct me to a few of the better ones among the billion?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[The Darknight Detective]

I honestly could care less regarding their memories of continuities past. All that matters to me is what happened in the current continuity.

[D.Z]

I've missed every single one of the billion times, but I'm very interested. Can you direct me to a few of the better ones among the billion?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Yeah I can but I won't.

As someone who knows what's going on in most or all of DC books. None of that remember everything stuff is happening in the books. Only inserting most stuff back in if it can fit, and deciding to let some stuff be erased forever.

They dropped the remember everything gimmick, so lets move on.

[Zero Hunter]

Whatever the writers remember, and since most of them can't be bothered to do any homework on the characters they are writting that means no much.

[ducklord]

I've missed every single one of the billion times, but I'm very interested. Can you direct me to a few of the better ones among the billion?

I must've missed that too

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the "remember everything" idea has been dropped - it *is* a rather silly idea.

[Buried Alien]

I must've missed that too

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the "remember everything" idea has been dropped - it *is* a rather silly idea.

I like the spirit of the idea, but there's no feasible way to make it happen.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)