Hot Topic: How much are you bothered by continuity errors?

Mr. Pole said:
No thanks. I dont really want to discuss it with you. You tend to make fun of me when I say I have issues with it.
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Thats a very negative attitude. And "maybe" (only guessing) also a little bit rude, because I said "please". 😉

But its ok. Its a free land. 🙂
 
Buffy Summers said:
Let's stick to discussion of the topic, please, not of other members.
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Sure. 🙂

So try me. Are there really continuity errors? Or are there only things, some poeple are interpreting to be continuity errors?

Maybe these so called continuity errors are only in the heads of some peoples.
 
And in some cases they could be in -character reasons too .
 
Agreed . In some cases you let the error go if the show is good enough 😎
 
brinkster130 said:
All shows have some continuity errors, lol. I think the question is whether or not they are big enough to take away from the shows quality/integrity. 😉

There are plenty of lists you can google that have lots of them.

Here is one that has a lot:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV mistakes, goofs and bloopers
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Ok, but just the first one in that list is not a continuity error (imo). Its just a insignificant goof, which is not linked to bad writing.

Halloween - S2-E6

Continuity mistake: Willow is turned into a ghost. Throughout the entire episode, she can't touch anything (can't turn the pages of a book, etc.), yet towards the end when she and Giles go to Ethan's shop, and she leaves, you can hear that she opened and closed the door, even though she can walk through walls and can't actually touch the door. The curtain moves when she leaves too.

Like I said before, sometimes this so called continuity errors are only in the heads of some peoples.

Also this one:

Welcome To The Hellmouth (1) - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Giles is giving his speech about the Hellmouth the books Buffy's holding keep changing from facing him to facing Buffy and back again.

A tiny-tiny goof you could find in any show and film. Its like complaining about the fact, that water is wet. 😉 So, if some people have fatal issues with this so called continuity errors, one good word of advise: Just dont watch shows and movies. Because there will be always goofs. Problem solved. Only exception of this rule would be, if one of your hobbys is complaining (topic totally exchangeable). Then its just fine, because there will be always an endless stream of topics to complain about, just to complain about it. While using "being critic" and "free speach" as a smokeshield. 🙂)

P.S.
Pulp Fiction, T2, all that stuff. Just forget it. Because there are goofs over goofs.
 
brinkster130
brinkster130
Those errors don't bug me and I typically don't notice them - but it doesn't mean that others don't. And yes, there is a difference between a writing error and a small shooting error. Point remains though, there are errors. ;)
I don't consider a blooper or Giles missing his Eyghon tattoo in one episode- they don't irritate me (they might ittitate others)
Continuity errors and logic fails include:

- Most of the times in late Season- through to S6 where the writers give up on all pretense that Spike standing in direct sunlight is actually a problem. Examples include- standing in front of the kitchen window with Buffy in 'Gone', having no blanket (just a ridiculous tweed outfit) to protect him from daylight in 'Tabula Rasas- despite the fact that its been established that there's an underground sewer entrance to the Magic Box a couple of episodes ago (they ever reference it in this episode as well).

- Also the chip is not ever consistent about how it works, especially in S7 when Spike has a soul. Hew knocks out Xander with one punch and only gets a slight tolt of pain. Lame.

- The time-freeze in 'Life Serial' doesn't make ANY sense dramatically speaking. From everyone else's pov Bufyf would've been standing still/zoning out for hours. Would Tara just leave her? Not go and find help? What about everyone else on the campus? 'Hey, there's a weird chick who's catatonic, someone knocked her over and she very slowly crawled uder a table.' 😵

- Also the time-loop. How long did that last? How come nobody but Buffy remembered it all after the fact? How did the trio get camera's all over Sunnydale including inside the Magic Box?

- The revelation that Joyce put Buffy in a mental hospital because she told her parents about vampires. What about all those times that Buffy (sometimes jokingly) mentioned vampires in S1/2? How come Joyce seems puzzled and not deeply alarmed? Retroactivel this casts the mother/daughter relationship into so much doubt.
Example in S2 'Bad Eggs' when Joyce asks Buffy what she was doing at the mall instead of picking up her dress. Buffy answers: 'slaying a vampire'. Would she do that in the context of this new 'retroactive' history the S6 writers just randomly threw in? Nope, Buffy wouldn't be so flippant and Joyce wouldn't look bemused at the answer, she would look scared that her daughter was having another 'episode'.

- In Sleeper Spike has been turning people in to vampires for weeks and yet they all suddenly decide to rise in the basementat the same friggin time? What crap.

Those are a few but I got loads. 😉
It isn't being 'negative' to point out lazy writing. Writing for a tv show is, presumably, a skill. One that people have varying degrees of talent in. Being discerning and saying 'that doesn't make sense in the rules of the verse that have already been established' is just being observant and smart.
 
thetopher said:
Those are a few but I got loads. 😉
It isn't being 'negative' to point out lazy writing.
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"If" its lazy writing. To me, this examples you brought up, are part tiny-tiny goofs and part just dislikes in personal taste. No problem at all. Just fine. 🙂

I wouldnt bother to complain about stuff like that. 😉
 
thetopher said:
Seems pretty clear it is to me, since it doesn't make any sense.
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Sometimes you have to sacrifice something to make progress. The omelette and egg thing. 😉

To maintain pace or cinematography or to achieve other goals to keep the story evolving in the right direction.

That would make sense (to me)

A dogmatic stick to the rules (like the Spike daylight thing) is a good example. The audience is not stupid, so everybody know that rule. So, it could be totally ok and would make sense to sacrifice that rule, to achieve something else, more suited for the greater picture. Thats called art. 😉
 
I find it annoying at times but as long as it's not massively world changing or out of character, I don't mind them being there. The most important thing is how the writing makes me feel.
 
I tend to be greatly annoyed by them, I notice the little things and I think they matter. It ruins it for me when the writers don't take the same care in crafting the universe they're trying to sell.
 
Taake said:
I tend to be greatly annoyed by them, I notice the little things and I think they matter. It ruins it for me when the writers don't take the same care in crafting the universe they're trying to sell.
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The little things matter totally. Thats for sure. But for me, the negative little things dont outmatch the positive ones. But I thing everyone is rating them different. 😉

And because I was not part of the creative team behind the show, I dont second guess their decisions, because it seems a little bit out of place (to me), by not knowing the background behind their decisions. To dare judging their decisions on a base like that is at best speculation mixed by personal taste. 🙂
 
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Puffy said:
Thats for sure. But for me, the negative little things dont outmatch the positive ones.
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I'm not saying that they do. That doesn't mean that the negative things don't bother me.

And because I was not part of the creative team behind the show, I dont second guess there decisions, because it seems a little bit out of place (to me), by not knowing the background behind their decisions. Something like that, are at best speculation mixed by personal taste.
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That makes no sense to me personally. I don't give two figs about the background for their decisions, what matters is the product they put out. If the product is substandard then as a consumer it doesn't matter to me if they had "reasons" behind them. And I don't think that because I wasn't part of the creative team of the show, I don't have a right to critique what I see as serious or just small flaws. If I can't critique it because I didn't work on it, then I can't celebrate it either, in my opinion. You can't just have it one way.
 
Taake said:
That makes no sense to me personally. I don't give two figs about the background for their decisions, what matters is the product they put out. If the product is substandard then as a consumer it doesn't matter to me if they had "reasons" behind them. And I don't think that because I wasn't part of the creative team of the show, I don't have a right to critique what I see as serious or just small flaws. If I can't critique it because I didn't work on it, then I can't celebrate it either, in my opinion. You can't just have it one way.
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Celebrating is (in the most cases) harmles. (Negative) critique could easily create a toxic mix of rant, hate and flame, which is using "being critique" and "free speach" as a smokeshield (totally common at the Internet). Look around you. The Internet is loaded with that so-called critique. People are commiting suicide, because the other people are so self-forgeting critique about them. Pffffff. Oh man, sorry, but that just dont fly in reality.

We are humans and not vulcans. 😉
 
But this is a discussion board, critiquing the shows is one of the main objectives. Critique is a good thing, as we're all still here 19 years later watching and talking about the show because of it. We all signed up because we enjoy BtVS otherwise we wouldn't be here and in general I only witness positive language and real depth of thought when members critique the show, which is a great thing. Knee-jerk reactions to critique in fandom however are a bit off-putting.

RE continuity, I'd say I'd only noticed about 50% of what people have mentioned here when watching myself! Must try harder.
 
Puffy said:
The Internet is loaded with that so-called critique. People are commiting suicide, because the other people are so self-forgeting critique about them. Pffffff. Oh man, sorry, but that just dont fly in reality.

We are humans and not vulcans. 😉
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What exactly does this have to do with continuity errors on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Are you suggesting that my finding fault with the show would cause a writer/actor to commit suicide? Because if you are then I think you are taking this a bit too seriously, and if you're not then I would ask you to keep to the topic at hand and not toss in wild accusations about "so-called critique" being harmful. Take it down a notch, will you. Adding smileys to the end of your posts do not make them any less harsh.
 
All shows have continuity errors. If I was the showrunner of a genre show like Buffy, I would hire a nerdy, obsessed fan to read each script beforehand... they will usually recognize a mistake immediately that would go right over the heads of the writers themselves.

Being very detail oriented (a polite way of saying "OCD"), I tend to notice continuity errors immediately. But unless they're huge enough to make the story not make sense, I tend to just have fun inventing ways to explain to myself how the inconsistency could happen.

I was a big Xena fan before I was a big Buffy fan, so continuity errors mostly just roll off me. In Xena fandom we even had an acronym for it... YAXI ("Yet Another Xena Inconsistency").
 
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