Retcon

"Retcon is retroactive continuity&mdash;the science of making stuff fit and getting better stories out of it."

- Karen Traviss

Retroactive continuity&mdash;commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon&mdash;refers to deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction. The change itself is referred to as a retcon, and the act of writing and publishing a retcon is called "retconning."

When George Lucas re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy, he made changes directly to the source material, rather than introduce new source material that contradicted the contents of previous material. However, the current series of Star Wars prequels do qualify as "new source material", and many fans have pointed out instances which apparently retcon elements of the original trilogy.

Star Wars movies

 * In Episode IV, Ben Kenobi told Luke Skywalker that his father was betrayed and murdered by a pupil of his, Darth Vader. The audience was given no reason to doubt Kenobi's word, so everyone left the theater knowing that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Luke's father. This included the writer of Marvel's first Star Wars annual, who included a bit of back-story for those two characters in the annual. This was retconned in Episode V when Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker the truth about his paternity and in Episode VI when Ben Kenobi's Force ghost told Luke his father became Darth Vader.


 * In Episode V, Ben Kenobi's Force ghost was unaware Darth Vader had another child until Yoda told him. In Episode III, he was present when Luke's and Leia's mother, Padmé, gave birth to twins and even helped arrange for Bail Organa to adopt Leia.


 * In Episode VI, Leia told Luke that she vaguely remembered how her mother looked. Though, in Episode III Padmé died soon after giving birth to them.

Expanded Universe

 * Ever since Episode IV, the Old Republic was said to have been established before 25,000 BBY; but when in Episode II, Palpatine said that the Republic was only 1,000 years old, the Ruusan Reformation was created to remedy this discrepancy.


 * Since Episode IV, the Republic was known to have fought the Clone Wars, and the EU added several other conflicts, such as the Great Sith War; but in Episode II, it was stated that "there hasn't been a full-scale war since the formation of the Republic." The above-mentioned Ruusan Reformation also handled this discrepancy.


 * The Imperial capital was originally referred to by writers as Imperial Center; when Timothy Zahn's name of Coruscant was introduced, the name Imperial Center was retconned to be what the Empire designated Coruscant.


 * Likewise, the capital city of Coruscant was originally called Imperial City; when Coruscant was determined to be an ecumenopolis, Imperial City was retconned to be the designation of that part of the city as opposed to the planetwide city as a whole (which was renamed Galactic City).


 * The Coruscant Uprising, and the brutality with which the Empire suppressed it, retcons the post-Endor celebrations on Coruscant seen in the special edition of Return of the Jedi with the fact that the planet would not be freed from Imperial rule for another two years.


 * The name of the Republic's leader was for many years called the President of the Senate; when the prequels revealed the title to be the Supreme Chancellor, the term 'President of the Senate' was retconned to be one of the Chancellor's several official titles (some say that this was the title before the Reformation).


 * In the Jedi Prince series, Kadann and the others were trying to steal power away from Ysanne Isard. Isard is never mentioned in the series&mdash;in fact, it's frequently implied there is no Imperial leader other than Trioculus&mdash;but this retcon was created to fit the series into the established timeline.


 * It was established in the EU that Raith Sienar gave Tarkin the designs for the Death Star, and that Bevel Lemelisk developed the superlaser; after Episode II revealed that the Geonosians gave the plans to Tyranus/Sidious, it was retconned that the Geonosians developed the details based on outlines given to them by Sienar and Lemelisk. Indeed, the history of the Death Star has become so convoluted that a novel was created to this topic. The novel was, in effect, one large retcon.


 * The show Star Wars: Droids showed C-3PO and R2-D2 having several adventures in the time between the rise of the Empire and Episode IV; after the release of Episode III showed them to be in the employ of the same people they are with in Episode IV, it has been retconned that the two droids somehow were separated from their owners because of Corla Metonae after Episode III, then returned to them sometime before Episode IV.


 * While A-wings are not supposed to exist before the Battle of Yavin, they appear in the Droids series, which happens between the two trilogies. The identical R-22 Spearhead was then 'invented' as a predecessor of the A-wing, in order to explain the appearance of such ships in the Droids era.


 * The title Darth was supposed to be invented in the period of the New Sith Wars until the game Knights of the Old Republic introduced Darth Revan and Darth Malak, who lived 2,000 years before the beginning of the aforementioned period. It is generally assumed that the title was forgotten sometime between, so the tradition was lost. The first Sith Lord to use the title Darth in the New Sith Wars era also constantly shifted into the past: first it was thought to be Darth Bane, then Darth Rivan, and later Darth Ruin.


 * Timothy Zahn, in his Thrawn trilogy, cast the Clone Masters as the opponent of the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars, as several authors of the '90s considered that the cloners and their clones were the "villains." However, after Attack of the Clones revealed the clones were on the Republic's side, the Clone Masters were retconned into being renegades who did not attack until after the formation of the Empire.


 * The CIS's use of Morgukai clones during the Siege of Saleucami, shown in the Star Wars: Republic storyline of the same name, and a young Gilad Pellaeon's presence among the Republic forces, explains Pellaeon's claim in Heir to the Empire (part one of the aforementioned Thrawn trilogy) to have battled an unstable clone army many years before.


 * The BBY system used in many sources to represent dates in the Star Wars timeline is itself a retcon. It originated as an out-of-universe dating system and, after becoming popular, was retconned into an in-universe system used by the New Republic, et al.


 * According with their first backstory written in the Star Wars Sourcebook, the Mon Calamari and the Quarren had their first contact with offworlders when the Galactic Empire discovered their world. This generated continuity problems when Quarren appeared as background aliens in Episode I, and when the Mon Calamari Padawan Bant Eerin appeared in the Jedi Apprentice series. The idea that the Mon Calamari's conflict with the Empire was their first experience with offworlders was retconned away when they appeared as loyal members of the Galactic Republic in Star Wars: Clone Wars. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds explained these previous references as Imperial propaganda.


 * Little Kessel was created for The Essential Atlas to confirm that the lush, idyllic "Kessel" seen in The Second Kessel Run and the "regular" Kessel&mdash;a desolate, misshapen world unpleasant enough to serve as an in-universe synonym for Hell&mdash;are not the same planet.


 * Jaster Mereel was originally supposed to be the real name of Boba Fett. However, when Episode II stated that Boba was a clone of his "father" Jango Fett, Jaster Mereel was retconned into a separate character, Jango's mentor and predecessor as Mandalore. It was stated that Boba took the alias in honor of the real Jaster. It was also stated that there were many rumors concerning Boba Fett's identity due to the fact that most people in the galaxy knew very little about him.


 * The rumor mentioned in The History of the Mandalorians that the renegade clone Spar was in fact Jango Fett's son rationalizes Fenn Shysa's claim that, during the Clone Wars, he and the Mandalorian Protectors had served under Boba Fett - who was later shown to have been only 13 at the end of the conflict.


 * Stormtroopers during the Galactic Civil War were never indicated to be clones before the prequel films. Additionally, multiple Expanded Universe sources mentioned normal human stormtroopers (such as Davin Felth and Kyle Katarn) and showed the existence of Imperial academies (such as Carida) which trained normal humans as stormtroopers. Large numbers of clones were later retconned into the stormtrooper ranks. (See also Star Wars: Battlefront II, which established that the 501st Legion was the only stormtrooper regiment still made up of Jango clones.)


 * The Phase Zero dark troopers &mdash; aging and wounded Clone Wars veterans essentially turned into cyborgs &mdash; explain how, while the Empire's first use of them did not occur until after the Battle of Yavin, the Battlefront games include "dark troopers" in the Imperial arsenal as early as 18 BBY.


 * The novel I, Jedi places Corran Horn at the Jedi Praxeum during the events of The Jedi Academy Trilogy, and also fine-tunes some of the events of the trilogy to fit later canon.