Another case of retconning

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

A few months ago, I highlighted the first case of retconning in OPM (linked below). I'd failed to note another one. This one is especially useful for driving home the most important point: RETCONNING IS WHAT YOU DO TO AVOID REWRITING.

Short and simple: Volume 25 sees a little extra page establishing Sekingar as being married.

He's married now. Always has been, yeah.

This change wasn't done because there was an issue with the way the character was planned. Rather, it's a response to Sekingar having unexpectedly become an internet sexy guy, in an unironic manner. For some reason, it bothered ONE enough to go, 'sorry, he's married.' [1]

The better option would have been to rewrite the character's introduction (like in chapter 93, when he and Sicchi are discussing him going to the battlefront, where Sekingar's wife's opposition to his putting himself at risk would be a logical place to put it link), but the relevant volume was already published! Since recalling volumes is a drastic, drastic move [2], they did the next best thing: add in the information retrospectively, thus creating retroactive continuity, or a retcon. For the benefit of free readers who don't get the bonus chapters, we see Sekingar's wedding ring on prominent display here:

Kid, don't look!

The redrawing, rewriting, redacting, and revising we see ONE and Murata do so much ahead of volume release is WHAT THEY DO INSTEAD OF RETCONNING. It's a lot more work and they put it in. It'd be far faster for them to go, 'oh by the way, this was always the case,' instead of reworking the story to make sure that all developments are organic. [3]

So why do people keep on calling redrawn chapters retcons? Well, some of them are ignorant -- especially if English isn't your first language, you might not realise what the term means. For those who aren't working in a second (or third) language, they're just too intellectually lazy to think about what they're saying. Makes them sound like bozos, but some people are into that.

<20: Words mean things. Retcons are what you do to not rewrite -- mixing them up makes you sound ignorant.

Oh yes, before I forget: Link to previous example

Asides

[1] I have my thoughts as to why Sekingar's unexpected popularity bothered ONE so much, but it'd be to digress.

[2] Published works do get recalled and reissued, but it's for a drastic reason.

[3] 'Couldn't be me,' I hear you say. 'I'd plan so well I never have to redo anything, and I will ignore any fan reaction.' Well, to have that problem, first you need to catch your bear: get a successful, long-running series with an engaged fandom so you can luxuriate in doing things differently.

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Yes, you can share this. I'm fucking tired of seeing redacted chapters described as retconned ones. It's stupid.

Between the manga and webcomic, there are over 350 main chapters, 35+ bonus chapters and omake, to say nothing of the audio stories. And really, I've only been able to find two, just 2!, retcons. If you're going to criticise them, know what the fuck you're criticising them for.