Nitpick a beloved fictional universe!

[Evil Smurf]

Here's a basic one about Doctor Who that was actually brought up in an episode but was never really given a good explanation: If a planet was getting invaded and you don't have enough time to prepare, why doesn't the Doctor go back about 2 weeks and just warn everyone?

because he is not allowed to interfere with events that have a fixed or set timeline.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Also Transformers, who in their right mind would EVER allow Starscream anywhere near a position of power? He's so obviously traitorous that you'd have to only watch a single episode to know "This guy is going to try and take over the decepticons."

Actually this one's been pretty well explained; Megatron keeps Starscream around precisely because he knows SS is going to try and backstab him. It keeps him on his toes because he can't ever let his guard down. Megs is a magnificent bastard, and it's all because of Starscream.

And besides, nobody would really follow SS and most of his plans to take over are short lived and doomed to failure anyway.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

LOTR:
How the fuck did gandalf and the balrog end up fighting on a mountain after falling towards the center of the earth?

 

[renegade7]

Something I never actually understood about Pokemon. Are there animals that AREN'T Pokemon? Like I remember in a couple of episodes early in the series (can't say for anything that much past the first series) there were a couple of episodes where there were normal animals, like this one thing where they were at an aquarium and there were normal fish.

And when they eat meat....just....what?

 

[AstylahAthrys]

Halo.

The problem with it is that, for the most part, the extended universe and games are so consistent with lore than a tiny little problem looks like a Slipspace drive just went supernova.

By established canon, the anime Homecoming can not be canon.

THERE WAS NO SPARTAN II WITH THE NUMBER DESIGNATION OF 303.

There were only 75 Spartan IIs that eventually made it to the augmentation process. That's half of the original 150 that started the program, but that shows that they were only numbered from 1-150. There were originally supposed to be 300 (part of the reason Halsey named it the Spartan project) but that still puts the highest possible number at 300, not 303.

This made Babysitter my least favorite of the animes when on all accounts it was actually very good.

The same problem made Reach very hard to accept as canon. (Though on a lighter note in regards to that, it's hilarious to see exactly how much 343i hates Reach.)

Also, I've recently become a bigger fan of the concept of comic book universes (specifically Marvel, for obvious reasons, though I do love thegoddamnbatman) but I know I'll never be able to read the comics because of how many inconsistencies and retcons and alternate universes and one shots and OMGWTF

It's too much. I'll stick to the movies.

There is so much about this post I can relate to, but I can explain the Halo stuff, at least.

The way it was explained before Halo Legends came out was that it is not canon, it is interperations of canon. Essentially, it's glorified fanfiction. (Aslo, there were 150 candidates, 75 that made it in, so 303 is even MORE impossible.) As for Reach, a lot of it was explained in the Halsey journal, so it's not *quite* as bad, but Carter being way too old to be a S-III makes no sense. At least the Cortana thing is explained (what Nobel 6 is carrying is a fragment, not the whole Cortana.)

And Marvel comics! Agh! I'm in the same boat. I fell in love with X-Men after watching First Class, then going back and watching the first two movies, plus some of the animated stuff (haven't watched III or Wolverine.) I tried to look up where to start in reading comics and FUU it's so confusing! I have absolutely no idea where the crap I should even start.

I actually plowed quite a bit through Thor, but the changes in the movies made it so much better than the comics. I absolutely hate the Donald Blake alternate persona, and though the Thor/Jane relationship made more sense in the comics, it's abandoned so early on for Thor/Sif that it doesn't even matter. (I like that, though. I freaking love Sif.) I guess I just found the comics to be kind of campy in the end. Thor comes off as a bit of a dope in the comics, while in the movies he's grandiose and awesome, though not assimilated to our culture. Abandon Jane sometime in Thor 2 and life will be good.

Ha. Captcha is "thunder storm." Thor. Thunder. Lightning. Ha.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Halo.

The problem with it is that, for the most part, the extended universe and games are so consistent with lore than a tiny little problem looks like a Slipspace drive just went supernova.

By established canon, the anime Homecoming can not be canon.

THERE WAS NO SPARTAN II WITH THE NUMBER DESIGNATION OF 303.

There were only 75 Spartan IIs that eventually made it to the augmentation process. That's half of the original 150 that started the program, but that shows that they were only numbered from 1-150. There were originally supposed to be 300 (part of the reason Halsey named it the Spartan project) but that still puts the highest possible number at 300, not 303.

This made BabysitterEDIT: TOTALLY MEANT TO SAY "HOMECOMING" HERE my least favorite of the animes when on all accounts it was actually very good.

The same problem made Reach very hard to accept as canon. (Though on a lighter note in regards to that, it's hilarious to see exactly how much 343i hates Reach.)

Also, I've recently become a bigger fan of the concept of comic book universes (specifically Marvel, for obvious reasons, though I do love thegoddamnbatman) but I know I'll never be able to read the comics because of how many inconsistencies and retcons and alternate universes and one shots and OMGWTF

It's too much. I'll stick to the movies.

There is so much about this post I can relate to, but I can explain the Halo stuff, at least.

The way it was explained before Halo Legends came out was that it is not canon, it is interperations of canon. Essentially, it's glorified fanfiction. (Aslo, there were 150 candidates, 75 that made it in, so 303 is even MORE impossible.) As for Reach, a lot of it was explained in the Halsey journal, so it's not *quite* as bad, but Carter being way too old to be a S-III makes no sense. At least the Cortana thing is explained (what Nobel 6 is carrying is a fragment, not the whole Cortana.)

The S-IIIs had a much more varied requirement set, so you could claim that he was the exception. For whatever reason. That's the best I can give. At least they made him part of Alpha company.

And as for Legends, that's the thing... obviously, games take precedent (making Evolutions Paradise Hotel not only an absolute shit story but just as impossible as Homecoming) but everyone is supposed to be canon. That's what Greg Bear said he loved about the Halo universe- there's no "secondary canon" or "tertiary canon" like the god awful Star Wars extended universe.

Guess some stuff does take a back seat, but what really sucks is that Homecoming was acknowledged in the adjunct section of I think The Fall of Reach.

But hey, at least what DOES work with the Halo universe works WELL.

Now if you'll excuse me while I finish reading First Strike to catch myself up on everything in anticipation of Halo 4

 

[The Pinray]

Scooby Doo - How can the gang afford all the gas and amenities to support their traveling lifestyle? Is Daphnie a trust fund baby? Do they work part time when not solving mysteries? Or do they get paid off camera for solving the mysteries? I just don't get it.

Dora The Explorer - How the hell is it okay for that little girl to travel such far distances with just a talking backpack, a talking map, and a talking monkey? Are her parents insane?

Barney - So who is Barney exactly? Is he a stuffed toy that comes to life, or some sort of spirit that possesses the toy? How can the toy gain that much mass? Or is he just a figment of the kid's imagination as the song says? If so, how is he caught on camera? Makes no sense.

The Backyardigans - Do those kids ever go to school? I mean, they are always out playing. Do their parents just not care?

Mickey Mouse Club House - Why hasn't Pete gone to jail or been banished yet? He's always causing trouble and it's beyond obvious that he's never going to change, yet for some reason they keep the bastard around. Are they really that forgiving? Or just dumb?

 

[Lovely Mixture]

In the Castlevania series (not including Lords of Shadow) Dracula is defeated every 100 years or so. But in Symphony of the Night (1797) his spirit seemed at peace after talking with Alucard, and 1999 and 21st century conflicts seem to deal with more the existence of Dracula's power rather than Dracula himself. Yet we still have five games between 1797 and 1999 where he is revived and angry at humanity without mention of his talk with Alucard.

[HEADING=2]Halo.[/HEADING] Did we really need there to be prehistoric space faring humans? Did we? I didn't think we did, but whatever.

This, seriously this. I never much cared for the Halo-verse after Halo 3, but I after I heard about that I felt Halo was jumping the shark.

[HEADING=2]Mass Effect.[/HEADING] So in all this time with mass effect technology, they never advanced? Sovereign said that the relays were meant to guide civilization's technology in such a way as was desirable, but in the thousands of years they had access to this technology, they never moved beyond it? Not even strictly speaking improving, but diverging. Any semblance of an arms race just ended? I dunno, I'd just expect someone to think, "Maybe I should make a gun that goes right through those shields..."

This is a good question, though I always just assumed Mass Relay tech was the pinnacle of technology.

 

[DeltaEdge]

The To Aru Majutsu No Index universe. Just some of the techinical aspects of how powers, or more specifically, how power cancellation works. **Spoilers ahead** Whenever Touma uses imagine breaker to cancel magic, it's important to remember that it's only in his right hand. How on earth does stretching his right hand out to cancel magic protect his entire body from magical blasts when it's clearly shown the the imagine breaker's range is very limited. Realistically, Touma should've been scorched to death in the second episode when style filled up the entire corridor with flames, yet somehow his right hand cancelled all of it, even parts that it couldn't reach, and this doesn't always seem to work. Sometimes all of it gets cancelled, sometimes it doesn't... This just bugs me. Also bugs me that when Accelerator was battling Kihara, he acted as if reflection was his only ability. He has vector change, so at any time during the fight he could have just sent a chunk of the floor flying at Kihara and annihilated him, or, heck, he could've even thrown a freaking building at him, I mean, he actually threw a building earlier in the season! Seriously, the way he fought during that fight blatantly ignoring all his other powers besides reflection was purely to advance the plot.

The only one I can think of atm is pokemon.

Basically
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=282


They're kids...

That one nails everything down about pokemon. Also, theres no "normal" animals in the pokemon world... which means they eat pokemon. All pokemon are sentient beings on (almost) same intellectual level as humans, if not higher... disturbing...

As for Pokemon, and what they eat in pokemon, I have two ideas about that. One, they have animals, they just almost never show up, or they are all enslaved in underground captivity. Or if they eat pokemon, just shows that people will still eat regardless of whether what they are eatin is sentient. Just because pokemon are sentient, it doesnt eliminate the need to eat. Just a possible grim reality of pokemon. And in the early eps, they did think about eating a magicarp. just putting that out there...
Edit: There are some normal animals in pokemon. The aquarium in the cerulean city gym in the anime in the first season had normal non-pokemon fish inside it. I'm leaning toward the idea that real animals just get no screen time and are only commercially farmed, so you won't find em in the wild, just in farms, and this is actually starting to sound to realistic to me, so I'm going to stop here.

 

[Josh123914]

Here's a basic one about Doctor Who that was actually brought up in an episode but was never really given a good explanation: If a planet was getting invaded and you don't have enough time to prepare, why doesn't the Doctor go back about 2 weeks and just warn everyone?

because he is not allowed to interfere with events that have a fixed or set timeline.

The Waters Of Mars says hello, actually nevermind, Doctor Who is one of those series that we'd be here discussing what is and what isn't a plot hole until next year.

 

[Gizmo1990]

The underaged wizard/witch Trace in Harry Potter.

Does it work based on the person's home, in which case, why does Harry not get in trouble in book 6, when Dumbledore uses magic willy-nilly to annoy the holy fuck out of the Dursleys? And why is he, Ron, and Hermione so worried about his using magic before he officially turns 17 in book 7?

Does it work based on the person him/herself? If so, why does Harry get in trouble for Dobby's (NON-WIZARD) magic when Dobby isn't even standing close to him in book 2? And why then did they say that in Wizarding homes, the parents are entrusted with ensuring their kids don't use magic during holidays?

...just a little consistency, please!

If we start pointing out plot holes, inconsistencies and things that just do not make any sence in Harry Potter we are going to be typing for a good couple of days. For example Dumbledore knew about Voldemort's soul things for how may years and did NOTHING. Voldemort was less than a ghost for 10 years why the hell did Dumbledore not trak them down and destroy them while Vlodemort was unable to stop him?

 

[Evil Smurf]

Here's a basic one about Doctor Who that was actually brought up in an episode but was never really given a good explanation: If a planet was getting invaded and you don't have enough time to prepare, why doesn't the Doctor go back about 2 weeks and just warn everyone?

because he is not allowed to interfere with events that have a fixed or set timeline.

The Waters Of Mars says hello, actually nevermind, Doctor Who is one of those series that we'd be here discussing what is and what isn't a plot hole until next year.

why a year?

 

[Josh123914]

Here's a basic one about Doctor Who that was actually brought up in an episode but was never really given a good explanation: If a planet was getting invaded and you don't have enough time to prepare, why doesn't the Doctor go back about 2 weeks and just warn everyone?

because he is not allowed to interfere with events that have a fixed or set timeline.

The Waters Of Mars says hello, actually nevermind, Doctor Who is one of those series that we'd be here discussing what is and what isn't a plot hole until next year.

why a year?

timey-wimey-wibbley-wobbley......... stuff

CAPTCHA: silence is golden.
indeed.

 

[R0cklobster]

The universe in Iron Sky is pretty retarded. They completely glossed over how people could manage to live on the moon for 70 years without any food or water, or even how they got there in the first place.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Star Wars. Anakin should not be able to adjust from a desert planet to a planet that's basically a giant sponge that easily. Speaking of which, how does it make sense for Naboo to have a core that you can just swim through?

 

[IamQ]

Middle-Earth: There are humans, hobbits, elves and dwarves, but the ones who invent dynamite are the orks? What?

I mean, the others have gandalf. Hes lived thousand of years, surely he would know something that could help with the invention of it?

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

First thing that came to mind is Grand Theft Auto. Now, GTA isn't that fictional, but it exaggerates a lot of things that exist in the real world. And if they're going to exaggerate, could they please exaggerate the number of motorcycles on the road? I don't want to drive a sedan, I want a motorcycle!!

^this applies to all GTA games.

Also, I love me some Harry Potter, but the magic in those stories has more holes than swiss cheese. Seems like J. K. Rowling just created spells or "rules" whenever they were convenient. And the Deathly Hallows can go bury themselves in a hole...still great books, just nitpicks...

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Middle-Earth: There are humans, hobbits, elves and dwarves, but the ones who invent dynamite are the orks? What?

I mean, the others have gandalf. Hes lived thousand of years, surely he would know something that could help with the invention of it?

Sarumon "invented" it not the Uruk Hai. The Uruk Hai are like super Orcs anyway; more intelligent and more physically perfect.

Sarumon, like Gandalf, is not actually human they are Maiar [http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Maiar] and they are expressly commanded to "They were forbidden to dominate the peoples of Middle-earth or to match Sauron's power with power" a command which Sarumon breaks and invents (or at least creates something he already knew how to do) gunpowder.

Gandalf has previously been using gunpowder for fireworks for displays in the Shire don't forget.

For more Lord of the Rings nitpicking:

Why did Treebeard fell for the whole going South instead of West thing, when the Shire is Northwest from Fangorn Forest? How would going South help? They would have to go all the way around the outside of the forest again.

Why did Sauron's entire domain (his towers and such) fall apart when his spirit was banished by the ring being destroyed when they are actually old cities of Gondor and not some wierd tower held together by his will?

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

The universe in Iron Sky is pretty retarded. They completely glossed over how people could manage to live on the moon for 70 years without any food or water, or even how they got there in the first place.

Just throwing this out there, wasn't Iron Sky a pretty obvious parody? I'm not sure it was meant to make enough sense for nitpicks (because we could question various details like the thermal heating on the darkside of the moon, why half the Aryan's had brown hair not blond and why they apparently made no effort to monitor what was happening down on Earth to learn details about things like... well... nukes)

Dr Who question though, why do the Dalek's KEEP coming back. They've been definitely killed like 4 times since the series restarted.