Editing Forum:Timeline & Legacy

{{Forum|The Situation Room}}

One area of the timeline which doesn't quite add up is the setting of Legacy. Regardless of what years you set each season, the relative timeline dictates when Live Another Day ends, we are 2 years and 2 months from the next election. However, the official line sets Legacy 3 full years after LAD. The relative timeline holds 3.5. Either way, that is far too soon on the campaigb trail for ads to be running, even by today's standards.

I see 3 options to resolve. Using the years on the relative timeline, one is to have it be March to September 2022, within the next election year. That would also shorten Tony's time in prison from 8 years to 6. I tend to favor this option.

The others are to extend Legacy further to the 2026 election. I dislike this simply to avoid going further into the future than is necessary.

You could also slide the events in between Day 8 and LAD, putting it within Heller's 2018 election year. That means Tony now spends 3 years in solitary. It also goes against the creator's intentions since we know had Legacy been renewed, Donovan would have been President.

[[Special:Contributions/2600:1016:B022:A580:C0A:4802:7A1B:6743|2600:1016:B022:A580:C0A:4802:7A1B:6743]] 17:36, November 27, 2017 (UTC)

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:I don't see the point of torturing ourselves to make sense of something that the writers never put an ounce of care or thought into. (Which applies to literally everything about Legacy, but I digress...) All we have in the show or otherwise is "three years" so three years it is.--[[User:Pyramidhead|Pyramidhead]] ([[User talk:Pyramidhead|talk]]) 19:49, November 27, 2017 (UTC)
::In order to not contradict in-universe dialogue, the correct option would be 2026. However, it is never unambiguously stated that ''every single'' presidential election happens every 4 years in the ''24'' universe (4 years is mentioned as being the term length in some cases, but how are we to know an election wasn't called early or late?), so as you say, to avoid going too far into the future the only unambiguous dialogue says that Legacy happens ''at least'' 3.5 years after LAD.--[[User:Acer4666|Acer4666]] ([[User talk:Acer4666|Talk]]) 22:56, November 28, 2017 (UTC)

While they never explicitly state no special elections, they never verify one, either, and all explicit references to time passed supports 4-year election cycles UNTIL Legacy. The truth is no version of the timeline you can make gets away without ignoring SOMETHING. For example, if you just adopt the "Perpetual Now" from the show runners you can construct a mostly reasonable timeline with room for all Presidents, BUT you're creating multiple special elections along the way AND fudging almost every reference to time passed in the show. That or you call it a "sliding" timeline like a comic book, but doing that eventually places Day 1 in 1996. Anyway, the premise of my original post was in support of one of the few consistent things the show seemingly presented.

[[Special:Contributions/2600:1016:B028:9695:DD10:E652:C8FC:97EF|2600:1016:B028:9695:DD10:E652:C8FC:97EF]] 19:15, November 29, 2017 (UTC)
::I guess the challenge we have to present you with is: please provide incontrovertible proof, sourced from the show, that four years passed between the election of James heller and the election of his successor--[[User:Acer4666|Acer4666]] ([[User talk:Acer4666|Talk]]) 22:11, November 29, 2017 (UTC)

And my response to that is I'm not suggesting Heller's administration is over during Legacy. I think they picked 3 years because it had been 3 since LAD aired. Same reason they probably picked 4 for LAD. It had been 4 since S8 aired. Since they never show or name the President during Legacy, it could go either way. I suppose two things support it being further out. Tony's time in prison and Heller would be unlikely (I think) to run attack ads, but then we don't know what his VP was like if Heller stepped down in between. Shortening Tony's time in prison wouldn't be the first thing you HAVE to ignore to line things up - the age of Chloe's son for example - and it's a rare case in the show's timeline to pull things in versus push them out. To each their own with these things. Every fan will draw their own conclusions regardless of what is published on the site. I just thought it was worth bringing up as a frequent site visitor.

[[Special:Contributions/2601:547:C000:5F7B:6D34:2E40:637C:7F31|2601:547:C000:5F7B:6D34:2E40:637C:7F31]] 02:24, November 30, 2017 (UTC)
:OK so again, we would need definitive, in-universe proof to make changes based on what you're saying, because it would directly contradict dialogue from the show. The [[timeline]] page reflects the timeline according to proof from the show. I'm unclear on what the age of Chloe's son has to do with this?--[[User:Acer4666|Acer4666]] ([[User talk:Acer4666|Talk]]) 05:57, November 30, 2017 (UTC)

Prescott's age was just an example of a case where logic trumps dialogue. Back to the question at hand, and this I ask out of ignorance because I need to rewatch Legacy, when did they reference LAD at all in dialogue, let alone refer to time elapsed? And is it enough to ignore a 4 year election cycle whether discussing moving the events forward or backward?
:So between Day 7 and Day 8 is 18 months, and between Day 8 and LAD is 4 years - I cant recall the specific pieces of dialogue that confirms these. In [[24: Solitary]], it is mentioned that Tony has been in jail for 8 years, and in Legacy, Tony says he was in Yemen a year ago. That places Legacy at least 9 years after Day 7 - so if you take off the 5.5 year gap between Day 7 and LAD, you get at least 3.5 years between LAD and Legacy--[[User:Acer4666|Acer4666]] ([[User talk:Acer4666|Talk]]) 18:09, December 1, 2017 (UTC)