Before I started watching Star Trek, I had heard about it on the Big Bang Theory. The way it was talked about, I was expecting a franchise with very airtight and complex lore. In reality, it’s kind of a muddled mess. And really, it’s better the creators don’t worry too much about continuity, why let continuity get in the way of a good story? It doesn’t make sense that half the cast of the original series had encountered Trelane before but in the end, does it really matter?
Anyway, fans of big franchises who keep track of all the lore and act as though it’s all consistent, put way more thought into continuity than the creators.
It kind of started with Wind Waker which starts by telling the story of Ocarina of Time, which implies you’re fighting the same Ganondorf as Ocarina of Time.
Twilight Princess heavily implies a character is the ghost of hero of time, which in turn implies you’re fighting the same Ganondorf as Ocarina of Time. So after those games it kind of became expected that the games are connected in some weird way (same evil, different reincarnations of the same heroes).