Retcon: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Comic book fans will be familiar with the term 'retcon', which in layman's terms means that the writer [[Hand Wave|waves his hand]] and tells you 'Remember when we said this? We screwed up, forget about that.'"''
|'''[[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]]''' on ''[[Highlander II The Sorcerer]]''.}}
'''Retroactive Continuity'''.
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While the term comes from [[Comic Book Tropes|comic books]], dating to ''[[All-Star Squadron]]'' #18 in 1983 and shortened to "retcon" by the end of the decade, the technique is much older. Often, it's used to serve a new plot by changing its context; however, it's also done when the creators are caught writing a story that violates continuity and isn't very plausible.
In [[Marvel Comics]], the person who pointed out the problem and at the same time provided a plausible explanation was awarded a [
See also [[Ass Pull]], which is something that was not properly set up before it is sprung on the audience. It is related to [[Deus Ex Machina]]. Some but [[Tropes Are Not Bad|not all]] retcons are [[Ass Pull]]s, and a good retcon can actually improve the current narrative. A good way to get away with a retcon is to reveal new implications or motivations for events that have already been established.
Smoother retcons won't be distinguishable as such, and can even make what was initially an [[Ass Pull]] later look like everything was [[
The retcon is considered by many to occur when current events contradict the past continuity of the series and is evidence of a [[Writer on Board]]. Perhaps more often, the retcon does not actually violate [[Canon]], but rather violates [[Fanon]], the set of [[Epileptic Tree|unstated interpretations usually made by the audience]]. (An interpretation violated this way is said to be [[Jossed]].) Most competent writers achieve a retcon by relying on a less-obvious but still perfectly valid interpretation of what was previously seen.
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' will forever hold the record for the fastest retcon ever thanks to the power of [[Fan Service
** So that happened in two weeks worth of real time (or however long it takes between manga chapters),
* Somewhere between volume 5 and 11 of the English-language ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'' manga, the average age of the protagonist's class gets bumped from 14 to 16.
** [[The Power of X Compels You!|The power of fan service compels you! The power of fan service compels you!]]
* The ''[[Gundam]]'' canon has a pretty significant number of these, but an extremely notable one is the Biosensor from ''[[Zeta Gundam]]''. Said to be a device that somehow increases a [[Humongous Mecha|mobile suit's]] power based on the pilot's Newtype abilities, the original series events that are attributed to this system are actually far more supernatural in nature. The Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam both have the apparent ability to channel the souls of the dead, as well as the pilot's own fury, to increase the power of the unit. The Biosystem explanation may have been added to keep the show closer to a [[Real Robot]] style of show, while still allowing these scenes to be unaffected.
** A bigger example would be the resolution of the series itself in the final [[Compilation Movie]], which not only changed the ending from a [[Downer Ending]] into a [[Bittersweet Ending]], but also potentially alters the course of two related sequels drastically (if not does away with them entirely). [[Yoshiyuki Tomino]], who created ''[[Gundam]]'' and directed the ''Zeta'' movies in specific, has said that he considers the movies an [[Alternate Reality]], but many fans like to believe that the movies shift the less-popular ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ|Gundam ZZ]]'' into [[Canon Discontinuity]] territory.
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*** In a similar vein, compare Las Noches before to how it has appeared more recently. Granted it WAS a rather long period of time since he had to do a shot of it, but there's no reason he couldn't reference it first. There's no explanation for the lower level and the absolutely massive towers around the perimeter of the place to be missing ''at all''.
** Now the villain of the recent arc can literally do this to people's lives. In fact, the only reason he was the main villain is because the real [[Big Bad]] wanted to be retconned into a good guy as part of his [[Evil Plan]].
* In the [http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2593929#post2593929 third Megami sound stage of] ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'', Hayate says that Fate is more of a sister to Vivio, and Nanoha says that while Fate loves Vivio, she is keeping some distance from her. In ''ViVid'', Vivio says she [[Has Two Mommies|still considers both of them her mothers]], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20111020210820/http://www.mangatoshokan.com/read/mahoushoujolyricalnanohavivid/815/1/13 Fate once refers to herself in the third person as "Fate-mama"] while talking to Vivio.
* In earlier manga chapters of ''[[Naruto]]'', Gaara had triple-pierced ears despite his automatic sand shield, which (almost always) prevents him from taking physical damage.
** The existance of the nine bijuu. During the chuunin exam arc, Shukaku was stated to have been a wind spirit and the soul of a mad priest, as well as not even being hinted as having any relation to Kyuubi. Hell, Kyuubi was described as a unique entity in the first chapter whose presence was described to have been like a minor apocalypse, not one of nine creatures that the Shodai gave away as gifts to other villages for 'joining the ninja village club'.
* Many manga, due to the grind of making deadlines, have minor changes between the magazine versions and the collected volumes, whether due to mistakes being made or the mangaka just deciding things work better when done a slightly different way. ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', due to its intricate storyline and use of various foreign languages, probably has more than most. One particular example is that the posted "birthdate" of the title character changed from the fairly vague "Summer 1993" to the even more vague "1994" between the magazine version of Chapter 10 and the publication of Volume 2. This works as a [[Revision]], as it renders Negi's in-story usage of a [[wikipedia:East Asian age reckoning|historical Japanese method of age reckoning]] correct, but also makes determining his actual age more difficult.
* The ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'' movie was meant to end the story, so {{spoiler|the ending has many core crew members, including Kodai and Yuki, dead with the Yamato destroyed in a suicide charge}}. After fan outcry, the movie was adapted into the second season TV series with a different ending {{spoiler|so that the ship is not destroyed and most crew members live.}} Several movies and a third TV season later, the second movie is just claimed never to have happened.
* In ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'', Agon's hair is a walking retcon. In one flashback to his 10th grade year he had short blonde hair and in another he had incredibly long dreads. In middle school, depending on whose reminiscing, Agon either had short thick dreads, long thick dreads, short thin dreads, or shoulder-length blonde hair.
* A couple instances in ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' such as Nirvana, which was initially drawns with 8 legs but suddenly had 6 when the method by which it had to be destroyed was determined. The characters explain this via [[Shrug of God]] in the Q&A section afterward. Then there's also {{spoiler|Lisanna not being dead}}, which, considering there was a burial, really can't be explained away.
* Early on in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', Liz Thompson briefly remembers her and Patty's [[Backstory]], saying that her life took a turn for the bizarre on that day that she got high and tried to mug a [[Shinigami]] (Kid). A couple dozen chapters later, it's instead revealed that Kid came to New York specifically to recruit the Thompson sisters as his weapons, no mugging involved. They went along for the ride, at least initially, to milk him for all the money and convenience he could provide them, before [[Becoming the Mask|coming to admire him for real]].
* At the end of the Mirrodin novels of the [[Magic: The Gathering]] world, {{spoiler|Glissa activates the Soul Traps and sends all of the inhabitants of the plane back to their original homes, leaving only her, Slobad and Geth's head on Mirrodin to act as wardens for the Mirari.}} When the plane was rivisited years later in the Scars of Mirrodin block, this was retconned so that {{spoiler|only those who weren't born on Mirrodin were returned to their original planes, and that the "native" Mirrans had been left behind.}}▼
== Comic Books ==
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* So that one of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' wouldn't end up [[Moral Event Horizon|committing Genocide]], Jean Grey was rewritten so that she was never Phoenix and she never died on The Moon. It was the Phoenix Force itself, who took on Jean's appearance and memories (Quasi-confirmed in a later issue of ''What If..?'' which showed what would have happened if "Jean" had had her powers stripped rather than committing suicide). Has been retconned several times since then, the latest{{when}} version is that it ''was'' Jean on the Moon. How she ended up in Jamaica Bay a few years after that isn't accounted for.
** Plus becoming Phoenix in the first place was a retcon. Xavier basically went "Oh, she had this powerful other self in her the whole time, that I just sealed away."
** From an ''[[X-Men]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL6J7FJmy1c fan-parody film] on Magneto's retcon survival: "No, that was actually Xorn's twin brother possessed by the sentient mold Sublime, pretending to be me, pretending to be Xorn." As crazy as that sounds, the parody writer is not making that up.
{{quote|'''Beast:''' That defies all logic!}}
** "Hey guys, there was a secret team of X-Men that I, Professor Xavier, sent off to their deaths. I really didn't mention it before because I thought that it would have been far too depressing for you guys, and because I am the biggest bastard on the planet. Now go on out there and save that world that both hates and fears us!" (''X-Men: Deadly Genesis'' seemed like it was designed for the sole purpose of smearing Professor Xavier's reputation.)
*** It should be noted the original story ''clearly stated'' the reason why Xavier even decided to gather an all-new team of mutants to rescue the first ''instead of asking for help from their various superhero allies'' was that the Living Island was telepathically messing with
* [[Superman]]: His origin, early years, and powers have been revamped a ridiculous number of times just in "official" comic book continuity (and not counting in-story changes). Probably the most notable and drastic example took place in John Byrne's
** That last retcon is also notable for ''[[Continuity Snarl|completely borking]]'' the continuity of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' comic, since the eponymous Legion was introduced in the
*** The ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' was then rebooted again in 2001, and then retconned ''again'' in 2007 back to a variant on the original continuity, with some adjustments. By this point, alternate timelines, retcons, and reboots are a fact of life for Legion fans.
** Another major Superman retcon that most people don't know about is his attitude. Siegel and Shuster originally wrote him as very rough and aggressive. On one occasion he kidnapped a slumlord, trapped the man in one of his own shoddy buildings, and threatened to collapse the whole structure on top of the guy if he didn't promise to improve conditions for his tenants. He also "accidentally" snapped the neck of a wife beater. A far cry from the Big Blue Boy Scout we all know and love today.
* Happens even worse to Superman's cousin, [[Supergirl]]. Not only have there been ''four'' separate versions, but the modern version's history became so convoluted on its own that Sterling Gates just
* In another notable comic-book retcon, [[Batman]] is now known as a superhero who refuses to use a gun or to kill (well, most of the time). This was not true in the first year or so, although he didn't actually kill humans very often and most villains died from [[Karmic Death]]. See [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]].
** Batman has enough to fill the list. One of the most notable concerns events in the story arc Hush. The titular villain appears revealed as {{spoiler|long dead Robin Jason Todd}}, before he turns out to be an imposter (and not the real Hush, at that). Later, a ret con revises the story so that {{spoiler|it was a resurrected Todd after all, but he escaped to be replaced by the imposter mid-battle}}.
* The ''[[Spider-Man]]'' stories "[[One More Day]]" and "Brand New Day" infamously altered twenty years worth of continuity by erasing Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage from continuity. This happened because Spider-Man saved his aunt's life by making a deal with Mephisto, a "demon" character typically used as the [[Marvel Universe]] stand-in for the Devil.
** Not that before was any picnic. Like with JMS's "Spider-Totem" story, implying that there was fate or something profound lingering over Spider-Man's simple origin story.
** The infamous ''[[Clone Saga]]'' had to muck around with continuity so much (both because of its initial premise and because of the unholy mess it later became) that at one point they had to dedicate an entire special double-sized issue to retconning away a ''previous retcon''.
* Back at DC, the revamp of Firestorm in the late '80s when John Ostrander took over. This was the start of the idea of the "Firestorm Matrix," and culminated in the character going from nuclear man to fire elemental. Oh, and by the way, the nuclear power plant explosion that fused Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein? That was not just fate, not just a coincidence. You see, Stein was singled out to be the "true" Firestorm/Fire Elemental all along!
** Which led to Ronnie and Mikhail Arkadin leaving the Matrix and Stein entering it to bring Firestorm to his "pure" form to fight the villain Brimstone. Raymond would later return as "classic" Firestorm in the '90s with Stein as Elemental Firestorm as a separate character. Then when Jason Rusch became Firestorm, Stein returned somehow in humanoid form.
* The fastest turnaround in retcon history may appear in ''Uncanny X-Men Annual'' #2. Serving as both a prequel and installment to [[Crisis Crossover|Dark Reign]], it does away with Namor being presented as a skeevy, smelly, creepy old man by turning the dialogue between him and Emma subtly flirtatious. Shame he couldn't do anything about Emma being written as a valley girl.
* [[Wolverine]]'s claws originally ''appeared'' to be part of his glove, so the revelation that they were part of his body may or may not be considered a retcon. Later X-rays of his arms clearly showed that the claws were implants with mechanical housings and an extension/retraction mechanism. When it was later "revealed" that his claws were a natural part of his skeletal system, the conflict with the earlier x-rays was never mentioned.
** Similarly, Wolverine's eternal [[The Rival|rival]] Sabertooth first appeared in ''Iron Fist'' as a psychopathic human murderer who wore clawed gloves.
** In his early ''X-Men'' appearances, Wolverine's skeleton was said to be reinforced with ''strips'' of adamantium. The current incarnation has the adamantium fused throughout his bones at a molecular level.
* In issue #34 of ''[[Deadpool]]'', it is revealed that Deadpool is not actually Wade Wilson, but stole the identity from the man who would become T-Ray. This was later retconned in such a senseless, ham-handed way into a trick by T-Ray to mess with Deadpool's head that most fans didn't even remember it until it was restated in ''Cable & Deadpool''.
* Despite the fact that [[Batman/Characters|Cassandra Cain's]] entire upbringing was a never
* Writers for ''[[Fantastic Four]]'' initially couldn't decide whether or not the title characters kept their identities secret through [[Clark Kenting]]. The retcon was a combination—they ''thought'' their identities were secret, [[The Not-Secret|and everyone else was humoring them]].
* A rather controversial retcon happened in the ''[[Green Lantern]]'' series. When DC wanted to reimagine the series, Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern) {{spoiler|pulled a [[Face Heel Turn]] and became a super-villain named Parallax, who killed all the other Green Lanterns. Then, he turned back to Face in time to sacrifice himself to save the world.}} After this, Hal was replaced by Kyle Rayner. Kyle brought an upswing in sales for the book for some time, but eventually DC decided to bring Hal back. In order to smooth over his {{spoiler|Face Heel Turn}} with fans, it was revealed that {{spoiler|he never was actually evil, he was possessed by a cosmic being of fear named Parallax.}}
** This change was also another entry in the long list of retcons of the Green Lantern's "yellow weakness." First, Green Lantern was weak against the color yellow because of a necessary impurity in his power, then it was revealed that the restriction wasn't necessary at all, it was something artificial the Guardians imposed on the Green Lanterns to keep them from going power-crazy. When Kyle became the only Green Lantern, the yellow impurity was removed. In ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'' it was retconned so that the yellow impurity was caused by {{spoiler|the alien entity Parallax being trapped inside the Central Power Battery that gave all the Green Lanterns their power, and Kyle didn't have the yellow weakness because Parallax had been set free by Hal.}} Since then, the current manifestation of "the yellow impurity" is that the Green Lantern can only use his power against the color yellow if he knows the (most current retconned) source of the yellow impurity, and consciously overcomes his fear.
* ''[[Star Wars]]: Jedi vs. Sith'' is basically an official [[Fix Fic]] that fits together disparate elements from the Prequel trilogy that conflict with the original trilogy (1,000 years vs. 1,000 generations for the Republic), elements from the Prequel trilogy that conflict with each other, the Valley of the Jedi from [[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Knight II]], some novellas that were in part ''themselves'' retcons for the [[Dark Forces Saga]], among other things.
* A rather controversial retcon by the same author as the [[Green Lantern]] example was in ''[[The Flash
** Another Flash Retcon involved Wally West asking
* In the Disney Comics, The Phantom Blot's identity was retconned to be a complete mystery, in the first issue he appeared in, not only was his face seen, but his face resembled {{spoiler|''[[Walt Disney]]''}}, arguably, this was a good decision, giving the Blot an air of mystery.
* Deconstructed in Bates and Weisman's post-Crisis relaunch of ''[[Captain Atom]]'' for DC, in which the eponymous hero ([[Anti-Hero]]? Protagonist?) has one origin, which the military covers up, instead publicizing a "false" origin, which ''was'' Cap's pre-Crisis Charlton origin. Later on, when Cap lost his powers temporarily, he wore the costumes that he had worn in the Silver Age, because, after all, the public in-story would be familiar with those costumes, having been told he used to wear them.
* When the 3.75" ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' figures first sold, GI Joe was envisaged as an American anti-terrorist task force. When they were made available in the UK, they were sold under the name ''Action Force''. They were accompanied by a comic of the same name which established that Action Force was an international anti-terrorist organisation, of which GI Joe was the name of the American branch.
* DC's 1991 event ''Armageddon 2001'' turned out to be a huge mess at the end of the day (isn't it always?) and a major source of [[Character Development]] for one Hank Hall (Hawk of ''Hawk and Dove''), which continued through Zero Hour until his death in the pages of the 2000s [[Justice Society of America]] relaunch. It also had the nasty effect of [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|unceremoniously killing off the second Dove (Dawn Granger)]] in a cheap shock scene. However in the later pages of JSA, a big retcon by Geoff Johns would unfold: The woman who the JSA thought was a comatose Lyta Hall turned out to actually be Dove disguised by Mordru in some strange concealment spell (apparently they had to retcon Lyta to Dove at the time due to some issue with Vertigo too). [[Your Mileage May Vary]] if the retcon was successful or not, as the explanation was quite convoluted and Squick: {{spoiler|Monarch did not actually kill Dove, Mordru simply made an illusion to make Hawk think she was dead. Then Mordru possessed Hawk and made him rape the [[And I Must Scream|comatose yet still aware]] Dove, impregnating her with his child. So Dove was kept concealed and pregnant for who knows
** After her return, Dawn then mysteriously gained a younger sister named Holly, however this change was received even worse due to it contradicting various things in the '80s ''Hawk and Dove'' series, including Dawn being an only child and the powers being unable to pass on to anyone else. Unsurprisingly, Holly wound up becoming [[C-List Fodder]] down the line as it seems no writer could figure out what exactly to do with her or how to portray her.
* The Marvel Comics Micronauts were inexplicably brought back to life in a 1996 episode of ''Cable''. This was exactly ten years after they sacrificed themselves to create a Genesis effect that completely restored their ruined Homeworld into a new world at a natural state. In ''Cable'', Homeworld is inhabited by Psycho-Man who is using Baron Karza's old body banks to create dog soldiers.
** Commander Rann, Mari, and Bug are now the only Micronauts. For licensing reasons, they are now called called The Microns; the others having died in war (Marvel no longer has the license to use Acroyear and most of the others. Huntarr's absence is baffling since he was created by Bill Mantlo, the writer of the first ''Micronauts'' series).
** Homeworld is once again an overpopulated technometropolis and the Microns are freedom fighters. Homeworld is again under the iron fist of someone who probably has to remain unnamed due to licensing restrictions.
** In a never released story (again due to licensing), Baron Karza and Thanos have a fight which merges all of the Microverses into one
** Rann and Mari's appearance and personality are different in every re-appearance. In ''Cable'', Rann is buff and heroic looking while Mari's look screams butch lesbian. And she seemed to have given up the swords for normal futuristic weapons. Then Rann and Mari are looking like their old selves in Captain Marvel, although they don't do much more than talk (kind of like a typical episode of ''[[Star Trek:
** Bug is now a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy and for some reason, he's normal human sized and not about 3 inches which is normal when Microversians travel to the regular Earth universe. Rann and Mari (who is once again inexplicably letting others call her Marionnete) have a robot sidekick named Carl (don't ask me) and their latest enemy is Son of Hulk. They journey
** At least in the [[Marvel Universe]] this kind of things can be easily explained away thanks to their * infinite* number of [[Alternate Reality|alternate universes]]. It is entirely possible that the current Micros are just not the originals and that they're as confused as to whom they're dealing with as the heroes are.
* Stephanie Brown died at the end of ''War Games'' as after she was tortured by BlackMask, Leslie Thompkins withheld vital medical treatment. Her autopsy photos were shown to prove the dangers of crime-fighting to Misfit. Batman never had a [[Shrine to the Fallen|memorial case]] for her because [[Word of God|"she was never really a Robin"]]. [http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=488 This wasn't a very popular decision]. [[Author's Saving Throw|Except]] she never died: Leslie faked everything because her secret identity was compromised, her body was switched with an overdose victim with a similar body type, and Batman knew this all along. Here's ''[[Walkyverse|Shortpacked!]]'' [http://www.shortpacked.com/blog/comic/book-7/01-dr-jan-itor/spoilerlives/ on the last one].
* In the Flemish
* ''Marvel: The Lost Generation'' is a twelve issue miniseries built entirely around retcon - specifically, filling in the blank in Marvel history from the 1955 to 1961.
* In the late 90's, when Chris Claremont once more began writing for
* As revealed in the 1980s title ''Monster Hunters'', minor 1940s Marvel [[Super Speed|speedsters]] Hurricane and Mercury were ''both'' Makkari of [[The Eternals]] under assumed names.
* On the other hand, ''[[Agents of Atlas]]'' eventually revealed that the [[Golden Age]] heroine Venus is, contrary to previous portrayals ''not'' the goddess of the same name. Aphrodite was not amused.
* The French comic series ''[[Dungeon: The Early Years|Donjon]]'' provides one of the best Retcons ever so far. In the very first issue of this [[Funny Animal]] gritty comic, the Dungeon Keeper has a look at a picture of his lost love who looks human. Then, in a prequel album, we see her alive under the traits of a snake. Then the authors showed a portrait painter picturing a bird lady as a human and explaining "it's a style that people like these days".
== Film ==
* An interesting example occurs in the film version of ''[[The Bourne Series (film)|The Bourne Ultimatum]]'': At the end of ''The Bourne Supremacy'', {{spoiler|Jason Bourne calls CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy, who reveals his real name, birthdate, and birthplace, before they arrange a meeting elsewhere in the city.}} This exact same scene occurs in the middle of ''Ultimatum'', after we learn {{spoiler|how she came across this information, before we learn that 1) the meeting was a diversion so Bourne could break into the CIA's headquarters and steal the documents he needed, and 2) the "birthdate" she gave him was actually a code for the address of the CIA facility in which Bourne was trained.}}
** This semi-twist has generally been referred to as "awesome" or thereabouts.
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequels possibly set the record for biggest number of ret-cons in a major motion picture series in the shortest screen time.
** In ''[[Star Wars]] Episode VI'', Leia tells Luke that she remembers her real mother; however in Episode III, we see that her mother (Padme) dies shortly after giving birth to both twins—thus either presenting a serious retcon, or else making Leia the most amazing infant-prodigy known in terms of early-childhood memory (particularly since Luke was born first, but remembers nothing).
** ...In Episode IV, Obi-Wan mentions that Anakin wanted Luke to have his lightsaber when he was old enough. However, unless Obi-Wan heard Anakin screaming something very different than what was said onscreen as he was being roasted alive on the shores of Mustafar, this is altered quite drastically in Episode III. Though some fans shrug it off with it being [[From a Certain Point of View]].
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** Hell, the original Star Wars trilogy had nearly as many retcons added to it: Vader becoming Luke's father rather than killing Luke's father, Leia becoming Luke's twin sister rather than a completely unrelated princess (and a few years younger than Luke to boot), Owen Lars going from Luke's biological uncle to Ben's brother (in deleted dialogue from ROTJ) to Anakin's stepbrother in the prequels just to name a few. (though all those were offscreen, as [[George Lucas]] kept changing his mind while writing)
** In turn, [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] also features innumerable amount of Retcons. However, they are generally very subtle, used to explain minor discrepancies. Though a few of them are still significant enough to affect ongoing storyline.
*** One of the few explicit and reader facing retcons occurred in the [[Living Force]] campaign. The "Republic military" was presented as a force of questionable morals in early modules till the organizers learned ''the Republic doesn't have a military''. There is an article apologizing and outright saying to replace these references with references to the military of Thaere, a member of the Republic tasked with protecting its neighboring Cularin system by the Republic.
* [[The Reveal]] towards the end of ''[[Lethal Weapon 2]]'' that the death of Riggs' wife was no accident but rather a botched attempt by the villains to kill Riggs himself back when he with Narcotics working at Long Beach.
* In ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', the T-Rex didn't eat Dr. Grant because it couldn't see nonmoving objects (in the book, this was in fact a result of splicing dinosaur DNA with frog DNA). In the sequel, this was retconned to rather be that Grant's theories on the T-Rex were wrong, and in fact it ignored him because it wasn't hungry.
* Kopa, Simba and Nala's son mentioned in the storybook ''The Lion King: Six New Adventures'', was ditched and replaced with Kiara in the sequel to ''[[The Lion King]]'' without explanation.
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Misery]]'', where Annie refuses to accept the first draft of Paul's new Misery novel because it contradicts known
* Hey, remember when Kyle Reece told Sarah Connor that "There is no fate, but what we make?", in the first ''[[Terminator]]'' movie? Yeah, me neither, but apparently that was the most important thing in the message he was supposed to deliver to her from ''John Connor'' in the future, so the second film makes sure to make us remember he said it, as this idea is a big part of the plot of ''[[Terminator 2]]''.
* At the end of ''[[Rocky (film)|Rocky]]'', Apollo Creed tells Rocky that he has no desire for a rematch. Cut to the beginning of ''Rocky II'' (which takes place that same night), and Apollo is so desperate for a rematch that he tries to get Rocky to fight him in the middle of the ER they were taken to for treatment.
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'', by virtue of being a [[Long Runner]], has a few discrepancies (including when the books actually take place) between the earlier books (such as Wyrd Sisters) and the later ones. Then [[Terry Pratchett]] went and Justified it all in ''[[
** Discworld history had {{spoiler|actually been shattered by the trapping of Time, creating the discrepancies.}}
** In a bizarrely creepy in-universe example, this is actually how the Auditors of Reality
* Somewhat similarly, the Xanth series began addressing early-book continuity issues by saying the magic-dust madness area was spreading and screwing with reality.
* Several in the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]]. A particularly good example: in [[Star Trek: Vulcan's Heart]], Romulus' capital was given the name Ki Baratan. It had previously been called Dartha, but that was in a story set a century prior. Later novels used the time gap for a reasonable Retcon: the capital's name changes as new regimes come to power. Now, books set in the 22nd or 23rd centuries use "Dartha", those set in the 24th use "Ki Baratan". The name change is explicitly mentioned in the first [[Star Trek: Titan]] novel. Another good example is the Andorian issue. The Andorians were initially portrayed somewhat differently between ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' and the [[Star Trek Deep Space Nine Relaunch]] novels, but later books
* In-verse example: ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' is hugely based off this trope. Big Brother can rewrite history at will, and the masses have to eat it up. Retconning is done at the Ministry of Truth, the protagonist's main place of work, and mainly consists of editing out people who fell from Big Brother's favor and were [[Unperson|"vaporized."]]
* In the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, later books (and short stories, although they are set earlier in the timeline) reveal that Honor is the result of genetic modification that gives her enhanced physical abilities and an increased metabolism. It raises issues about incidents in the early books she's described as accomplishing because of practice, training, and being raised on a higher-gravity world, instead of being inherently stronger and faster.
** In the first book, when the story of Pavel Young's attempted rape and its aftermath is mentioned, the resulting stomping of said aforementioned rapist-wannabe is given as due to her martial arts training and world of origin. In ''Field of Dishonor'', the winning of the duel is implied to be due to her rage and relentless practice. It's only well into later books that it's revealed she had a tad more of an edge than just the learned skills.
** Also, David Weber had to retcon the length of ships versus their weight, as he'd initially [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|neglected the Square-Cube law]], leaving the smallest warships about right but the biggest ones "[http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/12-HellHathNoFuryCD/HellHathNoFuryCD/GreatResizing.htm not quite as dense as cigar smoke]."
* From the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series: in ''[[Harry Potter
** In ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', Ginny Weasley is described as having green eyes, but in the seventh book we find out she has brown eyes, the same as her mother.
** In the first book Rowling had Voldemort tell Harry that his father "put up a courageous fight" before he died, and there was no reason for him to lie to Harry at this point (although it's not inconceivable that [[Unreliable Narrator|he was exaggerating]]). Seven books on, James Potter is killed in flashback without raising so much as a finger against Voldemort, though James did try to hold him off, but was killed quickly, having forgotten his wand.
*** YMMV considering that means Harry's father took on Voldemort ''without a wand'' knowing he would die but that the second it would take to kill him may be the second it would take to save his family's life. Many would believe that is damn courageous.
** Also Rowling made Flint, a character who is said to be in
** In an otherwise throwaway line in ''[[Quidditch Through the Ages]]'', powerful wizards are said to be able to Apparate across continents. Come ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (novel)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'', however, this is quietly retconned; Apparition is now said to have a range of effectiveness less than that of Western Europe, and even [[Big Bad|Voldemort]] is forced to fly "within range" of a certain location before he can Apparate.
* In the ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' series, the waterfall which separates the first and second precincts of Death is described as "getting louder" when an entity passes through it from the second to the first precinct in ''Sabriel'', but that is retconned in ''Lirael'' where an entity passing through causes the waterfall to go silent, and thus agreeing more with the idea that a pathway must be made through the waterfall by magic.
** A very confusing retcon occurs in regards to "Gore crows", bodies of dead birds reanimated with a single spirit. They are at first described as extremely dangerous due to many of the birds being able to overwhelm an individual, but later when Prince Sam kills one with his slingshot, the Disreputable Dog claims that the other gore crow, which took turns spying on the main party, would be killed because they are both linked to the same spirit. But if this were true, then the first description would not make sense, as as soon as the individual was able to kill one of the crows, the rest would perish.
*** There's a difference between making a part of a soul retreat from a body and banishing it to Death.
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* In a strange retcon of the events of the Trojan War, some poets contend that Helen never actually went to Troy and that Paris instead was tricked into abducting an illusion of her (don't ask). In another retcon, Helen is carried off by Paris but ends up being stranded in Egypt. Euripedes reconciles these two variations in his play ''Helen''. He also rewrote Trojan War history with his Iphigenia plays, crafting a scenario in which she survives the efforts to sacrifice her to the gods and has various misadventures while her father is off to war.
* The prequels to the ''[[Belgariad]]'' and Mallorean books do this to several different plot points. The most [[egregious]] example is that taking into account Silk's cameo towards the end of ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'', when he and Garion encounter Asharak in ''Pawn of Prophecy'', Silk should have recognised Asharak on sight, should have known that {{spoiler|"Asharak" was one of Chamdar's aliases}}, and should hence have realised that the fact that Asharak was poking around was highly significant and should be reported to Belgarath immediately. It's [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] with the implication that Asharak was [[Mind Rape|tampering with his mind]], but that still doesn't explain why ''Belgarath'' didn't react to the name.
▲* At the end of the ''Mirrodin'' novels
== Live
* The ''[[Studio C]]'' had a sketch called The Smiths. In it Mr. Smith's brother Barnabie wanted to kill Mr. Smith's family and take the farm so Barnabie could grow prescription drugs. In the sequel, [[Remember the New Guy?|we find out Mr. Smith has <s>-4-</s> 3 brothers]], who try to kill his family so they can have the farm and get the government subsidy. Which is inconsistent with the fact Barnabie wanted to grow prescription drugs on the farmland.
* ''[[Alias]]'' - "Hey you know the man you loved that died and you grieved over? Yeah, know he's alive remember, and we totally knew about it all the time, even though you cried lots in private over his loss."
* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise is a [[Shared Universe]] spanning [[Values Dissonance|more than forty years]], with writing of, to put it kindly, variable quality. Naturally, it has had many retcons:
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** In ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', [[The Mole]] Seska claimed to Chakotay that she impregnated herself by stealing his DNA. She also told Kazon leader Cullah, who she was sleeping with, that the baby was his. After the baby was born and was clearly a Cardassian/human hybrid with no Kazon-like features, Cullah was naturally pretty pissed off, which led us into the season ending cliffhanger. However, between seasons everyone decided that the Kazon weren't up to the job of being the show's big recurring bad guys they were envisioned as, much like the Ferengi on ''TNG'', so they decided to drop them from the show entirely. This involved Seska dying, and Cullah running away with the baby. Naturally, fans wouldn't accept Chakotay's kid being raised by the Kazon, however unwillingly he fathered it, so just before this the Doctor reveals it is actually Cullah's baby after all. The baby's appearance is [[Handwaved]] by saying there's never been a Cardassian/Kazon hybrid before so before now no one knew what one would look like, and it'll probably develop Kazon features as it ages.
** The two-part ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode, "Year Of Hell", plays [[Cosmic Retcon|retconning literally]]. the [[Big Bad]] has developed a weapon that lets him ''use'' retcons to change the timeline (while he himself is protected by [[Applied Phlebotinum]]). He first uses it to reverse a stunning defeat to his species... Only to discover he's accidentally retconned his beloved wife and daughter out of existence. He keeps trying. (Also provides a handy [[Reset Button]]: evidently, destroying his ship undoes all his Ret Cons... And [[Ramming Always Works]].)
** And then there's the question of currency, specifically whether the Federation uses any during the 23rd century. There is at least one mention of a crewmember "earning their pay" in a TOS episode, though that might have only been a colloquialism Kirk was using. In "The Trouble with Tribbles", we see what clearly looks like trade with a human salesman - it's hard to imagine that guy was just in the business of giving away these critters for free. Then by ''The Voyage Home'' Kirk has a quote about people in the 20th century "still using money", implying that they don't anymore. You might think that they stopped using money at some point between TOS and the fourth movie, but the tone and reactions in the scene seem to indicate the ''Enterprise'' crew is ''completely unfamiliar with the concept of currency'' - so the change wouldn't have occurred in their lifetime. And of course, by the TNG era, they pretty much beat us over the head with the fact that the Federation doesn't use money anymore (except for outside trades with other species, especially the Ferengi). ''Enterprise'' seems to hint that currency was abandoned when the Federation was first formed, a few years after the end of that series, but it's very vague about it. And then, to add further confusion, the 2009 movie has a scene that takes place in a bar, on Earth, that clearly seems to operate on capitalistic principles (not to mention the [[Nokia]] phone in Kirk's uncle's car). Now, ''that movie takes place in an alternate timeline'', but since the two timelines diverged on the day of Kirk's birth, it would mean that even in the original one, currency was still legal tender at least until that day. To sum it up, it seems like we're now just meant to vaguely accept that they've phased money out by the 24th century without asking too many questions about how they did it or the precise moment when they did.
*** Tongue-in-cheek [[Word of God]] suggests that Nokia and Budweiser have been nationalised.
*** Fairly easy to [[Hand Wave]] by pointing out that the existence of [[Matter Replicator|replicators]] and [[Projected Man|holographic crew members]] likely indicates a post-scarcity economy—any currency that would be used in one would likely have next to nothing in common with currency as we understand it today.
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* Although ''[[Scrubs]]'' doesn't usually do a lot of continuity, one of the later episodes has a [[Rule of Funny|throwaway joke]] where J.D.'s friends claim that he cannot see women wearing their wedding ring. If that is the case, how was he able to see Carla in the later half of the show (5-9), or T.C.W., for that matter...
** Another J.D.-related retcon is that in later season of Scrubs, he says he doesn't like beer. In the earlier seasons of Scrubs, however, he's clearly shown drinking beer in some episodes.
* Several in the reimagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** In the initial mini-series and first few episodes, humanoid Cylons are shown to have glowing spines during intercourse. However, this was officially retconned by producers when it was pointed out that Dr. Baltar already had an amazing Cylon detector. In his pants. Though note [[SyFy|Scifi Channel]] commercials for the second half of season 2, which show a spinally-luminated fetus. Also, in the commentary for the most recent webisodes, writer Jane Espenson mentions it was planned to depict Eight's spine glowing during sex with {{spoiler|Gaeta}} but the scene was rewritten for them to kiss instead. The novelization of the Miniseries says the glow isn't visible to the naked eye, but that book isn't Canon.
** In early episodes we learn that human Cylons had 'evolved' from the Centurions after the First Cylon War. Later there are a few hints that human models already existed before the war. Then, in the last ten episodes, it is revealed that {{spoiler|the ancients on Kobol first created artificial 'humans' thousands of years ago, and descendants of these same artificial humans had worked with the Centurions to create the new human models.}}
** Several characters are revealed to be Cylons
** In the miniseries, the audience learns that there are only twelve Cylon models that look like humans. These are gradually revealed over the series, the twelfth and final Cylon in "Sometimes A Great Notion"
*** This one is especially bad because {{spoiler|when it was first revealed, many fans took it as an explanation for what the hell Starbuck was after being apparently resurrected despite her dead body still being on Earth. Ron Moore was quick to deny this, as it was just thrown in as an explanation for why the number designations for the humanoid Cylons skipped number 7.}}
* In ''[[My Parents Are Aliens]]'' an episode showing how the aliens met the children shows that Brian and Sophie originally had disguises resembling the presenters of ''Crimewatch'' before changing into their familiar forms. Later in the series 7 finale they said that they stole the identities from the children's real uncle and aunt, also named Brian and Sophie.
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* ''[[Monk]]'' has had a couple involving Trudy's death. First, it's originally stated that Monk was there by Trudy's side as she died from the car bomb, but later episodes show he was across town. Additionally, Monk originally did not know that the reason she'd left that fateful day was to pick up medication for his brother Ambrose, and Ambrose personally blamed himself for her death as he felt that if she hadn't done so than maybe she'd still be alive. However, in a flashback to the day of her death in the series finale she specifically tells Monk she's picking up Ambrose's medication.
** Additionally, in one episode as part of a gang of Chinese criminals' plan to lead him to Monk, they attempt to trick him with fortune cookies. One of the fortunes states that he will receive money from an uncle, which Randy rebukes since he only has two aunts and no uncles whatsoever (it was actually referring to tax return money, the uncle in question being "Uncle Sam.") Two seasons later, another episode is kick-started with the death of Randy's uncle. Not only that, but Randy visited his farm several times as a kid.
== Professional Wrestling ==
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== Web Comics ==
* The king of all retcons is ''[[Sonichu]]''. The creator was trolled by people pretending to be [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], who was talking to the creator, Chris, about a game development. When this troll said that would be impossible to make a game based of fanwork, another troll, posing as a lawyer pretending to be [[Jay Z]], advised Chris to change several aspects of the comic. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101004191628/http://www.cogsdev.org/cwcki/Retcon What followed were so many terrible retcons, there's a whole Wiki about it.]
** The wierdest part is that the creator [[Face Palm|actually believed he was in contact with ShigeruMiyamoto and Jay Z the entire time.]]
* Several characters in ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'' were retconned, even having their bios deleted on the site. Though at first it looks like they were just [[Put on a Bus]] or [[Brother Chuck]]ed, if you mention any of these characters on the forum, [[Orwellian Editor|the creator, Tim Buckley, will ban you for life.]]
* R.H.Jr's 'Goblin Hollow' had the hell retconned out of it. It was once known as 'Under the Lemon Tree' and the Goblins were originally figments of Ben's imagination made real. It received a retcon changing the setting, and quite a few facts from the original, including how the goblins came to be.
* Parodied in an oddly confusing fashion by ''[[Evil, Inc.]]''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121101114702/http://www.evil-comic.com/archive/20080112.html See the strip here.]
* Nikki in ''[[The KAMics]]'' was [https://web.archive.org/web/20121018152934/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4771284/ told by the author that she was a fictional character without a name], was [https://web.archive.org/web/20121018152918/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4771292/ later named by a reader], then it was retconned that she was [https://web.archive.org/web/20121018152925/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4811123/ a sister to the ex-Valkyries Gertrude & Brunhilda & her name had always been Nikki & she didn't realize this because of amnesia].
* ''[[Erfworld]]'' eventually had to retcon a special ability given to one of the characters in its series. Funnily enough, it actually managed to successfully [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] this through the ironically-recursive introduction of a school of magic known as ''retconjuration''. (In an even more delicious twist of irony, this school retroactively replaced a school called Deletionism, which was, well... deleted.)
* ''[[Drowtales]]'' went through this once. Now the first episode has been redone the second time. While the new pages are [[Art Evolution|much better quality-wise]], and some of the plot make a lot more sense, many elements were removed, characters have been changed, and episodes were cut down to mere sketches of their former selves. Not to mention the mysteries the reader was left in the dark about for most of the original stories were also revealed retroactively, taking away the suspense that provided most of the enjoyment. The series also became [[Lighter and Softer]], and considering the world setting, that's not necessarily a good thing.
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** If one were so inclined, they could argue that a dwarf planet is a category of planet. We've got gas giants, after all, though this isn't nearly as precise a term as dwarf planet. Ultimately, though, it's a matter of scientific terms, much like the disparity between the scientific usage of theory and the common usage.
** The argument over the classification of Pluto mirrors that of Ceres, which was considered a planet when it was first discovered in 1801 but downgraded soon afterwards when other asteroids were found. It was reclassified as a dwarf planet at the same time as Pluto.
* In 1660, the restored Royalist regime in England declared that the eleven years of republican rule had been "invalid" since no monarch had been there to give assent to the various laws parliament had enacted. A legal fiction was created where Charles II's reign was backdated to 1649 and the 1649-1660 Cromwellian era was described not as a republic but as an "interregnum" (
** Charles was proclaimed king by the Scottish parliament only a few days after his father's execution, and was even crowned at Scone before he had to flee to the Continent, so technically, his reign could be described as beginning in 1649.
*** Which would only make him King of Scotland, meaning the throne of England was still vacant.
*
** And when Bonaparte's nephew Louis-Napoleon took over in 1852, the
* In the early hours of April 1, 1964, the Brazilian military took over in a coup d'etát and ushered in a 20
* Henry VII officially dated his reign from the day before the Battle of Bosworth, i.e., the day before he finally became the Last Man Standing in [[Wars of the Roses|a decades-long game of Kingmaker.]]
** This was a very smart move. He could then take land away from any lords who fought against him in the battle, as they were traitors opposing the king.
* Common practice in North Korea, especially about details regarding Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and [[The Korean War]]. One story of Kim Jong Il's birth was that North Korean soldiers stationed in the mountains near his claimed birth-site had a premonition that something wonderful was happening at the time he was born. To mark the occasion, they carved the date into a tree. This tree was then shown to visiting foreigners... until a Japanese botanist pointed out there's no way anyone could have carved something in that tree on that date because the tree was not that old and would not have existed. The tree was silently cut down and never referred to again.
* Some automobile magazines do not consider the Volkswagen Logus to be in continuity with the Ford Escort line, despite being related to it. Why say it's not related, when it uses an adaptation of the Ford Escort chassis?
* After [[World War II]], [[Les Collaborateurs|the Vichy Regime]] was retconned by French President François Miterrand (a member of [[La Résistance|the Resistance]]) into being nothing more than a fake government, while Charles de Gaulle was the true head of state all along. This does not prevent a lot of historians from wondering
* Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day after Thursday, 4 October 1582 would be not Friday, 5 October, but Friday, 15 October 1582, this was due to a miscalculation of days in the Julian calendar that had caused the Vernal Equinox to seemingly change from the traditional March 21 to March 11. Since the Church scheduled Easter based on the first day of Spring, the retcon was seen as necessary.
* Nobody remembers the [[wikipedia:Armenian
* Birthers retcon the teaching of U.S. naturalization law and civics, contending that they were always taught since childhood that a natural born citizen is someone born to two U.S. citizen parents. So far, nobody has been able to provide any sort of Civics or Law textbook published before 2008 that mentions this.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
▲[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Retcon]]
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