Flip-Flop of God

""The author reserves the right to have a better idea.""

- Lois McMaster Bujold

Most of the time, the Word of God knows exactly what it's talking about. It's consistent. It's, well, Canon.

But sometimes, the Word of God can't quite make up its mind what to say. Maybe the writer hasn't decided what the right answer is, or the audience asked him a question he didn't think he'd have to answer at all. Maybe he actually changed his mind sometime after he gave the original answer. Sometimes, it's simply that the creator is a Lying Creator. Or the "creator" is actually a series of ghost writers as in some franchise series and Depending on the Writer don't do a great job of keeping the character consistent. Either way, a Flip Flop Of God is when the Word of God contradicts itself somehow. The fundamental unreliability this reveals—any author, at any time, might commit this trope—can be considered an argument in favor of the Death of the Author.

Different from Retcon, because Retcons are changes to something that happens in the story, instead of the Word of God. When the author refuses to outright answer a question, it's a Shrug of God. Also different from a flip-flop worn by an in-universe god, or a god that's made of flip-flops.

Anime and Manga

 * The creator of Ah! My Goddess has done some flip-flopping over what the correct translation of the title is (namely, whether the first word should be "Ah" or "Oh").
 * Rumiko Takahashi (in)famously replied to the "Pregnant Ranma" problem by saying, "I don't think about that, and neither should you." But then she went and wrote the Musk Dynasty storyline, where animals cursed in the same spring as Ranma were taken as wives and bore children. This answered the first half of the question ("What if Ranma got pregnant...?") and, indirectly, answers what would be needed to avoid the second half ("...and then changed back to a guy?")
 * Kazuki Takahashi can't seem to make up his mind when he says he's gonna stop making Yu-Gi-Oh! spinoffs. First he said GX was the last one, then came 5Ds. Then he said 5Ds would be the last, and then the announce and release of a new one called Ze-X-al. Although the real reason comes from Executive Meddling done by 4Kids.
 * Masashi Kishimoto from Naruto fame, first implied in the databooks that Hidan would eventually lose his immortality and die while being buried alive, The other Akatsuki members even explicitly referred to him as being killed in action, however he later backed down on this, and
 * Although it's possible that he simply hasn't actually passed away by this point, but will eventually.
 * Considering how sadistically insane Hidan was, its entirely possible that he's got a long time to live in that hole in the dirt.

Comics

 * Marvel goes back and forth over whether or not The Hulk has ever accidentally killed someone during his city destroying rampages. This lead to a notable Retcon at least once; the Hulk was sent into space for the Planet Hulk storyline because a fight between him and the Thing inadvertently caused the deaths of over twenty people. This was later retconned into severe injuries, which made the whole "shoot him into space" thing into retroactive Disproportionate Retribution.
 * Deadpool admits that whether or not he's really Wade Wilson depends on who's writing him.

Film

 * Star Wars has so many, they might be too numerous to list completely. Some of the more notable ones include why Chewbacca didn't get a medal, and how many films Lucas had originally intended to make.
 * An interesting one being the whole "who shot first?" deal. First Han shoots and fries Greedo. Then Greedo shoots first and misses point-blank. Then they shoot at about the same time. Then a picture turns up of Lucas wearing a "Han Shot First!" shirt... One theory is that Greedo shooting first was just Executive Meddling, and Lucas never liked the change in the first place. Another theory is that he just sincerely hates Star Wars fans.
 * Is Deckard in Blade Runner a replicant? Director Ridley Scott says yes this week, while actor Harrison Ford claims that he and Scott both agreed not.
 * In the original book by Phillip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Deckard is very much not a replicant.
 * The point in the movie was that it really shouldn't matter, so...?
 * Total Recall. The director has gone back and forth on the issue of whether the events of the film were real or all in Quaid's mind. His position seems to depend on whether there are hopes of getting a sequel made at the time he is asked that question.
 * The makers of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies can't decide whether The Stinger for At World's End is happy or Bittersweet Ending. Sometimes they say that Will was freed from his duty as Captain of the Flying Dutchman because Elizabeth remained faithful the ten years he was gone, while other times they say no, he's Captain for life, this is just his one day on dry land between tours.
 * Director Alain Resnais and writer Alain Robbe-Grillet disagree about whether the woman goes away with the man at the end of Last Year at Marienbad.

Literature

 * In the first few weeks after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, J.K. Rowling's answers to questions that either went unanswered in the series or about what happened between the end and the epilogue were a bit contradictory. She eventually settled on a single answer for most of them. For a supposedly well planned out series that spanned seven titles and over a decade in real time, it is disappointing that for so many things she only seemed to decide upon an answer after the series was finished.
 * Book 7 provided lovely gems such as just to name a few.
 * In an interview she did with Pottercast, Rowling and the interviewers became confused regarding Hannah Abbott's blood status - she had always assumed her to be Muggle Born, but had written that a family member of hers was buried in a wizard cemetery. Her final decision: "Oh, let's just split the difference and call her half-blood."
 * Anne McCaffrey can't seem to make up her mind about, well, anything related to Dragonriders of Pern. For instance, whether measurements given for the dragons are in feet (really the only feasible size, but a bit small for the early descriptions) or meters (an outright ridiculous figure). Or whether greens are infertile from firestone or genetics (at one point she actually said both in the same sentence).
 * Her son's even worse for the Ass Pulls he's committed and then changed his mind about.
 * Whether or not William Gibson's Sprawl is a dystopia seems to depend on what the general outlook on the future seems to be in the SF Community. When Neuromancer first came out in The Eighties, Gibson was adamant that The Sprawl was a dystopia with all the problems of modern urban environments turned up to eleven. Now, twenty years later, Gibson's claiming the exact opposite while simultaneously trying to cosy up to younger, more optimistic writers.
 * Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, can't ever decide if Patrick Bateman was a Serial Killer or of his killing spree was made up in his twisted mind. In the novel it's intentionally left ambiguous.

Live Action TV

 * On Usenet during the broadcast of Babylon 5 season 3, series creator J. Michael Straczynski stated that Valen, the ancient Minbari leader and messiah figure, had no children. In season 4, the episode "Atonement" revolved around Valen having had children.
 * JMS has admitted to outright lying in order to avoid spoiling future storylines, naming Valen as a specific example.
 * Also, in a behind-the-scenes documentary made during season 1, Jerry Doyle (who played Michael Garibaldi) said that JMS told him that Garibaldi would never get a girl. In the show, Garibaldi ends up reconciling with his old girlfriend Lise in season 4 and marrying her in season 5.
 * Heroes: The producers said Sylar had lost all his stolen abilities, but the last episode of season 2 showed him using telekinesis. Season 3 shows him retaining other powers... all while official canon and Word of God says he lost all of them.
 * The new Word of God attempts to reconcile this, saying he lost all his powers except for his telekinesis and giving a vague rationalization about his previously unknown empathic abilities. His other powers from season 1 were only demonstrated by a version of him from an alternate future.
 * The producers also initially claimed back in Season 2 that Bennet, Mohinder, and Ando would remain normal humans and not receive superpowers. Season 3 pretty much threw that out the window with regards to Mohinder (who gets Spider powers) and Ando (who can now shoot Hadokens!). The only non-powered human left in the main cast is Badass Normal Mr. Bennet, who doesn't need any lame powers because he's pretty much The Goddamn Batman.
 * The producers of Lost were notorious for making claims about the direction of the series and then going against those claims later. It's not exactly clear whether the producers were intentionally misleading, forced in different directions by the network, simply making things up as they went along, or all three.
 * An early season 1 interview said that there would be no Time Travel. Desmond's consciousness-jumping in seasons 3 and 4 could be seen as bending this rule, but season 5 flat out broke it. Script coordinator Gregg Nations claimed that an early season 1 episode, "Solitary," was supposed to hint at time travel and time anomalies on the island, but ABC nixed the idea, afraid that people would stop watching if time travel muddled the plot.
 * An interview claimed that Season 3 wouldn't feature Desmond running naked through the jungle, but then there's Desmond running naked through the jungle.
 * Damon Lindeloff claimed in a 2005 interview that the show had no supernatural elements, and everything had a scientific explanation. Even if you take that as only referring to things that had already happened, the statement still covers
 * iCarly: The week before the "iSaved Your Life" episode aired, a promo aired showing 2 of the main characters kissing. Dan Schneider, in an effort to calm the shippers of a pairing involve a different character, implied it might not be what it appeared. Cue the episode, where they ended up kissing 7 or 8 times, and it was pretty much as it appeared.
 * About The X-Files, Chris Carter made repeated statements that there was no hint of a Mulder/Scully romance.
 * RDM's flat denial of any possibility of an Adama/Roslin in Battlestar Galactica romance. Turned out about the same way.
 * Depending on if you ask Matthew Graham or Ashley Pharaoh, Jim Keats of Ashes to Ashes is either Don't even start with the fans' opinions. Let's just say, his status is up in the air and leave it at that.
 * Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who producer, refused to confirm whether or not the Face of Boe is really, calling it only "a theory".
 * In the DVD commentary for "Last of the Time Lords", Julie Gardner (an executive producer) accused Davies of "back-pedaling" on the two characters being obviously the same.
 * Davies had also already added a line of dialog into "Gridlock" that strongly implied the same thing, which he points out on the same DVD commentary.
 * He's since said that it stops being funny if we ever know either way.
 * If the writers for Power Rangers ever claim that a certain series takes place either Twenty Minutes Into the Future or in an Alternate Continuity, expect a Reunion Show to later shove it back into the present-day main universe (Lost Galaxy and Ninja Storm got this, though SPD has been able to keep its 2025 setting so far; team-ups feature Time Travel.) RPM is so recent it just hasn't happened yet.
 * RPM now explicitly takes place in another dimension (pretty much the only explanation for Samurai not being in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and featuring someone from Morphin'.)
 * There's also Jonathon Tzachor's constant flip-flop over the state of the series' continuity. Initially, it was one whole universe except RPM. Then, he decided that none of the Disney-era series happened (Ninja Storm through RPM). Then, he decided that season happened in different continuities, which makes Mighty Morphin season 3 and Turbo's endings Downer Endings!
 * One of the house rules for Quantum Leap, according to creator Donald Bellisario, was that Sam would never leap into a real person. For the first four seasons, he didn't; we only saw "kisses with history". But the rule was suddenly dropped for Season 5, which opened with Sam leaping into Lee Harvey Oswald (a story Bellisario particularly wanted to tell as a counterpunch to Oliver Stone's JFK), and continued with a host of others: Marilyn Monroe's chauffeur, Dr. Ruth, and even the King himself.
 * This was Executive Meddling at work, per Usenet posts made at the time from someone with connections to the production staff. The only way Bellisario could get Season 5 made was by giving the network execs the stories they wanted, which involved Sam leaping into real people.
 * Glee has Sam. Sam was originally intended to be gay and his role was partly to develop as Kurt's boyfriend. The writers changed their mind before they filmed anything. They gave the Kurt's boyfriend storyline to another new character, Blaine. Sam was made straight with only extremely nitpicky evidence to suggest he might be bi, but nothing has come of it so far.
 * It's easy to forget that Star Trek: Voyager commenced with lots of declaration that it would have as little to do with the other shows as possible, and would feature all new aliens. Oh, and those two Ferengi who got stuck in the Delta Quadrant in TNG would never appear. Also, no Borg. How did that go?

Music

 * Yngwie Malmsteen has a very well-known instrumental that has been officially known as both "Arpeggios From Hell" and "Molto Arpeggiosa".

Tabletop Games

 * Try the home game: Have two people send an email to the official Dungeons and Dragons support line, asking the same rules-clarification question about just about anything in any edition. You win the game if both replies are contradictory. Points deducted if you asked about stealth or Polymorph. No points if you used material from Dragon magazine.
 * People say the same thing about Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
 * The various forums have plenty of examples; basically, if it isn't in the books or the FAQ, it's Cust Serv's House Rules.
 * The FAQ's on DnD's Character Optimization forum are often regarded as house rules and nothing more. Oddly, the proper method of offering optimization on those very boards is to adhere to the person's DM's house rules and nothing else, only offering minor suggestions if the DM hasn't already said otherwise. Not that many people do it the proper way...
 * Exalted. It doesn't help that the editor, despite having worked on every book of the Second Edition, does not seem to be aware of what the books contained. At one point, Official Errata contained two contradictory answers as to whether Immaculate Monk Dynasts got the Enlightened Charms in addition to their 5 Immaculate Martial Arts Charms or not. Both answers were later removed, leaving it completely up to the ST.
 * Not to mention all the various contradictions (Zeal, anyone?) that spring up if you read all the Charms that were published since the game's release. Sure, the game evolved, changed a bit and everything that goes with it, but it went too far in many aspects, so much so that many of the original statements about the setting are simply incorrect by the "new" standards...
 * For instance, in the First Edition corebook, it's pretty much treated as fact that the Solars ruled over a Golden Age that was only ended due to a possible horrible future coming from it, with the tales about how horrible the Solars were being latter-day fabrications to discredit them. Later books establish that the Solars were arguably worse than the Dragonblooded claim—although even now, some of the claims against the "anathema" are still outright lies. The Second Edition corebook has codified this darkening of the First Age to the core premise.
 * Errata for Dreams of the First Age replaced Zeal with an entirely different charm, banishing that particular issue.
 * The Nameless (and place-changing) lair of Ma-Ha Suchi.
 * In Illuminati New World Order, it's possible to give a group a temporary attribute, and then give them power-boosts that are only legitimate for that attribute. Such power boosts are normally permanent, but when the attribute goes away, so will the power. The rules say that only permanent power boosts count for victory conditions. So, does a power boost as described above count for victory? Steve Jackson originally said yes. The official FAQ now says no.

Toys

 * Greg Farshtey, the main writer for Bionicle, has been known to flip flop on certain matters, such as whether or not  is definitely dead. At first it was a definite "yes", but now he's being ambiguous about it. The character died in an explosion, which for any other character would be a definite kill, but  makes it highly questionable.

Video Games

 * Many Sonic Team employees will tell you conflicting things about the Sonic universe:
 * The manuals can't seem to decide whether Sonic is calm, loves relaxation and loves nature or is excitable and unable to sit still at all, let alone enjoy the scenery.
 * Kingdom Hearts has given a different answer than the character's voice actor for the pronunciation of "Tidus". There is still no canon pronunciation of Tidus in English.
 * One preview for Final Fantasy X explicitly pointed out the pronunciation as "Tee-dus." Kingdom Hearts has it Tee-dus, but Kingdom Hearts 2 has it Tie-dus.
 * One can blame that on Wakka's strange accent.
 * Dissidia Final Fantasy solidified things by going with Tee-dus, which corresponds with the Japanese pronunciation. Except where a few characters call him by Tie-dus. Arggggh.
 * James Arnold Taylor, Tidus's voice actor, has always pronounced his name as "Tee-dus" in interviews and on his website. Not quite Word of God but if his own voice actor doesn't know...
 * Also, pre Kingdom Hearts 2 Nomura said that Namine has no connection to Kairi whatsoever . Come endgame of 2, she turns out to be  . Damn you Nomura!
 * Before Birth By Sleep Nomura stated that Nobodies don't age and Xemnas was about thirty when he was turned into one.
 * Ratchet and Clank had this. Is 1. A fan letter gets an answer from one of the employees -  2. When Tools of Destruction comes to PlayStation 3 with its focus on finding Ratchet's origins, Insomniac Games officially stated that  3. When fans realized it doesn't make sense , they demanded a logical answer. So, in A Crack in Time, IG tells us that  Wha... ?
 * SNK seems to change its position as to where The King of Fighters fits into the universe of its other games by the day. Either it's an Alternate Continuity to Art of Fighting/Fatal Fury, or it's a follow-up to that universe. More recently, Shion (The Dragon from The King of Fighters XI) is either male or has no official gender, depending on when you ask.
 * Given that Geese Howard (the Big Bad of Fatal Fury) died in Real Bout Fatal Fury, yet made a triumphant, unexpected appearance in KOF '96 and continues to make the occasional cameo (or rarer playable appearance) in later KOF games, it's a pretty safe bet that KOF has the same basic backstory as the AoF/FF timeline but divurges after that. It's also telling that the cast of AoF is roughly around the same age as their Fatal Fury counterparts despite Art of Fighting presumably taking place in the late 1970s (Fatal Fury is similarly assumed to occur in the 90s) and a young Geese Howard showing up in the second AoF as the True Final Boss (as well as Foreshadowing for his role in Fatal Fury in the first place).
 * On a different note, are Iori Yagami's flames blue or purple? The sprites show them to be the latter, but official sources from both the past and present tend to mix this up frequently. To further confuse matters, the Yasakani (the clan the Yagami were formerly known as) were said to have crimson (read: "orange") flames like the Kusanagi but gained Orochi's blue flames when they struck a deal with him out of jealously for the Kusanagi. However, Orochi Chris (one of Orochi's Four Heavenly Kings and the vessel of his eventual rebirth) also uses purple flames like Iori despite not having reddish-orange flames to begin with (originally, Orochi Chris' flames were going to be black).
 * Cranky Kong is either Donkey Kong's dad or grandpa. Further complicating the matter is the question of just whose word to follow. Rare's writer Leigh Loveday has stated that he's DK's father and asked that "if you see Cranky referred to as DK's granddad anywhere, just cover your eyes and hum loudly until it goes away," but Nintendo owns the games (including the characters).
 * There's also the matter of Diddy Kong, who may or may not be Donkey Kong's nephew... you know what? Just read this article.
 * Poison of Final Fight started out a cisgender girl, became a transsexual, and now seems to be a girl again, if Capcom's really left Final Fight/Street Fighter canon to Capcom of USA.
 * Most recently, Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono stated that, in the USA, Poison is a post-op transsexual, but in Japan and the rest of the world, she's a pre-op transsexual. Original design notes for Final Fight suggest the character was always intended to be new-half, with lack of any official Word of God leading to the above Fanon explanation.
 * Though the developer of Final Fight Akira Nishitani insists that it's up to the viewer to decide. It's unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
 * Of course, always conveniently omitted from the discussion is, what about Roxy, dammit?
 * Since Roxy is a literal Palette Swap of Poison, she was ignored outside of one All in The Manual moment by Capcom of USA, declaring the she was a cisgender female who "always looked up to Poison although she doesn't really dig the cross-dressing thing."
 * According to Kejii Inafune, Mega Man and Bass exists parallel to Mega Man 9. However, in the ending of 9, Rush projects nine images of Wily doing the exact same actions in different games, and one of them unmistakably takes place in the final boss room in the former.
 * Nintendo's released contradictory statements (most egregiously, the fluff is at odds between Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl) on whether Sheik from The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time is, ahem, "complete".
 * Same with Birdo (most common consensus is that she's pre-op though lately they've began implying she's post-op).
 * The hair color of Golbez in Final Fantasy IV. He never takes off his fancy, face-and-head-obscuring helmet for the entirety of the game, but given that he's a blood relative of, most fans assumed white hair for him as well. Then comes the DS remake, which, mostly in flashbacks, confirms that he has brown hair . Then, just as fandom is getting used to that, they release Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and he's got white hair. One wonders what the inevitable sequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy will do with him...
 * Obviously, he dyes his hair!
 * Due to Ellis being an Unreliable Narrator, the existence of Keith in Left 4 Dead 2 has been of much debate. Valve tried to invoke this trope by saying that "Keith isn’t imaginary, except, well, it is a video game, so it’s all imaginary."
 * This trope is the reason why Touhou has such massive, intricate Fanon, as when series creator ZUN isn't being deliberately obtuse he changes his mind at the drop of his Nice Hat. For just three examples, he can barely keep the characters' eye and hair colors from changing between games, has stated both "Touhou series" and "Touhou is not a series" on different occasions, and reports on whether or not youkai have stopped eating people are wildly contradictory (one states it never happens, one states it is a constant concern for the human inhabitants of Gensoukyou and another states it is only a concern for those outside of Gensoukyou).
 * In one of the first outside resources for Wild Arms, The Filgaia Chronicle, it was stated that the Filgaia in the first two games and the anime was the same place, just with very large time gaps between works and repeated disasters masking the links. Later resources have instead suggested that each Wild ARMS related work has used a different world that shares the name Filgaia. Some of them dovetail nicely in to each other, but others are hard to reconcile... and some have some of each—for instance, Wild ARMS 4 follows nicely from the original or its remake Alter Code F... except that Guardians work differently in it than any other game in the series, including the original and its remake; in others, they're spirits of the planet, but in 4, they're a sort of special type of ARM. At this point, it's basically anyone's guess what's going on with Filgaia in the various games.
 * Super Mario Bros. constantly flip flops on whether Wario and Waluigi are brothers are not.
 * Portal 2 has accumulated several of these, largely due to the creators claiming not to have had a grand narrative in mind while creating the game and therefore not having answers when put on the spot by eager fans.
 * The actual location of the Aperture Science facility. Prior to Portal 2, they said it was in a Michigan salt mine, but the game itself specifically places the mine in Cleveland. Much of Aperture's backstory and that of its founder, Cave Johnson, is similarly retconned by the game from previous material, with Valve metaphorically shrugging its shoulders as to which story is true.
 * The ending leaves ambiguous the question of whether GLaDOS actually, is merely lying about it, or even thought she had but was mistaken. Leaving aside the fact that GLaDOS is an Unreliable Narrator, the creators have waffled on the matter in various interviews, going from claiming that she was telling the truth to that she only might have been.
 * Whether Cave Johnson is still alive, Brain Uploaded or otherwise. Again, they've given vague or contradictory answers when asked the question in interviews.
 * Also there's the question of the turret song "Cara Mia" which strongly implies . Erik Wolpaw has said that the turret song was added without his consent and that in the 'canon' version of Portal 2, Chell is just sent straight to the surface. G La DOS's voice actress Ellen Mc Lain (who wrote the aforementioned song) has been talking about Chell's parentage as recently as the 2011 VG As. With both of them having a degree of creative control of Portal's storyline, its likely there will never be a concrete answer.
 * Quite common with the Nasuverse, which has a large amount of supplementary material, which often directly contradicts other materials or information present in the works themselves.
 * Perhaps due to the series changing hands, the Fallout universe tends to waffle around about mutants. Specifically, the ratios of FEV and radiation required to create Ghouls and Super Mutants and the New California Republic's feelings about mutants. The current rule is that Super Mutants only require FEV, while Ghouls only require radiation (though the amount of time of exposure is also constantly changing). Fallout 2 showed both types of mutants proud to serve in the NCR army, while New Vegas has a quest based entirely on the NCR using mercenaries to provoke the mutants so they can justify a slaughter.
 * So, DmC is going to be an Continuity Reboot… err no wait, it's a Prequel to DMC3 with a teenage Dante actually… ah but, no! It's an Alternate Continuity after all… in a parallel universe… with a different Dante… maybe…

Web Original

 * The issue of Carnivore Confusion in Darwin's Soldiers has been inconsistently addressed. Serris has said that anthro and "normal" animals exist and eating "normal" animals was acceptable. But he has also said to assume that all meat is seafood.
 * Sean Malstrom has maintained for years that user-generated content is something that is severely hurting the game industry. But when he wrote in February 2012 about the possibilities of a "New Zelda" (a hypothetical back-to-the-basics game in the same vein as New Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros Wii), he mentioned how user-created dungeons might be a good idea.

Western Animation

 * Ben 10 featured Gwen gaining obviously supernatural powers from amulets, a bracelet, and a book. Then, in Ben 10 Alien Force it is revealed that, just like everyone else's powers, hers are of alien origin, and suddenly she's a purple lantern instead of the girl who once made tornadoes, stun blasts etc. Way to kill originality there.
 * Dwayne McDuffie has stated that other writers can overturn his Word of God.
 * But she's part Magic Using Alien. The energy source used for her (and her Grandmother's) powers is described as Mana. She's just been using more innate powers than human-made spells lately.
 * It's better to just not think about it too much when it comes to Ben 10 Alien Force and canon. Not only being inconsistent with canon from the previous series (Kevin going from absorbing energy to transmuting into materials he touches, and going from being abandoned by his parents because he was a freak to being the son of a Plumber who still sees his mother) but being inconsistent with it's own canon (the Omnitrix going from containing the DNA of the aliens itself and being able to actually have the aliens escape from it to just being a simple uplink device that just receives the DNA information from Primus). You'll end up pulling your hair out trying to make sense of it all.
 * It's sequel Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, at least tries to rectify some of the flip flops, specifically regarding Kevin. His energy absorbing powers and his radical personality change between series were actually made into major plot points.
 * The South Park writers had said that they wouldn't allow Cartman to murder anyone. This was after Cartman murdered Scott Tenorman's parents in "Scott Tenorman Must Die", and before Cartman tried to commit genocide in "The Passion of the Jew" and again in "Ginger Kids".
 * From a Certain Point of View they are still true to their word, as a farmer was responsible for the murder of Scott's parents. But Cartman is still guilty of murder, as Cartman intentionally engineered the situation to kill Scott Tenorman's parents. The Word of God talk about it on their commentary, and specifically mention they avoided Cartman actually killing them himself even if he did engineer the situation.
 * He ran over numerous people in "Poor and Stupid".
 * And in the Coon Vs. Coon and Friends trilogy, he had Cthulhu kill tons of people.
 * In the commentary-mini for "The Coon," Trey says they still have no idea who Mysterion is. A year later, in the commentary for "Mysterion Rises," Trey says he and Matt figured it was Kenny towards the end of the first episode's production (though it's possible he meant the first episode in the trilogy, and not the very first Coon episode).
 * Disney has flipped flopped between whether Chip and Dale are brothers or just friends. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers has them as being unrelated Heterosexual Life Partners, but in previous years they've been shown to be brothers.
 * Are Minnie and Mickey married, or just dating? Walt once stated that they're married but can be shown at any state of romance if the plot demands for it, but the company still flip-flops about this.
 * The original head writer of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Christopher Yost, denied rumors that Ultimate Spider-Man takes place in the same universe, despite Disney XD airing them as part of the same block every Sunday. Jeph Loeb, who became the executive producer for Spider-Man and some episodes from the second season of The Avengers, went on to confirm those rumors. Viewers have pointed out that if Loeb's word becomes true, it would open up a mess of contradictions. (For starters, the title character of Ultimate Spider-Man attends the same high school as Iron Fist and Luke Cage, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes depicts Iron Fist and Luke Cage as older than Spidey.)