All There in the Manual: Difference between revisions

[[File:zelda_2_backstory_5390zelda 2 backstory 5390.jpg|link=Zelda II: theThe Adventure of Link (Video Game)|rightframe|<small>Above: You see how epic and [[Tear Jerker|tragic]] the [[Save the Princess]] plot is. Below: You probably pressed "Start" before this text even showed up.</small> ]]

If this material is necessary to progress in a video game or work on fanfiction, it becomes a [[Guide Dang It]]. If the manual contains information that the player isn't supposed to know until some playing, it's [[Spoiled Byby the Manual]]. [[All There in Thethe Script]] is a subtrope of this, referring specifically to names.

* The difference between ''[[Gate Keepers]]'' and ''[[Gate Keepers 21 (Anime)|Gate Keepers 21]]'' is staggering, due to intervening novels and a video game.

*** Curiously, though the new Chronicles share many major points of info with the [[PSPlayStation 2]] Gamegame, they curiously completely ignore all references to a certain group of Secret Benefactors that don't ever show up within the Animeanime at all. In combination with Gainax's OFFICIAL''official'' stance on the Gamegame being that "All plot details were made specifically" for the Gamegame, it's possible we got Retconning Manuals on our hands here.

** This is because the second OVA happens after the next 4four (it even refers obliquely to the plot of 5 and 6). AND''And'' it's a sequel to a story they didn't animate.

* For an example of a series where ''all'' the materials are becoming officially translated for the West, see ''[[.hack //Sign]]'' and [[.hack|its sequels]] -- to—to get the full story, you need to read a novel, watch a [[.hack //Sign|26 episode anime series]], play four games, watch the four OVA anime episodes bundle one with each game, read four more novels, and read a three volume manga (and/or watch the 12 episode anime adapted from it, but that isn't canon so it won't really help you), preferably in that order. That's not counting the non-canon spinoffs or the sequel project, which consists of much the same combination again.

* ''[[Pokémon: the First Movie (Anime)|Pokémon theThe First Movie]]'' could not be fully understood without the CD drama "Birth of Mewtwo" to accompany it. Fortunately, it was later included for American fans in the ''[[Pokémon Mewtwo Returns (Anime)|Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns]]'' DVD.

** ''[[Pokémon: 2000The (Anime)|PokémonMovie 2000]]'' has two instances of this: First, the scene near the end where the collector found the Ancient Mew card on the shore in the wreck of his ship. This scene makes sense in English because they added a line earlier where he said that it was the object that started his collection. In Japanese however, you had to be lucky enough to get the program book given out at theaters. Also, that program book gives his name, which is never said in dialogue (it's Jirarudan, and his ship is called Hikoukyuu). To complicate things, in English he has two names--thenames—the captions call him Gelarden (an acceptable if not slightly convoluted Romanization of the original) while the English movie book calls him Lawrence III. As in Japanese, no name is said aloud.

* Like ''[[Moonlight Lady]]'' enough that you [[I Read It for Thethe Articles|watch it for the plot]]? Too bad -- lotsbad—lots of vital information was left behind in the visual novel, from explanations for why some people are even around the Kuraki Manor to begin with, to ''whole plot points''. At least there's lots of other fun stuff to distract you from the plot holes.

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', there are various questions in the anime that are All There In The Manga, mostly characters' backstories.

** The final fate of [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Hikaru, Misa and Minmay]] is buried in the manual for ''Macross M3'' -- They—They were lost with the rest of the crew and passengers of SDF-2 Megaroad after they apparently encountered a black hole.

* Masaki Kajishima, main writer for the ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' OVA-[[The Verse|verse]], has regularly released supplemental material, such as novels and self-published doujinshi, with information about that continuity. One of the reasons for releasing the [[Spin-Off]] series ''[[Tenchi Muyo! GXP]]'' before the ''Tenchi'' OVA [[Revival]] series was to introduce some of the new characters and other elements from the novels to the audience that hadn't read (or wasn't able to read) them.

* Ryo Akiyama from ''[[Digimon Tamers (Anime)|Digimon Tamers]]'' is literally from the ''[[Digimon Adventure (Anime)|Digimon Adventure]]'' [[Alternate Universe]], and thus he and his Digimon don't follow the same rules as the rest of the cast. This is all [[All There in the Manual|explained via the multiple video games he stars in]].

** Similarly, Ken's backstory in ''[[Digimon Adventure 02 (Anime)|Digimon Adventure 02]]'' has him disappearing into the Digital World as a kid and reappearing a short time after; later, we see a scene of him adventuring with another kid and getting infected by a Dark Seed. These are both references to the game where he teamed up with Ryo.

* The supplementary manga and Sound Stages of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Animeanime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' explains how Nanoha learned the Bind spell during her battle with Fate, who that Linith woman was in the [[Lotus Eater Machine]], what the heck happened to Arf in the third season and what that gift from Reinforce that Vita was talking about was.

* ''[[Xxx Holic (Manga)|Xxx Holic×××HOLiC]]'' and ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' have ended up so interconnected that it is nigh impossible to understand one without reading the other. And even then you wish you had the option to phone Ohkawa and demand an explanation.

** It also helps if you've read all [[CLAMP (Creator)|CLAMP]]'s ''other'' manga, particularly ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]''.

* ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'' actually has quite a few forms of All There in the Manual, including Sound Episodes (released on separate CDs) as well as Picture Dramas and short story inserts with the DVDs. Unusually, Bandai localised all these into English, with the Sound Episodes being part of the [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]] package.

* For ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Anime)|Gundam SEED]]'' there is, in addition to 10 Drama CDs (six of which are set before the series starts, three set during the series, and one post-series), 10 novels that go into more detail about the characters and events, several Manga series (''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray (Manga)|Gundam SEED Astray]]''), and a few OVAs and TV specials, an official website that has a lot of extra information about the Cosmic Era...including a highly detailed [http://www.gundamofficial.com/worlds/ce/background/timeline.html Timeline] that goes back about 100 years before the start of the series.

** The original ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' Universal Century series is the king of the trope. Novels, sourcebooks, even supplementary material printed in model kit instruction manuals.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam Wing]]'' has a backstory that was supposed to be placed into episode 27 and 28 - but was shafted due to internal politics. Thus, the explains-a-lot backstory was put into a sidestory manga that, while released in the USA, wasn't released with a high profile...and isn't in print anymore. There's also another pair of sidestories that explains some events between the two Wing works, with the same release problem in America. The fact that there was a third one released that barely amounted to a fan work published by a company trying to cash-in on the phenomenon in America didn't help things at all.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Gundam 00]]'' took the concept of All There in the Manual and ran with it from the very beginning of its airing. ''[[Gundam 00 Sidestories (Manga)|Gundam 00 Sidestories]]'' include 00P, a photo novel type series that covered events before the series proper and dealt heavily with the development of the Gundams, 00V, a series of documents on variations of existing MS from the series with accounts of said machines told from a historical perspective, and 00F, an Astray style manga that took place at the same time as the series and did its best to fill in certain gaps. But it doesn't end there, there's also 00V Senki, the follow up to 00V that elaborates on some of the machines from 00V and features stories from all over the timeline, including AFTER the conclusion of the series, 00N, a new series of documents, and 00I, the follow up to 00F that gives way more insight into the Innovades from the show and covers events that took place between the two seasons. On top of that you have your usual novels, sourcebooks, audio dramas, and model kit manuals, and Gundam 00 is certainly making an effort to take the crown of [[All There in the Manual]] king. Only 00F has been released in the US.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam F 91 (Anime)F91|GundamF91]]'' may be the biggest example of this in the MSG franchise. As a result of originally being a TV series that was cut down and compressed to a movie partway through production, most of the story is completely dropped from the movie. The movie does not show how Seabrook and his friends defeat Cosmo Babylonia and the Crossbone Vanguard. So, to actually finish the movie's story as well as find out various things that happened within the movie but were skipped because of time constraints, you have to read the manga or novels. Which have never been officially released in the US.

* ''[[Jo JoJoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]''. The first OVA series not only started in the third story arc of the manga, it starts HALF''half-WAYway THROUGHthrough ITit''. The entire thing presumed you knew exactly what was going on, which, unless you read the manga, you didn't.<br /><br />Eventually the Studio A.P.P.P. solved this problem by creating a prequel OVA series that cover the first half of that story arc (with skips, of course) specifically so it would be more salable overseas. The English adaptation of the anime combines both series, showing the episodes in chronological order, while adding a narrated summary of the first two story arcs.

* ''[[Devil May Cry (Video Game)|Devil May Cry]] [[Devil May Cry: theThe Animated Series|The Animated Series]]'' doesn't bother to fully explain Dante's connection to Trish or Lady, their respective histories being found in the first and third game. Amongst others.

* ''[[Sakigake Cromartie Koukou|Cromartie High School]]'' just flat out tells you that if you want to know certain things about the show, read the manga. Of course, it is [[Gag Series|that kind of show]], after all.

* Any character in ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)|Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' that might come across as a [[Flat Character]] probably has most of his/her personality only displayed in the profiles. Some characters can only be seen in the author's blog.

* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano!]]''. Generally, the anime is relatively self-contained and understandable without turning to the [[Light Novels]] (sans one scene in episode one that is [[Left Hanging]]), but there's obviously a lot of background that doesn't find it's way in, and there's also quite a bit that goes on ''after'' the events in the anime. [[No Export for You|Good luck finding translations, though]].

* In the American release of the ''[[Read or Die (Anime)|Read or Die]]'' OVA, the post-it notes in Yomiko's apartment are mistranslated because the translators apparently didn't realize "Nenene" was a name; she doesn't show up in the OVA but in the manga and subsequent TV series, Sumiregawa Nenene is Yomiko's best friend.

* In ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', you never do find out L's real name. Unless, of course, you get the book with all the supplemental information in it. It's {{spoiler|L Lawliet}}.

* The ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' [[OAV|OAVs]]s and movie are based on (and mostly continuations of) the games. Somehow America got the former without the latter.

* Random splash pages in ''[[Fairy Tail (Manga)|Fairy Tail]]'' will be entirely dedicated to a character. When it's a main character (or a minor one with a decent amount of attention) like Erza or Elfman, it will tell you random things like how Erza terrorizes fashion designers into making her armor of Elfman once lost a bird and never realized the one he found was not the same. If it's a background character who get's roughly one line per arc (at best) It will give detail into their past and personality.

* Overall, the original [[Light Novel]] series of ''[[Slayers]]'' goes into detail of how the magic system and the like works better than the anime does, but not in clarity, as both forms of media tend to contradict themselves. The only true "manual" for the series is a long series of interviews by creator [[Word of God|Hajime Kanzaka]], and he [[Flip -Flop of God|flops around]] and [[Shrug of God|whimsily comes up with answers to questions]] to the point that he's making every potential canon fact up on the fly. The only truly solid facts are extended backstories of the main characters (especially important in regards to [[Idiot Hero]] Gourry because he is the only major character whose background gets no spotlight in any media). Even then, some incidents, such as Gourry and [[Shrinking Violet|Sylphiel's]] first meeting and Lina's great fear of her [[Aloof Big Brother|older sister]] are never explained.

** Also, there are two radio dramas that act as extensions of the ''Slayers Premium'' [[Non -Serial Movie]]; a prologue and an epilogue that both set the stage and tie up loose ends (including how {{spoiler|Naga sided with the [[Big Bad]] of the movie and how Amelia was saved after being blown off to an abandoned island}}); naturally, they're only availible in Japan. The manga adaptation as a whole does a better job at telling the story.

* At the end of every ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' volume, there is an [[Omake]] that may explain certain things that were not very obvious, such as how and why the 3rd, 4th and 9th were targeting each other, and how they began to focus on Yukki. It also gives a little background info on some of the other future diary holders.

** There is also ''Mosiac'' and ''Paradox'', which focus on the Ninth and Akise, giving more info on the Sixth as well.

* A few of ''[[Chibisan Date]]''{{'}}s characters only appear in the author's blog.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''{{'}}s website gives extra information on the witches and their minions and familiars. To some extent, anything in [[Cypher Language|runes]] counts, as few viewers take the time to decode it.

** ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable (Video Game)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable]]'' is shaping up{{when}} to be full of this.

* In ''[[Mai Hi MEMy-HiME]]'', the sound dramas, specials (often characters narrating about themselves) and art books often provide more information about the characters, and the short story "Natsuki no Prelude" contains details about how Natsuki became a [[Hi ME]]HiME and her friendship with Shizuru.

* Similarly, the ''[[Mai -Otome]]'' sound dramas provide bits of backstory from the main series, such as how Tomoe met Shizuru, some of Yukariko's backstory (she was a Meister who had to cancel contracts due to her masters falling in love with her) and Mai and Natsuki's early days at the academy, including how Natsuki became Shizuru's room attendant.

* In ''[[Future GPX Cyber Formula (Anime)|Future GPX Cyber Formula]]'', there are several drama CDs and supplemental artbooks that details the backstories about the characters, such as in the last drama CD, which revealed Kaga's backstory, how Kaga he his scar on his forehead and why he warned Hayato about the Zero Realm in ''ZERO'' {{spoiler|(he was in a racing accident with his best friend Eiji which was caused by the Zero Realm and Eiji was killed)}}.

* ''[[The Idolmaster (Animeanime)|THE iDOLM@STER]]'' - Some events in the anime series make a lot more sense if you've played through the game it's based on and unlocked the backstories for the idols.

* Supplemental materials for ''[[Ghost in Thethe Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' have very detailed information about the world of the show, including the political backdrop of the story (which is only hinted at in-series) as well as plenty of weapon descriptions.

* [[The DCU]]'s super-hero espionage comic ''[[Checkmate]]'' hashad at one time a supplemental website whose address, www.gideonii.com, was hinted at within the story. {{spoiler|Username CARL DRAPER, password wilhelmina; subject to change.}} It's was [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|ostensibly the diary]] of a minor character within the story, written in the first person, with entries detailing various elements of the series in greater depth and hinting at future plot events.

* ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Bookcomics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' v.4 had a role-playing sourcebook that included various pieces of info and backstory not in the comic itself. It's particularly notable because Volume 4 was set five years after the previous series and featured a radically different status quo, with many unexplained situations and characters which had histories the audience knew nothing of.

* Very few of the characters in ''[[Fables (Comic Book)|Fables]]'' get their origins explained in much detail (or at all). This is fine for say [[Meaningful Name|Bigby Wolf]] or Snow White but some of them are very obscure and Frau Totenkinder's name can't be found in an actual fable because [[Word of God]] says she's every ''unnamed'' witch in [[Fairy Tales]]. So the background before they come to earth is all their in the manuals, the dozens and dozens of not internally consistent manuals.

** This can, however, be slightly frustrating when dealing with relatively major supporting characters that have incredibly obscure folktales - such as [[The Snow Queen|'Kay']], a man with a sliver of a broken magic mirror in his eye socket that is cursed with the ability to see all the evil done in the life of anyone he looks at. Luckily, the narrative ''usually'' makes such things clear in context.

* ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' had three RPG modules made of it in the 1980's1980s, which incorporated information directly provided by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Said info '''greatly''' fleshes out the characters' histories and provides details about their equipment (and relative levels of skill, if you understand the system). [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|They're out of print, of course.]]

* In ''[[The Transformers (ComicMarvel BookComics)|The Transformers]]'', a fair bit about the origin of the Transformer [[Civil War]] is only provided in text stories in the annuals.

* When ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Bookcomics)|Archie Comics' Sonic Universe]]'' released the Silver Saga storyline (which Silver the Hedgehog aided the alternate universe daughter of Knuckles, Lara-Su, against her power mad father), they released a number of blogs that told the story of Lara-Su before and after the storyline.

* Many of the more bizarre elements of [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[The Shining]]''--Danny—Danny's [[Imaginary Friend]] Tony, the dead woman in the bathtub, the fellow in the dog costume administering a blow job--arejob—are explained in detail in the original [[Stephen King]] novel.

** This also happened with Kubrick's ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. The novel, which was written by [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]] in collaboration with Kubrick at the same time the film was made, explains more of what is going on with the final "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" sequence.

* A portion of the plot of ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'', as well as certain sections of ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'', are explained only in the video game, ''[[Enter the Matrix]]''. Also, there's a "bridge" episode between the ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' in ''[[The Animatrix (Anime)|The Animatrix]]''.

* The movie ''[[Cloverfield]]'' has an entire backstory played out through a prequel online manga and [[Alternate Reality Game|a series of fake websites]] including [[My SpaceMyspace]] profiles, corporate sites and even a "love letter" collection of videos.

* A classic example: If you're mystified by movie ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', try the [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]] novel of the same name. It even has a nifty ''[[Stargate Verse]]''.

* An [[In -Universe]] example: The complex and confusing rules for ghosts in ''[[Beetlejuice (Film)|Beetlejuice]]'' were apparently all explained in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Unfortunately, notes the Maitlands, it's so technical that it's nearly incomprehensible. This nicely [[Lampshade Hanging|moots any criticism]] of apparent contradictions in the movie's cosmology, since the audience hasn't read the manual.

* A lot of the protagonist Leonard's unexplained, highly material history in ''[[Memento (Film)|Memento]]'' is found on the [http://www.otnemem.com Memento website].

* The character of Nightcrawler was a popular part of the [[X 2X2: X -Men United (Film)|second X-Men movie]], but was mysteriously absent from the third. Apparently [[Put Onon a Bus|his disappearance]] is explained in ''[[Licensed Game|X-Men: The Official Game]]'' released between the two.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' took this a bit too far in the [[Prequel|Prequels]]s. Nothing in the films really tells us what the Sith are, aside from the fact that they use the Dark Side of the Force. So ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' loses something in that we never really learn what the revenge is for, without knowing the details from the [[Expanded Universe]]. But considering that's kind of an important part for the motivation for ''every other thing'' Palpatine does, that's not something to [[Viewers Are Geniuses|just assume the audience doesn't need to know]].

** Hilariously parodied in [[Red Letter MediaRedLetterMedia]]'s 7-part [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1AWVLnl48 Star Wars Review], see part 2 at 5:50.

{{quote| "And don't any of you shit heads tell me that it was explained more in the novelization or some Star Wars book. What matters is the '''movie'''. I ain't never read one of those Star Wars books, or any books in general for that matter. And I ain't about to start. Don't talk about them stupid video games or novels, comic books, or any of that ****ing crap. I've seen enough of that shit."}}

** Having said that, [[All There in Thethe Script|the script for the first and sixth movies do include references to the Sith being hidden and intending to take revenge, together with Mace Windu saying that "the oppression of the Sith will never return"]] which does imply, [[Viewers Are Geniuses|imply, if you're quick enough to pick up on it]], that the Sith once ruled the galaxy, were deposed by the Jedi, and [[Xanatos Gambit|went into hiding to plan their revenge]].

** Know what the tribal creatures living in the forests of Endor were called? Sure you do! It was in the picture books, and the comics, and the sticker books, and on the toy packaging, and in all the publicity. Which is just as well, because it wasn't mentioned even once in the film ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''... [[All There in Thethe Script|Only in the credits.]]

* In ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'' (2009), the motivations of bad guy Nero are only vaguely alluded to in a mind-meld flashback scene. In order to fully understand what happened, and to give the character some actual depth, you have to read the ''Star Trek: Countdown'' comic books (although the physics of {{spoiler|Romulus being destroyed by the supernova}} still might have some physicists scratching their heads, even though it's further explained).

* ''[[Transformers (Filmfilm)|Transformers]]'' uses this fairly prominently. A good deal of backstory for Megatron, The Fallen, Optimus, Bumblebee, and the Cybertronian civil war in general is covered in the prequel and sequel comics marketed by IDW. The absence of the information covered in these comics makes some of the decisions and motives in the films confusing, Megatron's allegiance with The Fallen being one of the most-cited among fans.

* Right before the release of the 2007 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Filmfilm)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' movie, the writers put out a five-issue comic book mini-series that served as a prequel to the movie and basically bridged the gap between it and the previous movies.

* In ''[[Thirteen13 Ghosts]]'', a lot of the 'Who are these people and why should we care?' information for the Black Zodiac isn't actually in the movie, but rather in special footage on the DVD.

* The website for ''[[CSA: Confederate States of America]]'' has a timeline that reveals more of the [[Alternate History]].

* ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' has an on-line guide explaining points that were left out of the film proper.

** Why they even want the '[[Unobtanium]]' in the first place (a room temperature superconductor - restored to the actual film in the collector's edition).

* When ''[[The Truman Show (Film)|The Truman Show]]'' arrived in theaters, a companion book marketed as an in-universe supplement to the show was released which contained a copy of the screenplay as well as detailed background information about the setting and each of the various characters who appear both as "actors" and as audience members in the film.

* ''[[Wild Wild West (Filmfilm)|Wild Wild West]]''. The novelization provides some altered scenes, including introducing a subplot where West claims while surviving on his own he befriended a native shaman, who later appeared as Jim fell off the giant spider to revive him.

* ''[[Tron Legacy (Film)|Tron: Legacy]]'' never explains where the Iso's come from, simply stating they just "appeared." It also mentions, but never explains the Sea of Simulation. The comic book ''TRON: Betrayal'' details that the Iso's came ''from'' the Sea of Simulation. It also makes C.L.U. a much more sympathetic character.

* Since ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' recaps the events of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' in less than a minute, a few of the plot points can be a bit confusing if you haven't read the latter novel. The reference to "[[Noodle Incident|The incident with the dragon]]" will go right over your head, you may wonder how Bilbo and Gandalf already knew each other at the start of the film, and you may find yourself thinking, "Who the hell is Gollum, and why should I care?" when he's introduced. And the ending, where {{spoiler|an aging Bilbo leaving Middle Earth with the elves}} won't be nearly as emotional.

* Amelia Atwater-Rhodes hosts her own [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20120212074312/http://nyeusigrube.com/ website] with a great deal of supplementary information about her vampires, shapeshifters, and their world. Even more information can be found on her forum.

* It may surprise some to learn that some of the most famous parts of ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]''--the—the invocation of the Achilles heel and the Trojan Horse, for instance--areinstance—are not actually in the Iliad. Instead, they're in ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]''. Similarly, the cause of the war and the recruiting of many of the warriors are told in outside sources.

* There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]], if only you have ''enough time''. First published were the appendices to ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. For about twenty-five years before the publication of ''[[The Silmarillion (Literature)|The Silmarillion]]'', it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are ''[[Unfinished TalesofTales Numenorof Númenor and Middleearth (Literature)Middle-earth|Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth]]'' and the 12-volume(!) ''History of Middle-earth''. All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories.

* The ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'' books all have sections at the end providing details for even the most minor characters. The series itself has also a true manual - or, more accurately, a "city guide" - ''The Magykal Papers''.

* A lot of the incidental information regarding characters both major and minor (including blood status, full names, birthdates, and so on) in ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' has been revealed either on [[JKJ. K. Rowling]]'s website or in her many interviews. [[Broken Base|Some fans]] don't like Rowling's [[Word of God|pronouncements]] regarding some of this information, to the point of actually claiming that [[Fan Dumb|Rowling doesn't have the right to decide such things,]] [[Death of the Author|since Harry Potter is bigger than any mere writer]]. The statement that [[Word of Gay|Dumbledore was gay]] was more covered by press than any plot element included in the books.

** Two supplemental books were also published, ''[[Quidditch Through the Ages (Literature)|Quidditch Through the Ages]]'' and ''[[Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (Literature)|Fantastic Beasts and Where Toto Find Them]]'', both of which are [[Defictionalization|also books in-universe]].

* ''[[Night World]]'' clears up some ends left loose on the author's website, along with occasional sneak peeks. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101019084957/http://www.ljanesmith.net/stories.php Link.]

* ''[[Les Misérables (Literaturenovel)|Les Misérables]]'' contains vast amounts of information on most of its named characters, regardless of their individual significance in the story. Although no adaptation of the novel thus far has made use of all the information, several of them, in order to remain canon, therefore end up retaining the names of the many minor characters and therefore confusing the intended audience. Possibly the instance where the background information in the novel has most effect is in the importance of the real historical figure Lamarque as a pivotal part of the plot. As this historical figure is only every referenced rather than actually appearing, it is virtually impossible to understand this sequence in any adaptation without reading the either a historical source or the original novel.

** There's an old ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Dungeons and& Dragons|DnDD&D]] manual called "[[The Thrawn Trilogy]] Sourcebook" which largely is there to give stats for the characters and locations of the trilogy so that gamers can play them. (Thrawn's stats are slightly terrifying. [[Authority Equals Asskicking]], indeed.) But it also comes with biographies that say a little more about the characters than could be gleaned from the books and tiny stories that illustrate some points. Some of these - for example, the bit about Wedge Antilles' parents dying on their fuel station when pirates took off without unhooking - were elaborated on later by other writers.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' has an [[The Dresden Files (Tabletop Gamegame)|RPG supplement]] that not only exists in-universe, but was edited for content by Dresden, and includes references to upcoming books.

* [[Eoin Colfer]] released a tie-in book to the ''[[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]]'' series which contained some "interviews" with the main characters and the author, the substitution cipher for the Gnommish alphabet, and two short stories involving Holly Short and Mulch Diggums.

* The ''[[Nine Princes In Amber|Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game]]'' was coauthored by Roger Zelazny and goes into detail about metaphysics, power relations, and characters' hidden motivations. In this case, though, enough is burlesqued to make the game work as an RPG that it's difficult to tell what's canon. (Among other things, the RPG offers completely different character sheets for every character, the first reflecting the [[Unreliable Narrator]]'s descriptions and the others offering contradictory "real" explanations.)

* The [[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honorverse]] has the [http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/series/Harrington/ Pearls of Weber], containing almost 20 years of collected statements from the author.

* While not at all a straightforward example, ''[[Lemony Snicket the Unauthorized Autobiography|Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography]]'' has key information on the mysterious V.F.D., as well as all thirteen of its parent books ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''.

* In additonaddition to ''The Black Book of Buried Secrets'', the official companion book/guide to the series, ''[[The 39 Clues]]'' has a plethora of trading cards and a website where you can input the cards' codes and unlock secret files with additional information on the series' universe.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' series finale infamously {{spoiler|divided the fandom with its vague non-answers over the nature of 'God' and its refusal to explain either the 'Head-People' or what was going on with Starbuck. The Sci-Fi Channel had already approved a comic series called ''The Final Five'' which will address some of these questions: a preview of the first issue, for example, reveals that Pythia appears to have been an earlier incarnation of Starbuck and was given her visions of the future by Head-Six, whilst the father of Saul Tigh was one of the original Cylon skinjobs of Kobol. The comic is written by one of the TV scriptwriters with the approval of the producers: however, a caveat was added to the first issue stating that it was "An original interpretation of the story,", making its canonical status dubious. This may actually have been a wise move: having been denied their answers on TV, the dissatisfied section of the fanbase may have actually exploded to learn the real answers were being given in a comic book mere months later}}.

* The extra material involved with ''[[Twenty Four24]]'' is staggering. There are book series, one-shot comics, the prequels that are only included on the DVD release (and are actually important to understanding the context of the season), and information on the various forms of the 24 website at FOX.com (which gave background information on the characters never mentioned in the show) that are crucial to understanding some characters and their subplots:

* The show ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|Babylon 5]]'' left out the conclusions of some subplots, because they were going to be covered by the (canon) novels.

* To understand some plot points in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', you have to check out the online graphic novels.

* Regarding the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "Journey's End": {{spoiler|''The Doctor Who Adventures'' magazine reveals that the Doctor left Rose and his human counterpart with a chunk of the TARDIS (presumably so they can go off and have their own adventures), a detail which has a huge impact on the ending shown in the episode.}} The scene was shot and was boxed with the DVD set. [[Russell T. Davies]] has stated that whether we acknowledge it is our own choice.

** A much worse ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' case is the notorious old school story "Ghost Light", which had almost all its exposition cut for time, making it ''almost'' incomprehensible without the lengthy DVD special features explaining the plot. Oh, and the DVD came out fifteen years after the TV broadcast...

* The [[Super Sentai]] ''[[Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger]]'' is subject to this. "''Hyakujuu''" is a Japanese word that means "All of the Animals". It literally means "One Hundred Animals". Seventeen show up regularly in the TV series, five make up the ultimate [[Humongous Mecha]], another one debuts in [[The Movie]], another shows up in a [[Audio Adaptation|drama CD]], and four more make their appearance in the [[Grand Finale]]. The other 72 show up in the series concept art, where a few of them were even conceived to be further [[Mecha Expansion Pack|Mecha Expansion Packs]]s, become their own [[Humongous Mecha]], and even more to have short one shot appearances in the finale but were left on the cutting room floor. These ranged from animals like the horse and cobra to the [[Everything Is's Better Withwith Penguins|penguin]] and reindeer (named GaoRednose no less).

** During the Disney era of ''[[Power Rangers]],'' there was a lot of things that were placed on the shows website or in promotional materials that never actually showed up on screen. During ''Dino Thunder,'' Disney's site for the series said that Ethan developed a way for them to teleport across the city by text message. ''Jungle Fury'' gave Lily's name as Lily "Chill" Chilman, a nickname she was ''never'' called by. Finally, never once in the entire season was it mentioned exactly what ''RPM'' stood for (It's Racing Performance Machines, if anyone cares.) Whether it's [[All There in the Manual]], [[Aborted Arc]], or [[They Just Didn't Care]] is a matter of debate.

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20090401152746/http://www.scifi.com/farscape/notes/ Crichton's notes] provide some musings and further information about various technology from the show. The [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325014831/http://www.scifi.com/farscape/journeylogs/ Journey Logs], written from various characters' viewpoints, are also good sources of character insight, wit, and lampshade hanging ("Apparently Scorpy had been able to trace my DNA from the sample he took when he had me in that frelling Aurora Chair, and that enabled him to find my head. Don't ask me how that makes sense. I just work here.") in addition to being episode recaps.

* ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]''. While Joss Whedon probably would've explained it all had the show not been [[Screwed Byby the Network|screwed over so badly]], if you want to know Shepherd Book's past you need to read a comic book titled "The Sheperd's Tale", which was released in late 2010.

** Although this history is hinted at pretty broadly in the movie ''[[Serenity (Film)|Serenity]]''.

* The full rules of ''[[The Amazing Race]]'' are never fully disclosed during the show, and many rules are only brought up when a team breaks them.

* Some of ''[[Carnivale]]'''s mythology was given in information and notes from series creator Daniel Knauf outside of the show, later presented by the fans via [https://web.archive.org/web/20120208131345/http://savecarnivale.org/html/rousties_month_thalidar_gospel.htm The Gospel of Knaufias]. While it's not essential reading for the show, it does answer some mysteries and fill out some gaps concerning the show's plot and characters.

* Something similar exists for ''[[Gorillaz (Music)|Gorillaz]]''.

* [[The Who]] wrote two musical [[Rock Opera|Rock Operas]]s, ''[[Tommy]]'' and Quadrophenia, as both albums and stage musicals. The stories of both of these albums can be difficult to figure out using just the music and lyrics, watching the film versions and reading various analysis of the albums is required for the full story.

* Really, any rock opera qualifies. Including a lot of things by [[Trans -Siberian Orchestra]] / [[Savatage]]. While the songs usually make sense in their own context, the backstory to them is usually found online or in the song booklet.

** [[Genesis (Musicband)|Genesis]]'s ''[[The Lamb Lies Down Onon Broadway]]''.

** The booklet for Savatage's ''[[Streets: aA Rock Opera]]'' provides both the story and a number of details concerning DT Jesus not found in the lyrics.

* The albums of [[The Protomen (Music)|The Protomen]] are packaged with liner notes containing pages of narration and stage direction which are not included in the music proper.

* [[Pearl Jam (Music)|Pearl Jam]]'s "Jeremy" is about a kid who kills himself in front of the rest of his class. You wouldn't know this unless you saw the music video.

* The comic strip ''[[Pluggers]]'' uses a cast of [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]]s to illustrate "Pluggerisms" sent in by readers (granted, the definition is a sliding scale). The now-defunct website used to include mini-bios for each characters, but their traits rarely, if ever, showed up in the actual strip. For instance, Sheila the kangaroo is supposed to be an aerobics instructor according to the [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/19970208084918/http://www.pluggers.com/cast.html 1997 character bios], but ''not once'' was she ever shown being one. The character bios were done away with less than four years later.

* ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' has a small library of rulebooks, rules supplements, codex sourcebooks, codex supplements, alternate army lists, Imperial Armour collections, Chapter Approved collections, etc, etc. And that's just the latest edition.

* The metaplot in the old ''[[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|World of Darkness]]''. You can play the roleplaying game without the metaplot, but the game writers scattered the metaplot and canon character background stories across various rule supplements, novels set within specific gamelines, crossover novels between the different gamelines, and computer games. ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' especially had the whole series of "clan novels" towards the ''End of the World'' metaplot. The final supplements that detailed the final fate of the various races and factions (or at least gave lazy Write Your Own Ending options to chose from) still sucked. Other people found it completely awesome, though.

** This also applies to such games that try to incorporate an actual storyline spanning one or more sets due to the inherent 'snapshot' nature of card art and flavor text. ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'' is one fairly prominent example -- itexample—it's not hard to get a ''general'' idea of what's going on in a given setting from just the cards, but those still leave plenty of blanks to be filled in via the novels or articles on WotC's website.

** Before the ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'' novels, players pretty much put the storyline together based on the snippets of flavor text on the cards (eg. Ice Age and Antiquities).

* ''[[Eberron (Tabletop Game)|Eberron]]''. Eberron Eberron Eberron Eberron Eberron. 90% of the details and [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] statlines can be found in the extra sourcebooks like ''The Forge of War'' and ''Faiths of Eberron''.

** True of pretty much any D&D setting across the history of the game (and many, many RPGs aside from D&D, as well). The core setting books/box sets are there to provide just enough information to start your own campaign in that setting if you want to fill in the little details yourself. However, the extra books are there to fill in all the blanks for those who want the "official word," and for the development of the metaplot. In other words, it's a common scheme by RPG publishers to get you to buy more books. That, and highly detailing a whole world would make many books into weighty $100+ tomes -- liketomes—like Monte Cook's ''[[City of Adventure|Ptolus]]'', which clocks in at 672 pages detailing a ''single large city''.

* ''[[Dragonlance]]'' is also like this. A lot of the information about the world and things like how magic works are in the various [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] sourcebooks. Even non-gamers have been known to buy the 3.5 [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] [[Dragonlance]] sourcebooks for information about the world.

* In the board game ''[[Talisman (Tabletop Game)|Talisman]]'', the entire story of how the victory causing Crown of Command got to be where it was and why the world is in its current state is in the manual, and easily ignorable for players who just want to roll dice and acquire treasure.

* Abused by the creator of Old Man Henderson, one of but a handful of characters to win [[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]-the author wrote Henderson a 320 page backstory which allowed him [[New Rules Asas the Plot Demands]]. To quote the author:

{{quote| The point to having such a long backstory was three-fold: 1: to ensure the GM would never actually read it and 2: Since he would never read it except for in excerpts i pointed out to justify things, I could re-write and change things around completely at random without anyone noticing and MOST IMPORTANTLY 3: Convince everyone that I was serious about this character, and that it wasn't simply the game wrecking bullshit that it was. Dickish yes, but he really did have it coming.}}

* ''[[Anima: Beyond Fantasy]]'' is another good example. The game has a fairly rich setting that, however, is scattered among a RPG (and its manuals), a miniatures game (better said, its manual), several card games, and a videogame. No doubt [[Crack is Cheaper]].

* In [[The Drowsy Chaperone]], Man-in-Chair never names Trix or Geroge's actors, but the CD case to the 2006 recording gives them names. Because this could have been created for the CD alone, it could also be considered [[Loose Canon]].

** Or you speed through the line too fast to even see them. For an example at another theme park, the ride for ''[[The Mummy 1999 (Film)Trilogy|The Mummy 1999]]'' at Universal Studios is based around the concept that you're participating in a filming of another Mummy movie. If you take the Fast Pass-style line, you'll go through too fast to even figure this out.

* Explanations about the true nature of the Maverick virus in the ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]'' games, as well as the fate of the Guardians at the end of ''Zero 3'', can only be found in the ''Rockman Zero Complete Works'' sourcebook. The events of the [[Robot War|ELF War]] and the backstory for the Eight Judges from ''Zero 3'' are similarly only explained in [[No Export for You|Japanese drama tracks]] on an OST remastered CD.

** The ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Mega Man Battle Network]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Star Force (Video Game)|Mega Man Star Force]]'' series are full of alphanumeric codes that do various things (Number Trader codes for free stuff, compression codes to make NaviCust parts smaller, etc.) You can find some "legitimately", i.e. in-game, but not all. Where are the rest? ''[[No Export for You|Japan]]'', of course. They appear in magazines, during anime episodes, and so on. Japanese fans then post them on the net so the rest of us can get them.

** There are also manga prequels to the original series as well. These fill in some of the details behind the game's plot. For example, the prequel manga for ''[[Mega Man 9 (Video Game)|Mega Man 9]]'' notes why older robots don't have to worry about the expiration date imposition, show the Robot Masters from the first game attempt to stop the rampage of the latest set, and even explains why Mega Man doesn't have a chargeable Mega Buster after five consecutive games with one. As a [[Continuity Nod]], said explanation was given by Dr. Cossack, who was blackmailed by Wily in the fourth game but working for Dr. Light from the fifth game onward.

* ''[[Breath of Fire IV (Video Game)|Breath of Fire IV]]'', and to a lesser extent, ''[[Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter (Video Game)|Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter]]'', also have this occurring. Seems to be a common curse of Capcom games (along with [[Dub Name Change|random name-changes of characters]]).

* ''[[Betrayal Atat Krondor]]'' tosses the readers a huge bone concerning one of the main characters and clears up viewer confusion concerning Gorath, who has a beard despite being an elf. Apparently the beardedness is explained by him being half-human on his mother's side (which, unfortunately, is just as impossible in Midkemia canon) - something that is not remarked or even hinted at in the game or the novelisation and should have had huge repercussions for him, if true.

** The ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series is particularly notorious for this, with the most of the characters' backstories being published in Japanese only publications such as game specific special editions of ''Gamest Magazine'' or similar strategy guides/sourcebooks such as ''All About (insert game title/company here)''. It doesn't help matters that the English localizations of the early ''[[Street Fighter II (Video Game)|Street Fighter II]]'' and ''Alpha'' games had inaccurate translations (i.e: changing Cammy's past with Bison from subordinate to lover, Akuma being a demon or mass murderer, or the whole [[Urban Legend of Zelda|"You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance" thing]], which launched much [[Fanon]]). Incidentally this plot doesn't resemble the one in the action movie at all.

*** The [[Gambit Pileup]] is extremely hilariously [[Lampshaded]] in the intro movie of ''[[Mortal Kombat Armageddon (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat Armageddon]]'': ''Everyone in the series'' is attempting to rush towards and climb some sort of ziggurat, happily killing each other along the way.

** ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' is an example of a fighting game that ''tries'' to explain everything in-game, but due to lack of dialogue, multiple plot threads, and a cut sequence, it still requires [https://web.archive.org/web/20130617052223/http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/modea/modea17.html the explanation page] on the game's official website for a reasonable understanding of the plot. Most notably, because a scene featuring Meta Knight and King Dedede was cut from the game, you'd never know how the Subspace Army obtained the battleship Halberd, or how {{spoiler|Dedede knew about Tabuu}}.

** The ''[[Rival Schools (Video Game)|Rival Schools]]'' series simultaneously averts and plays this trope straight. On one hand, the fighting portions of each game have introductions, cutscenes and endings that (for the most part) explain what's going on and the motivations behind most of the characters' actions; on the other, the [[No Export for You|Japan-only]] character creation modes in each game actually reveals even more background info about each character, as well as little known facets of their personalities (though none of it is required to understand the story). If you only play the games in English, you'd never guess [[Gentle Giant]] Boman is a fan of sunbathing, or [[Musical Assassin]] Yurika can identify a person by the ''[[Super Senses|sound of their footsteps]]''.

** This is the only way you find out anything about the plot in the ''[[Virtua Fighter (Video Game)|Virtua Fighter]]'' series, because there isn't even so much as an ending in the games. Although, come back in about a year, you may be enlitened.

** ''[[Guilty Gear (Video Game)|Guilty Gear]]''... o lawd, ''[[Guilty Gear (Video Game)|Guilty Gear]]''. [[No Export for You|Japanese-only]] drama CD's, Bibles/Material collections and novels and press kits are a few of the things you'll need to get all the plot of the GG universe, especially most anything about the Crusades themselves or the inner workings of the Assassin's Guild.

*** [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'' has started down this path with a prequel novel explaining what half the cast was up to before the first game started along with ''more'' time-travel shenanigans.

* ''[[Rayman (Video Game)|Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc]]'' contained several secrets that were only explained in the manual provided, making it a literal example of this trope.

* The English release of the ''[[Galaxy Angel (Videovideo Gamegame)|Galaxy Angel]]'' manga includes an ''actual'' manual detailing things that the writer left out from the game.

* A companion volume to the ''[[Wild ArmsARMs]]'' series reveals that, appearances to the contrary, they actually ''are'' directly related to each other -- largeother—large time gaps and Filgaia's remarkable disaster-proneness obfuscates this, making most of the games appear to be [[Non -Linear Sequel|largely unrelated stand-alone titles]].

** Many plot-heavy early games (I.E.: [[Role -Playing Game|RPGs]]) had literal all there in the manual plots. Partially as an anti-piracy measure, partially to save space on the cassette/floppy, the game would instruct you to read specific [[Wall of Text|lengthy snippets]] from its manual upon having reached certain points in the game.

* While it's not critical to playing the games, the [[King's Quest]] manuals have massive amounts of [[Backstory]] and character notes. The Peter Spear player's guide cranks it [[Up to Eleven]] with a creation myth for the universe the series is set in, documents "written" by the characters, and a fictional history of Daventry. And that's not even touching the [[Fanon]] on the universe...

* The manual for [[Sid Meier]] games, particularly the original Pirates, [[Shown Their Work|are loaded with historically-accurate details]] about the era you're playing, including Silver Train and Treasure Fleet routes, information on known pirates of the era, detailed notes on the cities, and commentary on the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the era's firearms!

* Important new plot points are set up in the [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition|Japanese only special editions]] of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. Not Japanese? [[No Export for You|No story expansion for you.]]

** You also need [[Chain of Memories|the spinoff on the GBA]] to understand some of the plot points of ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'' -- which—which is a [[PSPlayStation 2]] game like the first.

*** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|358/2 Days]]'' is pretty bad in this regard. While it's clearly intended for existing KH fans longing for backstory elaboration, anyone who just picked this up not knowing any better is going to be absolutely lost, as you need to at least understand what is going on in ''3 separate games'' to make sense of the plot: the original ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', ''Chain of Memories'' and ''KHII''. It doesn't stop there, though: {{spoiler|the Chambers of Repose and Waking, plot points introduced only in ''Final Mix+'', are mentioned several times}}, and {{spoiler|Ventus from ''Birth By Sleep'' makes an [[Early -Bird Cameo]]}}.

* [[Square Enix]]'s "Ultimania" series. These monstrous manuals easily contain a hundred pages for a ''short'' book. Most of them are suitably [[Doorstopper|doorstoppersdoorstopper]]s and are packed with all of the information anyone could ever want about the game and its storyline. Unfortunately, it's all in Japanese so it is up to the kindness of fan translators for this information to be shared for a broader audience.

* ''[[Civilization (Video Game)|Civilization]]'' took this trope very seriously, albeit as a somewhat primitive form of averting piracy. After a certain number of turns, the player would be asked to take the Civilization Quiz; failing the quiz prevented the player from continuing the game. The quiz was on specific prerequisites to technologies, which in theory could only be figured out by reading the manual. In practice, it was either possible to guess the prerequisites or to have already seen the technology in game. Those who were extra confused could just reload from an earlier save, at which point the quiz would randomize to something potentially easier.

* ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'', and how. While the series has an unusually high amount of dialogue and cutscenes for a [[Shmup]], that's really not saying much. Most actual information is in the character profiles, short stories, fanbooks, or spinoff manga.

* Most of the ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' lore is found in the novels, also ''[[Warcraft: Lord of the Clans]]'' is about Thrall's rise from a slave to the Warchief of the Horde, and is important to know why the Orcs went from being [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] to [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race]].

*** That said, the more basic information about it really is [[All There in the Manual]].

** This is made glaringly obvious when certain characters or subplots become relevant to the main storyline, and suddenly some fully-developed characters will show up in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' without their full backstory being given. Half of the story in the Sunwell Plateau dungeon, covering the adventures of Anveena Teague and Kalecgos, is only found in ''[[The Sunwell Trilogy]]'', a manga series released several years before the dungeon. Anyone who did the dungeon without reading the book saw a few conversations between Kaelcgos and a girl in a bubble who loved him without knowing that {{spoiler|Anveena is the human embodiment of the energy of the destroyed Sunwell}}. It is why her "explosion" helps end the encounter.

** Ditto as for why people are supposed to invade the Obsidian Sanctum, a sacred place to the black dragons where there is supposed to be no conflict, and kill a dragon who's defending a clutch of eggs. This is because they're twilight dragon eggs, and their presence indicates that the dragon Deathwing is working against the other dragonflights. The red dragonflight is using you as a proxy because they can't directly confront the black dragonflight about it. But the dungeon just showed up after a patch without any of this explanation.

** Another good example comes in the form of the third expansion to the game, Cataclysm. Quite literally overnight, the whole world was altered completely. The leader of the Horde was suddenly Garrosh Hellscream instead of Thrall, Cairne Bloodhoof was [[Killed Off for Real]] and replaced by his son, Baine, and Magni Bronzebeard was effectively killed off and replaced by a council of three, including one of the [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] Dark Iron clan. Little of this is ever actually explained in-game, and all of it takes place in the novel The Shattering.

* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'''s manual contained much of the game backstory, much of which play a hand in the expansion pack's story (which barely contained any information in its manual, if it existed). The game itself assumes the player is already familiar with the histories and factions of the different races given there. There is no in-game exposition for even basic things, like who the Sons of Korhol or the Xel'Naga are or the Protoss caste system, which are all vital to even vaguely understanding the plot.

* ''[[Starcraft II (Video Game)|StarcraftStarCraft II]]'' turned the phenomenon up to eleven; ''all'' of the major characters, excepting those retained from the original, have backstories which are only explored in tie-in novels, though a brief summary of each character can be found on the official website.

* ''[[Diablo (Video Gameseries)|Diablo]]'''s manual contained most of the plot and backstories of all the races and units. This includes a very vivid description of a little boy being transformed into Diablo.

** ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' is notorious for this: the significance of Dr. Halsey, why she distrusts Noble Team, the {{spoiler|Forerunner artefact, Cortana, the ''Pillar of Autumn''}}, and even the ''setting'' won't make full sense unless you've played the first game and read both ''[[The Fall of Reach]]'' and ''[[Ghosts of Onyx]]''.

*** Even if you have, you'll also need to read Halsey's Journal (which only came with the Limited/Legendary edition of the game), [https://web.archive.org/web/20121107210117/http://www.bungie.net/projects/reach/article.aspx?ucc=personnel&cid=24040 this in-universe communication] on Bungie's official website, ''and'' the 2010/2011 reprint of ''The Fall of Reach'', in order to settle ''Halo: Reach'''s apparent contradictions with earlier EU material.

* Backstory for ''[[Portal (Video Gameseries)|Portal]]'' can be found at the [http://www.aperturescience.com Aperture Science] website (LOGIN, CJOHNSON, TIER3, NOTES or [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20190614031748/https://www.gamespot.com/pcportal/actionforums/portal/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-38815824& Gamespot]).

* Trying to make at least some sense of the [[Gainax Ending|confusing ending]] of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2|Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''? See ''The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2'' which explains some things such as {{spoiler|the existence of both real and AI Rosemary'.}} All this and more were eventually compiled into the ''Metal Gear Solid 4 Database''. Good thing [[Regional Bonus|Europe got lucky in getting ''The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2'']], although the latter has quite a few errors on its part.

** Although it is heavily implied in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3|Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', the ''Metal Gear Solid 4 Database'' is also the only place you'll find a direct confirmation that Ocelot is the son of {{spoiler|The Boss and The Sorrow}}. The ''Metal Gear Solid 4 Database'' also elaborated on what happened with the Metal Gear Gs as well as the history of Shadow Moses.

** The ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid 4 Database]]'' is has received some criticism for not resolving some things, getting some info wrong, and retconning some things.

** The Japanese manual for the MSX2 version of ''[[Metal Gear 1987 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Metal Gear 1987]]'' included bios and artworks of the main characters and bosses (including an explanation of Schneider's motive for creating the resistance movement), and gave the specifications of TX-55 Metal Gear as well as the designs for it. A fan translated version can be viewed [https://web.archive.org/web/20060818123628/http://www.msxnet.org/gtinter/mg1remi/mg1reme.htm here]. In contrast, the English manual for the European MSX2 version only included the standard playing instructions, although it's not as bad as the English translated version of the NES port's manual, which pretty much butchered the story.

** The ''[[Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (Video Game)|Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' manual also elaborated quite a bit on the game's story and other things, and was absolutely vital to playing the game and understanding the story (in fact, it was even needed for a certain part of the game that probably made it far too difficult to be beaten otherwise). For instance, it elaborated on exactly how Solid Snake managed to infiltrate Zanzibarland, the history of Zanzibar Land as well as its statistics, including military strength and natural resources, a history of FOXHOUND, and bios for the main characters. It also explained a bit about the landmarks of Zanzibar Land, and the backstories of several bosses, and specifications of several vehicles encountered in the game, including the Goliath tanks, which were originally supposed to be fought as a boss but were removed due to time constraints and kept as part of the scenery on the first floor of Zanzibar Building, the Hind Ds, which explained that these were modified, the Gigant, and the Sikorsky Dragoon (the chopper that was briefly seen in the ending of the game that {{spoiler|took out a platoon of Zanzibar Land personnel when Snake and Holly White were surrounded due to running out of ammo.}}). Like its predecessor, it gave the statistics of Metal Gear D, as well as elaborated on the mass production of Metal Gear G that Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar alluded to in game. It also explained how to use tap codes in this game, which makes the manual absolutely necessary to use to get Dr. Madnar's frequency, and thus get further into the game. A fan translated version can be view [https://web.archive.org/web/20120226060110/http://www.msxnet.org/gtinter/Operate.htm here].

** There was also a leaked voice casting document for ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: (VideoSnake Game)Eater|Metal Gear Solid 3]]'' that elaborated on some details on the main characters. It gave the real name of Major Zero (David Oh), and elaborated on a few things about some characters, such as mentioning that the American colleague of Granin was actually Otacon's father (which was later confirmed by ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'').

** The original'' [[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'' included a segment where Kenneth Baker tells Solid Snake that the only way to contact Meryl Silverburgh is to look at back of the "CD case" to find out what her frequency. This is a reference to an actual screenshot on the back of the game's boxart, which depicts Snake conversing with the character in question via Codec.

* ''[[Video Game/Microcosm|Microcosm]]'' apparently takes place on another world in the distant future, involves a multi-generation war between [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]], an assassination attempt, and Cyberpunkish corporate espionage. You wouldn't know this from playing the game. It's a [[Rail Shooter]] with controls that makes Baby Jesus cry himself to sleep at night, and an opening FMV that is almost as long as ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]] II'' but explains NOTHING about the labyrinthine story. The manual's story lasts for more than twenty pages, including a three or four chapter story, an atlas of the fictional future star system it takes place in, and an long essay on why the [[Mega Corp|MegaCorps]] are fighting and how crappy their planet is. All this for a rail shooter that would have to be as bad as ''Superman 64'' to be run-of-the-mill.

* ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' seems to be heading this way. The available in-game Codex offers incredibly detailed information on everything from asari biology to element zero. In addition, the two novels offer and expand upon the backstory and provide additional information.

** The comic book series ''Mass Effect: Redemption'' (an official prequel to ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'') explains {{spoiler|Liara}}'s attempts to get Shepard's body back from the Shadow Broker in much greater detail, and how {{spoiler|she first met Feron}}. The DLC "Lair of the Shadow Broker" references, but doesn't fully explain, the events mentioned in the comic series.

** One tie-in novel, ''[[Mass Effect: Retribution (Literature)|Retribution]]'', finally explains fully one of the major mysteries of the second game: why are the Reapers {{spoiler|converting humans into a Reaper}}? The answer: because organic life is short and imperfect, the Reapers think they're doing us a ''favor'' by {{spoiler|granting us an immortal existence as one of them}}.

* ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' had {{spoiler|most of its entire second disk}} removed from the plot due to rushed development, and much of its plot only becomes clear in the [[No Export for You|Japanese-only]] Perfect Works. Thankfully, it has been [http://www.flickr.com/photos/29956195@N08/sets/72157616593453778/ been translated into English].

* As it is, ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]'' is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre video games ever created, so naturally the developers put out a companion book, ''Hand in Killer7'', that provides some backstory and explanation to the game's characters and events. Though this information is hardly any less confusing than that provided by the game itself, and often outright contradicts the game altogether. Given the nature of the game, this ''has'' to be deliberate.

* ''[[Homeworld (Video Game)|Homeworld]]'' has a large manual which describes the history and technology of your faction leading into the campaign, and goes into quite a bit of detail. However, the intro cutscene usefully summarizes the parts which are directly important.

* The original version of [[Lucas ArtsLucasArts]]' ''[[Loom (Videovideo Gamegame)|Loom]]'' included a 30-minute introduction on an audio cassette. However, if you've got a pirated version lacking the cassette, you can play the game without missing much.

* ''[[American McGee's Alice (Video Game)|American McGee's Alice]]'', in the deluxe addition, comes coupled with an illustrated "casebook" of Alice from the insane asylum she's staying in. It gives many details about the causes of particular events in the corrupted Wonderland, as well as giving hints about proper ways to defeat certain enemies and bosses.

* In ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'', only the Japanese manual refers to the fact that the abilities of every Player is tied to at least one pin. Yes, this means that Mr. Mew ''is'' controlled (partially) via pin (it's called Groove Pawn, by the way).

* Bad or hasty localization can also cause this. The [[Nintendo GamecubeGameCube]] version of ''[[Ikaruga]]'' only had the basic story outlined in the manual. Everything else was supposedly in game... but it was removed and not even the Japanese remains. Granted, you'd be lucky to even read half of it before it disappeared, but at least it was ''there'' in the other versions.

** Also the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100117015531/http://ordainorder.net/fear/ Armacham Technologies brochure (aka "Field Guide")], which was a promotional bonus for US pre-orders of ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon]]'' 2: Project Origin, and contains massive amounts of background and supplemental plot information for the FEAR game world.

* ''[[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]]'' has this in ''spades''. Additional information on the faction leaders' personalities, the backstory of the game before arriving on Planet, trivia on the planet and the solar system of Alpha Centauri...you name it.

* ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]'' only recently got a complementary, developer-made Wiki, which you can find [https://web.archive.org/web/20090928050659/http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/Psycho-pedia/ here]. It also quenches some of the fan speculation, such as revealing the name of Razputin's father (Augustus, for you fanfic writers) and confirming the long fan speculation that Raz' last name is Aquato.

* A certain code in ''[[Star TropicsStarTropics]]'' was revealed only by following an in-game character's cryptic suggestion to dip a certain document in water... the aforementioned document being an actual real document packaged with the game. Without the code, you can't progress. When it hit the Virtual Console, the loading screen showed the letter and code.

* The original ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]]'' explains the backstory in a text file that comes with the game. [[Excuse Plot|Not that reading it is critical to one's gaming experience.]]

* Think you've found a plot hole in one of [[Nasuverse|Kinoko Nasu's visual novels]]? Well... [[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)night/Headscratchers|you may be right]]. But it's just as likely that Nasu has addressed that very point somewhere, though maybe not in the same route or even the same game. There are so many rules to Nasu's universe that even hardcore fans have trouble keeping them straight.

* ''Super [[Metroid (Video Game)|Metroid]]'' gave Samus two undocumented moves: the [http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Wall_jump wall jump] and the [http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Shinespark shinespark] (no, not [[Getter Robo|that one]]). These moves aren't in the manual; instead, they're in the demos, and there are also a bunch of ''animals'' who demonstrate them for you (of course, this doesn't tell you what buttons to press). Since then, all the 2D games have included these moves -- andmoves—and maintained the tradition of not documenting them.

** ''Super Metroid'' actually had a ''third'' secret move seen only in the demo: the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140123064926/http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_flashCrystal_Flash Crystal Flash], a last-ditch recovery technique. The conditions and method for performing this one are so specific that only ''[[Nintendo Power]]'' readers had a chance of learning it.

* ''[[Flashback (Videovideo Gamegame)|Flashback]]'' came with a short comic book explaining the story. The key details are given in the second level, with a few minor characters and events missing.

* The ''[[Star Wars: Dark Forces Saga (Video Game)|Dark Forces Saga]]'''s backstory for the protagonist was first given in the manual for the original game and was later [[Retcon|contradicted]] by a trilogy of graphic novels. It was later revealed in an RPG supplement that the original manual were lies written by the agent who recruited him to make him seem more trustworthy.

* The instruction book for the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Videovideo Gamegame)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' [[NES]] game states that the Turtles' main mission in the game is to capture Shredder's <s>Retromutagen Ray generator</s> Life Transformer Gun, with which they can turn Splinter back to a human. This is why, at the end of the game, Splinter is restored to his human form; the game itself makes no mention of the transforming gun.

* The Sierra adventure game ''Rama'' was (loosely) based on [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]'s second [[Rendezvous With Rama|Rama]] novel. Despite there being some fairly major differences between the game and the novel, characters in the game will sometimes reference events that only happened in the book.

* ''[[Zelda II: theThe Adventure of Link (Video Game)|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'' had a rather standard [[Save the Princess]] plot in its opening crawl. The manual, however, revealed that the princess you were saving was actually the current princess' distant ancestor who had been put into an eternal sleep because she wouldn't reveal the location of the third Triforce piece to her brother and an evil wizard. It also explained that this is the reason the princess is always named Zelda -- inZelda—in honor of the one under the spell.

** The full name of the [[Big Bad]] of half of the franchise, Ganon, is Ganondorf Dragmire, aka Mandrag Ganon, at least in the English version. This is mentioned only in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: aA Link Toto T Hethe Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'''s manual and when you talk to an out-of-the-way white Octorok in the Dark World (though he only mentions the Ganondorf Dragmire name).

** A mild example, but the blond Kokiri in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' was named "Fado" on an old version of the official site. She's one of the few named Kokiri in the games, a leftover from her important status in the beta.

* ...''[[Endless Frontier]]'', where the "Manual" is an entire game of it's own (the second OG game), and arguably ''[[Namco X Capcom (Video Game)|Namco X Capcom]]'' and ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]] Episode III'' too.

* The ''[[Sim CitySimCity|SimEarth]]'' [[Doorstopper|manual was over 500 pages, bound in a ring, and was larger than most modern game boxes]]. It explains the entire philosophy of the game as a "computer toy", the science behind the various models, and the equations for the atmospheric model are ALL IN THE MANUAL. It's quite impressive, but looking back, it was a bit of a wallbanger when they put CO2's greenhouse effect so high, practically ignoring the warming effects of nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor, despite their completely saturated warming bands.

** The various [[Sim X]] game manuals LOVED to provide massive amounts of information on the subject they were simulating. [[Sim AntSimAnt]]'s manual was a couple of hundred pages long, but only 20-30 of those pages were about how to play the game; the rest of it was a small introductory textbook to the field of Myrmecology.

** ''[[Sim CitySimCity|SimCity 2000]]'' was much the same. A good chunk of manual, and many times more pages devoted to discussing city planning in reality. Much of it was useful to the game, giving you insight into the models used to create the simulation. Just as much of it was simply a love letter to city planning as a subject of research.

* Several significant plot points in the ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]'' series are, for various reasons, only mentioned in the game manuals. The manual for the [[Xbox Live Arcade]] game ''Arena'', "<nowiki>Star*Soldier</nowiki>", fleshes out the game in a way the then-limit of 50MB on game size didn't allow. (The limit was bumped to 150MB while ''Arena'' was in development.)

* [[The Emperor]] from ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' got his name, Mateus, in a novelization. Though the only "canon" (IE, in-game) appearance of it is the summon based on him from ''[[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XII]]'', and his ultimate weapon in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', "Mateus's Malice".

** Also, the same novelization explains the origin of his powers: He [[Deal Withwith the Devil|made a pact with Satan]] to gain control of hellspawn to conquer the world. It also explained that he gained control of Hell because of his disposing of Satan.

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Lunar: theThe Silver Star|Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete]]'', the Magic Emperor, has a huge air of mystery about his true identity for much of the game...provided you never look through your ocarina's playlist.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy XIII]]'', much of the story (and various commonly used terms) make no sense unless you read through Datalog. However, it's better than most examples here, because it's conveniently located in-game.

* Played quite literally in ''[[Hotel Mario (Video Game)|Hotel Mario]]'', where Mario turns to the camera in the opening cutscene and tells the player to consult the included instruction manual should they need any help.

** Most of the (official) ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games play this straight, where the functions of various characters, enemies, and items are only covered in their instructions manuals, but for some reason ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' inverts this (although still played straight with ''Mario'''s side of the story).

** And speaking of ''Galaxy'', there's the game's tie-in trading card game. What makes the trading card game count is the fact that it revealed in the game's prologue the Magikoopa that attacked Mario when he is trying to save Peach when [[Big Bad|Bowser]] kidnaps her and carries her high up into space to be... {{spoiler|[[YoshisYoshi's Island|Kamek!]]}}

* Much of the backstory in ''[[Nie RNieR]]'' is kept in the supplementary book ''Grimoire Nier'', including the game's [[Gaiden Game|connection]] to ''[[Drakengard]]'' and the beginnings of Project Gestalt.

* The ''[[Ar Tonelicotonelico]]'' series is blatant about this, between the scarcity of information on world history in-game and the [[Translation Train Wreck]] that plagues it. What are the [[Our Elves Are Better|Teru]]? What is a [[MacGuffin|Will of The Planet]], and why do [[The Atoner|Jacqueli]] seeks it? Why is [[Barrier Maiden|Saki]] so important? {{spoiler|Who is this [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Ciela/Horus]]?}} All of these are found in the Ar Ciel=Ar Dor booklet.

* ''[[The Reconstruction (Video Game)|The Reconstruction]]'', sort of. There's an in-game glossary that has background information and history on tons of things, some of which are part of the plot that the game itself only half-explains to you. Fortunately, though, none of it is really vital to understanding the actual plot.

* The plot of ''[[Shatterhand (Video Game)|Shatterhand]]'' isn't really stated at all in the game proper.

* The NES version of ''[[Video Game/Hydlide|Hydlide]]'' had an opening screen in which a demon casts a spell and turns a princess into three fairies. The full explanation of this was left to the manual. The [[PC -88]] version at least had a screen of text at the beginning of the game.

* Even ''[[In FamousInfamous (Videovideo game Gameseries)|In Famous]]'' got in on this trope. In between the first and second game there was an interquel comic published and released by DC. Although the main story was still understandable enough without reading the comic, a number of the game's subplots are only resolved in said comic, like {{spoiler|Cole coming to forgive Zeke, whatever happened to Sasha, Alden, and Moya, and Zeke learning that Kessler is Cole's future self.}}

* ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]'''s instruction booklet came with notes on everyone's relationships to one another, and a map of the continent you would be exploring. A similar cheat sheet came with ''The Lost Age'', which in addition to helping you keep tabs of your adventure, helped newcomers who hadn't played the first game catch up on what was going on.

** However, ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Video Game)|Dark Dawn]]'' is by far the biggest offender in the series. In addition to the map and the character relationship charts (the printed one blows the secret of Matthew's ancestry; a version that only leaked to the internet blows the plot-relevant secret of {{spoiler|[[Luke, I Am Your Father|Amiti's]]}}), the game itself has an in-game encyclopedia, which is filled with new information whenever words in red text show up. The encyclopedia entries provide a lot of information the NPC chatter and cutscenes do not, and without them, you're going to have a hard time making ''any'' sense of the plot, and likely miss several key points and quite a bit of foreshadowing and world-building.

* Much of the [[Backstory]] of the [[Rance (Franchise)|Rance]] world is described in [[Alice SoftAliceSoft]]'s magazine, the Hanihon. Information of past Demon Kings, the Eternal Heroes, how the current nations were formed, and so on are all there. Much of the information is translated on [http://sites.google.com/site/bbshut/home/rance-data this website].

* ''[[Misfile]]'' If you really want to understand how the [[Celestial Bureaucracy|Celestial Depository]] works and the effects of reversing the [[Ret -Gone|misfile]], and find out just how Tempest has such a cool mountain racetrack you need to have read the "about" section on the website, read the [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Ask Ash column]], and ordered the print books so you could read the liner notes.

* ''[[The Cyantian Chronicles]]'': There is the [http://shivae.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Shivaewiki]{{Dead link}} that has information about the characters and races of [[The Cyantian Chronicles]], [[Alien Dice]], and Shivae. Although, Alien Dice and Shivae aren't parts of The Cyantian Chronicles, they are still written and drawn by the same author.

* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' has a couple of prequel books that explain a few of the more obscure points in the story. The first book, ''On the Origin of PCs'', details what the various characters were doing before they all met, and other details, such as where the name "Order of the Stick" comes from ({{spoiler|because there's a stick on the ground}}). The second prequel book, ''[[Start of Darkness]]'' (which is the [[Trope Namer]], incidentally), gives a lot of exposition on the villains of the story, such as why Redcloak despises the paladins so very much, or how they met the Monster in the Darkness.

* ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'' has a whole Wiki of its own, as well as the Secret Blueprints (which may or may not be canon but are accepted as 'close enough' by most fans with access to them), several trade paperbacks (the latest issue of which contains a few extra pages that were never published), and The Works - a strategic card game that contains several cards depicting people who haven't been seen yet, and some information about people we ''have'' seen that hasn't been confirmed in-comic yet (for example: Klaus's card was {{spoiler|one of the first confirming pieces of evidence that he's a construct, although the FAQ and his Wiki article explicitly state it.}} Then there's the whole business about the Other, whose true identity - while canonically confirmed as {{spoiler|Lucrezia Mongfish}} in the comics - is still widely unknown by the majority of the cast and is still a subject of speculation among fans (possibly because the speculators don't quite want to believe that {{spoiler|Lucrezia would actually do something that would kill her own son.}}) Not to mention that it might be a bit difficult to keep track of just what happened when without that nifty time-line...oh, and the timeline has its own problems at times.

** A more minor example is the Island of the Monkey Girls. It's referenced several times in the comic, but there's no indication as to what it really is--justis—just a bar with a weird name.

* The website for ''[[CwynhildsCwynhild's Loom]]'' features a great deal of background information on the comic, including maps and a section on Martian timekeeping.

* ''[[Dan and MabsMab's Furry Adventures|DMFA]]'' has the Demonology 101 pages, which give details about Furrae and its races (some of which aren't even ''mentioned'' in the actual comic). In the Hybrid Genetics 101 pages, the creator's assistant, [[Snarky Non -Human Sidekick|Fluffy]], expresses disdain for giving so much information about stuff who will probably never make to the comic.

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20201205142924/http://aetheria-epics.schala.net/ Aetheria Epics]'': A significant amount of background information to the world not mention in the comic proper has been described in the site's forum, simply because the author candidly answers most non-spoiler-y questions posed by fans.

* ''[[Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts]]'' has the Historical Codex of Bideogamu, which has enough information to understand the plot in a more in-depth point of view. One should read it to see why, for instance, demons are [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] in this world.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' has had several conversations and references to other events which are only explained in extra stories in the print versions of the story. The author has ''kindly'' pointed this out.

* Due to the [[Speaking Simlish|lack]] of [[Rebus Bubble|text]] in ''[[Fite!]]'', most of the characters' names are only on the Cast Page.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' has a [http://elgoonishshive.wikia.com/wiki/El_Goonish_Shive_Timeline fan made and maintained timeline on a wiki] that Dan considers canon and is very useful for keeping track of how much time has passed between events and what day it is in comic due to [[Webcomic Time]]. The rest of the wiki is good for keeping track of characters traits right down to their height and eye color which otherwise would require sifting through forum posts and twitter updates.

* Quite a bit of dragon culture, history, and anything else related to [https://web.archive.org/web/20130719023505/http://www.drunkduck.com/Dragon_City/ Dragon City] are explained in the "Ask Professor Rachel" segment in which readers ask the mother of the family in the comic about the previously mentioned subjects. Some of these things are touched on later, but most of it is strictly contained in this segment.

* The history of the Blackridge family (as well as the roots of their feud with the Cunninghams) in [[Tru TRU-Life Adventures]] were provided in a posting to the strip's [[Message Board]]. Said message did not survive the transition to a different board platform.

* [[Maggot Boy]] has a [http://maggot-boy.com/extra.html written version] that goes into a lot more detail than the comic. Sketches on the artist's deviantart page also give information on some of the characters before the events of the comic.

* Was originally true in [[Collar 6]], with the website containing an "About" section...until the entire section was retconned out of existence (its still there, though). For the most part the author considers anything outside of the comic itself, even coming directly from [[Word of God]], to be non-canon. On some occasions he's even gotten mad because various side-comments he made about the comic were referenced as [[Word of God]] on [[ThisTV Very WikiTropes]].

* [[Universal Compass (Webcomic)|Universal Compass]] has a lot of this in the comments below the webcomic page due to the complexity of the plot.

* ''[[Cucumber Quest (Webcomic)|Cucumber Quest]]'' has [http://gigidigi.tumblr.com/ Gigi's Tumblr].

* Some of the ''[[Red vs. Blue (Machinima)|Red vs. Blue]]'' DVDs have character profiles which give information on all of the characters that isn't found in the series, such as backstories, hometowns, and explanations for plotholes. For some characters, this is the only evidence of their full names. For instance, Sister's full name is {{spoiler|Kaikaina Grif}}, Junior's is {{spoiler|Blarggity Blarg-Tucker}}, and Sarge's is {{spoiler|Sargeant S. Sarge III}}.

* Plinkett from ''[[Red Letter MediaRedLetterMedia]]'' '''hates''' this trope and during one of his ''[[Star Wars]]'' reviews he points out how stupid it is because when watching a movie everything in the movie needs to be explained within the movie, not in countless other pieces of literature and comics.

* After he finished ''[[Fine Structure (Literature)|Fine Structure]]'', the author released supplementary material that didn't fit in (some canonical, some not) and started [[Word of God|taking questions]].

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' (and by extension other [[Play -By -Post Games]]) can fall into this at times. Some information is only given in character profiles, and not mentioned anywhere else for any number of reasons. At other times, you may have to look through [[Developing Doomed Characters|pre-game]] threads, other characters' plotlines, and sometimes even past versions to fully understand events that go on in the main game.

* ''[[Critical Hit (Podcastpodcast)|Critical Hit]]'' has an [http://www.majorspoilers.com/critical-hit-first-arc-exit-interview interview] with GM Rodrigo on the Major Spoilers website, and he moderates the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131021035606/http://www.majorspoilers.com/smf/index.php Major Spoilers Forum] where he answers questions people have about the game.

* ''[[Elcenia (Literature)|Elcenia]]'' has two indices, one for [http://elcenia.com/setting.shtml setting] and one for [http://elcenia.com/cast/cast.shtml characters]. There's nothing you ''need'', per se, but it does clarify or teach not-fully necessary bits of the background, and help keep everything else straight if one forgets.

* In [[Notting Cove (Literature)|Fairies of Notting Cove]] an extra seventh chapter was released alongside the final chapter. It contained mostly meaningless details with some things that couldn't be written in.

* The story of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition (Video Game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Special Edition]]'' is entirely contained in its [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Sonic<!-- 20220SE%202%20SE/manual manual.]] -->

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', a large amount of supplementary information such as the history and details of locations or the names and background info of minor characters and animals comes from Nickelodeon website and [[DVD Commentary]]. The creators have since expanded on this and additional info can also be found within the four ''Lost Scrolls'' books, based on screenplays of the show.

** ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' also had a bit of this as well, one example would be the Dreadlok Buzzer whom was a disgruntled former Sociology professor in Cambridge England. Before he joined the Dreadnoks Richard "Buzzer" Blinken was a sociology college professor in England whom got in trouble because the college he worked at did not like his "extremist left-wing political beliefs". Buzzer wanted to do some research on Australian Biker gangs in which he ended up being a part of the very thing he was researching when he joined the Dreadnoks.

** It should be noted that the box bios often have their own canon and storyline that might match the show's events, but for the most part writes it's own story. This is especially obvious in the ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' toys. Since only 20 characters or so were introduced in the series, and dozens were created for the toyline, the differences are expected. Also, in the beginning the ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' were set to take place after the Autobot-Decepticon war, among the humans. The early toys reference this, and the characters who appear in the show often have an entirely different characterization in their initial bios.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] (a bit more literally) in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 2'', when Rex discovers the player's guide to a video game he's been trying to beat. He cries indignantly, "They make it so [[Guide Dang It|you can't beat the game unless you buy this book]]! It's extortion, is what it is." Later in the film, the tip on how to beat the game (enter the villain's lair through a secret side entrance) is used in the real world when the toys sneak into their own villain's apartment.

* The ''[[Total Drama Island (Animation)|Total Drama Island]]'' Interactive flash site on [[Cartoon Network]] has bios for all the 22 campers for the show. This has very useful information for campers that got voted off early like Ezekiel, Eva and Noah, who got very little character development.

* Each episode of ''[[Star Wars: theThe Clone Wars]]'' is accompanied by a comic, episode guide, and creator commentary on the official site. While these normally just contain trivial info, they were all but necessary to watch the "Dooku captured" episodes. The comics explained Anakin's voluntary capture and showed how Anakin and Obi-wan got drugged, the episode guide explained how Dooku lost his sabers (the monkey-lizard pickpocketed him!) and the commentary video was Filoni explaining that he believed even Dooku can be captured by pirates if he's sufficiently outnumbered.

* When ''[[Lilo and& Stitch: The Series]]'' was still in production, Jess Winfield kept in touch with the fanbase at TV.com and helped confirm numbers, names, and functions of each experiment featured on the show. With ''Leroy and Stitch'', all we need to find out are the remaining functions. Oh, and among other things, he confirmed that {{spoiler|the 628 pod seen at the end of Experiment 627's episode}} was just a throwaway joke.

* A fair amount of information on ''[[Titan AEA.E.]]'''s world is only given in the two prequel novels.

* ''[[The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' had a special "77 Secrets of the Fairly Oddparents" revealed Timmy's middle name (Tiberius) and Wanda's full name (Wanda Venus Fairywinkle). Also, a TurboNick special revealed Cosmo and Wanda's family tree.

* Similarly, the Nick.com e-cards for ''[[Chalk ZoneChalkZone]]'' told us that Rudy's full name is Rudolph Bartholomew Tabootie.

* ''[[The Lion King]]'' spun off a mini-series of storybooks that revealed some of the backstory of the characters, most notably Scar's real name, {{spoiler|Taka}} (unfortunately, no one told this to the guy who wrote ''[[CowboyMedia BebopResearch At His ComputerFailure|Disney Dossiers]]'').

* A lot of information about ''[[Invader Zim]]'' comes from interviews and commentary given by the creators, [[Too Good to Last|partially because the show ended before a lot of stuff could be used]] and partially because a lot of the interesting stuff probably never would have been used anyway. Also, it turns out [[All There in Thethe Script|every minor character has a name]].

* Dwayne McDuffie has a Q and A for ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'' on his site which details lots of info such as {{spoiler|Ultimate Humungousaur can't grow, Way Big is bigger than Ultimate Humugousaur and that Azmuth didn't make the ultimates, Albedo did}}.

* In [[Trollz (Animation)|Trollz]], the Trollz' pets, aside from Amethyst's dog, Wa-Wa, are only seen on the website. Some of the backstory involving Simon is only found there, too.

* The book six of the series [[Hey Arnold!]]:[http://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Arnolds-Files-Groening-Bartlett/dp/0439381495/ref=pd_sim_b_3 Arnold's E-Files] confirms that Brainy is in love with Helga and that he has [[Hidden Depths]].

* ''[[Young Justice (Animationanimation)|Young Justice]]'' has a tie-in comic, like most DC [[Animated Adaptation|animated adaptations]], but theirs is co-written by writers and producers from the series and goes into details like why the Justice League abandoned their headquarters at Mt. Justice, how Artemis found the battle with A.M.A.Z.O., and just ''why'' [[Superboy]] hates monkeys so much.

* ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|Thundercats 2011]]'' has the [http://crewofomens.tumblr.com Crew Of Omens Blog] where they take questions and hold chats, and the [http://soundslikejeff.wordpress.com/ Sound Designers' Blog], where they detail the sound art created for the show.

* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' has tie-in comics containing stories and bios that confirm such details as the Crimson Dynamo's real name, [[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Ivan Vanko]], and the identity of the "giant robot" [[Iron Man]] fought in his first episode, Ultimo. They also record the capturing of some criminals whose defeats did not receive inclusion in the show's 52 episodes.

* Much information about the ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' could be learned from the ''[[Teen Titans Go!]]'' comic book such as Terra's origins and much of Starfire's family.

[[Category:AllPandering Thereto Inthe The ManualBase]]