Author's Saving Throw: Difference between revisions

An especially brave idea is set forth to turn a character on his head and [[Wham! Episode|change the status quo in a big way]]... and the [[Ruined FOREVER|fans revolt.]] The writer then does a [[Retcon]] which seems openly apologetic. This is the saving throw. It assures the fans that the character either was not in control of his actions, or he was [[Actually a Doombot]] or events were not as they seemed.

 

 

Note, however, that not all Author's Saving Throws are necessarily a ''good'' thing; many authors try to "fix" things that [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|didn't really need it]]. This can be a highly subjective thing; one fan's [[Jumped the Shark]] moment is another fan's [[Growing the Beard]].

 

 

 

Compare [[Canon Discontinuity]], which just flat out ignores something instead of trying to [[Retcon]] or otherwise explain it.

 

Not to be confused with [[Only the Author Can Save Them Now]], where the in-story characters are trapped into a corner and escape through contrived circumstances.

{{examples}}

* Vegeta shaving off his mustache in ''[[Dragon Ball GT]].'' It might have been too little, too late for some, but it marks the point in the series where it switches from early ''[[Dragon Ball]]''-style slapstick to DBZ-style save-the-world fights.

* Many ''[[City Hunter]]'' fans were angered when they learned that Ryo Saeba's partner, Kaori Makimura, was killed off in its sequel ''[[Angel Heart (manga)|Angel Heart]]''. Because of this, Tsukasa Hojo, the author of both titles, went on to proclaim that ''Angel Heart'' was not actually a ''City Hunter'' sequel, but a spin-off set in an [[Alternate Universe]] featuring most of the same characters. However, most fans that got over Kaori's death in ''Angel Heart'' now accept it as a genuine sequel to ''City Hunter''.

* One of the many, [[Broken Base|many]] ways to interpret the results of [[Gundam Seed Destiny]]. The [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] made up of the old cast taking over, then occasionally losing focus could be the result of the staff trying to decide which way to throw the series.

 

== Comic Books ==

* Dan Slott's She-Hulk run did this for a controversial issue of Punisher, when he poisoned and blew up a bar filled with two dozen C-List villains, revealing that they survived and had their stomach's pumped.

** Subverted with Slott's handling of the issue of She-Hulk's one-night stand with the Juggernaut; Slott had She-Hulk deny it, while using it to slut shame She-Hulk via everyone accusing her of being a whore whenever She-Hulk denied the charge. The pay-off to the whole thing was her pulling out an alternate universe counterpart who claimed to have slept with Juggernaut, but the plotline was so widely reviled, that Peter David (who took over after Slott left the book) denounced it as lies and later writers have She-Hulk have the character herself wondering that maybe she did sleep with Juggernaut after all.

* The return of [[X-Men|Jean Grey]] in the '80s where it was revealed that the Phoenix (and thus Evil Planet Killing Dark Phoenix) was not Jean Grey at all. This like the [[Green Lantern]] example below (which it clearly inspired) was not done by the same author but the co-plotter of the original saga was involved<ref>It turns out that they not plan to kill Jean off in the first place, that [[Executive Meddling|was forced on them]] because Jim Shooter did not want the Phoenix's destruction of an inhabited planet go unpunished. Which destruction had been added at the last moment by Byrne (Claremont's plot had only had the Dark Phoenix cause a star go supernova but made no mention of inhabited planets). How Jean Grey was brought back was entirely preconditioned on Shooter's wishes, Claremont and Byrne viewed Jean's had planned to have UXM #137 end with Jean being stripped of her powers but surviving.</ref> Since then, to what degree Jean and Phoenix are or are not the same person is something no two writers agree on.

* The [[Spider-Man]] villain the Hobgoblin was created by writer Roger Stern as a replacement for the Green Goblin, complete with a mysterious true identity. The character was initially a success due to good writing, but then Stern departed from the title. At once, the Hobgoblin joined up in a gang war and the mystery surrounding his identity got out of hand. Finally, it was decided that Ned Leeds was the Hobgoblin... which was revealed after Leeds had already DIED (and at the hands of common snipers too, even though the Hobgoblin was supposed to have super-strength!) The [[Smug Snake]] Jason Philip Macendale took over the role of Hobgoblin and became such a poor villain that Roger Stern finally returned to write the three-part ''Hobgoblin Lives!'' miniseries that killed off Macendale, explained how Leeds was NOT the original Hobgoblin in a way that actually made sense, tied up all loose ends left by the mystery, and revealed the true Hobgoblin to be Roderick Kingsley, as Stern had always intended. This ended up ''backfiring'', as Roderick Kingsley having been portrayed as a nondescript wimp in his civilian ID before, who had really made little impact on readers, while Ned Leeds at least had been someone fairly close to Peter Parker (as the husband of his first girlfriend, Betty Brant). To make matters worse, soon afterwards the Hobgoblin got his ass handed to him in a fight against the recently returned Norman Osborn. Since it was clearly felt that with the original Green Goblin now back in action his knock-off the Hobgoblin was now redundant, Roderick Kingsley was permanently [[Put on a Bus|sent off to a Carribean island]], which in effect turned ''Hobgoblin Lives!'' into nothing more than an officially sanctioned [[Fix Fic]]. {{spoiler|Roderick Kingsley was eventually brought back many years later in the post-OMD continuity, and serves as a major villain even without his Hobgoblin identity.}}

** Johns continued to [[Arc Welding|arc weld]] Parallax with other existing Green Lantern concepts and expand on them to much critical and fan acclaim, arguably being an Authors Saving Throw for the Parallax retcon. It helped that while Hal was now the new "star" Lantern, Kyle was also written with respect and given a prominent place in the franchise instead of getting a reciprocal Bridge Drop. It doesn't hurt that both ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'' and ''[[Sinestro Corps War]]'', the storylines providing the Saving Throws, are both awesome and made of win.

* During [[The Clone Saga]] in ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'', it was stated that new character Ben Reilly was the original Spider-Man and the character that had been in comics for the past 20 years was the clone, which wasn't even the original intention of the hook. This didn't sit well with fans and was taken out again; a hook had been added by the writer in case they needed to. The whole thing was really kind of a mess.

* The [[Executive Meddling|editorially influenced]] attempt in the ''[[Batman]]'' comics to recreate Batgirl III/Cassandra Cain as Robin's erudite [[Dark Action Girl]] nemesis (explained by her returning to her supposed Assassin roots) provoked rather justifiable complaints that the writer and editor involved [[Did Not Do the Research|hadn't bothered to read Batgirl's solo title]]. A few months later, we found out that Deathstroke [[Brainwashed and Crazy|was feeding her mind-control drugs, really]]. Never mind that Cassandra's entire origin involves her complete and utter ''hatred'' of killing, even more so than Batman! Oh, and the who mind-control drug thing doesn't really work when in a Batgirl/The Ghost crossover she was able to overcome the effects of a deadly poison ''[[Badass|by herself]]''. Yeah, no antidote or anything. Still, it was better than being stuck with the villainness that's Cassandra [[In Name Only]].

** DC then gave the writer of the screw-up a new Batgirl miniseries to allow him to explain all the events that led into her [[Face Heel Turn]], thus tearing open a wound that was already considered closed (even if ''badly'' closed). General fan consensus was that he only succeeded in messing up the character even further. Even more confusing, parallel to this she also showed up in Batman and the Outsiders, coming out at the same time as the miniseries but taking place after showing her back to her normal awesome self. She then went into Comic Book Limbo for several years, and only recently starting appearing again in ''Batman Inc.''. They were probably trying to make Batgirl into the new Jason Todd...the only problem with this is that people actually ''like'' Cassandra Cain.

* Making Stephanie Brown the new Batgirl could be an added Saving Throw for both the above Cassandra/Stephanie issues. Fan reaction has been divided, especially among the Cassandra fans.

** This itself resulted in yet ANOTHER saving throw, with it being retconned that Cassandra willingly gave the title to Stephanie as part of a plan that had her [[Commuting on a Bus]] to ''[[Grant Morrisons Batman|Batman Inc.]]'' and taking on the new identity of Blackbat... and it's now moot since Stephanie has been demoted to Spoiler again, and it's uncertain just how much of her history is intact. [[Continuity Snarl|Oh, comics]].

* [[The Punisher]] began life as a ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villain whose idea of "justice" was "anyone committing any crime eats lead" and went around killing people over things that [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|were not heinous]]. The character as we know him today is actually a [[Retool]] made once [[Darker and Edgier]] came into vogue and it was decided he worked as a dark hero. So what do we do about his early appearances, which have things like him ''shooting a couple for littering, and a driver for running a stop sign when he was fleeing from the shots?'' In the first ''Punisher'' miniseries, it was explained away as Jigsaw arranging for him to be exposed to mind-altering drugs in prison.

* The ''Titans: Villains For Hire'' one-shot managed to spark racial controversy after the series ended with Ryan Choi, the second [[The Atom|Atom]] being killed and a new Atom series starring Ray Palmer (Choi's white predecessor) being launched during the [[Brightest Day|same flipping event]]. The 2011 DC relaunch completely retconned the events of the story, with Ryan Choi once again retaking the Atom identity in the new ''Justice League'' series and Ray being demoted to a supporting character in another, far more obscure title.

* ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]'' has one for the richest duck in the universe, describing the incident where he chased a bunch of African villagers out of their homes as [[My Greatest Failure|the biggest regret of his life]] that made his sisters sever all ties with him until years later.

** You might say that Ian Flynn's first year or so on the title was a series of Author's Saving ''Throws''. Sonic going out with Fiona? She was in love with Evil Sonic/Scourge the Hedgehog and thought he'd be the same. Sonic's [[Jerkass]] attitude towards Tails? The little guy finally blows up and socks it to him, making him admit he was wrong. Sally and Sonic are [[Official Couple|back together,]] and Sally is de-[[Chickification|chickified]] back to her [[Action Girl]] roots.

* Another ''[[X-Men]]'' one: Early issues of ''X-Men: Legacy'', when it was a Xavier solo title, had him revisit all the [[Jerkass]] things he did over the years. It was sometimes revealed that the more [[Egregious]] ones weren't quite as dickish as they seemed at the time. For instance, the reason he didn't release Danger when he realized she was sentient wasn't because she was just so gosh-darned useful, it was because he didn't know how to remove the code that made her a slave without affecting the code that made her sentient in the first place.

* In ''[[The Mighty Thor|Thor]]'' issue 301, Thor is visiting the various pantheons of Earth to gather energy to revive the Asgardians. All's well and good, until he gets to the [[Hindu Mythology|Hindu gods]], and Shiva demands a fight in exchange for the energy, and thanks to some rules-screwing, Thor manages to defeat him. This did ''not'' sit very well with Hindu fans, as Shiva is the [[Big Good]] to more than a few Hindus and his power is said to be limitless, and besides that it just didn't make much sense from a storytelling perspective, as Shiva was stated to be equal to Vishnu, who is stated to be equal to Odin; would changing the setting of the battle really make up for the power gap? Anyway, next time the Hindu gods showed up, it was revealed that Shiva was out that day and Indra, a far less powerful god, was filling in for him. The saving throw is hammered home even further by the ''[[All There in the Manual|Encyclopedia Mythologica]]'', which states that the limits of power possessed by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are ''completely unknown''.

 

** {{spoiler|The entire fic itself gets an Author's Saving Throw when Benji hacked into the author's account and wrote his own ending that killed Ronan and pretty much rerailed the entire Naruto cast.}}

* Readers of the ''[[Poke Wars|The Subsistence]]'' were baffled by Dawn's sudden prowess with guns with most complaining that it was an [[Ass Pull]]. Then Cornova wrote ''The Incipience'' and did some minor rewriting which better explained Dawn's sudden gain of [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]

 

 

== Literature ==

* [[Euripides]], for his part, also had to recant one of his works. It is known that he wrote two versions of the story of Hippolytus. Only the [[Hippolytus|second version]] survives, but it is widely believed that in the original version outraged the audience because Phaedra (wife of the great hero Theseus) lusts without shame after her step-son Hippolytus, and brazenly attempts to seduce him. The second, surviving version bends over backwards to make Phaedra blameless (she's deeply ashamed of her feelings, and only seems to come on to her step-son because her nurse betrays her). She still comes to no good end, committing suicide and attempting to frame Hippolytus for rape.

* Another [[Older Than Feudalism]] example is the opening of ''[[The Aeneid]]''. [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Vergil]] was in the difficult position of turning the losers of [[The Trojan War]], the ones who fell for the [[Trojan Horse]], into the heroes of his story. His solution was to add a Greek playing a sacrificial victim. This Greek actor was just too deceptive for the kindhearted, trusting, and heroic Trojans to disbelieve when he told them a story that made bringing the horse inside seem like a great idea.

* Ian Malcolm didn't survive the novel ''[[Jurassic Park]]'', but he lived through the movie. When it was decided that he would be the star of the next book/movie, Michael Crichton took advantage of the fact that his death took place offstage and said he was ''reported'' dead, but had in fact just barely survived his severe injuries.

** Well, public outrage and [[Money, Dear Boy|big sacks of cash]].

*** [[Momma's Boy|His mama]] telling Doyle to revive Holmes doesn't hurt, either.

*** Doyle claimed that he refused to do that a few times, but publishers persisted and just increased the offers. At last, fed up, he told them he would do it for a price he regarded as utterly ludicrous, figuring that would shut them up. Much to his surprise, [[Springtime for Hitler|the offer was accepted]], whereupon he felt he had to hold up his end of the deal.

* Another modern example is in the novels of [[Evelyn Waugh]]. In ''Vile Bodies'', his fictionalized Britain becomes a little ''too'' fictional, with the inclusion of the King of [[Ruritania]] as a minor character, and the novel ends with a badly predicted second world war which has trench warfare and the French as the allied army with Britain. His later novel, ''Put Out More Flags'' has some of the same characters several years older, but is set in ''real'' [[World War II]] Britain. The film of ''Vile Bodies'', ''Bright Young Things'' [[Canon Discontinuity|showed awareness of these problems]] by changing the King of Ruritania to one of Romania and depicting the war at the end as it actually occurred in Britain.

** This is actually a double saving throw, it is implied that Karona might have brought them from different timelines (as in, Yawmoth from when he was still alive and Teferi sometime after denying meeting Karona), the fans can go by whichever theory they like the most.

* In [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth]]'' series, the novel ''Geis of The Gargoyle'' was used to both [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] and explain numerous continuity errors that had crept up into the latter books (for instance, the Invisible Giants had shrunk to a third of the size they originally were, and The Gorgon's powers inexplicably worked on women, when they originally explicitly only worked on men). The explanation was that the Realm of Madness was expanding throughout Xanth, altering reality in increasingly drastic ways. Ironically, such errors seem to crop up in all of Anthony's extended series (most notably, ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'', where several Adepts' magic powers were altered or changed outright between the third book and the fourth).

* ''[[The Vampire Chronicles|The Vampire Lestat]]'' begins with the title character reading the previous novel, ''Interview With A Vampire'' and dismissing much of it as either lies or misinterpretations by Louis. Anne Rice decided she liked Lestat better than the somewhat whiny Louis, and did this to somewhat redeem him so that he could become the protagonist of the series.

* Similar to Holmes, Ian Fleming killed [[James Bond (novel)|James Bond]] off in ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' the novel at the hands - or shoes - of Rosa Klebb. He had to bring him back for ''[[Dr. No]]''.

** Dickens also made a belated saving throw in ''Our Mutual Friend'', where he intended Jewish good guy Mr. Riah to make up for stereotypical Jewish bad guy Fagin in ''[[Oliver Twist]]''.

*** In ''[[Great Expectations]]'', he wrote a new [[Earn Your Happy Ending]] ending for when the original [[Bittersweet Ending]] wasn't well received by fans.

* One happens in the ''[[Anita Blake]]'' series, as Richard's rather... erratic behavior is finally explained as ANITA'S fault... he was possessed by her anger. When the possession is cured, he reverts to a more stable psyche.

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'''s sixth season, magic was portrayed as akin to a drug, which was highly dangerous and addictive, and could even lead to users becoming "junkies" willing to do anything for a "fix," as happened to Willow slowly over the course of the season. [[Joss Whedon]] himself didn't like this development, and the fans agreed; season seven's first episode featured a scene where Giles explicitly states that magic is not addictive, and it's explained that Willow's actions were actually due to her ''not'' using magic. This, of course, made hash of most of the storyline of season six.

** It does qualify as an author's saving throw, or at least close, but it's not a retcon. Giles' line is "This isn't a hobby or an addiction. It's inside you now," implying that this is a change for Willow due to her actions at the end of the last season. Willow got addicted to magic because she has an addictive personality, as much to power as to magic. What with Tara expressing her concern in Season 5, this was already on its way to becoming Willow's character arc, and 'Tabula Rasa' is very much in tune with her behavior in the rest of the series. Unfortunately, 'Smashed' and 'Wrecked', which bring her addiction to its climax, are about the most [[Anvilicious]] episodes in the whole series. In the latter, she realizes she has a problem because she hurt Dawn with magic. Or rather, wrecked the ''car'' she and Dawn were in because she was high on magic. [[Captain Obvious|Just like addicts in real life!]]

* ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' throws a rather tricky one. {{spoiler|The very serious and nihilistic Doctor Shinigami suddenly appears in the first film, after being Natsumi's rather quirky grandfather for the whole season.}} Seriously, that doesn't make sense. So, in the second film, they make him that way again. But this time, they reveal that he's under the effect of a {{spoiler|"Doctor Shinigami" type Gaia Memory.}} Which is an obvious throw, as those are introduced in the ''next'', only-barely-related ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series, [[Kamen Rider Double|Double]].

** On the other hand, many, many other confusing problems with characterisation are simply ignored.

* The third season finale of ''[[Bones]]'': {{spoiler|Zack is an apprentice cannibalistic serial killer who admits he murdered a man! First couple of episodes of the new season: Oh, he ''really'' didn't kill him, he just pointed him out to the serial killer. Yeesh.}}

* In ''[[The Sopranos]]'', Tony entertained a number of gangster cronies while wearing shorts. On the DVD commentary, the [[Word of God|Voice of God]] admitted that a mobster of his position would never wear shorts in such a situation. A few seasons later, one of Tony's respected business associates commented to him that "A Don doesn't wear shorts," making it no longer a mistake of the show, but just another of Tony's quirks.

*** There's a reason they decided to call Volume 5 "Redemption".

* During Elisabeth Rohm's time on ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]]'', her character (Serena Southerlyn) was often used as a Liberal counterpoint to Arthur Branch's staunch Conservative. Problem was, when she wasn't basically arguing the defense's case for them, she came across as a [[Fox News Liberal]] so frequently whiny and petulant, it was a wonder how she kept her job. So when Rohm left the show, the writers used Serena's frequent petulance as the reason for her firing (She was acting more like a defense attorney than a prosecutor). But then they had to crap on things with those six infamous [[Suddenly Sexuality|last words]].

*** He has gone further, arguing that "a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can't have a continuity error--it's impossible for ''Doctor Who'' to get it wrong, because we can just say 'he changed time--it's a time ripple from the Time War'."

** There was an earlier attempt at Saving Throwing the half-human line by some of the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] writers. Unfortunately other EDA writers ''liked'' the half-human idea, but had their own radical interpretations of it; there was an [[Armed with Canon]] war; and the whole question became a [[Continuity Snarl]].

** The show's first example of this occurred with ''The Daleks'' and ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'': in the first, Terry Nation killed off his malevolent creations, but when it came time to bring them back for a sequel, he said: "the trusty TARDIS came along and took me to a point in time ''before'' they were exterminated!"

** There are some fans who have shown distaste for the Cybus Cybermen from "Rise of the Cybermen" and "Age of Steel". When "The Pandorica Opens" aired, the Mondasion Cybermen make their return ([[Word of God|Steven Moffat]] confirmed that these were the Mondas Cybermen; they just didn't have the budget to change the costume.), and also being much more frightening and dangerous.

* On ''[[Smallville]]'', Season 3 ended with Chloe walking into her house, closing the door, and the house promptly exploding. Then, in the beginning of Season 4, we see a flashback of Lex and his guys getting Chloe and her family out before the explosion goes down. Never mind that it happened the second the door clicked shut. Or that, per the Season 3 finale, Lex was too busy being poisoned at the time to actually have been there. This troper, at least, doesn't really mind, however.

* In the seventh season finale of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' {{spoiler|the titular character drives his car through Cuddy's dining room window in revenge for breaking up with him and escaping to a tropical beach. This caused a full blown fan revolt with claims that House became no better than a psychotic murderous [[Domestic Abuser]] and that his stunt could have ended with the deaths of several people. The creators responded to this on Twitter claiming that House had made sure that everyone was gone by looking through the window which prompted the fans to point out that ''Cuddy's daughter'' was likely in the room and she wasn't tall enough to be seen. Come the season 8 premiere and we get a scene where House turns himself in to the authorities and explains that he had made sure that everyone in the room had left and that he knew that Cuddy's daughter was at a sleepover. YMMV if this makes things ''that'' much better, mind you.}}

* At the end of Season 3 of [[The Mentalist]], Jane {{spoiler|kills Red John}} and sits peacefully waiting to be arrested. In the first episode of Season 4, it turns out that {{spoiler|that wasn't Red John}} and he's found not guilty in a spectacular example of [[Hollywood Law]], so the series can continue as before.

 

 

 

== Toys ==

* The characterisation of ''[[Bionicle]]'''s [[Big Bad]], Makuta, was literally saved by this. Through the first couple arcs, he was ridiculously easily defeated each time, considering all the powers he had. Writer Greg Farshtey had enough of this, and in the book ''Time Trap'', explained that Makuta [[Xanatos Gambit|had planned most of his defeats beforehand]]; out of three defeats he suffered, one was just testing to see if his foes were the heroes they claimed, one fight was thrown so the heroes would think they won and wouldn't go looking for deeper plans, and only the third was legitimate. His unplanned-for defeat in the movie ''Legends of Metru Nui'' was also explained in the same book: having recently [[Devour the Dragon|Devoured the Dragons]], he [[Worf Had the Flu|had trouble suppressing their collective minds into his own, which made it harder for him to concentrate]].

** Greg also went on to include Makuta in a few scenes where he could really show his power without being forced to lose due to plot (such as when he momentarily teams up with one of the heroes to further his own goals). He kicks ass.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Fallout 3]]'s'' ending caused some rather... negative reactions, in no small part thanks to its [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]. The DLC/Expansion pack ''Broken Steel'' changes the ending, allowing the game to remain playable after this. [[Word of God]] says the game's default endings (without the expansion) are [[Canon Discontinuity|non-canon]].

* After many players called out ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' for its extremely loose understanding of basic genetics (as relayed by the main antagonist, Liquid Snake), Hideo Kojima stepped up and established that Liquid himself has an extremely flimsy grasp on the subject and didn't actually know a word of what he was saying. It doesn't explain how a man with a supposed I.Q. of 180 and a fluency in seven languages could get such simple scientific facts wrong, or why Ocelot refers to Solid as the "inferior one".

* ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' was written [[Executive Meddling|with a mandate from marketing]] to turn the series away from the [[Arabian Nights]] feel and make it [[Darker and Edgier]], complete with emo [[Anti-Hero]] Prince and heavy metal music. The fans bashed the change mercilessly, and the writers answered rather innovatively by working the [[Dork Age]] into the plot of the third, making the ''Warrior Within'' Prince into a manifestation of the hero's irresponsibility and not the real thing. It also acknowledges the selfishness inherent in trying to fix the timeline in order to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], and when the Dark Prince taunts him with this near the end, he finally realizes that he needs to stop trying to change the past and solve his problems in the present. This qualifies as some pretty damn good [[Character Development]], which is why it was so well received.

** Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' and ''[[Kingdom Hearts Re Coded]]'' both feature [[Bonus Boss|additional bosses]] that, gameplay-wise, turn out to be [[Expy|close enough]] to the ones previously exclusive to the ''Final Mix'' version of ''[[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'' and ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', and therefore [[No Export for You|confined to Japan]]. So, the "Unknown" [[It Was His Sled|(Xemnas)]] gets an expy through the ''new'' Unknown in ''[[Birth By Sleep]]'', thus covering KHIFM territory, while Terra's Lingering Will from KHIIFM+ gets his expy thanks to ''Vanitas''' Lingering Will, still in BBS. About Roxas, upgraded from a cutscene (KHII) to a full-fledged boss (KHIIFM+), the fact he was still a storyline boss instead of a bonus boss allowed him to be used as a [[Final Boss]] instead, in ''Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded''. You can basically see [[Tetsuya Nomura]] saying "sorry, western fans".

** Also, there's one involving the storyline. See, most fans were unhappy (euphemism) about [[Creator's Pet|Ash Crimson]] taking the role of protagonist previously covered by Kyo and K', just as much as they were unhappy about him {{spoiler|[[Brought Down to Normal|stealing]] both Chizuru and Iori's Sacred Treasures powers}}. Come ''XIII'', Ash {{spoiler|enacts a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to stop the [[Big Bad]] of that [[Story Arc]]}}. Mind you, he doesn't {{spoiler|die... [[Ret-Gone|he is erased from existence.]] [[Cosmic Retcon|Retroactively!]] So he never really existed in the first place!}}

** ''XIII'' itself counts as an example. ''XII'' was labelled as a [[Dream Match Game]], but it ''[[In Name Only|really]]'' was an [[Obvious Beta]] released to earn [[SNK]] Playmore some quick cash in order to alleviate the production costs for [[Art Shift|redrawing the]] [[Loads and Loads of Characters|large cast of characters]] [[Art Shift|in high-definition]]. The end result? ''XII'' was crawling with bugs and infinites, not to mention a drastically reduced roster total from previous games. ''XIII'' addressed these complaints by ironing out most of the gameplay problems and bringing back several fighters who skipped out on the last few titles. Also, while the ''[[Fuun Series|Kizuna Encounter]]''/''[[Marvel vs. Capcom]]''/''[[Neo Geo Battle Coliseum]]''-esque Tactical Shift system in ''2003'' and ''XI'' was actually well-liked by most fans, ''XIII'' assumes the traditional 3-on-3, round-robin format from the series' inception.

* The ending of ''[[Syphon Filter]] 2'' apparently had Teresa [[Killed Off for Real|permanently killed off]], but the third game retconned this as [[Faking the Dead]].

* When ''[[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Ratchet & Clank]]'' came out, a recurring complaint among critics was Ratchet's characterization (acting like a selfish {{Jerkass]] towards the much more sympathetic Clank). When ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' was in development, Insomniac made sure to include several cutscenes where Ratchet gets angry and defends Clank when he is threatened, all with the explicitly stated purpose of "fixing" Ratchet's character.

 

== Web Comics ==

* [[Collar 6]]. After the drugging incident, Wolfe took two months real-time having the characters discuss how dysfunctional their relationship had become.

 

== Web Original ==

* In ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', Madison Conner's [[Face Heel Turn]] and subsequent [[Ax Crazy]] rampage was explained to have been because she suffers from bipolar disorder, which had been hinted at but never elaborated on. It didn't work too well.

* The NChick team were getting a lot of flack over the "Nella abuse", which [[Fan Dumb]] took way too seriously and thought it was happening in real life. So Lindsay made a "Thanks For Your Feedback", detailing that [[The Nostalgia Chick]] had sinfully low self-esteem and was paying Nella to make her look better.

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' during The Entity storyline has the writer Lewis Luvhuag acknowledged during the commentary of "Pokemon: The Electric Tale of Pickachu" {{spoiler|that he ended pulling one with why [[Glitch Character|Missingno]] was afraid of Lord Vyce, aware that with how he built it up as an unstoppable universe devouring Lovecraftian demon, used the plot that Vyce's attacks were able to hurt it, but, according to Missingno, at least, couldn't kill it, but if found getting rid off him to be enough of an inconvenience that it hid out in our dimension so Linkara would defeat Vyce. Note that even Lewis comments that Vyce not being able to kill it was it at least from Missingo's point of view, and [[A God I Am|Missingno is full of itself even for a god]].}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* "Janine, You've Changed" from ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' is generally considered to be one of the most tragically hilarious attempts at this ever made; the show's former writer, [[J. Michael Straczynski]], is asked to come back and try to explain all the design changes made to a member of the secondary cast over the years. The end result... was actually fairly funny, had a pretty era-relevant Aesop for female viewers and had a bit of [[Ship Tease|payoff]] for long-time watchers. That it needed [[Executive Meddling|to be done at all]] is where the tragedy lies.

* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' Cyborg was always shown firing his sonic [[Arm Cannon]] from his right arm, until one day he used his left. Fans pointed out this apparent plot hole, and some time later, during a crucial fight, he simply converts ''both'' arms to cannons. It's hard to tell whether it was planned or this trope, since it makes perfect sense that he can convert both arms, and is simply right-dominant.

** Recently, they've given an explanation for his continual appearance; Kenny turns out to be {{spoiler|the heroic Mysterion, a "superhero" in South Park with the power to be reborn continually after death; his mother ''spontaniously gives birth to a new Kenny after the last one's death'', which then proceeds to grow to the previous one's age. And he [[Nightmare Fuel|remembers everything]], but everyone else forgets his death almost instantly.}}

* The Japanese dub of ''[[The Simpsons]] Movie'' tried to pull an inverted [[Poor Man's Substitute]] by replacing the cast used in the regular series with bigger-name actors, but fell straight into [[The Other Darrin]] instead, forcing them to try and make up for it by redubbing the movie with the original cast for DVD.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]

[[Category:Pandering to the Base]]