Backstory: Difference between revisions
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In fact, it can be so interesting and important that it's a wonder it's just a ''back'' story, and indeed, a particularly good Back Story can form the basis of a [[Prequel]].
A good [[Retcon]] may go back and explore a character's '''Backstory'''. A [[Belated Backstory]] occurs when the [[Retcon]] radically and permanently changes a new character's personality. Some characters are given a [[Mysterious Past]] or [[Dark and Troubled Past]] as a backstory; these [[
Many [[Fanfic]]s exist to explore '''Backstory''' (for example, how Spock's parents got together).
See also [[Prequel]], [[Start of Darkness]], [[Happy Flashback]], [[Troubled Backstory Flashback]], [[Backstory of the Day]], [[When It All Began]], and [[Standard Cop Backstory]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Sket Dance]]'', while a gag manga for the most part, features three separate backstory arcs for the main cast that are either sufficiently melodramatic (Bossun and Switch) or heartwarming (Himeko) that help flesh out their personalities and how they ended up becoming the people they are now.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' had quite a few chapters explaining Mustang and Hawkeye's backstories.
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In [[Code Geass]], this is provided by the sound and picture episodes.
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* Standard issue for heroes and villains, since everyone wants to know how X got her powers, why Y is called "the Red Rose," what happened between Group A and Group B to make them hate each other, and how it was that [[Everyone Went to School Together]]. One of the signs that a character is becoming popular or will get more screentime is when the writers give him a backstory.
* Everyone who becomes a ''[[Ghost Rider]]'' has a detailed back story, [[Retcon|and they're ALL subject to change.]]
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* In ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|The Amazing Spider-Man]]'', Mary Jane "MJ" Watson was the happy-go-lucky [[Betty and Veronica|Veronica]] to Peter Parker's Archie...until she returned to the book in the early '80s after a few years' absence, and revealed at one point that she knew he was Spider-Man. In the following issue, MJ decided to confide in Peter, revealing her unknown back story. Turns out that she was [[Stepford Smiler|laughing to hide the tears of her broken home.]]
* ''[[Code Geass:
▲== Fan Fiction ==
*
▲* ''[[Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance|Code Geass Mao of the Deliverance]]'' takes the titular [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] who [[One-Scene Wonder|only premiered for three episodes]] in the original ''[[Code Geass]]'' and introduces an in-depth, [[Perspective Flip]]ped personal history which actually forms an engaging storyline that is both plausible and woven into established [[Canon]] very well, explaining [[How We Got Here]].
▲* during the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'', Takeru tries to gain the trust of the Tamers, by revealing to them the true origins of not only the Digital World, but {{spoiler|Takato Matsuki himself.}}
* A great deal of action hinges upon the back story of the world C'hou in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. The four are told the same story four or five different times, with new details emerging each time, until they finally know the original purpose of the Vasyn and what its return really means to the planet.
* In ''[[The Tainted Grimoire]]'', several were given.
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** Cheney explains to Tweigel his history with {{spoiler|Freise}} before joining House Bowen and properly explains why he left House Bowen.
== [[Film]] ==
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel films had existed in brief notes just to get things together for the original movie. [[George Lucas]] wanted the original [[Star Wars]] to have the episode 4 title to resemble the ''[[Buck Rogers]]'' and ''[[Flash Gordon Serial|Flash Gordon]]'' serials, but only used "Part IV" in the opening expository crawl. ''[[A New Hope]]'' has a lot of imagery that is intended to make you think you're seeing something familiar, such as the first appearance of [[The Obi-Wan|Obi-Wan]].
* The eponymous ''[[Mystery Team]]'' once held the respect of the entire town; now they're nothing but a joke.
* ''[[The Man Who Saves the World]]'' [[Info Dump]] prologue reveals a backstory bigger than many movies' plots that completely fails to make sense, as apparently mankind has homogenized in the Galaxy Age, and the Earth got blown up once or twice, but that's okay because they've built a force field made out of human brains to protect it now.
* Maui from Disney's ''[[Moana]]'' has his entire history depicted in [[Animated Tattoo]]s all over his body, which he uses in the number "Thank You" to establish who he is to Moana. In what may well be an intentional [[Visual Pun]], the story of the earliest years of his life are depicted on his back.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* Since [[J. R. R.
▲== Literature ==
* The ''entire'' main plot of ''[[
▲* Since [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s Middle-earth stories (''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', etc) span a world over thousands of years, and he wrote on it all his life, there is a lot of information on a variety of topics, history, and characters' lives. In fact, ''The Lord Of The Rings'' is more backstory with a novel than a novel with a backstory. Tolkien wrote the history of Middle-Earth as part of long running idea to create a British mythology that rivalled the far richer folklore such as Norse mythology. The novels themselves evolved out of this. His work went so far as to invent entire languages with their own character sets and long running genealogies detailing every major family, be they human, elf or otherwise.
** ''[[
▲* The ''entire'' main plot of ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]'' is rooted in the incredibly twisted tragic backstory of Harry's parents, their friends, and the events that led to their death. The other plot threads are a) an [[Ironic Echo]] of the backstory plot, and b) metaphors for overcoming your personal demons of the past (i.e., another echo of the plot).
** ''[[
▲** ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince|Harry Potter]]'' establishes in detail a lot of the back story of Lord Voldemort, the principal villain, as well as the school life of Snape and Harry's parents.
▲** ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows|Harry Potter]]'' does the same with Dumbledore, including {{spoiler|[[Dead Little Sister|a dead sister]], a father who died in Azkaban and a school-days crypto-gay friendship with Gellert Grindelwald, a Dark Wizard only slightly less evil than [[Big Bad]] Voldemort.}}
** Don't forget about {{spoiler|Snape, who got a flashback in the fifth book that shows James and Sirius being bullies and explaining one part of why Snape hates Harry, and a whole chapter in the last book dedicated to why Snape even protected Harry, which was because of Snape's unrequited love for Lily, which would be the other part of why he hates Harry.}}
** One classmate of Harry's got a disproportionately large backstory: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100103152238/http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=2 Dean Thomas]. Rowling has written "I think Chris <ref>[[Chris Columbus]], director of the first two films</ref> was slightly taken aback by the amount of information I had on this peripheral character."
* Half the mystery in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is the backstory of the characters and Westeros itself.
* [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]'s ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'' is explicitly billed, in the text, as backstory to the rest of [[The Chronicles of Narnia]] books.
* Both implicit and explicit in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, including the titular character. Generally, implicit in the "main" novels, explicit in the anthologies.
* The "[[Horus Heresy]]" novels are the Backstory to the ''[[Warhammer
* Kavi has a particularly unpleasant one in [[Hilari Bell]]'s [[Farsala Trilogy]].
* Explored a lot with different characters in the ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' series. There's ''The Rise of Scourge'', ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', ''Crookedstar's Promise'', ''Yellowfang's Secret'', and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
* The second season episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', "Becoming, Part I," in which the audience sees how Buffy, Angel, Spike, and Drusilla "became" who they are today.
** Buffy and [[Angel]] were both quite good at this- this (admittedly Buffy-lovin') troper can name the Buffy episodes "Amends" and "Lie to Me" and the ''[[Angel]]'' episodes "Darla," "Dear Boy," "Orpheus"... heck, a LOT of Angel is backstory contributing to various season arcs (Darla in Season 2, Holtz in season 3, etc.) as well as one or two "one-shot" backstory episodes such as "Why We Fight," the mentions of Angel's past in Vegas in "The House Always Wins," and "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been." Well, a guy does accumulate a lot of backstory in 240+ years of living...
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* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' had a ''massive'' backstory that explained how Veronica, a formerly girly high school student, became a hard-boiled sardonic detective. Apparently all it takes is: 1) having the Sheriff be your father; 2) have your best friend murdered under mysterious circumstances; 3) have your father disgraced by the rich locals after he fails to close the case; 4) lose face with your peers because you stand by him; 5) go to a party with your peers only to get roofied and raped. The result? A jaded, cynical 17 year-old girl with an appetite for getting the truth—the perfect story telling recipe for awesome.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
▲== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has this as an option during character creation in the form of "Preludes." Which are essentially how the character you've made came to acquire/awaken/discover/what-have-you his or her powers. Vampires have Sires, Werewolves get their First Changes, Mages get their Awakenings, Changelings have Durances in [[Arcadia]] and so on.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' has a surprisingly substantive backstory told through a multitude of novels, comics, [[Alternate Reality Game]]s, guidebooks, online exclusives, live-action commercials, and even an [[Halo Legends|anime series]]. Hell, one book trilogy is even set ''100,000 years'' before the start of the games.
* ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' has it's own ARG website with the Aperture Science backstory and how GLaDOS came to be.
** The sequel also had several areas dating back to the 60s and 70s to explorer Aperture's rise and fall as company, as well as the origin of GLaDOS, revealing that she {{spoiler|was built as an attempt by terminally ill Aperture CEO Cave Johnson to achieve [[Immortality]] through [[Brain Uploading]]...and although Johnson seems to have died before the project was ready, he left instructions that his trusty secretary Caroline should be uploaded, against her will if necessary, in his place.}}
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops]]'' establish the [[Start of Darkness]] of Big Boss, the [[Big Bad]], showing his fall from a noble [[Badass Normal]], through a quietly grieving [[Tragic Hero]], into an [[Anti-Villain]] convinced that [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]. (His Utopia happens to be [[War for Fun and Profit|eternal World War]].) However, pretty much every character has a backstory more in-depth and complicated than most real people's. Even if they're only on camera for fifteen minutes and are never mentioned again.
* ''[[Darkstalkers]]'' started out simple but the sequel ''Night Warriors'' rewrote the character origins into surprisingly interesting back stories and Vampire Savior expanded it further, giving back stories to the different worlds the game takes place in.
* ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' has a fairly detailed backstory, told mostly [[All in The Manual|in the manuals]] (including official game guides, and the Confederation Handbook for the movie) and novels, both [[novelization]]s of the games and new works within the setting.
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* [[Fallout]] has a rather extensive backstory as a result of taking place in an alternate history. The point of divergence seems to be somewhere during or immediately after World War II, and is used to explain the presence of rayguns, robots, and other [[Zeerust]]. It also explains why the US flag is different, and clarifies the origin and goals of the Enclave. All told, it's probably most relevant to ''Fallout 2'' and ''3.''
== [[Visual Novels]] ==▼
▲== Visual Novels ==
* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' has a backstory that is a major plot point for the story, the protagonist's entire motivation for existing (at least in the beginning), in fact. Most of the routes have his backstory as a point of major inner conflict for him over his ideals and his reality.
** This particular backstory was fleshed out in its entirety in ''[[Fate/Zero]]''.
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* ''[[Tsukihime]]'' freaking ''exists'' because of this. The backstory is unbelievably complex and well-written, with each route giving off a small amount of information about the past. The entire backstory can be put together (like a puzzle) only after playing all of the routes.
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
* A major part of ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is the slow unrolling of backstory. Much of the discussion in the various forums focuses on it, and the character moments are truly first-class. After the first volume, ''everything'' has been foreshadowed; there are no [[Ass Pull]]s. The central character, Agatha Heterodyne, has a backstory that is still not entirely revealed. The attack on Castle Heterodyne and the appearance of the mysterious The Other is, perhaps, on the verge of revelation as of this writing—nine and one-half volumes and about seven years into the series. A truly magnificent piece of through-plotting.
* Pages and pages of ''[[Homestuck]]'' are completely dedicated to this. See the entirety of Act 5: Part One. All it does is discuss the Trolls and how they eventually {{spoiler|created our universe.}}
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* Details of the Valkyrie backstory in ''[[Cwynhild's Loom]]'' are slowly revealed in the comic, and a brief written history is available on the website.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* At its height, the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' had literally megabytes of back story on its website, in a history involving thousands of characters and trailing all the way back to the Big Bang. When the game's website finally closed down, the [[Word of God|administrator admitted]] that there was more back story that hadn't ever made it onto the website than information that had.
* The ''[[Whateley Universe]]'' is powered by backstory. All but one of the major characters of Team Kimba (and some of the other main characters) had a full novel or novella covering how they got to the [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy for their freshman year. Since then, we've seen backstory on everyone from the headmistress (who seems to have enough backstory for her own series) and the Chief of Whateley Security to side characters and even some of the villains. [[Word of God]] has revealed that the [[Canon]] authors are working from a 400-page 'bible' of backstories and characters and stuff that hasn't even been seen yet in the published material.
* In ''[[The Gungan Council]]'', all characters have some sort of backstory given in their first biography. However, in roleplays such as "It's Not That I Keep Hanging On, I'm Never Letting Go," the backstory for characters is described in detail to explain character relationships never written out before.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* Even though the rest of the series has been [[Fanon Discontinuity|relatively disowned by the fandom]], a single ''[[Star Trek: The
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* Even though the rest of the series has been [[Fanon Discontinuity|relatively disowned by the fandom]], a single ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series|Star Trek the Animated Series]]'' episode ("Yesteryear"), which explains Spock's backstory, is embraced. Curious.
** No, what's embraced is how that story would've gone if adult Spock ''hadn't'' [[Time Travel]]led into it. It just happens that "Yesteryear" is the closest anyone has to that record.
** In fact, because of that single episode, the entire series is ''officially'' canon. Fascinating.
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* ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'' had the first season episode "The Chipmunks Story", showing how Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were discovered by David Seville. The third season followed this up with, appropriately enough, "The Chipette Story", which explored the backstory of the [[Distaff Counterpart]]s.
* From ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]],'' several characters' backstories are ''essential'' to understanding how they are in the present, particularly Zuko. Strangely, even though we see most of the main characters' backstories in the form of flashbacks, all we know about Iroh's backstory is [[Mysterious Past|vague statements]] by various characters who all know more than we do.
* [[He-Man and the Masters of the
** In the 2002 series, we're given back-stories on the Sword of Power and King Greyskull, the same backstory for Orko as we saw in the 80s series (although he lost a wand this time instead of the original medallion), how Man-At-Arms became Teela's father (different to the 80s series) and how the Sorceress was able to become a mother in the first place.
** "The Secret of the Swords" was the 80s set-up for the original ''[[She-Ra:
* ''[[My Little Pony:
** And "Hearth's Warming Eve" tells the backstory of their kingdom, Equestria.
** "Family Appreciation Day" has Granny Smith tell her backstory. It notably involves her {{spoiler|attracting so many ponies to their farm that they found Ponyville.}}
* In the episode "The Call of The Squirrel Dog" of the 2010 version of ''[[Pound Puppies]]'', the story of how helper squirrel Mr. Nut-Nut came to be part of the team was framed as a bedtime story for three puppies who, unfamiliar with his role, chased him around the lair.
* In
== [[Real Life]] ==
* The Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941, largest exercise of the US Army to that date had an elaborate backstory drawn up whereby two fictional countries were "fighting" over the navigation of the Mississippi.
* Everyone who you have ever met probably has a fairly interesting and complicated back-story to go with them.
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[[Category:Script Speak]]
[[Category:Fanfic Tropes]]
[[Category:Backstory]]▼
[[Category:Backstory Tropes]]
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