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Cerebus Retcon: Difference between revisions
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* There is an entire genre of fanfic called angstfic, which makes the characters wallow in angst - especially if the original fic that the fanfic is based on is a wacky comedy or lighthearted. The usual victims are ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' and any comedy by [[Rumiko Takahashi]].
* This happens sometimes in ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'' fanfics
* There's also a surprising number of [[Kim Possible]] fanfics with depictions of mental trauma and constant injuries that Kim and/or Ron acquire on a daily basis from their fights with supervillains. There are also several fanfics dealing with the incident in the [[Big Damn Movie]] where Kim [[Moral Dissonance|kicked Shego off the roof of Bueno Nacho into a charged electrical tower with the intent to kill,]] coming up with pretty dark, nasty answers for both Shego's physical condition as a result and Kim's thoughts and feelings during and after the fight.
* In one [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] fanfic titled "Behind the Smile," it is suggested that Hayate suffered sexual abuse in the foster care system before living alone, and her [[Skinship Grope]] tendencies were a way of warding off unwanted male attention.
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7081044/1/Crumbling_Masks this] ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]'' fanfiction, Saito and Louise relationship of [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male|Abuse is ok when is female on male]] is taken seriously; but instead of the usual angst one might expect from this type of stories {{spoiler|It ends with both of them realizing they actually enjoy being in a S&M relationship and accepting themselves as the kind of persons who would enjoy that kind of thing.}}
* In the ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' fanfic [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2379730/1/My_Life_as_a_Teenaged_Von_Neumann_Device My Life as a Teenaged Von Neumann Device], [[Robot Girl|Jenny's]] [[Ridiculously Human Robot|ridiculously human nature]] is extended to her having a robotic reproductive system... and her discovering all the baggage that comes with sex, up to and including {{spoiler|being molested and raped by Cluster guards, and an accidental pregnancy}}. Also, [[Alpha Bitch|Brittany Crust]]'s rivalry with Jenny [[Villainous Breakdown|turns into a full-blown paranoid hatred of machines]] that [[Sanity Slippage|culminates in a psychotic break]] where she {{spoiler|starts talking to her television, tries to rape [[Kissing Cousins|her cousin Tiff]], tries to ''murder'' Tiff's boyfriend in a jealous rage, and ultimately ''merges'' with Queen Vexus in a last-ditch effort to get rid of Jenny.}}
* ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'' is a ''[[Glee]]'' fanfic that uses this to [[Deconstruction|rip apart]] [[Relationship Sue|Blaine's]] portrayal. He's compassionate, selfless, and loyal--which means he [["Well Done, Son" Guy|defends his estranged father]] from any kind of insult, ignores personal issues until he is literally ''dragged into therapy'' by [[True Companions|the Warblers]], and is so [[Wide-Eyed Idealist|unflinchingly helpful]] that [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|dropping everything to help Kurt after ten minutes]] doesn't mean he's a perfect [[Marty Stu]]--it means he's a naive little boy that dodged a ''huge'' bullet by meeting someone who "only fell in love with him."
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* It isn't exactly comedy, but the subplot in the first episode of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' about Angela Petrelli getting arrested for shoplifting socks and her sons bailing her out is certainly pretty lighthearted. That is, until Volume 4 rolls around. In the episode 1961, we learn that Angela had a sister who she left when she was a child, regretting it ever since. We also learn that whenever she finds herself missing her sister particularly bad, she, you guessed it, steals socks. Suddenly, that lighthearted moment in the series premier seems a lot more disturbing.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'''s female lead, Natsumi, is mostly [[Tsundere]] [[Comic Relief]] owing to her [[Finger-Poke of Doom|the Laughing Pressure Point]], used on [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Tsukasa]] when he gets a little too smug or rude. In the [[Big Damn Movie]], {{spoiler|she gains her own Rider powers and actually kills Tsukasa after he goes on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against the Kamen Riders. She even uses the Laughing Pressure Point as an actual fighting move in the final battle.}}
* Sometimes, a [[Cerebus Retcon]] happens naturally as the result of [[Character Development]] over a series. For example, Wesley was a one-note bumbling upper-class twit when he first appeared on ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', completely played for laughs. Once he became one of the regular cast of ''Angel'' his character was fleshed out enough to reveal that his early awkwardness was largely the result of a painful childhood with an abusive father; throughout the series any mention of his father causes Wesley to momentarily revert back to his old bumbling. His father's visit in "Lineage" is an especially dark example.
** This being Season 5, Wes has become extremely badass (seriously, he'd have a chance against a top of his game Ripper at this point). {{spoiler|Finally tired of his father, he shoots him in cold blood. Luckily, it was a robot.}}
* ''[[Angel]]'' also applies a massive [[Cerebus Retcon]] in Season 4 in an attempt to inflate the season's [[Big Bad]]. The minor and previously played-for-laughs character {{spoiler|Skip not only takes a hard turn in going from comedy to drama, but}} in one speech gives exposition about how the entire series up until that point has been orchestrated by the mystery newcomer: {{spoiler|"You have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction: Leaving Pylea (indicating Lorne's arrival in the Angel Universe), your sister (indicating Gunn's sister who turned vampire causing him to align with Angel's path), opening the wrong book (indicating Fred's transport to Pylea and thereby entering the Angel story), sleeping with the enemy (indicating Wesley's relationship with Lilah, causing one of the major recent internal conflicts), gosh, I love a story with scope."}} Though the speech does not factually contradict the storyline, it indicates a premeditated arc with every event previous to the speech for all main characters as well as the speaker itself which clearly had not existed in the story's mythos.
* In [[Community/Recap/S3
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== Traditional Games ==
* Plenty of things from ''[[Tabletop Game]]/Warhammer40000'' when it became more serious after the silly first edition. Eldar lived on Craftworlds and had a boring life because they were retreating from Slaanesh and if you aren't disciplined he would devour your soul. The Emperor, originally implied to have been confined to the Golden Throne because of old age, had to be put on life support after a duel with his most beloved son.
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*** Even better examples, within ''A Link to the Past'', two of the official manga released for the game have Link turn into a wolf or werewolf instead of the pink bunny.
* In [[Mass Effect 3]] {{spoiler|turns out the Asari are so great because a Prothean came to them and helped them out a lot}}. This alone wouldn't qualify but the revelation is treated ingame as if it was some deep dark secret.
* ''[[Metal Gear]]:''
** In the original game, ''[[Metal Gear 1987]]'', Snake looked to be in his twenties - but he looked to be late-middle-aged in ''[[Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake]]''. For the sequel ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', the character designer decided to go with a Solid Snake [[Retcon|who appeared to be in his early-thirties]], younger-looking than his previous incarnation. As a joke referencing this, the characters who knew Snake in ''Metal Gear 2'' joke about his 'age'; the sign that Gray Fox is back to normal is when he teases Snake with the throwaway line ''"You haven't aged well"''. However, in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty|Metal Gear Solid 2]]'', which started the Patriots plot arc, Snake is explicitly mentioned in the script as looking almost unrecognisably older than his self in ''Metal Gear Solid'', even though ''MGS2'' starts only two years later. Liquid spells it out:
{{quote|''"You're drowning in time! I know what it's like, Brother. Few more years and you'll be another dead clone of the old man!"''}}
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** Applying [[Broad Strokes]] to ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' allowed their eight-bit wackiness to be taken fairly seriously in the ''Solid'' series. Snake didn't seem that affected by the events of Outer Heaven at the time (he also had to do things like avoid giant constantly moving rolling pins and use a bomb blast suit to make himself immune to a strong wind), and ''Metal Gear 2'' attempted to paint him as a very traditional action hero who retired after Outer Heaven because he was a loose cannon and too badass to take orders from authority. ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', and its [[Alternate Universe]] counterpart, ''[[Metal Gear Ghost Babel]]'', claimed that Snake suffered immense guilt over his actions in Outer Heaven, got diagnosed with PTSD, and was forced to retire and go into hiding because he was unable to cope with the demands of everyday life.
** One scene in ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' involved Snake knowing a woman for all of five minutes. She [[Fatal Family Photo|tells him about her family's history]], asks him about his (he says "I have no family"), and then she dies. Snake's over-the-top grief at her death was, at the time, a major [[Narm]]. In ''Metal Gear Solid'', which established that Snake had been essentially growing up in near-total isolation and had never had anyone tell him about their life or ask him about his own, his instant attachment to her seems very justifiable and deeply tragic.
** The reason why The Patriot in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater|Metal Gear Solid 3]]'', a copy of The Boss's [[Weapon of Choice]], has infinite ammo, is that it has an infinity-symbol shaped drum magazine, giving infinite ammo. However, in ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', it's explained that the Patriot has infinite ammo because ''"they say The Boss left a part of her soul behind inside it"'', making it more into a blessed memento of a supernaturally-gifted soldier rather than a cheap joke. It winds up a [[Voodoo Shark]] though, as the infinite ammo is explicitly noted about it before this could have happened.
*** Partially true. {{spoiler|you only get the patriot after you have killed the boss, but when talking about it Snake had not yet killed his mentor, and the method that Snake gets it is lampshaded for being dubious. He isn't even supposed to have it until after he kills The Boss}}.
* Promotional material for ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day|Conker: Live & Reloaded]]'' in the form of a letter from the titular character himself featured him acknowledging the two games he was in before the [[Darker and Edgier]] ''Conker's Bad Fur Day'' saying of them, "things were different...[[Retool|I was different]]". Of ''[[Diddy Kong Racing]]'' He claims that the cast are a bunch of "freaks" he wouldn't hang around now, and [[Beware the Nice Ones|"Last [he] heard at least one of 'em was in jail, anyway"]]. He also states ''Conker's Pocket Tales'' [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time|Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time]] and that he doesn't regret it because he "[[Only in It For the Money|got a Ferrari out of it]]."
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* ''The Life of Riley''. What begins as a cheap throwaway joke about an artist who powers up a la DBZ when he works on computers, ends with same character resurrected as the second coming of the Messiah about to go toe-to-toe with arch-fiend Lillith over an artifact that can ''kill God''.
* Pointedly averted in ''[[Casey and Andy]]'': despite the comic having several dramatic storylines, the strip never gives any sort of explanation, serious or otherwise, as to why the protagonists can keep coming back from the dead. Especially when other characters come right out and ask for one. (In fact, the titular characters never even acknowledge any such thing has happened).
* Done in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' when Haley's greed for treasure is revealed to be so that {{spoiler|she can pay her father's ransom money./}} Later subverted when it turns out she was always pretty greedy in the prequel book.
** A straighter example from OOTS was done with the mother of the Black Dragon from the Starmetal cave, who was mentioned lightheartedly several times during the encounter in which {{spoiler|Vaarsuvius disintegrated her son in a scene that was still more or less played for laughs. About three hundred strips later, she appears out of the blue seeking vengeance on Vaarsuvius. This leads to one of the darkest arcs the strip has done thus far and the start of an horrific [[Cycle of Revenge]].}}
* ''[[Yosh!]]'' started out as a manga-style comedy, and the protagonist was frequently subjected to the [[Megaton Punch]], thrown out of windows, things like that. Then, once the comic went dramatic, it was revealed that he's a 'Resistant' -- a kind of rare, magical entity who has [[Nigh Invulnerability]] -- thus making him central to the plot of an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] of mages. Upon learning that, the character comments that it's not really a major surprise, considering what he's survived in the past.
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* In ''[[Futurama]]'', a joke in "Where The Buggalo Roam" where Kif thought that kissing Amy (while [[Did the Earth Move For You, Too?|buggalo stampeded]]) was making love to her was eventually fleshed out in a later episode - Kif has [[Bizarre Alien Biology]] which means that when he feels a great sense of love for someone else, his skin becomes receptive to genetic material, which is how his species reproduces. In other words, kissing Amy really was making love to her.
** In a season one episode, for a bit gag, Amy is shipped with Kif. In the season three premiere, we learn that Kif has been hopelessly pining for Amy for years but has been too scared to ask her out again.
** The first episode makes Fry's life in the year 2000 seem utterly miserable, so that it's understandable how he celebrates after being unfrozen a millennium later. Since then episodes have gone back and explored his previous life more closely, creating drama as Fry remembers his brother, beloved dog, etc.
** Mutants were shown to live in the sewers in one episode, and a [[Running Gag]] developed where they would stick their heads out of the ground to yell at people. The mutants' situation is [[Played for Drama]] later, when it's revealed that {{spoiler|Leela is a mutant, whose parents gave her up [[Pass Fail|so she could pass]] as an alien and live on the surface}}.
* ''[[Re Boot]]'' started off as a series of standalone episodes, with Bob fighting Megabyte and Hexadecimal's schemes but never outright ending them (except one time he almost did, in ''Infected''). Then the third ep of the ''Daemon Rising'' arc revealed that this had all been an ''authorised experiment'', with the Guardians ''allowing'' the viruses to roam free in Mainframe to see if Bob could stop them by reprogramming instead of killing.
** In the final episode, Megabyte went and Cerebus Retconned ''that'' by pointing out that changing someone to that extent was "a fate ''worse'' than deletion. And they call ''me'' a monster".
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* In the finale of ''[[Beast Wars]]'', the victorious Maximals set off back to their own time and place with Megatron strapped to the front of their ship. Then comes the [[Darker and Edgier]] ''[[Beast Machines]]'', where it turns out that because Megatron was strapped to the outside of the ship, he was able to break free during time travel, allowing him to get to Cyberton much earlier than they did and take the planet over.
* A minor version of this happened with Pinkie Pie in the ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' episode "Party Of One". Throughout the whole show, she's been obsessed with parties. In this episode, she's actually scary and is so desperate for friends that when she thinks the others have abandoned her, she has a deranged tea party with [[Companion Cube|inanimate objects.]]
** More generally, she's always been seen as the "wacky" character, to the point where some fans joking said that she might be a little mentally ill.
* [[Adventure Time|Ice King's origin story in "Holly Jolly Secrets".]] [[Harsher in Hindsight|It will be hard to laugh at him now...]]
* The [[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]] [[Grand Finale]] [[The Movie|Movie]], reverses Eddy's claims about how cool his brother is by revealing what he ''[[Complete Monster|really]]'' is, as well as revealing [[Jerkass Facade|why Eddy was such a jerk]] [[Freudian Excuse|all this time]].
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