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Early Installment Weirdness/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
== Subpages ==
{{subpages}}
== Other Examples ==
* The first two ''[[Discworld]]'' books are parodies of [[Sword and Sorcery]] fantasy. They featured a lot of elements that were quietly dropped in the later books, which are parodies of just about everything.
** The shift in human naming conventions is particularly marked, with fantasy-parodic names like Zlorf and Gorphal giving way to conventional names like Fred or Sybil. ''Equal Rites'' saw the first ordinary surnames (the Smiths), and ''Mort'' (for Mortimer) was the series' first protagonist with a real-world given name.
** And there's some severe [[Characterization Marches On]] hitting them too; the Patrician who appears in the first book is unnamed and bears absolutely no resemblance to our favorite [[Magnificent Bastard]] Lord Vetinari, to the point where [[Terry Pratchett|Pterry]] had to [[Word of God|confirm that it was him]], and the first few appearances of {{
** Pterry is also more likely to [[Call a Rabbit
* The first [[Redwall]] novel, Redwall, features a number of references indicating that the animals live in a world where humans also exist, such as a horse cart, a church, taverns, and ports. Also, one of the characters was a beaver. In later books, author Brian Jacques made it clear that only animals existed in the [[Redwall]] universe, and only animals native to the British Isles, so there were no future appearances of any more beavers (though beavers WERE native to Britain at one time, but they were killed off due to overhunting).
* In the first book of [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[
** Also, the first few books were dark in tone, and a genuine fantasy trilogy. Xanth started an exploration of a fantasy world where everyone has one specific talent. Then it got more parodic, more comedic, even cartoonish, and is now a full-blown [[Running the Asylum]] cash cow.
* [[Sherlock Holmes]] displayed some mannerisms in the first story that were then dropped -- most infamously, his claim that he deliberately forgot all facts that were irrelevant to his work, such as that the Earth goes round the Sun! (That particular fact doesn't turn up again, but he displays much more well-rounded knowledge in the rest of the series.)
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** The novelization of ''A New Hope'' has the same [[Early Installment Weirdness]] problems. The story is told from the point of view of a old chronicle, numerous scenes are added that were cut from the movie ultimately (including the Jabba meets Han scene added in special editions), and Luke's squadron is identified as Blue Squadron (which was originally intended in the film, but due to SFX limitations was changed to Red), among other things. Fittingly enough, both books were written by [[Alan Dean Foster]].
* Both David Eddings' ''[[Belgariad]]'' and ''[[Elenium]]'' series start off this way; eg. Belgarath's comment about "well then we'd have to wait another century for the circumstances to be right again" which is totally at odds with all the prophecy stuff from later books. Elenium begins with Sparhawk planning to quietly garrotte someone, which seems quite out-of-character later on; in general the first few chapters seem a lot darker than the rest of it.
* The first ''[[
** The first one of those was addressed by the author as a mistake. She was unsure of how thought speech should work, and by the time she decided it was too late to change the first book.
*** And apparently she went too far the other direction when she had Ax declare, in an early book, that humans couldn't use thought speech ''at all'' (even if said human was actually an Andalite in morph), which admittedly doesn't make much sense. That, too, gets retconned away when Ax uses thought speech in human form in a later book.
** In the first book, Elfangor seems like a psychic. He appears to be able to feel the kids' fear as they hide, and let them borrow some of his courage. Andalites are never portrayed with such abilities again. Also, Visser Three acts as if he's meeting Elfangor for the first time. ("Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul if I am not mistaken. An honor to meet you..."). Now that we know better, from the Andalite Chronicles, we'll just have to [[Hand Wave|assume]] he was being sarcastic. Also, a big part of the first book involves the heroes finding out who is a Controller because said person suddenly acted out-of-character. In later parts of the series, Yeerks make a point of acting very in-character, and it's even shown that, by accessing a person's memory, they are brilliant at acting the part.
*** This actually became an important plot point in the pilot episode of the show, as the Animorphs identify {{spoiler|Chapman}} as a Controller '''because''' he maintains his habits even when no one is around, in this case, {{spoiler|scratching his leg with his foot.}}
* Several from ''[[Harry Potter (
** The [[Magic
*** It's possible that Dumbledore secretly used the elder wand to fix Hagrid's broken wand.
** None of the characters, not even those who were raised wizards, seem to know how Sorting works in the first book. In addition, Ron is fooled by his brothers into thinking a doggerel couplet is a spell, despite the fact that all real spells seen in the books are [[Dog Latin]] -- and he's ''grown up'' in a house with multiple magic-using adults.
** The school song, performed at the beginning of the main characters' first year, never appears in any other books. [[Word of God|JK Rowling said]] that the school song is only done whenever Dumbledore is in a good mood and feels like it. It's likely that with all the dark things that go on in the ensuing years, he just never feels up to it. A deleted scene in the
** Other early books show a bit of this too, especially in terminology; Book 3 refers to "Hit Wizards", whose role is replaced by Aurors. At one point in book one, Harry refers to "going over to the Dark Side"
** Terminology is confused several times in early books. In the first book, Neville mentions that his family was worried he'd turn out to be a "muggle", i.e. not have any magic, but from the second book on non-magical individuals born to magic parents are called "squibs". It's not until the fourth book that we learn that Voldemort's supporters are called Death Eaters and Ministry of Magic employees who hunt dangerous wizards are called Aurors.
** A minor example: Harry is dismayed to have lost "two points for Gryffindor in his very first week." He will lose many, ''many'' more throughout his tenure at Hogwarts. Points in general seem to undergo inflation as the series goes on; where teachers took one or two points away for infractions in the first book, they commonly take five or ten for similar offenses in later books.
** Let's not forget the Deluminator which is referred to in early books as Dumbledore's "Put-Outer".
** In a non-continuity-related example, [[
** Early in the first book Petunia claims Lily came home in vacations turning teacups into animals. Later in the same book we find out Hogwarts students aren't allowed to use magic outside of school, book 7 confirms the rules haven't changed since Lily went to school.
** ''Chamber of Secrets'' mentions Hagrid was raising werewolf cubs under his bed. In the very next book, it becomes clear that werewolves are humans afflicted with a disease that makes them become wolves during a full moon. [[Word of God|JKR later said]] that the character in question was lying, which would be in-character but is not made clear at the time. Perhaps as a callback to this, in the seventh book this same character refers to the hypothetical offspring of a werewolf as "cubs", in a context that makes it clear that he's making a rather offensive joke.
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* Steven Erikson's ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' series shows marked differences between the first book, ''Gardens of the Moon'', and the later books. (Examples include Tool's hundred-mile-diameter magic-deadening Tellann aura and the interaction of munitions with magic use, among many others.) To Malazan fans, this is known as a GotMism.
** A bit understandable, because the first book was written around a decade before any of the other ones.
* Most people who've read ''[[
* The first book of the ''[[Dragons (
* [[
* In the first [[Star Trek: New Frontier]] book, written in 1997, prior to the trend towards consistency in the Trek novels (which started around 2001)), Danter is said to be a member of the United Federation of Planets. This seems rather odd, seeing as they're most definitely not what we'd expect from the Federation. Indeed, they're openly imperialistic. Later books seem to have retconned this, making Danter definitely an independent nation.
* ''Over Sea, Under Stone'', the first book of ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'', is a rather standard, almost Enid Blyton-esque children's adventure story, with less of the fantasy elements and references to Celtic mythology that defined the later books (they only show up in the second half of the book, and even then they're relatively subtle).
* The first ''[[Fablehaven]]'' book is a mostly cheerful, good-natured, and lighthearted fantasy story about a pair of bickering siblings who discover that their grandparents run a nature preserve for magical creatures. The entire concept is treated with wonder. The later books in the series, however, are ''extremely'' dark, changing their tone entirely about [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism|what it's like to work in a magical preserve]], and don't shy away from [[Gorn|violence]] and [[Anyone Can Die|death.]] The entire thing becomes a serious [[Crap Saccharine World]].
* The first book of the ''[[Dragons (
* In the ''[[Nick Velvet]]'' stories by [[Edward D. Hoch]], Nick was originally billed as a 'Thief of the Unusual' rather than a 'Thief of the Worthless'. Several early stories feature him stealing items that definitely have a monetary value. The first story has him stealing a rare tiger from a zoo. It was several stories into the series before Hoch settled on the only stealing items with no value aspect that made the character unique.
* ''Storm Front'', the first book of the ''[[Dresden Files]]'', matches the tone of the later installments fairly well, but refers to some world-building concepts that were changed in later entries of the series. For instance, there's a reference to vampires being unable to enter homes uninvited because they're creatures of the Nevernever, and need to expend constant effort to maintain corporeal form, and crossing a threshold uninvited blocks power. The threshold-blocking-power bit is maintained in later books, but vampires are later established to not be from the Nevernever, and only some breeds really have to worry about invitations. Also, there's a reference to a singular Queen of the Fae, while late installments establish two separate Fae courts, with three Queens each.
* "Extricating Young Gussie", the first of [[
* In Asimov's [[Lucky Starr]] series, the first was essentially [[Lone Ranger]] [[In Space]], with the protagonist receiving a force field mask from [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] and calling himself "Space Ranger". Later, it shifted to detective series with a [[Cold War]] tone. The mask was used exactly once after the first book, in the second one, and for radiation shielding rather than disguise.
* [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s [[Dragon Jousters|Joust]] series begins with a slave-boy raising a dragon. It ends with kings and the resurrection of a dead city and evil wizards. The first and the last book don't even seem like their in the same series.
* The early ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books could get surprisingly dark.
* Boy inventor ''[[Tom Swift]]'' doesn't actually invent anything himself till book five ([[Long Runners|of forty]]). In the first two he merely fixes existing items, while the inventions of the third and fourth are actually the products of adults he assisted.
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