Orwellian Retcon: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"I talked to my friend and colleague Seth Schoen about the Ubuntu Software Center selling proprietary software, and he pointed out that it goes directly against the Ubuntu Manifesto. I looked it up and read it, and it sure seemed that way to me. Only now I can’t seem to find a copy of it. The only reference to the manifesto that I can find on ubuntu.com is in some documentation on an old release [...]"''
|'''Micah Lee''', ''[https://micahflee.com/2013/01/why-im-leaving-ubuntu-for-debian/ Why I’m Leaving Ubuntu for Debian]'' (2013)}}
A sort of [[Retcon]] achieved not by putting out sequels that change the official story, but by actually going back and changing it in the original work, so that subsequent printings of "the same" work are actually different.
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Prime source of [[Adaptation Displacement]] for more [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|recent fans]]. May lead to a [[Limited Special Directors Ultimate Edition]]. Possibly may lead to a [[Broken Base]]. See also [[Creator Backlash]], especially if the original version is taken off the shelves.
Named, of course, after [[
Contrast [[Death of the Author]], [[Canon
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* ''[[Lucky Star]]'' has a minor example: Konata was originally portrayed as a cool [[Gamer Chick]], but was soon [[Characterization Marches On|changed]] into an down-to-earth, sort-of-[[Loveable Sex Maniac|pervy]] [[Otaku Surrogate]]. When the [[Yonkoma]] were collected into volumes, Yoshimizu changed Konata's lines in some very early strips to make her image consistent. Because this change was very early on in the series and [[Word of God|Yoshimizu discussed that]] in the [[Omake]], it is not as displeasing.
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* ''[[Lucky Star]]'' has a minor example: Konata was originally portrayed as a cool [[Gamer Chick]], but was soon [[Characterization Marches On|changed]] into an down-to-earth, sort-of-[[Loveable Sex Maniac|pervy]] [[Otaku Surrogate]]. When the [[Yonkoma]] were collected into volumes, Yoshimizu changed Konata's lines in some very early strips to make her image consistent. Because this change was very early on in the series and [[Word of God|Yoshimizu discussed that]] in the [[Omake]], it is not as displeasing.
** Parodied in a later omake, which consists of several "What if"-strips. One of them is "What if episode 1 was drawn today", which is simply a reprint of the strip just as it was published in the first volume.
* The original dubbed airing of the "Dungeon Dice Monsters" mini-arc of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' used the original designs for the Dice Crests. For no adequately explained reason, all subsequent airings used [[Conspicuous CG]] dice with a completely changed set of Crest markings. Fortunately, the American board game version and its [[Game Boy]] Advance adaptation used mostly the original designs, with only the Magic Crest changed to a circle with a lightning bolt in the center.
* ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' gets a ''lot'' of changes and revisions when its chapters get collected into tankobon form. Makes sense, as the manga gets serialized in three different magazines and out of order to boot, not to mention the mangaka often adds new details to incorporate whatever new features that had since been released from the new games.
* A minor one in [[Viz Media]]'s English edition of the ''[[One Piece]]'' manga involves a particular character being called "Zoro" in early printings of the first few volumes, [[Spell My Name
** Done in reprints of the volumes to Whitebeard's flag as the Swastika (the Nazi symbol) was off limits to use.
* The Japanese home video release of the original ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' changed the ending of the final battle so that Kenshiro's final battle with Raoh ends in a stalemate rather than losing like in the original theatrical version. Even though the theatrical ending was used for all the international releases, it didn't get to be featured in any of the Japanese home video releases until the DVD release in 2008 and even then it was only available as a bonus feature in first-print editions of the DVD.
* In the anime adaptation of ''[[Art of Fighting]]'', Yuri Sakazaki was originally voiced by Japanese pop singer [[Ayumi Hamasaki]], who also appeared in a series of live-action promos for ''Art of Fighting 2'' in Japan. When the anime was re-released on DVD in Japan, all of Ayumi's dialogue were dubbed over by Kaori Horie, Yuri's actual voice actress in the games, since Hamasaki wanted a great share of the royalties for the DVD sales.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
== Comics ==▼
* ''[[X-Men]] Classic'' was a reprint comic of the early adventures of the "All-New" team. Some of the reprints were edited to conform with more recent interpretations of the character. E.g., when Nightcrawler was visiting Banshee's ancestral castle, his ability to (explicitly) turn invisible in darkness was edited so that he's merely very hard to see (i.e., you can no longer see the background through his body).
* The characters in ''Aliens'' were renamed, and the stories retitled, when ''Alien 3'' made them inconsistent with the movie series.
* The ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' special issue ''Sonic Firsts'' reprinted a few old stories, with Princess Sally recolored to look more like her modern design and all references to "Boomer" replaced with "Rotor" (whose name was changed early on to match the [[Sonic
* [[DC Comics]] has done this a few times in the past. For example, in [[Supergirl]]'s first story with the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (
{{quote|
'''Lightning Lad:''' Not the same ones he knew, although we have the same names...
'''Saturn Girl:''' We are the ''children'' of the three young super-heroes who befriended ''Superboy!'' We are [[Legacy Character|carrying on the]] ''[[Legacy Character|Legion's]]'' [[Legacy Character|traditions]]...
'''Reprint (from Action Comics #334):'''
'''Lightning Lad:''' You're hitting on all cylinders, ''Supergirl!''
'''Saturn Girl:''' We've admired ''Superboy''...and you! That's why we made this trip! }}
** A second example concerns Jonathan and Martha Kent. In ''[[Superman]]'' #161, a story was printed where they go to a remote island and accidentally unleash an incurable centuries-old virus on themselves, explaining how they died. However, when the story was reprinted in ''Superboy'' #165, they were drawn significantly younger. This is because twenty issues prior, a story with a [[Truman Show Plot]] was printed where the producer, concerned with his viewers not accepting an old couple with a teenage son, made the senior citizens of Smallville younger, Pa and Ma Kent among them.
* The original print of ''[[The Night Gwen Stacy Died|The Amazing Spider-Man #125]]'' shows a "snap" sound effect when Spider-Man catches Gwen Stacy with his webbing while falling, implying that the sudden whiplash caused her neck to break, thus killing her. Reprints of the issue in trade collections omitted the "snap" effect, leaving the cause of her death ambiguous.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* When Durandall
== [[
▲* When Durandall wants to [[Retcon]] something in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic)|Kyon Big Damn Hero]]'', it's easiest for him just to go back and change the chapters themselves. Usually, this is only applied to character names.
* The ''[[Star Wars]] Special Edition'' included, along with updated special effects, various edits to connect it to the prequel trilogy. Then there was [[The Dog Shot First|Greedo firing at Han Solo]], which was done so that the film could retain its PG rating. (Later reissues further changed it to them [[Take a Third Option|both going for their weapons at the same time]].)
* Director [[Michael Mann]] suppressed copies of the original theatrical cut of ''[[
* The original showings of ''[[Star Trek: The
* The phone number in ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'' was not originally an example of the [[555]] trope; Universal digitally altered all releases after the original theatrical print because the original number turned out to actually belong to people in various area codes. Even more confusingly, although the English audio track was overdubbed to match the new number, the French dub on the DVD ''wasn't'', no doubt leaving many Francophones confused as to why the number on screen didn't match the one read out by Bruce.
* The film of ''[[
* Several movies from [[Disney Animated Canon]] have had this done to them:
** ''[[The Lion King]]'':
*** Early plans for the movie included a musical number called "Morning Report," but this was scrapped before the theatrical release. "Morning Report" was later added to certain home editions and to the 2002 IMAX release, but wasn't included in the 3D re-release from 2011.
*** In one scene in the original VHS and [[
** ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'':
*** The opening song describes the Middle East as a place "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face." People understandably got pissed about the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of that line, and the line was later changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense."
*** At one point in the movie, Aladdin gets attacked by the [[Panthera Awesome|tiger]] Rajah and says, "Come on...good kitty, take off and go...". Due to other, simultaneous noises (possibly Rajah snarling), it's hard to understand what he says, and [[Moral Guardians|some]] [[Cloudcuckoolander|people]] said it sounded like "Good teenagers, take off your clothes." The line was later changed to "Down, kitty" in the DVD release, no doubt because it was easier than convincing someone actively ''looking'' for prurient material that they were mistaken.
** ''[[Fantasia]]'': In one scene in the original film, several young black centaurettes with donkey bodies (the one with the most screentime was nicknamed Sunflower) are seen performing menial duties for the beautiful Aryan centaurettes and for Bacchus. Needless to say, later audiences considered this unacceptable, and Sunflower and friends have mysteriously disappeared from all releases after 1969. (A comparison between part of the original and current versions of the ''Pastorale'' segment can be viewed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsMXkRb3klY here]; see 1:00-1:04, 2:12-2:16, 2:19-2:23, 2:56-3:06, and 7:58-8:15.) The two lighter-skinned zebra centaurettes who attend Bacchus got some of their scenes trimmed as well, including a scene where one is trying to help the very drunk Bacchus down from a gazebo. Recent versions have also clipped a few seconds from the ''Night On Bald Mountain'' segment because of brief views of nude demons.
* In the original release of ''[[Traffic]]'', the drug czar's daughter, a teenage drug addict, attends Cincinnati Country Day School, a private prep school in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Amid [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1112349.stm protests from school administrators who objected to the association of the school with drug use], the reference to the school was scrubbed from the DVD release and TV broadcasts.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* ''[[Ender's Game]]'' originally had the main character use the N-word and Russia was depicted in a different light (it was written during the [[Cold War]]). Before Orson released an edited version he told all of his fans that if they sent their copies of ''Ender's Game'' to him he'd send them back free copies another, not yet released, book of his. What did Orson do with the copies he received? [[Old Shame|Destroyed them.]]▼
▲== Literature ==
▲* [[Ender's Game]] originally had the main character use the N-word and Russia was depicted in a different light (it was written during the [[Cold War]]). Before Orson released an edited version he told all of his fans that if they sent their copies of Ender's Game to him he'd send them back free copies another, not yet released, book of his. What did Orson do with the copies he received? [[Old Shame|Destroyed them.]]
* When ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' came out, ''[[The Hobbit]]'' was changed to agree with it about how Bilbo got the ring from Gollum. This was touched on cleverly in the text. It was implied that the version recorded in the first edition of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' was the same as the false account that Bilbo [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|told the Dwarves and recorded in his book]]. Bilbo later confessed the truth to Gandalf, then Frodo learned of this from Gandalf [[Recursive Fiction|and edited his uncle's book]]. Thus the idea Bilbo lied being out-of-character isn't dodged but made meaningful, since Gandalf found the idea of anyone giving up the ring to be very suspicious.
* [[Philip K. Dick]]'s novel ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' was originally set in 1992. After ''[[The Movie|Blade Runner]]'' was released, subsequent printings changed the year to 2019.
* Clarke rewrote the first chapter of ''
** However, he does also include the original first chapter in some editions.
* R. A. Salvatore changed some details of Drizzt's backstory in later drafts of the ''Icewind Dale'' trilogy so as to better fit his expanded conception of the character's origins in ''[[The Dark Elf Trilogy]]''.
* The chronologically last book of the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', ''Talking to Dragons'', was written first. When it was republished, some minor changes were made to make it agree with the other books.
* [[Stephen King]] rewrote and expanded large portions of [[The Dark Tower
* King's ''[[The Stand]]'' was originally set in 1980. Subsequent printings were set in 1985, then the uncut version in the 1990s (with references to AIDS and a few other cultural changes).
* In one of the more famous examples in literature - at least among Trekkers - Della von Hise's ''[[Star Trek:
* Small-scale example: Any reprint of the early ''[[Inheritance Cycle
* The previous publisher of ''[[Avalon: Web of Magic]]'' went bankrupt. In the switch to [[Seven Seas Entertainment]], the author revised the books to avoid plot holes and ridiculous behavior.
* The original Oompa-Loompas of ''[[Charlie and
** Additionally, the character of Veruca Salt was originally known as Veruca Cruz.
* Later editions of ''[[Harry Potter and
** In the first printing of ''[[Harry Potter and
** In the original edition of ''[[Harry Potter and
* In ''[[Narcissus In Chains]]'' by Laurell K Hamilton, the hardcover version of the book contained a scene where the main character was raped. (It was nonviolent.) All other editions of the book have had edits made so that it's merely questionable as to how willing she was (Mostly dialogue changes so that she's not flat out saying "no I don't want to.")
* The ''[[Nancy Drew]]'' and ''[[Hardy Boys]]'' series underwent a major retcon of their first stories beginning in 1959. Ostensibly to remove dated slang and racist stereotypes, this led to a realization that some stories simply fell apart otherwise, so more than a few of the books were completely new stories with nothing but the title being the same.
* A reissue of ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'' in 2011... without the n-words. Sigh.
* In ''[[
* According to [[The Other Wiki]], ''Superfudge'', the second of the "Fudge" books by [[Judy Blume]], was edited in later reprints to, among other things, replace references to ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', ''[[Sesame Street]]'', and ''[[The Electric Company|The (original) Electric Company]]'' with references to the [[Cartoon Network]] and [[Nickelodeon]].
* ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' was slightly edited after ''The Lost World'' was published to remove reference to Dr. Malcolm's death, to support his retcon back into existence for the sequel.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Law
* The picture of Penny
* The re-filming of earlier episodes of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' when Frank Costanza was recast.
* Averted on ''[[
** Interestingly enough, the refilmed footage is clearly visible, as there was a flashback. Also lampshaded in the Director's Commentary.
* At the beginning of
*
* ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' inserted a line in a "Previous On..." wherein the character of Cherry who had been explicitly [[Put
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==▼
▲== Newspaper Comics ==
* It's very common for books of newspaper comic collections to revise, edit, or just outright omit comic strips the artist disliked on first run. Since it's quite difficult to track down "original" strips as they first ran in newspapers, this is one form of media where Orwellian Retconning can be almost undetectable and thus extremely successful.
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==▼
▲== Professional Wrestling ==
* Ever since the World Wrestling Federation were forced to change their name to [[World Wrestling Entertainment]] in 2002, they've made sure to remove all references to the letters WWF and the "Federation". This is partly because of not being allowed to use the acronym for legal reasons, and wanting to make the rebranding as absolute as possible. Which means that older wrestlers like [[Randy Savage]] are referred to as "former WWE wrestlers", even if their runs with the company took place long before the name change, and making edits whenever a wrestler or announcer mentions "WWF" on DVD releases of pre-2002 footage. Averted on the UK licensed DVDs which, through some legal loophole, can be released unedited.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* While most content updates in ''[[City of Heroes]]''
▲== Video Games ==
** This also
▲* While most content updates in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' add new missions and story arcs, there are occasions when the developers will go back and redo existing missions that were badly designed (making them very unpopular with the players) or that are now contradicted by changes to the game lore. Recently the infamous Positron Task Force was completely rewritten from the ground up after years of overwhelming negative feedback from players.
*** Sometimes this
▲** This also can happen frequently with the Mission Architect feature as it is possible for the author to edit a story arc that they have published without taking it down and republishing. The arc still has the same ID number and player ratings, but can very well have been changed into a completely different story if the author so chose.
* A couple of changes were made to ''[[Portal (
▲*** Sometimes this is necessary as a exploit fix can have unintended consequences for authors who didn't try to write farming missions and now have to make changes to fix their damaged story arc.
* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' had some changes made by its "Broken Steel" DLC (and by extension the Game of the Year Edition). Mostly to address [[Plot Hole|complaints]] about the ending.
▲* A couple of changes were made to ''[[Portal (Video Game)|Portal]]'' for it's ''ARG'' leading to the announcement of ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]''. Specifically the ending was altered and a series of radios were added to the game with an accompanying achievement to find the locations where all the radios received a signal.
* The later ports of the MSX2 versions of ''[[Metal Gear
▲* ''[[Fallout 3]]'' had some changes made by its "Broken Steel" DLC (and by extension the Game of the Year Edition). Mostly to address [[Plot Hole|complaints]] about the ending.[[hottip:*:The biggest one being why you couldn't send in one of the several companions you might have following you at the time who were either immune to radiation or blindly loyal/brainwashed enough to obey you {{spoiler|into a radioactive area to save the day (one of which had already used his immunity to radiation to retrieve a [[MacGuffin]] from another radiation flooded area when you first met him)}}. [[Good Is Dumb|Although you still have to do it yourself if you want to be "good"]].
▲* The later ports of the MSX2 versions of ''[[Metal Gear 1987 (Video Game)|Metal Gear 1987]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake (Video Game)|Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake]]'' renamed many of the characters specific to those two games. The re-releases of ''Metal Gear 2'' in particular also changed all of the realistic character portraits into ones that done similarly to the drawing style of ''[[Metal Gear Solid (Video Game)|Metal Gear Solid]]'' illustrator Yoji Shinkawa, since some of the portraits in the MSX2 version were trace-overs of real-life celebrities. Even the Virtual Console release of ''Metal Gear 2'', which is otherwise an emulation of the MSX2 game, uses the Shinkawa-style portraits.
* The 10th anniversary re-release of the ''[[Resident Evil|Wesker's Report]]'' documentary removed the line in which Wesker claims that Sherry is in his organization's custody. This was meant to [[Foreshadow]] a plot development that never came to be.
* The GBA re-release of ''[[
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[8-
▲* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'': Thief's uniform turns red shortly after he changes class to Ninja. Then it turns black to make him more like a traditional ninja (and because Fighter and Red Mage are already very, very red). When the other warriors call him on it, he claims it's always been black... and when that comic went up, the author went back and edited ''every single page'' in which Thief is wearing the ninja uniform (even some very old pages, where Thief is wearing the ninja uniform in [[Flash Forward|Flash Forwards]] or [[Imagine Spot|Imagine Spots]]), to make that uniform black.
* There is a device in ''[[City of Reality]]'' that is made to do ''this and this alone''. It is brought to Reality by a thief who uses it to predict the every move, and later used by Hawk, who uses it to be "perfect" at everything, until it falls back into the thieves hands. Later, it turns out it was [[Artifact of Doom|causing freak storms threatening Reality]].
** The same device is later used by the reader in a dark [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] in Magic World.
** And then used by [[Card Carrying Villains|saboteurs]] trying to steal [[Applied Phlebotinum|crystals]] from all the worlds at once. The first time, they failed due to the high security, but the second time around, they knew exactly what to do. The characters are still dealing with the fallout.
* ''[[
* The print release of early chapters of ''[[
* In ''[[Erfworld]]'', Bogroll's special ability was Regeneration and Deletionism was a school of magic for Naughtymancy along the Numbers axis, but was completely changed in the archives and books so that Bogroll now had Fabrication and Naughtymancy/Numbers was now "[[Retconjuration]]". Deletionism and Regeneration now only exist in the memories of fans (and the wiki).
* ''[[Starslip]]'' was originally called ''Starshift Crisis'', but copyright issues with ''StarShift: The Zaran Legacy'' caused the starshift (the in-universe [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|transportation method]]) to be [[
* The author of ''[[Meaty Yoghurt]]'' had previously written [[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Homestuck]]''. Andrew Hussie stated that the playable human characters are supposed to be a-racial, so readers could imagine them as any race they prefer. When a reader pointed out an old page on which one of these characters was referred to as a "[[Pretty Fly for
** Occasionally panels are posted with unintentional errors, which are quietly corrected by the author shortly afterward. For example, when the Bec's Head Base first appeared it had the Sgrub logo. It was quickly changed to the Sburb logo. Another, more recent example was in a flash where {{spoiler|the deceased Nepeta}} was shown without the [[Prophet Eyes]] of dead characters. This was also corrected, dashing hopes of a resurrection.
** Overlapping with [[Cut Song]]: A dispute with a (now former) member of the music team caused a few existing flash animations to be re-done with new music. In another example, a composer had his songs removed from the fifth music album after he was caught plagiarizing.
* ''[[
* Invoked but averted when Bedivere stops being [[Gender Flip
* John Troutman has been ''very'' careful to remove all trace of his earlier comics (except for ''Vigilante, Ho!'' and the second-incarnation ''Sporkman'' strips) from the Internet, to the point that the FAQ for ''Mary Elizabeth's Sock'' has a question of whether the characters have been seen before, to which he responds that [[Half Truth|some of them have been in ''Lit Brick'' and ''Sporkman'']] (neglecting to mention nearly all were in, and most originated in, ''Basil Flint, P.I.'', ''Andiewear'', ''Felicity Flint, Agent From H.A.R.M.'', ''Flint Again'', and/or ''Flat Feet and High Heels'').
== Western Animation ==▼
* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', an [[Ascended Extra]] known affectionately among fans as Derpy was given a scene which not only made her [[Fan Nickname]] [[Ascended Fanon]] but also gave her a speaking line. However, due to the voice actress thinking Derpy was male, she was given a deep voice which, given Derpy's role as [[The Ditz]] and the implications of her name, sounded like a [[Simpleton Voice]]. The episode became a [[Missing Episode]] for a while, and when it returned to iTunes and [[The Hub]], she was given a voice with less [[Vocal Dissonance]] and the line referring to her as "Derpy" was edited to take out the name (though [[The Hub]]'s closed captioning wasn't updated to reflect the change).▼
▲== [[Western Animation]] ==
▲* In ''[[My Little Pony:
== Other Media ==
* The original ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' ride at [[Disney Theme Parks]] was refurbished to include characters from the film adaptations, and even rerecorded dialogue for several of the ride's original characters referencing Jack Sparrow. [[Broken Base|Fan reaction was mixed]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Newspeak]]
[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]
[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]
▲[[Category:Orwellian Retcon]]
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