39,327
edits
Orwellian Retcon: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (categories and general cleanup) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 6:
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 Dis Continuity]]. Not to be confused with [[Orwellian Editor]].
Line 15:
* ''[[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.
Line 26:
* ''[[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 (Comic Book)|Legion of Super-Heroes]], the following dialogue occurred when Supergirl figures out that the Legion who wants to induct her into their club is the same one that inducted [[Superboy]].
{{quote| '''Original printing (from [[Action Comics]] #267):'''<br />
Line 39:
== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* When Durandall wants to [[Retcon]] something in ''[[Kyon:
== Film ==
* 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 Last of the Mohicans
* The original showings of ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture
* 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 [[Laser Disc]] releases, a dust cloud kicked up by Simba seems to form the word "SEX." Although the animators claimed that it actually said "SFX" (special effects), the scene still got removed from later editions.
** ''[[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 some people said it sounded like "Good teenagers, take off your clothes." The line was later changed to "Down, kitty" in the DVD release.
Line 62:
* [[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 ''~Childhood's End~'' to avoid [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]].
** However, he does also include the original first chapter in some editions.
Line 69:
* [[Stephen King]] rewrote and expanded large portions of [[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Gunslinger|the first volume]] of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' to "better fit in" with the later books. This included [[Retcon|retconning]] all of the villains from Roland's past as the [[It's a Small World After All|same guy]]. Since ''[[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Gunslinger|The Dark Tower]]'' as originally written is composed in a style unlike King's later works, and features [[Call Back|call backs]] to story elements that were [[Continuity Lock Out|never expanded on]] in the finished work, [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on the result.
* 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 The Philosopher's Stone]]'' were edited to make Nearly Headless Nick's claimed age match with the age given for him in ''[[Chamber of Secrets]]''.
Line 80:
* 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.
Line 89:
* The picture of Penny & Desmond in the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "Orientation" originally showed Henry Ian Cusick with a model who was not Sonya Walger. On the DVD, the photo has been digitally altered to include Walger (and was edited for the rerun as well).
* 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 "[[Heroes]]" Season Three episode "I Am Sylar", the "Previously On..." segment shows a scene in which Danko instructs Sylar to shapeshifter into Agent Taub for a while. However, this never actually happened "Previously on Heroes". It was, in fact, an entirely new scene that according to the writers was written and shot for the sole purpose of being placed in the recap.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' became infamous for including deleted scenes in its "Previously On" sequences, or just throwing in extra dialogue when a character's face wasn't visible.
* ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' inserted a line in a "Previous On..." wherein the character of Cherry who had been explicitly [[Put
Line 108:
** 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.
*** 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.
* A couple of changes were made to ''[[Portal (
* ''[[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 ''[[
* 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 ''[[
Line 120:
** 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 [[Retcon|retconned]] as the "starslip", and all references in the archives were changed.
* 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|Gender Flipped]] in ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]''; the characters say it'll only happen as long as no-one expects the management to go back and redraw all the previous strips s/he appeared in.
* 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
| |||