The Artifact: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|"Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius and determines which outer shell would blend in better with the environment... and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963."
|'''[[Doctor Who|The Doctor]]''' }}
Sometimes, a character or gimmick seems to no longer fit with the mood or design of a story according to a writer, but is kept because there seems to be no way for the writer to get rid of them without causing some serious disruption (unrelated to [[Retcon]]s).
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Sometimes it's due to being tied in closely to the mythos or that '''The Artifact''' has just been around so long that removing it seems like overstepping bounds. And if it's due to pure fan popularity, the producers probably aren't going to push it out in any case for no reason.
The general way to solve this problem is to avoid it, or rather, them. You can bet anyone considered
Very common in [[Web Comic
Occasionally this ''is'' caught early enough, though in [[Long Runners]] this results in a odd [[Bleached Underpants]] situation ''within'' a series, usually from [[Author Appeal]] tastes.
Compare [[Grandfather Clause]]. Contrast [[Canon Immigrant]], [[Pinball Protagonist]], [[Breakout Character]] and [[Creator's Pet]]. See also [[Artifact Title]]. See [[Network Decay]] when this happens to an entire channel. On occasion
This [[Trope]] has nothing to do with magical items or similar ancient objects of power; for that, see [[Ancient Artifact]] or [[Artifact of Doom]].
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* Main character Ginko from ''[[Mushishi]]'' wears recognizably modern clothes despite the story's setting suggesting a [[Pre Meiji]] Japanese location. The author eventually admitted that Ginko was made during the early design period where the story was supposed to take place in modern times, with him simply being left unchanged.
* Likewise Chrono's very distinctive outfit in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' is back from when he was designed to be a more important lead character—and a villain—rather than a side character. There [[Fundamentally Female Cast|not being much to compare him to]], even Elio's outfit is much less flashy.
** The name of Raising Heart also qualifies, since [[
* Although ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' was the first [[Real Robot]] anime, it still carried a lot of baggage from the [[Super Robot]] genre, mainly the design aesthetic for Zeon vehicles and an [[Aerith and Bob]] naming scheme for their people that evokes the Alien invaders common to Super Robot antagonists, and a number of gimmicky weapons and [[Merchandise-Driven|accessories]] for the Gundam like the G-Armor, Beam Javelin, and Gundam Hammer. The latter were quickly retconned out of existence in the Movie adaptations, and later Zeon designs have tried to evoke a image closer to [[World War II]] Germany.
** Played with in the SEED series, where the titular gundams were only called a handful of times (once in the first series, twice in the second) because that's what their OS's acronyms spelled out. The units were almost always refered to by their production names.
* An in-universe example is brought up in the final episode of [[Ghost in the Shell]]:[[Stand Alone Complex]] where a few of [[The Protagonist|the protagonists]] meet in a library. One points out the uselessness of printed media to which another points out that it is just a habit of mankind.
* The character of Index can't really be dropped from the series ''[[
== Comic Books ==
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** And in the Tim Drake era, Robin generally only occasionally appears as a regular in Batman's series, appearing more in his own book and in [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]].
* [[Spider-Man]]'s Aunt May. Her original purpose was to be an unwitting obstruction in Peter's life for drama's sake: She was very frail so illness could strike at any moment, she didn't have much money so Peter had to get a job to support the family and her constant worrying about Peter not meant sneaking out to be Spider-Man was tricky but kept Peter from telling her his secret (out of fear she'd die of shock). When Peter finally moved out of the house and was on his own he was free from her smothering while May herself was able to sell her house and move in with her friend, meaning she had a nest egg to live off of and had someone to take care of her. After that there wasn't really anything for her to do in the book except die. In-fact on her death bed, pre-retcon, she revealed ''she knew Peter was Spider-Man''.
** And as of the reintroduction of Spider-Man to the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]], Aunt May is now a healthy, fit woman in late middle age, who as of the end of ''[[Spider-Man: Homecoming]]'' knows what her nephew does with his free time.
* This has increasingly applied to the [[Young Justice]] members. When they made their debut in the 90s, they were meant as a [[Lighter and Softer]] [[Reconstruction]] of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], but away from all the angst and drama the Titans had, and they were widely praised for having all of the camaraderie and none of the drama that had affected the Titans. Unfortunately, the ''Graduation Day'' event saw both the Titans and Young Justice disband, and the team becoming part of the Titans proper, where they were given very different characterization. While criticized for the characterization, the run did start well, but [[Infinite Crisis]] saw the death of Superboy due to [[Screwed by the Lawyers]] and Impulse, who already had become Kid Flash during the Titans run, getting an [[Age Lift]] and becoming the Flash due to [[Executive Meddling]], while Robin and Wonder Girl got hit with severe [[Flanderization]], obsessing over Connor, having violent tempers and treating the other Titan members horribly, especially Rose Wilson. This, combined with the Titans introducing new members, then killing them off, caused the popularity of the Young Justice members to plummet. The New 52 reboot that followed was even worse, with their personalities becoming nothing like they were in their Young Justice days, and their popularity entered a brutal nadir. While the original team was revived and brought back in 2019, the reemergence of the core Teen Titans, and other characters taking the titles the Young Justice members originally held meant they lost the last remaining things that made them stand out, and unless it is a Young Justice event, they don't make appearances in other comic books.
== [[Film]] ==
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* [[The Undertaker]] was born during the tail end of the [[WWF]]'s Rock n Wrestling Era, when [[Made of Iron]] [[Invincible Hero]]es were at the peak of popularity, and the beginning of the New Generation, where cartoony gimmicks and [[Wrestling Doesn't Pay|second jobs]] were the order of the day. Accordingly, he was a wrestling grave digger-slash-zombie-slash-dark [[Superhero]]-slash-[[Anthropomorphic Personification]] [[Grim Reaper|of death]], and it worked pretty well, as Taker quickly became one of the most popular wrestlers on the card. With the coming of the Attitude Era, and the change in tone to a [[Darker and Edgier]], grittier and more realistic presentation, Taker no longer quite fit in. They tried numerous tweaks to make him fit better (giving him a family history, making him over into a cult leader, etc), but eventually, they just said, "Screw it," and completely scrapped the old gimmick, re-inventing him as a [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels|biker thug]]. After a few years, by popular demand, Taker returned to his old "Deadman" character; it seems that [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] has [[Grandfather Clause|simply accepted]] that Undertaker's portion of the show is just the little corner of their universe where reality no longer applies.
** One weird contradiction is the fact that [[The Undertaker]] has accepted the rise of MMA with more grace than almost any other wrestler and has incorporated a large number of the moves into his arsenal, and wears MMA-style gloves to the ring. So you have the most anachronistic character following up his "old-school" ropewalk with a very realistic looking triangle choke.
*** And the Hells Gate, as ludicrous as it looks is [[wikipedia:Gogoplata|an actual submission hold]]
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* You could make an argument that [[Professional Wrestling]] itself is an Artifact. In spite of every smartass douche who will yell out [[Never Heard That One Before|"FAKE!"]], wrestling fans are well aware that the show is staged and are still willing to [[Suspension of Disbelief|suspend their disbelief]].
* When [[Stone Cold Steve Austin|Steve Austin]] was in WCW, he wrestled as a pretty boy named "'Stunning' Steve Austin", and used a finisher alternately called the "Stun Gun" or the "Stunner". When he entered the then-WWF, he abandoned both the nickname and the move. A few months later, he adopted his more famous "Stone Cold" persona, and started using a different finisher called the "Stone Cold Stunner". Could be just a coincidence, but it's also possible it was named by somebody who was used to calling Austin's finishing move a "Stunner", which would make it an indirect reference to his old gimmick.
* [[
** {{spoiler|And then he goes and wins the World Heavyweight title off of [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]]}}.
* Artifacts are fairly common within the actual wrestling itself, as well. For example, in Japan in the past, matches often started with an extended feeling-out period of ringwork, gradually proceeding to the main body of the match with lots of high spots, "fighting spirit" spots, and near-falls. To this day, wrestlers with experience in Japan will often do a token wrestling sequence to start the match off, which is really out of place when the rest of the match is a wild brawl.
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** Also, the blue slash over the "TER" in "DECKMASTER" is a simple pen mark that no one noticed on the master until it was too late. Technically, the millions of MtG cards printed over nearly 20 years are all misprints.
** The removal of Mana Burn<ref>A rule where players took damage equal to unused mana when their turn was advanced without spending it. Removed because there were so few times it would come up, and most of the times it did come up the effect was negligible and rarely changed the outcome of duels.</ref> removed the flavor (an ever increasing fire you'll eventually lose control of) and downside (eventually you're going to wide up with more mana than you can spend, eating mana burn) of [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Braid%20of%20Fire "Braid of Fire"] as well as making [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=89003 "Spectral Searchlight"]'s ability to give mana to other players useless outside of games with more than 2 players (though it's still good there and for giving yourself mana).
*''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' card game:
**The term "Tribute Summon" and "Tribute" ("Sacrifice Summon" and "Sacrifice" in the OCG) was more appropriate in the manga and early days of the game due to the general atmosphere. Sure enough, as the dawn of the futuristic ''5D's'' era drew near, the OCG [[Subverted Trope|retired the old terms and renamed them]] "Advance Summon" and "Release" respectively to better fit with the "fresher, more futuristic" direction of the game going forward. Still played straight with the TCG, who still used the old terms as of 2021, more than a decade after the OCG moved on from them.
**Almost all official cards in the game have an 8-digit passcode on the bottom of their frames. Back then, they can be inputted as passwords into the various Yu-Gi-Oh! video games to obtain/rent the cards in-game (depending on the game). However, despite the newer games not having this feature, all cards printed as of 2021 still have these passcodes, [[Downplayed Trope|most likely as a convenient identifier of each card, since all codes are unique]].They seem to have realized this with the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel|Rush Duel]]'' sister product, as none of the cards produced for it have similar features on them.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' based RPGs (and most, but not all, expanded universe works do as well) use the metric system for most things. The versions based on ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 3rd edition do this even though that system is built around 5 feet increments. This is obfuscated by giving measurements in "squares", which are shown on premade maps to be equal to 1.5 meters (4.92... feet).
** The rules for ''[[Living Force]]'' stated characters that reached level 13 were retired and couldn't be played. Even if a character played every module ''and'' got perfect experience from each (a significant amount was reserved for arbitrary roleplaying bonuses) there simply wasn't enough experience points in the entire campaign to reach that level, and that's ignoring how a character could be too high a level to even play some later modules in the first place. This was a leftover from previous RPGA campaigns where there were a lot more of them, some special modules could be replayed and the campaign lasted significantly longer (8 years instead of 5), but it remained even in the final year when this should have been obvious.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A common occurrence in many a [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]], as new content, released via patches or expansion packs, frequently leaves older content of less importance. Some examples include:
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'s'' pre-expansion content had hints of this. Quest design was much more varied and interesting in Northrend, Outlands, or even the Bloodelf and Draenei starting areas. Blizzard attempted to fix this with the ''Cataclysm'' expansion pack, which changed the pre-expansion content (even for players who didn't purchase the expansion pack) to clear up any remaining artifacts and grant the older continents some of the smoother gameplay aspects developed in the expansion worlds.
*** ''Cataclysm'' itself has caused an entire ''expansion pack'' to practically define the term The Artifact. When originally released, ''Burning Crusade''s content and mechanics were seen as an improvement upon Vanilla's. With ''Cataclysm'' modifying 'Old World' content to modern specifications,<ref>And ''Wrath of the Lich King'''s content being close to 'modern' for this discussion</ref> ''Burning Crusade''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s content is now the chronologically oldest content in the game, and it shows. ''Burning Crusade'''s content is filled with [[Fetch Quest]]s, group quests, and [[Plot Coupon]]s that few players will bother using because there's better, easier-to-get stuff in later expansion content.
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=== Other ===
* [[Adult Swim]] was so named because it referred to the period where kids are ordered out of public pools so that only seniors can swim in it, and when it first launched in 2001, it even featured bumpers of kids being told to get out of the pool along with seniors enjoying their time. Sometime around 2003, these were replaced with the "white text on black" style bumpers seen today, though the name hasn't lost all meaning — it still trades in child-unfriendly shows.
* Changes in analog to digital formats has left many artifacts in language. For example, with digital video modern flicks don't ''flick''er, the length of footage isn't measured in footage, and the film isn't on film.
{{reflist}}
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