History Main / AlreadyMetEveryone

* {{Wolverine}} was later retconned to have meet loads of different characters in the past, including CaptainAmerica, [[SpiderMan Peter Parker's parents]], BlackWidow, Mystique, NickFury, {{Daredevil}} enemy Nuke, not to mention basically everybody ever tied to Weapon X. In fact, revelation about Weapon Plus does this to Weapon X, revealing it's ties to Nuke and Project: Rebith, that created Captain America.

* According to the fourth ''{{Pokemon}}'' movie, [[spoiler: Professor Oak]] first met [[TheMessiah Ash]], [[{{Shorttank}} Misty]], [[TheLancer Brock]] AND [[GoldfishPoopGang Team Rocket]] 40 years previously when [[spoiler: Oak]] was brought forward in time by Celebi. Of course, none of the main cast make the connection due to age differences. But you'd think he would have mentioned it at some point.

*** 4kids actually went out of their way to make it completely and utterly obvious that Professor Oak = Sammy, to the point where there were extra scenes added solely for the dub. The original was much more subtle.

-->''"With a good {{sequel}}, you can expand the universe, introduce new characters, explore more of the existing ones, take what we know and push it in radical new directions. With a {{prequel}}, all that imagination is devoted to devising ways to shoehorn the existing characters into the old story, to pretend they all knew each other back then. The universe gets smaller as we find out that every page of history contains the same dozen names."''

But if you're doing a ''{{prequel}}'', the temptation is to write the same way, by using elements of the series that are familiar to you and your audience. This means using varying degrees of {{Retcon}} to say that the "first" appearance of someone or something wasn't really the first, so that you can use it in the {{prequel}}. In extreme cases this can lead to a ContinuitySnarl where most of a character's cast, antagonists, abilities, etc. all showed up before the main story even began.

* A fourth season episode of MyNameIsEarl revealed that several characters had (unknowingly) met as children and two of them had a summer romance.

-->-[[http://www.cracked.com/article_15631_p2.html David Wong]] on the ''StarWars'' {{prequel}}s.

* ''{{Wicked}}''. Prior to ''TheWizardOfOz'', the witch Elphaba knows Glinda, met the CowardlyLion, in the musical knows the Scarecrow and Tin Man, and of course [[spoiler:her father is the wizard]] who she also has met.

----
<<|ContinuityTropes|>>

But if you're doing a ''{{prequel}}'', the temptation is to write the same way, by [[EarlyBirdCameo using elements of the series that are familiar to you and your audience]]. This means using varying degrees of {{Retcon}} to say that the "first" appearance of someone or something wasn't really the first, so that you can use it in the {{prequel}}. In extreme cases this can lead to a ContinuitySnarl where most of a character's cast, antagonists, abilities, etc. all showed up before the main story even began.

* Spoofed repeatedly on {{Futurama}}, which features Scruffy the Janitor, a fellow who meets the cast for the first time...every time he appears. Whenever Scruffy enters a scene, there's usually a mention of how he has no idea who any of the main characters are, and none of them know who he is, either, thus deliberately contradicting all his prior appearances. This leads to such lines as "Gee, I've never seen Bender so upset...or ever before."

* The ''DragonBallZ'' movie ''Dead Zone'' has the characters meet Gohan for the first time. Ironically, even though it takes place after ''Dragonball'' and before the ''DragonBallZ'' series actually began (IE: With Goku and Piccolo's battle with Radditz), the main characters don't even know Gohan exists in the very first episode of DBZ.

* In the movie ''Young Sherlock Holmes,'' not only do Holmes and Watson know each other in boarding school as young teens rather than meeting as adults as happens in the books, but in a short post-credits scene it's revealed that Moriarty's enmity towards Sherlock Holmes goes much further back than the books indicate: he was a junior master [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether at the school that both Holmes and Watson went to]], and the mastermind of the first case Holmes ever solved. Lestrade also plays a part.

* In one of the later episodes of of the recent SamAndMax game series, it's revealed that Sam built Bluster Blaster, an arcade game he met earlier in the series and showed no signs of recognising, when he was a preteen.[[hottip:*:Given the nature of the games, almost certainly a parody of [[StarWars an earlier entry]]]] Of course Sam and Max [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this:
-->Max: Funny, though. All this time we've spent talking to the COPS, and you never once mentioned you're the guy who built Bluster Blaster.
-->Sam: Just never seemed relevant, I guess.

-->''"With a good sequel, you can expand the universe, introduce new characters, explore more of the existing ones, take what we know and push it in radical new directions. With a prequel, all that imagination is devoted to devising ways to shoehorn the existing characters into the old story, to pretend they all knew each other back then. The universe gets smaller as we find out that every page of history contains the same dozen names."''
-->-[[http://www.cracked.com/article_15631_p2.html David Wong]] on the ''StarWars'' prequels.

As a series progresses, it has a lot of events in it which are supposed to be happening for the first time. Once you do more of the series, you can have characters who have met before meet again, or you can revisit old locations or plots, or whatever.

But if you're doing a ''prequel'', the temptation is to write the same way, by [[EarlyBirdCameo using elements of the series that are familiar to you and your audience]]. This means using varying degrees of {{Retcon}} to say that the "first" appearance of someone or something wasn't really the first, so that you can use it in the prequel. In extreme cases this can lead to a ContinuitySnarl where most of a character's cast, antagonists, abilities, etc. all showed up before the main story even began.

A variation may be seen when TimeTravel gets involved, and characters meet people in the past who aren't supposed to know them until later. This can be solved either by LaserGuidedAmnesia, or by having the other characters not recognize the time traveler (because he/she either has changed his/her appearance or meets them so far in the past that they've forgotten it by the time they meet in the present).

* Back in the SilverAge, the ''{{Superboy}}'' series pioneered this, with just about everything from Superman showing up "first" in Superboy, including most notably Lex Luthor being a former childhood frenemy.

[[AC: Film]]

* We were expecting Anakin to have met Obi-Wan and Yoda in the ''StarWars'' prequels. Not so much C-3PO and R2-D2.
* According to the fourth ''{{Pokemon}}'' movie, [[spoiler: Professor Oak]] first met Ash, Misty, Brock AND Team Rocket 40 years previously when [[spoiler: Oak]] was brought forward in time by Celebi. Of course, none of the main cast make the connection due to age differences. But you'd think he would have mentioned it at some point.
** [[spoiler: They knew Young!Oak by first name (Sam, IIRC), and his notebook's similarity to the Pokédex is commented on. However, given the time travel thing, you'd think the penny would drop after Oak mentions Sam's name before Ash mentions it.]]
*** 4kids actually went out of their way to make it completely and utterly obvious that Professor Oak = Sammy, to the point where there were extra scenes added solely for the dub. The original was much more subtle

* ''{{Smallville}}'' has had appearances (sometimes even as regulars) of Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, Toyman, an InNameOnly version of Mxyzptlk, Doomsday, Darkseid, {{Supergirl}}, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet, the Fortess of Solitude, the Phantom Zone, several DC superheroes, and pretty much everything else associated with Superman even though the entire premise of the series is about Clark's life before being Superman. Suffice to say, the pretense of being a prequel to the Superman mythos was dropped some time ago.
** Yeah, although Lois specifically showed up a little early, there is some forgiveness in that this show lasted ten years and essentially transitioned to a straight-forward Superman show, minus the costume.

* Disney prequels are especially terrible about this:
** The ''Hercules'' TV series has Herc being quite the hero, even though much later, in the movie, he admits he's never done anything heroic to the disenchanted citizens of Thebes. He spent far more time [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength causing accidents]], and never went to Thebes in the series (usually in Athens, but went almost everywhere else in or near Greece ''besides'' Thebes). There's the fact that up until his reappearance as an adult in the movie, Hades didn't even know he existed, in fact he thought he had been killed as a baby.

* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' example: the prequel TV movie establishes that John Sheridan had already met and been on a mission with Dr Stephen Franklin during the Minbari War, some twelve or thirteen years before Sheridan became Franklin's commanding officer. In all fairness, when Sheridan joins the show his first scene with Franklin is a serious professional talk and doesn't indicate whether or not they already knew each other.

* ''{{Wicked}}''. Prior to ''TheWizardOfOz'', the witch Elphaba knows Glinda, met the Cowardly Lion, in the musical knows the Scarecrow and Tin Man, and of course [[spoiler:her father is the wizard]] who she also has met.

[[AC: Video Games]]

* A [[TheSimpsons Simpsons]] flashback episode showed that Homer and Marge had briefly met and shared their first kiss as children, but due to Marge's straight brown hair and [[strike:Homer's]] [[CharacterNameAlias Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar's]] patch over an injured eye, didn't recognize each other when they attended high school together.
** One flashback episode shows Homer meeting Ned Flanders while Marge was pregnant with Lisa. A later flashback episode shows Homer and Marge meeting Ned and Maude while both couples were childless.
** As with ''Futurama'', spoofed in the early years with Mr. Burns. In his very first appearance, he tells Homer, "Ah, Simpson, at last we meet." Was true at the time, but a couple of later flashback episodes showed that he had already "met" Homer twice before at least. Of course, this was all part of a then-RunningGag that Burns could never remember who Homer was and had to be corrected.

** That's because all the DBZ movies are outside of the regular continuity.
** Umm... Garlic Jr. Saga?
*** AN ENTIRE SAGA OF FILLER.
* We were expecting Anakin to have met Obi-Wan and Yoda in the ''StarWars'' prequels. Not so much [=C3P0=], [=R2D2=], and Chewbacca.
** Only Yoda met Chewbacca. But still.

* In one of the later episodes of of the recent SamAndMax game series, it's revealed that Sam built Bluster Blaster, an arcade game he met earlier in the series and showed no signs of recognising, when he was a preteen. Of course Sam and Max [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this:

* ''{{Smallville}}'' has had appearances (sometimes even as regulars) of Luthor, Brainiac, Doomsday, Bizarro, Toyman, an InNameOnly version of Mxyzptlk, {{Supergirl}}, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet, the Fortess of Solitude, the Phantom Zone, several DC superheroes, and pretty much everything else associated with Superman even though the entire premise of the series is about Clark's life before being Superman. Suffice to say, the pretense of being a prequel to the Superman mythos was dropped some time ago.

** Not quite a straight example, but a bit of this results when you realize that Zefram Cochrane met Riker, Troi and Geordi before later meeting Kirk, Spock and Bones. That guy's just a lightning rod for crew members of starships called ''Enterprise'' from after his time.

** The ''Hercules'' TV series has Herc being quite the hero, even though much later, in the movie, he admits he's never done anything heroic to the disenchanted citizens of Thebes. He spent far more time [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength causing accidents]], and never went to Thebes in the series (usually in Athens, but went almost everywhere else in or near Greece ''besides'' Thebes). There's the fact that up until his reappearance as an adult in the movie, Hades didn't even know he existed, in fact he thought he had been killed as a baby. I guess [[PlotInducedStupidity he forgot]] [[DisContinuity about all those schemes]] [[DidNotDoTheResearch he plotted against teenage Herc']] in the series.
** Maybe he fell in the River Lethe? They used a jar of that water to explain why Herc and Megara forgot they met each other as teenagers, at the end of that same episode.

See also SpinoffBabies, EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether, EveryoneIsRelated, EarlyBirdCameo. Subtrope of OneDegreeOfSeparation.

See also SpinoffBabies, EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether, EveryoneIsRelated, EarlyBirdCameo.