History Main / CosmicRetcon

** ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint|DCComics}}'', building off ''Franchise/TheFlash: Rebirth'' mentioned below, boils down to simply a time-traveller mucking things up and the heroes having to fix it. When Barry Allen makes the fixes, Pandora steps in and uses him to merge the Creator/VertigoComics and Creator/{{Wildstorm}} continuities with the main DCU to create a single timeline, saying the three had originally been one timeline splintered long ago. It seems to be this merging, not a case of incorrectly repairing history, that causes the retcons. The result is that superheroes have only been active for about 5 years at the start of the reboot, and there was no Golden Age of heroes and heroes are in general younger than they previously were.

** In ''Franchise/TheFlash: Rebirth'', it is revealed that Barry Allen's mother is dead and his father, the only suspect, died in prison. For years Barry Allen was one of the few superheroes ''without'' [[DeathByOriginStory a traumatic origin]] and his parents grew old without complication; it turns out it is because Barry's archenemy, the Reverse-Flash, went back in time, killed his mom, and framed his dad. This in turn changed everyone's memories so that Barry's mother was ''always'' killed when he was a kid, and caused Barry to be an angstier person.
** Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's revamp of ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' has Diana not as the first woman to leave Themyscira and make her way in man's world, but as a survivor of a Themyscira that was sacked when she was a child and who is just now coming into her Amazon heritage. Other characters in the DCU (such as Max Lord) are stunned to find out that few people seem to remember Wonder Woman as she was. Diana's goal is to try setting things right. This revamp [[spoiler: was a GambitPileup between the goddesses Nemesis and Clotho.]] Eventually Diana manages to set everything right, but her ordeal, likened to the ''Odyssea'', was meant to introduce new changes into the ''status quo'', like a [[http://www.geekosystem.com/new-wonder-woman-costume-600/ revised outfit]] and a harder, no-nonsense attitude for Diana, though this too seems to have be retconned by the end of ''Flashpoint'' and into her new series. Wonder Woman's pants (and lack thereof) [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/21/dc-the-new-52-panel-comic-con/ were the cause of so much drama]] that for several months they were in limbo, though by the time September 2011 rolled around [[RuleOfSexy she was again pantsless]].

** Over the course of its run, ComicBook/TheFlashRebirth revealed that Wallace "Wally" West (later going by 'Ace'), the third Kid Flash, is actually the result of Barry Allen and Doctor Manhattan messing with the timeline in ''ComicBook/{Flashpoint}}, which somehow led to Ace's creation in the New 52, to take the place of the original Wallace "Wally" West. When the original Wally returned, reality was rewritten so that Ace is Wally's younger cousin, both being named after their great grandfather, with almost everyone's memories changing to accommodate. However, Eobard Thawne, who was protected from the events of ''Flashpoint'' and ''Rebirth'', tells Ace that he's "new" and "not even the real Wally West." with Eobard Thawne commenting in the former story that Wallace is "new".

** Over the course of its run, ComicBook/TheFlashRebirth revealed that Wallace "Wally" West (later going by 'Ace'), the third Kid Flash, is actually the result of Barry Allen and Doctor Manhattan messing with the timeline in ''ComicBook/{Flashpoint}}, which somehow led to Ace's creation in the New 52, to take the place of the original Wallace "Wally" West. When the original Wally returned, reality was rewritten so that Ace is Wally's younger cousin, both being named after their great grandfather, with almost everyone's memories changing to accommodate. However, Eobard Thawne, who was protected from the events of ''Flashpoint'' and ''Rebirth'', tells Ace that he's "new" and "not even the real Wally West."
with Eobard Thawne commenting in the former story that Wallace is "new".

** The events of ''ComicBook/DaredevilCharlesSoule'' and ''ComicBook/DaredevilChipZdarsky'' saw [[spoiler:Mike Murdock, an identity Matt created as part of a FakeTwinGambit to throw off people who were to close to figuring out he was Daredevil, become an actual person with his own life and history -- and still alive, as Matt ended the gambit by faking "Mike's" death. Said events also made Mike somewhat responsible for Matt's blindness and the death of their father, Jack.]]

* In one of the early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', Comicbook/CaptainAmerica's sidekick [[ComicBook/BuckyBarnes Bucky]] is violently killed during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Then near the end of the first season, Cap accidentally touches the Cosmic Cube, which grants his greatest desire by [[spoiler: retroactively changing history so that Bucky survived the explosion]].

** In the first few games of the series, the province of Cyrodiil/"The Imperial Province" is noted to be an overgrown jungle, with the Imperial City at its center. Come ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', Cyrodiil has transformed into a region comprised mostly of plains and variable climates. Various explanations have been given for this, both in-universe and [[WordOfGod out]][[note]]It ''was'' supposed to be a jungle in ''Oblivion'', but ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' convinced the devs to make it a more temperate and lush climate instead[[/note]], but in-universe, no one remembers when Cyrodiil wasn't a more temperate, cultivated province even when at least one book exists calling Cyrodiil a jungle.

** Both ''ComicBook/TheButton'' and ''ComicBook/FlashWar'' reveal that Wallace West, the current Kid Flash, is actually the result of the actions of Dr. Manhattan with Professor Zoom commenting in the former story that Wallace was "new" and the implication being the original Wally's memories were tampered with.

* ''ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld'': The 2020 series establishes that Gemworld undergoes some sort of soft reboot (soft enough for enough people to remember old version and notice the changes) every time main DC Universe has a multiversal Crisis Crossover, supposedly every time coming off worse to wear from it.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Dawn's existence. Essentially, in order to hide a magic key, a group of people decided to give it the shape and flesh of a girl and implant FalseMemories on Buffy and her family to make everyone think she was always the youngest daughter of the family.
** And in the spinoff series ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the title character makes a Faustian bargain to have his son retconned into having lived a happier childhood and not remembering his ''real'' life (in which he was raised by a psychopath in hell). As a consequence, everyone else forgot about the boy's existence; so in a sense, it's the exact opposite of the Dawn scenario. Network higher-ups requested the retcon due to the show's dense continuity, which ended up being dumped back into the plot anyway.

** On the larger scale, Scootaloo makes the wish that she was Rainbow Dash's sister and wakes up the next day Rainbow's flesh-and-blood little sister. Like Rainbow and the contest, Scootaloo's the only one who remembers anything different in her case. The story focuses on her realizing what happened and dealing with the ForWantOfANail implications.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' seemed to be a new series where everything has a fresh start, with each summoning methods belonging in their own dimensions (Standard, Fusion, Synchro, and XYZ), and there is a full-scale war initiated by the BigBad who seemingly wants to fuse all the dimensions together. That is ''not'' the case. AntiVillain Leo Akaba wanted to fuse the dimensions together because [[spoiler: he created four cards to deal with the BigBad, Zarc, who after becoming a duel champion, fused with his dragons (Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon, Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, Starve Venom Fusion Dragon, and Clear Wing Synchro Dragon), becoming an EldritchAbomination. His daughter Ray then snatched the four cards he created and uses them to defeat Zarc. The Original Dimension then split into four parts, as did Ray and Zarc, and he intitally didn't have any memories of the Original Dimension until he regained them. As a result of the retcon, Ray split into Yuzu, Serena, Ruri, and Rin and arc became [[TheHero Yuya]], [[TheStoic Yuto]], [[HotBlooded Yugo]], and [[TheSociopath Yuri]]. While three of the four pairs were close friends, Yuri and Serena did not have a special bond.]]

* ''VideoGame/SoulcaliburVI'' seems like a simple retelling and SoftReboot of the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'', as it sticks closely to the timeline of the original ''Soulcalibur'' era with little deviation, and what little could be passed off as AdaptationExpansion. [[spoiler:But certain deviations, leading up to Zasalamel's [[WhamEpisode secret final chapter]] where Zasalamel receives visions from his future self, thus changing his plans from [[DeathSeeker seeking death]] to acquiring both Soul Calibur and Soul Edge to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans lead humanity to a bright new future]], before even enacting the original plan to begin with, confirms that this is in fact a hard ContinuityReboot set in a different timelime from the first six games. Furthermore, a common idea is that these visions are being received from his future self in the ''[[RippleEffectProofMemory original]]'' timeline.]]