History Main / CosmicRetcon

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', in which [[spoiler:the ending writes the game out of continuity,]] though Sonic still [[spoiler:presumably still has memories of what happened]].
** And then ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' happened, [[spoiler:reintroducing the game as an alternate timeline.]] As of ''VideoGame/SonicForces'', the events of ''Generations'' also caused Classic Sonic to become an alternate timeline instead of being Modern Sonic's past self.

** ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', 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.

** ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' has the Original Continuity, the Glorithverse Retcon, Post Zero Hour Reboot Legion, Threeboot Legion, Retroboot Legion, and now the Bendisboot. When you have enough reboots and massive retcons that it names a whole era of the franchise, it's safe to say you've done it a lot.

* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'': Literature/FactionParadox's has a far more insidious form of this: the Paradox [[TheVirus Biodata Virus]]. It latches into the part of your biology linked to the Time Vortex... and makes it so you ''always'' have worked for them and ''always'' will. [[spoiler:The Eighth Doctor was infected, and his timeline nearly destroyed.]]

* ''WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee'' works this way for the entire [[Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Awesomeverse]], explaining any kind of continuity errors in previous stories as [[spoiler:the PlotHole retroactively screwing with reality, and any future mistakes being the result of the Plot Hole merging with the universe as a whole, effectively ''breaking'' reality]]. Best summed up by this exchange:

** Actually played with, since Creator/JJAbrams himself stated that his movies take place in an alternate reality [[spoiler: caused by events in the movie]] and that everything else in Star Trek canon is still intact.

* Done several times throughout the backstory of ''Manga/XxxHolic'' and ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. You'd need a diagram drawn by Creator/MCEscher in seven dimensions to figure out the order of which retcon came before which, though. Altogether, they produced several [[CloningBlues clones]], eliminated the royalty of a kingdom as royalty while leaving their children the prince and princess in place (their ancestor from another dimension had to come in to act as a placeholder and keep causality intact), caused reality to not notice that someone had died for several hundred years, at which point it had ''always'' noticed (except for the aforementioned clones and friends), and both added and removed the main character's parents from existence (their existence in-story predated the retcon somehow, and the protagonist managed to survive his parents ceasing to have ever existed via a DealWithTheDevil).

'''Note that this applies only to actual retcons'''; something like ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', where changing the past is part of the original plot, doesn't count.

* Japanese time-travel movie ''Film/TimeSlipYankee'' shows what happens when you mess with your parents first meeting ''Film/BackToTheFuture''-style. [[spoiler: The main character is snap-backed into a retconned timeline where his then girlfriend in now his mother after his parents fell for different people. Everything about his life is different, even his body.]]

* In ''Film/TheFlash2023'', [[spoler:Barry's attempts to utilize the Speed Force have fundamentally transformed his universe. Wonder Woman and Aquaman aren’t around, Victor never became Cyborg (or at least hasn't become Cyborg yet), Bruce Wayne is now a completely different person, and Kara Zor-El landed on Earth instead of her cousin]].

* In the [[Fanfic/InfinityCrisis]] spin-off ''Another Side of the Glimpses'' by [[Tropers/Yooly]], [[spoiler:her AuthorAvatar, the Pighead, causes massive cosmic retcons throughout the Multiverse.]] [=L1701E=]'s spin-off stories ''Temporal Tete-A-Tete'', ''History Lesson-51'', and ''History Lesson-199999'' examined some of those effects, most notable revealing that [[spoiler: Earth-51 (The DC Extended Universe) and Earth-199999 (The Marvel Cinematic Universe) had their histories altered to be closer to their comic sources.]]

* ''ComicBook/BlackHammer'': When the heroes finally leave the farm and return to the real world, it somehow alters reality to create a world where they never became superheroes and superheroes never existed. In this "rebooted" world, [[BadassNormal Abraham Slam]] is just a museum's night watchman, [[{Martians}] Mark Markz]] never left Mars, [[HenshinHero Golden Gail]] is a senile old woman living in a retirement home, [[NonLinearCharacter Colonel Weird]] is a normal astronaut who went MIA in 1959, Madame Dragonfly is a soccer mom with two kids, and [[IntrepidReporter Lucy Weber]] is working at a pizza parlor. [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Talky-Walky]] is the only one not affected by this reboot, and she tries to help the others regain their memories of the original timeline.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9 '' game has the Raiden from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' broadcasting a message ("He must win") to himself around the time of the tournament from [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]], right before the [[TheBadGuyWins freshly victorious Shao Kahn]], aglow with the power of Blaze and ready to go full-on MultiversalConqueror, can finish him off. The Raiden of the past is now imbued with knowledge of events to come and sets about changing them, hopefully for the better. However, [[MortonsFork things still end up bad at the end, just in a different way]]. Past!Raiden interprets "he" as Liu Kang, so he ensures that Liu Kang will win the tournament, but if you remember, this is also what happened in the original. It's only until [[TotalPartyKill the majority of the good guys get slaughtered]] that Raiden realizes "he" actually means Shao Kahn; if he lets Shao Kahn win, the latter will proceed to invade Earthrealm, which will lead the Elder Gods to call a time out and execute Shao Kahn for breaking the tournament's rule. This does prevent Armageddon, [[PyrrhicVictory but at a great cost]].

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9 '' game has the Raiden from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' broadcasting a message ("He must win") to himself around the time of the tournament from [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]]. The Raiden of the past is now imbued with knowledge of events to come and sets about changing them, hopefully for the better. However, [[MortonsFork things still end up bad at the end, just in a different way]]. Past!Raiden interprets "he" as Liu Kang, so he ensures that Liu Kang will win the tournament, but if you remember, this is also what happened in the original. It's only until [[TotalPartyKill the majority of the good guys get slaughtered]] that Raiden realizes "he" actually means Shao Kahn; if he lets Shao Kahn win, the latter will proceed to invade Earthrealm, which will lead the Elder Gods to call a time out and execute Shao Kahn for breaking the tournament's rule. This does prevent Armageddon, [[PyrrhicVictory but at a great cost]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "Jake the Dog", there was [[OffModel an animation error]] involving [[spoiler:Simon's crown still being on his person despite Farmworld Finn taking it.]] In "Crossover", this gets explained as [[spoiler:Prismo teleporting the crown onto Simon's body after Farmworld Finn threw it away. From there, the crown gets destroyed by a nuclear bomb's detonation.]]

->'''Frost''': Crisis is over, we beat the bad guy, and you're still worried because…?\\
'''Cisco''': Because an infinite number of Earths experienced a [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ cosmic heat death]] from which [[MergedReality only one Earth]] was rebuilt.\\
'''Frost''': Mm-hmm.\\
'''Cisco''': So now, not only do [[Series/Supergirl2015 Superman, Supergirl]], and [[Series/BlackLightning2018 Black Lightning]] live here, but now our entire timeline has been rewritten so that they've ''always'' lived here, '''and''' ''(opens his shirt to reveal a T-shirt with the House of El symbol on it)'' '''[[SuddenlyShouting I DON'T REMEMBER OWNING THIS SHIRT!]]'''

* Series/{{Arrowverse}} has had a few of these:

** Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's revamp of ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' has Diana not as the first woman to leave Themyscria and make her way in man's world, but as a survivor of a Themyscria 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]].

** 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 up and 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.

** Both ''ComicBook/TheButton'' and ''ComicBook/FlashWar'' reveal that [[spoiler: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.]]

*** By moving Alan Scott's Green Lantern battery out of his reach, Manhattan killed Alan and delayed the emergence of superheroes, as the Justice Society of America don't form. Because of this, the DCU has a more cynical worldview which is why Jonathan Kent discourages Clark from using his powers, which is why Clark began his career as Super''man'' rather than Super''boy'', and he wasn't confident enough to save his parents from their fatal car crash that was engineered by Manhattan to make Clark a more cynical figure. Because Superboy doesn't exist, the Legion of Super-Heroes don't get their inspiration and thus don't form in the future.

'''Cisco''': So now, not only do Superman, Supergirl, and Black Lightning live here, but now our entire timeline has been rewritten so that they've always lived here, and ''(opens his shirt to reveal a T-shirt with the House of El symbol on it)'' '''I don't remember owning this shirt!'''

* In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', Dave goes on a time-travel adventure. Afterward:
-->'''Dave:''' I guess this proves that time is a closed system, unalterable, our fates inescapable. I guess I'll have a cigarette and brood.\\
'''Mell:''' Since when do you smoke?
* In the WebComic Webcomic/ThogInfinitron, a [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/5061318/ movie producer interested in optioning the comic for a live-action movie]] says his offer hinges on the creators making a change to [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/4916009/ Thog's origin]]. The resulting retcon [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/5064794/ sets off an alarm in a time travel watchdog agency]].

* The original run of ''Webcomic/{{Zortic}}'' ended with a fight between two cosmic beings creating a big swirly NegativeSpaceWedgie, which the heroes all fell into. The comic went on hiatus for a short time, and then came back, starting over from the beginning. The original run of Zortic was based exclusively on parodying popular science fiction franchises; the two cosmic beings were arguing over the merit of this. The new version is intended to be more original and less parody-driven.

* An explicit power of the BigBad in ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES''. So far, it seems she can only retcon things within the framework of existing backstory, fleshing things out in a way favorable to her... but its implied that at full power, she isn't so restricted.
* The non-canon ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', EGS:NP storyline "Oblivious Wand Waving" features [[http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/?date=2008-09-12 a wand that does this]] while seeming to do nothing from the perspective of both the user and everyone else around them.

* The finale of ''WebVideo/DemoReel'' had the fictional version of Doug Walker retcon the series into a kind of Purgatory inside the plothole to justify canceling it and bringing the Critic back. Which is exactly what the real version was doing (Demo Reel didn't have enough viewers to maintain it). Even the characters in both shows thought this was stupid.

* 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]].
* All the retcons in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' are explained by the entire universe getting destroyed and then getting imperfectly recreated by Ben in Alien X form in the seventh [[note]] [[OutOfOrder technically fourth]] [[/note]] episode of the series. One of the main changes is that the [[GeniusLoci living planet]] Primus, which used to be a massive DNA storage for the Omnitrix and which played a major role in season 3 of ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Alien Force]]'', no longer exists. Whether this means Eunice is also RetGone is unclear; she was ''on'' Primus, but her existence wasn't directly tied to it. WordOfGod is that she's "unlikely" to appear in ''Omniverse''. (Basically, complicating things here is that there are a lot of things from past series that the Omniverse writer considers non-canon. You will have a VERY different understanding of this world depending on whether it comes from the show or from WordOfGod. However, actual episodes don't seem to be ''written'' as if we're in a radically different world where only every third episode of the prior series happened. Even so, the things the head writer considers non-canon don't show up, either; the closest we get is a non-plot-relevant CallBack to a line from the Primus episode.)
** This came up again in another episode shortly before the series ended, where Ben was put on trial for it. Ben's lawyer defends him by claiming these kinds of changes were previously done all the time by others of Alien X's species, using as evidence Azmuth's [[ArtEvolution appearance]] and/or [[TheOtherDarrin voice]] having completely changed at least three times. This basically means we can blame Celestialsapiens for ''all'' continuity problems and even changes in casting and art style that you wouldn't think mattered in-universe.

* ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness'' has some particularely mind-bending ones. The crux of the story is that horror writer Sutter Cane has become so powerful that his creations have become reality, and the protagonist John Trent finds himself in the fictional setting of his stories. By the time he gets back to the "real world" [[spoiler:his partner Linda Styles has been written out by the writer (not even her boss, who sent them on their mission, can remember her), and Cane's reality-destroying novel was already delivered by Trent to the publishers and has been on the shelves for weeks]], even though Trent just emerged from Hobb's End. The Cane that Trent encountered might also be an AuthorAvatar of the real Cane, who is writing the entire story [[spoiler:of the movie ([[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou yes, the one you are watching]])]], Cane might have been influenced by a monolith of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s to change reality so they can transform it into something wholly alien, or [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness Trent may be particularly insane]].

* ''Film/MonsterAGoGo'' does this for a poorly executed GainaxEnding. At the end of the film the monster suddenly vanishes and everyone forgets the monster existed and the astronaut who became the monster is found alive and normal with no memory of how he ended up where he was found. There never was a monster and how this happened is not explained, though the narrator speculates that some cosmic force is responsible.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Nobilis}}'' has one of these in its BackStory. Something like 500 years of time were erased, but in an uneven way so that some events moved back the full five hundred years, some a portion of that and some not at all. The souls of all the people on the space colonies this erased are very upset, and seemingly still on the planet they used to live.
** This is also the goal of the [[BigBad Excrucians]]; they attack aspects of reality, causing them never to have existed.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Infinite Worlds'', a retcon is called an "ontoclysm" or "reality quake", described as a cosmic event that can change the past and even the natural laws of a given universe. The game even gives rules for attempting to ''trigger'' one! It has been mentioned that superhero worlds are especially susceptible to reality quakes, and that any world with magic or super-powers could be explained by "shards" of the previous reality existing in the new universe (which sounds much like the DCU's explanations about the various Crisis of Infinite Retcons).

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': anything and everything can be easily fixed with liberal application of [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids]]. This is how the [[OldShame Squats faction]] was quietly removed from the product line.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has the [=PsychoChronoMetron=], a device that allows psychics to alter the world. It was only used once; as something of an aversion, it caused a ContinuitySnarl as [[spoiler:the villainous inventor attempts to use it to turn a hero into an ally, without knowing anything about his history. The history of this hero was left... somewhat confused.]]

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9 '' game has the Raiden from ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Armageddon]]'' broadcasting a message ("He must win") to himself around the time of the tournament from [[VideoGame/MortalKombat1 the first game]]. The Raiden of the past is now imbued with knowledge of events to come and sets about changing them, hopefully for the better. However, [[MortonsFork things still end up bad at the end, just in a different way]]. Past!Raiden interprets "he" as Liu Kang, so he ensures that Liu Kang will win the tournament, but if you remember, this is also what happened in the original. It's only until [[TotalPartyKill the majority of the good guys get slaughtered]] that Raiden realizes "he" actually means Shao Kahn; if he lets Shao Kahn win, the latter will proceed to invade Earthrealm, which will lead the Elder Gods to call a time out and execute Shao Kahn for breaking the tournament's rule. This does prevent Armageddon, [[PyrrhicVictory but at a great cost]].
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' brings ''another'' set of combatants from the original game, both good and bad or alive and dead, to the rebooted timeline, causing many people to have a copy of themselves running around (except for Raiden, whose present self [[RetGone turns to ash]], since there can't be two identical gods). It is later revealed that this, as well as the above case, are engineered by Kronika, a [[AboveTheGods Titan]] who wants to create a perfect world and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans doesn't care if it means she will have to commit omnicides one after another]]. The original and rebooted timelines are not only canonical, there are in fact ''thousands'' of other alternate timelines where things proceed slightly different. In the best ending, she partially succeeds rebooting the timeline back to the prehistoric age, but Liu Kang and Raiden manage to kill her before she can rewind it further.
* In ''VideoGame/FableII'', Lord Lucien originally intended to rebuild the Tattered Spire in order to bring back his deceased wife and daughter, but by the time the Hero of Bowerstone gets to him to rescue the other three Heroes who are trapped by him, Lucien decided that the world itself needed a Cosmic Retcon. [[spoiler:However, the Hero of Bowerstone prevents Lucien from accomplishing this and either kills him or lets Reaver shoot him after explaining himself. After this, Theresa gives the Hero the choice of one of three wishes, two of which are in themselves retcons of history.]]
* The events of the first game of the ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' trilogy are retconned ''twice''. First within the game itself, when the Prince rewinds time at the end of the game and kills the Vizier that kicked off the events of the game, and then again at the end of ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin Warrior Within]]'', inadvertently retconning the Vizier's death, causing him to come back as the BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones Two Thrones]]''. By the time ''Two Thrones'' rolls around, the first game's story has ceased to exist in its entirety, and only the Prince remembers what happened.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' has this [[spoiler:as its ending. The Yuris and Chelinkas from every parallel world rewrite reality to prevent the tragic events of the game and resurrect their family. Yuri and Chelinka remember, but nobody else does.]]
* ''VideoGame/Drakengard3'' uses this trope as [[spoiler:a central plot device. Accord, a cyborg girl from the Old World who serves as the story's narrator, tries to find a branch where [[EldritchAbomination The Flower]] is sealed away and no Intoner survives. The way alternate timelines are handled has been compared to ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate''.]]
* One of the endings of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'' is [[spoiler:Johnny asking God to retcon the universe so that the Earth was never destroyed, creating an alternate timeline where the Saints don't exist and Johnny, Kinzie, and Matt are cops]]. The SpinOff game ''VideoGame/AgentsOfMayhem'' takes place in this timeline.
* The weapon of the Chrono Legionnaire in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' does this. The target is locked in a time bubble and slowly erased from existence. More 'complex' (i.e. expensive) units take longer to erase, presumably because every individual component must be written out of history.
* The Mirror Realm in ''VideoGame/BlankDream'' supposedly has the ability to grant one's greatest desire. In Mishiro's case, she wants to make it so that [[CessationOfExistence she never existed]] at all.
* The opening of ''VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII'''s second act is one of these taking place, wiping the [=CPUs=] from collective memory and establishing Gold Third as leaders in their place. [[spoiler:It puts focus on the "retroactive" part of "retcon" too, the nations now appearing as though their Gold Third has been running them for years instead of days. Since none of them even wanted this in the first place, the world is falling apart. Thankfully the entire retcon is undone when Neptune, in her [[NextTierPowerUp NEXT form]], cuts through the whole thing with a SingleStrokeAttack.]]
* The end result of ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': [[spoiler:Sissel, Missile, Detective Jowd and Yomiel go back 10 years to prevent the latter's death via a meteorite fragment, thus preventing all of the events leading up to the game proper from ever taking place]].
* ''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.]]
* ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' was marketed as an interquel set between the first two major games in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series, and for the most part that is the case in the final product. [[spoiler: That is until you reach the game's [[WhamEpisode ending]] where the rescued G-Man shows Alyx the future in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' where Eli dies. G-Man allows Alyx to save her father's life at the cost of having to be employed by the G-Man, who is dissatisfied with Gordon Freeman in the future. The post-credits scene shows Eli alive but Alyx has been plucked out of the timeline. Luckily, Eli is aware of this and swears revenge on the G-Man.]]
* ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasonsPioneersOfOliveTown'': The mechanic that allows the PlayerCharacter to "divorce" their spouse works like this trope in practice. Once the "divorce" is implemented, everything is the same, except that the PlayerCharacter never proposed to their spouse. If the pair had a child prior to the "divorce", the child is implied to be RetGone after it.
* The "Together, Forever" ending in ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'' involves [[spoiler:Ib and [[LivingDrawing Mary]] escaping the gallery together. The world rewrites itself so that Mary is a human girl who has always been Ib's cheerful sister.]]

* The creators of ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' were forced to do this by ExecutiveMeddling: basically, they lost the rights over a large group of characters, the Wavedancers, created as a spin-off by someone RunningTheAsylum. Because they ''did'' want to keep the overall story, a new group of Wavedancers was created in their place, and the original group was handwaved as a dream brought on by BigBad Winnowill.

* Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'' run starts with the main character finding out that he is not the only Supreme -- reality has been revisioned multiple times in history, and all his previous incarnations (be they alternate counterparts, imagined versions or "future" selves) together with all their supporting characters, end up in the Supremacy, a dimension which they turned into a utopia. [[spoiler:Later, we find out that his ArchEnemy Darius Dax has a similar thing - all his previous versions go to a dimension called the Daxia.]]
** Much is made of the fact that Supreme (that is, the one starring in the book) ''survives'' the retcon in the first issue, though little of his history or characterization remains the same -- a LampshadeHanging of the fact that Moore's run is a {{retool}} or "soft reboot" of Rob Liefeld's material.
* When characters from Creator/MilestoneComics and Creator/ArchieComics' Red Circle imprint started to popping up in the Franchise/DCUniverse, WordOfGod said that their worlds had been fused with DC's due to the events of ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.
** Creator/DwayneMcDuffie alluded to this event in his ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' run and then eventually showed how the continuities were merged in ''Milestone Forever''.
* ''ComicBook/YoungbloodJudgmentDay'' reveals that the Book of Hermes is capable of changing reality and [[spoiler: Sentinel]] used it to not only rewrite [[spoiler: his own life]] but also turn the whole world into one that [[spoiler: he]] liked.

* ''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.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', of course, has one of its own: [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Unicron_Singularity the Unicron Singularity]], which ripped and tore at the fabric of time and space in a way that essentially opens up a planet-sized plot hole just to make room for itself to fill it.
** The Unicron Singularity didn't exist as this at first, and it was transformed into one by the club comic writers to account for some (admittedly minor) inconsistencies between ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' and ''Anime/TransformersCybertron''. Mind you, these are only minor in comparison to the humongous plot holes that already populated the rest of the entire ''Transformers'' multiverse, which did not have such a black hole, though later media claims that its effects branch out to other universes as well, ergo it is both the cause of and solution to many errors in continuity (and even [[OffModel animation]]).
** There actually exists a Transformer, Vector Prime, who was tasked by [[{{God}} Primus]] to protect the stability of the timeline - in other words, the number of plot holes in Transformers is ''so bad, it is actually an in-universe threat'', and there needs to be someone to keep the holes and inconsistencies from destroying everything. He does his best to fix things (usually retconning them from outside the timeline to cover inconsistencies, but coming in person for tremendous holes like the Singularity) so presumably any inconsistency we see was simply recorded before he got around to it, and our media are [[RippleEffectProofMemory ripple effect proof]].
** The concept of the [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Multiversal_singularity multiversal singularity]] (that is, characters of which only one exists in the entire multiverse, such as Primus, Unicron and The Fallen) was nullified by this - while at first it was gradual, with [[AllThereInTheManual Ask Vector Prime]] claiming certain appearances of Unicron (such as the one in [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the original American cartoon continuity]]) were not part of the main singularity Unicron, the 2015 Fun Publications story "Another Light" had Nexus Prime solidify the walls between reality, limiting travel between dimensions and splintering all former singularities (such as Vector Prime and Nexus himself) into infinite selves across existence, as had been the case with many "regular" beings.

* Done several times throughout the backstory of ''Manga/XxxHolic'' and ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. You'd need a diagram drawn by Creator/MCEscher in seven dimensions to figure out the order of which retcon came before which, though. Altogether, they produced several [[CloningBlues clones]], eliminated the royalty of a kingdom as royalty while leaving their children the prince and princess in place (their ancestor from another dimension had to come in to act as a placeholder and keep causality intact), caused reality to not notice that someone had died for several hundred years, at which point it had ''always'' noticed (except for the aforementioned clones and friends), and both added and removed the main character's parents from existence (their existence in-story predated the retcon somehow, and the protagonist managed to survive his parents ceasing to have ever existed via a DealWithTheDevil).

* In the final arc of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', we learn that Elsea is, in fact, [[spoiler:the Ultimate Weiss, the superweapon the {{Big Bad}}s have been after all along]]. As a result, Elsea is a great deal more powerful than anyone, even herself, realized and once the dust from the final battle settles, uses her power to allow herself to [[spoiler:be reborn as Eri Katsuragi, Keima's little sister]].

* ''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.]]
* ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' ended in 2017 and was revived in 2019 with Nate owning a new Yo-kai Watch. In-series, it's stated that Nate's memory was wiped.
* ''Anime/CardfightVanguardVSeries'':
** Downplayed example. The defeat of the Destiny Conductor means that Kourin, Suiko and Rekka lose their status as Called Walkers and their destiny will return to what it should have been, erasing them from their friends' memories and making it as though they never met them. However, it is later shown the consequences of the events that took place and led to the Conductor's defeat remain and some of the people affected have a feeling that something is missing.
** Discussed in the Shinemon arc in regards to Gear Chronicle's time manipulation abilities and potential effects, but eventually it doesn't come to pass.

* ''Literature/DateALive'': At one point in the series, [[spoiler: Shido goes back in time using one of Kurumi's bullets to when Origami's parents were killed by a Spirit and manages to prevent their deaths. While this does change Origami's history and personality and she no longer has a vendetta against Spirits, [[YouCantFightFate her parents ended up dying anyway]], only in a traffic accident this time]].

*** And before Wanda, they had young Franklin Richards from ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'', who used his own reality-altering powers to undo [[DorkAge certain unpopular changes]] to ComicBook/IronMan and ComicBook/TheWasp following ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn''.

-> ''"Oh, I figured everyone got blasted back to their own worlds. They probably don't remember it at all because of all the time-travel wibbley-wobbley. But you can't mess with the gooey essence of everything like that without changes happening, y'know? I bet there's still Genesis Portals out there! And there's probably even more worlds to explore! And I bet'cha at the middle of it all is some sort of nexus!"''
-->-- '''[[ComicBook/SonicBoom Sticks the Badger]]''', narrating the final lines of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite''