History Main / Retcon

** And when Bonaparte's nephew Louis-Napoleon took over in 1852, the Restauration was considered as 'Second Empire' which is why the Third Empire follow's Bonaparte's First.

* An in-universe example: in ''TheChroniclesOfNarnia: PrinceCaspian'', the "history" under Miraz' rule is described as "more dull than the driest history book you have ever read, and less true than the most exciting adventure story."

* Writers for ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' initially couldn't decide whether or not the title characters kept their identities secret through ClarkKenting. The retcon was a combination--they ''thought'' their identities were secret, [[TheNotSecret and everyone else was humoring them]].

** 'PokemonXAndY'' has been revealed to be adding the Fairy type, which is being retconned onto Jigglypuff (and presumably Wigglytuff), Marill (and probably Azumarill), and Gardevoir.

** In the beginning, it was established that ''all'' the Forerunners went extinct after activating the Halo Array. [[spoiler:It was later retconned in the Halo Encyclopedia that most of the Forerunner population did die, but there were survivors on the Ark whom afterwards left our galaxy, and the BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'' happens to be a Forerunner himself.]]

** Aizen says that Kisuke Urahara was exiled for creating a ''gigai'' that was untracable, and destroyed the reiatsu of the shinigami using it, both things Urahara actually did. In the "Turn Back the Pendulum" chapters, on the other hand, Urahara's exile is the result of Aizen framing him for turning Hirako and the others into Hollows, something ''Aizen'' actually did (Urahara then used the infamous gigai to ensure all the exiles could escape punishment). As this comes in the middle of a speech boasting about how evil he is and [[spoiler:how he has fooled and manipulated people for hundreds of years]], there's no reason why he'd be lying, either. Some fans, however, have shrugged this discrepancy off as [[spoiler: Urahara's doings]] being the ''official'' reason for his exile, giving Aizen an excuse to not mention his involvement in the matter. An alternate explanation is that he's actually attempting to sow a seed of discord between Ichigo and Urahara by making Ichigo mistrust Urahara. Later on in the story, Aizen points out to Ichigo that he was an idiot for believing Aizen was being entirely truthful during that speech as he lied about several things, not just Urahara.

* In another notable comic-book retcon, Comicbook/{{Batman}} is now known as a superhero who refuses to use a gun or to kill (well, most of the time). This was not true in the first year or so, although he didn't actually kill humans very often and most villains died from KarmicDeath. See PayEvilUntoEvil.

* The French comic series [[DungeonTheEarlyYears Donjon]] provides one of the best Retcons ever so far. In the very first issue of this FunnyAnimal gritty comic, the Dungeon Keeper has a look at a picture of his lost love who looks human. Then, in a prequel album, we see her alive under the traits of a snake. Then the authors showed a portrait painter picturing a bird lady as a human and explaining "it's a style that people like these days".

** ''VideoGame/StarCraft Brood War'': In the original game, the Terrans are portrayed as a near-offshoot of humanity long isolated from Earth, with a separate historical and technological development. The swift arrival of a United Earth Directorate with similar technology and language in the ExpansionPack manages to contradict the spirit of this several times over. The manual tries to {{handwave}} it away with references to bugs built into Terran equipment (and the U E D is the in-game explanation for several new units and technologies) but even a rather lenient interpretation of events has trouble making it all fit together.
** One that actually makes sense was a change with the Xelnaga, the race that created the Zerg and the Protess, and were supposedly wiped out by the Zerg before the Zerg even had any of the fighting creatures from the games. With how advanced the Xelnaga were supposed to be, that was a bit of hard of believe, which Blizzard apparently realized so they plan on having the Xelnaga in Starcraft 2, saying they weren't completely wiped out.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' RPG series the Imperial Province (Cyrodiil) was always described as being covered in a thick jungle. In the only game that takes place there the jungle has turned into generic fantasy forests and meadows. The explanation for this: A god made the land colder for some soldiers who were too hot and the jungle vanished.
** The first 2 games, as well as the spinoff Battlespire, mention that there is no race native from the Imperial Province, that the province is a cosmopolitan mish-mash of all the other races. The Imperial line is supposed to be Nords. Then comes Morrowind, introducing the Imperial race, and retconning them as a descendant of the original Nord caucasian race, from which the modern Nords, Bretons (via mix with elves) and imperials are all descended from. The retcon does maintain that the Emperor's family has more Nord blood then most Imperials.
** One could say that most of the convoluted lore concerning the Elder Scrolls universe is the result of a massive retcon to make all of the possible endings of ''Daggerfall'' canon. At the same time.

* The most painful, quickest retcon ever was in ''{{The 4400}}''. One episode revolves around re-opening the 4400 center. Notably, police try to stop it and tell Shawn he can't heal anyone, because no one can use 4400 abilities, whether they were a 4400 or got it via promicin injection. The very next episode features someone saying "Maia is a 4400, she can legally use her ability". The show then kept on like that without even acknowledging that superhuman abilities were entirely banned in the first few episodes of its last season.

A retcon may be used as part of an ArmedWithCanon campaign launched by one author against the work of another author in the same SharedUniverse. Over-use of retcons can result in ContinuitySnarl. It can also result in your readers and fans approaching the work with a certain degree of [[CommitmentAnxiety skepticism, cynicism or even complete disinterest]], especially if you tend to obviously and quickly retcon away that which turns out to be unpopular or [[StatusQuoIsGod drastically challenges or changes the status quo]] -- after all, why get involved in your latest CrisisCrossover Event which promises to Change Everything Forever and that Nothing Will Be The Same Again if there's a good chance it'll all just be retconned away after a short period of time?

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}:
** From the first game we are given: "You are the Master Chief, born for battle, bred for war, you are the last of Spartan-II project. Your brethren have died". The novel ''Literature/FirstStrike'' then reveals that a number of others survived. The games never reference any of this.
** ''HaloReach'' heavily retcons Eric Nylund's ''The Fall of Reach'', which described the origins and early years of the SPARTAN-II program, as well as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Fall of Reach]]. In the novel, the ''Pillar of Autumn'' is already on its way out of the system when the Covenant attack on August 30, 2552. The ship turns back and the Spartans split up; the Master Chief leading a small team to destroy a ONI Prowler's NAV Computer (In accordance with the Cole Protocol, all vessels are to destroy their navigational databases upon contact with the Covenant, lest they discover the location of Earth.); the rest head to the surface to defend the generators powering the orbital MAC Cannons, the only thing keeping the Covenant from achieving victory. By the time the Chief completes his mission, the generators have fallen, a ground invasion is underway and the Covenant have control of orbit. Left with no alternative, the Chief heads back to the ''Autumn'' which flees the system. Rather than plotting a blind path (again, the Cole Protocol), Cortana uses data from a Forerunner crystal to plot a course to Halo. The first game's plot follows. ''Halo Reach'', meanwhile, [[spoiler:has the Covenant raiding the planet as early as July 24, and the rest of their fleet arriving on August 14. The ''Pillar of Autumn'' is in drydock on the surface, with the exact location of the Spartans uncertain (an EasterEgg already has the Master Chief in a cryopod). The final mission has Noble Team escort a fragment of Cortana to the ''Pillar of Autumn'' just as it escapes Reach. Cortana plots a course to Halo based not just on the Forerunner crystal, but with data gathered from Reach's own Forerunner artifact.]] Cue massive FanDumb / FanWank.
** In the beginning, it was established that ''all'' the Forerunners went extinct after activating the Halo Array. [[spoiler:It was later retconned in the Halo Encyclopedia that most of the Forerunner population did die, but there were survivors on the Ark whom afterwards left our galaxy, and the BigBad of ''{{Halo 4}}'' happens to be a Forerunner himself.]]

* The ''{{Metroid}}'' [[VideoGameRemake remake]], ''Zero Mission'', contains a great many retcons to the original story, most along the lines of what happens to Samus after she defeats Mother Brain. However, things such as Kraid and Ridley getting massive growth spurts (to match their portrayals in later games) are clearly ReWrite territory.

*** More interesting to all of the ''Prime'' points, it's unclear as to if the games are even an official part of the Metroid canon, as these were the only games not directed by the usual people, making it even more confusing.
* Of course, no mention of ''Metroid'' in this trope would be complete without mentioning the one game that divided the entire fanbase, ''MetroidOtherM''. There are a few scenes that people have cited as being rather continuum breaking.

*** Part of the argument is that the ''Prime'' games (which two would be produced after Zero Mission came out) were not official canon nor was it made by the normal development team. Thus, those games might not count in figuring that out.
*** The other two games that are canon that featured Ridley, ''Metroid/Zero Mission'' and ''Super Metroid'', are in question when it comes to this scene. One could argue that Ridley has in fact always had that effect on her. She's unable to defeat him when he escapes from the Space Colony in ''Super Metroid'' (though being able to actually do so at that point, the beginning of the game, would break the whole story of that game), and a scene in ''Zero Mission'' revealing him shows Samus actually taking a step back (though this is a still image, it's clear that she's somewhat startled by him).

** Similarly, during the space race many Soviet cosmonauts that had perished on failed missions were supposedly edited out of group pictures taken with their equipment.

** Also done well in Spike's introduction. He expresses anger that Angel has gone good, saying, "You were my sire, my Yoda, man!" Angel doesn't elaborate on this at the time. Later we learn that it was Drusilla who actually turned Spike into a vampire while Angelus was his teacher and role model. In another episode Spike outright says, "Drusilla may have made me a vampire, but you made me a monster."

* Franchise/{{Highlander}} is full of retcons between the films and the series. One huge example is Connor's fight with [[Film/{{Highlander}} The Kurgan]]. The series retconned it to simply being a really big quickening from a normal battle rather than The Prize.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', episode "Be-Knighted" the evil group the Forever Knights revealed that their ultimate goal was to slay an alien dragon they had captured (later a whole planet of them) as opposed to conquering the world, as they had attempted in the original series (they even had a different leader than was seen in the older series as well). Series writer/producer Dwayne [=McDuffie=] later revealed this was, in fact, their goal from the beginning and the Forever Knights Ben fought in the original series (led by former Plumber Driscoll as the "Forever King"), was actually a rogue splinter faction of the original group and that the king Patrick, seen in "Be-Knighted", was the true Forever King and Driscoll was an imposter, or something.

** Originally, the team wielded generic Beretta handguns in the [=PlayStation=] version of the first game. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' then introduced the Samurai Edge, a customized Beretta that was planned to be adopted as the standard-issue sidearm by S.T.A.R.S. before they disbanded. In the [=GameCube=] version, the S.T.A.R.S. members now ** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' has Annette Birkin, a paranoid wife of the now mutated monster, William Birkin. She is continues her husband's legacy of the G-Virus research and is angry at Claire for "killing" her husband. However, ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles'' rewrites Annette's character to be more sympathetic and is willing to stop her husband after he mutates.

** Originally, the team wielded generic Beretta handguns in the [=PlayStation=] version of the first game. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' then introduced the Samurai Edge, a customized Beretta that was planned to be adopted as the standard-issue sidearm by S.T.A.R.S. before they disbanded. In the [=GameCube=] version, the S.T.A.R.S. members now wield Samurai Edge guns instead.