History Main / RetroactiveIdiotBall

** In the original [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 movie]], the scene where Simba sees Mufasa's ghost was [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane not explicitly defined]], but is easy to see as a hallucination on Simba's part representing his realization that he can’t run away from his past and that he needs to set things right. This explains why Mufasa didn't just tell Simba the truth about what happened: Simba didn't know, so why would his vision? The sequels made it so it was unambiguously ''the actual ghost'' of Mufasa, which raises the obvious question of why Mufasa didn't tell Simba that it wasn't his fault that he died and that Scar was the one who really killed him, instead of just vaguely telling him to "Remember who you are."

** Later materials retconned it as Malekith, an incredibly competent military leader and sorcerer, being chosen by the gods [[GodzillaThreshold as their best shots at saving the world]] when [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The End Times]] came a-knocking, and him being worthy all along was a lie to make him more agreeable to side with the heroes. But that instead brings the question as to why no one told [[HotBlooded Tyrion]] that, since being told [[EvilOverlord Malekith]] was the true Phoenix King all along [[SanitySlippage was a reveal he took very badly]], instigating another elven civil war.

* Through all but the very last edition of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', the story of the Dark Elves and their leader Malekith was more or less the same: Malekith wanted to become Phoenix King like his father, but was deemed too ambitious to deserve it, and when he tried to force the issue (by assassinating the previous king and jumping into the [[OnlyTheWorthyMayPass Flames of Asuryan]]) he got horrifically burned and was rejected by the gods, which lead to him and his followers starting a bloody civil war, splitting from their kin to become the Dark Elves and starting the millennia-long conflict between them and the High Elves. And then the [[TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes End Times]] revealed that Malekith had actually been worthy all along [[GaveUpTooSoon but had jumped from the Flames a few seconds too soon]] and all the next Phoenix Kings had been usurpers and cursed by the gods. Why the actual gods themselves (at least two of which have living incarnations in the world, but all of whom can communicate with the world to various extents) never bothered telling anyone at the moment or at any point during the ''thousands of years'' in-between was never explained, nor was how the long line of supposed "cursed" High Elven kings managed to reign more or less adequately throughout the millenia.

** Relatedly, Palapatine's decision to brutally torture and murder Luke in front of Vader becomes retroactively moronic when ''Revenge of the Sith'' reveals he exploited Anakin's fear of losing his loved ones to turn him to the dark side in the first place, meaning he should have known hurting his son in front of him would be the most reliable way to bring out the good left in him.

* In the [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} original Warcraft 3]], Northend is portrayed as this [[GrimUpNorth frozen wasteland]] that no one has explored in ages, filled with all manners of monsters and undead, and it was where [[TheUndead The Lich King]] had his seat of power. Except the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' revealed that not far from where the Lich King had set his fortress laid wyrmrest Accord, which is where the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Aspects]] congregate. The aspects have also been tasked by the [[BenevolentPrecursors Titans]] with protecting the world, and massively empowered so they could carry such a task, leaving the question as to why they hadn't done anything about the Lich King until more than a decade after his arrival.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The plot of Episode 6, "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS01E06LadyWifi Lady WiFi]]", revolves around Alya believing Chloé might be Ladybug. Episode 17, "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS01E17Antibug Antibug]]", contains a minor subplot where Cat Noir worries about the same possibility, since he's long been crushing on his partner and the idea that she was the local AlphaBitch this whole time is kinda upsetting. However, episode 26, "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS01E26StoneheartOriginsPart2 Stoneheart]]", [[OriginsIssue showing the first villain Ladybug and Cat Noir ever fought]], contains a very public rescue of Chloé by Ladybug, so both of them should have already known Ladybug couldn't be Chloé.

** At the beginning of ''Film/ANewHope'' when Vader captures the Tantive IV Leia tells him she's just on a diplomatic mission. While he doesn't believe it, it's still not all that improbable in the context of just this movie. Then, ''Film/RogueOne'' (which ends ''right'' before ''A New Hope'' begins), we find out that Vader followed Leia directly from the Battle Of Scarif (in which she participated), making her claim BlatantLies, and making her seem really dumb for thinking Vader would fall for it. Some fans prefer to think she was just being really audacious by blatantly lying to Vader's face, which ''would'' fit with her characterization.

* In ''Film/SawIV'', TheReveal is that Mark Hoffman, one of the detectives involved in the Jigsaw case, [[DetectiveMole is actually working for Jigsaw,]] and the the next film explains why; the man who killed Hoffman's sister got OffOnATechnicality, so Hoffman killed the man by copycatting one Jigsaw's killings, then got recruited by the real Jigsaw, John Kramer, who was easily able to track him down because, without the serial-killer connection, Hoffman is the obvious suspect in the killing. But then why was Hoffman allowed anywhere near the Jigsaw case if there was such a massive conflict of interest that was easily found out? Hell, why wasn't Hoffman a prime suspect for being Jigsaw or one of his accomplices from the start? The seventh film makes this even worse by revealing Hoffman had a history of PoliceBrutality, which would lend itself well to Jigsaw's KnightTemplar MO.

** VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid'' shows that there are many hidden Protoss artifacts and facilities not only in space but on Aiur, which are introduced as powerful and important assets in the struggle against Amon, such as the massive mothership Spear of Adun. Then one could only wonder why none even hinted about using at least some of these weapons against the Zerg at the time of the first game, when the Overmind landed on Aiur threatening the survival of the Protoss species and infesting the world, even having to evacuate to Shakuras.

** At the beginning of ''Film/ANewHope'' when Vader captures the Tantive IV Leia tells him she's just on a diplomatic mission. While he doesn't believe it, it's still not all that improbable in the context of just this movie. Then, ''Film/RogueOne'' (which ends ''right'' before ''A New Hope'' begins), we find out that Vader followed Leia directly from the Battle Of Scarif (in which she participated), making her claim BlatantLies, and making her seem really dumb for thinking Vader would fall for it.

** ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': Thanks to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, nearly every character, regardless of their status, would act as if there were only 150 Pokémon known to exist, as was the case in [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue in the first generation of Pokémon games]].[[note]] While there were in actuality 151 Pokémon introduced in Generation I, within the games and anime [[OlympusMons Mewtwo]] is a top-secret project that few know the existence of.[[/note]] Bill's hypothesis that there could be more than 150 Pokémon is treated as an absurd theory will little evidence, and [[EarlyBirdCameo Togepi]] gets treated as a newly discovered species. However as time passed the franchise would vastly expand, to the point there are now over 1,000 Pokémon spread across multiple regions, with their existence being common knowledge. [[BackportedDevelopment Several flashbacks in later shows would ignore the idea that any character thought there was only ever 150 Pokémon]] and give them substantial interactions with species introduced in later generations. For example, despite James once being flummoxed by the existence of Togepi, ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'' would reveal he's owned a Carnavine (a species not introduced until [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]]) since childhood.

** ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'': Giovanni orders the Team Rocket Trio to leave behind all their previous captures. Out-of-universe this is down to keep with ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', not having any Pokémon from earlier gens in its Regional Pokédex. While out-of-universe Giovanni wants the trio to remain covert and believes that Pokémon not native to Unova would draw unwanted attention to their operations. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' would add several veteran Pokémon to the Unova Regional Dex, the likes of which included Seviper, Yanmega, and Carnavine, Pokémon that Jessie and James own. Even when discounting the games from the equation, a later episode would show a Team Plasma Grunt in possession of a Seviper, indicating that species at the very least is native to Unova within the anime's continuity.

** ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': Thanks to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, everybody regardless of their status would act as if there were only 150 Pokémon known to exist, as was the case in [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue in the first generation of Pokémon games]].[[note]] While there were in actuality 151 Pokémon introduced in Generation I, within the games and anime [[OlympusMons Mewtwo]] is a top-secret project that few know the existence of.[[/note]] Bill's hypothesis that there could be more than 150 Pokémon is treated as an absurd theory will little evidence, and [[EarlyBirdCameo Togepi]] gets treated as a newly discovered species. However as time passed the franchise would vastly expand, to the point there are now over 1,000 Pokémon spread across multiple regions, with their existence being common knowledge. [[BackportedDevelopment Several flashbacks in later shows would ignore the idea that any character thought there was only ever 150 Pokémon]] and give them substantial interactions with species introduced in later generations. For example, despite James once being flummoxed by the existence of Togepi, ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'' would reveal he's owned a Carnavine (a species not introduced until [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]]) since childhood.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The Season 5 opener has Mike forced to discard his plans to kill Walter and Jesse to get revenge for them killing Gus and burning down the Meth Lab, instead, he enters EnemyMine with them upon learning that the DEA has obtained custody of Gus’s laptop, which contains extensive security footage of all three of them. The plan to destroy the laptop works, but the end of the episode reveals that the laptop was encrypted and the police couldn’t crack its code, making it useless as evidence. The prequel show ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Mike work extensively with Gus on building their operation’s security measures, meaning Mike should’ve known full well that the laptop would be useless to the DEA. Perhaps a DownplayedTrope given Mike's firm stance against taking half-measures. It’s possible Mike knew the laptop was encrypted, but wasn’t willing to risk the chance that the DEA could crack the device.

** When Jiraiya is introduced, he becomes Naruto's mentor after Naruto manages to impress him enough to allow him to learn from him, implying Jiraiya had a vague idea of who Naruto was, but only just met him since he was away from the village for a long time. Later on it turns out Jiraiya not only knew Naruto's parents, but he was Naruto's god father, and knew who Naruto was the whole time. Why he never came back to the village to take care of Naruto after the deaths of his parents, and try to help turn people's perception on Naruto around, is never explained, but it makes the father figure mentor Jiraiya was meant to be for Naruto look completely incomprehensible to anyone with the slightest degree of empathy, since Jiraiya basically abandoned Naruto.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'': Giovanni orders the Team Rocket Trio to leave behind all their previous captures. Out-of-universe this is down to keep with ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', not having any Pokémon from earlier gens in its Regional Pokédex. While out-of-universe Giovanni wants the trio to remain covert and belives Pokémon not native to Unova would draw unwanted attention to their operations. ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'' would add several veteran Pokémon to the Unova Regional Dex, the likes of which included Seviper, Yanmega, and Carnavine, Pokémon that Jessie and James own. With Seviper at the very least shown to be native to Unova even in the anime’s continuity.

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' attempts to plug the idea of the "Holdo Maneuver" in ''Film/TheLastJedi'' by proclaiming that the move (essentially [[RammingAlwaysWorks accelerating into hyperspace and turning the ship into a ram]]) is "one in a million." While this does explain why the move isn't common, it also makes Holdo's HeroicSacrifice rather baffling, since she would have been sacrificing the last ship in the fleet on a maneuver that would probably simply have catapulted her across the galaxy--bordering on out-of-character, even, since Holdo's entire purpose is to be the BoringButPractical commander who picks subtle strategies that work over gambling on the longshot. If Holdo was truly out of options, it raises the question for why only she used such a strategy, and not the support cruisers in her fleet who simply kept going straight on until they ran out of fuel and died where they stood.
** An {{Interquel}} comic released after ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' revealed that Darth Vader knew about Exegol and the Emperor's plan for resurrection. This obviously raises the question about why he didn't warn Luke about it during his last moments... or even ''after'' when he came back as a force ghost.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The Season 5 opener has Mike forced to discard his plans to kill Walter and Jesse out of revenge for [[spoiler: killing Gus and burning down the Meth Lab]], instead, he enters EnemyMine with them upon learning that the DEA have obtained custody of Gus’s laptop, which contains extensive security footage of all three of them. The plan to destroy the laptop works, but the end of the episode reveals that the laptop was encrypted and the police couldn’t crack its code, making it useless as evidence. The prequel show ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Mike work extensively with Gus on building their operation’s security measures, meaning Mike should’ve known full well that the laptop would be useless to the DEA. Could be considered a DownplayedTrope, as considered Mike’s firm stance against taking half-measures, it’s possible Mike knew the laptop was encrypted, but wasn’t willing risk the chance that the DEA could crack the device.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The Season 5 opener has Mike forced to discard his plans to kill Walter and Jesse [[spoiler: for killing Gus and burning down the Meth Lab]] and enter an EnemyMine with them upon learning that the DEA have obtained custody of Gus’s laptop, which contains security footage of all three of them. The plan to destroy the laptop works, but the end of the episode reveals that the laptop was encrypted and the police couldn’t crack its code making it useless as evidence. The prequel show ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Mike work extensively with Gus on building their operation’s security measures, meaning Mike should’ve known full well that the laptop would be useless to the DEA. Could be considered a DownplayedTrope, as considered Mike’s firm stance against taking half-measures, it’s possible Mike knew the laptop was encrypted, but wasn’t willing risk the chance that the DEA could crack the device.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The Season 5 opener has Mike forced to discard his plans to kill Walter and Jesse [[spoiler: for killing Gus and burning down the Meth Lab]] and enter an EnemyMine with them upon learning that the DEA have obtained custody of Gus’s laptop which contains security footage of all three of them. The plan to destroy the laptop works, but the end of the episode reveals that the laptop was encrypted and the police couldn’t crack its code making it useless as evidence. The prequel show ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Mike work extensively with Gus on building their operation’s security measures, meaning Mike should’ve known full well that the laptop would be useless to the DEA.

** There ''was'' a retcon that explained all that: A Kryptonian mad scientist released a toxin that permanently rewrote the entire population's genetics so that [[DepartureMeansDeath leaving the planet for any length of time was lethal]]. Jor-El managed to edit Kal-El's genetic code in his birthing matrix to remove it. That was seemingly abandoned in favor of the "repentant ex-conquerors" explanation, post-New 52.

* ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'': ''VideoGame/Tekken7's'' retcons caused a few of these surrounding Heihachi.
** Heihachi originally threw Kazuya off a cliff to see if he was strong enough to inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu, [[spoiler: and ''7'' retcons it and says that he only did so to confirm if Kazuya has the devil gene, but the game offers no explanation over why he didn't just kill Kazuya after confirming that he does have it.]]
** ''7'' has the [[spoiler: Hachijos as the source of Devil Gene, and despite Heihachi getting some interest in the Devil Gene in ''4'' (And if Leo's ''Tag 2'' ending is canon, he became interested in it even before ''3''), he seemingly never went after the Hachijos.]]
** [[spoiler: Leo's ending from ''Tag 2'' causes another one if the information it gives is canon, since it claims Heihachi was trying to create a synthetic Devil Gene since after ''2'', and while the experiment was a failure, once Jin showed up, Heihachi could always try to get his blood in some way but seemingly didn't. ''7'' can make that even worse, because if Heihachi got interested in doing experiments with the Devil Gene in ''2'' he could always get blood samples from his body before throwing him off a volcano, but seemingly, he didn't do it.]]

** In the original [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 movie]], the scene where Simba sees Mufasa's ghost was [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane not explicitly defined]], but is easy to see as a hallucination on Simba's part representing his realization that he can’t run away from his past and that he needs to set things right. This explains why Mufasa didn't just tell Simba the truth about what happened: Simba didn't know, so why would his vision? The sequels made it so it was ''the actual ghost'' of Mufasa, which raises the obvious question of why Mufasa didn't tell Simba that it wasn't his fault that he died and that Scar was the one who really killed him, instead of just vaguely telling him to "Remember who you are."

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': The the crux of "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E7TheLatePhillipJFry The Late Philip J. Fry]]" is that Professor Farnsworth built a time machine, but it can only go forward in time and not backward. The whole episode is spent traveling further and further into the future until someone invents a way to travel into the past. Two seasons later, in "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E6IKnowWhatYouDidNextXmas I Know What You Did Next Xmas]]", Farnsworth adds a manual transmission and a reverse gear (two parts found in the earliest automobiles), and then the time machine can go backward too.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: The the crux of "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E7TheLatePhillipJFry The Late Philip J. Fry]]" is that Professor Farnsworth built a time machine, but it can only go forward in time and not backward. The whole episode is spent traveling further and further into the future until someone invents a way to travel into the past. Two seasons later, in "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E6IKnowWhatYouDidNextXmas I Know What You Did Next Xmas]]", Farnsworth adds a manual transmission and a reverse gear (two parts found in the earliest automobiles), and then the time machine can go backward too.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: The the crux of "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E7TheLatePhilipJFry The Late Philip J. Fry]]" is that Professor Farnsworth built a time machine, but it can only go forward in time and not backward. The whole episode is spent traveling further and further into the future until someone invents a way to travel into the past. Two seasons later, in "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E6IKnowWhatYouDidNextXmas]]", Farnsworth adds a manual transmission and a reverse gear (two parts found in the earliest automobiles), and then the time machine can go backward too.

* In the early parts of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', the main ArcVillain is Keicho Nijimura, a guy whose father has been rendered horribly disfigured and in constant pain, but also rendered basically immortal. He wants to find someone with the power to MercyKill his dad, and he's obtained a supernatural arrow that allows him to grant anyone a random power--however, the arrow is extremely likely to kill a person if they aren't strong enough to develop one. To accomplish this, he shoots the arrow at random people throughout the town, in the hopes that one of them will win the SuperpowerRussianRoulette, killing a number of people and turning a number of others into early MonsterOfTheWeek threats. This isn't a good plan by any means, and it ultimately leads to his death, but it makes sense from the perspective of an increasingly desperate guy with lacking moral fiber. However, later on, a different villain named Yoshihiro Kira reveals that someone using the arrow can sense when a person has the potential to survive and develop powers. So either Keicho ''really'' didn't bother to experiment with the arrow, despite having it for years, or he was dumb enough to shoot people despite knowing there was no chance they'd develop powers.