Early Installment Weirdness / Fan Works

Fanfics in general fall into this - as is the case with professional authors. Many fanfic writers' earlier fanfics might not resemble their later fanfics in terms of plot or format. This is understandable as fanfic writers often get tips from reviewers on how to improve, and will often use them.

Examples

• A.A. Pessimal's Discworld is noticeably different in the earliest stories: these tend to focus on the fantastical elements of the Discworld much as Terry Pratchett envisioned it in the earliest books of the series. The first appearance of the core cast of Lady Assassins, developments of one-line placeholder names, show people who later ended up being Retconned into more rounded developed people. Emmanuelle lesDeux-Epées, for instance, has a more militant feminist streak which later on is quietly discarded; Alice Band has more of a social conscience and less hard sharp edges; and Johanna Smith-Rhodes is an all-out nearly unlovable Amoral Afrikaner with some seriously unreformed ideas about black people. ^note Later tales have her mellowing and growing up and expressing real doubts about The Apartheid Era. Emmanuelle becomes more amorally cynical and Alice, while still fundmanentally decent and principled, becomes even more of a Snark Knight. his "Russian" witches, Olga and Irena, first appear attempting to speak Morporkian with excruciatingly bad Russian accents - this too was dropped; indeed, the original conception of Irena Politek was that she wasn't even Russian and would reflect a different sort of Slavonic - she was originally intended to be a Discworld "Czech" so that the traditional needle between Czechoslovakian and Russian could be worked in. The only survival of that is a vaguely Czech-sounding name - later stories had her being as "Russian" as Olga, and, indeed, coming from the same region but from the opposite end of the social scale.
• Many Banditale songs with "[OLD]" attached to its title, or are made before 2018, either use instrumentation that's vastly different from the final version (such as "Greh Heh Heh + Swordtrousle V2"), or merely mixes two tracks together (such as "Blaster Of Triumph", mixing together remixes of both "Spear Of Justice" and the Academy of Evil theme).
• Bird features this in the second arc. Most of arc two was rewritten from scratch when the author realized that severe structural errors had been made, resulting in a drastically different story to be told.
• In the first story of Bodyguard AU, The Queen's Secret Crush, Rarity was a queen. Starting with the second story, The Princess's Choice, she's a princess. This is because the sequel is a prequel origin story.
• Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: Dr. Brainstorm's first few appearances have him with unfocused gold eyes. He later gets green eyes, making him a Significant Greeneyed Redhead.
  • In The Series, it starts out with rather mundane plots, and Calvin acted a lot more like he was in the original strip — a hyperactive little kid. Eventually, he became a much calmer Gadgeteer Genius (and even later on, The Chessmaster). He does get a brief Character Check in "Invasion" thanks to Laser-Guided Amnesia, though.
  • In The Calvinverse as a whole, the earlier stories tend to be rather poorly written. It eventually starts improving by the point of Retro Chill. Swing123 considers his first two stories in the verse to be Old Shames, and has rewritten both of them (though he's more or less fine with the third installment).
• Cheating Death: Those That Lived: In Bear's chapter, Katniss claims that there are nineteen victors left besides her and Peeta, while chapter 74 makes it clear that it's actually nineteen victors including her and Peeta (plus one who is presumed dead but turns up alive). In-Universe this might be hand-waved by Katniss having misheard whoever told her about the surviving characters.
• Child of the Storm starts out as a light-hearted family fic with liberal sprinklings of humour — albeit with a warning from the author that it would get steadily darker — and one that emphasised the Harry Potter side of the crossover, the Marvel contribution being restricted to the MCU prior to Iron Man 3. Then, chapter 11 introduces HYDRA, their chief weapon, the Winter Soldier, and villainous Ensemble Dark Horse and Gravemoss. The story then shifts gears, steadily developing into a complex and intricately plotted Massive Multiplayer Crossover with a colossal Gambit Pile Up, epic scale battles, and a penchant for Black-and-Grey Morality. The author remarked on this a couple of times, explaining that if he wrote the early chapters now, he'd do a lot of things very differently... but there's not much that he can actually change without pulling the bricks out from the bottom of the metaphorical Jenga tower.
• Citadel of the Heart:
  • Citadel of the Heart as it's known today is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover which functions similar to the author's own rendition of Kingdom Hearts, as told with his own vision and ideas in mind. However, the first entry in the continuity, Truth and Ideals, started off as no such thing; it was a purely standalone Pokémon fanfic which was a whole other basket of worms in terms of Early-Installment Weirdness, and there wasn't a remote hint as to the formation of the Citadel of the Heart continuity until over 40 chapters into Truth and Ideals. Later entries into Citadel of the Heart would later be far more blatant with the crossover elements.
  • Truth and Ideals specifically has a few noteworthy entries.
    • The first few chapters very faithfully adapt the opening from the Black and White games baring a few minor changes except for one major change; later fanfics for Pokémon within the same continuity would be far more blatant with their changes from the original games, even during the beginning of the fic.
    • Ash's entire characterization, for much of the fic for that matter, was ultimately because there was originally no intent to include Hilbert in the fic, whom Ash filled in much of his original role proper. The author changed his mind at the aforementioned Chapter 40, by showcasing that Hilbert exists as a separate character, whom ultimately has a role somewhat more similar to Anime!Ash (not during his debut, obviously).
    • Legendary Pokémon would have their in-game text be used for their cries as early as Chapter 16; this stopped being a trend around the time Victini shows up with telepathy 10 chapters later. Legendary Pokémon would commonly begin to appear with telepathy up until Chapter 58 onward, barring the Grandfather Clause for a few crucial exceptions.
    • Genesect (specifically the "Geneshine" specimen) merely started off as having a portion of dialogue and a depiction that was a mere one-off Shout-Out to Cell, before later becoming a full-time Expy of Cell altogether.
    • Romance was very much a Love at First Sight basis in Truth and Ideals, whereas virtually every other fic in the Series Fic would drag things out more significantly than Truth and Ideals did prior to characters becoming a couple, regardless of whether they ended up kissing (or more) prior to or after becoming an Official Couple. While Chronicler and Suguha would still be an Official Couple in Sword Art Online: Special Edition relatively quickly, it's more so Suguha's Declaration of Protection and Chronicler's No Social Skills that result in the two becoming a couple so quickly, but that has so far been the only future exception after Truth and Ideals ended.
  • The Digimon fanfics, and even fics where Ambassador Raiga (Omegamon) has appeared elsewhere, had not properly defined Raiga's method of fusing between her two composites, Flare and Tempest (WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon respectively), due to misunderstanding of the differences between Jogress Evolution/DNA Digivolution and Fusion by the author. Jogress Evolution is where two Digimon go up a level when they combine^note (two Champions combining = Ultimate Level Digimon), but Fusion has them stay the exact same level when they combine^note (two Megas combining = Mega Level Digimon). The latter is what is meant to be used to describe Raiga's union, because canonically Omegamon as a whole utilizes Fusion rather than Jogress Evolution as far as the lore is concerned. Part of the reason this misunderstanding even exists for that matter is because of the games, at first, not differentiating the two types of combining Digimon; Omegamon had been classified as a Jogress Evolution in many of the games, and functions as one in games such as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, where Omegamon is classified as Ultra Level according to how Jogress Evolution works. Meanwhile, whereas Digimon World Dawn/Dusk refers to Omegamon as a Jogress Evolution, but it's classified as a Mega Level Digimon as the Ultra Level is not programmed as a separate level in the game, and by virtue of staying Mega Level like its two composites, this is exactly how Fusion is meant to work. This misunderstanding even among the canon media is also why Omegamon switches between being either Mega Level or Ultra Level as well in a lot of fan works at large, and not simply Citadel of the Heart.
• The first fic in the Dæmorphing series, Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul, has a couple:
  • The description says that the Animorphs can't reveal their last names, and it's implied that their daemons go by pseudonyms. Later fics ignore this, and the Animorphs' surnames are frequently mentioned even before the Yeerks figure out who they are.
  • The cop-controller grabs Quincy (Cassie's daemon), but this is never mentioned again. Later, David touching Marco's daemon is a traumatic experience that haunts Marco for the rest of the series.
• Ed, Edd, n Eddy: 20 Years Later EP: "The Story of Plank" was not originally a part of the series, hence why it features Jonny as a boy. It's from the "If Cartoons Had Rap Careers" series.
• Enter Ken Finlayson: There are entries from Ken's journal which do not appear from later stories; Ken is stated to have been born in Leeville, Ontario instead of Casablanca, Morocco; Ken seeming to be actually crazy... Although that could just be a case of Character Development. There are also moments when Norrisville is stated as being in the state of New York, predating the revelation that Norrisville is located in some New England state.
• The early chapters of Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Fifth Path (particularly the original prologue and the first chapter) tried to focus more on rapid fire comedy with a higher joke to plot count than later where the jokes, while still common, largely took a back seat to the plot, possibly due to a lot of the humor being moved to the Supports.
• Friendship Is Magic: The Adventures of Spike: The Previously on… segments at the beginning of each chapter, and the stylized scene breaks, were both dropped at reader command after the first few chapters.
• Hit List: The original first few chapters are less polished than the rest of the story and read like a straight-up High School AU with the Legend of Zelda cast, as opposed to later chapters treating the games as canonical precursors by having Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf as the reincarnations of the games' characters (the writing was fixed when the author did a rewrite). The sequel, From the Dust, uses more direct references to the games, with the characters getting magical items and entering actual scenarios from the games. This stands in contrast to Hit List, which kept everyone in the more realistic setting of a high school, had the characters make use of mundane items to defend themselves, put much less emphasis on interacting with plot elements from the games, and had no magic or past-life interactions until Link and Zelda fight Ganondorf.
• The Infinite Loops were codified by Saphroneth but made by Innortal. Thus, Innortal's loops will occasionally do things deemed impossible in later loops, which is usually Hand Waved by the fact that they were the first loops in-universe as well as out and the restrictions didn't exist yet.
• The Lone Traveler is by two different authors, and the transition was not seamless.
  • The Lone Traveller becomes the Lone Traveler (i.e., the title is switched from a British spelling to an American one).
  • The Traveler goes from using meaningless names as aliases to using Sue Donyms, pop culture references, and Character Name Aliases.
  • A watch that syncs to the local time whenever the Traveler moves on to a new universe disappears.
  • The particulars of the Traveler's backstory change.
  • A mysterious figure who appears in the first story disappears entirely, never to be mentioned again.
• The Pokémon Squad:
  • Ash originally had a somewhat Genre Savvy side, as seen in the episode "June the Unfriendly Ghost" (itself a parody of a SpongeBob SquarePants episode). In later episodes, he Took a Level in Dumbass.
  • The first episode was ridiculously different. It had little innuendo, a lack of Black Comedy (aside from a scene where June breaks RM's Friend's arms and legs), and had a very quirky tone. Season 1 as a whole had this to a lesser extent (as it was originally aimed at children, but shifted to a more adult audience), until it grew the beard in later episodes.
  • Some characters' defining traits were downplayed. RM was somewhat nicer, Barney's pedophiliac traits were almost mute, Pikachu and Squirt were somewhat interchangeable (and had Meowth as an ally) and Ash, while dimwitted, wasn't that bad.
  • There appeared to be a storyline between episodes. In later seasons, Status Quo Is God, for the most part.
  • There were also a significant amount of Whole-Plot Reference episodes in the Sailor Pikachu-era episodes. These were downplayed after PlatinumMage replaced her.
  • Barney was also perpetually cheerful and fun-loving, before he Took a Level in Jerkass to become more of a pedophile, a serial criminal and a Depraved Kids' Show Host.
  • Several early episodes involve the squad doing things like visiting different countries, going to space, guest-starring on TV shows, etc. These episodes, while not exactly unheard of nowadays, are far rarer.
    • Ditto for Alternate Universe episodes, several of which were homages to SpongeBob SquarePants episodes. Nowadays, they had been replaced in favor of apocalyptic episodes.
• Pound and Pumpkin Cake's Adventures (and Misadventures) in Potty Training: In the first few chapters, the twins could speak to each other and occasionally to Pinkie Pie, but not to other adults. In later chapters, despite not having aged, the Cake twins could speak perfectly fine to everybody, yet they could understand Flurry Heart, who, being a year younger than them, couldn't be understood by any adults, even Pinkie Pie.
• Princess Celestia Is In Your Bed: In the first story, the narrator has No Name Given and writes, "OC" on his fanta bottle. Sequels would give him the name Steve, and would have him unaware of his fictionality, stating that this was not a story.
• RWBY: Scars: In an early chapter, Yang hits Weiss in anger for causing Blake to run away. What's unusual is Weiss' general lack of a reaction. Due to her abused background and poor self-esteem, being even playfully attacked by those close to her acts as a Trauma Button to Weiss. This is why her sister Winter acts more protective and nice towards Weiss (with her Dope Slap being removed as well) than in canon. The writer later noted that the scene was off, but Yang attacking Weiss is referenced in future chapters so the writer originally didn't want to retcon the scene by removing or rewriting it. Eventually, the scene was rewritten and retconned.
• Saki: After Story has this in its first chapter, even though there are only two as of this writing. In the first chapter, mahjong is seemingly treated as a two-player game (Saki and Teru face each other^note This is disregarding how, in canon, as Teru is her team's vanguard while Saki is her team's captain, they would never face each other in the team tournament, with Saki winning 112,000 points to Teru's 110,000), and Saki and Nodoka are on a Last-Name Basis, as opposed to the First-Name Basis they adopted in the training camp between the prefecturals and the nationals, at the end of the first anime series.
• Scoob and Shag: The comic was an episodic gag strip for its first thirteen installments before shifting into an ongoing story that soon saw a considerable Genre Shift. As such, the earliest strips' tone, art style and contents are very different from what would become the comic's standard.
  • The first couple of strips are never referenced again, have an extremely crude artstyle, and feature very different characterization for the protagonists, with Shag going from Butt-Monkey to Audience Surrogate and Scoob going from a Comedic Sociopath to The Stoic.
  • An early running gag has Shag using increasingly nonsensical variations of his trademark "Zoinks" Catchphrase. This element was dropped early in, and in later strips he never uses the catchphrase at all.
  • Another running gag has Scoob responding to other people by wordlessly smirking and flipping the bird. This gag last longer than most others do, but is also dropped relatively early in favor of a much more communicative characterization.
  • Most of the characters featured are Western cartoons, but Mario, Kermit, and (a picture of) Goku were shown before the author established that theme.
• Seth in the Pokécity:
  • Seth hadn't been abused at all in the first three episodes compared to how he was treated from "Save the Grotto" onwards.
  • BoltShock was also nicer. On a side note, he was also a bit prudish, such as having to drag Pikachu away from hookers in the third episode.
• Spooky:
  • Echo is drawn with visible limbs in the very first comic. He also gets defensive about and is reluctant to deal with "girly stuff", while later comics portray him as openly being In Touch with His Feminine Side.
  • Komo is much less timid early on. He's also the comic's primary Butt-Monkey, being on the receiving end of random misfortunes that in later strips would more likely happen to Tombstones.
  • Tombstones isn't present in the first few comics, as he doesn't start freeloading with the other three until the end of the first Halloween arc.
  • Early on, the cast's Petpets include a Candy Vampire, a Mutant Slorg, and a Baby Fireball. Claw's Ghost Magtile shows up in the first comic to specifically focus on the Petpets, but Echo's Carmariller is nowhere to be seen for a while.
• Springaling:
  • The first twenty or so comics consist entirely of one-off jokes and outtakes about the artist's self-contained comic about the third game, Requiem with a Birthday Cake. Comic 22 marks the beginning of the first Story Arc and the introduction of elements from later Five Nights at Freddy's games.
  • Springtrap's dialogue is provided via translations of the sounds he makes in the first few comics, and the translations persist when he's around the ghosts. Starting from the sixth comic, Translation Convention is in effect and his dialogue is only presented as "breathy hissing followed by translation note" when a live human is in the building.
• Stroll: In the early chapters, Octavia's monologues were shorter and the pacing was much faster. As the story developed and the author became more comfortable writing the setting and characters, the monologues became much more important to the story and the pacing evened out considerably.
• Twisted Princess : The first few works in the series don't have stories to explain the art.
• The Vinyl and Octavia Series: The first story in the series is more or less a straight adventure story. Although there is comedy, the story itself is not one, unlike the rest of the series. There's no sexual tension between Vinyl and Octavia, and aside from a few mentions of shipping, there is no hint that the two have feelings for one another. Finally, this story is around forty-thousand words long and spread out over multiple chapters, unlike the rest of the series, which are all one-shots (with the exception of Vinyl and Octavia Have Multiple Dates, but that's still only two chapters and is in fact shorter than some of the other stories).
• White Sheep (RWBY): In chapter 2, Jaune's Combat Tentacles work in entirely different way from the rest of the fic (he spawns them from darkness on a nearby surface rather than them sprouting from his body), he displays the ability to use fire Dust like Cinder (he credits this to her teaching him, but it's supposed to be her unique Semblance), and is even more ignorant of human society than later chapters (he doesn't know that a bullhead is a type of airship, despite his family having a few). He also talks like a hero in a fairy tale, though that's not an author mistake; Jaune realized he was being stupid.
• With This Ring: When the protagonist first arrives on Earth 16 and buys himself a change of clothes, he tries to tell the ring to designate them as a uniform, but it replies that that can only be done while wearing them. This restriction never appears again, as he freely moves things in and out of a subspace pocket, including making clothes appear on himself or other people, at will.

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