History Main / AssPull

* ''AssPull/FanWorks''
** ''AssPull/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus''

* ''AssPull/Fan Works''

* Fan Works

* ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders|DCComics}}'': Creator/JuddWinick's first issue of ''ComicBook/Outsiders2003'' introduces us to ComicBook/BlackLightning's daughter Anissa, who ends up becoming the heroine Thunder. [[RememberTheNewGuy His 20-something-year-old daughter who had never been seen or mentioned in any prior series featuring Black Lightning, despite his wife being a fairly prominent figure in many stories]]. Creator/GeoffJohns then took this even further in his [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] run by introducing us to ''another'' previously-unseen daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer had been foreshadowed in the BadFuture story ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''; this still qualifies as an ass pull by virtue of Black Lightning having no references to children just a short time before this, and his age in [[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders The Outsiders]] comics previously being about Batman's age at the oldest. [[ComicBookTime He'd have already had to father these women by the time of his introduction.]]

* The Creator/DCComics CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/Armageddon2001'' (back in 1991!) has a mystery villain called Monarch, who was originally meant to be the hero ComicBook/CaptainAtom. After this was leaked, the DC brass, desperate to preserve the shock value, changed the ending at the last minute and had a completely different character, Hawk (one of the few characters who the story up to that point had explicitly said ''couldn't'' be Monarch), FreakOut and [[FaceHeelTurn turn evil]] after [[TemporalParadox his future self kills his partner Dove in front of him]], because his series was getting cancelled anyway. When they reintroduced a "new" Monarch to be one of the villains in ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'', they didn't even bother hiding his identity anymore - Captain Atom, natch.
* Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}} does this frequently, often in the form of {{exaggerat|edTrope}}ing his CrazyPrepared tendencies. A lot of his weirder or more “specialized” gadgets (such as the infamous [[Series/Batman1966 Shark Repellent spray]] or [[Film/BatmanAndRobin Bat-Credit card]]) are often either the result of various writers having written themselves into a corner for one reason or another and desperately needing Batman to do something miraculous to pull himself out of a situation that should logically be unwinnable under normal circumstances, or because [[CreatorsPet the writer loves]] [[RunningTheAsylum Batman and wants to make him look as cool as possible]] by making him do something seemingly impossible, no matter how little sense it makes.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanThreeJokers'' had two:
** The first being the Comedian Joker, the Joker from ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' turning out to have been abusive even prior to his fall, [[https://joker-ka.tumblr.com/post/633177488181379072/pre-joker-wasnt-the-domestic-abuser with one fan pointing out that]] Creator/AlanMoore's notes even stated he wasn't abusive before then. Then again, it was stated that the Joker doesn't remember things the same way and Brian Bolland himself ignored some of Moore's notes.
** The second and biggest being Batman stating he knew who the Comedian was a week after they met. One: it was established in the series itself that the chemical deforms identifiable features, two: a long-running feature in the Batman/Joker relationship is Bruce not knowing who the Joker is, three: the whole "three Jokers" thing was kicked off by Bruce sitting in Metron's Mobius chair during ''ComicBook/DarkseidWar'' and using the chair to figure the mystery out -- only to be surprised to learn it was three guys, and four: if he figured out who the "Comedian" was, why didn't he figure out who the "Clown" and "Mastermind" were?
* ''Comicbook/AvengersDisassembled'' and ''ComicBook/HouseOfM''. The Characters/ScarletWitch spontaneously becomes [[RealityWarper nigh-omnipotent]] with no explanation. On a scale where she can annihilate the entire ''omniverse'' without really trying. Marvel attempted an AuthorsSavingThrow explanation in ''Comicbook/AvengersTheChildrensCrusade'', where it was established that Scarlet Witch had been [[DemonicPossession possessed]] by an elemental entity called the Life Force. Her subsequent [[AxCrazy killing spree]] was then stated to have been due to [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]]'s manipulations.
* Creator/JuddWinick's first issue of ''[[ComicBook/{{Outsiders|2003}} The Outsiders]]'' introduces us to ComicBook/BlackLightning's daughter Anissa, who ends up becoming the heroine Thunder. [[RememberTheNewGuy His 20-something-year-old daughter who had never been seen or mentioned in any prior series featuring Black Lightning, despite his wife being a fairly prominent figure in many stories]]. Creator/GeoffJohns then took this even further in his [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] run by introducing us to ''another'' previously-unseen daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer had been foreshadowed in the BadFuture story ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''; this still qualifies as an ass pull by virtue of Black Lightning having no references to children just a short time before this, and his age in [[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders The Outsiders]] comics previously being about Batman's age at the oldest. [[ComicBookTime He'd have already had to father these women by the time of his introduction.]]
* ComicBook/TheBeano: In one of the modern issues, Dennis the Menace's strip has some great examples of arsepulls. First Walter and his friends get struck by lightning and possessed by Viking ghosts, then it turns out there's an unexploded missile at the bottom of the lake, along with a WWII submarine. Then the editor rightfully asks why it's there in the first place, breaking the 4th wall. The writer's excuse? There's a "secret tunnel" connecting it to the sea, and the Germans were stupid enough to go into it during the Second World War. This is probably inspired by the TV ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' episode "Castle De'Ath", which also inspired the ''Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' story "Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill" — and was in its own turn inspired by a Tommy Hambledon short story by "Manning Coles" — which was later rewritten to change the U-boat full of escaped Nazis to a Russian sub full of spies...

* ''ComicBook/TheFlashRebirth'' has the revelation that [[Characters/TheFlashEobardThawne Eobard Thawne]] caused several out of character moments for the Flash Family throughout the DC Rebirth era. Things like Barry and Wally butting heads, Wallace going along with Damian Wayne's dark methods, Bart ignoring the Flash Family in favour of Young Justice and Wally covering up his accidental murders at Sanctuary are all the result of Eobard Thawne using superspeed and time-travel in conjunction with an until now unmentioned Negative Speed Force hypnosis power to make the characters do these things. This ability has not once been foreshadowed and has no relation to any other power any speedster has ''ever'' demonstrated, and Eobard could have used it any number of times before this, so it truly does come out of nowhere. However, it exists as an AuthorsSavingThrow for disliked moments in the era, and readers generally accept it as a very, ''very'' clumsy way of salvaging the characters.
* ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' revolves around a murder mystery, where there was a massacre at Sanctuary. Booster Gold and Harley Quinn each remember the other doing it, but it turns out it was Wally West's Speed Force energy electrocuting everyone to death, because he had a mental breakdown and wasn't working to contain the energy like he always does, then he used the Sanctuary AI to create holograms that showed Booster and Harley their version of events. This doesn't make sense on a few levels. One, the Speed Force is not something that the Flashes internalise; it's something they tap into, consciously. Two, speedsters don't have to work to keep that energy from killing others, with many speedsters being ''extremely'' casual in its use and in their lives (the Flash characters are the more chill characters in the DCU in general) and nobody has ever used a Speed Force connection to this effect, even if it would be beneficial. Three, electrocution should have been noted as the cause of death ''immediately'' by the investigators -- and even if the Speed Force way was different, ''Barry Allen'' is one of the investigators and is the Flash, so he would notice it anyway, since if this "burden of Speed Force" thing was even true, he would know about it. Four, Wally is not a computer whiz and should not have been able to reprogram anything.
** An AuthorsSavingThrow a few years later showed that the Speed Force explosion was actually caused by an unrelated time travel incident, due to connecting to a point later on where the Speed Force was much more unstable than usual.
* ''ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman:'' During the ''ComicBook/TimeRunsOut'' arc, the Cabal are stranded on another Earth as it's about to be blown up, with no possible means of survival... and then a completely unprecedented double incursion happens, allowing them to escape to the other Earth with no-one in the regular universe the wiser. Exactly why there's two incursions happening simultaneously is not explained, and the Cabal are never shown pondering why it might have happened.
* The ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica once went up against Despero (an alien with vast mental powers, at the time recently powered-up to be almost as strong and invulnerable as Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}}) with a mostly C-List team. How to beat him? With the innate Martian power of creating a LotusEaterMachine illusion that the ComicBook/MartianManhunter had never before mentioned that he could do, because using it was so stressful that any given Martian can only do it [[ItOnlyWorksOnce once]] in their life. Despite that, it was still a fairly well-received story, partially as later issues had the Martian Manhunter ruminate that the technique is supposed to be used to help loved ones, not for combat. Another weird power of his was the ability to see through the flow of time. This somehow resulted in him being immune to the powers of an opponent who completely rewrote reality. Pulling never before seen powers out of his ass is the ComicBook/MartianManhunter's shtick. And then getting lit on fire the next time said power would have been useful.
* Appears a lot throughout the ''Comicbook/SilentHill'' comics written by Scott Ciencin. Way too many to list as the situations that called for the sphincter-tugging is due to {{Voodoo Shark}}s put in by the author everywhere in the comics, but one fact bears mentioning: Lauren getting the magic book she needed to fight the whole story's BigBad, which is coincidentally made out of [[KryptoniteFactor something he is specifically weak to]], by ''buying it from E-bay''. (This one's actually one of the (slightly) more excusable ones, though. She tells her friends (the friends [[SociopathicHero she's planning on turning into]] CannonFodder) that she got it on eBay, but it's probably a lie, covering for a more disturbing answer.)
* Silver Age ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' stories were notorious for coming up with convenient new powers for the main character all the time. For example super-ventriloquism. It was inverted when they simply dropped one power used regularly in the Golden Age, the ability to change his face and hair to look exactly like someone else. Would this be an Ass-Shove?
* In an old issue of ''ComicBook/{{Superman}} Family'', [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois]] decides to help out two Russian ballet dancers who want to defect while they're in Metropolis to perform ''Theatre/SwanLake''. In order to save the male lead, she [[MuggedForDisguise ties up and gags the actress playing Odette and steals her costume]]. Despite being ''a reporter'', Lois is able to keep up the charade and hold her own alongside highly-trained professionals, which she chalks up to having had "years of ballet lessons" when she was a kid.
* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Per WordofGod, Creator/PeterDavid wrote himself into a corner in ''The Incredible Hulk'' #375 where Rick Jones is trapped on a crashing Skrull ship with no way to escape, so after the ship crashes he shows up parachuting down to safety. He explains that he always carries a hidden parachute '''just in case''' he is ever trapped on a crashing Skrull ship and needs to escape. Bruce doesn't buy it. "Why not? I needed to, didn't I?" This one scene changed the entire character of Rick Jones from a hanger-on to Batman-level CrazyPrepared with MediumAwareness.
* ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' has the sudden revelation that Dum Dum Dugan was killed back in ''1965'' and his every appearance since has been a Life Model Decoy. The fact Dugan has been captured by everyone from Hydra to Skrulls without anyone discovering his true nature was a bit hard to swallow.
* In the ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' ongoing, the [[GrandTheftMe body-swap]] of Terra and the Ultra-Humanite feature neither any foreshadowing nor rational explanation, and actually directly contradicts previously established facts (in the issue before the reveal, Satanna actually comments that her sources are still looking for Humanite, and so far have not had any luck in locating him). Even Terra's half-explanation after she is rescued doesn't clear up all the points, since she refers to lengthy torture sessions and stays in a psychiatric hospital, even though the entire affair occurred in only a single day.
* ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'' has this habit of having a sudden twist at the end, with issues 3-5 particularly having a random hero being revealed as a HYDRA agent of some sort.

* ''Suspense'' has a particularly hilarious example in [[http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/08/if.html "If!"]] (#27, 1953). A fellow falls for a pretty blonde only to find that she and her entire family are monsters... or he ''would have'', if he weren't run over by a truck first!
* During Creator/WarrenEllis' brief ''[[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' run from the 90's, the title character was depowered as part of a BroughtDownToBadass plot. When Creator/PeterDavid wanted to have Thor fight the Hulk in his ''Comicbook/{{The Incredible Hulk|1968}}'' run, he realized Thor would need to be at full strength. To that end, he wrote a scene where Thor banged Mjolnir on the ground while reminiscing about the good old days, which somehow magically restored his powers. The closest thing to an explanation given was "Even a god may believe in miracles," which still isn't much of an answer.
* In an arc of ''ComicBook/Thor2014'', Jane Foster found herself separated from Mjolnir and with her back to the wall, surrounded by her enemies. Because she was separated from Mjolnir for so long, she transformed out of her Thor form and back into Jane Foster. The villains see her civilian form, seemingly destroying her SecretIdentity... nope! Mjolnir randomly developed the ability to cast illusions off-panel and casts one of Thor holding Mjolnir, allowing Jane to escape and leaving the villains unaware of Thor's secret identity.
* [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Deliberately invoked]] in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers''. Almost all of the deaths happen out of nowhere and in extremely avoidable manners, as part of the book's subversion/deconstruction of [[WarIsGlorious glory-fest war stories]] and CentralTheme of how people die stupid, pointless deaths in war.

* Website/GoAnimate "[[YouAreGrounded Grounded]]" videos will pull out all the stops to make sure a character gets grounded and humiliated. Recently, many video makers have taken to the term "[=GoAnimate=] Logic" to explain how anyone can do anything and how everything gets put back to normal.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck 2}}'' has the story behind Candy Timeline-Jade's secret daughter, Yiffy. While it was foreshadowed/discussed in ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'' that Jade could have Rose act a surrogate mother thanks to implied complications with Jade's anatomy, what was not was that Rose helped raise the child in secret for fifteen years, behind her own wife's back. This even went to the extent that she gave the daughter her last name. The twist's explanation came off as out-there by the standards of the story, and to some readers, made Jade and Rose both come off as cheaters[[note]]Rose is married to Kanaya in this timeline, and Jade is married to Dave. Based on a comment in the Epilogues where Dave wanted to have a kid of his own while Jade's daughter had already been born, he was unaware of Yiffy too[[/note]] living a double life.

* Creator/JuddWinick's first issue of ''[[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders The Outsiders]]'' introduces us to ComicBook/BlackLightning's daughter Anissa, who ends up becoming the heroine Thunder. [[RememberTheNewGuy His 20-something-year-old daughter who had never been seen or mentioned in any prior series featuring Black Lightning, despite his wife being a fairly prominent figure in many stories]]. Creator/GeoffJohns then took this even further in his [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] run by introducing us to ''another'' previously-unseen daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer had been foreshadowed in the BadFuture story ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''; this still qualifies as an ass pull by virtue of Black Lightning having no references to children just a short time before this, and his age in [[ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders The Outsiders]] comics previously being about Batman's age at the oldest. [[ComicBookTime He'd have already had to father these women by the time of his introduction.]]

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This trope is not about]] [[StubbornMule donkeys that pull carts]]. Also, as much as it sounds like it, it is not the opposite of AssShove (when a character ''literally'' pulls an object out of someone's rear, or the opposite).

* ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'': D-lister superhero 3-D Man (who's powers up to that point had just consisted of being roughly three times stronger and faster than a normal person) spontaneously developed the ability to see through the the otherwise-impenetrable disguises that the Skrulls were using thanks to the 3-D goggles he wore as part of his costume. This was explained as being because his powers were "old school" instead of relying on magic or technology (good luck figuring out what that was supposed to mean). Then the Skrulls figured out what he was doing and smashed his goggles... at which point he spontaneously gained the ability to do so without the goggles! Sadly, this resulted in him killing Crusader, a Skrull who'd [[GoingNative decided he liked Earth better]] and was fighting against the invasion.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''
** ComicBook/TheCloneSaga, where back in 1975, an exact clone of [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] appears, and at the end of that one issue, seemingly dies. Except he didn't die, showed up again in an issue some 20 years later, and mentioned out of absolutely nowhere that ''he'' was the original the whole time and that the Peter Parker the comics had been following for the past two decades was really the clone; some DNA testing confirmed it. This caused considerable uproar within the fandom, and was a big part of the whole saga being an AudienceAlienatingEra. When the writers finally decided to end it, there was a new revelation that Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, who died in 1972, [[VoodooShark was also actually alive the whole time]] and had masterminded everything. Among other things, he had rigged the DNA tests, despite it being previously shown that Peter and the clone did all the testing by themselves, so there shouldn't have been any opportunity for Norman to rig things in the first place.

** ''AssPull/OnePiece''

* ''FanFic/SoullessShell'': This fic appears to be merely a poorly-written ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' TransplantedCharacterFic until Chapter Three, whereupon we abruptly and without warning come upon the line "then he shot a beam from his paw which the rat teleported away from". (For those unfamiliar, Redwall is a medieval fantasy about talking animals, and has a definite lack of magical laser beams.)

The term is also used to describe something that the ''characters'' [[IndyPloy make up on the spot]]. See WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants. Sometimes called [[JustForPun Sulu's Foil]], since it's the opposite of ChekhovsGun. In UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}, it's called "grand piano in the bushes". Spanish-speaking fandoms refer to it as "Guionazo" or "Poder del Guión" (Power of the Script). Pulling a useful object out of seemingly nowhere is related to {{Hammerspace}}. A particularly bad Ass Pull can even produce a PlotHole or two.

** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainVoyageOfWisteria'' The reveal Kurune and Ikuo never went to any parent-teacher conferences is already a tough pill to swallow unless these were very few, but the fact they missed them ''and nobody tried to tell them about it'' is practically this trope, since even an incompetent school like Vermillion City's would at least ''try'' to contact the parents themselves to see if something was wrong besides work schedules.[[note]]This was also implied in ''Journeys'' episode 62 where Goh states that his parents were too busy to notice his problems and nothing was ever mentioned of the school ever contacting them. And given that this is based off of Japan -- where there is a stigma against mental health -- it's possible that the option would never have been considered. The same situation was also explored in ''Blosoming Trail'' when Mr. Bradbury told Professor Cerise to get his daughter into therapy but he refused.[[/note]]

** The [[RetCon retconning]] of Michael's death at the end of ''[[Literature/HarryPotter Battle with the Witches]]''. The POV character, who is assumed to be Michael, [[TakingYouWithMe kills Dumbledore at the cost of his own life]], but the next chapter reveals that it wasn't Michael.

An Ass Pull is a moment when the writers pull a narrative development out of thin air in a less-than-graceful fashion. This development violates the LawOfConservationOfDetail by dropping a {{plot}}-critical detail without sufficient {{Foreshadowing}} or dropping a ChekhovsGun earlier on.

* ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Per WordOfGod, Creator/PeterDavid wrote himself into a corner in ''The Incredible Hulk'' #375 where Rick Jones is trapped on a crashing Skrull ship with no way to escape, so after the ship crashes he shows up parachuting down to safety. He explains that he always carries a hidden parachute '''just in case''' he is ever trapped on a crashing Skrull ship and needs to escape. Bruce doesn't buy it. "Why not? I needed to, didn't I?" This one scene changed the entire character of Rick Jones from a hanger-on to Batman-level CrazyPrepared with MediumAwareness.

At the opposite end of an Ass Pull is a CaptainObviousReveal, where a plot twist is considered bad because it was too easy to figure out beforehand. Indeed, an Ass Pull can and does happen ''because'' the author is trying too hard to avoid a Captain Obvious Reveal.

** A certain cool dude was assumed dead some time ago, but later turned up alive with little explanation. It's unclear why Davesprite's missing wing and yellow blood weren't seen at the scene of his presumed death]]. However, an earlier event could be interpreted as foreshadowing of his survival. Jade sees through her spectaGoggles that there are 13 Daves in the incipisphere, including Davesprite. But when one (other than Davesprite) dies, the count goes down to 12.

An Ass Pull is a moment when the writers pull a narrative development out of thin air in a less-than-graceful fashion. This development violates the LawOfConservationOfDetail by dropping a {{plot}}-critical detail without {{Foreshadowing}} or dropping a ChekhovsGun earlier on.

At the opposite end of an Ass Pull is a CaptainObviousReveal, where a plot twist is considered bad because it was too easy to figure out beforehand.

* The Creator/DCComics CrisisCrossover ''ComicBook/Armageddon2001'' (back in 1991!) has a mystery villain called Monarch, who was originally meant to be the hero ComicBook/CaptainAtom. The problem was that the {{foreshadowing}} for this is so obvious that fans figured it out well before the story was over and posted about it [[OlderThanTheyThink on the Internet]]. The DC brass, desperate to preserve the shock value, changed the ending at the last minute and had a completely different character, Hawk (one of the few characters who the story up to that point had explicitly said ''couldn't'' be Monarch), FreakOut and [[FaceHeelTurn turn evil]] after [[TemporalParadox his future self kills his partner Dove in front of him]], because his series was getting cancelled anyway. When they reintroduced a "new" Monarch to be one of the villains in ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'', they didn't even bother hiding his identity anymore - Captain Atom, natch.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This trope is not about]] [[StubbornMule donkeys that pull carts]]. Also, as much as it sounds like it, it is not the opposite of AssShove (when a character ''literally'' pulls an object out of someone's rear, or the opposite). It's also not related to WingPull, though there is a surprising amount of overlap.

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16778490870.99496700 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

** ComicBook/TheCloneSaga, where back in 1975, an exact clone of [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] appears, and at the end of that one issue, seemingly dies. Except he didn't die, showed up again in an issue some 20 years later, and mentioned out of absolutely nowhere that ''he'' was the original the whole time and that the Peter Parker the comics had been following for the past two decades was really the clone; some DNA testing confirmed it. This caused considerable uproar within the fandom, and was a big part of the whole saga being a DorkAge. When the writers finally decided to end it, there was a new revelation that Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, who died in 1972, [[VoodooShark was also actually alive the whole time]] and had masterminded everything. Among other things, he had rigged the DNA tests, despite it being previously shown that Peter and the clone did all the testing by themselves, so there shouldn't have been any opportunity for Norman to rig things in the first place.