History Main / CerebusRetCon

* In the third season of ''WebOriginal/URealmsLive'', in the Azveltara Z campaign, the players and characters continuously make jokes about the number 77 throughout the duration of the campaign. Two campaigns later, in the prequel campaign titled Lyn Azveltara Gaiden, it is revealed that [[spoiler:77 is the number of miscarriages Lyn Azveltara had prior to both campaigns]].

** To a lesser extent, ''Literature/UnfinishedTales'' reinterpreted the Quest for Erebor when telling it from Gandalf's perspective. In the original story, Gandalf's reason for helping Thorin on his way and arranging aid for him seemed to be purely altruistic, but ''Unfinished Tales'' implies that while Gandalf did see this as a nice thing to do, [[TheChessmaster he had a secondary motivation that he wasn't telling Thorin about]]. Gandalf knew a war with Sauron might be imminent, and he wanted to get Smaug, a dangerous WildCard of potentially immense destructive power, off the table before Sauron could try recruiting him. To that end, he threw Thorin on a path that might well have been a suicide mission--though, admittedly, Thorin's initial plan was no less of one.

* Whenever Red and Elh visits Vizula in ''{{VideoGame/Solatorobo}}'' Red is usually quick to tease Elh about her bug phobia, seeing it as cute if nothing else. The short story "Ragdoll Elegy" reveals that the last memory Elh has of her parents was their charred remains being swarmed by an endless amount of bugs.

** Linkara parodies this trope in his ''15 Things That Are Wrong with ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' review, saying that he got his Miller Time watch by beating up a thug in a horrifying fashion, and then buried his corpse in Nevada... then reveals that he was just giving a ''bad'' example of a Cerebus Retcon, and that his watch was just a gift.

* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'''s female lead, Natsumi, is mostly {{Tsundere}} PluckyComicRelief owing to her [[FingerPokeOfDoom the Laughing Pressure Point]], used on [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tsukasa]] when he gets a little too smug or rude. In the BigDamnMovie, [[spoiler:she gains her own Rider powers and actually kills Tsukasa after he goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Kamen Riders. She even uses the Laughing Pressure Point as an actual fighting move in the final battle.]]

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'': In the last scene, [[AndTheAdventureContinues Doc, Marty, and Jennifer take off in the newly-modified DeLorean to travel to the future]]. In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII In Part II]]'', we see that Biff saw the time machine taking off and in the 2015, the elderly Biff sees it again and figures out its true nature, deciding to steal it for his own purposes.

** The running gag in the series has Rocket disliking being called a raccoon or mistaken for other animals has taken on a much darker meaning after ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol3''. [[spoiler: The experiments done by the High Evolutionary to create him made it so he wasn't just resentful of his identity, but deliberately repressing the painful memories of his creation.]]

* Creator/JRRTolkien did this with ''Literature/TheHobbit''. Bilbo recovers a magic ring from Gollum's cave after winning a riddle contest. While the original story did make it plain that Bilbo was riddling for his life, the ring he retrieves is later treated as a precious prize, saving his life several times and leading to his happy ending. Years later, when it was time to release ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Tolkien retconned the story (actually ''[[ReWrite rewriting]]'' ''The Hobbit'') to tie in with the nature of the Ring as a malicious artifact made of pure evil that was using Bilbo to escape Gollum's ownership. The existence of the first edition of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' was even deconstructed: it records ''Bilbo's lies'' about how he got the Ring and what it was like.

** A RunningGag in Season 11 was one of the Reds and Blues having a flashback to something they did that might have caused their ship to crash on Chorus. In Season 12, it's revealed that the Space Pirates caused the crash (and others) with a massive tractor beam so they could lot the wreckage. The Reds and Blues' shenanigans instead caused the ship to break in half.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': In the last scene, [[AndTheAdventureContinues Doc, Marty, and Jennifer take off in the newly-modified DeLorean to travel to the future]]. In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII In Part II]]'', we see that Biff saw the time machine taking off and in the 2015, the elderly Biff sees it again and figures out its true nature, deciding to steal it for his own purposes.

** Also in Season 1, every time Coulson was asked about Tahiti, the place he recovered after being wounded by Loki in Film/TheAvengers2012, he'd always say "It's a magical place," until even he started noticing it. It's after he goes through a memory machine that he realizes the awful truth: that he truly did die and that he was brought back to life against his will.

* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', originally Crichton was merely hallucinating Scorpius in the episode "Crackers Don't Matter", being driven mad like everyone else. The writers liked the idea of an invisible Scorpius acting as the devil on Crichton's shoulder so much, they retconned things so that the hallucination was actually due to a neural-chip implanted by Scorpius in a previous episode, eventually dubbed "[[Theatre/{{Harvey}} Harvey]]".
* The French Canadian series 'La princesse Astronaute' (The Astronaut Princess), is, most of the time, a fun and lighthearted family TV show about a princess living a fantasy medieval world where, every once in a while, objects from modern day Earth fall from the sky (the people call it a heavy rain). The princess, Noemi, got the idea to become an astronaut from an old magazine she found during such a rain. While they acknowledge the rains are dangerous (Noemi's mother was killed when a washing machine fell on her), they are usually treated as comedy, with the characters finding everyday objects and not understanding their use. Come the end of the third season, Noemi makes her way to our moon, guided by mysterious black boxes scattered around the galaxy. The final black box she finds on the moon had this message, written by humans: "We are capable of the very best and the very worst. We have reached for the moon, yet may now destroy our own planet. Too many people, too much pollution, too much junk. Our best will save us, or our worst will destroy us. Anyone, please, help us."

* In Seasons 1-3 of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', Hawkeye was a bit crazy (especially when he's on no sleep) but mostly coping. But then Season 4 onwards (and Trapper leaving/Henry dying) started pushing that he had trauma beforehand too, with abandonment issues -- like having NeverGotToSayGoodbye with NewOldFlame Carlye -- plus bipolar tendencies and TraumaInducedAmnesia twice. Alan Alda believes he didn't change from beginning to end of the series, he just had all his defences worn down.

** ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' did this with a character. Flit as presented in the first 17 episodes was just a fly stuck in Camille who occasionally went out to comment on battles. Then we get his backstory, and he becomes a much more tragic character, TrappedInEvil, using his brief bouts of encouragement as one of the few things he can do with himself while being a prisoner.

** In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'', Apollo Justice's CatchPhrase of "I'm fine!" is given some clarification. In Apollo's [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney game of origin]], it initially seemed like a nervous habit of Apollo's, since he usually said it when he was... well, nervous. Then ''Dual Destinies'' reveals that [[spoiler: it was a catchphrase shared with his late childhood friend, Clay Terran, which they both shouted to cheer themselves up when their spirits were low]].

** A lot of characters seem to view love potions as a harmless joke. Then it's revealed that Merope Gaunt spent months using them to mind-rape (and then just straight-up rape) Tom Riddle, leading to the birth of Voldemort.

*** Furthermore, his brief foray into outer space, as well as seeing the gargantuan Chitauri army there, instills in him the conviction that the biggest threats to Earth are those from alien invaders. His quest to preemptively combat these threats results in him creating [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Ultron]].

** CerebusRetcon/TheDCU
** CerebusRetcon/MarvelUniverse

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* A running gag in ''10 Second Ninja X'' is Greatbeard's [[HeelFaceTurn Heel-Face Turned]] mechanic Benji trying to join Ninja on his escapades at the start of every new set of levels, only to [[StopHelpingMe constantly get in the way]] and eventually get accidentally struck down the first time Ninja attacks. [[spoiler: Benji eventually dies from his injuries as a result of this, which even causes Greatbeard to lose his motivation in getting revenge on Ninja. At least, that's what ''seems'' to happen. Once you gather enough stars he reveals that he's alive and disillusioned with both Greatbeard ''and'' Ninja, and tries to take out both by self-destructing the airship the game takes place on.]]

* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'''s intentionally and inherently farcical premise has been retconned in later seasons, [[GenreShift turning the series into a dramedy]] [[CharacterFocus centering around the vaguely plausible science-fiction story of the]] "[[HiredGuns Free]][[SuperSoldier lancers]]," who were originally introduced as soldiers able to be hired by both Red and Blue Team as part of the video game-ish setting.

** In the pilot episode, Caputo is seen [[ADateWithRosiePalms taking out a bottle of lotion and masturbating in his office]] right after his first meeting with Piper. At the time, it seems like an EstablishingCharacterMoment for Caputo, establishing him as a slovenly idiot with no professional standards. But later on, as the character's HiddenDepths become clear, we gradually see that he's actually one of the most decent employees at the prison, and one of the few who's not afraid to clash with his superiors to fight for the inmates' rights. In the third season, after [[spoiler: he becomes the new warden]], the masturbation scene from the pilot actually gets a surprising CallBack, when Caputo reveals that he has a very good reason for doing it: when chewing out Bennett for [[spoiler: impregnating Daya]] and [[spoiler: getting Mendez fired for sleeping with her]], he tells him that he regularly masturbates on the job so that he won't be tempted to make sexual advances on the women under his charge.

* ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator'' implies that [[spoiler: Michael Afton, son of [[BigBad William Afton]] was the true identity of the protagonists of ''all'' of the previous games (except 4), and that he was most likely a [[TheUndead rotting corpse]] at the time. This casts the "Reason for Termination: Odor" of the pink slips from the first two games in a ''much'' darker light.]]

** And it continues in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. The reason for the PlotRelevantAgeUp was changed to fit in with {{Retcon}}s introduced in the third game, but becomes entirely horrible. Snake now appears to be in his mid-to-late seventies and his health is suffering as a result. [[spoiler: His own parents]] look younger than he does. It's very alarming to remember that the whole plot element started as a ContinuityNod joke.

** The final line of Big Boss in the original ''Metal Gear'', "I won't die for nothing!", sounds lke typical defiant villian talk, and Miller's description of Big Boss as "a monster" seems to be a description how strong he is. [[spoiler:After [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain]], with the revelation that the commander of Outer Heaven was in fact Venom Snake, a brainwashed body double who lived the lie until his death, and Miller having been abandoned by Big Boss, both have a much deeper meaning with this context.]]

** Applying BroadStrokes to ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' allowed their eight-bit wackiness to be taken fairly seriously in the ''Solid'' series. Snake didn't seem that affected by the events of Outer Heaven at the time (he also had to do things like avoid giant constantly moving rolling pins and use a bomb blast suit to make himself immune to a strong wind), however ''Metal Gear 2'' reveals that Snake was left with nightmares after his expieriences in Outer Heaven, and returned to duty so he could put an end to them. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', and its AlternateUniverse counterpart, ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'', claimed that Snake suffered immense guilt over his actions in Outer Heaven, got diagnosed with PTSD, and was forced to retire and go into hiding because he was unable to cope with the demands of everyday life.

** The final line of Big Boss in the original ''Metal Gear'', "I won't die for nothing!", sounds lke typical defiant villian talk, and Miller's description of Big Boss as "a monster" seems to be a description how strong he is. [[spoiler:After [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain]], with the revelation that the commander of Outer Heaven was in fact Venom Snake, a brainwashed body double who lived the lie until his death, and Miller having been abandoned by Big Boss, both have a much darker tone.]]

** Applying BroadStrokes to ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'' allowed their eight-bit wackiness to be taken fairly seriously in the ''Solid'' series. Snake didn't seem that affected by the events of Outer Heaven at the time (he also had to do things like avoid giant constantly moving rolling pins and use a bomb blast suit to make himself immune to a strong wind), and ''Metal Gear 2'' attempted to paint him as a very traditional action hero who retired after Outer Heaven because he was a loose cannon and too badass to take orders from authority. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', and its AlternateUniverse counterpart, ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'', claimed that Snake suffered immense guilt over his actions in Outer Heaven, got diagnosed with PTSD, and was forced to retire and go into hiding because he was unable to cope with the demands of everyday life.

* Plenty of things from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' when it became more serious after the silly first edition. Eldar lived on Craftworlds and had a boring life because they were retreating from Slaanesh, and if you aren't disciplined he would devour your soul. The Emperor, originally implied to have been confined to the Golden Throne because of old age, had to be put on life support after a duel with his most beloved son.