History Main / MultipleChoicePast

*** Meanwhile Mechagodzilla is either [[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzilla a robotic doppelganger built by a race of evil aliens in an attempt to]] TakeOverTheWorld, [[Film/GodzillaVsMechagodzillaII a robot built by Japan (and the US) to fight Godzilla using future tech recovered from Mecha-King Ghidorah]], [[Film/GodzillaAgainstMechagodzilla or a cyborg built to fight Godzilla using the skeleton of the original Godzilla as a frame]], or [[spoiler: [[Anime/GodzillaCityOnTheEdgeOfBattle an abandoned prototype intended to fight Godzilla Earth that didn't activate]] [[TheAssimilator and is assimilating the Earth from the titular city]]]]

** Godzilla himself is subject to this due to many a ContinuityReboot. So far he has been [[Film/Godzilla1954 a dinosaur of unknown species that was mutated by an American nuclear test in the Pacific in the 50s]], [[Film/GodzillaVsKingGhidorah a fictional species of dinosaur mutated by a nuclear test before time travel led to him being mutated by a crashed Russian submarine in the Bering Sea]], [[Film/Godzilla2000 the original Godzilla who was never killed]], [[Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack the original Godzilla's body possessed by the souls of the people killed during the Pacific Theater of WWII]], [[Film/Godzilla1998 a Marine Iguana mutated by nuclear testing in French Polynesia]], [[note]]until Toho made it a separate monster at least [[/note]] [[Film/Godzilla2014 a prehistoric reptile from a time period when Earth was covered in radiation re-awakened by US nuclear testing in the 50s]] [[TheWorfBarrage which then changed their focus to try to kill him]], [[Film/ShinGodzilla a sea monster mutated by nuclear waste dumped into the ocean in the 50s]], and [[Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters a plant-animal hybrid with metal skin]] -- with three separate potential origins.

*** [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] has at least three origin stories, most of them being at least somewhat contradictory. He was a general in war against Demons, who begun taking more ruthless approach, eventually manipulating Gods into giving him his own realm that became the Nine Hells, through a lot of LoopholeAbuse. Or he was an angel tasked with guarding [[DestroyerDeity Tharizdun's]] prison, but he was corrupted by demon Pazuzu, slayed his own patron god and was cast out into Nine Hells for his treachery. Or Asmodeus we know is merely a projection of an entity at the very bottom of Nine Hells - Ahriman, colossal divine serpent who co-created the multiverse, before fighting his partner over control for it, and now seeks souls to regain his true power.
*** Belian and Fierna. Are they rivals or working together as a team? Or is Fierna just a puppet ruler and Belial is true power behind the throne? Are they lovers? Siblings? Father and daughter? Do they actually share title of Archduke of Fourth, something that shouldn't be possible, or is one of them Arschduke and other their consort? Or maybe they're just two forms of one shapeshifting entity? There is material to support all of these interpretations and more.
*** Graz'zt, Demon Prince of Lust, is either a son of [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Pale]] [[BrownNoteBeing Night]] or a former Archduke of Hell who lead an invasion into Abyss, got trapped there and eventually decided to rebel against Asmodeus and establish his own power. Or he is actually a double agent, secretly carrying Asmodeus' orders. Each of these theories exists separatelly to a question whenever or not Asmodeus is his father.

** Belian and Fierna. Are they rivals or working together as a team? Or is Fierna just a puppet ruler and Belial is true power behind the throne? Are they lovers? Siblings? Father and daughter? Do they actually share title of Archduke of Fourth, something that shouldn't be possible, or is one of them Arschduke and other their consort? Or maybe they're just two forms of one shapeshifting entity? There is material to support all of these interpretations and more.
** Graz'zt, Demon Prince of Lust, is either a son of [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Pale]] [[BrownNoteBeing Night]] or a former Archduke of Hell who lead an invasion into Abyss, got trapped there and eventually decided to rebel against Asmodeus and establish his own power. Or he is actually a double agent, secretly carrying Asmodeus' orders. Each of these theories exists separatelly of a question whenever or not Asmodeus is his father.

* The origin story for Strahd von Zarovich, the TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} setting's most iconic villain, has been recounted in two novels, four to six adventures (depending on whether or not updates count), and dozens of fragmentary anecdotes throughout the product line. Not only do they contradict one another in numerous details, but it's openly acknowledged that many such accounts are propaganda and that ''Strahd himself'' probably doesn't remember (or ''want'' to remember) the truth anymore. Plus, there's a completely separate and irreconcilable version of Strahd in ''Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill'' that even the '''publishers''' wrote off as a RiddleForTheAges.

** The game's 4th Edition default setting ''TabletopGame/NentirVale'' does this with pretty much all of the deities. Fairly justified; they've been around for so long that the details of their origins are wrapped up in legends. Notably, [[{{Satan}} Asmodeus]] has been given probably the most information on his origins, most of them being at least somewhat contradictory.

** [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] has at least three origin stories. He was a general in war against Demons, who begun taking more ruthless approach, eventually manipulating Gods into giving him his own realm that became the Nine Hells, through a lot of LoopholeAbuse. Or he was an angel tasked with guarding [[DestroyerDiety Tharizdun's]] prison, but he was corrupted by demon Pazuzu, slayed his own patron god and was casted out into Nine Hells for his treachery. Or Asmodeus we know and love is merely a projection of an entity at the very bottom of Nine Hells - Ahriman, colossal divine serpent who co-created the multiverse, before fighting his partner over control for it, and now seeks souls to regain his true power..

** [[ArchEnemy King Ghidorah]] and [[RobotMe Mechagodzilla]]. tend to have different origins due to the various continuities.

* Most ''Series/ThirtyRock'' characters, due to the fact that most of the facts about their pasts are just throwaway punchlines ("My mother tried to send me to Vietnam to make a man out of me. I was 12.", " I definitely would have gone to my reunion, but the boat I was educated on sank.", etc.). If you try to compile them all together, they form a weird, somewhat contradictory, and [[FridgeHorror definitely horrific]] image. The inconsistencies about Kenneth's past were turned into a RunningGag about him secretly being a long-lived immortal.

** There are several myths concerning different accounts of what Dionysus was doing in the mortal world before he joined the rest of his family in Olympus. Some say he was a wanderer who [[WalkingTheEarth walked the Earth]] and teaching mortals about winemaking, others say that he was a madness-inducing conqueror who developed a mad cult of debauchery who brought chaos to whoever opposed Dionysus, other origin stories have varying accounts of those events and other origins stories don't mention what he was doing before becoming a god at all.
** Several monsters in Greek mythology are also prone to this. Arachne and Medusa are good examples. In well-known versions of their stories, they both got screwed over by Athena and got turned into monsters out of anger and spite (Arachne for mocking the gods, Medusa for being raped in a temple of Athena). However, earlier versions of those stories instead suggest that Athena didn't turn Arachne into a spider out of anger or spite, but for other reasons (because in those versions, Arachne commited suicide after their weaving contest and when Athena learned this, she decided to resurrect Arachne by turning her into a spider out of respect and pity). And earlier versions of Medusa's story suggest that her origin has nothing to do with Athena or Poseidon and that she was always a gorgon.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Alaemon, the Prince of Secrets, has gone through a great deal of work in obscuring his past, which is a subject of guesswork and confusion in-universe and out. ''Superiors: Rogues to Riches'' presents three possible and mutually exclusives origin stories for him -- a Fallen Mercurian once in Litheroy's service, who now seeks to undo the work of the Archangel of Revelation; a former Balseraph of the Game sent to capture the real Alaemon, who has been pretending to be his mark to hide the fact that he let him get killed; and an extremely deep-cover agent for Heaven -- each of which would explain why his life is ruled by secrets and paranoia. Even his superior when he was a common demon isn't certain -- he likely worked for Asmodeus, but it might just as well have been Malphas or Kronos.

* Since her core gimmick is that she exists in an infinitely large number of incarnations across TheMultiverse, all of whom have a telepathic link and consider themselves ultimately one being, any individual version of WebOriginal/JennyEverywhere might have her own origin story and ancestry. Additionally, [[DependingOnTheWriter there is no real agreement]] on how Jenny Everywhere ''as a whole'' came to be, with many stories hinting at different answers (or non-answers). ''[[https://jennyeverywhere.fandom.com/wiki/The_Secret_Origin_of_Jenny_Everywhere_(comic_story) The Secret Origin of Jenny Everywhere]]'' highlights this by providing a completely straightforward origin story for Jenny's multi-dimensional nature, only for the last page to reveal it was an [[ShowWithinAShow in-universe comic-book]] based on Jenny's fame, which the real Jenny is only "sorta" accurate.

* {{Website/Twitch}} streamer [=GrandPOOBear=] does this as a RunningGag -- whenever people ask him where his screen name comes from, he always comes up with a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8g28GCR-Qc different, ludicrous story explaining its origins.]] (Answers include: it being a name passed down from generations, him coming from a circus family who wanted his act to be him fighting a bear despite being five years old, being called that by a [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo woman]], being a child actor who was called "bear" due to being cranky, but eventually softened and became "Poo Bear"...)

** The Foundation itself according to [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/proposals-for-scp-001 SCP-001 propositions]]. In fact, according to the article, it's possible that two or more of the different stories are true ''at the same time''.

** The Doctor has multiple conflicting backstories, due in part to the evolving nature of the show. They might be from the 49th century ("An Unearthly Child" pilot), they might be a child born into privilege ("The Deadly Assassin") or from apparent poverty ("Listen"), they might have learned spiritual lessons from Time Lord hermits on the hill where they lived ("The Time Monster") or have been raised in the metropolis of the Capitol ("Invasion of Time"), have been woven as a young adult on a genetic loom, incorporating the biodata of the Other, an enigmatic Gallifreyan founding figure ("Lungbarrow") or been born half-human (the TV Movie), they might have had multiple incarnations before the First Doctor ("The Brain of Morbius", "Cold Fusion"), might have abandoned their family ("An Unearthly Child") or have some sort of relationship with their mother ("The End of Time"), might have built the TARDIS themself ("The Chase") or stolen it ("The War Games"), and their madness might originate from a childhood visit from Clara ("Listen"), staring into the Time Vortex as a child ("Utopia") or political issues forcing them to escape, with the time travel itself causing their madness along the way (audio drama "The Beginning" and the ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' series). They could also be [[spoiler: an adopted being possibly from another universe known as "The Timeless Child" who was used as the source of the early Gallifreyans' ability to regenerate, enabling them to become the Time Lords, and may have lived enough lives for all of these backstories to be true without them even knowing it entirely]]. ("The Timeless Children"). Sometimes they even have a Multiple Choice ''Future'' where they enounter what might be later regenerations (besides the ones that actually are), further evidenced with [[spoiler: the ShroudedInMyth bi-generation process allowing more than one of them to exist in separate bodies]] ("The Giggle"). Some of these are reconcilable, others aren't, and overall the show doesn't care about nailing the character down like that, as it's not really the point.

!!Examples subpages

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'', each of the classes Mike can choose will result in him having a different backstory prior to his induction into the eponymous agency.
* In ''VisualNovel/AmnesiaMemories'', the café manager Waka has a mysterious past and background that changes for each route the player is currently going through, which also changes his personality. Heart World implies that he's trained in theater and dance and acts rather CampStraight, while Spade World and Joker World make his background be military-based. In the former, he's a hothead and treats his business like a battlefield, while the latter has his background closer to that of an assassin and specifically mentions guerilla-fighter tactics.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins:'' Reda the merchant child gives several different explanations for why he's a wandering merchant, which Bayek eventually points out. Reda just shrugs it off. However, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' shows Reda is a Sage of some kind, so all those origins ''are'' probably true... for each different life he's lead.
* The Joker, unsurprisingly, has one of these in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. He's just finished telling his StartOfDarkness story to Hugo Strange (it's the mostly same one from ''The Killing Joke''), and Strange points out just how many different stories the Joker has. The only common link is that he blames Batman [[NeverMyFault in every one]]. The Joker even cites this trope verbatim:
-->"A [[Creator/AlanMoore wise man]] once said, 'If you're going to have a past, make it multiple choice.'"
** Notably, Strange accuses Joker of just using this trope as an excuse to never face up to his past and what he's become. Unlike the other rogues Strange interviews, he fails at getting under the Joker's skin.
*** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' has Joker try to do the same thing to Doctor Young during one of his interview tapes. Specifically he goes from claiming he grew up in a fishing village with a father who wouldn't let him join the circus to his dad being a cop who was killed by the mob [[{{Retirony}} one week before retirement]], with Doctor Young not buying either story. Given the above comment by Strange in Arkham City, it would interesting to see how he fit Batman into those origins.
*** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' seems to indicate the story he told Strange was not completely made up, as [[spoiler: during [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent a segment where you play as Joker in flashbacks]] [[ComicBook/HarleyQuinn Dr. Harleen Quinnzel]] plays through scenes taken from ''The Killing Joke'' in an interview]]; of course it could be he just remembers that origin more than once.
* In the original game ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'', Gorath was from the Green Heart, and moved his tribes to the Northlands during the Riftwar (Possibly making his tribe the one that Longbow tricked into fighting the Tsurani during the seige of Crydee). In the novelization, ''Krondor: The Betrayal'', his tribe was originally based near Sarth, and moved to the Northlands over a century earlier when the Keshians colonized the region.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', [[spoiler:the Destroyer]]. In the first game, it's said by [[BigGood Angel]] to be [[spoiler:a PrecursorKiller EldritchAbomination, [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away by the Eridians]]]]. However, later games suggest that it's really [[spoiler:"just" a powerful Eridian superweapon, and that the story Angel fed the Vault Hunters on Jack's orders was a lie]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheCatLady'', this trope is {{invoked|Trope}} during one of the consults with Dr. X, which he asks Susan a couple of questions about her parents. The player can choose if she had a good or bad relationship with her father and her mother respectively (or if they even are [[MissingMom around during]] [[DisappearedDad her childhood]]), which means that part of Susan's backstory can diverge from different players and/or different playthroughs.
* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' follows in the footsteps of ''Mass Effect'' by giving players three different backstories inspired by [[TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} the original tabletop game]]: the player can start as a [[CorporateSamurai Corpo]] looking to make their way up the corporate ladder, a [[WalkingTheEarth Nomad]] come to Night City in search of work, or a [[SatisfiedStreetRat Street Kid]] who just came back from out of town.
* In ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'', the defining events of the amnesiac Detective's past are set in stone. However, his dominant political views and "copotype" (the quirks that defined him as a cop) are eventually retroactively applied to his past. If the cop runs around preaching communism and declaring he's a superstar cop, for instance, a group of bums he met pre-amnesia will remember him as having been such last time they met.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
** The game takes this to a whole new level with its PlayerCharacter: each of the six available "[[OriginsEpisode Origins]]" for the Warden has a separate starting quest chain, with a follow-up in one of the main story quests later on. It is implied that all six origins occurred, but [[SchrodingersPlayerCharacter the five not chosen by the player were killed because of Duncan's absence]].
*** The Human Noble, Cousland, was a member of a beloved Fereldan noble family, who were betrayed by family friend Rendon Howe, and massacred. If Duncan is there, he leads the player character to safety in exchange for them becoming a Grey Warden.
*** The City Elf, Tabris, was about to meet their arranged fiancee when a corrupt noble kidnapped their cousin (and Tabris if she's female) to rape her. Tabris rescued their cousin and murdered the noble, and the racist authorities would have executed Tabris if Duncan didn't invoke the Right of Conscription (Grey Wardens can conscript ''anyone'' into service, which renders them above the law for the most part).
*** The Mage (Amell if human, Surana if an elf) passed their [[TrialByFire Harrowing]], but were tricked into aiding a colleague who turned out to be a [[BloodMagic Blood Mage]] in escaping the Circle (they knew he wanted to escape, but not that he used blood magic), an offense punishable with death or Tranquility if Duncan isn't there to save them via conscription.
*** The Dwarf Commoner, Brosca, is a JustifiedCriminal (dwarves' FantasticCasteSystem literally forbids them from taking legitimate work) who gets caught illegally participating in a Proving tournament (they were trying to fix it, but things went sideways), and would be executed if not conscripted.
*** The Dwarf Noble, Aeducan, was a prince/princess of Orzammar who was either tricked into killing their older brother or framed for the deed (the true mastermind/culprit being their younger brother Bhelan) and exiled to the Deep Roads to die fighting Darkspawn, which would be their fate if Duncan didn't find them and get them to the surface.
*** The Dalish Elf, Mahariel, investigated an Eluvian along with their clansmate Tamlen. The Eluvian turned out to be contaminated with Darkspawn Taint, which in turn infected both Tamlen and Mahariel, and the only cure is [[EmergencyTransformation becoming a Grey Warden]] to gain their immunity.
** In-story, Flemeth combines this trope with UnreliableNarrator. At least two different versions of her story, the legend and the story she told Morrigan, have been told thus far, and Morrigan even says she doubts Flemeth told her the truth.
*** Her true origins are finally revealed in ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition Inquisition]]'': [[spoiler: She was once a human woman who was imbued with the soul of the Elven God Mythal]]. However, she speaks vaguely enough about her past life that the previous stories could potentially have happened as well, [[spoiler: at least if you substitute Mythal for the demon that supposedly possessed her]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' provides one of three choices for how the game begins from the first game (aside from importing a save file from ''Origins''): "Hero of Ferelden" (a BigGood Human Noble defeated the Archdemon and survived the fifth Blight, Alistair is king of Ferelden), "The Martyr" (a cynical Dalish Elf [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to kill the Archdemon and end the blight, Alistair and Anora marry and rule Ferelden together), or "No Compromise" (a [[TheDeterminator Determinator]] Dwarven Noble let another Grey Warden die to defeat the Archdemon, Alistair is exiled from Ferelden, and Anora is queen).
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': The player can choose to be either a Human, Elf, Dwarven or Qunari (well, Vashoth) Inquisitor. They have different explanations for being at the cataclysmic event at the beginning of the game (The human was attending the conclave as a representative, the elf and dwarf were sent as spies, the Qunari was hired as security) but they aren't playable like in ''Origins'' - the story always starts in the same place. The player does, however, get to flesh out their backstory in conversations, either describing past events of their lives or simply stating their opinion on certain parts of their background. Like the Warden, it is implied that all four were present at the Conclave, but the three not chosen were killed by the Breach.
** In a semi-continuation from ''Dragon Age II'', Varric's codex mentions that he will always give a different story for how he got [[ICallHerVera Bianca]]. He'll tell you how he got her early in the game, but multiple playthroughs will reveal that he changes that story as well. But in a late-game sidequest, we finally learn Bianca's true story... [[UnreliableExpositor we think]].
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Was [[GodEmperor Talos]] a divinely chosen warrior from the ancient Atmora who achieved [[DeityOfHumanOrigin apotheosis]] by his own merit or just a shrewd politician from High Rock with powerful friends? Possibly ''[[TakeAThirdOption both]]''. After achieving divinity, it is possible that he [[CosmicRetcon retroactively re-wrote his life]]. Many things credited to Talos were originally actions and traits of [[MergerOfSouls different individuals]], including Tiber Septim, Zurin Artcus, and Wulfharth Ash-King. (With the latter two also possibly merged into the same "Underking" identity.)
** Similarly, the history of Vivec and the entire account of the events during the [[WhenItAllBegan Battle of Red Mountain]] have [[TheRashomon several vastly different and conflicting versions]], [[TimeyWimeyBall all of which can be true at the same time.]] Vivec may have originally been a low-born, [[TheStarscream devious general]] of [[FounderOfTheKingdom Nerevar]]'s but similar to the above example of Talos, might have made his fantastic origin story as a [[PhysicalGod demigod]] [[WarriorPoet warrior poet]] true [[CosmicRetcon retroactively with his acquired divine power]].
** Sources conflict greatly on the early history of the races of Men. The most popular theory, espoused most prominently by the [[WrittenByTheWinners propaganda of the Septim Empire]], is that all of the races of Men (save for the Yokudan Redguards) descend from the [[{{Precursors}} Nedes]], who originally hailed from the northernmost continent of Atmora. However, other sources indicate that the Nedes were among Tamriel's many indigenous human tribes (or may have been the collective name for these tribes) from whom the [[HumansAreAverage Imperials]] and [[UnevenHybrid Bretons]] get their human ancestry while the actual Atmorans were a distinct race of Men who came over in the early 1st Era and settled in Skyrim, interbreeding with the Nedes to create the modern [[HornyVikings Nords]]. In either case, there is evidence of habitation by humanity in Tamriel which predates the earliest known dates of Atmoran migration. Even the creation of the races of Men is unclear. The most prominent theory is that the [[{{Precursors}} Ehlnofey]] who would become [[OurElvesAreDifferent the races of Mer]] and the Ehlnofey who would become the races of Men ("Wanderers") split [[TheTimeOfMyths very early in world history]] following a great war between the two factions. However, Altmeri religious beliefs (dating back to the ancient Aldmer) state that Men were created by [[GodIsDead Lorkhan]] out of the "weakest souls" to [[HumansAreBastards spread chaos throughout all corners of creation]].
** The Tsaesci are supposedly an [[{{Wutai}} Akaviri]] race of [[SnakePeople Snake Vampires]] complete with serpentine lower bodies. However, sources differ radically as to whether they are actually serpentine or humans just like those found in Tamriel.
*** On the "human-like" side: Several in-game books outright state that they are humans little different from those in Tamriel. One account specifically mentions a Tsaesci soldier with an injured leg. The most recent (and probably most reliable) account, Uriel V's campaign report from the 3rd Era, does not describe them as snake-like at all. It also mentions them having "mounted raiders," which would be a difficult task for a species without legs. The Akaviri ghosts and skeletons who appear at a few points in the series are completely humanoid in appearance.
*** On the "serpentine" side: ''Mysterious Akavir'', a work of [[UnreliableExpositor admittedly dubious accuracy]], supports this side. Additionally, the [[InGameNovel in-universe historical fiction]] (loosely based on in-universe historical events) ''2920, The Last Year of the First Era'' also describes them as having serpentine lower bodies. Other chronicles, such as "History of the Fighter's Guild" indicate that the Tsaesci couldn't wear human armor at all, indicating a non-humanoid shape. ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' has an item, an Akaviri Silver Mask, which depicts a reptilian-looking appearance.
*** The TakeAThirdOption[=-=]option: Since the "races" of Akavir [[NamedAfterTheirPlanet share their names with the name of their nation]], it's possible that they aren't one single "race," but multiple races living within those nations. The "Tsaesci" could include serpentine snake vampires as well as the former Men of Akavir and/or their cross bred descendants.
** Likewise, there are many conflicting theories regarding the origins of [[OurGiantsAreBigger Giants]]:
*** One of the most popular, especially among the [[HornyVikings Nords]], is that they share an ancestry with the ancient [[{{Precursors}} Atmorans]]. The Atmorans were known to be [[LargeAndInCharge tall, strong]], and [[BarbarianTribe somewhat primitive]]. According to this theory, after coming to Tamriel from the northern continent of Atmora, the Atmorans split into two groups -- one who would interbreed with Tamriel's Nedes to become the modern Nords - and another who would, through unknown means, become the progenitors of the Giants.
*** Other sources, however, make it clear that Giants existed in Tamriel before the Atmorans crossed the sea. The [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]] were said to have gotten the nickname "Dwarves" from Giants they encountered in the Velothi Mountains after splitting off from the Aldmer, which occurred well before the Atmoran migration. The [[OurElvesAreDifferent Aldmer]] themselves drove a "multi-eyed" race of Giants known as the Ilyadi to extinction when they first settled the Summerset Isles, which was even earlier. Standard Giants also have [[PointedEars pointed, tapered ears]] like those of the Mer (Elves).
*** In either case, there are known instances of Giants [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction interbreeding and producing offspring]] with the other races of Tamriel, particularly Nords. This would suggest that, at the very least, Giants have a shared ancestry with the other races dating back to the [[{{Precursors}} Ehlnofey]], a progenitor race from whom all extant races (save for ''perhaps'' the LizardFolk Argonians) descend.
** Similarly, the origin of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]] in Tamriel is not clear cut. While the general scholarly consensus is that [[MonsterProgenitor Lamae Beolfag]] was indeed the first vampire, there are other origin stories as well. Given the numerous other vampire bloodlines and tales of other individuals acquiring Vampirism directly from [[GodOfEvil Molag Bal]] as well, it's possible that each of these stories has some truth to them.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', the player can choose to determine their character's class, reputation, ethics, abilities, etc, through an extensive survey of his background... or can choose to have it all automatically generated. One of the questions asks what item you received as a gift from the emperor. If you choose the Ebony Dagger, you start the game with that weapon, [[DiscOneNuke which is substantially superior to other weapons at that level]].
** The recurring character of Barenziah, a particularly controversial Dunmer queen, has at least three (or four, counting a revision) different in-story backgrounds as seen in books, all following roughly the same story but presenting her in different lights. There's an official one that paints her as saintly and misled by EvilSorcerer Jagar Tharn, and several that suggest she was a promiscuous manipulator in the mold of the traditional view of UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII. That's not even counting her involvement in the "[[TimeCrash Warp in the West]]" at the end of ''Daggerfall''.
* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', there are several contradicting stories about the past of [[TheDragon Legate Lanius]], from being a Legionary at the age of 12 to being press-ganged into joining the Legion. Even Joshua Graham, the former Legate states that he's never even heard of Lanius during his time in the Legion. In ''Lonesome Road'', Ulysses, a former Legion spy, considers the idea that Lanius [[LegacyCharacter wasn't always the same person]] considering that no one has ever actually seen him without his mask.
** ''Lonesome Road'' also fills in the backstory of [[PlayerCharacter the Courier]], though only by choosing certain dialogue paths. There's an achievement for getting all six, and as a result is arguably this trope.
* Deacon from ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' will tell you multiple, often conflicting versions of his own backstory, including being one of the first [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Gen 3 Synths]] liberated from the Institute, being one of the Founding members of the Railroad, and being it's real leader while it's apparent leader, Desdemona, is a puppet he installed to keep suspicion away from himself. If challenged on this, he'll freely admit that most of what he tells the PlayerCharacter is lies and that he's trying to groom them into embracing the "trust no one, don't believe everything you hear" attitude that's allowed him to survive so long as a Railroad spy. That being said, the version of his backstory that most players consider canon is the one he tells you when you reach [[RelationshipValues maximum affinity]] with him -- [[spoiler:he was part of a gang of anti-synth extremists as a teen, but fell in love with a synth woman who the gang killed, and murdered the entire gang in retaliation.[[FormerBigot He sees working with the Railroad and supporting synths as a way to atone for the evils in his past.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
** About five versions of Cloud's past in Nibelheim have been officially released so far. At least one of these (the most detailed) is eventually revealed as a lie within the story, although due to the circumstances of the lie and due to it covering more than the others do, it's still debatable whether huge chunks of it are true or not.
** The other four are wildly divergent, with ''Crisis Core'' and ''Final Fantasy VII''`s "[[TheReveal true]]" account having roughly equal canonicity despite ''Crisis Core'' having an entirely new character provoke Sephiroth's downwards spiral and the fact that Zack doesn't get the opportunity to do all the silly things ''Final Fantasy VII'''`s "lie" account implied he did.
** The OVA ''Last Order'' is also diverging, but probably the most radical in terms of what it implies about Cloud's past -- it contains a strange scene where Cloud summons a great strength and his eyes begin glowing, causing Sephiroth to ask "What are you?", ''long'' before Cloud was granted Mako abilities in the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', implying that Cloud isn't human or was experimented on previously. The events of ''Last Order'' have been explained that since most of the animated-special takes place from the Turks' point of view (the opening scene shows the report on the Nibelheim incident, which implies that the whole flashback is from what the official Shin-Ra history report says) its account is different from what was shown in the original game and ''Crisis Core''.
** When asked about all this, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima [[WordOfGod has said]] that there ''is'' no definitive version of the Nibelheim story because [[RashomonStyle it's impossible to be objective about memories.]]
* This happens in ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptunia'' and ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaMk2'', due to the two taking place in alternate continuities. In the original, Compa meets Neptune after she falls out of the sky, and IF is met (and unknowingly tricked) into joining Neptune and Compa's party a little later. In the sequel, Compa and IF were childhood friends, and they met Neptune (and Nepgear, who is exclusive to the sequel) after she fell off the top of a 10,000 story tower.
* You get to do this in ''VideoGame/GuildWars2''. However, all it changes in game is your personal story for the first twenty levels.
* The premise for ''Hail to the Chimp'' is that former king, the Lion, resigned in disgrace due to a "scandal" that neither the box nor the instructions describe in any way. There are several possibilities as to what this scandal is, one of which is chosen at random each time you load the game.
* In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature'', the protagonist [[MeetCute meets a girl whom he befriended]] during his childhood visit to the Mineral Town farm. Said girl will turn out to be [[spoiler:whoever [[ChildhoodFriendRomance bachelorette he chooses to marry]]]]. Similarly, ''Harvest Moon Back To Nature [[DistaffCounterpart For Girl]]'' has your life being saved by a mysterious person, who always turns out to be [[spoiler:the person you marry, regardless of who you choose. Even Kai, though it makes no sense since he only appears in summer.]]
* In ''VideoGame/Injustice2'', the Joker [[PosthumousCharacter was unambiguously killed during the original game]] and shows up only as a fear toxin hallucination. However, in non-canon fights, he's a playable character. Pre-fight banter often has his opponent wondering [[JokerImmunity how he's still alive]]. The Joker will list [[DeathIsCheap some of the many possible sources of resurrection]] in the DC Universe or, if his opponent makes a specific guess, [[SureLetsGoWithThat the Joker will confirm it]]. He even [[HiddenDepths sounded perked-up]] when Atrocitus mentioned something ''specific'' drove the MonsterClown to nihilism, but the exact reason remains a mystery.
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', you have the option in several conversations to choose certain aspects of what happened in your past, as well as what happened in the first game. You can even choose the non-canon Dark Side endings for the first game, and the rest of the game will change to fit with those events instead.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' applies this to the entire country of Termina. Anju's grandmother says Termina was an ancient land created by the Giants. The manual repeatedly refers to it as a parallel world to Hyrule. Some sources say that Termina is an offshoot of Hyrule created when the goddesses sent their power through the cracks of the land. ''Hyrule Encyclopedia'' claims that Termina is a figment of the Skull Kid's imagination given life by Majora's Mask.
** The Skull Kid himself is given this treatment. In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' he was said to be a child who got lost in the Lost Woods and was cursed into his current form. According to Anju's grandma however he is an ancient being who was once friends with the Four Giants and became a trickster due to his resentment that his friends left him and was threatened into exile by them as punishment.
* When starting a game in ''VideoGame/LiberalCrimeSquad'', the player may choose events in the squad founder's past, or let the events be randomly selected. These events inform their in-game attributes and skills.
* In ''Series/TheLoveBoat'' Isaac tells Jenny, who's over-eager to get married, that he pushed the girl he loved into marrying before she was ready and it didn't work out. Later on he tells Ronald, a ManChild who's scared of commitment, that he refused to tell the girl he loved how he felt and another guy snapped her up.
-->'''Gopher:''' Who ''are'' you?
* This is quite literally true for [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. At character creation, Shepard's appearance, gender and military specialization are filled in by the player, as well as two different sets of background details, with three choices each. The backgrounds offer unique missions and dialogue during the games, and affect the amount of Paragon and Renegade points you start with.
** The Pre-Service History choices are these:
*** '''Colonist''': Shepard was born in the colony of Mindoir, which was later sacked by the batarians, with Shepard barely escaping being sold into slavery. Choosing this background grants you a middling amount of Paragon/Renegade points, and grants access to a unique mission where Shepard helps out Talitha, a fellow Mindoir survivor who was MadeASlave by the Batarians and is now traumatized.
*** '''Earthborn''': Shepard was an orphan raised on the streets of Earth, escaping poverty and gang violence by enlisting in the military as soon as s/he could. Choosing this background grants you the most Renegade points, and gives you a unique assignment where you deal with your old gang, the Tenth Street Reds, and their attempt to free a member arrested by the turians.
*** '''Spacer''': Shepard's parents were both in the military, and s/he spent your childhood transferring around ships and stations as they went from posting to posting, never having a permanent home. Choosing this background grants you the most Paragon points, and means that Shepard's mother, Hannah Shepard, is still alive and a captain in the Alliance military, allowing you to have several conversations with her and a unique mission meeting someone who once served with her before a mission involving a batarian slave raid caused him to develop PTSD.
** The Psychological Profile choices are these:
*** '''Sole Survivor''': Shepard's squad was massacred by a Thresher Maw on Akuze. Choosing this background grants a mix of Paragon and Renegade points, and alters the playthrough of a mission where you meet another survivor of the Thresher Maw attack (who was the sole survivor of the squad if this background was not chosen), who reveals that [[NebulousEvilOrganization Cerberus]] was behind the attack, and kidnapped and experimented on him.
*** '''War Hero''': Shepard was recognized as a war hero for their role in repelling the Skyllian Blitz, an attack on the colony of Elysium by Batarian slavers (Whatever the background, Shepard was present at the Blitz, but War Hero Shepard rallied the colonists against the invaders and single-handedly sealed a breach in their defenses). Choosing this path grants extra Paragon points, and alters the playthrough of a mission where you tangle with the mastermind behind the Blitz.
*** '''Ruthless''': Shepard was involved in the Alliance's attack on Torfan in retaliation for the Skyllian Blitz, and took heavy losses to massacre all the Batarians there, even the ones who surrendered, giving him/her the title "The Butcher of Torfan". Choosing this path grants extra Renegade points and alters the playthrough of a mission where another soldier who was at Torfan (and knows Ruthless Shepard) has started to amass a biotic cult.
** Thanks to the save import feature in both ''Mass Effect'' sequels, Multiple Choice Past extends to the storyline of [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 later]] [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 games]] in the trilogy, which can be affected in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways based on choices you made in a previous game. To compensate for those without save games to transfer, Mass Effect also offers [[DownloadableContent DLC]] that allows you to make the biggest choices in the prior game, such as [[spoiler:saving or killing the council and which teammate [[KilledOffForReal dies]] on Virmire in VideoGame/MassEffect, or whether you destroyed or saved the Collector Base in VideoGame/MassEffect2]] by making a choice on a multiple-choice style quiz in the prologue.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** Psycho Mantis has multiple {{Freudian Excuse}}s for his madness and sexually damaged behaviour. Calling Naomi on the Codec leads her to explain that he was once a sane and ordinary, if unusually powerful, police psychic who developed his madness after looking 'too far' into the mind of a serial killer and becoming infected with his mind. However, upon death, Mantis explains that he's obsessed with the concept of reproduction ("the selfish and atavistic desire to spread one's seed") due to his mother dying in childbirth, finding out his father hated him, and burning down his village in fear. Material released in Japan-only supplemental material explained that he naturally had a split personality which he refers to as "the parasite" or "the Mantis". What's more, production documents and concept art reveal that he was intended at first to have developed his psychic powers due to surgery and sexual torture (probably he was originally intended as an {{Expy}} of the villain from the cult Japanese horror movie ''Film/RubbersLover'', who had this origin) - while nothing from this backstory is stated in game or any supplemental material, he still has heavy cranial surgery scars and a bondage aesthetic with no accompanying explanation. (Shinkawa's note on Mantis's character design sheet lists his main character traits and sarcastically notes, "it all came together!") A young version of Mantis later emerges as Tretij Rebenok in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', in which he's a child soldier who psychically feeds on the strong negative emotions of others - his nationality is also adjusted from Russian to Czech.
** In the original ''Metal Gear Solid'', "Naomi Hunter" is revealed to be an imposter, and to have taken on a fake identity based on a real doctor who went missing in the Middle East; her real name goes unknown. However, the character who informs us of this is Liquid Snake, and Naomi's brother knows her as "Naomi". Supplemental materials on the ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' disc [[LooseCanon detail the past of the real Naomi and how the main Naomi was able to usurp her identity]]. In ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', this element to Naomi is forgotten about; everyone calls her Naomi and there's no indication that she was ever an imposter.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' dances around between this and ExpansionPackPast thanks to the nature of the Nameless One's immortality -- he suffers magical TraumaInducedAmnesia every time he is "killed" and comes back to life, which happens so many times that his personality and behavior have been radically different many times across his long lifespan. The "multiple choice" in his past is really the question of "which version of him are we talking about now?" It's effectively an InUniverse version of these two tropes, even from the Nameless One's own perspective.
* ''VideoGame/MixOre'' gives Kantarou, the AmnesiacHero, three different backstories with each route he selects. [[spoiler:Nagisa's route reveals that he was a normal guy who was dating Sanae and was being stalked by Nagisa. Rikana's route reveals that he was a recently orphaned rich kid who was hit by a car and was discovered by Rikana. Ayano's route reveals that he was a popular high school boy who sexually harassed Ayano.]]
* ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' has a set of questions in the character creation that asks you about your character's past. This sets up your character's starting stats and equipment.
* In the opening of ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'', the player makes a series of choices about what Mae remembers most about the year her grandfather died, including the disasters that struck Possum Hollow (the flood or the new highway taking away all the traffic from town), his favorite quote from the Prayer of the Forest God, and what he was staring at in his final moments.
* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' incorporates this into its character creation system with "Aptitudes", previous careers your character pursued before arriving in the Halcyon system, which also has a small effect on their abilities. These include, but are not limited to: "Beverage Service Technician" (small increase to the duration of drink effects), "Construction, Electrician Class, Wire Spooler" (increased defense against electrical damage), "Tossball Team Mascot" (increased determination, which affects party members), and "Sub Sous Chef" (increased damage with one-handed weapons).
* ''VideoGame/{{Pentiment}}'' has you choose what Andreas is like as a person at the beginning of the game, including what sort of things he learned at his university, and where he spent most of his [[WalkingTheEarth Wanderjahre]]. In Act II, which takes place after a TimeSkip, you get to pick where he spent his time in the last 7 years. [[spoiler:At the start of Act III, you get to similarly choose elements of Magdalene's backstory... though part of it is also determined by what book Andreas bought her when she was still a small child.]]
* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'' gives you a literal Multiple-Choice Past, by letting you shape your character's backstory through dialogue options or the character creation screen. You can invoke this further by deliberately giving your Watcher a mysterious and self-contradictory past, or simply refusing to elaborate on said past when asked about it. It is even taken to a higher level as [[spoiler:you also get to choose what kind of a person your character was in their past life and what relationship they had with the BigBad and the BigGood respectively]].
* ''VideoGame/PlagueInc'':
** The Necroa Virus has several backstories, depending on where you start and what transmissions and/or you start with (quite a few are {{Whole Plot Reference}}s to zombie media):
*** Starting with America/Drug Resistance reveals that it was genetically engineered by [[CaptainErsatz Umbrella-um, I mean, DarkWater Corporation]] [[Franchise/ResidentEvil as a bioweapon that escaped containment.]]
*** Starting with England/Segmented Genome states that [[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater it was part of a cure for A.I.D.S. but there was a]] FreakLabAccident [[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater and it escaped.]]
*** The Ukraine/Zoonotic Shift backstory states that it evolved in Chernobyl within irradiated animals, and jumped over to humans when a tourist got bitten near Pripyat.
*** The Egypt/Heat Resistance backstory is that it infected a Pharaoh, who was [[SealedEvilInACan immured in a pyramid to contain the infection]].
** The Shadow Plague also has a few backstories. They require you to stay hidden for a long time.
*** The Shadow Pool backstory has the first vampire emerging from the deepest cavern on Earth somewhere in Turkey, with an unknown pathogen in the very deepest pool being responsible for infecting them.
*** The Stonehenge backstory involves the vampire in question having been buried in a sacrificial pit under one of the titular structure's standing stones, unearthed when tourists accidentally toppled it.
*** The Dracula backstory, as one can imagine, involves the vampire being Dracula after finally reawakening in his castle deep in Transylvania.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', everyone in Crown Tundra can agree that Calyrex, the ancient king of Galar, rode a signature horse-like Pokémon. However, legends both mention of a horse as white as ice and a horse as black as shadow, and nobody can agree which is correct, if either one even is. Some time after meeting Calyrex himself, in a rather literal case of this trope, the PlayerCharacter [[SchrodingersGun gets to decide which of these is correct]] by growing the corresponding steed's TrademarkFavoriteFood to lure it over.
* The titular ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' has had several conflicting origins. [[VideoGame/Rayman1 The original game]] depicted him as an ordinary member of a species who all looked like him, only for ''VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'' to claim he wasn't native to the Glade of Dreams and was found by a fisherman (and he had no species). ''VideoGame/RaymanOrigins'' claims he was created by the fairies to fight nightmares, and the UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita version (and oddly, ''only'' the Vita version) deepens the hole by showing him as originally being bald with a wife.
* ''VideoGame/{{Roadwarden}}'' has you pick the roadwarden's backstory and goals at the beginning of their journey. Throughout their adventure, you are also presented with multiple-choice options that let you shape certain elements of their home city of Hovlovan, and how the roadwarden spent their time there.
* Like his [[FandomRivalry rival Mario]], ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' has a fairly inconsistent past as well, though the video games themselves have never done much to elaborate on his past. Tails, Eggma..., er, "Dr. Robotnik" and especially Blaze have similar inconsistent pasts:
** Sonic's origin is not concrete in the games. Sega of Japan originally created a backstory of Sonic coming to life after a human ace pilot, who had him as a mascot, died. This was later [[Manga/SonicTheHedgehogStoryComic used in the first manga]] with slight alterations. Sega of America went with their [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogPromoComic own backstory]] about Sonic being an antisocial brown hedgehog who befriended a human scientist named Dr. Kintobor. An accident turned Sonic blue and turned the friendly doctor into Dr. Robotnik. This origin story was reused in the British ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic''. Shortly after this, Sega of America gave him yet another origin that had him learning his abilities (including his super speed) from his animal friends. They were unable to make up their mind, however, as they used the previous origin years later in the official website. Later on, Sega of Japan changed Sonic's backstory to remove the mystical element. He's just a hedgehog who was born on Christmas Island and decided to leave because he wanted adventure. This hasn't been mentioned in over two decades, so Sonic largely has a MysteriousPast.
** Eggman had no origin in Japan but internationally he received one where he was the benevolent Dr. Kintobor before an accident transformed him into the evil Dr. Robotnik. Why he lives on a WorldOfFunnyAnimals is not explained. This backstory was used in the prerelease promo comic and the British ''Sonic the Comic'', but American adaptations ultimately used different backstories. ''Sonic Adventure'' introduced human [=NPCs=], giving an [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy explanation]] to Eggman being a human, and ''Sonic Adventure 2'' gave him a motive for being villainous.
* In ''VideoGame/StarCrawlers'', you select the backstory of your starting crawler, defining their childhood, adulthood, and work history. Your choices affect things like dialogue options, starting [[AllianceMeter favor with certain corporations]], and your initial equipment.
* Creator/{{BioWare}} really does love this trope. In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', most classes (barring the Warrior and Inquisitor) touch on the player's past but both the Republic Trooper and the Imperial Agent have certain backstory details revealed based on particular factors.
** The Republic Trooper is either a [[NewMeat top graduate at the Academy]] (Light-Sided) or has been fighting TheEmpire since [[ChildSoldiers they were old enough to hold a blaster]] and an underground resistance movement (neutral or Dark-Sided)
** The Imperial Agent based on species specific dialogue options on Voss is a [[FormerRegimePersonnel former member of the Imperial military]] that descended from the original exiles that settled Dromund Kass (Human or Cyborg) a former of the Chiss SecretPolice [[DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent who may or may not still be working for them]], or a StreetUrchin who was found by Imperial Intelligence and sensed "something greater in them"
* ''VideoGame/SteambotChronicles'' had a literal version of this, where after meeting with Mallow you can recover from your amnesia and reveal your past. Or not, if you didn't feel inclined. Unfortunately, this leads to some incredibly stilted dialog in the following scenes.
-->[Name] is... the son of a baker... ''fast''... ...and a lone wolf.
* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'': Charlie Nash encountered M. Bison (North America; "Vega" in Japan) during a [wartime mission/secret operation/solo assignment] in [Cambodia/America/Venezuela/a Shadaloo base near Thailand]. Charlie prevailed over the dictator but tragically [turned his back and got zapped/was blasted by a Shadaloo gunner/failed to escape the base before it blew up/suffered some mysterious terrible fate]. Guile wanted to prevent it, of course, but [didn't know Charlie was in danger/wasn't strong enough/wasn't fast enough/realized Charlie did what he had to do]. One thing is certain, though, [he's dead/he's missing, presumed dead/he got turned into Shadow/suffered the previously mentioned mysterious terrible fate].
** As of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'', WordOfGod has given some canonical information regarding him. He was [[CavalryBetrayal blasted by a gunner Vega/Bison paid off]] and [[BodyHorror stitched together]] in ways similar to FrankensteinsMonster. He's NotQuiteDead, but he has ComeBackWrong and is LivingOnBorrowedTime.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'', your actions in the game dictate how Torque's family died via KarmaMeter. There are three endings. In the good ending, they were murdered and you were framed. In the neutral one, Torque killed them by accident, and in the bad ending, he murdered them all.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Having a canon that's basically built on RuleOfFun (as well as implied), has a few different origin stories. Americans of the 80's and early 90's might have known Mario and Luigi as two plumbers from Brooklyn who got sucked into a pipe and ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom, but that was only invented by DIC for their [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBrosDic three animated series]] based on the games. ''Yoshi's Island'' and its sequels imply that they've ''always'' lived in the Mushroom Kingdom. Other regions just avoid origin stories. Note that the Mario Bros. have never been seen in the Mushroom Kingdom between the time they were babies and the present. It can be pretty easy to put the pieces together and say that they were taken to Brooklyn to be protected, because, seriously, who in their right mind wouldn't move after all the stuff that happened to Baby Mario and Baby Luigi?
** The Brooklyn thing, in part, came from the fact that ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' and ''VideoGame/MarioBros'' seemingly takes place in New York City. In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', ''Donkey Kong'' is now stated to take place in New ''Donk'' City, an NYC-like city that appears to be set in the same world as the Mushroom Kingdom.
** Mimi from ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' doesn't have a concrete past, either. Carson theorizes that Mimi was either a failed Pixl created by the ancients or that she was created by a witch who was researching shape-shifting potions. She could also maybe be a robot, given the fact that her [[OneWingedAngel transformed form]] has gears inside of her head.
** There are contradicting backstories to the original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong''. The titular character is either Mario's pet gorilla who decided he had enough of his abuse, or he is a gorilla that escaped from the zoo.
* ''Videogame/{{Tangledeep}}'' has a downplayed version of this with [[TheHero Mirai]]. Depending on what Job she starts the game with, she'll give a slightly different OpeningNarration, reflecting her past and her worldview. A few details are always the same; she's HappilyAdopted, and she's setting out to Tangledeep for some reason. This can extend a bit further than normal with the final class to unlock, the [[ArtificialHuman HuSyn]] class, wherein Mirai herself mentions that she was [[RobotGirl built, not born]], though her narration notes that despite this, she is still loved by her friends and family in Riverstone Camp.
* In the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series, Lara's origin seems to be "whatever the designer of the current game/movie/comic feels like", and has therefore changed drastically each time it's been told.
* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'':
** Almost but not quite literally the case for Sakuya, who has knowledge and skills far beyond her physical age (late teens to twenties), is a TimeMaster, and was seemingly recognized by Eirin, an immortal being who hadn't been to Earth in over 1000 years. ''[[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Memento in Strict Sense]]'' mentions several rumors going around the human village, including her being a fallen VampireHunter or a Lunarian, but said book also says that they're all just rumors and more than likely none of them are actually true.
* The Amnesiac in ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' can choose to have a different role each game, which can affect the outcome.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tyranny}}'' allows you to not only choose the background for your Fatebinder but also detail their actions during the conquest of the Tiers, which can have significant consequences during your playthrough due to how your actions have affected the various factions.
* ''VideoGame/{{Unavowed}}'' gives gives you three possible origin stories for the PlayerCharacter, bartender, actor, or police officer, all three coming with their own playable prologue.
* The player character gets to choose his/her own past in the character creation of ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines''. This only affects stats though, not the actual story.
** This was originally cut from the game and was reintroduced by an official patch.
* As if the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' lore didn't see enough changes/retcons, the setting also features a fair dosage of time travel. Certain forces can tamper with the timeline, while the Bronze Dragonflight tries to fix it. In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the Caverns of Time feature a set of dungeons where the players assist them by whatever means possible. For instance, there are two versions of Thrall's escape from imprisonment: either a bloodless escape during a distraction, or a group of strangers assaulting the keep and a nearby town. Although at the end of that one, the bronze dragon that was guiding you implies that after you've destroyed the last of the Infinite Dragons who were trying to alter the time stream, he would alter events so that the original bloodless escape is what everyone will remember.
* In ''VideoGame/Wasteland3'', part of creating your character entails deciding on a background that tells of their history before arriving in Colorado. Each background also grants different bonuses:
** '''[[BadassBookworm Bookworm]]''': Raised in the Ag Center in Arizona among scientists, giving access to a plethora of books. Grants a 5% bonus to EXP earned.
** '''Desert Cat''': Survivalist who is well acclimated to navigating the wastes in Arizona. Grants +1 Perception.
** '''Disciple of the Metal''': Proud wasteland warrior. 15% bonus to fire damage.
** '''Explodomaniac''': Joined with the Desert Rangers because they have explosives, and you like things that go boom. 15% bonus to explosive damage.
** '''Goat Killer''': You kill goats because it will bring you closer to the monster goat that killed your mother. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, really!]] 15% boost to critical chance.
** '''Grease Monkey''': A skilled mechanic. 15% bonus damage vs. vehicles.
** '''Lethal Weapon''': A wannabe CowboyCop who hunts down bad guys and doesn't play by the rules. 10% bonus to melee damage.
** '''Mannerite''': Raised in the good part of LA to mind your manners. +1 bonus to Kiss Ass.
** '''Moneybags''': Grew up in affluence, but your family was killed by those who coveted your wealth. +1 bonus to Barter.
** '''Mopey Poet''': You are an {{Emo}}. +1 to Evasion.
** '''[[ThePaladin Paladin]]''': A KnightTemplar determined to see justice mete out. 10% bonus to critical resistance.
** '''Raider Hater''': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin You hate raiders]]. Tried raiding for a time, didn't work out. 10% bonus damage vs. human enemies.
** '''[[LoveableSexManiac Sex Machine]]''': You like sex, and just as importantly, you're good at it...but not much else. +0.1 bonus to Combat Speed.
** '''Stoner''': The world's a messed up place, but through it all, you're chill as hell. 10% bonus to status ailment resistance.
** '''The Boss''': It's your way or the (nuclear devastated) highway. +1 bonus to Hard Ass.
** '''Viscious Avenger''': You were MadeASlave, but you fought your way to freedom, and woe befall any who stand in your way. +2 bonus to Penetration.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' has several different character backgrounds which affect the game, including:
** "World of Horror": the default background, which has no effect.
** "Medical History": Your character has a history of physical illness and injury. As such, they begin the game with a bandage for treating minor injuries and a medical discharge paper that grants extra EXP, but they are more prone to suffering injuries when sustaining damage.
** "Hunted by the Cult": You're on the run from the cult trying to summon the Old Gods. As such, you're more likely to face combat encounters, which now includes unique cultist enemies, but the Doom counter will reduce by a larger amount when a mystery is cleared.
** "The Seventh Curse": Thanks to a DealWithTheDevil, you start the game with more Funds than usual, but because everyone around you tends to die, you're barred from recruiting any allies.[[note]]Save for Kana, who is necessary for one mystery; rescued dogs, which don't count as human; and the Hermit, who is a special encounter in another mystery[[/note]]
** "Ill-Fated": Your luck is so incredibly bad that all of your skill checks will automatically fail, but you're used to it enough that you start the game with enough experience to immediately level up.
** "Knight-Errant": Your determination to save the town of Shiokawa is such that completing mysteries with anything short of "[[GoldenEnding Ending A]]" will result in a steep Doom penalty.
** "Scars": You suffered scars from a perilous encounter in the past. As a result, you start the game with your maximum Stamina and Reason reduced by 3, but enemies deal less damage in combat.
** "Curious Birthmark": You have an unusual birthmark that seems to change shape. Similar to "Medical History", you're more likely to suffer curses when you take damage in battle, but you start the game with an Old Coin that can be used to remove a curse.
** "Eldritch Parasite": Something evil is lurking and growing inside your body. You start the game with maximum Stamina and Reason increased by 20, but you cannot recover Stamina or Reason at all.
** "Exquisite Taste": Your character is very peculiar, thus reducing your options for additional locations in each area of the town to one.
** "Fatalist": So resigned are you to your fate that you can only investigate each mystery in the order they appear, and you won't know what mysteries they are until you start them.
** "Commoner": You were destined to die, but somehow, you're still alive...for now. As a result, you cannot gain any experience points at all, and will remain at Level 1 for the duration of the playthrough.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
Given that multiple [[ContinuityReboot reboots]] and [[ComicBookTime sliding timelines]] are so endemic to Creator/DCComics and Creator/MarvelComics in general, almost every legacy comic-book character has this to some extent or another.

[[AC:''Franchise/TheDCU'':]]
* The DCU's {{Crisis Crossover}}s (and not just the ones actually bearing the Crisis name) [[CosmicRetcon alter reality]], changing the pasts and presents of a variety of characters. ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' has had ''four'' such reality reboots (counting the original ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''). Also, retellings of characters' origins will vastly alter them on occasion, with no Crisis-type justification. As such, most DC characters with a significant amount of history have multiple formerly canonical histories, as well as ones that are ''equally'' canonical but completely incompatible. One side-effect of all the {{Cosmic Retcon}}s has been that since ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', the DCU ''itself'' now has multiple pasts which all happened.
* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'': Black Manta, oh Neptune, Black Manta. If DC had no idea what to do with Aquaman for most of his history, you better believe they didn't know what to do with his ArchEnemy. Pre-''ComicBook/New52'', he had at least three wildly different and convoluted backstories and motivations for his feud with Aquaman, not counting the brief period he claimed to be a [[MalcolmXerox militant black nationalist]]. You really have to wonder why it took them until 2011 to come up with "[[YouKilledMyFather Aquaman killed his dad]]".
** Originally, he was kidnapped and enslaved on board a ship, saw a young Aquaman in the distance and called out to him for help, but Arthur didn't hear him and swam away.
** The 2003 series claimed that he was a severely autistic child who grew up in an asylum and was obsessed with water, breaking out after being subjected to experimental electroshock therapy.
** Post-''ComicBook/BrightestDay'', he was a treasure hunter who was exploring the {{Bermuda Triangle}} with his pregnant wife, and they were abducted and tortured by Xebelians. His wife died and his unborn child was experimented on and grew up to be Aqualad, and he really hated Mera, not Aquaman.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
** An inconsistent past is almost canon for The Joker, as evidenced by his quote at the top of the page. Many have given him a different origin in the past fifty or sixty years, and all of them are half-canon, because the clown [[http://static2.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/10/109071/3574772-2316207526-dcori.jpg isn't sure himself]]. One constant factor is that he usually wore the Red Hood before he was dumped into that vat of chemicals. It's [[RiddleForTheAges also unknown]] whether he was insane even before falling into the vat. As quipped by Batman: "Like any other comedian, he uses whatever material will work."
*** While being the {{Trope Namer|s}}, ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' ironically has little of this, since it shows flashbacks of a single, consistent StartOfDarkness for the Joker. The trope is only suggested by the line about how he remembers multiple versions and prefers a multiple-choice past, but it's a highly plausible reading that what was shown is the real story and he just doesn't remember it. Both the story's artist Brian Bollard and writer Creator/AlanMoore have said afterwards that giving the Joker a fixed origin story wasn't such a great idea.
*** Also played with in one issue of ''ComicBook/Robin1993'' which starts off with a flashback about a green-haired, white-skinned boy in a purple shirt with a pony. "Or was it a bike?" the narration muses. "No, a pony." The little boy did something bad, and then his daddy shot the pony in front of him. Cut to the Joker, narrating, and he's actually weeping real tears. He's in a cell at Arkham, and a speaker on the wall asks him if the story is true, because it's the ''seventh'' FreudianExcuse story he's told them.
*** Another variation on the FreudianExcuse theme shows up in the story "Mad Love" from ''ComicBook/TheBatmanAdventures'' (later adapted into [[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE21MadLove an episode]] of ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries The New Batman Adventures]]''):
---->'''Harley Quinn:''' Joker told me things, secret things he never told anyone...\\
'''Batman:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion What did he tell you, Harley? Was it the line about the abusive father, or the one about the alcoholic mom?]] Of course, the runaway orphan story is particularly moving, too. He's gained a lot of sympathy with that one. What was it he told that one parole officer? Oh, yes... "There was only one time I ever saw dad really happy. He took me to the ice show when I was seven..."\\
'''Harley:''' ''[crying]'' Circus... He told me it was the circus.\\
'''Batman:''' He's got a million of them, Harley.
*** A 2004 story arc in ''Batman: Gotham Knights'' suggests that the ''Killing Joke'' version is more or less Joker's real past, since a pre-Riddler Edward Nigma witnessed the murder of "Jack"'s wife and later offered to tell the Joker who did it (although the version told in ''The Killing Joke'' has it that his wife was killed in an accident, not murdered). Later writers have pretty much [[CanonDiscontinuity ignored it]].
*** In ''Shadow of the Bat'' #38, "Tears of a Clown", the Joker celebrates his anniversary of the day he was a still sane, but hapless comedian, and was thrown out of an exclusive StandUpComedy club for an unfunny act. Being desperately poor, this marks his StartOfDarkness as he agreed to provide to his family by pulling a job for the Red Hood gang. He kidnaps all the patrons that didn't laugh with him and reenacts his act with control collars that will kill them when they laugh. The funny thing is that the patrons are hardcore StandUpComedy fans, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday so they have seen so many acts that nobody remembers the act of a bad comedian]]. The Joker cannot even be sure that this StartOfDarkness really happened.
---->''They throw me out, and I had a wife and an unborn child... or it was two cows and a goat? Sometimes it's so confusing...''
*** An issue of ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' written by Creator/JMichaelStraczynski suggests that the Joker was a monster even before he fell into the chemicals, showing him as a SelfMadeOrphan who [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killed neighborhood pets]] before graduating to violent crime as a young adult.
*** The ''ComicBook/New52'' Joker is probably Red Hood One from ''ComicBook/BatmanZeroYear''... but might also be Alby Stryker from the retelling of "[[ComicBook/DetectiveComicsNumber27 The Case of the Chemical Syndicate]]" in ''ComicBook/DetectiveComics'' volume 2 issue #27, ''both'' of whom fell in vats of acid during a confrontation with Batman at Ace Chemicals.
*** In ''ComicBook/BatmanEndgame'', the Joker is strongly implied to be [[spoiler:a HumanoidAbomination of some sort, who may very well have existed in Gotham in some way since before the city was even built. At the very least he appears to be semi-immortal, which rather well-explains how he always manages to [[JokerImmunity come back despite the horrible damage his body's been put through over the years]]. Then, at the very end, when Batman is claiming to believe in the Joker's immortality, the Joker is clearly worried that he's about to die]]. A backup story has the Joker tell different, completely contradictory origins to a doctor and a group of Arkham patients, tricking the former into writing a book by posing as a colleague. That same story has him change his stance on his past (described in the quote at the top of the page), showing that something's changed and that [[LetsGetDangerous Joker is far more serious than he ever was before]].
---->'''The Joker:''' ...And then that night, over the wine and the candles, and that oh so beautiful music, you showed me your manuscript. I was so sad to see all the blanks you couldn't fill. I couldn't help but lend a hand. I might have been in hiding... but I can't help myself. I just like to make people smile. Hehehehe...\\
'''Maureen:''' All the work we did...\\
'''The Joker:''' Oh, it's a good story, isn't it? Not quite as good the one where I'm a secret robot. Beep boop beep. But a good one, nonetheless. I did my best to help come up with the story you wanted. The one you needed. The grim and grimy tale of woe. The one a publisher would lay down six figures for. And heck, all I had to do is pay off a few foster parents. Write a few government documents. It made you soooo happy.\\
'''Maureen:''' ...Why?\\
'''The Joker:''' The same reason I visited all of them. You wanted to know who I was. You wanted the truth. The deep down real truth. And here I am... giving it to you.\\
'''Maureen:''' ''[handed a revolver]'' What's this?\\
'''The Joker:''' Five bullets in the cylinder. Since we're pals, I'm giving you the chance to decide. Which story do you think is the real one? That's the one who gets to live. That's what I said from the beginning.\\
'''Maureen:''' But... none of them are real, are they?\\
'''The Joker:''' Hmmm... then here's a sixth. Just in case. Heh...\\
'''Maureen:''' Where did you go?\\
'''The Joker:''' Where I always go. To that little corner in the back of your head where all the bad things hide. That's where I'm really from. That's the real truth of it. Hah. Or not. I prefer not to think of it as multiple choice... it's more choose-your-own-adventure.
*** DC outdid themselves when ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' revealed that the answer to the multiple-choice is: [[spoiler:''all of the above''. There are ''three'' Jokers!]]
** In the 1980s, an issue of ''ComicBook/TheQuestion'' reinvented the Riddler; his real name was Edward Nashton, and he changed it to Edward Nygma when he became the Riddler. His obsession with riddles wasn't born from cheating in a school competition and wanting to prove how clever he was; it was a compulsion to tell the truth due to a violent father. It also claimed that he was never a major Batman villain. Later, Creator/NeilGaiman wrote a ''ComicBook/SecretOrigins'' story in which Riddler retells his classic origin, before adding "Or maybe I'm a frustrated second-rater called Nashton with a meaningless schtick!" The Riddler's latest origin, post-''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', is ''largely'' his classic origin... but his real name is Edward Nashton. [[FlipFlopOfGod It has since been reverted back to Nigma]].
** The Scarecrow's first origin story begins with him frightening birds as a child. Skip forward a few decades to the ComicBook/PostCrisis version, and in a 180 turn he's frightened ''by'' birds -- namely, by a trained attack squad of crows in the old chapel which his great-grandmother liked to lock him in. Also, origin stories differ as to whether he was a child bully (i.e., his first episode in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', which has a flashback of him chasing girls with handfuls of snakes) or a bullied child. The ''ComicBook/New52'' only makes things more complicated since in that aforementioned post-Crisis story, his mother was [[TeenPregnancy a teen mom]] from whom he was taken away at birth, and his dad was GlorifiedSpermDonor. Here, his mom is given a (frankly unceremonious) DeathByOriginStory, and his father is made into a MadScientist [[GenerationXerox who was exactly like him]]. This was carried over into ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' and is supposedly still canon to ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', going by the official DC website.
** Lady Shiva started out as a Chinese-American from New York with implied Japanese heritage as well whose well-off parents died in an airplane crash when she was at least in her later teen years. She's since been written as a Chinese national, someone who grew up in the slums of [[HolidayInCambodia an unspecified South-East Asian country]], and a Chinese-American who was orphaned at an early age and grew up homeless. Her sister's murder has happened a couple of different ways with different perpetrators as well.
** ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader'' uses this trope to prove a point: [[spoiler:there must always be a Batman, regardless of retcons and alternate realities. Thus, every time Batman dies, rather than heading to any sort of afterlife, he's reincarnated as another Bruce Wayne in another universe, to relive Batman's origin story and become a slightly different Batman]]. In another of the stories, a psychologist is sent to interview Poison Ivy and tries to sort out the different origin stories in the files and newspaper reports on her. Ivy bursts out laughing and says that sometimes she just makes stuff up for a joke, and she's surprised people took her seriously.
** Played with in ''Batman: Joker's Daughter'', which reimagines the character for the ''ComicBook/New52''; the Joker's Daughter has three entirely incompatible origins which she relives when the Anchorite uses her power on her. The twist is that [[spoiler:not only are ''none'' of them true, but her big secret (that she can't even admit to herself) is that she never ''had'' an origin; she was living a life that was entirely unremarkable in every way, and just decided to become the Joker's Daughter]].
** [[ComicBook/BatmanTomKing Tom King's Batman run]] has an intentional invocation of this technique, as Batman and ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} argue about when and where they first met. Batman claims that it was when he caught a disguised Catwoman during a diamond heist (which is how they met in UsefulNotes/{{The Golden Age|Of Comic Books}}), and Catwoman claims that it was when Bruce Wayne was stabbed by a young Holly Robinson back during Selina's time as a prostitute (which is how they met in ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne''). It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:they actually both remember both events; it's just that Selina thinks their encounter on the street was purely them, before the costumes and codenames, while Bruce thinks they didn't ''really'' meet each other until they did so as the Bat and the Cat]].
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in an issue of ''ComicBook/BlueDevil''. ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger and ComicBook/MadameXanadu narrate entirely different origin stories for ComicBook/BlackOrchid (all of which are parodies of Creator/MarvelComics characters' origins); when this is pointed out, they start arguing about whose version is right.
-->'''Madame X:''' Orchids have ''no thorns!''\\
'''Stranger:''' ''These'' orchids did! They were ''special!''
* In his first appearance, ''ComicBook/BoosterGold'' villain Black Beetle claimed to be the ComicBook/BlueBeetle of the 27th century. When revealed as a villain, he claimed to be Jaime Reyes' greatest enemy, who blamed Jaime for a death (and the final issue of ''ComicBook/BlueBeetle'' would strongly hint as to who he was) making him from the very near future. In a later appearance, Booster calls him "The Black Beetle, direct from the 22nd century. Or the 27th." to which the Beetle replies, "Or 15th. Whatever I choose to say for the sake of misdirection". Later, he had his first (from Jaime's point of view) encounter with Blue Beetle, in which he initially claimed to be the character the ''ComicBook/BlueBeetle'' story hinted at, before saying he wasn't; he ''killed'' that character. He follows this up by claiming to be ''[[FutureMeScaresMe Jaime himself]]''. ''Blue & Gold'' #8 finally reveals that (at least in current continuity) he's [[spoiler:Booster's [[MirrorUniverse Earth-3]] counterpart]].
* ''ComicBook/DarkCrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' toys with this premise in its special issue #0. A group of children take a tour through the Hall of Justice, and their guide mentions that the true first meeting of the ComicBook/{{Justice League|Of America}} is often debated. As this is being said, the kids pass by a display depicting the League's battle against the Appellaxian invaders (their original Silver Age origin) and another showing them fighting ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} (the team's rebooted origin from the ComicBook/{{New 52}} [[ComicBook/JusticeLeague2011 run]]).
* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'':
** Suspecting a traitor among them in the 82nd issue of ''My Greatest Adventure'', the Chief confides to Rita that he's actually an alien. He also confided other origin stories to Cliff and the Negative Man, telling the former that he was raised in a Tibetan monastery and the latter that he was a model student of Cambridge University. It was actually an elaborate ruse [[FeedTheMole to discover the traitor by checking which story got leaked]]. In the end, it turns out that none of those stories was the real one.
** Creator/JohnByrne's run infamously disregarded every preceding ''Doom Patrol'' series and started continuity anew with a revamped version of the original roster (The Chief, Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl) that had new characters Nudge, Grunt, Vortex and Faith added as additional recruits before Creator/GeoffJohns took advantage of the CosmicRetcon caused by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' to reinstate the preceding series as canon while still retaining the roster established in John Byrne's run before Johns used his run on ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' to further distance the Doom Patrol from John Byrne's changes. While the established origins for Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl were more or less left intact, the John Byrne run identified T'oombala, the shaman of a tribe of natives the Chief once helped out, as the one responsible for crippling the Chief, when before it was General Immortus who gave the Chief his handicap.
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Eobard Thawne/Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash has quite a few different origins. There are five versions of Thawne's origin story, spanning over the various eras of DC:
** In his pre-''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' origin, he was a crook with a scientific background who discovered Barry Allen's Flash suit in a time capsule sent from the past to his home 25th century. Succeeding in using it to replicate Barry's powers, he then committed crimes with them before Barry arrived in his era and defeated him. Now enraged at Barry, Thawne decided to become the Flash's worst enemy, thus the whole time travel thing. He also developed a desire to replace Barry as Iris' husband and as the Flash.
** In his post-''Crisis'' origin, written by Creator/MarkWaid in the famous "ComicBook/TheReturnOfBarryAllen" storyline, it was changed so that his reason for hating Barry ''before he met him'' was that Thawne was a Flash fanboy who even had surgery to look like Barry Allen, along with recreating Barry's accident to give himself powers. He became the Flash of the 25th Century. Thawne traveled back in time to run alongside his hero but missed the date and instead landed in the Wally West Flash era. He then discovers that he would become the Flash's worst villain, and all of this combined with the trauma of time travel made him snap. He impersonates Barry for a while but is eventually defeated by Wally and sent back through time. The experience is erased from his memory, but he holds onto an instinctual hatred of the Flash as well as his Reverse-Flash costume, and it just so happens that he meets Barry "first". This explains how his extensive knowledge of Barry Allen and his desire to replace him came about.
** His post-''The Flash: Rebirth'' origin is a combination of the above two. Here Eobard was still from the 25th century and was also genetically engineered to be intelligent. He formed an obsession with the heroes of the past, specifically the Flashes. He became his world's foremost leading expert on the Speed Force and head of the Flash Museum. Because of this, he was dubbed "Professor Zoom". Eventually, Thawne figured out how to replicate Flash's powers from a costume from a time capsule and aimed to become a hero like his idol -- but in the super-safe 25th century resorted to causing accidents himself that he'd then save people from. He eventually encountered Barry Allen as the Flash, and after Barry "ruined his life", he resolved to ruin Barry's.
** In the ''ComicBook/New52'', post-''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' retelling of his origin, Thawne came from a 25th century that idolized the Flash as a god. After witnessing his mother murdered by his father as a child and later gaining time alteration powers, Thawne attempts to conquer Central City but is opposed by the populace who fight against him in the Flash's name, motivating him to travel back in time, gather a group of similarly powered acolytes, and kill the Flash so that he goes down in history as a failure, not as a hero. He also notably never used the name "Reverse-Flash", instead going exclusively by Professor Zoom. This version was undone in ''ComicBook/TheButton'', which merged this Thawne with the post-''Flash: Rebirth'' Thawne, with the latter's memories -- and his previous origin -- now dominant.
** The ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'' version of Thawne's origin is essentially the post-''The Flash: Rebirth'' origin, but it's expanded upon and there are some changes. Eobard is a child who grew up loving the Flash. Finding Barry's suit in a time capsule, he uses it to replicate Barry's powers in himself, becoming the Flash of the 25th Century. This time, he goes about causing accidents that he can save people from (it's not established if accidents are illegal like in the post ''The Flash: Rebirth'' origin). Encountering a time-travelling Barry Allen, the two bonded over their belief that time is valuable, and Thawne considers Barry telling him that "every second is a gift" the happiest day of his life. However, when Barry discovered Thawne's unethical ways of being a hero, he defeated him and turned him over to the authorities. Thawne genuinely repented, becoming curator of the Flash Museum (being dubbed a professor) and eventually donning a new costume based on Kid Flash's (it's basically his ''Rebirth'' suit but with the lightning bolt's direction the same as Barry's). However, when he travelled back in time to be with his hero once more, he discovered Barry was already mentoring Wally West. Seeing Barry tell Wally that "every second is a gift" and giving Wally his grandfather's watch with said quote engraved on it, Thawne was heartbroken. An enraged Thawne now believes his "bond" with Barry had all been lies on Barry's part and thus decided to fill Barry's life with the pain he was experiencing and make sure everyone knew what kind of person Barry really was.
* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'':
** The only thing for sure about [[ComicBook/GreenLantern1941 Solomon Grundy]]'s backstory is he was once a man named Cyrus Gold who died and came back as a zombie. The details of ''how'' Gold died vary: His debut in ''All-American Comics'' Vol. 1, #61 stated he was mugged and murdered; ''Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' #39 stated a pimp killed him after realizing his attempt to blackmail Gold wasn't working, Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiersOfVictory'' stated he was the victim of a lynch mob who thought he was a child molester; and a self-titled miniseries that led into Grundy's involvement in ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' stated Gold had in fact killed himself.
** The Creator/TangentComics [[InNameOnly version]] of Green Lantern (a mystic woman who carries an Asian lantern able to temporarily resurrect the dead) tells three different versions of her origin in the ''Tales of the Green Lantern'' one-shot. "Brightest Light" states that she was an archaeologist and adventurer named Lois Lane who returned from the dead to get even with billionaire playboy Booster Gold after he had her killed in retribution for her refusal to aid in robbing the Sea Devils of their treasure, "Darkest Light" establishes that she was the twin sister of a sorceress with power over the dead called Darkside who was accidentally killed by Manhunter and obtained her enchanted lantern after helping Manhunter kill the real Darkside, and "Know Evil" gives the origin of the Green Lantern being a necromancer named Zatanna who intended to take the lantern in order to join an occult organization called the Dark Circle, only to become the new Green Lantern after agreeing to take the place of the lantern's previous owner Jason Blood. After the end of each take on her origin, Green Lantern admits that not even she knows which, if any, is her true backstory. It is later stated in the "History Lesson" back-up story of ''Superman's Reign'' that these three are just the most well-known of countless speculations regarding her backstory.
* ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}'s past has so many embedded possibilities that it's become a ContinuitySnarl. He was originally established in the Golden Age to be a man named Carter Hall who was the latest reincarnation of Prince Khufu, the interpretation of the Silver Age made him a Thanagarian cop named Katar Hol who came to Earth after creating a battle suit made of Nth metal, both Hawkmen briefly coexisted Post-Crisis before the Golden Age incarnation was cast into Limbo during ''Last Days of the Justice Society of America'' and both Hawkmen were established as the same individual during New 52 and Rebirth (the former making Carter Hall an alias assumed by Katar Hol and the latter making Katar Hol one of Carter Hall's past lives).
* ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': In the ''ComicBook/SecretOrigins'' issue looking at the ''ComicBook/New52'' version of John Constantine, the FramingStory is that a bunch of magic-happy idiots summon a creature to tell them Constantine's history. The creature simultaneously tells them three entirely contradictory stories, with the only points of similarity being that whatever John's childhood was like, he attracted the attention of a powerful blindfolded figure (probably Tannarak?) who taught him enough magic to (accidentally?) [[SelfMadeOrphan kill his family]], and of course the Newcastle Incident (and even then, there are three possibilities of ''how'' John got involved in the Incident and what happened to him as a result -- and they could easily be mixed-and-matched). In the end, John turns up to rescue the acolytes from their summoning, which has been feeding on them the more involved they become in the stories and points out there's no reason to believe ''any'' of it.
* In ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueDark'' Vol. 2, Jason Woodrue claims to be remembering multiple contradictory pasts, including being an extradimensional being (his [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] "Plant-Master" incarnation), teaching Alec Holland and "a girl... Isley" in college (Creator/NeilGaiman's Poison Ivy origin) and eating Swamp Thing as "the Seeder" (his ''ComicBook/New52'' origin). Confusing things further, having usurped the position of the King of Petals, he also remembers Oleander Sorrel's origin story (from the ''JLD'' annual) as if it happened to him. Papa Midnite just thinks he's crazy.
* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'':
** DC's writers still have no idea what to do with Mon-El/Valor. His initial origin was that he was a Daxamite with amnesia who encountered Clark in his days as Superboy and was initially believed to be Superboy's brother before his memory was jogged by exposure to the lead box containing a piece of Kryptonite the Kents kept in a safe, afterwards Clark sent him to the Phantom Zone until he could be cured of the lead poisoning, eventually being freed periodically from the Phantom Zone by the Legion in the 30th century and given a temporary antidote for his lead poisoning each time. Every continuity in succession has since vastly altered the details of his origin except for the broad strokes of being trapped in the Phantom Zone before eventually being freed by the Legion in the 30th century, with the origin of the name Mon-El even being inconsistent[[note]]The original origin had it formed from assuming he was part of the House of El and his arrival to Earth happening on a Monday, while the post-Zero Hour version spelled the name as "M'Onel" and established it to be Martian for "He Who Wanders"[[/note]]. The Brian Michael Bendis run ended up completely disregarding what was established before and went with making Mon-El a legitimate Kryptonian and Superman's descendant.
** The Time Trapper has at various points been a Controller, a future version of their own sidekick, a future version of [[TheLeader Cosmic Boy]], a future version of [[BrattyHalfPint Lori Morning]], and a future version of Superboy-Prime. Following that last revelation, Brainiac 5 hypothesized that the Trapper is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of failed timelines, and exactly what history leads to someone at the End of Time wearing a purple cloak and fighting the Legion changes every time the Trapper does anything.
* In the ''ComicBook/LoisLane'' maxiseries, Renee Montoya remembers the whole thing with teaming up with [[ComicBook/TheQuestion Vic Sage]] during ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', including his death, and also remembers that none of it happened. Meeting a Vic who somehow came back from the dead doesn't exactly help. (While it's not explicitly stated, this takes place after ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', which restored significant elements of DC's pre-''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'' past.) The same goes for Sister Clarice, who remembers being the Radiant and dying in ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', and Jessica Midnight, who has the misfortune to suddenly remember being a Checkmate agent, just as everyone connected to Checkmate is being hunted down in ''Event Leviathan''.
* ''ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger'': One issue of ''ComicBook/SecretOrigins'' gave four different, mutually exclusive origins for the mysterious Phantom Stranger. Either he was a man named Isaac who was cursed to wander the Earth for eternity as penance for having a hand in the flagellation of Jesus Christ, a man who lived during Biblical times and became the Stranger when he was BarredFromTheAfterlife after committing suicide and left with no memory of his mortal existence, he's part of a StableTimeLoop where he created himself by possessing a scientist and going back to the Big Bang to thwart an effort to prevent it from happening or a fallen angel whose eternal journey is the result of refusing to take a side during Lucifer's rebellion. According to the WordOfGod, they're ''all'' true.
** When a Black Lantern tried to eat the Phantom Stranger's heart during ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'', it saw three of those backstories, leaving it stunned long enough for the Stranger to spring a trap. The Stranger's response? "You have seen everything and you have seen nothing."
** Then the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot happened, and he actually does have a concrete origin now -- he's heavily implied to be [[spoiler:[[Literature/TheBible Judas Iscariot]]]].
* ''ComicBook/PlasticMan'':
** The 1966 comic book had a story in the second issue where Plastic Man's archenemy Dr. Dome tried to find out Plastic Man's origin so he could go back in time and prevent the hero from getting his powers. Dr. Dome has his daughter Lynx split into three women wearing different disguises to consult Captain [=McSniffe=], Mrs. De Lute and Gordon K. Trueblood. All three give a contradictory origin for Plastic Man ([=McSniffe=] stating that Plastic Man was a crook known as the Eel who got his powers after the villain the Spider knocked him into a vat of putty, Mrs. De Lute claiming that Plastic Man was a Romani fiddler who gained stretching abilities from being exposed to acid and milk at the same time while chasing after the Japanese Beetle and Trueblood giving an account of Plastic Man being a yogurt farmer who got his powers from being accidentally injected with yogurt made from the milk of a goat that had diptheria while confronted by the Frog when Trueblood was a Boy Scout). The end of the story reveals Plastic Man made up all the origins to throw Dr. Dome off (his actual origin would later be revealed in issue seven, where he was established to be [[SpinOffSpring the son of the original Plastic Man]] and that he got his powers from drinking a bottle of the same acid that gave his dad his powers).
** Plastic Man's sidekick Woozy Winks has had three different origins. The original Quality Comics continuity established that he gained the power to be immune to injury as a reward for saving a sorcerer from drowning and turned to crime until he encountered Plastic Man and was convinced to go straight, the 1988 miniseries by Phil Foglio made it so that Woozy was a former inmate of Arkham Asylum who became Plastic Man's sidekick by [[InterruptedSuicide distracting him before he could jump off a bridge]] and a 1999 one-shot by Ty Templeton gave an origin where Woozy was once a [[FormerlyFit physically fit]] secret agent named Green Cobra who became the dimwit we know him as today when he was stuffed in a locker with a bleeding Plastic Man by a supervillain called the Dart and had his brain damaged from inhaling the fumes of Plastic Man's airplane glue-like blood.
* ComicBook/PowerGirl has a particularly interesting Multiple-Choice Past. Originally, she was ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s equivalent from Earth-2. After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' {{retcon}}ned all the alternate Earths out of existence, Power Girl was kept around, but now lacked an origin or even a defined species, as Superman was now the only Kryptonian around. Over the years, different writers tried different takes, giving her a magical Atlantean past, an alien Daxamite heritage, and so on. With the return of the multiverse in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Power Girl's history has now become her origin: she was from Earth-2, but after it ceased to exist the universe spent years trying to make her fit, but her true Kryptonian heritage has now been re-established. (This doesn't apply to the ''ComicBook/New52'''s first Power Girl, who's simply Supergirl's analogue from the new multiverse's Earth-2.)
* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'':
** Freddy Freeman in particular. His age at onset of [[DisabilitySuperpower disability]] ranges from "young enough that his voice still hasn't shown the slightest tendency towards deepening yet, some time (maybe years) after leaving inpatient therapy" in Justice League: War to "old enough to have been a high school football star pre-injury" in Trials of Shazam. And since they were decoupled in one of those reboots, his age at onset of ''superpowers'' is even more complicated. And that's not even [[IAmNotShazam getting into]] his [[WritingAroundTrademarks superhero name]].
** Mary Bromfield has at various times been Billy Batson's biological sister or unrelated foster sister and was originally his twin but has been both younger and older than Billy in different reboots.
* King Shark was introduced in Karl Kesel's ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'' as ''possibly'' the son of a Hawaiian shark-god and a mortal woman. Later in the same run, Kesel introduced circumstantial evidence suggesting he was actually one of the mutated animals from the Wild Lands. Later still, Kesel's run of ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'' confirmed the shark-god story.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': The ComicBook/PostCrisis has this in spades. When she first appeared, her backstory was simple -- she was sent to Earth at the same time as Superman and was his older cousin and she was supposed to look after him when they got there, but she was trapped in Kryptonite and in suspended animation for years and didn't emerge until Superman was a full-grown adult. Then it was revealed that this origin might be partly false, that her whole side of the El family was evil, and that she was sent to kill her cousin. ''Then'' it was revealed that while she ''was'' sent to kill Kal-El, it was because there was a curse which he inherited that would break down the barrier to the Phantom Zone which Jor-El, Superman's father, had invented (this too would later be ignored), and that eventually Phantom Zone monsters would start crossing over to the real world unless Kal-El was killed. This origin was even verified as being correct by a Monitor... but then Supergirl's parents showed up and it turned out that her real origin was a modified version of her [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] origin (that a chunk of Krypton survived the destruction), and that everything else was the effects of Kryptonite poisoning making Supergirl crazy.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** Superman has a ''canonical'' multiple-choice past: one time, he was given the choice between two of his innumerable origin stories, and he picked the one that he liked more (and, incidentally, made more sense), while another time, someone travelled through his many origins while observing him.
** Bizarro, although in this case it's a JustifiedTrope because, technically, Superman has been cloned more than once, and not always perfectly, and more than one of those imperfect clones have been named Bizarro.
** Brainiac has not been able to keep his backstory consistent for more than a few years, not even getting into various adaptations.
*** From 1958 to 1964, he was an alien scientist from the planet Bryak who wanted to {{shrink|Ray}} and [[CityInABottle bottle cities]] so that he could create his own empire to rule. From 1964 to 1986, he was {{retcon}}ned as an alien android from the planet Yod (or Colu, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the story]]) out to dominate or destroy (depending on the story) the universe. He was absent for a couple years until 1988 declared that ComicBook/PostCrisis, he was an (organic) alien scientist from the planet Colu who (via an accident) transferred his mind onto a swarm of nanites that then possessed various bodies both mechanical and organic. He went insane and went on killing sprees on Earth (though his motivation and scope was variable, going from an Earth-restricted serial killer who just wanted to hassle Superman to a MultiversalConqueror). He was totally organic from 1988 to 1998 (possessing first human psychic Milton Fine, then a newly-created body resembling his Coluan one complete with green skin, SuperIntelligence, and PsychicPowers, then finally stealing Doomsday's body), totally mechanical bar the origin of his mind from 1998 to 2008 (in his Brainiac 2.5, Brainiac 13, and nanoswarm forms), and took a couple breaks in both these periods to possess or build a cyborg form (such as Brainiac 6, who was a version of him from the future... long story).
*** The 2008 story ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'' decisively {{retcon}}ned ''all'' previous versions of him as being [[ActuallyADoombot robotic or cloned probes]] sent by the real Brainiac, who was definitively established as an originally organic, now cybernetic alien scientist from the planet Yod-Colu who was born the most intelligent member of a super-intelligent race, and used his inventions and various powers to go rogue and become a planet-destroying, [[PlanetLooters civilization-stealing]] GalacticConqueror. His motivation was now to obtain all knowledge in the universe (his standard MO being stealing all knowledge from a planet and then destroying it with his nigh-invincible custom-built ship so no one else could have the knowledge) and use it and his collection of stolen shrunken cities to remake the universe in his own image, with him "becoming everything." This was then interrupted in 2011 by the ''ComicBook/New52'' continuity rebooting his backstory ''again'': it kept him as an organic turned cyborg scientist from Colu, but changed his motivation and made him a TragicVillain and a WellIntentionedExtremist instead of the cold greedy monster he always was, while also giving him a wife and kid in his backstory which no previous version had. (The previous continuity's version of Vril Dox II was a clone, and not one Brainiac felt affection for.) After the ''New 52'' was soft-rebooted with 2016's ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', he's back to more-or-less the 2008 version. Time will tell how long this will stick.
* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': The original Joker's Daughter, Duela Dent, claimed to be the daughter of several supervillains[[note]]The Joker, Catwoman, the Scarecrow, the Riddler, the Penguin, Two-Face, ''Doomsday'', Dr. Light, Punch and Jewelee[[/note]] before revealing herself as the daughter of Two-Face and Gilda Dent. Sometime later, Dick Grayson realized that this couldn't be true because Duela is too old to be Two-Face's daughter, and Duela chides him for taking so long to figure that out. ComicBook/PostCrisis, nobody was sure who she really was because her backstory kept changing, and not even she seemed to know who her dad was. It eventually turned out that [[spoiler:she ''is'' the Joker's daughter... ''and'' Two-Face's... ''and'' the Riddler's. Duela originally came from Earth-3, where her biological parents were the Jokester and Three-Face, heroic versions of the Joker and (in this case, a female version of) Two-Face. Her stepfather was a heroic version of the Riddler. Duela somehow kept shifting between Earth-3 and the main DC Universe, explaining her confusion as a result of being shifted from universe to universe]].
* ''ComicBook/WonderGirl'': Donna Troy's past is so complicated that writers are more likely to spend more time attempting to [[ContinuitySnarl clean it up]] rather than chronicling her current adventures. To sum it up as briefly as possible:
** After she spent the first 21 issues of the original ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' series with no backstory, Marv Wolfman would establish that she was an orphan rescued from a burning apartment building by ComicBook/WonderWoman. He would later expand upon the story in ''New Teen Titans'', revealing that the couple that died weren't Donna's biological parents and that her mother had died after giving her up for adoption.
** After ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' rewrote continuity, Wonder Woman became a newcomer to the DC Universe. Since this meant Donna would predate her as a superhero, Wolfman and Perez then revised Donna's backstory to state that she was rescued by the Titans of Myth and sent back to Earth at age 13 (with her memories wiped). She would then base her Wonder Girl costume off of the American flag.
** In the late '90s, Creator/JohnByrne decided to apply his own retcon: Donna was actually a magical twin of Diana, created from a mirror and kidnapped by Dark Angel, who would then curse her to live multiple lives of tragedy. Byrne would also reveal that Donna based her "Wonder Girl" identity off of Hippolyta's Golden Age stint as Wonder Woman (via a time-traveling paradox).
** Allan Heinberg would finally use the mirror origin in stating that she was "born of magic" but would add that Wonder Woman rescued her and that the Amazons ''and'' Titans of Myth trained her.
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Stjepan Sejic in [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/51/91/2c/51912cc92e66977e19d77c2b3bb13f3e.jpg this one-off picture]] showing Wonder Girl signing copies of her new autobiography, "Your Guess Is as Good as Mine";
--->'''Reader:''' Holy hell, this thing reads like a Choose Your Own Adventure!\\
'''Donna:''' Yeah, pretty much...
** Meredith Finch and Dan Abnett then created ''their'' brand new versions of Donna's backstory, wherein she's now a clay golem created by a group of Amazons to serve as a weapon. Under Finch's time as writer of ''Wonder Woman'', Donna was never Wonder Girl and was created by the Amazon witch Derinoe to purge the island of the Amazon sons and usurp Diana as queen. Under Abnett's time as writer of ''Titans'', Donna was indeed Wonder Girl at some point, and given fake memories by the Amazons to make her believe she'd been an abandoned orphan discovered by Wonder Woman.

[[AC:''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':]]
* Creator/MarvelComics' [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils Hell Lords]] have one mutual origin, but most also have their own versions. It doesn't help that they are demons, so ''everything'' they say can be a lie and each story has set arguments and events that either supports or deny it.
** The mutual story connects them to the [[EldritchAbomination Elder Gods]], the first generation of Earth gods. When evil god Set found out that he could steal the power of other gods by killing them, he caused the first war between gods. Gaea gave birth to Atum, who promised to destroy all evil gods. But their evil energy corrupted him, and he turned into the monstrous Demogorge, the God-Eater. Demogorge killed all gods who didn't escape to another dimension. Then he released all power he couldn't contain. This power has been consciously or unconsciously shaped by young humanity into the form of their fears, creating Hell-Lords, the first demons.
** Mephisto told his own version during ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' -- in his version, an abstract-equal being called Nemesis was lonely, so she created companions from her own essence, but forgot to give them good nature. When they all turned evil, she destroyed them and committed suicide. But her creations have somehow been reborn and become the first demons in the universe. Mephisto claims to be one of them.
** Marduk Kurios claims to be both the real {{Satan}} and the Babylonian god Marduk, having degenerated into a demon after realizing that he could gain much more power from human souls than their belief.
** Satannish believes that he is the son of Dormammu, [[DimensionLord the Master of the Dark Dimension]].
** Lucifer has his classic biblical origin of the FallenAngel and denies any connection between him and other Hell Lords, but he's not different from them at all.
** Chthon has also claimed to be the first Demon.
* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'': Bullseye has multiple tales about his past life: he is either a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} agent, a baseball star... he makes up so many stories that no one knows who he really is. The only thing that remains consistent in his claims is that he had AbusiveParents and that [[SelfMadeOrphan he killed them]].
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} has a large number of competing origins for his past. There's also some disagreement as to whether Wade Wilson is his real name or a name which he stole from someone else. Pretty much the only thing all the origin stories have in common is that his HealingFactor is the result of time spent as a Weapon X test subject. Like the Joker, Deadpool is insane enough that he probably has no idea himself which one is correct. He does seem fairly certain that Wade Wilson is his real name, however.
** It's also somewhat ambiguous whether or not he really has an actual Multiple-Choice Past or not. The only person that ever brought up the possibility does so during a MindScrew.
** T-Ray even hints that 'Pool may ''not'' be Wade Wilson at all -- instead, T-Ray himself would be Wade Wilson, and Deadpool stole the name from him. The comics seem to keep disproving this story but given how nuts DP is and in light of what's been exposed in this bullet point, the jury's still out.
** ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool'' stated that Wade's father was an abusive military officer who was shot and killed by one of Wade's friends, while a later run seemed to imply that has father had [[DisappearedDad walked out on him as a child]] and started a new family elsewhere.
** The ''ComicBook/MarvelNOW'' run eventually clarifies Deadpool's origin, as well as the various {{Plot Hole}}s and retcons. It turns out the stuff with T-Ray being the ''real'' Wade, as well as all the conflicting stuff about his family, were the result of a scientist named Butler putting Deadpool in advanced hallucinations while he harvested his DNA over the years.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': A minor example is Doctor Doom, specifically what caused the machine he made to scar his face. ''Did'' Reed Richards mess with it, the resulting explosion scarring Doom's face? Or did Doom simply miscalculate? Was Reed involved at all? Did Ben Grimm fuck with the machine? Did it actually work, only for him to be disfigured from being attacked by Mephisto? Hell, how scarred ''was'' his face from the explosion -- in some versions, it was a minor scar and Doom put on his mask before it cooled and ''that'' burned his face.
* ''ComicBook/IronMan'': The Mandarin was originally said to be the child of a British noblewoman and a wealthy descendant of UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, with his youth spent receiving the finest education money could buy. Creator/MattFraction's run, however, would later suggest that the Mandarin was actually the {{son|OfAWhore}} of an {{opium den}} prostitute, and that he'd been a gangster and smuggler before he lucked out and found his trademark [[RingOfPower Rings of Power]]. However, he could easily still be a descendant of Genghis Khan, since his descendants are [[ReallyGetsAround about 10% of the population of Asia]].
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': The Asgardians' stories can also contradict themselves, which is generally {{Hand Wave}}d by either claiming that it happened that way in a different [[EternalRecurrence Ragnarok cycle]] or going the Loki route and saying that they are [[MediumAwareness living myth and metaphor]], complete with invoking the SugarWiki/FictionIdentityPostulate. ([[UnreliableNarrator Loki]] claims this about almost ''all'' Marvel gods and demons, by the way, but he is not exactly trustworthy.)
* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': Did Chase [[spoiler:kill someone because of/with his van]]? Even he's not sure -- he later admits that he made up stories to attempt to justify his father's abuse of him, and eventually started [[BelievingTheirOwnLies believing some of them]]. At one point, he seems extremely certain that he ''didn't''; later on, he seems totally certain that he ''did''.
-->'''Nico:''' You've told a few different versions of that story.\\
'''Chase:''' Right, well, in this one...
* Heavily used in regard to ''ComicBook/TheSentry'', especially the relationship between him, his civilian identity Robert Reynolds and his SuperpoweredEvilSide the Void: is the Void the result of a "mind virus" implanted by Mastermind? Are Sentry and the Void the good and evil nature that exist in every person given form by the serum Reynolds took? Is the Void a SplitPersonality formed by Reynolds' repression of his past as a thief and junkie? Is the Void Reynolds' ''real'' personality and the Sentry is the fake one? Or is the serum a RedHerring and the Sentry is actually something else entirely like the Angel of Death? All of these were presented as equally likely. Which is pretty appropriate since Sentry is quite crazy. In fact, given that Sentry is crazy ''and'' is a RealityWarper, it's strongly suggested that the "true" version is ''whatever he believes at the time''.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Carnage, being Marvel's resident PracticallyJoker. Unlike a lot of examples, Carnage's backstories never have a FreudianExcuse, and he always insists that he doesn't need one.
-->'''Carnage:''' I remember things wrong sometimes, but it all works if it ''feels'' right.
* In ''ComicBook/SupremePower'', Zarda gives three conflicting origin stories that involve both her and Hyperion when he asks her where she came from. Since Zarda's demonstrably insane, it's safe to say none of them are even close to true.
* ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'':
** Wolverine is especially susceptible to this; his [[AmnesiacHero amnesia about his past]] is a common plot driver in early-'90s stories, and what we know keeps getting {{retcon}}ned. Even after it was made so that he could remember every single thing that ever happened to him, the series ''Wolverine: Origins'' still managed to milk the concept -- remembering '''everything''' meant that his real memories were no stronger or more distinct than his FakeMemories.
** Wolverine's arch-enemy Victor Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth, likewise has multiple possible pasts. He was part of the same Weapon X program as Wolverine, which included false memory implants, so that's no surprise. A notable example is his mother: she was initially thought to have [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed her own life]] to protect Victor from his abusive father, only for a later one-shot to show a young Victor killing her himself for failing to stop the abuse. Then, years later, it turned out she was still alive and in a nursing home, and that Victor [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas actually had a very close and loving relationship with her]].
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** Arcade, the AmusementParkOfDoom-themed ProfessionalKiller who has menaced the X-Men on numerous occasions, has told a number of different versions of his origin story, although they all involve him murdering his rich dad for his money. Since Arcade's real name is unknown, it could all be lies.
** The Phoenix is either Jean Grey's SuperpoweredEvilSide or a variation on GrandTheftMe who duplicated her rather than possessing her.

[[AC:Other:]]
* ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'': Is Veronica from Massachusetts or New York? Early comics have her from Boston but later on this was {{retcon}}ned to New York and has mostly stayed that way since.
* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Crackerjack's origins are whatever fanciful yarn he can tell at the spur of the moment. At different times he's claimed to be from a circus family that got abducted and trained by aliens, an Olympic hopeful who was sabotaged by a competitor, a determined survivor of polio, a genetically-engineered member of a spy cult... Even his long-time girlfriend Quarrel has no idea which -- if any -- is the truth.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicBook/TheDNAgents'' with guest hero Lancer, the setting's most powerful superhuman, who would never tell the same story of where his powers came from twice.
* King Mob from ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' has a self-constructed multiple-choice past, the point being to stop enemies with telepathic powers from prying information about him and his group. If they try, they can't be sure which memories are true and which are part of a fake past.
* Teddy "Red" Herring of ''Red Herring'' is said to have an [[GlassEye obviously false right eye]] ([[InformedDeformity though the art depicts it identically to his left]]), and always has a different explanation for it: a childhood accident, shrapnel from a grenade in Iraq, a flesh-eating virus, the heel of a jealous ex-girlfriend... In all likelihood, none of these are true.
* Played with in Creator/AlanMoore's first twelve issues of ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'', in which the {{retcon}}s are part of the in-story universe, and the multiple past Supremes exist in their own dimension.
* In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'' (and later the movies and ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003''), Splinter was originally the beloved pet rat of Hamato Yoshi, who saw his master's assassination and then later was mutated into a humanoid intelligent rat-being. In the '80s cartoon series and the spinoff comic books, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi himself, forced into exile and living in the sewer when he first encountered the mutagen. Having recently been in contact with sewer rats, the mutagen turned him into a humanoid rat. In his profile on the DVD of the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990 first live-action movie]], it's said that Splinter's origins are "shrouded in mystery" and that either one of them is possible.
* The trope is played ''absolutely literally'' in ''ComicBook/TheUnwritten'', in which the origin of Lizzie Hexam is structured like a {{Gamebook|s}} comic: Is Lizzie Hexam actually a character who emerged from out of a Dickens novel, is she a victim of child abuse who gave up her body to a fictional construct, or simply a delusional girl? Did Wilson Taylor treat her like a daughter, like a prisoner, or like a science experiment? Interestingly, while the reader can choose multiple paths for Lizzie, they all end with her at the press conference from issue #1. The subtext of this meshes very closely with Tom's words to Lizzie in the hospital: which story you decide to follow is more important than which one is true.
* ComicBook/{{Vampirella}} has two conflicting origin stories. Originally, she was a {{Human Alien|s}} from the planet Drakulon which, you guessed it, is a world inhabited by vampires. When her character was resurrected in the 90s she was made into the daughter of Myth/{{Lilith}}, who still ruled in Hell and birthed Vampirella so she could hunt down evil on Earth. The circumstances of her conception are also up in the air, with some stories presenting {{Cain}} as Vampirella's blood father, while others offer that Vampirella has no father and was created by Lilith through BloodMagic. The 2010 Dynamite series includes a blurb with every issue lampshading this ContinuitySnarl, implying that ''both'' the Drakulon and Hell origins may be true. Eventually the two sort of mashed together, with Drakulon sometimes being presented as a corner of Hell, or Lilith as a native from the planet Drakulon.
* The entire setting of ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' has a Multiple-Choice Past. Throughout the series, we're given various theories about the {{Gendercide}} and what caused it, but [[UnspecifiedApocalypse none of these theories are ever proven true]]. [[TheUnreveal The story ends with no real explanation]] and it's left up to the reader to decide which, if any, of the origin stories were correct.[[note]]According to writer Creator/BrianKVaughan, he did put the actual reason for the gendercide in the story, he just didn't point directly at it and [[ShrugOfGod refuses to specify]], literally leaving it up to the reader to decide which one is the actual cause.[[/note]]
[[/folder]]

* Detective Kate Beckett of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has elements of this trope. Aside from conversational information for characterization, there are the things she teases Castle about that are never substantiated.

** The Doctor has multiple conflicting backstories, due in part to the evolving nature of the show. They might be from the 49th century ("An Unearthly Child" pilot), they might be a child born into privilege ("The Deadly Assassin") or from apparent poverty ("Listen"), they might have learned spiritual lessons from Time Lord hermits on the hill where they lived ("The Time Monster") or have been raised in the metropolis of the Capitol ("Invasion of Time"), have been woven as a young adult on a genetic loom, incorporating the biodata of the Other, an enigmatic Gallifreyan founding figure ("Lungbarrow") or been born half-human (the TV Movie), they might have had multiple incarnations before the First Doctor ("The Brain of Morbius", "Cold Fusion"), might have abandoned their family ("An Unearthly Child") or have some sort of relationship with their mother ("The End of Time"), might have built the TARDIS themself ("The Chase") or stolen it ("The War Games"), and their madness might originate from a childhood visit from Clara ("Listen"), staring into the Time Vortex as a child ("Utopia") or political issues forcing them to escape, with the time travel itself causing their madness along the way (audio drama "The Beginning" and the ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' series). They could also be [[spoiler: an adopted being possibly from another universe known as "The Timeless Child" who was used as the source of the early Gallifreyans' ability to regenerate, enabling them to become the Time Lords, and may have lived enough lives for all of these backstories to be true without them even knowing it entirely]]. ("The Timeless Children"). Sometimes they even have a Multiple Choice ''Future'' where they enounter what might be later regenerations (besides the ones that actually are). Some of these are reconcilable, others aren't, and overall the show doesn't care about nailing the character down like that, as it's not really the point.

** Cedric the Bull, the main villain of the Knights Kingdom 1 sub theme of Castle, has two completely different backstories depending on what you read. A US Lego Mania Magazine says that he used to be one of King Leo's knights who got a little power hungry and betrayed the king wanting to rule the kingdom for himself. However according to a story book called ''Medieval Mischief and Mayhem'', the manual for the PC Creator Knights Kingdom game and a flash book from the theme's old and now gone website instead states that he's the 13th son of an unknown king(thereby making him a prince)of a land faraway from Leo's kingdom. Then when the king died he left his land to be divided up and ruled by his his sons, all the princes got a share of land except for Cedric which resulted in him traveling far away from his homeland, going rogue, finding Leo's kingdom and developing an obsession of taking over and ruling Leo's land for himself. While is not clear on which is the canon backstory it possibly is the latter one due to it being used in three different sources while the former one is only used in one source. Plus the latter story does make Cedric a more interesting villain and it kinda makes you feel a little sorry for him, the former story is rather bland, cliche and makes Cedric sound waaay to similar to Vladek from the second Toys/KnightsKingdom2

*** Garak also had a Multiple Choice Past. The second-season episode "The Wire" had him confess to three different, contradictory stories about why he's on the station, all of which are proven to be false (it's also not the only time he "explains" why he was exiled, and none of those stories hold water either). At the end of the episode, Bashir confronts him about it, only to have Garak declare that they were all true.

*** The non-canon book ''[[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineAStitchInTime A Stitch in Time]]'' has Garak remember his childhood and the real reason he was exiled, while walking through the ruins of Cardassia. He killed a high-level official, who caught Garak with his wife (all three went to school together). Interestingly, his boss and father Enabran Tain actually ordered the assassination, but it was the semi-public way Garak did it that got him kicked out of the Obsidian Order.

** Creator/JohnByrne's run infamously disregarded every preceding ''Doom Patrol'' series and started continuity anew with a revamped version of the original roster (The Chief, Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl) that had new characters Nudge, Grunt, Vortex and Faith added as additional recruits before Creator/GeoffJohns took advantage of the CosmicRetcon caused by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' to reinstate the preceding series as canon while still retaining the roster established in John Byrne's run before Johns used his run on ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' to further distance the Doom Patrol from John Byrne's changes. While the established origins for Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl were more or less left intact, the John Byrne run idntified T'oombala, the shaman of a tribe of natives the Chief once helped out, as the one responsible for crippling the Chief, when before it was General Immortus who gave the Chief his handicap.

** Creator/JohnByrne's run infamously disregarded every preceding ''Doom Patrol'' series and started continuity anew with a revamped version of the original roster (The Chief, Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl) that had new characters Nudge, Grunt, Vortex and Faith added as additional recruits before Creator/GeoffJohns took advantage of the CosmicRetcon caused by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' to reinstate the preceding series as canon while still retaining the roster established in John Byrne's run before Johns used his run on ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' to further distance the Doom Patrol from John Byrne's changes. While the established origins for Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl were more or less left intact, the John Byrne run revealed that T'oombala, the shaman of a tribe of natives the Chief once helped out, as the one responsible for crippling the Chief, when before it was General Immortus credited as the one who gave the Chief his handicap.

** Creator/JohnByrne's run infamously disregarded every preceding ''Doom Patrol'' series and started continuity anew with a revamped version of the original roster (The Chief, Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl) that had new characters Nudge, Grunt, Vortex and Faith added as additional recruits before Creator/GeoffJohns took advantage of the CosmicRetcon caused by ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' to reinstate the preceding series as canon while still retaining the roster established in John Byrne's run before Johns used his run on ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' to further distance the Doom Patrol from John Byrne's changes. While the established origins for Robotman, Negative Man and Elasti-Girl were more or less left intact, the John Byrne run revealed that T'oombala, the shaman of a tribe of natives the Chief once helped out, as responsible for crippling the Chief, when before it was General Immortus credited as the one who gave the Chief his handicap.