History Main / MultipleChoicePast

* ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'': Suspecting a traitor among them, the Chief confides to Rita that he's actually an alien. He also confided other origin stories to Cliff and the Negative Man. 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.

** 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.

** 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 origins include: a Human Noble who was betrayed, a City Elf suffering under a cruel human noble, a Dalish Elf who is exiled from their clan, a Magi (either human or elven) undertaking a trial by fire, a Dwarf Commoner seeking a means to rise above their station, and a Dwarf Noble caught in a web of political intrigue.

* ''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, 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.

* ''Videomgame/{{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.

** The series explained in "The Three Doctors" that Omega created the Time Lords by creating a black hole artificially. "The Deadly Assassin" says Rassilon did it. Later stories have reconciled the two explanations. (Rassilon and Omega were partners, Omega did the actual testing and got sucked into the black hole, Rassilon brought home the results)
** Averted in New Who with the Cybermen: an alternative origin story, in which the Cybermen are invented on Earth by a wealthy human attempting to prevent his own death, is set in an alternate universe. The Mondas Cybermen didn't show up until 2010 (not counting the museum piece in "Dalek").

** Amy Pond complains to the Doctor in the short "Good Night" that she can remember two different pasts, one in which she was raised by her aunt and had "never had parents," and another in which she'd "always had parents" who raised her. Unusually, the Doctor points out, and Amy agrees, that it's all ''fine'', that there's no problem caused by having two incompatible pasts -- although Amy feels like there ''should'' be. She is, in fact, remembering an alternate timeline that actually happened, but then the entire Universe got rebooted.

* ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops'' makes this trope kind of enforced: a part of the way the Loops work is that anything that wasn't explicitly stated in Baseline (i.e., a series' canon) is "Loop Variable", meaning it changes from one loop to the next; consequently, characters with a MysteriousPast will find that past being completely altered every Loop, which can be extremely disorienting for Awake Loopers. Cinder Fall was driven temporarily insane by having her past and motivations constantly changing, since her canon backstory wasn't revealed until eight-years into the show's run. Her fellow Remnant Loopers Ozpin, Torchwick, and Neo all suffered from this as well before their pasts "firmed up", but she was hit the hardest.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Mr. Cat's life before coming to live in Smileyland, and why he went there. For example, in one episode he explains that he was [[RaisedByWolves raised by a salmon]] after being tied in a sack and thrown in a river, but another one says he [[TheRunaway ran away from home]] because of his abusive family. Though all of the backstories he's given are sad enough to give him a FreudianExcuse, and a reason for being as psychologically messed up as he is.

* In Anime/MobileSuitGundam, there's an episode where Amuro returns to his hometown and reunites with his mother. According to a [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary book]], said hometown is located in the San'in Region of Japan. However, when the compilation movies changed the course of the White Base, it was moved to Prince Rupert, Canada instead.
** In the AlternateContinuity manga Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin, the course of White Base was changed yet again, putting Amuro's hometown in Rosarito, Mexico. To add to the confusion, the manga's author Yoshizaku Yasuhiko [[WordOfGod stated in an interview]] that Amuro was actually born in Tottori Prefecture, Japan.

** 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 [[Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow three]] [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 animated]] [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld 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?

*** Meanwhile Megagodzilla 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 dinousaur 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.

Compare BroadStrokes, ComicBookTime, ContinuitySnarl, DependingOnTheWriter, ExpansionPackPast, NegativeContinuity, and OriginsEpisode. Sounds similar to but has nothing to do with MultipleChoiceFuture.

* In the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} Cars Toons]]'' series, Mater, the resident CloudCuckoolander, always boasts about his past where he was involved in something big such as being a famous racer, a spy, a firefighter, or an elite detective. Lightning never believes his claims, but the end of each episode always proves that ''every single one'' of Mater's narratives is a true story.

* One episode of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Next'' has a chef who gives 4 different versions of his origin, one for each of the main characters. It is then subverted at the end when all four back stories turn out to be true.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** Then there are the ones from the Sixties when their being a [[HumanAlien Time Lord]] hadn't been established yet - they might be something disguised as an Earth creature ("The Daleks' Master Plan"), they might be more than human due to too much time travel ("The Evil of the Daleks"), their regeneration might be a property of the TARDIS rather than an innate ability ("The Power of the Daleks"), etc.

** ''Doctor Who'' has explained away the creation of the Daleks in four different ways. Once in their debut story "The Daleks" (which didn't actually show it), a second time in a spin-off comic ''The Dalek Chronicles'' (which didn't contradict the first origin story), a third time in the short story ''We Are The Daleks!'' written by Terry nation (which claimed that [[TomatoInTheMirror the Daleks were a future offshoot of humanity]] brought into existence early by AncientAstronauts who transplanted them to another planet… yeah, ''everybody'' ignores that one) and finally in "Genesis of the Daleks".\\

** ''ComicBook/BatmanTomKing'' 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]].

** 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 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 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.

-->'''Doctor:''' They always get started. They happen everywhere there's people. Mondas, Telos, Earth, Planet 14, Marinus...

** In-universe, [[ShowWithinAShow comic book hero]] The Crimson Chin has two origin stories. One, described in the show, is that he was a talk show host bitten by a radioactive actor. Then, in a Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine comic involving Timmy following the Crimson Chin's RoguesGallery through different incarnations of the comic, they eventually go to an origin story where he was [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} an alien sent to Earth as a baby]]. Cosmo expresses confusion at this, [[CallBack bringing up the radioactive actor origin]], to which Timmy says that this was the ''original'' origin from [[invoked]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers "before the lawsuit"]].

** In-universe, [[ShowWithinAShow comic book hero]] The Crimson Chin has two origin stories. One, described in the show, is that he was a talk show host bitten by a radioactive actor. In a Magazine/NickelodeonMagazine comic involving Timmy following the Crimson Chin's RoguesGallery through different incarnations of the comic, they eventually go to an origin story where he was [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} an alien sent to Earth as a baby]]. Cosmo expresses confusion at this, [[CallBack bringing up the radioactive actor origin]], to which Timmy says that this was the ''original'' origin from [[invoked]][[ScrewedByTheLawyers "before the lawsuit"]].

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz's [[ExaggeratedTrope many]] FreudianExcuse [[RunningGag backstories]] in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. The details of Doofenshmirtz's past may initially seem like contradictory backstories, but they're occasionally shown to belong to a coherent, if crowded, timeline, most clearly laid out in the episode "This Is Your Backstory."

** 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.

** 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.

** 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/SonicTheHedgehog 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''. 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.
** According to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', Tails lived on West Side Island. That is where he met Sonic there. The manual to ''VideoGame/TailsAdventure'', however, says that Tails lived on Cocoa Island in the past.
** Eggman's backstory is muddled by retcons. In Japan he had no origin 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. The EarthDrift in the late 2000s/early 2010s retconned him again to being a TokenHuman with no reason given to why he's the sole human around.

** Maggie's pacifier-sucking habit: "And Maggie Makes Three" shows her grabbing it off a table and popping it in her mouth [[EarlyPersonalitySigns moments after being born]], while "Mr. Lisa's Opus" has her developing the addiction instantly upon a desperate Marge giving her one to deal with her early colic.

*** Bart's issues compared to Lisa are variously attributed to the aforementioned genetics, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax emotional trauma at the hands of his kindergarten teacher]], alcohol intake [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E25NaturalBornKissers during]] and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E3DoubleDoubleBoyInTrouble after]] his conception, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper ADHD]], [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E7TheDayTheEarthStoodCool Marge bottle-feeding Bart and breastfeeding Lisa]], or [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E13HardlyKirking Bart's intelligence having been stunted by a kid's educational show while Lisa was distracted playing with the DVD packaging]], and even [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS25E3FourRegrettingsAndAFuneral Marge constantly listening to KISS while pregnant]]. [[note]](The last is at least implied to be more of a worry on Marge's part than something the audience should take seriously, as Chief Wiggum reassures her that his wife dutifully listened to Mozart and Winston Churchhill speeches while pregnant and still got [[TheDitz Ralph]]...who, on the other hand, appears to have suffered from ChildhoodBrainDamage after Wiggum dropped him.)[[/note]]

*** Bart's issues compared to Lisa are variously attributed to the aforementioned genetics, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E3LisasSax emotional trauma at the hands of his kindergarten teacher]], alcohol intake [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E25NaturalBornKissers during]] and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E3DoubleDoubleBoyInTrouble after]] his conception, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E2BrothersLittleHelper ADHD]], [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E7TheDayTheEarthStoodCool Marge bottle-feeding Bart and breastfeeding Lisa]], or [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS24E13HardlyKirking Bart's intelligence having been stunted by a kid's educational show while Lisa was distracted playing with the DVD packaging]].