History Main / VoodooShark

** In the original ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', Scar's plan to get rid of Simba and Mufasa was to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make it look like the two died in an accident]] caused by a wildebeest stampede. When Simba survived, Scar quickly [[{{Gaslighting}} tricked Simba]] into thinking it was his fault Mufasa died and told him to run away. This led to some viewers being confused about whether that was Scar's plan all along rather than having Simba die, since his reaction afterwards didn't seem too startled by Simba surviving (though that might be explained if he saw Mufasa put Simba on a safe ledge), leading to questions and theories about this being his true motive. ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019'' version uses this idea for the scene, having Scar make Simba think his roar was the cause of the stampede and pinning the blame on him. The issue with this change is that Scar had no way of knowing that Simba would survive the stampede. Plus the entire idea of it being Scar's plan all along in the original film was a misinterpretation of the scene, as it was clear that Scar meant for Simba to die, he explicitly says so in [[VillainSong "Be Prepared"]]. If Simba had died, then what good would it do to have him think it was his fault that his father died, since Simba would be dead shortly after anyway? Furthermore, by making it where Scar tells Simba to practice his roar, Simba feeling it was his mistake doesn't make sense because Scar was the one who told him to do it, so in theory he should feel Scar tricked him, but instead it continues the way the original film did. In the original, Scar just tells Simba he "might want to work on that roar of yours", as a sort of passive-aggressive mockery about the Elephant Graveyard incident, rather than a real suggestion, and it's only after Simba survives that Scar tries to convince him his roar caused the stampede.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}: [[{Prequel}} The Old world]]'' takes place about two centuries before the others editions of the game, and a few years before the [[WizardingSchool Imperial College of Magic]] was founded, using that fact to explain the different magic system. But that does not explain why wizards from elsewhere than the Empire ''also'' use that new magic system, when other races have had their own ways of teaching magic long before the Empire did.

** In the original ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', Scar's plan to get rid of Simba and Mufasa was to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make it look like the two died in an accident]] caused by a wildebeest stampede. When Simba survived, Scar quickly [[{{Gaslighting}} tricked Simba]] into thinking it was his fault Mufasa died and told him to run away. This led to some viewers being confused about whether that was Scar's plan all along rather than having Simba die, since his reaction afterwards didn't seem too startled by Simba surviving (though that might be explained if he saw Mufasa put Simba on a safe ledge), leading to questions and theories about this being his true motive. ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019'' version uses this idea for the scene, having Scar make Simba think his roar was the cause of the stampede and pinning the blame on him. The issue with this change is that Scar had no way of knowing that Simba would survive the stampede. Plus the entire idea of it being Scar's plan all along in the original film was a misinterpretation of the scene, as it was clear that Scar meant for Simba to die, he explicitly says so in [[VillainSong "Be Prepared"]]. If Simba had died, then what good would it do to have him think it was his fault that his father died, since Simba would be dead shortly after anyway? Furthermore, by making it where Scar tells Simba to practice his roar, Simba feeling it was his mistake doesn't make sense because Scar was the one who told him to do it, so in theory he should feel Scar tricked him, but instead it continues the way the original film did.

*** Creator/JKRowling, through an article on ''Pottermore'' that tried to address the issue, made it a lot worse by introducing a baffling piece of world-building -- apparently, before they installed the plumbing in the 1700s, "wizards [[TheDungAges simply relieved themselves wherever they stood]], and vanished the evidence." Not only is this pretty damn vulgar and stupid, it contradicts a lot of what we see in the books. First, vanishing spells are not that easy to do; students don't learn it until they're fifteen. So what did younger students do when they needed to do their business? Second, why didn't they make use of known medieval methods of plumbing, like privies, outhouses, and chamberpots -- the latter of which are even mentioned in the series? Wouldn't it have been easier to just have a set of privies and have someone come in and vanish the byproducts after the fact? Did they not have dutiful house-elves to do the work? Or [[Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI enterprising piss boys]]? There are just ''so'' many better ways to relieve oneself with magic than invoking a PottyFailure and cleaning it up--while there are historical cases of people relieving themselves on the floor or in the halls, these were ''not'' standard policy. Finally, taking for granted that it really is that easy to perform vanishing spells, one would wonder why the wizards would bother with indoor plumbing with such an…’’efficient’’ waste management system already in place. And, of course, it doesn't really answer the question anyway, which has little to do with what wizards did ''before'' the bathrooms were installed.

*** Creator/JKRowling, through an article on ''Pottermore'' that tried to address the issue, made it a lot worse by introducing a baffling piece of world-building -- apparently, before they installed the plumbing in the 1700s, "wizards [[TheDungAges simply relieved themselves wherever they stood]], and vanished the evidence." Not only is this pretty damn vulgar and stupid, it contradicts a lot of what we see in the books. First, vanishing spells are not that easy to do; students don't learn it until they're fifteen. So what did younger students do when they needed to do their business? Second, why didn't they make use of known medieval methods of plumbing, like privies, outhouses, and chamberpots -- the latter of which are even mentioned in the series? Wouldn't it have been easier to just have a set of privies and have someone come in and vanish the byproducts after the fact? Did they not have dutiful house-elves to do the work? Or [[Film/HistoryOfTheWorldPartI enterprising piss boys]]? There are just ''so'' many better ways to relieve oneself with magic than invoking a PottyFailure and cleaning it up--while there are historical cases of people relieving themselves on the floor or in the halls, these were ''not'' standard policy. Finally, taking for granted that it really is that easy to perform vanishing spells, one would wonder why the wizards would bother with indoor plumbing with such an…’’efficient’’ waste management system already in place.

* The GameMod ''VideoGame/StardewValleyExpanded'' attempted to justify why, in the [[VideoGame/StardewValley original game]], the Farmer uses only melee weapons against the monsters when firearms are known to exist in the setting by having Marlon explain that monsters cannot be harmed by conventional weapons and the melee weapons are imbued with magic. This then raises the question of how nonmagical slingshot projectiles like rocks and chunks of ore...and more tellingly, ''bombs'' are able to harm the monsters.

** The Japanese version of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' had one so bad [[{{Woolseyism}} the English localization re-wrote it entirely.]] Ike encounters the Black Knight and wonders how he survived the previous game despite Ike defeating him in a duel ''and'' a castle collapsing on top of him. In the Japanese version, the Black Knight explains that his Warp Powder malfunctioned and teleported his soul and armor to the castle Ike fought him at, but not his body. This raises far too many questions: why has Warp magic never done that before, or since, in the series? What happened to the soulless body he left behind? How did the Black Knight's soul re-unite with his body? Who recovered his armor from the ruins? Why was the Black Knight completely unfazed by this and cared more about his duel with Ike than fixing a TeleporterAccident that could leave him body-less? The English localization changes this to the Black Knight [[ILetYouWin letting Ike win]] the duel due to discovering something about Ike's father through dialogue that always existed. Presumably, he escaped the collapsing castle due to being at full strength and prepared for it.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' introduced three Nohrian characters named Laslow, Selena, and Odin, who not only looked identical to three characters from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' (Inigo, Severa, and Owain respectively), but were revealed in their supports to be the same characters from ''Awakening''. Nothing in game explained how they were in Nohr, raising questions and confusion about their inclusion, so a DLC story was released that explained that the [[GoodCounterpart good half]] of the games BigBad Anankos requested their aid in stopping him and protecting his child Corrin. This creates issues however, because nothing in the base game at all lines up with this. For starters, they were sent to Nohr to protect and help Corrin, but they never once indicate they seem to really know who Corrin is, nor do they express a desire to fight for Corrin, as seen when the three would rather fight and die for the Nohrian sibling they serve in ''Birthright''. They also never indicate in their supports that they know what's going on, despite Anankos providing them information that is clear enough for them to know what to do. It also fails to explain how, despite running into an at the time evil Lilith, they seem perfectly fine with her being Corrin's ''maid'' in what can be only a short time after they arrived in Nohr, despite the only time they met Lilith involved her trying to kill them. There's also the simple matter of it being contrived how none of the other child units from ''Awakening'' appear, leaving a question of why Anankos only chose three random characters like them. It's believed by fans that the characters were included only because they were (in Japan) voted three of the four most popular characters from their game and generation, so an explanation was never intended until the game came out and one was made last minute.

* In ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'', the creator is known for clarifying its obscure lore in updates and subsequent games. A key event in the series is the Bite of '87 which is assumed to take place at the end of ''FNAF 2''. In ''FNAF 4'', however, a child is seen bitten by a Fredbear animatronic, which led to people believing it was the actual Bite of '87. In order to clarify it wasn't, there were updates and references put in place to clarify it was actually a separate bite incident that occurred during 1983. This however leads to a lot of issues with the timeline of events.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', Robot Master designs grew more outlandish as time went on, and by ''VideoGame/MegaMan5'', one of the Robot Masters was Charge Man: a Robot Master who is, essentially, an old-fashioned steam locomotive about the size of a human with arms and legs. Supplementary material attempted to justify this by claiming that Charge Man is a transport robot who carries shipments to Wily, and his appearance is actually a form of camouflage, pretendiing to just be a normal train. So, to recap: not only are [[SteamNeverDies people still using coal-powered steam engines in the far-flung year of 200X]], to the point that Charge Man ''actually runs on coal'' just to improve the illusion, but people accept the existence of said steam engines even when, like Charge Man, they're barely any bigger than a regular person. Both of these problems are ironically in full display in Charge Man's own stage, where not only can you see modern-looking trains at the station, but most of the stage takes place ''inside'' a train that is clearly much larger than Charge Man.

** The [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition fifth edition]] module "[[TabletopGame/BaldursGateDescentIntoAvernus Descent into Avernus]]" attempted to explain the history of how [[FallenAngel Zariel]] became the archdevil of Avernus by saying she lead a crusade into Avernus to end the [[ForeverWar Blood War]] but was betrayed by some of her warriors due to the horrors witnessed, and so closed the portal and retreated to the material plane. The issue is that the module states it was the longtime and well established ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' character Jander Sunstar who did so, something that made no sense and caused a bunch of confusion from older players; Jander Sunstar was a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire with no connection to Zariel or Elturel before, and had been largely confined to the ''Ravenloft'' setting since his creation. If he was the one who caused it, how did he escape the Domains of Dread when Zariel was implied to have fallen many years ago? Why would he suddenly become a coward fighting in the Blood War? How could a vampire, even a good aligned one, become so prominent in Zariel's army? Many of these questions were raised as a result, leading to it being retconned that it was actually a clone instead, and that the real Jander is still the same heroic figure in the Domains of Dread, itself being something of this trope due to it still leaving questions about how said clone could escape and why it would do something like that, but being at least slightly less scrutinized by comparison.

* ''WesternAnimaton/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Azula creates blue fire with her firebending, rather than the usual orange-yellow flames most firebenders make. The explanation for this is that her sheer [[ThePowerOfHate cruelty and hatred]] make her fire hotter so it's blue. The problem is that Fire Lord Ozai is even ''more'' cruel and hateful, yet his fire is the normal orangey color.

* ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' added [[FreezeRay cryo]] as a new element/[[DamageTyping damage type]], which is all fine and good except the game takes place ''before'' ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', which notably doesn't have any cryo weapons. The explanation for why is that Marcus (the ArmsDealer) couldn't get any of the frozen methane they use. The problem with this explanation is that Marcus is presumably not the ''only arms dealer on the entire planet'', and even though he's the only one in Sanctuary (the main town in the game) it's hard to believe the Crimson Raiders and their friends couldn't somehow get some teleported in from somewhere else on Pandora (or even Elpis itself, as there's no indication teleportation has any range limit as long as there is equipment on both ends.) And even if you do accept that the vault hunters just couldn't get their hands on any, there's absolutely no reason [[EvilInc Hyperion's soldiers and robots]] wouldn't wield at least a few.

** Overlapping with UnscientificScience and MisaimedRealism: the [[ExtraEyes beholder]] monsters can fly without magical aid, even though they lack any wings or other body parts to do so. One explanation for this was that beholders have an organ full of lighter-than-air gas, allowing them to float. There are three major problems with this. One: if the beholders were filled with such a gas, they should just float away like helium balloons, rather than being able to control their altitude. Two: even if they can float, they shouldn't be able to otherwise move around without any wings, unless they can somehow [[{{Fartillery}} fart out the gas]] to push themselves in a given direction, although if that was the case, you'd think they'd eventually expel all the gas and fall. Three: the beholder's numerous EyeBeams are all magical, since they can do things like [[TakenForGranite turn people to stone]], disintegrate people, or put them under a limited MindControl effect. So why is all of that okay, but their ability to fly needs some sort of scientific HandWave? It would make more sense to just [[AWizardDidIt claim the beholder's ability to fly was magical]] -- there's spells and abilites that creatures and players alike can learn to give themselves magical flight, so why just this one monster merits this explanation is bizarre.

'''[[TinCanRobot Bender]]:''' ''[picking up his still-lit cigar from the underwater ruins]'' So that's where I left my cigar. ''[puffs on it, [[WaterIsAir blows a smoke ring]]]''\\

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' introduces the "Time-Turner", a magical device that can allow the user to make brief trips back in time; the book not only establishes that {{time travel}} exists in the Wizarding World, but also that Wizards are [[CasualTimeTravel fairly casual]] [[MundaneUtility and relaxed about using it]]--since the Ministry of Magic agrees to give a Time-Turner to Hermione (who's '''thirteen years old''' at the time) so that she can fit more classes into her school schedule by taking multiple classes at once (though Hermione does mention Professor McGonagall having to jump through hoops to get her one). But after the device played a major role in the climax of ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'' (effectively serving as a DeusExMachina that enables Harry and Hermione to rescue Sirius Black from the Ministry), many fans questioned why time travel wasn't used to solve problems more often. Later works gave a few different answers to that question, most of which just served to make the issue even more complicated.

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' introduces the "Time-Turner", a magical device that can allow the user to make brief trips back in time; the book not only establishes that {{time travel}} exists in the Wizarding World, but also that Wizards are [[CasualTimeTravel fairly casual]] [[MundaneUtility and relaxed about using it]]--since the Ministry of Magic agrees to give a Time-Turner to Hermione (who's '''thirteen years old''' at the time) so that she can fit more classes into her school schedule by taking multiple classes at once. But after the device played a major role in the climax of ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'' (effectively serving as a DeusExMachina that enables Harry and Hermione to rescue Sirius Black from the Ministry), many fans questioned why time travel wasn't used to solve problems more often. Later works gave a few different answers to that question, most of which just served to make the issue even more complicated.

* The eponymous planet in Poul Anderson's ''Satan's World'' is seen as valuable because, due to being a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet rogue planet]] temporarily passing by a star, it's a cold planet that nevertheless gains an atmosphere and hydrosphere. This would make it a good place to build transmutation plants, which produce so much waste heat that they would sterilize an Earthlike planet if built on one. It's also mentioned that other rogue planets wouldn't work for this purpose due to being ''too'' cold to build on. However, it would make more sense to use comets and/or gas giant moons instead, which are far more common than a literally one-of-a-kind planet and are colder than Earth but still much warmer than rogue planets.

* ''VideoGame/{{Chrono|Trigger}}'' [[VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers ser]][[VideoGame/ChronoCross ies]]:
** A pretty infamous one happens in the ''Chrono'' universe. In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the "nation" of Porre mostly consists of a humble town with an inn, a port, and a selfish mayor that you can turn into a generous one due to judicious use of time travel, but is otherwise fairly unremarkable. In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', suddenly Porre is a giant military nation that took over, sacked, and burned much of the rest of the world, or at least the kingdom of Guardia, a mere five years after the present era of ''Chrono Trigger'' (which is revealed in the epilogue from the [=PS1=] port). This despite the fact that Guardia actually ''had'' a standing army, plus it was likely under the protection of Crono, Lucca, and Marle, who had previously single-handedly defeated Magus' army, plus several other armies from the past and future, including a giant space hedgehog responsible for creating and then destroying humanity as they knew it. So what's the official explanation of Porre's sudden inexplicable rise to power, according to canon? The DS release of ''Chrono Trigger'' had Dalton (the comic-relief villain from 12,000 BC whose only real technology was stolen from Belthasar and who ends up being so incompetent that he ''defeats himself'' in the final battle against him) somehow end up in the present, whereupon he used [[AWizardDidIt magic or something]] to build an army out of a tiny little town and take over the world, apparently subduing at least some of the party from the original game (you know, the party that had already defeated him several times by that point). This also has the side effect of making Dalton into possibly the biggest KarmaHoudini in game history, as he's not even mentioned in ''Cross'', much less defeated.

** Mankar Camoran's character model was (seemingly) mistakenly set to being an Altmer, instead of a Bosmer like his backstory indicated he should be. This, on top of some inconsistencies with his backstory[[note]]Such as the game saying the Mythic Dawn's commentaries were about as old as Tiber Septem, despite Mankar being born closer to the time period of the game than Tiber Septem's reign[[/note]] created a plothole about what the deal was with his appearance and backstory. Bethesda's handwaved answer via a forum post was that he used Mehrunes' Razor to turn into his "perfect form", in this case an Altmer. The issue is that this opens more questions and plotholes, such as why the razor can do that, when it was never shown in any of the other games in the series to have such powers, nor why he doesn't have it in game if it can do that. It also doesn't address why he would change his form either, since it is never indicated why would need a "perfect form" when his plans had nothing to do with his heritage.

* The basic concept of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2SimbasPride'' was a StarCrossedLovers story between Simba's daughter and Scar's son, Kovu, who is deemed the rightful king by his pride of Scar loyalists. However, during production somebody realized that since Scar was Simba's uncle, this would make the two KissingCousins, so instead Kovu is explicitly ''not'' Scar's son. He's just Scar's appointed heir, [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals who looks just like him]], with a mother fanatically devoted to Scar and no other potential father in sight. The aforementioned realization seems to have been made late during production, as certain dubs claim he's Scar's son anyway.

* The GameMod ''VideoGame/StardewValleyExpanded'' attempted to justify why, [[VideoGame/StardewValley in the original game]], the Farmer uses only melee weapons against the monsters when firearms are known to exist in the setting by having Marlon explain that monsters cannot be harmed by conventional weapons and the melee weapons are imbued with magic. This then raises the question of how nonmagical slingshot projectiles like rocks, chunks of ore and the like... and more tellingly, ''bombs'' are able to harm the monsters.