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| 4 | %% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions66 |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicStrip/TomTheDancingBug https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/17834_9.png]]]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->'''Marge:''' Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun! You liked ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''.\ |
| 10 | '''Homer:''' That's not how '''''I''''' remember it! |
| 11 | -->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo"]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | A Film/{{Rashomon}}-Style story is where the same event is recounted by several characters, and the stories differ in ways that are impossible to reconcile. It shows that two or more people can view the same event quite differently. The author invites the audience to hear them all out and then compare and contrast these divergent points of view. Sometimes the work provides no definitive answer as to what actually happened. Basically, it's a cast full of {{Unreliable Narrator}}s. Other times, the audience might get the definitive true version of the story at the beginning or end of the episode; and usually both sides will be truthful about some things and exaggerate, downplay, or outright lie about others. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | In reality, this condition is so common it's often said that if you have 12 witnesses to a crime, you'll often get ''at least'' 13 different stories of what happened. Police officers tend to use this to ferret out "real" witnesses from those whose story might be fabricated or staged with others, because two people will give different details of an event simply because of what they notice and where they were relative to where the event was, and if two (or more) people either give identical stories, match too closely or describe events in an identical fashion, it is extremely likely that one or more of them have been coached or is out-and-out lying. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Inspired by the famous Creator/AkiraKurosawa film ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'', itself inspired by the short story "In a Grove" by Ryuunosuke Akutagawa. This influential early example is a sophisticated use of this trope and, [[UnbuiltTrope unlike many later examples]], provides [[RiddleForTheAges no definitive answers as to what the truth is]]. Nowadays, the "Rashomon Episode" is a staple of {{sitcom}}s since this trope lends itself well to comedy. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | A SubTrope of both SeparateSceneStorytelling and UnreliableNarrator. See also: POVSequel, SelfServingMemory, SimultaneousArcs, PerspectiveFlip, and RevengeViaStorytelling. Compare ATaleToldByAnIdiot. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ''Note that this is not simply "a work, or events in a work, that is shown from multiple character perspectives." Rashomon plots are about characters misremembering or outright falsifying details of what happened, and the "facts" of the different tellings of the story have to contradict each other in some way. If no contradiction is present, it's not this. Instead, it's OnceMoreWithClarity.'' |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Sub-pages |
| 24 | [[index]] |
| 25 | * RashomonStyle/LiveActionTV |
| 26 | * RashomonStyle/WesternAnimation |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[/index]] |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | !!Examples: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 35 | * An advertisement for a disposable camera showed a group of friends discussing a party they'd recently attended, only for their flashbacks to be in complete contradiction of each other. If only someone had had a camera with them... |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 39 | * ''Anime/AkahoriGedouHourLovege'''s 11th episode has [[BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine comedy duo]] Love Pheromone recapping how they came to be while in the middle of preparation. Aimi's view of the events is centered around her and filled with romantic clichés. Kaoruko's view of the events reveals that Aimi's always been a bit self-centered, even as a kid. |
| 40 | * The [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dream]] at the beginning of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is from Madoka's point of view. She sees Homura struggling against a powerful witch and crying out for help, Kyubey tells her she could save Homura by becoming a MagicalGirl, and she wakes up on the verge of deciding to do so. Near the end of the series, the audience sees the same event from Homura's perspective and learns that [[spoiler:it happened in the past, not the future, and Homura wasn't crying for help. She was trying to tell Madoka not to listen to Kyubey, who was tricking her into becoming an overpowered witch so he could collect a huge dose of energy. Madoka couldn't hear it, so she contracted anyway and turned into a witch almost immediately after making said contract, explaining why the dream ended at that moment]]. |
| 41 | * There are three important factions interested in Haruhi from the beginning in ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya''. Those are the espers, time travelers, and aliens. All of them offer different explanations for what exactly Haruhi is and what she did three years ago, as well as giving different explanations of their origins. The esper ([[spoiler:Itsuki]]) says Haruhi created all three groups, is possibly a god, and remade the world three years ago. The time traveler ([[spoiler:Mikuru]]) says time travelers came to investigate a problem Haruhi caused, that she's just a normal person with an odd ability and that she broke the time plane three years ago rather than remaking the universe. The alien ([[spoiler:Yuki]]) spews a lot of big words that Kyon can't really understand, then later says she's not going to offer any more explanations because Kyon has no way of knowing if she's telling the truth while pointing out all three groups have good reason to lie to him. The implication is that ''all three are partially correct'', but also either withholding information, mistaken or outright lying. It only gets more complicated from there. |
| 42 | * In ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'', one case seemingly was connected to a story told about an insane doctor who butchered injured soldiers in his care and tried to sew the body parts together to create an ultimate warrior. Later, another person remembers the same doctor as a kind person who was arrested for refusing to do unethical work. [[spoiler:Kindaichi later realizes that the "butcher doctor" story was a red herring, leading him to realize that the murderer was the person who told him the false "butcher" version.]] |
| 43 | * ''Manga/KenkoZenrakeiSuieibuUmisho'' has one episode where Momoko and Sanae give differing views on how the swim club was formed. Sanae, known to be a liar and a storyteller, spins a web of [[TeacherStudentRomance student-teacher relationships]] and lesbianism, but Momoko's side discounts both of those. At the end of the episode, a sign is given that Sanae may not have been entirely lying... |
| 44 | * An episode of ''Manga/LoveHina'' has the gang trying to figure out how the rent money was stolen, even though everyone seems to have an alibi. |
| 45 | * Episode 12 of ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'', in regards to [[spoiler:the sexual encounter between Kaimu and Alti]]. Each of them claims that the other initiated the act. |
| 46 | * An anime-only episode of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', "The Case of the Missing Takoyaki" features the residents of the Tendo household giving various recounts of how the contents of a box of takoyaki were pilfered. The accounts are incomplete and slanted to cast whoever they accused as being the villain. In the end, [[CanonForeigner Sasuke Sarugakure]] reveals that everything happened in the order the other cast members describes; [[spoiler:they just each ate one takoyaki, which is how the box was emptied by the time Kasumi got back]]. |
| 47 | * ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'' does this at least twice, with Ryoko and Ayeka telling wildly different versions of the same event, each one altering the story to make the teller seem morally superior to the other. i.e, there's their conflicting versions of how they met as little girls: Ryoko claims that Ayeka bullied the Hell out of her, whereas Ayeka says Ryoko was the real bully. |
| 48 | * ''Anime/TrueTears'' has this for the conversation when Shinichiro entered Hiromi's room. |
| 49 | * One occurs during episode 12 of ''{{Manga/Rinne}}'', when Ageha innocently holds Rinne's hands, with Sakura seeing it when she opens his door: |
| 50 | ** The first is with Ageha recalling the moment with Rinne. He looks a lot more handsome in her memory, prompting the narrator to state that her memory is slightly off. |
| 51 | ** The second occurs with Sakura recalling the scene. Except she imagines it as him holding her hands rather firmly, as if they were lovers. Like in the previous example, the narrator states that this is not what happened. |
| 52 | ** The third one is from Rokumon's point of view. He recalls it as Ageha and Rinne sharing a somewhat intimate moment together holding hands. Sakura then shows up, and both girls enter a hilarious staring contest at each other. The narrator once again states that this is totally wrong. |
| 53 | * ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run]]'' has a case of this at one point. Turns out [[spoiler:the (apparently) contradictory testimonies are all entirely accurate, due to some meddling by a villain with [[AlternateUniverse dimension-hopping powers]]]]. |
| 54 | * In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Aquarius's story of what happened between Grammi and Layla differs a bit from the time Brandish tells Lucy about what happened. [[spoiler:First, Brandish implies to Lucy that Layla betrayed her and killed her for possession of Aquarius's key. Then, when Aquarius rescues Lucy from certain death, the former shows the wizards the true story: Grammi received the summons just as Layla was about to open the Eclipse using her remaining life force. She regretted it, but it was too late — Layla's death caused Zoldio to actually kill Grammi]]. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 58 | * In ''ComicBook/Aquaman2003'', Aquaman is described by several people in a different way: an even grittier version of the scraggy bearded barbarian of the '90s, the old, clean cut Aquaman of the '60s with an extended Aquafamily, a powerful humanoid composed of water, and as a perfect lover. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}} #423'' revolves around different people's impressions of Batman that seem impossible to reconcile, with one having him talk down a suicidal man, another beating a crook so badly he'd ''wish'' he was dead, and another where he helped orphans and was moved to tears. |
| 60 | * There was one ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' story where Donald was called a hero for saving Daisy. Daisy, Gladstone and Huey, Dewey, and Louie tell their own versions of the story. |
| 61 | ** In Daisy's version, all six were canoeing when suddenly some bees attacked, causing him to lose control of the canoe and crashing into a rock. Bad things happen and Daisy ends up getting on a log, directly aiming at a waterfall. Donald tries to save her by catching her at a nearby tree but fails. Then he comes up with another plan -- just before they are about to drop at the fall, he makes a particularly epic jump on the ground, holding Daisy. |
| 62 | ** In Gladstone's version, there are no bees, but Donald crashes into a rock because he is an idiot. Then he doesn't run into a tree to save Daisy, but to escape a lynx. And they are not saved from the waterfall by Donald's jumping abilities, but a particularly ridiculous DeusExMachina; a ROCK SLIDE that stops the log. |
| 63 | --->'''[[KarmaHoudini Gladstone]]:''' [[LampshadeHanging Once in a lifetime my cousin was lucky.]] |
| 64 | ** In Huey, Dewey, and Louie's version, [[spoiler:both bees and lynx are very existent, but the real kicker is that where the rock slide came from: [[BigDamnHeroes It was caused by Huey, Dewey and Louie.]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome It was intentional]]]]. |
| 65 | * In ''ComicBook/HeroSquared'', the superhero and supervillain from the destroyed comic book universe briefly recount to other characters how the universe was destroyed from their perspective. In the superhero's narrative, he's attempting to save reality from an evil OmnicidalManiac who ends up destroying all of creation out of spite. In the supervillain's story, she's innocently going about her business when the superhero and his cronies burst in in a fit of self-righteous violence and ham-fistedly smash up her lab despite her protests, destroying reality through blundering incompetence. Curiously, we never find out the truth, but while the supervillain's protestations of innocence are clearly unreliable based on what we've seen from her, the superhero is ''also'' an UnreliableNarrator, as he's blinded by an overly simplistic BlackAndWhiteMorality viewpoint and issues with the supervillain he'd rather not face up to. |
| 66 | * One issue of ''Comicbook/OverTheGardenWall'' has [[SiblingYinYang Wirt and Greg]] describe the events of the previous night. In [[CheerfulChild Greg]]'s account, they followed a parade through a park and met some weird-but-friendly talking animals. In [[ClassicalAntiHero Wirt]]'s version, they followed a ''funeral procession'' through a ''graveyard'' and were haunted by {{Animalistic Abomination}}s. This was probably the more accurate take, since Greg's version notably has Wirt acting unusually chipper, while Wirt's had them both in-character. |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger'': "Secret Origins" [[MultipleChoicePast features four alternate, contradictory origin stories and does not tell you which one is true.]] [[MindScrew Assuming that any of them are...]] |
| 68 | * ''ComicBook/TheQuestion'': Quarterly #5 is one of these. It starts with The Question punching the mayor in the face. Then several characters speculate on why he did it, with each version drawn by a different artist. [[BadCopIncompetentCop Izzy O'Toole]] tells a standard FilmNoir story, a pair of crackheads claim that The Question was a disfigured psychopath, and the Mayor herself finally explained that he knocked her out to prevent a desperate deal with a group of gunrunners to bring in some money to the city. The Question finally shows up and tells them they're all wrong. [[spoiler:It turns out he went against his uncompromising nature and made the deal himself. He just didn't want Myra to meet the criminals face-to-face for fear they would double-cross her.]] |
| 69 | * The first issue of Creator/{{Wildstorm}}'s ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' ComicBookAdaptation attempted to reconcile the contradictions in Jill's and Chris' respective scenarios by depicting them as different accounts of the same events by both of them. |
| 70 | * In the first ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' comic, there is a part that talks about the night Carmelita and Sly first met. The tent poles of the story: Carmelita was on her first case for Interpol; Sly shows up, Carmelita ties up Sly, Sly gets away, a jewel that Carmelita was supposed to be guarding was stolen, then the thief (a stage manager) is found tied up. Everything else, well, let's just say it's your typical Sly-Carmelita conversation (during the Sucker Punch era, anyway). A couple lines between them sums up the trope nicely: |
| 71 | -->'''Sly''': I ''do'' seem to recall a dozen French cops playing "dog-pile on the raccoon."[[labelnote:*]]the accompanying panel shows Sly surrounded by cops before knocking them all away in a single OffhandBackhand.[[/labelnote]]\ |
| 72 | '''Carmelita''': What? I got the drop on you and captured you single-handedly![[labelnote:*]]the panel shows an unconscious Sly, dressed in rags nothing like his outfit, pinned underfoot by a lone Carmelita.[[/labelnote]] |
| 73 | * In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' there was the story "Total Re:Genesis", in which Uncle Chuck tries to find out what happened between Sonic, Sally, Antoine, and a Combot army. The three Freedom Fighters attempt to paint a picture of what happened with them as the hero, but Chuck gets tired of it and asks NICOLE, Sally's handheld computer, to show the real events. |
| 74 | * ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': In ''ComicBook/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'' #121, Mary Jane, Peter, and J. Jonah Jameson tell the story of a bank robbery (at the [[MeaningfulName Roshomon bank]]) where they were present. Mary Jane describes the robber as a menacing thug, Jameson acting bravely, and Spider-Man as a hero. Jameson describes the robber similarly, himself as the hero, and Spider-Man as a coward and a criminal. Peter tells the truth (apart from him being Spider-Man); the robber was an amateur with a BB gun, Jameson acted cowardly, and he (as Spider-Man) didn't have to do much. |
| 75 | * ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'' #3 has a story called "Points of View" in which Jackie [=McGee=] interviews several people involved in an incident where the former Leader henchman Hotshot took an old lady and a priest hostage, wanting the priest to exorcise his girlfriend, and the Hulk fought him. To the cop, Hotshot was a supervillain and the Hulk was a former Avenger coming to save the day. To the old lady, Hotshot was a TroubledButCute figure, who was acting out of love and looked "just like James Dean", and the Hulk was a monster attacking him without real cause. And to the priest, Hotshot was a threat, but the Hulk was the ''actual devil''. Each version of events has an ArtShift to match the kind of story the witness thinks it is: the cop's version is in the style of Kirby's Hulk, the old lady's is equally Silver Age but more like a romance comic, and the priest's is full of dark shadows and viscera, like a horror comic. (There's also a bartender, but his only concern is that the Hulk wrecked his car. His flashback, such as it is, is in an indie style with emphasis on TalkingHeads.) |
| 76 | * Issue 3 of ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn: Black + White + Red'' revolves around three thieves telling stories about a Joker Gas heist that involves them fighting Harley Quinn. Each story depicts Harley from a different medium or era (the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse, the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse, and the ComicBook/New52), and each thief claims to have defeated her. In the end, it turns out Harley faked her defeat so she could track down the thieves' client. |
| 77 | * In ''Comicbook/BlueAndGold'' #4, Comicbook/BlueBeetle and Comicbook/BoosterGold are on a talk show discussing how they first met as members of Comicbook/JusticeLeagueInternational. In Beetle's account, he was asked to show the rookie the ropes, and ended up in a fight with one of Booster's villains, who nearly decapitated the other hero before Ted managed to electrocute him. In Booster's version, he was recruited to show Beetle what a real hero could do, and their roles in the fight were reversed. (For added metatextual fun, Beetle's flashbacks are drawn by Kevin Maguire, who drew ''JLI'', and Booster's are by Dan Jurgens, his creator and writer-artist on his solo book). Eventually [[spoiler: Guy Gardner shows up to reveal that his ring recorded what ''really'' happened: They were ''both'' about to be decapitated when ''he'' electrocuted the villain, since Batman didn't trust ''either'' of them to be out on their own.]] |
| 78 | * ''Comicbook/XMen'' features this over two different comics. In ''ComicBook/HouseAndPowersOfX,'' we see a flashback from Moira's perspective, showing how she invented a mutant cure in one life. This lead to Destiny show up to destroy the cure and prevent mutants from being eliminated. Despite Moira saying she won't force the cure on anyone, Destiny and Mystque murder Moira's colleagues, taunt Moira and eventually murder the distraught woman by burning her alive. However, when we see the scene in ''ComicBook/Inferno2021,'' several small changes paint the scene differently: Moira doesn't spare any words for her fallen colleagues, doesn't make any remark about not forcing the cure on anyone, and actively celebrates making a cure. Destiny is also doesn't taunt Moira in this version, and she kills Moira in the hopes of motivating her to change her ways in her next life. It's heavily implied that ''Inferno'' shows the true course of events, and that the original memories were just Moira's own edited and curated version of the events, told to Xavier in order to make her look more sympathetic. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 82 | * ''ComicStrip/TomTheDancingBug'' parodies this trope in [[http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2013/07/04 "Roshomon Comics"]]. Max's Tale and Doug's Tale disagree. The Bird's Tale is no help, because the bird only saw the top of the speech balloons, matching both previous tales. The Toaster Oven's Tale provides nothing, as the toaster oven was in an entirely other location. |
| 83 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' once had an amusingly meta example when the duo were recounting the "minutes" of their last G.R.O.S.S. ("Get Rid Of Slimy girlS") club meeting. President Hobbes acts as the secretary and reads the minutes about a fight he and Dictator Calvin had at the previous meeting, making it sound as though he was totally not at fault for what happened and that Calvin got his "comeuppance." Calvin in turn insists that Hobbes was being a {{Jerkass}} and that "I beat you fair and square!" Hobbes objects to being called a liar, and the two get in another fight over who started the first fight. (They immediately [[EasilyForgiven call a truce and make up afterward]], [[VitriolicBestBuds fighting being one of their main activities as club members]] since they have little else to do.) We never do find out what actually happened, but from the strip's context, it can be reasonably guessed that ''both'' were lying. |
| 84 | [[/folder]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | |
| 87 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 88 | * In ''Fanfic/ACureForLove'' there's an instance where Light/Kira has a big PetTheDog moment when [[spoiler:he calls up his Astraea contacts and chews them out for their attempt on L's life,]] obviously being very protective of L. Matt who is present for the meeting later relates to Mello that "Kira is bad news," that he's totally evil and [[GodwinsLaw compares him to Nazis]]. Makes sense since Mello and Matt ran away from Wammy's House, Matt may not care about L anymore and [[spoiler: Kira was threatening Mello's mother.]] |
| 89 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/19251406 Three Lies of One Truth]]'', a ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'' fanfic, is explicitly based on 'In A Grove'. The situation is that the protagonists find out that the museum they're paying a visit to, is built on the place where a mafia base used to be. They want to know what happened to the old base and ask around a bit. It soon turns out that the heating was turned up too high and caused the building to explode. However... |
| 90 | ** Dazai's story portrays himself as being respected by everyone as an executive; and frames [[SitcomArchnemesis Chuuya]] for the destruction of the base. |
| 91 | ** Chuuya's story tells of his 'angelic patience' (which he [[TheNapoleon surely]] [[FieryRedhead doesn't]] [[HotBlooded have]]) as an executive and frames Dazai. |
| 92 | ** Mori's story is fairly true as he recalls them ''both'' being executive, true to the events of the manga. However, it is still half-lied. |
| 93 | ** [[spoiler: Kouyou]] finally tells the truth and doesn't enlarge her own image. [[spoiler: Kouyou]] reveals that she was the one who found the manuscripts ([[spoiler:that may or may not be from the ''actual'' Ryuunosuke Akutagawa]]) and gifted them to the government. TheStinger is that the character Ryuunosuke Akutagawa says to have been suffering from a deja vu the entire day, and he gets a feeling that he is [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall somehow connected to this day]], although he cannot say what it stems from exactly. |
| 94 | * The episode "POV" from ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''. The framing device is Elliot coming home to find that the gang have been trashing his house. Every member steps forward in turn to tell their version of events, either [[DracoInLeatherPants glorifying themselves]], [[RonTheDeathEater demonizing others]], [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or both]]. Except for Calvin, who just turns the story into a spy drama, which then goes completely OffTheRails. The basic plot is that the gang was chasing down a mysterious, potentially sentient orb. Also, none of them explain [[NoodleIncident whatever happened to the bathroom]], though it was enough to leave Elliot in shock. |
| 95 | %%(ZCE)* This ''Series/{{Glee}}'' fanfic: ''[[http://miggy.livejournal.com/841553.html Three Tons.]]'' |
| 96 | * People who live in Arcadia Bay in ''Fanfic/TheMatrixRewinds'' routinely have their memories altered as part of the illusion it casts over its residents, often making them think they've always lived there or erasing memories of the red-pill's presence and replacing them with mundane explanations. This is also one reason why Rachel/Prospera refuses to pick up where she and Chloe left off since the last time they saw each other; their memories of themselves and each other might not match, so they may as well not know each other at all. |
| 97 | * In ''FanFic/TheMonsterWeMade'', each chapter is from the P.O.V. of a different character. The last chapter is from Twilight Sparkle's P.O.V. and shows her view of the events narrated in all the previous chapters. |
| 98 | %%(ZCE)* This ''Manga/OnePiece'' fanfic: ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1580928/1/ Silver River.]]'' |
| 99 | * Subverted in the ''FanFic/PoniesOfOlympus'' series -- [[TheRival Ran Biao]] and Rarity both tell ''very'' different versions of what happened between Rarity and her first {{Love Interest|s}} Razorwing, but it's strongly implied that Ran Biao completely made her version up in order to paint Rarity in a negative light and drive a wedge between her and Spike. Ultimately double subverted. As it turns out, Rarity's version wasn't entirely accurate, and there was some truth to Ran's version. |
| 100 | %%(ZCE) * This ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'' fic: ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6552286/1/ In a Shrine.]]'' |
| 101 | * Doubling as a PerspectiveFlip, we also have this with the fanfic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10849385/1/Second-Story-Window Second Story Window]] with Satsuki and Ragyo's perspective as how the two girls exited the second-story window and the events leading up to it. Satsuki's point of view claimed Ragyo was psychotic and would be prone to lashing out violently and the fact that her little sister jumped, whereas Ragyo's POV states that Satsuki was psychotic, although not violent and, actually, ''dropped'' her little sister out of the window before jumping herself. The traits that remain true to both points of view is that the secretary committed suicide, the house they moved in, a missing little sister, the children being left in the care of a new family, and someone being mentally ill. Whether or not one of the points of view is correct is left up in the air for the reader to decide. |
| 102 | * The ''Fanfic/TimeFixersNicktoonsOfTheFuture'' story, "The Great Zappy Case" features this when Tammy and Tommy are on trial after being accused of stealing the Zappy Award from Fairy World. Each character gives their accounts on what they were doing beforehand with Tommy's version portraying Tammy as a ValleyGirl, Tammy's version making Tommy act like an AnnoyingYoungerSibling, and Junior's story making everyone act happy all the time. Interesting enough, the first two stories feature Junior crying and running away when he sees Tammy and Tommy fighting, but Junior's story features him coming over to stop them. |
| 103 | * A variation of this occurs in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' fanfic series ''Fanfic/WhatYouAlreadyKnow'' when Doctor Mackenzie conducts a psychiatric evaluation of Daniel Jackson and concludes that he is developing megalomania and frequently derives pleasure from using his powers against others, where Doctor Eliza White attended the same meeting and concluded that Daniel was a mentally stable man who only used what force was necessary to achieve his goal, [[spoiler:proved his stability by choosing to publicly humiliate Ba’al rather than torture him]], and was relatively controlled considering his history with Mackenzie, with Doctor White sending her report on to another psychiatrist who agreed with her assessment. |
| 104 | ** Granted, Mackenzie was all-but-explicitly identified as being a pawn of Senator Kinsey in his plan to get Daniel out of the picture, but the author has established Mackenzie as an incompetent psychiatrist in other stories where he would have had no reason to be Kinsey’s agent. |
| 105 | * Franchise/{{Tron}}: Since there are different versions of what ''exactly'' happened during the coup in ''Film/TronLegacy'', the ''Betrayal'' comic, VideoGame/TronEvolution, and ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'', this is the explanation commonly used to reconcile the differences, since there's a different viewpoint character in each depiction of the event. |
| 106 | * The ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' fanfiction [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/4285128/chapters/9705918 In a Castle]] uses four retellings of the events of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence'', from Julius, Maria, Trevor, and finally Dracula himself. |
| 107 | * ''Fanfic/ParentsOfPonyville'' features four different accounts of what happened at the parent-teacher conference. The two parents both give obviously biased, self-serving accounts, while the teacher Cherilee gives a relatively plausible story, and the child Terry tells a nonsensical story about flying through space fighting aliens. It's later implied that ''Terry's story'' was the true one. |
| 108 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/42611976/chapters/107037174 I'd Be Your Memory]]'' is a LetsWatchOurShowPlot which is presented as Luz and company's memories being projected onto a television using an illusion mirror. Because this specifically involves ''memories'', Luz's canon FlashbackFail moments are shown first, with other characters who witnessed the events in question pointing out her memories aren't correct and then showing what actually happened from their own memories. |
| 109 | [[/folder]] |
| 110 | |
| 111 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 112 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight'': |
| 113 | ** The short ''Have I Got a Story for You''. Each of four kids recounts a sighting of Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}, giving different portions of the same events, while also giving different descriptions of what he is. The first kid makes him a LivingShadow creature like [[WesternAnimation/StaticShock Ebon]]; the girl an actual [[HalfHumanHybrid humanoid bat creature]]; the third a {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}}. At the end they see the reality; he's [[BadassNormal a guy in a suit]]. Which was based on the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' "Legends of the Dark Knight" which itself was based on a 1970s story from the comics called "The Batman Nobody Knows", by Len Wein. One of the kids' stories was what happened (according to his uncle), which was told in the style of comic book artist Dick Sprang and the ''Series/Batman1966'' show, while the others are their own theories on what Batman looks like (with one of them being a retelling of ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''). The other kid thought Batman was a bat-like creature that snatches criminals, similar to post Post-''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' interpretations of Superman's first encounter with Batman, whom he thought to be some kind of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual metahuman]]. |
| 114 | ** Interestingly ''Batman: Gotham Knight'' has the same effect overall, with different artists portraying the Caped Crusader in different ways -- contrast Bruce Wayne's muscled LanternJawOfJustice-look in ''Deadshot'' with his {{Bishonen}} appearance in ''Field Test''. |
| 115 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' is essentially a Rashomon version of Literature/LittleRedRidingHood, with the framing device of each character undergoing a police interrogation. When characters' stories cross paths, there are differences, some subtle, others major. A perfect example is Red's first interaction with the Wolf. In Red's version, it plays out more like the traditional fairy tale: the young maiden taking a perilous voyage through the deep dark wood and being stalked by TheBigBadWolf. In the Wolf's version, it's more like a leisurely stroll through the trees, he corners her as he has good reason to believe she's carrying stolen goods, and many of his incriminating actions are given innocent explanations, such as his [[MightyRoar big roar]] actually being a cry of pain at getting his tail caught in Twitchy's camera. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 119 | * ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'' is both the {{Trope Namer|s}} and the {{Trope Maker|s}}. In medieval Japan a husband and wife are accosted by a bandit. We see the story of the encounter only in flashback. Facts common to all stories: 1) The husband is overpowered and tied up by the bandit, 2) there is a sexual encounter between the bandit and the wife, and 3) the husband ends up dead. At the murder trial, each principal tells a different story of the incident that puts him/herself in a good light, but each confesses to the murder, so we don't believe anyone is outright lying just to conceal his/her own guilt. For the sake of getting the husband's story first hand, we are asked to believe that a local [[{{Miko}} Shrine Maiden]] is able to summon his spirit to testify. |
| 120 | ** The bandit claims the sex was consensual and the wife wanted to leave her husband for him. He killed the husband in a spectacular sword fight between highly skilled warriors over possession of the woman. |
| 121 | ** The wife claims that she was raped. When her husband demonstrated a sneering contempt for her helpless submission to the bandit, she accidentally killed him with a knife in her shock at his betrayal. |
| 122 | ** The husband also claims the sex was consensual. In his story, the unfaithful wife wants to start a new life with the bandit but urges him to kill her husband. This [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgusts the bandit]], who offers to kill her to the husband, then releases him after the wife runs away. Overcome with sorrow and shame, he takes his own life (his story is told through a medium). |
| 123 | ** A woodcutter claims to have seen the whole thing. In his story, the sex is a rape, and both the bandit and the husband decide afterwards that neither of them actually want the woman. As she's about to be abandoned, the wife taunts the two into fighting for their own honor, if not for hers. The fight is a messy, haphazard brawl between ill-prepared cowards ending in the husband's death. Even the woodcutter's story is suspect, however. When his audience asks what happened to the wife's ornate dagger, he's accused of stealing it and looks guilty. |
| 124 | * ''Film/{{Basic}}'' centers on a pair of military investigators trying to figure out what happened during a training exercise in which all but two of a team of special-forces operatives died or disappeared, with both survivors telling conflicting (and frequently changing) versions of the story. It's an interesting version of the trope, as [[spoiler:''none'' of the stories are true, and we're never shown what happened. While the very end of the movie does have some reveals, exactly what happened to set up the opening scenes remains a mystery]]. |
| 125 | * A subtle example in ''Film/PulpFiction,'' at the beginning of the film when Ringo and Yolanda rob the restaurant, Yolanda says "Any of you fuckin' pricks move and I'll execute every motherfucking last one of you!" When said scene repeats at the end, it is told from Jules' point of view, and Yolanda's line is changed to "...and I'll execute every one of you motherfuckers!" specifically to emphasize the change in perspective. |
| 126 | * In ''Film/CourageUnderFire'', [[Creator/DenzelWashington Colonel Serling]] investigates the circumstances surrounding [[Creator/MegRyan Captain Walden's]] death in battle, and whether she deserves to be the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor for a combat role. Most of the survivors can only paint a general picture of events or can tell what happened up to a certain point, but can't really give Serling the in-depth, firsthand detail he needs to make a fair judgement. The two soldiers who can give that kind of detail tell almost diametrically opposite stories: TheMedic claims that Walden is just as heroic as everybody says and died [[YouShallNotPass holding off the enemy so the others could escape]], but this story clashes with certain details from the secondhand witnesses Serling interviewed. Meanwhile, the [[SergeantRock macho sergeant]] claims that Walden was actually an incompetent coward who is currently benefiting from a good PR campaign by the Army, who want to use her as [[ThePowerOfLegacy an inspiring figure for others]] regardless of the truth, but this version is ''also'' contradicted by other witnesses. Eventually Serling gets the truth: [[spoiler:Walden's soldiers began to turn on her when she insisted on [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind risking their lives to save an injured crewmate]] who seemed almost certain to die. The sergeant then shot her in the middle of a StabTheScorpion situation where he thought she was going to shoot him. After this, they managed to work together for a while, but when Walden made it clear that she was determined to court-martial both the medic and the sergeant (and one other soldier involved) for TheMutiny, the sergeant responded by leaving her behind to die as a way to cover the whole thing up]]. |
| 127 | * ''Film/TheDisappearanceOfEleanorRigby'' is a unique example. Originally constructed as two separate movies (''Him'' and ''Her'') telling the story of a romance from different perspectives, the two parts were later consolidated into a third film ''Them'', that alternates perspectives. |
| 128 | * This happens in ''Film/Narc2002'' where the protagonist first hears one version of how an undercover cop died from his partner, who is also investigating it and the protagonist was brought in to help wrap up the case. Along the way, things are not as they seem and when they supposedly catch the real killers, they tell a different version of what happened. In the final confrontation, [[spoiler:the surviving partner is shot and gives what appears to be a deathbed confession of what really happened]]. |
| 129 | * ''Film/Elephant2003'' explores this trope so that the audience can know absolutely everything relevant to a school shooting except why it happened. |
| 130 | * ''Film/{{Flipped}}'' shows the events in the movie from the perspectives of both Bryce and Juli, which are quite different, especially at the start. |
| 131 | * ''Film/TheGalWhoTookTheWest'' tells the story of the arrival of an opera singer from different perspectives. It predated ''Rashomon'' by a year, and may have been an influence on it since it interprets the same female character as strong, delicate, or cunning depending on who's telling the story, the way the wife in ''Rashomon'' is depicted. |
| 132 | * The song "Summer Nights" in ''Film/{{Grease}}'' is this, with both Sandy and Danny recounting the events of their summer romance. Danny's version is HotterAndSexier; Sandy's is TamerAndChaster. While Sandy's version is less outrageous, the likelihood is that neither of them is giving an entirely accurate account of events. |
| 133 | * ''Film/HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot'', a French film, plays with this by having the first half or so of the film follow a girl who a man is apparently cheating on (and going to leave) his wife with her. However, he repeatedly fails to show up at all to their arranged meetings. Growing increasingly distraught, she finally [[spoiler:attempts suicide]]. In the second half, [[spoiler:it's from the man's point of view, and it's revealed that he's barely aware of her existence, and the entire relationship was the product of her being insane]]. |
| 134 | * The Creator/JetLi film ''Film/Hero2002'' used a variation of this trope. It opens with a Qin soldier being granted audience with TheEmperor to tell him of how he killed three notorious assassins. The Emperor, however, doesn't believe the details of the account, so he tells an alternate story of what he thinks happened. The soldier then admits that he wasn't telling the truth but states that the Emperor's story wasn't quite right either (although it's pretty good for what's essentially a guess), and recounts what actually happened. (Although in a last-minute plot twist, a certain aspect of the first story ends up coming true after the fact.) Each version of the story has its own ColorMotif to differentiate it: red for the soldier's first story, blue for the Emperor's version, and white for the real tale. Director Creator/ZhangYimou's SignatureStyle is the rich and symbolic use of color. |
| 135 | * ''Film/TheHole'' made use of this, but very early on in the story, it is made abundantly clear that one of the two accounts of the events in the titular hole cannot be accurate, and is not believed by anyone. |
| 136 | * ''Film/{{Hollywoodland}}'' features a detective investigating the death of actor George Reeves. He goes through the many possible (and ultimately conflicting) theories on what happened. |
| 137 | * ''Film/{{JFK}}'' is told largely in flashback as various witnesses recount various versions of events leading up to the Kennedy assassination. The role of Lee Harvey Oswald, in particular, is portrayed variously as lone assassin, innocent patsy, and part of a conspiracy, depending on the point of view of the person narrating that version of events. |
| 138 | * A subtle example in ''Film/KnivesOut''. Both Linda and her brother Walt give their own accounts of what happened at the birthday party of their late father Harlan. Both stories are ''mostly'' compatible, describing different events and conversations that took place over the evening. Each flashback ends with Harlan cutting his birthday cake, but in Linda's telling, we see her and her husband on either side of him, while Walt's account puts himself and his own wife sitting with Harlan. This discrepancy isn't pointed out in dialogue, but subtly reminds the audience that neither sibling is entirely trustworthy. |
| 139 | * Once scene in ''Film/LaPielQueHabito'': At a friend's wedding, Robert finds evidence that his daughter was dragged into the dark and raped. Much later on, Vicente's flashback shows that (although his actions were heinous enough) he didn't go all the way. |
| 140 | * French movie ''L'Appartment'' and its English remake ''Film/WickerPark'' make heavy use of this trope. |
| 141 | * In ''Film/OneNightAtMcCools'', three different male characters relate their often conflicting impressions of Creator/LivTyler's character Jewel, revealing the particular brand of misogyny present in each one. |
| 142 | * The 2000 film ''Film/RulesOfEngagement'' is about a Marine colonel who's accused of killing innocent civilians outside an American embassy in Yemen, and it's up to his defense attorney to find out if the colonel's claims are substantial. [[spoiler: In the end, it turns out ''every'' civilian present, including a young child, was actively attacking.]] |
| 143 | * The entire premise of ''Film/VantagePoint''. The events leading up to [[spoiler:an attempt to abduct the US President]], told from eight perspectives, each revealing more information than the last. Only in the last telling do we have the whole story and the aftermath. Though in this case, none of the perspectives are objectively wrong; it's just that most of them are operating with incomplete information. |
| 144 | * ''Film/{{Wonderland}}'' depicts a true-life example, in which two different parties, one of whom is porn legend John Holmes, give detectives accounts of the events leading to a brutal multiple murder. Each party places the greater share of blame on the other, and as in real life, no definitive conclusion is reached; although a third account is introduced (again true-to-life, though it did not surface until after Holmes' trial) that indicates that not only was Holmes lying, he was (involuntarily) involved. |
| 145 | * In ''Film/EvesBayou'', both Louis and teenage daughter Cicely's accounts differ on what happened the night after Louis had too much to drink after a heated argument with wife Roz, and Cicely went to sit with him. In Cicely's version, Louis got aggressive and [[ParentalIncest tried to rape her]], and when she resisted, he slapped her to the floor. This leads to Eve placing a voodoo curse on him. Later, we find out Louis' version of that night, where ''she'' was the aggressor, giving him a sweet peck on the lips then suddenly started kissing him "like a woman," and he slapped her to get her off of him. The movie ends without us ever finding out what really happened. |
| 146 | * ''Film/GhostDogTheWayOfTheSamurai'' has a minor case of this occurring during a FlashBack scene. Both [[BornInTheWrongCentury Ghost Dog]] and [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily Louie the mobster]] have a flashback to when they first encountered each other. In both cases, Ghost Dog is getting beat viciously by a group of thugs, and Louie comes over to end the disturbance. In Louie's version of events, the leader of the group hesitates a second, then pulls a gun and points it at Louie, at which point Louie shoots him in self-defense and the rest of his gang run away. In Ghost Dog's version, the guy points a gun at Ghost Dog, and Louie then saves Ghost Dog's life by pulling the trigger first, which adds much more onto the IOweYouMyLife thing that Ghost Dog has going on towards Louie. |
| 147 | * ''Valerie'': This 1956 western begins with a shootout, which results in the arrest of a man (Sterling Hayden) for wounding his wife (Anita Ekberg) and killing her parents. At the subsequent trial, several people describe different points of view on the events leading up to the shooting, with the man painted as either a blameless cuckold or a brutal thug. |
| 148 | * In ''Surveillance'' This is the non-linear style way David Lynch tells a story of a murder from the surviving dirty cop to the drug stealing criminals eventually the kid reveals(sort of)what actually happens. |
| 149 | * This is the whole basis for the ''Film/{{Gigi}}'' musical number "I Remember It Well". |
| 150 | * {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Film/InsideMan'', which uses this as one component among many of its "pulling off the perfect bank robbery" plot. The story intercuts between activities in the HostageSituation in the story's present to interviews with witnesses after it's resolved, some of whom are lying. The busty female hostage, for instance, [[spoiler:is one of the bank robbers. We ultimately learn that taking hostages was merely a diversion and the real plan was to rob a safe deposit box, then hide Creator/CliveOwen's character in a hole dug inside the bank so he could simply walk out the front door with the loot after the bank resumed normal operations.]] |
| 151 | * ''Film/TheLastJedi'' does this with the retelling of Kylo Ren's fall to darkness, between two characters. [[spoiler: First, Luke implies Kylo Ren destroyed Luke's Jedi Academy entirely because of the Dark Side. Next, Kylo tells Rey that he turned to the Dark Side because Luke tried to murder him in his sleep out of fear of his power. Finally, after Rey confronts him, Luke tells her the most complete version of the story: for a brief moment, he had a lapse in judgment and indeed had a moment where he intended to murder Ben in his sleep because he sensed a deep well of darkness in his pupil. Before he could do so, he realized the horror of what he was about to do and decided not to go through with it, but it was too late - Ben Solo saw his master's activated lightsaber and attacked. Luke views Ben's transformation into the dark Kylo Ren as his own fault and is racked by guilt.]] |
| 152 | * In the movie ''Marshall'' (BasedOnATrueStory of Sam Friedman and Thurgood Marshall's defense of a black chauffeur accused of raping and trying to kill his white employer), we first see her version of events--he raped her, tied her up, then threw her off a bridge. Then we see his--the sex was consensual and she tried to kill herself in a panic over her infidelity being discovered. |
| 153 | * ''Film/AmericanAnimals'': The real perpetrators of the crime, who appear throughout the film in talking-head interviews, differ in their recollections of how they came up with the idea to rob the library. Both versions are dramatized by the actors portraying them. As the film cuts between the two versions, the actors occasionally make a comment that actually pertains to the ''other'' version of the events just before the scene cuts to it |
| 154 | * ''Film/TombstoneRashomon'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: the story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory as told from multiple differing perspectives in the style of ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''. |
| 155 | * ''Film/TheLastDuel'' shows the lead-up to the titular duel from the perspective of all three parties: accused rapist Jacques Le Gris, his accuser Marguerite de Carrouges (nee Thibouville), and his opponent, her husband Jean de Carrouges. Events that two or more of them were present for are presented slightly differently via SelfServingMemory. The film strongly implies that Marguerite's version is the correct one; each segment is titled "The truth according to" Jean, Jacques, and Marguerite, respectively, but for her chapter, her name fades out almost immediately, leaving only "The truth" onscreen. |
| 156 | ** Jean and Marguerite's relationship. Jean sees himself as a gallant husband; Marguerite sees him as rough and distant. Jean remembers their wedding night as a tender affair; Marguerite remembers it as unpleasant. Jean remembers his return from the Scottish campaign as him dutifully and warmly greeting his wife and mother; in Marguerite's account, he barked at her for wearing a low-cut dress and called her a whore. Jean's memory of Marguerite confessing her assault is of him assuring her that Jacques ''will'' be dealt with, but in her memory, he yells, lashes out, and considers it an affront against him more than her. |
| 157 | ** Jean and Jacques's public reconciliation has ''someone'' say "Let there be no ill will among servants of the King". Jean's and Jacques's memories show them each saying the line, but in Marguerite's account, it was instead their mutual friend Crespin. |
| 158 | ** The supposed rape itself. In Jacques's memory, Marguerite acts much more ambiguously and does not protest as much; in her account, [[spoiler:it was very clearly a rape, with her trying her best to resist him and sobbing sorrowfully after the event.]] |
| 159 | * In ''Film/CentralIntelligence'', there are three accounts of the death of Bob's partner Phil. The CIA claims that Bob is the killer. Bob claims that Phil was murdered by someone else. [[spoiler:Phil reveals that he faked his death and that he never liked Bob.]] |
| 160 | [[/folder]] |
| 161 | |
| 162 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 163 | * Creator/DemetriMartin parodies this in one routine with the story of a bee sting, told from various, progressively more bizarre, and unsympathetic perspectives: The person getting stung, a friend nearby, the bee, the newspaper the bee got swatted with, the chair that got hit with the newspaper, her friend's phone, the phone's battery, a squirrel in a nearby tree, the tree the squirrel was in, the ointment she put on, and finally, {{God}}. |
| 164 | * A young woman, her mother, and two men (one of them being the boss of the other), travel on a train. The train enters a tunnel. The sound of a kiss is heard, followed quickly by a slap. |
| 165 | -->The mother thinks: One of the men kissed my daughter, but she defended her honor.\ |
| 166 | Her daughter thinks: One of the men tried to kiss me but kissed my mother in the darkness instead, and she slapped him on the face!\ |
| 167 | The boss thinks: This idiot kissed the young lady and she tried to slap him, but she missed in the dark and hit me instead!\ |
| 168 | The other man thinks: [[spoiler: Haha! Gotcha! I made a kissing sound in the air and slapped my boss on his face]]! |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 | |
| 171 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 172 | * ''Literature/AbsalomAbsalom'': The true story of the Sutpens is pieced together from information given by three different tellings. Each of the tellers doesn't know the whole story and may be changing or making up some of what they say. They don't call it a precursor of the modern mystery novel for nothing. |
| 173 | * Arthur Phillips' ''Angelica'' features the same (possibly supernatural) events told from four different P.O.V.s. |
| 174 | * This can be seen in ''Literature/HarryPotter'': |
| 175 | ** Dumbledore and Trelawney both tell different versions of the story of Trelawney's first prophecy, [[spoiler:neither of which turns out to be exactly true]]. |
| 176 | ** The time when James saved Snape's life crop up several times, from a few perspectives. In the first book, Dumbledore mentions that James saved Snape's life, but does not elaborate. In the third book, Snape says that this was not at all heroic but rather the result of a DeadlyPrank James had been intending to play on Snape, and he only backed out at the last minute to avoid the ramifications for himself. Later we finally get the full story from Lupin: Sirius told Snape the secret of how to enter the Shrieking Shack hoping he would encounter Lupin in his werewolf form there, but James heard of this and risked his own life to stop him. Snape had just convinced himself that James had been in on the plan from the beginning out of bitterness. |
| 177 | * ''Literature/AnInstanceOfTheFingerpost'' by Iain Pears is an excellent Rashomon. It features four {{Unreliable Narrator}}s, all with his particular take on the same intricate series of events. As an added twist, each subsequent narrator is moved to write his own version after ''reading'' the earlier ones, so each subsequent testimony also includes clarifications, annotations, comments, criticism, refutations, and fillings of the blanks. There's no "definitive version of what really happened" either. |
| 178 | * ''Literature/AsILayDying'' by Creator/WilliamFaulkner is told from the heads of something like fourteen narrators, and the only half-sane one in the entire book gets sent to an insane asylum for trying to burn his mother's steadily-decaying body in someone else's barn and while inside the asylum, ''goes'' crazy. Major points (and potentially a Ph.D.) to whoever can actually figure out who's reliable and what's going on. |
| 179 | * The three holy books of the Abrahamic faiths have this to varying degrees. |
| 180 | ** The Christian ''New Testament'' begins with the four Gospels, each credit as being "The Gospel according to" a different author. There's some noticeable discrepancies between them which non-Christians sometimes cite as proof for it being inaccurate, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism. One such example is how each Gospel portrayed Jesus: Matthew had him as an Expy of Moses and [[ShownTheirWork cited a myriad of Old Testament prophecies]] to really drive the whole Messiah thing home; the intended audience was probably Jews. Mark's gospel was DarkerAndEdgier and puts emphasis on Jesus' miracles because his audience was Christians persecuted by the Romans. Luke's gospel is LighterAndSofter, portraying a NiceGuy version of Jesus because he was targeting Gentiles who had/were considering converting. John's gospel is the most mystic-like of the four and writes a HigherSelf version of Jesus to emphasize His divinity to committed Christians. |
| 181 | *** A scholarly article on the subject: http://www.tektonics.org/whatis/whatinspire.php |
| 182 | ** Paul's recollection of his own history and that of the Church is slightly different to Luke's, though both of them were summarizing a little. |
| 183 | ** The ''Old Testament'' features two different stories of Creation, one immediately after the other: the first being the famous "And on the Xth day, God Y." Which has humans created last, while the second account has humans created before animals, and has the whole Garden of Eden story. A likely reconciliation is that the second one starts with a summary before going into Eden; Chapter 1 was "He made X and then He made Y and then He made Z" while Chapter 2 was "Look at all the stuff He made, like Ys and Zs and Xes!" A few chapters later, the Book of Genesis includes two conflicting accounts of the Great Flood that are interleaved. |
| 184 | ** Many other stories have seemingly conflicting accounts between them, such as the story of David, and anyone from David to Saul to someone else to some random Israelite killing Goliath. The confusion about Goliath probably stems from there being two Goliaths. Goliath the Philistine whom David killed with the sling, and Goliath the Gittite who was killed by Elhanan at Gob. |
| 185 | * Waved in the plot of ''[[Literature/ChronicleOfADeathForetold Chronicle of a Death Foretold]]'': the narrator is trying to reconstruct the weird circumstances surrounding the honor murder of a childhood friend, so he investigates the surviving witnesses and the court records. While not made in the traditional way, only the main facts remain with each retelling, as people can't even remember what weather was that day, and it goes down from there. |
| 186 | * Creator/JamesJoyce: ''Literature/FinnegansWake''. This is [[MindScrew one of the few things about this novel we're reasonably sure of]]. |
| 187 | * Peter Matthiessen's ''Killing Mister Watson'' trilogy, recently revised into ''Shadow Country,'' relies heavily on the Rashomon effect. |
| 188 | * ''The Lover'', a novel by Israeli writer A. B. Yehoshua, is told from the viewpoints of the six major characters. |
| 189 | * ''Literature/MrHooksBigBlackBox'' has a group of friends meet up at a college reunion, and end up discussing events that happened when they were students. All of the flashbacks are unreliable, and all of the narrators tried to double-cross their friends at least once. |
| 190 | * ''Literature/TheMurdersInTheRueMorgue'' has another early example. Several witnesses overheard the commotion during the attack, and their stories all generally line up except for one point. They all heard two voices, one gruff and one shrill, and the gruff one was clearly a Frenchman. But no one could agree on the shrill voice. Some said it was a man, some said a woman, some couldn't tell. A French witness was sure the voice was Spanish, another thought it was Italian, a Dutch guy thought it was French, an Englishman thought it was German, a Spaniard thought it was English, and an Italian thought it was Russian. The key is that none of them were familiar with the language they claimed to have heard. [[spoiler: The voice actually belonged to an [[KillerGorilla orangutan.]]]] |
| 191 | * Santiago Gamboa's ''Necropolis'' has the life story of a speaker who killed himself during a writer's congress retold three times by himself, his partner, and his wife. |
| 192 | * Ken Kesey's novel ''Sometimes a Great Notion'' makes heavy use of this trope, weaving together the narratives of [[UnreliableNarrator several warring family members and townspeople]] to illustrate the interpersonal conflicts surrounding a town-wide lumber strike. For added fun, sometimes POV shifts happen mid-sentence. |
| 193 | * Jeff Rackham's ''The Rag & Bone Shop'' tells the story of Creator/CharlesDickens' relationship with Ellen Ternan from three different points of view: those of Ellen, Dickens' sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth, and his friend and colleague Creator/WilkieCollins. All three suffer from various degrees of self-delusion, especially Georgina. |
| 194 | * The Akutagawa short story that ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'' is based on, ''In a Grove''. Two people confess to the same murder, three if you count the dead man since he claims to have stabbed himself and would have bled to death anyway. Confusingly, "Rashomon" is also the name of an entirely different Akutagawa story, which is very creepy but rather less of a mind screw. ''Rashomon'' shares a theme with ''In a Grove'' -- Self-Justification: An OldRetainer has been fired from his job and is under the Rashomon Gates contemplating suicide. Then he sees an old hag who is seemingly doing unspeakable things to some dead bodies. He feels so much fear and revulsion that he is willing to die before letting the hag do whatever she is doing. When he tries to stop her, the hag reveals she is robbing the corpses because she needs the money and they do not. The OldRetainer realizes that he was thinking first of suicide, then of dying for a good cause, and now he understands that his feelings are nothing more than a way to justify his acts, so he chooses to do the act that benefits him the most, and steal the goods from the old hag. |
| 195 | * Creator/RobertBrowning's ''The Ring and the Book,'' an epic-length series of dramatic monologues based on a real Italian murder case. Everybody involved chimes in, including the murderer and the victim. |
| 196 | * Surprisingly, a picture book: ''Voices in the Park'' by Anthony Browne. |
| 197 | * The first half or so of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' novel ''I, Jedi'' is one of these for the ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy.'' It gives a contrasting point of view of the events of that series without actually contradicting any of it, while simultaneously filling in a variety of {{Plot Hole}}s. The second half of the book tells the conclusion of the conflict that Corran Horn went to the academy to learn to deal with, which is related to, but separate from, the story of the happenings at the academy. Most consider it better than the trilogy. |
| 198 | * Creator/AgathaChristie 's ''Literature/FiveLittlePigs'' has Literature/HerculePoirot solve a murder that took place sixteen years before by listening to the stories of the 5 people involved, who each provided a slightly different account of what had actually happened. |
| 199 | * An odd variation on this concept is used in ''Literature/QuillsWindow''. Events are portrayed objectively as they happen- the important change, however, is that different characters interpret these events in different ways. We'll see the event in question from the point of view of one character in the book, but later on, it will be referenced by other characters as having had entirely different personal connotations. |
| 200 | * ''Literature/{{Hoot}}'' has a variant. It's narrated in the third person, and as the story jumps between three main characters - Roy Eberhardt, Officer Delinko, and Curly Branitt - there are occasional narration overlaps. For instance, when Curly encounters the guard dog trainer Kalo trying to round up his dogs after the snakes are placed out, Delinko stops by and the event is described from Curly's point of view. In a later chapter that follows Delinko, a small summary of the same scene (from his perspective) is shown. |
| 201 | * Used in ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy''. All the narrators are unreliable, with Kitty being the closest to a reliable one. |
| 202 | ** Nathaniel's BadassLongcoat outfit at the beginning of the second book. Whereas Nathaniel thinks that it is, well, badass, Bartimaeus finds it completely ridiculous and Kitty proclaims it kind of stupid, though it is not clear if she just says this because she hates magicians in general or because the outfit really is stupid. |
| 203 | ** [[UnreliableNarrator Bartimaeus']] illusions of grandeur are dashed by the third-person (and therefore more accurate) narration of Nathaniel or Kitty, though of course he's always damn cool, whether he calmly asks the whiny boy to "please be quiet" or shrieks at him to "shut up!". |
| 204 | * ''Literature/SpoonRiverAnthology'' has this as one of its main conceits. Unusually for this trope, we generally get an idea of what's true -- for instance, a former mayor and moral crusader is clearly a KnightTemplar and murderer. |
| 205 | * ''Literature/TheSlap'' by Christos Tsiolkas. |
| 206 | * "The Moonlit Road" by Creator/AmbroseBierce. Like Akutagawa's "In a Grove," which it may have inspired, it contains testimony from both the living and the dead. |
| 207 | * This is explored in the Scottish novel ''Literature/ThePrivateMemoirsAndConfessionsOfAJustifiedSinner''. The story is divided into two main sections: one first-hand account of the life of a religious fanatic, and an editor's attempt to piece together relevant events a hundred years later. Essentially, both are [[UnreliableNarrator unreliable narrators]], but the Sinner's account is especially skewed towards portraying him as more noble and righteous. For instance, according to eyewitnesses, he [[spoiler:killed his brother]] by stabbing him in the back from the shadows. He himself claims he shouted a warning and engaged in a duel. |
| 208 | * This is parodied in Creator/EoinColfer's ''Literature/AndAnotherThing''. The characters briefly discuss how they got out of a particular jam. One remembers getting world leaders together to save the planet. Another remembers unicorns flying to their rescue. [[spoiler:None are correct; their escape was only a simulation, and they're actually about to get blown up.]] |
| 209 | * The prologues to each book of ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' are an excerpt from an in-universe document that gives a piece of history relevant to the book in question--for the most part these are in accord, but the last one comes from ''The Book of Torak'', holy text of the ReligionOfEvil authored by (or possibly ghostwritten for by one of his [[TheDragon Disciples]]) the BigBad. It retells many of the same ''events'' but puts a ''radically'' different perspective on them- and one that Torak seems to actually believe, which really hits home just how crazy he is. |
| 210 | ** The biographies of Belgarath and Polgara disagree on exactly how a lot of things went down. |
| 211 | * In Raymond Queneau's ''Exercises in Style'', where the same story is told in 99 different ways, we have the subjective points of view of two protagonists. |
| 212 | * The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Lucifer Rising'' has a version involving a futuristic surveillance system that makes only a basic record of what happens, relying on computer extrapolation to fill in the details when it's played back. It becomes both sides of a Rashomon Style dispute about what really happened in a certain conversation, producing two different extrapolations in which the speakers perform the same actions and say the same words, but the ''way'' they do it makes the difference between the version where one speaker was trying to help the other and the version where he was deliberately making matters worse. |
| 213 | * ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' by Creator/StephenKing contains many versions of the same events by different characters, and, in some cases, by newspapers. |
| 214 | * ''Literature/OnlyRevolutions'' has one side of the story by one protagonist, the other side of the story by the other protagonist. Given the sheer length of time that the story covers, it makes sense for there to be discrepancies. However, there are more than just discrepancies, as both sides tell it in a way to make themselves look good at various points and have different recollections altogether of certain events. |
| 215 | * The Egyptian novel ''Miramar'' (by Egypt's only [[UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature Nobel Laureate for Literature]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naguib_Mahfouz Naguib Mahfouz]]) is told four times in the first person from the perspective of four lodgers at a ''pension'' (a kind of boarding house) in 1960s Alexandria: the aging intellectual and former journalist Amir Wagdy; the young, wealthy, well-connected, and self-destructive scion of a once-noble family Husni Allam; the elegant broadcaster Mansour Bahi; and the factory manager and Party functionary Sarhan al-Beheiri. All four men pursue the young, uneducated, but {{plucky|Girl}} peasant woman Zohra, newly arrived from the countryside. All four stories end with the death -- probably by suicide -- of Sarhan. The narrators are biased but not really unreliable; they differ in their interpretation of character and motives, but don't disagree about facts. |
| 216 | * Mahfouz used the same technique in ''Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth'', which tells the story of Pharaoh UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}}'s short reign and scandalous behaviour from the POV of more than a dozen different characters. Most of them agree on ''what'' happened, though ''why'' is another matter... The only thing [[DramaticIrony most of them agree on]] is that this monotheism business [[ForegoneConclusion died with the Pharaoh]]. |
| 217 | * In his memoir ''Hitch-22'', Creator/ChristopherHitchens {{discusse|dTrope}}s Rashomon Style when recounting an event he shared with good friend Martin Amis, who had recorded his version in his own prior memoir. |
| 218 | * In Sarah Waters' ''Fingersmith'', the two girls involved give their sides of the stories and their narratives overlap as the book's twist unfolds. |
| 219 | * When Literature/DonQuixote enters the Sierra Morena at chapter XII, First Part, he hears the account of the love of Chrysostom to Marcela from the shepherd Pedro. It seems Marcela, an orphaned rich girl, on a whim decided to be shepherdess, and she is so beautiful all his {{City Mouse}}s suitors have become shepherds only to woe her. She never gives anyone any hope, so the Sierra Morena is full of {{Love Martyr}}s, and they are going tomorrow to the funeral of one of them, Chrysostom. Pedro describes Marcela as a good person. At the funeral, Ambrosio, Chrysostom’s best friends, accuses Marcela of cruelty against Chrysostom. When confronted by his listeners about Marcela’s character, he admits this was an InformedFlaw. Later, they read one of Chrysostom’s poems and he claims to be a LoveMartyr and Marcela being cruel to him. At last, Marcela appears at the funeral and claims that she is SoBeautifulItsACurse and, as a free, decent woman, she had the right to reject anyone. Nobody says, but everybody implies, SpurnedIntoSuicide. |
| 220 | * Not present through the whole text, but events in ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn'' are sometimes told from different, and conflicting, points of view. Namely John and Hagia's narration. And Sefalet's two mouths. |
| 221 | * ''Literature/ProfessorMmaasLecture'' is written from the termites' viewpoint, but the epilogue has the ending (and the backstory) presented from the viewpoint of humans living near the termite mound. |
| 222 | * ''Literature/AgeOfFire'': The first three books are each from the POV of one of the three protagonist siblings, so the early events of the series (from their hatching until the raid on the egg cave and their scattering) get this treatment -- with each book, [[AntiVillain the Copper]] becomes increasingly sympathetic while [=AuRon=] becomes less so; their parents [=AuRel=] and Irelia seem like completely different characters in each book; and recurring antagonist the Dragonblade has a slightly different personality in each (in [=AuRon's=] he's a one-dimensional dragon hunter, in Wistala's he's a NobleDemon, and in the Copper's he's a straight KnightTemplar). |
| 223 | * The history of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is filled to the brim with conflicting accounts of the same events thanks to [[GossipEvolution gossip]] and [[UnreliableNarrator biased historians]]. For example, ''Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories'' draws from three major sources about the Dance of the Dragons. Septon Eustace, was a Green (Aegon II supporter), Maester Munkun was a Black (Rhaenyra) supporter, and court jester Mushroom made fun of both equally but was prone to hyperbole and adding raunchy stories about all parties. Gyldayn's work compares and contrasts them and adds several notes to the point of "X source might be making this up." |
| 224 | * In the ''Literature/GotrekAndFelix'' novel ''[=OrcSlayer=]'', [[ItMakesSenseInContext Gotrek's efforts to help Prince Hamnir retake Karak Hirn]] are hampered by the Prince having to resolve a dispute between the Stonemonger Clan and the Ironskin Clan over the possession of the Shield of Drutti. The Stonemongers claim the Ironskins stole the shield after giving it as a gift to the Stonemongers two thousand years ago for rescuing an Ironskin daughter from trolls, while the Ironskins insist that they had traded the shield to the Stonemongers in exchange for mining rights that were subsequently never given and had simply taken the shield back as recompense. [[CuttingTheKnot Gotrek resolves this by taking the shield, hacking it to pieces, and throwing the pieces into the fire]]. It cancels the clans' grudges, in that they now have a grudge against Gotrek. |
| 225 | * ''Literature/{{Wonder|2012}}'' by R.J. Palacio has six sections, told from the varying points of view of Auggie Pullman, the protagonist, Via, Auggie's older sister, Summer, Auggie's closest friend, Jack Will, Auggie's friend who later betrays him, Miranda, Via's best friend, and finally Auggie again. A sequel, entitled ''Auggie & Me'', features three more sections offering the perspectives of Julian, the bully, Chris, Auggie's childhood best friend who later moved away, and Charlotte, a theater girl. |
| 226 | * ''Literature/TheDarkMaidens'' tells the story of a high school literature club whose president has apparently been murdered. The story consists of each club member's take on what happened leading up to her death and who killed her, leading to wildly conflicting narratives and accusations. |
| 227 | * ''Literature/TheGreatBrain'' entry ''The Great Brain at the Academy'' is this for narrator JD. As he explains, his sources for what's happening at the academy are letters from brother Tom (both to the family and private ones for JD), letters from older brother Sweyn and reports from the Academy teachers. While Tom's letters are frank and detailed, JD knows better than to trust Tom not to embellish things to put himself in a more positive light. Likewise, Sweyn has his own biases and not know the details on Tom's actions. While the academy teachers are blunter on Tom's failings, they too don't know the truth of what he's up to. Thus, JD "had to be something of a detective" to piece together the varying accounts and fill in the blanks on what happened and even then acknowledges there are probably some details he got wrong. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Puppet Shows]] |
| 231 | * ''Series/TheBookOfPooh'': In a "Win Who Won Situation", Rabbit and Tigger argue over who won a race to see who's the fastest animal in the Hundred Acre Wood. Each of them has different recollections on what happened, with their friends cheering them on, their opponent DeliberatelyJumpingTheGun and tripping them at the finish line, causing them to win the race anyway. Neither Piglet nor Pooh nor Eeyore remember who won the race, as Piglet had his head covered by Pooh's honey pot, Pooh was more focused on his empty honey pot than the race, and Eeyore was upset that neither Tigger nor Rabbit waited for him to say Go before running off. The Narrator eventually reveals what really happened; both Rabbit and Tigger were cheered on equally, they both ran off before Eeyore could say Go, and they both tripped on a rock, ending the race in a tie. |
| 232 | * The kids' series ''Wimzie's House'' uses this to teach kids that no one can remember something exactly as it was, as people tend to have bias or remember facts wrong, especially if it's over something like "whose fault it is". |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | |
| 235 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 236 | * ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' |
| 237 | ** "Two Sides to Every Story", where Jimmy and Donna Barclay tell two different stories of how they ended up with a fire truck in front of their house. |
| 238 | ** One of the live episodes, "Mandy's Debut", has its first segment dedicated to one of these plots, where Mandy, Connie, Eugene, and Bernard all recount why they think they caused Whit to have to go to the hospital. [[note]] It turns out in the end that none of them did, as Whit was actually ''visiting'' someone in the hospital, rather than having to be taken there himself.[[/note]] This leads to humorous moments such as Eugene's account of the story having ''everybody'' speaking in his signature SesquipedalianLoquaciousness style. |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | |
| 241 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 242 | * The Dark Angel Chapter's history in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has two distinctly different perspectives. |
| 243 | ** From the Loyalists' point of view, the Fallen betrayed their Primarch Lion El'Johnson, and the Emperor, by staging a Traitor rebellion on their home planet while Loyalists were away fighting in the Horus Heresy. Having come home, El'Johnson was furious at seeing his planet seized from him, by his own forces no less, and bombed them into submission before a freak warp storm sparked into existence (probably sent from the Traitor's daemonic masters), and destroyed the besieged planet and whisked the surviving away. |
| 244 | ** In the other version, some of the Fallen claim that they uncovered evidence that their Primarch wasn't as loyal to the Emperor as he appeared, and was deliberately holding back his forces to join the winning the side. The Fallen were then subsequently attacked and nearly exterminated in order to keep them quiet. The freak warp storm rose up, perhaps by chance or divine intervention, and saved the lives of the true loyalists. |
| 245 | ** The novel ''Fallen Anges'' just makes things even more confusing. The soon-to-be-Fallen uncover a [[TheCorruption Chaotic]] conspiracy that has nothing to do with Lion El'Johnson. At the very end of the novel we get the Cult's view of events: [[spoiler:they were intending to seal away the daemons, not summon them, and they may or may not be caught in the middle of a FrameUp]]. After the cult's defeat, the planet of Caliban declares their independence from both the Imperium and El'Johnson, with a huge multitude of possible reasons as to ''why''. |
| 246 | ** As a matter of fact, this could apply to 40K's fluff as a whole, with all of it being written by the various factions (and allowing any continuity errors to be explained away as propaganda). |
| 247 | * The scenario ''The Star Chamber'' for ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' is even called "Rashomon with anti-gods and automatic weapons." on the opening. The scenario has the [=PCs=] interviewing a cast of characters, survivors from a failed operation, and switching to play as them in the flashbacks, the players must find out who was at fault for the operation going terribly wrong. |
| 248 | [[/folder]] |
| 249 | |
| 250 | [[folder:Theater]] |
| 251 | * ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' effectively utilizes this with Eliza and Angelica's respective back-to-back solos "Helpless" and "Satisfied." First Eliza describes meeting Alexander and their entire courtship leading up to their wedding. As Eliza's sister Angelica provides a wedding toast, the stage "rewinds" and we witness the same time period from Angelica's point of view, giving new insight to nearly every moment in Eliza's song. |
| 252 | * Used in ''The Master Builder''. Ten years before the play takes place, Solness (the title character) finished building a church tower in Hilde Wangel's hometown. After its dedication ceremony, ''something'' happened between them. Hilde says Solness basically made out with her; Solness says he doesn't remember anything like that happening. He later agrees that it happened, but it's not clear if it really happened, or if he's just agreeing because she's a {{Yandere}}. |
| 253 | * Used in ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'' to [[PlayingWithATrope play with]] the GreedyJew trope. Launcelot, Shylock's servant, complains to his father that he's so starved in Shylock's service that his ribs are visible. However, Launcelot just spent the whole scene practicing deceptions on his father's blindness--which means that nothing he says about his appearance can really be trusted. (This is open to interpretation since actors of all sizes have played Launcelot over the years--but even if he ''is'' skinny, you could chalk that up to a high metabolism.) The way Shylock tells it, Launcelot is a [[BigEater "huge feeder"]] who was eating him out of house and home. Of course, Shylock is a miser, so he can't really be trusted either. And so it goes... Bear in mind that it is likely that Shakespeare himself cast [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kempe William Kempe]] in the role, who, shall we say, was not thin (he probably also played Falstaff); of course, which actor played which part in the original productions of Shakespeare's plays is not known for certain. |
| 254 | * ''Theatre/NoisesOff'' is a variation on this. First we see them performing [[ShowWithinAShow ''Nothing On'']] during rehearsal. Then we see the play again from backstage as everything starts to fall apart between the actors. Finally we see ''Nothing On'' on its final day as the burnt-out performers start to forget the lines and blocking until the whole thing descends into chaos. |
| 255 | * ''Theatre/TheNormanConquests'' is similar -- three separate plays (on three separate nights) about the same party, each set in a different place in the house. |
| 256 | * An independent theatre piece called ''The Wedding Pool''. Various scenes are reenacted a couple of times, often with only minor variations in what's actually said and done, but with radically altered pacing and tone of voice. |
| 257 | * ''Theatre/JerseyBoys'' features a rotating POV between the members of the Four Seasons and this occurs as a result. A few examples: |
| 258 | ** Tommy's narration implies he plucked Bob out of obscurity until Bob takes over as narrator and reveals that he already had a hit single with another band ("Short Shorts" by The Royal Teens). |
| 259 | ** Bob makes it appear that everything with the band was smooth sailing until [[spoiler:Tommy's gambling debt was revealed]]. Once Nick takes over, it's shown that there were actually several incidents that created tension between the members and that one was just the straw that broke the camel's back. |
| 260 | * ''See What I Wanna See'' has this as its first act. After a man is murdered in Central Park, a thief, the man’s wife, and a medium claiming to channel the husband’s spirit all recount what happened that night. Notably, this is based after ''In A Grove'', the same story ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'' was inspired by. |
| 261 | [[/folder]] |
| 262 | |
| 263 | [[folder:Religion]] |
| 264 | * One of the most significant examples of this trope are Literature/TheFourGospels of the New Testament. |
| 265 | |
| 266 | ** The oldest canonical Gospel, Mark, is quite short. This comes across even in Jesus's genealogy in Mark 1:1 which most people read past, where Jesus Christ is named "the Son of God." It is mostly written in simple language like an action script. It is directed towards a more matter-of-fact people, the occupying Romans. Mark's Gospel tells readers what Jesus did. It is themed around the Messiah's servanthood, a fulfillment of the Ox of Ephraim's standard in the Camp of Moses (the suffering servant). |
| 267 | |
| 268 | ** The Gospel of Luke's main audience is Gentiles (Luke being a Greek doctor), thus he begins his genealogy at Adam the common ancestor of all humanity. He tells the story of Jesus as the Son of Man (Seed of the Woman; the Kinsman Redeemer) and is therefore representative of Ruben's standard, a man. His Gospel tells us what Jesus felt, which was of great importance to the stoic and epicurean Greek philosophers. |
| 269 | |
| 270 | ** Matthew's Gospel, as a Levite, is directed towards the Jewish audience telling of Jesus's royal pedigree from David and showcasing His fulfillment of prophecy in Scripture in regards to the promised Messiah. Therefore telling the story of the King (Judah's standard being a lion, which as we all know is the KingOfBeasts). Matthew focuses on what Jesus represents and fulfills in the Torah and Tanakh, and also tells us what Jesus said (as Matthew's Gospel has the most public discourses). |
| 271 | |
| 272 | ** The Gospel of John is shorter than both Luke and Matthew, with a noticeably different structure and content than the synoptics, in addition to being much more spiritual and enigmatic in its tone, and even esoteric at times. It is representative of the final standard in the camp of Moses, Dan the serpent (Jesus made sin) which later in Dan's history became an eagle with a serpent in its mouth (man's sin paid for/God overcoming the serpent), to finally just an Eagle (the absence of sin) late in Dan's history. John's Gospel, which scholars believe to be written last, is to those waiting for the Messiah's return. It tells its readers who Jesus was/is/will always be, with Jesus making seven "I am" (the name God gives Moses when Moses asked what His name is) statements throughout, performs [[RuleOfSeven seven]] miracles, seven discourses, even down to the heptadic structure of the words and letters themselves. Mathematicians such as Harvard University's Ivan Panin recorded over 43,000 pages of [[FormulaicMagic mathematical discoveries]] in the Hebrew and Greek text of the Old and New Testament which he believed to be evidence of the Holy Spirit as the author, and as a result converted. |
| 273 | |
| 274 | ** Luke and Matthew's Gospels tell more-or-less the same story as Mark, but they are also directed towards different audiences, so they expand it with numerous other events, characters, motives, and entire new subplots (i.e. the story of Jesus's miraculous birth, the Sermon on the Mount, the Doubting Thomas, etc.); hence why these three Gospels are known as the ''synoptic'' (Greek for "see-the-same") Gospels. However, there are seeming contradictions between the original parts of Matthew and Luke, most notably the genealogy of Christ being different. This however is reconciled when discovering that there is a case of TangledFamilyTree and SpareToTheThrone. Matthew's genealogy is that of Joseph the husband of Mary from King Solomon, thereby preserving the royal line of succession from King David to Jesus, Joseph's adopted son. Whereas the genealogy in Luke's Gospel is Mary's through King David and Bathsheeba's second son Nathan, Solomon's younger brother. This averts the [[HereditaryCurse blood curse]] placed on the royal line of Judah through Solomon's line in Jeremiah 22:30, where the God of Israel curses Coniah and his seed in perpetuity. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus "is supposed" (nomizo/by the law) the son of Joseph, so too Joseph is "reckoned by the law" the son of Heli/Eli, Heli/Eli being the father of Mary, [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours to which even ancient Rabbinic Jews agree]] by mention of Mary the daughter of Eli in their writings. |
| 275 | [[/folder]] |
| 276 | |
| 277 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 278 | * The Firing Squad of the ''VideoGame/AgentsOfMayhem'' each give Persephone various accounts of what happened during a mission to retrieve a weapon from LEGION: |
| 279 | ** Oni explains the details in a storyteller-like manner, going so far as to give colorful names to various LEGION troops (i.e: Ivory Eagle, Serpent Devils, etc.), which Persephone quips that it has "the flavor of a third-rate martial arts movie." She asks about the weapon they were sent to retrieve, and Oni said there was no weapon. |
| 280 | ** Kingpin's account is more ridiculous than the one above: once entering the lair, he tells Persephone they went in guns blazing, then going through hallways and into a room with ten robots... which he then changes to two when Persephone presses him on the matter but described them as if they were "juicin'." Persephone asks him about the weapon, Kingpin tells her the robots were the weapon, but they had to destroy them. |
| 281 | ** Persephone calls in Scheherazade, expecting a more realistic recall of the mission. Scheherazade tells her that the squad entered the lair with absolute stealth, while in-game, Oni informs the squad they had tripped a silent alarm, prompting Kingpin to ask him how he could know about it. Scheherazade continues on about them becoming "one with the darkness", even though there was a lot of shooting involved. After said shooting, they find what they were meant to retrieve in a box... which was empty, much to Persephone's chagrin. Scheherazade explains that the weapon is safe in her possession, adding that she had developed an "emotional attachment" to it. Persephone tells her that she trusts her judgement and warns her not to make her regret it. |
| 282 | ** In the end, it's revealed that the weapon [[spoiler: (if it can even be called that), is a chinchilla that Oni and Kingpin are playing with. Scheherazade insists that they be discreet about it as Persephone is "[[EnemyToAllLivingThings a complete despot about her no-pets policy.]]"]] |
| 283 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezGunslinger'' The tale of how the Dalton brothers met their fate in Coffeyville is told three different ways by three different characters; Ben (a Coffeyville native), Dwight (who has read about the event), and Silas (who may [[UnreliableNarrator or may not]] have been part of the posse tracking the Daltons). About the only thing they can agree on is that the Daltons robbed banks in Coffeyville on a certain day. |
| 284 | * Invoked in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam 3'', where each CastHerd get information from similar sources that directly conflicts with each other. [[spoiler:The BigBad was intentionally doing this, to forces all the characters to realize they need to stop fighting each other and realize they have to work together against whoever's behind the false information in order to get home.]] |
| 285 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': |
| 286 | ** Throughout the series, the [[CreationMyth creation mythology]], [[OurGodsAreDifferent pantheons of deities]], the story of the [[MultipleChoicePast creation/formation]] of mortal life, and even many aspects of [[WrittenByTheWinners history]] [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade itself]] vary significantly between different cultures. Each has a number of consistent elements but offers many contradictory details as well. In the series' famous MindScrew fashion, these tend to be treated as AllMythsAreTrue, regardless of the conflicts and contradictions, or at least that all are MetaphoricallyTrue. (The number of {{Time Crash}}es and {{Cosmic Retcon}}s also plays heavily into this trope, at several points merging two contradictory timelines to make them ''both'' true.) |
| 287 | *** ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve is a key part of the series’s cosmology, as the existence of various deities is at least somewhat reliant on enough people believing in them. This allows contradictory interpretations of the same figure to simultaneously exist due to various religions believing different versions. |
| 288 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', the details of the [[GreatOffscreenWar Battle of Red Mountain]] and it's [[WhenItAllBegan aftermath]] (the [[RiddleForTheAges disappearance]] of the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]], the [[PlotTriggeringDeath death of Lord Nerevar]], the [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascension]] of the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Tribunal and Dagoth Ur]] as {{Physical God}}s, and the [[MarkedChange transformation]] of the Chimer people into the modern Dunmer) are recounted differently by each of the surviving parties -- [[BigBad Dagoth Ur]], [[TheChessmaster Azura]], [[CorruptChurch the Tribunal Temple]] (which worships Vivec), [[PhysicalGod Vivec]] (offering a different account than the Temple's version), [[NobleSavage the Ashlanders]] and the [[DefectorFromDecadence Dissident Priests]]. The Dissident Priests alone have ''several'' differing accounts -- that is, one of the things they criticize the Temple for is being so sensitive about different accounts of the events at Red Mountain, so they've taken it upon themselves to gather as many different accounts as they can. They don't make any claim to know which account is ''true'', though they phrase things in a way that make clear that they find something off about the Temple's story. Ultimately, even upon completing the main quest, you are never told what ''actually'' happened at that time. However, by speaking to all of those involved and doing your own research with [[FictionalDocument in-game documents and books]], you can at least rule a few of the options out. The only consistent story beats are that there ''was'' a battle, the Dwemer and Chimer were involved (Nords might also have been, though it's unlikely), the Dwemer disappeared (nobody's sure where they went, just that wherever it is, it ain't here), the Chimer found the heart of Lorkhan, Nerevar died (maybe of wounds received in the battle itself, maybe killed by Dagoth Ur, maybe murdered by the Tribunal) the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur became gods (betraying Nerevar to do so), and Azura got pissed and cursed the Chimer to become the Dunmer. |
| 289 | * ''[[VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Escape Velocity: Nova]]'' has an interesting method of this. By the time the player arrives on the scene, a good amount of the story has already happened, and the only way to learn all of it is to play every faction's storyline... But since you can only play one faction per playthrough, the only way to learn the full story is through {{Alternate Universe}}s where the player chose different paths, resulting in wildly different outcomes and effectively making ''the player'' have different accounts of the backstory. Throwing a spanner into it is the fact that [[SchrodingersGun not all facts learned during a storyline applies to all the other storylines]]. |
| 290 | ** ''Override'' (Nova's predecessor in the series) has a more standard version -- though in a twist it isn't apparent in the game itself, and it took WordOfGod to reveal it. Several of the storylines are mutually exclusive to do, but all of them happened (it just wasn't the same human that was involved in all of them, obviously). |
| 291 | * An example comes in several endings of ''[[VideoGame/FatalFury Real Bout Fatal Fury 2]]'': Chonshu's ending has him voluntarily enter Kim Kaphwan's Taekwondo school, with Chonrei staying behind with Tung Fu Rue as shown in both his and Tung's endings. In Kim's own ending, both Chonshu and Chonrei join the school. |
| 292 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': Per WordOfGod, the Nibelheim Incident is portrayed differently in various pieces of spin-off media because each one represents a different person's interpretation of the events. The original ''FFVII'' shows Cloud Strife's perspective, the {{Prequel}} game ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' is Zack Fair's perspective, and the anime ''[[Anime/LastOrderFinalFantasyVII Last Order]]'' and mobile game ''VideoGame/BeforeCrisis'' is how the Turks believe it went down. While they all get the basic facts correct ([[spoiler:Sephiroth finds out about JENOVA, burns Nibelheim to the ground, attacks Tifa, and finally goes into the Lifestream; some time later, Zack dies fighting off Shinra's forces]]), lines are changed and interpretations vary greatly. ''FFVII'' depicts the death of [[spoiler:Zack himself]] as they're getting ambushed and gunned down by three {{Mooks}}; ''Crisis Core'' makes it an epic battle against practically the entire Shinra army, with the three Mooks being [[TheLastStraw the ones left standing when Zack ran out of steam]]. Likewise, ''Last Order'' shows [[spoiler:Sephiroth willingly jumping into the Lifestream]] rather than [[spoiler:getting thrown in by Cloud]] because the Turks weren't actually present and that's how they assume it went down. |
| 293 | * ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has shades of this with its multiple story paths, but it's ultimately a subversion. Information about the setting's backstory varies wildly depending on which route you're playing. However, adding up all three routes together reveals the same events happened the same way. Any inconsistencies result from characters not having the full story themselves, MetaphoricallyTrue, SelfServingMemory, or plain having a vested interest in distorting events. |
| 294 | * A particularly [[MindScrew mind-screwy]] example is Jacket and Biker's fight in ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', where both of them believe they won and killed the other. At the end of the "Neighbors" mission, Jacket encounters Biker, who tells the protagonist that he's "dead meat", initiating a boss fight. Like with every other enemy he's ever encountered, Jacket violently kills him. After Jacket's story concludes, we rewind back time get to [[AnotherSideAnotherStory play as Biker and see his side of the story]]. When the two meet this time around, Biker actually gives Jacket a chance to leave (to which the latter doesn't respond, [[HeroicMime as usual]]) and [[CurbStompBattle Jacket is dispatched rather easily]] instead of a boss fight occurring. The game's general ambiguity and JigsawPuzzlePlot lead to a number of different interpretations, such as the version of events where Biker wins the fight being its own alternate timeline. |
| 295 | * This happens in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' whenever anyone talks about Darth Revan, and even moreso in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' with Kreia, who has her own agenda, and is an extremely UnreliableNarrator. The first game has you solve a murder mystery that plays out like this. |
| 296 | * The Locksmith's and The Pickpocket's stories amount to this in ''{{VideoGame/Monaco}}''. Both explain the same events that occurred over the course of the game (that is, the events you're playing), but each has considerable conflicts in the other's story, something Inspector Voltaire tries to press The Pickpocket on during interrogation. Made worse by The Lookout's prologues; while her stories take place before The Locksmith's and The Pickpocket's story, they still have unresolved discrepancies[[spoiler:, most important of which being how she claims The Cleaner is still on the loose when the end of the Pickpocket's story shows he (as The Hacker) was captured with the rest of the crew]]. |
| 297 | * One occurrence happens in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' during the judge quest in Charwood. You are asked to find out what really happened that fateful night the children were murdered. Both lords, Jhareg and Kharlat, will tell slanted accounts of the event absolving themselves of the crime and blaming the other fully unless you have found their respective diary, which lets you force them into telling the truth, that they were guilty in part of the crime. However, to find the real truth, you must force a confession from the demon who manipulated them both. |
| 298 | * ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' toys with this. The game has five separate main characters who interact at various points throughout the game. That said, the game's presentation of events does not change with a different character, but in learning their story you often discover reasons for seemingly inexplicable actions. |
| 299 | * Arle and Schezo's scenarios in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo20thAnniversary'' have shades of this coupled with a pinch of BroadStrokes. It's quite clear that the overall tale is the same due to many recurring elements (Dark Prince's storm, Rulue as the penultimate boss, Ecolo being slightly involved), but the individual narratives aren't (for example, did Arle meet up with Schezo in his cave, or did Schezo find Arle after following Carbuncle?). Rulue also borrows some elements from both stories for her own, but hers is definitely not canon as she doesn't force Dark Prince to get rid of the storm. |
| 300 | * In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', the player can experience the first half of the story from one of the two main characters' perspectives and then play through the other character's account of the same events. |
| 301 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'', it's difficult to say whether the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Blood]] [[EldritchAbomination Storm]] got into Telara because the Vigil [[GodIsInept fucked up]] (as the Defiant would like you to believe), or if people should have known better than to mess around with {{magitek}} (as the Guardians would claim). To further confuse matters, each side's starting experience has the other just generally [[TheUsualAdversaries getting in the way out of sheer cussedness]] and [[TooDumbToLive brainlessness]]. |
| 302 | * ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' became this after the first DLC campaign was released. While Shovel Knight's own story is a straightforward heroic journey to defeat the Order of No Quarter and the Enchantress, ''Plague of Shadows'' features [[MadScientist Plague Knight]], a hyperactive and slightly psychotic alchemist and former Knight of the Order of No Quarter, [[HeroOfAnotherStory on his own quest to]] [[AntiHero craft the Ultimate Potion to become the most powerful alchemist in the land.]][[spoiler: [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Or maybe not?..]] ]] This story runs more-or-less parallel with Shovel Knight's story, and even changes a little bit to reflect on Plague Knight's own perspective; for example, Shovel Knight is shown to be more of a JerkAss to the Knights than in his own campaign, though this is speculated to be because Plague Knight has JerkAss tendencies himself, and so sees Shovel Knights actions as unheroic as he himself is. It also reveals certain unexplained parts of the main game as the results of Plague Knight's doing. |
| 303 | ** One hint that Plague Knight might not be telling the whole truth about what happened lies in his fight against Shovel Knight--who's using relics he could not have had at that point in the course of normal gameplay (but would have had during the rematch, which is where Plague Knight might have remembered them from). WordOfGod is that Plague Knight is an UnreliableNarrator during the events of ''Plague of Shadows''. |
| 304 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 305 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'': |
| 306 | *** This game uses a {{downplayed|Trope}} version. It has [[AnotherSideAnotherStory six different main storylines which intersect every so often]], and at every intersection point, the dialogue is slightly different between the versions used in each character's story. In some cases, this reflects the point of view of the characters: for example, Dr. Eggman is a [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] LargeHam in [[StockShonenHero Sonic]]'s story, but in [[KidSidekick Tails]]'s story, he's significantly more threatening and subdued. |
| 307 | *** Usually, the events and outcomes remain the same, but sometimes they'll play out slightly differently to reflect the character you're playing as. A good example is the battle against E-102 Gamma. In Sonic and Tails's storylines, the character you're playing as is about to beat Gamma, but Amy steps in to stop him. In Gamma's storyline, Gamma is about to beat Sonic, but Amy stops ''him'' instead. Amy's storyline goes with Sonic's interpretation of events, but with Gamma still holding ground beforehand. |
| 308 | ** In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', it's debatable who won the character-on-character boss fights. Most of the cutscenes treat them as stalemates anyway, with two important exceptions being the final battles between Eggman and Tails and Sonic and Shadow. The endings of the Dark and Hero pathways contradict each other as a result, but both of them plausibly set up the Last Story. |
| 309 | *** [[spoiler:In the Hero storyline, Tails defeats Eggman in revenge for Sonic's apparent death, while Sonic sends Shadow off to lick his wounds. Eggman still manages to sneak away with the last Chaos Emerald and place it into the cannon's console off-screen, but Sonic destroys the cannon before it can fire. Success! Right?]] |
| 310 | *** [[spoiler:In the Dark storyline, Eggman defeats Tails, Shadow prevents Sonic from reaching the Eclipse Cannon, and Eggman's plan goes off without a hitch! So what's with the siren?]] |
| 311 | ** With ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' using the simple storytelling style similar to the classic games, it's difficult to determine which team encountered Eggman ([[spoiler:Metal Sonic in disguise]]) and defeated him in the three boss fights and which team won the team battles. Despite this, [[spoiler:Metal Sonic still copied the Chaos data of Froggy and Chocola in Team Rose's ending and copied Shadow's data in the middle of Team Dark's story while the Chaotix learn that the real Eggman was locked up in a room by Metal Sonic.]] |
| 312 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' tries to stick to a straight OnceMoreWithClarity style of storytelling, but whenever two of the playable characters' stories intersect, things get fuzzy. Notably, both Sonic and Shadow confront Silver, but whoever's being controlled by the player has to win before the story can advance (averting HopelessBossFight). And when Sonic and Shadow encounter Iblis, whichever one you're playing as does the fighting while the other stays in the background. |
| 313 | * ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'' has the "Trinity Sight System," which allows you to play through the game's first three chapters from the perspectives of three different protagonists with many events being seen from completely different perspectives. |
| 314 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsZ'', there's an interesting example. After Mission 25 (mostly involved in the plot of [[Manga/GetterRobo Getter G]], including a DuelBoss fight with Mecha Tekkouki Oni, and some [[Anime/GenesisOfAquarion Aquarion plot]], the group splits in three. One group consists firmly of [[Anime/TheBigO Roger Smith, R. Dorothy Wainright, and Norman]]. One group decides to strike on their own (this being the cast of ''Anime/OvermanKingGainer'', ''Anime/CombatMechaXabungle'', ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'', ''Manga/GetterRobo G'', ''Anime/GenesisOfAquarion'', ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', ''Anime/SpaceWarriorBaldios'', and ''Anime/SuperDimensionCenturyOrguss''), while the other joins [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny ZAFT]] (this group consisting of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny the Minerva crew of SEED Destiny]], ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', ''Anime/{{Zambot 3}}'', ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', ''Anime/MazingerZ'', ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', ''Anime/GodSigma'', and ''Anime/{{Gravion}}'') Roger's small party meets up with the "striking out on their own" group eventually, and [[Anime/UFORoboGrendizer Duke Fleed]] eventually does as well. You actually have no choice as to which group you go with -- if you chose Rand at the start, you get the "strike out on your own" group, while Setsuko gets the "join ZAFT" route. There's even a route split inside that split! |
| 315 | ** What makes it an example - as well as interesting - is that soon after you split you start getting odd accounts of the other side being needlessly violent - killing, destroying, and generally being evil. In Mission 39, both sides collide into one massive fight, the aftermath of which having your team realize that BOTH accounts they heard were false - they were both being manipulated into fighting the other (Incidentally, the main reason they realize this is due to timely intervention of [[Anime/Daitarn3 Banjo Haran]], who managed to not only save both teams from destroying each other but also freed [[Anime/SuperDimensionCenturyOrguss Orson]] from his somewhat-captivity. Upon realizing they were tricked, the teams come together and enter the third arc - a massive RageAgainstTheHeavens[=/=]RoaringRampageOfRevenge on everyone who tricked them, as well as the villains to the galaxy. |
| 316 | * ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' is told in this way, with the protagonists Rhys and Fiona often adding hilarious "embellishments" to their side of the story. |
| 317 | -->'''Fiona:''' ...We calmly discussed an alliance.\ |
| 318 | ''[[BlatantLies (Cue scene of stuffy British cordiality)]]''\ |
| 319 | '''Rhys:''' Really? That's what you're going with? 'Cause I remember that a bit differently.\ |
| 320 | ''[[OnceMoreWithClarity (Cue Sasha trying to boot Rhys out the door of the party RV)]]'' |
| 321 | * A gameplay mechanic in ''VideoGame/TellMeWhy''; Tyler and Alyson can manifest visual depictions of their differing memories, and they must choose which one they want to place more trust in. |
| 322 | * ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' |
| 323 | ** In the shooting games each playable character set out to solve the incident by themselves, with other characters nowhere to be seen. Which character's route is canon and which ending they get are usually left ambiguous. |
| 324 | ** This is particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} in ''[[VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight Imperishable Night]]'', where, presumably, nearly the same events have to happen at least twice in a row for the TrueFinalBoss to be truly defeated (since you have to play one game being diverted and fight the regular FinalBoss first). |
| 325 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody Scarlet Weather Rhapsody]]'' is built around this, where playing different characters is not mutually exclusive plotlines, but apparently sequential plots that merely repeat similar battles over and over. It is because Tenshi seemingly goes out of her way to repeatedly get defeated in {{No Holds Barred Beatdown}}s. The [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Scarlet_Weather_Rhapsody/Timeline timeline]] for ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' shows that ''all'' routes, fights and endings happen together. |
| 326 | * One of the more hilarious quest lines to come out of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'''s ''Cataclysm'' expansion is "The Day That Deathwing Came," concerning the dragon's attack on the Badlands. After asking some [=NPCs=] about it, you play through three reenactments of their stories: a dwarf claims that he punched his way through a rain of burning boulders to sock Deathwing right in the face, but a gnome interrupts and describes how he used a device to make himself big enough to snatch the dragon out of the sky and hurl him all the way to Kalimdor. And then an orc explains that he was showing off his motorcycle to a bunch of lovely ladies ([[{{Elfeminate}} and a blood elf]] [[EvenTheGuysWantHim male]]) when the dragon arrived, so he rode his ''flying motorbike'' to the top of a mesa to duel Deathwing in a knife fight, at which point the other characters interrupt and it all dissolves into chaos. |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 330 | * ''VisualNovel/AkaiIto'': The event that led to the unsealing of Nushi did happen, but the main characters desperately want it to be forgotten, mainly out of concern for Kei's sanity. Each of them tries to spin a convenient explanation when Kei asks them, but ultimately Kei must confront the truth that ''[[LaserGuidedAmnesia only she knows]]''. Kei's FreakOut makes [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Lifestream-poisoned Cloud Strife]] [[LaughingMad looks coherent]]. |
| 331 | * The 1995 game ''[[http://www.giantbomb.com/eve-burst-error/3025-2290/ Eve Burst Error]]'' may have been the first video game to use such a trope. The player can switch at any time between two different characters providing different perspectives of the same events. |
| 332 | * ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'' has two protagonists, The Kid and Takeshi. Each one appears highly competent in their own route while the other is a scared kid or a ButtMonkey. There are also some subtle differences in the way events happen and are perceived. [[spoiler:Or so it seems. They're actually narrating two entirely different stories, and the protagonists of each route aren't whom they appear to be in the other's route.]] |
| 333 | * ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' has a bit of an interesting take on this trope. Due to the Second Magic and the way the Nasuverse works in general, ALL endings, even the ones that aren't in the game, are canon. |
| 334 | * The manga-only Beyond Midnight Arc of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry,'' which is directly inspired by ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''. |
| 335 | * The ''[[VisualNovel Sound Novel]]'' games ''VisualNovel/{{Machi}}'' (1998) and ''VisualNovel/FourTwoEightShibuyaScramble'' (2008) do something similar, but with larger casts of characters. |
| 336 | * ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' bases itself off this trope. In a series of games where you need to make sure your client isn't found guilty, and find a substitute killer/kidnapper/thief/etc., you find that your client's testimony is very different from that of any witness or supposition by the prosecutor. |
| 337 | * Most of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' is this. The only events that we know for sure actually happened are those that [[spoiler:piece Battler or Erika]] witness [[spoiler:from a first-person narrative perspective]]. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 341 | * ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail88.html "couch patch"]] asks where the patch on the couch in Strong Bad's basement came from. Strong Bad and several other characters then relate widely divergent versions of what happened. |
| 342 | ** Strong Bad claims he cut the hole in the couch to hide his "Aztec gold", but had to close it up again when he unleashed "a stench of biblical proportions". |
| 343 | ** Strong Sad claims that the patch covers up graffiti from when Strong Bad was a kid and had a crush on Olympic runner Carl Lewis, who he assumed was a woman for some reason. |
| 344 | ** Homestar... [[CloudCuckoolander forgets what everyone else was talking about]], and talks about spitting Teddy Grahams on the ceiling before Strong Bad points out that the patch is already visible in the flashback. (He thought the subject of the email was "Teddy Graham Memories".) |
| 345 | ** Finally, an "anonymous" figure ([[PaperThinDisguise who is clearly Coach Z with a digitally altered voice]]) claims the patch covers up a hole in the couch which he puked into after eating some bad gumbo Strong Bad made. |
| 346 | * In the ''WebAnimation/CampCamp'' episode "Operation Charlie Tango Foxtrot", the residents of Camp Campbell find the Wood Scouts tied to a flagpole, and Davids asks them how they got up there. Each Wood Scout tells a part of the story: |
| 347 | ** In Pikeman's part, [[SelfServingMemory his bad acne and braces are transferred to the other Wood Scouts, who now worship the very ground he walks on.]] |
| 348 | ** In Snake's part, Pikeman is portrayed as a wuss, and he (Snake) claims he took out the Camp Campbell platypus mascot with only a broken candy cane. |
| 349 | ** In Petrol's part, everyone speaks in grunts like he does, and they all act more open about their true feelings. |
| 350 | ** In Jermy's part, the other Wood Scouts are more accepting towards his...[[{{Squick}} various conditions]]. Otherwise, this part seems the closest to what actually happened, since Jermy admits he screwed up. |
| 351 | * In the ''WebAnimation/OverSimplified'' video on the Pig War, Charles Griffin and Lyman Cutler have different perspectives on how the Pig War started when General Winfield Scott asked them about what happened. In Griffin's view, the pig had fled Lyman's property by the time he'd shot it, offered Lyman three wishes if he spared his life. In Lyman's view, the pig was dressed up like a gangster and actively threatening to eat Lyman's potatoes before killing Lyman. |
| 352 | * ''WebVideo/JackRackam'''s Halloween special on Elizabeth Bathory is done in this style, and takes place in a court room with Elizabeth on trial for her alleged crimes. The story is told from the perspectives of three different characters: |
| 353 | ** Holy Roman Emperor Matthias takes the stand first, and characterises Elizabeth as a sadistic, bloodthirsty witch who intentionally lured virgin women to their dooms at her castle and bathed in their blood to restore her youth. |
| 354 | ** Elizabeth then takes the stand in her own defense, presenting herself as a good and noble woman who was a victim of unfortunate circumstance and slander and tried desperately to provide for her family and servants in the wake of her husband's death. |
| 355 | ** Finally, the story is retold from the perspective of Elizabeth's friend George Thurzo, who is tormented by the circumstances of the crimes, his decision to send four of Elizabeth's servants to the fire to protect his friend's reputation, and Elizabeth's suspicious refusal to deny the rumours about her. |
| 356 | [[/folder]] |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 359 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Blip}}'', this is deliberately {{invoked|Trope}} (and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d) by Liz, regarding the original falling out between K and Mary. Hester conjures up a replay of the event, but she was only there for the very end. Liz gives a deliberately exaggerated version, goading Mary into setting the record straight. As Mary's a cyborg, her memory is accepted as the definitive version of what happened--and Liz is hoping that an objective review of these memories will convince Mary that she wasn't completely blameless. Funnily enough, there are some details that are consistent throughout, such as K's use of CountryMatters. |
| 360 | * ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'': |
| 361 | ** [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0200.html In a strip, Padmé's version of events doesn't match the GM's.]] |
| 362 | ** [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0441.html Palpatine's]] and [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0449.html Dookû's]] competing versions of how Palpatine was captured. |
| 363 | * In ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'', when Dan and Regina start telling other people the details of how they ended up hating each other, there are a few moments of this, namely with regards to meeting Wildy's mom, the former describing her having a more negative reaction to Regina than Regina herself. |
| 364 | * ''Webcomic/{{Exiern}}'' has a sequence where the characters are visiting Tiffany's former village, and Peonie, Denver, and Niels hear three conflicting accounts from the villagers on who killed her parents and the reason for her exile. None of them are correct or actually lying about what they saw, but make assumptions based on their limited information, and Tiffany herself later explains what really happened. |
| 365 | * ''Webcomic/TheHeroesOfMiddlecenter'' begins with the four main characters each showing their ''very'' different memories of the events leading to their first meeting. |
| 366 | * Discussed and used in [[http://www.digitalpimponline.com/strips.php?title=movie&id=320 a strip]] of ''Webcomic/JoeLovesCrappyMovies''. Ironically, it was used to describe the premise of ''Film/VantagePoint'', which wasn't a true example: the movie has several P.O.V.s but these are completely objective and merely follow certain characters. Similarly, the demonstration the comic itself uses isn't an example either, but also rotating [=POVs=] that don't conflict with each other. |
| 367 | * Every storyline in ''Webcomic/KhaosKomix'' (except, of course, the first) starts with a side character recapping the events so far, which become the beginning of his or her own plot. The events and timeline remain the same, but the character interpretations vary depending on the narrator. |
| 368 | * Played for laughs in the [[http://satwcomic.com/too-little-butter edition]] of ''Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld'' on Norway's butter crisis. According to Norway, Denmark is just hoarding butter and is unwilling to give him any despite the former's crisis; but according to Denmark, Norway is simply demanding him butter despite Denmark working like crazy to keep up with the orders he already has, and he knows once the crisis is over, Norway won't want any butter from him... And then there is Sweden's version, who just thinks both are idiots. |
| 369 | * In the ''Con Screw'' storyline [[http://www.conscrew.com/index.php?strip_id=628 Seven Stories]], Gavin tries to find out what happened at Rashocon by asking the seven major characters that had been there. |
| 370 | * The ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' story "Ten Minutes at a Party" jumps in and out of this mode, following different points of view alternatively and showing the occasional event according to how a given character sees it rather than how it actually happens. (For example, Gwynn is shown as kissing a particular guy, but when she puts her glasses back on -- she's BlindWithoutEm -- he's suddenly vanished.) The real version is generally given later after the mistaken one. (For example, when the aforementioned scene is shown again, it's seen that Gwynn's intended kiss-target is carried away along with a [[ItMakesSenseInContext herd of rampaging cows]], while Torg happens to pass by, and she kisses Torg, and he runs away before she can get her glasses back on.) The only thing that is really left ambiguous in the end is whether Broadman was shouting "Who owns you guys?" or "Who owns you cows?" after beating up two guys in cow suits. |
| 371 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Snowflakes}}'', Both Wray and Greg have different accounts on [[spoiler: how an airplane crashed into the side of the orphanage]]. Wray’s take, in typical [[ChuuniByou Wray]] fashion, is a fantastical take on the matter complete with fighting were-yetis, shooting lightning out of her face, and ripping off video games she played. Greg’s take, however, is an entirely truthful retelling. |
| 372 | * ''Webcomic/{{Wondermark}}'', [[http://wondermark.com/551/ "In Which a Tale Is Recounted for Posterity"]]. Grandpa Herschfeld uses his granddaughter's record of family history to complain about that time his wife put an empty bag of carrots back in the icebox. Grandma Herschfeld comes in to set the record straight. The AltText notes that "The final published account of the carrots-in-the-icebox incident reads like ''Rashomon''." |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 376 | %% * [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lKmLvXajI1I This]] episode of WebVideo/{{Black Box TV}}. |
| 377 | * ''Website/{{Cracked}}'': |
| 378 | ** [[BlatantLies Ex-columnist Ian Fortey's last article]] for ''Cracked'' was [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-fortey-first-day-a-cracked-murder-mystery/ Who Killed Ian Fortey? A Roshomon Style Murder Mystery]] with Ian himself [[Literature/TheLovelyBones as the narrator]]. They also misspelled Rashomon. |
| 379 | ** Another example shows up in ''WebVideo/AgentsOfCracked'', where four major characters are trying to claim responsibility for increasing the site's traffic. Dan's version is very dark and melancholy, while Mike Vision looks like "Term-O-Vision" on [=LSD=]. Mandy's is closer to reality, but Dan is completely absent, or played by someone completely different. Sarge's version is a merge of the same office scenes and his flashbacks. It eventually turns into a bit of a mess when they all start narrating at the same time. |
| 380 | * ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'': |
| 381 | ** ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'' is played with in the video [[http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/231/the_season_4_finale The Season 4 Finale]]. In it, the usual characters are gathered as old men at the site's 30-year reunion. None of them can agree on what happened in the Season 4 Finale, each of them proposing their own self-interested version that the others claim is erroneous. |
| 382 | ** "Eyewitness Accounts," where this is played straight in which dozens of characters are recounting what happened at a mall incident. |
| 383 | * A [[http://twilight.ponychan.net/chan/arch/src/132875467131.png certain ponychan thread]] recounts the (almost certainly fictitious) story of a mugging averted by a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' keychain giving the would-be criminal second thoughts. Soon, we get the mugger's viewpoint. And then the ATM's. Things proceed to get somewhat more surreal than usual. |
| 384 | %% * ''Literature/{{Oktober}}'' is a webnovel that is based around this concept. |
| 385 | * In the stories of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse,'' several events have been told from more than one perspective, but the perspectives are usually in different stories by different authors with different main characters. A good example is what happened the night that Solange sicced hitmen on some of the main characters. |
| 386 | * In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' Season 11, the transport the protagonists are riding in mysteriously crash lands on a remote planet, and one of the subplots is figuring out what exactly happened. In a series of flashbacks, it shows that ''all'' of the protagonists had done something that could have possibly crashed the ship, from distracting the pilot to accidentally shutting down the engines. This throws up the question of which one of them caused the crash, or if it was all of their combined efforts that did it. Finally, it's revealed later that an alien tractor beam forcibly pulled the ship to the planet. |
| 387 | * The Indian web series ''WebVideo/PermanentRoommates'' had an episode called "The Memories", where Mikesh, Tanya, and Purushottam tell Dinesh about an event that resulted in them losing their baby's first sonogram. Each person has a different account of the story, all glorifying the narrator. At the end of the episode, the sonogram is returned, and they try to make a new, happy memory together. |
| 388 | * In the first season of the non-fiction podcast ''Podcast/{{Serial}}'', there are many testimonies about many events related to the murder, from people whose proximity to the case ranges from "best friends with the prime suspect" to "a random guy who claims to have discovered the victim's body during a potty break". Almost nobody's story completely agrees with the others, or with all of the known facts. Even people who are supposed to be on the same side, and have no apparent reason to lie or hide anything, can't seem to agree on fairly large details that should be very memorable, such as whether Adnan and his ex-girlfriend were on good terms between the breakup and the murder. People who claim to remember an event very clearly are equally confident in their conflicting versions of events — one is adamant that Person X was present at a gathering, the other is equally adamant that Person X wasn't there. It was bad enough during the initial investigation, which took place only weeks after the murder; it's even worse during the podcast's investigation years later, where some people's stories don't even agree with their ''original'' stories from years ago. Hell, even during the original investigation, a witness gave two testimonies that didn't line up with each other on several crucial points — proving that you really ''can'' end up with more stories than witnesses. |
| 389 | ** This also crops up in a related non-fiction podcast, ''Podcast/STown''. For one thing, it starts out with John B. [=McLemore=] asking Brian Reed to investigate a murder that was being covered up. He heard about this murder from multiple sources (including the perpetrator himself, who bragged about it afterwards), and heard the perpetrator's father discussing it on the phone when he thought he was alone. Then it turns out the murder never happened — the supposed victim is still alive and well. So how did multiple people come to think he'd been murdered, and what did John hear that guy talking about on the phone? Later on, while Brian is investigating a list of contacts and wonders why Faye Gamble (the town clerk) contacted people lower on the list sooner than the people at the very top, she claims she tried to get in touch with them but got no response, while the contacts themselves claim that they never heard from her at all. Also, at one point someone claims that Faye told them she never spoke to Brian; but according to Faye, she never said anything of the sort. |
| 390 | * Invoked in WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQcnxTWGhwM Trainwreckords video]] on ''Mardi Gras'', the album that [[CreatorKiller killed]] Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival. The members of the band have all given different accounts of what was going on behind the scenes, with front man John Fogerty claiming the other members felt overshadowed and demanded more artistic control, while the other guys insist that it was at Fogerty's request that they took a more active role. Todd specifically compares this discrepancy to ''Rashomon''. |
| 391 | -->I can't tell you exactly what happened next. The details are hazy, because the band members all hated each other and still do to this day, so there's a real ''Rashomon'' thing going on. I've done a few reviews of bands in meltdown mode, but those at least seem like an honest clash of personalities. In this case, one of the two sides is absolutely lying. Or maybe they're both lying. But they're not both telling the truth. |
| 392 | [[/folder]] |
| 393 | |
| 394 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 395 | * The term [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect Rashomon Effect]] with a similar meaning was coined by anthropologists no later than in late 1970s and possibly even in the mid-'60s. |
| 396 | * The Rashomon Effect causes obvious problems in court. In a 2014 Canadian case, ''[[http://canlii.ca/t/gdwlk R. v. Pashahzahiri]],'' the judge specifically mentions both the film and the effect in deciding a case in which different witnesses in the same room[[note]](as it turns out, ''the very same courtroom in which the case was tried'' -- the case concerned threats allegedly uttered during a different trial)[[/note]] testified variously that the accused threatened someone loudly in English, muttered something indiscernible in a foreign language, or said nothing at all. |
| 397 | * Due to the unreliability of human memory, the way that preconceived notions can affect one's interpretation of a situation, and plain old dishonesty, pretty much any attempt to reconstruct a complex event using only eyewitness testimony and circumstantial evidence is likely to suffer from this — thus the saying about how 12 witnesses will give 13 different stories. This is frequently demonstrated in investigative journalism and crime documentaries, such as ''Podcast/{{Serial}}'' (see above under Web Original) and ''Series/ForensicFiles''. |
| 398 | [[/folder]] |
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