Line #34 Main/OneShotRevisionism


1	One-shot revisionism occurs when a writer notices an illogical trope or plot device and attempts to avert it. More often than not, the attempt only draws further attention to the lack of logic of the convention -- "if X didn't happen here because of Y and Z, why does it happen every other time?" -- and at the same time makes it harder for other writers to HandWave the whole thing away. Especially bad when the plot device in question has been used multiple times in the same {{Canon}} where the one-shot revision is set.
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3	The important thing about One-Shot Revisionism is that it ''works''; generally the only problem with it is that it draws attention to all the other times it theoretically could and should have been used but wasn't. This distinguishes it from a VoodooShark, which doesn't even work on its own terms.
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5	A term coined by Justin B. Rye in his essay [[http://jbr.me.uk/trek/3.html "Star Trek: Mark Two,"]] which points out various inconsistencies in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ways of avoiding them for a hypothetical remake.
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7	!!Examples:
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11	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
12	* ''Franchise/OnePiece'': Everyone is MadeOfIron, except for Kuina, who [[DeathByFallingOver dies when she trips and falls down stairs]]. A character comments on her death by remarking that "people are so fragile."
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15	[[folder:Comic Books]]
16	* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
17	** ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'': In a 1999 story, Earth-D is presented as a perfectly racially mixed world; Atlanteans and Thangarans pointedly do not have human racial features. It makes it harder to forget that the aliens still have most of their human features not associated with race. The diversity also draws attention to the fact that the primary heroes of an overwhelming majority of DC Earths just happen to be white.
18	** ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': When the first member of African descent is introduced, it's said that he comes from an island of separatists that only appears on Earth periodically because it doesn't belong to this dimension. UnfortunateImplications abound because TheTeam already has one green-skinned member and another with antennae.
19	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
20	** ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski'': According to the {{retcon}}ned origin story, a "spider-totem" [[BecauseDestinySaysSo fated]] Spider-Man to get super-powers; which also explains why he has a lot of villains who are themed around animals. Of course, this just calls attention to the fact that lots of other superheroes also have themed {{Rogues Galler\|y}}ies with no explanation whatsoever.
21	** ''ComicBook/{{Quasar}}'': According to Creator/MarkGruenwald's [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/origin.htm explanation]], all superheroes and villains in the franchise are the result of a cosmic being's influence. Consequently, [[ThematicRoguesGallery "themed" beings]] are naturally drawn to each other.
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24	[[folder:Fan Works]]
25	* The "Franchise/StarTrek Phase II" fan-film web episode "[[http://io9.com/5113745/long+suppressed-gay-star-trek-episode-comes-out Blood and Fire]]", based on a rejected ''Next Generation'' script, is a one-shot revision of the complete lack of homosexuals in the Franchise/StarTrek universe. So now instead of zero homosexuals in the universe, there are exactly two, which is almost worse.
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28	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
29	* ''Film/OceansTwelve'': Tess, played by Creator/JuliaRoberts, is brought into a plan to impersonate the real-life Roberts in order to sneak past security. This is further complicated when she has to interact with other celebrities like Creator/BruceWillis who know the real Roberts personally. Considering that the film series features an AllStarCast, it's quite humorous to imagine that there are apparently a bunch of lookalikes for A-List celebrities out there who all happen to work together as master thieves.
30	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': SpaceIsNoisy is just a convention that fans accept, along with the use of the convention of sound traveling at the speed of light, as being imaginary sound effects for the viewers' pleasure. The ExpandedUniverse goes further and {{Hand Wave}}s that these sound effects are [[https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Aural_sensor/Legends for the pilots' use as well]]. ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' tries to portray space more realistically, only to stop halfway--there is sound in space, but it travels slower than light!
31	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
32	** The "Kirk Maneuver" in the second movie--a ship "diving" and then "resurfacing" before the attack. It's a clumsy break from the TwoDSpace convention, still unconvincing (why resurface?), and making it impossible to just discount TwoDSpace as a TV convention that doesn't reflect [[DirectLineToTheAuthor how the space battles "really" went]].
33	** In the sixth movie, there is the one time when a ship loses artificial gravity. This only highlights the fact that it breaks much more rarely than it should. In fact, in the ''Voyager'' episode "Year of Hell", the ship is scarred and barely holding together, but never does the gravity give out. ExpandedUniverse material justifies it ([[VoodooShark sort of]]) with the explanation that artificial gravity is built to be almost impossible to disrupt in Federation starships because most Federation member races are really uncomfortable in zero-G and work far less efficiently. This makes sense considering most of them only go out in zero-G conditions for bare minimum qualification trials. So while other factions' vessel designs use a centralized gravity generator, Federation gravity is plated into the floors so that any disruptions are local. Life-support and DeflectorShields are apparently harder to decentralize.
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36	[[folder:Literature]]
37	* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'': Harry's friends take a rare luck potion before the Death Eaters show up at Hogwarts. This {{justifie\|dTrope}}s the Death Eaters' [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy awful marksmanship]] during the battle. It's suggested afterwards that many of Harry's friends would have died had they not taken the potion. However, the Death Eaters having a bad aim is played straight in the climax of [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the previous book]]. In the case of the Battle of the Ministry, the members of Dumbledore's Army who are there are using the twisting corridors as well as their smaller size and youth to their advantage; outpacing the Death Eaters as well as using extensive cover and tactics to avoid taking casualties. Even then, however, they still lose several members (Hermione, Ginny, etc.) to the Death Eaters as they attempt to escape.
38	* ''Literature/SevenSorcerers'' (by Creator/CaroKing): It averts NobodyPoops exactly once at the beginning when Nin, fresh from the normal world, asks for a pause to relieve herself. Afterwards, one could think humans in Drift don't have to use toilets. (Magical beings get a pass as they are literally based on imagination).
39	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The ExpandedUniverse novels have started being pointedly casual about mentioning this or that character with a same-sex partner, possibly to compensate for the previous lack of them.
40	* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In the {{novelization}} of the pilot episode, "Children of the Gods", the characters {{lampshade\|d}} the fact AliensSpeakingEnglish. This confirms that yes, the aliens do speak English after all; it's not merely translated for the audience's benefit after Daniel reconstructs the local language and teaches it to his teammates off-screen.
41	* ''Literature/WorldOfWarcraftChronicle'': The first volume makes the Spirit Healers fully canon as part of expanded lore on the universe's equivalent to {{Valkyries}}. The explanation is now that there are a few of them without masters who occasionally guide the dead back to the land of the living, which still makes one wonder why they never choose to save a canon character but leaves open the excuse that it's up to their whims.
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44	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
45	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
46	** "The Masque of Mandragora" attempts to explain AliensSpeakingEnglish as TranslatorMicrobes for the first time in the series ever, when Sarah Jane suddenly notices that she can understand some Italians. (Chatting to people from outer space goes entirely without notice for decades of show history, but Italians are apparently a leap too far.) The story even uses this as a hint that something is badly wrong with Sarah's mind simply because she noticed it happening.
47	** In the new series, the Doctors' appearance is up for open criticism from the other characters, who often mock his dress sense and accent. This only really serves to draw attention to the times he showed up wearing sillier clothes and sillier accents in the Classic series without anyone mocking him for it -- having a Northern or Scottish new-series Doctor is almost as (apparently) hilarious as their mildly unusual outfits, but no-one makes fun of the Fourth Doctor's ridiculous scarf and peculiar voice or the Third Doctor's lisp and questionable frilly clothing.
48	** The new series goes out of its way to address the uncomfortable power dynamic between the Doctor and the companion, by making him more dependent on her than she is on him, and by cutting back a lot of the creepy subtext of the Doctor's paternalism, as well as inserting romantic elements. The trouble is that the uncomfortable relationship is still there by sheer function of the way the show works, only now it's presented as a romantic ideal, whereas the original series tended for the most part not to sugar-coat how difficult travelling with the Doctor could be. It also ends up providing the retroactive interpretation that a lot of the NoHuggingNoKissing Classic Doctors might have been hugging and kissing their companions more than we see on screen.
49	** The story "Midnight" took on the oft-used idea that the Doctor could show up with no history, no credentials, and a lot of knowledge which he refuses to explain, be detained for two minutes, and then be treated like an authority because there's a crisis going on. In this one story, these traits actually make everyone else ''suspicious'' of the Doctor as would happen in reality. (Some Classic era stories did touch upon this -- both "The Tenth Planet" and "The Faceless Ones" deal with it heavily -- but since the Revival series omits sequences of the Doctor stumbling around, getting captured, and convincing the natives that he's helpful, the Classic series didn't have to rely on this conceit for AcceptableBreaksFromReality to the same extent.) In the modern series, the usual explanation is that having somebody normal to vouch for him puts people at ease; in this case, Donna was elsewhere.
50	** "Resurrection of the Daleks" is a Classic series attempt at "Midnight". The Doctor has no credentials, his witty jokes fail to charm anyone, and the more he attempts to explain that he knows what he's doing the more he ends up looking like he's responsible for the problem itself.
51	** There have been a couple of attempts to nerf the Sonic Screwdriver, by explaining that it doesn't work on anything with a "deadlock seal" ([[KryptoniteIsEverywhere which showed up fairly often for a while]]), or anything made of wood. This means that he can use it to hack an alien computer millions of years in the future, but can't open a modern bedroom door. One radio adventure featuring the Fourth Doctor (possibly adapted from one of the lost episodes) also featured a slightly more sensible version; the Sonic Screwdriver can shift the tumblers inside a lock, [[RockBeatsLaser but can't exert enough force to move a really stiff and heavy door-bolt.]]
52	* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' does a lot to decrease some of the worn-out clichés associated with the franchise and even comes up with some decent {{hand wave}}s for others. For example, the rangers' morphing call is a voice-reading security device. However, it still causes some head-scratching when the Rangers need to shout '''POWER RANGERS RPM!''' when using the Megazord finisher (and even then, not every time).
53	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Taken from the aforementioned essay.
54	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
55	*** Image lag effects in "The Battle". Why do they happen only this time and not every time there's a disruption in faster-than-light travel?
56	*** In "The Wounded", we see a space battle at 250,000 km, which is decided by one ship using their superior weapon range to engage the enemy at a distance where they can't return fire. This makes all those occasions where ships fight nose-to-nose all the more dumb.
57	** Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries: One episode introduces the subcutaneous transponder a device implanted under the skin to enable them to beam up the landing party should they be out of communication. Considering how many times they'd have their communicators confiscated, it's a wonder it has never been mentioned before or since. Incidentally, the device was never used for that purpose. It was removed and used to fashion a laser from a light bulb to escape a cell.
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60	[[folder:Magazines]]
61	* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'': A comic strip in TheChristmasAnnual of 1995 features a black Time Lord. As ''The Completely Useless Encyclopedia'' puts it, what this means is that there are black people on Gallifrey, but none of them have done anything remotely interesting before. The new series has included more diversity amongst Gallifreyans.
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64	[[folder:Video Games]]
65	* ''VideoGame/DinkSmallwood'': The title character can engage in ComedicSociopathy, both by abusing VideogameCrueltyPotential, and through scripted events. This is subverted a few times.
66	** In the starter town, if Dink hits one of his neighbors, she screams and runs up and down. Makes sense, but why does everyone else stand still when taking a beating?
67	** Dink can choose to kill his wife-beating uncle. A hard battle, depending on when the player decides to do it, but winnable. Why, then, can't he hurt anyone else with his attacks (other than enemies/ducks)?
68	** Dink can try to rob a tavern, in which case, the waitress will call two golden-armored halbardiers. If the player chooses this course of action when he first visits the tavern, the halbardiers are too powerful, and will undoubtedly kill him. But, if the player tries the robbery out after some LevelGrinding, he can beat them, at which point, nothing happens, the dialog tree remains the same, and threatening to rob the place again causes two new halbardiers to show up.
69	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':
70	** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'': When the KleptomaniacHero opens a locked door in Midenhall, the guard initially reacts the way you'd expect somebody to when someone breaks in to loot a chest. However, he then recognizes the Prince and apologizes.
71	** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'': Your hero is the son/daughter of Ortega. When you break into the treasure chamber of your liege's castle, the guard recognizes you and says that he respects your father too much to stop you. He still mildly [[WhatTheHellHero calls you out for it]], particularly since the king will actually give you permission to raid the treasury late in the game...
72	* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Each game contains exactly one situation where an NPC will scold you for being a KleptomaniacHero. Others will completely ignore you looting their possessions under their nose, which gives you no dark side points either. Except the Tusken Raiders, who will not merely scold you but shoot you on sight...
73	* ''VideoGame/Starcraft'': Some campaign missions take place on space stations or in other places where the [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas natural resources]] you need to build a base and train troops would not be realistically found. Because this is a strategy game, they are provided anyway with no explanation. However, in one mission in the [[VideoGame/StarcraftII second game]], your MissionControl mentions how you were lucky to find resources because this particular space station is very old and has undergone bombardings by resource-rich asteroids. So... what about all the other space stations?
74	* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
75	** The Azuregos quest chain, while hilarious, features the only appearance of a Spirit Healer in-story (a named one at that, in love with a dragon!), which makes it harder to HandWave the Spirit Healers away as a mere case of GameplayAndStorySegregation and brings up questions why only the players can use them, and why any characters dead in lore don't just resurrect themselves at the nearest graveyard.
76	** In ''Battle for Azeroth'' expansion, [[BorrowinSamedi Bwonsamdi]] acts as a Spirit Healer on Zandalar. For Horde players, there is a quest where they seek his help in exchange for one million souls. Naturally, Bwonsamdi would willingly send the players back to the land of the living to continue to pay off their debt; but why would he extend the same courtesy to Alliance players? Shits and giggles apparently.
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Context Main / OneShotRevisionism