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When the writers pull something out of thin air (or... somewhere else) in a less-than-graceful narrative development. Often used to cover up poor retconning. An Asspull is the Evil Twin of the Deus Ex Machina....with bad skin.

The term is also occasionally also used to describe something that the characters make up on the spot. May sometimes include New Powers As The Plot Demands.

And then there are times when the term may be used literally, typically combining Victoria's Secret Compartment with You Do NOT Want To Know.

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Examples:

• Some Buffy fans would say the biggest Ass Pull is the "Summers' Blood" that closed the rift between dimensions in "The Gift." After spending much time establishing Dawn (Buffy's sister by way of energy ball. See the rare Ret Con / Cousin Oliver combo) as being the single, special, only creature who can open or close the door between dimensions, at the last minute, faced with imminent apocalypse, Buffy decided her blood would probably work just as well. It did make for a great Heroic Sacrifice, though...
  • Other Buffy fans nominate the sudden appearance in "Touched" of a Forgotten Superweapon in the sewers, immediately followed in "End of Days" by the discovery of a "feminine counterbalance" to the Watchers (who had female members anyway) hiding in a pyramid-shaped crypt that Buffy had patrolled past for the entire seventh season.
    • A definite runner up would be Olaf's Troll Hammer suddenly being the weapon of a god.
    • A long term Asspull is (arguably) Willow's sudden magic addiction. By the start of the 6th season the writers had allowed Willow to become so powerful so fast that she was in clear danger of overshadowing Buffy. So they cobbled together an explanation as to why she couldn't or wouldn't use her powers.
• The Star Trek writing team did this when Denise Crosby expressed regret over quitting Star Trek The Next Generation, with the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" and again in several episodes featuring Crosby as Romulan Commander Sela, a half-human half-Romulan alternate-universe daughter of her original character Lt. Yar.
• In the first season of 24, it was decided only towards the end of the season that Nina would be the series's major mole. This despite it contradicting some of her actions as seen earlier in the season.
• Possible literal Ass Pull in the Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf". Captain Jack produces a small gun out of nowhere while completely naked.
  ZU-ZANA: But... that's a Compact Laser Deluxe!
  TRIN-E: Where were you hiding that?
  JACK: You ''really'' don't wanna know.
  • Literal Ass Pull hinted at in the third Pirates Of The Caribbean movie as well.
    • That was a damned big gun, too. I mean damn, what's Will been upto?
• Apparently where Max of Sam And Max keeps his gun, though it's still none of our damn business.
• Terror Island brings us "Bartleby, Sid and Stephen's other roommate who only exists once every 100 strips".
• Eureka Seven grants us the wonderful Ass Pull where the protagonist magically creates a new, super-powerful unit out of thin air.
• Halloween: Resurrection changes the end of Halloween: H20 by indicating that Laurie Strode did not, in fact, decapitate Michael Myers, but rather a paramedic with whom Michael switched clothes with.
• Spider Man 3: Do you remember that oddly convenient scene with Harry's butler before his Big Damn Heroes moment and following Heroic Sacrifice? If that didn't look like something yanked out of a guy's rectum, nothing will.
• Perhaps the ultimate in television is the infamous reappearance of Bobby Ewing in the shower on Dallas.
• In Naruto, Sasuke pulls off a No One Could Survive That by summoning, mind-controlling, and teleporting a massive snake when he's completely out of chakra. Said technique is difficult because of the huge amount of chakra required.
  • Not to mention he pulled this all off in the time it took for a an explosion that would completely level a city to reach him. After the explosion had already started. When it started just a few feet from him. Great Snake Escape, indeed.
• Serena Southerlyn's "coming out" scene ("Is it because I'm a lesbian?") in Law And Order.
• Bleach: The Reveal of Aizen as the Big Bad looks like an asspull, but it's not; with a little further thinking you realize they've been setting it up since a good thirty episodes ago. Probably.
• The end of the movie Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer where Galactus is defeated by the Silver Surfer blowing himself up and apparently living. This is pretty heavy Adaptation Decay because it is clearly stated in the comics that Galactus is a force of nature and the universe will be thrown into chaos if he dies, not to mention that the Silver Surfer could never be strong enough to kill Galactus.
• The dramatic mood of the scene betrays the fact that the 'Azoth Dagger' from Fate/Stay Night came out of nowhere. The fact that Rin had been brutally assaulted such that there is no way she could have hidden it, makes you wonder about the possible meanings of it's name...
• The final boss, Tabuu, in Super Smash Bros Brawl seems like major ass pull since there was no signs of him until the final parts of the game, but only because several scenes were cut from the final version of the game.
  • I don't think that's exactly the same as an Ass Pull. Having a villain who isn't revealed to exist until a certain point isn't the same thing.
• MegaMan X6 had a huge ass pull when regarding the return of Zero. Despite being blown up with nothing but an upper body torso left in X5, he appears healthy and alive in X6 with absolutely no explanation of how he survived. Though this is easily side stepped by the fact that he is a robot, and robots don't truly die.
  • Then there's X being repaired in X5's ending. Who the hell repaired that guy so quickly after the battle? Many assume it was Dr. Light who did so, but he's dead.
    • It's not too far-fetched, as Light pretty much is the Goddamn Batman of that universe. The man's got, like, 1000+ pods, for crying out loud!
    • Not to mention it's fairly obvious that Doc Light's hologram is semi-sentient. Although the question of why he would revive X into a war-torn future when all he wanted for him was to live in peace...I guess he either really likes X, or really hates him.
• Avatar The Last Airbender: spiritbending is either this or a form of Deus Ex Machina (whatever the difference is).
  • The lionturtle was shown several times throughout the show, so it was apparently planned.

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