History Main / InternalRetcon

* Batman in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' willingly takes the blame for Two-Face's crimes in order to preserve Harvey Dent's image (and thus all the criminal convictions he racked up) and to restore hope to the people of Gotham. Commissioner Gordon reluctantly goes along with the plan.

* ''Film/DeathRace2000'': There is no Resistance movement within the OppressedStatesOfAmerica, it's [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys the French]] (who [[PretextForWar we will go and invade when the Race is over]]). And dead racers are only dead when the Government says so [[LegacyCharacter and they will get replacements if they have to]]. The rules of the Race [[CalvinBall will also be changed as needed]].

* ''Film/DeathRace2000'': There is no Resistance movement within the OpressedStatesOfAmerica, it's [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys the French]] (who [[PretextForWar we will go and invade when the Race is over]]). And dead racers are only dead when the Government says so [[LegacyCharacter and they will get replacements if they have to]]. The rules of the Race [[CalvinBall will also be changed as needed]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Armin Tamzarian was legally declared the one and only Seymour Skinner, and nobody was ever to mention it again under penalty of torture.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''

** On orders from the Fourth Kazekage, Yashimaru lied to Gaara about [[spoiler: his mother's death and claimed she had cursed him after the sealing drove her insane. She had actually died due to complications with the pregnancy and her final words were a smiling promise she would always protect Gaara.]] The Kazekage had hoped this lie would harden Gaara enough to properly utilize Shukaku.

* In the ending of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'', [[spoiler: Kou is initially court-martialed and receives a prison sentence for stealing the GP-03. All data on this Gundam and the other machines that were part of the Gundam Development Project are later deleted, in order to get rid of any evidence that the Federation was developing nuclear weapons in violation of the Antarctic Treaty. Kou is then released, as he can't have stolen a Gundam that doesn't exist.]]

* A story in ''ComicBook/AstroCity'' deals with a child growing up in the Zirr Empire, an alien regime that keeps getting into conflict with the [[TheFantasticFaux First Family]], a superhero team. The Family are constantly framed as aggressors standing in the way of galactic peace, who have been trounced by the Zirr on every occasion (barring the tragic death of their Prince). But as the story goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that the Zirr's take on the Family is a fabrication, and most of their victories were nothing of the sort. The instigating event of the story is the Zirr abducting a "war criminal" (actually just the wife of a member of the Family, who has no powers and was the only person they could take hostage in a raid on the Family's headquarters) and sentencing her to trial by combat, and they frame the Family attempting to rescue her as "a treacherous and undeclared act of aggression." At the end of the issue, the news broadcast claims that the Family left because the Emperor decided to grant them mercy and exile them, and they destroyed a piece of artwork in the throne room in a fit of pique. However, the child, who understands the language the broadcast isn't bothering to translate, realizes that the Family actually won a crushing victory, the "artwork" was a vital piece of communications tech, and its destruction will leave their military crippled for some time.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In the ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'', the [[TheEmpire Hooviet Empire]] run their propaganda machine on this, so they're always in the right in the eyes of their citizens. The best example is the war with the dragons, which despite their ''massive'' losses, they still manage to paint themselves as the winners.
* ''FanFic/ThePowersOfHarmony'': Seems Celestia has altered details of the [[GreatOffscreenWar War of the Sun and Moon]] in order to make it sound less brutal than it was. [[spoiler: She also erased all references to the Lunar army being [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in Tartarus]].]]
** It also seems the founding of Ponyville wasn't quite as easy and clean as Granny Smith has made it sound — apparently, the founders actually hunted down almost all of the timberwolves in order to eliminate the threat.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'' has this mentioned off-hand when Emmet says that the local MegaCorp makes all history books.

* In ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', the real truth of the revolution keeps getting rewritten until no one really remembers the original facts except those smart enough to keep their mouth shut. The Seven Commandments in particular are stealthily amended on multiple occasions, before eventually being removed entirely and replaced with the slogan "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

* The government in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' engages in this trope liberally. In fact the protagonist Winston Smith works at the [=RecDep=] of the Ministry of Truth, who are responsible for "correcting historical records" (ie, editing and censoring anything that disagrees with The Party's current statements.)
** The most extreme example of ret-conning is during Hate Week, when the orator who is busily lauding their ally Eurasia and condemning their enemy Eastasia switches the name of the two mid speech. As the crowd gradually realises that the celebratory flags and decorations of Eurasia are all around, they tear them down, supposing that saboteurs must have arranged for them to be put up. After all, "We've always been at war with Eurasia!"
* Mrs Bennet in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' often retcons her predictions so she was right all along. She fools no one except possibly herself but her daughters and husband have stopped bothering to point it out.
* Creator/DavidWeber has written a few situations like this, enacted by groups such as [[Literature/{{Safehold}} Mother Church]] and [[Literature/HonorHarrington Haven]].
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The Aes Sedai MagicalSociety frequently uses its political clout to excise embarrassing events from public history. In the late days of an Aes Sedai schism where each faction has publicly maneuvered for favour with multiple royal courts and the rebel faction has marched a huge army across half the continent, one member muses that they'll have people disbelieving that the schism ever occurred within a few years. That said, stunts like those are why the Aes Sedai are widely distrusted even though they literally CanNotTellALie.

* After surviving an avalanche, the whole summer school class in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' lies about the circumstances of the avalanche out of fear that [[spoiler:they’ll be killed]]... after all, [[spoiler:it already happened to Dennis]]. Interestingly, the returning school counselor, Mr. Adler, ''knows'' that they're lying... but doesn’t want to know what really happened.

* The Thalmor from ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' have arranged it to make it seem like ''they'' were the ones to stop the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion Crisis]] in their home territories, not [[spoiler: Martin and the [[PlayerCharacter Champion of Cyrodiil]].]] This allowed them to consolidate their power (and gained them the loyalty of the Khajiiti people) enough to wage a successful war against the Empire.

* The Voth in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' have degenerated into this when they show up in the game. They still keep to the Doctrine that they are both Delta Quadrant natives and the oldest species in the Delta Quadrant, but they've been forced to resort to harsher and harsher measures to keep that 'truth' going in the face of mounting evidence against it.

* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', [[spoiler: the mastermind Tsumugi Shirogane decided to connect the events of the in-universe reality show and the meteor shower to the rest of the ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'' franchise by making it so that the sixteen students all went to Hope's Peak Academy and that Makoto Naegi was the one behind the [[AdamAndEvePlot Gofer Project]]]].
* In ''Videogame/SouthParkTheFracturedButWhole'', if you establish your gender as female or other, it is established as you having been said gender during the events of ''Videogame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'' but your parents were attempting to disguise you as a boy to hide you from the government. Even after you confirm your gender in-game the boys still think that you're just a strangely feminine boy, which is why they let you hang out with them, while Wendy says [[SecretSecretKeeper she knew the entire time]] but assumed you wanted to keep quiet about it for some reason so she didn't out you.

* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', after Angelique and Bentley frame each other for the death of a Herd Thinners predator by a rabbit extremist group, it's revealed the killer was actually [[spoiler: Bentley's daughter Danielle (accidentally)]]. Bentley decides that since Angelique did such a good job framing him, they should let it stick.

** Ironically in the prequel book it turns out [[spoiler: Roy wouldn't hire a non-guild thief already precisely because he didn't want to be killed by Guild assassins for hiring scabs, and she had to show him a forged membership card to get in the party in the first place.]]

* In ''Series/CriminalMinds'' David discovers that his former Marine sergeant who saved his life in Vietnam hadn't done it alone. Another Marine had thrown his body on a detonating mine to shield the two while they got into cover. The government needed a living hero to give the war good [=PR=] so the other soldier's sacrifice was covered up and all credit was given to the sergeant.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Lie of the Land", the aliens that have taken over Earth brainwash everyone with propaganda that they have always been there, guiding the evolution of humanity and civilization, while in reality they have only been there for a few months. People who disagree with the so-called "True History" are arrested by the Memory Police and sent to a forced labor camp.
** The process is mentioned in the Classic era story ''The Face Of Evil'', when the Fourth Doctor muses that "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering."
* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Jaynestown", the crew lands on a planet whose working class inhabitants worship Jayne under the misguided belief that he "robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor, stood up to the man and gave him what for." After the truth comes out, Jayne remarks that probably nobody who was there to witness it understood what happened and they're probably putting back up the statue of Jayne that Jayne himself tore down. Mal agrees, musing, "It ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need."

* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode "The Bank Shot Job", the VillainOfTheWeek is a [[AssholeVictim corrupt judge]] that the crew is about to rip off when they find themselves in the middle of a bank robbery. The bank robbers are actually a sympathetic father-son team who need the money to pay the ransom for their wife/mother, who is being held hostage by drug dealers. The crew rescues the mom and get the robbers off the hook by framing the judge for the robbery. Hardison alters the security footage to make it look like the judge was the robber, and because the judge is such a [[HateSink universally despised]] {{Jerkass}}, every single eyewitness backs up the story.
--> '''Judge''': Come on Bill, you know me.
--> '''Sheriff''': Yeah I do Roy. That's the problem.
* In the ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' episode ''The Enemy'', the 58th are being debriefed on what happened on their last mission, where they were subjected to a new Chig weapon that amplifies fears into full-blown crippling phobias. After the debrief is done, the conversation between the troopers at the end indicates that they collaborated to [[UnreliableNarrator leave out other far worse details.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "Jaynestown", the crew lands on a planet whose working class inhabitants worship Jayne under the misguided belief that he "robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor, stood up to the man and gave him what for." After the truth comes out, Jayne remarks that probably nobody who was there to witness it understood what happened and they're probably putting back up the statue of Jayne that Jayne himself tore down.