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A fan gets Jossed when the elaborate Epileptic Trees or Fanfic that they've lovingly built upon canonical elements is abruptly disproved by further canon or by the Word Of God.
Named after Joss Whedon; Buffy The Vampire Slayer was notorious for this, as fans would come up with detailed and elaborate theories or plots during summer hiatuses, most of which got completely thrown out within three episodes of the new season.
May lead to discontinuity when disgruntled fen prefer their own fanon to official facts.
This trope has two opposites: I Knew It, where the fan theory is proven to be true by a twist that was planned all along, and Sure Why Not, where the author decides to promote some Fanon elements to Canon status. Compare Schrodingers Gun.
Note: In some circles, the term "Jossed" refers to a gutwrenching main character death, which Joss Whedon is also famous for.
Examples:
- Many theories about Harry Potter have been repeatedly Jossed with the release of each successive book, with The Deathly Hallows Jossing the most. Numerous Fan Fics featuring a female Blaise Zabini got Jossed when The Half-Blood Prince was released.
- Sometimes even official sources get Jossed. An example of this is the online animated Doctor Who story "Scream of the Shalka", starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor, which was meant to be the official continuation of the series from where the TV movie left off... Until the actual show came back on and totally disregarded it.
- Who fans are used to being Jossed by now; the new series in particular takes a perverse pleasure in contradicting Fanon without having violated any actual Canon. The Doctor's references to his family in "The Empty Child" and "Smith and Jones" have evoked particular Jossing (Including the problems it causes for one of the Expanded Universe Big Finish audios, in which the Doctor clearly and unequivocally says that he has never been a father). The Doctor's reaction in "The Sound of Drums" to the suggestion that the Master is his brother is a particularly self-aware example.
- Even though his granddaughter Susan is introduced in the very first episode.
- Anime example: The new OVA-verse Tenchi Muyo installments jossed many of the assumptions the fanbase had come to hold dear -- for instance, that Tenchi's Bumbling Dad Nobuyuki was a Muggle, instead of being in on the Masquerade with Katsuhito\Yosho. Fans tend to ignore the new installment, but usually not because of the Jossing.
- Prior to the release of the Star Wars prequels, it was widely accepted by fans that the Clone Wars were fought by the Republic against the clone army. When the Essential Guides (compendiums of movie and EU knowledge) were revised and republished starting after the release of Episode II, a lot of time was spent retconning the previous versions of the Guides, often with the excuse that in the wake of the Empire's rise, much information was lost or destroyed.
- Avatar The Last Airbender:
- Dungeons And Dragons: All widely accepted Epileptic Trees jossed with the release of the script of the unaired finale. The kids did not die in a rollercoaster crash, they are not in Hell, and Dungeonmaster is not Satan.
- Pokemon's been particularly vulnerable to Jossing lately: "Ash will get Buizel" (Dawn does, but Ash does trade for it later), "Ash will get Hippotas" (no-one does), "Ash will get Shieldon" (same), "Ash will get a clue" (shut it), "Paul is a starting trainer (he's been a trainer as long as Ash has)"
- In the Gunnerkrigg Court fandom, the two most popular theories about the identity of the third girl from the photo (that she's a relative of Gamma's, and that she's a young Jones) were immediately Jossed by the author on the forum. Since most of the fans don't hang out on the forum, these theories remained popular, until The Rant below this page
 put them to rest in the bluntest way possible. Also parodied in the rant on this page. The first three theories that Tom facetiously shot down were Shout Outs to to actual Epileptic Trees from the fandom.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch:
- Caren, Noel and Coco, upon their return in the middle of season two, will get their own plot arc and be important again. (Jossed by the first episode in which they reappear, in which it is blatantly pointed out that they can't defeat a member of the new Quirky Miniboss Squad to themselves, and have to go be comic relief. They do, however, get a brief shining moment in the manga.)
- Lucia and Kaito will get a duet. (Became more and more likely when an extra song called "Birth of Love" was announced on the album. Then it was used in the show... as a new Seira song.)
- The Great One is Michal. (Jossed by the episode with Rihito's concert.)
- The promotional campaign leading up to the release of Cloverfield was more or less intended to produce Epileptic Trees of all varieties, which it did. Fan speculation identified the monster, unseen in trailers, to be any number of previously established beings - Cthulhu, Godzilla, Voltron - instead of what it actually was, an immature sea creautre that was awakened from dormancy from a falling satellite and became huge after exposure to a soft drink additive. This is not spelled out in the movie, but it's All There In The Manual. Probably...
- The first Kingdom Hearts game probably inspired many theories about Ansem that were invalidated by the second game. Theories about the Enigmatic Man from Final Mix and the knights from the second game's secret ending were also invalidated.
- There was also quite a bit of speculation about Roxas, known only as the 'Blond-Haired Kid', or BHK, after a few previews of Kingdom Hearts 2 were released. Many theories were in the correct vein, but as Roxas is linked to a group of people who were never mentioned at all in the first game, it was virtually impossible for anyone to guess his true identity.
- Devil May Cry 4 inspired a lot of fan-thought that Nero was Sparda or Vergil reincarnate, or that his Devil Bringer arm held either spirit, and would be possessed by them. Unfortunately, neither showed up in the game. Also, Dante's seemingly uncharacteristic assassination of Order leader Sanctus at the game's start inspired much speculation about his motives and whether he had pulled a Face Heel Turn. It was eventually learnt that he was pulling a Shoot The Dog and trying to kill the game's Big Bad.
- As a point of interest: while not confirmed, Nero's link to Vergil is still hinted at quite a lot in the game. He wields the Yamato katana- Vergil's weapon in Devil May Cry 3- and in Devil Trigger form, he is overshadowed by a demonic spirit that resembles Vergil's own Devil Trigger. Demonic Possession isn't off the table just yet.
- Also, Nero is a common Roman name, but also means "black." Nelo/Nero as used by Vergil in the first game only makes sense in context. "Nero Angelo" means, literally, "not-angel." It has no connection to Nero in DMC 4.
- The author of Order Of The Stick tends to do this with many fan theories, such as Miko being zombified by Xykon, the results of a misfired poison arrow, and whether Belkar's prophecy had come true.
From the FAQ: "In fact, I try not to read anything where people suggest upcoming plot ideas because I hate it when people guess what is going to happen. I feel the uncontrollable urge to change what happens, just to prove them wrong. Petty? Probably."
- The author of Keychain Of Creation has a neat way about handling this-- He insists, constantly, that every single epileptic tree is completely true, as sincerely as possible -- No matter what context, IM, forum, in actual discussion-- He insists they are always correct, so that in the end, everyone, including him, is proven wrong.
- Prior to Halo 3, Halo fans began concocting elaborate theories regarding the Forerunners' relationship to humanity and the Flood, Cortana's "ulterior motives" and what the Prophet of Truth's motivations were for wiping out the Elites. Turns out, the Forerunner simply encountered and fought the Flood, humans happened to be one of countless species the Forerunner preserved in the Ark, Cortana is always on the good guys' side, and Truth is simply a religious zealot who believed the Elites weren't faithful to the Covenant's religion. This troper wishes his fellow Halo fans would stop gushing over it and knew DisContinuity when they saw it.
- It is likely that David Lynch's reluctance to confirm or deny anything about the ambiguous aspects of his work is to avoid offending his fans in this way.
- Surprising this wasn't mentioned sooner. After countless Chrono Trigger fanfics about the mystery behind Schala, Chrono Cross comes along with a conclusive answer, making many of them obsolete.
- The creators of Lost have specifically shot down the fan theory that the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are actually all dead and in a kind of purgatory, despite this troper's belief that this was the only explanation that actually made Season One make any kind of sense. Lingering hopes of this being true have been *thoroughly* Jossed as the last season actually does allow many of the main characters to escape the island and return to the real world.
- Although in either a Take That or a Shout Out, one of those returnees "now" holds the theory that he and the other "Oceanic 6" are in fact dead.
- Literally hundreds of Teen Titans fanfics about Terra's resurrection were written in the interim between the end of season two and the series finale "Things Change". When it was revealed that Terra is alive as a schoolgirl who may or may not remember everything that happened to her in season two, and just wants to live as a normal girl, 99.9% of these fanfics were Jossed. Fans were left with two choices for future Terra resurrection Fan Fic: write according to the new, official continuity, or ignore the fifth season entirely and write Fix Fic about how Terra should have been resurrected.
- Following Black Belt's death in 8-Bit Theater, many fans clamored for his return and pointed out that this could be accomplished by de-petrifying his stone doppleganger. Clevinger responded by having White Mage attempt exactly that, and botch it horribly. The page where this happens is even titled, "Now Shut Up".
- The most popular Wheel Of Time theory was that the Forsaken Demandred was in disguise as Mazrim Taim, the false dragon who knew how to test to see if a man could channel. Their where also other hints that compared the two, but the whole thing was Jossed when Robert Jordan blankly stated that Mazrim Taim was not Demandred. In the series itself this theory was heavily damaged by Demandred not knowing Damer Flinn (a powerful Asha'man, and one of Rand bodyguards), or even that someone the age of Damer Flinn was a member of the Asha'man.
- In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, almost all the fans were certain that Syaoran was the same Syaoran as in Card Captor Sakura, coming off as slightly reluctant to woo his obvious crush becuase he was already committed to her alternate-universe-equivalent. Turns out, he isn't CCS Syaoran, he's his son, using his dad's name and abilities. Turns out he's been romancing an alternate universe clone of his ''mom''. And known such. Cue the Abandon Ship of a canon pairing by a decent chunk of the fanbase.
- The Metal Gear Solid webcomic The Last Days Of Foxhound has been so thoroughly and consistently jossed - after each new game release since the series began - about so many things, from the manner in which one character lost an eye to his very state of existence - necessitating massive, unconvincing retcons that even the characters find sketchy - that you could make a convincing argument for changing the name of this trope to "Kojima'd!" The apostrophe and exclamation mark are mandatory.
- Not that this is Complaining About Shows You Dont Like, however. The author is aware of this phenomena, and generally does a good job of covering it up. In one of his last blog posts, he says "if I'm lucky, I can be done before MGS 4 is released and my entire backstory is contradicted. Again." He was, and it was. Again.
- What's even more ironic is that the comic ended just under two weeks before MGS 4's release.
- Star Trek Enterprise. Nearly every episode went against some bit of fanon, but careful examination reveals the writers never went against canon, with near Magnificent Bastard precision (with the exception of cloaking devices appearing much earlier than previously established).
- In Heroes, it was something of a No Brainer (so to speak) that Sylar ate the brains of his victims. He makes frequent use of Evil Tastes Good dialogue, and Wordof God itself stated that he was originally supposed to eat the brains, but they couldn't figure out a way to show it on-screen without being silly. And yet brain-eating is explicitly Jossed in a very funny scene in the first episode of Season 3. Claire: "Are you going to eat it? Sylar: "Eat your brain? Claire, that's disgusting!".
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