Jossed - Television Tropes & Idioms

Apparently there was some fanfic of the then-fictional board game "Escape from Zyzzlvaria" invented for a 2002 MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle, written when it was announced the board game would be defictionalized for the 2009 Hunt. When game character "Captain Blastoid" first appeared in the flesh, played by Jennifer Braun, the fic about a male Blastoid was suddenly a Gender Flip.

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 an army or armies of clones (after all, wars are usually named according to who the victor fought against, rather than by the nature of the victor's army), and that the Clone Wars happened well before the Empire formed. 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, and there were some rogue clones.
- Much of Boba Fett's EU history was tossed out in the Prequels as well. There is no mention of Mandalorians, and Fett winds up being a clone of his "father". In all fairness, he had in-universe cultivated multiple pasts for himself to increase his mystique.
  - New EU sources show that Boba's father Jango was in fact a Mandalorian, and also that some of the erroneous information about Boba's past was actually from Jango's life. Other parts come from Boba using Jango's late mentor's name as an alias during his early life, and from a rogue Clone Trooper (who would of course look exactly like Boba under the helmet) being mistaken for him.
- Jedi family life! And then the movie implies celibacy, but Lucas Josses that again with a statement in an interview that the Jedi have casual sex and only casual sex.
  - Of course, previous EU sources gave us so many examples of prequel-era Jedi with families that any efforts by the Jedi Order to actually enforce that rule must have been half-hearted at best. And while the retcon makes it so that most of those Jedi kept their families a secret, there's still a sect of prequel-era Jedi who openly flouted the rule without any apparent consequences. A minor revolt by EU authors against arguably the stupidest plot point of the prequels?
  - Just about verified with certain patches, that bring out cut dialogue. If the cut dialogue is accurate in KOTOR, Bindo and Juhani both had dialogue about it.
Far more reprehensibly, the press for a certain movie about the Blair witch was pitched all over the place as an actual paranormal experience. It was not until the very end of the credits that the movie itself fessed up it was all a fairy tale. (That was at least deliberate, malicious as it was.)
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 creature 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...
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.
- In part. Lynch is also an artist, and knowing that art is in the eye of the beholder, the man is truly serious about leaving space for you to fill in details. But not ticking off those that make their own conclusions is no small side benefit, either..
It was taken as gospel that the Audi 8 Decepticon was a reformatted Barricade. However, he was recently revealed as Sideways.
- Wait, that was an Audi? There seriously was an Audibot!?
First of all, just a quick reminder; Tropes Are Not Bad. OK, done. Now, having said that, The Matrix franchise was pretty much specifically designed to encourage all kinds of philosophical and alegorical discussion. it has it's actual alagories and it's also subject to what Tolkien called "Applicability". which ALSO meant that there were allot of theorirs about the origin of the Matrix itself. Therefore, it was pretty much inevitable that some people were going to be Jossed by The Animatrix.

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.
- After the release of Deathly Hallows, a rapid succession of ship-related Jossings ensued when Word Of God informed the eager fans that three of their beloved characters ended up with love interests who were not even introduced in the series. This earned a fan nickname of its own: "Getting Rolfed," named after one of the characters who was introduced in this way.
  - Also after Deathly Hallows, Rowling even managed to Joss the fanfiction writers who speculated about Dumbledore, particularly his romantic feelings. Given the many bizarre ideas written about him, stunning the fan base with the news he was: 1) gay all along; and 2) smart enough to keep it in his pants and out of the Quibbler was actually the nicest way in the world to snap back at the ficcers.
- Not to mention the constant speculation as to what each book would be called. A persistent one was Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch, a meme originating in a continuation fanfic on the Harry Potter Connection which spread across the internet. J.K. Rowling herself memorably sporked the speculation but even today "Green Flame Torch" turns up 86 hits on The Pit Of Voles.
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.
- Aside from that and a few other instances, though, Jordan was notorious for refusing to give straight answers, reputedly because he was amused by the rabid fan discussions on some of the more hotly debated topics.
In the Dragaera series, a popular fan theory was that Kragar was actually legendary assassin Mario Greymist, even though the author Steven Brust insisted something like "no one is anyone else" which isn't actually true since Sethra Lavode and Kiera the Thief are one in the same. This was jossed in Dzur where Mario makes an appearance.
Between publication of Book I and Book II of Don Quixote, several novels written by another author featuring the title character were published. In Book II, Cervantes specifically referred to the non-canonical books as being false, going so far as to have the characters in the novel read these alternate stories and deriding them as ludicrous inaccuracies, making this trope Older Than Steam.
After the early books in the Twilight series, many fans were asking about the idea of vampire babies, and Stephenie Meyer apparently Jossed this by saying that vampires couldn't get pregnant. Cue outraged claims of outright lies when Breaking Dawn came out and Edward gets Bella pregnant...at which point Meyer calmly points out that her Exact Words were that vampires couldn't get pregnant, and that she had never outright addressed the concept of a male vampire impregnating a human female, instead relying on the fans' own assumptions to keep that plot detail a secret until she was ready to reveal it — turning this into an I Knew It.
- YMMV as to whether or not it was a deliberate Joss. Many antis AND fans think she just changed her mind midway because she wanted adorable, perfect hybrid babies.
Fans of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy tried to find hidden meaning in the fact that the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything was "42" while the Ultimate Question was "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?". Some observed that, in Base 13, 6 x 9 is 42. Adams famously responded "I don't write jokes in Base 13". In the same vein, attempts to assign deeper meaning to the number 42 in the first place were Jossed when he said he pretty much picked the number at random, decided it sounded good, and went with it.
- However, Stephen Fry stated "Douglas told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious. Nonetheless amazing for that. Remarkable really. But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything."
Another example that's Older Than Radio: According to a famous anecdote, Hungarian poet Janos Arany once came across the notes a teacher had written about his poems. After reading the phrase "The poet is trying to say..." for the umpteenth time, Arany succintly wrote on the margin: "The hell I was."

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.
- A very belated Jossing happened with the episode, "The Next Doctor", where images of all the previous Doctors (for the first time in the new series) are shown. This put paid to the rather desperate segments of fandom that tried to claim that a) the new series is a different canon to the old and b) that Paul Mc Gann, the Eighth Doctor, was not a canonical incarnation.
- 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. One uncharitable theory is that the Doctor was retconned this way by his more rabid fans on the principle that if they've never had sex, why should he...?
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 the 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.
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).
- Of course, if they had planned all along for the Time War to create the Mirrorverse of the Terran Empire, a certain Magnificent Bastard in the ranks of the Q Continuum may have been literally Jossing history.
- For example, several well-known alien species are encountered in Enterprise had originally received first contact later in the chronology. The dialogue carefully avoided mentioning the species by name to keep canon intact. One episode featuring the Borg managed a certain degree of reversing Villain Decay, while folding Canon back into itself in a remarkable way. Unfortunately, this reliance on bending canon only added more to argue with an Unpleasable Fanbase.
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 Word Of 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!
- To be fair, many fans used the term "eating brains" as code for "whatever Sylar does with the brains that gives him the victim's powers".
- Apparently, Brain-Eating was actually accepted as what Sylar did by the cast and writers for the first season. So much so, Zachary Quinto (who played Sylar) would go into interviews saying that's what his character did. However, Kring felt that it made him seem to zombie-like and conceived a "less disgusting" method. This also leaves several inconsistencies with the first and second season (such as, where did the brains go?)
This occasionally happens in Power Rangers. The problem is that much of the info comes from casting scripts or pre-season profiles; this info has been repeatedly wrong and/or changed when the show begins airing since 2002, but the fans keep using it as source material for fic.
The idea that Smallville's Chloe might change her name to become "Lois Lane" later in life was pretty thoroughly Jossed when the actual Lois Lane showed up in season 4 (and several times afterwards by word of God).
- Now that it has been revealed that the character called "Jimmy Olsen" was not the Jimmy we know of in the comics, but his brother, the theory has (probably unintentionally) gained a bit of plausibility again.
  - I don't see how. That's not a twist they could pull more than once (especially considering the overwhelmingly negative reaction it's received from all quarters — it was even implied by the PTB that it may be reversed at some point in the show's future).
- When Jor-El's voice began telling Clark that it was his destiny to rule the people of Earth with strength, fans believed either General Zod was Clark's biological father, or that Zod had somehow intercepted the ship and placed a message inside. This was jossed by the PTB who assured fans that Jor-El was still Clark's father.
A recent example from Battlestar Galactica: one episode revealed that there was originally a number 7 Cylon named Daniel, but Cavil destroyed them all. The fanbase went wild with Epileptic Trees over this, saying that Daniel was Starbuck's father, Starbuck herself, any or all of the imaginary friends, the thirteenth lord of Kobol, etc. Then Word Of God said that no, Daniel is not Starbuck's father, will not play any part in the finale, and was only created to explain why there was no number 7, while adding to Cavil's evil backstory to boot.
- And the reason TPTB added the mention in was because of math- Grace Park picked #8 way back in the day on a whim, and with the 7/5 split...
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: the possible trope namer is the fandom reaction to the season 5 revelation that Drusilla sired Spike. Until this point, it was assumed that Angelus siring Spike was canon (what with Spike outright referring to Angel as his sire at least twice); suddenly almost all existing Fanged Four and Angel/Spike fics were 'Jossed'.

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.
- Did anyone see Washu as a goddess coming? Talk about Jossing. It completely altered any theorizing about Washu and Dr. Clay's previous relationship. And poor Kagato...
  - Not sure if this counts, as that aspect of her was hinted at all the way back in OAV 1, shortly after she appeared. It certainly doesn't alter any of those relationships. Now, a better example would be any of the Japanese material that gets brought over. There's a lot of stuff that's canon but was never shown onscreen.
  - Tenchi's dad was specifically stated to be a descendant of Yosho in the Tenchi 101 book.
  - But given that Yosho has been living on Earth for 700 years, chances are he's got lots of descendants. There was no reason to think that Nobuyuki was anything special, and fans just (quite reasonably) assumed he was too distant a descendant to have any way of knowing that Yosho was still alive and was his father-in-law Katsuhito.
Pokémon'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)".
- For what it's worth, people have been making those predictions for most of the anime...
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.)
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 because he was already committed to her Alternate Universe-equivalent. Turns out, he isn't CCS Syaoran, but the son of an alternate universe version of CCS Syaoran, using his dad's name and abilities. He's been romancing an alternate universe clone of his mom...and always known about it. Cue the Abandon Ship of a canon pairing by a decent chunk of the fanbase.
- This has actually been even further Jossed, in that the theories spawned by finding out who his parents basically are (so to speak. Damn dimensional doubles.) were all wrong. The second Syaoran is actually the son of the clones reincarnated as opposed to the CCS couple, which has quite broken a lot of brains, thankyouverymuch.
In Code Geass, the popular fan theory that Lelouch faked his death at the end of the series has been Jossed in official materials released after the ending, as well as numerous interviews where the entire staff and cast says that he's dead for real. Then for good measure the Official Guide Book mentions it 5 times, and the special addition DVD replaces the entire last scene (which sparked the fan theory in the first place) with a monologue by C.C stating clearly that Lelouch is dead.
- There were a select few in the fandom who continued to insist that Clovis should rise from the dead. Or more realistically(?) wind up alive for all that time, as a Geass-possessing Big Bad. There was a reason 4Channers rigged that character popularity poll...
One Piece: Boa Hancock being Luffy's mom was a pretty popular theory for a while, even though it's only basis was that they sorta looked alike. (in a manga story where young-ish characters kind of look alike anyway.) It got Jossed when she fell in love with him.
- This example is probably going to go down in history because of how obsessed fandom was with this theory at some point despite the utter lack of real evidence. Pretty embarrassing for a lot of people in retrospect.
- Word Of God has recently soundly jossed many theories surrounding Tashigi, including her being blood related to Kuina or her being Kuina brought back to life. Their being twins was an especially popular fandom theory for years, which is why it hasn't quite died yet despite said Word Of God and a side story that explicitly showed that Kuina was an only child.
Hellsing. The true species of the Major ( he's a cyborg) was only introduced in the last chapters, and before that he was considered either a vampire or some weird magical human. And then of course in the aforementioned last chapters, almost everybody died.
Naruto Jossed everyone using both Tobi, Pain and Itachi because turns out Itachi is a good guy, Tobi is actually Madara Uchiha and the big bad Pain's real body is Nagato.
- Countless fanfiction and fanart depicts an older Naruto as the Sixth/Rokudaime Hokage, all of which got Jossed when Danzou got that title.
- Chapter 474 finally Jossed the theory of Danzo being Madara by merit of them facing off against each other.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn to an extent too because there was Ryohei/Kyoko, Ryohei/Colonello, Ryohei/whoever the hell people liked pairing with him but Amano Jossed everyone by pretty much canoning Ryohei/Hana but saying that'll probably end with a Ship War. Not that many people gave a crap about Ryohei anyway. Amano likes Jossing people a lot seeing as most of her plot points descend from random possibly LSD caused ideas. Or so it would seem...
- Tsuna's box animal was also up for debate for a long time until it was pretty much canon'd going against pretty much everyone's ideas.
- The 6 real furneral wreaths did anyone honestly guess that Kikyo is the CLOUD guardian???
In Bleach Kubo Tite Jossed a theory that almost the entire fandom thought to be unquestionable truth: that Ichigo is Kaien's reincarnation. However, it turned out that Kaien's soul never reincarnated but was trapped in Aaroniero until Rukia freed him. Reactions varied, especially in the shippers' corner where many IchiRuki fans had regarded the theory as the ultimate proof that the pair was destined to be together. (Even though Kaien was married. To someone other than Rukia.) Of course it might have been a hint that while Rukia, Ukitake and Byakuya noticed Ichigo's resemblance to Kaien, Kaien's actual siblings apparently didn't.
- Also Jossed was the notion that Ichigo's Bumbling Dad Isshin was nothing more than what he seemed, and thus beyond being able to see spirits there was nothing special about Ichigo until Rukia's power was transferred to him. Most fans just assumed his rapid growth in power was merely the result of him being The Hero in a Shonen series, combined with the unique method used to restore his Shinigami powers when he lost them. But then it was revealed that Isshin is a former Shinigami Captain, who was just pretending to be a moron all along, and thus Ichigo was half-Shinigami from the start (as are his sisters, for that matter), and thus his later experiences largely just unlocked potential that was there all along.
  - Naturally, this revelation has produced a whole new set of Epileptic Trees that Kubo may or may not Joss in the future. Most notably, the idea that rather than being Kaien's reincarnation, Ichigo is instead his cousin, with Isshin having been a member of the Shiba Clan before leaving Soul Society. Since only one person who actually knew Isshin when he was a Shinigami has seen him in the living world, and that person is explicitly in on the deception, for now it remains a perfectly plausible theory.
Hunter X Hunter has dropped a Bridget on many fanboys in the form of the Databook. First there was Kurapika, then Karuto, and then there was the whole business of Pitou's gender.

The first Kingdom Hearts game probably inspired many theories about Ansem that were invalidated by Kingdom Hearts II. Theories about "Unknown" 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 II 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.
  - It got easier to pin "BHK" post-Chain of Memories. However, people had no clue how to take DiZ, with the common theory having him as the "Superior" of the Organization and Ansem's Nobody.
- The fourth installment in the series, 358/2 Days, tossed a mysterious new Kairi lookalike into the events concurrent to Chain of Memories and preceding Kingdom Hearts II. While Wild Mass Guessing provided many theories that attempted to retcon her absence from "Days"' chronological antecedents, no one could have foreseen that she was in fact Sora with a vagina.
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.
- Not to mention that the Crystal Dragon Pope explicitly stated that Nero carries the blood of Sparda.
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.
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.
- Then the DS remake of Trigger Jossed even more fan theories with its new ending.
After years of speculation surrounding the Mega Man series (namely, that Zero went berserk and killed the original cast), Keiji Inafune casually dismissed the theory in a question and answer session, offhandedly stating that "it was not in Zero's character." Jossed.
- This is made a bit odd when you consider that, presumably from the time of his creation til his fight with Sigma, he was infected with his "Zero Virus"... and therefore not his usual self. So while it may not be in Zero's character to go berserk and kill the original cast, Zero himself wasn't in character anyway. Doesn't change the Jossing, though.
The ambiguous ending to Final Fantasy VII, set 500 years into the future, deliberately refused to answer whether or not humanity had survived the clash between Meteor, Holy, and the Lifestream. Then along came the Compilation (some say Complication) of Final Fantasy VII, which continued the story only a few years after said event.
- Crisis Core pretty much Jossed everyone's fanfictions. Especially Zack/Cloud ones. Since turns out Cloud was not as emo as they wanted to believe. And Zack didn't meet him by saving him from bullies either...Angeal also served as a tool for Jossing too since...well...he was never even referred to until he showed up in CC thus everyone had to assume Zack randomly got the Buster Sword which...Isn't true.
Pre-release materials for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts revealed the Lord of Games (L.O.G) and his role in the story, where he settles Grunty and Banjo's conflict with a contest. Some people didn't simply see L.O.G as a facilitator, and begin to speculate that Grunty might be a Fake Boss, with L.O.G being the True Final Boss plotting a Xanatos Gambit against Banjo. Later, Rare opened Facebook accounts for some of the game's characters for fans to post some questions to their walls for a limited time, with L.O.G himself among them. This gave the Banjo theorists the chance to direct their accusations to L.O.G before the game is released. His response?
"What's all this talk of evil? I may be occasionally fallible and self-indulgent — or so I'm told — but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as evil."
Final Fantasy in general has been Jossing a lot of fan theories and fanfics since Squeenix finally started making sequels and spin-offs set in the worlds of the individual games. Apart from the Compilation of FFVII, there are also the sequels to Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy IV. On an equally annoying level, there are also the Japanese-only Ultimania information books, which often contain details, histories, and character backstories that aren't even remotely hinted at in the games, some of which would look like outrageous Epileptic Trees if they had been fan theories.
Despite heavy-sometimes-bordering-on-anvilicious hints to the positive, the theory of the Wrecked Ship in Super Metroid and the Pirate Mothership in Metroid Zero Mission being the same was Jossed by Zero Mission's director not long after people started espousing it.
It's not exactly the same, but pretty much any update Kevan applies to Urban Dead tends to fly in the face of every one of the regular's beliefs about the game.
Any popular fan theory on Umineko no Naku Koro ni usually gets Jossed the very next episode, or is confirmed the next episode.
- An example of this is the Kinzo is already dead theory, which was initially planned to be confirmed in episode 5, but was instead revealed in episode 4 because it became so popular after episode 3.

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.
Rich Burlew, the author of The 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 popular fan theory that the world of The Order of the Stick was an actual campaign was Jossed in strip #606.
  Shojo: No, the wisdom is simply this: Play the game.
  Belkar: Uh, OK, but I thought we weren't actually representing a game campaign, we were just living in a world where the laws of...
  Shojo: (while he and Belkar are playing Dungeons & Dragons) Not this game!
  Belkar: Oh, whew!
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.
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 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 MGS4 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 MGS4's release.
Despite attempts to reasonably, albeit comically, tie into the storyline of Half-Life, the comic Concerned was pre-Jossed when their depiction of the delivery of the Xen Borderworld sample was already undone by Half-Life: Decay.
- Half-Life: Decay wasn't produced by Valve themselves, and is, along with the other non-Valve titles produced by GearBox, including Opposing Force and Blue Shift, widely considered to be non-canon, or at least not referenced by valve.
  - Even though the characters of Barney Calhoun originated from Blue Shift, and Gabe Newell has said that he wants to bring Adrian Shephard back into the storyline.
Randy Milholland seems to love to do this to his fans in Something Positive. In fact, it could be said the only thing more enjoyable to him than not giving the fans what they want is giving them what they explicitly don't. "Dont Give Him Any Ideas" is uttered regularly on feed commentaries.

Here's an actual example of Joss jossing something: less than a week after fans announced the Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog prequel "Horrible Turn", Joss announced a prequel comic book that appears to be covering the same topics (meeting Captain Hammer, turning evil, etc.).

Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Jet is still alive — Jossed by Word Of God.
- Suki is dead — Jossed by "The Boiling Rock".
- Zuko's mother died in childbirth ("... I was lucky to be born.") — Jossed by "Zuko Alone".
- Zutarans. Shh, don't wake them.
Dungeons & 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 Dungeon Master is not Satan.
During the first two seasons the Transformers Animated fandom came up with a number of theories as to the isolated, motherless Sari's actual identity, the most popular being some variation of Sari actually being a robot or cyborg created by Professor Sumdac, possibly made by reverse-engineering Megatron. During the second season finale Sari injured her elbow, revealing circuitry underneath her skin, which seemed to support this idea. However, while the theory was right about Sari's true nature, it wasn't entirely correct about her origins. Sari wasn't constructed by Sumdac or made from Megatron's parts, she was a technorganic protoform created by the Allspark using Sumdac's DNA.
- Also that Ironhide was The Mole, which came up in the first case becauseof a screwup involving faction symbols.
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 last episode entirely and write Fix Fic about how Terra should have been resurrected.
ReBoot had an Un Canceled season three years after it had previously ended, and with a major storyline left untouched. Many fan fics were dedicated to telling this story, especially with the idea that we would never see the show continue. When the creators were able to tell their story, one concern they had was when fans had predicted many of the story points they were going to use, so it was a tough case of doing something no one thought of while allowing some fans the satisfaction of I Knew It.
- And if it ever comes back from its current hiatus (probably not), they'll have to do the same thing, considering the massive cliffhanger the show ended on.
  - It's back.
A lot of fanfiction for The Secret Saturdays has now been Jossed because we now know the reason behind Zak's cryptid powers he has cryptid powers because he's Kur. Also, most fanfictions related to the actual plot of the show have been Jossed because of the end of the latest episode when we find out that Zak is Kur, which resolved the story arc with a surprise ending.
Due to having so much Word Of God around, this has happened many times in regards to Gargoyles on issues such as gargoyle customs and breeding habits, Elisa and Goliath's ability to reproduce, Lexington's sexuality, Katana's physical appearance, etc. Looking at older fanfics can sometimes be a very strange experience...
After seeing Captain Marvel appear in Justice League Unlimited, supporting Lex Luthor's presidential campaign and then giving a bone chilling speach to his fellow leaguers, this troper and many other fans of the show believed he would return as an unwitting tool of Luthor. This was jossed by...well, him not coming back.

Real Life does this to you all the time.
- Note on this Wiki Science, Technology, History, and Society Marching On.

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