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alternative title(s): Disproven By Canon
 | This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab. | |
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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 Fanon Discontinuity when disgruntled Fans prefer their own fanon to official facts. In extreme cases critics and fans may invoke Death Of The Author to preserve their interpretation of events.
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.
The inverse of this trope is Shrug of God, where the author refuses to say that one answer is more "correct" than another.
Note: In some circles, the term "Jossed" refers to a gutwrenching main character death, which Joss Whedon is also famous for. This definition entered the populace when during a Q&A session at an Australian university, a young Aussie girl noted his tendency to do horrible things to on screen couples, and to much laughter, said "We call it getting 'Jossed'".
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- 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.
- Pokémon's been particularly vulnerable to Jossing in later seasons: "Ash will get Buizel" (Dawn does, but Ash does trade for it later), "Ash will get Hippopotas" (nobody does), "Ash will get Shieldon" (same), "Paul is a starting trainer (he's been a trainer as long as Ash has)".
- Probably one of the biggest josses for the fandom was the DP episode that finally revealed once and for all that Pikachu is Male, shooting down a lot of fans who assumed the opposite.
- A rescent BW episode officially confirmed that pokemon in the anime can only learn 4 moves total.
- 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 Shipping of a canon pairing by a decent chunk of the fanbase.
- Actually his mother is the reincarnated clone of his girlfriend, which is not as squicky. Just confusing. It's better to just realize that they are both Syaorans and Sakuras in a very twisted world.
- 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 edition 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.
- Well, not quite. The director has said he personally prefers Shrug of God with regards to this. But, the writer has pronounced him 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 its 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 a bunch of theories involving Akatsuki members Itachi, Pain, and Tobi when it turned out that Itachi was a good guy, Pain's true identity is Nagato, and Tobi is both Madara Uchiha and Akatsuki's true leader. Chapter 474 finally Jossed the theory of Danzo being Madara by merit of them facing off against each other.
- While, later on in the series, Tobi turns out no to be Madara!
- 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 funeral 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. 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 Shōnen 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.
- It was recently Jossed that Aizen has planned out everything Ichigo has done through the series. This includes not just his fights, but also his first meeting with Rukia that allowed him to become a Shinigami. This has upset many shippers who originally used the tagline that their meeting was destiny, and are wildly denying such a declaration. Even though, Aizen could have easily just mixed up paperwork on purpose, he's Aizen after all.
- In regards to this one, it was speculated that Aizen placed the Hogyoku inside Rukia's body a LONG time ago. It was a special favorite of the IchiRuki rabidshippers who thought of it as an evidence that Rukia had ~the purest soul in Soul Society~ and thus was the best choice for Ichigo. The reasoning for it also said that her soul being so pure was that her zanpakuto was pure white and considered the most beautiful ice and snow element sword.. When it was ultimately revealed that the Hogyoku was only placed inside Rukia's gigai by Urahara at the end of the first chapter of the manga, the rabid fans either RAGED
 or went into total denial.
- Particularly during the Turn Back the Pendulum flashback arc, theories about Aizen being the ultimate Anti-Hero and him teaming up with Urahara and the Vizards ran wild after the revelation of the Maggot's Nest. Then the conclusion to the arc rolled around revealing that Aizen was the one responsible for the Vizards' condition.
- Hunter × 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.
- Black Jack: Osamu Tezuka did a second story about Kei/Megumi apparently solely to Joss speculation that she'd spontaneously turned into a man after her hysterectomy and loss of ovaries.
- Pretty Cure has had a good few of these:
- Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash*Star: Some fans believed that Nagisa and Honoka would mentor Saki and Mai, until the two series were cemented as strict alternate continuities. A much crackier theory posited that the girls would eventually fight EVIL BREAD, due to the Hyuuga family's bakery job. Bread was one of the few inanimate objects of any significance that were never turned into a monster during the series.
- Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Masuko Mika was thought to be a potential Sixth Ranger by the fanbase for a time, but never made it past comic relief, for the most part. The aforementioned slot ended up going to Milk come next series.
- Fresh Pretty Cure!: A good number of fans suspected Kaoru-chan, the girls' mysteriously savvy donut vendor friend of being the Kingdom of Sweet's Elder Tiramisu in human form, a theory that more or less went up in smoke around episode 29. Before that, parts of the fanbase insisted that Setsuna, thought to be the unrevealed Cure Passion was either too obvious a candidate for the position, too awesome as a villain, or both; hence, the Akarun was going to be granted to some new girl we'd never met around mid-season, tradition be damned. It went to Setsuna.
- Heartcatch Pretty Cure: Tsukikage Yuri/Cure Moonlight was thought to be either dead, captured, or free but smacked with Laser-Guided Amnesia until episode 8, when she was shown to be alive and in full possession of her memories. The Dark Pretty Cure was also thought to be Moonlight's former partner, Cure Sunshine, until Moonlight was cemented as working alone and Sunshine turned up as a brand new Cure.
- Suite Pretty Cure ♪: Siren was suspected to be Cure Muse by a good portion of the fandom. The fact that Siren defected from the villains' side and started showing some suspicious behavior right before Muse debuted appeared to clinch this...until both characters appeared in the same scene in episode 13.
- A popular theory in Nabari No Ou fandom was that the kitten Yukimi found and named Yoite was Yoite's reincarnation. It was completely jossed in the final chapter when Yoite shows up again and Yukimi goes out of his way to rename the cat "Yoi".
- In the Yu-Gi-Oh5Ds fandom it was a popular theory that Z-ONE's true identity was Yusei from the ruined future. Episode 148 even went on a big tease with showing Z-ONE having the same face as Yusei. But instead he turned out to be a random scientist in the future who had genetically modified his body to have Yusei's exact appearance, sans part of the head. Fans were not happy about this.
- The final ending of the Non-Serial Movie version of Macross Frontier left most of the fanbase believing (and a warning for fans of the show, this spoiler text is the Mother Of All Spoilers as far as you're concerned) Alto was dead, Sheryl stayed in a coma, and they were basically Together in Death. An interview with Kawamori Jossed this: Alto survived, Sheryl woke up, Happy Ending.
- In the end of the first Non-Serial Movie for Slayers, the ancestor of one of the heroes is able to get together with the elf girl he's in love with because of the Time Travel plot Lina creates. However, the creator of the Light Novel series (and the entire franchise) spoke in an interview that the elf and the human ancestor, in the end, didn't wind up together because of the implications of a disturbing Mayfly December Romance...as in, because elves in this franchise age at half the speed that humans do, then the girl would still be considered a child while the human grows into manhood.
- Initially, Zelgadiss speculates whether the priest Rezo is his grandfather or great-grandfather (as he's old to the point that Zelgadiss cannot clearly pinpoint how they're related) and Kanzaka confirmed that he's three generations removed in another interview. However, when the anime was first translated, a mishap caused the fandom to believe that Rezo was both, leaving rumors of incest running amok in Zelgadiss' family. One wouldn't gain the contrary evidence unless they either found a translation of the interviews or read the first translated novel (which used the correct implication).
- A great deal of Fairy Tail fanficcers liked (and still like) to claim that Natsu and the rest of the guild would begin to ignore Lucy for some reason when Lisanna was revealed to still be alive. 60+ chapters later, Natsu and Lucy's bond is stronger than ever, and he and Lisanna have said perhaps four or five sentences to each other.
Board Games
- 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.
Films — Live Action
- 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.
- Even back in the days of the original trilogy there was much fan speculation going around, which was then Jossed by the second and third movies. A somewhat infamous example of this happening to official media is the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which was published only a year after the first movie when the possibility of any film sequels was still uncertain. As a result, it has a number of things which may not directly contradict later movies, but at least they are pretty weird when you consider later plot developments.
- In Star Wars the term "Star Destroyer" led to some fan speculation that because they are called Star Destroyers, that meant they were destroyer-class vessels, even though they have also been referred to as cruisers, battleships, and dreadnoughts as well, and Darth Vader referred to the Executor as his Star Destroyer in ESB. Eventually, in Starships of the Galaxy Saga Edition, there was a note in the Super Star Destroyer section establishing that Star Destroyer is not really a class of ship in the traditional sense so much as a design philosophy (lots of guns and a dagger shape to be able to point all those guns forward), and that Star Destroyer is meant to be capitalized as to distinguish it from star cruisers, star dreadnoughts, and actual destroyer-class vessels that happen to be starships.
- 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, Donkey Kong Jesus Riding on a Puff of Smoke - 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...
- The film's writer has since stated that the viral marketing (i.e. the "Manual") was created without his input, and possibly without the input of the director, or creator/producer J.J. Abrams. Furthermore, in his opinion, what's in the film is what matters, and no Word Of God can Joss anything because each member of the creative team have differing theories.
- 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..
- He has also admitted that sometimes he simply films things that pop into his mind and seem interesting, and doesn't worry so much about explaining them.
- It was taken as gospel that the Audi 8 Decepticon in the Transformers Film Series was a reformatted Barricade. However, he was recently revealed as Sideways.
Literature
- 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 Luna's husband 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 large section of the fanbase who were convinced that Dumbledore wasn't really dead, despite Jo stating outright that the one thing magic absolutely 'cannot' do is bring people back from the dead.
- 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 Fanfiction Dot Net.
- One of the most popular theories was Sirius being gay, due to his Ho Yay friendship with Lupin (and, according to the Yaoi Fangirls, the rest of Marauders). When he was pretty much proven as straight by Deathly Hallows*
The Trio found his room with Gryffindor banners and female Muggle pin-ups, and Sirius probably wouldn't have hid the fact that he liked men. Heck, he probably would've hid the girly pics and posted nothing but the men, just to screw with his conservative (by Wizarding standards) family. , the fans immediately started claiming he might have been bisexual, despite their previous insistence that he only liked men, just men, no girls in the picture, really.
- During the Three-Year Summer, one of the few facts known for sure about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was that Arabella Figg, Harry's apparently Muggle babysitter from the first book, would turn out to be more than she appeared. Naturally, fanfiction assumed that she would play a big part in the story, portraying her usually as a badass Cool Old Lady who becomes the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Some fanfics even Hand Waved her old age, making her a hot Action Girl in a magical disguise. When Phoenix actually came out, it was revealed in the first two chapters that she was a Muggle Born of Mages whom Dumbledore had assigned to keep an eye on Harry. She had a very minor role in the book and was very different in personality from what fans had expected, being a Cloudcuckoolander Maiden Aunt type. In any case, the fanon version of Arabella died a quick death after that.
- 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. There were 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.
- Even this Word Of God Jossing came only after fairly extensive evidence against the Taimandred theory was published in Book 9 - it wasn't enough to convince some.
- Every now and then a new reader will connect the dots and come up with the Taimandred theory on their own, prompting agonized groans from every Wo T forum on the web.
- 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 and the same. This was jossed in Dzur where Mario makes an appearance.
- In the latter sense of the word, George R. R. Martin is particularly infamous in his "A Song Of Ice and Fire" series for destroying any happy relationships and suddenly and without warning killing off random good/light grey characters, arguably making it the home of the densest population of karma houdinis ever.
- In the first book, he destroy's Danaerys Targaryen's first ever happy period by killing off her "Sun-and-Stars," Khal Drogo.
- Also in the first book, he kills arguably the nicest guy in the series, Eddard Stark with absolutely no warning.
- He continues, deciding to blow up Tyrion's relationship with Shae, goes back in time to reveal that Tyrion's wife, supposedly a whore hired to pop his cherry by his brother, genuinely did love him, knocks off about half of the arguable good guys at the Red Wedding, teased that Davos Seaworth was executed before revealing it to be untrue, has Jeor Mormont murdered, kills off Jon Snow's love interest, kills Qhorin Halfhand, and deliberately leaves fans in a state of agony over whether Jon Snow is dead. It's a big list.
- 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.
- Fans of Hitchhiker's 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, possibly jokingly, "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 succinctly wrote on the margin: "The hell I was."
- According to Isaac Asimov, when he was in school taking a course on modern literature, a man stood up at the back of the class and to the instructor loudly proclaimed: "That's not at all what was written!" When the teacher asked who the man was, he got the reply: "I'm the author," to which the instructor succinctly answered: "Then your opinion is really irrelevant here." Asimov accepted this in good grace.
- During a radio discussion of the popular young children's book The Tiger Who Came To Tea the participants suggested their theories of what the tiger represented - the intrusion of danger into the comfortable world of childhood, that sort of thing. When the author came on she said no, it was just a silly story about a tiger.
- Many EU Star Trek novels were Jossed by new movies and the Enterprise series. One memorable example is Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, which was written mostly from the viewpoint of Zefram Cochrane, as well as Kirk and Picard. For one thing, he's much less of a jerk in this book than in First Contact. The book even included the origin of the Starfleet symbol (a sketch of a warp field by Cochrane). In the book, Cochrane's flight happens before World War Three, which he waits out on Alpha Centauri, while Colonel Greene and his Nazi-like troops attempt to exterminate all non-Optimals. A well-written, emotional novel, casually brushed off in favor of something with the Borg.
- William Shatner's own novels dealing with the Mirror Universe had the origin of the split Jossed by the In the Mirror, Darkly episode. This one actually followed the First Contact movie with Cochrane flipping a coin to decide on whether to tell the Vulcans about the Borg. In the Trek 'verse, he doesn't. In the Mirror Universe, he does. They believe him and form a more militaristic union to prepare. It goes downhill from there.
- This happens frequently in The Dresden Files fandom, either due to new books or Word Of God, and is referred to as "being Butchered."
- Ray Bradbury has said of Fahrenheit 451 that, despite the interpretation of nearly everyone, ever, the novel is not about censorship, but the role of television in destroying interest in literature. He walked out of a class at UCLA where the students insisted that the popular interpretation was correct.
- Among the Warrior Cats fandom, there was a popular theory that Pinestar was the father of Firestar. However, it jossed on the author's Facebook. Although it doesn't stop people from coming up with the theory...
- In the final book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a major plot point involves the titular character obtaining the Curse of Achilles which includes one vulnerable spot that feels like a thousand volts of electricity arcing through his body when touched. Don't think for a second that shippers didn't pick up on and make good use of this, all of which got thrown out the window in the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus, when Percy promptly loses the Curse in the second chapter of the first book that he actually appears in.
Live Action TV
Newspaper Comics
Video Games
Web Comics
- In Abstract Gender, many fan theories to the big conspiracy involved William Montgomery being somehow linked to the scientists. This was completely thrown out during the seventh and final chapter "Gods" where he gets transformed too, complete with a mind wipe and new personality as well.
- 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.
- He has taken this to a whole new level by having Renard Joss a theory that Jones was a robot in comic on this page. When the theory refused to die, Jones herself stated she was not a Robot on this page. The rant on that last one also includes a shirt design Jossing the theory yet again.
- 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!
- A Double Subversion of Jossing occurred with the theory that Elan's father is Lord Tyrinar, the warlord who had Haley's father imprisoned. The first strips where Tarquin appeared had him as a general who'd lost his empire long before; but it was eventually revealed that he was the man behind the throne of an empire that had gone through several figurehead rulers and names – including Tyrinaria – and Ian Starshine was one of the prisoners Roy befriended in the Empire's prisons. Tyrinar turned out to be just one of the figureheads, and dead in the present time of the comic.
- El Goonish Shive author, Dan Shive, has done this too many times to count.
- 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 Don't 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.
- 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.
- An example: Pepito was originally going to live through the "insane catgirl massacre" storyline. Then somebody sent Milholland a letter saying he wasn't "allowed" to kill any of the characters. "Not even Pepito."
- While Andrew Hussie of MS Paint Adventures is usually very permissive of off-the-wall speculation, he sometimes feels the need to correct egregiously wrong interpretations. For instance, he has made it very clear that, in Homestuck, Jade's Grampa was Dead All Along, Kanaya is a lesbian, and, most of all, WV IS NOT AN IMP.
- When the Alpha kids were first introduced there was a lot of speculation about what alpha!Mom and alpha!Bro's personalities would be. The most common theory for Mom was that she would be a scenester-esque Bottle Fairy. Even more popularly, Bro was theorised to be a loser anime fanboy - 'Weeabro'. Scene!Mom turned out to be canon. Weeabro didn't.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Common fan theories insinuate that Bonkers was created as a substitute for a Roger Rabbit cartoon that was never made due to legal and copyright issues surrounding Roger. Greg Weisman, who helped develop Bonkers and other other notable Disney shows, says that Bonkers was certainly INSPIRED by Roger, but Disney never had any plans to make a Roger Rabbit cartoon at any point.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- Jet is still alive — Jossed by Word Of God.
- Related: the theory that Smellerbee and Longshot died has been Jossed by the sequel comic The Promise.
- Suki is dead — Jossed by "The Boiling Rock".
- Zuko's mother died in childbirth ("... I was lucky to be born.") — Jossed by "Zuko Alone".
- Jossed further by the fact that Azula is his YOUNGER sister.
- 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.
- 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 regard 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...
- Technically the Word Of God wouldn't have been needed if they had just let the poor man finish his work. Even allowing him enough time to put things in order as setup for the futuristic series, or the Bad Guys spinoff, would have annihilated 85% or more of the required jossing without he having needed to be asked.
- After seeing Captain Marvel appear in Justice League Unlimited, supporting Lex Luthor's presidential campaign and then giving a bone chilling speech to his fellow leaguers, many fans of the show believed he would return as an unwitting tool of Luthor. This was jossed by...well, him not coming back.
- Due to the creators of Phineas and Ferb refusal to discuss it, there are many theories regarding the whereabouts of the original parents of the characters, including the popular one that Doofenshmirtz is Phineas' father. In the episode "What Do it Do?" it was shown that Doof did go on one date with Linda Flynn, but they never went out again (although she supposedly was what convinced him to conquer the Tri-State Area).
- In a New York Times P&F panel, Dan and Jeff addressed one of those points, finally stating that, no, Doof is not Phineas' father.
- For a couple of weeks, it was fanon among My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fans that Scootaloo was the sister of Rainbow Dash. It made a bit of sense: Scoot is part of a Power Trio, and the two other members are younger sisters of members of the main cast. Since Scootaloo is a Pegasus, and it had already been established that she was not Fluttershy's sister, that left Dash as the only other potential sister; plus the two have similar personalities and looks. Creator Lauren Faust, though, insisted on her blog that Dash and Scootaloo are not related at all. Though she hinted that they will form a friendship in the near future.
- It has also been confirmed that Pinkie Pie is not supposed to be a Fourth Wall Observer, that all the times she looked into the camera were animation mistakes where she was actually looking at someone else. The ability to break the fourth wall was never discussed by the writers, at least during meetings. So much for Pinkie being the pony equivalent to Deadpool.
- Princess Luna's return and subsequent official characterization has invalidated a great deal of fan interpretation. Most fan writers and artists nailed her social awkwardness, but few guessed she'd be just as hammy as Nightmare Moon.
- She also has a bit of a prankster streak, something usually attributed to Celestia (or Trollestia) in fics involving the two - often with Luna as the Butt Monkey. Of course, we still haven't seen the two directly talk to each other (minus their brief reconciliation in season 1), so fan theories on how they'd interact are safe for now.
- The first week of November, 2011 had significant amounts of Fanon Jossed. First, a new blind bag wave was released which contains mostly background ponies from the show. None of the five whose toy names have become known by now have their Fan Nicknames which caused heated debates about which names to call them by, the old and established Fan Nicknames or the brand-new toy names whose likes have been rendered obsolete by Canon in two other blind bag ponies' cases. Then, "Sisterhooves Social" came out and revealed that fan favorite unicorn foal Dinky Doo/Dinky Hooves is the little sister of the grown-up unicorn Sparkler and therefore can hardly be Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves' daughter.
- Also, Lauren Faust revealed more of the actual backstory of Nightmare Moon and how she was banished here. Much of it invalidates the common fanon interpretation of Luna as basically the victim of Celestia in the whole affair. Different from many other forms of Jossing in that Faust points out that since it was never stated in the show, it isn't really canon - it is perfectly possible for the current crew to contradict it.
- As of The Last Roundup, Derpy Hoove's name is officially Derpy. It is not Ditzy Doo.
- Or it could be Rainbow Dash being rude. The way her name's being said was in an ambiguous manner.
- Fans swore Family Guy Presents: Laugh It Up, Fuzzball used Rotoscoping for certain scenes from the Star Wars movies, but the people who made it insisted they just were really precise about recreating the scenes.
- Word Of God says that Henry and June are only like brother and sister and niether have feelings for each other in any direction, which breaks the fanon that's been going on since the show premiered.
Real Life
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