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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. 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'".
It should be noted that "Jossed" does not mean "I disagree and here is evidence contrary to your theory." If someone claims that, in Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan, Spock dies from Explosive Instrumentation during a Klingon attack, the fact that this turns out to be the Kobayashi Maru simulation does not only "Josses" the claim for fans who had based the theory on trailers, before the actual film was released. The term only rightly applies when new information discredits Fanon or Wild Mass Guessing.
Examples:
Anime
- 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.
- 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)".
- 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.
- The Staff Doth Protest Too Much, say the Hes Just Hiding fans. You never know with a bastard that MAGNIFICENT...personally, this troper prefers the ending ambiguous; it lets him keep the trifecta interpretation that lets him decide if it's a mostly Happy Ending, Bittersweet Ending, or Downer Ending as he pleases.
- The creator openly lied about Nunnally's "death" simply to add to the masquerade. That was a relatively minor plot point, when you consider how it panned out. This is related to the possible existence of a second series. The developers put a Sequel Hook in, and then deny its existence. Seems like it matches up with past actions.
- 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.
- 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. This troper kicked herself after a fic she wrote was Jossed by the latter a day after it was uploaded to Fan Fiction.net.
- 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 when everyone thought that Itachi killed his clan because he wanted to test out Mangekyou.
- Countless fanfiction and fanart depicts an older Naruto as the Sixth/Rokudaime Hokage, all of which got Jossed when Danzou got that title.
- 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.
Film
- 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, 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 Madelorians, and Fett winds up being a clone of his "father".
- 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 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...
- 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.
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 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.
- 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 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.
Live Action TV
Misc.
- 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.
Video Games
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The humans are the forerunners. Guilty Spark explicitly makes this clear in 3 with the line "You are forerunner", aimed at Master Chief. Plus, you know, the fact that only the humans are able to activate the rings.
- 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.
- 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?
- Final Fantasy 7 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.
- 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.
Web Comics
- 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 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 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 And 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".
- Episode 434 was also a heavy point of speculation due to its ambiguous nature. Fans believed it to be part of an epic battle. It was neatly jossed in a strip appropriately titled "THERE"
- 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.
Western Animation
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Real Life
- Does this to you all the time.
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