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Now it is a curious fact that this is not the story as Bilbo first told it to his companions.
A Ret Con which directly ignores, contradicts or alters information in the Back Story.
The introduction of a Cousin Oliver or Uncle Ned is often a Re Vision, while a Brother Chuck is often a Re Write. Another Darrin may be either or both.
Sometimes a result of Canon Dis Continuity.
Examples:
- Red Dwarf underwent continuous rewrites; or to be more precise showed a cavalier disregard to its own backstory when there was a gag to be made. Most notably, the idea in the early seasons that Lister had barely spoken to Kochanski was contradicted in the novels, where they had a brief relationship before she dumped him. Later episodes would follow that version. Another major one is Rimmer's light bee; it went from being Rimmer's remote projection unit to actually being Rimmer.
- At one point, a TV series was in production that would focus on the nephew of MacGyver, who was an only child in the series.
- Perhaps the most famous (and best handled) example is Tolkien's rewriting of The Hobbit, where Bilbo obtains a ring that confers invisibility in the Misty Mountains. As The Lord Of The Rings reveals this to be the One Ring, Gollum's Back Story could no longer have him offering an Artifact Of Doom as a prize to Bilbo for winning the riddle contest; instead, Gollum would never forgive "Baggins" for stealing his ring. A revised edition of The Hobbit was published, and the prologue to The Lord Of The Rings explained the inconsistency: the original version was the story Bilbo maintained (building on the idea that The Hobbit was actually an autobiographical novel by Bilbo himself), but Gandalf eventually learned the true story by persistent questioning.
- God Of War II does this to the first game's continuity. At the end of the first game, the narrator expounds upon Kratos's retaining the throne of the God of War for all time, explicitly showing flash-forwards to WWII and modern counter-terrorist forces as she talks of his presiding over all armed conflict. At the beginning of the second game, Zeus strips Kratos of his mantle of godhood and boots him from Olympus, and Kratos does not regain his godhood by the ending. It is a cliffhanger ending, so whether this is a true rewrite depends on how God of War III will handle matters.
- The second Jurassic Park book had Ian Malcom very still alive, despite his apparent death in the first one.
- The author hangs a lampshade by explaining that rumors of Ian Malcom's death were exaggerated, and he still suffers ill effects.
- The events of The Terminator 2 are said to take place two years prior to the beginning of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which took place in 1999), meaning that its time was changed from 1995 to 1997.
- The Final Fantasy VII OVA did this, and then Crisis Core: FF7 did this with both the OVA and FF7
- Selena in 28 Days Later tells Jim that the infection spread to Paris and New York (at least) after the initial outbreak in Britain, or at least, that the newspapers were printing this as an attempt to keep people from escaping quarantine. 28 Weeks Later completely ignores this, isolating the infection solely to mainland Britain and depicting the rebuilding of society there.
- Although it was heavily implied that it was only Britain even in the first movie. Maybe they just couldn't make up their minds.
- Certainly the fact that the virus seemingly works almost instaneously strongly suggests it could not reach Paris (two hours by plane), let alone New York - any aircraft that somehow had an outbreak would crash before leaving the runway.
- Rocky Balboa completely ignores the events of Rocky V. In the montage of clips shown from previous films, any footage from Rocky V is notably absent. As well, the brain damage Rocky suffered in Rocky V is completely ignored. This is due to Sylvester Stallone being unhappy with Rocky V and creating Rocky Balboa as the "suitable" conclusion to the Rocky saga.
- The broad events of Rocky V did happen, like him being retired from boxing and virtually broke. Stallone did a Hand Wave in supplimentary material that said the brain damage was exaggerated by the doctors, that it eventually went away in time. Obviously Stallone hated Rocky V as much as the viewers.
- While most of the changes between Metroid: Zero Mission and the original game it's a remake of can be explained away as simple retcons, there's no ignoring the fact that Kraid and Ridley have gone from human-sized to a two-story Godzilla clone and a giant flying dragon respectively.
- Objection! Word Of God states that they were always intended to be the size they were in Metroid Zero Mission. Think Super Metroid.
- The comic book Strangers in Paradise, in Vol. 3 issue #43, presents us with both an actual and a metafictional rewrite: It apparently takes place years later, when Francine and Katchoo are an elderly couple with a daughter named Ashley. Ashley has submitted a novel to a publisher, which turns out to be the story of Strangers in Paradise itself, and the publisher suggests a rewrite to make it flow better. After some minor outrage from Francine and Katchoo, they back the idea of a rewrite to make it more true to the "love story" aspect of their history, and the issue ends with the phrase, "End of Version 1." In the following issues, we see different takes of Francine revealing her first pregnancy, finally resolving in Francine going back to Katchoo. This rewrite seems to eradicate certain earlier parts of the story, including the later years of Francine's unhappy marriage with Brad and her subsequent reunion with Katchoo, and leaves certain plot threads unresolved, such as what was presumably the initial version of David's death.
- This happens when a new developer takes over the Tomb Raider series. Lara's whole background is changed to make her more developed. Legend also implies that all but the first Tomb Raider game never happened.
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