Should this be split into multiple tropes? I feel like we've got a couple of different things going on here: - Cliffhanger Retcon: Previously established facts are explicitly contradicted or ignored in the next installment (e.g. cliffhanger clearly shows the character couldn't have possibly jumped out of a car before a cliff, but resolution clearly shows him jumping out before a cliff) - Cliffhanger Misdirection: The viewer is not given key information during the cliffhanger, but a different perspective during the resolution shows it to be resolved or otherwise not what it appears (e.g. cliffhanger shows the building the heroes were in gets blown up, but resolution shows a flashback where the heroes got teleported out, or cliffhanger has someone says someone is gone, implying they died, but next episode has them clarify that they are alive but left the area) - Cliffhanger Stakes Change: The stakes are presented as different than what the resolution shows (e.g. cliffhanger has the heroes surrounded by a squad of soldiers and fighting would be suicidal, resolution has the heroes immediately open fire, kill the soldiers, and walk away scot free) - Cliffhanger Resolution Omission: No resolution is provided (e.g. heroes are surrounded and outgunned, next episode shows them having defeated the enemies with no explanation on how they survived).
There may be one or two others, but these all seem like they could be individual tropes.
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Aye, I second the motion for creation of subtropes, and suggest you post on the Trope Launch Pad.
God is God of truth, and thus of current webcomic example links. See also: Grammar Nazi Hedge Trimmer
"One page in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja ends with the doctor being held at gunpoint by a police officer as he is about to retrieve a missile. Then, in the next page that was published days later, he is driving a car with the missile in the back with simply 'He is a ninja' as explanation." But that doesn't change or dismiss anything established by the cliffhanger. I move for example removal.
Edited by doomquokka God is God of truth, and thus of current webcomic example links. See also: Grammar Nazi Hedge Trimmer
Is X-Men #100 really an example? #101 doesn't retcon anything, and isn't even "oh, hey, she survived somehow, good, lets move on". How she managed to survive becomes the driving force of the story for a while, until it eventually turns out it isn't even really her. (Although admittedly, that was a retcon.) Most cliffhangers that feature someone facing certain death are resolved by them not actually dying, because otherwise you run out of characters.
Edited by DaibhidC