Markup View

Author: Folamh3

Feb 7th 2012 at 6:59:16 AM

TBeholder - AuthorsSavingThrow is slightly different. AuthorsSavingThrow is about retconning the effects of an unpopular creative direction ''within the continuity of the work itself'', whereas this trope is about a writer trying to excuse an unpopular creative decision by retroactively claiming that the decision came about by intention rather than by negligence or by bad writing. Supposing you have a show, and one episode introduces a new heroic character who is [[TheWesley widely disliked by the fanbase]]. If the character subsequently disappears without explanation the next episode, that would be AuthorsSavingThrow. But if the author retroactively claims that they ''intended'' for the character to be disliked (in spite of a lack of evidence that this is the case) that would be this trope.

And I'll admit the trope is partly subjective in that one can never know for certain what an author's intentions were while creating the work. But one can make an educated guess. The criteria for this trope are similar for the criteria for ParodyRetcon. Good signs that a writer is simply retroactively claiming that their work was intended as a parody include: the work not being marketed as a parody, the writer not being well-known for their parodic or comedic works, the writer giving no indication during production that the work was intended as a parody etc. The same applies here.