History Main / Asspull

** Many fans consider the pairing of [[spoiler: Harry]] with [[spoiler: Ginny]] just a cheap way to [[spoiler: make Harry a Weasley]], and was something of an AssPull. Dumbledore being gay is also considered an AssPull by many.

** Many fans consider the pairing of [[spoiler: Harry]] with [[spoiler: Ginny]] just a cheap way to [[spoiler: make Harry a Weasley]], and was something of an AssPull. Dumbledore being gay is also considered an AssPull by many, as is whatever excuse given for why the trio couldn't just use a Time Turner to go back and kill Voldemort before he rose to power.
*** Well, apart from Harry Potter's time travel running on [[StableTimeLoop stable time loops]]...

* Though this is more of an in-universe example than a proper Ass Pull , {{Psych}} employs this when Shawn, desperate for an explanation, claims that a man was killed by a T. Rex. Then it turns out he was a paleontologist and, on dying, fell on a skeleton. Even Shawn is surprised by this.
** Shawn claiming to by psychic at all is an AssPull on the character's part. He was just trying to get out of trouble and the cops wouldn't believe the real story - that he's just really observant.

** Chapter 632 has Sakura using Tsunade's Yin Seal - the fact that she used it was not necessarily an ass pull, since she trained under Tsunade over the course of the time-skip, but it's claimed that this technique required her to store up chakra for three years in a [[HandWave half-hearted attempt]] to justify Sakura's [[FauxActionGirl poor performance]] over the course of the post-time-skip period when the fact that she'd been storing chakra for all that time was never mentioned or hinted at previously.

* AvatarTheLastAirbender does some of this in the GrandFinale, when [[spoiler:Aang is given "energybending" to stop [[EvilOverlord Firel...uh, Phoenix King Ozai]] without killing him by causing him to lose his firebending abilities. Until that point, the existence of energybending had not been even slightly hinted at.]]

* AvatarTheLastAirbender does some {{egregious}} ass-pulling in the GrandFinale, when [[spoiler:Aang manages to avoid killing [[EvilOverlord Firelord Ozai]] by "energybending" to cause him to lose his firebending abilities. Until that point, the existence of energybending had not been even slightly hinted at. ]]

* AvatarTheLastAirbender does some {{egregious}} ass-pulling in the GrandFinale, when [[spoiler:Aang manages to avoid killing [[EvilOverlord Firelord Ozai] by "energybending" to cause him to lose his firebending abilities. Until that point, the existence of energybending had not been even slightly hinted at.

** [[spoiler: Likewise, quite fans dismiss Chad's claim that he was GoodAllAlong and was actually continuing to help the KND (and Sector V in particular) while he was within the ranks of the Teen Ninjas, to be this. considering the fact that ever since his FacrHeelTurn at the end of the 2nd season, all we ever see Chad do was help in attacking the KND, you can probably understand few people buy his sudden pleading of innocence]]

* In ''Series/TheNewAdventuresOfOldChristine'', Christine's brother Matthew is a nanny for her son Ritchieduring Season 1. Then he enters medical school, drops out later that season and then suddenly a therapist seeing patients. He even says that he "glad he's a doctor" now, indicating that he has somehow obtained a Ph.D. in psychology over the course of a semester.

** Then there's Captain Jack Harkness' performance in ''[=Bad Wolf=]''. While completely naked he reaches behind himself and produces a small laser gun. This is immediately lampshaded when he is asked where he got it from. While the act in itself is an AssShove, it also qualifies as Ass Pull as there was no indication that he had it prior to using it.

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* In ''Videogame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler:the Synthesis ending. Throughout the entire game, the player is repeatedly told by opposing factions that the only options in dealing with the Reapers are to either destroy or subjucate the Reapers, but the last three minutes of the game suddenly declares that spoiler:there's a third "preferred" option; Synthesis, which was only previously mentioned in the original game by Saren, and treated as a monstrosity that has seen him become a mere puppet of Sovereign; furthermore, spoiler:Synthesis is depicted as making organics & synthetics into techno-organics, rather than Saren's use of cybernetic implants.]]

* Done in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''.
** Aang pulls an epic, but devious ass pull in "The Great Divide": two feuding clans are arguing over a muddled event in the past that started their conflict, but they can't find proper closure to their feud because they'll never know the real truth about that ancient travesty, and eventually, the leaders resort to swordfighting to solve their beefs. Aang, pissed off at both of them for making the trip through the divide hell at any given turn, tells them ''he'' knows the real story behind their feud, and feeds them a wacky-yet-plausible story that gets them away from each other's throats to bury the hatchet and make peace. Except for one thing: Aang sold them off on a ''big, fat, honking lie.'' The poor kid had had enough of their B.S. and did it for everyone's well-being.
** The show does some egregious ass-pulling in the Grand Finale, when [[spoiler:Aang manages to avoid killing Firelord Ozai by "energybending" to cause him to lose his firebending abilities. Until that point, the existence of energybending had not been even slightly hinted at]].

** The [[RetCon retconning]] of Michael's death at the end of ''[[HarryPotter Battle with the Witches]]''. The POV character, who is assumed to be Michael, [[TakingYouWithMe kills Dumbledore at the cost of his own life]], but the next chapter reveals that it wasn't Michael.

* The Deathly Hallows from ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. While the Horcrux plot showed Harry he could stop Voldemort from reviving again and again, it didn't help his chances in fighting the man in person. Cue the Deathly Hallows. Apparently Dumbledore had a complex history involving Grindelwald, his friend-turned-dark wizard, and the Elder Wand, one of the Hallows and an unstoppable weapon whose nature [[spoiler: turns the final duel with Voldemort in Harry's favour]]. The story of the Hallows is a fairy-tale familiar to all wizards, but we don't hear about it until halfway through the last book. [[spoiler: Harry's cloak and Marvolo's ring (now a Horcrux) are Hallows as well]] but impossible to foresee, as is the whole complex history of Dumbledore.

* In ''Videogame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler:the Synthesis ending]]. Throughout the entire game, the player is repeatedly told by opposing factions that [[spoiler:the only options in dealing with the Reapers are to either destroy or subjucate the Reapers]] but the last three minutes of the game suddenly declares that [[spoiler:there's a third "preferred" option; Synthesis, which was only previously mentioned in the original game by Saren, and treated as a monstrosity that has seen him become a mere puppet of Sovereign]]; furthermore, [[spoiler:Synthesis is depicted as making organics & synthetics into techno-organics, rather than Saren's use of cybernetic implants]].

** [[spoiler: [[FridgeBrilliance Each game has a hidden third way out for most of the major choices, an option where things turn out okay for everyone. Anybody who paid attention to the story structure of the games should've seen a third option ending coming a mile away.]] ]]

(Latin: TractumExCulo)

** [[spoiler: Likewise, quite fans dismiss Chad's claim that he was GoodAllAlong and was actually continuing to help the KND (and Sector V in particular) while he was within the ranks of the Teen Ninjas, to be this. considering the fact that ever since his HeelFaceTurn at the end of the 2nd season, all we ever see Chad do was help in attacking the KND, you can probably understand few people buy his sudden pleading of innocence]]

* Juki Judai, TheHero from ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', is a ''very prominent'' example. His E-Hero deck revolves around combining the monsters of said archetype via the [[FusionDance Polymerization]] card. As you can imagine, this results in Judai pulling a never before mentioned fusion monster out of nowhere every time he’s in a pinch. The trend continues with the Neo Spacians and E-Hero Neos; to the point he even gets to fuse the latter with ''other people’s monsters''. And that’s without mentioning the loads and loads of situational spell and trap cards, which are normally so specific for a certain situation, that including them in one's deck would normally be foolish. One of the worst offenders is Jun Manjoume's card, "Ojama Ride", which discards "Ojama" monsters to special summon Machine-type "Union" monsters. "Ojama" and "Union" monsters have nothing in common, so this card would probably be useless to anyone except Manjoume, whose Deck happens to use both types of monsters.

** Chapter 518 contains several fairly gratuitous examples of this - Tobi apparently placed six Zetsu clones within Sasuke to spy on him, which can be [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands drawn out by Jugo's abilities]], and there [[ContrivedCoincidence happens]] to be more than enough of them to act as sacrifices for the jutsu that Sasuke's group was going to use. The only reason that the group knows about this was because [[spoiler: Orochimaru]] read Kabuto's mind somehow. There's an Uzumaki shrine on the outskirts of Konoha that hasn't been mentioned before (and, since Naruto is one of them, you'd think it would have come up) which contains a mask [[spoiler: that gives its wearer control over the god of death]]. This, combined with the six Zetsu clones, allows [[spoiler: Orochimaru to revive the four Hokages in spite of the fact that they were stated to be impossible to revive, as well as giving him [[BodySurf a new body to transfer to]] and allowing him to regain the use of his arms]]. A fairly awesome moment, but that doesn't change the fact that none of this had been built up to beforehand.

** Speaking of which, the [[spoiler:Christmas episode's twist -- Sora and Yamato's sudden dating]] -- was viewed by some in this light.
** As was the revelation of [[spoiler:[=BelialVamdemon=] as the final BigBad, considering he'd died ''twice'' the previous season, he became part of another villain who was subsequently killed and he was killed a fourth time during an in-canon game]].

* ''{{GURPS}}'' has two advantages that let the ''players'' do this: gizmos, which allows you to pull out a small item out of nowhere, as long as it is something your character would have, and Wild Talent, which lets you perform an untrained skill, and learn it permanently with an enhancement.