History Main / Revision

* ''BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' reveals that Gotham City is across the bay from Metropolis, that a building destroyed during the fight between Superman and Zod in ''[[Film/ManOfSteel]]'' was one of Bruce Wayne's, and he was there that day. It also reveals that the Kryptonians were ''not'' the first superhumans on Earth.

* ''BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' reveals that Gotham City is across the bay from Metropolis, that a building destroyed during the fight between Superman and Zod in ''ManOfSteel''was one of Bruce Wayne's, and he was there that day. It also reveals that the Kryptonians were ''not'' the first superhumans on Earth.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' is able to pull this off. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', [[spoiler:the Patriots were apparently a bunch of long-dead men and "the collective consciousness" of the White House who controlled America via viruses, trickery, and artificial intelligences, and wanted total information control of the Earth to "save society from itself" and might have launched the ultimate BigBrother ship to do this, but were stopped. It makes a '''lot less''' sense in context. However, it's revealed the "collective consciousness" was an overblown metaphor for [=AIs=], who were originally supposed to simply guide governments away from war and towards peace. They went berserk (though it is hinted it was more in the manner of a programming bug rather than they [[AIIsACrapshoot suddenly gaining sentience]]) and decided that the best way to obtain peace was total control of the populace]]. Great job on the scriptwriters for being able to subvert the GainaxEnding of ''[=MGS2=]''. Oh, and Vamp [[spoiler:isn't an actual vampire.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic]]'': Nearly every instance[[note]]Applejack was shown to have siblings from the start and Pinkie's sister Maud was a straight retcon[[/note] of one of the mane cast having a sibling is one of these. In particular, the season 2 finale introduced Twilight's older brother, who had never been seen or mentioned before that point.

* In ''{{Bionicle}}'', the storyline had a unique way of expanding both ways: as it progressed in the present, various {{Flashback}} bits delved deeper and deeper into the past, all the while explaining or even completely rewriting present story details (or the way we perceive them) without resorting to changing the exact details themselves or contradicting facts. How much sense these revisions made, from the stories' and our own standpoint, varied greatly.

* ''SupermanVsBatmanDawnOfJustice'' reveals that Gotham City is across the bay from Metropolis and that a building destroyed during the fight between Superman and Zod in ''ManOfSteel''was one of Bruce Wayne's, and he was there that day. It also reveals that the Kryptonians were ''not'' the first superhumans on Earth.

* The trope is used in-universe in Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's Pern series. In ''Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern'', a large portion of the population is wiped out by a plague (implied to be influenza), and a treatment is devised and must be delivered to the various holds. Queen rider Moreta volunteers for the mission, but her dragon Orlith has a clutch of eggs and must remain with them; so Moreta instead borrows Holth, the queen of a retired dragonrider. While jumping ''between'', the elderly and exhausted Holth is unable to complete the passage through time and space, and both she and Moreta are lost. However, it is recorded for posterity that Moreta was on her own dragon at the time, and that Orlith deliberately sought the oblivion of ''between'' because Moreta was dying. This version of events is seen in the books which take place later in the planet's timeline, but were published earlier; until ''Moreta'''s release, there was no indication that this account was in any way historically inaccurate, nor do any of the characters from later books ever learn the truth.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]] revises the ever-vague origin story of the Doctor himself. It's widely-known canon that the Doctor wanted to see the universe, so he "borrowed" a TARDIS and ran away from Gallifrey. Creator/NeilGaiman's revision? [[spoiler:The TARDIS wanted to see the universe, ''so she stole a Time Lord'' (by leaving her doors unlocked for the Doctor) and ran away from Gallifrey.]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sam's girlfriend Jessica was killed by a demon in the pilot episode in the same manner (burned to death on the ceiling) as the Winchesters' mother. It was pretty clearly the Yellow-Eyed Demon/Azazel, whom Sam and Dean finally took out at the end of season 2 to avenge Mary and Jes. Then a season 5 episode revealed that one of Azazel's former lackeys was the actual hitman, a demon who possessed Sam's college friend Brady.

* In ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', the position of Arbiter has been expanded greatly upon since its introduction in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', where it was simply described as being the Covenant's most elite enforcer, albeit one who is expected to die on the job. Later media clarified that the position (which actually predated the formation of the Covenant) was largely reserved for decorated Sangheili who nonetheless committed a major crime or "heresy" that they had to make up for with their lives, and that it used to be an unambiguously esteemed rank until Arbiter Fal 'Chavamee committed heresy and turned it into the badge of both shame and respect that we see in ''Halo 2'' and ''VideoGame/HaloWars''.

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Toys ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Bayonetta 2}}'' revisits the character of [[SissyVillain Father Balde]]r [[spoiler:and the prologue starts by showing him dying...[[FaceDeathWithDignity completely dignified]] and [[DeathSeeker thanking his daughter]], which should already tell you he was more complex than it appeared in the first game. Later shown to be [[DyingAsYourself his release]] from the DemonicPossession of [[GodOfEvil Loptr]]-before he had to [[HeroicSacrifice contain Loptr's soul]], he was actually a pretty decent person.]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* {{Cheers}}. Since the beginning of the series, the bar's sign indicated that the bar was established in 1895. However, the episode "The Stork Brings a Crane" claimed that the number was made up by Carla because of her belief in numerology simply so that the writers could do a centennial episode in 1989 (since it was obvious that show would most likely not be on the air in 1995).

* An example from the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse: ''The Sundered'', a book of ''StarTrekTheLostEra'', introduces interphase tunnels that lead from the Milky Way to the Small Magellanic Cloud. The ''Literature/StarTrekTitan'' novels later built on this by establishing a whole subspace topography that placed the Cloud "downstream" of the Milky Way. This served to allow two different ships in two different times and places to both reach the same region of space and interact with the Neyel race. Then, another ''Lost Era'' novel, ''The Buried Age'', made a subtle offhand reference to ancient transportation networks created by the ancient {{Precursors}}, the Manraloth, offering an explanation for how this improbable situation came about.

* ''[[Film/StarTrek Star Trek (2009)]]'' and ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', while set in an AlternateTimeline specifically to avoid ContinuitySnarl, do add previously unknown information about characters and things in the prime universe. These include: An earlier (''and much simpler'') Stardate format, Kirk's father living long enough to see Kirk take command of the ''Enterprise'', Carol Marcus' mother's maiden name revealed to be Wallace and the apparent notion that no starship had ever embarked on an ''official'' 5-year exploration mission before the year 2233.

* ''[[Film/StarTrek Star Trek (2009)]]'' and ''[[Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness Into Darkness]]'', while set in an AlternateTimeline specifically to avoid ContinuitySnarl, do add previously unknown information about characters and things in the prime universe. These include: An earlier (''and much simpler'') Stardate format, Kirk's father seeing Kirk take command of the ''Enterprise'' in the prime reality, and the apparent notion that no starship had ever embarked on a 5-year exploration mission before the year 2233.

** Another SWEU example. In the novel ''The Courtship of Princess Leia,'' Warlord Zsinj is a clueless cardboard cutout villain who just somehow controls a fleet large enough to be dangerous. The XWingSeries, written years later, re-establishes him as a brilliant and pragmatic planner [[LargeHam with a taste for showmanship]], who likes to use ObfuscatingStupidity in order to keep his enemies (and subordinates) off balance.

** The Time Lords went through this twice. From "The War Games" onwards they were depicted as {{All Powerful Bystander}}s, with limitless power over the universe but [[AlienNonInterferenceClause choose not to interfere in the affairs of lesser species]]. "The Deadly Assassin" onward showed that this was merely an image they like to project, as in reality Time Lord society is immensely corrupt and stagnant, the people themselves content to sit back in luxury while the universe goes on without them, even forgetting much of their own history. The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse and "The End of Time" showed that this was a deliberate restraint their ancestors had put on themselves, as when Time Lords start messing with the universe they become anything from {{Evil Overlord}}s to full-blown {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s; the Doctor is a very, very rare exception.

* ''[[Film/StarTrek Star Trek (2009)]]'' and ''[[Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness Into Darkness]]'', while set in an AlternateTimeline specifically to avoid ContinuitySnarl, do add previously unknown information about characters and things in the prime universe. These include: An earlier (''and much simpler'') Stardate format, Kirk's father seeing Kirk take command of the ''Enterprise'' in the Prime Reality and the apparent notion that no starship had ever embarked on a 5-year exploration mission before the year 2233.

* ''[[Film/StarTrek Star Trek (2009)]]'' and ''[[Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness Into Darkness]]'' while set in an AlternateTimeline to specifically avoid ContinuitySnarl, do add previously unknown information about characters and things in the prime universe. These include: An earlier (''and much simpler'') Stardate format, Kirk's father seeing Kirk take command of the ''Enterprise'' in the Prime Reality and the apparent notion that no starship had ever embarked on a 5-year exploration mission before the year 2233.

** ComicBook/TransformersWindblade introduced Caminus and the other lost colonies. These were colonies of Cybertronians who left so far in the ancient past that in the time since gender "arose" in the course of evolution/adaptation.
** ComicBook/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Further revises this by stating that female Cybertronians did in fact exist in the very, very distant past (meaning only a handful of currently-living Cybertronians would even know of them, let alone have met one). Many "non-standard" Cybertronian types (beasts, combiners, etc) are said to have "''[[InferredHolocaust been lost]]''" over the years of war between the ancient tribes.

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''MortadeloYFilemon'' were given this in a book where it's explained how they lost their private detective agency and were forced to join the secret services overnight. Several years after it kind of suddenly happened.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]] revises the ever-vague origin story of the Doctor himself. It's widely-known canon that the Doctor wanted to see the universe, so he "borrowed" a TARDIS and ran away from Gallifrey. NeilGaiman's revision? [[spoiler:The TARDIS wanted to see the universe, ''so she stole a Time Lord'' (by leaving her doors unlocked for the Doctor) and ran away from Gallifrey.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Chapter 19 explains that Ichigo's mother, Masaki, died when Ichigo was almost nine years old, defending Ichigo from a Hollow that targets children with high spiritual power. Creator/TiteKubo stated that, while he starts a story with the skeleton of it from start to finish, he irons out the details as he's writing. He therefore began preparing the details of the story's final arc later, towards the end of the Soul Society arc, which is where the full truth about Masaki's death is revealed. It does not change anything the story has previous said but the detail completely transforms the reader's understanding of what happened the day she died. [[spoiler:Yhwach steals the power and lives of all impure Quincies, including Uryuu, his mother, and Masaki, who was originally raised by the Ishida family. The Hollow kills the de-powered Masaki while Kanae collapses comatose and dies three months later. Uryuu mysteriously survives, much to Yhwach's confusion. The reveal changes reader perception of Ichigo and Uryuu's back stories without contradicting any previous material.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': Chapter 19 explains that Ichigo's mother, Masaki, died when Ichigo was almost nine years old, defending Ichigo from a Hollow that targets children with high spiritual power. Creator/TiteKubo stated that, while he starts a story with the skeleton of it from start to finish, he irons out the details as he's writing. He therefore began preparing the details of the story's final arc later, towards the end of the Soul Society arc, which is where the full truth about Masaki's death is revealed. It does not change anything the story has previous said but the detail completely transforms the reader's understanding of what happened the day she died. [[spoiler:Yhwach steals the power and lives of all impure Quincies, including Uryuu, his mother, and Masaki. The Hollow kills the de-powered Masaki while Kanae collapses comatose and dies three months later. Uryuu mysteriously survives, much to Yhwach's confusion. The reveal changes reader perception of Ichigo and Uryuu's back stories without contradicting any previous material.]]