History Main / SchrodingersCast

** In the 2003 anime, Greed was ultimately killed by Ed in the middle of series, but in the manga and ''Brotherhood'', Greed got resurrected in Ling's body and he remained all the way up to the climax of the final battle.

*** In the manga and in ''Brotherhood'', it was revealed that failed human transmutations didn't replicate the bodies of the dead and that their souls didn't go into said bodies, thus they didn't die again because the dead remained dead. The 2003 version showed that the failed human transmutation not only regain their original human appearance eventually if certain conditions were met, but that carry parts of their souls and that they can also potentially age; as such, Izumi's dead baby son became the 2003's version of Wrath and grew older and the Elric brother's dead mother Trisha became the 2003 version of Sloth. In 2003 anime, Greed was ultimately killed by Ed in the middle of series, but in the manga and ''Brotherhood'', Greed got resurrected in Ling's body and he remained all the up to the climax of the final battle.

** If you think all of this isn't confusing enough, this isn't even the only example. In the Manga, Bandit Keith dies due Pegasus punishing him with a shadow game. In the anime, he's simply literally thrown out of the castle and into the sea, later reappearing in an anime-only arc in Battle City under the control of Yami Marik. However, in the Waking the Dragons arc, he appears as a soul captured by Dartz, and is then resurrected/his soul returned to him after Yugi defeats the Orichalchos. In the debatably canon to the manga timeline yugioh R arc, Bandit Keith is resurrected from his death, and either dies or simply falls unconscious after a duel with Joey. In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'' he shares the fate of his anime counterpart, but takes over the Ghouls in an attempt to steal the God cards.

* In the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' series, Ravage appears and dies in the second movie. However, the post-movie comics were already planned before that plot point was finalized. So ''yet again'', Ravage comes BackFromTheDead in the comic continuation of a screen story where he was intended to truly be dead. This is one cat who always lands on his feet! However, Soundwave can't sense him, and he can sense all the ''rest'' of his underlings, which suggests that Ravage CameBackWrong.

* Ian Malcolm survived in ''Film/JurassicPark'', while in [[Literature/JurassicPark the book]] he died. Then as Michael Crichton was told to write a follow-up, ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'' has Malcolm showing up alive, attributing his not-being-dead to several accounts of the events; evidently the first book was one of them, being either incomplete or inaccurate. Fortunately, it wasn't much of a retcon; his death in the book happened off-screen when he succumbed to his wounds at the very end. On a lesser note, John Hammond was still dead in the book, even if his SparedByTheAdaptation status led to an appearance in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''.

** One of the notable changes are the homunculi, with two completely original homunculi created for the anime, while the origin of the remaining five were changed. In the manga and in ''Brotherhood'', the first six homunculi were created from Father's body, while the last one, Wrath was created by injecting the Philosopher's Stone of wrath into a human body. In the anime, all seven homunculi were the result of failed human transformation, and Wrath became Pride in the 2003 anime instead. Pride was Selim Bradley in the manga and ''Brotherhood'' and ended up surviving the events of the manga story, but Selim was just a normal boy in the 2003 anime and got strangled by that version of Pride. Envy and Lust got changed as Hohenheim's son and the lover of Scar's brother, respectively, while they originally had no connection to those characters. In the manga and in ''Brotherhood'', it was revealed that failed human transmutations didn't replicate the bodies of the dead and that their souls didn't go into said bodies, thus they didn't die again because the dead remained dead. The 2003 version showed that the failed human transmutation not only regain their original human appearance eventually if certain conditions were met, but that carry parts of their souls and that they can also potentially age; as such, Izumi's dead baby son became the 2003's version of Wrath and grew older and the Elric brother's dead mother Trisha became the 2003 version of Sloth. In 2003 anime, Greed was ultimately killed by Ed in the middle of series, but in the manga and ''Brotherhood'', Greed got resurrected in Ling's body and he remained all the up to the climax of the final battle.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has you choose a different House, which largely affects which main characters do or do not survive the oncoming war. Specifically, [[spoiler:Edelgard, Hubert, and Dimitri ''will only survive'' if you choose their aligned path (Black Eagles for the former two, Blue Lions for the latter), while Rhea will live if the player chooses either the Church of Seiros route or Blue Lions route (she will be gravely wounded and implied to succumb to her injuries in the Golden Deer route, and is the main antagonist of the Black Eagles route)]]. Some of the characters that are not in your class (either initially or recruited) may have to be killed depending on whether or not they are commanders on the opposing side while others can be avoided with the proper tactical movement.

* Geese Howard in ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters''. In ''Real Bout Fatal Fury'', Geese unquestionably dies in a fall from Geese Tower, setting up his son Rock's storyline in ''[[VideoGame/GarouMarkOfTheWolves Mark of the Wolves]]''. In ''The King of Fighters'', Geese is alive and a playable character in a few titles. He's also the FinalBoss of ''The King of Fighters EX'', which exists in a continuity [[AlternateTimeline branching off from]] the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters97 KOF '97]]''. Then there's the ''[VideoGame/KOFMaximumImpact Maximum Impact]]'' series, yet another separate continuity that has Geese ''dead'' -- Billy Kane appears in [[VideoGame/KOFMaximumImpact2 the second game]], and his storyline revolves around avenging Geese's death by defeating Terry Bogard. Geese is playable as well, but in his "Nightmare Geese" form, which only appears in games where he is canonically dead.

* Geese Howard in ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters''. In ''Real Bout Fatal Fury'', Geese unquestionably dies in a fall from Geese Tower, setting up his son Rock's storyline in ''[[VideoGame/GarouMarkOfTheWolves Mark of the Wolves]]''. In ''The King of Fighters'', Geese is alive and a playable character in a few titles. Then there's the ''Maximum Impact'' series, a third continuity that has Geese ''dead'' -- Billy Kane appears in the second game, and his storyline revolves around avenging Geese's death by defeating Terry Bogard. Geese is playable as well, but in his "Nightmare Geese" form, which only appears in games where he is canonically dead.

* In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Shou Tucker and Tim Marcoh swapped roles, more or less. In the 2003 anime, Marcoh only has one major appearance before [[BusCrash being killed off screen]], but in the manga he survives and shows up later in the story as an important character. Conversely, in the manga, Shou Tucker is killed by Scar after one appearance, but in the anime he comes back later to more-or-less fill Marcoh's role, except where Marcoh's story is full of self-loathing {{Angst}} and [[TheAtoner atonement]], Tucker's is full of insanity, weirdness, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext an upside down head]]. By that time, though, the anime is deep in GeckoEnding territory and is paying no attention to the original manga.

* In the manga version of ''Manga/YuGiOh'', Bakura kills Pegasus in the process of stealing his Millennium Eye, while in the anime version Pegasus loses his eye but survives, and appears later as a secondary character in Filler arcs. This event seems to separate the anime and manga into separate continuities, as Pegasus appears in the anime version of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', but his death is an important part of the manga ''Manga/YuGiOhR''. This is also acknowledged in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'', where Pegasus is explicitly stated to be from the manga universe and only exists thanks to Duel Links, and he tells Paradox, who is from the anime universe and is trying to assassinate him to prevent the BadFuture from happening, that his attempt will be fruitless because Pegasus is already dead and Duel Monsters will be created by someone else in different worlds. In fact, many of the dead characters exist in Duel Links thanks to the memories of them. In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'', Pegasus is alive, but two of his henchmen, the Ventriloquist of the Dead and the Imitator of Death, are both from two separate media, and Pegasus himself is sealed away at the end of the game.

* In the manga version of ''Manga/YuGiOh'', Bakura kills Pegasus in the process of stealing his Millennium Eye, while in the anime version Pegasus loses his eye but survives, and appears later as a secondary character in Filler arcs. This event seems to separate the anime and manga into separate continuities, as Pegasus appears in the anime version of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', but his death is an important part of the manga ''Manga/YuGiOhR''. This is also acknowledged in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'', where Pegasus is explicitly stated to be from the manga universe and only exists thanks to Duel Links, and he tells Paradox, who is from the anime universe and is trying to assassinate him to prevent the BadFuture from happening, that his attempt will be fruitless because Pegasus is already dead and Duel Monsters will be created by someone else in different worlds. In fact, many of the dead characters exist in Duel Links thanks to the memories of them. In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'', Pegasus is alive, but two of his henchmen, the Ventriloquist of the Dead and the Imitator of Death, are both from two separate media, and Pegasus himself dies at the end of the game.

* In the manga version of ''Manga/YuGiOh'', Bakura kills Pegasus in the process of stealing his Millennium Eye, while in the anime version Pegasus loses his eye but survives, and appears later as a secondary character in Filler arcs. This event seems to separate the anime and manga into separate continuities, as Pegasus appears in the anime version of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', but his death is an important part of the manga ''Manga/YuGiOhR''.

* In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime adaptation]] of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Shou Tucker and Tim Marcoh swapped roles, more or less. In the 2003 anime, Marcoh only has one major appearance before [[BusCrash being killed off screen]], but in the manga he survives and shows up later in the story as an important character. Conversely, in the manga, Shou Tucker is killed by Scar after one appearance, but in the anime he comes back later to more-or-less fill Marcoh's role, except where Marcoh's story is full of self-loathing {{Angst}} and [[TheAtoner atonement]], Tucker's is full of insanity, weirdness, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext an upside down head]]. By that time, though, the anime is deep in GeckoEnding territory and is paying no attention to the original manga.

* [[WideEyedIdealist Abberline]] of ''Manga/BlackButler'' gives a tragic, Ciel-traumatizing HeroicSacrifice in the anime... only to drop in to say hello in the manga chapter that came out the month of his death. Oops. The anime fixed this by having his [[BackupTwin hereto unmentioned twin brother]] appear in season 2 and take his place. Also happens to Ciel himself. The first season of the anime ends with [[spoiler:Ciel being taken into the afterlife by Sebastian to have his soul harvested, with the final shot being Sebastian moving in to take it.]] Cue season 2 and he's a [[GirlInABox Boy In A Box]], and it's not until several episodes later that we find out exactly what happened to cause this.

** ''Gundam'' has another rather famous example: In Tomino's novelization of the original series, Amuro gets killed during the final battle; rather than his trademark KillEmAll nature, Tomino has said he did it because he didn't think there would be any sequels and wouldn't have had Amuro live if he'd known otherwise. When ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'' rolled around and Amuro has an important role, Tomino's novels simply reflected the anime continuity where he was still alive and well.

** This wound up happening and was answered somewhat in the ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' OVA series, which seems to establish that at least [[spoiler:Amuro]] really did die, since he appears as a SpiritAdvisor to the main character. With [[spoiler:Char]] the jury's still out.
** ''Gundam'' has another rather famous example: In Tomino's novelization of the original series, Amuro gets killed during the final battle; rather than his trademark KillEmAll nature, Tomino has said he did it because he didn't think there would be any sequels and wouldn have had Amuro live if he'd known otherwise. When ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'' rolled around and Amuro has an important role, Tomino's novels simply reflected the anime continuity where he was still alive and well.

* Franchise/{{Nasuverse}} visual novels have this trope virtually built in when sequels come about, without even being adapted to another medium. Their visual novels can have as many as a dozen possible endings, with different endings having different characters live or die, so making a sequel gets very tricky. This is usually {{handwave|d}} with some mumbling about alternate universes. (There is no ending of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' where ''everyone'' lives, which could have acted as a canonical ending for sequels to build from -- but it's okay, it's a crazy-anything-can-happen singularity universe!)

* The first season of the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' anime was so determined to remove [[TheSyndicate the Black Organization]] that multiple [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole Adaptation-Induced Plot Holes]] were created when the anime was ''forced'' to line up with the manga. In episode 13, the animators changed the villains from TheSyndicate to some generically bad guys who, among other things, attempted to murder their employee, Akemi Miyano. However, later on, it turned out that Akemi's death at the hands of the Black Organization was an important motivation for a new character: Ai Haibara, the younger sister of Akemi. As a result, the anime wrote a filler episode that had her KilledOffForReal, this time by TheSyndicate. Ran hung a {{lampshade|Hanging}} on this by asking Conan, in a confused voice, if they'd seen the victim somewhere before.

* ''Series/KnotsLanding'' was a spin-off of ''Series/{{Dallas}}''; the main character of the spinoff was Gary Ewing, the black sheep of the Ewing family. Gary fathered a pair of twins right as his brother Bobby died on the parent show, and so he named his son after his dead brother. A year later, Bobby was brought BackFromTheDead as the ''entire previous season'' was {{retcon}}ned away into [[AllJustADream a dream]]. On ''Knot's Landing'', Bobby Ewing ''stayed dead''. (Which, [[EpilepticTrees weirdly]], implies that the spinoff show takes place entirely in a [[ComicBook/TheSandman dream-world]]...)

When the original author intentionally leaves story elements indeterminate so he can figure out what he really wants to do with them at a later date, see SchrodingersGun.

* The first season of the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' anime was so determined to remove [[TheSyndicate the Black Organization]] that multiple [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole Adaptation-Induced Plot Holes]] were created when the anime was ''forced'' to line up with the manga. In episode 12, the animators changed the villains from TheSyndicate to some generically bad guys who, among other things, attempted to murder their employee, Akemi Miyano. However, later on, it turned out that Akemi's death at the hands of the Black Organization was an important motivation for a new character: Ai Haibara, the younger sister of Akemi. As a result, the anime wrote a filler episode that had her KilledOffForReal, this time by TheSyndicate. Ran hung a {{lampshade|Hanging}} on this by asking Conan, in a confused voice, if they'd seen the victim somewhere before.

* The first season of the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' anime was so determined to remove [[TheSyndicate the Black Organization]] that multiple {{Adaptation Induced Plot Hole}}s were created when the anime was ''forced'' to line up with the manga. In episode 12, the animators changed the villains from TheSyndicate to some generically bad guys who, among other things, attempted to murder their employee, Akemi Miyano. However, later on, it turned out that Akemi's death at the hands of the Black Organization was an important motivation for a new character: Ai Haibara, the younger sister of Akemi. As a result, the anime wrote a filler episode that had her KilledOffForReal, this time by TheSyndicate. Ran hung a {{lampshade|Hanging}} on this by asking Conan, in a confused voice, if they'd seen the victim somewhere before.

* ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''

* The ''Anime/MaiOtomeZwei'' manga ignores the preceding ''Anime/MaiOtome'' manga, instead being a sequel to the anime. This is presumably because the ''Franchise/MyHime'' franchise is one big example of AnimeFirst.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon''

* Comicbook/MsMarvel was ([[DeathIsCheap temporarily]]) killed in her own title when her [[SuperpowerMeltdown powers overloaded]]. Apparently there was some internal confusion on this point, however, because she continued to appear in the ''Comicbook/NewAvengers'' title ''as if nothing had happened!''

* The ''Franchise/{{Alien}}s'' comic series by Creator/DarkHorse originally started as a sequel to the events of the [[Film/{{Aliens}} second movie]]. Since Ripley couldn't be used due to stipulations from the movie executives, the writers decide to focus the comic around Hicks and Newt. When ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' unceremoniously killed off Hicks and Newt (and ultimately Ripley herself), the comics were reprinted with the characters renamed.

* Notably averted in ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'', in the case of [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite]] Leon Magnus, who dies in ''every'' adaptation of the game, whether it's the drama CD, the manga, [[VideoGame/NamcoXCapcom a part in a crossover game]], [[VideoGameRemake the remake]] or even the UpdatedRerelease of the remake that features [[AnotherSideAnotherStory his own story mode.]] He ends up dying without fail ''every single time'', though often under different circumstances. In ''Tales of Heroes: Twin Braves'', another crossover, Stahn's scenario ''also'' involve Leon dying in a HeroicSacrifice like in the remake. But [[spoiler:then it's suddenly revealed, in the very next scenario, that he avoided death thanks to [[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Yuri Lowell]] [[BigDamnHeroes saving him in the nick of time]]. He rejoins Stahn to finally get a [[SavedByTheFans happy end]], making it a long-desired aversion.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Aliens}}'' comic series by Creator/DarkHorse originally started as a sequel to the events of the [[Film/{{Aliens}} second movie]]. Since Ripley couldn't be used due to stipulations from the movie executives, the writers decide to focus the comic around Hicks and Newt. When ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' unceremoniously killed off Hicks and Newt (and ultimately Ripley herself), the comics were reprinted with the characters renamed.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The ''Anime/MaiOtomeZwei'' manga ignores the preceding ''Anime/MaiOtome'' manga, instead being a sequel to the anime. This is presumably because the ''Franchise/MaiHime'' franchise is one big example of AnimeFirst.

* ''Series/LargoWinch'' was adapted from the ''ComicBook/LargoWinch'' comics to live-action, which led to a number of composite characters, canon foreigners, and so on. By necessity, the TV show is assumed to just be an unrelated alternate universe. It does get a little weird when a traitorous CorruptCorporateExecutive from the comics shows up as an [[JerkAss obnoxious]] but honest guy in the TV version.

* Geese Howard in ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' and ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters''. In ''Real Bout Fatal Fury'', Geese unquestionably dies in a fall from Geese Tower, setting up his son Rock's storyline in ''Mark of the Wolves''. In ''The King of Fighters'', Geese is alive and a playable character in a few titles. Then there's the ''Maximum Impact'' series, a third continuity that has Geese ''dead'' -- Billy Kane appears in the second game, and his storyline revolves around avenging Geese's death by defeating Terry Bogard. Geese is playable as well, but in his "Nightmare Geese" form, which only appears in games where he is canonically dead.