text:
->''"''Stigma'' arrives midway through the second season, and seems to confirm the prognosis of so many pop culture commentators eager for blood after the failure of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''. ''Star Trek'' is just the walking dead, at least in this iteration. Something radical is needed; something new. It might not be enough to save the franchise, but perhaps it can redeem the show."''
-->--'''[[http://them0vieblog.com/2015/04/21/star-trek-enterprise-cease-fire-review/#comment-117011 Darren Mooney]]''' on ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''
An especially "brave" idea is set forth to turn a character on his head and [[WhamEpisode change the status quo in a big way]]... and the [[DarthWiki/RuinedForever fans revolt.]] The writer then does a {{retcon}} which seems openly apologetic. This is the saving throw. It assures the fans that the character either was not in control of his actions, or he was ActuallyADoombot or events were not as they seemed.
Some "brave ideas" that have caused popular fandom backlash resulting in a saving throw have been depowering a SuperHero for dramatic purposes and turning [[FaceHeelTurn a good character evil]]. [[WomenInRefrigerators Depowering super-heroines]], in particular, is a "brave idea" that is nearly always good for causing a fan revolt.
Note, however, that not all Author's Saving Throws are necessarily a ''good'' thing; many authors try to "fix" things that [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks didn't really need it]]. This can be a highly subjective thing; one fan's JumpingTheShark moment is another fan's GrowingTheBeard.
If the screwup stays prominently in the fandom's memory, it adds to that character's DorkAge. Contrast with RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, where an originally loathed character or idea is made serviceable.
If an Author's Saving Throw attempts to fix an episode-specific problem (typically within that episode) and fails, then it becomes a VoodooShark. Generally, the best tool for making such a save is to provide for the possibility of a SchrodingersGun. Often, clumsier tools such as the CosmicRetcon or the regular {{Retcon}} are used instead. CharacterRerailment is a Character-based SubTrope.
Compare CanonDiscontinuity, which just flat out ignores something instead of trying to {{Retcon}} or otherwise explain it.
This is a subtrope of PanderingToTheBase.
Not to be confused with OnlyTheAuthorCanSaveThemNow, where the in-story characters are trapped into a corner and escape through contrived circumstances.
Named for a common TabletopGame term originating in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''; a "saving throw" is a die roll representing, say, a hero's attempt to catch themselves when falling off a cliff, or the DeadpanSnarker's attempt to resist the urge [[DoNotTauntCthulhu to taunt Cthulhu]].
[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]
* Vegeta shaving off his mustache in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''. It might have been too little, too late for some, but it marks the point in the series where it switches from early ''Manga/DragonBall''-style slapstick to DBZ-style save-the-world fights.
* Many ''Manga/CityHunter'' fans were angered when they learned that Ryo Saeba's partner, Kaori Makimura, was killed off in its sequel ''Manga/AngelHeart''. Because of this, Tsukasa Hojo, the author of both titles, went on to proclaim that ''Angel Heart'' was not actually a ''City Hunter'' sequel, but a spin-off set in an AlternateUniverse featuring most of the same characters. However, most fans that got over Kaori's death in ''Angel Heart'' now accept it as a genuine sequel to ''City Hunter''.
* When ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' reached the Pain arc, characters started kicking the bucket left and right, and it actually seemed like it would conclude some character development, but then [[spoiler:Nagato sacrificed himself to save all of his victims.]] On the other hand, some fans wonder if the series really would have been better with the deaths intact.
** Perhaps done even more extremely in the same arc when [[spoiler: Hinata is struck down in a fight with Pain. There's no reason Pain would have chosen not to or fail to cause a mortal wound, and writing wise said above sacrifice would have rendered the loss moot anyway, but despite that, she is only 'heavily wounded' seemingly for the sole purpose of not enraging the fans a few chapters until everyone else is restored to normal as well.]]
** Also from the same arc, many fans found it odd that Naruto never talked to Hinata [[spoiler: about how she confessed her love for him]]. It's never explained in the manga but cleared up in the film, ''Film/Naruto7TheLast'', an {{interquel}} between the last two chapters of the manga where it's revealed [[spoiler: that Naruto does not understand the concept of romantic love, thinking that Hinata's love for him was like his love of ramen]].
** Madara Uchiha has turned into a GodModeSue; so much that even Kishimoto himself stated in an interview (which was before his revival [[spoiler:and absorption of the Juubi]]) that he doesn't know how to kill him off. Suddenly, just after Madara achieves all his goals, [[spoiler:Black Zetsu impales him, stating he was actually working for [[RememberTheNewGuy Kaguya]] all along. Cue Madara being overloaded with chakra and taken over by Black Zetsu, turning into Kaguya as a result. Going further, Naruto and Sasuke are given a sealing technique specifically for sealing Kaguya, which does just that as well as ejecting the tailed beasts and Madara, who dies from losing said tailed beasts.]]
* One of the many, [[BrokenBase many]] ways to interpret the results of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny''. The SpotlightStealingSquad made up of the old cast taking over, then occasionally losing focus could be the result of the staff trying to decide which way to throw the series. The {{Compilation Movie}}s tried to mitigate the suddenness of the old cast's return by making Athrun the viewpoint character (via some minor editing and casting him as the narrator). This works to an extent, as the old cast doesn't really take front and center until Athrun joins up with them late in the show.
* Many fans had started to disapprove of the incredible over-the-top antics and MonsterOfTheWeek aspects of ''Anime/TenchiInTokyo'', especially since all signs pointed to it being a sequel to ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'' (Tenchi says it's been two years since they all got together and when Noboyuki mentions Achika, the young, schoolgirl version from ''Tenchi Muyo in Love'' appears). Episode 13 and 14 later revealed that it was firmly an AU.
* ''Anime/DokiDokiPrecure'' is a serious saving throw for the ''Anime/PrettyCure'' franchise. It absolves the non-existence of MythArc during ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' and the general lack of suspense of ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure''. Furthermore, it brings back just enough the widely-liked DarkerAndEdgier aspects of ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure''. On the other hand, there is {{Ma|rySue}}na and the [[CreatorsPet notorious]] SixthRanger...
** ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' is easily this towards ''Doki Doki'' as the series focuses less on the Pink Cure (Megumi) and more towards the Blue Cure (Hime) to the point where the former is easily a SupportingProtagonist. It probably helps that this is offset by the fact that the former is CrazyAwesome.
* ''Manga/{{Cyborg009}}'' was originally intended to end at the Yomi arc, with the apparent deaths of 002 and 009. This would end the manga at volume 15 (or volume 10 in the USA release, which is where Tokyopop ''did'' in fact end things). Fan revolt and the popularity of the series convinced Ishinomori to resume the manga soon enough, and he threw in a retcon stating that 001 managed to teleport the two to safety before they could die (they still wound up comatose and having to be rebuilt, but were alive).
[[folder: Comic Books]]
* Dan Slott's Comicbook/SheHulk run did this for a controversial issue of ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'', when he poisoned and blew up a bar filled with two dozen C-List villains, revealing that they survived and had their stomachs pumped. Subverted with Slott's handling of the issue of She-Hulk's one-night stand with the Juggernaut; Slott had She-Hulk deny it, while using it to [[SlutShaming slut shame]] She-Hulk via everyone accusing her of being a whore whenever She-Hulk denied the charge. The pay-off to the whole thing was her pulling out an alternate universe counterpart who claimed to have slept with Juggernaut, but the plotline was so widely reviled, that Peter David (who took over after Slott left the book) denounced it as lies and later writers have She-Hulk have the character herself wondering that maybe she did sleep with Juggernaut after all.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'':
** The return of Jean Grey in the '80s where it was revealed that the Phoenix (and thus Evil Planet Killing Dark Phoenix) was not Jean Grey at all. This, like the ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' example below (which it clearly inspired), was not done by the same author, but the co-plotter of the original saga was involved.[[note]]Claremont and Byrne hadn't planned to kill Jean off in the first place, merely to strip her of her powers, but Jim Shooter did not want the Phoenix's destruction of an inhabited planet (itself a last-minute addition by Byrne; Claremont's plot only had the Dark Phoenix cause a star go supernova and made no mention of inhabited planets) go unpunished.[[/note]] Since then, to what degree Jean and Phoenix are or are not the same person is something no two writers agree on.
** Early issues of ''X-Men: Legacy'', when it was an Xavier solo title, had him revisit all the JerkAss things he did over the years. It was sometimes revealed that the more JustForFun/{{egregious}} ones weren't quite as dickish as they seemed at the time. For instance, the reason he didn't release Danger when he realized she was sentient wasn't because she was just so gosh-darned useful, it was because he didn't know how to remove the code that made her a slave without affecting the code that made her sentient in the first place.
* The Franchise/MarvelUniverse had the potential for saving throws with the revelation that Skrulls have been secretly replacing people, as discovered by the Comicbook/NewAvengers. This is even lampshaded when the characters, upon discovering this, discuss how this could provide an explanation of everything from Comicbook/IronMan's sudden turn into a jerk, to why loner Comicbook/{{Wolverine}} is on so many teams, and even why [[Franchise/SpiderMan Peter Parker]] would publicly reveal his identity. Iron Man himself (once he finds out) engages in it, wondering if it means Comicbook/CaptainAmerica (Steve Rogers) really isn't dead, and that Jean Grey didn't get a bridge dropped on her. But ultimately, the Skrull situation didn't touch any of those alleged problems, leaving them all as they were. Especially the big one: Comicbook/IronMan's FaceHeelTurn during Comicbook/CivilWar. ''Totally'' not a Skrull, and Tony Stark must now deal with what he's done. The biggest change to come out of it is that Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}} is back, the one who got StuffedIntoTheFridge having been a Skrull.
** [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in regards to Comicbook/{{Quicksilver}}. He successfully made the world ''think'' that his actions during ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' and ''Son of M'' were the work of a Skrull impostor, but in reality it was all him. Only his daughter, Luna, knew the truth, and while she refused to rat him out, she disowned him as a result. Eventually he did come clean, leaving him ostracized from the superhero community (until ''AvengersAgeOfUltron'' came out), but repairing his relationship with his daughter.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan''
** The Hobgoblin was created by writer Roger Stern as a replacement for the Green Goblin, complete with a mysterious true identity. The character was initially a success due to good writing, but then Stern departed from the title. At once, the Hobgoblin joined up in a gang war and the mystery surrounding his identity got out of hand. Finally, it was decided that Ned Leeds was the Hobgoblin... which was revealed after Leeds had already DIED (and at the hands of common snipers too, even though the Hobgoblin was supposed to have super-strength!) The SmugSnake Jason Philip Macendale took over the role of Hobgoblin and became such a poor villain that Roger Stern finally returned to write the three-part ''Hobgoblin Lives'' miniseries that killed off Macendale, explained how Leeds was NOT the original Hobgoblin in a way that actually made sense, tied up all loose ends left by the mystery, and revealed the true Hobgoblin to be Roderick Kingsley, as Stern had always intended. Unfortunately, this was just after Comicbook/NormanOsborn came BackFromTheDead. Since it was clearly felt that with the original Green Goblin now back in action the Hobgoblin was now redundant, Roderick Kingsley was [[PutOnABus sent off to a Caribbean island]] in his next story, which in effect turned ''Hobgoblin Lives'' into nothing more than an officially sanctioned FixFic. [[spoiler:Roderick Kingsley was eventually brought back many years later in the post-OMD continuity, resuming his MagnificentBastard career and filling the villain franchising void left by Justin Hammer.]]
** During Comicbook/TheCloneSaga, it was stated that new character Ben Reilly was the original Spider-Man and the character that had been in comics for the past 20 years was the clone, which wasn't even the original intention of the hook. This didn't sit well with fans and was taken out again; a hook had been added by the writer in case they needed to. The whole thing was really kind of a mess.
** ''Comicbook/OneMomentInTime'' attempts to do this, trying to address the issues that arose out of the extremely controversial ''Comicbook/OneMoreDay''. Unfortunately, the attempt to answer the many questions that arose from ''One More Day'' only ended up disappointing the fanbase even more given that many felt the main characters acted out of character, and came off serving as a mouthpiece for the views of the author regarding their relationship rather than as an honest attempt to fix the problems with the original story. In the end, it comes off more as an AuthorTract rather than an attempt to solve the concerns of the fans. Many are waiting for an Author's Saving Throw for an attempted Author's Saving Throw, which may or may not happen with 2015's ''Renew Your Vows''
* Franchise/GreenLantern
** Back in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, Hal Jordan used to call his Inuit sidekick Tom "Pieface", a slur used against people of Asian descent. Later issues showing their first meeting tried to {{Retcon}} this by claiming Hal called him this in reference to Eskimo Pies (a brand of ice cream treats). This didn't really do much to make the name less offensive, so Creator/GeoffJohns later decided to flat out do away with it altogether in his ''Green Lantern: Secret Origin'' mini-series by having Hal defend Tom and claim that the name "Pieface" (which was now given to Tom by another coworker) was racist.
** Hal went AxCrazy after the [[DoomedHometown destruction of his city]] becoming the villain Parallax. Some fans were not happy, seeing it as a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Bridge Drop]] in favor of the YoungerAndHipper [[ReplacementScrappy Kyle Rayner]], although others thought it was a logical and fitting end to Hal Jordan's story. Creator/GeoffJohns eventually {{retcon}}ned this into Parallax being an ancient alien fear monster who was responsible for the Lanterns' weakness to yellow and who slowly pulled Hal over to BrainwashedAndCrazy. Many of the named characters Hal had killed were brought back to life, as well. This produced highly mixed reactions from fans, considering that many had warmed up to Kyle in the interim, and plenty had liked the "Emerald Twilight" story, and thought it made perfect sense given Hal's character. The subject remains a controversy among Franchise/GreenLantern fans.
** Johns continued to {{arc weld|ing}} Parallax with other existing Green Lantern concepts and expand on them to much critical and fan acclaim, being an Authors Saving Throw for the Parallax retcon. It helped that while Hal was now the new "star" Lantern, Kyle was also written with respect and given a prominent place in the franchise instead of getting a reciprocal Bridge Drop. It doesn't hurt that both ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'' and ''Comicbook/SinestroCorpsWar'', the storylines providing the Saving Throws, are both awesome and made of win.
** Shortly before Hal's FaceHeelTurn was a story where Hal, unbeknownst to him, has his ring switched with that of evil former Lantern Malvolio, and he never recovers his original ring before his death. This ultimately [[AbortedArc never had any payoff]], but a number of fans at the time felt it was being set up as an "escape hatch" for the Heel Turn, so a later writer could say Hal was under Malvolio's influence if so desired.
* Creator/KurtBusiek's ''Comicbook/AvengersForever'' maxi-series served as this for the greater ''Avengers'' franchise. Featuring ContinuityPorn of the highest order, the series was used to explain numerous {{Plot Hole}}s throughout the franchise's history, as well as render some truly reviled stories like "ComicBook/TheCrossing" CanonDiscontinuity.
* The [[ExecutiveMeddling editorially influenced]] attempt in the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comics to recreate [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2000}} Batgirl III/Cassandra Cain]] as Robin's erudite DarkActionGirl nemesis (explained by her returning to her supposed Assassin roots) provoked rather justifiable complaints that the writer and editor involved hadn't bothered to read Batgirl's solo title. A few months later, we found out that Comicbook/{{Deathstroke}} [[BrainwashedAndCrazy was feeding her mind-control drugs, really]]. Never mind that Cassandra's entire origin involves her complete and utter ''hatred'' of killing, even more so than Batman! Oh, and the whole mind-control drug thing doesn't really work when in a Batgirl/The Ghost crossover she was able to overcome the effects of a deadly poison ''[[{{Badass}} by herself]]''. Yeah, no antidote or anything. Still, it was better than being stuck with the villainess that's Cassandra InNameOnly.
** DC then gave the writer of the screw-up a new Batgirl miniseries to allow him to explain all the events that led into her FaceHeelTurn, thus tearing open a wound that was already considered closed (even if ''badly'' closed). General fan consensus was that he only succeeded in messing up the character even further. Even more confusing, parallel to this she also showed up in ''Comicbook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'', coming out at the same time as the miniseries but taking place after showing her back to her normal awesome self. She then went into Comic Book Limbo for several years, and only starting appearing again in ''Batman Inc.''. They were probably trying to make Batgirl into the new Jason Todd...the only problem with this is that people actually ''liked'' Cassandra Cain before they tried to make her into a villain.
* An issue of ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'' managed ''three'' author's saving throws in one fell swoop to dispose of the controversial ill-treatment of the franchise's female characters in the "War Games"/"War Crimes" arcs: [[WomenInRefrigerators Stephanie Brown]] never died, Leslie Thompkins only faked her death to keep Black Mask away from her. Franchise/{{Batman}} suspected this--though he wasn't certain--and to give Stephanie Brown privacy never told Robin. This is why he never added Stephanie's Robin suit to the memorial (an Author's Saving Throw for using her absence from that memorial to justify the claim that she was never an official Robin) - along with Jason Todd, who was ''already BackFromTheDead at the time''.
* Making Stephanie Brown the new Batgirl could be an added Saving Throw for both the above Cassandra/Stephanie issues. Fan reaction has been divided, especially among the Cassandra fans. This itself resulted in yet ANOTHER saving throw, with it being retconned that Cassandra willingly gave the title to Stephanie as part of a plan that had her CommutingOnABus to ''[[Comicbook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman Inc.]]'' and taking on the new identity of Blackbat... and it's now moot since Stephanie has been demoted to Spoiler again, and it's uncertain just how much of her history is intact. [[ContinuitySnarl Oh, comics]].
* Probably in an attempt to please fans of all three Batgirls, the final issue of GailSimone's ''Comicbook/{{Batgirl 2011}}'' series was a ''Futures End'' tie-in that featured Cass, Steph, and a new Batgirl named Tiffany working together alongside Barbara Gordon as the League of Batgirls. The issue was almost universally well received.
* Whenever a period of time goes by where Batman acts more dickish than usual, it seems to be traditional to reveal that he's been unable to shake off a dose of Scarecrow's Fear Gas. Hey, speaking of fear gas: remember all the wackiness that happened across the entire DC universe during UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, with Batman being the most out-of-character for getting into it? You know, the stuff that at least three CrisisCrossover events and numerous side-stories have either made non-canon or explicitly happened in an alternate dimension? Somewhere along the lines, Creator/GrantMorrison explained in [[Comicbook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman R.I.P.]] that a good chunk of that was a series of hallucinations that Batman went through during a combination fear gas/sensory deprivation experiment.
* At the end of the first ''Comicbook/PowerPack'' series, one of the kids had turned into a Kymellian (a horse-headed alien), their mother was going crazy, their father had developed superpowers, and they were all headed off to live on the Kymellian homeworld, all the result of a change in authorship designed to revive the series' popularity by going DarkerAndEdgier. A couple of years later, the original creators did a holiday special that wrote the whole thing off as a deception by the kids' enemies. Even though it seemed pretty dickish of the characters to ''immediately'' stop giving a damn about the one who'd turned into a Kymellian when it was revealed that he was a clone who was made to ''think'' he was the real Alex - he wasn't a bad guy, and had worked alongside them since before the first time Alex's human hair had started falling out.
* A curious example of an Author's Saving Throw that was held in reserve but ''wasn't'' used: Marv Wolfman, writer of ''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', wrote in the intro to a collected edition that he left an "out" for bringing Barry Allen back from the dead if the fans objected too strenuously to his being replaced. He eventually revealed that the out was [[spoiler:for someone to pull Barry through one of the "time windows" he was experiencing as he ran to his death]].
** A ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' one-shot later uses that exact plotline, leaving it open as to whether or not it actually happened or was just an inspirational story. [[spoiler: Issues of ''Comicbook/FinalCrisis'' hint at making this canon, thus explaining Allen's re-appearance, even though Barry's death was part of a StableTimeLoop that resulted in his own origin, so if you pull him out, he never becomes the Flash in the first place.]] However, Marv Wolfman thought about that also, and would've set up that Barry Allen had to eventually return to fulfill his role in the Crisis and that Barry wouldn't know when that would happen, thus having the Fastest Man Alive living on borrowed time. Geoff Johns thought of that as well, establishing at the end of ''Flash: Rebirth'' that [[spoiler:Barry and Wally's race to stop Professor Zoom from killing Iris in the past is the catalyst for giving Barry his powers and that Barry was pulled from the Speed Force ''after'' he had died]].
* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' by Creator/NeilGaiman, something called the "soft places" were introduced where time itself grew thin. Gaiman put that in there as an "escape hatch" in case something happened to his characters that he couldn't fix any other way. It was never used for that purpose, however.
* The Toyman, a B-list ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' villain, was traditionally just a funny man in a striped suit who built dangerous giant toys to rob banks and give the Man of Steel a hard time, but in UsefulNotes/{{the Dark Age|OfComicBooks}} he was re-imagined as a bald child murderer in a black cloak. This didn't go over too well. Fast-forward to 2008, when it's revealed that the bald Toyman was a defective robot decoy created by the ''real'' Toyman, who is now once again a funny man in a striped suit, albeit a dangerously insane one, who will do anything (up to and including murder) to ''protect'' children. Funny thing - the DarkerAndEdgier Toyman actually started out as a ''parody'' of the trend; he adopted the new persona and modus operandi because he was left out of the latest line of Superman action figures for not being a dangerous enough villain.
* After being saddled with the Comicbook/FantasticFour during the {{Character Derail|ment}}ing events of ''Comicbook/CivilWar'', Creator/DwayneMcDuffie made an attempt to explain why Reed Richards, who had opposed the concept of [[SuperRegistrationAct Superhero Registration]] in the past, had become a fanatical supporter of the SHRA as well as a total JerkAss under Creator/MarkMillar. Turns out that by using a new branch of science which predicts future events, he had learned that the Civil War was one of [[VaguenessIsComing 31 possible future cataclysms that were on the horizon]]. He postulated that the Civil War was the only such event that could be faced without the utter destruction of mankind, making it the LesserOfTwoEvils. Of the ''three'' canon explanations about why Reed's character had changed so severely, this one was the best received.
* SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}}
** Magneto had long been established as a Jewish WellIntentionedExtremist, but when Marvel decided to move him back into full-out villainy in the early 90's, they were worried about accusations of Antisemitism. So they presented the {{Retcon}} that he was really a Gypsy, delivering the FamilyUnfriendlyAesop that [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} Gypsies]] are AcceptableTargets. When people realized what a bad idea this was a few years later, Marvel established that Magneto's Gypsy identity was false, returning him to his Jewish roots.
** The {{Retcon}} of the ''Planet X'' storyline counts too. Creator/GrantMorrison sees Mags as a DracoInLeatherPants and so when writing him, took RonTheDeathEater UpToEleven to show him as he "truly" was in Morrison's eyes, and ended with him (intended as) KilledOffForReal. Needless to say, that didn't last very long. The retcon was exceptionally sloppy (two authors who didn't know what the other was doing ''each'' wrote the story of who Xorn-Magneto "really" was) but hey, Magneto's back to being the Magneto we know and that's what it was to accomplish. To Morrison's credit, he himself left an "escape hatch" of sorts for this story, showing that numerous characters within it suspect that "Magneto" isn't really who he claims to be. [[spoiler:And even if he was, the final issue of Morrison's run reveals he was a victim of DemonicPossession]].
* During ''Comicbook/AvengersDisassembled'', Comicbook/ScarletWitch went AxCrazy and killed Comicbook/TheVision, Comicbook/AntMan and Comicbook/{{Hawkeye}}. Then during ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', she depowered the vast majority of the world's mutant population, leading to many of their deaths. A few years later came ''[[Comicbook/YoungAvengers Avengers]]: [[Comicbook/TheChildrensCrusade The Children's Crusade]]'', which established that she had actually been [[DemonicPossession possessed]], and that her actions were the result of SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom's manipulations. Additionally, the series resurrected Ant-Man (while Hawkeye and the Vision returned in separate titles). Following this, she played a pivotal role in ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', where she not only helped defeat the Phoenix, but inadvertently helped restore the mutant race as well.
* An issue of ''Comicbook/NewAvengers'' drew some InternetBackdraft over a scene where Hawkeye had sex with an amnesiac Scarlet Witch, which some fans argued [[BedTrick constituted rape]]. ''Comicbook/TheChildrensCrusade'' {{retcon}}ned this out by revealing the Scarlet Witch Hawkeye slept with was ActuallyADoombot. Which, incidentally, meant that ''Hawkeye'' was now the one who'd been [[BedTrick raped]].
* In 2004 ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, Kara Zor-El, was reintroduced with a shockingly bad origin: Zor-El was evil and sent Kara to Earth to ''kill baby Kal-El''. Fans hated it. Author after author has stepped up to try a saving throw (no, wait, she was sent back to babysit him, no, wait, Zor-El wanted her to kill him after all but she didn't want to but got brainwashed, no, wait, she was sent back to fight off ghosts from the Phantom Zone, and so on, and so forth). Supergirl #35 {{hand wave}}d off all of the previous origins as dementia caused by Kryptonite poisoning and gave her back the classic [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] OriginStory, and Supergirl #34 had her finally take a SecretIdentity ([[spoiler:Linda Lang. Cute, DC Comics, very cute]]), so things seemed to finally be looking up. Then Comicbook/{{New 52}} hit and it was all rendered moot.
* There's a bit of a Saving Throw War going on between people at Marvel who like Comicbook/SquirrelGirl and those who don't: Originally, Squirrel Girl beat SelfDemonstrating/DoctorDoom by herself. A later comic indicated [[ActuallyADoombot it was a Doombot]]. Another later comic revealed that it was not a Doombot. Then, Squirrel Girl beats Comicbook/{{Thanos}} ([[TakeOurWordForIt offscreen]]) and the Watcher himself is there verifying that it is not a "robot, clone, or simulacrum" and is indeed the real Thanos. Later on, Thanos reveals he can make really ''good'' clones that even fool the Watcher. But according to WordOfGod, that really ''really'' was the real Thanos. And to make things goofier, ''everything'' about the Thanos fight was written by DanSlott. An even later SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} comic has her visit Doom in order to borrow a time machine, and Victor just face-palms, shakes his head and points it out. An inset from Tippy-Toe points out that Squirrel Girl pwning Doom was written by Steve Freakin' Ditko, and is thus, ''so'' canon.
* The JLA arc featuring the Comicbook/{{Milestone c|omics}}haracters and the female Dr. Light, started off with a monologue by the character used by Creator/DwayneMcDuffie to address [[http://marionetteblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/incandescent-losing-light.html conflicting appearances]] in other titles and attempt to fix the continuity problems that resulted from them. An extremely similar tactic was used to explain the inconsistencies regarding Thunder's status after she was rendered comatose in ''Comicbook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders''. It is revealed that she had been "in and out of hospitals" since her accident, explaining how some stories had her out and about while others still had her in a coma.
* The [[Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew Zoo Crew]] were given a horrific fate at the end of their ''Final Ark'' mini-series where the editors ordered the creators to make [[PutOnABusToHell trapped on the main DC Earth as mute ordinary animals]]. It was always intended that they could return in "The Final Ark", but that reappearance turned out to be a very brief and mostly inconsequential cameo. They got restored to normal, but they're still stranded on Main Earth, and their home Earth is still a flooded-out dystopia ruled by Starro. [[ShaggyDogStory And who knows what's become of them post-]]Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}}
** They have been saved. In TheNew52 their world bounced back better than ever due to ToonPhysics, after it was destroyed.
* Comicbook/ThePunisher:
** He began life as a ''Spider-Man'' villain whose idea of "justice" was "[[AllCrimesAreEqual anyone committing any crime eats lead]]" and went around killing people over things that [[FelonyMisdemeanor were not heinous]]. The character as we know him today is actually a {{Retool}} made once DarkerAndEdgier came into vogue and it was decided he worked as a dark hero. So what do we do about his early appearances, which have things like him ''shooting a couple for littering, and a driver for running a stop sign when he was fleeing from the shots?'' In the first ''Punisher'' [[ComicBook/ThePunisherCircleOfBlood miniseries]], it was explained away as Jigsaw arranging for him to be exposed to mind-altering drugs in prison.
** After many fans hated ''Comicbook/ThePunisherPurgatory'' turning Frank into an [[EmpoweredBadassNormal a supernatural force with divine powers]], ''ComicBook./WelcomeBackFrank'' with Frank once again a human, criminal-hunting anti-hero.
* The ''Titans: Villains For Hire'' one-shot managed to spark racial controversy after the series ended with Ryan Choi, the second [[Comicbook/TheAtom Atom]] being killed and a new Atom series starring Ray Palmer (Choi's white predecessor) being launched during the [[Comicbook/BrightestDay same flipping event]]. The 2011 DC relaunch completely retconned the events of the story, with Ryan Choi once again retaking the Atom identity in the new ''Justice League'' series and Ray being demoted to a supporting character (for now) in the separate, now sadly cancelled ''Frankenstein: Agents of SHADE'' book.
** Sort of. Choi is back to life, but for now, the new Atom is a Latina college student named Rhonda Pineda. This still counts however, since it seems like she was created to address the criticism over DC constantly killing its [[AffirmativeActionLegacy non-white legacy heroes]] [[LegacyImplosion in order to restore their white predecessors]]. [[spoiler: Of course, now she's turned out to be an evil [[TheMole mole]] from Earth-3.]]
* The entire idea behind the one-shot ''Faces of Evil: Prometheus''. The author didn't like the fact that the title character, created by Creator/GrantMorrison to be a BadassNormal so {{Badass}} that he could take on the whole [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] and only be defeated by cheating, had undergone VillainDecay to the point where he'd become little more than an {{Elite Mook|s}} for Franchise/{{Batman}} villains. So the whole plot of the story is given over to explaining that the Prometheus who'd been appearing for the past nine years wasn't the real Prometheus, but rather a CostumeCopycat, and showing us the real deal's RoaringRampageOfRevenge to get him back. Then the real Prometheus made one more appearance in a [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice thoroughly reviled miniseries]], which ended with Green Arrow [[ShaggyDogStory shooting him in the head]].
* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' has one for the richest duck in the universe, describing the incident where he chased a bunch of African villagers out of their homes as [[MyGreatestFailure the biggest regret of his life]] that made his sisters sever all ties with him until years later.
* Possible example from the [[ExecutiveMeddling ever]]-[[ArmedWithCanon editorially]]-[[AddedAlliterativeAppeal entroubled]] ''Comicbook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog''; after a TimeSkip, [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys Antoine]] broke up with Bunnie, got an eye patch out of nowhere, and [[YouHaveWaitedLongEnough tried to force Sally into an]] ArrangedMarriage. It turns out it was his EvilTwin from the MirrorUniverse (previously established, mind) and the real Antoine came back and [[TheyDo married Bunnie]].
** You might say that Ian Flynn's first year or so on the title was a series of Author's Saving ''Throws''. Sonic going out with Fiona? She was in love with Evil Sonic/Scourge the Hedgehog and thought he'd be the same. Sonic's JerkAss attitude towards Tails? The little guy finally blows up and socks it to him, making him admit he was wrong. Sally and Sonic are [[OfficialCouple back together,]] and Sally is de-{{chickifi|cation}}ed back to her ActionGirl roots. Sally also apologises for the [[NeverLiveItDown infamous slapping of Sonic that culminated in their break up]] (several times just to be safe).
** It is very possible that the post-''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide'' comics is this after the ScrewedByTheLawyers effect due to the case by Ken Penders and Archie basically deciding to give back all of his creations instead of letting him control the comic by proxy.
* The controversial mini-series ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'' saw Roy Harper having his arm ripped off and his daughter Lian being violently crushed to death. This lead to an unpopular period where Roy relapsed and became addicted to heroin (which he had kicked in the 70's) and even became a member of Deathstroke's decidedly less-than-heroic Titans team. This whole series of events has been retconned out by the 2011 DC relaunch, with Roy once again clean and sober and with both arms intact. Similarly, there was an outcry over the death of Tasmanian Devil, one of the few openly-gay superheroes DC has, calling James Robinson anti-gay despite being the one who established the Mikaal Tomas Starman as bisexual-identifying as gay '''and using him as a main member of CFJ and his JLA team'''. Whether he had planned it from the start or decided to invoke this trope, he later wrote a JLA story that ended in Tasmanian Devil's resurrection.
** Unfortunately, the retconning of Roy Harper following ''Flashpoint'' has been met as something of a BaseBreaker. Despite having both arms again and being sober, Roy's daughter was retconned out of existence, his status as a founding Titan is no more, there's the dubious standing of how his relationship with Starfire began, and the entirety of his Navajo upbringing was removed for the sake of establishing him as a bratty child prodigy with an alcoholic father when he was younger. Also, his previous heroin addiction and the struggle he went through to overcome it was erased, turning Roy into an alcoholic whose lowest point had him attempt to bait Killer Croc into killing him. Croc saw through this and convinced Roy to join A.A.. While many fans are glad everything Roy went through in ''Cry for Justice'' was erased, most of those fans aren't happy with how the character has been handled afterwards.
* In ''[[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' issue 301, Thor is visiting the various pantheons of Earth to gather energy to revive the Asgardians. All's well and good, until he gets to the [[Myth/HinduMythology Hindu gods]], and Shiva demands a fight in exchange for the energy, and thanks to some rules-screwing, Thor manages to defeat him. This did ''not'' sit very well with Hindu fans, as Shiva is the BigGood to more than a few Hindus and his power is said to be limitless, and besides that it just didn't make much sense from a storytelling perspective, as Shiva was stated to be equal to Vishnu, who is stated to be equal to Odin; would changing the setting of the battle really make up for the power gap? Anyway, next time the Hindu gods showed up, it was revealed that Shiva was out that day and Indra, a far less powerful god, was filling in for him. The saving throw is hammered home even further by the ''[[AllThereInTheManual Encyclopedia Mythologica]]'', which states that the limits of power possessed by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are ''completely unknown''.
** Marvel definitely learned their lesson about using gods with active worshipers. Since that saving throw, which was back in 1982, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva have appeared in all of two crowd scenes, one of which wasn't even in continuity.
* Similar to the Ryan Choi example above, a ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'' oneshot featured the apparent death of Sabra, a Jewish superheroine, by being ignominiously shot InTheBack by Crossbones, a Neo-Nazi and the Comicbook/RedSkull's personal {{Elite Mook|s}}. This went over about as well as expected (though fans were less upset at the UnfortunateImplications than at the fact that Sabra is a {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le powerhouse capable of trading punches with the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk, so a normal sniper round shouldn't have even hurt), and ultimately resulted in the writer having to go on Website/{{Twitter}} and confirm he'd just grazed her. Whether this was intended the entire time or an example of IMeantToDoThat is debatable, but she's since reappeared without a scratch on her. The Kangaroo, who died in the same issue, is still dead, though, and since Japanese killing Australians carries no UnfortunateImplications (that we know of... unless you count the veterans of the Kokoda Trail...), he'll probably stay that way.
* ''Comicbook/BlackestNight'' revealed that Nekron [[SortingAlgorithmOfDeadness allowed the frequent resurrections]], so that he would have sleeper agents to aid his Black Lantern corps, when the time came, explaining [[DeathIsCheap how nobody stays dead]] in the DCU.
* Kieron Gillen, one of Marvel's current golden boys, seems to be making a career out of this.
** During his ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' run, he managed to undo the apparent DesignatedVillain treatment of ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} by reestablishing him as a competent leader and his opening story arc gave each of the "Extinction" Team a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** Following ''Comicbook/{{Siege}}'', he took over the Thor Book, reinventing it as Journey Into Mystery (the name of Thor's first comic) and following the adventures of a child version of Loki, reborn following his death in the aforementioned crossover. By writing Loki as a well meaning-if-occasionally trouble making GuileHero, this didn't so much as undo a particular event to redeem a poor writing decision, but instead redefined Loki to a character much closer to the traditional mythology, something that fans of Norse Mythology have taken issue with for years.
** Following ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', Gillen wrote ''Consequences'', which as well as stopping Cyclops from being completely destroyed by the bad handling of AVX by exploring what happens to someone who gets blamed for crimes they're not completely guilty of and played him in sympathetic light, also explored many plot holes and FridgeLogic fans pointed out, such as noting Wolverine being ultimately at fault for the whole incident and points out how he nearly destroyed the earth by attempting to kill Hope Summers.
*** And now, his second Story Arc in his Comicbook/IronMan run, ''The Godkiller'' explored what happened to the universe now that the Phoenix is no more, and the moral implications of Tony and the Avengers attacking it.
** Gillen also managed to, somehow, resolve the above-mentioned Xorn-Magneto debacle in a way that actually made sense, by claiming that, essentially, ''all'' the explanations of Xorn's identity are MetaphoricallyTrue. Magneto, in a meeting with the X-Men's publicist, claims that while Xorn wasn't him, he likes people to ''think'' it was so nobody thinks he's gone soft.
* ''Uncanny Comicbook/XForce'' seemed to be indicating that Bishop's FaceHeelTurn and subsequent transformation into a mass-murdering baby-killer were the result of DemonicPossession. It ultimately turned out that [[spoiler: it was more complicated than this; the heel turn was genuine, but after being marooned in a post-apocalyptic Earth he made an equally-genuine face turn to fight the demons that lived there, and was ultimately possessed by them]].
* The ComicBook/{{New 52}}
** ComicBook/MartianManhunter told off his ''ComicBook/{{Stormwatch}}'' teammates for referring to him as a ''Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}'' member, which is apparently shorthand for "established superhero", despite the fact that the Justice League has never had more than seven members (until JLI). So, any author wants to refer to, say, Metamorpho or Green Arrow as "Justice League heroes", ''that's'' what it refers to. A related saving throw came later, when the Manhunter wiped the team's memories of him when he quit, with the implication he'd done this kind of thing before. This could be used to explain why Stormwatch thought of him as an established superhero, but when he cameoed in other books as a vaguely sinister representative of the secret organisation, no-one had any idea who he was.
** ''ComicBook/HarleyQuinn'' managed to set some kind of record by having an Author's Saving Throw in the '''first issue''' for something that happened in '''pre-publication publicity'''. DC announced an art contest based around drawing a page for the #0 issue that ended with a panel described in the script as a naked Harley about to commit an ElectrifiedBathtub BathSuicide. This sparked InternetBackdraft over an apparent misogynistic eroticisation of a woman's suicide, made worse by the fact that the script didn't include any of the dialogue, or indicate that it was meant to be contextualised as a fantasy sequence. When the issue was published, the final panel of the page showed a fully-clothed (well, as much as she ever is in the New 52) Harley RidingTheBomb instead.
** The revamp of ''[[Comicbook/WildCATS Voodoo]]'' operated on a BlackAndGrayMorality scale, with a truly loathsome protagonist despite a few scattered hints that there was some good in her. After the first four issues, the original writer was fired, and the replacement quickly revealed that the Voodoo we'd been reading about was [[EvilTwin actually her evil clone]], and that the ''real'' Voodoo was a likable, heroic figure. If nothing else, this allowed for Voodoo to be usable in the wider [[Franchise/TheDCU DC Universe]] once the book was cancelled.
** DC attempted to give Comicbook/PowerGirl and Comicbook/{{Zatanna}} more [[AdaptationalModesty modest]], [[BoringButPractical practical]] costumes as part of the reboot, annoying a number of fans in the process. This led to the two ditching their new suits in favor of costumes ''much'' closer to their classic designs.
** One of the biggest BrokenBase incidents was what was done with Comicbook/{{Huntress}}. DC brought back the original, 70's-era Huntress, Helena Wayne, but in the process [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropped A Bridge On]] Helena Bertinelli, her successor. The new continuity established that Bertinelli was simply a PosthumousCharacter whose identity had been stolen by Helena Wayne, angering her fans. Then, following the events of ''Comicbook/ForeverEvil'', DC revealed that Helena Bertinelli was in fact alive, and that she'd be a major character in the upcoming ''Grayson'' series.
** The first issue of ''{{ComicBook/Red Hood and the Outlaws}}'' showed Starfire as amnesiac and unable to remember individual humans' faces, which made the fact that she then slept with Roy Harper [[QuestionableConsent pretty iffy]]. Two attempts at this trope later were made, first by showing that this was [[ObfuscatingStupidity an act]], but it still means that Roy didn't come out looking good since he slept with her even while thinking that she was amnesiac. And then it was ''further'' clarified that Roy believed that if he left, then she'd forget him, which adds a whole other level of {{Squick}}, as it's essentially putting a very lonely person (Roy) in the position where the only way to keep one of their two friends is to never leave them, and by implication if he had ever tried to have them be JustFriends instead it wouldn't have gone well. It seems DC really couldn't win with this one and she was eventually removed from the team entirely to get a LighterAndSofter solo series announced in February 2015 as well as a redesigned costume seemingly intended to address complaints that her ''RHATO'' costume (which was ''[[UpToEleven even more]]'' {{Stripperiffic}} than usual) went too far.
* Mr. Freeze had one in the mid-90's. In the second mini-series starring the Tim Drake Comicbook/{{Robin}}, SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker finds his gang taken over by Freeze. Joker puts an end to that by dousing Freeze's armor with acid, then electrocuting him to death. Around this time, ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had started and Mr. Freeze's introductory episode "Hearts of Ice" was ''insanely popular'', going so far as to net the series an award. Thus, DC had a problem: Freeze was now popular, but they killed off Freeze in the comics! Solution? When they reintroduce Freeze during ''ComicBook/{{Knight|fall}}quest'', they reveal that Freeze had indeed survived, using a device in his old armor to put him in suspended animation.
* For the now-infamous ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' issue #200 Marvel for some reason decided to celebrate the landmark issue with a story where [[Comicbook/MsMarvel Carol Danvers]] shows up suddenly pregnant, and gives birth to a boy who grows up to adulthood within a day. Identifying himself as Marcus, he explains that he captured Carol into his native dimension, manipulated her into falling in love with him and then returned her back to Earth, [[{{Squick}} having impregnated her with himself]] as a method of crossing dimensions, as he could not do it as easily himself. In the end of the issue Marcus is forced to return home as reality is growing more and more unstable due to his presence on Earth, and Carol decides to follow him, saying he feels attracted to him. One of the people within Marvel who hated this story was Creator/ChrisClaremont, who later wrote Carol's return, whereupon she gives a WhatTheHellHero speech to the Avengers for letting her go with Marcus when he was controlling her mind. It didn't nullify the original story, but sure as hell cleared the air.
* During ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'', we come to find out that the Black Knight was in the process of losing his mental faculties as his sin, yet a week before that issue arrived on stands, we see him apparently no worse for the wear and leading an incarnation of the European team Euroforce in ''Avengers World''. A following ''AW'' issue used an editor's box to reveal that ComicBook/CaptainAmerica had realized it and used it as his reasoning for not allowing Black Knight to join the Avengers.
* Way back in the '70s, ComicBook/TheFalcon had a controversial retcon to his origin, stating that Sam Wilson was actually a pimp who went by the name "Snap" Wilson and that his down-to-earth family origin was something Cap tossed in while using the Cosmic Cube, but no one really explored it, instead just quietly ignoring it. Flash forward to 2014 and Sam becoming ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and the Red Skull's daughter Sin decides to initiate a smear campaign against him using that. As Sam stops her, he states that the "Snap" Wilson origin was a lie created by the Red Skull into doubting himself and that it haunts him not because it could be true, but because he knows that ''want'' him to believe it's true.
* ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'' seems like this trope personified, to the extent that some have called it "A love letter to the fans." The event is a series of stories revolving around various past versions of DC's characters, who have been plucked from the timestream by {{Brainiac}}. The general sense seems to be that DC wanted to go back and give a satisfactory send-off to the Pre-New 52 timeline, as well as answer some complaints (with the writer of the ''Titans'' tie-in explicitly saying he wanted to reverse the horrible things that had been done to Arsenal and Lian during and after ''[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice Cry For Justice]]''). Plot points include:
** [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl2009}} Stephanie Brown]] and the returned [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl2000}} Cassandra Cain]] fighting crime together as Batgirl and Black Bat.
** Barbara Gordon as [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey Oracle]] once again, still in a wheelchair, and now married to ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}.
** Arsenal trying to set his life right, working through his addiction, and working with the ''real'' Titans again.
** [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy back as Troia]] alongside Starfire and Arsenal.
** Lian Harper and [[ComicBook/TheAtom Ryan Choi]] coming back to life.
** Renee Montoya is back as the Question and teams up with ComicBook/{{Huntress}} (Helena Bertinelli) and ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}.
** ComicBook/{{Superman}} still being in a loving marriage to LoisLane. [[spoiler:They even have a son together.]]
** Wally West as ComicBook/TheFlash again and reunited with his children Iris and Jai, who are back to their former powersets.
** [[ComicBook/BlueBeetle Ted Kord]] being alive again as part of the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational.
** The beloved Wolfman/Perez-era Comicbook/TeenTitans being featured (rather than one of the more recent, controversial incarnations) with the creators promising to follow up on a storyline between Kole and Jericho that originally went nowhere.
** The Golden Age Superman and ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica coming back, alongside a restored Infinity Inc.
** Amanda Waller back to her original body type, and in charge of a ComicBook/SuicideSquad similar to its early days.
** Comicbook/{{Superboy}} back to being FunPersonified (erasing his angsty DarkerAndEdgier days), and having a costume proper like in his pre-Teen Titans incarnation, with [[AdaptationalBadass a power boost]] to boot!
** Wacky, fan-favorite characters like ComicBook/AmbushBug have returned.
** ComicBook/ElongatedMan and Sue Dibny alive and married.
* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'':
** Many fans were dissatisfied with Sombra's portrayal [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 on the]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 show]], with his having little characterization or presence in the story despite hints of something deeper, which were then cut short by his being killed. The series' first issue rectifies that.
** Some felt Celestia [[TheWorfEffect losing to Chrysalis]] in the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 season 2 finale]] [[FauxActionGirl excessively cheapened the ability of the former]]. Their confrontation in final issue confirms that, [[WorfHadTheFlu without Chrysalis getting her power boosted]], Celestia beats her hooves down. [[OneWomanArmy And the rest of the changelings.]] [[ScarsAreForever AND permanently damaged then]], something not even Twilight Sparkle could do despite giving them her biggest, empowered, magical beatdown [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 par her fight with Lord Tirek]]. There's a good reason Chrysalis [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu was as surprised as anyone else she beat Celestia this time]].
* ''Fanfic/NobodyDies'' had a particularly weak fourth season, with lots of weird changes to the status quo that really didn't do much to move the overall plot forward and is generally considered the point of where all the stories weak bits began showing. This eventually required the author to [[spoiler:retcon almost the entire season into being a shared dream.]]
* ''Fanfic/PastSins'' underwent a major rewrite and revamp in order to deal with various characters being out of character and add a few more characterizations.
* In the infamous ''[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]]'' fic ''Lisa Is Pregnant'', the author points out that Lisa is older in this fic after reviewers complained that she was too young to get pregnant.
* The ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' fanfic, ''[[http://freepdfhosting.com/2c25b2564d.pdf Slide Effects]]'', takes place after Season 5, but sets out to explain three seasons of bad writing, resurrect three dead characters, and let the show resume within a few weeks of Season 2. The Author's Saving Throw in this fanfic was taken from an interview with the series creator and is at least transcribed from the WordOfGod. The solution is to explain that Seasons 3 - 5 were the amalgamated experiences of 37 different sets of sliders, their disparate experiences combined and streamed into Quinn Mallory's brain due to the Kromagg implant from "Invasion" malfunctioning from exposure to the rip in time in "As Time Goes By." This fanfic manages to keep all the events of the last three seasons in continuity (as the adventures of different doubles) while restoring the original four characters (more or less)[[note]]the wrong Arturo left in "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome"[[/note]] and letting them resume their adventures.
* Readers of the ''Fanfic/PokeWars'' story, ''The Subsistence'' were baffled by Dawn's sudden prowess with guns, and most complained that it was an AssPull. Then Cornova wrote ''The Incipience'' and did some minor rewriting which better explained Dawn's sudden gain of ImprobableAimingSkills.
* ''Fanfic/MyImmortal'' attempts this: "Da only reson Dumbledeor swor is coz he had a hedache ok an on tup of dat he wuz mad at dem 4 having sexx!"
* The ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' Season 1 reimagining, ''Fanfic/TheLegendOfTotalDramaIsland'' has a downplayed example in the first Boney Island challenge. Chris was supposed to warn the contestants during the challenge briefing (as per canon) that a curse would befall anyone who took anything from the First Nations burial ground located there. For whatever reason, the author forgot to include that bit, and didn't discover the oversight until well after posting the chapter. Rather than go back and [[OrwellianRetcon quietly revise the scene]], the author wrote a scene for the following chapter wherein one contestant who happens to know the legend warns another contestant who has innocently picked up an artifact from the area. This approach had the advantage of giving the resident MotorMouth another monologue.
* Several early fanworks based on ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' had hasty explanations edited in or explained in later works relating to the incongruities of the BW characters sizes, as until the end of Season 2, most fans assumed they were the same size as their G1 counterparts (it was revealed they were merely a quarter of their size). This was an especially present problem in crossover fics.
* ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'' is currently undergoing a comprehensive rewrite in order to fix its plotholes, CharacterDerailment, and other issues in preparation for the sequel.
** ''FanFic/ATrustedFriendInScienceAndPonies'' is currently undergoing a similar rewriting to fix its massive {{sequelitis}}.
* The ''Anime/PrettyCure'' fan fic, ''FanFic/TwilightPrettyCure'' got significant backlash over the [[DudeNotFunny unintentional way the author treated some serious subjects]]. The author accepted the legitimacy of these concerns and set out to completely rewrite the story.
* A common complaint about ''FanFic/DumbledoresArmyAndTheYearOfDarkness'' is that the Cruciatus Curse is demoted from being a nightmarish torture to the equivalent of flogging - the students take to ''bragging'' about how often they get cruciated. As if catching on himself, Thanfiction wrote a scene in Chapter 21 of the first story where Neville, facing Bellatrix, gets hit with the curse and thinks to himself, just before he whites out from the pain, that the Carrows never did a ''proper'' one.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
** ''Film/IronMan'': [[Film/IronMan2 The Mark VI's triangular arc reactor]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks wasn't very well received]], Creator/JossWhedon himself declaring that it sucked. Thus the [[Film/TheAvengers following]] [[Film/IronMan3 iterations]] of the armor returned to a circular chestplate, and the triangle within the arc reactor itself was dimmed so it looked shaped like a circle again.
** ''Film/TheAvengers'' itself got some criticism over Comicbook/WarMachine not being included or ''even mentioned''. The comic prequel to ''Film/IronMan3'' ended up explaining where he was, and it's been confirmed that he'll appear in the sequel, ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''.
** There was huge controversy over [[spoiler: the infamous Mandarin twist]] in ''Film/IronMan3'', but ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots All Hail The King]]'' fixes it by [[spoiler: revealing there is a ''real'' Mandarin leading the Ten Rings, and he's as mad as the real-life fans are about his name being stolen]].
*** WordOfGod from Drew Pearce claims (YMMV on if he's just trying to save face) that this had nothing to do with the fans: the official reason for the retcon is that [[spoiler: the idea of the Mandarin being a hoax causes some major {{Plot Hole}}s within the [[Film/IronMan1 first movie]], since the Ten Rings, the terrorist organization loyal to the Mandarin, do show up and are very real]].
** Like the Iron Man suit example above, many fans and critics disliked Comicbook/CaptainAmerica's new costume from ''Film/TheAvengers'', thinking it looked rather goofy. The outfit was completely ditched in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', where Cap spends a good chunk of the first act in a new, [[MovieSuperheroesWearBlack darker]] stealth suit, then dons a replica of his better-received costume from ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' during the climax. Set photos for ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' reveal that Cap will forgo his ''Avengers'' suit here as well, in favor of a new costume closer to his stealth suit while retaining the red, white, and blue.
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'':
*** After the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute that was used toward the end of ''Film/IronMan3'', the inclusion of the real Hulkbuster Armor, confirmed with a clip of it fighting the Hulk in the trailer was met with the fanbase's roaring approval.
*** The first Avengers movie got a little flak from fans and Creator/ChrisEvans himself for its portrayal of Captain America as underpowered or dull to watch compared to the other heroes. While ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' got him RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in this regard, fans were worried that he might regress in Ultron. Thankfully they were assuaged now that he's been shown doing things like throwing motorcycles effortlessly into a truck full of mooks.
*** Hawkeye spent half of ''Film/TheAvengers'' being brainwashed, and had little time to showcase his personality or interact with the team. Creator/JossWhedon and Creator/JeremyRenner, however, both promised that this would be fixed. They kept their word, as Clint gets [[spoiler: some background, a large part of the emotional story,]] and some great one-liners.
*** After complaints that War Machine was the only previously established hero in the MCU at the time of the first film to not be given even so much as a mention hand waving his absence, both Falcon & War Machine are shown early in the film. [[spoiler:In fact, War Machine is brought to the climactic battle as TheCavalry.]]
*** The Avengers line-up primarily consisting of white men is addressed, as [[spoiler:by the end of the film, the only remaining members of the original team are Captain America & Black Widow, with the rest of the team consisting of two African-Americans (War Machine & Falcon), an Eastern European woman (Scarlet Witch), and an android (Vision)]].
* Sikh groups and a number of fans in general criticized ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' for [[RaceLift Whitewashing]] [[spoiler: Khan]] by casting a [[Creator/BenedictCumberbatch white Brit to play him]]. The prequel comic (published months ''after'' the movie was released) attempted to try and fix this a bit by explaining that [[spoiler: Admiral Marcus subjected Khan to MagicPlasticSurgery to [[BlackLikeMe hide his identity]], but he was still an Indian Sikh by birth]]. Reactions were mixed to say the least; some groups have accepted the explanation, others believe that it (still) detracts from [[spoiler:Khan]]'s character in some way, and an additional number see it as [[VoodooShark generating more unanswered questions]]. Of course, the fact that [[spoiler: Khan]] had [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan previously been portrayed by]] [[spoiler: the white Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban]] had pretty much tied the filmmakers' hands.
* The trailers for ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'' seem have been released with content specifically to combat internet rumours.
** Showing the TCRI canisters in the trailer was most likely to prove to the audience that the Turtles won't be aliens.
** This extends in the second trailer where Vernon asks if they're aliens, only for April to tell him that its stupid.
** The second trailer shows Eric Sacks [[spoiler: telling a man shrouded in shadows, "We're taking your armor to the next level"]], hinting that the Shredder may not be getting a RaceLift after all. The film reveals this is indeed the case.
* Several examples in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''.
** Magneto's helmet, while still recolored red from its natural silver color, is a lot darker and a lot less goofy-looking than what he wore at the end of ''First Class''. It applies to the rest of his costume too. Given that ''everyone'' laughed their asses off at his costume back then, it's pretty obvious why the change was made.
** Given how poorly ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' and ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' were received by fans and critics alike, them being [[RetGone retconned out of existence]] by the ending of the movie qualifies. Most fans are content to pretend those two films didn't exist, [[BrokenBase although some still take issue with it]]. Mitigated a little by the fact that the events of these movies still happened in the original timeline, but were changed after the effects of Wolverine's journey settled in.
** ''Film/XMen1'' and ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' were much better received, but for ages people have complained about how Wolverine tended to steal the spotlight from the other X-Men, most notably the actual team leader Cyclops. Though he's a major player in this film, he certainly doesn't hog the spotlight nearly as much, as much of the ensemble (Professor X and Mystique especially) get a greater degree of screentime. The events of those films may have still happened but only in BroadStrokes, as the CosmicRetcon of the movie more or less leaves the revised future a blank slate. This has given the other X-Men their chance to shine in future films, including Cyclops as his death in ''The Last Stand'' was undone.
** A small one, but Hank produces a serum to temporarily suppress mutant powers. This explains how Hank could be Beast in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', but appear human on TV in ''Film/{{X2| XMen United}}'', and how Xavier could have the use of his legs in ''X3'' and ''Origins''.
* An early example of this trope is the Palinode of Stesichorus (a Greek poet, who lived in the [[OlderThanFeudalism 7-6th centuries BCE]]), which recants an earlier poem. Legend says that having been struck with blindness after he wrote his original poem, in which the author bashed Helen for causing UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, he came up with a new story, and was immediately cured. The new version implausibly claims that the real Helen had spent the whole duration of the war in Egypt, and the Helen who went to Troy was just [[ActuallyADoombot a duplicate made out of clouds]]. Creator/{{Euripides}} used a version of this story in his ''Helen''. The palinode became a recognized literary form, in which a poet writes a second poem to disavow an earlier one.
* Creator/{{Euripides}}, for his part, also had to recant one of his works. It is known that he wrote two versions of the story of Hippolytus. Only the [[Theatre/{{Hippolytus}} second version]] survives, but it is widely believed that in the original version outraged the audience because Phaedra (wife of the great hero Theseus) lusts without shame after her step-son Hippolytus, and brazenly attempts to seduce him. The second, surviving version bends over backwards to make Phaedra blameless (she's deeply ashamed of her feelings, and only seems to come on to her step-son because her nurse betrays her). She still comes to no good end, committing suicide and attempting to frame Hippolytus for rape.
* Another OlderThanFeudalism example is the opening of ''Literature/TheAeneid''. [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Vergil]] was in the difficult position of turning the losers of UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar, the ones who fell for the TrojanHorse, into the heroes of his story. His solution was to add a Greek playing a sacrificial victim. This Greek actor was just too deceptive for the kindhearted, trusting, and heroic Trojans to disbelieve when he told them a story that made bringing the horse inside seem like a great idea.
* Franchise/JurassicPark: Ian Malcolm didn't survive [[Literature/JurassicPark the novel]], but he lived through [[Film/JurassicPark the movie]]. When it was decided that he would be the star of the next book/movie, Creator/MichaelCrichton took advantage of the fact that his death took place offstage and said he was ''reported'' dead, but had in fact just barely survived his severe injuries.
* A well-known example can be found in Literature/SherlockHolmes stories. In ''The Adventure of the Final Problem'' Doyle had both Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty apparently die in a waterfall; after public outrage (and [[MoneyDearBoy big sacks of cash]]) he {{retcon}}ned the event, allowing the detective to defeat the BigBad and survive.
* Another modern example is in the novels of Creator/EvelynWaugh. In ''Vile Bodies'', his fictionalized Britain becomes a little ''too'' fictional, with the inclusion of the King of {{Ruritania}} as a minor character, and the novel ends with a badly predicted second world war which has trench warfare and the French as the allied army with Britain. His later novel, ''Put Out More Flags'' has some of the same characters several years older, but is set in ''real'' UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Britain. The film of ''Vile Bodies'', ''Bright Young Things'' [[CanonDiscontinuity showed awareness of these problems]] by changing the King of Ruritania to one of Romania and depicting the war at the end as it actually occurred in Britain.
* The ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel ''Scourge'' had the BigBad, Karona, gather five powerful beings representing the colors of magic, namely Multani, Teferi, Fiers, Llowalyn, and Yawgmoth, "{{re|tcon}}vealing" that Yawgmoth (the BigBad of the Weatherlight Saga), who was dramatically killed, [[BackFromTheDead was hanging on in some form]]. A few years later, the ''Time Spiral'' novel had Teferi deny his meeting with Karona in ''Scourge'' and suggest that it was a dream of hers. The next book, ''Planar Chaos'', had several characters state that they'd personally confirmed that Yawgmoth was dead.
** This is actually a double saving throw, it is implied that Karona might have brought them from different timelines (as in, Yawmoth from when he was still alive and Teferi sometime after denying meeting Karona), the fans can go by whichever theory they like the most.
* In Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series, the novel ''Geis of The Gargoyle'' was used to both {{lampshade|Hanging}} and explain numerous continuity errors that had crept up into the latter books (for instance, the Invisible Giants had shrunk to a third of the size they originally were, and The Gorgon's powers inexplicably worked on women, when they originally explicitly only worked on men). The explanation was that the Realm of Madness was expanding throughout Xanth, altering reality in increasingly drastic ways. Ironically, such errors seem to crop up in all of Anthony's extended series (most notably, ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'', where several Adepts' magic powers were altered or changed outright between the third book and the fourth).
** Harder to notice, but there is a minor saving throw about swearing. In the third book, the protagonist says "Hell!" out of exasperation. In later books, "Hell" became a forbidden word for minors to say or even to know, and it's magically enforced. So, how did it happen in the third book? ''It was an error by an in-world historian who miswrote the word "''Well''"''. Saving throw passed.
** WordOfGod here is that "There are no continuity errors, only alternate pasts."
* ''[[Literature/TheVampireChronicles The Vampire Lestat]]'' begins with the title character reading the previous novel, ''Interview With A Vampire'' and dismissing much of it as either lies or misinterpretations by Louis. Anne Rice decided she liked Lestat better than the somewhat whiny Louis, and did this to somewhat redeem him so that he could become the protagonist of the series.
* Similar to Holmes, Creator/IanFleming killed Literature/JamesBond off in ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove'' the novel at the hands - [[TrickedOutShoes or shoes]] - of Rosa Klebb. He had to bring him back for ''Literature/DrNo'', and explained his return with passages referring to his time in medical rehab.
* Thanks to the magic of serial publication, not to mention possible litigation, Creator/CharlesDickens changed Miss Mowcher in ''Literature/DavidCopperfield'' from villain to hero in mid-plot.
** Dickens also made a belated saving throw in ''Our Mutual Friend'', where he intended Jewish good guy Mr. Riah to make up for stereotypical Jewish bad guy Fagin in ''Literature/OliverTwist''.
*** In ''Literature/GreatExpectations'', he wrote a new EarnYourHappyEnding ending for when the original BittersweetEnding wasn't well received by fans.
* One happens in the ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' series, as Richard's rather... erratic behavior is finally explained as ANITA'S fault... he was possessed by her anger. When the possession is cured, he reverts to a more stable psyche.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':
** The franchise has been up to its elbows in these. First the controversial ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' books introduced [[TricksterMentor Vergere]], and her philosophy that the Force was too complex to be summed up as simple light vs. dark. This ticked off a lot of fans, so the writers did the ''Literature/DarkNestTrilogy'' and ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' in response, which had Jacen Solo (Vergere's main pupil) become a KnightTemplar and fall to TheDarkSide as a result of her teachings. Problem was, many fans felt bothered with Jacen's fall, so the current ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' series is {{retcon}}ning it to have been not because of Vergere's teachings, but because he encountered something during a journey through the galaxy that made him go crazy. With Disney killing off the Expanded Universe, ''Fate of the Jedi'' isn't likely to need an Author's Saving Throw too.
** [[Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries Karen Traviss's novels]] have been very [[LoveItOrHateIt polarizing]], due to her single minded approach to storytelling. After four novels of vicious anti-Jedi sentiment at the hands of the Mandalorian characters, she included two scenes in her last novel to try and fix things up. First, she made [[OnlySaneMan Maze]] call out Skirata for being an asshole, and the renegade clones a bunch of brainwashed slaves, effectively comparing Skirata to the Jedi he was trying to save his troops from. Then, she revealed Djinn Altis' rogue Jedi convent, giving a fresh perspective that was separate from both the Republic Jedi and the Mandalorians, putting a {{lampshade|Hanging}} on the whole series focus.
* Another Karen Traviss example: Her first ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' book, ''Literature/HaloGlasslands'', was despised by the fandom for [[{{Demonization}} demonizing]] the scientist Catherine Halsey while portraying her rival Admiral Parangosky as a model of honesty. In reality, [[BlackAndGrayMorality both of them have committed plenty of unethical acts to defeat the Covenant]]. Thus, in her second book ''Literature/HaloTheThursdayWar'', Parangosky was now depicted as more sinister and ruthless (willing to [[spoiler:starve an entire species by secretly making their crops and meat inedible]]) while Halsey gets some sympathetic reveals, such as that she still cries over [[spoiler:the death of her daughter Miranda Keyes]].
* In-universe, and somewhat more literal, example in the fifth ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'' book (sorry, [[InsistentTerminology EPIC NOVEL]]), ''Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman''. Ms. Ribble (who, via a [[HypnoFool screwed-up hypnosis session]] -- [[spoiler:apparently the Hypno-ring George and Harold used works in reverse on women]] -- turned into Wedgie Woman) sprays [[WeaksauceWeakness spray starch]] on Captain Underpants, rendering him powerless. George and Harold, in an effort to save the Captain, quickly write a comic book to try to negate this weakness. To make a long story short... [[spoiler:it worked.]]
* In the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels, the People's Republic of Haven started the series as a welfare state gone wrong, with the majority of its citizens on welfare, not contributing to the economy, forcing the Republic to conquer in order to survive. A lot of people have taken this as an attack on the concept of a welfare state. In the novella ''I Will Build My House of Steel'', found in the Manticore companion book ''House of Steel'', Weber mentions that several other star systems, influenced by Haven, enacted similar reforms, but they actually pulled it off without gutting their economies, by virtue of having relatively honest politicians... until, that is, they got conquered by Haven.
** Also in the Honor Harrington series, starships in works produced before the mid-2000s were described as being upwards of a kilometer in length with masses from the hundreds of thousands of tons to single-digit millions. These numbers resulted in ships with roughly the density of cigar smoke or aerogel. In what was called with tongue in cheek the "Great Resizing," ships' lengths were reduced substantially (formerly 3.2 kilometer long superdreadnoughts, for example, were shrunk to a relatively mere 1.5 kilometers, resulting in a density of roughly 0.25 kg/m^3.
** The introduction of prolong in the second book made reference to the fact that it extended human life by extending ''all'' stages of human life, with a visiting foreign officer from a planet without the technology disconcerted that a Manticoran naval vessel looked like it was crewed by teenagers, a later book having Queen Elizabeth make an offhand comment that she was in her twenties before she actually grew a bust, and a reference to Honor being befuddled about her lovelife because she was essentially just getting over the teenage hormone years while being in her 40s. However, while people with prolong might be ''physically'' very young, chronologically and legally they were adults and could indulge in adult behaviour, which causes [[UnfortunateImplications disconcerting mental images if you think about it]]. A later story specifically made mention that part of prolong treatment was children taking medication until they were post-adolescent to negate the effect so they physically matured at a normal rate.
* In ''{{Literature/Twilight}},'' [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Bella]]'s narration indicates that [[MotorMouth Jessica]] doesn't really like her, she's only using Bella for her own popularity. The thing is, ''[[InformedFlaw only]]'' [[InformedFlaw Bella's narration indicates this]], as opposed to anything Jessica says or does throughout the novel. Of course, in the POVSequel ''Literature/MidnightSun,'' [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Edward]] can use his MindReading to discover that yes, Jessica really is a nasty FalseFriend. Presumably Bella didn't need actual evidence [[MarySue because she's just so smart and perceptive]]!
* Greg Farshtey did this at least twice for Franchise/{{LEGO}}'s ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'' story:
** [[BigBad Makuta]] was at first described as the ultimate evil, a force of nature itself. Story progression later revealed that he [[UniquenessDecay belonged to the species Makuta]] who were one of the many races of the universe, and despite his [[SuperPowerLottery impressive power gallery]], was defeated in humiliating ways in the DirectToDVD movies. In the book ''Time Trap'', he reimagined Makuta as a GenreSavvy [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] whose [[IMeantToDoThat defeats were part of his bigger plan]]. The new characterization gave him a very sarcastic sense of humor as well, replacing his generic ClassicVillain talk.
** Kiina was introduced in one of the novels as a badass, no-nonsense, argumentative female fighter. Then a movie turned her into a hyperactive GenkiGirl and TheScrappy for the fandom. The {{novelization}} explained that she was really a StepfordSmiler.
* Creator/StephenKing's Franchise/TheDarkTower epic series saw many incongruities and errors in fact creep in. Some were merely revised in later versions of the earlier books, while others (Eddie Dean's home Co-Op City being in Brooklyn vice New Jersey) became plot points showing their world was created by an UnreliableNarrator (King himself is in the later books as a character who is telling their tale).
* In-universe example in {{Literature/Misery}}; a fan kidnaps a writer to force him to do an Author's Saving Throw after he killed off a beloved character in his series.
* In the ''Literature/OldMansWar'' series, John Scalzi reveals in the afterword of ''Zoe's Tale'' that he decided to do a PerspectiveFlip of the previous book rather than continuing the story, as he was never happy with Zoe's offscreen recruitment of a whole army, and thought the many fans that accused it of being a DeusExMachina had a good point. He also took the opportunity to provide more closure to the werewolf storyline.
* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, the Quidditch world cup in ''Goblet of Fire'' serves as a giant one of these. Many fans complained that, since catching the Golden Snitch basically scored 15 times as many points as a goal, and ended the game, the Seeker made the rest of the game irrelevant. The World Cup game that we see serves as a demonstration of how, at the professional level at least, a world class Seeker is no match for a good team.
* ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'' offers an explanation for all continuity errors in the past (and future) ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books, consisting in time being [[spoiler:shattered and patched up]], at least twice.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' has an example that is so subtle, it may have been unintentional. In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', when Lucy's siblings do not believe her when she says that she went to a MagicalLand on the other side of the eponymous wardrobe, Professor Kirke states that she must realize that her story seems so absurd that her siblings would certainly not believe it, meaning that if she was lying, she would fool no one and she knows it, therefore she must be telling the truth. This is accepted as a valid argument. Of course, in the real world there would be many problems with this line of thinking, such as that small children [[RefugeInAudacity are known to tell outrageous falsehoods just to get attention]] and that the others are being asked to believe the story [[IrrelevantThesis without any evidence]], even though by that logic they would be forced to believe absolutely every wild story they heard, and indeed [[BrokenAesop they don't do so until they see Narnia for themselves]]. However, a later installment, ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', is a prequel in which Kirke is the main character who visits Narnia as well, meaning that he actually did have reason to believe Lucy, sidestepping this issue.
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'''s sixth season, magic was portrayed as akin to a drug, which was highly dangerous and addictive, and could even lead to users becoming "junkies" willing to do anything for a "fix," as happened to Willow slowly over the course of the season. Creator/JossWhedon himself didn't like this development, and fans agreed; season seven's first episode featured a scene where Giles explicitly states that magic is not addictive, and it's explained that Willow's actions were actually due to her ''not'' using magic. This, of course, made hash of most of the storyline of season six. It does qualify as an author's saving throw, or at least close, but it's not a retcon. Giles' line is "This isn't a hobby or an addiction. It's inside you now," implying that this is a change for Willow due to her actions at the end of the last season. Willow got addicted to magic because she has an addictive personality, as much to power as to magic. What with Tara expressing her concern in Season 5, this was already on its way to becoming Willow's character arc, and "Tabula Rasa" is very much in tune with her behavior in the rest of the series. Unfortunately, "Smashed" and "Wrecked", which bring her addiction to its climax, are about the most {{Anvilicious}} episodes in the whole series. In the latter, she realizes she has a problem because she hurt Dawn with magic. Or rather, wrecked the ''car'' she and Dawn were in because she was high on magic. [[CaptainObvious Just like addicts in real life!]]
* The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "The Girl In Question" was reviled by the fans for many reasons but mostly because Buffy was revealed to be dating an [[TheGhost unseen]] vampire named "The Immortal" who happened to be an old rival of Buffy's previous lovers Angel and Spike. This was for a long time the last thing we know about her in the entire buffyverse. The comic continuation revealed that this Buffy was actually another slayer impersonating her and that Andrew Wells lied to Angel and Spike.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers''
** The writers of the Disney Adventure ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' comic conveniently {{retcon}}ned the reasons behind A-Squad's defection, turning it into MindControl instead of a voluntary FaceHeelTurn. Apparently, they don't like the idea of NotBrainwashed Rangers (up until then, most evil Rangers were either created that way as monsters, or were BrainwashedAndCrazy if they were to join the team). As well, the turn itself was considered fairly random, and the BigBad had already-established MindControl powers.
** In ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo,'' Alpha Five was replaced with Alpha Six, a TotallyRadical {{Scrappy}}. It... didn't go over well. At the end of ''Turbo,'' he's damaged and repaired with speech circuitry meant for Alpha Five, making him an {{Expy}} of his predecessor during ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' and ''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy.''
* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' throws a rather tricky one. [[spoiler: The very serious and nihilistic Doctor Shinigami suddenly appears in the first film, after being Natsumi's rather quirky grandfather for the whole season.]] Seriously, that doesn't make sense. So, in the second film, they make him that way again. But this time, they reveal that he's under the effect of a [[spoiler: "Doctor Shinigami" type Gaia Memory.]] Which is an obvious throw, as those are introduced in the ''next'', only-barely-related series, ''Series/KamenRiderDouble''.
** On the other hand, many, many other confusing problems with characterization are simply ignored.
** The series also tried to address the controversy around Tackle, the [[SixthRanger Second Rider]] from ''Series/KamenRiderStronger'', who was [[StuffedIntoTheFridge killed off]] and never officially declared a Kamen Rider, mostly due to the fact that she's a woman. In ''Movie War 2010'', Decade meets an AlternateUniverse version of Tackle, whose entire backstory revolves around the fact that she was [[RealitySubtext murdered and then quickly ignored and forgotten about by everyone around her]]. Tackle ends up pulling a HeroicSacrifice near the end, but not before helping out Decade and [[TakingYouWithMe taking her killer out with her]].
*** ''Manga/KamenRiderSpirits'' also tried to offer a non-sexist explanation as to why Tackle isn't considered a legitimate Kamen Rider. Fan opinion on said explanation [[BrokenBase is still divided]].
** Years earlier, ''Series/KamenRiderBlackRX'' tried to mitigate the fan backlash over the series' LighterAndSofter tone (as well the general {{Sequelitis}} complaints from fans of the [[ToughActToFollow beloved]] ''Series/KamenRiderBlack'') by bringing back the previous Franchise/{{Kamen Rider}}s as part of the show's final storyline. Prior to this, both ''Black'' and ''Black RX'' were supposed to have been part of a [[ContinuityReboot new continuity]].
* A month after the ''Series/PrisonBreak'' Season 3 finale, it was announced that, in part due to fan reaction, [[spoiler:it wasn't Sara Tancredi's [[StuffedIntoTheFridge head in the box]], and she'll be back next season.]] The other big part of the decision was the fact that [[spoiler:Sara had only been killed in the first place because of behind-the-scenes drama between the then-pregnant actress and the executive producers. By the fourth season, everyone was friends again so the character returned. And ironically got pregnant.]]
* The third season finale of ''Series/{{Bones}}'': [[spoiler:Zack]] is revealed to have been manipulated into becoming the apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer, and claims to have murdered a man. During an episode of the fourth season, he says that he didn't actually kill anyone himself, he just told the Gormogon where to find a victim and claims he would have killed the victim himself if the Gormogon had told him to. In [[spoiler:Zack's]] mind, this equated to having done the deed himself.
* In ''Series/TheSopranos'', Tony entertained a number of gangster cronies while wearing shorts. On the DVD commentary, the [[WordOfGod Voice of God]] admitted that a mobster of his position would never wear shorts in such a situation. A few seasons later, one of Tony's respected business associates commented to him that "A Don doesn't wear shorts," making it no longer a mistake of the show, but just another of Tony's quirks.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has had multiple saving throws: reducing a character's powers (Peter, Sylar) and granting powers to others (Mohinder, Ando). A full list of all the throw ''attempts'' over the life of the show would take a while... And in addition to these throws, people involved in the show have ''publicly apologized'' to fans. Reportedly, creator Tim Kring actually went into several interviews personally apologizing for Volume 2 "Generations" suckiness.
* During Elisabeth Rohm's time on ''Series/LawAndOrder'', her character (Serena Southerlyn) was often used as a Liberal counterpoint to Arthur Branch's staunch Conservative. Problem was, when she wasn't basically arguing the defense's case for them, she came across as a FoxNewsLiberal so frequently whiny and petulant, it was a wonder how she kept her job. So when Rohm left the show, the writers used Serena's frequent petulance as the reason for her firing (She was acting more like a defense attorney than a prosecutor). But then they had to crap on things with those six infamous [[SuddenlySexuality last words]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Creator/StevenMoffat has installed a universal saving throw in his run of ''Series/DoctorWho'': "Rule One: The Doctor lies". Corollaries are "Rule Two: River Song lies" and "Rule Zero: Creator/StevenMoffat [[LyingCreator lies]]".
** The ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie 1996 TV movie]] included a scene in which the Doctor says that he is half-human; this was widely disliked and subject to FanonDiscontinuity. However, in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse comic ''Doctor Who: The Forgotten'', the Doctor notes that he said that just to screw with his enemy's head. Moffat has stated, when asked about the {{canon}}icity of this, that the Doctor did indeed utter those words, very carefully not specifying whether they were ''true''. After all, "the Doctor lies".
*** He has gone further, arguing that "a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can't have a continuity error -- it's impossible for ''Doctor Who'' to get it wrong, because we can just say 'he changed time -- it's a time ripple from the Time War'."
*** There was an earlier attempt at Saving Throwing the half-human line by some of the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures writers. Unfortunately other EDA writers ''liked'' the half-human idea, but had their own radical interpretations of it; there was an ArmedWithCanon war; and the whole question became a ContinuitySnarl.
*** "The Apocalypse Element" answers the Eye of Harmony opening to human eyes. When the Daleks attack Gallifrey and remove a [[EyeScream Time Lord eye]] to access the Gallifreyan systems that work via retina, the Doctor changes them to that of his human companion Evelyn. He says changing Gallifreyan technology to work for human eyes might still have an effect.
*** In his book "The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter" Creator/RussellTDavies revealed that he averted this trope by deciding that a planned line explaining the half-human remark in the script of Creator/DavidTennant's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime final episode]] ("Oh, that was like picking up a bug, I got over that") would have been too confusing for the mainstream audience because the more recent episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] already had a half-human Doctor clone.
** A smaller-scale saving throw took place after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]], in which the HappinessInSlavery depiction of the Ood as a happy servitor race and the Doctor's acceptance of it as unproblematic were seen by many fans as gross breaches of the series's and the character's usual moral positions. Two years later the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]]" story returned to the same setting and revealed that the slave Ood were only happy [[spoiler:because the evil humans had been lobotomising them]], and that the Doctor only accepted their servitude because he was a bit preoccupied with a planet orbiting a black hole and Satan trying to kill them all... [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext shut it.]]
** The show's first example of this occurred with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]]: in the first, Creator/TerryNation killed off his malevolent creations, but when it came time to bring them back for a sequel, he said: "the trusty TARDIS came along and took me to a point in time ''before'' they were exterminated!"
** There are some fans who have shown distaste for the Cybus Cybermen from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E6TheAgeOfSteel "The Age of Steel"]]. When [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]] aired, the Mondasian Cybermen make their return ([[WordOfGod Steven Moffat]] confirmed that these were the Mondas Cybermen; they just didn't have the budget to change the costume.) However, it's not much of a throw. All "reappearances" of the old Cybermen are the new Cybermen looking and acting ''exactly'' as they always have. People who ''really'' want the old Cybermen back often consider merely ''[[WordOfGod saying]]'' they're back a cop-out, and people who don't (or just don't care) wonder why bother pretending.
** The Daleks got a multicolored upgrade in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks "Victory of the Daleks"]], and the bright, colorful Daleks were presented as what a Dalek would look like forevermore, the "New Dalek Paradigm," as they put it. It turned out even this NarmCharm loving fanbase has its limits. So the next time a Dalek had to be a threat, it was a sorta petrified-looking run-down one with no trace of its original color, and then we discover later still in "Asylum of the Daleks" that ''all'' Dalek variants still exist out there; the candy-colored ones were sorta sitting in back as a ContinuityNod and stayed well out of the way, taking a backseat to their immediate predecessor models, who exist in overwhelming majority as the main model again... with zero explanations as to the ''de-upgrade''. However, the Adventure Game "City of the Daleks" has this new kind of Dalek en masse, and the Doctor ends up altering time so that the Dalek civilisation is knocked down a peg or too, causing a regression. "The Dalek Project" graphic novel also implies the Doctor nearly wiped out the New Paradigm type of Dalek.
** Apparently, the other Dalek models were NotQuiteDead to the point that they outnumber the candy-colored ones. The "new paradigm" Daleks ''thought'' they were the only Daleks, but declaring the Daleks to be dead and finding out otherwise [[JokerImmunity is a pretty common thing]].
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** A season two episode changes Charlie into a baby-napping maniac who may or may not have been using heroin again. And then Locke beat the crap out of him while everyone else watched. The season two finale basically rebooted his relationship with Claire, and in the third season, when Locke asked for Charlie's help, Charlie asked why he should after Locke falsely accused him of using heroin, beat him up, and exiled him from the camp.
** The producers originally intended for Paolo and Nikki to be major characters. After a fan revolt, they changed their plans by [[spoiler: not only killing off the characters, but doing so in an incredibly sadistic way.]]
* On ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Season 3 ended with Chloe walking into her house, closing the door, and the house promptly exploding. Then, in the beginning of Season 4, we see a flashback of Lex and his guys getting Chloe and her family out before the explosion goes down. [[CliffhangerCopout Never mind that it happened the second the door clicked shut. Or that, per the Season 3 finale, Lex was too busy being poisoned at the time to actually have been there.]]
* In the seventh season finale of ''Series/{{House}}'' the titular character drives his car through Cuddy's dining room window in revenge for breaking up with him and escaping to a tropical beach. This caused a full blown fan revolt with claims that House became no better than a psychotic murderous DomesticAbuser and that his stunt could have ended with the deaths of several people. The creators responded to this on Twitter claiming that House had made sure that everyone was gone by looking through the window which prompted the fans to point out that ''Cuddy's daughter'' was likely in the room and she wasn't tall enough to be seen. Come the season 8 premiere and we get a scene where House turns himself in to the authorities and explains that he had made sure that everyone in the room had left and that he knew that Cuddy's daughter was at a sleepover. YMMV if this makes things ''that'' much better, mind you.
* For the first three seasons of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' the show was criticised for wasting the potential of its prequel setting by neglecting the Romulans as recurring villains (rather than properly leading up to the known canonical Romulan War) and instead embarking on a long confused MythArc involving a "Temporal Cold War" which soon fell prey to TheChrisCarterEffect, as well as for depicting the Vulcans as a race of hypocritical {{Jerkass}}es. When Manny Coto took over as showrunner for the fourth season, multiple Saving Throws were given: the Temporal Cold War was resolved in the two-part premiere, a three-part story involved a major spiritual revolution in Vulcan society that brought them closer to the aliens we knew and loved, and a major story arc throughout the season involved a resurgence in Romulan aggression which also served to forge alliances between the future founding members of the Federation. The Enterprise relaunch books manage to take this even further by [[spoiler:retconning Trip's death into a faked death]], as well as dealing with the Romulan War and founding of the Federation.
* At the end of Season 3 of ''Series/TheMentalist'', Jane [[spoiler: kills Red John]] and sits peacefully waiting to be arrested. In the first episode of Season 4, it turns out that [[spoiler: that wasn't Red John]] and he's found not guilty in a spectacular example of HollywoodLaw, so the series can continue as before.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''s fourth season, Sam was revealed to be in a sexual relationship with the demon Ruby. Even putting {{Shipping}} aside, the fanbase took a major issue with this. As Ruby was a demon with no corporeal body of her own, she had to [[DemonicPossession possess]] another woman to use for her, uh, interactions with Sam. By having sex with her, Sam was either raping the host (who had not given consent) or engaging in necrophilia (if the host was a corpse). The writers [[TakeAThirdOption took a third option]] by revealing that Ruby's host was a comatose girl about to be taken off life support, whose body was still alive but spirit had moved on to the afterlife. Mileage varied as to whether or not this made the situation any less squicky.
** In later seasons, Supernatural began to place more and more focus on the Dean and Castiel relationship, including deliberate subtext and occasional jokes that their friendship is not entirely platonic. Some in the fandom took this as a possible legitimate intention on the writers' part to foreshadow an actual romantic relationship between them, and were extremely excited at the prospect of the protagonist of a very popular, mainstream, genre show being openly bi. However, during season 9, one of the writers on twitter revealed that Dean being bi was an interesting idea but that they had absolutely no intention of making it canon. This caused outrage from people who claimed the show had been [[http://www.tvguide.com/news/supernatural-queerbaiting-destiel-1089286.aspx queerbaiting]] - deliberately enticing queer audience members to keep watching with the promise of dearly needed representation without any intention of actually following through. During season 10, therefore, the authors tried to smooth things over with the episode Slash Fiction, in which Dean encounters Destiel shippers and states that while it's not the ''right'' interpretation, it's totally cool that they have their own interpretation of things. Reactions to this were mixed - some shippers liked it, but those who really wanted Dean to be bi were only the more convinced that the writers never understood why people wanted Dean to be queer so much in the first place.
* In the crossover movie between ''Series/TensouSentaiGoseiger'' and ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'', we're given the first cameo appearance of the Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger, who transform into all Red Rangers. However, it's revealed in the first episode of ''Gokaiger'' that the only reason they could do that was because of the Ranger Keys, which they wouldn't get until the time between Gosei and Gokai. How do they solve that? Reveal that the team had been sent back in time on a mission by Domon of the Series/MiraiSentaiTimeranger and they decided to give the two teams a hand while no one was looking. On the other hand, we're still not sure how it is that the Gokaigers ''keep'' their ability to turn into other Rangers after the past Rangers' powers were restored at the end of the regular series. [[RuleOfCool Not that anyone is complaining.]]
* Greg and Tamara from ''Series/OnceUponATime'' and their absurd magic-defeating tech, which the show's producers quickly were driven to regret. The next season premiere reveals [[spoiler:it actually was all magic, and they were just suckers unknowingly working for Peter Pan.]]
* The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "Repilot" dismisses the entirety of the widely-hated Season 4 (the only season not overseen by Creator/DanHarmon) by claiming that the school had suffered a massive gas leak, explaining everyone's inconsistent and decidedly OutOfCharacter behavior.
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' failed with one in Season 5 by removing the new members of the Glee Club to focus on what the old cast was doing not in the club, but it failed to attract more viewers, probably because it was a VocalMinority who hated the new cast in the first place.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' was heavily attacked by Marvel fans for mostly using CanonForeigner characters instead of actual Marvel heroes and villains, as well as the use of {{Red Skies Crossover}}s with other [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] properties (''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' being the most notorious) rather than proper tie-ins. The latter half of Season 1 subsequently began using actual comic characters like Deathlok and Blackout, while also doing a heavy multi-episode arc dealing with the aftermath of ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. The producers also made sure to announce that more comic characters like Comicbook/{{Mockingbird}}, Absorbing Man and Al [=MacKenzie=] will be appearing in Season 2.
** Season 2 also reveals that some HYDRA agents actually were loyal SHIELD agents who were brainwashed into becoming evil. This should ease the complaints about heroic comics characters like Sitwell being HYDRA in the MCU.
* Music/AlanisMorissette is often criticized for her song "[[IsntItIronic Ironic]]", because of its highly colloquial and [[YouKeepUsingThatWord technically incorrect]] use of [[{{Irony}} the word in the title]] (her definition is more akin to a CruelTwistEnding). Her ParodyRetcon response? [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The song itself is ironic.]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich#.22An_artist.27s_creative_response_to_just_criticism.22 Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony]] (the radical innovations in his earlier work had incurred the wrath of UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, so this was really a saving throw on Shostakovich's ''life''.)
[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]]'s poorly handled stint with Wrestling/TheWyattFamily. Bryan was ''supposed'' to have fallen over the DespairEventHorizon after the Authority's constant screwing leading up to a gauntlet match against the members of the family one-by-one, ending with Bray Wyatt [[RageQuit ordering the others to just beat Bryan down, regardless of the match's outcome]]. But Bryan's response to this? ''Join their family/cult''. Not only did he wear [[WTHCostumingDepartment a plain sleeveless jumpsuit that made him look like]] [[DorkAge/ProfessionalWrestling '90s throwback]] [[WrestlingDoesntPay Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, wrestling garbage collector]], but he didn't act all that different than before. Plus, not only did the fanbase [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief not buy into Bryan's "motivation" to join them]], but ''[[EnsembleDarkhorse every crowd he wrestled in front of]] [[WinTheCrowd absolutely refused to boo him]]''. So what happens? Two weeks later, he and Bray are in a steel cage match against Wrestling/TheUsos. Once the Usos win, Bray attempts to discipline Bryan and, in a fit of BullyingADragon ''([[MultipleReferencePun heh]])'' goads him into fighting back. [[Awesome/BryanDanielson Which he does, running interference on the other Wyatts who try to get back in the cage, and kicking Bray Wyatt up and down the ring...to thunderous "YES!" chants]].\\
Happened again in Bryan's and Wrestling/{{Batista}}'s Road to [=WrestleMania=]. Fans thought Bryan would be in the Wrestling/RoyalRumble. He wasn't. The fans were displeased to the point where they turned on the event itself, and utterly rejected Batista's win of said Rumble, knowing he'd get a title shot at [=WrestleMania=]. Despite HHH and Steph throwing obstacle after obstacle at Bryan, he was eventually written into the [=WrestleMania=] main event. He beat HHH, but it was still worrisome who'd win. But ''again'', after [[spoiler:Brock Lesnar defeated the Undertaker and broke the streak]] and nearly caused DarknessInducedAudienceApathy, Bryan's victory was all but assured.
** Note that fans still aren't happy with this, as even with fan response, it still took Wrestling/CMPunk deciding to legitimately RageQuit the company before they changed plans. Before that, and as late as the week after Elimination Chamber, the card had him facing Sheamus, Triple H facing Punk, and Orton vs Batista, which is unanimously agreed upon as a dreadful 'Mania
* After Wrestling/RingOfHonor pulled all its contracted talent off of Family Wrestling Entertainment's shows, Wrestling/AJStyles's run as FWE Heavyweight Champion provided some much needed damage control.
[[folder: Religion/Mythology ]]
* There's an apocryphal story stating the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Prophet Muhammad]] once spoke positively of three pagan Meccan goddesses (why is not clear). However (the story goes) Muhammad later recanted these passages, claiming that Satan must have influenced him to say them. The tale lived on in the folklore of many Muslim countries, and the story was transmitted to the West by means of Creator/SalmanRushdie's ''Literature/TheSatanicVerses'', whose title is a reference to the tale.
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Invoked by ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. Any piece of fluff that ends up badly written or ends up painting any faction as a Mary Sue can be safely written off as in-universe propaganda.
* The same goes for ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', although its more clear on which is just an historical error and which really happen.
* Samuel Haight from the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness was a CreatorsPet [[GodModeSue God Mode Stu]] that quickly became TheScrappy, until the creators finally clued into the fact that everybody hated him and killed him off, after which [[FateWorseThanDeath his soul was forged into a sentient ashtray]].
* The Forbidden/Limited lists are ''supposed'' to be this for the ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh TCG''. Whether or not Konami has succeeded depends both on the players' reactions to it, and how tournaments progress with the changes each one makes.
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* For years, a huge flame war kickstarter in the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fandom was the debates over whether the real name of the series villain is "Robotnik" or "Eggman", owing to dub discrepancies; "Eggman" was always his name in Japan, but the U.S. continuity localized his name into "Dr. Ivo Robotnik", up till around the ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' series when the name of Robotnik was slowly being phased out in favor of calling him Eggman, in order to keep the series more in line with the Japanese ''Sonic'' continuity and to prevent the confusion of the series main villain having two names at once. Sega settled the issue by saying [[TakeAThirdOption both names are official]] (Robotnik is his real name, but Eggman is the nickname everyone else uses instead), but in an attempt to officially curb this long-standing fandom hot button, the finale of ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' established once and for all, in-canon, that the real name of Dr. Eggman is still "Dr. Ivo Robotnik". The good doctor himself, when answered to by his real name, notes with irony that [[LampshadeHanging "Nobody calls me that anymore."]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' ''Eternal Punishment'' (English version) pretty much serves as a retroactive Author's Saving Throw for the badly translated first game by [[spoiler:compensating for the lousy translation of most of the names like how Takahisa Kandori became Guido Sardenia by breaking even and establishing his real name was Guido Kandori (since Guido is spoken in the first game cutscenes, this was unavoidable), and that his name in the first game was an alias. They also pretend Kei/Nate never had his last name changed from Nanjo to Trinity, among a few other changes to compensate for both continuity and to apparently apologize for doing such a miserable job.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'s'' ending caused some rather... negative reactions, in no small part thanks to its DiabolusExMachina. The DLC/Expansion pack ''Broken Steel'' changes the ending, allowing the game to remain playable after this. WordOfGod says the game's default endings (without the expansion) are [[CanonDiscontinuity non-canon]].
* After many players called out ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' for its extremely loose understanding of basic genetics (as relayed by the main antagonist, Liquid Snake), Hideo Kojima stepped up and established that Liquid himself has an extremely flimsy grasp on the subject and didn't actually know a word of what he was saying. It doesn't explain how a man with a supposed I.Q. of 180 and a fluency in seven languages could get such simple scientific facts wrong, or why Ocelot refers to Solid as the "inferior one".
** ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'' introduced a Close Quarters Combat (CQC) system that allows the player to subdue enemy soldiers using various martial art techniques. This combat system is explained in the game's plot as a fighting style that Naked Snake (the protagonist, who later becomes Big Boss) learned from his mentor The Boss. Solid Snake (the protagonist of the previous games and the cloned son of Big Boss) couldn't use this style in the previous ''MGS'' games, so when the CQC system was implemented in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'', they had to come up with a reason why Solid Snake never used it in previous games. [[spoiler:It turns out Solid Snake always knew CQC, but refused to use it because of his disdain for Big Boss, who taught him the style. After the events of Operation Snake Eater were "declassified" (i.e. ''[=MGS3=]'' came out), many soldiers began developing their own variations of the CQC style, leaving Solid Snake with no choice but to use the skills he learned from Big Boss.]]
* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin'' was written [[ExecutiveMeddling with a mandate from marketing]] to turn the series away from the Literature/ArabianNights feel and make it DarkerAndEdgier, complete with emo {{antihero}} Prince and heavy metal music. The fans bashed the change mercilessly, and the writers answered rather innovatively by working the DorkAge into the plot of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'', making the ''Warrior Within'' Prince into a manifestation of the hero's irresponsibility and not the real thing. It also acknowledges the selfishness inherent in trying to fix the timeline in order to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, and when the Dark Prince taunts him with this near the end, he finally realizes that he needs to stop trying to change the past and solve his problems in the present.
* ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days]]'' pulls this to {{retcon}} Axel and Roxas' previously ambiguous HoYay relationship into one of big brother/little brother -- while still leaving plenty of potential ShipTease for those who choose to see it that way. Turns out that when Roxas was formed without memories, Axel basically took it upon himself to raise him.
** Speaking of ''Kingdom Hearts'', ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth By Sleep]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded Re:coded]]'' both feature [[BonusBoss additional bosses]] that, gameplay-wise, turn out to be [[{{Expy}} close enough]] to the ones previously exclusive to the ''Final Mix'' version of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', and therefore [[NoExportForYou confined to Japan]]. So, the "Unknown" [[ItWasHisSled (Xemnas)]] gets an expy through the ''new'' Unknown in ''Birth By Sleep'', thus covering KHIFM territory, while Terra's Lingering Will from KHIIFM+ gets his expy thanks to ''Vanitas''' Lingering Will, still in BBS. [[spoiler: Also, you get to play ''as'' Terra's Lingering Will near the end of his storyline.]] About Roxas, upgraded from a cutscene (KHII) to a full-fledged boss (''KHIIFM+''), the fact he was still a storyline boss instead of a bonus boss allowed him to be used as a FinalBoss instead, in ''Re:coded''. You can basically see Creator/TetsuyaNomura saying "sorry, western fans".
*** Not to mention the new "HD 1.5 Remix" Collection that are coming out, giving all non-Japanese fans Kingdom Hearts Final Mix for the first time, and re:Chain of Memories to the rest of the world (after it was given a downplayed Western release in America only) along side remastered cutscenes from 358/2 Days. Demand was high enough for a 2.5 to be announced for a 2014 release which includes the Final Mix versions of the second game and Birth By Sleep as well as Re:coded scenes thrown in.
* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' had this in the ''2002'' edition. After ''[='98=]'', the gameplay was changed as there would be four characters being selectable for the fight, with one (or more, in ''2001'') being a [[AssistCharacter Striker]], a supportive character that would be called to perform a move in order to stop an opponent or open his guard for your attacks. This, of course, didn't work well, with several bugs and infinite combos as result. In ''2002'', the game went back to 3-on-3 fights with no strikers, like ''[='98=]'' and the titles before it.
** Also, there's one involving the storyline. See, most fans were unhappy (euphemism) about [[CreatorsPet Ash Crimson]] taking the role of protagonist previously covered by Kyo and K', just as much as they were unhappy about him [[spoiler:[[BroughtDownToNormal stealing]] both Chizuru and Iori's Sacred Treasures powers]]. Come ''XIII'', Ash [[spoiler:enacts a HeroicSacrifice to stop the BigBad of that StoryArc]]. Mind you, he doesn't [[spoiler:die... [[RetGone he is erased from existence.]] [[CosmicRetcon Retroactively!]] So he never really existed in the first place!]]
** ''XIII'' itself counts as an example. ''XII'' was labelled as a DreamMatchGame, but it ''[[InNameOnly really]]'' was an ObviousBeta released to earn Creator/{{SNK}} Playmore some quick cash in order to alleviate the production costs for [[ArtShift redrawing the]] [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters large cast of characters]] [[ArtShift in high-definition]]. The end result? ''XII'' was crawling with bugs and infinites, not to mention a drastically reduced roster total from previous games. ''XIII'' addressed these complaints by ironing out most of the gameplay problems and bringing back several fighters who skipped out on the last few titles. Also, while the ''[[VideoGame/FuunSeries Kizuna Encounter]]''[=/=]''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom''[=/=]''VideoGame/NeoGeoBattleColiseum''-esque Tactical Shift system in ''2003'' and ''XI'' was actually well-liked by most fans, ''XIII'' assumes the traditional 3-on-3, round-robin format from the series' inception.
* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Kuja]], originally an arrogant, cunning, cruel, and poetic mage was reduced to what was essentially a child throwing an eternal temper tantrum, throwing fits when his plans failed, being mocked by the other villains and having his arrogance and faux-Shakespearean dialogue exaggerated heavily. Then ''Dissidia 012'' was released as a prequel, and it reveals [[spoiler:that Kefka set Kuja up to be killed in the 12th cycle of the war, and used this time to implant [[FakeMemories false memories]] in him that twisted him into the Kuja seen in the 13th cycle of ''Dissidia''. The "real" Kuja seen in ''Dissidia 012'' unaffected by Kefka's manipulations is much more affable, calm, and collected, and even tries to help the heroes before the other villains catch onto his ruse. This both made him a much deeper and sympathetic character and brought his characterization back in-line with the redeemed Kuja glimpsed at the end of his original game.]]
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 1''. After the second game, the fanbase was extremely displeased by what, to Gordon, amounts to a ShootTheShaggyDog even worse than the first. The Episode blows the rage away through a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for the Vortigaunts that both retcons [[spoiler: Alyx's implied death]], and changes the whole storyline, showing the [[HumanoidAbomination G-Man]] isn't as all-powerful as thought before.
* The debut trailer for the 2011 ''VideoGame/{{SSX}}'' game had an extremely DarkerAndEdgier feel, realistic and "gritty" graphics, some plot revolving around rival teams of boarders competing to race in the most inhospitable places on Earth and the title ''SSX: Deadly Descents''. Cue derogatory nicknames like "[[VideoGame/CallOfDuty Call of SSX]]: [[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Winter Assault]]" and variants. Every single game related media since then has the developers insisting that the characters and the cartoony and over the top feel of the game are still there and that the "Deadly Descents" are just a small part of the game, the others being the classic racing and trick modes. The subtitle was eventually removed.
* Perhaps the UrExample for Video Games: Zilpha Keatley Snyder agreed to allow Spinnaker to make a game based on the Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy OnOneCondition. She realized her TrueArtIsAngsty ending to the books was a huge goof and wanted the game's plot to center around one of Raamo's TrueCompanions coming to his rescue. This being made in 1984, makes it possibly the ''first'' {{Canon}} sequel in video game form to something written for other media.
* Remember [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks the]] [[InternetBackdraft outrage]] that ensued when it was revealed that ''[=DmC=]: VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' was some odd {{pre|quel}}[[ContinuityReboot boot]] set before ''3'', but with ''[[InNameOnly drastic]]'' changes to Dante's character and backstory that made it completely incompatible with pre-existing canon (to the point of sounding like a SelfInsertFic running on CanonDefilement)? [[http://www.siliconera.com/2011/10/31/dmc-devil-may-cry-takes-place-in-a-parallel-world-with-a-different-dante/ Yeah, about that.]]
* The ending of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter 2'' apparently had Teresa Lipan [[KilledOffForReal permanently killed off]], but the third game retconned this as FakingTheDead.
* When ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 Ratchet & Clank]]'' came out, a recurring complaint among critics was Ratchet's characterization (acting like a selfish {{Jerkass}} towards the much more sympathetic Clank). When ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' was in development, Insomniac made sure to include several cutscenes where Ratchet defends Clank and worries for him, all with the explicitly stated purpose of "fixing" Ratchet's character.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'', Forsaken have begun using Val'kyr necromancy against their human enemies in order to replenish their numbers. Unlike Scourge undead, however, Forsaken undead retain the free will they had in life after being raised. When this was revealed, Alliance players began complaining that a human being killed by the Forsaken, raised into undeath by them and then choosing to aid the Forsaken in slaughtering their former comrades of their own free will broke the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Blizzard eventually addressed this in one of their [[WordOfGod Ask Creative Development]] sessions, saying that though new Forsaken are free-willed, many of them are raised in a frenzied and malleable state in which they can be easily manipulated into attacking their allies by the Forsaken. This effect is apparently only temporary and the new Forsaken do eventually get to make their own choice afterward.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesIII'' introduces Shin Hyuga, whose mother comes from "somewhere in the Far East"; he himself is modeled to be Feudal Japanese in a mid-20th-centurish fantasy pastiche world. His inclusion is a reaction to the [[UnfortunateImplications criticism of the Darcsen in the first game]]: they were designed as an obvious expy of European Jews persecuted during World War II, but the art style and cultural cues used for the Darcsen people, combined with a conspicuous lack of an expy-Japan, made it look like the story ''replaced'' the Jews with the Japanese. Shin's inclusion is most likely meant to help dissolve that particular image.
** Really, ''[=VC3=]'' is a huge, multiple die saving throw. Throughout the franchise, the Darcssens has been portrayed as a whole-race woobie who have never done any wrong in the history of Europa. ''[=VC3=]'' revolves around fighting an elite imperial battalion who are (almost) entirely Darcssen, and whose aim is establishing a Darcssen homeland through ''any'' means, even utilizing a WMD ([[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Hmm...]]). Of the three Darcssen in your unit, one is [[TheEeyore gloomy]] [[TheFatalist fatalist]], one is consumed by RevengeBeforeReason, and the other [[spoiler:betray you to join the aforementioned battalion and is set on obliterating the capitol of his former-country]].
* The ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' had caused an InternetBackdraft of epic proportions. Official polls from Creator/BioWare showed that nearly 90% of fans [[{{Railroading}} hated]] [[ShockingSwerve the]] [[GainaxEnding ending]] [[SuddenDownerEnding for]] [[InferredHolocaust various]] [[PyrrhicVictory reasons]]. The outrage culminated in several campaigns aimed at getting [=BioWare=] to notice, including donating tens of thousands of dollars to [[Webcomic/PennyArcade Child's Play]]. Finally, two weeks after the game's release, [=BioWare=] announced they'd be releasing an extended version of the endings to (hopefully) clear up everything that happened.
** While the new scenes did introduce some additional plot holes, most jarring parts of the fan complaints about the original ending were addressed, though opinions vary on how successful they were. A couple of major {{Retcon}}s went a long way to mollifying the fanbase upset over the InferredHolocaust of the original ending (things aren't nearly as bad as FridgeHorror believed).
** The Citadel DLC is also an example. Among other things, it addressed the biggest non-ending related complaint about the game, which was the relative lack of time given to most of the surviving ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' squad, particularly the love interests. While none of them figure into the main plot of the DLC, a slew of additional scenes were added with all of them, which were all well-received by fans for the most part. The Thane-related content seems to be the most divisive, though, especially among Thanemancers. [[spoiler: Kolyat and Shepard hold a funeral for him at the apartment. While the funeral itself seems to be liked, some feel that it's [[MoodWhiplash jarring]] given the otherwise goofy and lighthearted tone of the DLC. And while Thanemancers had their grievances addressed for the most part, the romanced content created something of a BrokenBase. Some are angry that the DLC only starts after his death, thus robbing them of additional interactions with him. Ghost!Thane showing up Patrick Swayze-style at the end of the DLC is widely seen as {{Narm}}y, even by people who generally liked the content]].
* After Creator/MicrosoftStudios received a massive InternetCounterattack about several poorly received features on the new UsefulNotes/XboxOne, [[http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update they released a statement]] detailing changes made for damage control, such as no universal DRM on used games and no required 24-hour internet checkup, even though it still needs an initial internet connection to set up.
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars Operation Extend'' is possibly being one after the monumental failure ''VideoGame/HeroesPhantasia'' was, as ''Manga/KeroroGunsou'' (who appeared in that game) appears in SRW, despite appearing in another crossover game less than a year ago, and despite ''Manga/KeroroGunsou'' NOT being (technically) a {{Mecha}} series per se.
* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' did it with Mega Evolutions, powering up Pokémon that were well-liked (particularly Charizard) but otherwise useless in competitive battle.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' it's explicitly stated that Pokémon training is consensual for both parties, and that the reason Pokémon have to be weakened before capture is actually a SecretTestOfCharacter on the ''Pokémon's'' part, in order to prove that the trainer is worthy of them. This may be an attempt at damage control toward the accusations that the series glamorizes blood sports like cock and dogfighting.
** [[EnsembleDarkhorse/{{Pokemon}} Mewtwo]] was, for years, depicted as a {{Badass}} [[OlympusMons god-like]] BloodKnight [[SingleSpecimenSpecies who is one of a kind]]. His depiction in ''[[Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie Mewtwo Strikes Back]]'' in particular ''made'' Mewtwo in the eyes of many. So when ''[[Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened Genesect and the Legend Awakened]]'' featured a brand new Mewtwo who was [[LighterAndSofter softer and more feminine]] than the original... [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute it]] [[PlotHole was]] [[ReplacementScrappy not]] [[InternetBackdraft received]] [[BaseBreaker well]]. In the wake of this, official materials (such as the fourth ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' game and the official Pokémon website) started to play up the BloodKnight persona used in the games and the first movie, while neglecting to reference the softer Mewtwo seen in ''Genesect''.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': One of the reasons Soulstorm was so disliked was the legendarily bad performance by the SpaceMarines commander Indrick Boreale. Come ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Dawn of War 2]]'', Cyrus [[MultipleEndings confirms]] that Boreale died in the previous game and cost the Chapter a large chunk of their manpower. And in Chaos Rising, he cites Boreale again [[spoiler:if he's the traitor, believing that the Chapter is no longer worth obeying if it promotes complete idiots to important ranks.]]
** A non-complaining-inspired example: When the trailer for Chaos Rising came out, it was widely speculated that one of the Chaos Space Marines in the trailer was Eliphas the Inheritor, the charismatic Chaos Lord from Dark Crusade. Only problem was that Eliphas' ending cutscene in the game has him ripped apart by a daemon, specifically citing that he had no chance of redemption. So they transferred Eliphas to a new legion with a mission from Abaddon the Despoiler (the Warmaster of Chaos) himself.
* The [[UpdatedRerelease HD Remake]] of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' addressed two of the biggest complaints lobbied at the original game; the Triforce quest and sailing. For the former, the fetch quest was reduced to finding three shards in the ocean instead of the original eight while with the latter, a new sail was created the increased the speed of Link's boat without having to constantly change the wind direction.
* The "Burial At Sea" DLC for ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' addresses a major complaint many had about the first game; namely that Daisy Fitzroy was depicted [[HeWhoFightsMonsters as supposedly being just as evil as Comstock]], despite being a black freedom fighter trying to destroy a racist regime that oppresses and murders her people. The DLC serves to make her more sympathetic and {{retcon}}s the details of her death, making it into a HeroicSacrifice.
* VideoGame/StarTrekOnline
** At least two for {{canon}} occurrences:
*** Several missions put you in contact with {{Non Player Character}}s interested in the Hobus supernova (the one that destroyed Romulus), all of which say things that boil down to "yeah, this doesn't make one damn bit of sense", which it didn't. An arc reveals [[spoiler:the supernova and its FTL blast wave were the result of a weapon deployed by Romulan Admiral (then Praetor) Taris at the behest of alien "dark masters", a.k.a. the Iconians.[[note]]A counterpart arc in the Romulan Republic storyline has her claim that she didn't ''know'' it was a weapon, and that she was deceived by Hakeev, her science officer at the time.[[/note]]]] This is a take-off from the new movie's prequel-comic ''Countdown''.
*** The game also acknowledges that Data is alive and commanded the ''Enterprise''-E after Picard finally retired. This is explained in ''[[InGameNovel The Path to 2409]]'' and the tie-in novel ''Literature/TheNeedsOfTheMany'': Data's memories that were transferred to B-4 toward the end of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' were activated, essentially restoring Data within B-4's body. Data was quite pissed about this, disagreeing that his life was worth more than B-4's, and it contributed to his decision to resign from Starfleet after the ''Enterprise''-E's destruction, rather than command the ''Enterprise''-F. In the ''Star Trek Magazine'' short story "Unexpected Honor" he's briefly shown trying to make a new body for B-4.
** Cryptic did it again after they introduced the Voth. While shooting dinosaurs "with freaking laser beams attached to their heads" was fun, it was controversial at best from a story standpoint (actual armored vehicles [[BoringButPractical would make a hell of a lot more sense]]). In Season 9, the Voth are defeated in the Dyson Sphere by the Undine, bringing back a popular but underused threat.
** Among the reasons the season 9 Undine lockbox ships were hated was the {{fanon}} idea that Undine ships were themselves intelligent beings,[[note]]The canon doesn't actually say anything one way or the other.[[/note]] which led to the theory that forcing them to now obey Feds, Klingons, and Romulans required MindRape. ''Delta Rising'''s first mission, "Mindscape", included a line from Tuvok that ''most'' Undine ships were in fact something like tools (Eric Cooper's command ship in the mission is an exception), no more sentient than a normal starship.
[[folder: Web Comics ]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Collar 6}}''. After the drugging incident, Wolfe took two months real-time having the characters discuss how dysfunctional their relationship had become.
* ''Webcomic/CollegeRoomiesFromHell'': early on in the comic, Maritza wanted to kill off Dave, but there was such an outrage among the fans that she decided to [[BackFromTheDead bring him back]]. Thank God.
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* In ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'', Madison Conner's FaceHeelTurn and subsequent AxCrazy rampage was explained to have been because she suffers from bipolar disorder, which had been hinted at but never elaborated on. It didn't work too well.
* The creepypasta HappyAppy, which was experiencing a massive drop in quality due to the {{Narm}}iness of the later posts, decided to remove all posts that weren't by Dronian. It became better as a result.
* The [=NChick=] team were getting a lot of flack over the "Nella abuse", which FanDumb took way too seriously and thought it was happening in real life. So Lindsay made a "Thanks For Your Feedback", detailing that WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick had sinfully low self-esteem and was paying Nella to make her look better. This seems to have also influenced "the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Dark Nella]] Saga," where the [[PowersViaPossession evil entity possessing Nella]] gets revenge on the Chick for all the hell she put her through. (Note that the "Nella abuse" has pretty much stopped since the Saga ended.)
* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'' writer Lewis Lovhaug acknowledged in the commentary of "Pokémon: Manga/TheElectricTaleOfPikachu" during The Entity storyline [[spoiler: why [[GlitchCharacter Missingno]] was afraid of Lord Vyce, aware that with how he built it up as an unstoppable universe devouring Lovecraftian demon. He used the plot that Vyce's attacks were able to hurt it, but, according to Missingno, at least, couldn't kill it, but found getting rid off him to be enough of an inconvenience that it hid out in our dimension so Linkara would defeat Vyce. Note that even Lewis comments that Vyce not being able to kill it was at least from Missingo's point of view, and [[AGodAmI Missingno is full of itself even for a god]].]]
[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* "Janine, You've Changed" from ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' is generally considered to be one of the most tragically hilarious attempts at this ever made; the show's former writer, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski, is asked to come back and try to explain all the design changes made to a member of the secondary cast over the years. The end result... was actually fairly funny, had a pretty era-relevant Aesop for female viewers and had a bit of [[ShipTease payoff]] for long-time watchers. That it needed [[ExecutiveMeddling to be done at all]] is where the tragedy lies.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' Cyborg was always shown firing his sonic ArmCannon from his right arm, until one day he used his left. Fans pointed out this apparent plot hole, and some time later, during a crucial fight, he simply converts ''both'' arms to cannons. It's hard to tell whether it was planned or this trope, since it makes perfect sense that he can convert both arms, and is simply right-dominant.
* The FullyAbsorbedFinale for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' had it revealed that [[spoiler: CADMUS had overwritten Warren [=McGinnis=]' genetic material with that of Bruce Wayne, making him Terry and Matt's biological father]]. According to [[WordOfGod the creators]], this was due to a realization on their part that the boys' black hair is genetically improbable given Mary's hair is red and Warren's light brown. Fanon also takes this as an explanation for why the [=McGinnis=] parents were amicably divorced--Warren suspected Mary of infidelity, straining the marriage, but without any actual infidelity taking place there wasn't much room for real animosity.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', a two-part episode (The Savage Time) revolves around the Justice League trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong after ComicBook/VandalSavage usurps control of the Nazis and uses them to conquer the world by way of time travel. They succeed, but the episode ends with [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct Hitler about to be cryogenically defrosted and restored to power]]. This led to a massive fan-outcry, to the widespread FridgeHorror that this implied the Justice League had blithely ''restored the Holocaust'' in the process of returning to their own world. It got so bad the produces [[WordOfGod publicly stated]] that Vandal's manipulations meant that Hitler had neither the time nor the resources to enact the Holocaust, having been frozen before he could start and then put back in charge during the end of the Nazis' reign over Germany.
* In order to make his HeelFaceTurn work, Kevin 11's character was changed from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' to ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', going from an AxCrazy [[TheSociopath sociopath]] to a [[ReformedCriminal perfectly sane]] JerkWithAHeartOfGold. His powers were also different; from absorbing energy to absorbing physical matter. All of ''Alien Force'' passed with no explanation. ''Finally'', in ''Ben10UltimateAlien,'' it was revealed that Kevin is half Osmosian and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity absorbing energy turns Osmosians insane]]; undergoing the tutelage of TheObiWan when imprisoned taught him to suppress that side by absorbing physical matter. Thus, the explanation behind Kevin's conflicting character presentations and use of powers was finally given a plausible explanation.
** They also fixed another problem: in the [[WesternAnimation/{{Ben10}} original series]] Kevin claimed he had no parents, with Alien Force in fact revealing that his dad was a Plumber & he knew his mom. It was later revealed that, his mom & stepfather had thrown him out of the house after his Osmosian powers manifested themselves and nearly blew up the place; so in a sense, he really didn't have any parents, since they disowned him.
** ''Also,'' [[EasilyForgiven there was the problem of the others trusting Kevin so quickly in Alien Force]], as if he hadn't been someone who [[Film/TheDarkKnight just wants to watch the world burn]] last time they'd seen him. A later TimeTravel adventure has young Ben meet the new Kevin, and it's explained that though he won't remember it clearly (hence Teen Ben not having experienced any of it as Kid Ben) he'll remember it vaguely, as if a dream... and just enough to perhaps trust Kevin when they meet again. Ironically, in this episode, [[spoiler: Kevin is forced to absorb the Omnitrix's energy once more in this episode, and becomes Ben and Gwen's enemy again. Ben seems ''really'' quick to decide "Ultimate Kevin" is irredeemable.]]
** Also, Gwen's powers. It got overshadowed by the new Kevin being a horse pill of galactic proportions, but in the original series, Gwen was learning magic, casting the spells she learned in the spell book she nicked from magical villainess Charmcaster. Alien Force sees her creating pink force fields, period, like a Green Lantern without the ability to make more complex shapes, and her abilities were revealed to be due to alien heritage. Again, UA makes it make more sense: spellcasting is ''one'' way of channeling her alien powers. It's around this point that she starts to use spells again instead of all force fields all the time, and in flashbacks to the original series era, a mostly spell-focused young Gwen also adds force fields to her repertoire. We still get no word on why it went from blue to pink between seasons. Apparently her energy colors changed out of the blue (no pun intended) between the final episode of the original series and the earliest-set flashback to its era.
** It should be noted however that most of these problems were addressed by Creator/{{Dwayne|McDuffie}} [[WordOfGod McDuffie]] on the Q&A part of his website long before the respected episodes aired.
* Inverted in what fans of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' have dubbed "[[{{Scandalgate}} Derpygate]]," where the creators of the show changed the voice acting in a scene where beloved [[RecurringExtra background pony]] Derpy Hooves is given spoken lines. A small group of parents protested this scene, finding it offensive (the name "Derpy" and the voice acting, which was a misunderstanding where the VA thought the character was male). The studio took the original episode off of iTunes and replaced it with one where Derpy's voice was changed and her name was not mentioned. This was the point where [[InternetBackdraft the fandom revolted]], leading to [[http://www.savederpy.com quite]] [[http://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-studios-the-hub-return-derpy-s-scene-in-the-last-roundup-to-normal a]] [[http://www.change.org/petitions/save-derpy-and-hasbros-creative-process few]] [[https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23SaveDerpy webpages]] calling for the scene to be changed back. Eventually, [[OldShame the creators apologized to both sides]]. After being absent for most of Season Three, Derpy was finally re-inserted during the season finale.
** At the end of [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E21DragonQuest "Dragon Quest"]], Spike takes Peewee, a baby phoenix, from his parents and adopted him. Many fans complained about the kidnapping and the BrokenAesop because the same episode began with Spike complaining about not knowing where he comes from. In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E8JustForSidekicks "Just for Sidekicks"]], it is revealed that Spike returned the phoenix to his parents. However this again [[BrokenBase has not been unanimously welcomed]], due to how abrupt this felt, leading to some people thinking TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter.
** After Meghan [=McCarthy=] gave a poorly thought out statement that indicated she thought becoming a princess was something ''every'' girl dreams of, and was bombarded with complaints about how reductive that was, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E1PrincessTwilightSparklePart1 "Princess Twilight Sparkle"]] features the tomboy Rainbow Dash saying it's not the case. Though due to AnimationLeadTime, chances were that RD's line had always been there.
** A lot of the fanbase wasn't happy with how Season 3 portrayed Spike as being quite incompetent (in "Spike at Your Service" he causes massive damage whenever he tries to help, and in "Just for Sidekicks" he screws up pet-sitting so badly that he ends up on a train in another country). As a result, the season 4 episode "Power Ponies" is pretty much based on the premise that Spike ''is'' helpful and the rest of the cast don't view him as TheLoad.
** A number of fans were angry that Spike wasn't invited back to the Crystal Empire in "Games Ponies Play", even though he was the one who saved it. ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E24EquestriaGames Equestria Games]]'' reveals that Spike is considered a hero throughout the entire kingdom. It also gives him a lot of appreciation, something that, according to the fans, almost every Spike centered episode -- including Equestria Girls -- after the Season 3 Premiere seriously lacked.
** For those opposed to Twilight becoming an alicorn princess, a commonly cited argument was that it felt like the show was putting Twilight above her friends, which they felt not only seemed like favouritism from the writers, but went against the show's defining theme of friendship. The revelation in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 Twilight's Kingdom Part 2]]'' that Twilight's friends ''including Spike'' will apparently be ruling alongside her in her role as the Princess of Friendship may be an attempt to address this.
** "Keep Calm and Flutter On" received lots of complaints that Discord's HeelFaceTurn was rushed and unconvincing. This got an especially well done throw across the whole of the next season, which showed that despite not actively trying to rule the world anymore, he's still a jerk who [[TheFriendNobodyLikes none of the Mane Six besides Fluttershy are ever happy to see]]. Then the season finale does a much more convincing job of making the turn stick, as Tirek talks him into [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor turning evil again]], only for him to realize how empty their partnership is compared to his friendship with Fluttershy, and [[WelcomeBackTraitor come crawling back to her after Tirek betrays him]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Kenny was killed off for the sixth season and the status quo was experimented with. By the last scene of the season finale, Kenny inexplicably walks back in because, in [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Trey Parker's]] own words, "that's just what he does." However, the big change in the status quo (Butters as the fifth main character) stuck; it's just "unofficial". "The Coon Saga", [[CerebusRetcon gave an explanation]] for his continual appearance; Kenny turns out to be [[spoiler: the heroic Mysterion, a "superhero" in South Park with the power to be reborn continually after death; his mother ''spontaneously gives birth to a new Kenny after the last one's death'', which then proceeds to grow to the previous one's age. And he remembers everything, but everyone else forgets his death almost instantly.]]
* The Japanese dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' tried to pull an inverted PoorMansSubstitute by replacing the cast used in the regular series with bigger-name actors, but fell straight into TheOtherDarrin instead, forcing them to try and make up for it by redubbing the movie with the original cast for DVD.
* Some fans say the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "The Cent Of Money" is this for having Mr. Krabs, whose been a KarmaHoudini for the past few seasons, finally getting some comeuppance. It can also make up for "A Pal For Gary", as [=SpongeBob=] is being overly protective of him here instead of being a jerk to him.
* The final episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' seemed to do everything to eliminate the Noops' {{Designated Hero}}es status, with Zordrak taking on a far more malicious motive to steal the Dreamstone (to corrupt it and make himself Lord Of The Universe!) and the Urpneys are established as {{Punch Clock Villain}}s rather than unwilling slaves killed for failure, thus eliminating the FelonyMisdemeanor setup. The Noops' retaliations are also downplayed into harmless mischief, using violence only when legitimately cornered (at least one episode ends on a BreakTheHaughty moment for reverting to their earlier more sadistic approach) and more episodes present them as altruistic to outside parties the villains are harassing. Interestingly this is all done while barely diluting or altering anything of the Urpneys' personalities.
* The extensive LoveTriangle subplot between Korra, Mako, and Asami in Book 1 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' was widely panned as bring rushed, getting in the way of the real story involving the Equalists, and ultimately feeling shallow and unsatisfying. So Book 2 included a healthy dosage of RealityEnsues. Korra and Mako end up having trouble seeing eye to eye, they argue all the time, and eventually break up. In the aftermath, Mako bounces back to Asami, but even that doesn't last long. In the end, he doesn't get back with either girl and they all conclude that they work BetterAsFriends.
** WordOfGod also helps [[http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/105916338157/korrasami-is-canon-you-can-celebrate-it-embrace salvage the Love Triangle even existing in the first place]]: [[PortmanteauCoupleName Masami and Makorra]] were never intended to last long-term. The former was only constant through Book 1 until the break-up, and the latter was meant to be endgame until they were renewed, at which point they deliberately decided to break them up for good at the end of Book 2. Bryan also explains that despite Mako being a {{Jerkass}} in his treatment of both his girlfriends, it was a learning experience for him and when he eventually does end up in another relationship (he ends the series alone, MarriedToTheJob for now), he will treat his next girlfriend a lot better. Indeed, fan consensus in that Books 3 & 4 successfully saw him RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, so while he's still not a fan favorite he's become far more popular for the right reasons. Furthermore, Books 3 and 4 saw the development of [[spoiler:Korra and Asami]] as the OfficialCouple, a development which pleased much of the fanbase because the relationship was considered far more healthy and functional than the previous pairings (as well as Bolin/Opal as the BetaCouple, giving Bolin a more stable relationship than he had with Eska in Book 2).
*** Season 4 featured a ClipShow episode with three segments. The first segment is exclusively dedicated to Mako's messy love life, with side characters pointing out all the mistakes that Mako made. Mako ends up agreeing with them and admitting his mistakes. The whole segment was basically an apology to the fans.

subset: commoncrawl