Retcon

"Everything you know is wrong
Black is white, up is down and short is long
And everything you thought was just so
Important doesn't matter
Everything you know is wrong
Just forget the words and sing along
All you need to understand is
Everything you know is wrong"

– Weird Al

Retcons, a portmanteau of "retroactive continuity", are what make Neckbeards rage the most. Where continuity changes in the form of metaplot are hamhanded enough, retcons go the full Orwell in telling readers the whole past was wrong.

In the world of /tg/, retcons usually stem from fluff that the writers and publishers decide isn't necessary or in the flavor of the setting it is being retconned from... or when a new writer decides that certain fluff doesn't fit with his ideas and conception of how things "ought to" be, without considering the universe he is screwing with first. Or when a company wants to make money on new models and decides to wreak havoc on their pre-established setting and their history and timeline to do so. Or both.

Retcon is tolerable when the "newly unearthed" lore has no way of affecting the lore already established. Here, WGR3: Rary the Traitor's excavation of Sulm in the Bright Desert: before then, nobody gave a shit about the Bright Desert, so didn't mind that Anthony Pryor had made said space-filling wasteland (marginally) interesting. (That module had some serious problems; but the retcon wasn't one of them.)

When done wrong a retcon removes depth and character from the setting. That setting's fans will conclude that the people controlling the source material are incompetent, abusive to the universe and (worst of all) make good things die. They have raped the good goddess Mimesis.

Many people tend to use the word "retcon" inappropriately, especially here on this site. The term only applies to new fluff which erases the previously standing old fluff, as opposed to fluff which was conceived out of thin air and erases nothing, but sucks really bad. It also does not mean fluff which is built around old fluff and, in the process, destroys the value of the standing fluff to a point where it no longer means anything of value within the new context. That, my friends, is a Wardcon.

The term "doublethink" from the book '1984' refers to what is effectively retconning on a societal and historical level.

GW and Retcons

GW's stance on canon has, for many years, been not to actually discuss any issue of canon or lore. The universal quote can be thought of as "Everything is canon, just not always true" and some staff have pretty much said EXACTLY this.

This was developed as a view, quite sensibly, in the early days of GW to stop arguments and fights over lore in their stores - especially at a time when WHFB was a mess and Rogue Trader did not know what it was yet and so lore conflicts and what appeared in publications often conflicted or seemed out of context.

Every-time you see a group of neckbeards at each others bushy throats or a web forum descends into chaos, you would serve the community well in reminding them of this.

No-one is right, no-one is wrong - the galaxy is a vast place and full of warp magic; if it can be conceived by the human mind, it's happened somewhere. Just stop bitching at one another and have fun...

Here's just a few of the quotes and who they came from over the years

"With Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, the notion of canon is a fallacy. [...] Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 exist as tens of thousands of overlapping realities in the imaginations of games developers, writers, readers and gamers. None of those interpretations is wrong." Gav Thorpe, Lead Designer GW

"It all stems from the assumption that there's a binding contract between author and reader to adhere to some nonexistent subjective construct or 'true' representation of the setting. There is no such contract, and no such objective truth." (See comments section) Andy Hoare, Game Designer GW

"There is no canon. There are several hundred creators all adding to the melting pot of the IP." Aaron Dembski-Bowden, co-author Horus Heresy series

"Here's our standard line: Yes it's all official, but remember that we're reporting back from a time where stories aren't always true, or at least 100% accurate. If it has the 40K logo on it, it exists in the 40K universe. Or it was a legend that may well have happened. Or a rumour that may or may not have any truth behind it." Marc Gascogne, chief editor Black Library

With this in mind, it's common for people to still refer to conflicts as "retcons" but please bear in mind, this is a GW universe and almost NOTHING is ever canon enough to argue about anyway...

Note; this mindset of “Everything is canon” (actual words spoken by the franchise’s twitter account, yes, we know.) could also apply to Sonic the hedgehog‘s canon due to it’s fractured nature (don’t tell the lorefags this.), but that’s a whole Can of worms not even WE are brave enough to open

Notable Retcons

In Dungeons and Dragons

• The Phlogiston in Spelljammer is no longer, superseded by the Astral Plane with Wildspace rolled in.

In Fantasy Battle

• Half-Orcs.
• Most of the Nippon lore.
• Also most Cathay lore indirectly, especially when it was later stated that there has only ever been only one Dragon Emperor, who is an actual dragon, with all other Emperors mentioned either turning into ancient rulers before Xen Huong took power by dint of the fact that he is a dragon or one of Xen's titles being misinterpreted by Old World scholars.
• Sea Elves as a separate race, not just High Elven traders and colonists.
• The entire backstory of Eltharion.
• The pre-Sylvania history of Vlad von Carstein.
• Slaaneshi worship amongst the Dark Elves was changed to a worship of minor Elven god Athari, although Total War: WARHAMMER brought some elements of the former back.
• Incestuous relationship between Malekith and Morathi
• Slanns went from being regular frogmen that employed several races as their slave-warriors (including Pygmies and Lizardmen) and who were decadent descendants of the Old Ones to a super-magic fat ass toads that are subspecies of Lizardmen.
• THE PYGMIES. And good riddance to that because that particular joke went way too far. Just look at their article here. Or don't for mental health.
• Gnomes (yes, they exist in Warhammer) went from being a reskin of Dwarfs to a reskin of Halflings before gaining some level of uniqueness in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition.
• Bretonnia is the worst offender of this: initially it was described as a Bourbon-style decadent kingdom, but when it was promoted to a playable faction, it became the stereotypical Arthurian realm. Though it eventually regained grimdark/grimderp elements, sitting half way between classic pre-Revolution decadent kingdom and Arthurian chivalry land, some lords are genuine noble heroes, others kills peasants for getting near or even looking at their Pegasi. Plus some general negative Medieval stereotypes.
• Storm of Chaos was retconned into oblivion after the End Times started.

In Age of Sigmar

• Seraphon being a form of star daemons or something. Now only some of them are.
• What Nagash was doing before the Age of Sigmar (the time period, not the setting).
• The composition of the forces of Death and those of Destruction.
• How Slaanesh's Newborn daemons were defeated in Broken Realms: Kragnos.

In 40k

• SQUATS (Thanks to 6th edition, they are mentioned to exist and 9th edition saw them fully return as the Leagues of Votann).
• Valedictors and Rainbow Warriors being First Founding Chapters.
• Necrons being Terminators IN SPACE instead of Tomb Kings IN SPACE. They have been dubbed the Retcrons for this very reason. This wasn't their first retcon, as back in 2nd they were Chaos robots.
• C'tan being superdeath gods of superdeath and Just as planned, and now being shiny space-pokemon (made out of said gods).
• Zoats and those weird Tyranid diplomats, and Tyranids being a race of individuals with leather-strap clothing and mechanical technology...
  • The Zoats would eventually be confirmed as still surviving in some capacity, as one shows up in the Blackstone Fortress game.
• The Lone Guardsman being, you know, a guardsman, the great Ollanius Pius. (Apparently Fantasy Flight Games has brought him back. They're awesome like that.)
• A metric ton of goofy Orkish stuff, which, oddly enough, few people missed. Mostly because Ork canon does what it pleases.
• Sisters of Battle not sucking (since they got unique Magic System: Acts of Faith). 8th Edition's overhaul has seen this actually un-retconned by making them more than just some vestigial army.
• Ultramarines being BRITS IN SPAAAACE.
• Hrud being RATS IN SPAAAACE. They got cooler, though.
• Asdrubael Vect's bitches.
• Space Marines being COPS IN SPAAAACE.
• Jain Zar's origin, she lied to Asurmen before coming clean.
• Giving reasons for why Grey Knight would fight non-chaos groups.
• Goff Rockaz.
• Slann, if you think about it.
• 8th Edition ending the Indomitus Crusade. As the narrative went on, some of the writers had realized that there was quite a bit of a snarl in time if the crusade had ended after a mere decade and a half where only a handful of the goals were achieved only for a few centuries to pass until the 'present'. Come 9th Edition, the Crusade was retconned to still being ongoing, just in a different manner without Guilliman at the forefront. To solidify this, Black Library would release revised versions of the Dark Imperium and Plague War novels, dialing the clock back a hundred years or so. Now, the First Phase ended with the Battle of Raukos and the last remaining veteran core of Unnumbered Sons being split and while the crusade remains ongoing.

In Star Wars

• Everything - well, not everything, just all material that was not found in the first six movies and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but only the CGI animated television show and movie (not the preceding 2D animated television show or the Dark Horse comics series). Although it should be noted that both series came to an unceremonious and sudden end after being acquired by the House of Mouse... not that it keeps them from resurrecting the now-designated "Legends" for newer products. Even then, that hasn't stopped them from picking and choosing what they want to build their own hacked-together continuity.

Notables Rendered Unto Non-Existence:

• Kyle Katarn (and by extension also Jan Ors, his love interest, as well both his disciples Jaden Korr and Rosh Penin). Notable for being a double retcon, since his opening act, Dark Forces, wasn't canon at release.
• Mara Jade (and by extension the concept of "Hands of the Emperor" plus all of Luke's descendants, starting with their son Ben Skywalker).
• Revan
• Meetra Surik (aka the Jedi Exile)
• Durge as an ancient, near-unkillable alien bounty hunter.
• The KOTOR and SWTOR plotlines and everyone involved.
  • Most notably Darth Vitiate, HK-47, Bastille Shan and Mission Vao.
• Darth Talon
• Galen Marek / Starkiller (though it can be argued if The Force Unleashed was entirely canon to begin with, LucasArts explicitly noted gameplay mechanics are not canon even before the Legends continuity was separated, and the TFU story was later given through a comic book)
• A'sharad Hett/Darth Kryat
• Kyp Durron
• Corran Horn
• Wraith Squadron
• Abeloth and everything about The Ones relating to her.
• All of Han's and Leia's descendants (although Kylo Ren rips him off is based on their first son, Jacen Solo).
• The Yuuzhan Vong
• The Sith as a Race.
• Korriban - it's now "Moraband." It's More Bad.
• Most of Boba Fett's badassery after he escaped the Sarlacc's stomach.
• Canderous Ordo
• Nomi Sunrider
• Dash Rendar (Dubiously. His ship sorta gets a cameo in the remaster of A New Hope)
• Ysalamiri (Dubiously. Thrawn has statues of them in Rebels)
• Exar Kun
• Leia and Han's continuing Marriage.
• Pretty much everything even remotely awesome about non-movie Sith barring that one illusion of Darth Bane in TCW.
  • Some ancient Sith Lords who make up 99% of the aforementioned awesomeness.
• Luke Skywalker's awesomeness.
  • Actually, Luke Skywalker not being a loser who almost murdered his 15 year old nephew who desperately needed help for literally no reason but the Dark Side tempting him. Legends Luke forgave his nephew for becoming Darth Caedus even after he murdered Luke's wife (said nephew went through so much shit it is arguably more justified than even Anakin's fall). Guy had a genuinely understanding compassion.
• Gilad Pellaeon
• About 75% of Thrawn's awesomeness, the 25% left made him the only interesting non-Force-using Rebels character.
• Most of the history and lore around the Noghri race (though Thrawn's Noghri bodyguard Rukh appeared, he was killed off in Rebels).
• The eventual peace between the New Republic and the Empire.
• George Lucas's dignity. (South Park called it. True weird facts about history: that keeps being true.)

In Dungeons & Dragons

• The Spellplague.
• Everything that happened in the Dark Sun novels was eventually retconned away by the 4e setting book and permanently banished through Eberron-style anti-continuity.

In Warcraft, including World of Warcraft

• Nearly everything, that is NOT an exageration. This is what happens when you turn a great RTS series into an incredible MMO but the staff quality declines over time.

Notable characters, places, events or forces retconned:

• The Eredar/Draenei's origins and nature.
• Elune's power, goals and sphere of influence as a goddess.
  • Originally she was a mystery, then revealed to have power over every cosmic force, possibly even being the Warcraft universe's Creator God. Then she seems reduced to being the Life equivalent of a Titan.
• The Worgen's nature and origins. From hellhounds to druid curse werewolves.
• The origins of the Lich King, his sword and his helm. While a less sweeping change in the scope of the setting, this is one of the more hated retcons due to how much the Lich King character is beloved by the fanbase.
• The Light's morality and goals, or at least definitely the Naaru's.
  • This is one of the big ones, as originally the Light was one of the fundamental forces of creation and the Naaru its hope bringing agents... with the hoary old fanatic story arc shoe-horned in, starting with making the most powerful Naaru encountered thus far Illidan's cheerleader then punching bag/jobber. While this was better received initially partially because the Naaru are not fan-favorites like the Lich King, but the change has since become increasingly divisive with hindsight.
• The morality of the Titans.
  • Another big change, but less controversial because it was done in a more subtle way than the ham-fisted approach used on the Naaru.
• The power level of the Old Gods, who flip-flopped from universe-ending parasites to lovecraftian monsters but getting literally crushed in the palm of a Titan's hand.
• Whether the Orcs were aggressive and bloodthirsty before or after the Burning Legion's influence. Which got downplayed whenever the devs and marketing department wanted to shill the Orcs.
• The nature of undeath (repeatedly), particular whether it makes you evil or not and how that happens.
• How the Shadowlands and afterlives work.
  • This is another of the big ones, as the Shadowlands went from a gray version of the mortal world and domain of the loa to what we see in the expansion of the same name, with various afterlives connected by a portal network centered in a floating city and the literal Hell of the Warcraft universe being a giant black hole.
• The origins of the Well of Eternity.
• The Deflias Brotherhood conflict.
• The origins, nature and goals of the Nathrezim.
• Where the Scourge got their distinctive architecture from.
• Medivh's backstory and goals.
• Illidan's personality, backstory and goals (twice).
• Sylvanas' personality, backstory and goals (repeatedly).
• Garrosh Hellscream's personality, motives and goals.
• The circumstances of King Llane's assassination by Garona.
• Whether demons can be permanently killed and how to do it.
• Sargeras' backstory and motives.
• How many Blood Elves followed Kael'thas into Outland.
• Which characters are dead, and which ones are alive.
• The amount of blue and black dragons left on Azeroth (repeatedly).

In BattleTech

• With few exceptions, the materials from Battle Technology magazines are considered non-canon.
• Other than that, the developers try very hard not to do major and blatant 180s with the canon, to the point that they try to justify/acknowledge/retool crappy stuff from that clicky game when converting them into the BattleTech proper. For anything else, they rely on the in-universe unreliability of sourcebooks to explain mini-retcons. Ex: The crappy cartoon becoming a crappy propaganda cartoon in-universe with the real events being covered in books and with a few characters migrating to BattleTech proper, most notably Adam Steiner.
• One major retcon came early on due to necessity as the game was made when the USSR hadn't collapsed yet. The retcon was that in the 80's a fictional hardliner inherits Soviet leadership instead of the real life government and this causes the USSR to survive until the 2010's, which also causes NATO to unify into the Western Alliance and after the Second Soviet Civil War's aftermath and a deal with China to reform into the Terran Alliance as the first global government, providing the initial backstory of the setting and the reasons why the colonial planets and the inner planets have longstanding enmity.
• Something that didn't affect the plot, but the artwork and designs: Long story short, there was a legal row over using artwork of licensed designs and this caused BattleTech to pull their designs while stile confirming they existed in lore, making them the Unseen. Eventually they decided "Screw it, we are retconning the appearances." and redesigned them. A summary of the affair can be seen in the Unseen page on the Sarna wiki, Battletech's main wiki.

In Robocop

• PG-13.
• CGI.

In DC Comics

• Just about everything when they feel like it.
• Just about everything when they're in Alternate Universe mode, which is surprisingly often.
• Just about everything pre-1956.
• Just about everything pre-1986.
• Just about everything pre-2011.
• Just about everything pre-204X, presumably.
• There were some smaller scale Retcon storms in between, but those are the big ones.