Jossed

Martha: I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something.

The Doctor: ... You've been watching too much TV.
—Doctor Who

A fan gets Jossed when the elaborate Epileptic Trees or Fanfic that they've lovingly built upon canonical elements is abruptly disproved by further canon or by the Word of God. Named after Joss Whedon; Buffy the Vampire Slayer was notorious for this, as fans would come up with detailed and elaborate theories or plots during summer hiatuses, most of which got completely thrown out within three episodes of the new season.

May lead to Fanon Discontinuity when disgruntled Fans prefer their own Fanon to official facts. In extreme cases critics and fans may invoke Death of the Author to preserve their interpretation of events.

This trope has two opposites: I Knew It!, where the fan theory is proven to be true by a twist that was planned all along, and Sure Why Not, where the author decides to promote some Fanon elements to Canon status.

The inverse of this trope is Shrug of God, where the author refuses to say that one answer is more "correct" than another.

Note: In some circles, the term "Jossed" refers to a gutwrenching main character death, which Joss Whedon is also famous for. This definition entered the populace when during a Q&A session at an Australian university, a young Aussie girl noted his tendency to do horrible things to on-screen couples, and to much laughter, said "We call it getting 'Jossed'".

Also note: On the Wild Mass Guessing pages, please don't simply post "Jossed" after WMGs that have been disproven. To do so is to create something similar to a Zero Context Example. Add some content about it explaining why, and also consider leaving the "Jossed" off.

Examples of Jossed include:

Anime & Manga

  • The new OVA-verse Tenchi Muyo! installments jossed many of the assumptions the fanbase had come to hold dear—for instance, that Tenchi's Bumbling Dad Nobuyuki was a Muggles, instead of being in on the Masquerade with Katsuhito/Yosho. Fans tend to ignore the new installment, but usually not because of the Jossing.
  • Pokémon's been particularly vulnerable to Jossing in later seasons: "Ash will get Buizel" (Dawn does, but Ash does trade for it later), "Ash will get Hippopotas" (nobody does), "Ash will get Shieldon" (same), "Paul is a starting trainer (he's been a trainer as long as Ash has)".
    • Probably one of the biggest josses for the fandom was the DP episode that finally revealed once and for all that Pikachu is Male, shooting down a lot of fans who assumed the opposite.
    • A rescent BW episode officially confirmed that pokemon in the anime can only learn 4 moves total.
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch:
    • Caren, Noel and Coco, upon their return in the middle of season two, will get their own plot arc and be important again. (Jossed by the first episode in which they reappear, in which it is blatantly pointed out that they can't defeat a member of the new Quirky Miniboss Squad to themselves, and have to go be comic relief. They do, however, get a brief shining moment in the manga.)
    • Lucia and Kaito will get a duet. (Became more and more likely when an extra song called "Birth of Love" was announced on the album. Then it was used in the show... as a new Seira song.)
    • The Great One is Michal. (Jossed by the episode with Rihito's concert.)
  • In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, almost all the fans were certain that Syaoran was the same Syaoran as in Cardcaptor Sakura, coming off as slightly reluctant to woo his obvious crush because he was already committed to her Alternate Universe-equivalent. Turns out, he isn't CCS Syaoran, but the son of an alternate universe version of CCS Syaoran, using his dad's name and abilities. He's been romancing an alternate universe clone of his mom...and always known about it. Cue the Abandon Shipping of a canon pairing by a decent chunk of the fanbase.
    • Actually his mother is the reincarnated clone of his girlfriend, which is not as squicky. Just confusing. It's better to just realize that they are both Syaorans and Sakuras in a very twisted world.
    • This has actually been even further Jossed, in that the theories spawned by finding out who his parents basically are (so to speak. Damn dimensional doubles.) were all wrong. The second Syaoran is actually the son of the clones reincarnated as opposed to the CCS couple, which has quite broken a lot of brains, thankyouverymuch.
  • In Code Geass, the popular fan theory that Lelouch faked his death at the end of the series has been Jossed in official materials released after the ending, as well as numerous interviews where the entire staff and cast says that he's dead for real. Then for good measure the Official Guide Book mentions it 5 times, and the special edition DVD replaces the entire last scene (which sparked the fan theory in the first place) with a monologue by C.C stating clearly that Lelouch is dead.
    • Well, not quite. The director has said he personally prefers Shrug of God with regards to this. But, the writer has pronounced him dead.
    • There were a select few in the fandom who continued to insist that Clovis should rise from the dead. Or more realistically(?) wind up alive for all that time, as a Geass-possessing Big Bad. There was a reason 4Channers rigged that character popularity poll...
  • One Piece: Boa Hancock being Luffy's mom was a pretty popular theory for a while, even though its only basis was that they sorta looked alike. (in a manga story where young-ish characters kind of look alike anyway.) It got Jossed when she fell in love with him.
    • This example is probably going to go down in history because of how obsessed fandom was with this theory at some point despite the utter lack of real evidence. Pretty embarrassing for a lot of people in retrospect.
    • Word of God has recently soundly jossed many theories surrounding Tashigi, including her being blood related to Kuina or her being Kuina brought back to life. Their being twins was an especially popular fandom theory for years, which is why it hasn't quite died yet despite said Word of God and a side story that explicitly showed that Kuina was an only child.
  • Hellsing. The true species of the Major ( he's a cyborg) was only introduced in the last chapters, and before that he was considered either a vampire or some weird magical human. And then of course in the aforementioned last chapters, almost everybody died.
  • Naruto Jossed a bunch of theories involving Akatsuki members Itachi, Pain, and Tobi when it turned out that Itachi was a good guy, Pain's true identity is Nagato, and Tobi is both Madara Uchiha and Akatsuki's true leader. Chapter 474 finally Jossed the theory of Danzo being Madara by merit of them facing off against each other.
    • While, later on in the series, Tobi turns out not to be Madara!
    • A lot of theories about the bijuu were Jossed with the revelation that they were split from the Ten Tails by the Sage of the Six Paths, and again with the reveal that a bijuu will "die," but reform later if its host is killed. Not to mention Naruto's mother Kushina being the previous Kyuubi jinchuuriki.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn to an extent too because there was Ryohei/Kyoko, Ryohei/Colonello, Ryohei/whoever the hell people liked pairing with him but Amano Jossed everyone by pretty much canoning Ryohei/Hana but saying that'll probably end with a Ship War. Not that many people gave a crap about Ryohei anyway. Amano likes Jossing people a lot seeing as most of her plot points descend from random possibly LSD caused ideas. Or so it would seem...
    • Tsuna's box animal was also up for debate for a long time until it was pretty much canon'd going against pretty much everyone's ideas.
    • The 6 real funeral wreaths did anyone honestly guess that Kikyo is the CLOUD guardian???
  • In Bleach Kubo Tite Jossed a theory that almost the entire fandom thought to be unquestionable truth: that Ichigo is Kaien's reincarnation. It turned out that Kaien's soul never reincarnated but was trapped in Aaroniero until Rukia freed him. Reactions varied, especially in the shippers' corner where many IchiRuki fans had regarded the theory as the ultimate proof that the pair was destined to be together. (Even though Kaien was married. To someone other than Rukia.) Of course it might have been a hint that while Rukia, Ukitake and Byakuya noticed Ichigo's resemblance to Kaien, Kaien's actual siblings apparently didn't.
    • Also Jossed was the notion that Ichigo's Bumbling Dad Isshin was nothing more than what he seemed, and thus beyond being able to see spirits there was nothing special about Ichigo until Rukia's power was transferred to him. Most fans just assumed his rapid growth in power was merely the result of him being The Hero in a Shonen series, combined with the unique method used to restore his Shinigami powers when he lost them. But then it was revealed that Isshin is a former Shinigami Captain, who was just pretending to be a moron all along, and thus Ichigo was half-Shinigami from the start (as are his sisters, for that matter), and thus his later experiences largely just unlocked potential that was there all along.
    • Naturally, this revelation has produced a whole new set of Epileptic Trees that Kubo may or may not Joss in the future. Most notably, the idea that rather than being Kaien's reincarnation, Ichigo is instead his cousin, with Isshin having been a member of the Shiba Clan before leaving Soul Society. Since only one person who actually knew Isshin when he was a Shinigami has seen him in the living world, and that person is explicitly in on the deception, for now it remains a perfectly plausible theory.
    • It was recently Jossed that Aizen has planned out everything Ichigo has done through the series. This includes not just his fights, but also his first meeting with Rukia that allowed him to become a Shinigami. This has upset many shippers who originally used the tagline that their meeting was destiny, and are wildly denying such a declaration. Even though, Aizen could have easily just mixed up paperwork on purpose, he's Aizen after all.
      • In regards to this one, it was speculated that Aizen placed the Hogyoku inside Rukia's body a LONG time ago. It was a special favorite of the IchiRuki rabidshippers who thought of it as an evidence that Rukia had the purest soul in Soul Society and thus was the best choice for Ichigo. The reasoning for it also said that her soul being so pure was that her zanpakuto was pure white and considered the most beautiful ice and snow element sword.. When it was ultimately revealed that the Hogyoku was only placed inside Rukia's gigai by Urahara at the end of the first chapter of the manga, the rabid fans either RAGED or went into total denial.
    • Particularly during the Turn Back the Pendulum flashback arc, theories about Aizen being the ultimate Anti-Hero and him teaming up with Urahara and the Vizards ran wild after the revelation of the Maggot's Nest. Then the conclusion to the arc rolled around revealing that Aizen was the one responsible for the Vizards' condition.
  • Hunter X Hunter has dropped a Bridget on many fanboys in the form of the Databook. First there was Kurapika, then Karuto, and then there was the whole business of Pitou's gender.
  • Black Jack: Osamu Tezuka did a second story about Kei/Megumi apparently solely to Joss speculation that she'd spontaneously turned into a man after her hysterectomy and loss of ovaries.
  • Pretty Cure has had a good few of these:
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star: Some fans believed that Nagisa and Honoka would mentor Saki and Mai, until the two series were cemented as strict alternate continuities. A much crackier theory posited that the girls would eventually fight EVIL BREAD, due to the Hyuuga family's bakery job. Bread was one of the few inanimate objects of any significance that were never turned into a monster during the series.
    • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Masuko Mika was thought to be a potential Sixth Ranger by the fanbase for a time, but never made it past comic relief, for the most part. The aforementioned slot ended up going to Milk come next series.
    • Fresh Pretty Cure: A good number of fans suspected Kaoru-chan, the girls' mysteriously savvy donut vendor friend of being the Kingdom of Sweet's Elder Tiramisu in human form, a theory that more or less went up in smoke around episode 29. Before that, parts of the fanbase insisted that Setsuna, thought to be the unrevealed Cure Passion was either too obvious a candidate for the position, too awesome as a villain, or both; hence, the Akarun was going to be granted to some new girl we'd never met around mid-season, tradition be damned. It went to Setsuna.
    • Heartcatch Pretty Cure: Tsukikage Yuri/Cure Moonlight was thought to be either dead, captured, or free but smacked with Laser-Guided Amnesia until episode 8, when she was shown to be alive and in full possession of her memories. The Dark Pretty Cure was also thought to be Moonlight's former partner, Cure Sunshine, until Moonlight was cemented as working alone and Sunshine turned up as a brand new Cure.
    • Suite Pretty Cure: Siren was suspected to be Cure Muse by a good portion of the fandom. The fact that Siren defected from the villains' side and started showing some suspicious behavior right before Muse debuted appeared to clinch this...until both characters appeared in the same scene in episode 13.
  • A popular theory in Nabari no Ou fandom was that the kitten Yukimi found and named Yoite was Yoite's reincarnation. It was completely jossed in the final chapter when Yoite shows up again and Yukimi goes out of his way to rename the cat "Yoi".
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's fandom it was a popular theory that Z-ONE's true identity was Yusei from the ruined future. Episode 148 even went on a big tease with showing Z-ONE having the same face as Yusei. But instead he turned out to be a random scientist in the future who had genetically modified his body to have Yusei's exact appearance, sans part of the head. Fans were not happy about this.
  • The final ending of the Non-Serial Movie version of Macross Frontier left most of the fanbase believing (and a warning for fans of the show, this spoiler text is the Mother Of All Spoilers as far as you're concerned) Alto was dead, Sheryl stayed in a coma, and they were basically Together in Death. An interview with Kawamori Jossed this: Alto survived, Sheryl woke up, Happy Ending.
  • In the end of the first Non-Serial Movie for Slayers, the ancestor of one of the heroes is able to get together with the elf girl he's in love with because of the Time Travel plot Lina creates. However, the creator of the Light Novel series (and the entire franchise) spoke in an interview that the elf and the human ancestor, in the end, didn't wind up together because of the implications of a disturbing Mayfly-December Romance...as in, because elves in this franchise age at half the speed that humans do, then the girl would still be considered a child while the human grows into manhood.
    • Initially, Zelgadiss speculates whether the priest Rezo is his grandfather or great-grandfather (as he's old to the point that Zelgadiss cannot clearly pinpoint how they're related) and Kanzaka confirmed that he's three generations removed in another interview. However, when the anime was first translated, a mishap caused the fandom to believe that Rezo was both, leaving rumors of incest running amok in Zelgadiss' family. One wouldn't gain the contrary evidence unless they either found a translation of the interviews or read the first translated novel (which used the correct implication).
  • A great deal of Fairy Tail fanficcers liked (and still like) to claim that Natsu and the rest of the guild would begin to ignore Lucy for some reason when Lisanna was revealed to still be alive. 60+ chapters later, Natsu and Lucy's bond is stronger than ever, and he and Lisanna have said perhaps four or five sentences to each other.


Board Games

  • Apparently there was some fanfic of the then-fictional board game "Escape from Zyzzlvaria" invented for a 2002 MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle, written when it was announced the board game would be defictionalized for the 2009 Hunt. When game character "Captain Blastoid" first appeared in the flesh, played by Jennifer Braun, the fic about a male Blastoid was suddenly a Gender Flip.


Films -- Live Action

  • Prior to the release of the Star Wars prequels, it was widely accepted by fans that the Clone Wars were fought by the Republic against an army or armies of clones (after all, wars are usually named according to who the victor fought against, rather than by the nature of the victor's army), and that the Clone Wars happened well before the Empire formed. When the Essential Guides (compendiums of movie and EU knowledge) were revised and republished starting after the release of Episode II, a lot of time was spent retconning the previous versions of the Guides, often with the excuse that in the wake of the Empire's rise, much information was lost or destroyed, and there were some rogue clones.
    • Much of Boba Fett's EU history was tossed out in the Prequels as well. There is no mention of Mandalorians, and Fett winds up being a clone of his "father". In all fairness, he had in-universe cultivated multiple pasts for himself to increase his mystique.
    • New EU sources show that Boba's father Jango was in fact a Mandalorian, and also that some of the erroneous information about Boba's past was actually from Jango's life. Other parts come from Boba using Jango's late mentor's name as an alias during his early life, and from a rogue Clone Trooper (who would of course look exactly like Boba under the helmet) being mistaken for him.
    • Jedi family life! And then the movie implies celibacy, but Lucas Josses that again with a statement in an interview that the Jedi have casual sex and only casual sex.
    • Even back in the days of the original trilogy there was much fan speculation going around, which was then Jossed by the second and third movies. A somewhat infamous example of this happening to official media is the novel Splinter of the Minds Eye, which was published only a year after the first movie when the possibility of any film sequels was still uncertain. As a result, it has a number of things which may not directly contradict later movies, but at least they are pretty weird when you consider later plot developments.
    • In Star Wars the term "Star Destroyer" led to some fan speculation that because they are called Star Destroyers, that meant they were destroyer-class vessels, even though they have also been referred to as cruisers, battleships, and dreadnoughts as well, and Darth Vader referred to the Executor as his Star Destroyer in ESB. Eventually, in Starships of the Galaxy Saga Edition, there was a note in the Super Star Destroyer section establishing that Star Destroyer is not really a class of ship in the traditional sense so much as a design philosophy (lots of guns and a dagger shape to be able to point all those guns forward), and that Star Destroyer is meant to be capitalized as to distinguish it from star cruisers, star dreadnoughts, and actual destroyer-class vessels that happen to be starships.
  • The promotional campaign leading up to the release of Cloverfield was more or less intended to produce Epileptic Trees of all varieties, which it did. Fan speculation identified the monster, unseen in trailers, to be any number of previously established beings - Cthulhu, Godzilla, Voltron, Donkey Kong Jesus Riding on a Puff of Smoke - instead of what it actually was, an immature sea creature that was awakened from dormancy from a falling satellite and became huge after exposure to a soft drink additive. This is not spelled out in the movie, but it's All There in the Manual. Probably...
    • The film's writer has since stated that the viral marketing (i.e. the "Manual") was created without his input, and possibly without the input of the director, or creator/producer J.J. Abrams. Furthermore, in his opinion, what's in the film is what matters, and no Word of God can Joss anything because each member of the creative team have differing theories.
  • It is likely that David Lynch's reluctance to confirm or deny anything about the ambiguous aspects of his work is to avoid offending his fans in this way.
    • In part. Lynch is also an artist, and knowing that art is in the eye of the beholder, the man is truly serious about leaving space for you to fill in details. But not ticking off those that make their own conclusions is no small side benefit, either..
    • He has also admitted that sometimes he simply films things that pop into his mind and seem interesting, and doesn't worry so much about explaining them.
  • It was taken as gospel that the Audi 8 Decepticon in the Transformers Film Series was a reformatted Barricade. However, he was recently revealed as Sideways.


Literature

  • Many theories about Harry Potter have been repeatedly Jossed with the release of each successive book, with The Deathly Hallows Jossing the most. Numerous Fan Fics featuring a female Blaise Zabini got Jossed when The Half-Blood Prince was released.
    • After the release of Deathly Hallows, a rapid succession of ship-related Jossings ensued when Word of God informed the eager fans that three of their beloved characters ended up with love interests who were not even introduced in the series. This earned a fan nickname of its own: "Getting Rolfed," named after Luna's husband who was introduced in this way.
    • Also after Deathly Hallows, Rowling even managed to Joss the fanfiction writers who speculated about Dumbledore, particularly his romantic feelings. Given the many bizarre ideas written about him, stunning the fan base with the news he was: 1) gay all along; and 2) smart enough to keep it in his pants and out of the Quibbler was actually the nicest way in the world to snap back at the ficcers.
      • Not to mention the large section of the fanbase who were convinced that Dumbledore wasn't really dead, despite Jo stating outright that the one thing magic absolutely 'cannot' do is bring people back from the dead.
    • Not to mention the constant speculation as to what each book would be called. A persistent one was Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch, a meme originating in a Continuation Fanfic on the Harry Potter Connection which spread across the internet. J.K. Rowling herself memorably sporked the speculation but even today "Green Flame Torch" turns up 86 hits on Fanfiction.net.
    • One of the most popular theories was Sirius being gay, due to his Ho Yay friendship with Lupin (and, according to the Yaoi Fangirls, the rest of Marauders). When he was pretty much proven as straight by Deathly Hallows,[1] the fans immediately started claiming he might have been bisexual, despite their previous insistence that he only liked men, just men, no girls in the picture, really.
    • During the Three-Year Summer, one of the few facts known for sure about Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix was that Arabella Figg, Harry's apparently Muggle babysitter from the first book, would turn out to be more than she appeared. Naturally, fanfiction assumed that she would play a big part in the story, portraying her usually as a badass Cool Old Lady who becomes the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Some fanfics even Hand Waved her old age, making her a hot Action Girl in a magical disguise. When Phoenix actually came out, it was revealed in the first two chapters that she was a Muggle Born of Mages whom Dumbledore had assigned to keep an eye on Harry. She had a very minor role in the book and was very different in personality from what fans had expected, being a Cloudcuckoolander Maiden Aunt type. In any case, the fanon version of Arabella died a quick death after that.
  • The most popular Wheel of Time theory was that the Forsaken Demandred was in disguise as Mazrim Taim, the false Dragon who knew how to test to see if a man could channel. There were also other hints that compared the two, but the whole thing was Jossed when Robert Jordan blankly stated that Mazrim Taim was not Demandred.
    • Aside from that and a few other instances, though, Jordan was notorious for refusing to give straight answers, reputedly because he was amused by the rabid fan discussions on some of the more hotly debated topics.
    • Even this Word of God Jossing came only after fairly extensive evidence against the Taimandred theory was published in Book 9 - it wasn't enough to convince some.
    • Every now and then a new reader will connect the dots and come up with the Taimandred theory on their own, prompting agonized groans from every Wo T forum on the web.
  • In the Dragaera series, a popular fan theory was that Kragar was actually legendary assassin Mario Greymist, even though the author Steven Brust insisted something like "no one is anyone else" which isn't actually true since Sethra Lavode and Kiera the Thief are one and the same. This was jossed in Dzur where Mario makes an appearance.
    • In a more trivial example, a popular belief that pigs either either didn't exist on Dragaera, or were referred to as "kethna", got shot down in Athyra.
  • In the latter sense of the word, George R. R. Martin is particularly infamous in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series for destroying any happy relationships and suddenly and without warning killing off random good/light grey characters, arguably making it the home of the densest population of karma houdinis ever.
    • In the first book, he destroy's Danaerys Targaryen's first ever happy period by killing off her "Sun-and-Stars," Khal Drogo.
    • Also in the first book, he kills arguably the nicest guy in the series, Eddard Stark with absolutely no warning.
    • He continues, deciding to blow up Tyrion's relationship with Shae, goes back in time to reveal that Tyrion's wife, supposedly a whore hired to pop his cherry by his brother, genuinely did love him, knocks off about half of the arguable good guys at the Red Wedding, teased that Davos Seaworth was executed before revealing it to be untrue, has Jeor Mormont murdered, kills off Jon Snow's love interest, kills Qhorin Halfhand, and deliberately leaves fans in a state of agony over whether Jon Snow is dead. It's a big list.
  • Older Than Steam: Between publication of Book I and Book II of Don Quixote, several novels written by another author featuring the title character were published. In Book II, Cervantes specifically referred to the non-canonical books as being false, going so far as to have the characters in the novel read these alternate stories and deride them as ludicrous inaccuracies.
  • After the early books in the Twilight series, many fans were asking about the idea of vampire babies, and Stephenie Meyer apparently Jossed this by saying that vampires couldn't get pregnant. Cue outraged claims of outright lies when Breaking Dawn came out and Edward gets Bella pregnant...at which point Meyer calmly points out that her Exact Words were that vampires couldn't get pregnant, and that she had never outright addressed the concept of a male vampire impregnating a human female, instead relying on the fans' own assumptions to keep that plot detail a secret until she was ready to reveal it—turning this into an I Knew It!.
  • Fans of Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy tried to find hidden meaning in the fact that the Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything was "42" while the Ultimate Question was "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?". Some observed that, in Base 13, 6 x 9 is 42. Adams famously responded "I don't write jokes in Base 13". In the same vein, attempts to assign deeper meaning to the number 42 in the first place were Jossed when he said he pretty much picked the number at random, decided it sounded good, and went with it.
    • However, Stephen Fry stated, possibly jokingly, "Douglas told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious. Nonetheless amazing for that. Remarkable really. But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything."
  • According to a famous anecdote, Hungarian poet Janos Arany once came across the notes a teacher had written about his poems. After reading the phrase "The poet is trying to say..." for the umpteenth time, Arany succinctly wrote on the margin: "The hell I was."
    • According to Isaac Asimov, when he was in school taking a course on modern literature, a man stood up at the back of the class and to the instructor loudly proclaimed: "That's not at all what was written!" When the teacher asked who the man was, he got the reply: "I'm the author," to which the instructor succinctly answered: "Then your opinion is really irrelevant here." Asimov accepted this in good grace.
  • During a radio discussion of the popular young children's book The Tiger Who Came To Tea the participants suggested their theories of what the tiger represented - the intrusion of danger into the comfortable world of childhood, that sort of thing. When the author came on she said no, it was just a silly story about a tiger.
  • Many EU Star Trek novels were Jossed by new movies and the Enterprise series. One memorable example is Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, which was written mostly from the viewpoint of Zefram Cochrane, as well as Kirk and Picard. For one thing, he's much less of a jerk in this book than in First Contact. The book even included the origin of the Starfleet symbol (a sketch of a warp field by Cochrane). In the book, Cochrane's flight happens before World War Three, which he waits out on Alpha Centauri, while Colonel Greene and his Nazi-like troops attempt to exterminate all non-Optimals. A well-written, emotional novel, casually brushed off in favor of something with the Borg.
  • William Shatner's own novels dealing with the Mirror Universe had the origin of the split Jossed by the In the Mirror, Darkly episode. This one actually followed the First Contact movie with Cochrane flipping a coin to decide on whether to tell the Vulcans about the Borg. In the Trek 'verse, he doesn't. In the Mirror Universe, he does. They believe him and form a more militaristic union to prepare. It goes downhill from there.
  • This happens frequently in The Dresden Files fandom, either due to new books or Word of God, and is referred to as "being Butchered."
  • Ray Bradbury has said of Fahrenheit 451 that, despite the interpretation of nearly everyone, ever, the novel is not about censorship, but the role of television in destroying interest in literature. He walked out of a class at UCLA where the students insisted that the popular interpretation was correct.
  • Among the Warrior Cats fandom, there was a popular theory that Pinestar was the father of Firestar. However, it jossed on the author's Facebook. Although it doesn't stop people from coming up with the theory...
  • In the final book of Percy Jackson and The Olympians, a major plot point involves the titular character obtaining the Curse of Achilles which includes one vulnerable spot that feels like a thousand volts of electricity arcing through his body when touched. Don't think for a second that shippers didn't pick up on and make good use of this, all of which got thrown out the window in the sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus, when Percy promptly loses the Curse in the second chapter of the first book that he actually appears in.
  • In 1893 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem, and John Kendrick Bangs took this opportunity to write In Pursuit of the House-boat (1897), a fantasy novel in which the detective goes to the afterlife and meets a bunch of famous historical figures. But this fanciful tale of Holmes' post-mortem adventures was rudely jossed when Conan Doyle revealed, in 1903, that the detective had never really gone over the waterfall after all.
  • A fictional, Older Than Feudalism example: In Lucian's True History, the narrator gets to the Isles of the Blest, and meets, among others, Homer. Homer tells him that everyone's wrong about where he's from (he's actually Babylonian) and that all the lines bracketed as not really Homeric by scholars are, in fact, his. Then the narrator asks why he began the Iliad with the word menis [wrath]: "and he said it came to him that way, without his intending anything." All this pretty clearly meant to make fun of the various theories held by scholars at the time.


Live Action TV

  • Sometimes even official sources get Jossed. An example of this is the online animated Doctor Who story "Scream of the Shalka", starring Richard E. Grant as the Doctor, which was meant to be the official continuation of the series from where the TV movie left off... Until the actual show came back on and totally disregarded it.
  • Any idea that the new Doctor Who series was a reboot (or that the film was considered discontinuity, making Eccleston the real Eighth Doctor, Tennant the Ninth and so on) was immediately thrown out once Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 appeared and Tennant's Doctor mentions regenerating "half a dozen times" in the same episode. In several episodes, starting with 2007's "Human Nature", McGann's Doctor's face explicitly appears on screen.
    • Who fans are used to being Jossed by now; the new series in particular takes a perverse pleasure in contradicting Fanon without having violated any actual Canon. The Doctor's references to his family in "The Empty Child", "The Doctor's Daughter", "Fear Her" and "Smith and Jones" have evoked particular Jossing. Even though his granddaughter Susan is introduced in the very first episode of the entire show, many fans maintained that the Doctor was asexual in some way. One uncharitable theory is that the Doctor was retconned this way by his more rabid fans on the principle that if they've never had sex, why should he...? (In one of the Big Finish Doctor Who audios, the Doctor clearly and unequivocally says that he has never been a father, but (a) that's not part of the TV show, (b) the Doctor lies pretty often and (c) the MST3K Mantra is recommended with the sheer amount of writers the show has).
    • The Doctor's "you watch too much TV" reaction in "The Sound of Drums" to Martha's suggestion that the Master could his brother is a particularly self-aware example, because the fandom had been throwing that idea around for years.
    • Before The End of Time, many fanfics were written to undo the Fate Worse Than Death forced upon Donna Noble. At the end of Part I it appeared as if she was beginning to remember her time with the Doctor, but this is resolved by the Doctor putting some sort of 'release-valve' in her mind to protect her, and she spends most of Part II unconscious. She never does remember (and apparently there is absolutely nothing that can be done by anyone ever to help her), and now never will since it has been confirmed that her story is over and will never appear in the series again. In effect, everything she was is Deader Than Dead. Number of fanfics Jossed: Too many to number, and they are still being written.
  • The creators of Lost have specifically shot down the fan theory that the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are actually all dead and in a kind of purgatory, despite the belief that this was the only explanation that actually made Season One make any kind of sense. Lingering hopes of this being true have been thoroughly Jossed as the fourth and sixth seasons actually does allow several of the main characters to escape the island and return to the real world. Although in either a Take That or a Shout-Out, one of those returnees "now" holds the theory that he and the other "Oceanic 6" are in fact dead.
      • Richard hangs a Lampshade on this in "Ab Aeterno", declaring that he, at least, considers the island to be Hell.
      • Possibly as a lampshade hanging, in season 6, the ghost of Michael reveals to Hurley that the island actually does serve as an instance of purgatory for people who have committed atrocious acts while on the island. The series finale reveals that the Alternate Timeline Los Angeles where the plane didn't crash is really some kind of purgatory.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise. Nearly every episode went against some bit of fanon, but careful examination reveals the writers never went against canon, with near Magnificent Bastard precision (with the exception of cloaking devices appearing much earlier than previously established).
    • For example, several well-known alien species are encountered in Enterprise had originally received first contact later in the chronology. The dialogue carefully avoided mentioning the species by name to keep canon intact.
    • When T'Pol becomes an officer in Starfleet towards the end of the series, many fans cried foul claiming the original Star Trek series established that Spock was the first Vulcan to serve in Starfleet ... until some enterprising (heh) fans took time to watch the entire run of the original series on DVD only to confirm no such reference was ever made on screen, and since Paramount and Gene Roddenberry proclaimed EU sources non-canon, any references to Spock being the first in the novels and other media don't count.
    • The portrayal of Vulcans in general was perhaps the single biggest source of outrage: some fans took it extremely poorly that Vulcans were portrayed as arrogant, duplicitous, and generally not all that noble, despite the fact that the Vulcans previously seen in the original series, except for Spock and Sarek, showed these same traits. And even Spock and Sarek demonstrated an irrational years-long grudge.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation actually did this as well. Between the end of the Original Series in 1969 and the airing of TNG in 1987, the only 'official' stories that came out were the four Star Trek movies. Because demand for Trek remained high, a good number of novels and RPG material were published, and assumed to be canon (or at least close to it,) by the fans. Apparently, Gene Roddenberry was frustrated that creative control had effectively been taken away from him (both in most of the films and the fiction,) and when he re-asserted creative control at the beginning of TNG, he deliberately ignored the corpus of work that had been done and took things in a different direction with TNG. (To be fair, because the Star Trek material had been created in a highly decentralized manner by numerous authors, there tended to be discontinuities in the material anyway.)
    • The strange thing is that Roddenberry added The Animated Series to his non-canon list, even though he was involved in its production, it had all of the original cast except Chekov, shared story editors, screenwriters, and directors with the live-action series, and even has the same guest stars. If that's not Star Trek, what is?
  • In Heroes, it was something of a no brainer (so to speak) that Sylar ate the brains of his victims. He makes frequent use of Evil Tastes Good dialogue, and Word of God itself stated that he was originally supposed to eat the brains, but they couldn't figure out a way to show it on-screen without being silly. And yet brain-eating is explicitly Jossed in a very funny scene in the first episode of Season 3.

Claire: Are you going to eat it?
Sylar: Eat your brain? Claire, that's disgusting!

  • This occasionally happens in Power Rangers. The problem is that much of the info comes from casting scripts or pre-season profiles; this info has been repeatedly wrong and/or changed when the show begins airing since 2002, but the fans keep using it as source material for fic.
  • Smallville:
    • The theory that Chloe might change her name to become "Lois Lane" later in life was pretty thoroughly Jossed when the actual Lois Lane showed up in season 4 (and several times afterwards by word of God).
    • When Jor-El's voice began telling Clark that it was his destiny to rule the people of Earth with strength, fans believed either General Zod was Clark's biological father, or that Zod had somehow intercepted the ship and placed a message inside. This was jossed by the powers that be who assured fans that Jor-El was still Clark's father.
  • In the 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica, one episode revealed that there was originally a number 7 Cylon named Daniel, but Cavil destroyed them all. The fanbase went wild with Epileptic Trees over this, saying that Daniel was Starbuck's father, Starbuck herself, any or all of the imaginary friends, the thirteenth lord of Kobol, etc. Then Word of God said that no, Daniel is not Starbuck's father, will not play any part in the finale, and was only created to explain why there was no number 7, while adding to Cavil's evil backstory to boot.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the possible trope namer is the fandom reaction to the season 5 revelation that Drusilla sired Spike. Until this point, it was assumed that Angelus siring Spike was canon (what with Spike outright referring to Angel as his sire at least twice); suddenly almost all existing Fanged Four and Angel/Spike fics were 'Jossed'. The explanation is that "sire" can refer to any vampiric ancestor, not just the direct one. Angel sired Drusilla, so is Spike's sire - and did indeed have a mentor relationship with him, which isn't always the case.
  • A popular fan theory about Firefly's Shepherd Book was that he had spent time as an Operative. This has been Jossed by the Shepherd's Tale comic, which reveals that he was at one point high-ranking Alliance commander, but was working as a spy for the Browncoats the whole time. Before that he was a streetkid named Henry Evans, who joined the Independent movement to get off his homeworld.
  • The Skins fan theory that Effy was going to be the character who died at the end of Series 4, her mental illness Driving Her To Suicide. Instead, it was Freddie, in a plot twist so ridiculous it could have come straight out of the Whedon playbook.
  • Supernatural. Throughout the entirety of Season 3, fans were convinced Sam and Dean would find a way to free Dean from his deal. They didn't.
    • There are several examples of this in Supernatural, most often accompanied by a fan cry of 'I can't believe they actually went there!'. See Sam sleeping with Ruby and drinking her blood (both heavily debated, but many fans were convinced he Would Never) Sam breaking the final seal and defeating Lucifer, Dean not saying 'yes' to Michael, Sam saying 'yes' to Lucifer, and the list goes on.... Especially notable as Supernatural frequently managed to create some spectacular fandom explosions whenever they Jossed the fans.
    • Throughout much of S5 many fans believed pagan gods might ally themselves with - or in some way offer assistance to - the Winchesters. This was Jossed not once, but twice, first with Paris Hilton's self-obssessed forest god, and then with the council of pagan gods who determined the best way to avert the apocalypse would be to kill the Winchesters. On the other hand, fans were vindicated in believing the Trickster/Gabriel would become an ally, they just never quite guessed how it would work out.

Newspaper Comics


Video Games

  • The first Kingdom Hearts game probably inspired many theories about Ansem that were invalidated by Kingdom Hearts II. Theories about "Unknown" from Final Mix and the knights from the second game's secret ending were also invalidated.
    • There was also quite a bit of speculation about Roxas, known only as the "Blond-Haired Kid", or BHK, after a few previews of Kingdom Hearts II were released. Many theories were in the correct vein, but as Roxas is linked to a group of people who were never mentioned at all in the first game, it was virtually impossible for anyone to guess his true identity. It got easier to pin "BHK" post-Chain of Memories. However, people had no clue how to take DiZ, with the common theory having him as the "Superior" of the Organization and Ansem's Nobody.
    • The fourth installment in the series, 358/2 Days, tossed a mysterious new Kairi lookalike into the events concurrent to Chain of Memories and preceding Kingdom Hearts II. There were many theories that attempted to explain who she was and why she was never mentioned before, a fairly common one being she was Kairi's Unversed (Before the fandom really knew what an Unversed was) It turned out that she was in fact a Replica infused with Sora's memories.
    • A fairly minor one, it was the general fandom consensus that all Nobodies looked different, such as having a different hair color, and had a different voice than their "Other", like Roxas, Namine and Xemnas did. Then Birth By Sleep rolled around and we see the "Others" of Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexeaus, Zexion, Saix, and Axel, and, while the latter three were kids at the time, they all looked and sounded exactly like their Nobodies. It should be pointed out that Roxas, Namine and Xemnas aren't "typical" Nobodies
  • Devil May Cry 4 inspired a lot of fan-thought that Nero was Sparda or Vergil reincarnate, or that his Devil Bringer arm held either spirit, and would be possessed by them. Unfortunately, neither showed up in the game. Also, Dante's seemingly uncharacteristic assassination of Order leader Sanctus at the game's start inspired much speculation about his motives and whether he had pulled a Face Heel Turn. It was eventually revealed that he was pulling a Shoot the Dog and trying to kill the game's Big Bad.
    • As a point of interest: while not confirmed, Nero's link to Vergil is still hinted at quite a lot in the game. He wields the Yamato katana—Vergil's weapon in Devil May Cry 3—and in Devil Trigger form, he is overshadowed by a demonic spirit that resembles Vergil's own Devil Trigger. Demonic Possession isn't off the table just yet.
    • Not to mention that the Crystal Dragon Pope explicitly stated that Nero carries the blood of Sparda.
    • There is an interview where a member of the staff said that Nero is actually the son of Vergil
  • Prior to Halo 3, Halo fans began concocting elaborate theories regarding the Forerunners' relationship to humanity and the Flood, Cortana's "ulterior motives" and what the Prophet of Truth's motivations were for wiping out the Elites. Turns out, the Forerunner simply encountered and fought the Flood, humans happened to be one of countless species the Forerunner preserved in the Ark, Cortana is always on the good guys' side, and Truth is simply a religious zealot who believed the Elites weren't faithful to the Covenant's religion.
    • Then that was revealed to be only part of the story. Humanity, the Prophets and the Forerunners have a history going back 200,000 years. Humanity and the Prophets (they were, at the time, allies) first encountered the Flood and cured it. However, during the Human/Prophet - Flood War, humanity attacked several Forerunner worlds to make up for lost planets. The Forerunners kicked their asses, stranding them on their homeworlds and committing alot of genocide to do so. Then the Flood came back, and the Forerunner - Flood War began. Oh, and the Halos weren't built to stop the Flood. They were built to suppress rebellion. A "low" setting sterilizes a population. This all sounds like an Ass Pull, but it isn't. In 2000, supplementary materials on halo.xbox.com said that humanity found human populations on worlds that humanity had never, ever, ever been to. The Forerunners must not have been very good at wiping us out.
  • After countless Chrono Trigger fanfics about the mystery behind Schala, Chrono Cross comes along with a conclusive answer, making many of them obsolete.
    • Then the DS remake of Trigger Jossed even more fan theories with its new ending.
  • After years of speculation surrounding the Mega Man series (namely, that Zero went berserk and killed the original cast), Keiji Inafune casually dismissed the theory in a question and answer session, offhandedly stating that "it was not in Zero's character." Jossed.
  • The ambiguous ending to Final Fantasy VII, set 500 years into the future, deliberately refused to answer whether or not humanity had survived the clash between Meteor, Holy, and the Lifestream. Then along came the Compilation (some say Complication) of Final Fantasy VII, which continued the story only a few years after said event.
    • Crisis Core pretty much Jossed everyone's fanfictions. Especially Zack/Cloud ones. Since turns out Cloud was not as emo as they wanted to believe. And Zack didn't meet him by saving him from bullies either...Angeal also served as a tool for Jossing too since...well...he was never even referred to until he showed up in CC thus everyone had to assume Zack randomly got the Buster Sword which...Isn't true.
    • The FFVII Ultimania Guides: where fanon goes to die. These publications put paid to a lot of popular fan theories.
  • Pre-release materials for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts revealed the Lord of Games (L.O.G) and his role in the story, where he settles Grunty and Banjo's conflict with a contest. Some people didn't simply see L.O.G as a facilitator, and begin to speculate that Grunty might be a Disc One Final Boss, with L.O.G being the True Final Boss plotting an Evil Plan against Banjo. Later, Rare opened Facebook accounts for some of the game's characters for fans to post some questions to their walls for a limited time, with L.O.G himself among them. This gave the Banjo theorists the chance to direct their accusations to L.O.G before the game is released. His response?

"What's all this talk of evil? I may be occasionally fallible and self-indulgent -- or so I'm told -- but I certainly wouldn't describe myself as evil."

  • Final Fantasy in general has been Jossing a lot of fan theories and fanfics since Squeenix finally started making sequels and spin-offs set in the worlds of the individual games. Apart from the Compilation of FFVII, there are also the sequels to Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy IV. On an equally annoying level, there are also the Japanese-only Ultimania information books, which often contain details, histories, and character backstories that aren't even remotely hinted at in the games, some of which would look like outrageous Epileptic Trees if they had been fan theories.
  • Despite heavy hints to the positive, the theory of the Wrecked Ship in Super Metroid and the Pirate Mothership in Metroid Zero Mission being the same was Jossed by Zero Mission's director not long after people started espousing it.
  • It's not exactly the same, but pretty much any update Kevan applies to Urban Dead tends to fly in the face of every one of the regular's beliefs about the game.
  • Any popular fan theory on Umineko no Naku Koro ni usually gets Jossed the very next episode, or is confirmed the next episode.
    • An example of this is the Kinzo is already dead theory, which was initially planned to be confirmed in episode 5, but was instead revealed in episode 4 because it became so popular after episode 3.
    • The reason for this is that Ryukishi07 is, reportedly, often looking at online forums to find out the current popular theories, just to have them either confirmed, played with or flat out crushed in the next episode.
  • Nintendo seems to take an almost vindictive glee in contradicting the Fanon that was established for the Super Mario Bros. series during those long years when the plots of the games were strictly Save the Princess affairs. The very first Mario game with an actual plot (Yoshi's Island) creates an origin story for the Mario Bros. that places their birth in the Mushroom Kingdom - retconning Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, and Super Mario Bros, which collectively state they were born in Brooklyn and got to the Mushroom Kingdom through a warp pipe. It also makes them twins, even though Mario was usually held as being the older brother by years rather than by minutes. But probably the most callous example to the fandom is Shigeru Miyamoto himself saying that Mario's full name is not "Mario Mario" (and refusing to disclose their "real" surname).
    • This likely wasn't an intentional jossing though, Miyamoto famously doesn't care about plot, so it's dubious he or anyone on the team were aware of any Fanon.
  • Many fans of Half-Life believed that the G-Man was in fact Black Mesa's administrator, which was a reasonable assumption in the interim before the sequel, but was Jossed when the Administrator, now named Wallace Breen, appeared as the principle antagonist of Half-Life 2. The G-Man turned out to have an entirely separate backstory.
    • Similarly, Portal fans accepted Portal: Prelude, a third-party mod revolving around Aperture's backstory, as canon, until Valve laughed at their faces by proposing their own entirely new canon (which happened to also contradict their own previously made canon, but that is an entirely different story).
  • Ah, King of Fighters 2000. With that oh-so-tragic ending where Heidern laments a city being wiped off the map. Wait a minute...Southtown has been destroyed! What an incredibly bold move by SNK! The city that all but defined this tournament, gone, just like that! Wait a minute, are you sure it was Southtown? It had to be Southtown! Yes, it was Southtown! But they'd never...could they...yes! No! It's definitely Southtown, yes, 100% sure, no other possibility! Well, you can imagine the crushing disappointment when later games make it plainly obvious that Southtown wasn't destroyed. Even worse, we never find out which city it supposedly was and the incident is never mentioned again. Of course, you could've predicted this if you remembered that the freaking EDIT TEAM ending has never been canon in any KOF, ever.
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis would count. After several novels from S.D. Perry, Nemesis seemed planned to contradict what she wrote as much as possible. Indeed, her edition of the story comes with an author's note stating the continuity errors between book and game. As it is, Nemesis is rather faithful to the source material, if using the non canon ending.
  • Any Metal Gear game after Metal Gear Solid 1, take your pick.
  • The Wild Card ending of Fallout: New Vegas brought about many theories of the Yes Man A.I. turning against the player due to a mention of finding an upgrade that lets him be more "Assertive". However, when asked about this lead developer J.E. Sawyer stated that the upgrade was meant to ensure that Yes Man doesn't need to be monitored 24/7 and will only follow the Courier's orders, preventing someone else from hijacking the Courier's seat of power.
    • The fan theories of Fallout: New Vegas in general are particularly prone to being Jossed, since Sawyer keeps an active formspring account and readily answers most questions.
  • Hyrule Historia, a book released in 2011 as part of the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, debunked practically all timeline theories that placed the earlier 2D games (from the original to Link's Awakening, plus the Oracle games) either in the Adult Timeline or the Child Timeline of the series' overall chronology, instead placing them in a third timeline that, like the other two, has its roots in the ending of Ocarina of Time. On the positive side, the book also confirmed lots of other theories, as well as previously ambiguous or unconfirmed stuff.
  • A lot of English-speaking Hatoful Boyfriend fans theorised that Nageki was actually a human, but his ghost had taken the form of a mourning dove for totemic-type reasons, hence his confusion over what and who he is, and why Hiyoko is surprised to see a mourning dove in Japan. He also talks a lot about being bullied and tells Hiyoko that if you want to kill yourself, jumping out of the library window is a good way to go, implying he committed suicide because of bullying by jumping out of the window. In the full version, it's confirmed that he really was a bird, and the way in which he died and his reason for killing himself is explored in detail and something no-one could have predicted.


Web Comics

  • In Abstract Gender, many fan theories to the big conspiracy involved William Montgomery being somehow linked to the scientists. This was completely thrown out during the seventh and final chapter "Gods" where he gets transformed too, complete with a mind wipe and new personality as well.
  • In the Gunnerkrigg Court fandom, the two most popular theories about the identity of the third girl from the photo (that she's a relative of Gamma's, and that she's a young Jones) were immediately Jossed by the author on the forum. Since most of the fans don't hang out on the forum, these theories remained popular, until The Rant below this page put them to rest in the bluntest way possible. Also parodied in the rant on this page. The first three theories that Tom facetiously shot down were Shout Outs to to actual Epileptic Trees from the fandom.
    • He has taken this to a whole new level by having Renard Joss a theory that Jones was a robot in comic on this page. When the theory refused to die, Jones herself stated she was not a Robot on this page. The rant on that last one also includes a shirt design Jossing the theory yet again.
  • Rich Burlew, the author of The Order of the Stick, tends to do this with many fan theories, such as Miko being zombified by Xykon, the results of a misfired poison arrow, and whether Belkar's prophecy had come true. From the FAQ:

"In fact, I try not to read anything where people suggest upcoming plot ideas because I hate it when people guess what is going to happen. I feel the uncontrollable urge to change what happens, just to prove them wrong. Petty? Probably."

    • The popular fan theory that the world of The Order of the Stick was an actual campaign was Jossed in strip # 606.

Shojo: No, the wisdom is simply this: Play the game.
Belkar: Uh, OK, but I thought we weren't actually representing a game campaign, we were just living in a world where the laws of...
Shojo: (while he and Belkar are playing Dungeons & Dragons) Not this game!
Belkar: Oh, whew!

    • A Double Subversion of Jossing occurred with the theory that Elan's father is Lord Tyrinar, the warlord who had Haley's father imprisoned. The first strips where Tarquin appeared had him as a general who'd lost his empire long before; but it was eventually revealed that he was the man behind the throne of an empire that had gone through several figurehead rulers and names – including Tyrinaria – and Ian Starshine was one of the prisoners Roy befriended in the Empire's prisons. Tyrinar turned out to be just one of the figureheads, and dead in the present time of the comic.
  • El Goonish Shive author, Dan Shive, has done this too many times to count.
  • The author of Keychain of Creation has a neat way about handling this. He insists, constantly, that every single epileptic tree is completely true, as sincerely as possible—no matter what context: IM, forum, in actual discussion... He insists they are always correct, so that in the end, everyone, including him, is proven wrong.
  • Following Black Belt's death in Eight Bit Theater, many fans clamored for his return and pointed out that this could be accomplished by de-petrifying his stone doppleganger. Clevinger responded by having White Mage attempt exactly that, and botch it horribly. The page where this happens is even titled, "Now Shut Up".
  • The Metal Gear Solid webcomic The Last Days of Foxhound has been so thoroughly and consistently Jossed—after each new game release since the series began—about so many things, from the manner in which one character lost an eye to his very state of existence—necessitating massive, unconvincing retcons that even the characters find sketchy—that you could make a convincing argument for changing the name of this trope to "Kojima'd!" (The apostrophe and exclamation mark are mandatory.) Not that this is Complaining About Shows You Don't Like, however. The author is aware of this phenomena, and generally does a good job of covering it up. In one of his last blog posts, he says "if I'm lucky, I can be done before MGS4 is released and my entire backstory is contradicted. Again." He was, and it was. Again. What's even more ironic is that the comic ended just under two weeks before MGS4's release.
  • Despite attempts to reasonably, albeit comically, tie into the storyline of Half-Life, the comic Concerned was pre-Jossed when their depiction of the delivery of the Xen Borderworld sample was already undone by Half-Life: Decay.
  • Randy Milholland seems to love to do this to his fans in Something*Positive. In fact, it could be said the only thing more enjoyable to him than not giving the fans what they want is giving them what they explicitly don't. "Dont Give Him Any Ideas" is uttered regularly on feed commentaries.
    • An example: Pepito was originally going to live through the "insane catgirl massacre" storyline. Then somebody sent Milholland a letter saying he wasn't "allowed" to kill any of the characters. "Not even Pepito."
  • While Andrew Hussie of MS Paint Adventures is usually very permissive of off-the-wall speculation, he sometimes feels the need to correct egregiously wrong interpretations. For instance, he has made it very clear that, in Homestuck, Jade's Grampa was Dead All Along, Kanaya is a lesbian, and, most of all, WV IS NOT AN IMP.
    • When the Alpha Kids were first introduced there was a lot of speculation about what then unnamed Dirk and Roxy's personalities would be. The most common theory for Roxy was that she would be a scenester-esque Bottle Fairy. Even more popularly, Dirk was theorised to be a loser anime fanboy with the Fan Nickname "Weeabro". Roxy's character turned out to be pretty close, though only on a superficial level as Roxy is also a passionate scientist and very kind friend. Dirk's did not, and Andrew expressed great distaste for the theory.
    • Homestuck's Jossed WMG pages are far bigger than the confirmed and active theory pages; so much so there are multiple pages because all of them on one page was breaking browsers. This is pretty much because Hussie encourages a lot of speculation.


Web Original


Western Animation

  • Common fan theories insinuate that Bonkers was created as a substitute for a Roger Rabbit cartoon that was never made due to legal and copyright issues surrounding Roger. Greg Weisman, who helped develop Bonkers and other other notable Disney shows, says that Bonkers was certainly INSPIRED by Roger, but Disney never had any plans to make a Roger Rabbit cartoon at any point.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Jet is still alive—Jossed by Word of God.
    • Smellerbee and Longshot died—Jossed by the sequel comic The Promise.
    • Suki is dead—Jossed by "The Boiling Rock".
    • Zuko's mother died in childbirth ("... I was lucky to be born.") -- Jossed by "Zuko Alone".
  • Dungeons & Dragons: All widely accepted Epileptic Trees jossed with the release of the script of the unaired finale. The kids did not die in a rollercoaster crash, they are not in Hell, and Dungeon Master is not Satan.
  • During the first two seasons the Transformers Animated fandom came up with a number of theories as to the isolated, motherless Sari's actual identity, the most popular being some variation of Sari actually being a robot or cyborg created by Professor Sumdac, possibly made by reverse-engineering Megatron. During the second season finale Sari injured her elbow, revealing circuitry underneath her skin, which seemed to support this idea. However, while the theory was right about Sari's true nature, it wasn't entirely correct about her origins. Sari wasn't constructed by Sumdac or made from Megatron's parts, she was a technorganic protoform created by the Allspark using Sumdac's DNA.
    • Also that Ironhide was The Mole, which came up in the first case becauseof a screwup involving faction symbols.
  • Literally hundreds of Teen Titans fanfics about Terra's resurrection were written in the interim between the end of season two and the series finale "Things Change". When it was revealed that Terra is alive as a schoolgirl who may or may not remember everything that happened to her in season two, and just wants to live as a normal girl, 99.9% of these fanfics were Jossed. Fans were left with two choices for future Terra resurrection Fanfic: write according to the new, official continuity, or ignore the last episode entirely and write Fix Fic about how Terra should have been resurrected.
  • A lot of fanfiction for The Secret Saturdays has now been Jossed because we now know the reason behind Zak's cryptid powers he has cryptid powers because he's Kur. Also, most fanfictions related to the actual plot of the show have been Jossed because of the end of the latest episode when we find out that Zak is Kur, which resolved the story arc with a surprise ending.
  • Due to having so much Word of God around, this has happened many times in regard to Gargoyles on issues such as gargoyle customs and breeding habits, Elisa and Goliath's ability to reproduce, Lexington's sexuality, Katana's physical appearance, etc. Looking at older fanfics can sometimes be a very strange experience...
  • After seeing Captain Marvel appear in Justice League Unlimited, supporting Lex Luthor's presidential campaign and then giving a bone chilling speech to his fellow leaguers, many fans of the show believed he would return as an unwitting tool of Luthor. This was jossed by...well, him not coming back.
  • Due to the creators of Phineas and Ferb refusal to discuss it, there are many theories regarding the whereabouts of the original parents of the characters, including the popular one that Doofenshmirtz is Phineas' father. In the episode "What Do it Do?" it was shown that Doof did go on one date with Linda Flynn, but they never went out again (although she supposedly was what convinced him to conquer the Tri-State Area). In a New York Times P&F panel, Dan and Jeff addressed one of those points, finally stating that, no, Doof is not Phineas' father.
  • For a couple of weeks, it was fanon among My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fans that Scootaloo was the sister of Rainbow Dash. It made a bit of sense: Scoot is part of a Power Trio, and the two other members are younger sisters of members of the main cast. Since Scootaloo is a pegasus, and it had already been established that she was not Fluttershy's sister, that left Dash as the only other potential sister (not to mention that the two have similar personalities and even looks). Creator Lauren Faust, though, insisted on her blog that Dash and Scootaloo are not related at all, though she hinted that they will form a friendship in the near future and it quickly became clear in subsequent episodes that Scootaloo idolizes Rainbow Dash.
    • And in season 3's "Sleepless in Ponyville", Rainbow Dash officially offers to mentor Scootaloo and act as an honorary big sister.
    • It has also been confirmed that Pinkie Pie was not meant to be a Fourth Wall Observer, and that all the times she looked into the camera were animation mistakes where she was actually looking at someone else. The ability to break the fourth wall was never discussed by the writers, at least during meetings. However, this does not account for the times she directly communicated her excitement to the audience at the end of the second episode or physically interacting with the Iris Out (seen here) at the end of "Over a Barrel." (Also, subsequent instances of apparent Breaking the Fourth Wall may indicate that the ongoing popularity within the fandom of interpreting Pinkie Pie as being aware of the fourth wall may well have led to the production team choosing to adopt this stance themselves.)
    • Princess Luna's return and subsequent official characterization has invalidated a great deal of fan interpretation. Most fan writers and artists nailed her social awkwardness, but few guessed she'd be just as hammy as Nightmare Moon.
      • She also demonstrates a bit of a prankster streak, something usually attributed to Celestia (or Trollestia) in fics involving the two - often with Luna as the Butt Monkey. Of course, we still haven't seen the two directly talk to each other (minus their brief reconciliation at the beginning of Season 1 and a handful of one-sided exchanges in "A Canterlot Wedding"), so fan theories on how they'd interact in day-to-day situations currently remain safe.
    • The first week of November, 2011 had significant amounts of Fanon Jossed. First, a new blind bag wave was released which contains mostly background ponies from the show. None of the five whose toy names had become well-known had their Fan Nicknames, which caused heated debates about which names to call them by - the old and established Fan Nicknames or the brand-new toy names whose likes have been rendered obsolete by Canon in two other blind bag ponies' cases. The good news for them is that the newest wave of blind bags states those official names as second names, making some fan interpretations canon. For example, fan name "Lyra" + old official name "Heartstrings" = new official name "Lyra Heartstrings."
    • Also, Lauren Faust revealed more of the actual backstory of Nightmare Moon and how she was banished here. Much of it invalidates the common fanon interpretation of Luna as basically the victim of Celestia in the whole affair. Different from many other forms of Jossing in that Faust points out that since it was never stated in the show, it isn't really canon - thus, it is perfectly possible for the current crew to contradict it.
      • The season 4 opener shows us a flashback to Nightmare Moon's banishment in canon, however, and its clearly framed as a desperate last resort by a grieving Celestia against someone who is completely maddened and out of control.
    • Fanon usually presents Luna and Celestia as the only "alicorns" in Equestria. "A Canterlot Wedding" revolves around Twilight's older brother getting married to Celestia's niece, an alicorn. She was apparently not originally designed as such when Lauren Faust worked on the story.
    • The popular background pony DJ Pon-3's eyes have been almost universally depicted as red in fanon, but a tiny split-second shot in "A Canterlot Wedding" showed them as being magenta. Fans of her red eyes look quickly scrambled to offer justifications such as; the light making them look different (the split-second in question in which her eyes are revealed took place in shadow), to wearing contacts, to having magical eyes that can change color depending on which one she thinks looks coolest on the given day (to be fair, she is a magical unicorn).
  • Fans swore Family Guy Presents Laugh It Up Fuzzball used Rotoscoping for certain scenes from the Star Wars movies, but the people who made it insisted they just were really precise about recreating the scenes.
  • Word of God says that Henry and June are only like brother and sister and neither have feelings for each other in any direction, which breaks the fanon that's been going on since the show premiered.

Real Life

  1. ↑ The Trio found his room with Gryffindor banners and female Muggle pin-ups, and Sirius probably wouldn't have hid the fact that he liked men. Heck, he probably would've hid the girly pics and posted nothing but the men, just to screw with his conservative (by Wizarding standards) family.
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