Best/Worst Retcons Ever

[Castle Bleck 19,167]

Good retcon: Jurassic Park 3's Spinosaurus being the first hybrid -- i.e., practice for the Indominus and the Indoraptor. (Source: https://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Masrani_backdoor, specifically the "Ruffled Feathers" section.)

 

1. This explains its stark contrast to a natural Spinosaurus.

 

2. This gives 3 more of a connection to World and Fallen Kingdom.

 

3. And of course, this explains why it was OP against that random T. Rex.

Edited July 22, 2018 by A.V.

[Megas 27,064]

Bad: In MGS2, Ocelot steals Liquid Snake's arm to have a new hand. This in turn causes Liquid to possess Ocelot. In MGS3, there's a character called the Sorrow who is known for having connections with the dead. He and the Boss have a kid which turns out to be Ocelot, which implies Ocelot got connections to the dead and would explain how Liquid was able to possess Ocelot

In MGS4 they throw this out the window in favor of Ocelot tricking himself into thinking he was Liquid+lol nanomachines. Sadly they rectonned the plot thread that actually made sense in favor of one that didn't

Edited July 22, 2018 by Whomps

[Twilight Luna 30,940]

Worst retcon ever? Three words - One More Day.

[Quinch 1,119]

Bad: I'd go with everything in Endymion book - it retconned all the awesome parts of Hyperion and Fall Of Hyperion in order to... I don't even know, the whole book just ended up being boring.

Edited July 22, 2018 by Quinch

[Prospekt 10,984]

The first two books of The Chronicles of Narnia to be published (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian), suggest that the Pevensie siblings were the only humans in the world of Narnia after the reign of the White Witch, until the Telmarines accidentally found a portal to Narnia and conquered it. However, The Horse and His Boy (the fifth book to be published) reveals that there were sizeable human populations in the countries of Archenland and Calormen during the Pevensies' reign.

Which begs the question... did those people exist during the White Witch's reign? And if so, did they ever attempt to defeat the tyrant? The Magician's Nephew tells us that some humans stayed in the world of Narnia after its creation and founded the kingdom of Archenland. What happened to their descendants? How did Calormen appear in the first place?

Weird retcon here; I wish THAHB wasn't canon (even though it's a good story on its own).

Edited July 23, 2018 by Prospekt

[Denim&Venöm 16,515]

The Sonic Archie comics, in which they had to retcon most of their popular characters and half ass the end to an entire story arc due to a legal dispute with one of the writers. This one retcon pretty much killed the entire series.  

Star Trek Discovery sounds like one big bad retcon, what with how the show takes place before TOS, yet has more advanced tech, more progressive attitudes and a massive war who's effects are never mentioned in TOS cannon. 

Although on the topic of Star Trek retcons, here's a good one: the Voyager episode, Threshold. Where the series breaks it's own rules regarding warp travel, makes infinite warp, turns Cap. Janeway and Lt. Paris into lizards who then bang and have salamander babies. Yes, that actually happened. No, that episode is no longer cannon. 

Y'know what else is a bad sci-fi retcon? Three words: Star Wars Legends. At least in terms of everything post Return of the Jedi.  A small resistance and their princess flee across the stars with a Jedi apprentice who's old master died fighting a dark side user leading a totalitarian regime across the stars. 

Am I describing 1977's A New Hope or 2017's The Last Jedi? 

[Steve Piranha 28,781]

Best: Metroid II: Samus Returns' final boss. Guess Samus' words in Fusion mentioning Squichy saved her ass a second time got retconed