retcon

[ret-kon]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a subsequent revision of an established story in film, TV, video games, or comics.
In an awkward retcon of his origin story, the hero’s parents survived the attack but suffered complete memory loss.

verb (used with object)

retconned, retconning

to later revise (an established element of a fictional story).
The writers retconned the origin of her powers, newly attributing them to alien ancestry.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of retcon¹

First recorded in 1980–85; a shortening of retroactive continuity

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The transformation of Sol's lightsaber draws from material in the "Darth Vader" comic books, which itself is a retcon of the first offscreen explanations of red lightsabers from the age before Disney.

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Technically "Secret Invasion" is a lead-in to "Armor Wars," an upcoming feature starring Don Cheadle's James Rhodes, aka War Machine, and it forces a major retcon on his character that may end up irritating fans more than jump-starting his story.

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It also smooths out significant canonical wrinkles via retcon, which more devoted Trek observers than I have explained in detail.

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It could no longer be about just the story, but an attempt to cash in on an identity retroactively, to retcon Dumbledore.

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As Merriam-Webster describes it, "Retcon has had a busy life for such a young word," — it was added to Merriam-Webster's dictionary only in 2021 — including its "change from a noun to a verb, and move from the jargon-filled chat rooms of the Internet to general parlance."

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When To Use

�� does retcon mean?

Retcon is an informal term for a revision made to an established story after the story was published or released, as in Fans were frustrated with the retcons that eliminated some of the TV series’ early characters. The term is a shortening of retroactive continuity. It is also used as a verb meaning to later revise an established story, as in I can’t believe they retconned a romance between the hero and the villain!Retcon is used mostly informally in reference to movies, television, video games, comic books, and similar types of entertainment with an ongoing story. A retcon is a plot point, reveal, or significant change that invalidates or changes the past of the story in order to maintain continuity within the whole of the story. Example: The fact that he had a son we never heard about does make sense, so I'm okay with the retcon.

retch retd.

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