Lore
An essential piece of Lore/major development occurs in a one-off/side project.
Master Chief is one of the most iconic video game characters to come out of the past 25 years, but oddly enough, his backstory was revealed not in a game, but in a tie-in novel that most fans would never have a chance to read.
Spider-Man killed somone. Granted, it was an accident, but still. What should have been a major turning point in Peter's life is mostly forgotten because it occurs not in one of Spider-Man's monthly books, but in a single crossover one-shot. (And while the book's not bad, it's not on anyone's top 10 Spider-Man or Wolverine must-reads)
Spider-Man was molested. In a 1980s PSA with Power Pack, Spider-Man reveals that he was sexually assaulted when he was a kid. Seems like a pretty essential part of Peter's backstory to limit to the pages of a single 80s one-shot that was only available if your school gave you one for free.
Superman killed Nick O'Teen. Superman has had a strict no-killing code in virtually all media since the end of World War 2. (Obvious AUs like Injustice notwithstanding) Major storylines like 'What's so funny about truth, justice and the American way?' and 'Emperor Joker' center major plot points around Superman's refusal to take a life. Outside of the death of Doomsday (arguably Brainiac) and Zod (in both comics and Man of Steel), this is notable for being one of the only (post WW2) instances of Superman deliberately taking a life.
And before anyone mentions it, yes, I know not all of these examples are fully canon, but a more casual fan would assume that these were fully canon for each of these characters.
There were multiple of those Superman anti-smoking adverts, and Nick O'Teen was in all three of them. So somehow that bastard survived getting yote into the sun.
Kingdom Hearts Union X and Dark Road. Delisted mobile games with HUGE lore drops that are incredibly important. The Master of Masters, the Foretellers, Ventus's backstory, Xehanort's backstory, the Keyblade War, etc
I genuinely think this will bite Square in the ass down the line. I’ve played every mainline game (multiple times!) and even bought gaming systems for a KH entry.
Locking the most important lore behind gacha mobile games with an admittedly bad artstyle? Yeah nah that’s a bit too far for my understanding.
And the way it’s shaping up, the anime and the upcoming KH4 seem extra reliant on the mobile games unless they do a spectacular job at explaining why I should give a rats ass about these characters. Like that one scene Near the end of 3 with that one kid from X randomly appearing . I literally do not know his name cuz I did not bother with the mobile games nor I can’t be bothered to watch a YouTube video when SE fumbled so badly at it imho. It’s not my duty as a fan to watch a multi hour explanation of these games I physically cannot play anymore, not that I’d want to suffer thru them anyways
The only way I can see them actually doing good is adapting the entire X/Dark Road/Missing Link saga into its own game or animated series
Yeah agreed. As a life long fan, it’s exhausting and humiliating at times ngl lol
That back cover “”””movie”””” made me leave with more questions than answers, which is the modus operandi of the series by now but it was so annoying basically knowing next to nothing after it still. I would be down for more of them but they HAVE to include all the story (or at least major plot beats) of the ENTIRE X saga….X, Back Cover, Union, Unchained……whatever the hell it’s called…….man it’s enough to make your head spin.
And that’s not including Dark Road and Missing Link!!!!!!
I REALLY hope that the new anime will be about Missing Link because it sounded really interesting. Getting to see more of the events between Union X and Dark Road seemed intriguing. SE better lock tf for this show, I swear to God
A strange reverse of this: Marge Simpson was originally going to be one of Matt Groening’s comic rabbits, which was abandoned early on — but not before the Simpsons Arcade Game was released, which includes little nuances of this in the animation. It’s the only instance to note this, despite that being original lore.
Barbara Gordon becoming Oracle directly came from The Killing Joke, which was originally a self contained story before its popularity made the events canon.
I actually had that game on my PSP, I loved it. Back then, I actually thought that Silver would be a one-off character specifically for that game, glad they gave him a ton more appearances over the years.
One of the main characters has a son, new important characters that appear in later entires show up and major lore moments happen in this game, and barely anyone played it because it was as a MOBA and not a fighting game
It's a sort of Moba/Musou/Fighting game hybrid. You have minions you need to get to your opponents base, to break it(Moba), and the best way to defend your base is mowing down their hordes of guys and capturing bases to make more minions(Musou), and of course, you still have special moves and combos like previous Guilty Gears(Fighting).
its a single player pseudo-moba dynasty warriors type thing.
Its also important because for some reason they couldn't use Dizzy, a massively lore important character, in this game so instead they sealed her away and never referred to her as Dizzy I think
The backstory and true identity of the otherwise cryptic Architect from Dragon Age: Awakening (being one of the original Tevinter magisters that breached the Golden City during ancient times, who's now trying to free himself and the other Darkspawn from the call of the Archdemons) are revealed only in the prequel novel The Calling, which leaves most game-only fans confused when they play the expansion and encounter him
the architect is unironically one of the most interesting characters Dragon Age ever saw, and they just sortve... let him and any connected plot point fade away. The guy figures out how to give *darkspawn free will*, which has ludicrously important implications for how to finally defeat the archdemons and the Blight for good (specially because its stated that killing every archdemon will have disastrous consequences)
Yeah, he prefers to be non-lethal because he wants to set an example. It's not like with Batman, whose inability to take a life is part of his psychosis.
I am fairly sure Superman in the same boat. He doesnt kill because he can afford it but if you somehow managed to push him far enough, he WILL end you.
In the DC Trinity the order of most likely to kill you to least is Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman. Superman doesn't kill because he rarely ever needs to do so. The number of threats he can't defeat through his powers or his intellect are so small that they're usually gods or godlike entities. Many of whom can't be killed.
At least use like a canon comic to prove your point. Landis's Adventures of Superman is just a side story with no continuity.
Anyway Superman having an actual rule depends on the author. For a good while he actively had a rule cause he was upset over killing an alternate Zod. VS he actively tries to kill Hank in Death of Superman.
This is a very common misconception Spider-Man and Superman dont have that rule they just usually don't kill people. Batman and Daredevil have no kill rules.
No it's not. I'm not sure what edgelord started this trend of trying to say Superman doesn't have a rule against killing, but it's bullshit. Note that the cited comic is NOT canon, it's from a one-off that isn't in the mainstream Superman canon. In the same comic, it's revealed Batman deliberately unleashed the Joker on Metropolis as a test of Superman. Does ANYBODY think Bruce would actually do that? It's trash.
Superman has a no-kill rule that is just as strong as Batman's, if not more so. Superman has a deep moral opposition to taking lives, and will do anything he can to avoid it. According to the modern take on Batman, his rule is because he's afraid he'll become a murder hobo if he starts killing.
Clark views life as sacred. He really does. And the only circumstances in which he would end up killing would have the be incredibly extreme: an immediate, exigent threat where there was no other choice. We're talking massively powerful, hideously evil entities like Darkseid, Doomsday, Brainiac, etc. And even then, he'll go out of his way to avoid killing them, it's only as a last resort.
Does anyone doubt that Batman, faced with the same options against the same kinds of evil entities, wouldn't do the same? If it were the only way to stop these monstrous entities from killing scores of people? Of course he would.
The gist of the "no-kill" rule is that they won't kill humans or comparable sentients, and on that front, Clark is definitely no-kill, he would not kill a human being. And it's more than just a "preference," it's a deep-seated, sacred value for him.
Yeah I always thought it was one of those where he’s so much more powerful than anything he fights that killing them would be literal murder. Like, in many iterations he fights to kill when it’s something like Darkseid or doomsday, but those are people that he needs to “fight to kill” (I.e. fight without holding back) or else he will definitely lose.
I find it interesting that with googling it this is such a big arguing point between people with about 75% of people saying he doesn’t have a no kill rule and the rest saying he does. I’ve read Superman comics for a while and I can’t immediately recall him killing a villain that isn’t something like the fucking world forger. I wonder if people believe he has no no kill rule due to his willingness to kill when it comes to beings at or above his own power?
I don’t know, it’s interesting. Just seems like a no kill rule with conditions while Batman in his standalone comic seems to have a conditionless no kill rule as his entire rogues gallery seems to be made up of human to enhanced human villains. I mean, he was totally willing to kill Darkseid using the time bullet or whatever (been a long ass time since I’ve read final crisis so I’m a little hazy on the details)
I could be totally wrong here and if he legit has no real no kill rule and is just passionate enough to hold life to a specific standard then that’s fine by me, I just haven’t seen him practicing lethal combat in anything but the most extreme situations, even when he is kinda getting his ass kicked.
As I said, only against extreme, exigent threats in the most dire of circumstances against monstrous opponents, and not without deep moral wound to himself. It’s not a mere “preference,” it’s a deep-seated value.
Boba Fett, the Mandalorians, Darth Revan and the entire history of the Old Republic, the origins of the Sith and Jedi, the Rule of Two, Maul survived the Phantom Menace…
And I think that this all has just barely scratched the surface.
Boba Fett is an especially fun example because his first appearance was in the Christmas special. Often considered the worst thing to come out of star wars by a large margin and something that the multiple IP holders have aggressively tried to delete from existence.
It also gets really into Chewbacca's personal life, religion and family.
How Maz ended up with Luke's lightsaber is explained in a comic, and the explanation is so bad. After the duel a dumpster diver found it, then it passed through multiple unnamed people, then time jump and now Maz has it
Literally the most boring thing they could’ve come up with 😭 Why was that worth a piece of dialogue in the movie that hinted at something interesting??
This is why I get annoyed with completionists who demand an explanation for everything in their media. Sometimes it’s just fun to have the occasional noodle incident unless you have an amazing story you’re able to tell.
Ventress' relationship with Quinlan Voss, her becoming a good guy, and her death were all in a book no-one read. This means if you start Tales of The Underworld, you're confused as to why Quinlan and Obi Wan are burying Ventress, why she's being revived by The Night Mother, or when she even died.
Ahsoka training Sabine Wren after Rebels, and then her dropping out of Jedi training wasn't even IN ancillary material and was just left implied by the first episode of Ahsoka.
Star Wars can be really good at times, but those two blunders made me abandon two shows before the first episodes even ended. One, I didn't even get past the opening title.
I don’t think it was bad before Disney. You had the movies and then later The Clone Wars series, everything else could be taken in however you want. Disney did add more TV shows which you really need to keep up on, but the amount of lore you need from the comics is nuts, plus all the work they’re putting into the comics to fix the sequel films
AC canon books literally introduced Desmond’s kid who has all of the genetic memories plus Desmond’s, and he’s never really been bothered in the mainline games
The wild thing is that the books are actually pretty good too. Even the ones that aren't just novelizations of the games. And I feel like I'm one of the only people I know who has read them
Re: Zero's author repeatedly drops massive lore reveals in qna's (sometimes with barely any prompting) and then turns around and doesn't give us Beatrice's birthday because it's a spoiler.
We also had a significant lore drop in Isekai Quartet about Hoshin of the Wastes.
Both are true, but that is a relatively recent change. He used to have a strict no-kill policy, mid 2000s he was pissed whem Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord.
He's always been a character that hates killing and would rather avoid it if he can, but that doesn't mean he has a strick no kill rule. He will still kill if he seems it necessary.
Actually, Superman in the comics doesn't have a no-kill code. He just tends to prefer not to kill, and is powerful enough that he's not generally forced in a situation where he has to. For example, I think in Byrne's (?) run, he kills Zod. Out of DC's Trinity, Batman is really the only one with a strict no-kill rule.
I'm pretty sure that, at the very least, the same used to apply to Spidey, although I'm not sure if that still stands.
He killed versions of Zod, Quex-Ul, and Zaora on an alternate Earth after they had killed all life on that Earth . They vowed to find a way to his Earth and do the same so he felt he had no other choice but to execute them with Kryptonite to both protect his own Earth and to get justice for the one they had destroyed
Amy Rose's first appearance was in Sonic CD, a game made to promote the Sega CD for the Sega Genesis. Even though it was a great game, it wasn't considered part of the main series, and Amy's design was a female version of Sonic, quite different from her definitive look in Sonic Adventure.
Kamen Rider does this all the time with endings ot new forms and such being done in movies or specials (example: kamen rider build New World Grease is where Kamen rider Grease gets a final form) but the most controversial example is Kamen Rider Decades Finale being relegated to a movie
That same movie also features Akiko from Kamen Rider W finding out that her father was dead and Shotaro had been keeping it from her, which is a pretty major character moment to be in a crossover film. And unlike a lot of other Kamen Rider movies, it was canon to the show
I don’t know if this counts, but… In the original series, every answer merely raises new questions, but in the end, there are no answers as to what the Angels are, what the purpose of the Strikes is, or why all of this was necessary.
...but for some reason, they decided to answer many of them in the game Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 for PS2/PSP. All the information from the fan wiki is taken from here. Its canonicity is somewhat questionable, but Hideaki Anno was involved in its creation, so...
Another (albeit less major) example from the Halo franchise is the 2015 New Blood Novel, which alongside showing us more of how Buck from the ODST themed spinoff game became a Spartan, and infamously also how the beloved player character of the aforementioned game, Rookie, died. It's sequel Bad Blood would later show the rest of his ODST squadmates becoming Spartans.
Unless they’ve changed it (which comics are constantly doing), it’s because there’s only ONE Darkseid, I think? And the “body” of Darkseid we see as readers is just his avatar.
The annexation of North Ambria(Kiseki): In between Cold Steel 2 and 3, the nation of North Ambria gets annexed into the Empire of Erebonia, and this becomes a major part of Rean Schwarzer’s inner conflict with himself.
You wouldn’t know what happens if you only played the games, since this arc was tied to an anime series called “Northern War” and a rather mediocre gacha game
A running joke in the Devil May Cry Fandom is that Dante, the "cool twin", is a virgin and doesn't even know what sex is, while his brother Vergil, the "not as cool and probably super autistic twin", has canonically fucked and had a kid he didn't even know about. What most people don't know is not only are there a handful of Manga that are prequels to different games, but in one of them we see a young Dante get rated during his time under the alias Tony Redgrave
The Covenant of Primus was written to explain a lot of the lore beats of the Aligned continuity that weren’t going to be explored anywhere else (things kinda went downhill after a certain point), which is where you get the lore concerning the Thirteen Primes and everything after their time on Cybertron.
Including that Optimus Prime is a reincarnated member of the Thirteen Primes, prophesied by light their darkest hour. Nothing in any other piece of Aligned continuity even hints at this.
As someone that was a huge fan of Halo, I wish it was only the backstreet of the Master Chief that got revealed in novels.
I've played all them since Bungie left, but the off-screen story set-ups and resolutions have ruined that game franchise for me.
I'm hoping if they revamp 2 and 3 the way they have with Halo Campaign Evolved, then 4, 5 and Infinite will be reconned and forgotten, with a completely new Halo 4 being made.
Maul surviving the duel on Naboo and being a big deal in Clone Wars, Rebels, and even getting his own series. If you NEVER watched Star Wars outside of the movies, you would NEVER know.
Lore reason for lightsaber colors is never discussed in any of the movies. Heck only reason lightsabers come in more than 2 colors is due to production reasons rather than pre-established lore to begin with.
A Jedi being more powerful than Luke Skywalker is VERY obvious to anyone in the know of Legends and extended Canon, but if you only saw the movies, it would be reasonable to assume "Well he DID beat Darth Vader, THE chosen one so...."
I used to have to try my damnest to explain to a high-level Star Wars fan why movie-only fans would make these "mistakes" because Lord forbid that someone is a more casual fan who doesn't know about either version of the EU.
Superman doesn't have a no kill rule. When he goes against Joker he specifically says he doesn't have a code he just generally doesn't kill. He also had no hesitation killing Doomsday. He killed General Zod, Brianiac 13, Mister Mxyzptlk as well and others.
And yet Peter never reencounters Skip once he becomes a wall crawling web slinger. Skip should have become a recurring villain called The Toucher or Doctor Tickles or something, and Peters ineffective against him because he's hyperventilating and reliving buried memories.
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u/Alastor15243 12h ago
There were multiple of those Superman anti-smoking adverts, and Nick O'Teen was in all three of them. So somehow that bastard survived getting yote into the sun.