this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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I would actually push back on the premise. Does it happen? Of course. But it's almost certainly not most sequels. None of the Marvel movies did it. The recent Bond series didn't. The Twilight movies didn't. The Hunger games didn't. The Lord of The Rings didn't. The Star Wars movies didn't. Back to the Future didn't.
In fact I would say it happens when no sequel was ever planned or imagined possible. That's when you make a simple character with only one issue or problem to overcome, and it gets resolved in the one planned movie. But if you think of a larger story beyond the one movie, you'll create more complex characters with more need and ability to evolve over time.
Back to the future added that weird "nobody calls me a chicken" shtick to Marty which came out of nowhere and was not present in the first movie. Then they proceeded to rebuild his entire character around it on the sequels.
Is that a retcon? Does it rewrite an aspect of his character? Or is it just an aspect that didn't come up in the first movie?
Seeing them back to back it felt like a weak asspull, even my kids reacted to it. But I didn't rewatch the first movie to see if it actually conflicts with original Marty. With it happening constantly in the sequels and never once in the original it's either poor writing or they changed him. Or both.
iirc the first movie makes Marty look like his Dad, a schlub whose only friend is a weird old guy. He doesn't push back against the teachers when they throw him out of the talent show.
Hardly a daredevil who never backs down from a challenge.
I think you've cracked it, Marty changes his past so that he grew up with a more assertive and confident father, so when the changes catch up to him in the second movie he suddenly has a new personality trait that he didn't have before!
You're giving me credit for an idea I did not have.
But you are correct; it's Lone Pine writ large.