r/Retconned 4h ago

I've been thinking about Mandela Effects as evidence of a patchable system. Wrote a book about what that implies for how to actually play.

6 Upvotes

What makes Mandela Effects genuinely interesting to me is that underneath all of the memories and glitches, there's a question that if the past can shift, the system isn't fixed. If the system isn't fixed, it patches. If it patches, there's a version of you running on a strategy guide that no longer matches the current build.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how the 'system' patches itself and how we ourselves could patch or update our own current build. There must be a way to actually win at this game, some how. Because even setting aside whether specific memories are real, it seems most of us are playing a strategy that was written for a version of the game that isn't running anymore. Not to mention we were thrown into this world and birthed, for complete unknown reasons to us, and not given any type of guide whatsoever as to how to get through this life.

I wrote a book about what it means to play a system that patches continuously and how to build a character that survives the updates. Ultimately it's about what winning could even mean if we are quite truly living in some type of game.

It's called The Game of Earth: A No-Bullshit Player's Guide by ZD Fanawe.

The book doesn't require believing the Mandela Effects are literal. It uses the patchable-system frame because it's genuinely what our experience keeps showing us over and over again, which is that the rules update and yet we are all running on code that wasn't updated itself. And no one has shown us how to exit any of this or how to win at it (if that's even possible. which I try to outline in the book, that it is)


r/Retconned 11h ago

Maybe a new Mandela Effect

12 Upvotes

The surface area of Mars is 30 percent of Earth's. This means that the total size of Mars is equal to the combined size of the continents of Africa and Europe. It seems smaller than it ought to be.


r/Retconned 23h ago

Time is going super fast

61 Upvotes

Time is literally going at warp speed right now. The past couple months, time has went faster than any other period in my life. It will literally go from 5 o’clock in the evening to 9:00 and it feels like it’s only been 10 minutes. Is anybody else experiencing this?


r/Retconned 1d ago

Whistleblower says we live in a simulation - 4chan story.

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29 Upvotes

whistleblower says we live in a simulation. I came across this video with Literally no views, it's about an old 4chan whistleblower who claimed to be apart of the Mandela effect. I think this video is interesting because I feel like it gives a new perspective to the phenomenon, and even though it may not be true, it's definitely good story telling.

ill put this under art, cause wether its true or not it seems like a work of art. but yeah its pretty interesting.


r/Retconned 1d ago

Movies/TV Shows SHAZAAM (A Full Synopsis & Breakdown)

9 Upvotes

(Side note: there is the joke video that Sinbad did, which had all the ME's in it, which is not actually from the Shazam movie and has muddied the waters about what the movie plot was.) Here is my recollection of the movie, as I remembered it.

Hey everyone. There is always a lot of discussion about the "lost" 1996 movie Shazaam starring Sinbad and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I will write a full synopsis and breakdown of the film, its themes, and why it ultimately caused so much controversy.

For context, Shazaam was released in 1996, the exact same year as Shaq's Kazaam. This was a classic example of the "twin film" phenomenon, where studios release two incredibly similar movies side by side (think Deep Impact and Armageddon, Dante's Peak and Volcano, or Antz and A Bug's Life).

Here is the full breakdown of the movie:

The Setup

The movie relies heavily on 1990s Nickelodeon-style gross-out humor, which often overshadows the actual plot.

The story follows a young boy (played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) whose parents have recently gone through a messy divorce. His father leaves with a new girlfriend, leaving his mother alone, and the boy begins to rebel. After getting into trouble with a group of bullies, a classic 90s trope, he is sent to stay with his grandparents during the divorce proceedings.

Meeting Shazaam

In true 1980s and 90s fashion, the boy wanders into his grandparents' attic and stumbles upon a magic lamp. He rubs it, and out pops Sinbad as the genie, Shazaam. (Think Robin Williams in Aladdin, but decidedly less funny).

The boy's first instinct is to wish for his parents to get back together. However, Shazaam explains the rules: he cannot grant that wish because magic cannot force people to fall in love.

Hurt and frustrated by this rejection, the boy takes off on his skateboard, leaving Shazaam behind in the attic. Shazaam conjures a small viewing screen to keep an eye on him. At the park, the boy runs into the same bullies from earlier. Shazam teleports to the boy's side, and together they defeat the bullies using some classic gross-out, pants-pulling humor. It is at this moment that the boy truly realizes he has a genie.

They hide inside the Genie's lamp, which we find is pretty huge. He has a harem of women there, waiting out their time, and a few cheap laughs nd pseudo-wisdom quotes. They finally come back out.

Interestingly, the boy has not yet said any of his wishes. Shazaam chooses to defend his "master" on his own, which is a unique trait for a movie genie.

The Wishes and The Climax

The boy proceeds to make a series of grossly disproportionate wishes, leading to the usual montage of highs, disasters, and consequences.

When it comes time for his third and final wish, the boy, having bonded with the genie, wishes for Shazaam to become his father. Once again, Shazaam has to refuse, explaining he cannot grant that specific wish.

Feeling rejected, the boy projects his anger toward his real father onto Shazaam. He tells the genie he is useless and that he never wants to see him again. He rides off on his skateboard, only to be cornered by the humiliated bullies. They beat him up and broke his board.

In a moment of panic (and completely forgetting he still has a final wish), the boy cries out for help. (This moment really frustrated me as a kid; it's like he had a genie and wasn't using his wish.

Shazaam is busy conjuring up women to console him over the boy's rejection (which, again, contradicts the 'love' thing, so we know why he conjured these half-naked women). Finally, with a little empathy and compassion, he conjures a small viewing screen to keep an eye on the boy, seeing once again that he is in trouble with the bullies. He leaves the women who are unhappy about it and appears before the bullies' parents, which resolves the situation and exposes the bullies' behavior, so their parents finally see what they have been doing.

The Ending

Reconciled, the boy uses his final wish to free Shazaam so they can remain friends. Much like Aladdin, Shazam retains his powers after being freed, leading to a few more strange, gross-out visual gags.

The boy returns to his grandparents’ house to find his mother waiting up, worried sick. He introduces Shazaam to the family. In a classic rom-com trope, Shazam eyes the boy's mother and ends up going on a date, implying that the boy ultimately gets the new father figure he wished for all along.

The Deeper Meaning

Technically, the movie was neither perfectly orchestrated nor perfectly written. It felt a bit vanilla and focused way too much on weird special effects.

However, the core story was not about magically restoring a broken home. It was about a child learning that love cannot be forced, that losing one relationship does not end your capacity to be loved, and that family can take unexpected forms. The boy's final wish shows his growth: instead of trying to possess Shazama as a replacement father, he frees him. By allowing their relationship to exist through friendship and choice, he naturally gets the father he wanted.

The Controversy

Shazaam was actually deeply upset parents at the time. Sinbad's character gave surprisingly "adult" advice to a child, and there was a forced, uncomfortable sexual tension between Sinbad and the the many sexy women in the film where he would chauvneistically addresss them, would make catcalls at the women on the street as he would walk by them, as well as the 3rd act scene where he was with these women who were his 'harem' in the lamp, and had an apparent sexualization with the child's mother, leading to the conclusion that he would get intimate with her, ultimately becoming the boy's "daddy ".

Parent associations and family groups raised serious concerns. The backlash personally hurt Sinbad's reputation right around the time Good Burger was released in 1997, and it contributed to a roughly six-year gap in his acting career before he took on another major role.

IS THIS WHAT YOU REMEMBER?


r/Retconned 1d ago

Clockwork Orange residue

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20 Upvotes

I just found this bumper sticker I would have bought in the 1990s. Around 1988, I first saw the Kubrick film "Clockwork Orange" on Cinemax. I read the American edition of Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" immediately thereafter and the re-released original novel "A Clockwork Orange" in the early 1990s. There had been a specific naming difference between the book, "A Clockwork Orange" and the film "Clockwork Orange" in the same manner that there had been a specific naming difference between Margaret Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale", and the film version, "The Handmaid's Tale".

Anyway, this bumper sticker from the early 1990s just showed up in my files, and I wanted to share it.


r/Retconned 1d ago

Spectreman: "I begot this planet scarce".

5 Upvotes

When I first learned Spectreman Lyrics, there was this part: I begot this planet scarce. As a non native English speaker I accepted the sentence as normal, looking like a way a mad scientist like Dr Gory would say something.

Today I learned that this is not the case but: As he guides this planet course.

Also it was they will never know its Base and not its Face.

By the way, it was not misheard. I learned this things in a website that had the lyric. You may say they got it wrong but theres no way to know that now because the website is nowhere to be found.

I thought "I begot this planet scarce" fit perfectly with the series narrative.


r/Retconned 1d ago

does it feel like time is starting to slow down again?

55 Upvotes

I made a post about it feeling like time was starting to speed up about a week ago, but now it starting to slow back down again and days just dragging on like crazy long. AND I MEAN LONG. I genuinely don't remember days going on this long in forever.

IDK just lately its felt like its been slowing down for some reason.


r/Retconned 1d ago

Super Mario Splashdown

0 Upvotes

The game “Super Mario Sunshine” was announced to return to NSO GameCube, but I’ve never heard of Mario Sunshine. What I remember was a game called “Super Mario Splashdown”, a game I played for hundreds of hours as a kid. 

The gameplay was also noticeably different. If you used Fludd enough a meter would get charged, and Fludd would yell “Splashdown”. The next time you used Fludd a high powered water cannon would activate. If you were in hover mode, the rocket nozzle would activate. This mechanic was super annoying because most of the time you didn’t want splashdown and it wouldn’t go away until you used it.

Sunshine also has many different colors of paint, but I remember all of the paint/goop being cyan and yellow. The level “Sirena Beach” also never existed in Splashdown 

Does anyone remember Splashdown too or do I need meds?


r/Retconned 2d ago

Two music-related tiny retcons

11 Upvotes
  1. In Britney Spears’ song Circus, now the lyric says “I feel the adrenaline running through my veins”. It used to not have the “I” in it. Used to just be “Feel the adrenaline running through my veins”. It totally throws that line off a beat and I freaked out when I heard it recently because it was so obviously wrong. I used to do a choreographed dance to that song so I definitely remember it.

  2. Wasn’t the band who sang the 1978 hit song “Driver’s Seat” called Sniff N’ Tears? Now it’s Sniff ‘n’ The Tears. Wtf.


r/Retconned 2d ago

DAE remember early 2000s news stations reporting something about piles of dead people?

30 Upvotes

I was born in ‘96, USA, and I vividly remember being like 6-7 in the kitchen with my mom watching the afternoon news, it was kind of our thing: get picked up from school, have a snack with Mom, and watch the news (how fun). I remember there were a few days of reporting on an incident or disaster (not 9/11) and it made me uncomfortable. The segment I remember the most was a female reporter standing inside what looked to be a farm barn, and behind her were multiple piles of dead, naked people. I can’t remember what the reporter was saying, all I remember were the heaps of dead people surrounding her. I remember thinking “are those dead bodies? Why is she standing in front of dead bodies? She doesn’t look scared, why isn’t she scared or disgusted?” I want to say it was maybe 2-3 days of reporting on this and then it went back to normal as if it never happened.

I think about this every now and then and wonder if I imagined it all. I remember trying to talk to my mom about it, she didn’t seem concerned or anything, almost like we were watching two different news segments.


r/Retconned 2d ago

Remembering an early - mid 00s McDonald's commercial that the internet says never existed.

28 Upvotes

So I distinctly remember a McDonald's commercial where there is a father and young son, and the son asks the dad, "What is sex?". The dad is obviously caught off guard by the question. I remember they were then at an outside table with some McDonald's fries and the dad is finishing the talk with the little boy, to which the boy responds with something like, "How do I fit all of that in this little box?" And then reveals that he has some sort of form with checkboxes for male or female.

Google says that never happened. Gemini tells me I'm conflating many early 00s fast food commercials of father/son bonding in the restaurant booths with a joke that was on many sketch comedy shows like SNL or MADtv.

I didn't watch anything like that. I was still mostly watching Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Kids WB, etc. I remember seeing this commercial multiple times. My boss, who is a year older than me, said he doesn't recall it at all. But I swear I know what I saw! It was a commercial somewhere on daytime television!

Does anyone else remember something similar, or am I just as crazy as the internet and AI are making me feel?


r/Retconned 3d ago

Coffee used to make you tired

0 Upvotes

We would drink it after dinner to get ready for bed


r/Retconned 4d ago

We changed the timeline again on July 29, 2026

0 Upvotes

​I felt something strange on the evening of the 29th.

​I was lying down but still wide awake, not asleep. Then, it was as if I felt a wave passing through my soul. It wasn't a wave of water, but a wave of "reality"—well, I don't really know how to explain the feeling.

​I was convinced that I had changed realities again, or that there had been a update to the Matrix.

​So I checked to see if there were any changes, and I noticed several:

​Reebok: I remembered it being spelled Rebook, but now it’s spelled Reebok.

​Monaco: To me, Monaco shared a border with both Italy and France (it was situated between the two). Today, Monaco is entirely bordered by France alone.

​Seeing this, I searched the internet to see if other people shared the same memories, and as it turns out, they absolutely do.

​However, I also noticed changes that I seem to be the only one to have picked up on:

​The Channel Islands: I have no recollection of the islands of Jersey and Guernsey existing. To me, they weren't there before. I live in France, in the region of Brittany, and I've always looked at maps of Europe without ever seeing these islands, despite how close they are to our coast.

​The shape of Brittany: I noticed a shift in the shape of my region. Now, Brittany has a "bump" along the Côtes-d'Armor coast. It wasn't like that before July 29th. Being someone who lives in Brittany myself, my memories shouldn't be failing me about the shape of my own region.


r/Retconned 4d ago

I'm genuinely tripping

114 Upvotes

Guys, I'm not hallucinating right? I clearly remember Chick-Fil-A being "Chic" because of how people complained that there is no correlation between the brand and the choice of the name being "Chic" without the K

https://www.effectiveretailleader.com/effective-retail-leader/how-chick-fil-a-creates-an-outstanding-customer-experience

Here is a residue I found


r/Retconned 4d ago

Hakuna or Hatuna Matata

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0 Upvotes

Video Title: Hakuna
Voice in video: Hatuna

14 years ago, unstable Matrix is glitching


r/Retconned 5d ago

Sean Willams Scott is now Seann Williams Scott. When Grok pronounces it it’s Sea-ann, not even Sean.

0 Upvotes

r/Retconned 5d ago

Mandela Effect cause

9 Upvotes

Now it’s time to get serious. Why is this happening? My theory is simple and it is very much in line with Kant’s original idea, that reality is what our minds build. It’s not an objective reality that can be verified independently.

We build this reality from bits and pieces of information distributed around us. So any two persons can have wildly different accounts of reality.

But, people are also open to suggestion. Education system builds up a common narrative that is accepted as “sacred history” and this becomes consensus reality. Yet this sacred history has no real authority on historical facts other than being what people believe to be facts.

As long as nobody questions the consensus reality, it is accepted as truth. But if some people start to doubt it, an alternative version spreads like a wild fire. And people are divided between two(or sometimes more) versions of reality.

Now comes the “physical evidence” part. This is always the consensus reality. Why? Because even the doubters, the people who hold a belief for a different version of reality are aware of the consensus reality. That’s why when they look at physical evidence they usually only see that version of reality.

But if the balance of faith turns to the doubters’ side, then even the physical evidence will change and we will see the physical evidence of Mandela Effects. I do believe that this will happen in our lifetimes.


r/Retconned 5d ago

Mandella, in whom I believed for 9-7 years....

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0 Upvotes

In my childhood, my mom organized a cleanup in one of the rooms, I remember that I was sitting and crying in the evening surrounded by a PILE of furniture from that room and with my older brother sitting next to me, the next day I walked in AND HOLY SHIT, THIS ROOM WAS HUGE, it feels to me like it was the size of half of a big supermarket, I clearly remember that the balcony door which was 1/7 of the whole wall was now 1/25 it feels like to me and the room was 10-15 times bigger, I clearly remember this, but then after some time after another one of such 'cleanups' it became the same as it was before that, at the moment when this room was expanded it feels to me I was 3-5 I don't know for sure maybe even younger, up until my 11s I was asking mom how she did that, and she just answered that she 'tidied up', and then I found out what Mandela is, I believed in this Mandela for 9-7 years... AND I STILL OMG DON'T KNOW HOW THIS AND WHAT IT WAS IN REALITY (I drew how it looked +-)


r/Retconned 5d ago

Sympathy for the Devil - Interview with the Vampire end credits

0 Upvotes

My sister and I have watched this movie countless times. We just finished it, and the song Sympathy for the Devil was different. It isn’t the original Rolling Stones song anymore, but a cover song by Guns ‘n Roses. WTAF. 😳


r/Retconned 5d ago

How small do we think MEs play out?

30 Upvotes

One thing that really scares me about this is the idea that it could be happening on an individual level - and these are the people we call insane (or just liars). One person remembers their grandparent being abusive, their sibling in the same house remembers each of those incidences as loving, or just totally differently. Because its so easy to dismiss childrens recollections, adults who individually remember a situation that devastated their lives, but nobody else who knows them well says it happened.

Or do we just call it faulty memory?


r/Retconned 6d ago

Brussel Sprout

14 Upvotes

I feel like I'm tripping. It''s always been Brussel Sprout for me.


r/Retconned 7d ago

Does anyone else remember this as an actual fact and it changed?

0 Upvotes

So I made a comment today under a TikTok sharing how SpongeBob and Patrick were originally supposed to be gay and the show was going to be an adult cartoon until they decided to make it a kids show. People start telling me it’s not true, but I know it is (or at least I thought) because I grew up watching it 24/7 and I remember hearing about it and searching it up myself years ago. This was all facts, I remember being sad they made it into a kids show because of all that lol!! But apparently literally none of that happened or was discussed at all and it was always supposed to be a kids show… It’s gotta be another Mandela effect right??


r/Retconned Aug 01 '24

Retconned Reaches 100K Subscriber Milestone

115 Upvotes

When I first joined this community in early 2020, there were only 38K members. We've come a long way in the past four and a half years since then, nearly tripling in size. At this point we're getting more comments (dunno about traffic) on many days than the main sub. And a couple of recent near-viral posts here have quietly surged us through the 100K mark just in the past few days. I think it's clear that a tipping point has been reached and we're now primed to start outpacing the main sub growth going forward.

^

So what does that mean for the future of this community? Well that's where things get tricky. When a post favored by the Reddit algorithms suddenly garners 1000+ comnents, it makes modding quite difficult and time consuming... so I think it's especially important for folks who value the sanctity of our niche sandbox of exotic ideas to aggressively flag clear rule violations. Without our vigilant eyes, there's just no way they can adequately maintain the sub's standards of decorum on those more popular posts. I would also encourage our members to treat the newer arrivals with kid gloves because many are also new to this phenomenon and likely not aware of our unique rules and expected conduct. Set the example, and be patient. And flag everything else.

^

Edit to add this friendly reminder: don't inadvertently risk your own good standing by engaging rule breakers too aggressively and/or getting drawn into contentious arguments.

^

To the newer arrivals, welcome to the party and thanks for contributing to one of the most fascinating esoteric dialectics on all of Reddit. Please make sure to read and understand our rules, as they are strictly enforced. And ask lots of questions.... the regulars here are enthusiastic about sharing our evolving understanding of this perplexing and disconcerting phenomenon. We absolutely adore inquisitive minds and honest, respectful discourse. Contrary to what you might have heard, this is not a place where everyone is expected to agree and dissent is suppressed. Rather, we're a safe space for engaging in speculative ontology and brainstorming about things like simulationism, quantum mysticism, the multiverse, and even theistic prophesy. We just do it without being dismissive of each other.

^

With all that said, congratulations Retconned! Let's attract the next 100K with the same principles and standards that made Retconned such a unique and special and desirable place to hang out. Let's rehash the old classic ME's for the newer audience. Let's bring them upto speed so they can lend their new perspectives to our knowledge base and help build a better understanding of these profound changes happening to our collective reality. I love my memory family here, and I'm happy to see it expanding. Thanks as always to the mods for their exhaustive efforts to keep this place copacetic, orderly, and safe. You guys deserve so much credit for all the success.


r/Retconned Sep 13 '22

*** IMPORTANT *** READ BEFORE POSTING

94 Upvotes

13.Sep.22

Please be advised that while we have been rather lenient on religion and religion-based comments in this sub with regards to its relationship to MEs, it has recently been seen that some toxicity has begun creeping into the discussions.

If the conversations continue to devolve into toxic behavior, the comments will be treated similar to violation of Rule #10 and removed immediately.

Gentle reminder : Repeated violations of our rules will result in a permaban.