That moment you have an epiphany on your bajillionth viewing of the Back to the Future trilogy that you never noticed before, which opens up the series for you on a new level. It always struck me as a bit odd that the "nobody calls me chicken" element only pops up as a key Marty character feature in the second film, and I'd always assumed that it was just because, when the first was written, they hadn't planned that aspect. And I always considered that a bit of a shame, the only major element that stuck out to me as having been not planned in advance. But then, on this viewing, I connected for the first time that not only is Marty not overconfident in the first film, he's actually UNDER-confident, worried about rejection just like his dad. But what if this isn't a continuity error? One of the major effects of his trip to 1955 is actually his helping his dad become a stronger, more confident person, which in turn leads to a much improved family situation for Marty when he gets back to 1985. Overall, Marty seems to have all of his original memories. But what if, without realizing it, some new memories subconsciously formed of this new timeline wherein he was raised by a dad who instilled in him (thanks to Marty himself) that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything? And what if that led to Marty becoming cocky? And thus the new "nobody calls me chicken" persona and the rivalry with Needles (the guy who we learn he raced against, ending with his breaking his hand after colliding with a Rolls Royce and ruining his potential music career, and leading to his depressing 2015 future, until he subverts that by making a different decision at the end of Part III) that never came up before that but is now a major character trait and flaw he has to overcome by the end of the series, as an unwitting side effect of how he improved his parents' meeting story?
