History InSpiteOfANail / FanWorks

* In "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13733306/1/Breaking-the-Window Breaking the Window]]", a chain of events lead to Hermione making contact with Bellatrix Black from thirty years in the past. Initially Hermione is uncertain about using this contact to try and change Bellatrix's history, particularly as Bellatrix explicitly asked to be told nothing about her future, but as time goes on Hermione's memories start to slightly change, such as now recalling Bellatrix blaming her for something while she was being tortured in Malfoy Manor. When [[spoiler:Hermione and Bella are drawn into 2001- thirty-three years in Bellatrix's future and three years in Hermione's- Hermione's memories alter so that Rudolphous Lestrange is now the one who committed most of Bellatrix's original crimes, such as beating Hermione at Malfoy Manor and killing Lupin, Hermione's goal in talking to Bellatrix now intended to save her from her mysterious disappearance and likely death rather than to stop her becoming a Death Eater]].

* The ''FanFic/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfic ''A Rose And A Thorn 4'' features a character going back in time to save the Ark. Despite knowing everything that can happen, she still cannot stop the destruction of the Ark or the death of Maria. It all happens anyway, so ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' happens anyway.

* There's a whole category of ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' fanfics called "Tenth Walker" fics. In these fanfics, the Fellowship is joined by a tenth member, often a girl from our world who has fallen into Middle-earth. Despite this tenth member and any possible romatic entanglements arising from their presence the plot goes on as usual. The Tenth Walker will often steal lines and actions from other characters like being the one who guesses the password into Moria or saves Frodo from the Watcher in the Water, but does not contribute anything new. Boromir stills dies, the Hobbits still get kidnappd and so on. It gets especially egregorius when the character is [[InformedAbility supposed to be extemely powerful]] in a way that should rigthfully influence the plot, but doesn't.

[[AC:''[[Anime/{{Pokemon}}'']]

* In "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13733306/1/Breaking-the-Window Breaking the Window]]", a chain of events lead to Hermione making contact with Bellatrix Black from thirty years in the past. Initially Hermione is uncertain about using this contact to try and change Bellatrix's history, particularly as Bellatrix explicitly asked to be told nothing about her future, but as time goes on Hermione's memories start to slightly change, such as now recalling Bellatrix blaming her for something while she was being tortured in Malfoy Manor. When [[spoiler:Hermione and Bella are drawn into 2001- thirty-three years in Bellatrix's future and three years in Hermione's- Hermione's memories alter so that Rudolphous Lestrange is now the one who committed most of Bellatrix's original crimes, such as beating Hermione at Malfoy Manor and killing Lupin, Hermione's goal in talking to Bellatrix now intended to save her from her mysterious disappearance and likely death rather than to stop her becoming a Death Dealer]].

Draco gets into trouble after failing to convince a teacher that Hagrid has a dragon just like in canon. His attempt to prove his accusation is quite different, however.

* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/657356/1/The-One-With-The-Thanksgiving-Kiss The One With the Thanksgiving Kiss]]" creates a world where Monica have had a complex on-off near-relationship since early in the first season, which led to Ross and Rachel starting to date earlier than in canon and thus avoiding breaking up after "The Break". Despite these changes, Ross still gets married in London while Chandler and Monica make their relationship official, and two of the gang get married in Vegas at basically the same time as they did in canon, although this time around Ross marries Rachel in London and the Vegas wedding is between Chandler and Phoebe (Phoebe was trying to help Chandler get over his fear of marriage and he was drunk enough to believe her argument that a marriage in Vegas was ''only'' valid in Vegas).

* In ''Fanfic/AdamWinters'', the events of the first two books still take place basically as they did in canon despite Harry's official absence, as does the Triwizard Tournament. However, Lupin, Moody and Umbridge all take on their roles as Defence professor a year later than they did in canon, and Sirius escapes a year 'late' because he sees a different photo of Scabbers (this one showing the Weasleys at the World Cup rather than after winning the prize draw).

* ''Fanfic/BlackAsNight'' initially diverges from canon because Astrid was just a fraction slower at dodging the Nadder than she was originally, resulting in her pointing a melted axe at Hiccup in frustration and causing the molten metal to [[EyeScream destroy his eyes]].
* The divergent event in ''Fanfic/TheBlacksmithsApprentice'' occurs a few years before the main storyline begins, but it is soon established that the main change from canon is that, during the raid where Hiccup shot down Toothless in canon, he was kept too busy to make the attempt, which led to Hiccup's poorer performance in dragon training and being officially disinherited by Stoick.

* In ''Fanfic/ErosTurannos'', despite Anakin not growing up on Tatooine and his absence from the events of ''Phantom Menace'', Qui-Gon Jinn still died during the battle with the Trade Federation, Vader still constructed C-3PO to help raise himself, and Padme now owns R2-D2, justifying her having an astromech droid who doesn’t obviously help her senatorial duties as he saved her life and she just likes having him around. Later on, [[spoiler:Obi-Wan Kenobi becomes Vader's Jedi Master as he begins to explore the power of the Light Side rather than the Dark]].
* The ''Series/QuantumLeap'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1860531/1/Beth Beth]]" looks at the reality Sam created when he told Al's first wife Beth that Al would come home. Despite Al having a wife and four daughters, he still ends up having the same breakdown that led to him meeting Sam in canon, this time attributed to him having a relapse into alcoholism due to bad memories of his time as a prisoner.
* The ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' fic ''Fanfic/EnTempusVeritas'' opens just after Lana's funeral, with Clark meeting a meteor freak who can show him how his life would have turned out if he made one different decision. Clark chooses to see what would have happened if he had never crashed Lex and Lana's engagement dinner, believing that if Lana hadn't learned about his powers, she would never have died. The new chain of events presented includes Clark and Lois falling in love and having a son, [[spoiler:but Lana still ends up dead, helping Clark get over his guilt as he is assured that her death had nothing to do with him.]]

[[AC:''Franchise/TheDCU'']]
* In ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', the Anti-Monitor was defeated in the ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths, but several events, such as an army of villains coming together to conquer several realities, still happen.
* In ''Series/Supergirl2015'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Survivors}}'', Franchise/{{Superman}} doesn't introduce Kara to the Danvers but she meets them anyway. Kal-El isn't found by the Kents but his cousin settles on Clark for his Earth name. And Kara eventually becomes ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}.
* ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'':
** Even with the presences of Barry and Kara and the lack of Sara, Shado still dies from a gunshot wound.
** [[spoiler:Replacing Oliver with Slade in his non-Lian Yu adventures only changes the ultimate outcome of one of said adventures. Also, despite the Mirakuru no longer driving him insane, Slade is still forced to leave behind his biological son Joe]].
* Parodied in ''Fanfic/KaraOfRokyn''. Although the ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' is averted and the subsequent multiversal upheaval affects the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' Earth deeply, some deaths are impossible to prevent. Like John Lennon's: "The Comedian died, as did the original Nite Owl. So did John Lennon. Nobody could do anything about those."
* ''Fanfic/DaughterOfFireAndSteel'': Despite Kara's presence and aid during the Kryptonian invasion, everything ends the same way as in ''Film/ManOfSteel''; Zod is killed, the World Engine is destroyed, and the rest of the Black Zero's crew get sent back to the Phantom Zone.

* Shown in the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'' where, despite Danny preventing the BadFuture in "WesternAnimation/TheUltimateEnemy," Skulker and Technus still end up joining forces to form [=SkulkTech=]. When this is pointed out, the subject of whether or not Box Lunch will be born also came up, much to the disgust of Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9672481/1/Guardian-of-the-People Guardian of the People]]", although Elisa is now a gargoyle herself and has been since birth, she and Goliath still meet when he saves her life after she falls off Wyvern, because she was initially so shocked at the sight of another of her kind that she didn't adjust her fall to try and glide to safety until she was too far down to do anything on her own.
* Several ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' ForWantOfANail fanfictions will have Hiccup [[spoiler:lose his left leg]], even if the event that caused it in canon does not happen.

* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheNightmaresOfFuturesPast''. There is a mysterious character known only as "the agent-in-place" who somehow knows what happened in the original timeline, possesses vast resources and impressive magical power, and secretly acts behind the scenes to ensure that things like Harry violating the Decree For The Reasonable Restriction Of Underage Wizardry, Ginny getting possessed by the diary and Harry getting entered into the Triwizard Tournament still happen, no matter how hard Harry tries to prevent them from happening.
** Notably, Harry has no idea that the "agent-in-place" exists, which means that from his point of view, these canon events still happen even though it no longer makes the least bit of sense for them to happen.

* In the ''Fanfic/AdamWinters'' series, where Harry Potter's death is faked and he is raised under the name 'Adam Winters', the events of the first two books still take place basically as they did in canon, as does the Triwizard Tournament (apart from 'Adam' not taking part in the Tournament himself). Lupin, Moody and Umbridge all take on their roles as Defence professor a year later than they did in canon, and Sirius escapes a year 'late' because he sees a different photo of Scabbers (this one showing the Weasleys at the World Cup rather than after winning the prize draw), but the general details remain the same, even if Adam has a significantly different academic career than Harry as he starts Hogwarts basically a year later.
* In ''FanFic/TheGreatestThereWasOrEverWillBe'', [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} Ash actually defeats Sabrina in a Gym Battle on his first try]]. Even so, she immediately flies into a rage and traps him and his friends into an illusory world, because without Haunter, he could not purify her soul.

* Creator/{{letmetellyouaboutmyfeels}}' ''FanFic/MCURewrites'': In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6461902 Age of Ultron: Redux]]'', [[spoiler:Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver is SparedByTheAdaptation during the FinalBattle against Ultron. However, in the sequel ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/11613867 New Avengers]]'', Pietro is killed by Tomi Shishido/Gorgon.]]
* In ''FanFic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', even considering [[CloseEnoughTimeline all the changes between timelines]], as well as [[PeggySue Ash and his Pokémon having awareness of what happened the first time around]], some events happen more or less as they did [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} in canon]]. Examples include:
** Despite arriving in time to Oak's lab, Ash finds out that the three starter Pokémon have already been claimed.
** Ash and Pikachu are still attacked by a Spearow flock on the road to Viridian City, this time even without provocation.
** Misty has the same Pysduck she involuntarily caught in the anime. Only this time, she actually caught it of her own volition, plus she already had it by the time she met Ash.
** Despite her completely different upbringing, Iris has the exact same Axew, Excadrill, and Emolga she had in the anime, in addition to having been raised alongside her Dragonite.
** Ash once again finds himself banned from entering Erika's Gym, albeit this time for a reason out of his control.
** Lara Laramie still [[GameBreakingInjury gets her arm broken]], forcing her out of the Big P Pokémon Race. Fortunately, like in canon, Ash is able to fill in for her.
** [=MissingNo=] mentions that all the people and Pokémon Ash met in the previous timeline are still tied to him. Hence why Ash, and to a lesser extent other trainers, end up finding the exact same Pokémon they had in the previous timeline, and how Ash ends up meeting the same people, even if it's under different circumstances.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087601/chapters/34413299#workskin Desire Written in Olive]]'', the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' still play out almost identical to canon despite Wanda marrying Tony (to protect her from possible deportation and imprisonment) and eventually falling in love with him. The only main difference is Wanda acting as a [[TheMole mole]] and trying to stop Steve and Bucky. They still get away, beat Tony in Siberia, and break Sam and Clint out of the Raft because when Wanda tries to stop Steve, he accidentally crushes her ribcage by throwing his shield into it.

* ''Fanfic/TheHomeWeBuiltTogether'':
** Hiccup still builds the Mangler, shoots down Toothless and wreck half of the village. The only difference is that Astrid tries to help and gets clipped by the Nightmare in the process.
** Astrid's first ride on Toothless goes pretty much the same as it did in the movie, only this time Toothless scares her [[ItIsDehumanizing for calling him a "thing".]]

* In ''A Different Dursley Family'', it's said Vernon and Petunia were destined lovers. The "nail" of this fic was Vernon trying to steal a statue from Smeltings (his secondary school) for a prank. In that fic, Vernon was caught and expelled for this, which resulted on him being cut from his father's will and becoming a mechanic to earn a living. This prevented him from being the intolerant man who'd force Franchise/HarryPotter into CinderellaCircumstances and yet, he and Petunia met, fell in love and had a child. Prior to the fic's proper beginning, the author briefly mentioned other alternative timelines coming from the statue prank and the only one specifically stating Vernon wouldn't marry Petunia was one where the statue fell on him, causing his death. And even then Harry's life wouldn't be different from canon since Petunia would marry a squib who was as envious of his magical relations as Petunia was of her sister.
* The ''Rose Potter'' series is fairly notorious for this, being a literal (as in, largely the same but with the pronouns swapped) rewrite of canon with Harry replaced by a female GodModeSue. This results in many places where Rose easily resolves something Harry failed to do in canon, but inexplicably still has to deal with the fallout -- for instance, even after clearing Sirius Black's name, she still has to meet and contact him in secret as if he were still a wanted criminal.

* In ''Fanfic/HereticPride'', Shmi Skywalker is freed from slavery shortly after the events of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', and consequently she never meets and marries Cliegg Lars. But she still meets and befriends Owen Lars and Beru Whitesun under other circumstances, because some of the author's other works had developed Shmi's friendship with Beru and the author wanted to show a version of that in this timeline.

* In ''FanFic/SeventhHorcrux'', Harry ends up with the soul-fragment of Voldemort inside him taking over his body as a baby, meaning he basically has Voldemort's mind, skills, and attitude. In spite of this, his life continues on a broadly similar track, albeit for different reasons. Harry's life is pretty normal and he still goes to Hogwarts because he's a RetiredMonster and would rather teach at Hogwarts than TakeOverTheWorld, he chooses to be Sorted into Gryffindor because he tried Slytherin and it didn't work out, he befriends Ron and Hermione because he sees one as an able minion and the other as ObliviouslyEvil, and he ends up opposing Voldemort (or rather, the rest of Voldemort) out of ego and spite. Many other ideas and setpieces in the books also end up being repeated in some fashion, such as Voldemort coming back at the end of fourth year, Hogwarts being attacked during sixth, and the Ministry falling at the start of seventh. He even ends up in a romance with Ginny, albeit an extremely one-sided one (she became attracted to him because she developed a thing for Dark Lords while acting as the Heir of Slytherin). As the story's largely a comedy, this isn't too much of a problem.

* Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order still happens in ''Fanfic/{{Precipice}}'' even though Anakin never follows Mace Windu to Palpatine's office. According to the [[https://shadowsong26fic.tumblr.com/post/151636774562/precipiceverse-update author's writing tumblr]], at that point, Palpatine had pretty much absolute control and there was no practical way for anyone to stop him by that point, and Anakin isn't important enough to risk his entire plan just to gain his perfect apprentice.

* ''Fanfic/CodePrimeR1Rebellion'': Whilst the presence of the Autobots [[spoiler: ensures the survival of both the Yamato Alliance and the civilians of Saitama]], Lelouch still ends up [[spoiler: almost being found out by Cornelia and requiring external aid to escape]].

* Creator/{{madsthenerdygirl}}'s ''FanFic/MCURewrites'': In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/6461902 Age of Ultron: Redux]]'', [[spoiler:Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver is SparedByTheAdaptation during the FinalBattle against Ultron. However, in the sequel ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/11613867 New Avengers]]'', Pietro is killed by Tomi Shishido/Gorgon.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': The first chapters involved the Wolf showing up and essentially kill-stealing various character shortly before they would have died anyway, so very little changes in the overall plot. Things only start changing in the later chapters, where the Wolf's interference results in several characters being spared their canon deaths and abducted for some nefarious purpose. Notably, Daenerys still [[spoiler:attacks King's Landing, although due to a spell misattributed to Cersei]], but doesn't do as much damage due to being driven off by the sound of the bells.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13629585/1/My-Next-Life-as-a-Villainess-Who-Lives-in-Luxury My Next Life as a Villainess Who Lives in Luxury]]'', Katarina, who regained her past self's memories and personality but doesn't remember the game ''Fortune Lover'', still tries to annual her engagement with Prince Gerald, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance due to finding the idea of being engaged at age eight, especially to a member of the royal family, to enclosing]].

* Despite the [[Anime/CodeGeass Britannian Empire]] not being a thing in the world of ''FanFic/JusticeSocietyOfJapan'', Lelouch is still Zero, he still works with C.C., he still has a Geass, and he's still the head of a mercenary company known as the Black Knights. The reasons for this are, as of now, unknown.

* In ''The S-Class Mage'', a ''Manga/FairyTail'' fanfiction where Earthland Lucy looks and acts like Edolas Lucy and thus joins Fairy Tail years ahead of canon and rises to S-Class, things still happen more or less the same way is they did in canon, and where it diverts, it diverts in a way that benefits the protagonists. [[spoiler:For example, Simon survives the Tower of Heaven arc, and Jellal's name is cleared at the end of the Oracion Seis arc.]]

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087601/chapters/34413299#workskin Desire Written in Olive]]'', the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' still play out almost identical to canon despite Wanda marrying Tony (to protect her from possible deportation and imprisonment) and eventually falling in love with him. The only main difference is Wanda acting as a ReverseMole and trying to stop Steve and Bucky. They still get away, beat Tony in Siberia, and break Sam and Clint out of the Raft because when Wanda tries to stop Steve, he accidentally crushes her ribcage by throwing his shield into it.

[[AC:''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'']]
* ''Fanfic/IdTradeMyLifeForYours'' and ''Fanfic/ThreePointShot'' are both based on the same idea: what if [[spoiler: [[DecoyProtagonist Kaede Akamatsu]]]] survived past the first trial?

Examples of InSpiteOfANail in fanfiction.